JUST SOME POSTS

As most of you know, my wife passed away last May from a rare neurological disease called MSA. One of my goals in life is to offer support to those patients, caregivers, and families affected by this rare, fatal illness. The American Academy of Neurology has a film contest each year where they pick a short film made by individuals about support for brain disease research. Entries are submitted to You Tube and a winner is selected by popular vote. The film is then shown at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting. This would really be important to help with MSA as it is very rare and still unknown to a lot of doctors and other medical personnel. I know this from personal experience. There is a film featuring a MSA patient that is entered in the contest this year. I would ask that you register, watch, and vote for the film. Even if you do not want to vote, please go watch the film. It will show you what MSA patients like my wife, go through with this illness. Please help mak...

One good thing about having done this now for over four years (!!) is that I have written about most everything common to our lives. With an election cycle in full swing I was going to write some election "stuff". However, I did a lot of it in 2007/8 and again in 2009/10 for the last two elections. So, to take advantage of that "work" I am just going to reference those posts. Some are attempts at humor and some are deadly serious. Here we go: My first "election" post. An attempt at humor about elections and the parties: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2007/12/party-party-party.html Then a follow up to the same blog: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-partying-and-such.html This one gets into specifics, some about the 2008 races: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/10/this-one-gets-political-even-if-you-get.html This is the next post after the one above. Clarification and details: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/10/follow...

Well. we did it. An incompetent congress, directed by an incompetent president has taken our national debt to a whole new record! Sometime this week (as I write this on Dec 23, 2011) our national debt has exceeded our GDP. Now some of you do not know what a GDP is. (some of you don't care, but then you shouldn't be reading this - move on to some of my light hearted ones - they get all the hits anyway). GDP, or Gross Domestic Product is the total of the value of all the goods and services produced/performed in the U.S. combined with the value of all the goods produced and exported, minus the value of the goods imported. Or,  GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending, + (exports - imports).   There are other ways of measuring GDP, but in theory at least they should all add to the same number. What really bothers me is this travesty occurred while Congress was battling over extending a social security tax suspension for two months. TWO FREAKIN' ...

I am sure all of you have heard someone in the last year comment about how America doesn't make anything anymore. You may have even said it yourself. I have come across some interesting figures (at least to me - I love numbers!) about that. What if I told you that manufacturing output, measured in dollar value, was at its HIGHEST in 2010. OK, I am telling you that. It's true. The U.S. manufacturing output was a record 1.7+ trillion dollars last year. How is that possible? We don't make anything anymore! (FYI, I have found some other figures that show the manufacturing output for the U.S. much higher - over $2.3 Trillion last year. So, it may be even "better" than I have presented. I am going with my original research however. I did want you to know.) First, obviously we do make "things". One of the reasons that people feel that we don't is the fact that there are a LOT less people employed in manufacturing jobs than there were even at the turn ...

It still amazes me how many hits this blog gets. Especially since I have not been posting regularly since my wife died on May 30th. Another thing that amazes me is the post that gets the most hits. "Now Boarding at Gate 999" is the most read post I have done. Here is a link to that post: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2010/03/now-boarding-at-gate-999.html The second most read post is "Another Ramble". Here is a link to that one. http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-ramble.html It appears there are a fair number of people out there that can appreciate my idiotic sense of humor. If you like those types of posts, here are a few more to check out: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2010/03/will-cluck-for-food-second-post-today.html http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-shall-we-call-it.html AND ONE OF MY FAVORITES IN THIS VEIN: http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/11/infinite-monkeyschimps-aka-million.html There are a group of p...

I am worried about one other aspect of the economic crisis we are in currently. It seems to have diverted attention from the man made global warming nuts and their attempt to take over the world's economy in the name of  "saving the planet". It bothers me when I see people mentioning their "carbon footprint" or reducing their CO2 emissions. I am all for taking care of our planet. But, this idiotic notion of anthropogenic warming of our atmosphere is rapidly becoming accepted. It is said if you repeat a lie enough it will become accepted. That is what is happening here. I have done many posts on this blog about global warming. I have links and quotes from many sources that show how this "accepted, proven science" is neither accepted nor proven. Here is a link to a letter sent to the U.N. Secretary General from 100 scientists asking him to get the U.N. to back down - http://www.middlebury.net/op-ed/un-signatories.html The final signatory is the...

I am writing this on the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. I have been watching some of the news coverage of the memorial service and reading some of the articles and such in the news and around the internet. First, I want to make sure that those reading this know I am very, very sorry for the families and friends of those that lost their lives that day and in the next few that followed. The horror of the towers being struck and then falling, combined with the uncertainty of any attacks still to come made that day a hell for anyone old enough to realize what was going on, especially anyone with loved ones in harms way that day. I sincerely hope that all of those affected that day have gotten or will acheive some peace in their lives. Those of you that have read more than a post or two of this blog know that is not all I have to say. So, here is what motivated me to write this post, other than the sadness of the memorial ceremonies - I am VERY suspect and d...