Comments for Kmareka.com

Comment on Interview: Anne Sullivan talks about Helen Keller by vic

vic — Wed, 30 May 2012 02:31:08 +0000

loved it! what a wonderful inspiration she is a smart women!

Comment on An Argument for Health Care as an Economic Driver by mangeek

mangeek — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:55:14 +0000

“Could neighborhoods in South Providence, downtown Woonsocket, and Eden Park Cranston all begin to flourish with new health care providers serving the throngs of people flocking in for health care?”

No. But here’s the simple math I toss at anyone who isn’t convinced that we need some sort of government-administered health care system:

Right now say that 20% of GDP goes to government and another 20% goes to health care (20 + 20 = 40%). If we can stomach having government health care like other developed nations, we can cut that to 30 + 0 = 30%. This would put more money into regular people AND companies than ANY tax cut or Keynesian boost that can be imagined.

My fear is that the system that’s coming online as we speak is actually designed NOT to do this, it’s designed to funnel more money into providers. This is a case where the compromise MIGHT end up being worse than the original problem.

Comment on Who is a Hero? by Joe

Joe — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:33:51 +0000

I remember this incident very well and it was so typical of the media to pick out Jessica Lynch because she looked kind of like someone’s little sister.There was another female soldier captured in that group-she was Black and seemed a little older.IIRC a soldier named Fisher received the Silver Star(3rd highest award foe valor)in that situation.I thought Jessica Lynch handled it all very well with class.
Female POW’s was a culture shock for Americans.
During WW2 some military nurses were captured by the Japanese I believe.Maybe I’m thinking of British nurses.

Comment on Who is a Hero? by Donald Wolberg

Donald Wolberg — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:56:26 +0000

It would be appropriate to have a bit of perspective and balance, whether or not you agree with the struggle in Iraq or Afghanistan. Firstly, American military men and women are NOT ordinary; they are extraordinary. certainly the best trained, most highly educated, best prepared, best led and equipped military this nation or probably any nation has ever fielded. The confusion you evidence seems to originate from a mix of policy that led and keeps us in the fight–the politicians from Bush to Obama; the realities of combat in the 21st Century, and the Americans on the ground. During the last really declared war, war declared by Congress, WW II, an average of 29,000 people died every day from 1939 to 1945. This does not even take into account the brutal attack of Japan on China before 1939. The horror of Nanking preceded Pearl Harbor, did i t not, just as did the Battle of Britain or the slaughter in Poland. Some fifty million people were slaughtered in World War II. You might also recall the slaughter of about 40,000 Americans every year right here in the U.S. from automobile accidents, mostly young people.

The last iteration of the Iraq war, 2002-2011did take 4500 American lives and, indeed, whether this was worth the sacrifice is a legitimate question, but a question with an answer that will come from one’s own perspective. I do not believe the war in Iraq was worth one kid’s life and I have four family members that were part of that war and now the difficulty of Afghanistan, a war also undeclared by Congress. Afghanistan similarly does not meet my taste for war, but it is there and our kids are there, now because of Obama, not Bush. After all, Obama ran on the premise that Afghanistan was the real war, not Iraq, did he not. The imbalance that resulted from the toppling of Hussein led to the craziness of evil states such as Iran and Syria, now devouring their own. Hussein was a bulwark in his own evil way against other evils and our own self-interest as well as that of much else in the Middle East would have been better served leaving him in place.

The root cause of these wars, the attack of 9/11 should not be forgotten. More people were killed by those attacks than were killed at Pearl harbor by the Japanese. We should have been satisfied with the massive retaliation that occurred and just left it at that. But instead, the quagmire began, and our soldiers pay the price every day, not the politicians who sent them there, Republican and Democrat. We need to leave, not waste another American life, or another dollar, but there will be another and perhaps greater price for leaving as well. Women will return to a life less than desirable, ignorance and corruption will triumph, and a bizarre religious intolerance will result in another attack right here, perhaps more devastating.

Comment on Support Our Troops by Joe

Joe — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:57:21 +0000

Unmet needs?Housing?I’m glad you brought this up.After WW2 my cousins lived in Quonset huts when their dad returned from the Navy-and later moved into some nice garden apartments where veterans got preference.
When I got out in 1971 I returned to Brooklyn,and unlike some states NY didn’t hand out cash bonuses-they went one better-job and housing preference.I got 5 points on the civil service exams(something unknown in RI) and preference in state subsidized housing-I got to wait only 8 months on a list that normally took 5 years.And I didn’t “know”anybody.
It made me laugh when the ACLU said that in state tuition wasn’t a benefit-they alleged that a benefit could only be a payment.
They are either lying or stupid.I don’t think they are stupid.
Preference in public employment and housing assistance are good ideas for returning veterans.
Someone on TV had a real good thought-let’s say one was a medic in the service-let them take an EMT test without going back to Square One in school.They probably have better experience than someone who learned their job at CCRI simply due to real time hands on stuff.Not knocking CCRI.That couls apply in a lot of jobs.

Comment on Memorial Day, Remembering by Joe

Joe — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:09:25 +0000

Yeah-like chickenhawks who avoided it-however,this doesn’t give Hayes a pass for his stupid remark-it was intended to hurt people in his smarmy way-don’t doubt that for a second.He went out of his way to minimze people who lost it all for “good”or “bad” wars.
Let me tell you this-when you’re there politics doesn’t mean sh*t-you’re way too concentrated on what’s happening in the moment.
I kinda get your dislike for cliches,but nurses can be angels and soldiers can be heroes,and of course they are all regular people in the end-but it just pissed me(and many,many others )off to no end to get all smartmouth.He probably should avoid public places in the near term.

Comment on Why Vaccines Matter by ninjanurse

ninjanurse — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:51:36 +0000

thanks, it’s so seldom we’re on the same page, but we do have life experience of what childhood diseases can do. I was lucky to get the polio vaccine. I remember being lined up to get the shot in some crowded clinic.
people are right to ask question and be skeptical, especially when it concerns their children. but public health is under-rated. Next crisis we’ll wake up.

Comment on Memorial Day, Remembering by ninjanurse

ninjanurse — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:28:47 +0000

Joe, I respect that some put their lives, health and happiness on the line while most of us are asked to give much less. I don’t want us to forget that our ‘volunteer army’ is carrying the burden.
I do think that the word ‘hero’ can be a way of saying ‘they’re not regular like us.’ I don’t care for the cliche of a nurse as ‘angel’. It’s like you don’t have feelings or get scared for grossed out like everyone else. I think piety can be a cheap substitute for accountability. Someone on facebook posted that we should never see the words, ‘homeless’ and ‘veteran’ together.
As someone who opposes violence unless it is immediate self defense or defense of another, the best I can do is support services for veterans and their families and communities.
Not everyone who wears a flag pin and speechifies about ‘heroes’ is a friend of veterans.

Comment on Why Vaccines Matter by Joe

Joe — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:08:22 +0000

Wow-we’re on the same page here,amazing.I KNOW the value of vaccinations-In 1953 I contracted polio at a city run day camp in NY.While I wasn’t paralyzed,I did have some real damage and took a long time getting better with physical therapy.Polio was the specter that stalked kids every summer back then.The vaccine turned all that around.
I’m perplexed by what seems to be “urban legend”reasons not to take the vaccines offered.
There are some legitimately risky vacines-smallpox vaccine can be very dangerous in anyone with eczema.Rabies vaccine is risky,but is really only given to people in high risk of exposure occupations or people bitten by suspect animals.
I remember getting plague vaccine in the military and then finding out it was ineffeective and potentially harmful.
But-on balance-vaccines are a great bulwark against the “good old days”when kids expired of diptheria,measles,whooping cough,tetanus,and other stuff.
I had measles,mumps,and chickenpox as a kid-my grandaughters won’t.Progress.
BTW pneumonia vaccine is a very overlooked and highly effective lifesaver-particularly in people taking chemo and those who can’t take a flu shot due to egg allergy-pneumovax isn’t processed in eggs.

Comment on Another Doctor Gag Rule by Joe

Joe — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:57:07 +0000

Rant?What rant?I guess that means anything you don’t like.
The bloggers here have had an ongoing discussion of energy problems and you jump in here making value judgements about me personally when you haven’t been part of the conversation previously.
I have a little problem with the concept of “public advocacy groups” in Kiersten and Nancy’s world-if a group supports enforcement of existing immigration laws,or opposes tax increases,then they aren’t in the definition-it seems only left leaning organizations need to be considered.
Only a brain damaged idiot would support the idea of polluting the environment through negligence or design.
What I am saying is that some pollution is inevitable in any energy production scenario.
Newsflash:Producing rust resistant equipment for wind farms is a highly polluting process.