tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86934492024-03-06T23:51:20.561-08:00Moderate MainstreamEconomics, politics, law and ranting - Got it covered?
No more nice....no sugar, no spice. The world sucks and here is my take on how to fix it....Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.comBlogger434125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-588400855669301262023-09-11T10:04:00.000-07:002023-09-11T22:34:41.013-07:00<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">September 11, 2001, In memoriam: Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui</h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4086924916146132204" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/1600/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/320/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" style="background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; padding: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><b>Posted annually on 9/11 since 2006 (I've missed a few, my apologies to Bobbi)</b><br /><br /><i>This is the last year I am going to post this. Primarily, the blog isn't used or visited anymore. I personally will remember Bobbi as long as I am around so she will never be forgotten.<br /><br />All those that died (minus the 19 terrorists) that day were innocent victims of the terrorists and those that supported them. May they all rot.<br /></i><br /><br /><br />September 11, 2001, 7:59am, United Flight 11 leaves Boston's Logan airport.<br /><br />In just a few short minutes, Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui, 38, of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts would be one of the first casualties of that day. Assigned to the First Class cabin, Bobbi and fellow attendant Karen Martin were attacked shortly after takeoff.<br /><br /><br />In less than 40 minutes, the rest of the crew and passengers of Flight 11 died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.<br /><br />There are no public posts from friends or family on Bobbi. Two stories were published about her and her boyfriend Wayne. From them, the information below is shared.<br /><br /><br />"The first thing I noticed, of course, was that she is absolutely beautiful," he said. "We had a nice talk, probably for about 15 minutes. I asked her if it would be possible to get her phone number."<br /><br />She told him sternly: "No, I don't give out my home number."<br /><br />Wayne shrugged his shoulders and walked away, thinking: I gave it my best shot. She stopped him with one word.<br /><br />"But," she said.<br />He turned.<br />"I'll give it to you."<br /><br />She was living in Washington, D.C., the middle of five girls from a California family with Spanish Basque roots. Two of the girls would join the tight-knit community of flight attendants.<br /><br />Her typical schedule was three or four days on followed by three or four days home.<br /><br />She turned their house into a cozy retreat with a garden out back. They made a habit of walking the cranberry bogs, picking blueberries and having breakfast at the Mills Restaurant. She loved to cook - she dreamed of attending culinary school.<br /><br />Bobbi picked up three stray and abused cats: Olive, Bruiser and Pumpkin. She'd loved animals since she was a kid in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles.<br /><br />"She was a gentle person, yet tough when she needed to be," said Rosie Arestegui, who gave her daughter Barbara the nickname Bobbi. "She knew her job so well. She could do two or three people's work, plus hers, and it would be done perfectly."<br /><br />Colleagues of Bobbi repeated that praise when Wayne met them in Boston on Friday. He talked with more than 50 people who knew his girlfriend through work. They remembered her as energetic; a huge heart in a 5-foot-3-inch frame.<br /><br />Bobbi was not scheduled to work Flight 11 that day. But she had accepted extra flights; she was saving up her earned vacation to take a trip with Wayne at the end of September.<br /><br />She got up about 2:30 that morning and within a few hours was out the door.<br /><br />"Usually she wakes me up when she leaves. She didn't wake me up this time," he said.<br /><br />But she did keep another of their rituals: At 6:45 a.m., he got a phone call from the airport.<br /><br />"She told me that she was just about to board. She was waiting for them to finish cleaning the plane," he said. "She was in a wonderful mood, better than normal."<br /><br /><br />To <a href="http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2" style="color: #3778cd; text-decoration-line: none;">view other sites honoring those that died on 9/11</a><br /><br />Links:<br />http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=3<br />http://www.flightattendants.org/Memorials/AA_FA_Barbara_Arestegui.htm<br />http://www.inmemoriamonline.net/Profiles/Folders/A_Folder/Arestegui_Barbara-(AA11).html<br />http://www.capecodonline.com/special/terror/changessubtle11.htm</div>Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-377649121186910812021-03-13T20:38:00.000-08:002021-03-13T20:38:20.713-08:00<p> </p><h1 class="questiontitle" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; float: left; font-family: Roboto, serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><span itemprop="name" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Trans Suicide - Not the Whole Story</span></h1><div class="q_c_text" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: white; clear: both; color: #3b3b3b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div itemprop="text" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="text formatted" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #5d5d5d; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">This is going to be hard for some people. For others, they will demand PROOF, evidence that my statements are supported versus the ‘studies’ that prove far less than they think they do.</p><ol style="margin: 27px 0px 27px 24px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When a child first starts to exhibit behaviors inconsistent with gender expectations at around 3-4, parents will either laugh about them, or, more usually, attempt to steer the child into behaviors more consistent with their expectations of gender conformity. This may confuse the child, but odds are that the child will return to their preferred behaviors.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By the time the child enters school years, persistent non-conforming gender behavior will usually cause parents to make stronger efforts, efforts that can lead to punishment for the non-conforming behaviors. By the time the child is 6-8, the child will recognize the actions that result in punishment and respond by either hiding the behaviors or pushing back against the efforts at conformity. Most children hide, knowing that their behaviors have caused a rift between them and their parents even if their understanding of why is limited. Shame, fear, and alienation become daily emotions that in almost all cases will lead to various degrees of depression as the cycle repeats.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">At school, and in the community, gender non-conforming behaviors provoke alienation from their peers and bullying. WHEN bullying occurs, other adults often will turn a blind eye or sometimes will encourage attempts to force conformity. The bullying and blind eye often create a useless educational environment.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By the age of 9 or 10, elicit activities that allow the non-conforming behavior, either implicitly or explicitly, reinforce the isolation. Fear, shame, and alienation grow to dominate their emotional state. Drugs and alcohol often are sought out, worsening the already damaging emotional environment. Depression becomes a foundation for other problems. At home punishments escalate and at school and in the community, bullying worsens.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By the age of 10-11 for girls, and 11-12 for boys, the only place the child can be ok is in their own self, but that is about to be betrayed also: puberty is coming. At this point, the fear and yes, anger at the world, their parents, themselves reaches a point where there is little hope. Maybe self-harm has already started, but if not, it often starts here along with suicidal ideation. Parents, already facing their own shame and fears either try to hide the issues or seek religious or medical intervention to further the punishment cycles rather than address the underlying issue. Their own efforts to hide increases their emotional opposition to the non-conforming behavior.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The hormonal mix of puberty adds to the negative emotional state of the child. As they enter (JR) high school, non-conforming behavior brings increased bullying and tacit support of the bullying from other adults. Loss of support by peers, outside adults, family members and ultimately the body’s betrayal overwhelms the child. Suicidal ideation moves to planning.</p></li></ol><ul style="margin: 27px 0px 27px 24px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style: disc; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;">About teachers and other adults and bullying: Often the phrases, "grow up", "get a thick skin", "defend yourself", and "well, you were provoking them" are not supportive to the child or preventative towards bullying. Children see these adults as bully enablers and supporters.</li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Suicides at this time are rarely attributed to gender non-conformity issues. If suicide occurs now, there is little desire by parents or other adults to expose the reasoning, if known, for the suicide. Often “depression” is the sole offering. A troubled child the only explanation offered to others.</p><ol start="7" style="margin: 27px 0px 27px 24px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Loss of support by peers, outside adults, family members and ultimately the body’s betrayal overwhelms the child. The teen years see three possible outcomes, emotional stagnation within several dysfunctions, suicide or repeated attempts increasing already significant issues, or attempts at conformity. The last will usually persuade parents and adults that ‘it was just a phase’. The attempts at conformity occur because the body betrayal is seen as the final straw. You can’t fight yourself.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Depending on the person and their attempts and relative successes, this period can last years and decades. For those that stagnated emotionally, their successes will be few. Those that attempted suicide might continue self-harming behaviors until succeeding in ending their ‘pain’ with few outside their immediate lives knowing why.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Various levels of successful conformity are seldom sufficient to deal with the continued internal dialogue that often includes ‘imposter syndrome’ or shame at non-conforming thoughts. Societal pressures to conform causes non-conforming behavior in secret, increasing fear, shame, and alienation. Drugs and alcohol are often abused to varying degrees. Marriages fail and job stability suffers. Suicides now are often unexplained or related to divorce, job loss, or drug/alcohol abuse.</p></li></ol><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;"><a class="fancybox article-image align-left" data-fancybox="article" href="https://slug.com/idw/images/posts/68214_mjkafchoqn4haqs_full.jpeg?v=2" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #1b6279; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><img alt="" src="https://slug.com/idw/images/posts/68214_mjkafchoqn4haqs_full.jpeg?v=2" style="border-radius: 4px; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 1px;" /></a><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />10. At some point, those that survive or get past the suicide choice, the non-conforming behavior becomes the self-affirming behaviors despite the family and community demands. Family and job demands complicate matters but the adult has at least the minimal ability to hold off those demands to initialize a self-conforming life.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><ol start="11" style="margin: 27px 0px 27px 24px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;">Societal pressure continues to perpetuate types of bullying. Peers and even strangers demand conformity, emotionally, verbally and on occasion, physically. Stresses caused by hormone replacement therapy often mimic the emotional state of puberty all over again. Suicide is not uncommon as the stresses build. Attempts by the adult, or others, to have medical or religious intervention, almost always to support the pressure to abandon non-conforming behaviors, add to the stress/pressure.</li></ol><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">When suicide happens here, the non-conforming behavior is often the factor offered by others. The non-conforming adult seldom offers their take but if they did so, it is often not shared with others.</p><ol start="12" style="margin: 27px 0px 27px 24px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">People seeking to change sex (for themselves their gender has always been without question) post puberty deal not only with the pressures and stresses of their choice, but the consequences puberty dealt them – bodies that are difficult to ‘pass off’ as consistent with the presentation effort. The worse the situation (masculine/feminine bone/muscle structures, height, and voice), the more societal pressures grow. Bullying is not just in schools. It happens on public transportation, in stores and in jobs. Verbal and physical abuse are common.</p></li><li style="list-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 6px 7px;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Even post-transition, these pressures can continue. Often the emotional difficulties that overlaid the non-conforming childhood remain unresolved. Parental abuse during childhood carried over into adulthood, the loss of family connections, fear of the past becoming known, the lack of emotional support all are unresolved by completing a transition. Therapy prior to surgery SHOULD address, but often cannot correct the issues.</p></li></ol><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">It would be helpful to the discussion, but beyond anyone interested, to know to what extent the factors associated with passing had in a suicide at this point. Too frequently the simple answer, transition failed to fix the problem, is probably the wrong one. Studies purporting to say that transitioning doesn’t help rely on few cases where the factors are known and far too many adults seeking to shift blame for their own bullying or emotional failures.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">We, us original non-conforming children, do far worse within ourselves than our parents or peers do. We WANT to be normal. We WANT to be conforming. We WANT to not live in fear and shame. We WANT the unconditional love of our parents and family so many tell us is ours if we just can CONFORM. But it is usually beyond us to stop what is going on within us. Our true nature can be suppressed, but only at great emotional cost. The cost is often too much for many. The fear almost never goes away. We recognize that our parents and family are suffering because of OUR behavior. We often believe that our punishments are justified – that WE are the bad people. Overcoming those thoughts is often the result of therapy, but ultimately understanding that WE have to accept ourselves first.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">It is a wonder that ANY of us survive childhood and adulthood transitions. It is the EXTERNAL pressures that tip the balance. Always. And those pressures, save for a few of us, NEVER go away, even long after transition.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">I based the above on my own experiences, the writings of others, and on discussions with others that walked a similar path of varying ages from 20's to 70's.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(photos from Pexels)</p></div><div class="br" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; clear: both; font-size: 1px; height: 1px; margin: 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="gallery-flexible-small masonry" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; height: 453.422px; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: opacity 500ms ease 0s;"><a data-fancybox="post-photos" href="https://slug.com/idw/images/posts/68214_ntwiabiqm7a7xde_full.jpeg?v=2" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #1b6279; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="item" src="https://slug.com/idw/images/posts/68214_ntwiabiqm7a7xde_big.jpeg?v=2" style="border-radius: 0px; border: 0px; float: none; left: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 7px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: calc(50% - 5px);" /></a></div></div></div>Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-36943611683637177422020-12-11T19:00:00.006-08:002020-12-11T19:00:55.461-08:00Treatment of Minors with Gender Dysphoria<p> </p><p style="background: white; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">First, the media story:</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On
Tuesday, Britain’s High Court defended young children from the transgender
movement’s rush to give kids experimental drugs that put them on a path to
chemical castration. The court laid out a framework for considering whether
minors under age 18 might be able to give informed consent to receive
experimental so-called “puberty-blocking” drugs intended to treat gender
dysphoria (the persistent condition of identifying with a gender opposite one’s
biological sex).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In
a </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bell-v-Tavistock-Judgment.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #00a99d; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">groundbreaking
ruling</span></a></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> that
should set the standard for such complex issues, Dame Victoria Sharp concluded that
puberty-blockers are experimental, that their effects are not “reversible” as
transgender activists claim, and that in order to consent to receive such
drastic treatment, children must understand adult concepts that are almost
certainly beyond their grasp.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me start
off with something that is ignored in the above but explained later that puts a
slightly different spin on things.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sharp
described the use of puberty-blockers for children going through puberty at the
right age as “very unusual” because “there is real uncertainty over the short
and long-term consequences of the treatment with very limited evidence as to
its efficacy, or indeed quite what it is seeking to achieve.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Worse,
“there is a lack of clarity over the purpose of the treatment.” While GIDS has
claimed that puberty-blockers give children a “pause to think” about gender
identity before they proceed to irreversible cross-sex hormones, transgender
advocates have also suggested that puberty-blockers “limit the effects of
puberty, and thus the need for greater surgical and chemical intervention
later” in cases where a child persists in his or her transgender identity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Finally,
“the consequences of the treatment are highly complex and potentially lifelong
and life changing in the most fundamental way imaginable. The treatment goes to
the heart of an individual’s identity, and is thus, quite possibly, unique as a
medical treatment.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The blockers
do not, of themselves, cause permanent sterility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the cross-sex hormones that do
that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is concerning to them is
that less than 2% of those that go onto puberty blockers come off them and
resume their standard puberty. Because of the low rate of rejection, puberty
blockers are considered the first step in the process of reassignment and the
consequences of that process IS complex and far reaching.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t have
a problem with puberty blockers, even for pre-pubescent kids. My concern is
that minors are not getting GOOD support and advice from the adults around
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parents are not evaluating the
child’s full history; they seek to respond to the societal pressures for
resolution of issues with clear dimensions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the medical community appears to be too compromised to treat each
child as a unique patient, rather to treat kids with an assembly line approach
to ‘get’m in, get’m out’ cookie-cutter approach.<br />
<br />
The details of the case are informative:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">GIDS set Bell on a path to puberty-blockers at
age 16 and she started taking testosterone at 17. By age 20, she realized “the
vision I had as a teenager of becoming male was strictly a fantasy and that it
was not possible. My biological make-up was still female and it showed, no
matter how much testosterone was in my system or how much I would go to the
gym. … I felt like a fraud and I began to feel more lost, isolated and confused
than I did when I was pre-transition.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Three things
here: she had already entered puberty, within a year she was on cross-sex
hormones, her expectations were unrealistic, and she had non-gender related
unresolved prior to transition.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Once she had
begun menses and had breast development, only surgical intervention would have
changed them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Testosterone would not of
itself change them – though menses probably would have been interrupted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time on blockers was relatively short –
this is the time for consideration and determination of underlying issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea that her expectations were ‘a
fantasy’ is something that could have been resolved in a therapeutic setting
but apparently was not. The medical community’s fast tracking or accepting the
conclusions of a teen as sufficient evidence of appropriateness is malpractice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the
female to male transsexual, hormones have a STRONG impact that can not be
reversed even early in the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Voice change and hair growth can start as soon as 60 days into
treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the male to female
changes often take six months or more and are far more subtle and easily
reversible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For that reason alone, the
female to male needs to be much better informed and treated carefully than the
male to female.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You can not
treat the female-to-male and the male-to-female transsexual the same medically.
Timing and extent of puberty, impact and societal influences are different for
both and need to be addressed differently.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And this
bothers me greatly:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Bell claimed that she could not have consented
to puberty-blockers at her age. Dame Sharp considered whether or not a
16-year-old child could be considered competent to consent to such an
experimental “treatment” under the precedent of <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Gillick v. West Norfolk and Wisbech
Health Authority</span></em> (1986), in which the High Court ruled that
minors could consent to receive contraception.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is
saying I need to be able to control my body at 16 and then having regretted the
decisions telling everyone it’s their fault for letting them have the control.
My problem is less with the child than with the adults around them.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However, I
also have a problem with this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Yet the use of puberty-blockers to treat gender
dysphoria is experimental. In such cases, “the consequences of the treatment
are profound, the benefits unclear and the long-term consequences to a material
degree unknown.” In such cases, informed consent may be impossible, especially
for children under age 16 who think of themselves as transgender.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is not
experimental.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The effects are well-known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The consequences ARE profound, the benefits
are clear, and the long-term consequences can be judged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But two things have to happen: the child MUST
be evaluated objectively, free from societal pressures and impacts such as
granting consent by self-identification; the medical community must be assured
that the full history of the child, free of prejudice, is considered and their
current state of mind and expectations are rational.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Stopping
puberty in a child with gender dysphoria is a blessing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The betrayal of the body when dealing with
the issue of gender dysphoria has a profoundly negative impact on their
self-worth and evaluation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there are
other mental health issues, they MUST be addressed prior to moving to cross-sex
hormones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they cannot, then changing
sex is likely to be an additional burden rather than helpful.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even the
following clearly fails to understand the nature of gender identity and the
issue of gender dysphoria:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Even puberty-blockers do not make time stand
still. They prevent a child from going through puberty in the normal process.
At a minimum, this deprives him or her of “undergoing the physical and
consequential psychological changes which would contribute to the understanding
of a person’s identity.”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A person’s gender identity is established well before
puberty. Other aspects of their personality continue to develop during, and
after, puberty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the physical and
psychological changes of puberty can damage a child with gender dysphoria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clear understanding by the parents and
medical community caring for the child is needed – and right now, I have little
confidence in either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the court’s
order, and the article’s author are insufficient to help fix it.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In
order to achieve competence to consent to transgender treatment, children must
understand eight factors, according to Sharp:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #E8E8E8; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">(i)
the immediate consequences of the treatment in physical and psychological
terms; (ii) the fact that the vast majority of patients taking PBs go on to CSH
and therefore that s/he is on a pathway to much greater medical interventions;
(iii) the relationship between taking CSH and subsequent surgery, with the
implications of such surgery; (iv) the fact that CSH may well lead to a loss of
fertility; (v) the impact of CSH on sexual function; (vi) the impact that
taking this step on this treatment pathway may have on future and life-long
relationships; (vii) the unknown physical consequences of taking PBs; and
(viii) the fact that the evidence base for this treatment is as yet highly
uncertain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Children
lack the ability to understand what fertility and sexual fulfillment will mean
to them as adults. As Sharp wrote, “the meaning of sexual fulfilment, and
what the implications of treatment may be for this in the future, will be
impossible for many children to comprehend.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’d argue
ADULTS lack the ability to clearly understand all the consequences if their
mental health is compromised in any way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The demands of the Court shows little understanding of gender dysphoria
or the development of children with it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The criteria
of the Court, rightly expressed by the article’s author, will result in few if
any applications of puberty blockers to those under 16 or even 18.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And I think that is a failure of the Court
and of the effort to protect children.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-40869249161461322042020-09-11T00:01:00.000-07:002020-09-11T00:01:39.504-07:00September 11, 2001, In memoriam: Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/1600/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/320/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>Posted annually on 9/11 since 2006 (I've missed a few, my apologies to Bobbi)<br />
<br />
September 11, 2001, 7:59am, United Flight 11 leaves Boston's Logan airport.<br />
<br />
In just a few short minutes, Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui, 38, of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts would be one of the first casualties of that day. Assigned to the First Class cabin, Bobbi and fellow attendant Karen Martin were attacked shortly after takeoff.<br />
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<br />
In less than 40 minutes, the rest of the crew and passengers of Flight 11 died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.<br />
<br />
There are no public posts from friends or family on Bobbi. Two stories were published about her and her boyfriend Wayne. From them, the information below is shared.<br />
<br />
<br />
"The first thing I noticed, of course, was that she is absolutely beautiful," he said. "We had a nice talk, probably for about 15 minutes. I asked her if it would be possible to get her phone number."<br />
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She told him sternly: "No, I don't give out my home number."<br />
<br />
Wayne shrugged his shoulders and walked away, thinking: I gave it my best shot. She stopped him with one word.<br />
<br />
"But," she said.<br />
He turned.<br />
"I'll give it to you."<br />
<br />
She was living in Washington, D.C., the middle of five girls from a California family with Spanish Basque roots. Two of the girls would join the tight-knit community of flight attendants.<br />
<br />
Her typical schedule was three or four days on followed by three or four days home.<br />
<br />
She turned their house into a cozy retreat with a garden out back. They made a habit of walking the cranberry bogs, picking blueberries and having breakfast at the Mills Restaurant. She loved to cook - she dreamed of attending culinary school.<br />
<br />
Bobbi picked up three stray and abused cats: Olive, Bruiser and Pumpkin. She'd loved animals since she was a kid in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles.<br />
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"She was a gentle person, yet tough when she needed to be," said Rosie Arestegui, who gave her daughter Barbara the nickname Bobbi. "She knew her job so well. She could do two or three people's work, plus hers, and it would be done perfectly."<br />
<br />
Colleagues of Bobbi repeated that praise when Wayne met them in Boston on Friday. He talked with more than 50 people who knew his girlfriend through work. They remembered her as energetic; a huge heart in a 5-foot-3-inch frame.<br />
<br />
Bobbi was not scheduled to work Flight 11 that day. But she had accepted extra flights; she was saving up her earned vacation to take a trip with Wayne at the end of September.<br />
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She got up about 2:30 that morning and within a few hours was out the door.<br />
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"Usually she wakes me up when she leaves. She didn't wake me up this time," he said.<br />
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But she did keep another of their rituals: At 6:45 a.m., he got a phone call from the airport.<br />
<br />
"She told me that she was just about to board. She was waiting for them to finish cleaning the plane," he said. "She was in a wonderful mood, better than normal."<br />
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<br />
To <a href="http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2">view other sites honoring those that died on 9/11</a><br />
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Links:<br />
http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=3<br />
http://www.flightattendants.org/Memorials/AA_FA_Barbara_Arestegui.htm<br />
http://www.inmemoriamonline.net/Profiles/Folders/A_Folder/Arestegui_Barbara-(AA11).html<br />
http://www.capecodonline.com/special/terror/changessubtle11.htmTracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-60590607609521994792019-08-20T16:21:00.000-07:002019-08-20T16:21:30.585-07:00Day 3 - Texas: The Setup<br />
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I needed to get to south central Texas to visit with Economic Development people in anticipation that Seethuma's Lab would likely be sited somewhere around Houston. <br />
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First stop though was Dallas. I decided on the 'southern' route as it would give me the most Interstate driving. Going through Fort Worth and Dallas during rush hour was going to slow me a little at the end of the day.<br /><br />I was here to meet nephew Erik but he was tied up with work until the late evening so we planned on getting together for breakfast before I turned south.<br />
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The plains of Texas offer about the same as New Mexico, ie not much. Only one view was worth it and it only lasted a few moments, coming out of the high plains of Western Texas to the plains of Central Texas east of Abilene. Trust me, it wasn't worth the wait.<br />
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I'm sure you can see the difference.....not.<br /><br />There is one thing that I have seen a lot of on this first couple of days that I would see a lot more of:<br /><br /></div>
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<br /><br />Wind farms. Lots of wind farms. And with VERY few exceptions, more than 3/4ths of those turbines were NOT moving. Blame the weather, blame the time of year, but I saw a lot more statues than moving generators.<br /><br />I pulled into Dallas just about 7pm and settled in after a burger and a Fanta.<br />
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Day 3 is done.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-78471947105008480382019-08-20T15:46:00.001-07:002019-08-20T16:32:35.104-07:00Day 2 - A Brief PauseI knew before I got to Clovis that Christopher, Rosann and the girls were going to still be there visiting his parents. I had surprised Chris and family in Vegas earlier in the month on their way to Clovis but I was going to enjoy a slightly longer visit with them here.<br />
<br />
I needed to spend time with Steve to discuss family business but also to reset the clock for the rest of the trip: A sequence of events that would put me in Atlanta at the right time.<br />
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After a good night's sleep to recover from the previous 36 hours, bacon and eggs cooked by Steve's wife Marietta along with some pancakes hit the spot. Steve and Chris were already at work on the back porch when I finished breakfast. We spent the next several hours basically picking up talking where we left off the night before. But, we had a whole day and I suggested Rosann and I take the girls to the Mall and wander for a while.<br />
<br />
Clovis is not a big town. It is a military town but Cannon AFB is kind of a backwoods base. And during the heat of the summer, people have a tendency to stay indoors. It's mall is small and not well endowed. Still, it offered a few places to stick a head into.<br />
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After, we got some drinks at Sonic and headed to a park to enjoy the afternoon.<br />
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<br />
A little bit of watching the ducks and geese and people fishing in 90+ weather. And we were ready to go back for some dinner. The plan for the evening was a rematch of the miniature golf round we had in Las Vegas. But afternoon thunderstorms are common on the plains and Clovis is close enough to spawn it's share. By early dusk we were surrounded by nature's light shows. And fortunately, we got our round in while also getting some go-cart time in. Ok, "I" didn't race the go-carts but the rest did!<br />
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While the surrounding areas were dealing with flooding and violent storms, we were in the eye of the storms and enjoying a warm humid summer evening with a nice breeze.<br />
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If you remember the scene from Twister where they were near a Drive-in Theatre getting drinks then you will get an idea of what we were dealing with....minus the tornado crashing the party!.<br />
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It was an enjoyable visit and time with family. Tomorrow, back on the road.<br />
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Day 2 is done.<br />
<br />Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-46198902018327890082019-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:002019-08-19T13:49:22.602-07:00Day 1 - The Starting GunCrossing the desert southwest during the day, in the summer, is an exercise in man/machine balance. The road surface can be hot enough to cook food on and tires can actually get softer as you travel, especially at speeds over 70mph. And the Sun beating on windows can challenge even the best air conditioning.<br />
<br />
So, I cheat. I make the first day of travel east at night. Now, the air temperatures don't moderate that much during the peak of the summer, but surfaces tend to let off their heat quickly making it a little easier on the vehicle performance.<br />
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I got up as usual and planned on a good nap late in the afternoon. I left my packing for today because I knew it wouldn't take long. Except, well, it did. I started thinking of temperatures and potential weather changes and then tried to minimize the amount of clothes for each potential situation. Over the years of traveling with CJ and Victoria we had a pretty good system: one big suitcase for Victoria and me, a small suitcase for CJ and a bag with all the toiletries. A snack bag rounded out our needs. I was only 1/2 way done packing and the big suitcase was full, as was the small one. I thought I had a garment bag but had to borrow one for my dresses (just 3) and suits. But the rucksack bag that had NOTHING but shoes and purses was just nuts! Sigh....this wasn't going well. Adding makeup and jewelry and toiletries, and since I was driving, a makeup mirror and light added two more bags. By the time I was done: two suitcases, garment bag, three overnight bags, a rucksack bag, a book bag, my laptop and two pillows.<br />
<br />
I needed Skycap just to get everything TO the car...<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, work beckoned and I spent 2.5 hours getting petitions ready that I had not planned on doing. Along with packing and getting the car ready, it was already 5pm and I really needed a shower. I tried to relax in my chair but if I was leaving by 7pm I didn't really leave myself any time for a good nap. I ended up resting, but not actually sleeping for 45 minutes before getting up and getting myself ready.<br />
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7pm came and went with me still sitting in Lemon Grove. I kept looking at the map of the first leg and realized I was going to be getting to Las Cruces really early. I had touched bases with Deanna to have breakfast but if I left at 7pm, I'd be getting to LC around 6am. So, I ordered a couple of pizzas for me to have something to eat and to treat my neighbors for the loaning of the garment bag (that one of them had to go to their storage unit to dig out!). I ate half a pizza.<br />
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I finally hit the road by 8pm with a full stomach and tank of gas. Oh, and a large Fanta Orange from McDonalds. That orange was going to be a permanent companion on this trip but I did have my water bottle full and available too.<br />
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Trip counter set to 0. Interstate 8 just a short jaunt away and into the mountains I plunged. It would be dark by the time I got over them and faced, the desert.<br />
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It was in the 90s today in Lemon Grove but here, at 9:30pm, it was 105. The temperature would not drop below 100 for the next 6 hours.<br />
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Traveling across the desert at night is not much different, if cooler, than doing it during the day. There is nothing to see except vast expanses of barren mountains and scrub brush covered sand. Hundreds of miles of the same scenes. Now, if you've never been to the desert, seeing it for the first time is interesting. I even recommend doing it, during the day, during the summer. Get somewhere in the middle of it and get off at an exit ramp (there are plenty going to ....no where) and step out of your air conditioned car.<br />
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It's a DRY HEAT.<br />
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For people used to humidity, it will literally shock you. My response to 'its a dry heat' is to suggest sticking your head into an oven. It's a dry heat too. Well, if the temp is 110+ and the Sun is shining, you'll get a good feel for the next turkey you stick in that well prepared oven.<br />
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Traveling alone, on empty stretches of desert highway seems to scare some people. I find it relaxing. No music or radio. Just relax and enjoy the silence....as silent as your car is at 75mph.<br />
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Lest you think there is nothing to see if you travel during the day, at least via I-8, there is a place in the desert where it is not brown and shades of sand:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_dxp5dEk_F9yi8PlDV5hAoBulpO5KwopwkUu9qJBsTve7eA9V_MUl3u0Zw-h83KMZ5ehHSDSyq_A-51c2Pvfa3uPka1ykaiqb-tIqXIBQ1QLH7Ta29VF8MAsuMzUIEe-UTcn/s1600/desert+crops.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1323" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_dxp5dEk_F9yi8PlDV5hAoBulpO5KwopwkUu9qJBsTve7eA9V_MUl3u0Zw-h83KMZ5ehHSDSyq_A-51c2Pvfa3uPka1ykaiqb-tIqXIBQ1QLH7Ta29VF8MAsuMzUIEe-UTcn/s400/desert+crops.PNG" width="400" /></a><br />
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We are so rich, we plant crops in the desert.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcqz6AczbsLhg_3N2Yrbp4Vy461QzVUmdDWxZsua_F24Mh17vD2-YdA14ybQOe20aWRcbyPfI5S4O_suH3aRHf_XRBls_z7atJvelY4pyL5mxBmpHauwOecYf5fbaNcmn83ah/s1600/desert+plantings.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1178" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPcqz6AczbsLhg_3N2Yrbp4Vy461QzVUmdDWxZsua_F24Mh17vD2-YdA14ybQOe20aWRcbyPfI5S4O_suH3aRHf_XRBls_z7atJvelY4pyL5mxBmpHauwOecYf5fbaNcmn83ah/s400/desert+plantings.PNG" width="400" /></a><br />
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Once I passed Gila Bend I would be covering new ground for me. Normally I would cut north at Gila and head for Phoenix before heading even further north to Flagstaff before heading further east. But shortly I-8 would merge with I-10. I-10 and I would cover lots of new ground on this trip but only in segments.<br />
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Tuscon was the first stop for gas. I wasn't going to need it but from Tuscon to Las Cruces, in the middle of the night, my options for gas were going to be limited. A full tank in Tuscon was going to get me to Las Cruces and beyond.<br />
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About 100 miles west of Las Cruces I realized I was still going to be REALLY early. I had made good time and figured this was a good opportunity to take that nap I had missed all day Friday. I pulled off and took a good hour nap. It had finally dropped below 100 and was in the low 90s. With the breeze and the windows open it was comfortable enough. Adding in the time change to Mountain and I pulled into Las Cruces at 7:30a, 8:30a local.<br />
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I woke Deanna up and got her suggestion for where to meet into Maps and plugged into <a href="https://ompctheshed.com/">The Shed.</a> Like most 'neighborhood' places, it is not a tourist's place. Deanna came in and we settled into catching up. For some reason I thought her sister Michelle was in Clovis but nope, she was in Las Cruces too but was working and we couldn't see each other...but I would get a chance to see <a href="https://www.facebook.com/the5thelementahc/">her shop</a>!<br />
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Turned out Michelle was at the shop when we stopped by and I got a tour and a short chance to catch up with her. While I was saying my goodbyes, their brother Christopher called me. I left the girls and by 10a I was back on the road talking to Chris and off I-10 headed for my first 'stop', Clovis NM.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBoYsXzQC3X9ySE4R3Fr4rznf6gd9hc6ESoDdYS6bWHpNvMTZgLNoVqKlLRgPHn-0b_FGcP_o5aWJ1jL2RTtKNKKRmKm68VpnwEiZLwzCWrR7uXECrqpOb9lnjIguk7elouwE/s1600/day+1+leg+two.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1025" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBoYsXzQC3X9ySE4R3Fr4rznf6gd9hc6ESoDdYS6bWHpNvMTZgLNoVqKlLRgPHn-0b_FGcP_o5aWJ1jL2RTtKNKKRmKm68VpnwEiZLwzCWrR7uXECrqpOb9lnjIguk7elouwE/s320/day+1+leg+two.PNG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Forty-five minutes later, Chris was off the phone and I needed to stop in Alamogordo. I was getting too sleepy to keep going so I pulled into a parking lot and crashed for 45 minutes. Long stretches of nothing were now getting to me. Even if the 'nothing' was actually, something:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikYq1AsIfG1KIjmy9uxEdcLlW9mBPAKrwe2OnfsBy72-R3mikNXxtjMKWHzUUsmHWBPARnSmE-qJBg8N7BYENMGx4IxlAScNnY-msPkVHwjyXrV8vXfihuUNz-K4ALXJUx472L/s1600/desert-2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="1180" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikYq1AsIfG1KIjmy9uxEdcLlW9mBPAKrwe2OnfsBy72-R3mikNXxtjMKWHzUUsmHWBPARnSmE-qJBg8N7BYENMGx4IxlAScNnY-msPkVHwjyXrV8vXfihuUNz-K4ALXJUx472L/s400/desert-2.PNG" width="400" /></a><br />
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I wasn't going to need gas before getting to Clovis but I was going to be under 100 miles left in the tank. Exactly how much I would have left was going to be an issue. Turned out that I got the 'Low Fuel' warning just 5 miles outside of town.<br />
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The issue was...I didn't remember Steve's address (my brother in Clovis whom I kinda just assumed I could crash with!), AND...my phone had less than 5% battery. I waited til I go into town before calling and he told me to go to 21st and turn.......phone died.<br />
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He wasn't home and figured where I was approximately and got close enough to watch the road for me. We saw each other about the same moment and I followed him the rest of the way to his place.<br />
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Oh, I would have turned the wrong way.<br />
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It would be the 2nd longest distance day of travel but at the time I figured it to be the longest time : 995 miles from my house to Steve's. It had been 21.5 hours since I'd left Lemon Grove.<br />
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Day 1 done.<br />
<br />Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-38855163069832864812019-08-18T21:59:00.002-07:002019-08-19T11:02:12.804-07:00Day 19 - The Search for Victoria's Final Resting Place<br />
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Waking up in Kearney the Sun was shining but the haze of humidity made it look like fog had just burned off. I dressed and packed quickly. This was going to be a big day of driving. I didn't get to North Platte as planned but was surprised how close to Denver I was. I had planned to reach Denver by lunchtime and even stopping short of North Platte was not going to harm that plan.<br />
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I got a sausage biscuit, milk and a Fanta and was on the road by 8:15a. I looked at the mileage and figured on lunch and gas in Denver. I wanted a full tank heading into the mountains.<br />
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As noted, Nebraska doesn't offer much scenic awes. And the western part of the state is no exception.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR934LyjA0nTGrmI5mCYMUYeOWDhS_Ls7JARFpsHHiRFqqWeoEd6X4IHrceCTxzh6GXda5pvGI71bMbU_dYuLGPGFzxG3q4c2zfbtQtoeJ1rPIHnv0_yBOeG6xMvN_xFqoRwdw/s1600/west+nebraska.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="1214" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR934LyjA0nTGrmI5mCYMUYeOWDhS_Ls7JARFpsHHiRFqqWeoEd6X4IHrceCTxzh6GXda5pvGI71bMbU_dYuLGPGFzxG3q4c2zfbtQtoeJ1rPIHnv0_yBOeG6xMvN_xFqoRwdw/s320/west+nebraska.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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The only odd point is that the time zone change doesn't happen at the state border but well before it. Maybe they just wanted to be considered 'Mountain' to alleviate the 'plain' landscape. But VERY shortly after crossing into Colorado and getting off I-80 and onto I-76, the landscape changes and we start our slow climb into Denver. Five thousand feet over the next almost 200 miles of bare rolling hills and bad radio reception. I hate this stretch.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34qgFTmKwk16AsZ79s5qcOgCjw2AtHALkHjz1qnndHUaHHtQxV5k-67oEi0eiX8AcIe6vbdXczm_je9P6gCcPQVpU8p_hrK1Ued2qo5bjqVdTuhu98OJC3QX1vVY44Mn5ApBB/s1600/eastern+colorado.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="1226" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34qgFTmKwk16AsZ79s5qcOgCjw2AtHALkHjz1qnndHUaHHtQxV5k-67oEi0eiX8AcIe6vbdXczm_je9P6gCcPQVpU8p_hrK1Ued2qo5bjqVdTuhu98OJC3QX1vVY44Mn5ApBB/s320/eastern+colorado.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Not for the lack of views, but because I got a very expensive 30+ miles over the limit speeding ticket on my very first drive through here back in 1978. Assholes. I had to travel to the courthouse and pay the fine before being allowed to continue. It was my SECOND ticket in as many days. The other was of course in....NORTH PLATTE NE! I really hate this stretch and though I've driven it 5 or 6 times since without incident...it still grates to this day.<br />
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I got to Denver (Alt <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">5,278</span>': Basically from this point all location signs have ALTITUDE instead of POPULATION figures! It is more relevant as most places in Colorado are small towns) around 1pm and spent 45 minutes getting some Arby's new Kings Hawaiian Bread sliders, a Fanta and gas.<br />
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Maybe it was the weight of the gas or the thinness of the air, but the 'get-up and go' of the car had definitely left. I climbed out of Denver to Loveland Pass mostly in the right lane as a slow-poke.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5vg29a2idUwrIgNsgknc5xzkmPsr4pUNKewn2wwws6TlNVq5rszFmwYzb_HRbSPkcVeEPsll1QNukibDz4nwa1hjIAfUtvPRausrD9h_tjTXnQY2-Hry8rMQgWE__b5krXf9/s1600/climb.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="1128" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5vg29a2idUwrIgNsgknc5xzkmPsr4pUNKewn2wwws6TlNVq5rszFmwYzb_HRbSPkcVeEPsll1QNukibDz4nwa1hjIAfUtvPRausrD9h_tjTXnQY2-Hry8rMQgWE__b5krXf9/s320/climb.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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And the mileage hit - DAMN! - as low as 19mpg on some of the climbs. I didn't start looking for my target sign SCENIC DRIVE until I passed Vail. By then I noticed that the average mpg was actually better than I expected, over 38mpg.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7D9S05Fxidu3Koj-XootsUFX9_z5fGxHZTURXnjE9xkeZTdTfN7GKsuCZI4rujYx39AGw90zlB2J2sg-XZRNjQUitTm_RHSrkXBvACNsjmqG_dLFH-6wH0aaYbNdNaH47gWJ/s1600/vail-summer.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="1283" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7D9S05Fxidu3Koj-XootsUFX9_z5fGxHZTURXnjE9xkeZTdTfN7GKsuCZI4rujYx39AGw90zlB2J2sg-XZRNjQUitTm_RHSrkXBvACNsjmqG_dLFH-6wH0aaYbNdNaH47gWJ/s320/vail-summer.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Okay...not fair showing it as I saw it...during the summer. Here is a shot of it in the winter. Just know I've never been there then!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmf22s9vnc_goVZP3a81QfN_v1YwtlL-S3uEKigZOzZYsDwObWUIxf5UP266dyGtK3QLOz1TORcj9XvP_CgsR0b1a8QQ2thLOPX1Qb2tTwi5Axo34MSqEFLdIsOaQ_PCuELUMf/s1600/vail-winter.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="1309" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmf22s9vnc_goVZP3a81QfN_v1YwtlL-S3uEKigZOzZYsDwObWUIxf5UP266dyGtK3QLOz1TORcj9XvP_CgsR0b1a8QQ2thLOPX1Qb2tTwi5Axo34MSqEFLdIsOaQ_PCuELUMf/s320/vail-winter.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Loveland is generally the last stop if winter storms are slamming Colorado's mountains. They close I-70 and turn everyone around. Chains are required to be carried by trucks. The Pass is dominated by the Eisenhower Tunnel through the mountains. The tunnel is 800 feet below the Pass' 11,990 foot summit. I have a picture of me at the actual summit sign taken by Victoria during our 1994 trip through the area. It is not the only tunnel on this stretch. Mountain tunnels amaze me. As a feat of engineering they are more difficult than building 100 story skyscrapers. Note we have a harder time going to the bottom of the ocean than into space.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ss2ph_fA1vGLPw44KtiTzZOIdG2Yl-l353c4hdP4GYyPmkj5lcwBmSHI5MLYuzIQN0Sr-mfxPf1Ve5eaUqHHUOVZBuill5KK4lBlXnraYg_dNlAwgdgyCG7JOP2w9F3tgWSN/s1600/tunnel.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1051" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ss2ph_fA1vGLPw44KtiTzZOIdG2Yl-l353c4hdP4GYyPmkj5lcwBmSHI5MLYuzIQN0Sr-mfxPf1Ve5eaUqHHUOVZBuill5KK4lBlXnraYg_dNlAwgdgyCG7JOP2w9F3tgWSN/s320/tunnel.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I stopped at Grizzy Creek reststop to get ready for what I expected to be a 3-4 hour run in the mountains with no services. The stop is buried in the canyon along the Colorado River. You can jump into the river, drop a raft or kayak or just walk on the rocks along the bank - something I did with CJ on the trip we found Victoria's Resting Place. Amtrak's California Zephyr runs along the river too and it was passing as I got out of the car. I waved at it's Observation Car but didn't see anyone return the gesture. Rafts were making their way past the stop at the same time and I knew from the last time in the area, the water was cold! A map in the building gave me hope that my goal was soon to be in reach!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTeZ3uKfDme8WNFElnyNVeITwTchHjv7PpFQf-UT-TW6Pu71dc1m51IdC2GDZnNrjc-_fE8vO73nqBmRdquMaV5BWFCl3N2gtW2z7tFeUeiZXLaDqf0ZmKXwCHEFAmrl7BSJy/s1600/grizzly+creek.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1132" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTeZ3uKfDme8WNFElnyNVeITwTchHjv7PpFQf-UT-TW6Pu71dc1m51IdC2GDZnNrjc-_fE8vO73nqBmRdquMaV5BWFCl3N2gtW2z7tFeUeiZXLaDqf0ZmKXwCHEFAmrl7BSJy/s320/grizzly+creek.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pitstop done, the search intensifies!<br />
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Victoria and I passed through Glenwood Springs several times over the years and even CJ liked one of the tourist gift stores we stopped at once. We occasionally thought of moving to the area just south of Glenwood and changing our last names to Snow. The mountains are right in your face along the roads and snow is noticeable on the peaks year round.<br />
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I didn't really worry that the sign existed prior to Glenwood Springs but watched nonetheless. At Glenwood Springs I noticed they had a CULVERS! So I stopped and grabbed a doublescoop chocolate sundae with strawberries and settled in for the search. At the time I thought this was the furthest West Culvers had come but, nope...<br />
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It will be the next exit! Ok...the NEXT exit. For sure the next one. Surely it has to be this one, we are getting closer to Grand Junction and I know that is too far. I set a limit. Parachute CO was too close to Grand Junction and if I didn't see the sign by then I was going back to Glenwood Springs and take 82 down to 133. I was fairly certain that WASN'T the right path, but I didn't even see roads going south into the mountains anywhere. <br />
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Forty-five minutes out of Glenwood I hit Parachute and turned around. It has been 13 or so years since we were here, the sign could have been taken down, destroyed in the winters or I just plain missed it. By the time I got back to Glenwood it was after 6pm and I only had two hours of sunlight. Well, three actually because the local time was Mountain and my start had been in Central time. I didn't change the clock on the car or my notes until I woke up in the new time zone.<br />
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Shortly after turning south on 82, I ran into roadwork that dramatically slowed me. Miles and miles of work with huge (for the location) traffic jams. I was even out of Fanta but didn't stop. I finally made it to 133 and was the only car that turned off. Two lane mountain driving is amongst the most scenic of drives and this was no exception but I also knew, KNEW I was not on the right road.<br />
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My only hope was I would come out on the backside close to the right place. I eventually ended up the middle vehicle of a three car caravan through the mountains.<br />
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McClure Pass is just over 10,000 and a 3,300 ft climb out of Glenwood.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkFb7yLAsl3lccZdIDhxZZ0M2AUbXTurcbumSfN6QrOjNyVHRqETKGO9m_C1spjrROOnXCzTbkuh0sxdguqoK1fdYioIdWctGRXjnOxNUQJ1IOw08F8Dw3aSN0Y38KuqNcmfOX/s1600/McClure+Pass.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1212" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkFb7yLAsl3lccZdIDhxZZ0M2AUbXTurcbumSfN6QrOjNyVHRqETKGO9m_C1spjrROOnXCzTbkuh0sxdguqoK1fdYioIdWctGRXjnOxNUQJ1IOw08F8Dw3aSN0Y38KuqNcmfOX/s320/McClure+Pass.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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It was considerably GREENER when I was there! More than an hour later I hit Delta and knew I'd missed any chance of finding the right spot today. I headed north to get to Parachute to double check the last stretch of road prior to Grand Junction and get some dinner. It was getting dark and my choices were to stop in Grand Junction for the night and resume the search the next day or abandon the search this time and just head back to San Diego and more map work. </div>
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I got a burger and chicken sandwich along with another Fanta - I'd been dry for hours and hit the road. Full on dark as I planned to hit the I-70 / I-15 interchange and figured there'd be a place to crash there. But before I could get there, I had to cross the STRETCH....<br />
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I stopped in Green River and got gas. I figured I could make it all the way, but I didn't want to risk it. Believe it or not, I was getting 42mpg with all the mountain driving and I had 532 miles on the tank and it said I had almost another 200 still available. Still, it was almost 10pm, dark and I was crossing a stretch of road with nothing on it. Really, nothing. There were times when I went 30 minutes without seeing another vehicle on my side of the road.</div>
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The Moon was getting close to full so, turning off my headlights I could just make out the road but at 70mph I wasn't going to risk it for long. I DID get to see this though even in the darkness:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEps-laG9MBMYhNs9shXIONbjfkxpfEyhzbh3wKbpdnxNRwfd9gxIyCSHzrfaQ-_0mvTsmYAui3__u_gW9syxgh8PdowRPEIw6pBHrJqhAh-bTvjced48-E7_ZwurtydsFNWP/s1600/reef-1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1140" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEps-laG9MBMYhNs9shXIONbjfkxpfEyhzbh3wKbpdnxNRwfd9gxIyCSHzrfaQ-_0mvTsmYAui3__u_gW9syxgh8PdowRPEIw6pBHrJqhAh-bTvjced48-E7_ZwurtydsFNWP/s320/reef-1.PNG" width="320" /></a><br />
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But the dullness of the ride at this point was not drowsiness inducing. It was midnight and I'd been in the driver's seat for 16 hours. Call me the Energizer....or I was just Fanta induced sugar alert. My plan of finding a place to stay at the interchange was calling me. I passed through Richfield UT that had plenty of potential sleeping places but I wanted to see how far I would have left to go when I made the turn....</div>
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Which had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING around it. Sigh. I was going to have to go some distance before finding something. Fortunately not long. Less than 30 minutes later I would pull into Beaver UT with a Super 8 right off the exit ramp and plenty of rooms. It was 2am by my clock and 1am local. </div>
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I had spent 16 hrs on the road, gotten over 40mpg on the gas and traveled over 1,000 miles in a single day. It would be days before I figured out exactly how far I went: 1,082 miles.<br />
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2am. Day 19 is finally done.<br />
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<br />Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-18436573643904866112018-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:002019-09-11T06:25:38.356-07:00September 11, 2001, In memoriam: Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/1600/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/320/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a>Posted annually on 9/11 since 2006 (I've missed a few, my apologies to Bobbi)<br />
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September 11, 2001, 7:59am, United Flight 11 leaves Boston's Logan airport.<br />
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In just a few short minutes, Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui, 38, of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts would be one of the first casualties of that day. Assigned to the First Class cabin, Bobbi and fellow attendant Karen Martin were attacked shortly after takeoff.<br />
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In less than 40 minutes, the rest of the crew and passengers of Flight 11 died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.<br />
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There are no public posts from friends or family on Bobbi. Two stories were published about her and her boyfriend Wayne. From them, the information below is shared.<br />
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"The first thing I noticed, of course, was that she is absolutely beautiful," he said. "We had a nice talk, probably for about 15 minutes. I asked her if it would be possible to get her phone number."<br />
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She told him sternly: "No, I don't give out my home number."<br />
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Wayne shrugged his shoulders and walked away, thinking: I gave it my best shot. She stopped him with one word.<br />
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"But," she said.<br />
He turned.<br />
"I'll give it to you."<br />
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She was living in Washington, D.C., the middle of five girls from a California family with Spanish Basque roots. Two of the girls would join the tight-knit community of flight attendants.<br />
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Her typical schedule was three or four days on followed by three or four days home.<br />
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She turned their house into a cozy retreat with a garden out back. They made a habit of walking the cranberry bogs, picking blueberries and having breakfast at the Mills Restaurant. She loved to cook - she dreamed of attending culinary school.<br />
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Bobbi picked up three stray and abused cats: Olive, Bruiser and Pumpkin. She'd loved animals since she was a kid in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles.<br />
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"She was a gentle person, yet tough when she needed to be," said Rosie Arestegui, who gave her daughter Barbara the nickname Bobbi. "She knew her job so well. She could do two or three people's work, plus hers, and it would be done perfectly."<br />
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Colleagues of Bobbi repeated that praise when Wayne met them in Boston on Friday. He talked with more than 50 people who knew his girlfriend through work. They remembered her as energetic; a huge heart in a 5-foot-3-inch frame.<br />
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Bobbi was not scheduled to work Flight 11 that day. But she had accepted extra flights; she was saving up her earned vacation to take a trip with Wayne at the end of September.<br />
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She got up about 2:30 that morning and within a few hours was out the door.<br />
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"Usually she wakes me up when she leaves. She didn't wake me up this time," he said.<br />
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But she did keep another of their rituals: At 6:45 a.m., he got a phone call from the airport.<br />
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"She told me that she was just about to board. She was waiting for them to finish cleaning the plane," he said. "She was in a wonderful mood, better than normal."<br />
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To <a href="http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2">view other sites honoring those that died on 9/11</a><br />
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Links:<br />
http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=3<br />
http://www.flightattendants.org/Memorials/AA_FA_Barbara_Arestegui.htm<br />
http://www.inmemoriamonline.net/Profiles/Folders/A_Folder/Arestegui_Barbara-(AA11).html<br />
http://www.capecodonline.com/special/terror/changessubtle11.htmTracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-18019288651243154712017-11-19T16:04:00.001-08:002018-04-17T20:55:27.297-07:00How much does it cost for a hospital to treat a patient?I am about to make some statements that are going to change the way you think about health care and health costs. Please try to remain calm.<br />
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I want you to imagine your local hospital. Think of all the doctors, nurses, support staff, buildings, and equipment.<br />
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Now, let's pretend two things:<br />
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1. That over the course of a single year, the total salaries for all the doctors, nurses and staff, the cost of all the utilities and supplies needed to operate the building totals $50,000,000. Now let's say that I GIVE that $50,000,000 to the hospital.<br />
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2. Let's assume that on Monday, November 20th, the hospital has NOT ONE SINGLE patient. <br />
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In this situation, the doctors and nurses, the staff and the utilities, all still get paid. The lights are on, the heat is working, they are all ready to work....but NO ONE shows up and all their beds are empty.<br />
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$50,000,000 divided by 364 days is $137,263 a day. So, without a single patient in the house, it cost $137,263 to have all the doctors, nurses, staff and utilities ready.....but no one showed up.<br />
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Now....it is Tuesday, November 21st.<br />
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And ONE patient shows up. Gets some xrays, gets sling and one pain pill and sent on their way.<br />
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HOW MUCH MORE DID IT COST FOR THE HOSPITAL TO TREAT THAT ONE PATIENT?<br />
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Ignoring the sling and pain pill, the answer is ZERO.<br />
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What about a 2nd patient? Still zero for two.<br />
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Nominally, except supplies, it doesn't matter how many patients the hospital gets, the incremental cost is zero.<br />
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This is the argument FOR single payer health care. It is also it's failure.<br />
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Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-43330829201523987422017-07-16T11:53:00.000-07:002017-07-16T11:53:01.981-07:00THE Moderate Mainstream - 50 Positions1. Abortion: Should be rare. At some point rights attach to the growing human life. I consider the child to be human life from the point of conception, heck, even before conception the components are human and alive. But it is not "a" life. For the initial stages, the baby can not live, it does not have 'a life' of it's own. And during that time the woman's right to control her body is, absolute, sovereign. However, at some point that changes, the baby becomes viable. Over the decades that point has become earlier and earlier in a pregnancy. We may have reached a limit at 21-22 weeks. Children born at this point are dangerously immature. Many don't survive. I am for an unfettered right to abortion prior to the 20th week. Between 20 and 24 weeks I'd like to know that a woman consulted with doctors about viability. After the 24th week, six months into the pregnancy, I'd limit abortions to protect the mother's life. <br />
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2. Bureaucracy: Government bureaucracy has grown so large and dominant that even the changing of political appointees and elected officials has been insufficient to limit its growth and influence. That has to end. Still, the experience of government employees is something to be valued. I'd restrict government employment to a single 10-year term or two 5-year terms. No retirement benefits except self-funded programs. There are two exceptions: Judiciary and the military.<br />
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3. Capitalism: No system has done more to raise the standard of living of the entire planet than Capitalism. No one does it well, most do it with lots of sticks and pokes and lots of chiefs stirring the pots and yelling at each other. But no other system has done anything remotely close to the success of capitalism and capitalism has centuries more opportunities cresting the horizon today than at any other time.<br />
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4. Capital Punishment: I support it. Those that will not abide by the social constructs that we need to live by in order to have a viable society, need to be removed from it and in extreme cases, permanently. However, human justice is no different than any other human endeavor, imperfect. As Illinois found out, dangerously so. We can not with sufficient confidence say that the State can be impartial and objectively remove all doubt in all but the rarest of cases. Therefore, despite my support of the consequence, the Judge and executioner are too deeply flawed to give them the power to take life in the name of the Citizens.<br />
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5. China: The most populous nation on the planet has realized that its 'one-child' policy has come back to bite it in the ass. Men are unable to find wives. It has begun the process of changing the policy but it will take a generation to do so and its population growth will accelerate the entire time. It must grow at a pace it can not manage via government edict and either it explodes internally or it deflects its population with external threats. It is only a matter of time before either or both happen. China is the largest economy, if it had the largest free population it would become the likely successor to the United States as the largest economic power. (A boulder rolling downhill might gain more speed than a train, but its power is taking advantage of momentum, not internal effort.)<br />
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6. Climate Change: The climate changes. It has been changing for four billion years, will continue to change for the next four billion years. And? Oh, we might be causing 'more' change. Well, if someone can tell me when the Earth is at the best temperature, we can determine if the change we might be causing is good or bad. Until then, we can watch the change, adapt to the change and enjoy the benefits and deal with the damages as they come. In the meantime, we, the United States, comprise 4.5% of the world's population and anything proposed has to get the other 95.5% to get on board.<br />
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7. Corruption: Corruption has been part of every political system since we have had political systems. Political corruption or crony capitalism as it is sometimes called is causing widespread damage to our economy and to our ability to function well as a society. Getting corruption out of the political process is not about getting the money out, money is only the scorecard. It is about getting the favors out. The easiest way is to get government out of the business of granting favors to one company or industry over others is to get government out of using tax policy to affect the marketplace.<br />
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8. Crime: More than anything else I believe the infringement of an individual's rights by someone else is a crime. There is no 'thou shall not kill' on the books in any state or municipality. We punish people after they have done something; there is no prevention other than via the threat of punishment. (See Death Penalty) I want crimes against people or property to be swiftly and justly dealt with, but acts that offend the sensibilities of people are a waste of resources.<br />
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9. Economics: Everything you need to know about economics can be taught in one minute. Too bad the average citizen, politician and journalist hasn't given it even that much thought. First and foremost, economics is about human behavior. If the price of something goes up, you get less of it. If the price goes down, you can have more of it. Everything else flows from that. I need forty seconds to give you an example. We need to make things we want less expensive, like working, and start making things we don't want, like crime, more expensive.<br />
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10. Education: There are two types of education: one is learning from experience, the other is learning from books - which generally are written about and by people that have learned from experience. I support education, by experience and by books. Not everyone needs or should go to college. We have many jobs, necessary and valuable, that need more experience than book education. We should not be driving our children into needless education at outrageous prices unless that is the best thing for them individually. I'd like to see more money going to community colleges for apprentice and training programs. (See Military)<br />
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11. Environment: First we want to preserve as much of the natural environment as possible - our health depends on it. What that doesn't mean is to do so at the expense of caring for the humans that depend upon it. I believe that the Federal Government needs to return the land within State boundaries currently under it's control but unnecessary for Federal Government activities. Development of natural resources can then be decided by States. California is facing a natural drought to exacerbate the one caused by environmentalists' demand fish get more water instead of farmers. <br />
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12. Equality: Under the law. This is not a statement that we should have equality of outcomes. We all have different skills, abilities and resources and as such, our efforts will have different results. This is not a bug, it's a feature of our system and one to be embraced not legislated against. ‘All men are created equal’. Our society acknowledges a diversity of choices. We do not expect, nor require equality of results. <br />
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13. Faith: Is fundamental to almost everyone and it should be respected both as a society and as a matter of law. However, it is not the foundation of our law, nor should it be. Faith can not be the dictator of law.<br />
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14. Federalism: There are limits to the Federal Government, enumerated in the Constitution. We need to prune government back to its roots and stop trying to use the Federal Government to fix society from a perch beyond the sight and oversight of the People. We need States to reassert their sovereignty and stop using the Federal Government as a rich uncle and whipping boy for State's follies and foibles. <br />
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15. Federal Reserve Bank: Was created, in part, to get politics out of sound money. Over the last decade the Fed has embraced both politics and the profound mistake that it can fix or control the economy. It has sown the wind.<br />
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16. Green Energy (Renewable): We should continue to seek ways to replace oil and coal as sources of energy but wind and solar are never going to be more than bit players. Solar could supply a significant portion of our stationary needs if we consider solar satellites. Additional research into alternatives needs to stop using the food supply as a source.<br />
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17. Gun Control: The 2nd Amendment prevents government from interfering with the right to carry weapons. That hasn't stopped it well enough in the past and major efforts are made every time the media picks a story to give the idea that government can fix stupid. Fear mongering is a well-tried method to get people to seek security anywhere and anyway they think, or are told will work. Guns are a tool. Like any tool they can serve a purpose chosen by the person holding it. Taking guns away from a 100 million responsible gun owners to stop a thousand irresponsible criminals is not just cause. <br />
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18. Health Care: Is not a right. It is necessary for long life and while everyone wants long life, the cost needs to be a factor in his or her choice. If we continue to remove the cost considerations from individuals and place it in government bureaucrats we will get a one-size doesn't fit all application. Government cost shifting has created much of the cost of health care. There is a place for government in health care, providing it is not that place.<br />
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19. Homeland Security: We have accepted the idea that a crime-fighting approach to national security is insufficient. We assumed that the large distances most threats had to cross to get to us would protect us from all but the largest foes. A man can wake up in Pakistan and kill millions in New York before nightfall. However, this is not a police state and we have armed our local police with the tools of an army. We have deputized a nation into an army on our own soil. We need to stop pretending everyone is a threat so that no one feels picked on. We need to focus on the threats.<br />
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20. Homeless: We can't stop people from making bad mistakes that lead to homelessness. We can make it easier for people to get out of that state by focusing on why they are there and addressing those issues. Some, a small percentage are chronic cases with no solution. Most can be helped if they are found early. This is a project of the States, not the Federal Government.<br />
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21. Immigration: I am first born to immigrant parents. This Country is built on the blood, sweat and tears of millions of immigrants that came to this country for better, everything. The vast majority came legally. Those that didn't should not be rewarded for having broken laws from the first day. No path to Citizenship, deportation for those that have broken additional laws. Fines and legal recognition for those that voluntarily present themselves (with no chance of future citizenship). For that, they will have to leave and re-enter legally.<br />
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22. Innovation: Is the lifeblood of our economic future. Rather than cut spending on research and development, we need to spend more. Basic research into biology and technology needs more funding.<br />
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23. Iran: Has sworn to destroy Israel and do all it can to destroy the United States. I am willing to take them at their word and do whatever is possible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and I am for doing it as soon as possible.<br />
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24. ISIS: ISIS has taken to heart the worst aspects if Islam and has become a plague upon the Middle East. We need to step in and utterly destroy them. Swift, brutal and without mercy.<br />
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25. Jobs: It is not the job of government to create jobs. It is the job of government to get out of the way and let the market work. The President can't create jobs. (See Military)<br />
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26. Korea, North: I can't understand the desire of China to continue to prop up North Korea except as a bulwark against Taiwan and South Korea. It is a brutal dictatorship with a nuclear weapon. It is the poster child for not allowing Iran to do so. Yet, no amount of negotiation will change it and we look like idiots when we try and fail.<br />
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27. Lobbying: It is not money in the political process that is the problem, it is the favors government grants to companies and industries that spend significant money getting them. Get government out of the business of granting favors (tax abatements, cuts, and waivers) by getting government out of the business of taxing business. Petitioning the government is part of our rights and because some do it better doesn't give us reason to infringe upon it.<br />
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28. Markets: Can't fix everything wrong in the economy. There has to be some neutral force that can mediate and punish. Government can be that force as long as it doesn't try to pick winners and losers.<br />
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29. Medicare: The program that began the cost shifting from the older generation to younger ones. It manipulated the market and every attempt to fix the consequences has made it worse. It has taught market participants how to manipulate government to make them the beneficiaries of further twists in the marketplace. We need to end Medicare cost shifting and recognize that 95% of the dollars spent on each person's total lifetime medical care will be spent in the last year of life. Implementing a Hospitalization and Provider Plan would work.<br />
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30. Military: At the end of the Cold War a movement began to 'civilianize' the military - to convert non-combat jobs to civilian contractor jobs. The assumption was the cost savings would be better than wholesale cutting, gutting of the military. The shortsightedness of that idea was manifest when we tried to send troops into combat and none of their support could be mobilized. 1) Return support functions to military personal; 2) Bring home most of the troops stationed overseas (some exceptions); 3) Increasing military members in support functions will require significant 'hiring' of younger people to whom training in a wide range of fields will give them job skills for the civilian world; 4) Opening additional bases in the United States for training and staging purposes will positively impact local economies.<br />
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31. Multiculturalism: We live in a secular society in which all are free to follow their own pursuits towards happiness. However, we need a level-playing field, more to my point, we need to all be ON the same playing field with agreed upon rules. If we let people play their own game on their own field, we get a nation of such diversity that it becomes every man and woman for themselves. Such is the state Hobbes noted and it is not a place we want to be. We were the melting pot of the world, everyone contributing to the flavor, the heat supplied by the blood, sweat and tears of every immigrant's efforts. Not every culture is equal; none are equal to our own. We are a nation of immigrants, not a nation of cultures.<br />
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32. Nuclear Energy: We don't do it well. We are stuck with 1950's technology built with 1970's technology. We need to do better and there is better technology. We need to get over the fear, falsely stirred, and get back on the bike. We have spent almost 40 years on alternate technologies and nothing is else is close to providing for and replacing current hydrocarbon generated power needs.<br />
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33. Nuclear Weapons: Mutual assured destruction only works if the other side is worrying about destruction too. When the other side welcomes it, there is no deterrent having a bigger or more guns. I'd like to move away from nuclear weapons but we can not do so unilaterally. That means continued research and upgrades to our existing arsenal.<br />
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34. PAC: Political action committees were a natural consequences to attempts to limit campaign cash to political candidates. Like floodwaters, political spending will find the weak spots and exploit them. I am ambivalent about them. I see no reason to ban them and lots of reasons to dislike them. But they are the symptom, not the problem.<br />
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35. Poor: People make choices they don't understand, in circumstances they are not responsible for. In the end, everyone is responsible for his or her choices but not everyone can be held accountable. We need a safety net, but it can't be so big that everyone sees it as 'good enough', otherwise we get people choosing the safety net instead of falling into it. There can be no government provided lifestyle. Get people on their feet, get them back being productive. The Poor in this country tend to be richer than 90% of the rest of the planet.<br />
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36. Pothole Politics: There is a purpose to government, keep the playing field payable. Make sure the refs are honest; be agnostic about winners and losers. Too many politicians want to fix us and think fixing the potholes around town is beneath them. Those politicians need to be voted out. And yes, the President and Congress have pothole type responsibilities they are neglecting: advise and consent, separation of powers....<br />
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37. Public Schools: WERE essential to the concept of an educated electorate. Today they are a toss up between indoctrination centers and rabid cesspools of crime and institutionalized juvenile delinquency run-amok. The few places where education, actual real education not the pap served up by most Left-wing artichokes we call educators, are so in demand that strict policies of admission - IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS - are enforced. We have been accosted with stories of run down schools, out of date textbooks, lack of supplies, lack of sports, the arts and book-less libraries while pouring thousands of dollars per student at the problem that gets worse every year. Colleges are spending years teaching graduated high school seniors remedial English and Math. As an institution in our country, public schools have failed, the only reason we don't close them down to protect the children is that for a majority the school is a day-care center for kids with nothing else. Short of dismantling the entire institution the only option is massive overhaul. Too bad we don't have, unlike schools everywhere, a zero tolerance policy about failure.<br />
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38. Racism: Us versus them. Yes, it exists. Amongst every race, in every State. Institutional racism is all but gone. Well, that is not true in this sense: we have gone from 'we don't want that kind here' to 'them poor souls can't do it themselves'. The first is abhorrent, the second utterly destructive. We have proven however that getting a Black President did nothing to help and it was the claim of millions that it would. Racism ends one child at a time, which is too bad because it seems to be taught dozens at a time.<br />
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39. Religion: A fundamental part of the life of most Americans. Our goal as a Nation to be open to allow anyone to worship as they please with no interference from government, explicitly or implicitly. Part of that is under attack from within, another part from outside. I strongly support the right of individuals to express their religious beliefs as they need and choose with the single exception that it not infringe upon others. The attacks from outside religion run afoul, rightly, of our Constitution when government is the tool of the attackers. The attacks from within are from people that seek to use it as a weapon of social change or to prevent social change. Both are dangerous though I think the former has greater risk.<br />
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40. Regulation (Policy): Here it is, this is the place where government abuses its authority to grant favors to political friends, and to grant dispensations to political allies. Government has become too involved in too much of our daily lives and economy and everyone has found it to be the place where they can feast at a trough of government money. We need to get government, especially the Federal Government, out of every day American's lives. We need to starve the beast. And more and more of our government is beyond our reach to control (See Bureaucracy). Rather than report on how many new pages of regulations are issued per day/week/month/year, we need to remove whole chapters and verse. Starting with the EPA.<br />
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41. Rich: We are a nation that had the poor, the middle class and the rich at it's founding, we will continue to have poor, middle class and rich into our future unless the government continues to support the poor being poor. If every penny of income of the richest 1,000,000 people were confiscated, we wouldn't have enough money to fund government for six months, let alone a year. If the WEALTH of the top 1% were taken, it wouldn't fund government for a year, not even six months. It is that wealth, that surplus, that provides the capital we need as a nation to grow and continue to innovate. To demonize them is to demonize capitalism, but maybe that is the point. Greed is not exclusive domain of the rich but includes those that seek what the rich possess. Continuously demanding the 'rich' fund everything requires ever greater encroachment into the middle class who are unable to access any government programs but are increasingly the true source of government taxes. Most people don't understand that 'rich' by the definition of "Occupy" includes many white-collar two-income families living in our neighborhoods.<br />
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42. Russia: Will descend into a dictatorial abyss sooner rather than later and those currently in charge are working hard to make it soon. Russia is not our friend, will probably never be our friend and the sooner we understand that being 'a partner' with it is to be yoked to a nation trying to kill us as surely as Iran is. Like the United States, the shear size of it gives it great resources and reach that it is not using to improve its standard of living and productivity, but to build itself an empire. It is a threat and should be treated as such.<br />
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43. Science: Has become politicized; It has become a means to promote political goals. Lots of great science continues to be done but like a 100-head herd of cows on a million acres, it is too small and too spread out to continue to feed all but a small effort. We need more research at every level and we need politics out of it. <br />
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44. Self Determination: It is impossible for one person to dictate to another how to live their life, it is arrogance founded upon ignorance to assume one person or small group of people can dictate to an entire Nation how to do so. We must have the freedom to determine for ourselves how to live our lives, even when those choices are poorly made. Saving us from ourselves is not the purpose of government, nor is it the purpose of government to fix what is broken. Government must not impose edict for choice, security for freedom, benevolence for liberty.<br />
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45. Social Security: Arguably the first betrayal of our founding ideals. FDR blackmailed the Supreme Court and one of the first out of the blocks efforts was government providing for the welfare of individuals. Never meant to be a 'savings account' for individuals, it was a way for government to access the income of individuals to distribute it to others. Unfortunately we let it stand for so long that millions have come to rely on it. We need to begin now to phase it out over the next generations. It is already the largest part of the Federal Government and it is not going to shrink until the entire program is restricted and eventually dismantled. There are alternatives available today that were not 80 years ago, we need to look at them.<br />
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46. Solar Energy: More energy comes out of the Sun in a second than humanity has produced/consumed in its history. Converting it into usable energy for our engines and devices has been the goal for many efforts. And no matter the efficiency of our devices, they reside deep within the protective layers of magnetic fields and atmospheric blankets. If we could gather the Sun's energy in space and 'pipe' it down for use, we could eliminate a significant portion of our energy creation activities. Solar satellites could provide energy at a fraction of the cost of current systems.<br />
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47. Sovereignty: The freedom to live, to prosper, to seek our own happiness are the foundations of our rights and our ability to assert them. The individual is sovereign, we confer authority upon government to act on our behalf and it is that authority expressed in our National Sovereignty. <br />
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48. Sustainability: Whether we speak of individual, national or societal sustainability we speak of the ability to survive. Many of our resources are limited and need to be managed for long term use. However, too many people equate sustainability to a single component of our economic life: energy. The argument that we have only 4% of the population but use 24% of energy is comparing apples to cotton. The United States produces almost 25% of the planet's GDP, it does so with less than 24% of the energy used. That productivity builds our standard or living. Sustaining our society is more than just providing energy, it is about providing food, innovation and a future.<br />
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49. Term Limits: Are an attempt to limit the choices of the people to pick their own representatives. I oppose them on the basis of that liberty. The limit on the President acknowledges the power of the Presidency as the sole wielder of American Power and imposes a limit on that power in one person. Restricting the terms of one of 535 committee members serves no similar purpose.<br />
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50. Terrorism: Works only when people become so fearful that they will give up all freedom to appease it. It must be met with swift, brutal and complete annihilation, wherever it is attempted.<br />
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It has been said that all we can reasonably expect of a society based on an imperfect humanity is “one with some evils, maladjustments and suffering”. Why? Why not work to eliminate evils, maladjustments and suffering? Accept them as the natural consequence of an imperfect humanity? I agree we are imperfect, but that does not give us license to ignore those imperfections. What is worse is to allow institutions WE create to result in evils, maladjustments and suffering by design. Knowing such evils exist and to do nothing but accept the imperfection is to deny our own evil.<br />
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Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-79103841156554936712017-04-14T18:36:00.001-07:002017-04-14T18:36:20.017-07:00On being fatAs we come to the weekend of my favorite candy (how superficial of me, I know), I want to make a comment or so about....being fat.<br />
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As of this morning (ok, this afternoon as I didn't get out of bed until 1:05pm), I weighed in at 357 pounds. This is 15 pounds heavier than I was this time last year and more than 40 pounds lighter than my highest ever. The entirety of my weigh gain happened over the fall and winter as I spent time in Chicago and did not keep my exercise regime, nor my overall eating habits.<br />
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What are my eating habits?<br />
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At home:<br />
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Within 1 hr of waking up - Breakfast: 8 oz of rice, corn or oat cereal with 8-9 oz of whole milk and 7 oz of cranberry juice (low sugar)<br />
4-5 hrs after breakfast - Lunch: 3-4 oz of meat, 2-3 oz of cheese, 3-4 oz of veggies<br />
5-6 hrs after lunch - Dinner: 8oz of meat, 4-5 oz of veggies, jello or ice cream for dessert.<br />
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I drink 32 to 48 oz of lightly flavored water a day.<br />
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For snacks I have two different types of protein bar, plus fruit cups (no sugar added) - but I often eat neither if I'm busy<br />
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Away from home:<br />
I keep to my basis schedule but tend towards favorites: <br />
lunch = soda and hotdog w/ketchup<br />
dinner = if at a sit-down restaurant, my dinner is usually much like it would be at home. Fast food might be spicy around chicken.<br />
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I don't generally have any gluten (wheat) at home: no bread, pies, pasta or wheat cereals. I tend to stay away from soy also.<br />
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My A1C in Feb was 5.3. My sugar at testing was 86. My blood pressure at last dr visit (a week ago) was 127/78. This is just a touch high for me, but my resting heart rate was 70 and temp was 96.7. I do not have high cholesterol or triglycerides. Liver, thyroid and kidney functions are all well within norms.<br />
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Yesterday I walked over 2.5 miles. I have walked over two miles four times in the last 10 days. I will do so at least twice more in the next week. <br />
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Every step I take SUCKS.<br />
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I have been working on learning/doing yoga (only twice this week, both times between 10-15 minutes. I haven't been on my bike this year.<br />
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Why all this information? I'm fat. I don't expect people to like me, or consider me 'beautiful' because or in spite of being fat. I don't have body issues. (gawd the guy that asked me to turn out the lights because he did almost ended the evening right then and there!) Come on people.<br />
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I look at thin people not out of jealousy, or 'self loathing'. I appreciate their appearance without denigrating my own. I am who I am and what other think of me...I. DON'T. CARE. But, I also know that being fat takes more effort by my body. But after almost 20 yrs of being fat, my body is NOT showing signs of that wear and tear on me. My hips and knees are in good health. But I do recognize the effort it takes to move.<br />
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My surgeon said that had I weighted the 397 I was 6 months prior to surgery, I would have most likely died on the table. However, given that he only gave me a 50/50 chance of survival and a 10% chance of walking again, I'd say that once again, people look at me and assume I am unhealthy.<br />
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Most people are fat because, systemically, they are unhealthy and their body reflects it. I think getting fat does not make us unhealthy, being unhealthy makes us fat. That will be contrary to 'common wisdom/understanding' in the medical community - but consider how much of that has been wrong in the last 50 years.<br />
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By all medical understanding currently espoused, I should be hypertensive, have diabetes, and arthritic joints. I think the medical community has cause and effect wrong and therefore are treating the wrong things. I watched a hypertensive diabetic die. That is my take away from it.<br />
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Call me fat. I am. Don't call me unhealthy. I am not. But I reject SOUNDLY the idea that people demand to be considered beautiful REGARDLESS of their appearance. If you need that type of affirmation, you are unhealthy in that space between the ears.<br />
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I like me and that comes across regardless of how I 'appear' and yes, I do clean up nice.<br />
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BTW, had my nails done, cut & color on my hair and am heading for the beach in my swimsuit this weekend. I too will be body watching!<br />
Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-52580640132149935302017-02-22T10:14:00.002-08:002017-02-28T08:55:38.986-08:00Not the Mainstream...<br />
How to comment on this.....??? Transgender bathrooms.<br />
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IF, and it is a huge, insurmountable (IMO) IF, we had a way of defining transgender specifically to those that need the liberty to act according to their intended gender, then I would be supportive. What that means is that it is not enough to 'identify' as transgendered, it has to be diagnosed and be medically followed. It is formalized in something called the medical Standards of Care.<br />
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The 76 or 98 or 24 'genders' that the Left has pronounced as 'needing recognition' all but eliminates any chance that a rational approach to transgender needs and liberty is possible - certainly not from the Federal Government.<br />
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People actively undergoing transition need some protection, but to change the entire society so that 1/10 of 1/10 of the population can be 'safe' is nuts. The current 'open door to claims of trans' leaves a gaping hole in the safety of women and children.<br />
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Sorry, but identity politics goes too far when it is perfectly acceptable for a white woman to 'identify as black' and gets LAUDED for doing so...<br />
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Do not get into the 'there are only two genders and you are born and will die in the same one' with me...you'll lose.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-88436043131266802842017-02-16T14:03:00.000-08:002017-02-16T14:03:00.872-08:00Comments on Diversity report A news article on a <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3067987/innovation-agents/is-it-time-for-investors-to-tie-executive-compensation-to-diversity-goals">study about diversity efforts</a> got me into a discussion with a proponent. He argued I needed to read the report, which I did. I am offering the bullet-point commentary here in order to facilitate the discussion. <br />
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1. Correlations - not causation<br />
2. Does an all minority firm out perform?<br />
a. None available to determine<br />
b. yes: then the marketplace will deal - more investment in out-performing companies<br />
c. no: is there a tipping point? vs the current level?<br />
3. interior Culture and performance demands different than existing exterior culture norms<br />
4. Affirmative action impact on retention - ie no AA standard in performance kills AA standard in initial hire<br />
5. 170 firms offering info are self-selected. Those with positive results tout, those with negative don't<br />
6. I ABSOLUTELY reject % of population to % within company. failure by absence is not evidence of failure<br />
7. Tech sector is more oriented towards technical competence than personal interaction (personal experience too)<br />
8. Google is going after more STEM support in schools - I absolutely support - but not via affirmative action<br />
9. Knowledge base failure within study: limited data and evidence. as Econ grad, I understand the limits of such a data pool<br />
10. Reports rely upon 'feeling of what seems to be working'<br />
11. A significant study of 700 companies = no positive effect on diversity efforts and may hurt Black women<br />
12. "...efforts to isolate impact of female leadership was inconclusive" BUT LOOK!!! 9% HIGHER VALUATION!!<br />
13. Due to minority population size, areas/fields that aggregate significant minority representation removes diversity from elsewhere<br />
14. Women in STEM has decreased as the # of 'programs' in sociological studies increased...related?<br />
15. What the study calls bias I call animosity - not of hatred but of 'not what I have seen work' bias via work experience (arguably false sometimes.<br />
16. Diversity training = no positive effects so....<br />
17. ...switch to 'unconscious bias training' - but may have same longterm results - NONE. Recall Hawthorne Study. <br />
18. pointed out WIPRO as example - also in my business plan as a foreign competitor<br />
19. regression analysis bar for significance = .10 this is a low bar though not 'significantly' outside the norm. But the study never indicates how FAR over that bar the results were. .11, .15. These are 'noticeable' however, given the sample size, NOT USEFUL.<br />
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All in all, the study takes a minor blip and runs like the wind with it.<br />
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Other issues. 70% of Black children are born out of wedlock, 60% of Hispanic. And these are long term trends. These populations are NOT going to create a pool of STEM candidates for the industry as a whole. Only the top 1% or less will reach excellence levels necessary for prominent positions in corporations. By the measure of calculating populatio = 30% likely to succeed, you get the 3.5-4% representation of Blacks in the tech workforce.<br />
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Diversity in corporations doesn't change culture and diversity in culture is NOT beneficial. Understand I used the term CULTURE.<br />
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<eof>Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-91721686152663870132017-02-14T11:56:00.004-08:002017-02-14T11:56:54.879-08:00My idea for health care - from the Proposed Federal Budget<b>Hospitalization Program</b><br />
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Right now hospitals all over the country are billing patients for services rendered but because Medicare and managed care programs have agreements on reimbursement rates, those hospitals are functioning with approximately 54% of those billed revenues. One way hospitals have dealt with the issue is to have patients spend less time in the hospital. I will not say that hospitals are discharging patients that should still be in the hospital, but I bet it is happening.<br />
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With one in five of its elderly hospital patients re-admitted within a month of discharge, the federal Medicare program plans next year to reduce how much it will pay hospitals for certain preventable re-admissions.1<br />
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Using information on hospitals in Washington State (http://www.doh.wa.gov/), I looked at expenses and patient distribution (mix of inpatient and outpatient emergency).2 Given its general good outcomes, I looked at the actual expenses per patient day (a mixture of case and patient types), how many patients were being seen, the number of beds and the population size that the hospitals serve. The type of hospitals and communities they serve cover rural and urban settings. Generally, Washington is in the middle of most medical spending/outcome metrics. Using the information available, including the number of hospitals and beds per state and averaging the expenses I came up with an alternative to Medicare funding.<br />
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Eliminate Medicare funding3? Right now, hospitals are functioning on 54% of the revenues they bill. If hospitals could replace their current billing system and all the administrative expenses associated with Medicare and managed care cost shifting and at the same time have a steady source of income, the net savings could replace the entire contribution of Medicare and state Medicaid funding.<br />
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By offering the following and managing a 100% consumer participation rate, hospital systems would receive approximately the same revenue as their average expenses.<br />
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On average, each adult pays $140.39 and each child pays $46.80 per month (varies from state to state – See Appendix B).<br />
Premium payment is made to the hospital of the adults choice and could vary from hospital to hospital (allowing for competition).<br />
All hospital care, either outpatient or inpatient is covered 100% for plan members.<br />
Hospitals establish a fixed daily cost for non-plan patients (same for inpatient or outpatient).<br />
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However, plan participation is not mandatory and no matter how good the deal, there will be people that won’t, or can’t pay the premiums. The Plan includes a Medicaid grant from the Federal Government set at 25% of the 2010 total expenses for each hospital. The grant requires that the STATE reach an average 75% participation rate to qualify and the grant does not go down if the participation rate is higher. So the hospitals and the states will have an incentive to increase participation rates as high as possible - the grant money can be used to cover unemployed or chronically ill patients. The grant will cost about $117 billion a year. A realistic goal is that on average, participation will be between 80 and 85%. Currently 83.1% have some form of insurance.4<br />
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<b>Provider Plan</b><br />
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Like to the Hospitalization plan, doctors and other general health service providers could begin offering a similar plan to their patients. The cost might be as low as $7.25 per month per person5. By creating a plan similar to the Hospitalization Plan, doctors could institute programs to manage illness within their practices and to stabilize costs. A family of four could have a doctor and hospitalization plan for $475 a month. The average premium paid for individual health insurance coverage in the United States in 2011 was $2,196 per year, $183 per month; families paid an average annual premium of $4,968 or $414 per month.6 Because the average health insurance plan has a deductible, an individual would pay $183 a month for the insurance and could still face hospital bills of up to $2,935, or another $245 per month.<br />
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The Plan creates incentives for people to participate, for hospitals to manage costs and focus on patient retention and for both parties to manage health care. Consumers have the ability to change hospitals and doctors that fail to live up to their standards or who don’t manage costs well. Because the cost of seeing a doctor or going to the hospital is fixed, patients will have an incentive to see the doctor or go to the hospital before situations become critical. Hospitals and doctors would have incentives to offer wellness programs to lower utilization needs. <br />
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As for patients with chronic illnesses, the hospital costs determined above was based on the total of the annual expenses based on their inpatient/outpatient mix. It includes patients that are treated and released and those that spend significant time as inpatient. Because payment for services is not based on specific length of stays, hospitals and doctors can manage their patient’s care for the best outcome rather than billable limits. <br />
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For people that do not participate in a plan, the hospitals will offer a fixed cost for outpatient or inpatient care. Insurers may offer plans based on the fixed cost rate, but no one will be able to offer it less expensively than the hospitals. In general, the annual cost would be less than a single day as inpatient or a single trip to the Emergency Room.<br />
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For individuals or families that opt only for the Hospitalization Plan, their occasional trip to the doctor would be out-of-pocket as would everyone’s prescription costs. Walmart’s prescription plan has driven the cost down for many people but new, name brand drugs can still be extremely costly. Hospitals and doctors could form purchasing groups for specific drugs that handle chronic illnesses. By putting patients back in control of their medical spending dollar, market forces can help alleviate some of the costs.<br />
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We don’t have insurance for oil changes, or replacing tires, bulbs, filters or painting the siding. We maintain our homes and autos, provide the fuel and energy needed to run them. We have car (and homeowners) insurance to protect us from the rare events that cause their destruction or loss. Health insurance that does not consider the age of a person or pre-existing conditions is the same as insurance purchased after the accident or home fire. It is an attempt to share the cost of events, exactly as Medicare does now. The result would be the same under Obamacare except that it mandates, requires, everyone to buy insurance. This is still cost sharing but spread over everyone.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-53506557606889799882017-02-04T18:59:00.001-08:002017-02-04T18:59:21.307-08:00Plan for graduate schoolMany years ago I attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and was studying economics. I was considering graduate school until I pissed off a professor that would eventually become the Dean of the Department and who's recommendation I would need for grad school. Oh well, choices have consequences.<br />
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But prior to that whimpering end to my graduate schools hopes.....I was considering two areas of research.<br />
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First: I disliked the way productivity was defined. I wanted to see if there were alternatives that worked better and were more accurate. It was going to be a very technical and highly focused (not likely to see the broader light of day!). But something worthwhile to me.<br />
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Second: Innovation was something interesting to me. Why did we have thousands of years of human civilization but it took almost four thousand years to go from the wheel (yes I know it existed prior to that) to the train? To the car? Why did 'innovation' explode in the 1700s and 1800s and absolutely hit hyperdrive in the 1900s?<br />
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One factor, to some, strangely, is calories. How much food a population has on a regular and predictable manner. And is there a level? Generally - and I was working on a way to prove it - a population as a whole needs about 1200 calories a day, year round, consistently in order for innovation to begin showing legs.<br />
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But is not just calories for the population, there seems to be a necessary amount of population required too. A town of 50 with sufficient food stocks is not anywhere nearly as innovative as a city of 500,000 with the necessary calories.<br />
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Of course, the larger the population, the greater the food supply must be.<br />
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Finally, there seems to be a need for stress on a population. How much, what type, the source were all things I wanted to look at.<br />
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More recently I have looked at another factor. Why is Western Culture generally more innovative? What tends to set it apart?<br />
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Anyway, nothing in particular prompted this post. Several minor interactions all lent themselves to recalling what interests me, academically.<br />
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Oh, and I THINK I am being told to stop trying to focus on a private project. We will see over the next couple days if that is an accurate reading of the tea leaves...Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-91816395645363968332017-02-01T16:41:00.001-08:002017-02-06T08:33:00.473-08:00TrumpetingI have promised something on Trump for a while and I have spent time trying to write something without sounding demeaning or dismissive.<br />
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Fourteen months ago I said I supported Trump's run for the Presidency. It was a recognition that he was saying what lots of people had been saying for eight years. I thought that if enough people BELIEVED him, he had a chance. There was plenty of evidence to suggest that Trump was a narcissistic opportunist but I had learned back in 2007/8 election season that it isn't enough. Fred Thompson was of the same vein but he quickly fell to the side because, fundamentally, his gut wasn't in it. Running for President IS a narcissist thing - you have to see yourself as THAT KIND OF PERSON to be at the top of humanity. But it takes a corresponding belief in yourself.<br />
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I know of arrogance. Many of you that have known me are nodding your head. But the belief in one self has to be as strong as the skill. Thompson didn't have it and the rigors of a campaign (and the virulent hatred from some quarters) was just too much. Trump almost seems to gain strength from both the people that cheer him AND the people that jeer him. I KNOW that opposition doesn't slow me or drain me. It invigorates me.<br />
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The Devil doesn't appear to people because 1) it doesn't need to - people will do many evils of their own free will, 2) to do so would prove the existence OF GOD. The old phrase, slightly modified, better to keep quiet and let people doubt than to appear and remove it.<br />
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There is NO GREATER validation of a position than able opponents seeking to fight against it. This is a fundamental truth very, VERY few ever understand. And I saw a similar dynamic with Trump. The fight against able opponents is proof. "Belief" in doing the right thing becomes knowledge. <br />
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I named this Blog the Moderate Mainstream because I firmly believe that my positions are the same as the 60% of the people in the middle of our society. Twenty percent to the Right, twenty percent to the Left and the vast majority in the middle. And Trump was talking to that majority. But, would they believe him? I wasn't sure, but I was willing to support what he was saying. I joined and worked for the Cruz Campaign because it appeared he was going to be a finalist and of them, I thought the GOP would coalesce around him and forsake Trump. That never happened. The GOP flailed around for five months hating Cruz but hating Trump more. If it had gotten behind Cruz in April, it would have been over for Trump.<br />
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I talked to people that had been on the Cruz campaign in NC and IN and the vaunted ground game was an illusion. I saw it in CA, or rather didn't. When he quit, Trump's organization was there and doing things Cruz's never did - it supported THE VOLUNTEERS. It wasn't rah rah Trump, it was, what do you need from us? The hard work and effort by so many on Cruz's campaign was, seemingly, out of devotion to Cruz. The support for Trump was out of agreement with what he SAID. Cruz was the embodiment, Trump was the voice. The distinction is more obvious to me now than it was last May. But I could see results. The only question: Did enough believe what Trump was saying and that he would DO what he said. <br />
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As the summer wore on, Trump seemed to relish the fight. Every attack was an opportunity to do battle. The Left called it 'thin skinned' and many on the Right agreed. Afterall, the Left was used to slapping the Right and it was used to turning the other cheek. Here was someone that slapped back EVERY TIME. It shocked the Left and the Right...well, it just wasn't polite. Imagine that people are so prissy that when they get bitch slapped they all but thank and walk away. The way you deal with bullies is that you PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD - EVERY TIME.<br />
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The Left has bullied the Right for so long it is the only way they know how to work. Trump demanded a fight. COME ON!!<br />
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For people that had been bullied, or seen it happen, Trump wasn't a bully, he was FIGHTING them. Damn! I finally saw that dynamic over the Summer and knew at that point, he would win. The only question was how close would it be? Could the Left's perpetual vote gaming be the deciding factor? I wavered back and forth all Fall. I was sure he COULD win, but not sure he WOULD win.<br />
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The interesting thing about the voting booth - people do what is within themselves. I didn't watch or listen to any news until 9pm that night. When they called Florida, I knew.<br />
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Everything Trump said, he has done. So far. It can change, might. But not without a fight. <br />
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Another truth that seems lost on people: Trump is going to do what is in his best interest. For some reason people think this is bad. His apparent 'best interest' is the same as mine. Doesn't mean you always do what you want. For a couple of decades people said what was good for GM was good for the United States. Trump wants liberty and less government interference in his dealings. He has all the wealth he wants. If he does things in Office that increase liberty and limits government, it benefits him, his family, <b>AND</b> the Moderate Mainstream. <br />
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He has tied his well-being with the well-being of the Country. Imagine that. What benefit did it have for the American people to bomb Libya? What benefit did it have for us to reach agreement with Iran? How much of what Obama did benefited him politically at the expense of the United States. How much of what Trump has said has 'hurt' him politically even if it was an 'inconvenient truth'?<br />
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The NUMBER ONE position of the Cruz supporters that were NEVER TRUMP (and that is most of them) was the Supreme Court picks. Trump has made his and I don't know ANYONE, nor have I heard ANYONE say the pick was less than 'conservative enough'. It is early. Something might come up in the next weeks to change minds, but I doubt it. <br />
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Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell better learn one thing fast: when Trump jumps in to battle the bully Left or to fight the good fight, nipping at his heels from the Right will get just as quick and harsh slap from him. Get in line or he is quite willing to let you hang out there by yourself. Does this mean Congress should fall in line? No. Engage Trump 'one on one' to get Congress' point across. Trump doesn't concede, but he will step back out of the ring if you've landed a point. But once the Left is engaged, get behind him or else.<br />
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To those on the Left that are just dumbfounded he won - you have been delusional. Most of us never told you that you were - it wasn't worth the trouble and your beliefs didn't matter in the long run. Obama put lie to that, but it was clear he was only setting the table. Clinton would have been the Great Destroyer. Clinton was going to do what SHE WANTED. Libya was all her pushing it. <br />
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Donald Trump is not a politician. He is "just an American" that wants to do the right thing. He talks like the Moderate Mainstream. He walks like the Moderate Mainstream. He will govern like the Moderate Mainstream. That will piss off the Left AND the Right. But that is ok. Trump and many of his supporters, like me, relish the fight - not to beat, but to win. Winning is good!<br />
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One more thing is yet to be on the table. I hope to see it in the next couple of weeks. It is 'due' next Monday. Trump's Budget Proposal for FY2018. If it is one dime less than last year, it is a gauntlet thrown down with Congress. If Trump wins, the Moderate Mainstream wins.<br />
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BY THE WAY, I TOLD YOU SO.<br />
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Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-35444956862428189422016-11-25T17:49:00.001-08:002018-02-24T15:12:13.966-08:00The Alt-Right<br />
Much has been said and written about the Alt-Right, little of it from the Alt-Right itself. I've been interested in and in a minor way participating in conversations with others in the Alt-Right for much of the year. Much of what is written about it focuses on a single issue to the exclusion of all else and often with a slant that ignores both the context and spirit. So, I will share what the Alt-Right has written and my comment about it.<br />
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<i>1. The Alt Right is of the political right in both the American and the European sense of the term. Socialists are not Alt Right. Progressives are not Alt Right. Liberals are not Alt Right. Communists, Marxists, Marxians, cultural Marxists, and neocons are not Alt Right.</i><br />
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What is meant by "Political right"? In context it means a political view oriented towards individual liberty and limited government. It supports capitalism and in the United States, government constrained by our Constitution. In the past (actually, even now), Conservatives politically have been the political form of individual liberty and small government. But in the last twenty years, many have supported larger government that is more interventionist - both individually and geopolitically.<br />
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For much of the last 40 years we have discussed Conservatism as a fusion of traditionalist and libertarian viewpoints. Gay marriage is an example: libertarian point of view is that people have the liberty to choose their mates while traditionalists point to historical precedent and social constructs. (They argue the social constructs are based in biology - but we are not animals bound by our biology...) Using government to impose one viewpoint on individuals where there is no Constitutional foundation creates tension. The other variation (popularized during Reagan years) is the three-legged stool: fiscal, social/traditional, and hawk/defense conservatives. The problem has been that the GOP has not shown fiscal restraint, we have over-reached militarily and our social mores have been broken (family destruction). The stool has no legs and fusion has fractured.<br />
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<i>2.The Alt Right is an ALTERNATIVE to the mainstream conservative movement in the USA that is nominally encapsulated by Russel Kirk's 10 Conservative Principles, but in reality has devolved towards progressivism. It is also an alternative to libertarianism.</i><br />
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The Alt-Right seeks to reassert the originalist point of view of individual liberty and limited government by not supporting global interventions militarily, limited government generally, fiscal restraint and established social norms. It does not support the free-wheeling libertarianism but is much more traditionalist.<br />
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It seeks to reassert societal norms established by historical precedent - such as national borders, limited immigration, individual racial groups, familial bonds and limited (to no) global intervention, either militarily or via trade yet to be both absolute and resolved not to compromise for any reason. To establish a strong but independent national identity.<br />
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(Additional note: I have my own issues with <a href="http://tracycoyle.com/CONSERVATISMRussellKirk.pdf">Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles and have written a response to them elsewhere</a>)<br />
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<i>3.The Alt Right is not a defensive attitude and rejects the concept of noble and principled defeat. It is a forward-thinking philosophy of offense, in every sense of that term. The Alt Right believes in victory through persistence and remaining in harmony with science, reality, cultural tradition, and the lessons of history.</i><br />
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Alt-Right does not seek to impose its views but rather is clear that history has been unrelenting in defining what works. When society departs from normative behavior (such as homosexuality), those societies fail from the inside and become weak in the face of outside forces. When diverse cultures are put into close proximity, it invariably leads to significant conflict as each culture attempts to maintain/attain superiority/dominance. <br />
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By pointing to historical precedent the Alt-Right does not need to establish an authority for its positions - those foundations are there for anyone to see. Its foundation is not in a belief system - though that exists - but rather in human nature. Rather than deny or dismiss it, Alt-Right embraces our human nature, what it argues is inevitable, human nature will always win no matter how long or how much damage is wrought trying to deny it.<br />
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<i>4. The Alt Right believes Western civilization is the pinnacle of human achievement and supports its three foundational pillars: Christianity, the European nations, and the Graeco-Roman legacy.</i><br />
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Alt-Right looks to the last couple thousand years of human history and notes three factors have driven human progress to this point:<br />
1. Establishment of the rule of law. Most of human history can be defined by "might makes right" or "rule by man". The strongest rule and everyone submits to their whim. But starting generally with the Greeks and eventually leading to our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, humans have sought the stability and progressive (as it means to embrace everyone) nature of the rule of law.<br />
2. Concurrent with that process has been a dominance of European nations: Greece, Rome, Spain, France and Great Britian. Although China and Japan (and prior to the Greeks, Egypt) have dominated their regions, it was the European nations that spread out both economically and culturally well beyond their borders. The reach of the British Empire is evident even today as Canada and Australia continue to exist as part of Great Britain. Except for the nature of their American colonists, Britain today would span the globe. The European culture embraces (until relatively recently) the rule of law and traditional mores.<br />
3. Christianity. It is hard to speak of European history and culture without recognizing the influence of Christianity - either as a foundation or formative influence, Christianity is part of the individual, rule of law, social normative foundations. To dismiss or diminish its role is to ignore history.<br />
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Combined, Alt-Right sees these foundation stones as having reached their pinnacle in the establishment of Western civilization in general and in the establishment of the United States particular.<br />
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Looking at history generally - African culture has existed for eight thousand years, Middle Eastern culture has existed for six thousand years, Oriental culture for four thousand years and Western culture for three thousand years. Where has human progress been most productive?<br />
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<i>5. The Alt Right is openly and avowedly nationalist. It supports all nations and the right of all nations to exist, homogeneous and unadulterated by foreign invasion and immigration.</i><br />
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Alt-Right explicitly states that nations have the right: to exist, to self determine, and to defend themselves. All nations. Not just those that are our friends or allies. It explicitly argues that each nation can establish its culture and enforce it however it chooses without interference (or violence) from others.<br />
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<i>6.The Alt Right is anti-globalist. It opposes all groups who work for globalist ideals or globalist objectives.</i><br />
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It explicitly opposes globalism or one-worldism in whatever form - culture, economic, governmental or religious.<br />
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Both of these two positions are pretty self explanatory and clear. Nationalism is not for the powerful nations but for all nations.<br />
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<i>7. The Alt Right is anti-equalitarian. It rejects the idea of equality for the same reason it rejects the ideas of unicorns and leprechauns, noting that human equality does not exist in any observable scientific, legal, material, intellectual, sexual, or spiritual form.</i><br />
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All men were created equal is used incorrectly so often it all but signifies the idea that a big lie is easier to get people to believe. I was not born equal to Andre the Giant, Albert Einstein or Nadia Comaneci. While we were all born human, with the same need to breathe, eat, drink, sleep and shit, with the same biological functions and design (bi-pedal, tool using, genetic compatibility) we most certainly have different abilities, strengths and ambitions.<br />
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I do not expect to BE equal, I can't (or shouldn't) be treated equally in context (situationally). We have attempted to create a system where our institutions (specifically government) do try to address us all the same, ie equally. But even that recognizes that we are different. That is why our court system is one of equity not equality. We should recognize our differences and not seek to create a system by which you put in diversity and output conformity. Equality of outcome is not only a bastardization of "all men were created equally" it ignores every single gene of human nature. It defines the very nature of societal failure. We have seven billion unique individuals on this planet, to suggest we are all equal is "unicorns and leprechauns".<br />
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<i>8. The Alt Right is scientodific. It presumptively accepts the current conclusions of the scientific method (scientody), while understanding a) these conclusions are liable to future revision, b) that scientistry is susceptible to corruption, and c) that the so-called scientific consensus is not based on scientody, but democracy, and is therefore intrinsically unscientific.</i><br />
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Alt-Right specifically embraces science. Not the science of consensus (political whim) but the results of the scientific method. A science that reflects humanity's growing and changing understanding of the Universe. It rejects "the science is settled" except in those places where the "laws of nature" are well defined and established.<br />
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That is the foundation of the Alt-Right. I doubt many Conservatives or anyone on the Right would have a problem with it. That said, there is an inherent bias - almost all of the Alt-Right is found in Western Society. From this foundation flows the interpretation and philosophies. There is division/dividing lines/differences in what this foundation means for a 'movement'. What follows is what I think is the dominant strain/element, the part that gives Alt-Right its heft, its substance.<br />
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<i>9. The Alt Right believes identity begets culture begets politics.</i><br />
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Alt-Right believes identity establishes your community, your place, which establishes the culture you exist within, which guides your politics. That this is true for everyone, everywhere. This transcends race, religion or nationality. And yet because we are our human nature, race, gender, ethnicity, and nationality are all dominant features of our identity that are all but impossible to deny or escape. Us vs Them is inherent historically and maybe genetic. Even when we escape one "identity" we often establish another to be part of. Most commonly via immigration.<br />
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Actually moving from one country to another does not always mean changing identities. We see immigrants waving the flag of the country they or their family came from, establishing aspects of the culture they left behind only geographically but not emotionally. People live with those that identify with their past, not their new, culture/identity. Those that immigrate to change their identity, to establish themselves in a culture they want to embrace, not change, seek to become different. To change into something different, and unassumingly, better. That has been the lure and promise of the United States. To become American. <br />
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Who you are is the most important thing you learn growing up. It seldom changes once it is established no matter how much you want it to - it can, it does, but its influence is permanent. That is human nature and it is the foundation of our community, our culture and our politics. It is also why massive immigration of people with different identities, culture and politics are so dangerous.<br />
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<i>10. The Alt Right is opposed to the rule or domination of any native ethnic group by another, particularly in the sovereign homelands of the dominated peoples. The Alt Right is opposed to any non-native ethnic group obtaining excessive influence in any society through nepotism, tribalism, or any other means.</i><br />
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Alt-Right believes most new immigrants do not seek to assimilate, no not seek to change, but to retain their identity, their culture, their politics but for a time to take advantage of our system. They are not immigrants but invaders seeking to plunder without the warfare. And the Alt-Right seeks to exclude them from our society because that is what they choose - to be different, to be exempt. When so many already here are fighting to survive, why are we inviting so many with no desire to assimilate?<br />
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Further, why should we allow those that do not seek to assimilate to gain power and influence within our own borders? A simple example: we are a nation of English speakers yet there are communities in our country where no English is spoken.<br />
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<i>11. The Alt Right understands that diversity + proximity = war.</i><br />
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Diverse communities are fractured, not cohesive, and prone to conflict as groups seek to establish dominance. The greater the diversity the greater/frequent the conflicts. When large communities/nations with divergent cultures meet it almost always ends in war.<br />
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Islam is at war within itself and at war with the larger non-Muslim world. Ignoring or dismissing this reality is giving that culture opportunities to enter and fracture existing non-Islamic communities. We are seeing it happen in many communities in the United States with vast numbers of illegal Hispanic immigrants.<br />
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<i>12. The Alt Right doesn't care what you think of it.</i><br />
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For a long time now people that seek to establish/claim an identity that opposes 'diversity' have been singled out and attacked as racist, bigoted, phobic. So long and so often have the attacks gone on that almost everyone (other than those seeking power) has stopped being affected by the name calling. It has culminated in two ways that have broken its claim of hatred:<br />
1. If you are white, you are racist<br />
2. If you are white, you are privileged<br />
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These claims are absolute and the only acceptable response is to bow and beg forgiveness and to offer restitution. Whether it was the final straw or it just coincided with the discontent associated with the economic malaise I leave to others. At this point most, if not all of the Alt-Right doesn't care what others say or think about them. If their mere existence is an affront to a culture then that culture is nothing the Alt-Right cares about.<br />
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<i>13. The Alt Right rejects international free trade and the free movement of peoples that free trade requires. The benefits of intra-national free trade is not evidence for the benefits of international free trade.</i><br />
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Personally, I support global trade - if for no other reason than we do not have everything I want or we need within our borders. However, the 'free trade plus open borders' crowd is a detriment to us and all countries. There are benefits to trading with other countries but not at the expense of our own population. A pan-nationalist approach might be more to their liking but it is an active argument on the Right across the board.<br />
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At this point I want to point out that NONE of what I have written about above is exclusive to the United States. Every country can (and should) accept the above. Generally, most people I know even if they have issues with a specific point, generally would agree with everything above. Yes, the Left would have problems with the diversity issue but history is a harsh reality.<br />
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I am going to skip this one for a moment to address the final two items and then I will come back to it.<br />
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<i>14. The Alt Right believes we must secure the existence of white people and a future for white children.</i><br />
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<i>15. The Alt Right does not believe in the general supremacy of any race, nation, people, or sub-species. Every race, nation, people, and human sub-species has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and possesses the sovereign right to dwell unmolested in the native culture it prefers.</i><br />
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Alt-Right does not believe in the supremacy of any race, nation or people (or human sub-species*). Each is unique and has its own strengths and weaknesses. I think that the Western culture is the best and I personally think the United States is exceptional (not just first among equals). But the Alt-Right does not distinguish one as supreme - neither nation nor race. <br />
<small><i>* sub-species does not imply a hierarchy but rather differences between groups of humans - there is genetic diversity among the races (and groups).</i></small><br />
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<i>16. The Alt Right is a philosophy that values peace among the various nations of the world and opposes wars to impose the values of one nation upon another as well as efforts to exterminate individual nations through war, genocide, immigration, or genetic assimilation.</i><br />
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And it argues each nation is sovereign and should be free from outside interference.<br />
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Alt-Right also abhors war and explicitly notes one means to attain peace is to limit diversity and culture clashes. By limiting immigration and open borders, Alt-Right seeks to minimize war. <br />
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These two, like others above are pretty straight forward. However most readers with other bias' will read them and think "aw bullshit...no one thinks like that, it has to be a front, a false face." I would say, nope. I've read a lot and think that it is in fact true. There is no demand for diversity or conformity - be who you are, establish yourself in a community, support and defend that community. Avoid conflicts but don't shrink from attacks - attack back until the threat is permanently removed. Strength personally and within the community.<br />
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Number 14, the one the media and many others focus on to the exclusion of all else.<br />
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<i>14. The Alt Right believes we must secure the existence of white people and a future for white children.</i><br />
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This is the culmination of the Democrat Party and Liberal politicians (here and in Europe). For decades the Left has promoted identity politics - each group supporting "it's own". Be it gays, Blacks or Latinos or women, your identity was your political badge. With the culmination of anti-White activists over the last two years, is it any wonder that a politician that explicitly argues for 15 of the 16 points of Alt-Right "principles" while ignoring every accusation of bigotry might win a general election among AMERICANS?<br />
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The largest identity in this country is white, as it is generally throughout the West. If you demand people vote their identity, don't be surprised if it works for the majority. <br />
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Identity politics only works for minorities when the majority can be cowed into supporting the minority demands, even when those demands are harmful to the community as a whole. This is a problem for the Alt-Right. When the minorities realize their hold is slipping (or gone) they have only two choices: submit to the dominant culture or violence. Undoing the decades of damage will be painful in many ways.<br />
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It can't be racist or bigoted for Blacks to demand Blacks conform/vote for Blacks, for women to conform/vote for women, for Latinos to conform/vote for Latinos and BE racist when whites conform/vote for whites. It just goes back to the 'being white is racist inherently'. People are both tired and disgusted that nothing they do or say makes a difference, only the color of their skin determines their social standing - exactly who are the racists here?<br />
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Here is where I break from the Alt-Right...and it might not be a break as much as a difference or divergent point of view. I am the first born of immigrants to this country. I was in lesbian relationship for 18 years. I have helped to raise an adopted baby girl from China. I am NOT demographically an Alt-Right. Yet, philosophically much of the foundation is something I can embrace.<br />
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It goes back to a difference I think only exists because the numbers NOW support it: immigrants to this country are not assimilating. Prior to the 60s or 70s it used to take everything and emotionally, intellectually abandoning the external components of your identity to immigrate. With very few exceptions, immigration was a one time, forever proposition. There was no ability to avoid assimilation, you had to in order to survive. Until recently those trips took days, weeks and even months to accomplish moving to another country. Yet, there were always enclaves of immigrants. Did that mean people didn't assimilate? On a case by case basis, probably. As a community, it tended to break down as generations grew up and moved out. It took time. <br />
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My parents didn't associate with similar immigrants - they fully embraced America and everything about it. They raised six American children. No hyphen. <br />
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For a significant portion of our history, immigration to the United States skimmed the best of almost every other country. Best in the sense that they WANTED the American identity <b>AND</b> were willing to assimilate and work damn hard for it. It has become easy for people to come here and keep one foot in their past. There is no desire to assimilate, only plunder/take advantage of the United States. And we have given them the ability to influence our country in ways that damage and are destroying our culture and identity.<br />
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I can see a uniquely American identity that is more than the Alt-Right.<br />
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Finally, there are variations within the Alt-Right that are both acknowledged and distanced by different individuals. I put them here to distinguish them from the broader Alt-Right that the media is trying to paint.<br />
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The Alt-White focuses on the future for the White Race to the general exclusion of others. A SMALL subset are those White Supremacists we see in the media. They have taken the opportunity that the media (and some politicians) has given them - unintentionally - to gain a platform/megaphone. We'd all be better off it they were ignored. Their numbers are <b>extremely</b> limited...<br />
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The Alt-West tends to downplay the race but focus on the European aspect.<br />
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Alt-Lite is newer and I've seen several different explanations including ignoring the religious aspect but also that ignore race as a factor.<br />
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Right now Alt-(whatever) is trying to piggyback on the attention Alt-Right is getting. We are talking about groups that MAYBE number in the hundreds but are more likely much much smaller.<br />
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There it is. Alt-Right is generally, white, male, Christian, of European descent, traditionalist, chauvinist, and decidedly independent. If you are inherently weak in your own identity, Alt-Right is scary. It isn't. Your fears are not it's features. It doesn't care about you. At all. Join it because it represents you, or not. I have not been made to feel unwelcome. Some disagree with my choices, but I've found more angst and anger from Conservatives and Liberals than I have from Alt-Right.<br />
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Be aware however, as a movement, the thought leaders are intelligent, well read, and strong personalities. If that scares you, the Alt-Right is not for you.<br />
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Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-52100842046407818932016-11-01T19:48:00.000-07:002016-11-01T19:48:49.601-07:00Health care The fundamental problem with health care in the United States is NOT rising prices - those are the symptom.<br />
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It started 51 years ago. Medicare.<br />
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95% of all the medical costs you incur in your lifetime will happen in the last year of your life. An insurance study done decades ago and only since refined, but not altered in the conclusion. As we have increased the life span the percentage has gone done for the last year but increased for the last five years of your life - we live longer but at a cost. Still, quality and quantity have been improving.<br />
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If I told you that your car insurance was $1 a day for January though November, but $10 a day for December...you'd demand one of three things: <br />
1. A quote from another company<br />
2. That we spread the December amount over the whole year, or<br />
3. You wouldn't bother with insurance in December (or conversely, for January through November)<br />
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When there is no other company - you MUST get your insurance through me - the only other options are what we have with Obamacare.<br />
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#3 is what people decide when they think they are very good drivers and they have a very good record of not getting into accidents.<br />
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#2 is what everyone gets when we take the most expensive costs and spread them out over the whole. But...you could go your entire life without getting into a car accident, but you will not get out of this life alive. And those final costs are, especially over an entire population, significant. So, we spread it out. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical care times millions of people every year. <br />
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Medicare shifted the cost of health care for the elderly onto everyone else. When the number of seniors was small and the number of workers large, the difference was pretty small. Now, the reverse is true. <br />
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In a nutshell:<br />
A procedure cost $10,000. For a senior under Medicare, because of agreements with hospitals and doctors, the government only pays $6,400 and lets the senior pick up $2,000. What is the hospital supposed to do with the missing $1,600? Simple, it increases the cost to everyone else (not on Medicare) to $10,500. But insurance companies want some of the same deals that Medicare gets so, they pay $6,800 and leave their customers to pay $2,100. What happens to the other $1,600? Simple, the hospital charges the guy that pays for it out of pocket $11,500.<br />
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The cost is shifted from the senior to the insured to the uninsured (or self insured). Spread that out over thousands of procedures on millions of people and the numbers become staggering. Add in inflation and more expensive care as more people survive longer and the cost shifting becomes a game of who can shift the cost to someone else fastest. Government, seeing rapidly rising costs demands more shifting away from the growing number of people on medicare (and the state provided, medicare subsidized medi-programs), while insurance companies faced with their own escalating costs of complying with ever increasing documentation and regulation and inflation and rising medical costs, shift the cost to their clients in higher deductibles and more co-payments and demands for their own cost shifting. Dumping more people that can't afford it into the uninsured universe of the highest costs.<br />
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x 50 years.....<br />
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Obamacare takes the sickest of the uninsured and tells the insurance companies - insure them. <br />
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That is telling the car insurance company to insure someone sitting in an intersection with a crumpled front end and dripping fluids...<br />
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Insurance is about managing risk - there is a 100% risk to insure someone that just had an accident FOR that accident. Obamacare was not only destined to fail, it was designed to. So that the 'only solution' was government cutting insurers out of the system and just putting everyone on medicare.<br />
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Sounds good to people.....except to those people already on medicare who have watched their costs skyrocket over the last 5 years of Obamacare's initial efforts while care and service has dropped because there is a flood of new patients but no change in the numbers of nurses, doctors or hospital beds - and basic economics will tell you that increasing demand over a fixed supply means rising prices.<br />
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It is a vicious cycle that started....51 years ago. And all the people that sold Medicare, voted for Medicare, who benefited first from Medicare are long dead. We are left to live with the destruction they sowed. There are alternatives....I've considered two different options in the last dozen years....but something will change in the next two years, no matter who is elected....Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-85354298395926756892016-10-22T14:43:00.002-07:002016-10-22T14:44:36.888-07:00Two sides...<br />
One side sees government as the tool to effect social change. To education, to heal, to eliminate poverty - to improve the human condition.<br />
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One side sees government as a tool to protect our rights to live and act freely - be that from others, from corporations or from foreign influence/action.<br />
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An argument can be made (and it is) that government can do both, but it is a failure to understand the means by which government can to the former - it must have the authority to take from some people to give it to others: It must pay teachers and fund schools, it must pay doctors and nurses and fund hospitals, it must pay for food and housing and it must prevent actions by individuals that hurt or harm others. That authority, once given, is seldom restricted or recalled. A phone tax intended to support efforts in World War One was finally repealed in the 1980s. If you demand government teach, you either specify exactly what it teaches or accept that it will teach what benefits the teachers. You lose control of the tool of change.<br />
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Easiest example: government controlled by one party tells teachers to tell students that gay marriage is ok. Then government is controlled by another party that tells teachers to tell students that gay marriage is bad.<br />
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We get students of different ages told different things - each objectionable by one side or the other. Both arguing about what was taught but neither arguing that the teachers shouldn't be teaching EITHER side.<br />
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You can not give government the power to impose "good" on people without fundamentally destroying both liberty and good government.<br />
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So, while one side sees effecting social change as a morally good thing, the other side sees it as morally corrupt liberty destroying.<br />
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One side is evil. The road to perdition is paved with good intentions.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-76275100183092610442016-10-21T15:48:00.001-07:002016-10-21T15:48:43.661-07:00TrustIt is not common knowledge, but most economists will tell you that paper currency ABSOLUTELY relies upon people accepting that it has value. When you work, offer your labor, in return for a piece of paper that represents more pieces of paper so that you can exchange them for food, fuel, shelter, you support a currency based solely on that trust.<br />
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What happens when that trust disappears? If you bought a car or a house, how much actual cash did you use? Or was it all 'paper' electronically exchanges solely based on your signature?<br />
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What happens when the value of the car or house, based on your paper purchase price, is suddenly questioned? When the bank realizes that the $200,000 it gave the seller of the house you bought in return for a mortgage against that house, represents much more than the house is actually worth?<br />
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Our trust in our currency and in our financial system is the ONLY thing that allows it to continue. Remove that trust (as happened in 2008 among banks and the financial community), and things quickly begin to unravel.<br />
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But it is the same with our electoral process. We have to trust that the system is fair (and Democrats screamed for years that the Bush presidency was illegitimate), or it too begins to unravel. <br />
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If you are unaware of the videos and wikileaks that show conspiracy to subvert the electoral process, you get your news from sources part of that conspiracy. I hate to offer a 'conspiracy theory - though it is clear it is more than theory - but it goes back to trust, large parts of the electorate are beginning to question the process and once that happens in a majority way, like the financial system, our governance system will start to unravel.<br />
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Trust. Fundamental to all relationships, personal, financial, governmental. Lose it and it all comes apart. And the tears are bigger than you think...Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-47504955397180560432016-10-21T10:42:00.002-07:002016-10-21T10:42:26.227-07:00Offended I tell ya, OFFENDED!A hallmark of free speech is the ability to offend. As a matter of fact, it was specifically called upon to protect political speech that stopped short of slander and defamation, but left every person that heard it offended.<br />
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Now, I don't like to use the term 'offended' because like 'racist' it is overused to the point of meaninglessness. Yet, if speech DOESN'T offend you at some point you are living in a bubble you truly need to get out of more often.<br />
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Getting out of your comfort zone is a sign you are stretching - if you only get out of the comfort zone by someone's speech, then YOU have failed in a basic human endeavor: growth.<br />
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All of this doesn't mean that you should burn your ears with loud, obnoxious, vulgar, hateful (not speaking of some pathetic "hate speech" code), diarrhea of the mouth. My brother could string together grammatically correct swear words, which were more humorous than what he was aiming for... No, calling someone corrupt, or a liar in order to protect the sensitive ears is treating people like four year olds. While they might WANT to be treated like four year olds, we really have to raise the next generation of twenty somethings to take on the real world.<br />
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So, next time someone 'offends you' with something they say, take a second to really listen and see if the problem is not what you are hearing, but what you are thinking.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-49854091421689306892016-10-20T22:38:00.001-07:002016-10-20T22:39:17.064-07:00A quiet time...Waiting for the movie to start I relaxed and thought of the time I spend just sitting. It is a lost art I think.<br />
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Whether you call it prayer, meditation, contemplation or navel gazing, time spent sitting and trying to NOT think about what you need to do next, or when you stand up again is getting to be almost impossible in our 24/7 connected lives.<br />
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Two plus years ago, sitting in the RCU (Recuperative Care Unit of the homeless shelter), I spent 16 hours a day sitting in a chair, sitting in a hallway four and a half feet wide staring at the wall. Then the floor. Back to the wall. Floor. Wall....and so on. I listened to the people walking back and forth in the hallway. I could hear the TV in the room at the end of the hallway with Judge Judy and Jerry Springer. But after a couple of days...well, not much to think about when there is NOTHING to do next when I stood up, not that standing up was something I was happy to be doing.<br />
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So. I just listened. Mostly I tried to ignore the barely audible brain destroying TV (I swear I could feel brain cells dying whenever I walked into that room). In the evening when people started coming back in for overnight...there were conversations but mostly, 16 hours of sitting.<br />
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A funny thing happened. I can't tell you WHAT it is, but I can tell you that I heard things. Not voices, not rumblings. I began to be aware that I knew things I had no particular way to know<br />
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I would start to say something and as I was getting ready to speak, I knew that it wasn't right...and the words died before passing out.<br />
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I would say something and knew it was right the second I said it. I said things to people that others had told them miles and hours earlier. I said what they needed to hear. I was just spouting my usual pretentious stuff...you know, the stuff I say HERE!<br />
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This is of course not turning out as sage as it sounded while I waited for the movie to start....guess that's what happens 7 hours later.<br />
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What I want you to do is to find a comfortable place (no, the RCU hallway was NOT comfortable!), relax. Turn off the phone, TV, radio, IPod, turn it ALL off. And listen. Take a shot at 10 minutes, work your way up to an hour over the next month. Try every day.<br />
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The Universe is trying to tell you a lot, but ya got to LISTEN. Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-2469651439506900972016-10-01T10:09:00.002-07:002016-10-01T10:09:29.937-07:00Women's view?Woman's advocate on the Left describes Ivanka Trump as a 'character'.<br />
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Melania Trump is being criticized for not being out stumping for her husband....as if that is the best use of her time - she does have a career of her own....<br />
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Trump is being criticized for 'picking on a woman' by calling her overweight - weight shaming her - when the premier issue of her position was IMAGE....you know, that thing women are always complaining about beauty pagents....so when her image 'slipped' and he was the owner of the pagent, complaining about her image was the JOB DESCRIPTION.<br />
People are dismissing Trump's apparent coming attack on Bill's sexual predator attacks as 'old news' their bringing up Trumps words from 20 years ago as a private citizen is truly hypocritical and politically motivated. Hillary talked about believing women that accuse someone of sexual abuse, except when they accused Bill (and he later admitted to several of them). Hillary talks about Trump TALKING about women, while ignoring Bill's actual physical attacks. Hillary talks about respecting women while Bill abused a 21 yr old in the OVAL OFFICE. Right, abused. See, just 10 years previously, a famous senator lost his job because he had an affair with a woman 25 years his junior in his office BECAUSE women of the Left said he was using his POWER to overwhelm the young woman's judgment. What was Monica but a 21 yr old intern...<br />
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Sorry. Either the issue is important or it is not. Either judgment is important or it is not. Either the actions of elected officials in office is important or it is not.<br />
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Hillary Clinton had classified material on her private computer - that is a felony. Intent is not a factor. Scooter Libby was convicted under the same issue...you remember him, the Left was apoplectic about it.<br />
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I'm used to double standards...but the Left isn't even bothering with a standard at this point, one standard for everyone else, anything goes for Clinton.Tracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8693449.post-1157923968440648772016-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:002016-09-11T10:57:29.648-07:00September 11, 2001, In memoriam: Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/1600/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3405/602/320/259_martin_arestegui.0.jpg" alt="" border="0"></a>Posted annually on 9/11 since 2006 (I've missed a few, my apologies to Bobbi)<br />
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September 11, 2001, 7:59am, United Flight 11 leaves Boston's Logan airport.<br />
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In just a few short minutes, Barbara (Bobbi) Arestegui, 38, of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts would be one of the first casualties of that day. Assigned to the First Class cabin, Bobbi and fellow attendant Karen Martin were attacked shortly after takeoff.<br />
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In less than 40 minutes, the rest of the crew and passengers of Flight 11 died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.<br />
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There are no public posts from friends or family on Bobbi. Two stories were published about her and her boyfriend Wayne. From them, the information below is shared.<br />
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"The first thing I noticed, of course, was that she is absolutely beautiful," he said. "We had a nice talk, probably for about 15 minutes. I asked her if it would be possible to get her phone number."<br />
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She told him sternly: "No, I don't give out my home number."<br />
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Wayne shrugged his shoulders and walked away, thinking: I gave it my best shot. She stopped him with one word.<br />
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"But," she said.<br />
He turned.<br />
"I'll give it to you."<br />
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She was living in Washington, D.C., the middle of five girls from a California family with Spanish Basque roots. Two of the girls would join the tight-knit community of flight attendants.<br />
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Her typical schedule was three or four days on followed by three or four days home.<br />
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She turned their house into a cozy retreat with a garden out back. They made a habit of walking the cranberry bogs, picking blueberries and having breakfast at the Mills Restaurant. She loved to cook - she dreamed of attending culinary school.<br />
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Bobbi picked up three stray and abused cats: Olive, Bruiser and Pumpkin. She'd loved animals since she was a kid in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles.<br />
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"She was a gentle person, yet tough when she needed to be," said Rosie Arestegui, who gave her daughter Barbara the nickname Bobbi. "She knew her job so well. She could do two or three people's work, plus hers, and it would be done perfectly."<br />
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Colleagues of Bobbi repeated that praise when Wayne met them in Boston on Friday. He talked with more than 50 people who knew his girlfriend through work. They remembered her as energetic; a huge heart in a 5-foot-3-inch frame.<br />
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Bobbi was not scheduled to work Flight 11 that day. But she had accepted extra flights; she was saving up her earned vacation to take a trip with Wayne at the end of September.<br />
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She got up about 2:30 that morning and within a few hours was out the door.<br />
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"Usually she wakes me up when she leaves. She didn't wake me up this time," he said.<br />
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But she did keep another of their rituals: At 6:45 a.m., he got a phone call from the airport.<br />
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"She told me that she was just about to board. She was waiting for them to finish cleaning the plane," he said. "She was in a wonderful mood, better than normal."<br />
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To <a href="http://www.dcroe.com/2996/?page_id=2">view other sites honoring those that died on 9/11</a><br />
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Links:<br />
http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=3<br />
http://www.flightattendants.org/Memorials/AA_FA_Barbara_Arestegui.htm<br />
http://www.inmemoriamonline.net/Profiles/Folders/A_Folder/Arestegui_Barbara-(AA11).html<br />
http://www.capecodonline.com/special/terror/changessubtle11.htmTracy Coylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13396494193507308556noreply@blogger.com3