The Weekly Notes 2008

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Weekly Notes:

March 10, 2008

 

Pneumonia:

I think the weekly notes may be a bit random and screwed up this week. I became very ill Wednesday and had to visit my doctor Thursday. Then I discovered I had a case of pneumonia. Lucky me! The doctor did not fool around. He put me on a powerful antibiotic and sent me home. He did not have to tell me to rest. For two days, I have been incapable of thinking, never mind anything physical. I sat in a corner and groaned between coughs. I’ll have more about this in my finale in William’s corner next week.

 

I had a pneumonia shot recently but my doctor explained the real deal. That shot protect us against about 60% of the pneumonia strains. The shot gives no protection for the remaining 40%. Bummer! Live and learn. Will I ever learn enough? After that, Mrs. Gaffer and I discussed another thing we get shots for. That is influenza, commonly called flu. Flu shots are not perfect either. Some years were better, but none was perfect. The people who make these vaccines are trying to stay ahead of the curve, meaning they must guess what will happen and prepare for it. Any meteorologist can tell you guessing is a very iffy business. Still people bitch.

 

Those bitching people ought to be reminded what it was like before the vaccines. There are many to choose from, but just one example will do. In 1918 a worldwide epidemic of influenza killed more that 20 million people. That is more deaths than came out of all of our wars combined. That epidemic was carried to America by returning soldiers from the trenches of Europe after WW1. That event by itself should have caused us to start thinking global but it did not.

 

Almost 100 years later, we are still thinking local. Oh sure, we talk global, but watch what we do. We still do not try to solve problems. We try to isolate ourselves from the problem or contain the problem in some way. A classic example is the way the state of Michigan is not facing the problem of the emerald ash borer. It has invaded and is killing off ash trees by the thousands. Michigan is pretending those bugs can be contained and their propagation stopped. That is equivalent to pretending we can stop the wind from blowing, which is one way these bugs travel.

 

Failure:

I have been here before, but it bears repeating. The auto executives are counting their bonuses even as I write. These guys have failed miserably. They have lost money like it was melting ice cream, yet they get bonuses. There is no penalty for failure in America. We see that at all levels in government and corporate America. There is no incentive to try for excellence when they are rewarded for failure.

 

Meanwhile, what do they offer us? We are offered a smart car that performs like a ruptured cow with no room for a grown man. I watched on TV while a reporter got into a so-called smart car. He had to hunker down to get into it. Can you imagine riding in that turkey for a couple of hundred miles to visit Aunt Martha. I cannot. I would not be able to walk for several hours if I did that. What’s next, peddle cars?

 

ABC Channel 12 News:

They were talking about the high fees banks charge for their services. Their position is, a person should shop around before choosing a bank. They slipped right over the key point. If you shopped around you would not chose any bank. You would choose a credit union. Credit Unions are really into full disclosure. Banks are not and they will evade explaining their rates or make them so complicated that you need an attorney to read the fine print. Who needs banks? Anyone can belong to a credit union. They even accepted me.

 

Attorney:

How do you find a reliable attorney who wants justice as much as he wants money? I don’t want an attorney who will work for nothing. I do believe a good attorney should have a very good income. They should be paid as well as corporate executives, but they should have one other quality. They should care about their clients. There are all kinds of attorneys out there who are nothing more than predators as bad as the people they are attacking. They care nothing about justice. They select their cases based on what they can gain in a legal settlement. They usually prey on the very vulnerable medical establishment and sometimes on landlords.

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