dean

After acquiring Obamacare in March (along with the rest of the family, who have yet to see a Doctor), I made an appointment for a physical. As my last one was in 1971, it's probably time. Since it has been more than 40 years, I thought it would be a through exam but all they did was take a blood and urine sample and a EKG. No testing of the lungs, even after I told the Doctor I have been re-finishing wood floors for 35 years. Anyway, the "physical" didn't tell me anything that I didn't know; that I drank too much soda and was close to a borderline diabetic and my cholesterol was to high. He wants me to start taking Lipitor. I have never taken a prescription drug in my life. The side affects of Lipitor (diarrhea and possible organ failure) and the probability of having to take it for the rest of my life has caused me to postpone taking it, at least for now. He does want to do a colonoscopy on me. I'm in no hurry to do it but will probably acquiesce to it in 3-4 months. I really don't trust Doctors. My Doctor wasn't that interested in medical concerns that I had but was interested in the colonoscopy and it would be hard to convince me that profit didn't enter into that decision. I guess that I should be looking for a Doctor that I can trust. I want to live as long as my health I'd good but, having watched my father from age 86-89, I have no desire to live in poor health and lose my independence. If I live in good health until age 77, when my son hopefully grad sauté from College, I'll be happy.

This is somewhat premature but Fred Phelps, the head of the Westboro Baptist church, is near death in a hospice in Topeka, Kansas. While I won't wish him RIP (or even BIHAR, Burn In Hell), it's too bad he can't take his church with him.

If it turns out that one or more of the pilots were responsible, I don't think that I'll ever fly with an airline based in a Muslim country.

Comedian David Brenner has died at age 78. He appeared more often than any other guest on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Jim Lange, best known for hosting "The Dating Game" from 1965-1975,5 and who had on the show celebrity guest like Steve Martin, Farah Fawcettf and Michael Jackson, has died from a heart attack at age 81.

Long time NBC newsman Garrick Utley has died from cancer at age 74.

Sid Caesar, who hosted "Your show of shows" for five years in the early 1950, and who started Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reinier and Woody Allen in their careers, died Wednesday at age 91. RIP

Just how many American men live and work in Thailand because they fled the US because they wouldn't or couldn't pay child support? A local KC man was arrested at LAX on returning from LOS. He had fled the US and stopped paying the $1,500 a month court ordered (1996) judgement to his ex wife. He worked in Thailand in senior management at the Prestige hotel chain. He now owes $165,000. At age 60, He will have a hard time paying it. It isn't going to help raise the child, who must be at least 18 plus by now. It's nice to know that Thai firms do a through background check on their prospective employees.

How long will it take for colleges to hire Chinese instructors? After all, all other U.S. Jobs are going to the Chinese.

. The judge handed down the verdict today. The man is responsible for child support because no licensed Doctor was involved in the process. ThT should put a chill in being a sperm donor, at least through Craigslist.

I just read 2 articles. The first said considerably less than half of Americans watched the evening news and couldn't recognize a picture go Brian Williams, the anchor for NBC, the highest rated of the 3 newscasts. This explains why most of the commercials on the newscasts are aimed at retired persons, like commercials for prescription drugs. The second article claimed that ABC news was becoming the People magazine of the airways, covering far less hard news than the other two newscasts. Personally, I rarely get home by 5:30 to watch any of them.

Phil Everly, half of the duo "The Everly Brothers," has died at age 74. RIP

Peter O'Toole died at age 81 on Saturday, after a long illness. If he had only acted in "Lawrence," he would be considered one of the greatest actors of his generation. Given his poor health and drinking in his earlier days, I'm surprised he lived as long as he did. RIP!

As a Mizzu fan, I was only slightly less happy than Steve over the Auburn win. Looks to be a good game next Saturday.

Three times the Republicans have shut down non essential government and all three times they have gotten full pay. Did anyone think that this time was going to be different? They certainly deserve their back pay but applying for unemployment benefits is too close to gaming the system for my tastes. It's like the border agents that think that they are entitled to claim padded overtime pay because an emergency fund sits there that is supposed to be used for overtime pay in urgent pursuit of smugglers, etc. Gaming the system also occurs in business but doesn't affect taxpayers except when a business has to be bailed out at taxpayer expense, like the financial sector in 2008. I'm happy that I only have 5-10 years before retirement and can put this "gaming" in my rear view mirror.

The jobs report for October came out with over 200,000 new jobs added and the unemployment rate going up one tenth of a percent (7.3). The reason that the unemployment rate went up was that many federal workers declared that they were laid off. Didn't Congress pass a law that all affected federal workers would get all their back pay? Nice job if you can get it.

I'm sure that he had a lot of Chinese relatives that he could sponge off of. He did get to the U.S. When he was 15. He would have been about the age to attend 3-4 years of a high school that offered English as a 2nd language. Either he was a Juvenal delinquent when he arrived or his sponsor did nothing to get him to go to school.

It has more to do with U.S. Immigration laws. It was a 25 year old Chinese cousin of the family. Preliminary reports are that he was unemployed and was jealous of the Chinese families "success." He had been in the U.S. For ten years and spoke little english (and the deceased mother spoke little english). Having just worked for a Chinese lady who had been in the U.S. For decades and whose children spoke perfect English, don't immigrants see the connection in learning English and getting decent jobs? If you have been here for ten years bad don't bother to learn English, you have no one but yourself to blame for your predicament.

I just saw a report that Mc D made a 1.5 billion profit (I can't remember if that was annually or quarterly) but it cost 1.2 billion in government support programs for those workers. So, the U.S. Taxpayer is supporting keeping Mickey D open.

Does BB know anything about Duvel?

All of this talk about the inept US Congress is going to drive me to drink more beer. Unfortunately, it probably won't be KC's local beer, Boulevard. It was bought today by a Belgium Brewery, Duvel Moor that. I've never heard of this beer before. Is it any good?

I decided to post this here, as I don't want to offend any BM's. New $100 bill is coming out this Tuesday. How long will banks and exchange companies be accepting the old $100 bill? When I was in LOS in July, I had 15 $100 bills and one of them was the old version. No bank would take it (I tried 4) and one exchange company out of 3 finally took it,

A local TV station in KC chartered a plane to take WWII veterans tomorrow to DC. Probably the largest group of veterans in DC since WWI veterans stormed Washington for future benefits and were dispersed by government troops, led by General McArthur.

Has any British PM been born outside of the U.K.?

wasn't the present Australian Prime Minister born and raised in England?