Excellent Help With Arthritis

I have just reached that delicate age when pills for ailments and other treatments are called for in abundance.

One of my doctors referred me for physical therapy (a professional field that I did not know existed) where I have learned an amazing amount in the ways to forestall pain. It is called Premier Physical Therapy & Wellness. There are locations on both the East and West Side of Manhattan and outer locals. One is assigned to one specialist and has one's referring doctor who manages things. It is is covered by Medicare and for CUNY retirees, GHI.

One person is assigned to a client. Mine is superb, Keiko Yanai PT, at 162 W. 72nd St., 4th fl. 212-362-3595. They are supposed to focus on one part of the body a session to avoid extra costs.

I am asking my family doctor to supervise need areas.

Keiko is giving me various exercises to do with paper illustrations.

I was amazed to learn that a large part of my problem is that my muscles are constantly stressed and need to be relaxed which can be done with proper body control and the exercises.

I am tempted to start a health list, but have two daughters with expertise in such things -- am not medically trained, so will rather post to all my lists and blind copy people.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Subtle Flow Of U.S. Ethnic Biases -- Rick Sanchez, etc

“ Yeah, very powerless people. [laughs] He's such a minority. I mean, you know, please. What—are you kidding? I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Sanchez

Now about to turn 78 in a few days it occurred to me that I have lived through a series of evolving ethic prejudices -- sadly in which the previously oppressed all too often become the new oppressors.

My life conscious experience began in West Hartford, Connecticut, and an outer suburb, Farmington, where we moved and built a home in the middle of an ancient apple orchard looking downward to the west from the lower reaches of Avon Mountain. After early years in our local public school I moved along to several Connecticut prep schools (one day and the other sleep away), a BASS scholarship to a British private school ("The King is dead. Long live the Queen!"), Yale where I was the chairman of the Yale Daily News, Union Theological Seminary in NYC, Mansfield College Oxford, and finally Columbia for a Ph.D. in legal philosophy -- and teaching happily at a string of schools before settling in at our primary port of entry college, Brooklyn, CUNY.

The long and short here is that I have seen the shifts in prejudices in the U.S. in contrast with Britain and several other European countries which I visited. The European ones tend to be ethnocentric -- some times with several variations in particular nations, e.g. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Back to early life experiences, Connecticut was viciously anti-Semitic until the horrors of the Holocaust hit us. Even then things moved gradually -- Yale, until I editorialized against the prejudice, preferred admitting Jews with German or British surnames but "not too many of those Eastern European types!" Thus spake to me our principal admissions officer. It really hurt blowing his cover, but that spurred Yale to break some of its patterns of prejudice and with them the rest of the Ivies and seven sisters eventually -- I saw this happening at my first teaching job at Vassar where women's rights were also starting to move.

Echoed here were what were some of the lesser degrees of ostracism -- against Irish, Italian, and Polish Americans in descending order. African American schools still held our segregated former slaves. Counting up, then, west of Hartford where most Jews lived, there was west of Avon Mountain one Jewish family - a grocery/liquor store owner in a poor enclave, Oakland Gardens, which he gradually bought up to became its collective landlord. Farmington, itself, fit this slope model. West of Main St. to the River lived Roman Catholics -- Irish and Italian and their church. East of Main St. up the hill housed the two Protestant churches and Anglo Saxons. The Poles either farmed in the (literally flood plains (between Farmington and Avon) or lived in scattered locations and worked in the factories of New Britain, a lower middle class to poor town south west of Hartford. One of my summer jobs in construction was done for Joe Basine (originally Bazinsky), a family friend. I built for him houses for Polish factory workers. I also worked another summer for a scrap metal operation owned by a fine Jewish family (the Suismans) which was the only employer of African American men in the region (women did housework) who sent some to college (the boss was a Yale grad who also gave me $1,000 toward my seminary studies at oxford).

Needless to say the only African Americans living outside of a small ghetto in central Hartford) was a couple that did housework for a wealthy Anglo gentleman farmer (ran for governor later and lost).

Hopefully our anti Latin American biases will fade. If you read the Rich Sanchez quote above, you will see it misquotes him from the simplified versions that made him a bigot in the media. He is pointing out that Jews are no longer flayed with prejudice here. I hope the abuses of the Palestinians will not change that. My peace activist friends in Israel and Palestine are very worried by that possible outcome.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Shafting Elders on Medical Care and Retirment Income?

U.S. health care is outrageously expensive. As the following website implies, games are being played with the numbers, but apart from cleaning up the abuses of Medicare by doctors overcharging and keeping everyone covered in the future there is no problem in paying for care for all -- a single payer system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

The same is true for social security. There is money in that bank which would carry us through 2140 and we simply need to up the pay level for those well off to adjust to variable finances in the future:

http://blog.accountingcoach.com/social-security-tax-rate-2010/

"The Social Security tax withheld from employees during the year 2010 will be 6.2% of the first $106,800 of each employee’s taxable earnings. The employee’s earnings in excess of $106,800 are not subject to the Social Security tax. In addition to the Social Security tax, the entire amount of each employees’ taxable earnings is subject to the Medicare tax of 1.45%"

Needless to say our national government has the powers and obligation to make such things work for us. Our competing democracies are way ahead on such things at far greater savings and democratic justice for all!

We should be a democacy and not a plutocracy run by and for the super rich!!!!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Medical Care for Some?

It is ironic that the Republican plan to repeal medical reform has been aborted for the moment because of the horrendous attack on a fine young Congresswoman being kept alive by excellent medical care.

I am forever puzzled by the capacity of so many to deny to others food, shelter, medical care and even life itself. Our death rates for a major democracy are a disgrace -- infants included!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

I wonder whether Obama's marvelous appeal will have any impact on those who would rather blame than help those in need?

At the very least the Republicans/Tea Partiers may pause -- but for how long? There is manifestly something built into their ideologies that demands favoring the ultra rich, plutocrats, rather than the rest of us.

No democracy can survive long in the face of such discrepancies in wealth and state aid for those in need.

I happen to live in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and virtually all that I know are caring people. Thus, I am constantly amazed at those who hate. Hate, rather than anger, is another word for willingness to kill. I shall be curious to see what makes our assassin tick? There must be a streak of hatred embedded somewhere in his make-up.

I suspect that the post deployment breakdowns of so many of our brave young soldiers may be connected with guilt for their killings. Hate has to be stimulated. It does not often occur naturally -- thank God.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Gabrielle Giffords' Shooting and Doctors' Medical Description and Expectations

The Arizona Congress member was in some ways fortunate and others less so. The bullet entered her skull from the left side back of her head and exited from the front left. Her doctors in a Fox news conference indicated that she was fortunate in several ways: the bullet exited without pressuring the brain as would have occurred had it lodged within. It did not penetrate the center which would have been most likely fatal.

The downside is that it ran through the left side of the brain where speech and other intellectual functions are usually located. She has not spoken but indicated her awareness of questions by pressing the hand of a doctor.

She is now in a several day medically induced coma to protect the brain from more stress. The left side of her skull has been removed and stored to be replaced to reduce pressure. Bone chips have been removed. Relatively little brain substance was destroyed.

Her doctors seem moderately optimistic about the outcome if she lives.

Such grim details are hard to share, but are not rare in war of accidents of various kinds.

I am indebted to a Fox news doctors' report. They had reported her death. Excellent care was provided from the moment she was shot by staff and then medical personnel who worked quickly with her.

Other wounded have moved the serious category at worst.

One hopes for the best for her. Most likely her stands in opposition to the planned Republican attack topics next week have delayed those. The noisy lady from Alaska had marked her along with 19 others as targets on a map.

I happened to get the medical details from a Fox News press conference -- my first.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Where the Jobs Went

I am constantly puzzled by critics of Obama from both parties who don't get the basic fact that we have moved on into a global economy in which other nations can compete with us for jobs simply by paying their workers less than nothing and not providing benefits to which we are accustomed: China, India, others. The Europeans are facing the same problem.

The blue collar jobs in particular are not going to come back. We could create jobs repairing our failing infrastructures were we not wasting so much money on pointless military things -- some 700+ military bases that provide jobs in the countries where we have located them post WW2, etc. We could redirect some of those jobs to our unemployed and massive numbers living in poverty. The list identified by this website is too lengthy for a blog. Check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases

Also the debate continues on which is more expensive -- the Obama reforms or the old system with its massive profits for the drug companies and profit-making medical insurance. Notice the Indian accents when you try to deal with the latter.

Needless to say corporate tax dodging is not the newest game in town but the global options make if virtually impossible to track. BP has most of its financials based in small island nations impossible to track or regulate.

I could go on and on but my final blast is that our key media are owned by the ultra wealthy (e.g. Murdock from Australia) and don't mention such things. Reports of such corruption are few and have little effect except upon those of us who follow such things. Sign up for Amy Goodman's Democracy in America out lets near you if you want the details daily:

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=nw&ned=us&q=#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=webhp&q=amy+goodman+democracy+now&aq=1&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=Amy+Goodman&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=83f87efc6f926f13
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Killing Social Security and Medicare?

I spent the bulk of my life either studying or teaching -- until I was 74. Now I gather the Republicans want to sabotage both of these basic support programs which keep us elders going. If this is not proposed murder of millions, I don't know what is. Already 145,000 Americans die each year because they could not afford medical insurance:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/a_doctors_view_we_cant_afford.htmlhttp://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/a_doctors_view_we_cant_afford.html

This figure was reported in the Harvard medical journal. The website offers a comparable report.

Plutocracy means rule by the ultra rich. Speaking of "death panels,"
the Republicans' proposal to cancel Obama's medical reforms is pure and brutal insanity.

I know too many people who have survived such things as cancer for an extra decade, not to go ballistic at such hypocritical crap. As an American I am a defender of democracy. But when I hear the lie that the U.S. has the best health system in the world of democracies . . . ? It is, indeed, the most expensive and least efficient. The following web site shows how Americans are being deceived by such as Fox News:

Posted August 4th, 2009 at 4:19AM

FOX always states what failures social democratic states are compared to the GREAT AMERICAN system well here are some more facts:

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Hate-Fox-News/646440

http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/aboutnsw/lifestyle/E1_quality_of_life.htm, AMERICA CAME 17TH

USA Ranking on Adult Literacy Scale: #9
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- OECD

USA Ranking on Health care Quality Index: #37
(#1 France and #2 Italy)- World Health Organization 2003

USA Ranking of Student Reading Ability: #12
(#1 Finland and #2 South Korea)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking of Student Problem Solving Ability: #26
(#1 South Korea and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking on Student Mathematics Ability: # 24
(#1 Hong Kong and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking of Student Science Ability: #19
(#1 Finland and #2 Japan)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking on Women's Rights Scale: #17
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- World Economic Forum Report

USA Ranking on Life Expectancy: #29
(#1 Japan and #2 Hong Kong)- UN Human Development Report 2005

USA Ranking on Journalistic Press Freedom Index: #32
(#1 Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied)- Reporters
Without Borders 2005

USA Ranking on Political Corruption Index: #17
(#1 Iceland and #2 Finland)- Transparency International 2005

USA Ranking on Quality of Life Survey: #13
(#1 Ireland and #2 Switzerland)- The Economist Magazine ...Wikipedia
"Celtic Tiger" if you still have your doubts.

USA Ranking on Environmental Sustainability Index: #45
(#1 Finland and #2 Norway)- Yale University ESI 2005

USA Ranking on Infant Mortality Rate: #32
(#1 Sweden and #2 Finland)- Save the Children Report 2006

USA Ranking on Human Development Index (GDP, education, etc.): #10
(#1 Norway and #2 Iceland)- UN Human Development Report 2005


NORWAY, SWEDEN AND FINLAND, socialist countries, hmmm.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Will the Republicans Dump on the Poor or Stick with the Rich?

The unholy tax deal that Obama negotiated with the Republicans more or less told us where the Republican backers would like them to go -- minimal taxes for the rich and early deaths for the poor. But I wonder whether some of them may be wondering whether they can get away with that policy for two years without facing grand repudiation at the polls next time around and possibly into the indefinite future.

Damned few Americans are ultra rich. The vast majority are running scared as to whether they can hold their jobs and meet their money commitments. Millions of American kids are hungry. Private charities are struggling to make ends meet as much of the rest of us and so are not the escape hatch that they used to be.

At the very least Americans are now watching what is going on in their local state houses and in Washington. The former are mainly in bad shape and will be unable to pay for basic services -- medicine, education and security (police, fire departments, as well as playing a key role in national security).

Some of the newly elected Republicans are nitwits or nut cases. The rest may be running scared and wondering which way they should bounce. There were some Republican Senators who broke with their party and became national heroes with their dissident votes.

Lest anyone forgets, with power comes responsibility.

I would hate to be a Republican trying to decide whether to be a hero or a menace to more women and children.

I assume that we are in for interesting times -- and most readers know the ancient Chinese proverb that such language evokes.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]