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.