Month: September 2009

Iowa State plans to salute its opponent

Kansas City Star[*1] :

When Iowa visited Iowa State two weeks ago, the Hawkeyes got the visiting rival treatment from fans — boo! No news there.

What is odd is how Iowa State is asking fans to greet its next visitor.

The school requests a standing ovation for Saturday, which goes against fan nature. Maybe booing isn’t your thing. But showing respect for the opponent taking the field?

Saturday’s guest at Jack Trice Stadium is Army, and nothing could be more appropriate. Same holds true when any of the service academies pay a campus visit.

According to the article, this started at Ohio State when they hosted Navy. I agree with the sentiment of honoring the service of those at the Service Academies, but it wouldn’t be all bad if this was a tradition before all sporting events.

Respect your opponents.

36.3 pounds

Another week, another 7.3 pounds lost. 36 days, 36.3 pounds. 242.7 pounds, according to the fancy-schmancy scale at the weight loss clinic. At this rate, I’m looking at 205 by Halloween–and my actual target weight is 209.

The new shipment of meal replacements

That’s the good news. The bad news is that my body composition analysis done last week was screwed up–the dietician entered my height wrong–6’3″ instead of 6″0.3″. Big oops. That messed up a lot of the numbers and made it look a lot better than it was, causing the nearly miraculous numbers that I had last week. This week, it was back down to Earth a bit.

My real numbers are 242.7 total pounds of which 162.5 was lean muscle mass, 119.1 was water, and 80.2 pounds of fat. The difference of those numbers from the first body composition analysis are: -36.3 pounds total, -14.5 pounds lean muscle, -10.8 pounds of water, and -17.3 pounds of fat. Still really good numbers, but not fantastic. And, I had a bit more muscle loss than the physician assistant I saw today wanted to see, so I get to hit the weights a bit more in the gym. More reps, not more weight, don’t ya know.

At this rate, I just might be within shouting distance of my goal weight by the end of October. I said last week I was shooting for 230 by Halloween–that’s only 12.7 pounds away, now. And I’m over half way to my overall goal of 209–that’s only 33.7 pounds away.

I think I’ll make it, but I’m gonna need a whole closet full of new clothes.

Three Years Ago: J’accuse

On September 23, 2006, I posted:

Bill Clinton says that the Bush Administration “didn’t try”[*1] to get Bin Laden in the eight months prior to the 9//11 attack:

“But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me andsome, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking menow,” Clinton said when asked whether he had failed to fullyanticipate bin Laden’s danger. “They had eight months to try,they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed.”

Sure, Bill. And Gore’s ill-conceived Florida chad fiasco (did you know that not a single actual vote count or recount in Florida in 2000 showed Gore ahead?), the sabotage of the transition from the Clinton to the Bush Administrations, and the general attitude of surly anti-Bushism from the out-of-control CIA and State Departments had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bush Administration’s difficulties taking over anti-terrorism operations from the Clinton Administration.

You know, at some point the finger-pointing has to stop. But it’s obvious that the Democrats generally and Bill Clinton in particular never learned to share in pre-school. If they don’t have control of the ball, they want to make sure no one else has it, either.

You don’t like Bush. We get it. But in your inchoate rage against the current sitting President, your fevered opposition has spilled over our national borders to be eagerly consumed by the likes of Ahmadenijad, Chavez, bin Laden, and the reactionary enemies of freedom and liberty throughout the world.

Does the phrase “aid and comfort to the enemy” ring a bell?

Think about the “comfort” part for a while, in the context of the Iranian President’s and the Venzuelan lunatic’s comfortable anti-Americanism rhetoric in New York this week.

It might have been about Bush at one time. It isn’t any more. You have made George W. Bush the Alfred Dreyfus of our age, guilty mainly of not being a radical leftist. To you, this is treason, and nothing else, not even patriotism, matters.

J’accuse.[*2]

Two Years Ago: The problem with health care

On September 21, 2007, I wrote:

I’ve thought for a while now that one of the biggest problems with health care is the concept of insurance–private or public (Medicare).

John Stossel[*1] :

America’s health-care problem is not that some people lack insurance, it is that 250 million Americans do have it.

You have to understand something right from the start. We Americans got hooked on health insurance because the government did the insurance companies a favor during World War II. Wartime wage controls prohibited cash raises, so employers started giving noncash benefits like health insurance to attract workers. The tax code helped this along by treating employer-based health insurance more favorably than coverage you buy yourself. And state governments have made things worse by mandating coverage many people would never buy for themselves.

That’s the root of our problem. No one wants to pay for his own medical care. “Let the insurance company pay for it.” But since companies pay, they demand a say in what treatments are—and are not—permitted. Who can blame them?

Then who can blame people for feeling frustrated that they aren’t in control of their medical care? Maybe we need to rethink how we pay for less-than-catastrophic illnesses so people can regain control. The system creates perverse incentives for everyone. Government mandates are good at doing things like that.

Steering people to buy lots of health insurance is bad policy. Insurance is a necessary evil. We need it to protect us from the big risks–things most of us can’t afford to pay for, like a serious illness, a major car accident, or a house fire.

But insurance is a lousy way to pay for things. You premiums go not just to pay for medical care, but also for fraud, paperwork, and insurance company employee salaries. This is bad for you, and bad for doctors.

(Emphasis mine)

We need to break ourselves of the habit of paying for routine health care with insurance, and reserve insurance for catastrophic care and for serious chronic conditions.

Four new sections

I’ve neglected the “Sections” area over there on the left side of the screen. But I also had an idea–“those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”

Since this iteration of Medary.com went live on February 21, 2005, a lot as happened. A lot.

So, I’ve decided, as an occasional feature here, to go back into the archives and present some “golden oldies,” posts I’ve made about various things which, in my very, very humble opinion, have stood the test of time.

That’s what the sections One Year Ago, Two Years Ago, Three Years Ago, and Four Years Ago are all about. Now, since I’m just starting this little project, those sections are pretty empty right now. But they’ll fill up, soon enough.

It will be an interesting adventure for me personally, as I’ll be seeing how my thoughts have evolved–or have remained consistent–over these past few years. And i’m taking you along for the ride, too.

I think that all sides of the political spectrum can probably agree that we don’t really want to repeat what has happened in the last four years. So, let’s try to learn together.