Reality Challenged

From a young age, we are taught to live by certain rules. Schools teach you to speak when spoken to, and listen to people of authority. While that can keep you from getting a arrested, schools work you into wonderfully strange patterns.

If only you could solve your marital problems by answering a math question, or maybe score a new client at work by passing a spelling test. The trouble is schools give you the problems to solve and tell you the solutions that are 'okay'. They give you all the rules to try to get you to think a certain way. As many of us have found out, life is a little trickier than that. If you've ever had to work with someone fresh out of college that just kept asking you if what they did is 'close enough', you know where I'm coming from. I'm not opposed to people checking their work, but if you don't appreciate the goal of what you're trying to do, me putting a check mark on it won't solve your problem. Luckily, it doesn't seem to take too much real world experience to break someone of those habits.

Academia has this issue with the theoretical world. The problem is that that's where it lives, and the rest of us that don't live there are often a little busier and little more preoccupied with a little thing called reality. Phd's are a particularly good demonstration of this fact. When it comes to hiring them, they can talk the talk, but have them put pen to paper and see what little they can really do. Many of them have spent so much time thinking about problems and so little time solving them that frankly, they just aren't that good at it. Granted, they can and often have done some wonderful things, but their lack of practical experience and practical understanding often puts them at a disadvantage at least in my profession.

Of all the evils that schools have bestowed upon us. I'd say that grades are the worst. Students are made to understand that they these numbers are what matters rather than the material they might be learning. They cheat, bargain and whine to get higher ones. Competition intensifies the longer they stay in school. Med school students are often sited as the worst example, allegedly cutting up library text books to get an edge of other students. Frankly, I don't care if my surgeon was 6th or 106th in his class. I'm a tad more interested if they can manage the procedure.

Hey Mackey, you're a swine.. and a pretty smart one too

John Mackey is not an evil guy. I had a look at his op ed piece in the wall street journal (link here) and I'd just like to make it clear that he really does mean well. He has good intentions. I'm positive he truly believes that a single payer system is detrimental to the state of health care in the United States.
Whether he's right about that or not is one thing, but he brings up some great points that should be address regardless of a single payer system:

* Reforming tort law - This is nothing shy of a great idea. The US is known for frivolous lawsuits and a general lack of personal responsibility. Fixing the problems here would reduce the cost of malpractice insurance and those savings should be get passed on to the consumer (eventually).There are also a number of side benefits like keeping doctors out of court rooms rather than say I don't know, a doctor's office? and how about freeing up the court system?

* Equalizing tax laws - Separate health insurance is always going to exist, and it's absolutely ridiculous how much it costs to insure yourself in this country. Without the tax benefits provided by employee programs, it's hardly surprising that many of those without jobs that provide these programs do not have it.

Despite having some very good insights into the system, Mackey still proves himself to be something of a jackass. He seems to believe that not only do we not have the right to health care (supposedly guaranteed by the Declaration of Human Rights), but that people without health care should rely on charity,

[The government should] revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

By relying on charity, you effectively put needy people in a situation where they have to literally beg for their lives in order to survive.

It's not too hard to consider an unfortunate person in Mackey's health care system suffering from some condition that requires costly surgery or medication. Imagine now that he does not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Well, that's alright because healthcare is cheaper now and an responsible adult would purchase insurance especially if they could afford it. Of course, Mackey states in an earilier point,  "[We should] repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover," and as you might imagine, it would be unconscionable for an insurance company to mislead customers into purchasing higher rate, lower coverage policies, or deny or delay valid claims. You're right, Mackey, that would never happen..
The bottom line is that when you don't guarantee health care as a right, you have to be okay with saying that some people can live and some can die. We could make the health care system far better than it is at the moment, but at the end of the day it always comes back to that.

What's it like when Phelps gets the Munchies?

Michael Phelps did a horrible thing. No, it wasn't that he smoked the peace pipe. It wasn't that he disgraced Kellog's. It wasn't that let down millions of fans. It's that he joined this media circus in the first place. Seriously, what is an 8 time gold medalist doing being sponsored by a company like McDonald's? If theore's anything the youth of this continent don't understand, it's how to eat properly, and here we have one of America's greatest athletes hawking cheese burgers to earn a buck. 

If there's anything he can take from this, it's that if want to get the money, you have to play the game. That means making sure none of your friends snap a pic of you doing anything short of smiling and giving a thumbs up.

The fact is the youth of America won't be corrupted by this anymore than Dutch children are corrupted by coffee shops in Amsterdam. Frankly, it would be nice if children here could learn what children there already know, it's not that big a deal! He's 23 and he's already been convicted of driving under the influence. I'm sure the guys back in Ann Arbor already knew Mike liked to kick back by smoking a bowl every now and again. 

The man is a living legend. His accomplishment is nothing short of miraculous. Slightly more impressive might be Mark Spitz doing it with a mustache and without any special swimwear. Still, Phelps is a great Olympian and a hit from a bong isn't going to change that. Even if the trunks they'll be designing in 2016 might.

Terrorism and Relying on Good Intentions

Sixty years ago a nation was created. A small nation with deeply religious roots. The land had to come from somwhere, and it came from a part of the world that had changed hands many times throughout its history. The group that got it wanted the land very badly and had settled there over time both because people didn't want them elsewhere and because they believed they belonged there. Of course, they still had to share it with the people already living there. In the end, control over the area shifted from the one group to another, and someone was left feeling a bit left out. Shouldn't they have control over the area? haven't they lived there long enough? isn't it important to them and their families as well? And, like any other disputed region, a bit of negative sentiment still exists today.

They are still arguing over who owns the area, and the two groups have come to blows many times. Many have died, more have been injured, and still more live in fear. 

So, the UN has decided that they will call for an end to the violence. Too many people have died and there has been too much civilian suffering. 

It reminds me of a problem at many workplaces. A CEO was once asked, "Can we make sure people always fill up the coffee maker when they've had the last cup?" "You can't ask people to have good intentions," he said. The fact is, people are sometimes going to leave the coffee maker empty unless they have a damn good reason to fill it up. Sure, nice people will fill it up when they're done, and more likely, if they aren't in a hurry, but unless there's a mechanism in place, you're still just relying on the fact that they're nice and that they'll feel like doing it.

Meanwhile, back in the Middle East, we are asking people to stop doing what they were doing because it's wrong. Fact. They know it's wrong (and maybe some don't even think that it is), and they're doing it anyway. Palestinians attack and Israelis retaliate with increased force, but the fighting does not stop. Missiles are still flying into Southern Israel. Tanks are still firing in Gaza city. The violence is horrible. Hundreds have died. Perhaps we should give them a bit more of a reason to stop than just asking nicely.