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Friday, April 16, 2010
Angostura Bitters
If you're from Trinidad & Tobago or just love drinking, you should be proud of this video from the April 15, 2010 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show. Also, great Champagne Cocktail and Manhattan drink recipes.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Newark, NJ's Remarkable Accomplishment
Living as close to Newark as I do and driving or taking the train through it as often as I do, I've seen not only the parts of Newark that gave it its reputation but also the changes taking place block-by-block, day-by-day. The fact that Newark just completed its first calendar month without a murder is remarkable.
This is a beaten up city that has been the butt of jokes for so many years, including the line from the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam, where Robin Williams' character is talking to troops headed into hostile territory and he tells them to be careful because "It's dangerous out there. It's like Newark after dark." (And that is a film set in 1965, a year before the last time Newark went an entire calendar month without a homicide.)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker did a number of TV interviews recently, including those MSNBC interviews posted below from The Rachel Maddow Show and Morning Joe.
This is a beaten up city that has been the butt of jokes for so many years, including the line from the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam, where Robin Williams' character is talking to troops headed into hostile territory and he tells them to be careful because "It's dangerous out there. It's like Newark after dark." (And that is a film set in 1965, a year before the last time Newark went an entire calendar month without a homicide.)
Newark Mayor Cory Booker did a number of TV interviews recently, including those MSNBC interviews posted below from The Rachel Maddow Show and Morning Joe.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Thursday, April 1, 2010
GOP After Healthcare Reform: Dazed and Confused
Matt Miller has another great column in The Washington Post about the discombobulated GOP reaction to President Obama signing into law a national version of essentially the same health care reform enacted by Republican Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts.
Monday, March 15, 2010
LaDainian Tomlinson vs. Curtis Martin
Like many Jet fans today, I was pretty excited about the prospect of LaDainian Tomlinson wearing the Jets Green. When I first read the news last night, my thoughts immediately went to the Jets signing Curtis Martin in 1998 to replace Adrian Murrell. I started to wonder though if that was the right comparison.
Curtis Martin came to the Jets in 1998, when he was 25 years old and still in the prime of his career. Tomlinson will be 31 in June and even if he finds his second wind with the Jets, recapturing young glory is not easy for a running back. That said though, LT has said he would need to alter his game by catching more passes out of the backfield, especially on 3rd downs. If he shows a level of practicality not normally seen in a star athlete in any sport, he may be capable of providing the Jets the leadership they need. Thomas Jones was known as a leader in his years with the Jets and Curtis Martin is considered one of the best locker room presences ever, especially with his tutelage of LaMont Jordan, who coincidentally came into the NFL in the same season as LT.
Also, Curtis Martin's best rushing season came at age 31, when he led the NFL with 1,697 yards rushing. Tomlinson won't be expected to carry the kind of load Curtis Martin did that season with Shonn Greene (out of the University of Iowa) and, hopefully, Leon Washington sharing the backfield. And with a two-year contract, he is low risk with a potential for much higher reward.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
Curtis Martin came to the Jets in 1998, when he was 25 years old and still in the prime of his career. Tomlinson will be 31 in June and even if he finds his second wind with the Jets, recapturing young glory is not easy for a running back. That said though, LT has said he would need to alter his game by catching more passes out of the backfield, especially on 3rd downs. If he shows a level of practicality not normally seen in a star athlete in any sport, he may be capable of providing the Jets the leadership they need. Thomas Jones was known as a leader in his years with the Jets and Curtis Martin is considered one of the best locker room presences ever, especially with his tutelage of LaMont Jordan, who coincidentally came into the NFL in the same season as LT.
Also, Curtis Martin's best rushing season came at age 31, when he led the NFL with 1,697 yards rushing. Tomlinson won't be expected to carry the kind of load Curtis Martin did that season with Shonn Greene (out of the University of Iowa) and, hopefully, Leon Washington sharing the backfield. And with a two-year contract, he is low risk with a potential for much higher reward.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
Sunday, March 14, 2010
T.R. Reid: Universal health care tends to cut the abortion rate
Great column by T.R. Reid in today's Washington Post. I liked this quote from a senior Roman Catholic Cardinal from the U.K. on why women have fewer abortions there than in the United States:
"If that frightened, unemployed 19-year-old knows that she and her child will have access to medical care whenever it's needed...she's more likely to carry the baby to term. Isn't it obvious?"
An unrelated column in today's Washington Post says "Fox News: unfair, unbalanced, unchecked." Well DUH.
"If that frightened, unemployed 19-year-old knows that she and her child will have access to medical care whenever it's needed...she's more likely to carry the baby to term. Isn't it obvious?"
An unrelated column in today's Washington Post says "Fox News: unfair, unbalanced, unchecked." Well DUH.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A Personal Note Involving Health Care
If you read my blog post on March 2nd, I made reference to a Howard Fineman column in Newsweek about his experience with the health care system in Argentina. In the post, I mentioned that I would have a more personal note later. Well, this is later.
I'm assuming most of you reading this post are friends of mine that are seeing this in your Facebook News Feed. (If you don't know me and just stumbled across it, thank you for reading.) As many of you know, my father passed away in January while he was vacationing and visiting relatives in India. He had been hospitalized with a lung ailment in December and was in the hospital for 26 days before passing away.
What Howard Fineman shares about the cost of his experience is similar to what my family encountered. He mentions that the cost of the services he received was approximately $1,500 when converting from Argentine Pesos to US Dollars. Similarly, the cost of the services my father received, after converting from Indian Rupees to US Dollars, was roughly $8,600 to $8,900, depending on the exchange rate you use for conversion.
This seems like a sizable amount but consider the fact that this includes 26 days in one of the top hospitals in India, Poona Hospital and Research Centre, all antibiotics, medications, IV's, a ventilator in the ICU for his final six days, cable television, and a private room with a guest bed for my mom to sleep at night. The hospital also had staff to scrub, clean, and disinfect every room top-to-bottom twice each day and there were always two attending physicians on the floor and a fully staffed nurses' station around-the-clock. And this was in the standard room! The upscale/VIP/high-end floors were supposedly much nicer than this. And, unlike Howard Fineman's experience, all of the doctors and nurses spoke fluent English and those that were not native Marathi speakers spoke enough of the local language to get by.
Frankly, it is experiences like my family's and the one Howard Fineman writes about in his column as to why medical tourism is not only becoming more prevalent, some people are actually finding it cheaper even with insurance coverage that they have.
I personally know the doctor that was treating my father as they were good friends. (In fact, my father had left instructions to give his friend an unopened bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label that my dad had purchased to ease his friend's guilt if he could not save my dad's life.) The doctor lives very well, has a great practice, and often visits the United States for medical conferences at his own expense. He is not someone that is just wealthy in India but would only be middle class in the United States.
I'm not sure if the health care reform being considered by Congress will immediately rein in costs. I would imagine that goal is the provisions would lead to the lowering of costs over the years but it still begs the questions Mr. Fineman asks in his piece: where does all that extra money go?
I'm assuming most of you reading this post are friends of mine that are seeing this in your Facebook News Feed. (If you don't know me and just stumbled across it, thank you for reading.) As many of you know, my father passed away in January while he was vacationing and visiting relatives in India. He had been hospitalized with a lung ailment in December and was in the hospital for 26 days before passing away.
What Howard Fineman shares about the cost of his experience is similar to what my family encountered. He mentions that the cost of the services he received was approximately $1,500 when converting from Argentine Pesos to US Dollars. Similarly, the cost of the services my father received, after converting from Indian Rupees to US Dollars, was roughly $8,600 to $8,900, depending on the exchange rate you use for conversion.
This seems like a sizable amount but consider the fact that this includes 26 days in one of the top hospitals in India, Poona Hospital and Research Centre, all antibiotics, medications, IV's, a ventilator in the ICU for his final six days, cable television, and a private room with a guest bed for my mom to sleep at night. The hospital also had staff to scrub, clean, and disinfect every room top-to-bottom twice each day and there were always two attending physicians on the floor and a fully staffed nurses' station around-the-clock. And this was in the standard room! The upscale/VIP/high-end floors were supposedly much nicer than this. And, unlike Howard Fineman's experience, all of the doctors and nurses spoke fluent English and those that were not native Marathi speakers spoke enough of the local language to get by.
Frankly, it is experiences like my family's and the one Howard Fineman writes about in his column as to why medical tourism is not only becoming more prevalent, some people are actually finding it cheaper even with insurance coverage that they have.
I personally know the doctor that was treating my father as they were good friends. (In fact, my father had left instructions to give his friend an unopened bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label that my dad had purchased to ease his friend's guilt if he could not save my dad's life.) The doctor lives very well, has a great practice, and often visits the United States for medical conferences at his own expense. He is not someone that is just wealthy in India but would only be middle class in the United States.
I'm not sure if the health care reform being considered by Congress will immediately rein in costs. I would imagine that goal is the provisions would lead to the lowering of costs over the years but it still begs the questions Mr. Fineman asks in his piece: where does all that extra money go?
The Truth About Support for Healthcare Reform
Thank you Joel Benenson for writing in today's Washington Post what I've been thinking for months: why do so many polls show Americans are against health care reform when they strongly support individual provisions that are in the bill? I personally think this is due to the poor job of communication done by the White House and the Democrats in Congress and an excellent job of demonization by House and Senate Republicans. The first time I really heard a clear explanation from the White House of the immediate benefits of health reform was probably in last week's Weekly Presidential Address.
Reading Benenson's piece shows that the opponents of reform are only interested in preventing the President and Democratic Party from achieving a victory. Many have said that the current legislation being discussed and debated is actually more conservative than some of the Republican alternatives proposed to the Clinton health care plan of 1993. The fact of the matter is those that vote against health care reform will have to explain to voters this November why they:
Reading Benenson's piece shows that the opponents of reform are only interested in preventing the President and Democratic Party from achieving a victory. Many have said that the current legislation being discussed and debated is actually more conservative than some of the Republican alternatives proposed to the Clinton health care plan of 1993. The fact of the matter is those that vote against health care reform will have to explain to voters this November why they:
- Voted against banning insurance companies from denying coverage to those who are sick. (a.k.a. Denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions.)
- Voted against the tax credits for small businesses offering coverage. (a.k.a. The Insurance Exchanges.)
- Voted against helping seniors on Medicare pay less for prescription drugs. (a.k.a. The Medicare "Doughnut Hole".)
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