Texas Winter

[JR.]

Forest management seems like an oxymoron a little like climate management while admittedly on a smaller scale.

I don't see any easy answer when forests are allowed to over grow (naturally occurring fires are put out instead of being allowed to burn), and development encroaches on formerly forested areas that used to just burn without much concern or notice.

I am not so arrogant to suggest there are easy answers from where we are, and surely the federal pukes are not the sharpest sticks in the bunch.

If a forest area "needs burning" postponing the inevitable seems like it could be creating a different problem.

Sorry that your family has suffered injury to your health.

JR

[JR.]

You don't want to wind me up about health care... I am really pissed off that even if we recall the recent obamanation, we are now a few more years down the road with more closed door back room deals, and no actual progress.

We need to restore free market forces and bust the insurance domination over keeping price/cost decisions away from the health care consumer, and negotiating sweet heart deals with hospitals and the like. If I try to consume healthcare as an uninsured customer I pay through the nose, way more than services cost to deliver.

[edit- removed reference to my brother's illness [/edit]


We don't have enough money to spent unlimited amounts on end of life care for everybody. We need to inject common sense and some practical economic decision making at every step. Who better to decide than us?

Insurance should be structured to deal with extraordinary events... getting old and falling apart seems rather ordinary.

JR

[JR.]

People cling tenaciously to life, which is philosophically wrong.
Native Americans lived a healthier pilosophy;
When you got old and sick, becoming a burden on the village, you went out and let death find you in a graceful (hopefully) way. Then the strong young people had enough to eat, improving the quality of life overall.
But these same folks had the philosophy that you shouldn't do anything that would affect the children or even the grasses seven generations down the line.

[edit- removed reference to my brother's illness [edit]

We noticed that the docs now use sensational fear tactics and unrealistic hope to get you tied into the very profitable "treatment" machine.
And I don't buy that this is new, or part of any administration.
Quite the opposite in fact.

My friend is a painting contractor who was working a 20' scaffold in brutal heat last month.
He woke up in an ambulance, compression breaks in one arm and a level 3 concussion. Long story short, he has no insurance but the Obamacare thing was fast tracked in the county where he works.
He had 2 CAT scans, full body standard X-Ray and surgery... He qualified for the new Obamacare system and he got through it at zero out of pocket expense. He thinks pretty highly of the new health reforms so far. Fluke/lucky? Maybe, but in his case it worked. He would have lost his home otherwise and was able to keep it free and clear.

We are a wealthy and generous people, I have little concern about treating an accidental injury for someone lacking resources. OTOH I really object to the huge and growing burden of clinically obese citizens eating themselves into metabolic disorders, and the shifting of this cost burden to young adults, with relatively low health care needs.

Accidents happen and that is what insurance actually should cover. People should be responsible for self imposed syndromes. Children with adult onset diabetes is just obscene.

We don't have that here and all the people in the Forest Service HATE Obama, and are working hard to make sure that any improvement that we might see because of Obamacare isn't going to happen.They feel the same way you do, JR.

I'm not even sure exactly how I feel, but my economic sense of systemic changes made and proposed, do not even work on paper. To have a realistic debate about this, first we need to be honest about true costs, and reality... This is not a philosophical matter of people being heartless, but instead my very strong observation that the government can't manage their way out of a wet paper bag and are willing to say whatever it takes to get elected... Giving them the keys to healthcare IMO is a recipe for disaster.

I am not happy that My namesake in the supreme court punted on the constitutional issue, and literally rewrote the legislation into a tax (not his job). It appears he was kicking this back to the general electorate to decide in Nov.

I do not pretend this is trivial to fix, or was all good as it was, just that the fixes proposed, are not likely to work as written (not that I have or will read it).

It shows in the schlocky care we have IMO. Jim's story and ours sound like they are from 2 different countries, a modern one and a 3rd world one even tyhough we are only a couple of hundred miles apart.

While the 3rd world dictators come here for healthcare. Cubans get free healthcare... no thank you.

We need more of what makes our healthcare services so desirable, and less central planning from government who believe they know better than free markets and individual managed heath care.

Personally, If I get seriously ill, I will not seek treatment and neither will my wife and she is actually facing that very question right now... I only hope I am as strong when that time comes for me...

me too... I plan to die when I get cancer like my younger sister (RIP) and older brother (and father RIP, and several cousins RIP).

For the people who are not having serious health issues, maybe what is needed is to see a disgraceful embarassment in the US where thousands a day die because they cannot afford health care or do not want to lose their homes. What good is health in this world if you are homeless?

Not sure what your point is... I am embarrassed by the solution proposed by my elected government.

if we truly want to be able to afford an effective health care safety net for indigent, we need to stop expanding the current entitlements to cover so much of what should be productive society members. Eventually we will run out of other peoples money.

Yes our healthcare system (actually health insurance system) is AFU, but the fix is not to make it more like the post office, I'd like to see it more customer driven like Fedex or UPS, with a dose of Walmart thrown in.

but I don''t know all the answers, I only know (believe) the direction taken so far doesn't add up.

JR

[JR.]

Well awkward just turned morose... My brother died yesterday after a 5 year struggle with cancer. RIP.

I went back and edited out comments i attributed to him that seem inappropriate to use now.

Life goes on for the rest of us.

JR

[JR.]

Thanks, I am fine... I spoke with him on the phone only a few weeks ago and he was mentally sharp and resigned to his situation, we even managed to joke about it, while I don't recall the specific joke, just that we could laugh about it together. A good memory to keep of him.

JR

[mediatechnology]

I hadn't looked at this thread in a few days and I'm saddened by your loss John.

I lost my oldest brother suddenly just three weeks after my Dad died.
Fortunately I was able to speak to him in the hospital (he in Oklahoma me in Texas) a few hours before he had a pulmonary embolism.
At that time no one had any idea of the extent of his complications.

In my father's case - and it sounds like in yours - we at least had the opportunity and fortune to say goodbye and resign ourselves to what was going to happen.

I was going to post some roof performance data but I think I'll wait.
It's going to be hot, hot, hot...

[JR.]

Sorry all, I feel bad about being the "debbie downer" on this thread...

I had a good phone conversation with my brother a few weeks ago and he was OK with everything. More worried about putting a new roof on his garage and stuff like that. His was a 5 year dance with cancer and I think he was ready to move on.

I spoke with my older brother who noted we were the only two left (of our immediate family) , I reminded him of the old joke about the two hunters where one puts on running shoes, when he sees a bear... (to beat the other hunter not the bear). I asked my brother if he was keeping in shape.

========

Yes it's hot. I just finished mowing my lawn and it is unquestionably summer here. Not as hot as where Wayne is, but hot and humid enough.

JR

[mediatechnology]

Here are the local observations from Redbird (Dallas Executive) Airport about 3500 feet south.
(My ambient observation point here reads about 4-5 degrees low so I use KRBD.)

The vent exhaust temp peaked at 122 degrees F today for a delta of ~19-20 degrees.
The peak was between 3-4 PM today.
It's now 20:01, the local temp is 100 degrees, and the exahust vent temp is 105.
It seems to shed heat quite rapidly.
Looks like we hit 103 today.

Sorry all, I feel bad about being the "debbie downer" on this thread...

Don't be. Thank you for opening up about it.

More worried about putting a new roof on his garage and stuff like that

Sounds like me, or my Dad. He did a lot of stuff like that in his last weeks.
Stuff that bugged him...

[emrr]

Sorry to hear, John.

[JR.]

Thanx... no worries.

JR