My Heart Attack

I have not been blogging a lot lately. It is an awful twist of fate and irony that my motivation for writing is directly proportional to how busy or stressed I am. If I am busy or stressed, I am full of ideas, I want to write. I was laid off from my Software Engineer position (that I held for 14.5 years) last July. You think I'd be spending a lot of time blogging, because I don't have a lot else to do, but this just isn't the case. I have about twenty post started but each time I look at them with intention of working on them, I just can't do it. No motivation. When I look at my blog and I see years when I posted about 40 different entries, these are also the periods in my life when I am the most busy or stressed. Such is life. 

Wednesday 1/11/23 started like any other. I got up with the boy, got his snack box ready and walked with him out to the bus. I returned to the warmth of the house, I made coffees, read email, looked at jobs on LinkedIn and listened to my morning podcasts. I ate an egg sandwich for breakfast, fed the dogs and then did some yoga on the Wii. Nothing out of the ordinary. At around noon, I noticed I had a dull pain along the length of my left arm that went across the top of my chest down to the top of my right shoulder. It was an odd pain. I have a lot of muscle pain, always have, but this felt different, like nothing I had ever felt before. I walked into the living room and laid down. I tried to sleep it off which I had zero success of doing. The pain wasn't that strong and never was, just very uncomfortable. I also had a lot of coffee at this point so I couldn't relax much either. 

I started to worry that this might be a heart attack. I remembered a conversation I had with my doctor when he told me that in addition to the pain, heart attacks usually come with shortness of breath. Since I didn't have that, I waited ... but not very long. I called my doctor to discuss. He said "oh oh."  He suggested I get to the emergency room, not to drive, but have someone bring me. If I didn't have someone to bring me, call 911.  I then called my wife to see how close she was to the house. She was about 35 minutes away in Burlington. I called 911. I texted her and she left to meet me at the hospital.

Fairfax rescue was conferenced into my call almost immediately. This is my first experience with 911. I am impressed. I waited about 15 minutes for the ambulance to show up. I live on a dirt road, a town away. This was quite fast. I tried to occupy my time to manage the freak out. Nothing much worked. I put the dogs outside, I grabbed my phone and Kindle, put them in my jacket and sat at the puzzle table looking down the driveway. Doing the jigsaw puzzle was a Herculean task at this point. I didn't get a single piece. 

When the ambulance arrived, they tried to back down the driveway. It has been unseasonably warm lately so when they went into the mud (aka my lawn), I feared they would get stuck and I'd have to wait for another ambulance or a tow truck. But she, the driver, pulled herself out just fine. Four EMTs got me quickly in the ambulance, attached to IVs and EKG machine.  I looked like a borg and still do. Here is a picture of what I look like:

They asked me a ton of questions about my health history. I didn't realize at the time but I'd be answering these same questions, in different forms, for the next week to about twenty different people. 

Other than the bump we hit, that sent everyone off the ground, the ambulance drive was uneventful and I thank all the drivers that pulled over for us. Also, of course, to the EMT crew as well. I felt so much better once they gave me nitroglycerin tablets and felt in the care of true professionals. 

Since that day, I have been in the hospital, pain free five days now. I have a lovely private room at UVM medical, the staff here is amazing. I had a mild heart attack. They did some diagnostics hoping that they would be able to repair the problem with some stents. Unfortunately, there is too much blockage. Perhaps the mild heart attack saved my life because they never would have noticed the blockage without it. I have been in the hospital and I will be here quite a bit more until my bypass on the 20th. Wish me luck. I feel confident in my full recovery. 

COVID Quarantine Diary

 Friday, October 29th, 2021: When we awoke there was a frost on the grass in front of my house. On our way to the school bus, I slipped and fell backward hitting my head on the ground. I was fine but I knew my neck muscles would be sore in the morning. 

Saturday, October 30th:  I awoke with neck pain, as expected, and a headache. Later that day, I showed my wife that I did have a scrape on the back of my elbow from the fall. She said "that's not a scrape, that is a tick." She could see it better than I. She tried to get it out but couldn't so I went to Urgent Care in the town of Georgia, a few towns away. They removed the tick and gave me an antibiotic. While I was there I ask for a COVID test which I believe that is something we all should do if we are in a clinical setting. She gave a quick swab in each nostril. They told me they wouldn't call me unless you are positive. Before I went to bed I noticed a voice mail from the clinic. They wanted me to  call them in the morning. They couldn't have the test results that fast could they? 

Sunday, October 31st: The headache continued and neck pain. I couldn't call the clinic until 9am, so I waited to call. While I was waiting, playing on my PC, I read an email from my doctor with the subject "COVID" and the text: "Your test was positive.  How are you!"  Then the clinic called with the same message. The worse part of this was telling the seven year old that his Halloween was cancelled. My amazing wife figured out a way for him to trick or treat over Zoom. He got dressed and she reached out to a ton of people that he got to show his costume without leaving the house. They choose treats for him, either gummies or red hots. It was pouring rain anyway. 

They left to get tested while I moved upstairs for the quarantine. I laid in bed the rest of the day watching movies and shows. My doctor suggested that I get tested again because he said it didn't sound right that no one in the house had any symptoms other than my headache which could be from the fall. I called the clinic and left a voice mail. 

Monday, November 1st: I called in sick and informed two people at work of my situations. I still had a headache and neck pain so I cashed out most of the day. I watched "Dune," caught up on my HBO shows and then continued to rewatch "The Sopranos." This gets old quickly. I went for a short hike on my land. I received a call from the VT Department of Health for contact tracing. I informed how remote (aka hermitlike) my life is and she wasn't too concerned about me spreading anything. My date of reentry should be the 10th. 

Tuesday, November 2nd: I had a scheduled holiday today, Election Day. I have one of those enlightened employers that gives us this day off regardless of whether it is an off year or not. I had a ton of appointments schedule today. One of them, ironically, the COVID booster which I may not need now.  My back was really starting to hurt because there is no comfortable chair in my bedroom and the time in bed, at this point, was extensive. I decided today that I would go for a longer walk. No one was around at this time of day. I went off our land and hiked on my road and onto a town path, round trip three miles. It was nice. I saw no one on my hike other than two ladies in the distance. That marked the point where I turned around to avoid them. The exercise was exactly what I needed. Headache was almost gone at this point.

Wednesday, November 3rd: This morning we had the first snow of the season. I returned to work, remotely of course. I couldn't justify not working. I had no headache or neck pain. To save my back, I moved my office chair with the lumbar support and my small desk into the bedroom. I jumped right back into things. It felt good to be back. 

My doctor asked me if I was ever retested and I told him that they never called me back. So he rescheduled an appointment for me at Fannie Allen, a local hospital. I went in at 2pm and the snow was gone already. I didn't stop anywhere. The Dunkin' Donuts was calling my name but I resisted. This time I was swabbed only once in my left nostril but for a lot longer than the Halloween swabbing. My eyes were watering.

Thursday, November 4th: Got up this morning and stepped in my workplace (about five feet away). Around 11am I received a notification that my test results were in.  I log into the portal and saw that I was negative. I walk downstairs and hug the kid and the wife. 

Whether the first test was wrong or they tested me at the end of an asymptomatic illness, I don't think we'll ever know.  Regardless, if I was sick, I am enormously grateful for the vaccine because it probably would have killed me if I was not vaccinated. In general, my health is not great. All in all, the only inconvenience was the kid's Halloween was cancelled, he was angry with me and referred to me as the COVID monster for a few days and my wife had to wait on me, going up the stairs to deliver me food and coffee.  For her I am forever grateful. 

Pro-lifers Are Not Pro-life

The term "pro-life" was first used by education philosopher A.S. Neill in 1960 and it had a different meaning to how we use it now.  It was a progressive term he used to condemn mistreatment of other human beings such as child abuse, homophobia, corporal punishment, war etc. In 1973, when abortion because legal nationally (due to Roe v. Wade), anti-abortion groups began using the term to mean anti-abortion. Those who disagreed with them and supported abortion rights didn't like the moniker of "pro-death" or "anti-life" so they came up with "pro-choice" acknowledging that it was a deeply personal decision that a woman had to undergo. This is the political framing we use today and it hasn't changed much in 50 years.  

The media portrays the difference between these groups as clear cut and black and white, but it is a lot more gray than it appears. If you don't believe me, check out this video from the Holy Post. I don't agree with it 100% but I am impressed with how aligned I am with what they are saying but I consider myself pro-choice and they are clearly not. Often the media lets radical factions define our culture while the rest of us are left scratching our heads. Middle ground does exist. Most, if not all, pro-choicers believe that abortion is a pretty awful thing and something to be avoided. Only the very careless see it as a birth control option. Most, even many people who call themselves pro-life, agree that birth control should be used to avoid pregnancy. 

I don't like the term pro-life because those who call themselves pro-life often only seem to care about the lives of the unborn at the exclusion of other lives. Can you still call yourself pro-life and also be pro-death penalty? Or pro-war? Many people supported Trump because they believe that he would appoint conservative judges and that he did. He was able to change the makeup of the Judiciary to favor the conservative ideology. not just on the Supreme Court level. He appointed 194 judges to Federal benches. In four years, that is more than half of what Obama did in eight years (312) and more than twice Clinton (84). All of Trump's appointments are anti-abortion. But they are anti a lot of other stuff as well like the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and they are actively chipping away at this law that has given about six million Americans health care. This is during a pandemic, kinda sick. If you were actually pro-life wouldn't you be concerned about people getting affordable healthcare. Both his appointees to the Supreme Court are against the ACA. This law could very well be overturned during Biden's term in office. Will they still call themselves "pro-life" when their neighbors can longer afford their insulin or their mood stabilizers? 

In 1988, long before he was president, Trump placed this ad in several NYC newspapers trying to bring back the death penalty in New York State. 

This was in response to the Central Park Five who were five young black men who were wrongly imprisoned for the rape and murder of a white woman. In 2002, they were exonerated and released from prison. As you would expect, Trump never apologized. This man has a long trail of hate like this, yet many so called "pro lifers" support him solely on the basis that he'd appoint "pro-life" judges. Since July this year (2020), Trump has approved the execution of seven Federal prisoners and three more are schedule before he leaves office. Before this spree, we had gone 17 years without a Federal execution. Pro-life? I don't think so.

Yes, Roe v. Wade, the legal decision that effectively legalized abortion in this nation, could be overturned thanks to this President. If that is all you wanted, congratulations. All it would mean is that states would be able to make it illegal again and many states will. This will not stop abortions from happening in this country. People can just drive to a neighboring state to get it done. Even if every state made it illegal, they could drive to Europe, Canada or Mexico etc. It would just inconvenience the rich and prevent the poor from getting a legal and safe medical procedure. An estimated 25% of abortions would be prevented. Any economist will tell you that if a demand exists so will a market. Illegal abortions will happen and many of them will not be safe. Also, there will be self induction. Before legal abortion, this was popular. We don't want people giving themselves abortions. Before the internet, girls would use poison, pills, coat hangers or throw themselves down the stairs to end their pregnancies. In a misinformation age, I can't imagine what awful stuff you would find if you started googling how to do your own abortion. An estimated 200 women a year died seeking illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade. But hey, if you want to call yourself "pro-life," go ahead, I just call you a hypocrite. This is why I use the term "anti-choice" to describe pro-lifers. They are not in protecting life at all; they are just into taking away other people's rights.  

If you want to be pro-life, you might want to start by not voting for scum like Trump. Abortion in America has decreased since the Roe decision and this has little to do with Roe. It has to do with the fact that we have increased sex education, increased women's access to healthcare and birth control and made adoption more affordable. All of these still need improvement. Putting an extremist like Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court for a rest of her life is not helping the matter. 

The Longterm Social Effects of this Crisis

The greatest long term effect of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the early 20th century was its effect on World War I. It hit Germany and Austria before it hit France and England giving the Allies early advantages and the Allies eventually won the war. This flu is often considered the "forgotten" pandemic because there was so much else going on in the world at the time, not just a World War but other major illnesses also hit the world around the same time: yellow fever, diphtheria, cholera and typhoid.  History classes often overlook the diseases of this era because of the war. The Spanish Flu lasted 36 months and killed 50 million people. We all hope this pandemic won't be as devastating. At the writing of this sentence, the world is at three million and counting.

The long term effects I am talking about in this post are the social ones. The Spanish Flu left people with a lingering lack of trust in strangers. Strangers carry disease. This lead to isolationism and xenophobia giving way to fascists like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. Of course, there were other factors, like a horrendous war, but the flu contributed to it. Anti-Semites have long linked Jews to the plague. Hitler famously referred to them as "racial tuberculosis" in "German lungs."  Such vile terms were more effective with the memory of the Spanish Flu fresh in their memory. .

It is impossible from this vantage point to predict the long term effects of COVID-19 on our society. Most lasting societal changes usually come as a surprise. Henry Ford had no idea that the mass production of cars would lead to more teenage pregnancies and air pollution. Did the flood of boys without fathers after World War II bring us rock and roll?  Did Roe v. Wade help bring us low crime rates decades later due to the lack of unwanted children? These are thought experiments. Let's do it, a COVID-19 version.

Celebrity: Celebrities have been showing us who they really are in this crisis. Maybe we'll finally stop making otherwise stupid, careless and mega-privileged people famous. Maybe we'll be more selective on who gets to be famous or perhaps put them on a lower pedestal. Of course not all celebrities are so bad. The smart ones know how to control themselves and shut up. You notice that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt haven't stuck their feet in their mouths, but the hyper-narcissists and morons surely are.

• Ellen DeGeneres (aka Queen of Nice) compared her quarantine to being in a prison while she lives in a beachfront palatial mansion 
• Evangeline Lily urged people to ignore social distancing rules and isolation using terms like "Marshall Law" on Instagram which she obviously doesn't understand nor know how to spell. 
• Actress Jaimie King released a video thanking the virus 
• Gwyneth Paltrow is tweeting about what the best dildo to use during isolation, selling them as well. Some poor warehouse worker is risking his/her life to get someone a dildo. 
• Sam Smith tweeted the stages of his meltdown while he had to deal with isolation in his $15 million London mansion
• NBA player Ruby Gobert touched a bunch of mics at a media event as a joke. A few days later, he tested positive.
• Gisele Bundchen posted a picture of herself in front of a tropical waterfall meditating.
• High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens suggested that people dying is "like, inevitable."
• Bette Middler is figuring out what her appliances do, no joke.

While many of their fans are living in tiny apartments, some of them under duress ... we get a crash course in how crudely unequal our society is. Our doctors, who keep us alive, don't live this way. Entertainers do. Will income inequality become an even bigger issue after this crisis?

Entertainment: When next year's television shows roll out, will they be including the pandemic in their story lines?  Do we want them to? Do you prefer them to have more of an escapist quality? Will we get to see the family on "This Is Us" in social isolation ... where will the plot line come from. We get to watch them binge watch other shows and argue ... not so fun.

Concert venues will be devastated by this crisis.Our days of hanging shoulder to shoulder in the dark listening to our favorite bands jam may be a thing of the past. They will be the last businesses to be allowed to open and for all we know, may not be allowed to fill them in like they used to.  This means that entry and/or beer will be more expensive ... I cried a little bit while writing this.

Environmental: Quarantine is only a few weeks old and already we see the environment recovering. Factories are idle, planes are grounded and commuters are staying home. We have cut carbon emissions worldwide by 8% and energy use is down in some places by 25% of last year. Some cities are reporting seeing constellations for the first time in decades. With the city streets desolate, wild life is returning to some areas that haven't seen them in decades. We will return to our old ways soon enough but this quick recovery might really inspire people to change. Stay home, use less, use mass transit, telecommute ... these are easy to do for some of us. We might just get into the habit.

Cities around the world have closed more than 1,000 miles of streets to cars for the use of bicycles. How much of that is going to be permanent? Seattle has already announced that 20 miles of their new bike only roads will be permanent. If the locals like it, it will stay. So if this is happening in your area. Contact a politician to keep it. They are probably desperate to find ways to make citizens happy right now.

Hate: Hate crimes are already a lot higher for anyone that looks Chinese. Trump hasn't helped with this. "Go back to China," "Kung Flu" and "Wu Flu" are all things being said to and about people from Far East origins. Hate will only subside until we get rid of the creep in the White House, but it will never go away permanently. The protests in Michigan and other states have been organized by white supremacy groups. Many of the people showing up don't even know this. I hope this is all temporary, but isolation breeds contempt and xenophobic (the evil twin of isolationism) is not far behind. I fear these people will get more powerful the longer this quarantine lasts. Here is a list from the Anti-Defamation League of anti-Asian incidents in America since this crisis began.

Sporting Events: Maybe we'll have standing ovations for doctors, scientists and other essential workers during our sporting events rather than for the military. Instead of players wearing khaki to honor the troops, maybe they will wear smocks to honor the real heroes, and not those who make invasions possible. We live in a violent nation, with a violent past. It would be nice, if our priorities could finally change.

Parades: Maybe our parades will celebrate these essential workers as well.

The Work Place: A lot of mangers are going to realize after this is over that remote employees are quite productive. I have been doing it for twelve years now and it has its distractions but compared to the distractions of being in the office, it is nothing. No one is coming into my office to talk about the game or the weather, and I have no commuter traffic to stress me out.  Telecommuting is the way to go. Those who can do it, will. Office spaces will become like empty warehouses, and food delivery, during work hours, will spike to new heights. This is not going away.

Teachers: The only real distractions, for a lot of us, these days is that kids are at home. Will there be more respect for our teachers now that many parents had to teach their own kids and they getting first hand knowledge how difficult their angels really are to teach? or how difficult teaching actually really is? I'm guessing that the snow day will no longer exist now that we know teaching can happen remotely. Teachers should have a national strike in the Fall, demanding more pay.  We'd all freak to think that we'd have to have our kids home anymore after this Spring and cave immediately. 

Essential Workers: Will people have more respect for essential workers? I am not talking about me, someone who supports a hospital's software system. But those who bring us food, stack shelves, drive trucks and buses. They are not staying home and they are keeping us alive. I am guessing once this is over, we will go back to paying them badly and not providing them health care. That's the America I know. Hopefully, I am wrong. But with scum like Trump and his loyalty cult in charge, I don't see how change for the essential worker could be possible. Can you imagine how bad it would be without Obamacare (aka the ACA)? And yet, Trump is still busy trying to repeal it. I'm guessing (and hoping) that Medicare For All will get a big boost from this crisis, but I have been very wrong about this type of thing in the past. I did predict a landslide victory for President Gore.

Trade: Isolation will raise its ugly head again. I am expecting that domestic manufacturing will make a comeback. We still have factories in the US now, but not like in the past. I expect factories, mostly with robotic workers, will increase. Buying American will give people a sense of security and consumers will pay more for that feeling ... but not a lot more.This come back will be short.lived. Businesses will find new and creative ways to trick people that something is made domestically and eventually, they will forget all about this.

The Economy - What industry will recover? Will people go to gyms anymore now that they know how easy it is to do the trainer thing on-line. I want to know how my favorite restaurants are going to survive this. Restaurants have such a thin profit margin. How could they possibly survive this? I have a friend who is a contractor who did two hours of work in April, doing a training on Zoom. The state of Vermont used that as a reason to reject him for a small business grant. You think quarantine has been crazy, the recovery is going to be completely nuts.

After the Spanish Flu, if you had the flu and survived, this gave you economic benefits over others who had not. At this point, we don't know if having COVID-19 makes you immune. If this does end up being true for COVID-19, I could imagine that anyone that works with the public would have the advantage in a pre-vaccine economy.

Privacy: Those in charge know that when we are in crisis, we are more likely to accept power grabs... think of the Patriot Act after 9/11. Some authoritarian countries are using this crisis as justification to monitor their citizens. I can imagine this will get worst before it gets better. Expect more invasion of your privacy. It will be justified under the moniker of public health.

New Cold War: Will this crisis spark a new Cold War with China. Should they pay for their negligence in the matter of the spreading of the virus and the lack of openness? As soon as healthcare workers started getting sick, they should have told the world about it. There was a three week period that we could have stopped this pandemic or at least saved many lives. Perhaps they should reimburse the world, but they won't so why push it? It also sets an awful precedence, especially with the recent discovery that the Spanish Flu started in Kansas. If we push this, they may just close their doors to the world. You think a world where is China is open is a bad thing, wait until they shut their borders!

Politics: Maybe we'll stop electing politicians who are ignorant of science. Germany elected a Chancellor that has a PHD in Chemistry who wrote her thesis on quantum chemistry ... the US elected a President who doesn't understand and rejects evolution. Guess which country has been better prepared for this crisis?  Perhaps the Republican Party's war on science will finally come to an end.

Trump missed a golden opportunity. Great presidents emerge in the midst of great crises. FDR with World War II and The Depression, Lincoln in the Civil War ... we remember them as great leaders for taking us forward. We barely remember Hoover and Buchanan ... because they faltered. This disease's second wave will be hitting us badly right around the time of the presidential election. Hopefully, people will remember Trump's disastrous performance and lack of leader while they go into the polls. 

The countries doing the best during this crisis are the countries with the strong safety nets: Germany, South Korea and Taiwan. The countries with libertarian bents, the US and the UK, are fairing badly. Will we learn from this lesson? COVID-19 is the first truly global event in human history. Perhaps it will make the world closer.  It is hard to be believe when yahoos with guns are storming statehouses.But maybe this crisis will just scare enough people to move us along on this matter. Government can be a good thing with the right people in charge.

A Killer Rock n' Roll Running List

I went for my annual medical exam recently and when they weighed me, I was 29 pounds lighter than last year's weigh in. This was great news for me. I did a lot in that time period to help cut my weight. I cut pasta out of my diet, I cut down on bread, I changed my weekday breakfast from oatmeal or cereal, to yogurt and fruit. Most of my snacks are fruit now. I also played tennis all winter, almost every weekend, my wife and I played a set or two. But the thing I am most proud of is that I am now running about three miles every other day now. I couldn't have done this without a killer playlist.

I used to be a runner. In high school I ran track and by my senior year I was quite good.  I made the regional all-star team and ran in state championships for middle distances like 400 meters and 300 meter low hurdles.  I was truly awful at the beginning of my track career, as a freshman. I always had problems with my arms. When I got tired, I would hold them against my chest. My coach would yell at me to "move your arms!" I would listen only for a minute or so and then go back to holding my arms back up against my chest. He had me run with weights in my hands which really helped. I used to run on average about seven miles a day back then.

Once college started, my first semester was spent on campus at the University of Rhode Island and I started running on campus. But once the cold set in, the wind blowing off the ocean and classes etc., I stopped running. I consumed lots of beer and pizza, hence gained a lot of weight. I didn't start running again until  recently. That is about a 30 year stint away from running. 30 years went by without having a killer play list. That's what I needed, really!

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a couch potato that whole time. I lived in Boston for ten years and I didn't have a car most of the time. I biked a lot. My longest trips were across Rhode Island, from Westerly to Woonsocket (two days) and across Massachusetts, from Lee in the Berkshires to Brighton in Boston (three days). I loved biking. I'd do more of it now if I didn't live at the top of a huge hill.

A few things had to happen for me to return to running. First off, I don't run in the winter. It isn't just the cold here in Northern Vermont but the ice on my street in deadly. The days are so short that I have a very short window of when I can run and I am nowhere near an indoor running track. Once I realized that I was fair weather, I could live with that. The most important thing that needed to happen is that I needed a killer running list. It has to be so good that I look forward to running. I've heard other people's choices for running lists. They seem to think you have sacrifice quality for a good beat.  No, you don't have to go over to the dark side and have crappy music on your playlist. There are some really great rock and roll songs that are good for running.

A few other things are needed, like a good app on my phone. I am using the Dog Walk which tells you when you hit a mile and gives you your time. Currently, I am running a mile in 16 minutes. Yes, I am very slow. But a lot of that is hills and I have to stop to pick up dog poop at least once a run.

Oh ya, the dog. Hazel is awesome on a run. She is extremely happy running. She is steady and doesn't stop often.  She is the perfect running dog.

I have 108 songs on my running list now. I am not going to go over all of them, just the favorites. What makes a song upbeat?  If the beat of the song is faster than your heartbeat, you perceive it as fast. This is why sometimes you think a song is fast, but then you go running and it doesn't seem that fast. This is because your heart is beating faster hence your perception changes.

Here are the songs:

Classics:
I defined classic as anything that came out 1983 or before. Why? Because I graduated high school in 1983.  That's right, it is all about me.

The Who: These wily Brits have a lot of great upbeat songs, but Slip Kid from the By Numbers album has always been one of my favorites.  Sometimes I accidentally start singing out loud when I am running and you may hear me say, or even yell, "There's no easy way to be free!" at the top of my lunges. This is a great rocking song.

David Bowie: Most Bowie is not upbeat, but Queen Bitch is. The song is a tribute to the Velvet Underground and sounds just like a Lou Reed song, but better. It is off his Hunky Dory album, an underrated album.  The Scary Monsters album actually has three great running songs: Up the Hill Backwards, Ashes to Ashes and Fashion.

Bob Dylan: You know I can't blog about music without bringing up Dylan. Most of his songs are not rocking but these two tracks from Slow Train Coming, Gotta Serve Somebody and When You Gonna Wake Up are.  For newer Dylan songs, try Political World and Everything in Broken both off the Oh Mercy album.

Sly and the Family Stone: Dance To the Music is rocking from the very first notes, a trumpet blasting, and it just gets better from there. The bass is truly magical on this song.

Haircut 100: I fear I might have flashback from college while running to Love Plus One, but this is 80's rock that I stand by.

Pet Shop Boys: Are they old enough be classic?  I am not sure, but West End Girls has such a driving beat that I am tapping my feet just thinking about this song.

Sweet: Ballroom Blitz is a song that really brings me back. Glam Rock at its best.

Contemporary:
Keller Williams: If you listen to jam bands at all, you are familiar with Keller who is one of the greatest banjo players around. He has a song called Mantra that is the perfect song to start your workout. Set the play list to shuffle and click on Mantra to start off running.  It starts off slow with an acoustic guitar riff and slowly builds. This is an incredibly creative song about how the mind wanders during meditation. It is light and somewhat comical. Perfect for running.

Phish: As a Vermonter, I am required by law to promote Phish.Trey's guitar and Page's piano on Chalkdust Torture from A Picture of Nectar are truly sick.

Modest Mouse: I love this band. Two of my favorite songs, Float On and Missed the Boat are both great for running.

Mood Ruff:: Mood Ruff is a Canadian rapper so technically this is may not be rock n' roll, officially, but the song Rocketship rocks.

Spoon: Almost everything by Spoon is good to run to, but try The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine which from the first guitar note will have your leg tapping or Got Nuffin which does the same but with the drums.

Parquet Courts: This is a very dark New York City band. Check out Dust and One Man No City off of their "Human Performance" album. The rhythm guitar is what drives these songs.

Cake: About half of what this band does is good for a running list.  Right now, I only have Love You Madly on my running list. I need to add more. I have everything this band has done. I wish they put out more.

Cage the Elephant: I love this song: Ain't No Rest For the Wicked. Is it rock? Is it rap?  Who cares really!  A great upbeat song.

Courtney Barnett: Australia's best newish song writer can also rock. Check out Pedestrian At Best. She can write and she can jam.

Gnarls Barkley: I just discovered recently that CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse are Gnarls Barkley. I had no idea. I know both of these guys and I know Gnarls Barkley. I had no idea that they were one and the same. Crazy is great to run to.

The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is one of my favorite albums of the last 20 years. Fight Test is probably the only running song on it.

Fela's Egypt 80 and & Seun Kuti: I am sure there are several hundred songs from this Nigerian family, the Kuti's, that are good running songs. I am just telling you about the one that I know of. The horns in Think Afrika are to die for.

SUGARCULT: Los Angeles is a great song to run especially when it is very hot.

Dessa: Technically this is rap but man Fire Drills is such an awesome song. Nothing like an angry feminist to get your adrenalin pumping. Probably the best song to come out last year.

alt-J: Left Hand Free is a strange song, but I love it. It gets me moving.

The Kills: Future Stars Slow and Cheap and Cheerful are both great for running. This band really has rhythm.

Frances Dunnery: Too Much Saturn is still the most entertaining and witty song I've ever heard and it is also great to run to.

Chumbawmba: Come on now! Every running list has to have Tubthumping on it.  If not, then something is very wrong.

G. Love & Special Sauce: G. Love with Jack Johnson on guitar. Rodeo Clown is one of my favorite songs. How could it not be?

Metallica: What can I say? I like an occasional heavy metal song. Enter Sandman is great to run to.

New Order: I've been listening to Love Vigilantes for years. It wasn't until I added it to my running list that I actually listened to the lyrics. It is about a ghost returning home from war watching his widow open the telegram about his death. Depressing but a great running song nonetheless.

Simple Kid: Staring At the Sun is the only song I know by this band, but I love the guitar riff. The change in tempo throughout the song doesn't bother the running. I am not sure why.

Obscure:
I don't know what is obscure really. Perhaps these bands are household names. I just don't know if anyone else I know are familiar with these bands.

Brad Sucks: This is a great name for a band. I know nothing about them. They aren't even on Wikipedia. Check out Dirtbag.

David Kirton: Green Camouflage is a reggae song about peace. What else do you need to know? Add it to your list now.

Plants and Animals: These guys are from Montreal & Halifax. I can say only one thing about The Mama Papa: More cowbell!

Mother Mother: Another Canadian band, Let's Fall in Love and Touch Up are fantastic.

Pigeon John: Money Back Guarantee is about meeting a woman in a bar and not knowing what to say to her. It is very witty and fun to run to.

Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband:  Yes, another banjo song, Banjo Boy. It is self referential and endearing.

Noah & The Whale: L*I*F*E*G*O*E*S*O*N will have you spelling out loud on your run.

The Speech Writers LLC: I heard this song, Chbb, on Pandora about a decade ago and I immediately bought it. I don't understand the song title but it is a great upbeat song.

Now you have no excuse not to go running.

Health Care and How to Win an Election in 2018

I agree with Conservatives on at least one thing, that the US has some of the greatest hospitals in the world. One of those great hospitals employees me. Wealthy people come from around the world to be treated at American hospitals. The problem with our health care system lies with not in the quality of our health care, but in its accessibility and its affordability. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have some sort of comprehensive socialized health care. Medicare is not comprehensive in that it only covers a small group of people: the elderly, government employees, Amtrak employees and the military (aka Tricare).

Medicare is great, not perfect, but for the most part very well run. In my twenty years as a Health Care IT professional, in dealing with health care payers, I rarely have problems with them or with commercial insurances like Aetna, Cigna and US Healthcare among many others. In contrast Medicaid is a nightmare. Each time I have to call them, while I sit on hold, for usually a very long time, I feel like I am falling into an abyss of red tape. They are understaffed, underfunded and not taken very seriously. When I do get someone on the phone, they often contradict the last person I talked to there. It is my impression that they are saying whatever they need to get me off the phone. This is very frustrating when you are just trying to get the health care providers the money they have coming to them. It is a wonder that the poor's health care bills ever get paid.

One of the problems is that people confuse Medicaid with Medicare because their names are so similar. Medicaid used to be called Welfare, but it was rebranded because of the negative connotations that Welfare elicits. It is government assistance for the extreme poor among us. This is probably why they are a mess. America doesn't prioritize the poor very highly and the poor doesn't have strong lobbyists fighting for them like the elderly do.

Those who follow the numbers have noticed that our health care system is getting worst, from a financial standpoint for the last few decades. It is untenable and will crash eventually. My wife said to me recently, in frustration, "Our health insurance sucks!" My response was "Everyone's health insurance sucks now. That is the problem." Costs are spiraling and health care payers are struggling to stay afloat. This isn't new. We've known about this as a society for quite some time. A few brave politicians have tried to tackle it. President Richard Nixon did, but then came Watergate and survival became his priority. President Clinton tried but that was a complete failure, but he did pass HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act) which was tremendous success at least from my viewpoint. Obama passed the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare) and it was, by no means perfect, but it was a step in the right direction.

What HIPAA did for me, as an IT professional, is standardize things. Before HIPAA, insurance companies could demand you send them electronic files and/or paper for claims in any format they wanted. Each payer had a different requirement and the providers had to jump through hoops to get their money from them. After HIPAA, there are standards that everyone (payer, provider, government, commercial) have to follow. We have what are called 837 files for insurance claims. After they are approved, the payments come in 835 files. When there is a problem with one of these files, it is deemed HIPAA non-compliant and most of the time the errors you deal with are benign and common. Life is a lot easier now. This is why whenever I hear someone say that government isn't the answer to our health care woes, I reject it completely. Government can and does often make things better. Not perfect, but better.

How did our health care system get so bad? I blame Baylor University.  I kid about this really. I've worked with people at Baylor and they are some of the nicest and capable people I've ever worked with. In the early 20th century, health care was not a big deal. Americans didn't spend a lot of money on it and only went to see a doctor until they were dying or very hurt. Baylor hospital had empty beds that they wanted to fill so they had an idea to offer a low cost payment plan that would allow people to come to the hospital for non-deathly matters. The first plan offered teachers 21 days of a hospital bed for $6 a year (equivalent to about $120.00 in today's cash). Other hospitals in the Dallas, Texas area came on board. Once the Great Depression hit, no one was going to the hospital because they didn't have the money even for cheap health care, so other hospitals came on board. This plan was called Blue Cross. In a short time, every state had a Blue Cross plan available. During World World II, President Roosevelt sign Executive Order 9250 as a means to control inflation. Wages were frozen. So employers found a way around this by offering benefits to attract hard to find employees. Health insurance being tied to your employment was born.  When WW II ended, the American economy boomed with the rest of the industrialized world in tatters. Competition for good employees was high. By then, you could not compete without have an insurance plan for your employees. In 1943, the IRS deemed that health plans were tax exempt. This created a boom for anyone who wanted to start their own health insurance plan.

Nothing about this is set in stone. It is just an accident of history. This fee for service plan only drives up the cost of health care. Providers have financial incentive to provide more care in quantity, not quality. It has gotten to the point where the system is unsustainable. When the ACA was passed and your good plan was cancelled, it was going to be cancelled anyway. Insurance companies just timed the cancellation of these to coincide with the ACA's passing so they could scapegoat the government, rather than explain the hard realities to their customers. The American health care system is on the verge of collapse.

The 2018 mid-term election just took place on Tuesday this week. I am in amazement by two things: 1) Trump's ability to drive people to the polls. Both voters that hate him and love him, showed up in droves. We had the highest turn-out for a mid-term election in recent years. 2) Democrats were able to stay on message. It is not a simple thing, for a politician, particularly one leaning toward the left. I have never seen this before. They could have easily ran against Trump, but they didn't. They let him be his own worst enemy. They ran on health care. The Republicans tried to claim that they were the health care party but it is obvious to anyone paying attention that they are not. Many of them lied during their rallies and commercials that they supported protecting pre-existing conditions coverage. In regards to health care they had nothing to run on. They couldn't bring up their bullshit tax plan that no one other than billionaires liked. Americans are finally figuring out that something needs to be done with our health care woes and there is only one party that is doing anything.

Lets hope that the Democrats continue to stay on message and run this wave into the 2020 election. I don't know how to get to a Medicare For All. It seems to an insurmountable problem. But I know, the first thing we need is the political will. The Democrats will need your support to do this.  Stay with them. Your life could depend on it.

Picks of the Year: 2017

2017 won't go down as a great year, but compared to 2016, it was fantastic. In reviewing, I noticed that I saw a lot less live shows than I usually do. This is probably due to my accident on July 4th when I tripped on some cobblestones in Portugal and dislocated my ankle. I spent the rest of the summer on crutches or at least walking very carefully. I remember attending the Elvis Costello concert and trying to maneuver a concert crowd at an outdoor (grass) venue. We usually attend many shows at this venue during the summer, but I was less motivated to attend when I'm hobbling. Also, standing for a few hours wasn't ever appealing as well.

Last years was full of death and mayhem, we had a little of that but no more than could be expected. I lost one of my favorite aunts. My father had ten siblings and now they are all gone. An entire generation of my family is gone from this planet forever which makes me more sad each time I think about it.

We had our roof fixed this year. This is a good thing. It was a pain for about a week. Compared to last year's loss of the furnace, being without electricity for a week and without water for six weeks, the new roof was a blessing.

I also started volunteering this year, something I used to do a lot of when I was younger. Every Saturday I drive into Burlington and assist in teaching a group of Bhutan refugees American civics in preparation for their citizenship test. I have been really enjoying this. For Christmas, they got together and bought me a new business suit.

MEDIA:
Best book I read in 2017:
I joined a book club this year so this means I have less control over the books I am reading but I am having better reads and getting more perspective. This has mostly been a good thing because I'm meeting a lot really great people. As a telecommuter, I really need more outlets to makes friends in my area. My favorite book of the year was The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I was surprised about how much I ended up caring about the rowing team in the 1936 Olympics. It read like good fictional novel. Other books I've read this year include: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz, Var the Stick by Piers Anthony, Just Kids by Patti Smith, 11/22/63 by Stephen King and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff (which I didn't finish). With exception of the last one, I enjoyed them with varying degrees. I also read two graphic novels, Saga #6 and #7.

Favorite new movie: 
Because of my injury, I went to the movies more often than usual this year.  Here are all of them that I can think of: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Thor: Ragnorak, Bladerunner 2049, The Big Sick, The Guardians of the Galaxy II, Logan, Lion, La La Land, Hidden Figures and Get Out.  I enjoyed all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, it had to be Get Out. I can't say I have seen anything like it before, both scary and hysterical.  I'm guessing that both Get Out and The Big Sick are going to be ignored by the Oscars because they are comedies.

I only went to see La La Land because my wife dragged to it. I have to admit it was better than I expected. I finally got to see Moonlight on Blueray and I am glad that the better movie did win, because Moonlight was amazing.

Favorite new TV show: 

I discovered a lot of new shows this year. Among them are; The Crown, Gypsy, Dark, The Punisher, Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale, Westworld, Big Little Lies, Divorce, Crashing, The Deuce, Insecure, Mindhunter, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 13 Reasons Why, Iron Fist, Ozark, The Defenders, The OA, Runaways, The Orville, Preacher, Legion, Atlanta and Travelers.  I guess I watch a lot of TV.

There are some standouts. The Crown, The Handmaid's Tale, Big Little Lies and Atlanta are the best on the list. They are just superior television that you wouldn't be able to see on television years ago. We have some very creative people really stretching the form. They have creative story telling, social relevance and depth on many levels. The biggest disappointment was Westworld. I heard almost universal praise and it just wasn't that good. The biggest surprise was 13 Reasons Why. I didn't expect to be captivated by a drama about teen suicide.  

Favorite quote:
"Despite the constant negative press covfefe" by our toddler in chief. Need I say more!

Favorite new podcast : 
I discovered a lot of new podcasts this year, among them are: Radio Atlantic, The Daily, Slowburn, The Deeper Dig, Freak Out and Carry On, Civics 101 and The Hilarious World of Depression. My favorite is the New York Times' The Daily. It really should change its name to The Week Daily because it only comes out five days a week. It goes into depth about a story that is being covered in the New York Times that day. I listen every morning as I begin work.

MUSIC:
Best concert I attended:
I only saw four live shows this year: Robert Cray, Elvis Costello, Kung Fu and Joe Pug. I have say that I enjoyed Joe Pug the most. It had to be because of the venue. He is a fantastic song writer and we saw him at an intimate setting, The Higher Ground in Burlington. This is much more my speed these days.

Best album:  
I bought some great new albums this year, in MP3 format of course. I bought "Lotta Sea Lice" by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, "Mental Illness" by Aimee Mann, "Together At Last" by Jeff Tweedy, "A Deeper Understanding" by The War on Drugs, "The Navigator" by Hurray for the Riff Raff, "In Between" by the Feelies and "More Fast Songs about the Apocalypse" by Moby. The Moby album was a free download which I am grateful because it is awful.

The Aimee Mann album is my favorite with her deeply personal song writing. As usual, she is spectacular tackling her own experiences with mental illness. Here is some of the lines from "Philly Sinks":

Philly thinks, and when he thinks he can't feel anymore
Philly drinks, and when he drinks, all the drunks hit the floor
Philly sinks, and when he sinks you go down
And when you do, you both drown

The entire Jeff Tweedy album is a bunch of acoustic remakes from some of his other bands. If these were all new songs, I'd be picking this album because like Mann, he is one of America's greatest living song writers. Here are a few of great lines from some of his songs: "All my lies are always wishes," "His goal in life was to be an echo" and "you are right about the stars, each one is a setting sun."

Favorite new songs: 
I have 234 mp3 files of songs from 2017. I spend the month of December listening to only a playlist of these songs. I payed for most of them. In addition to getting the awful Moby album for free, I did download the NPR 100 which is their picks for the best 100 songs at the South by Southwest music festival. As usual, I end up disliking most of these tracks, but I do find some gems from the bunch which I am grateful, because they are free.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Benjamin Franklin's Song" by the Decemberists
"Sheep" by Mt. Joy
"Fight to Survive" by Thievery Corporation
"The Last Ten Years" by Mark Eitzel
"When the Wall Comes Down" by Hiss Golden Messenger
"Sign of the Times" by Harry Styles
"Total Entertainment Forever" by Father John Misty
"Hard Living" by Chris Stapleton
"One of These Days" by Bedouine
"Goose Snow Cone" by Aimee Mann
"Philly Sinks" by Aimee Mann
"Stuck in the Past" by Aimee Mann
"Muddy Waters" by the Deslondes
"Continental Breakfast" by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile
"Rosey" by Bermuda Triangle
"Faded Days" by Actual Wolf
"Passing Time" by Almighty American
"Destitute" by Christopher Paul Stelling
 "I'll Quit Tomorrow" by Dawg Yawp
"Sports" by Fufanu
"Forgot Myself" by Jen Cloher
"Going Mad As Street Bins" by L.A. Salami
"Carin at the Liquor Store" by The National
"Television" by Planes on Paper
"Darling" by Real Estate
"He's Fine" by the Secret Sisters
"Holding On" by The War On Drugs
"Thinking of a Place" by The War On Drugs
"Sea of Clouds" by Deer Tick
"Hungry Ghost" by Horray for the Riff Raff

Since I have to pick a favorite, I pick "Benjamin Franklin's Song" by the Decemberists. Franklin is one of my favorite personalities from American history so the fact someone wrote a great rock song documenting his achievements is very pleasing to me ... and it rocks.

BEST TRIP:

The best trip of the year was our trip to Portugal.

We flew into Lisbon, met up with our friend Paul, enjoyed Lisbon (particularly the sangria on the beach) and then went to Porto. It was stunning. It might be the most beautiful city I've seen in Europe. The restaurants and bars line the Duoro River and row boats deliver the port wine from the vineyards up river. This was truly the peak of our trip and as we crossed the river into their sister city Vila Nova de Gaia, the highpoint quickly became the nadir. Maybe a half hour after we crossed the river, on July 4th with my Captain America shirt on, I tripped on the cobblestone and dislocated my ankle. For about a minute, my foot was perpendicular with my leg. As a group of strangers carried me off the street, I was screaming, it slowly snapped into place. I spent the next five hours in an ambulance and emergency room and the rest of the trip on crutches. I still haven't gotten a bill from the hospital. Gotta to love socialized medicine.

We went to Philadelphia for Memorial Day and met up with our niece and stayed with friends.  We went to see the Cubs in Cincinnati which is an amazing city.  We went to Arkansas for a week. The highlight of that trip is that we can now tell people we've been to Arkansas. I've been to 40 plus US states and I have to say, Arkansas is the least interesting and I have no plans to ever go back again. 

Life Under an Autocrat - Trump #30

Life under an autocrat is exhausting. You cannot get away from him, almost every conversation is about him. If it doesn't start that way, it slowly becomes about him. You cannot get away from him. "Did you hear what he did today?" "Oh shit, what?" He is in the air we breathe, making us choke. Not sure how much more I can take!

Two countries on the planet didn't sign the Paris Agreement, Nicaragua and Syria. Nicaragua didn't sign it because the agreement wasn't strong enough. Syria didn't sign it because they are amidst a civil war and have other problems. As Trump pulls out of the agreement, it is clear that he does not see the world as a global collaborative, but as a group of separate entities fighting for resources. This is an idea that died in 1945. In the wake of World War II, we saw the error of our ways and came together as a planet. However imperfect, it has worked for the most part. Now we finally have the answer to the question that we've been asking Trump supporters for the last two year, "When was America great?" When America was alone.

Trump Log:
5/31/2017 - As part of the sanctions against Russia for their hacking during the 2016 election, President Obama ejected them from diplomatic compounds in New York City and the Maryland shore. Trump tells his buddies to come on back. (Source: Washington Post)

6/1/2017 - Trump has issued 17 ethics pledge waivers in a little over 100 days of being in office. Obama issued 17 in the eight years he was in office. (Source: Washington Post)

6/2/2017 - As expected, Trump announced that the US will withdraw from the Paris Agreement. (Source: New York Times)

6/3/2017 - Trump has ordered aides not to respond to Democrats requesting information in regards to White House oversight. (Source: Politico)

6/4/2017 - Hurricane season is fast approaching and still we have no director of FEMA or NOAA. (Source: Tampa Bay Times)

6/5/2017 - Trump's tweets after the London Bridge terrorist attack are a national embarrassment. (Source: New York Times)

6/6/2017 - Changes made by the Trump administration to the federal government's contraception mandate could leave hundreds of thousands of women without contraception. (Source: New York Times)

Prior Trump Logs:
Issue # 1 - posted November 15th, 2016
Issue # 2 - posted November 22nd, 2016
Issue # 3 - posted November 29th, 2016
Issue # 4 - posted December 6, 2016
Issue # 5 - posted December 12, 2016
Issue # 6 - posted December 19, 2016
Issue # 7 - posted December 26, 2016
Issue # 8 - posted January 3, 2017
Issue # 9 - posted January 10, 2017
Issue #10 - posted January 17, 2017
Issue #11 - posted January 24, 2017
Issue #12 - posted January 31, 2017
Issue #13 - posted February 7, 2017
Issue #14 - posted February 14, 2017
Issue #15 - posted February 21, 2017
Issue #16 - posted February 28, 2017
Issue #17 - posted March 7, 2017
Issue #18 - posted March 14, 2017
Issue #19 - posted March 21, 2017
Issue #20 - posted March 28, 2017
Issue #21 - posted April 5, 2017
Issue #22 - posted April 11, 2017
Issue #23 - posted April 18, 2017
Issue #24 - posted April 25, 2017
Issue #25 - posted May 2, 2017
Issue #26 - posted May 9, 2017
Issue #27 - posted May 16, 2017
Issue #28 - posted May 23, 2017

Issue #29 - posted May 30, 2017

The War on Truth Continues- Trump log #23

I am not sure if it is worth reporting what Trump says anymore. Does he just say whatever he thinks sounds good? Whatever is off the top of his head? The aircraft carrier that he said was heading to North Korea is heading towards Australia now. Or does he think having a veil of confusion surrounding his administration will keep the world on its toes and give him the upper hand?

I told myself that I would stop writing these Trump logs if I could go one day without finding something to include on my weekly list of daily Trump anxieties.  I assumed I would have been done by now. I don't go looking for them. I just read the news and they fall on my lap.

4/12/17 - Trump is using the health care of millions of Americans as a bargaining chip. (Source: Politico)

4/13/17 - Trump's Secretary of Education, DeVos, is backing away from rules designed to assist students with their loan debt. (Source: New York Times)

4/14/17 - Trump's EPA is refusing to ban chlorpyrifos, a dangerous chemical. When asked Pruitt, his EPA head, cites business concerns. (Source: New York Times)

4/15/17 - In 2013 President Obama launched the National Commission on Forensic Science to bolster the validity of the forensic science. Anyone in law enforcement or who has been accused of a crime, should be concerned about the validity of forensic science in its pursuit of the truth. Trump's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions is cancelling the Commission. The assault on science and truth itself continues. (Source: New York Times)

4/16/17 - Trump says he can't be sued for inciting violence at one of his campaign rallies because he won the election.  Um ... that's not how it works. (Source: Washington Post)

4/17/17 - Trump's administration is perhaps the most secretive since Nixon's. (Source: Washington Post)

4/18/17 - Democrats in Congress and about a dozen Republicans have united in their demanding of Trump releasing his tax returns. They are refusing to consider any of Trump's tax reforms until the returns are made public. Looks like we have another campaign promise that he won't be able to fill. (Source: New York Times)

Prior Trump Logs:
Issue # 1 - posted November 15th, 2016
Issue # 2 - posted November 22nd, 2016
Issue # 3 - posted November 29th, 2016
Issue # 4 - posted December 6, 2016
Issue # 5 - posted December 12, 2016
Issue # 6 - posted December 19, 2016
Issue # 7 - posted December 26, 2016
Issue # 8 - posted January 3, 2017
Issue # 9 - posted January 10, 2017
Issue #10 - posted January 17, 2017
Issue #11 - posted January 24, 2017
Issue #12 - posted January 31, 2017
Issue #13 - posted February 7, 2017
Issue #14 - posted February 14, 2017
Issue #15 - posted February 21, 2017
Issue #16 - posted February 28, 2017
Issue #17 - posted March 7, 2017
Issue #18 - posted March 14, 2017
Issue #19 - posted March 21, 2017
Issue #20 - posted March 28, 2017
Issue #21 - posted April 5, 2017
Issue #22 - posted April 12, 2017

Americans Loves Violence #BoycottNFL

That's right, sorry to be the one to tell you ... Americans love violence. Oh yes, we feign outrage. We put warnings on movies and video games and maybe even trigger warnings on books. We are clearly offended by simulated violence. I could play Call of Duty (rated M for Mature) all day and then watch all the Die Hard movies (rated R for violence) and by the end, not a single person would have gotten hurt. Yet, a sport where people pound either causing bodily harm and in many cases brain damage, Americans welcome it into their homes every Autumn Sunday, no warning, rating or censorship. Simulate violence: bad. Real violence: a-okay.

How do football fans rationalize this? I can't say I know. They are experiencing cognitive dissonance perhaps. People seem to have an uncanny ability to compartmentalize what they call their beliefs from their actions. I once had a co-worker who used to claim he was a vegetarian then I'd go out to lunch with him at some of greasiest wiener joints in Providence and he'd not see a problem with this. I once went to lunch with friends who complained about tax loopholes throughout the meal and then take a receipt for our non-work related meal for his tax write off. When I pointed out to him that this write-off is a loop hole, he looked at me with complete confusion. We all know people like this, right? Like someone who complains about GMOs in her food or chemicals in her lawn, because they might cause cancer, as she smokes away at a cigarette. Among these cognitively dissonant friends, I put the person who claims that they abhor violence while wearing an NFL jersey. Football is violent. If you like football, you like violence. Admit it and move on.

Football is America's favorite sport. America loves violence. We have a history of violence, founded on violence. We were founded by a bloody revolution, a bloody civil war preserved us and bloody massacres expanded our borders for our Manifest Destiny. We all know this. Just admit America ... you love violence. Stop pretending that you don't. Denial is unhealthy.

I didn't always feel this way. When I was young, I thought I lived in a peaceful nation. I used to say, silly stuff, "there will never be another American war in our lifetime" and "after Viet Nam, we don't have an appetite for war." Then, in 1990, the first George Bush went into Iraq and people loved it. You'd ask them what they were doing for Friday evening, they'd said they were staying home and watching the war on CNN. They'd  stop off on their way from work to get a pizza and a 12 pack and hurry to the comfort of their couch to watch the missiles hammer Baghdad. Peace loving folk. Maybe not.

I had a similar epiphany a few years ago when the reports came out about concussions and Repetitive Head Injury Syndrome in football, I thought, well that's it, no more football. We now have proof that long term brain damage is being caused by playing football for a long-time.  Today, 1-3 NFL players will have some sort of brain injury in their lifetimes. We haven't stopped watching football after this information came out, of course not, if anything viewership has increased. The bloodier the better I guess. I still see people signing up their kid's for youth football.  The trend continues.

As our daily news programs continues to report about brutality that these players commit off the field, the beating of a wife in an elevator or the hospitalization of a child from being hit with a stick, we have to wonder who is to blame? These guys were once very little boys, we told them to go hit someone hard. If you do it well enough, you might make a lot of money. Turn on the television and watch a few more games, drink a few more beers, eat a few more chips and watch those commercials. The violence you are buying is no longer only on the field or on the screen. How many more of these thugs do you need to turn off the television or change the channel. In a capitalistic society, demand is consent. If you stop demanding it, the supply will disappear.

Hypochondria and Creativity

I have a friend that has hypochondria, at least, I think he does. I have known him since I was a child and he seems to have a new malady every time I talk to him. Since he is still alive and appears quite healthy, the thought that he is a hypochondriac has occurred to me. He is also one of the most successful people I know from my old neighborhood ... he's no genius, probably above average intellectually and is very driven. I have never heard of a link between hypochondria and creativity before, until today, but it does makes a lot of sense.

I heard Brian Dillon talk on a podcast today about his new book The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Souls. In this book he discusses nine reasonably famous people who were considered hypochondriacs. Among them are Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Glenn Gould, Marcel Proust, Andy Warhol and three people I never heard of Alice James, James Boswell and Daniel Paul Schreber. I haven't read the book, but in the conversation the most interesting person he discussed was Charles Darwin.

Apparently, Darwin was sickly even as a boy. It is hard to say how much of this was real illness and what wasn't. The captain of the HMS Beagle, (Robert FitzRoy) almost didn't allow him on the voyage to the Galapagos Islands due to his poor constitution. History would be quite different if he hadn't. While on the journey, Darwin only worked two hours a day and spent the rest of the day nursing his woes. He complained about pain in his hands, was obsessed with his nose and had stomach problems. Throughout Darwin's personal diary he keeps track of his flatulence and kept a privy in his study. I will have a completely different picture in my mind now when I see a Darwin fish on people's bumpers.

Restoring Your Virginity

I listen to podcast all day while I work. I feel more informed than I have ever been in my life. I feel even enlightened at times. Some of the stories I hear sometimes renew my faith in humanity. Not today though. Today I heard about how plastic surgeons are now offering the restoration of a woman's virginity. They surgically restore the hymen and tighten the vagina. Some women are doing it as a gift for their lovers/husbands. It is like something out of a bad sci-fi novel. This not only exists but it is growing in popularity.

While googling about this subject, I also learned that some women are auctioning their virginity. A young woman recently auctioned her virginity on the Howard Stern Show to pay for college. Considering the virginity could be fake, I hope she didn't get a lot.

This Old Cub

If you are from anywhere other than Chicago, there is probably a really good chance that you have never heard the name Ron Santo. In Chicago his is a household name. I listen to the Cubs games now on the radio via the net and I think he is the worst announcer I have ever heard ... but he is not famous for being an announcer. He was the Cubs third baseman during the famous 1969 season. Every baseball fan remembers the '69 season for the Miracle Mets. The New York Mets were an expansion team in 1962, they were the worst in the league their entire history up that point but late in the 1969 season came out of no where with a surge in September while the Cubs were slumping. The Cubs went 9 and 16 the last 25 games of the year while the Mets went 27 and 11 in their last 48. The last series of the year they played head to head ... the rest is baseball history. The Mets went to the World Series and beat the best team in baseball that year, the Baltimore Orioles. The Cubs team that year was probably the best team they have had in a century with an all star infield with such greats on the team as Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and Fergie Jenkins.

At the age of 18, Ron was diagnosed with diabetes. He was expected not to live to the age 25. The entire time he was on the Cubs, only the team doctor knew he had diabetes. The technology to check your own blood sugar didn't exist at the time. He had to monitor himself by how he felt. He kept a candy bar in the dugout with him at all times. Both his legs have been amputated due to diabetes, the right in 2001 and the left the next year. He still announces for the Cubs.

When he was drafted as a teenager every major league team had made him an offer, the Cubs offered him the least amount of money. He chose the Cubs for two reasons Ernie Banks and Wrigley Field. If you ever been lucky enough to see Ernie Banks play you'd know why ... and Wrigley Field, do I really have to say more? He and Ernie have played more games together than any other two players in Major League Baseball history. Since he left the team in 1973, the Cubs have had over 100 third basemen.

He has not yet been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and probably won't be, but hasn't affect his popularity in Chicago. His offensive numbers probably don't justify him being in the hallowed hall, but his defensive numbers more than make up for them.

Bats and Bugs in Vermont

Some bats in Vermont and New York are suffering and dying from a condition that is being called "White Nose Syndrome." The white nose is merely a symptom and not the cause of the disease. Someone in causing them to deplete their fat early while they are hibernating therefore they are starving in their sleep.

This was first discovered last year in a cave west of Albany NY and this year 2 more in NY and one in VT which is scary because this means it is spreading. Since bats eat mostly bugs, expect a buggy summer in northern New England and New York which is not something that I am looking forward to. Also, the long term effect of having more bugs this summer will cause what? More sickness in humans and/live stock? Depletion of plant life?

I am concerned about the bats, of course. They are beautiful, fascinating creatures, but problems like this always have impacts elsewhere just like the mysterious death of bees last summer. I have to remember to hang up my bat house. It is sitting in the yard. Unfortunately, not much else I can do.

One more thing to be worried about!

HPV is short for human papillomavirus. This is a virus that all sexually active adults will one day contract. It is an STD but because it is a virus, it will, in most cases, just go away with rest and good health. That is the good news that I learned today. Most of us will never even realize we have it.

The bad news (why is there always bad news?) is that some of us will get sick from this. In woman this virus can cause cervix cancer. Of the 120 types of HPV viruses, only 37 of them can cause cancer. The rest of them just cause warts (foot, hands, genital). Men don't have a cervix, hence the warts on the cervix won't lead to cancer of the cervix in men.

More good news (thankfully there is often more good news)! A vacine called Gardasil was approved by the FDA in 2006. Another one called GlaxoSmithKline is expected to be approved this year.

Thus ends my public health message.