That would be me and the obvious choice for name banning is the Republican candidate--not so much a brilliant decision but a welcome one for this writer. The god awful possibility that he may be our President is more than I have words for. Go ahead--close your eyes and imagine him in the White House as he prepares to meet with "Pocahontas"--oops I mean Elizabeth Warren. It simply does not compute; it is not imaginable. and yet....
Moving on:
--The computer system recently installed in the Partners system (which includes the "WORLD'S GREATEST HOSPITAL MGH which is an academic teaching hospital of the "WORLD'S GREATEST UNIVERSITY" HARVARD) cost 1.2 billion and is not working properly. I would guess they will figure out how to recoup some of that in their rate which is already the highest in the state. They will also find a way for their recent penile transplant to get covered. It took a staff of 50 and 15 hours of surgery to accomplish this REALLY IMPORTANT operation. Now I guess if I am the patient, I am very happy. But really, shouldn't they be more focused on some kind of community intervention?
--Speaking of insurance companies, I hate them. When you need them, you cannot find them. If you find them, you find out how limited your coverage really is. Then, whatever you can be covered for requires an unhealthy amount of time to get your check. And Bernie's notion of re-opening Obamacare so that we can have universal health coverage is right on intellectually. But it puts the whole shebang at risk and is not even worth discussing.
--Speaking of which (get the theme?), Bernie has to shut the fuck up and play nice. I for one am already prepared to blame him should that Republican candidate win. Hilary is being forced to focus on Bernie when she needs to focus more on November and her opponent. She was not totally blasted for her email snafu but it did not help. Give money to those Dems running for Senate.
--Speaking of which, the Supremes threw out the conviction of an African American man because of how discriminatory the jury selection process was. It was in one of those lousy southern states. The vote was 7-1 and you know who dissented--that would be Clarence who clearly has lost his mind. That Republican guy gave us a list of his possible nominees for the Supremes (which had been vetted by a couple of right wing advocacy groups)--all white men. No surprise but still scary.
--Baylor is a Baptist university in Waco, Texas. Their Athletic Department has the most disgusting hideous history of covering up sexual assaults of any place in the country. So bad, they just fired their football coach and their President. But I have not heard word one from the Baptists--those staunch purveyors of moral rectitude.
--The Israeli military leadership--both present and former--came out strongly against their new Defense Minister who is a right wing crazy person. But Netanyahu needs him in the coalition and so we get this guy who wants to invade the West Bank and blow up Iran. They badly need an election to at least tell us what the voters think.
--If you saw the National Spelling Bee, you know that this is a country of immigrants. The majority of finalists were kids of color. Maybe that Republican guy watched but probably not. If he did, his conclusion would likely be that we need more than one wall.
SPORTS TALK
--My Yanks may have the best bullpen in baseball. They are likely not to win a damn thing but yesterday I saw a bit of the game and those 3 relievers faced 9 batters and struck out 7--so dominant. Your Red Flops are playing out of their minds but I am not sure their pitching is strong enough.
--Hope Curry wins. Would love to see him and Lebron on the floor against each other.
Adios.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Sunday, May 15, 2016
IF PIGS COULD FLY AND OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY
If they could, the Globe would be right on top of it with their crack animal investigative team. This week the Globe reported (in large type) that a pig was euthanized. You might ask why--and, as usual, I am here to provide answers. The male bovine attacked his owners seriously enough that they were hospitalized. Yikes. Big Globe story number two: "the cost of dog-bite claims continues to rise". Really? I have not even scratched the surface and have to hold myself back from making this only about Globe animal stories. Meanwhile, their once excellent sports section does not even carry scores outside of the Eastern time zone.
What I will stop until after Labor Day is writing about the Donald--except of course for this one itsty bitsy tiny item. Today's front page of the Times features a long piece about his relationship with women. This was mainly how he both employs them in very visible serious places but, at the same time, de-humanizes them by saying out loud at meetings things about their looks, how hot they are, and how much they weigh. I quit on this shit until the end of the summer. By the way, a great piece in last week's times about why "Texas is just so Texas". A confession while on the topic of the Times: I cheat on the crossword puzzle but please do not cancel your subscription to this blog. I cannot help myself.
I cannot stand self congratulatory events. You know the ones where we all slap each other on the back on account of how wonderful we are and how great it is to work here. My synagogue just went through this process and I wanted to puke. We hired a senior Rabbi who happens to be a woman and are saying good bye to the previous person who is retiring. We are just terrific and are a role model for other synagogues and whoopee do. Except for the fact that most of the folks who contributed money (oh yeah, there was a fund raising piece to all this shit) never show up at services except for holidays. Their money apparently is their "observance". Good luck with that.
Odds and Ends:
--My nervousness has increased about the November election. We have decided to give money to tight Senate races in hopes that minimally the Dems can take back the Senate. Among those states are: NH, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Minnesota. One can only hope.
--Senator McCain's son is apparently married to an African American woman and has blasted fellow Republican critics who object to bi-racial ads. These critics have too much idle time to object to every fucking thing. Good for the Senator's son.
--BTW, there is an Old Navy ad which, among other couples, features two women who are obviously the parents of two gorgeous twins.
--We can all write off NC in the fall because they will all be in bathrooms checking anyone who might be using the wrong one.
--MGH. one of the Partner hospitals and the biggest one in the state, has been roundly defeated recently as it tried to buy up more hospitals in this state. So, it set its sights north and bought a hospital in NH--live free or die, I always say. Children's Hospital got in on the buying binge and bought itself a pediatric practice located north of NYC in the burbs. Each hospital argues that bigger means cheaper care which in most cases simply is not true and in many cases the opposite is true--it ends up costing more.
--The city of Austin is in a pissing match with Uber and Lyft. A close relative of mine who lives there says it is a complicated situation but even though she uses those services, she felt they were not on the side of the angels on this one. So a city vote kicked them to the curb.
SPORTS TALK
Ever see Arnoldis Chapman pitch? I know now why I quit Pony League when I was 14. I could not hit and was scared shitless of the pitchers. This Chapman threw 15 pitches when I was watching and none was under 95 mph--a couple were measured at 100. I would have dug a hole and jumped in. The NBA lottery is this week--go Celts.
Adios
What I will stop until after Labor Day is writing about the Donald--except of course for this one itsty bitsy tiny item. Today's front page of the Times features a long piece about his relationship with women. This was mainly how he both employs them in very visible serious places but, at the same time, de-humanizes them by saying out loud at meetings things about their looks, how hot they are, and how much they weigh. I quit on this shit until the end of the summer. By the way, a great piece in last week's times about why "Texas is just so Texas". A confession while on the topic of the Times: I cheat on the crossword puzzle but please do not cancel your subscription to this blog. I cannot help myself.
I cannot stand self congratulatory events. You know the ones where we all slap each other on the back on account of how wonderful we are and how great it is to work here. My synagogue just went through this process and I wanted to puke. We hired a senior Rabbi who happens to be a woman and are saying good bye to the previous person who is retiring. We are just terrific and are a role model for other synagogues and whoopee do. Except for the fact that most of the folks who contributed money (oh yeah, there was a fund raising piece to all this shit) never show up at services except for holidays. Their money apparently is their "observance". Good luck with that.
Odds and Ends:
--My nervousness has increased about the November election. We have decided to give money to tight Senate races in hopes that minimally the Dems can take back the Senate. Among those states are: NH, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Minnesota. One can only hope.
--Senator McCain's son is apparently married to an African American woman and has blasted fellow Republican critics who object to bi-racial ads. These critics have too much idle time to object to every fucking thing. Good for the Senator's son.
--BTW, there is an Old Navy ad which, among other couples, features two women who are obviously the parents of two gorgeous twins.
--We can all write off NC in the fall because they will all be in bathrooms checking anyone who might be using the wrong one.
--MGH. one of the Partner hospitals and the biggest one in the state, has been roundly defeated recently as it tried to buy up more hospitals in this state. So, it set its sights north and bought a hospital in NH--live free or die, I always say. Children's Hospital got in on the buying binge and bought itself a pediatric practice located north of NYC in the burbs. Each hospital argues that bigger means cheaper care which in most cases simply is not true and in many cases the opposite is true--it ends up costing more.
--The city of Austin is in a pissing match with Uber and Lyft. A close relative of mine who lives there says it is a complicated situation but even though she uses those services, she felt they were not on the side of the angels on this one. So a city vote kicked them to the curb.
SPORTS TALK
Ever see Arnoldis Chapman pitch? I know now why I quit Pony League when I was 14. I could not hit and was scared shitless of the pitchers. This Chapman threw 15 pitches when I was watching and none was under 95 mph--a couple were measured at 100. I would have dug a hole and jumped in. The NBA lottery is this week--go Celts.
Adios
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