DADvocate

1. Make an issue out of meaningless "differences" in terminology. For instance, what is the difference between "babysitting" and "child care?" Some women seem to think the difference is a major issue. It's not. Get it?

2. Imply that your husband's office work is basically "sitting on your butt." "The brain makes up 2% of a person's weight. Despite this, even at rest, the brain consumes 20% of the body's energy. The brain consumes energy at 10 times the rate of the rest of the body per gram of tissue." (Source) There's a reason hours of mental exertion exhaust a person and physical exercise can be refreshing.

3. Give us a sweater as a gift. The last sweater I received as a gift has been worn once and spent the remainder of the last eleven years in my closet. Give us some cool tires for our car or truck, or neat power tools. If you husband drives a minivan, give him a car or a truck.

4. Cologne. Men don't like to wear cologne. The only ones who do are insecure wimps who think they must to attract a woman. Do you want your husband to believe you think he's an insecure wimp?

5. Criticize his driving or insist he follow your directions. If you don't like the way he drives, drive yourself in another vehicle. Your directions probably aren't any better than his. Most of the women in my life are/have been chronically late. Maybe, it's because they don't know the quickest route to their destination.

6. Expect compliments that aren't deserved. Did you cook a new meal that isn't so great? A polite man won't criticize but don't expect insincere compliments to massage your fragile ego. Be glad he ate it without complaint.

7. Buy a bunch of clothes and then ask him to return half of them for you, even if he works across the street from the store where you bought the clothes. Be sure you want what you buy, it fits, isn't defective, etc. If you take it home and decide you don't like, live with it or return it yourself.

8. Think you should be able to control your husband's conservation, comments in public. You may be bored, but boredom is as often a result of the bored person's mental shortcomings as the speakers. Your husband has as much right to be the center of attention as you.

9. Expect compliments for new haircuts, make-up, etc. Remember, beauty is only skin deep. A self centered "look at me" attitude makes the most physically beautiful woman ugly in a heartbeat.

10. Fail to show gratitude for you husband's efforts to maintain or improve your lives and standard of living. Be it his work, doing a little housework, mowing the yard, landscaping, painting or whatever, a person deserves positive reinforcement for successful efforts. Psychology shows that the best way to shape an other's behavior into desired behaviors is to reward the desired behavior. If you want your husband to do more housework, thank him sincerely when he does and give him affection. If you can't give affection freely, you deserve what you get.

11. BONUS - Write stupid lists like this one or this one. What kind of conceited, self-righteous nag or jerk thinks they should define what is acceptable or unacceptable in all situations. Open your heart and mind and learn to tolerate a little of what you think you don't really like. You might find something better than you ever dreamed.

Merry Christmas to all. I'm not feeling blue but this is one of my favorites.

I received a Christmas card from the Democrats. It seems rather odd.

New York gets screwed in health care bill. More here:

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg said if the reform bill contains some elements currently in the Senate's plan, New York City will have to close 100 health clinics, and its public hospitals would take a financial hit.

In the mean time, those evil insurance companies make out like bandits and big money interests control the U.S. Congress. (Obviously, the Democrats are well under control.) Get used to the "we'll fix it later" meme from the Democrats. You're going to hear it a lot. (Since when has Congress fixed anything later?)

Via Instapundit, we find this:

In his serious voice, Mr Gore presented a nifty animation, a band of little mosquitoes fluttering their way up the slopes of a snow-capped mountain, and he repeated the old line: Nairobi used to be ‘above the mosquito line, the limit at which mosquitoes can survive, but now…’ Those little mosquitoes kept climbing.

The truth? Nairobi means ‘the place of cool waters’ in the Masai language. The town grew up around a camp, set up in 1899 during the construction of a railway, the famous ‘Lunatic Express’. There certainly was water there — and mosquitoes. From the start, the place was plagued with malaria, so much so that a few years later doctors tried to have the whole town moved to a healthier place. By 1927, the disease had become such a plague in the ‘White Highlands’ that £40,000 (equivalent to about £350,000 today) was earmarked for malaria control. The authorities understood the root of the problem: forest clearance had created the perfect breeding places for mosquitoes. The disease was present as high as 2,500m above sea level; the mosquitoes were observed at 3,000m. And Nairobi? 1,680m.

And, this.

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

If the science is so good, why all the lies?

Call this a prediction of you like. The current health care reform being considered in Congress is destined to fail at ameliorating the problems proponents are claiming it will, esp. cost and uninsured persons.

Costs will grow more rapidly than before.

A new report from government economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department found that the nation's $2.5 trillion annual health care tab won't shrink under the Democratic blueprint that senators are debating. Instead, it would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress does nothing.

More troubling was the report's assessment that the Democrats' plan to squeeze Medicare for $493 billion over 10 years in savings relies on specific policy changes that "may be unrealistic" and could lead to cuts in services. The Medicare savings are expected to cover about half the nearly $1 trillion, 10-year cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured.

In still more bad news, the report starkly warned that a new long-term care insurance plan included in the legislation could "face a significant risk of failure" because it would attract people in poor health, leading to higher and higher premiums, and eventually triggering an "insurance death spiral."
(My emphasis,)

Congress also plans taxes on "Cadillac" health insurance plans which would hurt middle class as much as executives.

Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans," arguing it wouldn't just hit CEOs but also middle-class Americans who did without salary increases to negotiate better health benefits.

Nothing like driving up the cost of health care, even if you don't use it.

Cancer care faces significant cutbacks. I guess we'll let Grandma and Grandpa die, but we'll give them a pain pill.

The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) today issued a statement warning that oncologists throughout the U.S. may face closing their practices if critical Medicare reimbursement fixes for treating cancer patients are not made as a part of health care reform.

"Current health reform legislation before Congress does not address major inadequacies in Medicare reimbursement and substantial cuts coming in January to cancer care," said Patrick Cobb, M.D., president of COA and managing partner of Hematology-Oncology Centers of the Northern Rockies in Billings, Montana. "These problems are impacting oncologists now. Many have had to let staff go, and some have already closed practices in communities across the U.S."

Predictions show 10 years from now 33 million Americans will still be uninsured for health care.

The healthcare revamp seeks to rein in soaring costs and provide medical coverage to millions of uninsured people. The report said about 57 million people would be without health insurance in 2019 under current laws. The number would be reduced by 24 million if the Senate bill is enacted, it said.

So much for all those uninsured people.

Additionally, we need to keep in mind the financial dangers of letting the government run anything.

And when, would we add, has government ever taken on a large domestic program that has worked well or stayed within its budget? Medicare, when considered in the mid-1960s, was projected to cost $10 billion by 1990. Actual outlays 25 years later came to $107 billion. And now Democrats want to expand it.

No worry. Costs overruns of a factor greater than 10 are no big deal. More from that article:

(point V)They don't begin to cover everyone. The latest leaves 24 million of the 47 million uninsured uncovered by 2019, well after the program starts, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Still, trillions will be spent to take over 17% of our economy and pad the deficit by hundreds of billions a year. The CBO further estimates 10 million will lose their private insurance. By forcing millions of Americans into government run health plans, it will ultimately lead to a single-payer health care system.

(point V)Medical costs will soar. Estimates range from $1 trillion to $6.25 trillion, thanks to mandates requiring you to buy insurance. Even a pared-down version would add $290 billion to the yearly deficit, CBO data show. The real budget-buster is letting 3 million Americans ages 55 to 64 buy in to Medicare, an expansion of nearly 30%. Medicare is already, by government and private estimates, as much as $100 trillion in the red in coming decades.

(point V)Taxes will also go up. The proposed overhaul contains at last count 13 tax hikes. Democrats talk about "free" health care. In fact, as numbers from the Joint Tax Committee show, 17.8 million of us will pay lower taxes, while nearly four times as many -- 68.4 million -- will pay higher taxes.

"A family of four making $54,000 would pay more than $825 per month for one federally managed plan...even after a $10,100 government subsidy," wrote Daniel Foster on NationalReview.com.

Yikes!! this is considerably more than what I pay for pretty good insurance for me and my kids now. Yes, we're in the best of hands.

In the mean time, Congress takes on the pressing problem of Division 1 college football playoffs.

Dismissing complaints from some members that Congress had more pressing matters, a House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine its national champion.

“We can walk across the street and chew gum at the same time,” said the subcommittee chairman, Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “We can do a number of things at the same time.”

The legislation, which still faces steep odds, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision game as a national championship unless it results from a playoff. The measure passed by voice vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee, with one audible “no,” from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.
House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., center, flanked by subcommittee counsel Timothy Robinson, left, and subcommittee member Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, presides over the subcommittee's hearing to markup legislation on a BCS college football playoff system, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
House Commerce, Trade and Cons…

“With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on,” Barrow said before the vote, although he stressed he didn’t like the current Bowl Championship Series, either.

While I, and President Obama, would like to see a playoff in college football, this is outside the realm of what Congress should ever be considering. (I've never read that Obama thinks Congress should bother with this either.)

The greater point is that there is nothing too trivial or minor that these bozos in Congress don't think they can stick their noses into it and take control of our lives. Although they'll never admit it, politicians love the totalitarian ideal as it gives them the greatest amount of power possible. If you value freedom too little, you deserve to become the serf/slave of the state you will be.

Serving on the wellness committee make up one of my extra-curricular activities at work. Recently, we've been focusing on stress management and accident prevention. Part of our efforts includes posting informational sheets on the subjects. The sheets posted earlier this week cover managing holiday madness. I'm given two copies to post strategically in the men's restroom. As usual, I posted without them without reviewing the tips.

Soon, my boss exited out of the restroom laughing. After asking me if I'd read the "Tips for Managing Holiday Madness" and I said, "No," he exclaimed that the tips sounded more as if a person was "mad," as in crazy. Reading the tips, I easily saw why he laughed at the list.

Most of the tips are sound advice but a few left me scratching my head.

Buy everyone gifts from the same store (e.g., bath and body lotions, candles, books), shop on the Web from one mall site, or buy everyone magazine subscriptions. And, hope no one judges you lazy, uncreative, or whatever for putting no thought into their gift.

Break projects into small steps so you won't feel like a failure if you don't get the whole project done. It's easier to berate yourself for one small failure. - We certainly want to make it as easy as possible to berate ourselves.

Have pot luck meals so you don't have to do all the cooking. You can always dine out every day and worry about credit card debt next year. - Nothing like running up your personal debt to help deal with stress and madness.

Then focus on making that happen for yourself. When you find yourself comparing yourself to others, remind yourself that they may look perfect but they're all probably miserable inside. - Thinking others are miserable inside always makes you feel better, doesn't it?

Besides, when you begin to feel good about being alone, everyone will call and e-mail you to make demands on your time. - Huh? How do they know when I've began to feel good about being alone?

By not spending money on other people you'll have more for yourself. The holiday season comes every year. It's fine to miss this year. - Greed as a coping mechanism. Next year you'll have no friends on whom to spend money.

Personally, I recommend switching religions as the various holidays come up. Always be a religion other than the religion of the holiday being celebrated and you have a built in excuse not to participate. If people accuse you of being crazy sue them for violating your religious rights or violating the American Disabilities Act.