Ready, Set

Aging is a biologic mechanism, not a natural consequence of time. It is programmed into cells and may have not always have been so. Scientists have recently identified a billion-year-old mechanism that appears to regulate aging in mice and other animals - perhaps even humans. Now this begs the question, why did such mechanisms, why did aging, evolve? Put another way what is the evolutionary advantage to aging and death?

Evolution is based on random genetic mutation and survival of the fittest.The system would favor limiting lifespan so as to make way for subsequent generations as a way to promote genetic adaptation to changing environments. Aging and death then would favor survival of the species as a whole.

But what if a species could learn to manipulate its own genetic apparatus so as insure adaptation perhaps in ways 'nature' could never concoct. What purpose aging then? Good question since this is our fate.

It is highly likely we will learn how to stop or reverse aging. We already know that blocking key steps in the aging mechanism in both animal and human studies reduces the incident of age related illnesses - diabetes, certain cancers, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, heart muscle degeneration, and macular degeneration. It is likely then that 'curing' the aging process will result in better health, energy, and outlook making living longer pleasurable, providing a 'physical' youth and a brain elastic, energized and receptive to experience tempered only by what we do to each other and the boundless human capacity for self harm.

There probably is no good reason not to extend life and 'cure' the aging process. Here's the thing - this is likely to occur in your or your children's lifetime.

Are you ready?

Doctors All

They wear 19th century costumes, saturate and separate themselves with tradition and noble intent
Drawn to a profession of costume, false prestige and rewards for having a good memory
many lack an intuitive sense of people - a wisdom if you will
I find many of them two dimensional and entirely too level headed
lacking in depth and just as judgmental
They confuse good memory for intelligence and as in many professions reward the ability to dazzle and dance and all that attracts rather than skill and inherent ability
And then there are the few
Those precious few, stunning in their ways, their talents and keenness of mind
Those that possess what can never be taught - those that can make all the difference
Those that I strive to be like
Taken as a whole they do the very best they can
Without them many of you would be lost
Despite their shortcomings, perhaps because of them when taken in context of what they can collectively accomplish
I am oh so glad to know them
Doctors all

No Where To Go But Up

People have been underestimating me my entire life.
Makes for fine ambushing.

The Future of You

Over the next few decades our intelligence will become increasingly non-biological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today. We will witness the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity.
An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common sense "intuitive linear" view. So we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today's rate).  Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence; leading to technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and non-biological intelligence, immortal software-based humans with ultra-high levels of intelligence that will reside within the fabric of space-time itself.
(As paraphrased from unknown author)

An Utter Failure

The last of the US troops have left Iraq.
What they left is an Iraq heavily infiltrated by Iranians, with inadequate protection for those that helped us that we left behind, with deeply divided religious factions hostile to each other, in a backdrop of rampant unemployment, poverty, and a lack of life's basic necessities.
What they have left behind is a ticking time bomb.
When it blows those on the right will point to the ensuing fiasco as justification for staying indefinitely, and an indictment of Obama for having left - instead of what it is - the final last proof that the entire invasion was a mistake and ultimately, an utter failure.

Stay Tuned

Last night the last of the US troops left Iraq.
Over 100,000 lives lost, a million displaced from their homes, at a cost of over a trillion dollars.
Tell me again what we accomplished?
A free Iraq?
A more prosperous Iraq?
A safer world?

10000 years of brutality

Imagine a world where European explorers coming to the Americas were the sort of people who sought out the indigenous peoples and asked them what these lands were called.

A Two Party Mirage

Judging by the quality of the candidates the republican leadership has put in place in the run for president I'm not at all sure they care if Obama wins or loses.
What does that say as to how the republican agenda has fared these last four years?
What does that say about Obama?

Bureaucracy and you

 "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it"...Henry David Thoreau 

In our lifetimes

There is coming a day where we will possess the knowledge to manipulate genetic machinery in each and every individual cell in our bodies.
As a result aging will be halted if not reversed - no doubt - as aging is in fact a process - a programmed biologic process that can be halted, even reversed.
There is coming a day when in-vivo regeneration of diseased and/or injured organs will be commonplace.
A day when all disease will be cured or at the least halted and cells repaired.
And so there is coming a day where we can expect to live on average 800-1000 years - a life expectancy  based on the odds of suffering a devastating accident.
This is not science fiction. Not wishful thinking. This according to most scientists is fact.
And it very well may occur in your lifetime.
Your lifetime.
Are you ready?

Intensive care: Do no harm

Published: Saturday, December 10, 2011, 11:17 AM

By Guest Columnist Charlie Phillips

Three of 10 males and 2.7 of 10 females will suffer a critical illness before age 65. As our baby-boomers come of age this then represents a paradigm shift in health care delivery in this country. We expect to see huge numbers entering intensive care units in the next two decades, something as a physician specializing in critical illness gives me great pause. It does so not just because of the strain it will place on our resources but the focus it puts on the limitations of critical care medicine itself. Unrealistic expectations as to our ability to heal abound both within the medical community and in the public at large. I see the potential for a lot of unnecessary human suffering, as well as wasted resources, due in large part to these expectations and our approach to critical illness in general.

There is no conquering of disease in critical illness, although many have trouble grasping that - caregivers and the public alike. About the best we can do is promote health - allow the body time to heal itself - and even that we do poorly. Critical illness is in large part an iatrogenic disorder - almost everything we do causing complication and at least some degree of harm in these very fragile patients. This should give pause and insight into the crudeness of our tools and humble - deeply humble. Unfortunately it only too often, does not. Despite persistently abysmal outcomes and the degree of human suffering our interventions cause to all involved - many in medicine and the public at large find a way to remain impressed with the machines, the drugs, the approach to illness - with themselves and their ability to control, to alter, to do. But whether our interventions are influenced by ego or 'kindness' it simply cannot be forgotten that everything we do - everything - has the potential to harm.

Until the day arrives where our tools match the complexity of human pathophysiology and can actually heal we simply must remember how crude our tools and our ability to heal really are. We must always remember we possess the ability to prolong the dying process and to increase human suffering unnecessarily. We are not here to conquer disease, conquer pain, conquer suffering - we are here to - with humility and respect for our limitations - promote health and limit harm. We should do so aggressively and with all our effort when appropriate. But we should also always know there will be times where that will not be enough and to recognize when it is time to stop.

Charlie Phillips lives in Southwest Portland.

Primum non nocere

3 of ten males and 2.7 of ten females will suffer a critical illness before age 65. As our baby-boomers come of age this then represents a paradigm shift in health care delivery in this country. We expect to see huge numbers entering intensive care units in the next two decades, something as a physician specializing in critical illness gives me great pause. It does so not just because of the strain it will place on our resources but the focus it puts on the limitations of critical care medicine itself.

There is no conquering of disease in critical illness. About the best we can do is promote health - allow the body time to heal itself - and even that we do poorly. Critical illness is in large part an iatrogenic disorder - almost everything we do causing complication and at least some degree of harm in these very fragile patients. This should give pause and insight into the crudeness of our tools and humble - deeply humble.

Until the day arrives where our tools match the complexity of human pathophysiology and can actually heal we simply must remember how crude our tools and our ability to heal really are.  We must always remember we possess the ability to cause harm, to prolong suffering and the dying process. We are not here to conquer disease, conquer pain, conquer suffering - we are here - with humility and respect for our limitations - to promote health and limit harm. We should do so with all our effort when appropriate. But we should also always know there will be times where that will not be enough and to recognize when it is time to stop.

Occupy and the Sleeping Giant

Bill O'Reilly has declared the Occupy movement dead. Of course Bill has always had trouble distinguishing reality from wishful thinking. He has suffered from magical thinking at times - thinking he can create reality just from his pronouncements alone. The day after his declaration 1,000 Occupy protestors marched in New York. As of November 26 the meet-up page "Occupy Together" listed 2,668 Occupy communities worldwide.

I don't know how long the occupy movement in its present form will continue but here's what I do know:

400 individuals in the US now possess the same amount of wealth as 150 million Americans combined. Their effective federal income tax rate fell from about 30 percent in 1995 to 18 percent in 2008, the most recent data available. The top 1% of the richest Americans have enjoyed a 300% increase in income in the last thirty years of trickle-down economics. Middle class America, in that same time, has had zero growth. Something is trickling down - but it’s not wealth or even opportunity. 

Thirty top corporations paid no tax last year. The Supreme Court has declared that corporations are individuals and money is free speech. Our republican leadership, with a straight face; demand extension of tax breaks for the most wealthy, and huge subsidies to oil companies despite them having recently reported quarterly profits of approximately 8.5 billion dollars each - each - all the while demanding cuts in social spending as a means to 'fiscal responsibility'. 

We have suffered ten years of undeclared war at a cost of over 1.2 trillion dollars - money that goes not just to bombs and bullets but into the pockets of those that make them, war profiteers all. If you counted one dollar every second, 24 hours a day, it would take you 40 years to just count that much money. In the meantime our bridges and roads and rail are crumbling. Our schools in decline. The gulf between the haves and have-nots widening. Hunger and poverty increasing - 43 million of your fellow Americans now live in poverty, 15 million in severe poverty. 

8-10 million American families stand to lose their homes as a result of the sub-prime-mortgage/derivative/world recession fiasco. Despite this - nothing has changed, the crooks responsible completely free to do it all again.

Occupy protesting? Mild compared to what could happen when the people finally wake up to the colossal rip off put in place by 30 years of trickle-down economics, cronie capitalism, government corruption-dysfunction and corporate control.  Millions have suffered. There is a sleeping giant out there. Continue the unbelievable greed and corruption and it will wake. Continue to fix the game in attempts to channel all the wealth to the few and it will wake. For some in wall street, big banks, and government I’d be listening very carefully for the footsteps - even if Bill O'Reilly pronounces they are not really there.

Geneva in Vain

Charles Krauthammer's column published 10/29/11 in The Oregonian expresses justification for the manner of Gaddafi's death at the hands of the rebels. Apparently because he’s a bad guy that gives justification to the NATO backed rebel forces in sodomizing, torturing, and then murdering him. He had his chance to leave. “Call it the Gadhafi Rule: Give it up and go, or one day find death by "Libyan crossfire” – a temple to temple bullet shot point blank across the skull. “Followed by a Libyan state funeral. That's when you lie on public view for four days, half-naked in a meat locker” Krauthammer gleefully writes, blood curling down from his lower lip.

How are we to distinguish between the rebels and Gaddafi if they are willing to do this to an unarmed man - without due process - and then display his body publicly for days against sacred Muslim law? We support these people - this reflects on us as well. As does the manner of death of Osama Bin Laden and others. Is this really how we want it to go?  

To people like Krauthammer apparently so. I would very much want to ask Mr. Krauthammer and all the other blood thirsty people like him - where is your honor? Where is your humanity? There are rules of conduct in war - they are hard earned coming out of the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Apparently, Mr. Krauthammer has no use for them – and for that he and those like him should be deeply ashamed.

2019: Charles Krauthammer is dead now and cannot defend himself. The above was written while he was alive. I leave it here now for despite his death, his words live on. His words will forever leave a stain on his legacy, and on his decedents, for which there is no defense, and no forgetting.  An eye for an eye will never be a pathway to peace, or to our collective humanness. It may feel good at the moment, but Charles’s words harmed and diminished us all.  

Is George Will Short?

George Will says in his column as published October 30, 2011 .."Obama, a floundering naif who thinks ATMs aggravate unemployment, is bewildered by a national tragedy of shattered dreams, decaying workforce skills and forgone wealth creation."

Am I alone in suffering an overwhelming urge to just pop this smug, arrogant, horse's pitute right in the kisser? Bam! I mean really? Does he forget it is the ultra-conservatives he so smugly represents and their 30 years of trickle down economics that created what 'bewilders' Obama in the first place?

George uses a unique and at times eloquent writing style to spew forth this sort of dribble. His talent - the gift of gab - but minus the wisdom or even common sense his grandiosity demands. Always smug, always arrogant, always trying to impress - leaving one not so much impressed as annoyed, and left asking - what is wrong this guy?

A Better Place

The Nuremberg trials following WWII set the stage for the healing of Europe and in many ways helped usher in a new age of peace and prosperity that included post war Germany. Joseph Stalin had advocated the summary execution of 50,000-100,000 German officers – skipping the whole messy system of due process – his brand of justice. But the peoples of Europe and the US chose instead open trials, this despite the fact that the actions of many of the defendants had led to the deaths of at least 40 million people, having committed unbelievable atrocities along the way.  While far from perfect the trials did result in acquittal and jail sentences for many – a far cry from the Stalin plan. Of the 22 defendants accused of the most serious crimes, 3 were acquitted, seven received prison sentences, and twelve sentenced to death. The Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremberg Principles, the Convention on the Abolition of the Statute of Limitations on War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, the Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War, and the establishment of a permanent international criminal court all resulted in large part to the principles and spirit that came out of  Nuremberg.  

Examining the manner of death the US or those it supports has chosen for many in Al Qaeda – execution by drone aircraft, for Osama Bin laden – shot point blank with two lethal shots while standing in his bedroom unarmed, and now for Muammar Gaddafi - beaten, shot and then dragged through the streets, it appears we have little use of the international court, or for that matter international law. Instead we have chosen summary execution, without due process, without humanity, or even basic decency. We have in effect chosen the Stalin plan.

Do not mistake this as sympathy for those we have murdered. It instead stems from a deepening sadness at what we do to ourselves and to humanity in general each time we or those we support go down this path. We are supposed to be better than this, better than them. These actions only serve to add to the hate, the anger, the inhumanity of our very fragile world. It is time to address the reasons for terrorism, and evil, and hate and do something about it. It is time we led the world to peace and fairness and stop using military might as a form of world ‘diplomacy’. It is time we again set a shining example of decency and the best humanity has to offer. It is time we lead this world to a better place.

Crime and Punishment

The wall street protestors are not protesting against wall street or the big banks or the government per se. They are instead protesting the dishonesty, corruption, and breath-taking greed of some within these institutions. They protest because the game is fixed and it is America - the poor and middle class - that pays the price, and they are tired of it.

Millions have lost their homes, their retirement funds, their jobs as a direct result of the unbelievable greed and corruption of wall street, big banks, and government. Where are the consequences? Where is the fairness? Millions suffer while these corrupt few - thrive. And no, they do not thrive because they are the better capitalists. They thrive because they are corrupt to the core and at least as greedy. They thrive because they are abetted by a dysfunctional government. They thrive because they have no shame.They gather wealth by deliberately destroying the lives of others. One has only to look at the current mortgage/derivative/world recession debacle to confirm that. They are successful, not through hard work and cleverness, but instead by fixing the game and breaking the law. No, they are not the smarter capitalists, they are just dirty, greedy crooks.

If I were them I'd take care when dismissing these current protesters as quirky, eccentric, fringe. For what is happening in fact reflects a deep frustration and discontent of the mainstream. Enough individuals are cheating at wall street, in big banks and our government to cause real harm to millions and everyone knows it. Up until now no one has done anything about it. For what they have done and continue to do they will eventually have to pay the price. What do you think destroying the lives of millions is worth?

Don't Ask Don't Tell - Get Over It

The evidence is overwhelming that sexual preference is hardwired at birth. We are born to respond to the shapes and appearances that we are hardwired to respond to. Some males will then find males more attractive. Some females will find females more attractive. Don't believe it? Look at peoples' response to infants. We are all hardwired to respond to the infant shape, the infant face - in fact almost any mammalia infant will tug at our hearts strings. We didn't learn that - it's hard wired. As is sexual preference.

We know who we are attracted to - it's not something that has to be taught. They tell us that is the result of complex brain interactions and function centered on things like facial symmetry. It's for sure alot more complicated than that - but for sure it's hardwired. As is sexual preference.

There is a heterogeneity to this. It's not - your attracted to males or your attracted to females. There are shades of gray. Homophobes probably have more gray than they can handle. These feelings threaten. Feeling threatened makes people angry. Probably most people are hardwired to respond primarily to the opposite sex. But this does not make other preferences 'unnatural'.

Being gay is just being who you are. It's not unnatural, or deviant, or the result of being oversexed, or evil, or godless, or mentally ill - although after putting up with what society puts you through for being born gay one could certainly feel that way at times. Gays are gay - born that way. Get over it.

Class Warfare - The Robber Cries Foul

According to many in politics balancing the budget, fiscal responsibility and the health of our economy is not and should not be the concern of the wealthy. Any attempt to get wall street, banks, corporations or the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share into the community chest is now, according to them, class warfare. This is not class warfare. That is a distraction, a lie, told by the very people that helped put us in our current recession in the first place. A lie told in order to deflect attention from their greed.

The world's economies are broken. At its most basic one has only to look at the US to understand why - greed, corruption, and lack of oversight. Greed begets money. Money begets corruption and political influence. Corruption begets ineffective or non existent oversight. And that is exactly what caused this current recession. If you sell mortgages to people who can't afford it - lying about their ability to pay -  in effect preying on them; and then package those mortgages into something you can trade on wall street, illegally awarding AAA status along the way; and if you then bet for these packages to both succeed and fail; and then, when the entire house of cards falls, you pull out the 'we are to big to fail' card, causing the government to just hand over billions - no strings attached - of the masses money - your money, my money - and give it to the very few, unbelievably greedy that caused all this mess in the first place - what do you get? Our current recession. And now when asked for a little of it back - class warfare? - really?

400 people in the US now possess the same amount of wealth as the all the people in bottom half of economic scale - combined. The game is fixed. Governments and the media are controlled by this extreme concentration of wealth and influence. The final result is the greatest transfer of wealth from the masses to the very, very few since feudal Europe and a lot of human suffering.

If the people have no money they cannot buy. If they cannot buy there are no sales. If there are no sales there are no jobs. If there are no jobs there is no money. If the people have no money...

It is the perfect storm - the current recession - all courtesy of the greedy and corrupt. Class warfare? Robber just crying foul.

Go Electric

And now the popular 'cool' alternative mind-set is that electric cars aren't green. The production of the electricity to charge the cars results in the same amount of pollution as gasoline powered cars. And oh yes - the carbon released in making the car negates any benefit to global warming.
Wrong.
None of this is true.
Plug-in electrics are responsible for about 30% fewer climate-changing greenhouse gases than conventional gasoline-powered cars, even if the electric vehicle is charged with a coal-fired power plant, according to a joint study by the Natural Resources Defense Council environmental group and the utility industry-sponsored Electric Power Research Institute. That is because they are considerably more efficient than gasoline or diesel powered cars. And if you live in a state like Oregon that uses 55% hydroelectric for its electricity production that figure can exceed 75% less. Not to mention the particulates, and poisonous gases NOT coming from theses cars non-existent tailpipes.
Can you imagine Tokyo or Los Angeles without pollution from tailpipes???

Great Minds

'If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research.'  
Paraphrasing Albert Einstein (once again)

We The People

The problems of today are global.

The solutions are global as well.
The real problems of today - global warming, massive environmental harm, unfair labor practices and corrupt and dysfunctional world economies resulting in unrelenting poverty and limited opportunity, even joblessness in the US - are not to be solved locally in an endless, useless head bash of democrat vs. republican. It is not about a two party congress. It's not about the executive. It's not about parliament or even the EU.
It's about worldwide influence and power through massive wealth and the promise of even more wealth on a global scale.

Multinational corporations figured that out long ago. They adopted a worldview long ago. And now their wealth, their power comes from an entire world's resources.
No wonder they control so much of our government, and all the others. In their pursuit of profit for their shareholders they look globally to the cheapest labor, the cheapest energy, the least amount of taxes, and the least amount of interference.

At its roots it is about the greatest transfer of wealth from the masses to the very, very few in human history, resulting in  unnecessary and unbelievable human suffering and environmental damage along the way. In their pursuit of profit multinational corporations guarantee unfair labor practices in Indonesia, massive industrial pollution and environmental damage in China and worldwide, the outsourcing of US jobs and eventually our way of life, colossal military spending with its resultant loss of life, destruction, and waste, and on and on. Their pursuits necessarily include the corruption of every major government in the world in order to limit interference and to promote their agendas - to the point of such dysfunction that the world's governments cannot and or will not fix these problems. As just one example, how can our government, in its current state, ever effectively deal with a problem such as global warming that will not make its effects entirely known for another 30 years? The solution would require restraining corporate activity worldwide - interfering with their profit making - something our politicians haven't the will or even the mechanisms to do.

But how can we effectively fight these things?
By going global ourselves.
By fighting for workers rights in Indonesia we protect our jobs here.
By fighting massive coal burning in China we help save the planet while keeping our manufacturing jobs from being outsourced to this land of 'cheap' destructive energy .
By resisting the use of military might in hegemonic agendas and as a form of stunted, unimaginative, geopolitical strategy, we save the lives of millions while directing otherwise wasted funds to improving all of our lives.

To do so we must organize - globally.
We, like multinational corporations, must adopt a worldview.
We must found and grow a multinational corporation of our own. We the people.
Its purpose to address the major problems of the day in ways our governments can't or won't.
We found, organize, and direct a worldwide cooperative effort dedicated to balancing the destructive power of multinational corporations and corrupt and/or dysfunctional governments. A MoveOn.org if you will - but on a truly international level.

It all begins with the simple, quiet step of organizing and marketing our mission through the internet. It gains momentum through the hopes, dreams, aspirations and goodwill of millions worldwide. Hundreds of millions worldwide. It gains effectiveness with the hiring and organizing of some of the world's greatest minds using the early donations of a worlds population ready for change. Lawyers, economists, business experts, politicians, health experts, environmentalists - their imaginations and hearts captured at the prospect of actually making a difference in a massive, worldwide effort. The power of 100's of millions of dollars donated from average people everywhere - a Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec group, BP, a Chevron if you will - but dedicated, not to profit, but instead to the betterment of the peoples of the world and to the world itself.

Too big thinking? Dreaming?
People are ready to fight back.They are ready to give their money, their hearts, their energy - if only they believe it will make a difference. Our job is to simply begin. To provide the organization and expertise to capture peoples hopes and trust. Give them a real tool for change. Give them that, and they will come. Give them that and it begins to get better.

I can see my bank accounts from my house

And just why is it Sarah Palin isn't running for President?
Could it be as simple as she would have to give up speakers fees and TV deals the moment she declares and doesn't want to?
Sarah quit her Alaskan Governorship mid term to get on this gravy train.
14 million dollars later I imagine its very hard for her to get off.
All that and all she has ever done is desert the State of Alaska midterm and fail in a run for the Vice-Presidency.
Sarah was never a politician. Never willing to do her homework in order to develop vision and clear agenda.
Her main vision, wealth and fame for herself.
Not declaring her run for Presidency marks the beginning of the end for Sarah.
So long Sarah. Can't say its been great.

An incomprehensible aberration

"May the conscience and the common sense of the peoples be awakened, so that we may reach a new stage in the life of nations, where people will look back on war as an incomprehensible aberration of their forefathers!"..Albert Einstein, 1950

Broken Scales

Published: Wednesday, August 03, 2011, 8:00 PM

By Letters to the editor 
 
All this noise and chatter about balancing the budget.
Hand waving nonsense.
Neither republicans or democrats serious about 'balancing the budget', this is political grandstanding and an opportunity to promote ideology and greed.
The republican extreme right wants to dismantle the government, or so they say.
The mainstream republicans are looking to undo the new deal so as to continue the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-rich the world has ever seen.
The democrats - too busy protecting their individual pet projects to even make it clear what they want.
Blah, blah blah, blah
And oh, by the way - the budget is still not balanced.

Give Peace a Chance

Listen to the soft echos of your childhood. The gentle laughter and joy as you prepare for Halloween. Your early morning wonder at discovering the Christmas tree - Santa Claus. Summers at the beach, camping with your family. Your hopes and dreams and loves. Your joy. Now know that this is your childhood, and the childhood of children that lived in Soviet Russia.

When I was a child I was taught by teachers, parents and my society to fear Russia. I was taught to hide under desks in the face of Russia's great dark evil. I was taught to hate Russia and Russians. I was not taught that the children of Russia were exactly as I was -  to include Halloween and yes, even Santa Claus. I was not taught of their humanness. Had I been - had we all been - it would have changed everything.

Today it is Muslims. Why do we hear so precious little of their humanness?

Ignorance, lies, deceit - the tools of hate and fear. I am ever so amazed as to how little truth it takes to dissolve it all. And to realize we are all one family on a very small, very fragile planet, indeed.

One World

Multinational corporations have but one main purpose - to make profit for their shareholders.
Patriotism, loyalty to the nation of their historical beginnings, encouraged, but only so far as it enhances, or at least does not interfere with, profit.

Worldwide then they will seek the cheapest labor pool with the fewest labor laws, the least environmental restraints, the cheapest raw materials, the cheapest energy, on and on.

In the long term then we have no choice but to raise the standard of living and quality of the workplace for everyone, everywhere.

We have no choice but to work to increase environmental awareness and protection, and develop sustainable clean cheap energy, worldwide.

If you're going to ignore working conditions in Indonesia - then you can expect to lose your job to corporate outsourcing to Indonesia.

If you're going to ignore massive expansion of coal burning as a source of cheap energy in China then be prepared to move there - because that's where your job is going. And be prepared to suffer the environmental consequences you will experience in your backyard.

It is indeed a small world, corporations have recognized this for years and long ago taken up a worldview in search of profit.

It's time for us all to adopt a worldview as well - for as never before has the welfare of each of us depends on the good of all, everywhere.

The ICU Manifesto

If critical illness itself is, in many instances, an intrinsically iatrogenic disorder shaped and defined by the same interventions used to sustain life, then we should always focus not on conquering disease but instead on promoting health.

Gone Golfing

We recently had an electrician come in and wire 8 new ceiling lights for us, with dimmers, place three cable TV outlets, and run some outdoor speaker wires.

Took him about 8 hours. $2200
That's about $180/hour after parts and overhead.
The average electrician makes anywhere from $70-140/hour.
Contrast that to an average intensive care nurse who after 10 years makes about $40/hour.
I personally make, as an intensive care physician, about $100/hour.
This after four years of college, four years of medical school, three years of in hospital training as a resident, two additional years to train to become an ICU specialist, and a $200,000 educational debt at the end to pay off.
I don't begrudge anyone their income.  I only mention electricians as just one example. Good for them.
But this perception that nurses and doctors and teachers are rolling in the cash with Wednesdays and/or summers off to frolic is just nonsense.

Few of us are looking for a raise - but a little appreciation after spending some time getting your facts straight would be nice.
In the meantime I'm left wondering what a part time career as an electrician would look like.

Cut, Cap, and Balance

In 2002 in response to warnings that growing budget deficits posed a threat to the economy then Vice President Dick Cheney said "...Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
The Republicans and their policies put us into this recession and set the stage for our record deficits. No doubt.
They now want to use the results of their own handiwork - the deficits - as an excuse to dismantle the new deal and destroy middle class America while further enriching the ultra-wealthy. They are ever willing to sacrifice infrastructure, education, health care for the average person, and social security while maintaining tax cuts and tax loopholes for the most wealthy - they after all, have their gated communities, their private schools, their corporate jets to pay for - and to heck with the rest of us.
They are ever willing and able to destroy this country in their greed.
They are flagged draped traitors. Do not be fooled. They will destroy this country, end the American dream, disfranchise the poor and middle class and suck us all dry in the process.
They will cut your standard of living, cap any chance of you getting ahead and tip the balance further towards the most wealthy amoung us.
Don't let them.

Persiennes

If it weren't for Venetian blinds it would be curtains for us all.

Sorry

Of Guns, Bullets, and Death

Ever wondered how defense contractors live? Here's just one example of where our 1 trillion dollars a year goes. The CEO of an average defense contracting company lives here in La Jolla.