Thursday, September 24, 2009

For Old Time's Sake

Kung Fu guy challenges a MMA gym. Wackyness ensues.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Sunday, September 13, 2009

My Soggy Weekend

The wife and I took a little trip to Dallas this weekend to watch the Rangers take on the Mariners. We have been Mariners fans since we watched Ichiro play in Seattle last year. There are very few players in professional sports that give 100%, 100% of the time. Even fewer in pro baseball. The long grueling schedule combined with pointless games lulls most players in to a constant state of mediocrity. Ichiro doesn't play that game. He is 100% all the time. That is why he is so much fun to watch.

We trekked down to Dallas on Friday afternoon after the wife got off of her shift. She had been up since 3pm the day before and got off her shift at 11am. Understandably, she slept the whole way. We checked in to the hotel 2 miles from the ballpark.

After a short nap we took a walk in the nice, but cloudy Dallas evening to the ballpark. Just as we got our tickets scanned, the rain stated falling. And it fell, and fell and fell. We decided to get a beer and hang out. As we sat down the new iPhones became very important. Using the Weather Channel app, we were able to check the radar to see if there was any chance of the game getting started. Two and a half hours after the time the game was supposed to start, it was announced that the game would be postponed until Sunday. No big deal, the teams would be playing Saturday, and our tickets would be honored if we exchanged them for that game.

We stood in line, in the poring rain, to get our tickets exchanged. After getting everything taken care of, we walked over to the Arlington Trolly stop. There we waited, and waited, and waited. No Trolly. More on the Trollies later.
We had no cash, we were already a little wet, I had brought some rain ponchos, and the hotel was only 2 miles away. Might as well hoof it right?

We soon were soaked nearly all the way through. Note for the future, super thin $2 ponchos do not work well for walking in wind and driving rain. We make it nearly to the hotel, wet, tired, and hungry. That is when we saw Humperdink's. A restaurant and brewery. I wanted a beer and something to eat, so I managed to convince the wife to stop in. Humperdink's never had to soggier patrons. They ushered us in to an out of the way booth.

I was a bit worried that Humperdink's would be the typical extract brewery that has become popular lately. See Granite City or BJ's Brewpub for this type of pseudo brewery. What sucks about these guys? Well, they serve fresh beer like McDonald's serves fresh hamburgers. More on that later. Anyway Humperdink's turned out to be an all grain brewery with its own brew staff at each location. Cool! The wife and I had their Big Red IPA. A nice IPA. I thought that it was a bit light on the malt, and the finishing hops gave it a bit too much acidity, but beggars can't be choosers. We got a real brewery just across the street from the hotel? Jackfreaking pot.

We finished our food and our beers and settled down for the night.

Saturday we woke to find that the rain had not stopped. We felt that we may never see Ichiro play. What do you do in Dallas when it rains? Go for sushi lunch and go shopping, of course! We hit Ichiro's favorite place in Dallas to eat sushi, Mr. Sushi. It just happens to be a few blocks from a major shopping center, the Galeriea. I kind of wanted to visit Rahar Brewing Company in Ft. Worth again, but I knew we would not have time. Next time Rahar!!

We arrived at the ballpark to find that the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. The game was ON!!!
It turns out that the season ticket holders did not show up for the game, and the ushers were not caring where you sat. We sat down two rows up from the field, right behind the players warming up to bat.
Ichiro was so close we could have spit on him. It was awesome.

Ichiro turned out to have a great game, hitting a double, then a home run. Ken Griffey Jr. helped out a little too. They played nearly a whole game before the rain returned, getting to the bottom of the ninth before calling the game on account of rain.

As the game was called, we found our trolly that was going to take us to our car, parked back at our hotel from last night.
In an epic dick move, the trolly that was supposed to take us to our hotel, decided to call it a night, despite leaving several people at the ballpark. One of the other trolly drivers, pissed off at the other driver, was nice enough to take us, and many others to our hotels. We learned on the trolly from the other driver that this particular driver has a long history of stranding people. Turns out that we an many others were left yesterday by the same driver. What an ass.

Anyway we were hungry, and well, there was Humperdink's. We stopped in again. I had their Buttface Amber. It was excellent. Very nice malt front with touches of chocolate malts in the back a good brew.

We headed back to OKC, in the rain. The wife drove, she is working nights and wanted to stay up as long as possible. This time I slept.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Health Care Speech

Obama set forth his health care goals last night. Although I do not agree with the presentation of Joe Wilson's comment, and fully condemn him for it, his meaning is correct. The President and his cronies in the House and Senate are lying to the American People. Not the kind of "lie" that you tell when you believe one thing and the evidence later proves you wrong, the real kind of lie where you know absolutely that what you are saying is a falsehood, and you say it anyway.

First some nit picking:
In the beginning of the speech the President said that the uninsured are one accident away from bankruptcy. This is idiotic. All of us are one accident, mistake, or bad decision away from bankruptcy. It is like saying that we all could die crossing the street tomorrow, or that if we do bad things a spectral entity that we can not see will punish us after we die. It is a bogeyman.

Next he mentions how we are the only advanced democracy that allows millions to go uninsured. I am absolutely sick of this statement. Especially by elected officials. To say this is to reveal that you either have no clue as to what form of government the United States Constitution set up, or you are deceiving people so that you can trick them later. We do not live in a democracy. The Founders HATED democracy. Democracy is rule by the mob. The United States Constitution created a Representative Republic. It is not mob rule it is rule by law. There is a big difference.

The President then goes in to what is "broken" with our current system, and what the left and right are thinking. The President likes to appear as a centrist, he isn't, but he likes to appear that way. The left, including the President, wants single payer, the right, myself included, wants everybody to pay their own way.

He then goes in to the two buzz words that the left loves to pull out about anything Government controlled: Stability and Security. The is the biggest bunch of hogwash there is. The Government is neither stable or secure. Nothing is. The natural state of anything is flux. There is nothing stable or secure. Government programs are subject to the whims of bureaucrats. You have zero control over your own decisions or what changes you wish to make. If you don't like it and want to get out, no dice. The Government will use force to make you comply. Try to opt out of Social Security. See how far that gets you. Health care, same way.

He then starts to outline how the new "reform" will force private insurance companies, who need to make a profit to keep going, to get out of the health insurance business. No caps on what an insurance company will pay. Guaranteed coverage despite pre-existing conditions. Forcing insurance companies to pay for routine medical visits, procedures, and tests.
These things will bankrupt the insurance companies, or make it so expensive that only the richest of Americans can afford it. Everybody else... public option.

He mentions that his plan will not insure illegal aliens. This is sort of true, but mostly a deception. It is against the law for health care workers to ask if the people they are treating are residents of this country. They get treated everywhere, and anyway. Most of the patents that my wife treats now are illegals. All get 100% free treatment care of the American Taxpayer. This will not change, so the illegals will not get insurance, but they don't care because they get free treatment anyway.

Then we get a little deception about insurance competition in states. The President says how in most states fewer than 5 insurance companies provide coverage. This is bit of smoke and mirrors. Mr. Obama fails to mention that it is because of government regulation that insurance companies do not cover people in those states. It is too expensive. The future? They hope so.

He then talks about how he will pay for the plan, with out talking about how he will pay for the plan. The simple fact is that the plan will bankrupt the country. Taxes will have to be raised on all those paying taxes, less than half of the population now.

All of the debate can be boiled down in to a few simple facts:
No government controlled health care system on the planet has not rationed care. Care is not rationed now.

Government intervention has contributed greatly to the increase in health care costs.

Any of the proposed reform bills will increase costs to the taxpayers exponentially.


That is it and that is all. You want to reform health insurance? Promote health insurance the way it was meant to be. Just like your car insurance. My insurance does not pay for an oil change, a tire rotation, or a break job. Why should my health insurance? High deductible insurance with a Health Savings Plan is the the way to go. I pay for everything under $2000. The insurance company pays for the rest.

Reform torts. A loser pays system solves most of the idiotic malpractice suits that your health care professionals spend ridiculous amounts of money on, thus reducing overall costs.

Government is not the answer.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

I Finally Found Something Good About Living In Oklahoma

My senators kick ass.



Take it!!
Excellent argument presented by Senator Coburn, countered by "We got to take care of people." Awesome.

I say it is excellent, because he said exactly what I would have said to her.

It was such a beat down, that now I am starting to wonder if this lady wasn't a plant put there by the Senator's staff so that Dr. Coburn could smack her down... Hummmmm Okies are tricky. Damn reverses....

Tuesday, September 1, 2009