We spend more; how come we don't live as long?
The U.S. is the most obese country in the OECD, leads in drug-related deaths and ranks 1st in prevalence of diabetes.
Health Care Costs for OECD Countries
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Here's to a long life ....
The U.S. is the most obese country in the OECD, leads in drug-related deaths and ranks 1st in prevalence of diabetes.
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Journalists
I'm disappointed sometimes by the public discourse. The media handles politics like they do sports, playing the high points like a super bowl narrative. That's not journalism, of course. Journalism, unlike most of our media sources, is objective, thorough, and fact-based. Opinions are rare and honestly admitted, interpretations are rare. These days, journalism itself is rare. Did you know that the U.S. ranks 45th for journalistic freedom. That's pretty far down the list.
Sources with journalistic integrity are perhaps rare. Reuters, the Associated Press, the Washington Post, perhaps ... others? Are there any whose agenda isn't driven by ratings and income? What should be our response?
Friday, February 1, 2019
Tantrum Tactics
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| Fractured! |
Wise parents will demonstrate for their children how to think clearly and interact reasonably, they insist on truth, and they lead by example. Irrational and unreasoned turmoil are the antithesis of a healthy family or community.
Imagine a family that, over the years, is split further and further apart over issues that could have and should have been resolved. Is a nation any different?
Now imagine a nation, divided over how one category of people should be treated. There's a high price for such refusal to grow up.
Mexicans are not the problem. Muslims are not the problem. Refugees are not the problem. And neither is NATO or China or the climate. Of course. Perhaps the central problem is our divisiveness. Perhaps if we were less opposed to each other, we might find solutions for what needs solving. If we were clear on the goals and less focused on winning, perhaps we might make progress. If we paid more attention to what works and less on our preference, we might see beneficial progress.
It makes you wonder, doesn't it. How's my own thinking on all of this.
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Tantrum tactics:
- Demand
- Escalate
- Attack back
- Malign, accuse, denigrate, assign motive
- Huff, puff, blow harder, lie, obfuscate
Best examples today ... Some Republicans and some Democrats (unfortunately, in positions of significant influence), and some two-year olds.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
We don't want Syria.
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| Years of civil war have cost the livelihood and lives of millions. |
~ Our president, 02 Jan 2019
Nothing there but sand and half a million who've died. And five million who've fled the country for their lives, leaving home and everything behind. And six million still inside the country who've been driven from their homes by the war. More than a thousand children were killed or injured just in the first two months of last year.
There's nothing there we care about there, nothing we need to be concerned about, at least according to this administration.
Having been welcomed into the homes of just a few like these, having met many of their children, I cannot begin to grasp what is behind such thinking.
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Truth, and the President
This is not criticism, just an objective observation and question.
He visited our troops in Iraq a few days ago and bragged at length about how he had gotten them a 10% pay raise, about how he had fought against others who had said it should be small. He went on to say they hadn't had a raise in ten years, so he'd fought on their behalf and won and given them a huge raise. He made similar claims at the Naval Academy in May, "First time in 10 years. We got you a big pay increase. First time in over 10 years. I fought for you. That was the hardest one to get, but you never had a chance of losing."
The claims in each case were false. The truth -- like every previous year, the military is getting their regular cost of living raise, 2.6% this year. There was no plan or discussion for a larger raise. Just one among many inaccurate statements on most major issues.
Update: 02 Jan 19 -- He claimed to have fired Secretary of Defense James Mattis. False. Mattis formally resigned in protest against policy decisions by the president.
The claims in each case were false. The truth -- like every previous year, the military is getting their regular cost of living raise, 2.6% this year. There was no plan or discussion for a larger raise. Just one among many inaccurate statements on most major issues.
Update: 02 Jan 19 -- He claimed to have fired Secretary of Defense James Mattis. False. Mattis formally resigned in protest against policy decisions by the president.
Recent analyses of his public comments indicate the rate of significant false statements by our president has increased from two or so per day during his first year to four or five times that number. Multiple sources are available for such review.
We all perhaps agree with some of the decisions he's made, but if facts and truth aren't part of the process, where does that leave us? I'm stumped trying to understand why an intelligent person would do that on virtually every significant issue, especially when he had advisors with facts available.
We all perhaps agree with some of the decisions he's made, but if facts and truth aren't part of the process, where does that leave us? I'm stumped trying to understand why an intelligent person would do that on virtually every significant issue, especially when he had advisors with facts available.
Objectively, what do we see?
Many are blindly accepting his statements.
Many are blindly accepting his statements.
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