Ending the Year with a Bang - No Mo' Chemo!

Friday, December 28, 2012 (two days ago) was downright surreal.  Although Stacey has handled most of the medical transport these last three and a half years, Friday I joined her and Bradley for his VERY LAST intravenous chemotherapy treatment.  We now know all about vincristine, PEG-L-asparaginase, daunorubicin, mercaptopurine,  methotrexate, Bactrim, cytarabine and a host of other medicines I hope you will never hear of again.  We know all about treatment for lung failure, kidney failure, neural failure, vascular failure, gastro/intestinal failure, liver failure, bedsores and most anything else you can imagine.  We know all about blood transfusions (over fifty pints), chemo/dialysis port surgeries (five) and intrathecal lumbar delivery of chemo.  Although Brad technically has five more days of oral chemo to complete, for all intents and purposes he is through with treatment for his leukemia and the host of complications from the initial staph-induced septic shock that should have taken his life.  This day had been so long in coming, it has been hard for us to realize it is actually here.

Nov. 24, 2009 - Leaving Kosair Hospital after 3 Months

Messin' with Sasquatch?

If you know me well, you knew it had to come.  Some will wonder, “But why so quickly, Mark?  Do you really want to concern the world about your mental state this soon on your blog?”  I guess the answer is yes, I’m willing to risk it.  What am I talking about?  In a word -- Bigfoot.   Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Yowie, Skunk Ape, Woods Ape, Abominable Snowman – it doesn’t matter what you call him, Bigfoot is still a big stinking deal.

When I was a young boy in the late sixties and early seventies, Bigfoot was everywhere.  I can remember watching with wide-eyed awe the Patterson-Gimlin recording from 1967, filmed just a few days from when I turned three years old.  It has been played and analyzed again and again, all the way down to today actually.  For a young boy, the thought of a real-life nine-foot-tall, five-hundred-pound monster roaming the woods was more than spell-binding.  I’ll never forget going with my dad and brother to see Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot.  It was a poorly done docudrama, but it scared the daylights out of me, and it intrigued me as well.

I Say "Pedal to the Metal" As We Approach the Fiscal Cliff

In my previous post, I looked at the astronomical debt ($700,000 per taxpaying family) America has accumulated right now, with millions more in entitlement obligations per family coming.  If we are going to survive this fiscal crisis, we have to do three things and do them fast:

1.       Balance the budget TODAY and stop the bleeding.  It is insanity to keep piling on to a problem that is about to get away from us in the form of obligated payments alone.  We have to stop the interest growth, and running budget deficits for one more day is ludicrous.  If you don't hear the word "trillion" in a budget reduction plan, you're not hearing a serious plan!

2.       We have to pay down our $16 trillion national debt.  That means we really aren’t looking for a balanced budget, but rather a budget with a revenue surplus.  We need to do better than balancing the budget!

3.       Get focused again on being an innovative nation that produces things of value which other countries want to buy.

The Tax Man Cometh

I wish I could say I'm surprised that Obama thinks we can tax our way into prosperity without spending cuts.    Either he doesn't understand basic arithmetic, or there something else afoot here.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mcconnell-burst-laughter-geithner-outlined-obamas-plan_664210.html

See earlier post for a dose of reality from the numbers.

Coming Soon - Uncle Sam Wants His Cash!

Today, November 29, 2012, I made the mistake of looking at the national debt again.  Hours later I’m still depressed.  If you haven’t taken a look at this web site (usdebtclock.org), you should.  It is sobering if you weren’t concerned already.  As the numbers spin upward at a dizzying pace before your very eyes, you begin to get a visual picture of the growing mess we are in. 

Deja Vu All Over Again

On August 3, 2011, I sent one of a life-long series of such letters to my US Representatives and Senators which they are duty-bound to accept.  This one was to Senator Mitch McConnell in the wake of the bi-partisan agreement to once again raise the national debt ceiling.  I meant what I said then, and I mean it now.  Republicans were banking on 2012, and it didn't work out well for us.  This letter, along with my previous post, really sets the framework for the next blog posts which will lay out some thoughts on the pending "fiscal cliff".

Senator McConnell, 

I’m extremely frustrated, but not surprised at this debt ceiling compromise.

Economic Thoughts That Still Apply Today

I was cleaning up some files today and found the following copy of a letter I sent to former Secretary of Education, Dr. Bill Bennett, on September 24, 2008.  I've had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Bennett a number of times on his nationally syndicated radio program.  I've sent him a handful of such letters through the years, and he has graciously read some of them on the air.  Following were my thoughts in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis and first Obama election cycle.  I still agree with them by the way (at least as applied in a secular sense without spiritual solutions), and they will help set the stage for some subsequent thoughts in a blog post on the "fiscal cliff":

Bill,
 I have been trying to call, but can’t get through.  All the analysis I hear is hitting on the symptoms of the current financial crisis rather than the root cause.

Stopping the Decline of America - A Radical New Idea to Restore Individual Responsibility

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years.

- Attributed to Sir Alex Fraser Tytler

Do you think the patriots who founded this nation would recognize the values of America today?  Can you imagine how those independent minds who risked everything - including their lives -  to be free would assess our current government?  What would they think about our people?  You might ask why we even care what the Founders would think – that was hundreds of years ago.  While they were not perfect people, our Founders held perspectives which are still very relevant for shaping our society today. 

On Dogs and Integrity

Buckshot Midnight Ranger Wilson - the registered name of our black Labrador retriever we affectionately call "Buck".  He actually goes by a number of names:  “Buck”, “Buckles”, “Buckers”, “Buckster”, “Buckerdoo”, “Puppy” and often just “Dog”.  The great thing is that he'll answer to anything.  Buck just turned 4 years old.  He was six weeks old when I picked him up for Christmas in 2008.

Bringing him into the family was quite an ordeal.  I'd been lobbying Stacey for a long time about getting a family dog.  "Every boy ought to have a dog," I told her. "It's part of growing up."  "I don't want a dog," Stacey replied.  "I don't like dogs.  They jump up on you and make a mess, and I'm afraid of dogs.  And I know who’ll have to take care of him - me!"  After literally years of discussion, Stacey acquiesced but with conditions:  "I'm not going to have a dog in my house.  No dog in the world is worth fooling with the stink and the mess in my house.  Dogs belong outside.  And I don't want a big dog.  I don't want them jumping on me. And I don't want a noisy dog.  I hate barking dogs.  And I don't want a shedding dog - even outside.  That hair gets all over everything. And I am NOT going to take care of him.”

“OK, I hear you,” I replied. “We’ll get a small, quiet, non-shedding outdoor dog.  The boys and I will take care of him.”  So with that, I started my research to find our family dog. 

Why This Blog?

OK -- here we go again with another blog.  Who needs another blog - right?  Certainly not me.  Yet here I am, starting a blog that I have no idea if anyone will want to read.  Why?  I guess it's really pretty simple.  I've always liked to try to craft ideas and put them into words.  When I write, it seems to clarify things for me.  When I visually see what's going on in "Mark's World", sometimes the cleverness and originality I think I have evaporates into a blur of meaningless text on a page. Writing brings my world into perspective.

I love to talk about ideas.  I hope to capture some of them here and use this forum as a collection point for them.  Maybe this blog will provoke thoughts in someone else.  Maybe it won't – I really don’t know. 

Starting a blog is a little bit intimidating.  Opening my thoughts up to a broader world carries a lot of risk.  It is easy to be misunderstood and unfairly criticized.  Riskier yet, my ideas may be clearly understood and still excoriated for what they are.  I guess it’s a risk worth taking.  Please feel free to join me as I ponder the things that make me think: things like faith, country, family, economics, politics and the news of the day.  Maybe we can all understand life a little more clearly as we think through the things that interest me as I "Mark" the times.