Following are some random thoughts, observations, ideas, opinions,
interests, quotes, clips, links, and just about anything else on the mind of
the maker of this site and artwork. I hope that something here will prove
interesting to those who view it, and possibly even encourage some further
thought or discussion.
Thank you for looking.
John
interests, quotes, clips, links, and just about anything else on the mind of
the maker of this site and artwork. I hope that something here will prove
interesting to those who view it, and possibly even encourage some further
thought or discussion.
Thank you for looking.
John
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POPULATION
Before you read this...I am not anti-family, down on children, or a proponent of laws or regulations restricting personal
choice or the number of offspring one produces. I also realize that any single addition to our population could be our
next great leader, scientist, or savior. I do believe, however, that the current world population growth rate is not a
positive trend. As I do, do you ever read the news, sit in traffic, or just go about your daily routine and think "there are
just too many people!" There will be a lot more tomorrow, next week and next year....
When we hear about solving the world's problems, little is said about the effects of a rapidly growing human population and its
effects. We must acknowledge our individual impact. There are simply too many of us.
We need to accept and address the fact that we are reproducing at a rate that is too fast and too destructive for our planet and
our own good. Think about the paper, the exhaust, the expended autos, the gasoline, the power, water, traffic, loss of other
species, indestructible plastics and chemicals, and on and on that EACH one of us contributes to, disposes, consumes, and
wastes during our lifetime...then multiply that by each additional child and each of their children. At the risk of questioning our
human importance, let's face it, without exception we all excel at taking up space, using up resources, and creating waste.
We see politicians, scientists, environmentalists, newscasters, and other writers tell us how nuclear, solar, or wind power, fuel
cells, new forms of transportation, food sources, medicine, and even inhabiting outer space are keys to our future survival. But
none of those REALLY address the issue that continues to grow as we pretend to search for solutions which are more
"acceptable".
We need LESS CONSUMPTION, LESS POLLUTION AND LESS DESTRUCTION of our world, and that could become reality if there
were just fewer of us.
Now of course no one wants to be told that WE are the problem. And no one wants to be told WE need to produce less
offspring. And no politician, scientist, clergyman, or even your next door neighbor wants to tell US of OUR need to control
reproduction.
HOWEVER---
Think about our human expansion situation and our need to get it in check:
260 more people on earth each minute
374 THOUSAND more of us each day
136 MILLION additional souls in the world each year...............(there are 300 million total in the USA now)
Over just the past 70 years the population has tripled.
Is this what we want for our planet?
Consider what you believe you are ENTITLED to, and then ask what you SHOULD DO.
It's our world. It's their future.
Listen to this "Good News:" as reported on a morning TV show recently, .......And ask if this really is good news.
A interesting look at INDIVIDUAL IMPACT
One American Child
will use 3796 diapers--
using 1898 pints of crude oil to manufacture them--
along with 715 pounds of plastic--
and 4.5 large trees.
Which will add to the 18 BILLION diapers disposed of each year.
And those 18 billion annual diapers will take over 500 years to degrade. Hopefully.
Or-you could use cloth diapers instead...
And then use 22,455 gallons of water to wash them--
along with all the detergent and fuel needed to heat the water.
Either way, that child will also consume...
13,056 pints of milk--
and take 28,433 showers--
and consume 43,000 cans of soft drinks--
and eat 12 shopping carts of candy bars--
but most importantly-generate 64 TONS of waste all by himself....64 TONS!
What I said.....
"Thinking about and doing are only separated by Fear, Risk, Effort and Time".
"I figure if I can ride a unicycle and play a drum set I must have some balance in my life and not be too offbeat. On the other hand, I
do not sing well, indicating I may be lacking in harmony."
"Art allows the relatively obvious to appear even less so".
"Doing things right attracts little attention"
"A confident individual enjoys the opportunity to laugh at himself."
"The quickest way to win an argument is to agree with the opposition."
John Schwab
What They said.....
"Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of
choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself."
Robert F. Bennett
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
"It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father." Vaughan Monroe
"Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."--Dilbert
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines" Ralph Waldo
Emerson
"Worry is the darkroom where negatives are developed." Unknown
"There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say
themselves". Albert Guinon (1863 - 1923)
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right".- Mark Twain
“Art is too serious to be taken seriously.” Ayn Rand
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein
“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” Mary Lou Cook
"There are so many more interesting ways to be than right"--unknown
"It's not how you achieve your goals, it's how you live your life"--Randy Pausch
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PAGE (always) UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100 percent of all Americans will eventually die. This comes as no great surprise,
but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people's lives probably will.
Last year, Medicare paid $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives - that's more
than the budget of the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Education.
And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenditures may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are
paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Families cannot imagine there could be anything worse than their loved one dying. But in fact, there are things worse. Most generally, it's
having someone you love die badly," Byock said.
Asked what he means by "die badly," Byock told Kroft, "Dying suffering. Dying connected to machines. I mean, denial of death at some
point becomes a delusion, and we start acting in ways that make no sense whatsoever. And I think that's collectively what we're
doing."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A vast majority of Americans say they want to die at home, but 75 percent die in a hospital or a nursing home.
"How do so many people end up in the hospital?" Kroft asked Dr. Elliott Fisher, a researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy.
"It's the path of least resistance," Fisher said.
The institute did a detailed analysis of Medicare records for patients in the last two years of their lives. Fisher says it is more efficient for
doctors to manage patients who are seriously ill in a hospital situation, and there are other incentives that affect the cost and the
care patients receive. Among them: the fact that most doctors get paid based on the number of patients that they see, and most
hospitals get paid for the patients they admit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In medicine we have turned the laws of supply and demand upside down," Elliot Fisher said. "Supply drives its own demand. If you're
running a hospital, you have to keep that hospital full of paying patients. In order to, you know, to meet your payroll. In order
to pay off your bonds."
"So, the more M.R.I. machines you have, the more people are gonna get M.R.I. tests?" Kroft asked.
"Absolutely," Fisher said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With end-of-life care, there are also delicate cultural and political considerations.
Patients, with their families' support, want to cling to life, and it is often easier to hope for a medical miracle than to discuss
how they want to die.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I think you cannot make these decisions on a case-by-case basis," Byock said. "It would be much easier for us to say 'We simply do not put
defibrillators into people in this condition.' Meaning your age, your functional status, the ability to make full benefit of the defibrillator. Now
that's going to outrage a lot of people."
"But you think that should happen?" Kroft asked.
"I think at some point it has to happen," Byock said.
"Well, this is a version then of pulling Grandma off the machine?" Kroft asked.
"You know, I have to say, I think that's offensive. I spend my life in the service of affirming life. I really do. To say we're gonna pull
Grandma off the machine by not offering her liver transplant or her fourth cardiac bypass surgery or something is really just
scurrilous. And it's certainly scurrilous when we have 46 million Americans who are uninsured," Byock said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After analyzing Medicare records for end-of-life treatment, Fisher is convinced that there is so much waste in the present system
that if it were eliminated there would be no need to ration beneficial care to anyone.
Multiple studies have concluded that most patients and their families are not even familiar with end-of-life options and things like
living wills, home hospice and pain management.
"The real problem is that many of the patients that are being treated aggressively, if you ask them, they would prefer less aggressive
care. They would prefer to be cared for at home. They'd prefer to go to hospice. If they were given a choice. But we don't
adequately give them a choice," Fisher said.
"At some point, most doctors know that a patient's not likely to get better," Kroft remarked.
"Absolutely," Fisher agreed. "Sometimes there's a good conversation. Often there's not. You know, patients are left alone to sort of
figure it out themselves."
but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people's lives probably will.
Last year, Medicare paid $50 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients' lives - that's more
than the budget of the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Education.
And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenditures may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are
paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Families cannot imagine there could be anything worse than their loved one dying. But in fact, there are things worse. Most generally, it's
having someone you love die badly," Byock said.
Asked what he means by "die badly," Byock told Kroft, "Dying suffering. Dying connected to machines. I mean, denial of death at some
point becomes a delusion, and we start acting in ways that make no sense whatsoever. And I think that's collectively what we're
doing."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A vast majority of Americans say they want to die at home, but 75 percent die in a hospital or a nursing home.
"How do so many people end up in the hospital?" Kroft asked Dr. Elliott Fisher, a researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy.
"It's the path of least resistance," Fisher said.
The institute did a detailed analysis of Medicare records for patients in the last two years of their lives. Fisher says it is more efficient for
doctors to manage patients who are seriously ill in a hospital situation, and there are other incentives that affect the cost and the
care patients receive. Among them: the fact that most doctors get paid based on the number of patients that they see, and most
hospitals get paid for the patients they admit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"In medicine we have turned the laws of supply and demand upside down," Elliot Fisher said. "Supply drives its own demand. If you're
running a hospital, you have to keep that hospital full of paying patients. In order to, you know, to meet your payroll. In order
to pay off your bonds."
"So, the more M.R.I. machines you have, the more people are gonna get M.R.I. tests?" Kroft asked.
"Absolutely," Fisher said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With end-of-life care, there are also delicate cultural and political considerations.
Patients, with their families' support, want to cling to life, and it is often easier to hope for a medical miracle than to discuss
how they want to die.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I think you cannot make these decisions on a case-by-case basis," Byock said. "It would be much easier for us to say 'We simply do not put
defibrillators into people in this condition.' Meaning your age, your functional status, the ability to make full benefit of the defibrillator. Now
that's going to outrage a lot of people."
"But you think that should happen?" Kroft asked.
"I think at some point it has to happen," Byock said.
"Well, this is a version then of pulling Grandma off the machine?" Kroft asked.
"You know, I have to say, I think that's offensive. I spend my life in the service of affirming life. I really do. To say we're gonna pull
Grandma off the machine by not offering her liver transplant or her fourth cardiac bypass surgery or something is really just
scurrilous. And it's certainly scurrilous when we have 46 million Americans who are uninsured," Byock said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After analyzing Medicare records for end-of-life treatment, Fisher is convinced that there is so much waste in the present system
that if it were eliminated there would be no need to ration beneficial care to anyone.
Multiple studies have concluded that most patients and their families are not even familiar with end-of-life options and things like
living wills, home hospice and pain management.
"The real problem is that many of the patients that are being treated aggressively, if you ask them, they would prefer less aggressive
care. They would prefer to be cared for at home. They'd prefer to go to hospice. If they were given a choice. But we don't
adequately give them a choice," Fisher said.
"At some point, most doctors know that a patient's not likely to get better," Kroft remarked.
"Absolutely," Fisher agreed. "Sometimes there's a good conversation. Often there's not. You know, patients are left alone to sort of
figure it out themselves."
| END OF LIFE AND DYING---sad and difficult in more ways than one. Excerpts from CBS 60 Minutes piece December 2009 (The order of excerpts and highlighting are mine.) |
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
POPULATION and UNEMPLOYMENT
"...The unemployment rate won’t really begin to fall until employers are adding workers, at least 100,000 a month to keep pace with population
growth..."
"...The unemployment rate won’t really begin to fall until employers are adding workers, at least 100,000 a month to keep pace with population
growth..."
If the Feb.2010 Summit is any indicator, it would seem that republican strategy continues to be unchanged. This "amusing" clip is from
Chris Mathews Hardball show: CLICK HERE "Start Over Republicans"
Chris Mathews Hardball show: CLICK HERE "Start Over Republicans"
| MISC. POLITICS |