Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Senator Kennedy Dead at 77

Posted

Senator Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy (D-MA) has died at the age of 77. Kennedy, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 1962 and was the second-most senior member of the body, was diagnosed last year with terminal brain cancer.

The youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy (D) and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY), both of whom were assassinated in the 1960s, Ted Kennedy has been a polarizing political figure receiving both praise and derision from political opponents and observers. He has been alternately lambasted as one of the Senate’s most liberal members and praised for reaching across the aisle and his extraordinary effectiveness as a legislator. For example, Kennedy set the tone of the highly politicized 1987 confirmation hearings of Robert Bork, who had been nominated by President Ronald Reagan (R) to the U.S. Supreme Court, and political ideology—which was traditionally off-limits during confirmation hearings—became a standard topic of debate. However, Kennedy was also instrumental in passing the bipartisan ‘No Child Left Behind’ act, which he developed working closely with President George W. Bush (R) in 2001.

Kennedy has also been both praised and criticized as one of the most prominent Catholic politicians in the United States. He has been a vocal proponent of many ‘Catholic’ causes, including availability of health care, education, civil rights, and disabled rights, but has also been criticized for his support of abortion rights in sharp opposition to one of the most fundamental Catholic moral teachings.

Under current Massachusetts law, Kennedy’s replacement will be selected by special election. Shortly before his death, Senator Kennedy wrote a letter to the Massachusetts legislature recommending the law be changed to permit the governor to make a temporary appointment. It is unclear at this time if the law will be changed per Kennedy’s request. Known as the ‘Lion of the Senate’, Kennedy is well respected by many members of both political parties. He is survived by his wife Victoria, ex-wife Joan, and five children.

UK NHS: How Many Appendixes Do People Have?

Posted

I suppose it isn’t really fair to single out the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) on this, since medical malpractice occurs in the private U.S. health care system too . . . but still, it’s hard to fathom how a doctor in a hospital could screw up this badly. Mark Wattson went to the hospital with abdominal pains, and doctors decided they needed to remove his appendix. They did, told him the surgery was a success, and sent him home.

A month later, Wattson collapsed in pain. When doctors examined him, they gave him the surprising news that his appendix had burst and would need to be removed . . . again.

Now investigators and doctors are trying to figure out what, if anything, doctors removed during Wattson’s first supposed appendectomy surgery, since they obviously didn’t remove his appendix. Because his appendix wasn’t removed when it was supposed to be, Wattson suffered a much more dangerous ruptured appendix and—to top it off—suffered an infection after his second surgery and had to be hospitalized a third time.

Again, this kind of thing happens here too . . . but it just goes to show that government run health care is hardly some utopian system that solves all problems. I’d also be quite interested to see a comparison of malpractice incidents in the United States versus nationalized systems like in the U.K. and Canada.

Flu Hysteria: Gov’t Owes Us an Explanation

Posted

Advisers to President Barack Obama (D) have just dropped a bombshell: the swine flu may infect half of the U.S. population this year, killing over 90,000 and hospitalizing 1.8 million. These advisers have also recommended a feverish stockpiling of flu vaccinations for over 40 million people and establishing a cabinet member (perhaps the Homeland Security Secretary) as the person responsible for the government’s response to this horrible, earth-shattering pandemic flu.

Part of me, given the earnestness of these recommendations from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it all just doesn’t pass the common sense test; not yet anyway.

I’ve written some over the last several months about the somewhat irrational response to the ‘pandemic’ swine flu that is, by all accounts, less dangerous, less virulent, less deadly, and less worrisome than the regular, annual, seasonal flu. I would be much more likely to believe the President’s science advisers if, for example, they had explained why they thought—against all publicly available evidence—that this flu is particularly dangerous. Imagine if on September 1, 2001, President George W. Bush (R) had taken drastic anti-terror measures, tightening airport security and detaining people, because he thought something bad was going to happen soon. Perhaps it would have been a prudent move on the President’s part, and perhaps it would have prevented the September 11, 2001, attacks . . . but we would have demanded a clear, public explanation before we went along with it.

I do the same now. I demand a clear, public explanation of why the swine flu is worthy of drastic public action, vaccine stockpiling, and fear-mongering about half of the population getting sick. If you can explain your reasoning in plain, believable English, I’ll gladly go right along with the hysteria. In the mean time, I’ll continue to think this is just the mindless fear-mongering it appears to be at face value.

Setting a New Personal Biking Record

Posted

So after yesterday went completely not as planned, today went pretty smoothly. After Mass this morning we had a nice lunch with my parents, and then I went on that nice, long bike ride I’d planned to do yesterday (stupid rain). Originally I planned to do a 40-miler, but after I got 20 miles out from the Route 28 W&OD Trail parking lot I was still feeling pretty good so I just kept going.

All told, when I finally got back to the parking lot, I had been riding for roughly four hours (including a few breaks here and there) and my odometer told me I had gone 56.2 miles.

As far a I know, this is a personal record. Of course, most of the rides I did as a kid (some of which quite long) I don’t really remember the distance, but my fuzzy memory says that the longest I ever did before I started tracking it closely was about 50 miles. I’ve just recently worked up to that kind of range, and have done a couple of 50-milers in the last month or two. I’m going to declare 56.2 to be my new personal single-ride record!

I can probably bump that a hair to an even 60, but not for a week or two. My poor legs need time to recover.

Share to:

Send to:

Posted in: Life

House: Getting Windows, Doors, and Ducts

Posted

house2house1house4house3Before the rain swooped in, Melissa and I made a quick run by the house. Melissa had planned to do an art show today but wasn’t feeling up to it because of a stomach bug, and I was planning a nice, long bike ride but the weather screwed that up . . . so we ran by the house, got some lunch, and then have spent most of the rest of the day catching up on a million neglected to-dos.

Regardless, the house is coming along nicely. The building has most of its windows and doors installed, ducts put in, plumbing and wiring done, and so on. They’re already starting to finish the exterior walls (with brick), though it’s not done yet (and they haven’t gotten to ours). In the pictures you can see the whole building, our ‘Future Home of . . . ’ sign, the front of the house (with our main floor window missing), and the back of the house (with our bedroom window missing).

We are supposedly going to be called to come do a ‘pre-drywall walkthrough’ soon. Fun times!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.