Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Feminists For Life

The early feminists Cady B. Stanton, for one, were pro-life. Why? Learn more here.

I don't believe that abortion is pro-woman at all. It is pro boyfriend, husband, employer, college, etc., but not pro woman. A woman must sacrifice part of herself to claim this "right". She must bear the scars. She must face the emotional and physical repruccusions long after the child is dead. Meanwhile, the man is off the hook financially, emotionally, but most of all physically.

War In Iraq

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Creative People Have More Sex

Not surprising really. While the researchers couldn't take testosterone samples of dead artists, they could today. My theory? Testosterone is high which makes them aggressive, sexual and willing to "risk it" creatively. Testosterone is the sexy, creative hormone--for men and women, too. Women, don't get your ovaries yanked--it messes with this hormone. Not only can you no longer create babies but the creative juices don't flow either. That's bad news all the way around.

A side note, ovarian cysts and other ovary problems indicate creativity problems in Chinese Medicine. Funny how that works, huh?

Happy Birthday to Me: Part Deux

My mother took my last post literally. The List was more a if money-was-no-object (and it always is) kind of list.

Actually, it was rather small-minded, don't you think? It got me to considering what, if all things were possible (wait a minute, they are!), I would really want.

That post will come soon. That will require some thought.

P.S. For those who, like my mother, are new to all things internet, anyone can go to Amazon and put a wish list together. That way, friends and family don't fumble around when trying to please you on those special days. If you find my wish list, you'll notice that it is empty. All kinds of good people use these things though--I don't think it makes you a bad person to know what you want and then share it, does it? Or are you only a good person if you receive gifts you despise that cost the giver lots of consternation, money and time to buy for you? Just asking.....

Monday, November 28, 2005

Happy Birthday to Me

I turn a shade of very-young 30 coming up here soon. Here is my wish list in no particular order.

  1. Pedometer: Gadgety and good, too.
  2. Lord of the Rings: This leather-bound version is sure to please, me, and is surprisingly affordable. I have the green pleather (pretend leather) version, but this one is the 50th anniversary with more features than non-geeks can comprehend. Show me the love.
  3. I-Pod: Ok, my covetous, yet cheap, heart has long lusted for an I-Pod. Now they have a video version--just think! downloadable shows. The Nano, though, wins for sleek, sultry and transportable (lose-able too, I'm afraid, but I'll risk it). Pricey but nicey. Don't forget, I-Pod accessories are a must among the young, rich and hip: Like a dock, or an arm-band in pink is a must!, don't forget the charger, and must have the pink protective cover. Oh yeah! And the Shuffle, so I don't have to listen to all the same songs in a row. And of course the Juicey Couture Shuffle(you fashion hounds know this name, don't deny it) lanyard. Ok, I didn't really want that, it is ridiculous, but funny. Ultimately, I want a speaker hook-up so I can listen in the office (hate Yahoo! Launch commercials and stupid songs I don't want to hear) and play them in the Living Room when entertaining.
  4. Cashmere blanket: (In vanilla, please.) It is on sale for only $429.00! A bargain! Cashmere breathes and is soft too. It's more a need than a want.
  5. Stemless wine glasses: For that twice yearly venture into Red Wine, it would be delightful to not have to worry about breaking stems.
  6. Vacuum Cleaner: Form meet function. There was a time in my early married life that a vacuum might offend my romantic sensibilities. That time has passed. Is it excessive to pay over $400 for a vacuum cleaner? That's for you to decide. But, over the decade+, we're on junk vacuum #3 so it adds up. Might as well get a good one that will last.
  7. Digital Camera with Zoom: Yes, I love my wee Sony digital at 7.2 MP. The only problemo? Feeble flash and zero zoom (more than zero, but not much). This Canon will be my last camera for the year I promise.
  8. Coldplay X&Y: Though European socialists, bordering on Communists (as long as it's everyone elses money, of course), I love their music! Addictive. As the scrawny runt Oliver Twist said, "Moh please."
  9. Serenity: Since serenity seems to be an elusive commodity at least I could have the movie. Missed it at the theatre. Must have babysitter!
  10. Almost any Interior Design book: Albert Hadley, Dan Carithers, Mark Hampton and this by him, you name it, reading the masters is fun stuff.
Ultimately, this year, more than any other, I'm just happy to be alive. Having a new kid has made me want to live more than ever and fear not living more than ever, too. Children need their mothers. Obvious yes, but not something that occupied much mental space until recently. Anyway, just glad to be alive and here for them. Some days (not today, heh!) are so magical and sweet that I want to revel in each sparkly moment.

I love my life. How blessed to be living.

Canada's Government Falls

You didn't know this did you? Because, who care's right?

Where Do You Shop?

Unless plagued by boils, and Wal-Mart alone carries the cure, I shop at Tar-jay. Sorry Sam. But that's not true for everyone.

Fat Buttocks

This was inevitable.

Look at These Stats

Is this what we are coming to?

MRSA

Methycillan Resistant Staphloccocus Aureus tracking: accurate numbers tracking will never happen in the U.S. Maybe it will here.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Black Friday Is Good Friday

Having never shopped on Black Friday before, scary stories spun in my head. Lust-crazed people barreling through doors grabbing everything in sight. Brawls over bedding blocking isle three. Sleep-deprived, wild-eyed shoppers marauding Wal-Mart pillaging the personal computer section.

It sounded dangerous in a fun yet deadly James Dean kind of way. A herd mentality that makes you want to try it even if it's as bad for you as a tar-filled Camel hanging from the corner of your mouth.

Today, "succumbing to the peer pressure of commercialism", as Mr. Dr. said, was the day to see for myself what all the hype was about.

What drove me to such madness? It's the Japanese fault, I tell you! For some time, my heart has greatly desired a flat-screen TV. Functional, practical and best of all, beautiful, who wouldn't want one? The old TVs are big, fat, ugly and hog room space. And, you have to watch all those fuzzy, nasty little dots. Yuck.

In addition, the Scottish in me likes a deal. When other people buckle, this chick remains stalwart. Paying retail almost makes me physically ill. Almost. Some things are worth retail, I just can't think of any right now.

So, imagine my excitement at seeing a $188 flat screen and a $29 sleek DVD player at Target. Imagine my delight at seeing 1200 thread count sheets for $50 at Sam's Club (a store that I loathe more than just about any other--they force you to pay cash or use Discover--grrrr!). Imagine my shock that a finely-crafted Kate Spade handbag could be had at Sam's. Who knew?

I could have rolled my old, nursing bones out of bed at 4:30 to ensure that all electronics, textiles and accessories made it into the Dr. M household. I could have, but didn't. But my interepid sister did.

My shopping excursion started at 8 a.m. Sam's was reasonably unbusy at 8:00. Still, they were out of the super-fine sheets and I bought the next rung down. Oh well. Still a good deal and they fed me breakfast.

Target was a madhouse, but the fickle fingers of fate were on my side. The shelves were chock-a-block full of merchandise. The isles were stuffed with so many carts they were impassable. The poor electronics dude behind the counter looked like a shell-shocked marine on his first day of combat on his first tour of duty. It was only 9 a.m. Poor chap. Hope he survived.

So, being a woman (a man would NEVER do this), I asked a guy in a red vest, "Sir, I'm not sure if you're sold out or not, or if everything is running together for me, but do you have any more of those 15" flat screen T.V.'s for sale?"

Being a man, he was delighted to help. "Let me check for you," he said authoritatively and promptly radioed Chuck the department manager.

"He's coming right now," my helper said. "In fact, here he is." (They talked to each other on the walkie talkie until about ten feet from one another.) Even in Target, a man is G.I. Joe.

Lo and behold, Chuck held in his very grip, a 15" monitor, "the last one" asigned to no one. He put it in my cart. I didn't even have to reach for it! Kizmet.

But my morning wasn't yet done. I had to check out. That worked well. A lane opened just for me. And then, I had to go to the dreaded Sanctuary of Satan's cheap consumer goods: Wal-Mart.

Alas, they had sold most of what interested me. But being Wal-Mart, they had something not needed, but enjoyed when found: tons of cheap videos. DVDs for $3.44. I bought $60 worth. We now have a decent library of DVDs. Renting is wasteful at prices like these.

All in all, Black Friday was good to Dr. M. No bruises. No emotional trauma. Black Friday was a Good Friday for me!

Thanksgiving

The Dr. M family enjoyed a quiet, peaceful meal together Thursday. Our "do-nothingness" stretched into today. I do believe that this four-day weekend is the least activity we've had all year. Something is wrong with us! It was wonderful. The whole experience makes me determined to repeat it soon.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Student Loans Strangle Business Growth II

Oh, I forgot to tell you how this affects business.

The loans weigh heavily on all college grads--especially if they are doctors like me--who are new business owners upon graduation. The attrition rate for chiropractors is somewhere near 50% within 5 years. Although that might be urban legend. Not sure. No chiropractic schools want these stats out, that's for sure.

A medical doctor friend had $250,000 in student loans. A dentist can have north of $100,000 if he or she goes on to specialize and then a one chair set-up (you know the spit bowl, plumbing, moving chair) costs over $250,000.

It is tough to feel sorry for these people, right? But the ones you're seeing are either gutting it up and just getting by (way more than anyone would like to admit), or doing relatively well. You're not seeing the failures who are stuck with the student loans and business debt.

Now, lets add insurance. We have malpractice (a huge expense depending upon the specialty), liability (someone slips and falls), disability, health (we are a small business and pay through the nose with over a $5,000 deductible) and our personal life must be insured to the hilt because doctors are big targets.

1/10o doctors are audited by the IRS each year. 1/2000 U.S. citizens in other professions are audited. So you better pay a good CPA and have a financial advisor advising your every move.

Doctors must comply with inane insurance regulations that change every day and cost money. One insurance company paid for patient care rendered over a year and a half ago. Insurance companies are in the business of finding a reason NOT to pay. Try managing your cash flow with that kind of repayment schedule.

Some insurance companies pay such lousy reimbursement that we get paid less than half what we charge a cash patient for the same treatment. An orthopedic surgeon I know gets $200 for a Medicare knee replacement surgery!

It's insane.

Chiropractic enrollment and enrollment in medical schools are declining. Doctors are picking specialties that don't interfere with their families as much--radiology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, for example. That's a good thing--for families.

And the Boomers are getting older just as the medical field receives heavy disincentives just to stay in practice.

Every old-timey doc says "Boy, I'm sure glad I'm getting out now. I wouldn't want to be starting today."

And it all begins in graduate school with student loans. Do we really want this kind of profession to be the home to trust fund kids and special interest quotas?

Shouldn't the medical profession be filled with smart, dedicated people who enter the profession with desire to serve and the intelligence to serve well? Student loans should be helping these people get into a profession that needs talent and hard work. Instead, student loans bury the doctor before he or she can get a start.

Student Loans Strangle Business Growth

A punitive bill is making it's way through congress that will stick those with student loans with a fixed rate that is far above current market interest rates. Call your congressman or woman on my behalf and JUST SAY NO!

Dick Morris says: (read the whole thing here)
With a 25 percent share of the student loan market — more than six times that of its rivals — SLM has cashed in on federal guarantees against defaults on the one hand and blocked student refinancing on the other. As a result, according to columnist Terry Savage, writing for thestreet.com, SLM has made a profit of 1 percent over its loan volume of $100 billion — $1 billion in profit!


Student loans are near and dear to my heart. My husband and I, both chiropractors, paid our way through college. We left undergrad with no debt. We left graduate school with mounds of debt. It is simply unfeasable to get through academics that difficult while carrying a full or sometimes even a part time job.

Like many people we consolidated and "locked in". That is, we got stuck with an interest rate that cannot be refinanced. So, while interest rates have hit rock bottom, the monopoly called Sallie Mae still gets big fat interest on top of inflated loans (the schools benefit from government upping of loans--they correspondingly increase room, board and tuition). Tuition has more than doubled inflation increasing an average of 10% a year. There is no market correction because financing is so tightly governmentally regulated.

This is NOT a good thing.

Crappy schools make the same money as good schools through student loans. So, good schools, setting themselves apart raise their fees. Only the "poor" (that would have been me) students pay the government loan amounts.

You see how this is crazy?

Sallie Mae wants to keep her nice big cash cow--Dick Morris says that their yearly take is over ONE BILLION DOLLARS--by pushing through a law that would not allow students to refinance.

Of course, this is wrong. The whole student loan system needs to be deregulated so competition can enter. Guess what? Tuition would decline. Loan interest rates would decline. Defaults (to the tune of 25%, which are guaranteed by the Federal government--that's you and me, don't forget) would decline.

Stop this madness! Call your Congress Person--TODAY!

Monday, November 21, 2005

Upper News

Ok, I'll buck up VJ. Really, Dr. M is not moping through life right now. She is very busy and feeling generally irritated by the state of affairs. But that is looking at the glass half empty.

Actually, some things are perking up. Have you noticed that gas prices are on the descent? Do you know why? Econ 101 at work my furry little friends: supply and demand. Glen Reynolds posts some encouraging information about reduced use--that one barrel of oil today does the job that two did in the 50s. That's good news! People are finally buying hybrids, including Glen, because they finally have some power and style.

Al Quaeda is trying to return to Afganistan, but it's not working.

Mongolia is democratic and GW is encouraging and supporting them.

My children made pumpkin bread and will be taking it to the old folks home across the street and singing to the nice people there. Community service--now that's a good idea.

A border fence between the US and Mexico might become a reality. Then again, it might not. It has worked in Israel. Heck, it works with my neighbors. (No illegal feline immigration into the Dr. M motherland, thank you very much.)

Abortions have dropped recently (decline in child-bearing age women is my guess as the baby boomers seek ways to have kids now that their child-bearing years are almost up and they inadvertantly are sterile due to age, STDs, previous abortions, and too effective birth control, but I digress) but are still twice the number (still alarminly high) of the early '70s.

Thanksgiving is coming. I am profoundly grateful to live in a country that officially and annually thanks God.

So, there! While sounding like a crotchety old bag, "Bah, the good old days were gooder!" Now I can sing like an optimist, which truly represents my views more so on most days.

Have a great day!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Slow Posting

My mom asked me why I hadn't posted so much. Short answer: I've been really busy. Long answer: I'm sick of the news.

I'm sick of government news. Politicians make stupid decisions that seem unbeatably self-serving and wasteful and then, they vote on another piece of legislation that is even more self-serving and wasteful. They generally seem to have no conscious. They seem to have forgotten that their opinions and decisions do affect people. Is Washington D.C. so insulated from the Average Joe that the only opinions that matter is one anothers and press and pundits and lobbyists they fete with? Blech.

I'm sick of health news. (How's that for ironic?) Everyone knows they should eat healthy, exercise, etc. They rarely do. All the health research says to eat healthy, exercise, etc. Our world is so polluted now though, that doing everything right still doesn't guarantee a free pass from cancer or some other horrible disease. I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you can...I'm just saying, you know what I'm saying.

I'm sick of crime. I'm sick of people abusing their children or someone elses child. I'm sick of rapists. I'm sick of "people smugglers trafficking humans". And I'm really sick of prosecutors going after some person for this or that minor infraction when real criminals are getting away, literally, with murder. Oh, and I am convinced there is a special place in hell for defense lawyers who traumatize the victims in the name of a "spirited defense."

I'm sick of stupid priorities in schools. When I was in school, I got a half hour recess in the morning, the afternoon and an hour at lunch time and we still managed to learn to read, write and do some math. My kids get no recess except for a half hour at lunch. And they come home with an hour of homework every night in second grade. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING IN SCHOOL? So these poor little boys with ants in their pants get put on Ritalin when all they need is some recess to burn off steam? And we complain that kids are fat? Research shows that adults can sit for no longer than 50 minutes before attention fades. My kids at ages six and eight are well-versed in the drug culture, though...a whole week was spent learning to say no to drugs, alcohol and everything else. Is everyone insane?

I'm sick of the media. George Clooney thinks that the worst period in American history was McCarthyism. Cameran Diaz waxes elephant about politics. Every movie portrays the common person as some ignorant hick while Sex and The City glorifies vapid, sleazy women as glamorous. According to Desperate Housewives, the suburbs are filled with conniving, self-centered lust-crazed adultresses (not the love-crazed moms like I know who wait in car-line, shuttle kids to lessons, make dinner night after night, read before bed, and the list goes on and on). And Maureen Dowd laments the dirth of men in her high-faluting world of intellectual stimulation and gender manipulation as the common woman (that stupid little lady who sold her soul, got married, had children and put her career on permanent hold) bumbles back to the 50s. Red state, blue state. Rednecks versus smarter-than-you urbanity. Yuck to it all.

I'm sick of business fads. There is NOTHING new under the sun. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. That doesn't mean that there aren't new products or new services. There are. But the way businesses get those products and services to the market are tiresomely blandly the same as they always have been. And, the problems that undo potential growth are also still the same--lack of cash flow, faulty manufacturing, apathetic customer service, pricing problems, image problems, high overhead, undisciplined spending. Blah, blah, blah.

I'm sick of commercialism. The best holiday America celebrates will be here next week: Thanksgiving. Yet, this year more than any other I remember, it is being blown by in a tidal wave of advertising for Christmas. It's going to be a huge season, I'm predicting. But give me a break! Are we such a thing-obsessed society that we can't stop for one day of the year and allow ourselves to ponder for a moment that it isn't our greatness or goodness that resulted in our abundance but God's bountiful blessings? We can't pause, pray and humbly give thanks with a sincere heart filled with gratitude? It is embaressing.

I'm sick of thought police. If you're a Liberal, Conservative, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Female, Male, Straight, Gay, Fat, Skinny, Rich, Poor, or whatever other category you fall in, you're supposed to think a certain way. Some black dude in Maryland is getting pelted with Oreos during speeches because he has the nerve to be Republican. And there are blacks (and whites) who defend this! Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me that the good Reverend Martin Luther King would approve of this? This is 2005 not 1950. It is called DIVERSITY. Or is there only a right kind of diversity--the kind where as long as your opinions match mine they are okay? An educated woman is not "liberated" unless she works 80 hours a week in a corporate position. A list a mile long could be written.

I'm sick of warped values. Everywhere in America, people are trying to convince themselves that the affair they are having isn't hurting anyone, that watching hours of TV doesn't change your thinking, that leaving their child in day care until 8 p.m. is okay, that the children will be okay as long as mommy and daddy are happy, that a new car, bigger house of more things matters more than siblings, time, and connectedness. These are called deals with the devil, because deep down these deals all come due. And it won't be pretty when it does.

I'm sick of Baby Boomers. GW Bush saddled the future generations with even more debt with the new Medicare Drug Benefit in the name of appeasing the most selfish, bloated generation ever. Anti-aging (Boomers are never going to die and when they do, they will look 20 because of all the plastic surgery), divorce, McMansions, spas, adventure travel, artificial insemination, surrogates, me, me, me, me, me. The average number of children from Boomers--1.7--means huge responsibilities for those few kids in the future. With divorce, there will be more step-children, too. But will the kid want to take care of step-mommy or step-daddy dearest when old and addled? Um, let's be realistic here.

I'm sick of stupidness. Rebuild a drowning city. Appease criminals. Hope that terrorists will go away if we pretend they're not there. Keep border wide open. Keep passing bigger national budgets. Increase student loan amounts so colleges will keep inflating tuition. Search law-abiding people at airports so we "feel safe". The list goes on....and on....and on....

So that is why there have been fewer posts recently. You know the old saying, "if you don't have anything nice to say....."

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Attraction and Hormones

Interesting. Chinese Face Reading might not be so far off.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Simple Reason Common Cold So Common

Well, well, well, mom was right again. When we get chilled we become susceptible to a cold--so says current research. Now, this might be common sense to all moms, but once again, Doctors have known better and given stupid advice as a result.

Ever heard the saying, "He doesn't have the sense to come out of the rain"?

Other doctorly advice it might be wise to ignore:

  • Sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity.
  • You're only contagious when you have a fever.
  • Children can't have food sensitivities until they are two.
  • Childhood colic is incurable and must be outgrown.
  • Breastfeeding is unnecessary or doesn't make that much of a difference.
  • Salt is bad.
  • Butter is bad.
  • Meat is bad.
  • Bread is good.
  • Milk is good.
  • 6-12 colds a year is normal.
  • Pooping once a week is normal.
  • Pooping once a day is normal.
And this is just kid advice. A book could be written about all the unfactual, unsupported, medical dogma that passes as "science" but is far from it.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Perfection

How can you say there is no God when looking at perfect toes on perfect feet?

Republican Weenies

For those of you who hold the conflicting positions that we need to rely less on foreign oil but must never hunt nor drill for oil on our own turf, congratulations! The Republican weenies buckled and removed a provision to drill in ANWR while simultaneous giving Oil Executives hypocritical verbal spankings.

They suck! Read more at Michelle Malkin's blog.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Abortion Debate

Read more here. She presents all the sides.

I would be described as one of those extremists--I believe abortion is wrong even in cases of rape and incest. Why? The argument that a woman must live with the "raising of the chid forever" is stupid. Ever heard of adoption? In Texas you can drop a baby off at a hospital, fire or police department for 60 days with no reprecussions, no questions asked.

Almost all of the embarassment related to pregnancy out-of-wedlock is gone. But, women don't want to be seen as so shallow as to give the child up for her own needs. Abortion is preferable--the need to not be embarassed trumps ending another life.

"I just died of embarassment." Takes on new meaning.

France is Burning: Part II

It is disturbing that the best news and commentary about the craziness in France right now is coming out of ...... Brussels. Every one in the French and liberal wings in Western governments everywhere, including ours, want to ignore this. It undermines wrong-headed social policy. It undermines wrong-headed immigration policy. It undermines wrong-headed humanistic views--Maslow misinterpretted.

Looking at religion and culture and the problems: read more here.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Soduku Madness

Mr. Dr. and I have never been trend setters, really. But we are part of a craze started in Japan and sweeping the world as I write this.

We get this magazine from both the U.S. and the U.K. called The Week. Recommended by my time-crunched sister, it is really the idiots guide to what happened in the world the last week if you're too busy working to read.

I ended up with the UK version because I ordered online and it said "The Week". Well holy Toledo, the price was much higher than I expected but oh well. Then, I found the US version which was considerably more affordable (shipping and all that).

Long story long, I'm happy that we get the UK version because on the inside back cover they have a crossword puzzle (bah!) and this math thingy called a Soduku.

Well the DH and I are totally hooked. He has beaten me every time...except once.

Oh, my rare win was soooo delicious. You see, they are rated in difficulty and this was rated the highest difficulty. For whatever reason, I blasted through it--got the method to the madness.

Not only did I finish first, I was done 15 to 20 minutes earlier than you-know-who. His pride was deeply offended. He is unbearable win or lose, but losing wins the bad attitude award.

My sore winning did not help his sore losing. To say that my one tiny triumph managed to find it's way into every conversation goes without saying.

Now, he's like the Soduku demon. We get one in the mail and he hunkers down drawing a grid. We have at least one competition a week. Believe it or not, I find this fun.

Try them, you'll like them. They can cause brain pain, but the only way to lose is to quit. Don't be a loser! Winners never quit!

Oil Company Profits

Three words for you: supply and demand. Ya gotta love hypocritical congressmen getting after Oil Companies for actually, finally, making money.

75% of the cost of a gallon of gas goes to the government. Like grocery stores, oil companies have very tight profit margins.

So, a confluence of things have happened to up oil prices: multiple natural disasters that have affected refineries (none have been built since the 70s--California rejected a proposal to build one a year ago), world consumption (read China and India) has increased wildly and a few countries control how much oil gets on the market (read OPEC).

High demand + low supply = High Prices

Congress needs to shut up, but they won't. This charade is to demonstrate to panicky consumers who live check to check that they are "doing something about the problem" when they are doing nothing of the sort. They are covering their collective hineys so when it gets cold and the blue states get bluer and colder and scream about home heating oil prices the politicos can say "we did everything we could" and...."it's Bush's fault!!!!!!"

By the way, wasn't the war in Iraq all about blood for oil? And, shouldn't our oil prices be lower because of this? Just asking.

Colic in Babies

Changing a mom's diet to lower allergy producing foods changes breast milk and reduces colic.

The only problem with this research? Most colicky babies drink FORMULA not breast milk.

Heart Trouble? Take B Vitamins

Medicine is finally coming around. Take Bs when you have heart trouble. And don't stop!

B vitamins are water soluble (not fat soluble which the body produce) and flush out when you are stressed. We are all stressed all the time even you, you know who you are, who always protest, "but I'm fine!"

So take your B vitamins!

Hypertension and Caffiene

Being a Coke-a-holic and always trying to break the habit, I've found that my blood pressure goes down off the stuff.

I have posited that I'm chasing sugar when I'm off it, but other sugared drinks don't feed the need.

I have posited that I'm chasing caffiene when I'm off it, but other sodas with even more caffiene don't feed the need. Tea which has far more caffiene does not feed the need.

Could Coke still be putting cocaine in their products? That would up the blood pressure and the kick wouldn't be able to come from anywhere else. Kidding. Only kidding.

It's like the Mike Meyers skit, "It's the secret ingredients in the chicken that make you want it and want it and want it. That Colonel with his wee beady eyes!"

That's how I feel with Coke. (Not Pepsi. Not Dr. Pepper. Nothing else feeds the need.)

Science and Religion

The Dalai Lama and scientists got together again out West. Interesting findings always come out of these exchanges.

Psychiatrists firmly said that meditation cannot change brain chemistry of depressed people into non-depressed people.

Dalai wants to know if empathy for family and enemies activates same part of the brain. Interesting question.

My only beef with all this, doctors who would never parry with a Christian philosopher will pontificate with a Buddhist monk. Eastern religions has more cache.

Finally, the Dalai is heading to the East coast for another symposia and Chinese doctors (communists who may be "encouraged" to take this action by their government--the same government who has wiped out Tibeten culture) are boycotting the Dalai's speech. I wonder how many of these Chinese doctors are American citizens? Be interesting to investigate, wouldn't it?

Drug-Resistant Antibiotics

This approach may work to getting rid of them. It actually makes sense. Probably why it won't be done.

A doctor or nursing carrying MRSA is what killed my son. The laughable part was that the doctors accused Mr. Dr. and me of infecting the kid--we probably didn't wash our hands like we were supposed to. Ha!

MRSA didn't follow me from my house. You get it at hospitals.

My other son is colonized with MRSA and was put in isolation at the hospital. A total blessing as it turned out.

Antibiotic overuse is a scourge. Avoid them if at all possible. Suffer with the virus. Suffer with the infection. Let your body fight it and develop immunity.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

3000: Finding a Purpose

With my mom's computer not working, my readership has probably dropped by half. Oh well. 3000 visitors have come by my blog. Hope they like it.

Originally, my blog was going to center on all things business. I'd spent time reading Tom Peter's blog. Other blogs cover Tech, Law, Management, etc.

Business it turns out, is better covered by Scott Adams. He reveals more insight through his humor in his Dilbert cartoon than 1000 blogs covering stupidity in Business.

What do people struggle over? Compensation? Bad supervisors? Cut throat co-workers? Yes. Yes. And yes. The choices remain simple: look for another job, confront someone about the situation or suck it up.

Organizations struggle over motivation, retention, innovation, efficiency, excellence, focus, competitiveness, etc. These challenges are on-going. Little methods here and there, depending upon the current fad, help get them there.

I'm a doctor. I didn't invent the human body, just like Peter Drucker didn't invent business. While we can all use an outside perspective somehow, we should do our best to "know thyself".

I'm a helper. My role with individuals and corporations is to give them the tools they need to succeed, inspire them to use them and help them "harmonize"--get congruent with the mission. Often that means reminding them of what they already know and encouraging them to do what they know in their hearts to do.

While this role can be important, long after I'm gone, the client must do the hard work for him or herself.

This blog then, doesn't often focus on the obvious. I could talk about Six Sigma, Human Resource innovation (ha! is that a non-sequitor?), silos and boxes. Blah!

My real intent is to bring your attention to what I think is important. Broad issues that could have significant implications both personally and for business.

For example, if the EU gets its way and the UN ends up running the Internet, International Law not U.S. constitutional law will govern you. Have you thought about those ramifications for you or your business? How would you like to be held to the EU's slander laws? Labor laws? Do you even know what they are? Thought not.

Another example, have you considered the impact that a worldwide flu pandemic would have on your business? Does your company make chicken soup? Does your company ship chickens? Do you live on a farm? Do you live in a closed-in metropolis where quarantine is virtually impossible? Are you a doctor? Are you prepared to treat dying people who are extremely contagious? Big businesses, could you still operate with half your staff sick and perhaps 10% of your workforce dead and the other 90% preparing a family-members funeral?

Yet another example: are you familiar with Sam Alito's judicial philosophy? What would a strict constitutionalist say about "eminent domain" or "family leave"? Do you know? This will make a difference to you both personally and professionally.

How about ending the inheritence tax? Billionaire bridge buddies Warren Buffet and Bill Gates thinks that repealing it is immoral. I could not disagree more. For guys worth 40 billion giving away 50% to the government is no biggie, right? Even if Bill does what he wants and gives almost every penny to charity, his children will still be "set up". You see, I trust Bill to know what to do with his money. I don't trust the government. Right now Bill is funding all sorts of research that he and a bunch of smart people think is important. What would the government do? Build bridges in Alaska. Enough said.

What about forced vaccination? How do you feel about the government imposing vaccinations that are both untested and unproven to work? Do you like being a guinnea pig even if there is a pandemic? I don't. But a new bill before congress is debating just this thing. I worry about liberties being taken away so we "all feel better" when no scientific proof documents effectiveness. I'm reminded of this every time I get frisked at the airport.

So, these broad issues have huge personal implications. The machinations of business will continue. Like people, businesses need to create, nourish, maintain and protect themselves. Individuals will decide how to do it. Businesses will decide how to it.

But the environment changes every day like never before. So many monumental changes external to our personal or business life are occurring. These changes will affect how we live our lives even if they seem far away.

Through this blog, I'm trying to share these big problems. You want leadership lessons? Watch Chirac deal with the riots, watch Bush deal with natural disaster and war.

It may seem at times that I'm beating irrelavent, long dead horses. Sometimes I do. But often my desire is to give attention to issues that will change your life and your business life--whether you want your life changed or not.

Monday, November 07, 2005

France is Burning

Update: Read more from Mark Steyn.

Depending upon your American news source, varied voices opine about the trouble France faces with a very angry "youth". There is no mention of Muslim youth. American writers frame the torching of French cities by African and Arab youths as they would frame rioting in America--disenfranchised minorities who lack access to the success of lighter skinned people finally revolt. It is to be expected. I mean really, how long did the ignorant "MAN" think the peeps could be suppressed?

But this not what is happening in France and now spreading to their Western European neighbors. Yes, the unemployment rate is staggeringly high for these minorities (up to 35% among those 15 to 25 male and Muslim). Yes, the immigrants are marginilized geographically, literally on the outskirts of cities.

To learn more about what IS happening in France read more here. We Americans cannot afford to be ignorant or arrogant. Trouble spreads when ignorance reigns.

Hat tip: The Anchoress via Michelle Malkin

More on Movies

Saw Kingdom of Heaven starring Orlando Bloom Thursday night. I'll give you a thumbnail: Christians bad. Muslims good. Secular Humanists the very best ever, ever, ever!

The only redemention for the film? Orlando Bloom is H-O-T hot! (Hey, don't scoff! We could have had to endure this film with an ugly lead. It could have been worse.)

Watched Spanglish Saturday night. Another thumbnail: Downsized corporate babes are aimless meanies and terrible mothers. Illegal immigration is good. All white people are rich and vacation for the summer in oppulent beach homes. White people don't know the meaning of life like Hispanic people do.

The only redemption for the film? The main protagonists--Adam Sandler's husband character John Clasky, Tea Leoni's wife character Deb and Paz Vega's domestic help character Flor choose the morally right thing to do. The husband and wife stay married. The" simple yet wise" maid moves on rather than split up a family.

Tea Leoni's portrayal deserves special note. Her Deborah Clasky was a hyperkinetic spaz with almost zero sympathy. Inept in all things domestic or wifely, so narcisstic she leaves her husband hanging during sex, she seemed to be an appendage on an otherwise functioning family. Is that how working mothers are? Some, I suppose. A friend of mine whose husband worked with Carly Fiorina chatted with her during a wedding and guess what Carleton talked about? That's right HP stock. Nooooo, she talked about her kids, of course. Maybe James Brook's mom worked outside the home.

Sunday night, we watched Revenge of the Sith. This film we should have seen in the theater but didn't have time. Yes, we are just that pathetic. It's effects earn a big screen. Alas, we settled for our wildly out-of-date TV.

The special effects seemed to me to be one of the only special things about Lucas' so-called last installment. Lucas, like every other condescending Hollywood insider, cluck clucks through this movie, "What if the very Republic we are trying to defend has become the evil that we're fighting?" Padme asks. Argghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I want to kill myself! Self-serving gibberish does not belong in entertainment. Is anyone listening? Does anyone care?

The exchanges between our doomed heroine Padme (Natalie Portman) and her dark-hearted love Anakin (Hayden Christenson) feel empty and leaden at the same time. Both deliver lines like stilted rather than jilted lovers. Or is it the ridiculous script?

Violence reigns in Stith. I had been warned to not look by Mr. Dr. moments before Anakin offs a room full of Younglings thankfully not on screen. After seeing the new Vader do that, no amount of, "Luke, I am your father" will erase the over-the-top memory. Why was his murderous rampage necessary to set up his dark heart? Killing a Jedi and the whole separtist movement isn't enough?

The worst scene, the one that makes all the bleeding and exploding appendages seem like nothing (and they gave Peter Jackson crap about black blood gushing from the cut off neck of a very bad Orc? How do the raters decide these things?), shows the fallen Skywalker on fire melting and somehow surviving. The camera lingers on this gruesome moment forever. I couldn't wait for the mask to be put on already. Ugh.

The Villians include a Sith, General Greivous and Palpatine the baddest of them all. The Sith gets offed by Anakin at the goading of Palpatine. Greivous is a weird machine with a real beating heart and what looks like someone's eys and perhaps a brain. I dunno. Heck, I still don't know what Storm Troopers are. Are they people in weird armor or are they some kind of active droid? Anyway, he fights with Obi Wan and we all know who must win!

Palpatine and our favorite good guy, Yoda get into it. That was fun to watch. Yoda was probably the best actor in the whole film. Samuel L. Jackson was fantastic as ever and always deserves more screen time than he gets. He portrays stately, stern, regal and commanding better than just about anyone.

Finally, after all the saber throwing, one must ask: what is the point of these movies? Lucas, being the smarter-than-you director sums up and gives Obi Wan (Ewan Macgregor) the line, "Only the dark side thinks in absolutes." So the key then is balance. Yin yang. Nobody is really that good. Nobody is really that bad. Padme's last words trail off, "I know there is still some good in him."

Even with all this, Revenge of the Sith got me jazzed about going back and watching the original Star Wars trilogy. I'm just sorry to have missed the ending of this epic on the big screen.


So there you go. My reviews of three recent Hollywood films. None stellar. Doesn't that bug you when someone has nothing good to say? Makes me want to watch another movie or two so I can say something nice.

Me Just A Widdle Weenie

Many close professional friends of mine could not disagree more with my world-view. Too polite to say that I'm nuts, the friends from (suprise!) New York and California simply discontinue interacting with me on more than a superficial level.

My writing is not oblique. After reading a person knows precisely where I stand. How gauche!

My forthrightness has its downsides. It started in my teen years, actually before that, too. Stating my opinions about the sanctimonious, hypocritical pastor at my church growing up got me in big trouble. A friend of mine, a boy, received a letter from me and his parents, evidently so alarmed at my impertinence, gave the letter (and others) to the pastor. The pastor, being sanctimonious and hypocritical, decided to use the letters in a sermon. He read them to the church (leaving out the names, of course--why go through that step when everyone knew who wrote it?) decrying teen rebellion.

Writing got me in trouble. I determined then and there to never put in a letter content I didn't care for the whole world to read.

A blog is one better. Anyone can read it. It's not secret. My name is on it. There is no hiding (unlike the NYTimes Editorial page).

Writing this blog really is an act of courage for me, believe it or not. Freely putting my views out there, especially ones that earn me the status of "silly simpleton" by more sophisticated friends, means enduring possible scorn.

I need to get over it. My goal is to balance two competing character flaws: 1) I care way to much what people think 2) I can believe what I believe and share it in a nice way or (horrors!) not at all.

Finally, a note about changing my opinion. That happens more frequently than some would guess. Even some of my past posts don't represent my current position. I'm leaving them up there as a testement that ignorance can be left behind.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Maureen Dowd's Lament

In Biblical times, and even now for some women, it was a curse to be childless. Many women, childless because love never found them or they never found love, or worse, because they felt, like Queen Elizabeth, that their duties to humankind would suffer attached to a man on the side and a child on the breast, wake up mid-life and wonder what they might have lost.

She can only wonder of course. Except for nuns and other service to God, all other callings seem superficial next to motherhood. This a mother, a true mother, knows. Childless women wonder.

This does not mean that every woman who choses to avoid motherhood, choses badly. On the contrary, many women chose motherhood thinking that the adoring eyes of their children will make up for a lifetime bereft of lovingkindness. It won't. Any lack a person has reveals itself under the stress of parenthood. Parenthood won't fill a need.

But Maureen Dowd's lament, "What's a Modern Girl to Do?", does not even touch motherhood--which would be her consuming sadness if she possessed one wit of sense. Since she lacks sense, she laments the loss of a mate. She laments young girls playing "the game" to get married. She laments that men don't like intelligent women.

My feeling, after reading her piece, is that Ms. Dowd laments her need for companionship, not just sex "Sex and the City style", and that her choices have left her alone. She laments that selfishness has been its own reward. The Anchoress has more.

Choosing to become a couple might start as a selfish endeavor (I want sex, I want my needs met, I want, I want, I want), but it can't stay that way if it will succeed. My husband and I met in college, dated other people, were friends and found much common ground to build a life together. We loved each other then. The bigger accomplishment is that we love each other today.

Even with that enduring love, speaking for myself here, I find loving my children infinitely easier than loving my husband. They are part of me for one. It might be annoying to hear an uncomfortably familiar turn of phrase with my exact inflection bleating back at me, but who can I blame? Well, there is always the huband to blame, but not if a wife possesses even the least measure of self-awareness. Which on my good days, I sometimes possess.

After a woman works so hard to get a child in the world, love almost seems automatic. (Not for everyone, I know, but it does tend to grow and bloom.) This miraculous being kicked inside of you, shared your chemistry, felt your thoughts, and came out as a person. Childless women get sick of mom's yapping incessently about birth stories. Who cares? Every woman who has gone through that passage and come out the other side. That's who cares.

This process protects a child, because it needs a mother's love to grow healthily. A man, the man you chose to marry? Well...

Men.

Do the cliches need to be listed? Simple. Uncivilized. Yup. And the ones who aren't, the dandy with the foppish good looks seem less than reliable when a manly man is needed. Metrosexuals might sound like a good idea, but a woman prefers to complain about her boarish, manly mate rather than be the strongest one in the room should danger come.

Do the primal make-up and inherent needs and weaknesses frighten Ms. Dowd? They must. She looks beautiful, she's intelligent (though lacks some sense), and she's well-put together. Her distress at the DNA and drives have created a force-field no chaos can penetrate.

One of my male friends shared Ms. Dowd's angst. "Melissa, you lose all freedom when you're married."

I countered, "Sometimes boundaries allow us to be truly free."

Have you heard that research? Children who play on a playground without fences stay closer to the school than those who have fences. Why? Because when we feel protected, we can venture further out. The best marriages are like this.

It would be a lie to say that not always getting my way isn't frustrating. It is. I want everything to be my way all the time. Paradise. Or not. Two heads often prove better than one. And sometimes I give in and sometimes the results are better and sometimes they are worse. To think that as a single person, all my decisions would be good ones, though, is delusion. That's the position that must be taken to cling to singlehood as sacred.

And then we get back to parenting. Choosing single parenthood...why? Why would someone choose to do that to him or herself? How many days have I handed a baby to my husband, if even for a moment, to pull myself back together. Parenthood strains every fiber of a person's being some days.

The woman's movement veered wrongly when equal rights for women became the end of men. Some women still believe this. Ms. Dowd didn't think she believed this, but her actions speak otherwise.

A woman cannot, by strength of will, change the essential nature of man. The hormones that shape and change the brain, that make a man twice as strong in his upper body, that create impulses which he must work very hard to contain, don't make a man anti-woman, but they do make him different.

Is the choice then to abandon men wholesale and become lesbians, because women are "safe" and "good"? Please.

No, women like Ms. Dowd, will have to make peace with mankind. They will have to surrender to their own needs and desires, just like a man must to couple with a woman. Oh, just that word, surrender, sends chills up a person's spine.

But truly, the surrender is to be okay with who we are, not who the opposite sex is. I am a woman, fragile and strong, capable of many things, legitimate on my own, desiring companionship and comfort with a man.

Feminists will never win the battle by being pint-sized versions of men. Our strength is not in butch hair-cuts and flannel. It isn't for men, by the way, either.

Our strength is not in youth and beauty alone, but that's part of it (sorry, but it's true). A woman's strength like a man's strength is to recognize her mission and live to the best of her ability to achieve that mission--to truly be herself as a woman.

Marriage to a good man will help her rather than thwart her. Together, they will care for one another, lift one another up, have children together if they are fortunate and desire it, and be better human beings than they would have been alone.

The way of a man with a woman is a mystery, says Solomon. Always has been, always will be. Recognizing the obvious won't set women back to the stone ages, Mo. I promise.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Hollywood Experiences Shunning

Sales are down 12% in Hollywood, oh my! I wonder why. Movie going, like TV watching has lost its allure. If the movie stinks, two hours were wasted which really chafes. Then, two more hours are wasted in self-flaggelation. So Hollywood has lost a couple customers in the Dr. M household.

Guess I'm not the only one. Read more here.

Prince Charles Can Move to Syria

Not that this dull-witted Royal deserves any ink (thankfully, I'm not wasting any), but he can keep his opinions "Islam is good" to himself. How President Bush doesn't punch his royal silliness in the head reveals far more restraint than the Left give the prez credit for. Samizdata agrees (about Charles being stupid). Thanks Instapundit.

And, by the way, so glad you're happily married to the horsey woman you should have married in the first place. Surely you have some self-awareness and realize that people view the whole thing as nasty. Let's see, I'm in love with a woman and too slow on the draw (shocking), marry a beautiful young (naive) woman who bears my children, cheat with my real love while my wife is still breast feeding, and hook up with her after my ex-wife is dead. Lovely. IT'S NOT A ROMANTIC STORY! Hollywood might love it, but the rest of us think you are a gutless nincompoop. BAH!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Halloween: The Worst American Tradition

Yesterday, October 31, as the clouds rent and the skies poured forth, as can only happen in Texas, little butterflies started to dance within' my fever-addled body. If week two of sickness continued to sit like a pox on my house, then at least other people would suffer with me.

Poor little cherubs everywhere could come begging for candy but they would have to do it drenched and miserable. What fun!

Alas, it stopped raining early enough that the miscreants and those who spawned them could still bumble up my very darkened door (isn't that a sign to trick or treaters to move on?) and bellow "TRICK OR TREAT!" before clamorously racing to ring the doorbell. It's times like these that government restrictions on rocket launchers seem restrictive.

People get more misanthropic as they age some say. Maybe so. It's the explicit threat that peeves me about Halloween. Treat, or else? Or else what?

Sure, it's fun to dress up and pretend to be someone else--preferably a superhero. That can be done at other times in other ways. Teaching our kids to beg and threaten and then rot their teeth out?

And another thing! When did it become acceptable for 20 year olds to trick or treat? Do people have no shame? Get a job, for pete's sake and buy some candy.

Thankfully the whole nasty event is over. A truly American holiday, Thanksgiving, beckons. Eat everything in sight and watch football like a gluttonous slug. Go Lions!
More blogs about the woodlands rita.