LIVING WITH MCL

Who knows what the future will bring with Donald Trump as President of the United States. I'm sure there'll be lots of speculation, and the stock market will go through it's usual gyrations, but the truth is, no one can know with any certainty. Trump may walk back his rhetoric, and embrace true populist ideals. He was an enigma from the beginning, and now he has the ability to build on that, and possibly become one of the greatest presidents and world leaders in history. Let's just hope he doesn't squander that opportunity. One good takeaway from yesterday's election, Democrats did gain 3 seats in both the Senate and the House. It won't change the balance of power, but............... Either way, [Judy and] I will be OK, but as I've discovered throughout my life, it's not all about me! Stranger things have happened, right?

We had been planning to see a taping of Undateable Live for a few weeks now, and we actually made it there tonight, but on the way something awful happened. A terrorist attack in Paris. Now it might seem heartless of me to be thinking about my misfortune, having to wait over 2 hours for our driver ( the show was cancelled) ), to pick us up, when so many others are suffering an unimaginable fate, but it is what it is. If nothing else, this few hours has provided a lot of time to think [blog], what might have been, if it weren't for the likes of Republicans, and the spawning of the two individuals I blame most for the state of the world today, George W Bush, and Dick Cheney. Those two, in only 8 short years, managed to do more to destabilize the world, creating the chaos there is today, than anyone could have ever imagined. (What Saddam Hussein must be thinking now.) If anyone deserves blame for the carnage in Paris today, it is George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and they should b...

Do you believe everything you read on the internet? What if it comes in the form of an anonymous email? Do you give it more or less credence? Or maybe you give it the same credence. I don't give anonymous emails a passing thought, even when they come from friends or relatives. If there was any legitimacy to a particular position or theory, the person responsible should be proud to put their name to it? Unfortunately, not everyone believes as I do. Too many people are easily manipulated by confusing and misleading logic, delivered by slick individuals, whose only goal is to deceive, enrage and frighten others into doing their bidding. But then again, if you equate the use of money to free speech, and believe corporations are people, vitamins and supplements are food, and the stock market is anything other than the equivalent of a rigged roulette wheel or carnival game, then I guess you'll pretty much believe anything. I only hope the next time you get some anonymous email, or re...

I'm always mindful of that notable quote. A quote that so accurately reflects life, it's hard to forget. My favorite being The future is just a concept we use to avoid living today. Despite that being a quote by a fictional character, it's what Brenda said to Nate when they first met in the TV show  6th Feet Under , doesn't make it any less true, in fact, it might even make it a more compelling quote. The second is by Eric Hoffer , a moral and social philosopher who displayed particular insight into human nature, and that was In times of change learners will inherit the earth, while the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. While the latter depicts what I believe to be the perfect description of the state of affairs in the US today, here are two more quotes that come very close as well. The first one is by Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the most outspoken women in the white house, and attributed to dramatically changing ...

I know this is a little off topic, but living in the hotbed of the illegal immigration debate, I can't help but stray occasionally. For me, all this discussion about the reform of our immigration system, has brought to mind the movie Rollerball. Not the 2002 version, which was truly awful, and didn't make the point I want to bring up, but the original  1975 version , starring James Caan. The year is 2018. There is no crime and there are no more wars. Corporations are now the leaders of the world, as well as the controllers of the people. A violent futuristic game known as Rollerball is now the recreational sport of the world, with teams representing various areas competing for the title of champion. That is the plot line of Rollerball. Six corporations, energy, transportation, communication, housing, food and luxury in control of the world. I thought the movie was particularly compelling for the statement the team owner made to Jonathan (James Caan), when Jonathan commented ...

First it was my Facebook page, then it was my smart phone, and now it's the Internet I read in the latest AARP magazine, if you want a job you need a presence on the Internet. You need a Facebook account, Twitter account, Linked in account. etc. If you don't have a presence, your resume will likely be tossed. Say what? I can understand wanting employees to be competent in the use of a computer, and adept at navigating the internet, but requiring someone be connected to one or more of the myriad of social media networks. That's just not right! The use of the internet has grown too far, expanding far beyond its original intent, which was to ensure an unbroken line of communication during times of war, and morphing into something far more sinister. Some might even consider dangerous. The internet has managed to integrate itself into the very fabric of our society, and is being used by all the worlds governments and large corporations, to gather information about all of us with...

Here's a headline I thought interesting. U.S. millionaire count reaches 9 million Now whether you think the number of millionaires in the US (2.9% of the population) is relevant or not, you should at least be concerned by the fact nearly 90% of the population has a net worth of less than $100,000. (I wonder how many of those households have a net worth of $0?) I find that number very disturbing, as well as puzzling, considering the path many of our political leaders are trying to lead us down, and the number of Americans who support them. But what might be the most troubling is who is this Spectrem Group , why is it they know how much money I have, and what else do they know about me? Hmmm!

You have to be asleep to believe it. George Carlin saw the writing on the wall 7 years ago. I realized it a year later at a time when immigration started being a hot topic. I even blogged about it back then . (George Carlin just does a better job.) So why is it so many in this country are blind to it? Still!

A friend is admitted to the hospital. He was experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains extending down his arms. Obviously the signs of a heart attack or an impending one. Doctors do a complete work up on him. He's diagnosed with mitral valve stenosis and needs a valve replacement [maybe 2]. One problem is his kidneys aren't functioning properly, a possible complication of his diabetes, which is causing some concern to the doctors. Anyways, there's a lot of discussion amongst the doctors, and it's decided his condition isn't urgent. So he's sent home to recover, under a nurse's monitoring, until his kidney function improves, and his condition can be further evaluated. So now that I've set the stage, you can pretty much forget everything I just mentioned, because it's what comes next that is so disturbing. Upon my friend's release, he's prescribed a number of medications, one of which is a blood thinner, Lovenox, although the name of dr...

To borrow a little something from Ronald Reagan, Social Media isn't the solution to our problems, Social Media is the problem! I know this may sound eerily similar to my previous post , but because of some well deserved criticism, I feel compelled to issue a clarification of my position. It isn't the internet or technology that I am against. There is no doubt the Internet has played an important role in society, even beyond its original intent of ensuring uninterrupted lines of communications for the military. It's the Social Media applications that have spawned from the internet that I am against. it's the principle reason I dropped my Facebook account awhile back, and more recently my smartphone.  I believe [next to religion] Social Media is the biggest cause of the problems we are currently facing in this country today. Because of Social Media, we spend less time interacting personally with each other, preferring such faceless applications as Facebook, Twitter and ev...

To borrow a little something from Ronald Reagan, the Internet isn't the solution to our problems, the Internet is the problem! I've believed this for quite awhile, and it is the principle reason I dropped my Facebook account awhile back, and more recently my smartphone. It's not that I'm [completely] against technology, but I do think [next to religion] it's the biggest cause of the problems we are experiencing in the country today, i.e. divisiveness, intolerance, mistrust etc. Because of the Internet, we no longer interact personally with each other, preferring such faceless applications as Facebook, Twitter and even blogs to express our thoughts. Even talking on the phone has declined as we switch more to texting and email. Because of the Internet, we have become detached from our fellow human beings, no longer interacting with people in the ways that brought us closer together in the past. Instead we're driven apart by the increased use of email and caller I...

Today I learned, Lance Armstrong, the most drug tested athlete in the history of sport, is being accused of doping, again . This time by the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA), who claim they have collected blood samples from him in 2009 and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” Really! What took them so long? The French have been trying to make allegations of drug doping stick for years, ever since he won his first Tour d'France, but to no avail. And now the USADA claims to have evidence to support that claim, and they've waited almost 3 years before releasing this evidence. Needless to say, I am skeptical. Then there's this from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO): Increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack eventually would increase Medicare and Social Security spending, slightly. Eventually? What is the CBO suggesting here? That we should encourage smoking, because if we don't, in...

If you're one of the 27% of Americans defined as having had a serious illness, medical condition, injury, or disability requiring a lot of medical care, or who had been hospitalized overnight in the past 12 months, you probably don't think very highly of it. In a  poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR, and Harvard School of Public Health , of those 27% of Americans ...... more than 40 percent say that the cost of their medical care over the last 12 months has caused a “very serious” (20%) or “somewhat serious” (23%) problem for their or their family’s finances. ............One in six sick Americans say that there was a time in the past 12 months when they could not get the medical care they needed (17%). Among the sick Americans who could not receive care, 52 percent report that it was because they could not afford the needed care, and 24 percent say it was because their insurers would not pay for it . Lastly, about one in ten sick Americans (11%) report bei...

So far, this has been a lousy year. It started out with a cold in January, putting me out of commission for 10 days, followed by another cold in April, putting me out for another 10 days, and as if that wasn't enough, I needed (a slightly more than expected) minor surgery this past week which has now left me with a fear of excess exposure to the sun. On top of all that my mind has just been awash with so many other things as well, e.g. my wife , my spleen, health care, politics, etc. I can't seem to keep anything straight in my mind. My thoughts are all a jumble, and I have difficulty articulating them, even during conversations on things I'm passionate about. Then I spend all my time afterwards fretting over what I should have, but didn't say at the time. I thought retiring would be a lot more relaxing. No more dealing with the daily routine of work, and all the hassles that went along with it. Instead, I could just do whatever I wanted, whenever I chose to do it. But...

You'd think yesterday's death of a police chief, 8 days from retirement in New Hampshire , would finally shock everyone to that reality [although I doubt it], and realize what a colossal waste of lives and resources the war on drugs has been for this country. Resources that would be better spent insuring everyone in this country had easy access to high quality, reasonably priced health care. We learned it in 1933, when congress finally repealed the  18th amendment which tried to prohibit the sale and use of alcohol, but did nothing more than lead to a near complete breakdown of law and authority, and expand the influence of organized crime, that to this very day still wreaks havoc and generates corruption at all levels of society. So why can't we learn it now? It's still taught in school isn't it? Why after 40+ years haven't we figured out what a colossal waste of valuable resources and lives the war on drugs has been. While the breakdown of law and authority h...

I had a few moments, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts that were on my mind this morning (for whatever reason), as I contemplated the ten years since my diagnosis with MCL. How is it possible I've managed to survive all this time without ever having received any treatment, and so many others have not? Am I so unique? Are there others who have gone as long or longer? I sure would like to know. Everybody has good moments and bad moments, but it's the ability to learn from those bad moments, and not dwell on them, that separates greatness from not so great. And finally, with all the talk about the Supreme Courts deliberations over the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), I was wondering. Why is it unconstitutional to force people to purchase health insurance, yet not unconstitutional to force health care providers to provide free health care to individuals in cases of emergency (reference the EMTALA )? Is it because emergency room care isn't health care, as someone rec...

For anyone who is of the misguided belief the US government has any more control over gasoline and oil prices than they have over other commodities, allow me to introduce you to the little known concept of supply and demand. It sort of goes like this. When demand exceeds supply, prices go up, and companies increase production to fill the void. When the opposite is true, and supply exceeds demand, prices fall, and companies cut back on production. Eventually a point of equilibrium is reached, and prices stabilize. It's a simple concept, and it's what free market economics is based upon. It's what drives businesses to expand or contract, to invest or divest. So why is it so many people have a hard time grasping that concept when it comes to energy prices? What makes people think we can just tell large, independent, global, multinational corporations, such as Exxon-Mobil, BP etc. to drill for more oil in the US (without considering supply/demand dynamics), and they will immedi...

Two years ago, when I got my DroidX, I was all excited. The thought of being able to log on to the internet where ever I was, having access to GPS, my Kindle books, a camera etc. all in one convenient, compact device, seemed like a good idea, maybe even necessary and important. But now I'm not so sure. When I think about it, is it really worth $30 per month ($60 if you add in my wife's Droid), to have access to the internet everywhere, especially when you consider I'm already spending $40/month for wifi access at home? I hardly ever use it, except when I am at home, and I'm too lazy to go get my laptop to check whatever it is I feel is so necessary to check. And why do I need a Kindle or camera on the phone, neither of which is a good substitute for the real thing? The GPS may be about the only thing that is a good idea, but is it worth $30/month, considering how little I use it? We have become slaves to technology. We've been brain washed into thinking we need to s...

I was thinking last night (I do that whenever I have trouble sleeping), and I've come to the realization, in the nearly 10 years since my diagnosis with MCL (when I was personally awoken to the issue of cancer), there has been a lot of research done, and too many to fathom clinical trials performed, yet there has been very little [monumental] advancement in the way we deal with and treat cancer. We've managed to map the entire human genome . We've even come close to discovering the causes of [at least one] cancer , yet there is still no cure, and our approach to treating cancer remains, as it has been for the past 50+ years, to do nothing more than infuse deadly chemicals into the body, in hopes of destroying the cancerous cells. Even one of the biggest advances recently in the treatment of lymphoma, has been the reemergence of Bendamustine , an alkylating agent developed in East Germany in the 1960's. Yeah, there have been strides made in the use of stem cell transplan...

I blogged on this topic about a year ago, but after watching the video below, and considering everything going on in the country now, I thought it was worth repeating. I even learned a few things I didn't know before. Admittedly it isn't much, but it is something, and 'you never know'. At the very least maybe it could help save the US Postal Service from additional cuts . Just doing my part!