Someone Needed

I need someone to read the latest Time Magazine article on healthcare sickcare - Bitter Pill.

It's too long for me....plus I've been vaccinated (successfully!) against that strain of Big Media garbage.

Reader Neil recommended I read it, but I'm too busy and just barely interested.

Just let me know if it's worth my time.

In search of a summary I came across a critique which concluded that the article proved "...that what is wrong with our health care system is not Medicare, it's the private sector."

Obviously I have even less time for something like THAT.

Thanks.

Two Sets of Rules - EVERYWHERE

Remember when Michael Jordan burst into the NBA?

I don't either. Bird and Magic were A LOT better.

But after a few years, this ball-hog was granted a license to repeatedly break the rules.

He was traveling and carrying the ball almost EVERY SINGLE TIME he dribbled.

The NBA didn't care. And all of a sudden poseurs on the playground took to those big loopy, ILLEGAL dribbles and that extra half step when driving.

Now take a look at Lebron James today.

Every single time he bounces the ball, he pushes the defender away with his off-hand. He's actually quite adept at it - does it almost in one rhythmic motion.

I mean the guy is a monster, tall and strong. And the ability to commit offensive fouls on each drive makes him even more of a monster on the court.

Now that I think of it....Shaq was allowed to step over the free throw line after each attempt/miss back in his day too.

Sweating Your Gut Off

Recently I mocked Morons and their thermostat habits - freezing up north, and AC'ing it too much in the south.

In fact one Floridian jabroni confessed to me that his heat goes on at 72 degrees!

One thing I can't stand is the way everyone down here blasts their air conditioner at all times. The worst offenders are, of course, bars and restaurants! (The waitstaff is hot from running around....so to arctic hell with the customers, apparently.)

It's so effin' cold in these eateries. Tonight at Pincher's I demanded a seat in the warmer climes of outside, far away from the darn AC.

There's no way that all this *conditioned air* is healthy, right?

I was sure it was right and one Google revealed that, yes, air conditioning at least make people FAT.

You see heat is a natural appetite suppressant....

So you do the math.

Of course AC also makes people *sicker* from germs and whatnot too.

A Few Things...

I haven't watched color TV outside of a Celtics or Patriots game in God knows how long.

BUT I caught that show last night on the tube and found it passable.

Having spent more than my share of time sitting, thinking in bars....I found this guy's insights pretty interesting.

On an another note...

Naples, Florida is truly a beautiful place. In four words it's sunshine, golf, Christians, and homeschooling. So there lurks considerable appeal to me!

BUT there are really no jobs - not for most people anyway, and not compared to larger cities (excepting Boston).

Of course that doesn't mean there's no economic opportunity here. There certainly is.

Guess what folks, the real estate market down here (as it is elsewhere) is getting a little bit bubbly yet again, in my estimation.

Sure, it's not like 2005.

But I heard a guy the other day talk about *buying lots for 600k, building for 600k,...and flipping for over $2 million* in the nicer sections of Naples. That's a pretty good deal if you can pull it off - even once. Building time is only like 7 months.

I went for a run this morning and in 5 blocks saw no less than at least 8 *spec*/*new* homes going up.

I maintain the worst is still yet to come for house prices. Eight years after the Floridian top we still haven't fallen. Places like NYC, Washington, and other pockets have not even really gone down more than a half a notch.

*Speculation* was the culprit before.

Now it's artificially manufactured low interest rates and an inflated stock market. Once the Dow takes a nosedive, all these fossils will shudder. The bull equity run has effectively distracted all the 'old coots' from their loss of *interest income*. They'll take more notice when stocks slide, as they have been known to do.

Think I'm crazy, still calling for a stock crash after all these years?

Well, then, stay long. Sleep tight.

Oh yeah, I also had a fossil in the building tell me that he bought his condo for 108k in 1997 or so.

And he quickly added that that was the price they sold for....BACK IN 1982, as well.

My cousin in Connecticut posted that pic on Fbook.

What do y'all know about *projectors*?

I need to buy one for my classroom teaching - I think.

I'd love to just be able to project questions up on a screen or a wall from my laptop instead of printing everything out. I basically kill entire forests, single-handedly with my math teaching.

Do any of y'all have one? What do you recommend I buy? Thanks in advance

My daughter last week, on Marco Island.

Eating Organic Drama

Amazingly, the Boston/NY blizzard today is all the *nappers* are talking about down here in Naples, FL.

I mean they ostensibly come here to get away from all that nonsense....but, because all they do is sleep, fart, and watch color television, the little bit of snow up there is still dominating their tiny jurassic minds. One guy at the pizza place today gave an in-depth, up-to-the-minute, play-by-play of all the snow that has already fallen, what kind of snow it was, what regions would be hit the hardest,...he went on about travel bans, institutional closings,etc....ad nauseum.

I heard, through my covered ears(!), that there were gas lines up on Long Island again. Of course I predicted that after the hurricane.

All the Morons will run out to buy milk, bread, eggs, and now GASOLINE every time a little weather is on the horizon - FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DECADES.

I've long since stopped trying to get people to pull their kids out of school. Sure I have a website and I answer direct questions to the extent (tiny!) that I sense they are serious inquiries....but I've wasted too much breath trying to jam the mere possibility of *another way* into the hermetically sealed minds of regular folk.

My latest crusade has been against color television, video games, and staring at nonsense on cordless cell phones.

I've been on this one for a while now and the other day I realized that NOT A SINGLE PERSON I had preached to thought about what I said, no less changed any behavior, even a single iota.

My eyes are peeled, but I can't or at least haven't found ANYONE, ANYWHERE, who not only agrees that passive media consumption is nothing short of a death sentence, but takes the deliberate prophylactic steps needed to keep all this nonsense at bay.

"Oh, my kids ONLY watch one hour per day of television..."

"After school I allow video games so my kids can decompress..."

"What's wrong with watching the news? What's wrong with being kept informed???"

Oh boy, and today I heard someone extol the educational benefits of *Mine Craft* (or whatever the eff it is called). Apparently this *game*(?) is the UNDOING of many of my Asian math students. They tell their parents they are doing Khan Academy for hours on end - but THEY LIE.

Of course the *news* isn't real. It's someone else's, manufactured, processed, genetically-modified drama.

Alright, enough. These posts make me angry when I'm otherwise in a state of profound bliss.

Cold, Stubborn, and Cheap!

My father informed me that last week another record was set in his bedroom...

He said the thermostat hit a mind- and body-numbing 37 degrees in the wee hours of the morning!

Why? Because he and my other alleged biological parent *like it cold*.

Now this isn't the North Pole; it's Massachusetts. And it's not 1800, it's the year 2013.

They started out young and cheap, which is fine.

But as they got older and wealthier, the *no heat* thing went from being a point of pragmatic cheapness to one of obstinacy. Hence now they *like it cold*.

This subject is always a fun conversation starter. Out with a group of earthlings....ask everyone what they set the thermostat at - in the summer and in the winter.

Not for nuthin', but most people are friggin' profligate wimps. They put the heat on to 70 at night.

We do 60 degrees at night and I haven't met anyone in my (wealthy?) social circles who does likewise. The lowest I've heard is 65.

Oh, and the Florida Morons are hilarious too...how they put the heat on at 65!

Man up, y'all.

Our Future Presidents and Senators

Hah!

Read the article.

This is so funny it's sad.

The *best school*....jocks, who shouldn't be at Harvard in the first place, cheating....a lengthy and costly legal process....rank hypocrisy....all in a class called *Introduction to Congress*!!!