Bridged The Gap

In college and medical school, I was your typical 20-something midwest/southern white boy. Which is to say I couldn't pass The Gap without walking in and buying something. Now in my 30's, I've conquered my Gap addiction. And I have all the pride of someone who replaced their lust for Johnnie Walker Black with a yen for Johnnie Walker Blue. You see, I've merely replaced The Gap with Nordstrom Rack.



I finished my second to last week of work in SF and got over my cold last Thursday. Friday (Dec. 22) I went Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a plastic sheet on which to roll out my cookies -- it cost about $9. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that was sufficiently good use of my 20% discount, so I ended up buying 600 thread count sheets. Then I went to the Rack -- just to "see what they had". I didn't need anything, and I knew I wasn't going to buy jeans, because I had just told Sue I was waiting until I got below the 190 lb mark again. Plus I would just have to move anything I bought to San Diego.

Two pairs of Diesel shoes and some grey G-Stars later, I was on my way home.

Today, I went to the dueling targets in Serramonte. I had already packed my gym bag for the cruising work-out at 24 hour on Market Street when I remembered I needed new sneakers. So I went up to the "Rack" on Junipero Serra. I should have left after I found a pair of 12W New Balances. Instead, I remembered a recent wardrobe malfuntion -- I could find nothing to wear with blue jeans because ALL my shirts were blue. A horrific problem not solved by one pair of grey jeans. So what did I buy -- a maroon top, a Yankee's top (BLUE!), and another pair of jeans (BLUE!). But who can pass up Calvin Klein's for $20?

I have not idea why this merited a post, other than the fact that the last couple and the next entries are a bit serious.

Happy New Year!

All We Want For Christmas

While watching the news shows this morning, I came up with a way Santa can make President Bush and myself (and a few other people) happy with just one gift.

The President wants a "swell" in the number of troops in Iraq. Because this may last for two years or more, he is linking this plan to an increase in the overall size of the Army and Marines. It remains unclear how he plans to achieve this.

While the best data I could Google say that most of the active and reserve services did eventually hit their Fiscal Year 2006 recruitment goals, it required changes in recruiting tactics and incentives. This could work again, but incentives tend to require money, and Speaker Pelosi is now holding the purse strings.

Another option is, of course, the draft. Despite Congressman Rangel's initiatives, this seems unlikely at best. Congress doesn't seem to want a draft (or won't admit it), and the President has always scoffed at asking for one. The only things I see leaning toward a draft are: (1) The last thing the President "ruled out" was the firing of Sec. Rumsfeld; (2) oddly, the Selective Service System recently announced plans to test its draft machinery.

(I found the picture thru Google, but couldn't find appropriate attribution on either of the links given: tenbyfour.blogspot.com or misilay.pair.com/ftp1955/pub/gall.rainbow.jpg. My apologies if it's proprietary.)

What we really need is a new pool of recruits from which to draw. A group of people who might be ready and willing to serve, but haven't been able to do so. Or who have found ways to serve anyway, only to be discharged. I'm not sure allowing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve in the military would solve the problem completely, but it could be a good first step. (Don't start sending arguments that straight people would quit enlisting -- I don't buy them.)

The President could give this gift to himself (like those G-Star jeans I bought yesterday). An executive order from the C-in-C ending discrimination is unlikely to be challenged by a Democratic Congress. Given they just attained a majority by running socially conservative candidates in reddish states, the issue would probably never be allowed to come to the floor. Such a bold move might also allow President Bush's legacy to include something other that Iraq -- namely the "compassionate conservatism" he espoused earlier in his political career. So:

Santa,
For President Bush and me, could your end the discrimination against homosexuals in the military? He'll need an official signed executive order. I'd take a copy in my stocking. Or, if you prefer, a hot guy in uniform who wants to enact this new policy. Thanks.

-- Joel

PS: I like sailor uniforms the best.


Merry Christmas!

In the News

While driving back from San Diego on Wednesday and cleaning up my apartment on Thursday, I listened to a lot of talk and news radio. I also watched a lot of CNN in my hotel while looking for apartments. There were a few items that struck me for one reason or another, and I'm having a mellow evening in tonight, so I thought I'd share.


www1.va.gov
1) California Health Care -- Some minor conservative bloviatrix was going off on how horrible the legislature's and guber-nator's new plans for expanded/mandatory health care were. When, she asked, has the government ever run a good health care system?
Kudos to the veteran who called in and shut her up with tales of his excellent experiences at the VA. I've worked at VA's and, in general, they provide good care. Many are associated with teaching hospitals, and therefore have faculty, residents, and students from first rate universities. Also, most people who work at VAs could earn more money elsewhere -- but it's hard to imagine anything more rewarding than treating people who defended this country, with the possible exception of treating those who are still on the front lines.
By the way, the biggest knock on the VA system is that there is often a wait for procedures. Guess what -- that's what happens in a system where things are rationed. In the national health care system (or lack thereof), its the largely voiceless poor who have to wait, because we ration on wealth, privilege, and insurance.
For the record, Medicare is also a highly efficient health system, at least by administrative standards. Medicare overhead is only 2% of costs, comparted to >10% in private insurance plans. My biggest problems with Medicare: (1) the unnavigable perscription plan and (2) when the government picks up the tab at 65, there is no incentive for insurance companies to pay for long term preventative measures.


en.wikipedia.org
2) Kareem Abdul Jabar was on a news channel promoting prostate cancer awareness. Great. Then he told everyone to go out and get a PSA checked. Not so hot. Loathe though I am to dispute the omniscience of a celebrity, in this case I prefer the recommendations of the US Preventative Health Service Task Force (you can google it). Neither digital rectal exam (with the snapping glove noise) nor PSA has clearly been shown to decrease mortality as a screening technique. They are probably best used in males over 50, and perhaps African-American males over 45. As with most medical techniques, they are best performed in collaboration (pun completely intended) with a primary care physician who knows your medical history.
Next time you have a basketball star discuss health care, have him or your staff do a little research. And get Dr. J.


www.thebreastcancersite.com
3) The rate of detection of breast cancers dropped. Read that sentence carefully. We are DETECTING fewer. It remains to be seen if there actually ARE fewer, or, more importantly, if fewer women are/will die from breast cancer. I am hopeful that this is good news, but don't get too excited yet. Most of the effects are attributed to the decreased use of hormone replacement, which appeared to speed the growth of some cancers. If, without hormone use, we merely find the cancers later, it may or may not be a good thing. I'm crossing my fingers, though, that some lives are being saved.


www.fortcampbell.com
4) I feel bad for Dr. Laura's son. I believe I've mentioned that I listen to Rush and Dr. Laura as part of my "liberal recon". Usually, I find them hysterical in a "Theatre of the Absurd" kind of way. Sometimes, I hear some points that allow me to better prepare for arguments with the right wing. Occasionally, to my surprise, we agree on something. Sympathy, however, was new.
Laura Schlessinger, PhD (physiology), opens most segments of her show with some form of "I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger, proud mother of an American Solder...Hooah!". So proud that, in answering a caller, she mentioned that her greatest regret in raising her son was that she hadn't home schooled him. Imagine that you are her son, and you hear this. I'd be sitting there wondering what defect my allegedly proud mother had seen in me that made her wish I'd been schooled differently.
You may say that this is a needlessly harsh way for him to take such a comment, but many young (and some older) people hear it exactly thus. (The truth of this was highlighted to me in a conversation the other night.) The fact is, there is no control experiment for our lives. If she's proud of who he is, she's stuck with how he got there. My parents occasionally expressed comparable feelings about things they've done, and I about things they "did to" me. Regrets are a part of human nature, but I think it's safe to say you needn't tell your child, and you shouldn't tell a national radio audience.
By the way -- I don't know Deryk Schlessinger well enough to be proud of him, but I am grateful for his service and protection.


www.state.sd.us
5) "It wasn't a stroke or a heart attack." Sorry, this is an deceitfully consoling statement when the person had an intra-cranial hemorrhage, one of the few things more dangerous than either. It's a bit like saying "He wasn't hit be an M-16 or an AK-47" when you know God Damn well it was Howitzer! Trust me -- the last time I was around a brain hemorrhage, I ran the code and took care of the gentlemen for the first of his months in the ICU.
The comment was made, of course, in reference to Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota. For those who aren't following politics, the senate is currently split 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 Independents, who by caucusing with the Democrats give them control. If Sen. Johnson were to be replaced by a Republican, the caucus numbers would be 50-50, with the tie-breaking vote going to Vice-President Cheney, effectively giving the Republicans the majority back.
One conservative commentator actually began to discuss the options if "Sen. Johnson were incapacitated, or God forbid, to die..." Fine by him if God allows incapacitation -- how nice. The political issue is that by SD law, the governor, who is a Republican, would get to appoint a replacement if the need arose. Conventional wisdom is that he would appoint a Republican. The commentator actually suggested that Sen. Harry Reid would somehow force Sen. Johnson to stay alive on a respirator, if needed, to keep him alive and prevent a Republican appointment. Didn't the Terry Schiavo case teach these people to stay out of health care?
By the way, I'm hoping for something that seems a given in the politics of a republic, but is tragically rare in the US. That would be someone giving a shit about actual representation. The people of South Dakota elected a Democrat -- so it seems he should be replaced with a democrat. "But they elected a Republican governor, so they must have wanted any replacements to be Republicans!", you cry. Um...right. I've got you twice on this one: (1) I guarantee you that no one was thinking about Senatorial brain hemorrhages when they voted for governor and (2) the best data to show what South Dakotans want in a federal legislator would be the 2006 election, where they sent and incumbent Democrat back to the House of Representatives.
In truth, the appointment I have the most respect for in these cases is the Congressman/woman's spouse -- as in Missouri when Jean Carnahan replaced her husband. Really, what you should want is someone whose actions/representation would be closest to the deceased legislator. Who better than their spouse, who is usually (Clinton's aside) not someone with specific political aspirations of their own?

I think the increase in hits on my blog the past couple of days has to do with my pending guest appearance on Dan-Nation. I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to it. I hope you'll join us -- and continue to check in on my blog occasionally. Have a great night -- I'm off to research a few of the early questions.

I Have Found Me a Home

Wow -- almost a month since my last blog. Pretty bad, but I've been busy. My last month has been: work, Dad in town, work, find a place to live. I just got back from San Diego last night, and the winner is...the condo.

I decided to rent for a year until I'm sure this is the job for me. After a frustrating Monday, I found three things that I liked on Tuesday: a "Craftsman" house, a townhouse, and a condo. All similar price.

The townhouse fell out of the running early. It was very nice -- lots of room, electric fireplace, garage, new appliances. The problem was that it was antiseptic and lacked character -- grey carpets, off-white walls, boring kitchen. It also had another unit on each side, so light only at the ends. Of the people whose opinions I solicited, none said "Yeah, get the townhouse."

"Craftsman" houses, at least in San Diego, are small ranch style house usually built on a small plot, and usually with a personal of the builder's personality. I really liked the idea of having my own house. This one had a large bedroom, a small bedroom, and a den, with a living room and dining room, which were both small. Also, fairly low ceilings. But a yard, a little porch, and a thousand ways to make it mine. And no one to complain of noise through a wall. The problem was, it was in a slightly less nice (at least appearing) neighborhood, and there was no security.

At six foot/one-ninety-five, I haven't worried about security much. In San Francisco, I'll walk almost anywhere by myself, even at night (though I try to avoid the Tenderloin). But friends of mine have had to change their phone numbers because of stalking patients (and paramours), and I recently had a patient park herself in my foyer screaming she would sue us. I began to get antsy at the thought of arriving to an empty house most nights, sometimes late. I wondered to my father if this was a real problem. He said, "Now that it's in your head, it doesn't matter if it's real. If you're already not going to feel safe there, don't take it." That kicked the house out of the running.

That leaves the condo. It's a honey, and now that the decision is over, I'm starting to settle in and enjoy the thought of it. It's a lot like my current place: balcony, view, fireplace (electric, which seems to be the SD standard), and wood floors. What it lacks a bit in character, it makes up for a bit in modern touches: new steel appliances, whirlpool jets in both baths, mirrors on the closet doors, fireplace with remote, closet organizers, and cable wired in every room. It is also on the top floor (no footsteps above me) of a building about 3 blocks from Urban Mo's (formerly Hamburger Mary's).

Here are the pics -- see what you think. Bonus points, by the way, if you know who sang the tune I stole for the title of this blog.

The kitchen:

The living room:



The master bedroom:


And bath:



The built-in washer/dryer and desk-in-closet in the second bedroom/my office and the guest bath (also with whirlpool jets -- come visit). The view is due west.



(Note: I was going to put the entry way and building shots here, but apparently I'm not over the stalker patient jitters that kept me away from the house yet. Maybe later.)

Southwest view from the balcony. This is supposedly the view of choice from Hillcrest -- you be the judge:

Special thanks to everyone who helped me decide.