Public knowledge

A pew research quiz was done before the Mass. special election to find what people know about the U.S.. You can take the quiz at the pew research center the national average was 6 correct answers I got all twelve right. The thing that struck my interest was in reading about the quiz the results showed that Republicans were better informed than Democrats. The margin was slim and other factors go into the results age and gender, older and male tend to be better informed.

Makes me wonder if the knowledge we process has a bigger impact on the policies we support than labels. The other premise would have you believe that Reps. care more and thus become better informed.

I don't think either party cares more than the other. I do think this lays more credibility to the complaints of media bias. Media is one of the keys to an informed electorate if people are only fifty percent informed on average this points to a short coming.

Then again maybe the people just don't care to be informed.

Supreme Court

After the State of the Union address much hype has been going around. The hype is centered on President Obama's criticism of the recent Supreme Court decision and Judge Alito's reaction. Obama states the supreme court has opened the door for unlimited campaign spending including foreign owned companies. Alito reacted by mouthing the word liar during the speech.

Both parties are wrong to some degree. Alito is wrong because there probably will be a certain amount of increase in campaign spending. Obama is wrong for criticizing the court for doing their job.

The court's job is not to set policy and determine what might happen because of their rulings. They are merely to read the law and determine how it fits with our constitution. In essence the court is there to make sure we play by the rules.

We may not like the rules all the time but the rules keep society working in an orderly fashion.

Celebrate

Today is the 75th anniversary of the beer can. So sit back pop the top and enjoy a beer,maybe two.

Fitness

Last year I took up the hundred push-up challenge. Two times I attempted the challenge to no avail my joints,shoulders, elbows and wrists didn't cooperate.

Two weeks ago I bought the extreme gym chin-up bar. This is a devise you hook over the door frame to do various exercises. The first day I did five sets of four chin-ups for a total of twenty. Yesterday I did five sets working to exhaustion each time and did a total of 37 chin-ups. I alternate on days between the chin-ups and the next day pull-ups to work different muscle groups. The pull-ups have increased even better than the chin-ups going from 5 to 16.

This device comes from several companies I opted for a generic version and am really happy with it, I bought it at Aldi's for twelve bucks. Real improvement with no pain can't beat that.

Hope

I don't live in Massachusetts but it still feels like I won. Politics is sometimes like sports even though we're not on the team we'll say we won. When in fact we are not on the team.

Brown won great now what happens. Will my life change for better or worse who knows.

The one truly big plus to come out of Brown's election is the message it sends. This is a state that is owned by the Democrats, Browns victory is a huge upset. Hopefully politicians are waking up this morning and thinking maybe we should listen to the people and realizing who they work for.

Haiku #18

Devastated Isle
So many people hurting
God hears His people

No where to turn to
So many injured and dead
God hears his people

God calling to me
Urging me,answer prayers
God helps his people

Exploding head

Did you ever read an article or book that didn't sit right. Sometimes a sentence will cause instant pain to your brain. Usually for me it's a bald faced lie or obvious misstatement.

In Thursday's Plain Dealer there was two stories having to do with a new program started at the beginning of the year. This program is aimed at getting people in better shape. The Cleveland Clinic,Curves and other sponsors worked out a deal where every resident in Cuyahoga county gets a free 3 month gym membership. It's called GoFit and all you have to do is ask for a membership at the YMCA or Curves. So far fifteen thousand people have registered on line and forty five hundred have shown up for an initial assessment.

The second article starts with the sentence,( Going to a company sponsored gym or smoking cessation workshop makes for a healthy society, as every member of Congress seems to agree.) Some health care advocates have a problem with the current health care reform as it relates to these programs. Their problem is that people could be penalized for either refusing to participate or not achieving results.

Now here's the good part, If people attend but keep smoking or don't lower their B.M.I. they are afraid they will be penalized, fine. But they follow with this sentence. This could undo a key objective of health care reform: to keep people from paying more for insurance based on health factors they may be unable to control.

Unable to control, smoking and eating too much are controllable cancer and hereditary diseases are not. This is why costs are going to grow uncontrollably when the government takes over. Insurance companies use actuaries to assess a price for a policy. Not the government they want to charge everybody the same. People seem to understand this with life insurance. A twenty year old doesn't pay thee same for life insurance as an eighty year old. Why should a healthy person pay the same as a smoker or obese person.

2 polls

I saw 2 polls this morning one stated that only 32% of people surveyed believe that congressman represent their best interests. The second poll stated that 67% of people know someone who has cheated on their spouse.

I believe both numbers are significantly off the mark. Not for the good mind you, but with congresses approval rating flirting with single digits and the amount of infidelity I would say one should be closer to zero and the other closer to 100%.

Names

In this morning's Plain Dealer there is a letter to the editor. In the letter the writer is complaining about calling Sherrod Brown an incompetent idiot. This was from a previous letter to the editor. He goes on to cite names used against Obama and the Democrats at Tea party rallies, some of which he describes as racist, these are his examples monkey,Hitler, Nazi,fascist,communist.

I think we can agree that monkey and Hitler are out of bounds, even though these were commonly used against Bush. In fact the most derogatory of these monkey and Hitler were used far more often against Bush than Obama. Communist , Nazi ,fascist , or incompetent should never be ruled out these are words that can be used to describe the positions that politicians take. We can argue whether or not they fall into these categories but the debate should be allowed to be raised.

Haiku #17

A new years dawning
Make the most of what God gives
Hope must lead the way


Happy New Year everyone