35 States Down and 15 To Go

Just straightened up my office and tabulated some post cards I collect when I travel. My count determined I have been to 35 of the 50 states. Many of those visits were for business - I have closed merger and acquisition deals in 20 states. Not bad I thought- I'd like to get to get to six of the missing states this summer.....my penciled in targets are North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana in the west and Maine and New Hampshire in the east. That would leave 9 states to go including Alaska.

Karen Ann Quindlan

Back in the 70's 0r 80's there was a case similar to the Terri Schiavo legal battle. That case involved a girl in New Jersey named Karen Ann Quindlan who had been in a fetal-like coma for 5-10 years (due to some drug interaction that occurred when she was about 24 years old).

As I recall it, her family wanted to pull the plug but the state or the church fought to keep her plugged in. Those in favor of pulling the plug won but amazingly enough, Quindlan didn't die after the plug was pulled and she actually lasted a few more years before finally dying. I always thought that outcome was a little eery and hinted at the influence of a higher power who may have been reminding us HE was the ultimate Supreme Court.

Do I need pajamas to do this?

This just occurred to me. I have been blogging for a month now and not once have I done so in my pajamas. Have I been violating the unofficial rules of blogging? Let's hope not... maybe someone has already wriiten "Blogging for Dummies" and I can pick up a copy.

Right Horse but Wrong Race

In a previous post, I reported my father selected Syracuse to win in his NCAA pool. Bam- Syracuse was beaten in the first round by the University of Vermont!! That's the bad news. The good news is his granddaughter heard the same day that SYRACUSE was giving her a Chancellor's (was he one of the dweebs on Friends?) scholarship worth a lot of money over four years. You have to agree life can sure take some quirky turns and that is why this post is called "right horse but wrong race".

One of my favorite quotes

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." ~ Calvin Coolidge

Daily Newspapers & My New Year's Resolution

One of my New Year's resolutions was to go without buying or reading a newspaper for 30 staraight days. I have not been able to do that yet. It's a pretty tough task for someone like me- at one time I read all three of Philly's daily papers. I felt it kept me informed and was just another of my addictions. Nowadays, they tend to annoy me more than they inform me. I get my news from the internet and blogs and I find the blogs are much better written and thought provoking. The blogs do lack local news so I go back to the real newspapers for that.

I predict that is where the MSM newspapers will need to go to maintain and get new readers .. by providing more and more local news and leaving the big national and world issues to the blogs and cable channels. Of course, if I am right, that direction will infuriate the self-styled big thinkers who work at the large newspapers.

p.s. I have achieved at least one of my other resolutions and it's not even April yet.

March Madness

March madness is one of the big things that make this country great. I am not such an avid fan anymore (too busy) but my retired father still is a huge fan.. He is 88 years old and he never leaves the house anymore (just getting old and has only one good leg) but he kept bugging me to get him in an office pool for the NCAA playoffs. So I got him into an office pool. He picked Syracuse to upset Illinois and total points of 161. Ten bucks to get in the pool and he will have a lotta fun and get way more than his money's worth. Three hundred years from now, March Madness will probably still be a big thing and that is a good example of what makes this country great! In my humble opinion.

Let's Reward Good Behavior

Montgomery County in Pennsylvania (just outside of Philly) is planning to ban the hiring of smokers for county jobs. The county commissioner, claims the county needs to do it to reduce the county expenditures on employee health insurance.

BUT the change will not affect current employees who smoke. In other words, the commish won't go so far as to risk losing any county worker votes and doesn't have the gonads to stand up to the worker unions. So he will penalize some nameless and faceless future job applicant who smoke. And those are just my small beefs against the proposal.

My principal objection is the proposal is a prototypical pol's gutless, less than innovative, half-step to just do something. And by doing so, he discriminates aainst one class of workers. The good news is I expect the ACLU to ride to their rescue any moment.

I say let's try something new for a change. Let's reward good behavior. When I am Emperor of the World, a fat, slovenly, out of shape employee would pay more for health insurance than one health-conscious, fit employee. An employer could simply provide a voucher (let's use) of $500 per month which each employee could use to buy his own heath insurance.

The fit employee could elect higher deductibles and co-pays and probably get a lower premium and pocket the difference. The out of shape employee would probably need lower deducibles and have higher premiums so he would have less money in his pocket than his fit co-worker.

Therefore, the healthy employee get rewarded for his good behavior and the employer pays the the fit and the unhealthy employee the exact same amount so the employer avoids charges of discrimination. And last time checked, it is a constitutional right to choose to be unhealthy (typed while I am munching on a bag of potato chips).

Doesn't my idea sound a lot better than Montgomery County's? In my world, the good behavior gets rewarded. And I don't discriminate!

In my world, the county commissioner could concentrate on his primary role: providing ONLY essential government services using the FEWEST number of employees at the most efective cost. And he does not waste time concocting half-baked ideas in policy areas in which he lacks expertise and is ill-informed. Hell, if he realy wanted to save $1 Million per year, he could just find a way to eliminate 20 or so jobs.

P.S. I seem to recall reading several studies that found smokers are, on average, better, harder and more productive employees. The researchers guessed it had something to do with the smoker's propensity for addictions and compulsions.

What is the frequency Kenneth?

More about my first visitor... I want to get people to be regular surfers of my blog. How often then should I dole out some oh so wise posting to my fans? Maybe I should ask Dan Rather. I'll wait until after Wednesday when he will have more time on his hands.

Do I now need a fan club?

I am happy to say my blog had its first "comment-leaving" visitor on March 6th, 2005. And she left some extraordinarily kind and generous comments about my posts. Thank you PG for the nice compliments!! Feel free to visit my blog anytime. P.S. the grad letter was to my two nieces and one nephew who just graduated from college in the last 12 months ..Fordham (boozing preppy New Yorker wannabes), Oberlin (mostly geeks school-made my nephew look like Arnold Schwarzenegger) and West Chester State (normal kids).