Pet peeves in the middle of the night

What ever happened to visiting a library or grocery store to meet someone of the opposite sex? Right now there are so many dating sights on the Internet the advertisements overwhelm the average mind. No, I'm not on the dating scene. That's not the issue. It's the torrent of those advertisements and the claims they make that are a real pain in my book/backside. Some sights are brazenly racist while others appeal to a person's faith life or heaven knows what. One of those places goes so far as to speak for God! Hey folks, pay us money and find out who God wants you to be with. Huh? Who made them spokespeople for God? I guess I missed that part in the bible.

Who decides how many pieces or pounds or ounces of a certain product get put into a container?: Six donuts, Ten hot dogs, Eight hot dog buns, (that one really gets me.) Fifteen and a half ounces of peaches in a can, .05 ounces of seeds, and then the ever decreasing size of what once was a three pound can of coffee, now?: 869g, in other words 1lb, 14.6 ounces. Yup! That's how higher prices sneak up on us. Rolls of toilet tissue are made over an inch narrower than only a few short years ago. Truthfully I don't get that one, people are getting heavier with each generation whilst TP is getting smaller.

There is an attack being formed to eliminate cordless microphones and turn the airwaves spectrum over to telephones or TV or radio. I guess it'll be back to those megaphone things. Nah, not really. We will simply return to the days of yards upon yards of lines leading to microphones in churches, auditoriums and the sidelines of football fields. American Idol will have to have those people audition wrapped in wire and the TV news reporters will have thick wires hanging down their back. We did it all before, we'll deal with it again I guess.

The new health care system is a point of contention for a lot of people these days. Something that people have always aspired to get as a part of a good employment package or earn enough to afford is health insurance. Not everyone has health insurance and that is the issue being dealt with politically right now. Realistically what is being done, be it right or wrong is: some health care is being taken away from those that have it and given to those that do not have it. It's such a hot topic not because any of us want anyone to go without health care, it's because we really don't want any of the health care we worked so hard and sacrificed so long to obtain to be taken away. It's not that something shouldn't be done, it's how it's being done by people that aren't being affected by it.

Products being made in China are a source of contention to a huge number of folks that blame our high unemployment figures on imports. Not so long ago Chinese products were called junk and sold in novelty stores. The same with other imports. There was a time when Japanese cars were the laughing stock of the world of transportation. The manufacturers around the world felt no competition or need to be concerned. Today a Japanese car manufacturer sells more cars than any other manufacturer anywhere. And, the loyalty of it's customers is incredible. Thanks to the work and ethical standards of the Japanese they have an excellent standard of living. The Chinese are attempting the same climb to the top. Other countries are making stuff we want for cheap to get the money to make stuff we want that is higher quality than we make here. Is the answer to stop buying from them or is it to make some stuff they want cheap and sell it to them and use the money to make even better stuff and get even more money and everyone winds up happy. Is that possible? Besides, who is left around here that needs to do the manual labor when they are given for free what the people in most Asian countries have to work for? In India they make a new car that will sell for around $2000. Now that is something to think about. At one time the Americans were the innovators.

This pet peeve thing is what goes through a person's mind when he can't sleep I think. During daylight hours there are so many other distractions and input of information that one's innermost thoughts are suppressed to the point of boiling over into the night. That's where I'm at now. Not that any of this stuff is really any more important than anything you can think of. We all have our own perspective and opinions. All equally valid. It's just that at this particular moment everyone else is sleeping and I get a chance to express myself and air out my mind to make room for other stuff. It won't be long and the pressures of the day will take the place of anything as trivial as a pet peeve. Actually it'll be seven minutes from now. That's a whole nother story, er peeve of mine. Later.....Joe

Health care costs/unnecessary

The national news lately has been reporting how some governmental and private organizations have taken to banning smoking on the premises. Not just in the buildings, by the entrance ways or nearby sidewalks, but also the parking lots and associated property. Anywhere. Anyone caught smoking will be given a few warnings but if they continue they will be fired. In some ways this is admirable. In some ways it is an attack on personal rights regarding a practice, disgusting and injurious to one's health as it may be, as yet is completely within the law. Annual health costs related to smoking run around $97 billion. That's a lot of money. It also costs lives at an early age. However, there is another health hazard that is only spoken about nicely and almost ignored so as not to offend someone that has an annual health cost of at the very least, $197 billion.: Obesity! Especially among the folks in this country that live in poverty.

Obesity is a national disaster and is getting worse by the day. Just look around. Why aren't obese people forbidden to eat in those same buildings or on the premises? I'm not trying to be funny here. I take this seriously. Obesity is a national scandal in a country as educated and health conscious as the United States. Smoking is terrible. We used to think it was sort of cool. Cowboys advertised it, athletes advertised it, there were cute mascots that danced and sang the praises of smoking. Doctors recommended certain brands because they were so much healthier than other brands. Then came the revelation that smoking killed. It took some people decades to believe that something so prevalent in our culture was a bad thing. People quit smoking in droves. Not all mind you but literally millions quit and became healthier and, inevitably reduced health care costs and lengthened the life span of the average American. But, smoking remains legal and those that smoke pay a ton of taxes for the privilege. A pack of cigarettes is, by my best guess about 80% taxes.

Obesity on the other hand, kills more people than cigarettes ever did. Most food is available without taxes being added on to help divert the costs back to the offender. And adds double the health costs to the over extended national budget. Some health costs are hidden by calling them by another name: diabetes, degenerative heart disease, high cholesterol, high bloods pressure, heart fibrillation and many other health problems. But, because saying something or forbidding people from overeating may offend someone that is obese, nothing worthwhile is done.

I'm not saying that nothing should be done about smoking. My point is that if rights are taken away regarding a perfectly legal practice re:smoking. Then the rights of another perfectly legal practice re: overeating can also be taken away and because of the costs and damage to health very well should be. That's the point of government taking away our rights in the first place isn't it: Telling us what's best for us and backing it up by punishing us and embarrassing us into submission?

I guess there are various perspectives on these subjects but we may as well be discussing them at one time or another being as how the government is looking at how to lower the health costs that we all must pay now with the new legislation going into effect soon that is supposed to help us all. Of course it is possible that this has already been discussed and the agency may not pay for self induced health issues for either smoking or obesity. But then what about unprotected sex, drug reactions, bee keepers bites, mountain climbers accidents, oh forgive me, I do go on don't I. It'll never be a perfect world will it?

A new day is dawning

Well, here I am back at it with my nose to the old grind stone after a couple days off for minor surgery. Its amazing to me how simple the medical professionals make their jobs look. Calm, steady, confident, knowing most of the time just what to say to quell any anxiety. At least that was my experience. Amazing!

The annual treasure hunt is going very well indeed. As of this writing the elusive medallion remains unretrieved and the treasure still awaiting the winner. Dozens upon dozens of hopeful treasure seekers have faced the elements to look but, so far to no avail. That's part of the game though. If it were easy no one would think twice about it and no one would learn about the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. One of the first winners from over two decades ago stopped by the other day. It was a real pleasure to do a little reminiscing about times gone by. I can remember the day he won like it was yesterday. The cold weather of winter had been warming ever so slowly and the snows were melting into the streams causing them to slightly overflow their banks. The medallion was hidden between two wooden posts on the guardrail of a bridge. Hundred's had been there before him but he took a tire iron and broke away the accumulated icy crust. There it was! He was so excited he could hardly talk. Pictures of the winner were in newspapers all over the country. Tens of thousands of people read about the treasure hunt, the winner, the fun it was to find and the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. I know because I received thousands of letters from people across this nation that had followed the hunt with immense curiosity through all those months. It took me over a month to read them all and send answers. As enjoyable as the treasure hunt was, the most satisfactory part was reading several letters describing how CO poisoning was discovered and injury avoided or stopped. The hunt has served its purpose.

I feel like a new man today. Thanks to some very professional medical folks and the tireless efforts of the treasure hunters. Yeah, its a really good day.

The importance of my vote

I comment on certain political issues from time to time. Mostly because, at least for now in this country I am free to do so without fear of reprisal from the bureaucracy. I am just a small, almost completely insignificant nit in this huge country. In the scope of things, what I think or don't think probably doesn't matter all that much. At the very least though, its kind of cathartic to vent on those issues. I want to vent right now.

Front and center of all the concerns being jammed through the legislature is, of course health reform. Being simply a concerned citizen doesn't carry much weight regarding the whys and wherefores of this very costly program. What I think won't make a tiny bit of difference. I voted to install in office a politician to take care of such matters for me. I see a problem. In my humble opinion the health legislation that is being voted on right now is weak, accomplishes almost nothing except for a small segment of our society, costly enough to bankrupt our economy and take the control of our health care out of our hands and put it in another bureaucratic department.

Personally I've felt for almost all my life that in this great country necessary health care should be available to everyone without concern for losing everything else in our lives. This murky bill doesn't do that. I am not sure exactly what it does, neither are most legislators. Ear marks and pork are running rampant throughout the paperwork. National health care is far more important than forcing a program down our throats that is, for the most party a show of power by one political agenda or the other. More negotiation and research must be done before we commit our decedents tax dollars.

So, I make this statement. I have one vote, one vote only. I do support the idea of a fair and effective national system of health professionals, clinics and hospitals. However, I will never, ever, ever, vote for anyone that has anything, no matter how remotely to do with the passage of this coca-mamy travesty of a bill. I'm done venting now..............................Joe