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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Stop Doing Studies

The slow drip of unintended consequences of the new health care law keeps going. The only fix for the drip is repeal it would seem.

What's the latest? Another study showing that the promise that "if you like what you have you can keep it" isn't going to be true.

Employer Survey Sees Health Costs Rising points out what those of us who've spent our lives in the real world, not government or academia said during the debate. Costs are going to go up, and companies are going to cut something to keep the bottom line healthy. The cuts will come at the expense of employees.

How certain are the cuts? Well the survey looked at 661 companies with a median workforce of 5600 employees; these aren't "small businesses", they are the big guys. 74 percent said they were going to have to cut employee benefits, or raise their employees direct costs because of the fiscal impact of the law.

43 percent that provide retiree health care said they would be cutting or completely eliminating those benefits.

Now I'm pretty sure if someone in the media actually asked the White House about all the studies showing that most every promise made during the debate will be broken the White House response would be to quit doing studies.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Epiphany Time

Last night I was exercising at the hotel and felt pretty good. I did a little over 20 minutes on the treadmill and then about 300 yards in the pool. 300 doesn't sound like much, but if you are out of shape, it's a painfully long distance.

Tonight I figured on the same thing, or very similar amounts of time. While on the treadmill I sped it up about 0.5mph faster than last night after about 15 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, when I thought I'd be quitting, I decided I wanted to watch the duct taped car on Myth Busters, so I stayed on the treadmill for an extra 10 minutes. And didn't feel like I'd done too much, which is good.

So I changed into my swim suit and hit the pool. About lap 10 of 20 (to get to 300 yards) I started thinking about what my goals need to be in this new health kick. There is the obvious goal of not being back in ICU with a sandbag on my groin holding the sutures down. But that's too obvious. A healthier heart? That's pretty simple. What I needed was some concrete goals that are attainable, but not easily.

I need something to push me, something to make me push myself a little harder when I want to take a day off.

So the longer term goal I came up with, which is an 18 month (from my heart attack) goal is to be down to 185lbs and wearing a 32 waist pant again when I take the wife to Hawaii for our anniversary.

That's about a 55lb weight loss, and 5-6 inches off of my (currently fat) waist. I'm figuring that I should hit that goal earlier than that, so about 3 months should be seeing if I'm capable of sticking with it after I hit the goal.

Shorter term; by this anniversary; I'd like to be down to 210, which is attainable if I keep some diet and exercise discipline. It's about 3/4 of a pound per week of weight loss, which is not a bad target.

As I kept swimming; 15 more laps instead of 10; and while I walked 10 cool down trips around the pool I kept repeating the goals over and over. It wasn't a "convince myself I could do it talk", it was more of the coach drilling the team on how a certain set of plays should work. This is something I know I can do, I just have to drill me on it each day at rehab, or in a hotel gym, or taking a walk with the wife.

I know I want to do it because of that obvious goal up above. And because I really don't want to see "that look" on the wife's face again when I get put in the back of the meat wagon.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Best Qualified?

So Ms. Kagan is the most qualified person available to replace John Paul Stevens? Based on a resume with three published article in minor journals, no experience as a judge, and a lackluster tour as Dean of Harvard Law and a clerkship under Thurgood Marshall?

My guess is there are a couple of dozen Federal judges more qualified. the truth is her age (50) has as much to do with the nomination as anything.

President Obama figures he can stamp the court with his mold for three decades by getting Kagan confirmed.

The question is will her Harvard days haunt her? she had the chance to fill 29 faculty positions, she hired 28 white males. Can you imagine John Roberts trying to defend that record?

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Sunday, May 02, 2010

Two Months, I am Amazed

It's been two months since I quit smoking. Honestly, I'm amazed. I've tried before, and made it 3-6 weeks at a shot before I found a reason (usually bad) to go pick up a pack of cigarettes. This time I haven't.

My recent heart issues and health scares have definitely helped this time around. 'Knowing' cigarettes are a big contributor to heart problems is one thing, experiencing it is quite another.

The other thing that has helped has been my lovely wife, who has also quit. She's been 3 weeks without a cigarette, and I couldn't be prouder of her. She noticed yesterday afternoon she'd forgotten to put on her nicotine patch, and didn't miss it.

As for the down side to quitting, I don't see Andrew, the clerk at 7-11 nearly as much as I used to, but I still stop by once in a while to get the wife a candy bar (her new vice) or a jug of milk. The other down side is my income taxes will probably go up. I figure as much as I was paying a year in cigarette taxes to Illinois the state will have to raise income taxes to make up for what I'm not giving them.

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