Archive for May, 2009

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U.S. rate of AIDS infection worse than previously estimated

(Editor’s Note: This is a “recycled” post from some time back. I’m using a special piece of software that pulls posts from the “older” part of this blog from categories I specify, and brings them back to the top of the front page. That gives them a chance to be read again — or ignored again — to a newer generation of visitors. Enjoy.)

This can’t be good news any way you look at it: The AIDS virus is infecting more people annually in the U.S. than previously thought, according to federal health officials.

The story points out that we have no way of knowing whether new estimates are simply more accurate than past estimates — or whether the increase really is happening.

My concern is that too many people in our society suffer from what can only be called “medical attention span shortness” or maybe “medical denial,” both of which has led people to be more careless regarding the spread of this deadly virus. The good news is, detection and treatment of the virus has led to generally longer, healthier lives for many victims of the disease. The bad news is, this has fed this short attention span/medical denial syndrome, leading to said carelessness.

Bottom line is this: Whether the figures are simply better measured or the disease is truly on the rise, we must ALL remember this is a deadly disease and demands our best efforts to fight it and our constant vigilance regarding the killer virus.

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.

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Even in real estate hard-times, dream home raffles aid good causes

It’s exciting to know that, even in real estate hard-times, “dream home raffles” for charity generate aid for good causes.

We’re having a “Dream Home raffle” to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, in the area where I live, and it seems like a terrific idea to me. I haven’t followed how ticket sales are going (for $100 you get a chance at a newly built house in a nice subdivision which has been valued at $375,000), but I hear a lot about the raffle (the drawing is next month) on local television newscasts, so I assume it’s doing all right.

But I began to wonder — actually, members of a men’s Bible study group I attend at church on Tuesday mornings started the speculation — about what sort of frills and doodads such homes have, and most importantly, what sort of tax wallop is waiting to smack the winner. As for the quality of the home, I think median home prices in today’s market in and around Springfield, Missouri, would place this home considerably above the median, and I’m sure it has some nice features built into it. (I wonder if it has vessel sinks? I just recently read about vessel sinks and think I’d like to have some.)

As for the tax man’s cut of such a deal, I suppose there’s an explanation about that part if I were to buy a ticket, or inquire about one of the tickets. Speculation in our small group this morning was that you’d probably have to pay at the highest tax bracket, or perhaps pay at some sort of tax rate for gifts and/or gambling winnings, since you’d be getting the home as a result of a raffle.

Anybody reading this know how such things work for taxes? What about all those excited people who win money and prizes on TV game shows? How do they get hit with taxes? Anyone who knows about such tax matters, leave us a comment and enlighten us.

Why does the U.S. continue to fail military veterans?

I was disturbed reading a story today about the medical and financial crises being faced by increasing numbers of military veterans in America.

Oh, sure, we all remember the Walter Reed hospital debacle of a couple of years ago — but how aware are you of the sad stories of so many who serve their country in Iraq or Afghanistan — only to return home crippled and end up impoverished because of their service.
The story, if you read it, points out that battlefield medicine is better than ever, producing more survivors of battlefield injuries — and leaving a huge number of men and women demanding more continuing medical care and facing lifetimes of financial burdens.

What’s the answer? In my heart, and in your heart, we know the ultimate answer: Find ways of doing away with war. Until that day happens, we absolutely MUST give some government spending priorities to increased veterans’ care and increased veterans’ benefits.

You know, as I write these words, I find myself getting angry. I’m getting angry at a country mis run by a bunch of politicians who, from the White House up or White House down, spend most of their waking hours 1) enjoying the benefits of wealth, fame, and power, or, 2) ensuring funding and other priorities to remain in their positions of power.

May God help our veterans and may God help our country to resolve these horrible, tragic issues. And may God grant us more “real” people in positions of power who will do the right thing instead of just talking a good game.

Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.

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Single-payer health care? In fantasyland or Europe maybe, but not in U.S.

Once again, the truth of incredibly bad healthcare options is being felt in this good old U.S. of A., the land we still purport is the best in the world. It seems that even our good old “hope and change” president isn’t willing to give consideration to the matter of single-payer health care. Or at least, he wasn’t willing to speak out when the current Senate committee holding hearings booted out physicians who protested single-payer advocates being ignored at the hearings. An interesting editorial piece from one of the protesters ran in our local newspaper today explaining single-payer health care and the issues involved. Go take a look. And while you’re at it, look at another newspaper discussion of the idea at this link.

Two things seem pretty obvious to me:

1. The insurance companies/HMOs/etc., are not about to let go of the strangle hold they have on our pocketbooks.

2. We will never see real reform and a quality health care system in America — see point 1.

I find it particularly idiotic that the group Conservatives for Patients’ Rights is working so hard with blatant scare tactics in their campaign to spoil any successful efforts by the government to change current health care and health insurance. Interesting quote from a May 11 article about this group in “The Washington Post”:

Rick Scott, founder of a group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights … Scott, a multimillionaire investor and controversial former hospital chief executive, has become an unlikely and prominent leader of the opposition to health-care reform plans that Congress is expected to take up later this year. While disorganized Republicans and major health-care companies wait for President Obama and Democratic leaders to reveal the details of their plan before criticizing it, Scott is using $5 million of his own money and up to $15 million more from supporters to try to build resistance to any government-run program.

What, if you’ve seen these dire television ads, is so bad about letting the people and the Congress know about serious problems with health care in countries where government run/government mandated programs are in operation? Shouldn’t people hear about these horror stories, in contrast to the “all will be wonderful and well for everyone if we only have single-payer, universal health care” line?

Of course there is a problem with these conservative ads. They say NOTHING about the millions of Americans who are suffering similarly and even worse because they have no health insurance. The ads say NOTHING about the millions of Americans who are refused coverage for serious diseases and illness that they THOUGHT they were paying for under health plans they can barely afford.

What about all those folks, Mr. Scott? Any comments or solutions for THEM???

I’ve said it in the past and I’ll say it again: Why can’t we establish a quality health care system in the richest, greatest country in the world — a system that helps anyone and everyone with health care needs? A great step in that direction would be to expand Medicare (single-payer health care) in some fashion to include more than elderly or catastrophically ill younger people.

NOTE: I do NOT say simply expanding the age limits for Medicare is the answer. But certainly something along those lines is a good starting point.

What’s the point of all the comments, commentary, attitudes, anyway?

One of the beauties of owning a blog like this one is that if you choose to do so, you can simply rant. Today appears to be one of my “rant” days, so please bear with me.

I’m asking myself the question posed in the title of this post: What, really, is the point or purpose of all the comments, the running commentary on news, voicing various attitudes, etc., in a blog — or any online venue?

Looking back on the last couple of years, I’ve concluded the effects or effectiveness of running this blog is probably just a little less than proclaiming diet pills that work and expecting to lose tons of weight without eating less or exercising more.

Lame analogy I guess, but I hope you see what I mean. We — by that “we” I mean the entire “blogosphere” and/or Internet opinion community — get into battles over politics or politicians, we rail about news, views, and legislation, and only about one in a million times does it make any real difference in the world we live in.

Perhaps, though, our great history as a nation, heck as human beings living and breathing anywhere, demonstrates that it’s worth the trouble for that one in a million chance that we’ll write, say, or read something in a blog that WILL make a difference.

But, perhaps not. Heck, I dunno.

What do you think? Is it worth the effort to express yourself (myself) online, in various blogs, forums, chat rooms, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and all the rest?

Ah, okay, I’ve gone back to good old ‘Downtown Java’ theme

Ah, well, okay, you win. I decided to go back to the good old “Downtown Java” theme instead of that glitzy little number I had up for a couple of days. Turns out that one had a lot of links to other sites in the footer that I didn’t really want to feature. (Nothing wrong with the sites, just don’t appreciate being required to give away free advertising.)

So, here we are, back to Downtown Java.

Oh, yeah. I did fix that annoying little moving “Twitter” bird graphic. See? Right over there …

Zowie! How’s this for a cool looking down-to-business blog theme??

I can’t believe how I stumbled onto this nifty new blog theme. It’s a bit “busy” in terms of design, i.e., somewhat distracting to the eye. But I think I like it.

What do you think? Or does it matter what the site looks like, as far as you’re concerned, Friendly Reader?

I posted just a day ago about another theme I had returned to, emphasizing the “relax and have a cup of coffee while you read the papers” idea of this blog. Perhaps this “coffee desktop” theme hits on the same idea. I think I’ll try it for awhile at least.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Is it cool? Or is it “not cool”? Let me know.

Falling TVs, other furniture injure thousands of children annually

A recently published study found a serious problem with children being injured and even killed by falling furniture, especially tipping and falling televisions. (The study on this was released within the last two weeks. Sorry I don’t have the link handy, but you can Google it.)

Of course “serious problem” is a bad choice of words in my first sentence. If you child has been injured or even died because of a toppled dresser or television, that absolutely is a serious problem. There’s really no acceptable low-end number for such tragic accidents.

Perhaps a flat screen TV held in place by a good, sturdy TV wall mount, is the answer to such problems. Certainly an effort to secure your television against tipping and falling hazards is a good place to start. We presently have only one television in the house, and it’s about 8 years old and very heavy. Fortunately, it sits on a secure, stable, flat surface — and we have no small children in the house.

According to one online source, the recently released study found as many as 14,700 children were injured annually by falling furniture and televisions. That’s incredible.

What’s the solution? How about simple attention to such details. Make sure any heavy furniture and/or televisions in your house are stable and secure, and that small kids climbing on them can’t tip them over. That’s certainly a start.

Sometimes I just feel like spiffing up the old website

If you hang around here often, you’ll see that I’ve made a couple of changes to the “decor” of the place. Sometimes you just feel like spiffing up the old website, and sometimes that means making something old “new” again.

So, I dusted off the virtual furniture, steam cleaned the virtual rugs, and reinstalled a theme I used here for a couple of years. It’s called “Downtown Java” by the developer (Brian Gardner). I’ve always liked the subdued tans and browns. I’m an avid coffee drinker, so the coffee cup graphic pleases me.

And, assuming newspapers are still around when you read this, the idea of starting the day with a cup (or two or three) of coffee as I read the papers also really appeals to me.

The other “decor” change I’ve made to our little home here on the Web is the somewhat annoying moving graphic in the upper left corner of each page inviting you to “follow” me on Twitter. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but I’m rethinking that. Mainly, having the small object doing the repetitive motion at the top of the page there is somewhat distracting when I’m trying to read what I’ve written.

Imagine how it must annoy you too, eh? Okay, I’ll probably swap it out for a less obnoxious Twitter link. Not right now, but probably soon.

Maybe Alzheimer’s Disease Is on the Way Out!

For those of us who’ve had families hurt by the evil monster of Alzheimer’s, perhaps there’s another glimpse of hope in a recent study just releases which you can read about here.

If you have suffered the slow loss of a husband, wife, grandparent, or whomever, as their minds begin to dim, then paranoia and fright set it, you have to rejoice at any such hopeful news. Both my father-in-law and my mother-in-law suffered through this for months before they died. My good wife and her sister were devastated as they looked helplessly on.

My beef would be this: How much is the government doing to combat this horrible thing? Are we giving enough priority to funding for research — or is there less glamour attached to Alzheimer’s than some other diseases which grab more headlines, more public sympathy, more celebrity support — hence, more money?

God willing and the money not running dry, maybe we will lick this brutal destroyer of families.

Come on, Mr. President and Congress, get behind this stuff.

But, hey, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers.

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