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A History Lesson!

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:14:04 GMT

Who was the first President? I'm sure that George Washington was your guess. After all, no one else comes to mind. But think back to your history books - the United States declared its independence in 1776, yet Washington did not take office until April 30, 1789. So who was running the country during those initial years of this young country? It was the first eight U. S. Presidents! In fact, the first President of the United States was one John Hanson. I can hear you now, John who? John Hanson, the first President of the United States. Don't go checking the encyclopedia for this guy's name - he is one of those great men that are lost to history. If you're extremely lucky, you may actually find a brief mention of his name. The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781, with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation. This document was actually proposed on June11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777.Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land). Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country. John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress. As the first President, Hanson had quite big shoes to fill. No one had ever been President and the role was poorly defined. His actions in office would set precedent for all future Presidents. He took office just as the Revolutionary War ended. Almost immediately, the troops demanded to be paid. As would be expected after any long war, there were no funds to meet the salaries. As a result, the soldiers threatened to overthrow the new government and put Washington on the throne as a monarch. All the members of Congress ran for their lives, leaving Hanson as the only guy left running the government. He somehow managed to calm the troops down and hold the country together. If he had failed, the government would have fallen almost immediately and everyone would have been bowing to King Washington.Hanson, as President, ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags. This was quite the feat, considering the fact that so many European countries had a stake in the United States since the days following Columbus. Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States, which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents. President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today. The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished quite a bit in such little time. Seven other presidents were elected after him: Elias Boudinot (1782-83), Thomas Mifflin (1783-84), Richard Henry Lee (1784-85), John Hancock (1785-86), Nathan Gorman (1786-87), Arthur St. Clair (1787-88), Cyrus Griffin (1788-89), all prior to Washington taking office. So what happened? Why don’t we hear about the first eight presidents? It's quite simple – The Articles of Confederation didn't work well. The individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon. A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know now as the Constitution. And that leads us to the end of our story. George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United States. He was the first President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today. The first eight Presidents are forgotten in history.

MR. TEE VS. RANGER WALKER

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:14:58 GMT

Ranger Walker Facts...!

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

The chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain.

There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only another fist.

Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.

The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart Disease 2. Chuck Norris 3. Cancer

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.

Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.

Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a Delta Force marathon on Satellite TV.

Chuck is so damned hard, kids roller skate on him. (Tracy)

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Mr. T. Facts...!

Every time a church bell rings, Mr. T pities a fool.

Mr. T hates playing 'Rock Paper Scissors' because he doesn't believe anything could beat rock. He always chooses rock, and when someone throws paper, he says,"I win." If someone is foolish enough to dispute this, he takes his clenched fist and punches them in the face, then says, "I thought your paper would protect you fool."

When Mr. T folds his arms, the U.S. Terror Alert Level is raised to gold.

The last man who made eye contact with Mr. T was Ray Charles.

Mr. T speaks only when necessary. His main form of communication is folding his arms and slowly shaking his head. And regardless of the situation, he is always understood.

Mr. T doesn't pity anyone who likes the Black Eyed Peas. He just kills them.

Children are afraid of the dark. Dark is afraid of Mr. T.

Mr. T and Chuck Norris decided to spar, they traveled to the only safe place in the Universe, the beginning of time. They bowed to each other and Chuck launched in with a roundhouse kick. Mr. T blocked it, and the resulting pressure wave is commonly called the Big Bang.

Mr. T once punched Chuck Norris at the exact moment he roundhouse kicked Mr. T in the chest. The result was the 80's.

Mr. T doesn't breathe, air just hides in his lungs for protection.

Mr. T's chains are not made of gold, they are actually made of curium, one of the heaviest elements in existence. They were put there by the CIA to slow him down, and you're lucky they do, fool.

Human females have two X-chromosomes. Males have an X and a Y. Mr. T has three Ys and a T. He's more man than you'll ever be.

5 out of 5 doctors recommend not pissing off Mr. T.

When creating the alphabet, Mr. T placed the letters M, R, and T in separate areas so people could learn to read and spell without fear.

Mr. T is the reason the sky is blue. Don't ask stupid questions.

Mr. T once ate four 72-oz. steaks in 12 minutes. He spent the first 5 minutes laughing at the fact it takes Chuck Norris fifteen minutes to eat three.

Mr. T once captured Bigfoot, but released him after he shaved the beast and realized that it was just Chuck Norris walking around naked in the woods.

Mr. T invented fools. Realizing the magnitude of his folly, he then created Pity.

23. That's the number of fools Mr. T has pitied in the time it has taken you to read this sentence.

When Mr. T received his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, he made his hand prints after the cement was dry.

Mr. T is not black. It's just that the sun is to afraid to shine on him.

On the A-team, Face, Hannibal, and Murdoch were all masters of disguise. Mr. T didn't have to wear a disguise. The bad guys didn't recognize him out of fear.

Mr. T always drives on the right side of the road, no matter where he is in the world.

Mr. T coined the phrase, "I see dead people," after the waiting staff at Denny's forgot his birthday.

There are only four horsemen of the apocalypse, because Mr. T is going to walk.

Mr. T. does not break wind. He destroys it.

Mr. T does not actually pity fools. He is just being sarcastic. No one has noticed because it is difficult to pick up such subtleties while being bludgeoned.

Gravity doesn’t exist. Mr. T just pities everything to stay down. Birds and planes are exempt because they are shaped like Ts.

Mr. T was once involved in a head-on car crash, and he was the only survivor. Mr. T was walking at the time.

Mr. T once traveled back in time in a telephone booth similar to the one in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and killed every Jester and Joker in every King's court, because he pitied those fools.

Mr. T's Mohawk is so scared of Mr. T that it started running to his beard for help.

Mr. T's feather earrings are actually feathers from a foolish bird that he pitied.

When Mr. T poops, the earth quakes. (Tracy)

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Please play-along by adding your own as I did.

MR. T PITIES THE FOOL WHO DON'T PLAY-ALONG....HA!

GET A MAN....

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:01:52 GMT

A brand new store has just opened in New York City that sells Husbands.
When women go to choose a husband, they have to follow the instructions at the entrance:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE!

There are 6 floors and the value of the products increase as you ascend the flights.

You may choose any item from a particular floor,

or may choose to go up to the next floor,

but you CANNOT go back down except to exit the building.

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband.

The 1st floor sign on the door reads:
Floor 1: These men have jobs.

The 2nd floor sign reads:
Floor 2: These men have Jobs and Love Kids.

The 3rd floor sign reads:
Floor 3: These men have Jobs, Love Kids and are extremely good looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the 4th floor and the sign reads:
Floor 4: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and help with Housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the 5th floor and sign reads:
Floor 5: These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, help with Housework and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the 6th floor and the sign reads:

Floor 6: You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor.
There are no men on this floor.
This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.

Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

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To avoid gender bias charges, the store’s owner opens a New Wives store just across the street.
The 1st first floor has wives that love sex.
The 2nd floor has wives that love sex and have money.

The 3rd,4th, 5th and 6th floors have never been visited

YANKEE OR REBEL?

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:35:57 GMT

A short quiz, I scored 57%. I'm a heinz 57, sorta kinda.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/yankee_dixie_quiz.html

CAUGHT WITH HIS PANTS DOWN....

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:32:55 GMT

Thanks Dave Shuck for this linkie!

Hearing Impaired Man Tased by Police
Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

"I ain't never been so scared," says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn't real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

"I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can't hear! I can't hear!"

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That's when they shot him with a Taser.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee of the Wichita Police Department says, "This one occurred on the worst of calls, that being a shooting. The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important."

Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams. Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited.

"Do I wish there would have been some way they were notified in advance this gentleman was hearing impaired? I certainly do. No one is happy with the way it worked out," says Lee.

Williams was not hurt in the incident. Police say the shooting call came from a cell phone but they still don't know who made it or why.

The case is being reviewed by the department.

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This guy needs a dog!!!! ~Tracy

The Good Old Days Remembered

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:02:09 GMT

THE YEAR 1907

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907 :

The average life expectancy in the U.S. Was 47 years old.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S Had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in the U.S. Was 22 Cents per hour.
The average U.S. Worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A dentist made $2,500 per year,
A veterinarian $1,500 per year,
And a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all U.S. Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which
were condemned in the press AND the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month, using borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and
Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 U.S. Adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind
regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian o f health."
There were about 230 reported Murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

Just Try to imagine....What it may be like....In another 100 years!
IT STAGGERS THE MIND!

BAH....HUMBUG!

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:38:30 GMT

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!!
Just copy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail
that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.
Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the
person that sent it to you... 'Tis the Season to be NICE!
*************************************************************************
1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Both, but mainly wrapping paper. Sometimes brown paper sack.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial.

3. When do you put up your tree? The weekend following Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take down your tree? After New Year’s Day.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? When we lived in Cape Girardeau, MO., an adopted mutt from the pound. Named him Baron. I didn’t think he was ready to be a doggy-angel yet.
7.Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, my Mother made a set for me, and a set for my Brother.

8. Hardest person to buy for?Dad.^{9. Easiest person to buy for?}Grandaughter.

10. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received?There are no bad presents. Sums better an others.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?Mail.

12. Favorite Christmas movie?A Christmas Story (You’ll shoot your eye out kid!)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?The wife tells me when I’ve started and when I’m done.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?NO

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?Snickerdoodle cookies, year round when I find them.

16. White or colored lights?Indoors white, outdoors colors.

17. Favorite Christmas song?Father Christmas, The Kinks

18. Traveling for Christmas or stay home?Home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?Nope. 7 Dwarves either.

20. Angel or Star on top of tree?Don’t know. I’d hafta call home and ask the wife.

21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning?Both.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?Consumerism and greed while people starve.

23. What I love most about Christmas? Jesus real message.
24. Do you like fruitcake? Just the thought makes me nauseated.
Okay, now your turn. Ready, set, copy!

~Tracy

International Dating Tips

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:29:49 GMT

WHITE WOMEN
First date: You get to kiss her goodnight.
Second date: You get to grope all over and make out.
Third date: You get to have sex but only in the missionary position using your elbows.
GREEK WOMEN
First date: You get to kiss her mother and father goodnight on both cheeks while she watches.
Second date: You get to kiss her mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, uncles, aunts and assorted first and second cousins goodnight.
Third date: You get to kiss the entire extended family goodnight and go home with a plate of freshly baked Spanakopita, a half litre tub of tzatziki and a tray of homemade baklava. You go home and have sex with your English neighbor’s daughter.
IRISH WOMEN
First Date: You both get blind drunk and have sex.
Second Date: You both get blind drunk and have sex.
20th Anniversary: You both get blind drunk and have sex.
ITALIAN WOMEN
First Date: You take her to a play and an expensive restaurant.
Second Date: You meet her parents and her Mom makes spaghetti & meatballs.
Third Date: You have sex. She wants to marry you & insists on a 3-carat ring.
5th Anniversary: You already have 5 kids together & hate the thought of having sex.
6th Anniversary: You find yourself a girlfriend.
JEWISH WOMEN
First Date: You get dynamite head.
Second Date: You get more great head.
Third Date: You tell her you'll marry her and never get head again.
CHINESE WOMEN
First date: You get to buy her an expensive dinner but nothing happens.
Second date: You buy her an even more expensive dinner and again nothing happens.
Third date: You don't even get to the third date and you've already realized.... nothing is going to happen.
INDIAN WOMEN
First date: Meet her parents.
Second date: Set the date of the wedding.
Third date: Wedding night.
BLACK WOMEN
First Date: You get to buy her a real expensive dinner.
Second Date: You get to buy her and her girlfriends a real
expensive dinner.
Third Date: You get to pay her rent.
Tenth Date: She's pregnant by someone other than you.
MEXICAN WOMEN
First Date: You buy her an expensive dinner, get drunk on Tequila, and have sex in the back of her car.
Second Date: She's pregnant.
Third Date: She moves in. One week later: her mother, father, his girlfriend, her two sisters, her brother, all of their kids, her grandma, her father's girlfriend's mother, her two cousins, her sister's boyfriend and his three kids move in and you live on rice and beans for the rest of your life in your home that used to be nice, but now looks like a home along the Rio Grande.

The point of the story is ??:
DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IRISH WOMEN?!!

Doing the Lord's work....

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:43:05 GMT

Just thought this might be interesting.
Doug Phillips is my oldest cousin & is an optometrist in College Station Texas. This is about his trip to Guatemala as a volunteer to provide free optometry service to people where there are no optometrists.
~Tracy~

Hola everyone,

It´s Friday, and we´ve finished our workweek, so we´re waiting in Quetzaltenango to take a shuttle to Panajachal for the weekend. Pana is a small town on Lago Atitlan that´s supposed to be beautiful. It has to be an improvement over Quetzaltenango. We started last weekend in Antigua which is a really nice colonial town full of expats and other interesting people and beautiful architechture. We really enjoyed Antigua. That was definitely an anomoly, though. As soon as we left Antigua for Quetzaltenango (Xela) we descended quickly into the depths of the third world. The 200 km drive took 6 hours, with much of that time spend stopped along the road in long lines waiting for contruction to clear so we could proceed. You absolutely can´t imagine what it´s like. It´s absolute chaos that greatly resembles a bumper car ride at a carnival when they finally reopen the road and everyone jockeys for position. The worst are the "chicken buses" that carry masses of people who pack in in unbelieveable numbers and hang off the sides. The drivers are complete maniacs with no regard for safety or common courtesy. It's all out road rage on a massive scale, and everyone just accepts this as the norm. We gringos, of course, were terrified. The main "highway" is being completely rebuilt courtesy of CAFTA and the US taxpayers. Believe me, it has a long way to go. After finally making it to Xela we checked into our hotel (mediocre) and crashed from exhaustion. I tried to make contact with the people we´re working with here, but unsuccessfully. Finally about 10 PM she called and we got our instructions for pickup the next day.

Monday and Tuesday were spent at the clinic in Camanchaj which is about a 2 to 2 and a half hour drive over that same horrible road. We had to leave at 6:30 AM.. The clinic is quite primative as you might expect. The "eye clinic" consists of nothing but a wall chart and a bunch of donated glasses strewn about in bags and boxes with absolutely no order. They do have an autorefractor, and I brought other hand instruments with us as well as a donated biomicroscope, so at least we had a few rudimentary things to work with. The first patient was an elderly cataract post op patient, and there wasn´t much I could do for him. The second was a retarded lady with a baby on her back. Again, it was a fruitless effort. We saw about 25 people that day, and after the first two the patients were much better. These are Mayan people who dress in traditional garb and generally don´t speak Spanish. They speak a Mayan dialect called K´itche'. This greatly complicated things by adding another translater to the mix. You can imagine how time consuming that was. Anyway, we survived the day only to face another 2 hour ride back to Xela. Tuesday we did the same thing all over again, but the patients were brought in from a women's cooperative in Panajachal. These were generally much easier to deal with even though they were universally illiterate and spoke only K'itche'. These ladies are all so colorfully dressed in handmade clothes of their own design and handiwork, and you can´t believe how small they are. Many are not more than 4'6" and probably don´t weigh over 80 lbs. They all do sewing and weaving all day and cook over open wood fires indoors, so they all have dry eye symptoms, and most have growths over their corneas called pterygia that are caused by environmental factors and excessive UV exposure. The altitude here is 8000 ft. Anyway, we enjoyed Tuesday much more than the day before, and we found the " lake ladies" to be absolutely charming. They´re so appreciative and give out hugs and kisses generously.

Wednesday and Thursday we worked at the urban clinic in Xela. It´s only a short drive, so we could sleep later and have breakfast before starting work. This clinic is no better organized than Camanchaj. I forgot to mention that we had to pack up all the equipment and take it with us from Camanchaj to Xela. It was more of the same, except in Xela there are more Spanish speakers as well as an occassional literate patient. We still saw 25 to 30 people a day, but it wasn´t nearly so tiring, as we didn´t have to make that arduous drive twice a day. Yesterday we saw a "lake lady" who was 36 years old. She was very shy and sad looking. I couldn´t believe how nearsighted she was, and when we found some glasses close to what she needed she was overwhelmed. I think we all choked up over that. It nice to know we were able to make such a difference for at least one person. It should be a life changer for her. We also saw a beautiful little 6 year old girl who contracted a neonatal infection and lost her right eye. She needs a very strong lens prescription for her left eye, but I believe we can help her. We´re going to make her a pair of glasses back home and send them to her.

We´re currently killing time in Xela waiting to go to Panajachal. We´re looking forward to getting out of Xela for the weekend. A young woman from Australia who works with the "lake ladies" is going to show us around and take us to the coop. We may or may not go to the market at Chichicastenango on Sunday. It´s very touristy and quite crowded we understand, so we may pass on that.

We had Thanksgiving dinner last night at a tapas restaurant. Sure missed the turkey and dressing. In general, though, the food has been OK., and we´ve managed to stay healthy. Knock on wood, no tourista so far.

I´ll write again if we get a chance. During the week, though, we´re so busy and so tired we´re not up to going out to the internet cafe. Also, it´s not especially safe for gringos to wander around Xela after dark.

Wishin you all a belated Happy Thanksgiving.

Doug and Susan

NEW CATEGORY....THE 'FORWARD' FILE

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:10:47 GMT

As ya'll know, I'm more interested in hosting a forum for social discussion than promoting any viewpoint. As such, I'm always more interested in the goodies that get forwarded to me. Of course, I don't paste each and every one. Some are just not mediocre enough, HA! Anyway....this'll kick of the new category, a forward from an Okie relative. He's way better than mediocre, IMHO, but you know, loving tolerance.

Gotta tolerate folks with book learnin' too...HA! ~Tracy

Health Care Cost Comparisons

By Jim Woodward

Comparisons - 1965 to 2000 approximate values

Item 1965 2000 Increase

Gross Domestic Product $719.2 billion $9817.0 billion 13.6 times

Per Capita Income $2,868 $29,797 10.4 times

Median Home Price $12,000 $119.600 9.9 times

Cost of Gasoline $.30 p/gal $3.00 p/gal (2006) 10 times

Health Care Costs $5.1 billion $1,199.8 trillion 235.3 times

Est. Life Expectancy 70.0 years 77.3 years 1.1 times

It appears that most items have maintained parity with the exception of health care costs. Health care costs are approaching almost 12% of GDP. This imbalance is probably due to the entrance of personal & group health insurance plans, Medicare, Medicaid, and other similar forms of government and private subsidies for health care. It is probably a good thing for the actuaries at Social Security that life expectancy does not correlate with the amount spent on health care costs. If we develop a “government controlled“health-care system,” we will probably be spending three or four times that amount now spent on health care. I don’t think that will be feasible or fiscally sound (for your household budget) unless the government raises taxes on EVERYONE. Then the government can focus its attention to taxing ALL Social Security benefits rather than just half the monthly benefits paid to beneficiaries. If this health-care institution is created, then someone is going to have to feed it!

Two Solutions:

(1) Nationalize or socialize all forms of health care and let government bureaucrats and their clerical staffs (non-medically trained staffs) determine when, where, and how much medical care you get; or,

(2) Have health care providers operate in the free market system and allow competition to work based on the economic principles of price and demand and supply and demand.

More and more people are losing their health insurance because of rising costs, which I feel, is directly related to insurance and government subsidies which tend to raise health care costs. These subsidies provide no incentive for health care providers to contain their costs regardless of their objectives. Managed care does not work and only promotes the continuous climb in health care costs and the increase in the number of uninsured persons. If health care providers cannot make it in the free market system, they should have studied another subject and taken up another vocation.

Included in the costs of group health insurance are two factors (1) Administrative Costs; and, (2) Reserves (cash paid in by policy holders and set aside for incurred and unreported claims after a policy has expired or been replaced.

Pharmaceutical Expenses:

Today most people think that the oil companies are price gouging and I thought that way until I did some calculations for only one medication (of three) that I will be taking for the remainder of my life. I take 20mg. of Lexapro daily and each tablet weighs about 3.8 grains (7,000 grains in one pound); each tablet costs $2.785 each. One gallon of gasoline weighs about 7 pounds and if I were to purchase one gallon of Lexapro (assuming that dry weight and liquid approximate the same volume) it would cost me about $35,912.00. These pills are renewable chemical compounds – hydrocarbon fuels are not. Moreover, the only risk in producing pharmaceuticals is that the Trial Lawyers Association might be forced out of their business of scavenging for bones.

Perhaps patents on brand-name medications should expire earlier to allow for the production of generic drugs. Moreover, perhaps these pharmaceutical giants should practice some fiscal responsibility, reduce un-necessary advertising expenses, cut some executive bonuses and tighten their belts. People can control their use of gasoline but some of us cannot control our use of required medications without becoming a statistic lost somewhere in a Mortality Table but then “early losses” would probably make the actuaries for the Social Security system dance for joy and all elected officials can more carefully focus on their primary objective – stay in office (re-election campaigns and fund-raising.)

The best things for all older people, perhaps all ages, to do is:

Exercise daily – walk, lift weights, swim, ride a bicycle, raise the physical activity bar for yourself, in general - do something – the best time to do something is when you feel like doing nothing;
Drink plenty of water, eat fresh fruit, and don’t forget the greens (veggies);
If you have more prescription pills than you can put in a shopping bag, try to figure out which pills you can do without and then quit taking them;
Have some quiet time;
Think positive thoughts;
Quit running to the doctor every time you sneeze or have an unexplained ache or pain;
Take up a hobby that will get you away from television;
Take time out for a good long laugh;
Quite watching the news media – too much depressing news these days;
Stay in contact with friends and arrange for a weekly “eat-out” session;
Call someone that you have not spoken with in a while and renew that friendship;
Make some noise, flap your wings, and tell people what you think;
Get rid of any hostility that you may be holding on to . . .

The above are not cure alls but it sure beats sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself. We don’t live forever, but I would rather take control over my own life, than submit to some feckless government bureaucrat that tells me what I can or cannot do or have.

Do it now! You’re running out of time and burning daylight (as John Wayne would say).

~Jim Woodward

ANYBODY REMEMBER PAT'S MEMORY PILLS?

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:20:16 GMT

Still Waiting for Answers

Surely no one beyond a handful of the most self-deluded Republicans in Congress was surprised at the disclosure by George Tenet, the former intelligence director, that there was never a serious debate in the Bush administration about whether Iraq actually posed a threat to the United States.

It has long been evident that President Bush decided to invade Iraq first, and constructed his ramshackle case for the war after the fact. So why, after all this time, are Americans still in the dark about the details of that campaign?

For that matter, why don’t Americans know the full truth about Mr. Bush’s illegal domestic spying program or his decisions on how to handle prisoners of the war on terror? And now there are new questions begging for answers — about the purge of United States attorneys and about campaign pep rallies in executive branch agencies that might well have violated federal law.

For six years, the Republican majority in Congress ignored the administration’s power grabs, misdeeds and incompetence or, worse, pushed through laws that gave legislative cover to some of Mr. Bush’s most outrageous abuses of power. Now that the Democrats control Congress, they have opened the doors of government in welcome ways. But the list of questions just seems to grow.

We hope Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, enforces the subpoena of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss prewar claims about Saddam Hussein’s long-gone weapons programs. Ms. Rice, who was national security adviser before the war, says she has answered every possible question. Actually, we don’t have room for all our questions.

Just a few: Did she vet the briefing Mr. Bush got from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s rogue intelligence shop on Iraq’s alleged efforts to acquire uranium? The Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department thought, correctly, that the report was false. So why did Ms. Rice permit the president to repeat it to the world? Or did Mr. Bush also know what he was claiming was wrong?

The same applies to other claims about Iraq, including a false report about the purchase of aluminum tubes for bomb building, talk of mushroom clouds and fairy tales about links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. When it became clear the intelligence was false, why didn’t Ms. Rice make sure the public found out? Before the war, Ms. Rice was not in a post requiring Senate confirmation, but she is now. If she refuses to testify, the House should hold her in contempt.

It is imperative for Senator John Rockefeller, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, to finish two remaining studies on prewar intelligence that his Republican predecessor, Senator Pat Roberts, had no intention of completing. The first, on the errors made by the intelligence agencies in predicting what would happen after the invasion of Iraq, is expected to be finished next month. The final piece of the report will compare what administration officials said about Iraq with the actual information they had. Both reports are essential for understanding how this country got into this mess. Mr. Rockefeller will have to make sure the White House does not drag out the declassification procedure.

And then there are the questions about the purge of federal prosecutors. There is mounting evidence that many of the eight fired United States attorneys were punished for refusing to prosecute Democrats on phony election-fraud charges. Who ran this purge? And is it true, as it now seems, that others were rewarded for bringing weak corruption cases timed to close races?

For the last six years, the White House has also conducted seminars in each election cycle that certainly seem like an effort to use government agencies to help G.O.P. candidates. Did they violate the law that forbids the use of federal offices for campaigning?

Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s political “architect,” is at the center of both of these scandals. Congress needs to issue, and enforce, subpoenas to compel him and other top White House officials to testify.

Mr. Bush’s supporters are already arguing that Congress’s much-needed investigations are politically motivated and backward looking. Actually, the baldly political act was the Republicans’ refusing to do their constitutional duty of oversight for the last six years. Mr. Waxman said his panel issued four subpoenas to the Bush administration under Republican leadership. The same leadership issued more than 1,000 subpoenas to the Clinton administration.

As for looking back, Mr. Bush has hardly given up the habit of stonewalling Congress, or shown that he has learned the limits of his power. The war in Iraq not only continues, but Mr. Bush is escalating it and repeating many of the same myths about Saddam Hussein. The country does not need any more myths. It needs answers.