Misterimpatient

I have a personalized Google home page and one of the items presented each day is a Quote of the Day. Today’s oldie but goodie made me smile because it reminded me of one of my favorite musicals. Anyway, without further delay here is the quote:

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

There really is nothing I can add to that, except that I decided to look to see what other quotes were listed for today and I found this gem:

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.
- Aldous Huxley

Funny how these two observations fit so seamlessly together.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 5:26 am under Slightly left of Center
No Comments

I wrote:

Thinking about it some more, this whole concept of waste is interesting. What does it mean that “youth is wasted on the young”? I think it’s just a comment on a young person’s lack of appreciation for the benefits of being young. I have much more to write on the topic of wasted “resources”.

I’m thinking about the spending we do in the last year of life. I had the feeling that we spend a TON of money on that last year. Here is one of many pieces of data on the web. This is published by The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and of course this data is for the United States.

In addition, last-year-of-life expenses constituted 22 percent of all medical, 26 percent of Medicare, 25 percent of Medicaid, and 18 percent of all non-Medicare expenditures.

So more then 1 in 5 American healthcare dollars are essentially futile investments. Something is not right here. What if the same money were spent on schools for underprivileged kids or healthcare for the same? From the same source, I have this snippet:

The mean annual medical expenditures (1996 dollars) for the elderly from 1992 to 1996 were $37,581 during the last year of life versus $7,365 for other years.

Here in Massachusetts, the 2005 per pupil spending on education (grades K-12) is $9080. I’ll concede there are more kids in school each year then elderly in the last year of life (thank God), but my point is simple. We spend more on what we value more. We may spend more on Education (may, I’m not sure) but per pupil we clearly are willing to spend more on that last year then all the years that go to making engaged and contributing members of society. I think the balance is wrong.

At the risk of undercutting my argument, I’ll add that we don’t always know when the last year of life is beginning but consider this one last data point: Half of that last year expense is for the last 60 days. Folks must have a pretty good clue by then. No?

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 9:27 pm under Patter
No Comments

Men is girdles. There, its out. I was taken aback when I saw the headline on MSNBC today. Japanese men are flocking to girdles but a quick Google suggests this trend is not limited to Japan.

I should have seen this coming. Lets not deal with obesity, lets compress it instead! At least now airlines won’t have to get wider seats…right?

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 2:48 pm under I'm not fat today
No Comments

I was at the Northboro Contra Dance last night. Great dance. Wonderful caller. Not too crowded. Just right. I still demonstrate all the agility of a pyramid, but I do improve with each appearance.

I’m thinking about what I can do to accelerate my improvement, since, as the name implies, I am rather impatient. So, I was thinking about what I would do, if say, I wanted to improve the pace of a home improvement project? Well, the answer came to me very naturally: Purchase a new tool!

The tool of the dance is what? Shoes? I guess. I do own a pair of shoes I use for dancing. What differentiates these from other shoes is just that I don’t wear these anywhere but the dance floor. Not much of a distinction. Real dance shoes have smooth leather soles so you can slide and turn without twisting an aging joint. Anyway, this week we had a large number of kids (did I say kids?) from Clark University. I swear they were 15 years old.

Youth is SO wasted on the young.
Later, cha, cha, cha…

Filed by misterimpatient at 10:32 pm under Patter
3 Comments

You would think, having gone through the pain you’d want to at least make sure you got the gain! This does not appear to be the case however.

A recent study finds that only about 20% of men who undergo vasectomy surgery actually take all the needed steps to confirm they are, in fact, shooting blanks. “Sorry officer, I thought the gun wasn’t loaded. Look? Look? Umm…no, I didn’t look, I was told it was empty and believed.” Pu-Leez this is not about having faith in a doctor. This is the classic Reaganesqe case of “Доверя́й, но проверя́й. - Trust, but verify”. Come on guys, we’re talking about babies here. If that doesn’t work for you, how about child support? Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 1:52 pm under Patter
No Comments

Keys pressed. Wrong response.
Easily frustrates user.
Where is my hammer?

Later-san…

Filed by misterimpatient at 3:58 pm under Patter
1 Comment

… or why the glass is always half full.

Since our friends in Iran have announced today that they’ve successfully produced enriched uranium, we may also assume that they have found a safe and secure means of handling the waste products which are inevitably part of the enrichment process.

So now, besides oil, and perhaps more valuably, the Iranians have acquired something the west needs and wants. Perhaps the best thing we can do is send a team of business people (note my gender neutrality. Good Steve, Good boy) from The Nuclear Energy Institute to negotiate for these technological advancements. Worse comes to worst, we can negotiate to dispose of our waste in their vast and empty deserts (or is it desserts: The dessert topping that glows!). Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 6:28 pm under Patter
No Comments

My wife’s laser printer/copier/fax/scanner has hit the skids and needs a new imaging drum. Unit cost: $181.00

Brand new laser printer/copierfax/scanner: $148.00

Crazy huh?

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 5:45 am under Patter
2 Comments

At the dawn of the automobile age, Henry Ford predicted that “ethyl alcohol is the fuel of the future.” With petroleum about $65 a barrel, President Bush has now embraced that view, too. But Brazil is already there. Finally a good and appropriate use for sugar. A report in today’s NY Times explains how Brazil is taking advantage of huge sugar cane crops to supplement their fuel supply.

We’re talking a truly renewable fuel source here. Of course, the US places a 54 cents per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports from Brazil so we won’t be seeing any benefit from this here. The article does say that Brazil is capable of using all they can produce for now, but production is increasing.

There are reports of abuse of the workers who cut and process the cane, forcing more productivity in the fields. Standard employer evils. Maybe we can get Google to go into this business?

Anyway, I see a real upside here. If our economy largely embraces sugar cane for ethanol production, the price of sugar will rise. A natural effect of this will be a rise in the price of candy and perhaps this will have a positive impact on the obesity epidemic world wide.

Just a thought.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 5:09 am under I'm not fat today, Patter
No Comments

So today the NY Times decides we have to know that Condi, after a grueling day of exercise and Sunday talk shows, returns to her digs at the Watergate for a session of chamber music with 4 of her closest friends. I’m glad she has a hobby. Honest. I just wish she’d take the level of dedication that clearly informed her music and applied it to settling things in Iraq and the broader middle east.

Pretty please?

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 7:24 pm under Slightly left of Center
No Comments