Second Opinions

We went to another doctor for a second opinion on my prostate cancer.
He said I've got it, and I dress funny.
Second opinion--what else did I expect?
So now it's a matter of choosing who, where, and when.
We already know why...and, excruciatingly, how.

I guess cancer patients always live in a semi-state of denial--hoping against hope.
Always looking for another opinion.
Me--I'm just looking for a date and a time to carve this stuff out of my belly so I can get on with the business of loving my family and living my life.

It's not so bad, really.
A friend of mine was just told this week that his cancer is terminal.
Sometimes, second opinions are worse than we expect.

"Do as I say, Not as I Do"

Politicians screaming for windfall taxes on oil companies' "windfall" profits make me see red.

Exxon-Mobil earned over $10-billion in profits last quarter, Shell racked-up $9-billion, BP made $6.4-billion, and Conoco-Phillps was a comparative slacker, earning only $3.8-billion in profits.

Would that I were as sluggish.

Congress wants to tax the oil companies on profits for any oil above $40/barrel. Here are two important pieces of information that you're not hearing much about--and which grandstanding senators are ignoring:

• The profit margin by big oil companies is less than 10%
• Senator-investors' profits on their stocks were up 12%

Once again, we have the Pot calling the Kettle a cookware-American.

The New Yorker published a piece of research by Georgia State professor Alan Ziobrowski surveying the stock transactions of senators between 1993 and 1998, revealing their ability to beat the markets by 12%. Most fund managers feel good about a 2% spread.

When's that investigation beginning?

For that matter--big banks enjoyed a 20% profit margin this last time around. How come no one is looking at their books? Oh yeah, they just did...and sent some guys to jail as I recall...and still made a 20% return.

Don't recall anyone in Congress advocating a bail-out of the oil industry when a barrel of oil cost $10/barrel, do you? We've got milk subsidies, sugar subsidies, lumber tarrifs, garment tarrifs, and nothing but red tape and double speak from Washington when oil companies want to build new refineries.

The government will sustain a failing railroad operator for decades (Amtrak) but has not the political backbone to employ a little common sense in analyzing what it costs to produce a gallon of gasoline. When you extrapolate the benefits to society, the economy, and national security from enabling Big Oil to expand capacity and build new refineries, it's a no-brainer.

Which should be a slam-dunk, since that seems to be what we've sent to Capitol Hill.

One Flu Inside the Cuckoo's Nest

The old adage “sex sells” has been pushed aside by a new paradigm: “Fear Sells.”

Maybe that’s a by-product of our aging generation.
Does it not seem there are more things tend to worry us than in our youth? Remember, when we were 17, we were going to live forever!

Eyes fade, tissues sag, energies wane.
And for that we have lasers, creams, and vitamins.
Fears of those effects are mitigated by the balms to our self-esteem.

Fear is a real motivating factor.
The media knows this.
You cannot get away from the story of the Asian Bird flu…avian flu…each night on TV you see images of dead chickens and ducks slung over shoulders or cradled in the arms of some third-world chicken farmer, wearing a face mask and looking forlorn. Breathless reporterettes anxiously report that the Asian Flu could wipe out millions, and there’s nothing you or the government can do about it.

Who needs “Fear Factor” when you’ve got prime time network news?
I have a general rule that the greater the hype, the more shallow the threat.

Bird Flu passes from bird to bird. The H5N1 variant has claimed only 60-lives despite the high level of contact between foul and man in the hyper-populated Far East. Indeed, the European Center for Disease Prevention says the risk to the public “at this stage is minimal.”

Still, President Bush and his Health Czar are going out on a limb and making the political and public proclamation that The Government is On The Case to find an antidote to Bird Flu.

Tilt some windmills while you’re at it. The odds of you catching bird flu this winter are infinitesimal.