As I went to an orthopedic group of some 30 doctors, replete with physical therapy, operating suites and a pharmacy I was literally blown away. At the number of people and the extent of treatment.

I went to see a friend who was in intensive care with some sort of liver disease. The unit was packed with poor souls trying to get back to life but for so many the route was one way. I began to think of the hundreds and thousands of doctor’s offices, ICU’s, operating rooms, therapy practices and medical suppliers all throughout this country.

Maybe it is my stage in life but it really is overwhelming. As I talked with my doc friend, I put forth that there has to be a finite amount of money we are going to spend on medicine. We can’t let it get to 25% of GDP from it’s present 15%. Which dwarfs the 6% we spend on the military today. We just can’t! It ain’t free! He agreed.

I imagine the same has been noted in the past for the military industrial complex. We have made the whole process of healing people a profit center. Okay boys and girls we have to show growth. We have to increase share price. Keep those people alive at any cost.

The war on disease is no different than our wars on other nations. We use weaponry of a different sort but damn the torpedoes and who gives a crap what it cost. We are talking human lives here. Just like national defense.

Yet I am struck by the fact that we save someone’s life late in life but that creates a myriad of problems that have to be corrected by a totally different subset of specialists. And on and on. Then lucky you will be able to spend years in a facility that will keep you living at any cost.

Am I harsh? Maybe. But is it harshness or pragmatism? I don’t want to die. At least not just yet. But there is a progression in life. It starts the day you were born. When we get to the point of being able to cure most anything I get scared. For myself as a human being and for my kids and grandkids who are going to wind up paying this bill.

It is interesting that we have waged war in Afghanistan and Iraq to the tune of $1Trillion. We have never had a raise in taxes to pay for it. In our war on disease we have never paid for it either. We are now saying bring our troops home. Maybe we should think about how far we have come in medicine and contemplate if it is time to slow down and see how we can pay for further gains.

Boeing and Northrop and Raytheon are up today. So is Pfizer, Healthsouth, St Jude Medical and Baxter. Somehow something doesn’t seem quite right. On one end it is feeding our IRAS but at the other end it is eating our lunch.

As Always

Ted The Great

Fact Thought: A person proposed a unique approach this week for those who are at odds in a discussion. Let’s just say I am a conservative and you are a liberal.

Before we start any arguing I have to spend twenty minutes telling you what you are saying about liberalism. Then conversely you take twenty minutes telling me what I am putting forth about conservatism. Now that we have that settled, let’s talk

If you can stand it here is a similar piece I wrote awhile back. Similar but at least we can get it out of the way and get me off my soap box.

Why Are We So Afraid To Die?

My daughter, who to some is the queen of the computer keyboard and I Phone, called the other day and said it was finally freaking her out.

She writes a daily blog, follows the news and stock market. She looks up MLS for her real estate business. She scans suppliers for her decorating clients. She has hit information overload.

To put Megan over the top takes a lot. I began to ponder. We all check our email. Might run a spreadsheet or write a proposal and then it hits high gear. Texting, Twitter, Facebook. We are socially networked. I wish it felt better.

I heard the anorexic Steve Jobs relate his latest tale of wizardry, cloud computing. A breathless wag said he only gets off his deathbed for things he feels strongly about. TMI

With the I Cloud you are no longer bound by device. You can access information from your cloud by phone, computer or Ipad.

It’s all there in front of you. 24/7. I was especially taken by the proposed usage. You can keep your music library in it. That’s the big deal.

You remember the promise at the onset of PC’s many moons ago. They were going to enable us to do things quickly and therefore have more time to ourselves. Do you know anyone who now has more time to themselves than five, ten, twenty years ago?

Just for a moment imagine the amount of texting among the teen set. Some average 150-250 texts a day. At home late at night. In class. In the car. At the dinner table. It’s just those crazy kids. Guess again.

For the adult crowd, go into a Starbucks, fancy restaurant, locker room, golf course, bar or super market. It’s everywhere. Talk to someone and the telltale buzz occurs. He or she keeps looking at you but you know they really want to see who is tweeting. Go ahead. Answer it. It has to be more important than talking to me.

Players now tweet from the game floor or the dugout. They and other entertainment stars now tell you what had for breakfast, how their digestive tract is working and how their love life or lack thereof is going. And how about Anthony Weiner ? I won’t go there.

We are now on call 24/7. You get called on the weekend. Late at night. This is important… not really. There used to be a thing called spare time but that is a thing of the past. Sorry honey, I have to take this. Then if you don’t get a response momentarily, where the hell have you been?

The scariest part of this whole thing is the power that can be corrupted. Just think that 9/11 was planned over the internet. Let’s say there are 20-25,000 Al Quaeda who have waged a terror war against the entire world. Regimes have been overthrown. Battles planned. All from their Blackberry or I Phone.

We have spent over a trillion dollars and untold numbers of our own because of this. I am not castigating Jobs or Bill Gates but be careful what you wish for. I fear it will only get scarier with hacking. When power is so easy to access, we have got a problem.

Yes we have to keep up. But I really wish so much of the time wasn’t spent on spurious endeavors. I wish the time we spend playing games could have just a small part of it learning of the world’s problems and how we might solve them.

Weiner and Ensign and Spitzer and Edwards were supposed to be knee deep in the affairs of state..no play on words. How come they have all this spare time to follow their dalliances electronically rather that the deficit? Maybe there is a whole new deficit?

I actually love technology. My children and many of yours use it quite efficiently. Many earn their living at it. I don’t text. How the hell could I ponder if I did all that? My limited brain capacity can only handle so much. But I get it.

I am going to go out on the front porch now with my vodka and tonic. I might have a cigar. I will read the paper. I will engage my neighbors and friends face to face. Probably old fashioned but somehow that is just the right amount of information for me.

As always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Emails Worldwide…

107 trillion– The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010.

294 billion– Average number of email messages per day.

1.88 billion– The number of email users worldwide

89.1%– The share of emails that were spam.

262 billion– The number of spam emails per day (assuming 89% are spam).

Text Messaging US

 Teens in the US average 3349 text messages per month.

Over 5 billion text messages are sent in the US daily.That is in addition to emails.

Kathy is leaving me! I have injured my arm pretty badly and can’t play golf for another week or two. Either I go somewhere else for the daylight hours or she will. So being a wimp, I am on my way to one of my favorite haunts, Barnes and Noble.

Armed with a Venti coffee, I am now wandering around the pay as you go library and my first stop is the magazine rack. Sorry TTG, Playboy is all wrapped in plastic. There is actually some sense of order to the rack that goes from houses to sports to food to your body beautiful.

We have Self, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and good old Cosmopolitan for the vain. Splashed with lurid covers, I can learn how to “Make Your Move.” There are “Twenty Five Things that Will Drive him Wild”. Note to self. Make sure I get that for Kathy. Whew, it’s getting hot in here.

Now to the sports area, where it used to be just Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News and Golf magazine. Now we have Outdoors where you can have the most challenging hikes you never knew. Powder shows you how to jump off cliffs and kill yourself. And Backpacking asks if you are really a man you will take a forty day trek with a 70 pound pack?

Finance has the siren’s call of Money, Kiplingers and Mutual Fund magazine. All will turn your IRA of $25,000 into a million overnight. Trust me.

Ah, the fashionistas. Throw out everything from last year. Since you didn’t keep what you wore five years ago or you missed the latest, don’t worry it is coming around again. Whether it is women or men, if we looked like those models I wouldn’t be writing a blog and you wouldn’t be reading it. The underlying theme of all this is that the celebrities or at least their handlers are going to make you light years better.

Several years ago I was working on a project tp put a positive spin on mental illness. I hired a couple of advertising people for the afternoon. They asked me what were the symptoms of depression? I said the major one was a lack of self esteem. All conversation stopped.

The Mad Avenue boys said, “we have a problem”. They related that their whole purpose in life was to show people how inadequate they are. They constantly barraged you with a lack of self esteem. I started to watch the TV ads for more hidden messages. They weren’t subtle. They were Mack trucks. You stink!!

Pondering as I may, I thought about all the visible and audible messages we get every day.The news. Dr. Phil. The Greatest Loser. Talk show hosts from Rush to Chris Matthews. As for those two, I listened to both one day for an hour and not one positive thought or concept was conveyed by either. We get barraged every day. All day long. Negative. Negative. Negative.

Don’t you get it? Your life is horrible. If you don’t listen to me, vote for me, look like me, think like me, dress like me, or pray with me, your life is over. Finis!

Take golf, which I can only talk about while I am nursing my wounds. We beat each other into the ground. We take lessons. We buy the latest equipment. We still don’t get much better. And then what do we do?. We go out and play the hardest golf course we can find. Ted, do you know how cool it was to play Bandon Dunes in 45 degree temperatures and 50 knot winds? Go ahead. Tell me.

The Cordillera Valley course was designed by Tom Fazio. He is renowned for building “playable” golf courses. I played one hole on the official opening day with  Tom, President Ford, Gary McCord, and Dave Pelz.

Going down the fairway with a gorgeous view of the Gore Range beyond, I said, “Tom. You have no idea how much fun people are having playing this course.” He replied. “Ted. Isn’t that the idea?”

Life isn’t as bad as we make it out to be. We listen to too many authorities and fail to rely on our own instincts. Look around at what you have physically as well as spiritually. It’s much more than you need. Be honest but don‘t beat yourself up. Be glad you don’t live in Tripoli or Calcutt

Life doesn’t suck. It couldn’t be better.

As Always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Lifshitz…and his first shirts had toilets on them instead of ponies.                There are 400,000 parasites and twenty five types of bacteria exchanged in one French kiss. Isn’t it romantic?          400,000 houses in the US do not have indoor plumbing. I love nature.            It is estimated that .7% of the world is drunk at any given point in time. Hoc est hic.                There are 100 billion neurons in the average brain. How many did you kill over the long weekend?…….I GOTTA GET BACK TO GOLF SOON !

I love young people. I love to talk with them and hear of their exploits. Their dreams. Their frustrations. I try not to get “well in my day” with them. Their day and my day are not the same.

This older generation has done well. We have made money and built empires to be admired…sort of. Some of us are retiring with grace and new ambitions. Some are just retiring.

The “Royal Marriage” was really enjoyable in spots. I had the feeling they were really quite normal in their own way. Or as much as they could be. I couldn’t help but compare them to Charles, Camilla and the Queen Bee. The younger set was relaxed, open and not too staged. Not full of themselves.

The young people of today seem somewhat determined to do it their way. Maybe not 80 hour weeks. Maybe not time away from the family. Maybe not the big house and fast cars. Maybe, just maybe, it is for the better.

Kathy and I went to a couple of cocktail parties over Christmas. Just neighbors. But what a treasure trove of young people and ideas.

There was a young man who was getting his doctorate in biomedical engineering from MIT. We had a lot in common. Right! Then there was a young lady who was working for a non profit in DC trying to foster woman’s entrepenuership in Africa.

There was a student at Oxford studying journalism, who had recently attended the London School of Economics and wrote for the Economist. How about a lad attending the War College who hoped to go on to either the Navy or FBI ? His sister was doing a semester in Kenya and Tanzania while studying Swahili.

Just local folk. Yes, most of the time I just asked questions and listened. None of them talked of the stock market. Somehow their golf game was never part of the equation. They were on fire and I loved it.

My daughter Lindsey gave birth to her second child a short while ago. All of the grandkids came over for Padge’s birthday. You wonder what the world will be like for them? At first I was concerned my kids would not have the wealth and lifestyle we enjoy. Then I thought, maybe they don’t want it.

Denver is sheltered nicely in the Rockies just far enough away from the East and Left Coast. An old friend and I were talking at lunch a few weeks ago. The nice part of our fair city is you don’t need a pedigree. Who cares where you went to school? Just put your nose to the grind stone. Then we will find out who you are.

I think that is the great part of today. Kids are asking why rather than falling into lockstep on the path to success. Are they futzing with a time honored formula? You bet they are. They are even inventing new ones.

I enjoy the “Young Guns” in Congress. Ryan, Cantor, McCarthy. I don’t care about their ideology. They are at least willing to try to get things done. At this point in our history we need statespeople. We need leaders to make tough decisions. We need to meet our problems head on. Us old farts aren’t very good at that. We study it and will get back to you later.

Look at Libya, Egypt, Baharain, Syria. Sure it is economic at its base. But it is also the next generation saying “we are not going along with the old way of thinking.” There has got to be a better way. They are willing to die for it. I couldn’t agree more.

As a junior at Georgetown I was working for the summer at the Hotel Corp. Of America. They owned the Plaza and it was headquarters for sales and reservations. After answering phones for a week, my boss and great friend Jack Neumann called from Boston. He asked how things were going? Okay, I said but I thought there could be changes for the better in reservations.

He had me fly to Boston that weekend with my ideas. On Sunday afternoon he put me on the plane and said “Do it!” Flabbergasted and an little unsure, I did. And it worked out great. He gave me enough rope to hang myself or make myself. I will never forget that.

As we celebrate OSL moving on, I have to think again of young people. I lost relatives, friends and business associates in 9/11. Twenty one in all. I had given three of them their first hires on Wall Street. Most of them were just young aspiring traders, dads and husbands. It is not only a tragedy of life but also the world. Lives simply unfulfilled.

To the young of our fair nation and globe, I say Go for it! To the powers that be I say, move over. You’ve done your thing. Give them a chance. It is time for some fresh ideas. They will do just fine.

As always,

Ted The Great

Factoid: Women are 49.76% of the world population. There are 250,000,000 more men in China than women. Women are almost 60% of the current college ranks. I will let you form your own conclusions.

Well Saturday is the day. The end of the world as we know it. The will be a massive earthquake and that is it. Or so they say. There is another theory that there will be the Rapture and only the good guys and gals will be taken up to heaven. I wonder if Usama and all those virgins will be there.

For those of us either left behind or doomed, I want to raise a bit of uncertainty. Let’s climb aboard your space shuttle or late model UFO and take a look at this blue marble from afar. My question is one of sustainability.

It is not hidden in a gospel verse, Nostradamus or the stars. It is called plain old pragmatism. Not tree hugging nor fire and brimstone. Just reality. To sustain life as we know it we need water, food and energy. There is just one tiny little problem. It’s us.

Right now give or take a few million we have 6.5 billion members of the little club we call civilization. By the year 2050 we will have 10 billion. To put that in perspective it is like we are adding the total population of Europe, North and South America combined to this place we call home.

This isn’t Al Gore speaking but a naturalist by the name of David Attenborough. He seems like a sensible chap and did not come across as an alarmist but a scientist. We will have an additional 100 million in the US of A alone. Russia and parts of Europe will actually lose people. The greatest growth will come from undeveloped countries.

How to feed them ? Right now probably a third of the planet is hurting for nourishment. Up to now we have made a lot out of a relatively small amount of arable land. Crop management and fertilizers have done a great deal for our productivity. However what if all the 1.5 billion Chinese decided to have an egg tomorrow morning? Buy futures.

The real problem is water which of course is the building block of food and life. Of all the water in the world only 2 1/2% is potable. Of that we only have access to about one percent with the rest being at the poles and in glaciers. The devil is in the details.

You see it takes 120 liters of water to create one cup of coffee. 150 for a glass of beer. A hamburger comes in at a whopping 8000 liters when it gets to your plate and a cotton shirt 3000. I am not suggesting we swear off booze or red meat but we really do have to realize the consequences of our actions. I think about your and my lawn, golf course, natural gas wells, manufacturing etc. Extra long showers? Hard to think of this with the Mississippi raging.

By 2050 our energy needs will grow by 40%. Right now the world consumes 85 million barrels per day. We can drill, baby drill but something has got to give. Let’s face it. We are living beyond the means of our environment. Again this is not global warming but just the way we are devouring our resources.

Guess who is leading the parade? They did a study of consumption of food, water and fuel the world over. Let’s try to figure out how many people we can sustain on our planet? If we all lived like sub Saharan Africa we could support the ten billion ahead with no problem. If we consumed at the rate of the United States does today we could handle 1.5 billion. Oops.

Okay you say, the hell with the rest of the world. Nice thought but it really doesn’t work. At the face of things, as human beings we are the only phylum of living things that can really affect our destiny and that of all the others.

Boy, TTG you are really a bummer. Sorry about that. Not just the US but the rest of the world seems to lack strategic planning. Tactical yes to get through the next ten- twenty years or the next raise of the debt ceiling. But taking a look at all we have and managing it properly is going to take a lot of serious thought and symbiosis.

We need to reduce consumption of foodstuffs and energy. We have to throw all the technical know how we have into sustaining our planet and not worry about the latest download. We have to get great minds addressing this rather than the next LBO or quarterly report. We really do have to stop the rate of population growth. Yes, Catholics worldwide, that means us too.

Once again this is not the fervor of this or that crusader. It is one who is looking at the numbers and they don’t lie. What it is going to take is people, towns, states and countries really coming together. I am fascinated that in watching this special on PBS, TTG (who reads a lot) has never seen this problem presented in such a forthright fashion. Maybe you already knew.

Believe me I would love to hear some thoughts to the contrary. Please tell me I am wrong. Let’s stop patting ourselves on the back and saying how great we are. As a planet we may someday be looking back and saying what could have been. There is still time brother and sister, but it really is running out.

See you next week if we are all still here.

As Always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Las Vegas uses approx. 7,000 megawatts of electricity on an average summer day. The “Strip” uses 20% of that or approx. 1,400 megawatts. That is the output of a large coal fired or medium sized nuclear power plant. Turn out the lights after you flush.

We have had the same amount of water on earth since the start. From condensation to evaporation the total stays constant.

Roughly 30% of food produced in the US is thrown away as waste or spoilage.

As many of you know I have battled depression for over twenty years. I have written about it. I have made speeches on it. I have even gone on TV and radio. Can you imagine someone sticking a mike in front of me to talk about something I am passionate about? We have all survived.

I am in great company. Mike Wallace. Dick Cavett. Winston Churchill. Abraham Lincoln. Catherine Zeta Jones. Olivia Newton John, J.K. Rowling. Buzz Aldrin. Harrison Ford. Princess Diana. Billy Joel. Feel better?

If you haven’t had it, it is extremely difficult to imagine. It’s a feeling that sneaks up on you and takes hold. It’s a darkness. It is a freefalling. It is a hole that you can’t see your way out of.

I was extremely fortunate. As bad as I felt, I knew I needed help. I met with a cognitive therapist. You don’t tear apart your past but figure out where the hell you are right now. You realize your erroneous thinking and correct it. You don’t wallow in self pity. You work harder than you ever have before.

Depression is caused by one of four things. 1.)A particular situation or event like the death of a loved one or loss of a job. 2.)Your environment which may consist of abuse or untenable situations. 3.)A chemical imbalance. 4.)Lastly is heredity.

Depression’s main symptom is a lack of self esteem. It manifests itself in many ways. You may overachieve. Perfectionism is right up there. You can never be lovable. You may procrastinate because you are so afraid of failing. You may not want to participate. You brag. You lie. You live in a fantasy world of sorts. Whatever happens, it is someone else’s fault.

You try to escape reality, because reality sucks. You drink. You do drugs. You overeat. You are promiscuous. You look for a place or a moment where you can feel good about your self. You try anything you can to look self important from yelling at a waiter to pronouncing, “Do you know who I am? It doesn’t work. And all the time you sink lower and lower.

Roughly 35 million Americans are afflicted with depression. It is called the common cold of mental health. Sadly only 15-20% of those people seek help. We could help 90% of them. Why? That crazy thing called self esteem again. I don’t want to be called weird. I don’t want to be labeled crazy. (At least not all the time.)

As I said, I have been beyond fortunate. I have a wife who really doesn’t understand it but accepts me for it. She’s there to gently chide me if I get out of whack. It has happened but not often. I know how to get it right. My kids and friends have shown me no ill. It is part of who I am.

The reason why I have spoken out in the past and I am now, is to let a lot of you out there know that it is okay. You are simply not alone. You know if I had cancer, you would reach out and say how can I help? If I had diabetes you would say make sure you take your insulin. This shouldn’t be any different. I hope if you have heard this before, you realize it is a never ending battle I wage to have this disease gain some sort of acceptance.

There is this thing called stigma. If I am a husband, a dad, a senior VP, a club member, how can I ever own up to this blot on my persona? If I am a mom, a teen or just a friend, I can never let anyone know my dark secret. My self esteem you know.

Think about our world today. We are bombarded non stop with who you should be. Internet, TV, Twitter and Facebook set up unrealistic images of the world as a fantasy that can‘t come true. I truly fear that in years to come we will see an epidemic of depression, especially among our young people.

Now for the good part. I am an absolute believer in the resilience of man….and of course woman. In all my years of talking and dealing with depression I have never seen a hopeless case. Have there been tragedies? Of course. There are obstacles. But they mainly deal within the individual and their willingness to accept the situation and move forward.

I hope you don’t mind the soapbox here. I wrote this to open discussion if needed. With me, a loved one, a doc. Anyone. If nothing more just be aware of depression and those around you. Life is good and you deserve your share of it.

As always

Ted the Great

Factoid:

Deaths by Murder. 14,000…How much do we spend on preventing it?

Deaths by car accidents. 34,000…How much do we spend on safety?

Deaths by suicide. 35,000… 500,000 attempts. We don’t spend much at all.

I received a phone call from my nephew last night. I was in a training class so he left a message. He just wanted to see what I was thinking with the announcement of OSL? If it brought back memories? It did. Good ones.

We used to operate our Swift Boats on a pretty regular basis in the rivers of South Viet Nam with the USN SEALS. They were in a word, NUTS and you had to love them for it. They would dream up some crazy scheme and we were crazy enough to go along with it.

One night we took one of the boys as far down the canal as we could get without totally running out of room for a quick turnaround. He was suited up in black pajamas and makeup so he looked just like one of the enemy. We pushed his sampan over the side and off he went into the night.

He floated further down the canal and got out at a village. He sat around the campfire and spoke fluent Vietnamese until he determined which one of the gang was his target. After a time the party broke up. He went about the business of eliminating said target with piano wire. Finis!

An hour later he returned to the boat. The dawn was just breaking on a Sunday morning. We were scooting across a placid calm bay on our way back to Sea Float. The Seal took a swig of something more than orange juice. He offered me a shot from his flask and I passed.“No thanks Chief. I’m driving.”

Two thoughts ran through my mind. One is that he had just greased some unsuspecting dude. Second was what in God’s name was the civilian outlet for this guy? I didn’t quite see him as an investment banker but then again maybe his training would come in handy on Wall Street today.

The funny side of SEALS was always evident. I went over to have a beer with them one time and they told me I should really see this guy’s wine cellar. When a SEAL suggested something you usually did it if nothing more than to humor them. A wine cellar seemed a little far fetched.

So I entered what was really a small closet. I heard the door slam behind me. They told me to check the merlots on the second shelf. They happened to be right next to a coiled up boa constrictor. You see they used to keep the snake in a 30 foot long cage outside the SEAL hootch. Along with a duck at one end. Whenever they heard the duck quacking a lot, they knew the snake was hungry. They would feed him a couple of rats. Elementary, my dear Watson.

After announcing that if they didn’t open the door I was coming through it, they relented. First mistake was going in the closet. Second mistake was drinking with them. No chance.

The SEALS were just part of our riverine forces. There were some other guys that drove Zippos. They were an armor clad long range cigarette lighter that floated. One blast from the turret and the countryside took on a distinctly burnt umber hue. You think I am the crazy one?

I am not trying to get into war stories. But I do want to tell you a little of these marvelous warriors that have been looking out for us all these years. Memories get hazy but we were just a small part of such a bigger force. I am not a hawk and would rather none of our sons and daughters had to carry arms in war.

I really feel anything we did, paled not only to the current special forces but ditto for the marines, blackshoes and groundpounders of today. What they did on Sunday was beyond phenomenal. What these poor devils have had to put up with for the last ten years is beyond the call of duty.

A few years ago a friend had a group of injured vets out to his farm for a weekend. They were straight from Walter Reed. Broken in oh so many ways. They were missing arms and legs. Parts of their brains and psyche had been left on foreign soil. Some had their wives and kids.

I went to as many as I could, to just ask them if they needed anything. I was wearing a Navy sweatshirt. They asked if I had been in the service and what I had done. Then each one floored me. To a man they thanked me for my service. I was speechless.

These men and women are so special and have given so much. Just think about that before we growl so quickly “let’s get them suckers” and “F___ Osama”. I love to wave the flag but I am also so cognizant about what incredible labors we ask these people to do.

Next time you are at a game and the jets scream over or the honor guard brings out the colors, for a moment just salute and say a prayer. God Bless Them All. Every last one of them. Thanks for listening. Thanks Jimmy…. for asking.

As Always

Ted The Great

Factoid:

US Dead

Civil War…625,000

WWI….116,516

WWII…405,399

Korea…53,686

Viet Nam..58,209

Iraq….4430

Afghanistan..1413

Some people ask why I write. There are a variety of reasons. I really do like to ponder. I like to look at possibilities. I like to have dreams. I like to cry. It helps me to feel human. Most of all I just love to communicate.

A golf pro once said it is not the outcome but the process. I guess that has been said a number of different ways. I have fallen in to the deep dark caves of the past and the future. I have rued misdeeds and wasted moments. Sometimes I have focused so much on the future, I have forgotten the present.

I try to make sense of our world. I try to understand people and situations. On my own little scoreboard I don’t look for genius or brilliance. I just look for those that are more often right than wrong. I treasure any one who can open up to me or others. I am constantly mystified by the potential of man…and woman.

I wish I knew how to play an instrument. Notes and chords get to my soul. I am tickled by a fabulous singer but sometimes more so by the arrangement of the conductor. I love a big band. A jazz piano. If I am in the car and hear Bob Seger or Fleetwood Mac, I turn it up so the windows vibrate.

I wish I knew how to paint. My daughter Lindsey is a marvelous painter. She sits down and just lets loose. Sometimes I say why don’t you paint this or that and she gives me the look…and it ain’t good.

I now have Buddha Board on my desk compliments of my daughter in law, Dionne. You have a brush and water and just paint. When the water evaporates you have a clean slate once again. It’s kind of like a Rorshach test that disappears. Good thing.

I wish I could tell you how I am going to spend my day. I envy my buddies that have so much to do that they plan weeks and months ahead. I plan by the hour. There is an air of adventure as I sometimes just take off without a clue where my wanderings will take me. Creative or clueless? Your choice.

I really enjoy cruising on a ship. When Kath and I took our first one the over/under on me lasting on the one week cruise was not good. Actually it was a pretty big ship and if you couldn’t keep your mind busy, you didn’t have one.

I like to take a problem and find a solution. I break things down into small parts. The dilemma is a lot easier to attack that way. I can usually come up with something, no matter how hairbrained it is. I write on the politics of our nation because the inanity is so evident.

My main problem is following through. I used to have a book, “50 Great Ideas I Haven’t Done Squat About”. I think I lost that too. Oh well, I must have some sort of strange disease I can blame it on.

I wish in some ways I had been a teacher. I love young people. I would probably be an easy A. There would be more BS than substance but then again isn’t that what life is all about. I would be asking more questions of them than they would of me.

I truly enjoy public speaking. If I am on my game I really get the crowd to listen. I try to show my emotion and soul to help them as they search for theirs. I have spoken on depression. I have spoken on God. I have spoken on life. On death. I am pretty good at eulogies, so feel free to sign me up.

When I write I like to tell you sometimes of my world as I have done above. I try to put a little bit of myself on my paper. Once again not to lecture but to share. I hope it hit’s a deep emotion or a random thought within you. I hope it is just like we are talking together.

Looking at the previous part of this message I guess I do fancy myself a musician. An artist. A teacher. A wanderer. Maybe an inventor. Maybe a philosopher. A singer of sorts. Maybe my way of song is writing.

Carpe Diem. Be in the moment. Build your Bucket List, no matter how young or old you are. Take a flyer. Just goof off. Act zany. Sing in the shower. Life’s too short. Maybe I will see you along the way. Talk to you soon.

As always

Ted The Great

There. I got your attention. It’s Monday as of this writing and I have gone through the Sunday papers and viewed most of the Sunday panel shows. Some of my thoughts might be plagiarized because I found several pearls of wisdom regarding our financial mess. Mainly is the fact we are at least talking about it.

The answer is not totally Ryan. It is not totally Obama. If you think we can get through this without raising taxes you are naïve. If you feel that we should not touch Medicare and Social Security, you are drinking the Kool Aid. Both have to happen not ten or twenty years from now. We is here already.

The new game in DC is to explain the bad news in percentage of GDP rather than in trillions of dollars. We don’t want to scare people. So I will give it to you as such. We take in tax revenues of 15% of GDP. We spend 20% of GDP. The difference is 5% of GDP that we are down. For the less astute like me, that means we take in $4.5 trillion. We spend a little over $6 trillion. Ergo the deficit is approximately $1.5 trillion per year. Duh!

What Ryan did do was put a concept on the table. He wants us to rethink the government’s contract with America. Agree or disagree we have to have that conversation. The citizens of Rome want to have the government do everything but we don’t want to pay for it. A recent poll says 78% percent of us do not want us to touch Medicare to balance the budget. A rather bizarre response but so be it.

Medicare is the main culprit. It was a well meaning program at the start. But that was in 1965. Just for a moment consider the time when a lot of us were coming out of college or the service. Think about how the state of medicine has progressed since then…and of course the cost too. Diagnostics, surgery, heart transplants, knee and hip replacements. The specialties the docs are in today probably did not exist. We made a lot of promises we can’t keep.

With regard to Social Security System, first established in the thirties, our actuarial tables couldn’t have foreseen the post war baby boom much less advances in science. It was really a program for widows and orphans. There was no thought of means testing because prior to the nineties there were very few who were mega rich. We promised again.

The last piece to the puzzle was the prescription drug bill signed into law in 2003. Forget about the merits or execution. We have seen the use of prescription drugs jump almost 100% since then, There are three to four ads every hour plugging this or that. You go to the local practitioner demanding this brand or that and he doesn’t want to say no, even though an older, less expensive one would work just fine. Promises. Promises.

We need our president and members of Congress to get up and tell it like it is. Get Ross Perot to resurrect his charts. We need them not to worry about getting elected but to make business decisions. This cannot be a politics. This freshman class seems to have come from private business rather than the party ranks. We really should listen to what they have to say.

I watched the pundits from all sides. The Dems will trot out the poor and suffering of our country. Not because they feel that way but because it tugs at heartstrings. Who could be against motherhood and apple pie? The Republicans are rallying around Tea Party. Cut all taxes. Do away with every branch of the government. The country as a whole watches in disgust. 15% of Americans have a positive view of our legislative branch. 15%

The bottom line is this. If you want these programs such as Medicare and social Security, you have to pay for them . If you don’t, then take the medicine and pay for it yourselves. Either way we have to do away with the tax cuts for everyone. One reporter said at least we should start with the rich. I say everyone has to be in this. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

On either side please get off your high horse and think about it in an adult way. Not your best interests but the country’s. I say that in all sincerity. Politicians have got to shoot straight. Forget the platitudes and sound bites. Forget about all the backroom BS and come out and lay it on the line. If I hear one more posturing statement I am going to throw up.

A good friend considers my blog diatribes. I hope not because right now they are prayers. There was a highly informative 20 minute interview with former Secretaries of the Treasury, Bob Rubin and Paul O’Neill. Ostensibly a Democrat and a Republican. They should put the whole interview on the evening news rather than the “Wedding.” It was not combative but two guys who had been there, exchanging ideas…and yes agreeing on a lot of things. We need more.

Well I will sign off now. I hope this reaches the ears of Harry Reid and five other senators from both parties who saw fit to go to China on a ten day junket with one of the spots being Macao, the gambling capital of the world. I hope it gets to Congress who is on a two week Easter break. They need it because Congress has met 40 of the first 80 business days of the year. What a workload! Kind of like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

As always

Ted The Great

Factoid:

Medical Costs

Heart Transplant..$790,000

Lung Transplant …one $450,000 two $655,000

Liver Transplant…$523,000

Kidney….$259,000

Knee Replacement…$40-50,000

Hip Replacement….$50-60,000

Dialysis….$90-100,000 per year

Stents…$15-20,000 per

Bypass Surgery…$125,000

Approximately 75 million Baby Boomers

Once upon a time there was a faraway land named Plenty. The kingdom stretched far and wide from sea to sea. The inhabitants were hard working souls with a king named Sam. King Sam lived for many hundreds of years.

He was so old that he let others be king for awhile. Usually for four or eight years. He even hoped some day there would be a queen. He was there for PR only and posed for pictures and posters and walking in parades. Some temp kings were great and some were real bad. Some even forgot they were temporary and thought they really were the king.

The land was of particular beauty and diversity. There were shires and townships but everyone thought their future lay in being part of the kingdom. Even so, many of the local princes tried to strut their stuff in hopes that some day King Sam would pick them as temp king. No matter what, each one thought he could do a better job.

Everyone sent some of their wealth to the king and the king in return made sure the roads were in good shape and the people were defended from foreign powers. Actually it wasn’t that hard because Plenty was bounded on three sides by water. If they stayed home everything would be fine but they were adventurous and proud. Soon they strayed where they didn’t belong. Bravado overtook brains.

The real source of wealth was the golden goose they kept in a secret hiding place inside the palace walls. The goose was tended to by Sir Paul, Sir Alan and Sir Ben from time to time. They tried to make sure it was not starved or overfed. Many times it looked like a goner but was nursed back to health. It’s not doing too well right now.

The walls not only kept people out but the denizens in. It was actually quite wonderful because inside the walls every thing was hunky dory and you had no idea what was going on outside. There were all sorts of strange characters. Sometimes you really wondered how they became knights and ladies.

There was Sir John who always looked tan and never a hair out of place. Yet he didn’t come from a sunny part of the kingdom. There was Sir Mitch who did nothing but tell stories in the Ye Olde Cracker Barrel store. Sir Harry had an amusement park. One of the thrill centers was a roller coaster named Yucca Mountain. He took everyone for a ride on that one.

On occasion, Sir Harry, John and Mitch often did their best impersonation of the Three Stooges to the absolute delight of the courtesans. Lady Michelle of St Paul was locked in the tower several times for bouts of mania and delusion. She was always visited by Sheena Palin who really thought she was Queen of the Jungle.

There of course was an evil witch in the person of Lady Nancy. Her plastic smile was a thing to behold. She could sing the kingdom‘s anthem without ever moving a facial muscle. At one point, if the king and two knights died, she would have been queen. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Oh well, she is still plotting, although very much out of favor.

Sir Chuck of Shumer just babbles and no one listens. Sir Paul of Wisconsin is very smart…maybe too smart. He was always the kid who had all the answers in grammar school. Couldn’t tell him a thing.

One day greed and jealousy infected the kingdom.(Cue the creepy organ music)Enter the Lloyd of Blankfein. He was joined by Jamie of Morgan and Dick of Fuld. They had it in their mind to screw everyone one out of their money while using the golden goose to finance their every desire.

When it was all over only Lord Dick was beheaded. Jamie and Lloyd had pulled their caper. They split their spoils while claiming they had nothing to do with the disaster that struck the kingdom. But it was too late.

You see every one got too fat. They stopped working and relied on the king for everything. They bought many things and Jamie and friends were only too happy to take their money and even lend exorbitant amounts when these people had nothing. Eat. drink and be merry was the cry throughout the hills.

Now we had problems. Everyone forgot how to work. The old folks wanted everything at the expense of the youth. They were frail and moribund. They wanted to be saved at all cost. The golden goose was deathly ill. Worse yet the roads were in shambles. Bridges were out. The gate to the palace was in great disrepair. The moat stunk to high heaven. There was strife everywhere.

The wannabe temp king said “Let me in King Sam. I will change everything”. He was young and dashing. He had visions that turned out to be dark clouds. He let everyone down by just doing the same old things. Money couldn’t solve this mess. He and the palace had promised too much. The people stayed but the factories left. This has all the makings of a very sad ending.

King Sam got up from his bed and listened. He was disheartened to hear everyone fighting. He said, “This was not the way we started out. Where did we all go so wrong? Why do you fight like children?” Like many other fairy tales, people were killing the golden goose. They just thought of themselves. They wanted so much but were not of a mind to give anything back. Not even to give thanks.

Well, I have to stop now. We will have to finish this story another time. We’ll have to see how it ends. I wish I could do something to make it turn out right. It looks scary but maybe, just maybe it will have a happy ending. The kingdom has to get its act together. It’s up to them. We’ll have to wait and see. Tune in soon.

As always

Ted The Great

Factoid:  There are no such things as dragons and Camelot. Life is cruel but good judgment and fraternity(sorority too) will conquer all. Long live the king!