Thursday, May 21, 2009

Random musings of current affairs.

Just some random thoughts about things in the media.

First we have this woman and her 13 year old son with cancer who are on the run for refusing cancer treatment. There's a ton of issues here that make this a very cloudy, very weird, and very uncertain situation. First the idiots in the media are searching for an absolute answer as to what SHOULD be done. The media always wants definite, absolute, cut and dry, black and white answers in this grey world we live in. That's why the media as a whole rarely gets anything right, and many media outlets are struggling financially.....

But back to this boy... first off, let me state that the mother sounds like a weird, granola eating, tree hugging, conspiracy theorists believing, latter day pot smoking hippie that got her pot and her LSD mixed up! A warrant has been issued for her arrest as she has fled with her cancer stricken 13 year old to avoid court ordered medical treatment.

However, I don't know about this legal precedent! I think that with this relatively curable form of cancer, that the boy should be taking the chemotherapy treatments. However, at the same time I don't want a court telling me I have to have or that I cannot have a medical procedure performed. The boy is 13 years old, at 13 he has an understanding of the consequences of his actions in this. He understands the differentiations of life, death, and suffering. Even if the cancer is treatable, if the treatments were so uncomfortable that he decided he had rather die than suffer through them in an attempt to live, then that should be a choice the court respects and accepts. Because he is not 18 does not mean that he is not capable of making a rational decision concerning his life! At age 13 I knew that I would not want to exist on life support! I can also imagine that I could make a decision on how much suffering I would be willing to endure to live. This is a terrible situation to examine this issue, but unless I am a public health risk, mandating treatment seems to interfere with inalienable rights. One could certainly argue neglect in the case of the mother not providing the opportunity for her son to have treatment, but the kid is 13. He is capable of decisions whether you or I agree with them.

However, before you can accept a 13 year old's decision on a matter as significant as this he must be given all the facts by medical staff, and he should then make such a decision with family and that EDUCATED decision should stand. However, an educated decision doesn't appear to have been made here.

Apparently the mother has an irrational fear, trust, and/or dislike for modern medicine, choosing instead to practice some sort of natural "holistic" treatments of some obscure Indian tribe. Note to you you crazy women...... That Indian tribe's medicinal knowledge has largely been lost over the course of the last 100 years. Sad but so! I am a great believer in alternative medicine and treatments, as I have seen some unique circumstances in which the approach was superior to conventional methods. However, I have also seen wacked out nuts die due to irrational beliefs such as yours. Some one with an infection needs penecilin, not a chant to the sun god along with some pine needle tea!

The intelligent person recognizes that alternative medicine has a place, and that modern medicine doesn't have a monopoly on medical knowledge. However, it is the marriage of the two methodologies as opposed to their estrangement that allows for the best possible outcome.

I am afraid that whatever the decision of this 13 year old, he has been inappropriately influenced in his decision making by the ignorance of his mother. The sad part is that ignorant people make ignorant decisions every day and are grossly ignorant of their ignorance......... and their is nothing anyone can do about it!




The NBA is currently holding its conference finals. LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing the Orlando Magic. The Cavs have had their best year in franchise history, LeBron was MVP, but more disturbing was the Mike Brown received Coach of the Year honors, and GM Danny Ferry received Executive of the year honors. Both are incompetent just as the people who voted on these awards.

LeBron deserved MVP. Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade are excellent players but take LeBron James off of the Cavaliers and they couldn't win 25 games! The Lakers would still make the playoffs, and the heat would still not be very good. Lebron is the difference in being a cellar dweller and a championship contender!

Ferry isn't a good GM at all. This team is not very good! Furthermore, they are not assembled in a way that maximizes LeBron's spectacular talents. On top of that, he hired and has retained Mike Brown as coach. The only thing Mike Brown knows is that he coaches the best player in the world and he needs to keep him happy and give him the ball as much as he wants it, which to his credit he does!

The playoffs and probably the finals is where his inadequacies will catch up to the team and LeBron's ability to overcome the other team and his own team's lack of coaching and talent will be tested. Saying that I still think the Cavs will win the Championship this year. However, I will say that I believe they will be better off playing the Lakers than the Nuggets, as George Karl would severly out coach Mike Brown.

In short, whatever success Clevland has is because of one person and one person only! Lebron James! He is the most athletic person his size in history! And he will likely leave the NBA as it's greatest player ever assuming he stays healthy and keeps the seemingly level head he has thus far through his career! He's fun to watch and I wish him the best of a long and record breaking career.



Congress is attempting (it may have passed as of this writing) to give GM another $12 Billion dollars. How can they think it will help? None of this stimulus has worked as suggested thus far. The definition of idiocy is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. At this point if Congress did a rain dance on the steps of the capital I would applaud them because at least they were earnestly trying and it doesn't cost Billions! Furthermore, if the rain dance didn't work we would be no worse for wear!



I don't think that our politicians nor our news media is paying enough attention to, nor appreciates the great threat to our safety that North Korea and Iran are becoming.





Lane Kiffin....... heh heh...... I stated in another blog post below how inept this guy was..... on the micro blogging site Twitter he tweeted that he was excited about a recruit. He promptly blamed a subordinate.

Lane, if your name is on the account, and it's not an imposter what ever is said is your responsibility! Grow up and accept that responsibility! If you didn't approve what was Tweeted then it's your fault that you didn't. If you did it and are not telling the truth, then you are both incompetent and a liar. College coaches cannot under any circumstances discuss recruits publicly! You have proven to be incompetent when it comes to understanding NCAA rules and you have not coached your first game. The NCAA should step in this time and have UT forfeit all non-conference wins this year! An even better penalty would be forcing UT to play on the road at every other Tennessee College or University. One school per year for however long it takes to visit them all Div. I-III and NAIA. It would give boosts to all of those programs as well as allowing Tennessee fans who cannot normally make it to UT games to strain their voices singing Rocky Top!

However, it's not really your fault Lane! As if you would take the responsibility anyway..... it's the fault of the athletic administration of the University of Tennessee! What hallucinogen they were taking when they hired you would fascinate Cheech and Chong!


Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House..... Please change your story one more time. Preferably to one that is remotely believable!


Scott Peterson is on trial for killing another wife. Why do they keep picking on this guy? I mean every time he gets married and his wife is murdered. Hey some people just have bad luck!


Modern Day Cinema is in a state of disarray. The only good movies are remakes of one's made 25+ years ago or they are based off of books, comic books, or stories that because of their fantasy nature simply were not makeable 20 years ago, but are today because of special effects, especially CGI, possible.

However, no modern day movies have compelling stories driven by dialouge! Watching a movie like Casablanca is a stark contrast to a movie made within the last decade. And not because Casablanca was in black and white! You could be blind and hear Casablanca and not miss much. With Wolverine you wouldn't have any idea about what was going on other than there was a bunch of fighting.


That's all for now!