I looked at pictures of Acapulco
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Hospital Financing
Hospitals are always screaming about funding cuts by the government. Seems to me that they would have millions if instead of building new edifices they could channel that money to patient care. Seems like every time I look at any hospital they are building a new wing or office building. One of our local hospitals built a new hotel with several restaurants in the same building. What does that do for patient care? What's with this thirst for edifices? If you spent that money on patients you would be fulfilling your prime duty. I don't remember anything in the oath your doctors take about making sure that construction workers who made exorbitant wages were guaranteed an income from you.
Gas is Outmoded
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201009/labs.aspx
We have many new technologies available to us these days. The days of oil are really over for the world. Oil is no longer a useful resource. It has polluted our seas and air for over a century. As the article above explains we have many people working to find and manufacture the new technologies that will replace oil. It also details the methodologies which are not working for us. The most telling thing in this article is that Henry Ford bought electric cars for members of his family. Yes, they were around back then. He also was working on an electrical vehicle with Edison. The things we once used it for are being done better by other energy sources. These resources are non-polluting and constantly renewable. Ford has gone to the front of the new technologies by devoting an old auto plant to a renewable energy device manufacturing plant. Bloom Energy has developed an energy source which works on the gases in the air we breathe. Google, Ebay and other big companies are using it to power up their office buildings.
There are many technologies available to power up our transportation systems for us to use in cars, trucks and planes. These technologies have been available to us for thousands of years. Our forefathers have used them for many purposes. Sources like wind and water have been used extensively for many areas of industry. Water power made it possible to run mills and factories. Wind made it possible for farmers to pump water out of the ground. If oil had not made it possible for us to make cars and vehicles cheaply we would have found ways to use renewable technologies to our advantage. Now we are in a mess because we were so fast to use oil. Other sources of energy like coal and nuclear are also dangerous. We already know that nuclear can cause many dangerous situations from meltdown’s and leakage. Coal is an environmental disaster. Mining companies are now denuding mountain tops and still befouling the air we breathe. We should remember that coal miners get black lung disease from working in mines. Some of the new fuel technologies are based on hydrogen, ethanol, solar, water and some work is being done on solar powered cars.
We already use solar in our calculators. Hydrogen filling stations are being built in California. Electric cars are starting to make inroads into the mind sets of owners. Many homeowners are converting to solar power. Adding solar panels to houses’s roof can provide enough energy to power up pretty much any device a consumer wants to use.
The days of oils rule are over. A lot of companies, both nationally and internationally, are moving ahead on windmills and other renewable energies. Even the company which gave us the internal combustion engine is moving into renewable energy. Ford has sold their closed Wixom plant to a pair of renewable energy development companies. They realize that we are pursuing an unrealizable future if we stay with oil.
When Henry Ford gave the world internal combustion there were others who had invented electric cars and cars which ran on steam. Some of the inventors back then had a better vision than did Ford. Henry Ford just priced his cars to sell at the lowest price possible. Oil has destroyed many environments and made some unsavory people rich. These people take our money and use it to try to destroy our country. The recent oil disaster in the gulf has taught us that we must get away from oil.
Oil has also contributed its share of permanent waste in our land fills in the plastics we use which will stay forever solid in our dumps and land fills. Before oil made plastics possible we used many other materials in our manufacturing of consumer goods. Many people say that plastics have made our lives easier. But we live easier under the cloud of future oil disasters and environmental pollution. Some people swear that plastics have improved our lives in every way possible. But for those supposed improvements we pay a very high price ecologically.
We have many new technologies available to us these days. The days of oil are really over for the world. Oil is no longer a useful resource. It has polluted our seas and air for over a century. As the article above explains we have many people working to find and manufacture the new technologies that will replace oil. It also details the methodologies which are not working for us. The most telling thing in this article is that Henry Ford bought electric cars for members of his family. Yes, they were around back then. He also was working on an electrical vehicle with Edison. The things we once used it for are being done better by other energy sources. These resources are non-polluting and constantly renewable. Ford has gone to the front of the new technologies by devoting an old auto plant to a renewable energy device manufacturing plant. Bloom Energy has developed an energy source which works on the gases in the air we breathe. Google, Ebay and other big companies are using it to power up their office buildings.
There are many technologies available to power up our transportation systems for us to use in cars, trucks and planes. These technologies have been available to us for thousands of years. Our forefathers have used them for many purposes. Sources like wind and water have been used extensively for many areas of industry. Water power made it possible to run mills and factories. Wind made it possible for farmers to pump water out of the ground. If oil had not made it possible for us to make cars and vehicles cheaply we would have found ways to use renewable technologies to our advantage. Now we are in a mess because we were so fast to use oil. Other sources of energy like coal and nuclear are also dangerous. We already know that nuclear can cause many dangerous situations from meltdown’s and leakage. Coal is an environmental disaster. Mining companies are now denuding mountain tops and still befouling the air we breathe. We should remember that coal miners get black lung disease from working in mines. Some of the new fuel technologies are based on hydrogen, ethanol, solar, water and some work is being done on solar powered cars.
We already use solar in our calculators. Hydrogen filling stations are being built in California. Electric cars are starting to make inroads into the mind sets of owners. Many homeowners are converting to solar power. Adding solar panels to houses’s roof can provide enough energy to power up pretty much any device a consumer wants to use.
The days of oils rule are over. A lot of companies, both nationally and internationally, are moving ahead on windmills and other renewable energies. Even the company which gave us the internal combustion engine is moving into renewable energy. Ford has sold their closed Wixom plant to a pair of renewable energy development companies. They realize that we are pursuing an unrealizable future if we stay with oil.
When Henry Ford gave the world internal combustion there were others who had invented electric cars and cars which ran on steam. Some of the inventors back then had a better vision than did Ford. Henry Ford just priced his cars to sell at the lowest price possible. Oil has destroyed many environments and made some unsavory people rich. These people take our money and use it to try to destroy our country. The recent oil disaster in the gulf has taught us that we must get away from oil.
Oil has also contributed its share of permanent waste in our land fills in the plastics we use which will stay forever solid in our dumps and land fills. Before oil made plastics possible we used many other materials in our manufacturing of consumer goods. Many people say that plastics have made our lives easier. But we live easier under the cloud of future oil disasters and environmental pollution. Some people swear that plastics have improved our lives in every way possible. But for those supposed improvements we pay a very high price ecologically.
Veterans Now and Then
For my generation the war was Vietnam. When our boys came home from there they barely received a welcome home. Our soldiers were fighting in a war that was immensely unpopular here.
They went through that war to see their efforts were for naught. They watched their friends die in the jungles and swamps without glory. Many of them came home addicted to drugs and with psychosocial problems. They didn't have the modern mental health professionals available to give them support. Many were shuffled off to VA hospitals and placed on meds just to keep them from having nightmares or being a problem for the staff.
None of them got any help from the communities they had come from. Their parents felt for them but the general public was apathetic. Some who came home could be considered the living dead because of the blankness of their facial expressions. Nobody knew the demons who lived in their bodies would keep them in such a hypnotic state. The war ended with our men running for airplanes when the Viet Cong finally captured the country. It was sadly, the only war we lost. It wasn't a holy war like WWII was.
It was a sign for them that they and our country were losers. Nobody waited at airports for them. They were mostly lost to our world. Now our men come home and there is a lot of hoopla for them. It must make the Viet vet really feel good.
They went through that war to see their efforts were for naught. They watched their friends die in the jungles and swamps without glory. Many of them came home addicted to drugs and with psychosocial problems. They didn't have the modern mental health professionals available to give them support. Many were shuffled off to VA hospitals and placed on meds just to keep them from having nightmares or being a problem for the staff.
None of them got any help from the communities they had come from. Their parents felt for them but the general public was apathetic. Some who came home could be considered the living dead because of the blankness of their facial expressions. Nobody knew the demons who lived in their bodies would keep them in such a hypnotic state. The war ended with our men running for airplanes when the Viet Cong finally captured the country. It was sadly, the only war we lost. It wasn't a holy war like WWII was.
It was a sign for them that they and our country were losers. Nobody waited at airports for them. They were mostly lost to our world. Now our men come home and there is a lot of hoopla for them. It must make the Viet vet really feel good.
Obama, the same any as other.
Obama has done very little to impress me. Most of his programs have proven inadequate to the needs of this country. His statement about drilling in the Gulf was an example of his lack of caring about our environment. He hasn't done anything about stopping the mining of coal or building nuclear reactors, disasters in their own right, in our country. There are many important issues in our land at present and his handling of them is less than adequate. I am a lifelong democrat who is disgusted with the party. No body in the party has shown that they have the ability to lead this country. The last great leader we had was Johnson. If you want me and others like me to feel good about the party then do the right things.
Avatar etc.
I have seen Alien by Ridley Scott and Avatar by Cameron. The first movie Aliens was pretty good but only near the end. The final scene was quite poetic. Watching Sigourney Weaver push the creature out of the ship was done in a fairly slow but peaceful way. One couldn't feel anything but entranced by that scene. Avatar was pretty predictable and didn't take much mental prowess to understand. It had no real way to make you become interested in it.. Irt was supposed to be a 3-D film. The past of 3D films has not been very filled with quality. They have always been more involved with wowing the viewer with images popping out of the screen and making the film maker look like some kind of innovator. Real innovation is when the director and writers present a new way to look at humanity.
Avatar was nothing like the great movies of Bergman who understood humanity and its various twists and turns. He had no need for huge production budgets. One movie I did see from last year is Precious. This movie far outshone Avatar. The movie involved us as humans to care about someone. The main character in this movie showed her ability to shine even though the main people in her life tried to drag her down. The resolve of Precious at the end of the movie leaves you feeling good about her.
Avatar was nothing like the great movies of Bergman who understood humanity and its various twists and turns. He had no need for huge production budgets. One movie I did see from last year is Precious. This movie far outshone Avatar. The movie involved us as humans to care about someone. The main character in this movie showed her ability to shine even though the main people in her life tried to drag her down. The resolve of Precious at the end of the movie leaves you feeling good about her.
TV’s in Cars and Kids
When I was growing up we would take long trips to places we hadn't been to before and some we had been to before. We only had black and white TVs at home and had to go to the movies to see color. Of course we had a radio in the car so we could listen to music. As we rode along we played games that mom would come up with. Sometimes we watched the fantastic panoramas that flashed by us. We missed nothing on those trips. We also were awed by people we would see. We had a rich source of entertainment surrounding us. It was a wonderful world we loved back then. Each season played it's act out before us. The wonders of the landscape always awed us. There wasn't anything lovelier for us to see. Todays children don't get that opportunity because they have miniature TV's tucked into the head rests of the seats in front of them. A parent has slipped a DVD into the player up front and the kids have plugged their headphones in. In effect they are tuning out the world. The parents do this so they don't have to hear the child asking if they're there yet. Or maybe they don't have the intelligence to encourage the children to get out of the cocoon they have trapped the kid in at home.
The television is the new nanny for many kids and parents. They place a child in front of the TV and leave them there for the whole day as they do adult things. These children are being short changed. They are not getting the chance to explore or be amazed by something as simple as a herd of deer standing in a meadow near the road. The ability to understand the world is not being given to them.
They are living in a video bubble created by the fear of the parents that the kid might actually learn something about the world. The beauty of the world is ignored and the fake world of the video generation is made to look real. What we are turning out is video idiots who don't know the difference between what video and reality is.
They are living in a video bubble created by the fear of the parents that the kid might actually learn something about the world. The beauty of the world is ignored and the fake world of the video generation is made to look real. What we are turning out is video idiots who don't know the difference between what video and reality is.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Dumbness and Stupidity
I was watching Jay Leno's last show before he left for his short stint in prime time and he did his Jaywalking thing. I was amazed at how stupid some of the people were. I think that we should be very worried about this. Some of the people had very simple answers suggested to them by Leno. One was what is the largest state in the union? Anyone who doesn't know it is Alaska should go sit in a corner with a dunce cap on. Even when Leno gave the guy a clue the guy still took several tries to get it right. Another person, female, said that freedom of speech was a commandment. It is obvious that these people have few if any intelligence genes in their bodies. What these people thought that some of the answers were was so erroneous that their answer made them seem stupid.
Of course it is our schools to blame because they are not reaching the students with the education they need. These people are operating with less than adequate mental resources. In my days in school we would learn the lesson or else we would fail and if we continued to fail we would be held back a year until we got it right. Now that appears to be the last thing any teacher wants to do. If the student wants to ignore the teacher and not learn anything it is okay for them to do that. The reason why is that schools are pushing them into the next grade without caring whether the student knew the material from the year before. They do this so they won't stigmatize the student. Hurt their fragile egos by making them feel like failures. So they turn out idiots who can get into college because the colleges have lowered the admission standards to accommodate the little idiot and make money off them even though they are as dumb as fence posts.
This country needs to wake up and see what the harm to our society is from these idiots who go into the workplace ill prepared for it. If we had people who were moderately well prepared to understand what the customer really needs our auto industry would be in better shape. Now after years of trying to make the customer fit the car they are realizing that the car must fit the customer. This is a reality most other automakers understand. Detroit is just catching up to that idea.
Of course it is our schools to blame because they are not reaching the students with the education they need. These people are operating with less than adequate mental resources. In my days in school we would learn the lesson or else we would fail and if we continued to fail we would be held back a year until we got it right. Now that appears to be the last thing any teacher wants to do. If the student wants to ignore the teacher and not learn anything it is okay for them to do that. The reason why is that schools are pushing them into the next grade without caring whether the student knew the material from the year before. They do this so they won't stigmatize the student. Hurt their fragile egos by making them feel like failures. So they turn out idiots who can get into college because the colleges have lowered the admission standards to accommodate the little idiot and make money off them even though they are as dumb as fence posts.
This country needs to wake up and see what the harm to our society is from these idiots who go into the workplace ill prepared for it. If we had people who were moderately well prepared to understand what the customer really needs our auto industry would be in better shape. Now after years of trying to make the customer fit the car they are realizing that the car must fit the customer. This is a reality most other automakers understand. Detroit is just catching up to that idea.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Memorial Day 2009
By Douglas E. Pritchard
Today I was taping the National Memorial Day Concert. It made me sad to think that we had to celebrate the death of so many innocent boys who gave up their lives for our continued freedom. These are men who can never be paid enough for the sacrifice they made for us in the course of their young lives. As I watched our various patriotic songs being sung I felt sadness in my heart. My eyes starting to well up with tears as I thought of the great spirit that this country has which is unconquerable and ever strong. We have conquered the worst that hell can throw at us. We live unconquered in our hearts and minds. The great beauty of our country is that it gives its citizens the ability to think and live as they see fit.
I was also thinking of the flag and what it means to me. Years ago it was made possible for the flag to left up in any kind of weather, any time of day and never be removed from its pole. This shows that as we are strong our flag is strong also as it faces any indignity that can be thrown at it and still keeps waving. This country has existed for two-hundred and thirty-three years. During all that time we have lived under the same set of principles that we have always lived under. Our flag has always stood for those principles no matter what our national condition has been.
I am planning to observe Memorial Day 2010 much the same as I did last year. Our soldiers deserve nothing less than our total and heart felt gratitude.
Today I was taping the National Memorial Day Concert. It made me sad to think that we had to celebrate the death of so many innocent boys who gave up their lives for our continued freedom. These are men who can never be paid enough for the sacrifice they made for us in the course of their young lives. As I watched our various patriotic songs being sung I felt sadness in my heart. My eyes starting to well up with tears as I thought of the great spirit that this country has which is unconquerable and ever strong. We have conquered the worst that hell can throw at us. We live unconquered in our hearts and minds. The great beauty of our country is that it gives its citizens the ability to think and live as they see fit.
I was also thinking of the flag and what it means to me. Years ago it was made possible for the flag to left up in any kind of weather, any time of day and never be removed from its pole. This shows that as we are strong our flag is strong also as it faces any indignity that can be thrown at it and still keeps waving. This country has existed for two-hundred and thirty-three years. During all that time we have lived under the same set of principles that we have always lived under. Our flag has always stood for those principles no matter what our national condition has been.
I am planning to observe Memorial Day 2010 much the same as I did last year. Our soldiers deserve nothing less than our total and heart felt gratitude.
TV's in cars, etc
When I was growing up we would take long trips to places we hadn't been to before. We only had black and white TVs at home and had to go to the movies to see color. Of course we had a radio in the car so we could listen to music. As we rode along we played games that mom would come up with. Sometimes we watched the fantastic panoramas that flashed by us. We missed nothing on those trips. We also were awed by people we would see. We had a rich source of entertainment surrounding us. It was a wonderful world we loved back then. Each season played it's act out before us. The wonders of the landscape always awed us. There wasn't anything lovelier for us to see.
Todays children don't get that opportunity because they have miniature TV's tucked into the headrests of the seats in front of them. A parent has slipped a DVD into the player up front and the kids have plugged their headphones in. In effect they are tuning out the world. The parents do this so they don't have to hear the child asking if they're there yet. Or maybe they don't have the intelligence to encourage the children to get out of the cocoon they have trapped the kid in at home.
The television is the new nanny for many kids and parents. They place a child in front of the TV and leave them there for the whole day as they do adult things. These children are being short changed. They are not getting the chance to explore or be amazed by something as simple as a herd of deer standing in a meadow near the road. The ability to understand the world is not being given to them.
They are living in a video bubble created by the fear of the parents that the kid might actually learn something about the world. The beauty of the world is ignored and the fake world of the video generation is made to look real. What we are turning out is video idiots who don't know the difference between what video and reality is.
Todays children don't get that opportunity because they have miniature TV's tucked into the headrests of the seats in front of them. A parent has slipped a DVD into the player up front and the kids have plugged their headphones in. In effect they are tuning out the world. The parents do this so they don't have to hear the child asking if they're there yet. Or maybe they don't have the intelligence to encourage the children to get out of the cocoon they have trapped the kid in at home.
The television is the new nanny for many kids and parents. They place a child in front of the TV and leave them there for the whole day as they do adult things. These children are being short changed. They are not getting the chance to explore or be amazed by something as simple as a herd of deer standing in a meadow near the road. The ability to understand the world is not being given to them.
They are living in a video bubble created by the fear of the parents that the kid might actually learn something about the world. The beauty of the world is ignored and the fake world of the video generation is made to look real. What we are turning out is video idiots who don't know the difference between what video and reality is.
The Health Care Mess in this Country
Our present health care system is rotten at it’s core. Most of it is driven by money and the ever increasing greed of the companies which run it. Our insurance companies charge increasingly higher fees in their pursuit of their profits. Drug companies are the most greedy entities in the system. They treat us like piggy banks from which they can extract any amount of money they want. They treat people in the USA as nothing more than cash cows. They do this under the guise of companies which are treating the public to the most advanced medical care in the world. We are being sucked into their greedy paws like children running to get free lollipops, but they are even taking the lollipops back.
Our hospitals are always building something even though they cry about a cut in state funding. They spend millions of dollars on new buildings when the money should be going towards patient care. They are to blame for this health care mess as much as the other companies are.
There is a lot of talk about health care and most of the protests are based on ignorance. This discussion about death panels is pretty far fetched. The government has been running two separate health plans for about forty years. Medicaid and Medicare are both government programs and have never been involved in deciding who lives and who dies. These programs have been designed for the benefit of the elderly and those who cannot afford medical insurance at all. As far as I can see these programs have been fairly successful for all those who can use them. This talk on the implementation of new plans run by the government and the supposed dangers of the government running these programs are based purely on the ignorance of people who have money and don't want to part with it.
One good example is the Walton Family. They are the richest family in the world but their charitable nature is nonexistent. Bill Gates looks like a spendthrift in comparison to them. Walmart pays the store clerks very little and urges them to get food stamps and go on Medicaid to get health insurance. You can bet that the executives and board get the best health insurance money can buy. But their stingy nature does not extend to those outside the executive branch. A lot of their goods are manufactured outside of the country in third world nations which do not have minimum pay rates.
Our hospitals are always building something even though they cry about a cut in state funding. They spend millions of dollars on new buildings when the money should be going towards patient care. They are to blame for this health care mess as much as the other companies are.
There is a lot of talk about health care and most of the protests are based on ignorance. This discussion about death panels is pretty far fetched. The government has been running two separate health plans for about forty years. Medicaid and Medicare are both government programs and have never been involved in deciding who lives and who dies. These programs have been designed for the benefit of the elderly and those who cannot afford medical insurance at all. As far as I can see these programs have been fairly successful for all those who can use them. This talk on the implementation of new plans run by the government and the supposed dangers of the government running these programs are based purely on the ignorance of people who have money and don't want to part with it.
One good example is the Walton Family. They are the richest family in the world but their charitable nature is nonexistent. Bill Gates looks like a spendthrift in comparison to them. Walmart pays the store clerks very little and urges them to get food stamps and go on Medicaid to get health insurance. You can bet that the executives and board get the best health insurance money can buy. But their stingy nature does not extend to those outside the executive branch. A lot of their goods are manufactured outside of the country in third world nations which do not have minimum pay rates.
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