Today's Tids Issue 3,176
Opening Stuff:
A lot of Rhode
Islanders are wondering why five candidates for governor are spending so
many millions to attain an office that has absolutely no power.
I see now with the
nearing of official autumn, more Kale decorating front porches. That’s
where it should be, and not on my plate. Actually putting kale out front is a marketing
promotion for the vegan movement (Pun intended). I’m going to counter that by
putting T-Bone steaks on my front porch. It’s also a great way to find a new
pet dog.
One of the great
imbalances in America is this new rush to achieve racial, gender, ethnic
social, cultural, name-your-favorite, equity. It happens in entertainment,
business, sports an especially, unfortunately, in government. Voting for the
first black woman, transgender et.al may produce warm feelings, but it’s a roll
of the dice in a table game where more than ever we should be looking for a
sure thing. The media revels in “Firsts”, when it should be guiding the electorate
to the best. This is not to say that a gender, racial, ethnic selection won’t
be the best, it’s saying don’t vote because of an affinity for a sector, or for
emotional satisfaction.
Yesterday was indeed
sports multi-tasking day, with a full slate of NFL games, Red Sox here
looking inept again, Billy Horshel looking real good taking the BMW title in
Golf’s FedEx series and Serena Willams looking unbeatable dominating her pal
Caroline Wojikowski. --The Cleveland Browns looked much better losing their 10th
straight opening day than the NE Pats looked losing their first opening day in
11 years. --If you didn’t notice, the Tids Pickum’ guys did – the upsets were
abundant. America’s team was woeful, and I have never understood the affection for
Romo. Frankly, I’m worn out after all of that action. On top of that, I think I
have arthritis in my clicker finger.
The Question:
Since 911, Firemen have been lauded disproportionately over all
professions for being brave in a dangerous profession. So I decided to look uo
to learn where they fell on the most dangerous scale. What are the most
dangerous professions, and just how dangerous is fighting fires.
The Headlines:
--Pentagon Says White House Planning Campaign To Oust ISIS
Which Could Last beyond Obama”s Term.
--Congress Returns To Work; Expect Nothing As Midterms Loom.
--Apple IPhone Losing War For China!
--Obama To Use Military to Fight Ebola.
--Western Wildfires Force Evacuation Of Yosemite
Vacationers.
--Chick-Fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy Dead At 93; he didn’t
tell raunchy Jokes..
--William And Kate Expecting baby #2.
I see where they
discovered an extra large, family sized dinosaur in South America. The
assembled bones make it about ten times larger than the T-Rex. Yikes! But, what’s really interesting is that it
roamed our earth 70 million years ago. When you look at the big picture, the
angst of today is pretty infinitesimal on the grand historical anxiety charts.
The life time worries and concerns of an 80 year old today equals 0.000148% of
all the earth transformations, population extinctions and climate changes that
have brought us to today. Things happen and things pass.
Sometimes we all get
lost trying to change the big picture. We miss simple little things that must
be in place first, in family, in neighbor hood, in community. The initial
success of great societies has always been driven from small locations, and
rotted as power bases widened.
Hillary Price on
the new romantic: “Let’s share some wine, dim the lights and dine by the glow
of our cell phones.”
A lot of people are
thinking there is something unusual about the recent mini-heat wave here.
In reality, we always have heat in September at some time. And we have a name
for it, “Redskin Summer”. Oh, wait a minute, that’s not right, it’s Indian
Summer. I wonder who our forefathers were trying to slur with that phrase.
I would vote for the
Governor who would say, “I will solve all of the problems of RI. If
elected, I will fire the General Assembly”. Obviously that is impossible to do
in a democracy, but working with that group also yields nothing. Basically the
only thing a RI Governor can do is lead the charge to declothe the assembly so
all can see the wrath they have wrought. It will work, if the newspapers would ever
print anything negative against the GA; If they would print the truth about the
only real problem in this magnificently beautiful state.
I went to a Mass for
a 50th anniversary, and expected the collection to be for their
retirement program, like a bar mitzvah for older people.
Sometimes the Monday
morning Tids is better because I listen to better music over the weekend.
Of course the word “Better” is always subjective.
I asked a pretty good,
formally competitive New England tennis player about my concerns over the
lack of US players competing successfully on the world stage. He felt, he said,
that too many talented youngsters are anointed early on by agents, professional
teachers and yes, parents, to the point where they stop working at their games.
It’s part of that entitlement thing so pervasive these days.
You may have noticed
that I often wax eloquently about a lot of classical composers, many not so
well known household names. But, as I listened to Beethoven’s Violin concerto,
I was reminded that Ludwig wasn’t so bad either.
A guy on a radio
program about to comment on a USA issue introduced himself as “A guy proud
of his Portland Oregon, NPR upbringing…” Now, I don’t like to profile or
stereotype, but my sphincter tighten in anticipation of the inaccuracies and
bias to come. Just saying.
Don’t you think
that everything in Finland should feel like “Finlandia” sounds?
The Answer:
Let’s put it this way, firefighters with 2.3
deaths/year/100K rate just above cashiers at 1.8/100K and are not I the top0.
Pizza delivery drivers, for instance are #5. Western forest fires are huge and cast a different
glow ove the profession, but that is not the usual big cty or small town
fireman. On the other hand, police are killed at the rate of 16.5/100K. The top
four are always there – Fishermen andumberman are interchangeable at the top.
The rest are Aircraft Pilots, Miners, Delivery people (Drivers, Sales workers
and Truckdrivers, Waste and refuse removers, Roofers, Structural Iron and Steel
Workers,, Farmers and ranchers, Electrical power line workers and Taxi drivers (19.7/100K). Sometimes you just have to put
the news in perspective.
It’s going to be
a great week. Make it happen!
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