Tea Baggers Advert

If I were as smart as Law Professor Ann Althouse I would embed this YouTube Video, rather than linking to her blog.  I am not.

Remember, there is a Tea Party rally tomorrow down by Lowell City Hall.

Regards  —  Cliff

"You're doing a heck of a job..."

Monday's Philadelphia Inquirer had an article on a coming physician deficiet:  "Diagnosis for the doctor deficit".

Then, yesterday, The Wall Street Journal had an article with a map of physicians per 1,000 people, by state.  For the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the number is pretty good.  More than 1.5.

But, looking to the south and west, it is not so good.  Further, in some of those states the population is spread out and thinner, so there is more travel for the person or the physician.  For Massachusetts there are 809.2 people per square mile.  For Idaho there are 15.64 people per square mile.  While Maine has the same number of doctors per 1,000 people, they have only 14.3 people per square mile.

The question we should all be asking ourselves is why this is all of a sudden news?  Why did our Representatives and Senators not recognize and talk about this before they voted for the Health Insurance Reform Bill that President Obama signed?  This should not have been a surprise to those who were at least reasonably well informed.  On the one hand we have been having a bit of a shortage of Primary Care Providers (PCP) for a while now.  My PCP told me that Lowell is below the recommended number.  And this is not just about Democrats.  Where were the Republicans to warn us about this?

The problem is compounded by the fact that we don't all have the same common understanding about health.  Some of us don't understand about how the medical system works and what we should be doing about getting shots and visiting our physician from time to time for a checkup.  Some of us don't understand about taking medicine until the pills are gone, rather than until you start to feel better.  And going to a PCP when something first shows up, rather than going to the Emergency Room when it gets bad.  And, the common wisdom that you can catch things in a hospital, which you might not pick up in your PCP's office.

So, could we have done something about this by legislation?  I would think so.  What about providing education benefits via the US Public Health Service and having graduate Physicians, Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practioners pay back by working in areas where PCPs are in short supply?

Regards  —  Cliff

Virginia and the Past

Marie Sweeney, blogging over at the Dick Howe blog, had a post on Virginia trying to make April Confederate History Month.

I think it is a topic worth more comments, so I commend it to you.  Commenting over there is not dangerous.  I know of no one who has been permanently maimed by posting a comment.

I am not particularly impressed with the idea of "Confederate History Month".  On the other hand, we do need to come to some accommodation with our past—and not the one that existed as the old soldiers of the Union and the Confederacy passed on to their just reward.  In its way it was healing, but it had segregation as its background.  But, how do we understand the Civil War today?  And what do we think of the side that lost the war, but won the peace, twice; first after reconstruction and then again after segregation ended and more and more people moved to the Old South for work and the weather.

Regards  —  Cliff

Climbing

This is just plan fun for some of us and stupid for the rest.  And, most of the talking is in German.  But, talking isn't necessary.

This is about using construction machines to do stunts.

And I can't remember who sent this to me.

Regards  —  Cliff

Driving in Other Places

Recently someone I know from the Internet was sent to the NATO Defense College, in Rome.  He had to go to see a physician and asked an Italian classmate to take him—the friend being an Italian fighter pilot.  They went by motorcycle and it was an interesting experience, which reminded me of a paper that a couple of Brits wrote while living in Naples, "Sex and the Italian Driver."  I mentioned this and a third party found it on line—soon everything will be on line.

This paper, from about 1977, can be found here.

Minus the sketches and with the location shifted from Naples to Rome (and a typo where chasm is spelled spasm) it is the very one. The reason for Chasm is that back in about 1976 the Domitiana, the road Paul walked from Pozzuoli (home of Sophia Loren) to Rome 2000 years ago (and not much improved since), had a deep hole open one day. It was in front of Michangelo's Pizza Parlor, the best pizza place in the world at the time. It seems that water running underground had leached out the earth on its way to the Med and there was a several hundred foot hole that opened in a rain storm. My wife actually came up on a stopped Italian Driver before the hole and whipped around him and saw that there was a hole in the lane toward Naples. When she came back from Naples the road was closed and stayed closed for months. People were diverted and some enterprising folks took it as an opportunity to rob some American wives on these more remote roads, until the police stepped in.

The best part of driving in Naples was "Chicken Corner.   This is where the Domitiana came up the hill out of Naples and carrying traffic from the NATO AFSOUTH Headquarters and turned left to go north to Rome or crested and went down hill to the US Naval Support Activity.  The fourth option was down hill to the right, toward a hotel.  No traffic control devices.  You came up the hill and backed off on the gas, but only a small fraction of a second and then gunned it. An American wife driving a station wagon could be stuck there for several minutes, since everyone else thought they could bluff her and were willing to try.  I know it sounds sexist, but remember, it is all about one's manhood, or at least it was in the day—before they put in traffic control devices and made it a wretched intersection.  On the other hand, I don't think anyone ever bluffed out my wife when she was driving the Morgan Plus 4.

Regards  —  Cliff

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

With the end of the cold war, some 20 years ago, retired Army Colonel and strategic thinker Harry Summers♠ wrote an OpEd somewhere that struck me as putting forward the proposition that with the abolition of nuclear weapons the world would once again be safe for conventional warfare.

With the the signing of the latest US-Russian agreement on nuclear weapons, and President Obama's recent statement of US Policy toward nuclear use, we may be moving toward making the world safe for conventional warfare.

Now comes retired Army artillery officer and current Methodist Minister with a reminder of what the abolition of nuclear weapons might mean.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Author of On Strategy.

Spelling Test

The last post was based upon an EMail from my youngest son.  This post is based upon an EMail from my middle brother, Lance.  Lance knows that I am a terrible speller and that I am involved in my local Tea Party.  He disapproves of both, so he enjoyed sending me a URL that points out that (some) Tea Party members are terrible spellers.

I guess I am right at home in the Tea Party, given my spelling skills.

And thank God for spell checkers.

Regards  —  Cliff