My Fellow Americans…You Are the 8%…Probably Even the 1%

If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet, and loose change lying around your house, you are richer than 92% of the world.

I wonder just how many of the “99%”ers are in fact, 8%ers…

The following is by an anonymous author (with numbers which are only approximate) and has been widely quoted for many years.  Does it put things into a different perspective???

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would
be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
ONE would be near death; ONE would be near birth
ONE would have a college education
ONE would own a computer.

When you consider our world from such a compressed perspective, are you among the fortunate?  I certainly am!

And….

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won’t survive the week.

If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States.

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.

So if the world is reduced to 100 people, and only one has a college education, and only one owns a computer, then a whole lot of people who didn’t think they were, are actually in the 1%…

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Remembering…

January 1991.  Taken from the Statue of Liberty crown observatory.

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“You Ver” What???

I ver mectin!

If you are, like I am, blessed/lucky enough to live in a place where the thought of contracting river blindness, malaria, and even head lice, are things that you think about…. ummmmm…like pretty much never…take a moment and be thankful about that.

With the eradication of disease comes prosperity.  Did you know we had malaria (a mosquito borne illness) here in the United States in the South until it was eliminated in 1947?  A million people around the world die from malaria each year.

Did you know that we had major outbreaks of Yellow Fever (also a mosquito borne illness) here in the States until 1905?  Due to the highly infectious nature of this illness (despite attempts at reaching 90% vaccination rates in endemic regions around the world) there are still 30,000 deaths (and 500,000 cases of it) a year.

Did you know that the last major outbreak of cholera (spread through contaminated food and water) to hit the United States occurred in 1911?  Since cholera was introduced to Haiti by an aid worker after the massive earthquake of 2010, there have been about 350,000 cases of cholera and over 14,000 deaths.

How about diphtheria?  Diphtheria is a respiratory illness that has been largely eradicated in the United States (only a rare few cases in the past decade).  Did you know that the tetanus shot you get for skin injuries is usually a Td?  You probably know the “T” stands for tetanus, but did you know that the “d” stands for diphtheria?  Since the diphtheria vaccine was introduced in 1920 and high levels of vaccination rates were obtained, diphtheria for U.S. citizens became a thing of the past.  Not so for the people of Russia in the 1990′s and more recently the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic where large epidemics have occured.  And speaking of tetanus, there are hundreds of thousands of deaths annually worldwide from tetanus.  Only 50-100 of those many deaths occur in the United States.  Those cases are nearly always in unvaccinated/undervaccinated individuals.

These diseases are shackles to poor and developing nations and is one of the causes of keeping them impoverished, uneducated, and with seriously limited opportunities .

Because our medical system and our society in general is not constantly plagued by these expensive (both from the medical standpoint as well as the economic standpoint) diseases, we are free to grow and expand our economy and to put finances towards treating things that in developing nations are often not addressed at ALL!  Like cancer, depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, etc (etcetcetcetcetc.)  There are diseases of aging in our country that are not even SEEN in other countries due to short life expectancy.  For 2011 the life expectancy for a Swazi is projected to be 31.88 years.  No, that is not a typo.  This is in large part due to a completely preventable and most often untreated, disease, HIV.

People in the United States actually have access to a drug called Latisse…this drug treats the condition of “inadequate, or not enough lashes”.  That’s eyelashes, people.  We have a drug for growing EYELASHES.  Now, part of me is absolutely appalled by such an apparent lack of perspective by the American public.  Another part of me is thrilled that we have the time, resources, and overall health to be able to treat such a thing as a problem!  I don’t think I’ll ever meet someone from Swaziland, or Zambia, or Ethiopia (etc.) who ever THINKS about having inadequate lashes.  But I digress.  Back to real diseases…

There’s all manner of diarrheal illness, and pneumonias, and African Sleeping Sickness, and polio, and meningococcal meningitis, and bubonic plague, and tuberculosis, and hepatitis, and typhoid, and ebola, and tetanus, and lymphatic filariasis andandandandandand.  I could go on!  Many of these diseases fully, or almost fully, preventable through education, simple medications, and vaccinations.

On a personal level, I have friends who suffer from chronic malaria.  People with chronic malaria become symptomatic a few times a year.  When sick they cannot work, and it drains their already meager finances when medications and sometimes hospitalization are needed.  It is hard to get ahead in life when one single disease has such negative effects.  Imagine facing ALL of these diseases (and so many more) on a regular basis?  It’s nearly unthinkable for us in developed countries.

So, you might be asking, what does all of this have to do with ivermectin??

And what do river blindness, malaria, and head lice have to do with each other?

Well, just one of the feared diseases of West and Central Africa is river blindness.  River blindness is the result of a chronic parasitic multi-system inflammatory disease caused by a worm that inhabits fast flowing rivers.  Black flies breed in these rivers and are the vector for this worm.  As rivers are often the primary water source in this part of the world, thus the potential for becoming infected.  Around 35 million people are currently infected with river blindness, and roughly 300,000 of them are already irreversibly blind. Approximately 140 million people in Africa are at risk of infection.  Being blind in most parts of Africa is nothing like being blind in the developed world.  As so many of those at risk for river blindness are from agricultural societies, being blind (or even visually impaired) can leave a person incapable of farming and providing for his/her family.  It’s hard enough to get any sort of education in these countries…imagine trying to get an education in most of Africa if you are blind!

Ivermectin is one of a family of drugs called “anthelmintics or antihelminthics”.  They treat worm infestations in people.  Worms are an extremely common finding in many populations in Africa (and around the world).  Among its other uses, ivermectin can be used off label to treat lice and scabies.  Taking a single dose provides 24/7 insecticidal protection.  The lice are killed when they bite and consume the now insecticidal blood of its victim.  Invermectin is also used in Africa to treat the worm infestation that leads to river blindness and filariasis.  In 2008 and 2009, a team of researchers to Senegal found that in communities where ivermectin was being used, the numbers of malaria carrying mosquitoes dropped off dramatically two weeks following treatment!  In similar communities where ivermectin was not being used, numbers of these mosquitoes had doubled in the same time frame.  To me, this is a fascinatingly unexpected and positive outcome to the use of ivermectin!!!!  To treat river blindness, an individual takes a single dose of the drug annually for 10-15 years.

I have this scenario in my head where communities would be tested and treated en masse for malaria infection, given insecticide treated mosquito nets, and maybe vector spraying would be done to eliminate mosquitoes.  To me, it seems, that with an aggressive multi-directional assault like this on malaria, malaria could be DRAMATICALLY reduced and maybe even eradicated.  With the addition of ivermectin into the mix, it might be an even more effective war.  Imagine…attacking malaria, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, scabies, lice and other worm infestations all at the same time!

If “the west” could coordinate all of its currently disparate efforts and wage a full out assault on malaria, I think we could see a huge victory.  It would take massive coordination of services and some pretty specific timing, but if one generation of mosquitoes and malaria cycles could be disrupted, imagine the effect it could have on people who live with these plagues on a regular basis.

Why can’t we do this???  Is it possible?  How much DDT would be needed to spray all of the homes in affected areas of Africa?  How many mosquito nets would be needed?  How many doses of ivermectin would be required?  And how many people on the ground would be needed to make such an assault possible?  How many cycles of treatment and spraying would be needed?  And perhaps the biggest quetion is would the governments of these countries even be willing to allow such a program??????

We have put men on the moon.  We have built impossible dams and bridges.  We built the Panama Canal.  We have eradicated smallpox.  Computer power that used to occupy a room now occupies nearly microscopic space.  Why can we not do something spectacular like free the world from the prison of malaria?

There are organizations doing great things to combat malaria and bring hope to a sick and dying world.  There are a multitude of NGOs, plus faith- and government-based operations involved in the fight.  What if they all worked together, in concert to pool resources, work towards a common goal, reduce duplicated efforts, reduced waste, and increased  efficiency?  What an amazing thing that would be!

Is it just a dream?

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Charlomane and Prince Leonard

I obviously don’t know the whole story, but Child Protective Services took the Leonards’ six kids (including one that is still breast feeding) from them because they were living in a storage unit.  No, not an ideal living situation, but it certainly seemed to be a very viable and safe option for this family that has fallen on hard times.  Read the story, watch the video.  See what you think.

If our Child Protective Services worked in the rest of the world, most all children would be taken away from poor, but loving parents…lack of running water in the dwelling seems to be the reason cited for the removal.

Average rural homes in Swaziland

Average “suburban” home in Haiti

My instincts tell me that a horrible injustice has been done to this family and I pray that they are reunited quickly.  I have looked for information online as to how to possibly help this family, but have been unsuccessful.  Perhaps the good people of Houston will rally together and help this family out of their terrible predicament.

I hear lots of stories about people who are down on their luck and have more sadness heaped upon them in the midst of that, but this family has grieved me particularly.  It seems highly indicative of the overall health of this family that none of the children has gotten less than a B in any of their classes despite their unusual living situation.  I think those kids belong with their parents, even if they are living (legally!) in a storage unit.

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Comments

So, I have my blog set up so that when I post here, it automatically posts to my facebook page.  A nifty function!

I get some really great comments on some of my posts.

Only problem is, the comments are on my facebook page, and not on my blog.  :-(

WordPress and facebook, I challenge you to come up with a way that people can post comments on a facebook wall, but have the option of easily posting on the blog site as well…

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I’m Not a Heroin Addict (But I Need My Methadone!) ~ A Special Lou Rant

Recently, Dan Akerson, the CEO of General Motors, came up with the brilliant idea to “slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.”

Seriously, Dan, what PLANET are you from?????

He APPARENTLY believes that doing this will magically lead to people buying more fuel efficient/electric cars.

Quick lesson for ya, DAN….

The people who are already having a hard time (or impossible time) stretching their budgets to absorb the current price of gasoline are NOT going to be able to go out and buy an expensive fuel efficient or electric car simply because the cost of gas goes up even more.

The people who CAN afford to buy a new fuel efficient or electric car probably already have done so and/OR THEY DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE COST OF GASOLINE ANYWAY!  What does it matter if gas goes up a buck a gallon?  They can still pay the bills.

Doing something like this would only hurt those who are already hurting and you’re just, well, stupid, if you think this would actually be a positive move for Americans.  I don’t generally call people stupid, but this qualifies you, DAN, for the title.

Just sayin’.

P.S.  Where I live, electricity doesn’t just come from a nice clean outlet in my house, it comes from COAL, a carbon based energy source.  What’s the difference between burning coal or burning gas?  It’s a shell game, people.  It’s aaaaalll an illusion that some are selling, some are buying, and most are having crammed down their throats.

P.P.S.  The batteries in electric cars are lithium.  Where does lithium come from?  Well, there’s a single mine producing it in the United States, but the lithium extracted there is a small proprietary amount.  The U.S. reserves are small, and in decline.  Most lithium is found in Chile, Bolivia, China, and AFGHANISTAN (these Afghanistan deposits were fairly recently discovered and have not yet started to be mined).  Sooooo, we are being told to give up our addiction to foreign oil.  For what?  We’re gonna trade it for an addiction to foreign lithium (only the part about the foreign lithium is a secret).  It’s like the addict who gets off heroin by taking methadone, but then never gets off the methadone.  Now, since Bush was accused of invading Iraq for its oil, then I am going to feel free to accuse Obama of invading Afghanistan for its lithium, since access to a source for it fits nicely into his energy policy.  This may or may not be true.  But it’s certainly something to think about.  We are on the brink of jumping from the energy frying pan into the fire, and we’re doing it for no good reason at all.  Even if we find a massive new source of lithium in our country, any attempts to mine it would probably be blocked by the EPA, unions, the ACLU, and a thousand environmental groups of one ilk or another.  Come on, you know it’s true.  We’ll be importing all the lithium we use, and we’ll be importing it from some unsavory sources.

Why on EARTH are we not exploiting the rich petroleum reserves we have in our own country instead of playing these games??????  In theory it would be really nice if we could derive all of our energy needs from the sun, and the wind, and the waves.  But that is far in the future.  In the meantime, before America ends up on the trash heap of history, we should use what God and the earth placed under our feet.  At least we have oil here…what we DON’T have is a viable lithium reserve.

END OF RANT

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Jerusalem

And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon England’s mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England’s pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green & pleasant Land

William Blake, Poet, Words

Sir Hubert Parry, Music

ELP, Amazing Rendition of This Hymn

Did Jesus ever visit England?  You know, it seems very likely to me!

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One Day Without Shoes

April 5, 2011 was “One Day Without Shoes” day.

The basic premise is to go without shoes for a day so that you can have a sense of what it’s like for so many millions who go without shoes everyday.  Many of those people live in Africa.

I was in West Africa on April 5th.  It turned out to be a travel day when we would be leaving Burkina Faso and heading to Ghana.

The sad irony of that is that it was literally wayyyyyyyyy too dangerous for me to even attempt to go without shoes on that day…

What WOULD I have done that day had I no shoes??

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No Quality OR Quantity

“The moral progress of a nation and its greatness should be judged by the way it treats its animals.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

While I think that perhaps Gandhi had a point, I wonder if he ever imagined that we in the United States (and other western nations) would squander the amount of resources that we do on our pets.  I am sure he was including food animals in his statement as well, maybe even wild animals, and so I believe that if the United State’s greatness was judged by the way we treat our animals we’d probably not be considered so great.

But I don’t agree so much with Gandhi.  I think a country’s greatness should be measured by the quality and the quantity of its toilet paper.  America is truly the land of toilet paper milk and honey. 

Have you ever traveled internationally?  If you have, depending on where you went, you will probably be nodding your head in agreement with me when I say that the U.S. has the awesomest and most available toilet paper that the world has to offer.  How often in a foreign country is there no T.P. (let ALONE seat covers) in the airport?  Is there EVER T.P. in the bathroom at the gas station (if there IS a bathroom available for public use at the gas station)?  At restaurants where there often IS T.P., isn’t it often rough and oddly colored?  You know what I’m talkin’ about!  Do any of you, like *I* do, always have a roll of T.P. in a ziplock tucked in your backpack when traveling out of the country??  (And wet wipes, too).  The worst toilet paper I ever used was in St. Petersburg, Russia, about 10 years ago.  It was milky grayish purple, unevenly cut, and about a #180 grit.  More like crepe paper.  Pretty much like this, only change the color:

I had to look through most of the stalls to find even that.  And this was at a cultural and performing arts center!  The best non-American T.P. I have ever used was in Malawi, Africa.  Malawi aspires for greatness and realizes that without great T.P., this is a pipe dream.

I recently watched “Sicko” for the first time.  I do not plan on dissecting all of the issues and problems in and about that movie.  Save one smallish little thing.  Michael Moore holds Cuba up as a bastion of excellence in socialized health care.  But what I want to know is, how can a country that runs out of toilet paper even begin to reeeeealllly be considered great in the health care arena???   The Cuban government slashed the amount of imports it’s allowing and has fallen short of the raw materials needed to keep its citizens in T.P.  These beleaguered Cuban citizens may not see it on the shelves of the local CommuMart again until NOVEMBER!!!  The government is encouraging people to use cigar wrappers as an alternative.  How hygienic can that possible be?  Oh, and in case you missed it, that also means they are encouraging smoking.  Just how many cigars do the parents of a family of four need to smoke in order to keep up with the toilet paper needs?  It’s too bad that Michael Moore wasn’t making his film during a T.P. shortage…perhaps his take on things might have been a little bit different.

Can a country who rations and runs out of T.P. really enjoy unlimited access to top-notch health care?  I somehow doubt it.  So let’s just stop comparing our health care to theirs.  And BTW (by the way), most of westernized and socialized europe doesn’t have such great T.P. either.

I’m just saying…

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Huh? Say WHAT???

HJ 5 IH

111th CONGRESS

1st Session H. J. RES. 5

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 6, 2009

Mr. SERRANO introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

————————- JOINT RESOLUTION————————–

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

‘Article– ‘The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.’.

 

The above is legislation that has been introduced that would, as you can read for yourselves, remove the presidential term limits we currently have in place.  Of course the states would still have to ratify any ammendments to the consititution.  This is not the first time such legislation has been introduced.  It’s never gone anywhere before, and chances are it won’t go anywhere this time.  But just the introduction of such legislation begs the asking of so many questions.  Like WHY for instance would we in the United States NEED a president for life?  Too many “presidents for life” have wreaked untold havoc on their nations.  We got RID of that potential after WWII when we saw the destruction that this much power gives a person.  Why on EARTH would we even have the discussion about turning that kind of power over to an American president?

This little bit of legislation could get interesting…but I hope it dies in committee somewhere.

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28.99%

My friend Donna is a small business owner.  She has poured heart and soul into her retail business for the past two years and has been starting to show regular profits. 

If you’ve been paying attention to things in the news lately, you know that Bank of America is one of the banks that should be out of business, but instead was handed over FORTY FIVE BEEEEEEELION dollars of bailout money. 

That’s 45 billion of your dollars, my dollars, and Donna’s dollars.  Now, Donna has been an excellent customer of Bank of America and has tied all of her business accounts to the financial giant (she did this before it became clear that the lunatics were in charge of the asylum).

And in thanks for all the bailout money it got from Donna, and in thanks for Donna’s excellent support of said institution, the interest rate on her small business credit card was jacked up to….yep, you guessed it….a whopping and usurious TWENTY EIGHT POINT NINE NINE PERCENT.

How many small businesses are out there who also got the “Dear Customer” letter?  Donna’s not sure how she’ll get rid of her business’ credit debt before this onerous interest rate suffocates her business.  That interest rate gobbles up the profits she is making.

I reallllly need a very good explanation as to why this country is not letting bad businesses fail.  Failure isn’t a bad thing!  In some circumstances it’s the BEST thing.  B of A should be dead and buried by now and not sticking its bony zombied hands into every single pocket that they can.

I ask you, who in their right mind would seek out B of A in the future with interest rates like that?  Will this cost it customers?  Certainly it must.  If it costs enough customers, will it do well as a business in the future?  Certainly it cannot.  If it continues then to fail as a business, will we again have to bail the Loan Sharks out?  I guess we will.  So, in order to keep from having to let the Loan Shark stick its skeletal hand into our left pocket, we have to let it stick it into our right one by doing business with it???  We can no longer vote with our feet when it comes to Bank of America (GM, Chrysler, ETCETERA).

This is stupid.  This needs to stop.  Bank of America should not get the “good try award”.  It needs to go away and if it figures out a better way to do business, then it should come back, but not until then!

We should look at it like Thomas Edison did when it took 10,000 attempts at making the lightbulb…

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Thomas A. Edison

If Edison were alive today and making the 8,972nd iteration of his light bulb, I’m sure the American government would be forcing us to buy bulbs that lasted 42 seconds even thought they were crap because Edison was “too big to fail”.  We might never gotten our light bulb.

How many bigger and better things are we going to lose out on because we are propping up businesses where being not good enough IS good enough and where there’s no incentive to be the best because you’re going get your money one way or the other?  And how many small businesses who are trying to be good enough, and maybe even trying to be the best, go out of business because these not good enough businesses aren’t allowed to suffer the natural consequences of being bad?

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A Bit of Prognostication…

I’m peering into the future.

I’ve been thinking “now, why would Obama REALLY want to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility?”.  I really doubt it has anything to do with some high moral ground upon which he believes he’s standing.  I think he wants to close Gitmo because he wants to eventually close the whole naval base there, pack up, and leave.  Gitmo is just step one.

The United States holds an in perpetuity lease on the property, but I think Obama is planning on vacating the place entirely and tearing up the lease and he’ll probably do it as some big grand gesture while he apologizes for the imperialism and arrogance of his country.  He wants to lift the embargos and reopen all ties with Cuba but Cuba is not just going to say “yeah, sure, come on back and be our friend”.  They’re going to want something, and the base is the something they’ll want.

However, I believe that as part of the “deal”, some of those 30,000 or so acres will be set aside for American “investors” to get first shot at buying.  And those Americans who will be given the first shot will somehow be tied to Obama and the opportunity will be a quid pro quo in some way.

Mark my words.

P.S.  My last bit of prognostication was that Luis Caldera would take the fall for the NYC flyover debacle.  Like I said, no real fallout for the ridiculous stunt except for Luis Caldera being the patsy for it…a puppet on a string…

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Deep In The Heart of Texas

I’ve been thinking about Texas lately.  In large part because I am “worst case scenario girl”.  Which is weird, because I am also a hopeless optimist about some things.  Figure that out.  I had a Texas “aha moment” this morning.

Anywhooo, I look at what is happening in the United States and have been wondering just what would the United States look like if it completely fell apart.  Let’s just say at some point in our history we get to a place where we are so weakened politically, socially, and economically that we become prey to the world.  As I see it, this is how the United States would end up being broken down geographically…

1.  The south finally secedes but doesn’t last long on its own as it is quickly overtaken by South American communist nations backed by Russia.  They call themselves The Confederate States of America.  No surprise there.  Russia doesn’t let them fly the the confederate flag either.  Doing so is punishable by death or life spent in the Bayoulag.  Missouri is misspelled on all Russian maps as “Misery”.

2.  The northeast and much of the midwest joins the EU.  They retain the name The United States of America, but the rest of world snickers about that.  Ultimately they change the name of their country to United Socialist States Republic, the USSR.  They get sued by Russia for name infringement and ultimately change their name once again.  This time they pick “Changeland”.  No one has a problem with that. 

3.  Northern California and the Pacific northwest is annexed by Russia without a fight.  They are glad to finally feel “at home” in their own country.  This elation, as you can imagine, doesn’t last long.  Because of their wealth, Russia taxes the snot out of them and just for fun takes away most of their property and freedoms, but they are simply called teabagging racists when they protest.  Russia doesn’t care what their concerns are or how they feel.  Nyet.  They’re just trying to make it fair for all of Russia. 

4.  Hawaii is finally taken by Japan after a brief battle.  Nothing at all changes for them except that they now spend Yen.  And schoolchildren are thrilled because now it’s totally easy to draw their new flag.  No one could ever get all those colors and lines correct on the old Hawiian flag. 

5.  Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah are taken by Mexico.  It’s an easy transition.  The states become Mexican states without changing their names.  They are forced to speak Spanish as it’s the official language of Mexico.  They’re all like “hey wait!  We didn’t make YOU speak English when you came here and English was the official language!!”.  Mexico is like “lo siento, pauvracitos!”  It’s illegal to send money from Mexico to any relatives who might be living elsewhere in the defunct USA.  Mexico becomes unofficially known as Nuevo New Mexico.  They thought about New Mexico, but that was already a state, and New New Mexico sounded totally estupido, so Nuevo New Mexico, or NNW it becomes!  The former Americans are not allowed to refer to themselves as American-Mexicans or wave the former flags of their states.  In an unexpected coup, the formerly-American-now-Mexican women band together with the previously-Mexican-American-now Mexican women and the original-Mexican women and successfully get “Mexico” changed to “Mexica”.  Mexicans born in Mexico now call themselves OMs, for Original Mexicans.

6.  Minnesota and the Dakotas voluntarily approach Canada in order to save themselves from everyone else eyeing them.  They become one province, Dakotasota.  They learn french, because they want to, not because they have to, eh.  Without an intact America to provide ipso facto protection from the wolves at its door, Canada (and Dakotasota) ALSO joins the EU.  The EU decides it needs to change ITS name to embrace its new North American members (and by now there are Asian, Middle Eastern and African nations who have joined as well).  It doesn’t want to make anyone feel disenfranchised and so it becomes the World Union.  “Woo Woo Woo” becomes the offical chant of support for this new megasuperpower.  Which is good, because chanting “EU EU EU” sounds an awful lot like “EWW EWW EWW”, which just isn’t all that great of a chant if you know what I mean.  Sharia law is now the official body of law for the WU.

7.  Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado attempt to band together, but are landlocked, and this becomes a big issue for them as Mexico, Russia, Canada, and the EU/WU refuse to allow airspace or waterway access.  So, they survive, but are cut off from the rest of world.  Most there are okay with that and live simple but extremely hard lives like settlers before them.  At least they have some of the best national parks there to visit, but it’s a long horse ride to get to any of them.  They pick a particulary dreadful name for their new nation…Big Red.  No one really knows why this is what it ended up being, but the other choice was Idamocowy.  Even Big Red sounds good next to that.  Boulderites are initially given the option of relocating to Oregon, but so many refused that Big Red simply forced them to secede.  So they become like Lisotho.  A little “island” nation completely surrounded by its neighbor.

9.  Alaska.  I haven’t fully decided what I think would come of Alaska.  Probably part of it would end up Russian and part of it Canadian.  It’s full of oil and diamonds and other resources, so the fight might be ongoing and bloody.

10.  Everyone sort of just forgets about Puerto Rico. 

11.  China quietly sits by waiting for some of the dust to settle and then, in the boldest, fastest, and most imperialistic land grab EVER, steamrollers across the Pacific taking Japan (and Hawaii), Guam, Kwajelien, the Marshall Islands, the Russian states of America, and Nueva New Mexica, and Central America (they want the Panama Canal) in one fell swoop.  And then it decides to take Antarctica, just because no one really “owns” it yet and there were a couple of million soldiers with nothing else to do.

12.  Texas asserts its (non-existant on paper, but existent deep in the hearts of many Texans) “right to secede” and becomes the nation that all those years ago it planned to be able to become if it ever wanted to, as evidenced by their flag.

Which brings us to Texas and the “aha moment” I had this morning.  The flag of Texas is what the United States flag would look like if there was only one state.  How did it take 44 years to have this dawn on me?

Texas thrives on its own as a breakaway Republic and carries on what had once been the great American Experiment.  Even though it will totally destroy it’s cool shape, Texas allows Oklahoma to join the fledgling nation.  It decides to go by “Texas”.  It makes its motto “Don’t Mess With Texas” and no one does.  Cuba, having realized that they’ve been wrong all these decades, really wants in on the Texas Experiment.  No one answers their calls.

And that is how “worst case scenario girl/hopeless optimist girl” can see it happening, tongue only partly in cheek.

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Bernie Madoff With A Whole Buncha Money

Bernie Madoff pled guilty in federal court last week to all counts against him.  Bernie’s legacy will be that the Ponzi scheme should now be called the Madoff scheme.  Ponzi only wished he could have pulled of what Madoff pulled off.

Madoff did a very bad thing and he should be held 100 percent accountable for his actions and misdeeds.  He probably has accomplices who will be found out and will be finding their way from penthouses into big houses as well.  And so they should.

But…BUT…I think there’s plenty of other blame and responsibility to go around.

Like the SEC.  They should have been paying closer attention.  Madoff’s portfolio “made” big money, steadily, year after year.  It didn’t seem to be following the same ups and downs that other funds were experiencing.  This should have put a blip on the SECs radar.

And the investors need to admit that they are complicit to a certain degree as well.  Madoff’s fund was too good to be true.  You had to have a lot of money to even qualify to buy into it.  It was a status symbol to be able to get into his fund.  And it guaranteed double digit annual returns.  One has to look just a little bit askancely at that sort of promise.  Buyer beware, right?

Plenty of greed here to go around.

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Found On Road Dead

This is what my friend Donna, from the Detroit area, and always a purchaser of FORD vehicles, says F.O.R.D. stands for.  The vehicles just seem to not be the best buy out there.  But she gets a good deal because of a family member’s connections with the company, so she takes adavantage of that.  A Ford has never been on my list of cars I would want.

I don’t think that “American” cars are a good value.  I drive a Honda.  I do support trying to “buy American” when it is reasonable.  Therefore, I purchased a Honda which was built in the United States.  Because it was a good value.  It’s been a great car.  I’ve had it for 13 years and it’s still going strong.

I am not in the market for a new car, but if I WERE, I would now consider buying an American vehicle.  Not ANY American vehicle, mind you…a FORD.  Why?  Because the company has refused bailout money.  And I appreciate that.  And would reward that with my wallet.  No company that I find out has taken bailout money will be the recipient of my economic stimulus. 

There just might be a whole lot of other people out there who feel the same way because Ford seems to be increasing its market share.

Bravo, Ford, bravo.

Take government money and you’ll deal with the strings that are attached.  I prefer to deal with companies which are still “free” from as much government entanglement as possible.  TARP grinds my gears.

L’aissez-faire, folks, l’aissez-faire…

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Claustrophobia

One of the aspects of one of my jobs is to give sedation (either oral or intravenous) to clients who need MRIs but who suffer from claustrophobia (fear of being in enclosed spaces) and need the bravery that the meds can give them.  Some folks break into a sweat just looking at the “tube” and imagining being in it.  Others are fine until they are slid inside.  Some are so freaked out once they get inside that they Houdini themselves out before we can get to them to help them out!  Despite reassurances that they can’t help the irrational fight or flight response that has been elicited, they often they voice embarassment at their inability to control the fear that wells up inside of them.

Before their exam, I usually ask them if they know why they have claustrophobia.  Oddly, it is the rare woman who knows the reason.  Much more often men can pinpoint the genesis of their fear of being in the MRI “tube” to a particular event.  (Of note, people will sometimes not know that they have claustrophobia until they try to have an MRI and fail!)

Here are some of the stories I have heard from male patients.

One was nearly suffocated by his brother when he was a child.  They were playing with pillows and the brother held one over his face for a little too long.

A few were “tunnel rats” in Viet Nam.  One had been trapped in a fox hole by exploded debris in WWII.

One was buried by sand in a cave-in at dig at work.  He had the quickness of mind to pull his hardhat over his face thus creating a small air pocket which helped to keep him alive until he was dug out from under the ten feet of debris over him.

Most recently I had a gentlemen who was very hesitant to share his story.  With some gentle encouragement, I asked him if he wouldn’t share with me what happened.  He was held prisoner of war for 17 days in a Viet Cong prison camp.  For seven of those days he was sealed in a 50 gallon drum and the drum was beat on from the outside by his captors.  All this had come flooding back to him in a palpable way when he had an MRI done on his neck.  You see, MRI tubes are about the circumference of a 50 gallon drum, and the machine makes banging sounds when scans are being taken.  Despite this, when he found out that the MRI he was going to be having done this time would require him to enter the tube feet first and that his head would be near the opening of the machine, he said “oh, I can do this without any help from medicine”, and he did.  Later his wife told me that although they’d been married shortly after his return from the war, he only recently shared the story of his seven days in the drum.

There is one elderly woman’s story that has stuck with me as well.  She was a Jew who had fled Nazi Germany to England and was buried for many days in the pitch dark under the house in which she was living when it was bombed and collapsed.  She survived but was never again able to be enclosed in a small space of any type. 

Imagine trying to put any of these horrifying things behind you when they spring out at you whenever the walls are too close.

These are stories I will never forget.  And even though I’m not in the ER anymore taking part in life saving activities, these are the patients that bring me satisfaction.

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84% of people polled think “I” am honest and ethical! ;-)

I am proud to be a part of the profession that for the 7th year in a row has been ranked “most honest and ethical”.  Nurses ranked #1 out of 21 professions about which Gallup annually polls.  We scored a very respectable 84% “high or very high”.  Nurses have actually topped the list (since it was added to the poll in 1999) in all but the 2001 survey, which ranked firefighters tops in the aftermath of 9/11. 

The next highest ranked profession was pharmacists who came in at 70% high/very high. 

After pharmacists came high school teachers, doctors, and policeman to round out the top five.

Not surprisingly, the bottom ranked profession polled was lobbyists.  They got a dismal 5%, which I’m not sure is dismal enough, but perhaps Gallup polled a bunch of lobbyists and their friends and families.

What did surprise me is that clergy came in 5th with only 56% ranking them high/very high in honesty and ethics.

The nine lowest ranked professions were:

• Labor Union Leaders – 16% high/very high
• Lawyers – 18% high/very high
• Business Executives – 12% high/very high
• Advertising Practitioners – 10% high/very high
• Stockbrokers – 12% high/very high
• Congressman – 12% high/very high
• Car Salesman – 7% high/very high
• Telemarketers – 6% high/very high
• Lobbyists – 5% high/very high

The numbers for those professions at the bottom of the list are largely unchanged from the 2007 poll results.  It fascinates me that these are the people who pretty much run the country and are in the news ad nauseum lately in regards to our economic woes.  Doesn’t it beg the question why we aren’t sending in nurses, pharmacists, high school teachers, doctors, and policemen to run the economy and the country???  We/they may not do better, but we/they certainly couldn’t do worse, and at least you might have some level of trust for us/them to at least be honest and ethical in the process!!!!!!

Just a thought…

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The Probability Of My Being a Man is 59%!

I snagged this link on the blog of an emergency medicine doctor.  He plugged his blog into www.genderanalyzer.com to have it determine whether his blog was written by a man or a woman.  Genderanalyzer got it wrong.  So I decided to put Blah Blah Blog in there to see what it believed MY gender to be.

It determined that the possibility was 59% that my blog was written by a man, and went on to mention that it was pretty gender neutral.  The ER doctor thinks the analyzer might have gotten his wrong because of the cat pictures!  My blog has lots of those, too!  I wonder why it “thought” MY blog was written by a man!!

If you run yours through it, let me know if it got yours right! 

One of my Photo Friday friends’ blogs sent me to www.typealyzer.com where it had this to say about the author of my blog, I am an ESTP (Extraverted Sensing with Introverted Thinking) or a ”Doer”:

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

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Shouldn’ta done it!

I am not, and have never really been, a worrier about money.  Throughout my life the Lord has always made sure that I had what I needed when I needed it.  I have a smallish sort of retirement account that I like to watch grow and gain.  It has been part of my daily routine for years to check on it.  When it goes up, that’s fun.  When it goes down I’m not upset or anything, but no one likes to see that happen.  The account had already once lost a significant amount of worth once the last time the market went sort of crazy a number of years ago.  My account had since recovered from that and had started to grow nicely.

But, since things had already started to become a little dicey in the stock market again, I hadn’t checked the status of my retirement account since before I left for Teen Missions (back in May).  Watching the number slowly drift downward did nothing positive for me.  So I decided not to bother checking it for awhile.  Things had not improved when I returned home in September.  I avoided checking.

After things really got crazy I decided I should no way look at it. 

However, today, my morbid curiosity got the better of me.  I figured if it was at least “such and such a number”, I wouldn’t be too sick to my stomach.  It took a long time for the page to load.  When the number came up, I sort of went slack-jawed.  It was so much worse than I imagined.

I shouldn’ta done it!  I shouldn’ta looked! 

When will I learn to listen to that really smart still small voice inside of me?

To all of you who also are experiencing financial losses and maybe are afraid of what those losses might mean to you now and in the future, hang in there.  Look to the source of all things and trust that He will take care of things.  Don’t let this financial beating we are taking rob you of the joy that is to be found in EVERY DAY.  Take extra time to give back to others with your energy, your time, your emotions, and yes, even some of the money you still have.

I, for one, feel so blessed to live in a country where most people live in excess compared to those in many countries who always live in state of having nothing more to lose.

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Tent Sweet Tent

I’d like to welcome you to my home!  This was it this past summer in Malawi.  Some nights I almost couldn’t wait to crawl inside it and curl up on my air mattress and soak in the night sounds.  In Zambia two years it ago, it was soooo cold at night that I dreaded “lights out”.  This year, despite being the neighbor to the east of Zambia, the Malawi nights were relatively warm.  Perhaps this was due to the proximity to Lake Malawi?

Despite its relatively small size, I was still able to often lose fairly important articles inside of it.  I lost my toothbrush once for almost a week.  You can’t just run down to the store to buy a new one, ya know?  I finally had the time to tear everything apart and find it, but by then the brush and interior of the case had mildewed.  Pretty gross.  So, what do you do?  You pop it into a pot of boiling hot water!  Good as new…almost.  (ew)

Even though I was very comfortable at night I often did not sleep much.  If I got five hours of sleep I felt pretty lucky (this from a 9 or 10 hour a night sleeper).  Since I didn’t have much time to myself during the days, I decided to embrace my sleeplessness and enjoy the nighttime “solitude” in my little home.  I would spend the hours thinking, remembering, planning, and praying.  It’s funny where one’s brain goes when one is lying awake on top of an air mattress and sleeping bag listening to the distant waves of a lake on the shore with the bright African moon illumunating brightly when one is in the uttermost part of the earth…I’d get flight of ideas and wonder…

…how well would I be sleeping if my cat was here with me…(and then I’d miss her)…

…will anyone puke tonight?…(and I’d pray not)…

…are the dogs in my “kitchen” again?…(and if they are, did I prepare well enough so they couldn’t rob me?)…

…are those REALLY waves I’m hearing?…

…if he has Aspberger’s…(or what?)…

…when the propane tank is going to run out, again…

…why the dusk malaria mosquitos are so small and the dawn dengue mosquitos SO HUGE…

…how much more food can I buy with the money I have left “in the food account”… and will there be anything more than sugar, tomatos, yams, oil, and eggs to be bought next time?…

…how it is possible that it’s going to be three years already since Connie died…(and then I’d miss her, too)

I would pray for whatever and whoever showed up in my mind and eventually I would drift off to sleep.  Occasionally I would dream.  But every morning, when I unzipped my tent and crawled out, I was met with the most brilliant skies reflecting off the lake and I’d forget how tired I was and I’d wrap myself in the beauty and wildness of it all.  And I’d wonder what I ever did to deserve this amazing life God had given to me…

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