Symphony Night

Wow, lucky me. I had the honor and privilege of escorting these three beauties to the Utah Symphony Friday last. My wife Joyce, young Emily Asplund and her mother Sarah Asplund. It was one of the best concerts we have been too in quite a while. A young violinist was the soloist, Neil Hagen, a sophomore at East High School and he played magnificently. The second half was Elgar's 2nd Symphony. Beautifully done. A great evening.

Card of the Week

It wasn't hard to decide to choose Jim Bunning as card of the week. He did all he could to try and slow down the ObaminationCare last week. He is finishing his last term as a Senator from Kentucky. I remember watching him pitch for the Detroit Tigers on TV. His name had a cool ring to my ears--Bunning, Bunning. Sounds like something you do to cinnamon rolls or something. Never a pitcher in the class of a Koufax or Gibson, but a fierce competitor he took some of the same attributes into politics, at least for a while. He pitched a no hitter in 1958 against the Boston Red Sox. He pitched a perfect game in 1964 for the Phillies. That was the year it looked like the Phils had the pennant sewn up but they couldn't hold on. Gene Mauch pitched Bunning way to much and the big guy tired out as the Phillies bats cooled down the stretch. Senator Bunning was elected to the Hall of Fame after a 17 year Major League Career. He says he doesn't want to run another campaign ostensibly because of the difficulty in raising campaign funds.

Obamacare is to Redistribute Wealth According to Sen. Baucus

Senator Max Baucus declared today that the main reason we want and need Obamacare is for the redistribution of wealth. Listen to James Lileks comment here. You can see the Senator Baucus on YouTube admitting this right here. Who knew?

The Constitution Amended

Michael Ramirez has this right. Kudos to Powerline for this. With the government casting it's shadow over the auto industry, health care, the insurance industry, the banking industry, the investment industry, well We the People is lost.

Insurance premiums will stay stable, until Jan 1, 2011 when the typical insurance company will be forced to raise their rates significantly because of ratio requirements required of them by this legislation. The government will scream and howl at the dirty rotten insurance companies and demand a government takeover. Some people involved in the industry give them 3 years or so to be able to remain in business, then you will have a public option as the only thing available. Think Big Government Insurance. It is interesting with all this politicizing that the timing of almost all the effects of the health care bill coincided quite nicely with election dates so the Democrat Party will hopefully not feel the wrath of the people when they finally realize what has happened. As one man said today, who has been without insurance, "It's Christmas" Doing the math, if 31 million are without insurance, buying a policy that costs 1000 a month or 12, 000 a year would equal about 370 billion dollars. A lot less than the price tag quoted by the Administration.

Folks, I have been watching these people work since I started reading the paper in 1964 when I was 9 years old. If you think this is going to be a roughly $900 billion dollar program you are absolutely nuts. The funny part is we have no where near the personnel in health care to deal with this, and you will see many health care practitioners either leave the profession or cut back markedly, or, and I think this is a real possibility, start private pay clinics where the level and type of diagnosis and treatment will continue to approach the levels we expect today. This was not about health care. None of the programs from the New Deal through the Great Society to this Monstrosity were about taking care of people, they were about controlling people and their lives, forcing them to become minions of the State, losing their self respect and capacity to care for others. More on Health Care and Human Nature later this week.

Black Sunday

It could be that this date, 21 March 2010 will be looked back upon as one of the darkest days in our history, especially as it relates to personal liberty as Americans. The well meaning people who look at this as a health care issue are extremely naive. My personal feeling is there is seldom if ever anything good when the government bureaucracies become involved in people's lives. We all know there are some who need assistance, some for their entire life. That is not what we are talking about here. What we are talking about is letting the camel's nose into the tent and that means the entire camel will come in. The camel always leaves a mess, usually in a large, odiferous pile.

In ten year's time if this comes to fruition we will think that health care is cheap right now compared to what it is going to cost us then. My simple mind tells me that if this plan is so great then why with all the majority power that the current Administration holds in all branches of government did it take all the Chicago style back room hanky panky? Why was it so difficult to pass? Why was it so complicated? Why could they not address some of the issues that cause the most problems, ie, pre-existing conditions, portability of coverage, etc? Why was this so hard and why did it take so much effort if it is such a great idea? Why are so many against it?

There is a great divide, philosophically in our land and I for one am wondering if there are still any Americans out there, especially in Congress. I know that we have a President who is historical in so many ways, not just his "race", but in my mind he is the first President ever to occupy the White House who is not culturally an American. Does the Constitution begin to hang from an ever thinner thread? This from the Corner is apropos.

Baseball Card of the Week

Don Mossi was a reliever for almost his entire major league career. His stats were not spectacular. As a boy what impressed me about his baseball card was firstly his last name, Mossi. I wondered if he had moss on him somewhere. There other characteristic which cannot be ignored were his ears. Don had really big ears and if you examine the three cards on display today you will notice that it did not matter what year you are looking at his ears are plenty big. I wonder if he was susceptible to earaches on those chilly, windy early Spring days. I don't know if he ever grew into those, but being someone who was sort of teased for having big ears most of my youth I can sympathize with him. You can read about his career here.

Daniel Boone has left Us.

You open up the paper and you see stuff that takes you back to when you were young. Fess Parker who I watched as Daniel Boone died at age 85. Married 50 years to his wife who is 84 I remember him as a good man who played an admirable character. He also played the role of Davy Crockett on some Disney productions. His Indian friend Mingo, played by Ed Ames were quite a twosome. You can go to this YouTube and watch him show Johnny Carson how to through a tomahawk.

Does the President Have the Foggiest Idea What He Is Doing?

I am listening to President Obama on CNBC. I am waiting to get the oil changed on my car. He is quite a campaigner. He says that this weekend we are about to do something historic. Historic is right. Everyone is aware that there are problems with HealthCare. Is it the doctors? Is it the hospitals? Is it the Insurance Companies? Is it the Government? Well, there are many problems to deal with. The doctors who are for the bill seemed to be political policy makers more than they are healers. They don't seem to understand what is going to hit them. There are not enough doctors. The training of doctors and nurses needs to be increased significantly. This needs to be done now.

He is preaching right now like he is in an evangelical revival tent. As I watch this I wonder if there are any more Americans left. I am not sure anyone who looks at this bill can relate to any of the basic principles of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--things that were so important to the Founding Fathers. I hope I am wrong but having seem so many incursions of the Federal Government into so many programs, and seeing these programs always going into bankruptcy. What he is selling is snake oil, no limits of care, no personal responsibility, all kinds of "security". Small businesses evidently will have the opportunity to have the same coverage as members of Congress have. Do you believe in miracles?

Everything he is saying is smoke and mirrors, tax credits, decrease in premiums, costs of hundreds of billions, etc. Who is going to pay for it? He hasn't really figured that out. He is talking about getting rid of waste, something that Government has never and will never figure out. I can do basic math pretty well, and this just doesn't add up. They are making sure it is paid for, but with what? It can only be a massive confiscation of personal assets and wealth over time from a minority of Americans and distributing it to the AmeriSocialists.

As he goes on with his cost cutting proposals he sounds even more and more hollow. For someone like me who has lived through the Great Society, the Stagflation, the beginning of MediCare and MedicAid, well I have heard all this kind of stuff all the time and it has never ever done what it is suppose to do.

To Healthcare or Not To Healthcare.....

The pressure's on now. The Slaughter Solution, something that looks to anyone with a brain at all as an Unconstitutional approach to the question is sitting out there like the fat girl at the dance. Everybody knows it would be politically nice to ask her to dance, but they know the results could be bad. Here is a sign, extremely apropos and timely. Way to go San Diego. My personal opinion is the Healthcare bill does not address the basic issues of health care reform. It definitely does not address the major concerns of cost and health care delivery. We do not have enough doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff and the like, but we probably do have plenty of administrators. If this gets rammed through like a brutal form of artificial insemination we need to ramp up quickly the number of physicians being trained in medical schools and residencies. It just isn't going to work in the short term unless that question is addressed, and I mean now.

Obama Akbar

This cartoon by Michael Ramirez may say it all. Thanks to Powerline for the heads up on this one.

Card of the Week

This past week Willie Davis was found dead in his home. Willie was an outfielder for the LA Dodgers, and he was fast. In Chavez Ravine an outfielder needed to be fast especially in centerfield. Willie never was a player that could be considered "an all time great" but he played on some great teams with some amazing ballplayers and you can read more about him here.

One of his noted claims to fame was something he did in the minors. It was said he tagged on a fly ball from second base and went all the way home to score. Either that is really fast or the outfielder had a terrible arm. He never was a great hitter but was good for a hit about a fourth of the time. With his speed he was never a base stealer like his teammate Maury Wills but he could stretch a single into a double or a double into a triple which could mean another run which was a big deal because the Dodgers didn't score a lot of runs-the figured Koufax and Drysdale would just pitch shutouts.

Koufax and Drysdale appreciated him for his speed in the outfield but he was also the kind of guy that could make errors-like dropping the ball on a fly and then making another error on the throw in. That is tough to do but also kind of remarkable. So Willie Davis is the card of the week because another old ballplayer has passed on as we lose more of those guys who played when baseball was king.

Is This Hell?

I find myself in a room in the Excalibur Hotel on The Strip. I have been through Vegas but never "been" to Vegas. After checking in I thought I would take a stroll. The Excalibur, The Luxor and The Mandalay Bay are connected with a "mall-ish" walkway. My first reaction was the nauseating fumes of the casino areas. There is something to second hand smoke but I do not really know if it causes pathology. I observed some of the people on the slot machines. Of course there are different denominations, penny, two penny, nickle, dime, etc. Many of them were hunched over pushing a little button with their index finger. Some had a "thumb" technique. There eyes and head barely moving as they watched the display, time after time waiting to hear the bells ring.

Walking around many people had a glazed look in their eye, even at the early hour of 8 PM. Must have been the Margaritas or something, I watched a group of youngish looking women, in black clingy dresses, very short appearing to end just below the gluteal fold, with the northern reaches of their dresses extending quite south of their Adam's apple. In fact it looked like they were looking to eat the apple somewhere. And noise, man the noise was thick. Every little shop in the walkway was blaring garish music that seemed to want to hypnotize you into entering and seeing what in the world was going on in there.

There are no deals here either. I remember people talking about how cheap the food was because they would just make it back in the casinos. Not any more. Everything is Uptown now, upscale. There are no geriatric feeding buffets for $4.99 here, no everything is in the high class eating range.

I am here for a seminar on implants, dental implants that is, but there sure are a number who have had other various types I'll tell you that. Plenty of silicone and saline wandering around here. In the Field of Dreams the young Archie Graham asks, "Is this heaven?" The answer was no, it was Iowa. This place certainly isn't heaven, nor Iowa, it must be Hell. More to come on my first walk down the Strip.

Grilling in the Cold

The wife said she hadn't thought of anything for dinner today. So I thought it might be nice to get the grill cranked up and do something while she was still at Church. So, I grabbed some frozen chicken breasts, thawed them out in hot water, wet them down good in Worcestershire sauce with some poultry seasoning, minced garlic and white pepper. It is a quick way to season because I didn't have much time. I mixed up the oat bran muffins with blueberries, whipped up a tossed green salad and threw some spuds in the oven to bake. Voila! The wife walks in, dinner is ready, she's happy, I'm happy. Easy as pie.

Here you can see the little darlin's on the grill. I love my grill. It is big, it runs on natural gas plumbed out to the patio so I do not have to make propane runs. It works out great. Oh, it was pretty chilly down in the 30's but it is seldom too cold to fire of the grill.

The Steamrolling State

O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. Of course free and brave are relative terms. Some consider it brave to forsake the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence and the framework of the Constitution. These people do not think there is any relevance in the anachronistic musings of the Founders. In fact, they believe that their perspective has no place in modern society and their words should be carefully molded into whatever meets the exigencies for the day.

Ezra Taft Benson who served as Agriculture Secretary under President Eisenhower and in the hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints literally foretold and he clearly saw the disintegration of the wonderful principles of the Founders; seeing our country degenerate into a Statist bureaucracy that consumed the life and freedom from all Americans--except those who thrived in the bureaucracy. Bureaucrats loved it in the Soviet Union and they love it here. After many years encased in the bowels of the buildings in the Federal Government they are so deep in the forest they cannot see any trees.

Today, Mark Steyn posted this insightful column and yesterday added this ditty in the Corner. We are thinking that the health care issue has to do with health, the delivering of health care, the good of the People and so on. I am convinced that it does not have much to do with that at all. In fact as I examine the proposals and try and understand the complexities that are being thrown into the Health Care System, I am convinced that there is nothing good that will come from this.

As one who provides a form of health care, I find the people that have the best oral health are those that take care of themselves. The rest of the body has chance of degenerating, developing disease and so on, but it seems like those they take care of themselves seem to have less chance of these kinds of things happening. They are free to be agents unto themselves. If disease develops the current system seems to do pretty well. If 31,000,000 do not have "insurance" (which is an absolute misnomer, the insurance doesn't really insure anything) then 10% of the population need some assistance and it does not make any sense to me to destroy the 90% to improve things for the 10%. I think Mark Steyn has it analyzed correctly and lawmakers should read and understand his points of view.

Spring Snow

It snowed yesterday. These kinds of storms in March hardly ever last long. In fact, the snow will probably all be melted by tomorrow. It sure plays havoc with the golf game, which is a negative. But, and this is the important part, it makes it impossible to get out and do any yard work for the weekend. It will just be too wet. Less than 3 weeks to the equinox and Daylight Savings Time starts in about a week. Hooray! I love the extra sun in the afternoon. Who cares if it is darker in the morning for a little while. We can live through that.

Card of the Week

The Cash Man. That's what I thought this guy was, rich because his name was Cash. I never was much of a Tiger's fan as a young guy. But Cash, along with Kaline and Lolich were some names that I admired. Norm Cash did some rather amazing things. He led the American League in batting in '61 with a .361 average. In 1960 he played the entire season and did not ground into any double plays. That is pretty remarkable considering he batted in the "meaty" part of the batting order. In 1968 the Tigers beat the Cardinals in the World Series. Cash hit .385 in the Series with one home run. He played with the Tigers until 1974 when he was released by the Tigers after hitting .228.

A few years later he played in the American Professional Slow Pitch Softball League if you can believe it. His team the Detroit Caesars won the league title both years. Sounds like a pizza team doesn't it. Norm Cash drowned after he slipped on a boat in northern Lake Michigan, hit his head and fell into the water. When Norm Cash came to the plate anything could happen. He hit four home runs out of Tiger Stadium, becoming the first man to ever do so on June 11,1961.

Abs of Mush

Is it really possible to get a firm, strong waistline? Man, we did some gut exercise at the gym this morning and they were killers. You lay on your back, stick your legs up straight and your partner throws them in different directions. You let your legs go for a bit and then try and keep them from hitting the ground. Not for the weakhearted, that's for sure.

Shopping Cart Syndrome

One wonders what is going on out there? It is not a pretty sight in the financial markets and the business sector. Who is going to take care of things? Is it something we expect government to do or does it come back to being an individual quest for most people? I don’t know. The other evening I was at a retail big box store with my wife. I noticed something. I have noticed it before and I call it the “Shopping Cart Syndrome”.

People just leave their shopping carts sitting in the parking spaces and expect somebody else to take care of it for them. I don’t understand that. Do these people have the capacity to perform basic personal hygiene tasks? I don’t know. How tough is it to walk 30 or 40 feet and put a shopping cart where it should go? I do it all the time.

Maybe this is a reflection of our society as a whole. Most people take care of their shopping carts but enough people don’t that it creates a problem, they are in the way and it is kind of a hassle to clean them all up.

It seems to me that this syndrome is kind of like the economic mess. People expect everybody else to take care of their incapacity to handle a mortgage, or a loan. The vast majority of people are taking care of their financial carts, but a small minority have abandoned their carts for someone else to deal with. This is more than a hassle though, it is going to be one of the identifying periods of time of the 21^st century. I sure hope we can get all the carts rounded up and put where they should be and get the world back to a small semblance of predictability.