Sunday, November 8, 2009

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Health care once again

I have spent most of my life in the pharmaceutical industry. I was responsible for my company's most important product line everywhere in the world with the exception of the US and Canada. I have dealt with the national health care systems in 45 countries and I can say that many of them (especially in the Scandinavian countries and in France and Germany) are very superior to health care in the US (just look at life-expectancy, quality of life, and infant survival data). If we do not change the way we handle health care, we will be unable to compete with the rest of the world because more and more money will pour down the black hole hole we call the "American Health Care System" (as if there is a system).. The per capita expenditures on health care in France and Germany is half ours and we do not even have universal coverage. In addition, their systems are better than ours in almost every metric you want to examine (especially so when it comes to patient satisfaction and new born life expectancy).

If you are interested in the facts concerning the proposed health care system and not the lies and exaggerations of the tartigrade twit know-nothings, please review the following 8 points and examine the information contained in the administration's website by clicking the link at the bottom of this post:

8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage

  1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
  2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.
  3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.
  4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.
  5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.
  6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.
  7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
  8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.
Learn more and get details: http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections/
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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Internet Search Techniques

Internet Search Techniques

This advice is very useful and I hope that you take the time to read it.

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Friday, July 31, 2009

Time to Think

Today, I remembered having read something about the shortest event ever measured. I don't remember the event, but I remembered that it lasted 2 attoseconds. I knew that an attosecond was quite short. I thought that an attosecond was to a second as one second is to a million or maybe a billion years (although I really doubted the latter). I'm not sure why, but I looked it up today and found out that one attosecond is to one second as one second is to the time the universe has existed. How can one possibly live in "the moment" when discrete actions begin and end in such an infintesimally small amounts of time?

The Egyptians and Proclus may indeed have been right when they said that "god" was not to be found "out there somewhere", but in the eternal present the eternal now. "God" or whatever you want to call the Source of Being may indeed "exist" in all the way down outside the very bottom of time and bring all creation about with actions infinitely small and infinitely short. It's just a thought.

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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Mayberry

We all have images in our minds of bucolic small towns where everyone knows everyone else and all the people get along for the most part. A place where most are disposed to help anyone in the town in almost anyway they can. It does not matter whether it's Mayberry, Lake Wobegone, or the suburb of "The Wonder Years." These places are part of the American Identity and what makes these places such a persistent idea is that they exist and existed- not as perfect as the myth, but closer to it than one might imagine. These places are rapidly disappearing due to a number of factors and one of these is chrystal meth. According to Walter Kirn, writing in today's New York Times Book Review, Methland - The Death and Life of a Small American Town by Nick Reading gives the reader a very effective and engaging account of how, why, and by whom these towns are being destroyed. Reading also describes how meth is a symptom of the diseases destroying the towns - it is not the cause. Finally, he also shows how one town began a process of recovery that appears to be working. I have placed this book high on my reading lst and I hope you will do the same. The unending "Dateline", "60 Minutes", et al reports will not bring about the political action needed. The only thing that will lead to political action is us. Our leaders will not act until we force them to - with letters, emails, phone calls, demonstrations, etc. There are solutions out there and it is up to us to make the politicians find and adopt them.

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Minds and Gods

Rendering of human brain.Image via Wikipedia

This is a fantastic book that in the world I wish and even pray for everyone would be intensely interested in. The author, Todd Tremlin, demonstrates through cognitive science that various neural structures and programs that came about as a result of evolution function together to actually predispose us to believe in divine agents as long as these agents have a limited number of "unbelievable" attributes and that these "unbelievable" attributes are somehow acceptable. The book is a fascinating tour of the mind. One might expect that a book such as this would have as one of its messages that our cognitive predisposition to attribute phenomena to divine agents argues against the existance of such agents. However, Mr. Tremlin makes it very clear that this is not a conclusion with which he would agree. He does, though, make it very clear that an understanding of these predispositions is essential as they can create unconscious and subconscious assumptions about our God or gods with which our conscious mind would not agree. All-in-all, whether you are agnostic, athiestic, or very religious, this is a book that you should definitely read.
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Sunday, June 21, 2009

The flag says it all.



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Friday, June 5, 2009

I need to warn you about this book . . .

Rarely have I been so disappointed by a book - even "Evolving God" was less disappointing. I am just under halfway through and I can't stand it any more. Stark totally dismisses Ancient Egyptian religion as a polytheistic "temple faith" that gave nothing to its people. The only thing he deems of any worth is Akhenaten's heresy because it is somehow obvious that monotheism is much better than polytheism. It seems that, for Stark, the only worthwhile discoveries of God are those of a capricious deity who deems his creations to have no value whatsoever and who consigns the overwhelming majority to eternal damnation for the edification of the infinitesimal elect. Oh, I forgot, the other acceptable and valid discovery is of a deity who takes one very insignificant group of human beings as his "chosen people" - the rest of humanity being completely unworthy of the attention of the supreme being and who should furthermore be subject to periodic genocides because of (among other terribly important factors) their inability to say shiboleth. Greek religion is also dismissed as degenerate as that of the Egyptians. A tradition that gave us philosophy, science, math, ethics, and democracy is summarily judged to be worthless superstition. (I wonder if one could even find an Athenian of the 5th century BCE who actually believed in the their creation myths as literal truth. But, suppose one could; how is that any different from the belief of many 21st century Americans that an apple and snake determined the fate of humanity?)
The faith of the Egyptians led to a civilization that lasted for 3,000 years and that left for all humanity some of its most meaningful monuments and symbols. Even the cross as a symbol of divinely granted life is something we owe as much to the Egyptians as to the Romans. The Egyptians were also the first (as far as we know) to develop the archetype of the godman whose death and resurrection redeems creation. As for their "temple faith that had nothing to do with the common man", the Egyptians enthusiastically participated in every celebration of every "god." They knew that they formed a valued part of the order of creation and that the pharaoh and priests carried out rituals necessary to maintain that order just as they carried out similar rituals that were also essential to that same divinely mandated order. Religion was an integral part of their lives - so integral that they would not understand the question; "What is your religion?" The Egyptians also understood the need for dualism in creation. They understood that it was not possible for Horus to destroy Seth because they knew that chaos was just as necessary to creation as order. If chaos seemingly gained the upper hand, Egyptians knew that that was the way of creation. They did not assume that they were worthless worms in the sight of God and that any setback or illness was because they had angered their "god." They also knew that what we take as their "gods" were nothing more than attributes of God and that their myths were just ways of finding some understanding of that which is essentially unknowable. Before you decide to jump on me, I should point out that I know that Egypt was not a paradise and that there were many priests who encouraged every superstition so that they could benefit from it. What I am referring to are their ideas - I understand that a lot was lost in their application. However, one should always keep in mind that, of all the peoples and religious systems in the world, the Egyptians were unique in one way. When they thought of paradise, they saw it as being just like Egypt, only a little better. I suppose that is of no importance to Stark. Just as it is of no importance that almost everyone who was privileged enough to experience Ancient Egypt said that the Egyptians were the "happiest and most satisfied people in the world."
I regret buying the electronic version of the book. I just don't think that returning it in an email to the publishers would have the same effect as sending back the book itself. I do not think that I should agree with the author of every book I buy, to the contrary. However, an author who publishes a book with a title such as this one should give the religions of the Greeks and Egyptians an honest review. Otherwise he should make it clear on the cover of the book that he believes that the only great religions are those that are monotheistic and that engender things like pogroms, inquisitions, jihads, and genocide.
All this aside, I should be grateful to Mr. Stark. I had been debating whether I should leave my Judeo-Christian traditions and beliefs completely behind and embrace Perennial Philosophy or not. Mr. Stark made me see the choice in the starkest of terms and, because of him, there is no longer any debate within me. He made me see that I want nothing to do with certainties of this kind of monotheism as they are false certainties that have given the human beings little in exchange for all that they have cost us. ( out of 5 stars)

If you are interested, you can read other reviews (all of which are shorter than this one - I promise) at: http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=millsge



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Executive Compensation

This is the most rational and just executive pay policy: Establish a maximum multiple of the average employee salary. Mandate that annual pay increases cannot be more than the increase of the average employee salary. Bonuses cannot be more than a maximum multiple of the average employee bonus. I know of no more just, reasonable, or effective pay policy. Can someone out there get this idea to someone who can do something about it?

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Evil

I really can't add anything to these editorials other than to say: "If you fight evil with evil, evil wins."

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Op-Ed Columnist - The Banality of Bush White House Evil - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Banality of Bush White House Evil - NYTimes.com

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Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Come Clean - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Come Clean - NYTimes.com

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt by James Henry Breasted

This is a work that few would include in the curricula of secondary education. It should be put there. Its importance transcends Egyptology as it demonstrates how deeply the evolution of religion and that of society are intertwined. As Breasted presents the material, the reader has the opportunity to see his or her society and religion mirrored in those of Ancient Egypt. But, its most vital message is to be found in Breasted's demonstration of how the rise of religious literalism led to the stunting of the development of ethics. Priestly literalism - driven by greed - did great harm to the development of a system of ethics that began in the Middle Kingdom by turning the wrongly named "Books of the Dead" into the equivalent of cosmic "get out of jail cards" very similar to the infamous Papal Indulgences. A deep awareness of how this came about is essential to the ability to recognize the development of such nefarious trends in our own society.

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Sunday, April 5, 2009

S = k log w again

I just finished The Alchemy Key by Stuart Nettleton - it's a marvelous book that I recommend to anyone (especially if you have no interest in Alchemy). Nettletton's knowledge is encyclopaedic and he shares it in an extremely enjoyable way. I am still somewhat dizzy from the breakneck speed at which the concepts, symbols, cosmology, and history ire presented. Reading the book gives one a very good idea why people like Newton, Goethe, Graves, and Campbell were so entranced by the subject. But it has brought me around again to entropy. Seeing how many concepts, thoughts, beliefs, etc have been packed into Christianity, Judism, and Islam (not to mention the many other belief systems that lay behind western and eastern societies) makes me question how much these can hold. This is even more of a question when one realizes the conflicts and contradictions humanity has packed into these foundations. Just the conflicts between what Nettleton refers to as the "Afro-Asiatic" and the "Indo-Hittite" belief structures have blown whole regions apart in the past and time has increased, rather than lessened, these conflicts. When will our "S" value increase beyond our power to do something about it? What is the tipping point for cultural, economic, social, philosophical, and religious entropy? I would feel better if I knew that someone was thinking about this and I would feel even better if someone has considered this and can prove that it is not a problem. I don't think that anyone has thought or is thinking about it, though. And S = k log w, continues ticking away.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Entropy and Bright Eyes

My mind can't seem to stop mulling on entropy. As the S value of a closed system increases, the energy available to that system declines. At its core energy (or information for that matter) is nothing more than order and order means that any given group of discreet elements can only combine in a limited number of ways. My son introduced me to a singer who goes by the name of Bright Eyes and I thought that this kid should be the Bob Dylan or even Woody Guthrie of this generation, but as quickly as I thought that, I realized it was not possible. My son's generation won't have a Dylan or a Guthrie - there are too many possibilities, too many options, too many outlets, too many... It is fantastic that people can create their own sound tracks for their lives but... How many possible combinations can there be? When does a culture's, a society's, a nation's S value become too high? Can we continue to create more and more possible combinations of practically everything in our closed system and still survive? Oh, don't worry about it. Perhaps I'm just too old. But you really should listen to Bright Eyes sometime. You might even save our culture by doing so, who knows?

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Monday, March 30, 2009

S = k log w

I cannot think of a more trenchant or pithy comment on life and the universe. E = mc2 pales by comparison and is meaningless without this statement. It transcends science and is truly religious in scope. The Ancient Egyptians would have treasured it and one can almost be forgiven for seeing some synchronicity between the use of the letter "S" as a symbol for entropy and as the first letter of the name of the lord of chaos, "Set". Shannon's insight - that entropy applies to information as well as energy - was almost as amazing as Boltzmann's original epiphany. Money (capital, monetary units, dollars, euros, etc.) - because it symbolizes energy and because it is a form of information - must be subject to entropy. Is it possible that financial system is collapsing because it's "S" value has become too high? Is it possible that the trillions of dollars being injected into the system will have no effect at all? Will these trillions of dollars (an amount that is meaningless because one cannot conceptualize it) hasten the decline by pushing the "S" value even closer to infinity. Have we reached the point where our current concept of money will no longer work because money represents too many things? I'm not sure that this even applies, but the thought won't leave me alone.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mexico

I lived in Mexico for 12 years. My wife is from Mexico, my children were born there, and I love the country and its people. One was a huge guy who always gave me a big abrazo that took me off my feet. My wife and her brothers grew up with him, he was at almost every family function I remember and he was murdered by drug traffickers. Like my father-in-law and all but one of my brothers-in-law, he was a police officer. He was a Mexico City officer who volunteered to go north because he thought he was needed. He was and now he is no more. Most Americans seem to think that Mexico has become a Columbia - it has not and it will not. To see why, look at the op-ed piece in today's New York Times entitled "Mexican Evolution." Most Americans seem to think that Mexico is hopelessly corrupt and they are wrong. After 12 years, during which we lived through some of the worst things to happen to Mexico, I know how corrupt the country can be. I also know how honorable it can be. Manuel was honorable, very honorable and I cannot stand the idea that some seem to have about men like him. Yes, he was killed because he crossed the traffickers, but he crossed them by opposing them - he did not take money from them. Like cops everywhere, there are good and bad cops in Mexico, but most are like Manuel.

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Monday, March 23, 2009

President seeks control over...

Executive compensation. I will continue to flog this particular horse everywhere and every time I can because this is the most just and effective way of controlling executive pay. Executive compensation must be linked to the salaries of everyone in the company. By legally linking top executives' compensation packages to a legally mandated multiple of the their companies' average salaries, we ensure that top executives will do well only when their companies and their companies' employees do well.

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Trillions

I do not know why part of the trillions that the Government and the Federal Reserve are giving to financial institutions could not be given to the citizens instead. The funds that would be given to citizens who are minors would be put in trust funds for education and health care. Regulations could also ensure that the recipients use the funds to become solvent. Citizens could then use their remaining funds in any way they want. In this way, the people will decide which corporations survive and which do not. This will force corporations to offer truly competitive products at competitive prices. To those who cry "socialism"; how is giving funds to corporations any less socialistic? Furthermore, the giving of $250,000 to each citizen would barely make a dent in the amount of money the Government and the Fed have given and are planning to give financial institutions. Moreover, this would be a much more democratic bailout than that being implemented. Finally, if inflation becomes too much of a problem, then we should take a page from Nixon's play book and impose a price freeze.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

What Worry...

To see what has me so worried, go to my blog, ebookliberty.blogspot.com.

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Compensation?

We as a society must redefine this concept in legal, moral, and human terms. Too few receive too much while too many receive too little. It is painfully obvious that market forces alone will not regulate executive compensation. Just legal standards must be established and enforced by law. Every year I was told that no employee could receive more than a 3.5% raise and that my department's total salary could not increase by more than 2.5%. Every year, the CEO and top management received raises that exceeded the levels established by obscene margins. Executive salaries and incentives must be restricted to reasonable multiples of the company's average wage and their raises must be limited to the percentage increase of the company's average wage. That bonuses and options to top managers be granted only if the company does well must also be legally mandated. The pressing need to enact laws to ensure that a company's executives do well when, and only when, the company and its employees do well demonstrates to what extent our society has been corrupted by greed. In a fundamental way, this greed is no different than that that destroyed the Soviet Union and which, if unchecked, will destroy us as well.

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Monday, March 16, 2009

You wouldn't believe...

how fun reading is with an electronic book. I can't explain why, but I enjoy reading much more with my Sony E-Reader. My children gave me a PRS-505 for Christmas and I can't put the thing down. I've read more than 15 books since Christmas and a large number of lengthy papers and essays available on the Internet that I hadn't read before because my back makes spending more than 30 minutes reading a single paper on the computer a less than enjoyable experience. The only negative about the gift is that it has made me very aware of an extremely imortant issue that I didn't worrry about before. It is an extremely trenchant issue for every individual and for the world at large, but it seems that most give it little or no thought.

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Supermarket Coffee

It's never easy to be sure what you are buying when purchasing coffee in supermarkets - especially if you absolutely cannot live without a very fresh, very dark roast and you want to try something other than Starbucks. There are some brands you can count on: PapaNicholas (good), Caribou (better), and Peets (best).

  • For a good decafinated dark roast, try the decafinated French Roast by PapaNicholas (www.papanicholas.com).
  • If you want a Rainforest Alliance Certified product, go for the French Roast by Caribou Coffee (www.cariboucoffee.com).
  • Finally, if you want a "now I can die happy" coffee, the only product in our local supermarkets is the whole bean French Roast of Peets Coffee. The beans look as if they had been polished by hand and the aroma, taste, and texture are exceptional. Check out their website (www.peets.com) and see how coffee should be made.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Meltdown

We and the corporations who serve us have lost sight of what a corporation does. Everyone knows that a corporation takes raw materials, combines these with energy and creates a product. Where we have failed is in our definitions. All companies use the same raw material, the same energy, and produce the same product. Corporations are failing because management is unaware of this. The only raw material is people (employees, providers, customers, investors). The only real energy is information. The product is a culture - the Chrysler culture, the Bank of America culture, the Apple culture, the Viagra culture, etc. If management has a strong idea of what their company's and their products' cultures are and if all decisions are made based on how they affect the cultures, companies will prosper and shareholder value will increase. If the companies continue to treat their products as commodities, if they continue in their failure to watch over their cultures, the corporations will fail. If managers do not establish the culture and commit themselves and the company completely to it, they and their companies will fail. Chrysler will never rise again unless it truly means something to be Chrysler.

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Why Religion?

Even though an implant pushes a constant stream of highly concentrated narcotics directly into my cerebral-spinal fluid, the pain almost always hovers around a 7 or an 8 (10 being the worst pain I can imagine and I can imagine a lot). Religion is, therefore, something I have thought and read a great deal about over the past 10 years. When asked, I used to say that I was a nonaligned Christian. I don't respond that way anymore. The title I use now is Perennial. I will write more about this, but the easiest definition I can give for Perennial is that the way one lives one's life and, most importantly, the way one treats one's fellow creatures and one's planet is infinitely more important than what one believes. I know all of the arguments against this and I no longer believe them. The worst tragedy to befall humanity came about when Religion was defined as something different from the way we lead our lives and the ways in which we do all that we do. A question about Religion would have been meaningless to an Ancient Egyptian. For them, it was just a question of fulfilling one's obligations to one's self, to one's family, to one's clan, to all others, to one's society, and to the Divine. We must return to this sense of Religion, to this sense of life.

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Monday, March 2, 2009

A Start

It may seem strange to be thankful for constant severe pain, but I have become thankful for it. Without it I would still be so wrapped up in international pharmaceutical marketing that I would have little or no time to find the things I have found. I would have missed so much of my childrens' lives. I would have had no time to have read what I have read and all I have yet to read. Most importantly, I never would have taken the time to simply think. I hope to share with you what I have discovered in a way that will be meaningful for us both. I will post on four subjects: Religion, Politics and Current Affairs, Books and Reading, and (a subject very dear to me) Coffee. I hope to post just often enough to keep you interested and not enough to put you off. Most of all, I'll always strive to be honest with you and with myself so that we all may get something from this. I hope you like the title photo. It is by my son and with his permission I will share more of his work with you - that may be a better reason to visit this blog occasionally than anything I might write.

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