Don’t ask me.

My brain is going on me, I can’t remember what I’ve discussed before. I’ve started eating almonds. Supposed to be “brain food” good for memory.

I was listening to something, somewhere (Pandora? Satellite? TV Show?) and heard “Hanging On” by Katie Sawicki. I went right away to iTunes and bought it. I just found a YouTube video of her doing it live, which isn’t nearly as good as the studio recording. I’m going to try to embed it, but so many artists, foolishly if you ask me, are killing embedding I don’t know if it’ll work.

I also recently bought Peter Bradley Adams’s new album on iTunes. I buy very few full albums by any artist. Him, I do. He was the male half of Eastmountainsouth and has continued to make wonderful music since that duo ceased operations. I’m posting a YouTube non-video of one of his songs, again, if it’ll work.

Peace, out

Okay, I capitulate. My next venture into things political will be my constitutionally granted vote in some election or other. Secret vote. I cannot say what particular election might excite my urge to cast a ballot. I do know that I have faith in no politician of any stripe, party or gender. None. I do know how to tell when they are lying, of course, due to an old “lawyer joke”:  when their lips move.

There are no major issues facing the people of our country, or any other country, or facing the planet itself I can do anything about.

I can cherish my family and friends, and hope the weather’s nice when I want to be outdoors.

Peace, out.

Jerry’s Auto Body, Deland, Florida

I finished reading two books, one on my iPhone and one the “normal” way.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. This is the first book I purchased and downloaded to read on my iPhone, using Stanza. I was happy with the way the print appeared on the page, the ease of page turning, and the comfort of holding the iPhone to read. I was not put off a bit by the small screen size, surprisingly. I’ll absolutely do it again. As for the book, it is about a college-age kid who goes to a magicians’ school instead of a traditional college. A pleasant read, I enjoyed it. The level of writing was competent.

I may as well say now that I do not do “book reviews.” I have no intention of giving away authors’ plots or other details, and consider that books are much like wine. When all is said and done, you like them or not, enjoy them or not. A scant few rise above the pack, and I don’t mind saying when they do. On the subject of wine, I read an article recently about that. After the big scandal in France where some wine distributors were passing off pedestrian wine as superior wine (for us ignorant buckaroos here in America), the rating system was supposed to provide some guidance. Some real spiffy wine dudes were gonna do blind tastings, and provide ratings. And they do. Some other smart fellow decided to test the tasters. At a wine event of some sort, he managed to get the tasters to do some blind tastings, without telling them that in some cases they were sampling wine from the same bottle (i.e. a given taster/tester was given separate samples from the exact same bottle). Well, it won’t surprise anyone to hear that ratings were widely varied by the same taster/tester. What a hoot!

There are a lot of really decent American wines to drink without spending much more than $20 (and sometimes less). Past that, even the experts are just wasting their money, if you ask me. Now if springing for an expensive bottle has other purposes, so be it. On one of our first dates, I took my honey to a spiffy French joint, and ordered a really expensive bottle of French wine (Montrachet Chevalier). I first had it in France at a little place near Nice called “Moulin de Mougin” or something like that, a multiple Michelin star place in and old olive oil mill. This stuff is just too good (and I’m not a big white wine guy). When I ordered it (in France), the snooty sommelier raised his eyebrows and said “very nice,” as though a pig had learned to read Shakespeare. Truth is, I didn’t know a single wine on the menu, and coulda thrown a dart. My Honey loved the wine, and we’ve been together ever since (16 years plus). Did I say expensive?

But I digress.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I’ve enjoyed reading a couple of Mr. Brown’s novels, notably, of course, The DaVinci Code. I even liked the movie. I’d say that with Lost Symbol, he’s maybe slightly off his game, but it’s still a good yarn full of interesting factoids (although I have no way of knowing how accurate they are). I enjoyed it. Ran through it quite fast.  A couple of little things won’t spoil it for you. There is a lot of stuff about Free Masonry in the book, including some folks with the highest rank, that being Thirty-third degree. My late father-in-law was a Thirty-third degree Mason. The National Cathedral is a location in the story. One of the structures of the National Cathedral is called the College of Preachers. I doubt if many folks can report, as I can, that I had dinner one evening in the College of Preachers dining room. Wonderful Gothic place. Our old pal Professor Langdon is here, of course, going strong.

I’m sure this book will be another blockbuster movie.

How’s that hypocritcal oath working for ya’ doc? How’s that million dollar home, private schools for your kids, and your private airplane doin’ for ya?

DOCTORS TO MARCH AGAINST HEALTH CARE REFORM.

Orlando-area doctors are expected to march in downtown Orlando on Saturday, Nov. 21, to protest federal health care legislation.

The Million Med March will begin at 11 a.m. at Constitution Green at 300 S. Summerlin Ave. and will end at City Hall, 400 S. Orange Ave., where there will be a rally. Doctors in every state are expected to participate in similar marches.

The event is sponsored by the American Patriots PAC.

And what the hell is “American Patriots PAC” a doctor’s income support group?

Associated Press

STUDY: INJURED UNINSURED MORE LIKELY TO DIE IN ER

CHICAGO – Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study.

The findings by Harvard University researchers surprised doctors and health experts who have believed emergency room care was equitable.

“This is another drop in a sea of evidence that the uninsured fare much worse in their health in the United States,” said senior author Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and medical journalist.

The study, appearing in the November issue of Archives of Surgery, comes as Congress is debating the expansion of health insurance coverage to millions more Americans. It could add fodder to that debate.

The researchers couldn’t pin down the reasons behind the differences they found. The uninsured might experience more delays being transferred from hospital to hospital. Or they might get different care. Or they could have more trouble communicating with doctors.

The hospitals that treat them also could have fewer resources.

“Those hospitals tend to be financially strapped, not have the same level of staffing, not have the same level of surgeons and testing and equipment,” Gawande said. “That also is likely a major contributor.”

Gawande favors health care reform and has frequently written about the inequities of the current system.

The researchers took into account the severity of the injuries and the patients’ race, gender and age. After those adjustments, they still found the uninsured were 80 percent more likely to die than those with insurance — even low-income patients insured by the government’s Medicaid program.

“I’m really surprised,” said Dr. Eric Lavonas of the American College of Emergency Physicians and a doctor atDenver Health Medical Center. “It’s well known that people without health insurance don’t get the same quality of health care in this country, but I would have thought that this group of patients would be the least vulnerable.”

Some private hospitals are more likely to transfer an uninsured patient than an insured patient, said Lavonas, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

“Sometimes we get patients transferred and we suspect they’re being transferred because of payment issues,” he said. “The transferring physician says, ‘We’re not able to handle this.’”

Federal law requires hospital ERs to treat all patients who are medically unstable. But hospitals can transfer patients, or send them away, once they’re stabilized. A transfer could worsen a patient’s condition by delaying treatment.

The researchers analyzed data on nearly 690,000 U.S. patients from 2002 through 2006. Burn patients were not included, nor were people who were treated and released, or dead on arrival.

In the study, the overall death rate was 4.7 percent, so most emergency room patients survived their injuries. The commercially insured patients had a death rate of 3.3 percent. The uninsured patients’ death rate was 5.7 percent. Those rates were before the adjustments for other risk factors.

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the National Trauma Data Bank, which includes more than 900 U.S. hospitals.

“We have to take the findings very seriously,” said lead author Dr. Heather Rosen, a surgery resident at Los Angeles County Hospital, who found similar results when she analyzed children’s trauma data for an earlier study. “This affects every person, of every age, of every race.”

 

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest number since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began tracking food security levels in 1995.

That’s 14.6 percent of U.S. households, or about 49 million people. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as “food insecurity” — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the numbers could be higher in 2009 because of the global economic slowdown.

“This report suggests its time for America to get very serious aboutfood security and hunger,” Vilsack told reporters during a conference call.

The USDA said Monday that 5.7 percent of those who struggled for food experienced “very low food security,” meaning household members reduced their food intake.

The numbers dovetail with dire economic conditions for many Americans. And they may not take the full measure of America’s current struggles with hunger: Vilsack and the report’s lead author, Mark Nord withUSDA’s economic research service, both emphasized that the numbers reflected the situation in 2008 and that the economy’s continued troubles in 2009 would likely mean higher numbers next year.

The report also showed an increasing number of children in the United States are suffering food insecurity. In 2008, 16.7 million children were classified as food insecure, 4.3 million more than in 2007.

Hunger advocates said they were not surprised by the numbers, and said the numbers for children, in particular, were lamentable.

“What should really shock us is that almost one in four children in our country lives on the brink of hunger,” said David Beckmann, the President of Bread of the World, a hunger advocacy organization.

Vickie Escarra, the president of Feeding America, another hunger advocacy group, said all indications were that numbers in 2009 would be even worse than 2008.

“(T)he escalating unemployment rate and the number of working-poor, lead us to believe that the number of people facing hunger will continue to rise significantly over the coming year,” she said. “Research on previouseconomic recessions indicates that people who fall into the grips of poverty in a time of recession do not recover financially.”

Vilsack said that it would take a concerted effort to reduce the number of Americans who face food insecurity and said he hoped that the stark reality of Monday’s report would inspire action. He also said it was important to recognize that the numbers could have been much worse without adequately funded food aid programs, such as food stamps.

“There’s an opportunity here for the country to make a major commitment to focus on ways we can improve this process and make sure that food is safe and available for everyone,” he said.

Thank you for your service, now curl up and die.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The number of US veterans who died in 2008 because they lacked health insurance was 14 times higher than the US military death toll in Afghanistan that year, according to a new study.

The analysis produced by two Harvard medical researchers estimates that 2,266 US military veterans under the age of 65 died in 2008 because they lacked health coverage and had reduced access to medical care.

That figure is more than 14 times higher than the 155 US troop deaths in Afghanistan in 2008, the study says.

Released as the United States commemorates fallen soldiers onVeterans Day, the study warns that even health care provided by theVeterans Health Administration (VA) leaves many veterans without coverage.

The analysis uses census data to isolate the number of US veterans who lack both private health coverage and care offered by the VA.

“That’s a group that’s about 1.5 million people,” said David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program who co-authored the study.

Himmelstein and co-author Stephanie Woolhandler, also a Harvard medical professor, overlaid that figure with another study examining the mortality rate associated with lack of health insurance.

“The uninsured have about a 40 percent higher risk of dying each year than otherwise comparable insured individuals,” Himmelstein told AFP.

“Putting that all together you get an estimate of almost 2,300 — 2,266 veterans who die each year from lack of health insurance.”

Only some US veterans have access to medical care through the VA and coverage is apportioned on the basis of eight “priority groups.”

“They range from things like people who were prisoners of war, who have coverage for life, or who have battle injuries and therefore have coverage for their injuries for life,” said Himmelstein.

Veterans who fall below an income threshold that is determined on a county-by-county basis can qualify for care, but many veterans are “working poor” and fall just above the bracket.

“The priority eight group, the lowest priority, are veterans above the very poor group who have no other reason to be eligible and that group is essentially shut out of the VA,” according to Himmelstein.

The study comes as the US Senate weighs health care reform legislation and whether to offer government health insurance.

Himmelstein warns that congressional proposals could still leave veterans uncovered and favors a national health care program similar to those in Britain and Canada.

34 Ford

Still here, still going strong.

Every end is a beginning,

Every beginning an end.

Pink Mussaenda “Dona Luz”

I read the article below  today, and it got me to thinking again about capitalism, subsidies, and “The Arts.” When I was a lad, my mom had all these 78 rpm records, many of them of “classical” music. She listened to them, and so did I. Later, when on my own, and with much better stereo equipment (I’m thinking right now about when CDs were brand-new and my first player, a Sony, cost me almost a grand). I was relatively prosperous, and had a bunch of “audiophile” stuff to listen with (Mark Levinson preamp, Bryson amplifiers, Magnaplanar speakers, etc., etc.). I also, in that era (think mid-70s to late 80s), “assigned” myself the task of reading one “good” (“classic?”) book (a Dickens, a Russian novel, whatever), between readings of more contemporary stuff. So, there I am. Listening to “classical” music, and reading “Madame Bovary,” and I started thinking. I was listening to this stuff, and reading this stuff, because I’d convinced myself (with a lot of help for those who advocate this stuff), that it was “good” for me. [Note: I actually like reading Dickens.] Upon mature reflection, meaning these days, I realize I was “subsidizing” this stuff (the orchestras, the publishers, etc.). I was boring myself shitless for some “principle.”

I know I’m not the only one with philosophical questions about subsidizing  ”The Arts” (and other enterprises). I’ve often thought that if the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities were cancelled, it would be perfectly okay. Is “classical” music, for example, so inherently “good for us” that we should pay to keep orchestras going (ballet and opera also, I guess)? Sure, if Mr. Gotrocks wants to plunk down a million to subsidize a philharmonic, that’s his money and his privilege, that’s not what I’m talking about (although I’d like to see the Gotrocks of the world help the poor). Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to the possiblity, even likelihood, that some people really enjoy this stuff, and have no objection to them buying tickets or recordings.

I think what really struck me about the article is that only 30% of the costs of running the Honolulu Symphony came from ticket sales (which have been “OK”). That tells me that they know that their “product” cannot compete in the open market. The “Invisible Hand” of capitalism doesn’t seem interested in their offering.

I don’t think I’ve reached any real conclusions, but I’m really puzzled by subsidies, particlularly when it comes to taxpayer (i.e. borrowed) money.  I don’t listen to “classical” recordings any more, and I don’t flog myself into reading “classic” novels. Music listening and reading are my personal pleasures, when I have time, and I have divested myself of the notion that I owe it to some intellectual theory to listen to anything, or read anything, that I don’t want to. Subsidies distort markets, sez me. As an aside, I don’t hear “conservatives” railing against subsidies (and I’m not even talking about the recent idiotic “bailouts”) for industries like oil, agriculture, etc. They have no more problems than the “liberals” buying votes, and continuing to buy them on the installment plan once purchased.

So, I’m sorry the musicians and others employed by the Honolulu Symphony will go without their paychecks. I have no desire to pay them myself, and apparently, overall, my lack of desire is shared by others.

HONOLULU – The Honolulu Symphony said Friday it’s canceling concerts for the rest of the year and filing for bankruptcy, citing a big drop in donations.

The symphony, the oldest in the nation west of the Rocky Mountains, said it has $1 million in debt and doesn’t have enough money to support operations into November and beyond.

The Honolulu Symphony Society’s board of directors voted to file for Chapter 11 protection at a special meeting on Oct. 30. Papers will be submitted to court next week.

“We made payroll, even in this economy, through October. But when we reached toward the end of October, cash ran out and dried up,” said Peter Shaindlin, the board’s chairman.

Ticket sales have generally been OK, though weak at some recent events. Even so, ticket revenue covers only 30 percent of costs, and donations, which cover the remaining 70 percent, have dropped sharply during the recession.

“These are difficult economic times and everyone is doing whatever it takes to maintain the products and services they provide in our community while being economically prudent,” executive director Majken Mechling said in a statement.

The 109-year-old body hopes to come back as a leaner and more efficient operation, but it’s not clear when concerts will resume. The symphony is aiming for early next year, said spokeswoman Kristin Jackson said.

The symphony spends $4.1 million each year on payroll and benefits. Musician salaries account for the biggest single expense.

Mechling said the symphony can’t continue to sustain a 64-piece orchestra, but she didn’t say how many musicians the organization would have in the future.

The organization’s finances have been in trouble for about two years.

In May 2008, an anonymous donor gave $1 million to cover almost two months of unpaid wages. Earlier this year, the symphony took a $2.1 million advance from its endowment to pay employees several months of back pay.

If any of the voting yesterday was a “referendum” on anything, it was on the vitriol, name-calling, and downright nastiness of the far right “conservatives.” The decided to make their play in a solidly Republican congressional district in New York. They put up some character they liked, and basically pushed the GOP candidate off the stage, rudely enough that she threw her support to the Democrat. They brought in people from all over the country, most of whom knew not a single person in the district, and some of whom could fairly be called “carpetbaggers.” The most prominent of these was Sarah Palin, the failed vice-presidential candidate/failed quitter less-than-one-term governor of Alaska. Well, the former Republican senator Fred Thompson put in his two cents’ worth as well, in his cute slow “Law and Order” drawl.

They managed to cost “their” party a seat in the Congress. This in  a district where the GOP had a 45,000 person lead over the Democrats in registered voters, and where a Republican had been elected to Congress for over 130 years!.

The real problem these anti-democratic folks have is that they basically have no agenda. In their view of things, there are no issues facing our country which require action, and, (gasp) change. Their solution to everything the rest of us perceive as issues is to do nothing at all. The carp, they whine, they grouse, they do childish name-calling, they stir up the unwashed who listen to them. They complain about “big government,” perhaps their biggest lie of all—they love Big Government, as long as it does Big Things they like, like corporate welfare, War(s), tax breaks for mega-corporations, etc.

So, hooray for the voters of New York. Congratulations Mr. Owens.