10
May
Barack Obama surprised me on this one. He went with a woman on his last Supreme Court pick. And, she was a Latino as well. That meant, in order to cover all his bases, he needed a black male Communist, er, Socialist. Instead, he went with Elena Kagan:
She’s not a he. She doesn’t appear to be black. And, I haven’t found anything suggesting she thinks the US Constitution is a flawed, obsolete document. In other words, possibly a moderate. Being a Harvard person, she can’t possibly be conservative or a strict constructionist. They’re too smart for simply following instructions. But, she seems to agree with several decisions over the last few years that have supported the Constitution. I don’t ask for a whole lot more than that.
Now this is where things will get real fun to me. She doesn’t strike me as being liberal “enough”. She doesn’t strike me as being socialist at all. In other words, she doesn’t fit into the mold I think most conservatives, and Republicans, are prepared to fight against. But, given her writings, which is all we have to work with since she’s never decided a case, or even argued a serious one, I can see liberals, read Democrats, having problems with her.
But, they’ll have one major issue to deal with if they do try to fight her, the rumor on the street is she’s lesbian. So, the conundrum becomes conservatives won’t be getting anything remotely this close to a moderate and they know it. Liberals I’m sure want someone who’s got more of a track record supporting liberals causes. This could get real fun to watch. Do the conservatives hold their nose and support a lesbian? Do the liberals hold their nose and support a moderate? Or, do we see a mass protest where conservatives and liberals come together in a group hug? I doubt it. My best guess is a massive display of silence as both sides realize it could be much, much, worse.
What we really need when politics trump respect for the law in appointing a Supreme Court Judge is a recall option down the road a little bit. This appointment for life crap is for the birds.
10
May
This is incredibly stupid. First, let’s have some fun with it:
That’s right. In order to force the Food and Drug Administration into accepting it’s gay agenda, they’ll just not allow anyone to donate blood. Now, think of the ramifications of what would happen if that idea caught on in California. Given California, I wouldn’t rule it out. Before too long, anyone in California needing blood would be screwed. I’ll not go into the ramifications of California thinning its gene pool intentionally. That’s too easy. What should really scare people is this is an institute of higher learning. It’s their job to teach impressionable youths how to survive and succeed in the real world. And, they are obviously clueless. The FDA, yes THE FDA, could care less about a bunch of whackos in California protesting their policy. Really, they don’t care. They concern themselves with the health of the whole of the nation. That’s about 300 million people scattered all over the place. As such, they’ve offended all kinds of groups:
- Aids
- Allergies: can donate if there is no infection present and there is no treatment ongoing
- Anemia: defer donation until no symptoms exist
- Arthritis: can donate if mild and not on medication
- Asthma: those with severe asthma requiring regular treatment can not donate; can donate if there are no symptoms evident
- Babesiosis: can not donate
- Blood disorders or bleeding tendencies: can not donate
- Blood Pressure: acceptable range is 160/90 to 110/60. (see medication section below for medication restrictions.)
- Brain or spinal surgery that required a transplant of brain covering (dura mater): can not donate
- Bronchitis: defer donation until four weeks or after recovery
- CJD: When a Blood relative has been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), or there is an increased family risk of CJD; can not donate
- Cancer: Basal cell, squamous cell skin cancers and keratosis; can not donate until removed and healed.
- Melanoma; can not donate. Malignant tumors; can donate five years after removal of early stage contained solid tumor, no chemotherapy, and in remission
- Chicken Pox: defer donation until four weeks after recovery
- Chlamydia: like all other venereal diseases; a minimum of a one year deferral is required
- Colds, fever, flu, sore throat: can not donate until symptoms (sore throat, cough, respiratory infection, headache) are completely gone
- Cold Sore, Fever Blister, Canker Sore: can donate
- Colitis: can not donate
- Colostomy: can not donate
- Dementia: can not donate
- Dengue: defer donation until four weeks after recovery
- Dermatitis: defer donation if severe
- Diabetes: can donate if treatment is by diet control and condition is stable; defer donation if on medication
- Diarrhea: defer donation until three weeks after recovery
- Eczema: can donate if mild. defer donation if severe
- Emphysema: can not donate
- Filariasis: can not donate
- Food Poisoning: defer donation for one week after full recovery
- Gastroenteritis: defer donation for one week after full recovery
- Gall Stone: can donate if not on medication
- Gonorrhea/Syphilis: defer donation for one year after complete recovery
- Gout: can not donate
- Heart attack: can donate if greater than one year since, and no symptoms present, the attending Blood authority physician must carefully evaluate
- Heart surgery, Coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) or angioplasty: can donate one year after surgery, if no history of heart attack, and the donor is on no medication for the heart (aspirin is okay)
- Hemochromatosis: can not donate
- Hepatitis: Hepatitis or undiagnosed jaundice after age ten; can not donate. Positive hepatitis test: can not donate. Can donate if the history of hepatitis is pertaining to mononucleosis or CMV infection
- Herpes (genital): can donate four weeks after lesions completely clear
- Leprosy: can not donate
- Malaria; had Malaria in last three years: defer donation for three years after full recovery (also see Travel and Residency Restrictions below)
- Pregnancy and Miscarriage: can donate after six weeks of full term normal delivery. Can donate six weeks after termination in third trimester. First or second trimester miscarriage can donate after stable
- Prostate: can not donate
- Sexually transmitted diseases – Genital herpes: can not donate until all lesions are completely clear
- Sickle Cell Trait: can not donate
- Seizures in the last five Years: can not donate
- Spondylosis: can donate if feeling well and not under any treatment at all
- Strokes: can not donate
- Surgery (all): can donate after healed and released from physician care.
- Syphilis: see Gonorrhea
- Thyroid: for Hypothyroid, can donate if feeling well and euthyroid on thyroxine for six months. For
- Hyperthyroid: can not donate until euthyroid for six months.
- Tuberculosis: can not donate until two years after complete cure
- Viral Infection: can donate after cure and off treatment
- Worms: can donate after complete cure
- Accutane: four-week deferral
- Antibiotics: 72-hour deferral after infection is healed
- Anti-inflammatory drugs (Advil, Ibuprofen, Motrin and Naprosyn): may not be taken within 24 hours before a platelet donation (some other rules may apply)
- Aspirin-containing products or Feldene and Lodine XL: may not donate within 36 hours before platelet donation
- Diabetic medication – Injected bovine (beef) insulin since 1980; can not donate
- Any human pituitary-derived hormone (i.e. growth hormone): can not donate
- Soriatane (Acitretin): three-year deferral
- Tegison (used to treat a severe skin disorder): can not donate if ever taken
- Thyroid medication: can donate if stabilized
- Polio, mumps, smallpox: two-week or more deferral
- Rubella or Rubeola (types of measles): four week deferral
- Tetanus, diphtheria, flu, Hepatitis B: can not donate until any reaction is over
- Acupuncture: one-year deferral
- Alcohol: defer donation if consumed in last 12 hours
- Body piercing: one-year deferral
- Cocaine: taking through the nose (snorting); one-year deferral minimum, local Blood authority will prevail
- Ear piercing: can donate if the piercing was performed in a doctor’s office (with written verification) otherwise, one-year deferral
- Electrolysis: defer donation for one year
- Hepatitis exposure: one-year deferral
- Rape: one-year deferral
- Tattoo in the last 12 months: one-year deferral
- Transfusion: defer donation by one year if undergone transfusion with Blood products. Can donate if undergone autologous transfusion only
- England/United Kingdom – visited or lived in from 1980 to 1999: deferred indefinitely (this standard varies between United States FDA and The American Red Cross and the American Association of Blood Banks.
- Western Europe – visited or lived in since 1980 deferred indefinitely
- Born in, lived in or had sex with anyone who lived in, or received Blood products in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger or Nigeria since 1977 (this list changes frequently; updates are very important): deferral indefinitely.
- Lived or traveled in an area where Malaria is prevalent (Central America and South America, etc.): three-year deferral,
- Other international travelers: different restrictions apply as precaution against mad cow disease, depending on what blood bank and region
Out of all that, San Jose State University is only worried about men having sex with men. That’s it. You’ve got racial profiling, ethnic profiling, life style profiling, the works. All they want is to make sure men can have sex with men. That’s it. Screw everyone born in Western Europe, most of Africa, and even England to some degree. Forget about rape victims or innocent people who went to prison. SJSU’s not at all concerned about them. But by golly if you want to have gay male sex, they’re ready to fight for you.
That is political correctness run absolutely out of its mind. Sure it’s an excellent thing to be sensitive to every single persuasion there is except the average white male, but it’s totally another to put innocent people’s lives at risk just to push a political philosophy. If I lived anywhere near San Jose, and someone I’m responsible for dies due to an inability to get blood, I would sue each and every one of the San Jose State University Board of Trustees individually.
File a lawsuit against the FDA as every idiot knows to do to change a policy. But quit holding the sick hostages. That’s just perverse.
These are the people responsible for the decision. They may not have made the decision, but it’s their duty to make sure the university is doing the right thing:
- Roberta Achtenberg
- Bob Linscheid
- Carol R. Chandler
- Charles B. Reed
- Garrett P. Ashley
- Larry Mandel
- Lou Monville
- Margaret Fortune
- William Hauck
- Nicole Anderson
- Peter Mehas
- Debra S. Farar
- Benjamin F. Quillian
- Jeri Echeverria
- Russel Statham
- George G. Gowgani
- Raymond Holdsworth, Jr.
- Herbert L. Carter
- Henry Mendoza
- Kenneth Fong
- Gail E. Brooks
- Christine Helwick
- Glen Toney
- Melinda Guzman
- Linda A. Lang
Every now and then I read something that just makes all kinds of sense on Seeking Alpha. They seem to have a way of getting people to simplify economics in such a way the average guy ( me ) can undertand it. Today it was Cliff Droke discussing China. Never heard of Cliff before, but I really like how he writes this article. He hits on basically every angle but doesn’t go into much detail on any. By doing that, he hits on the two assumptions I think will contribute the most to China’s economy in relation to the United States over the next ten to twenty years.
First of all, China is an emerging economy. I don’t mean that so much as they are now competing the big boys. I mean that up until the last twenty years or so, their government didn’t allow them to have much. So, once the government got out of the way to some degree, they had to get it. They imported Buicks, Ipods, all kinds of US stuff. But, when that happens, the money flows out. They made their money by working the hell out of incredbily cheap labor. You didn’t buy anything really nice from China. You bought cheap stuff. And, you bought lots of it. As China’s economy matures, as it’s doing now, that dirt cheap labor becomes harder to get. China can’t rely on simply undercutting the rest of the world. It had to make stuff with higher margins. Look at what they did to the computer chip market twenty years ago. For years you didn’t buy a chip manufracture in the United States. As China’s economy matured, their workers became more expensive, and one other big factor occurred, the United States once again started making chips domestically.
The one other thing is pretty big in this case. China’s domestic market increased world demand to the point where margins were such that other countries HAD to manufacture what they needed. In this case Intel didn’t have to worry about losing any market in China, those factories are probably still there. They simply increased supply world-wide due to China’s new demands. This is happening in all businesses. Most importantly, it’s changing what China relies on. It also changes how China has to address markets. They no longer have to use illegal practices to manipulate markets. They can simply rely on their own internal market to develop a market and then look externally. I don’t think you’ll see the Chinese destroying a market like they did the chip industry to gain control.
What this leads to is a more traditional corporate relationship with the Chinese. Rather than fearing the Chinese government, the world will be a lot more able to deal directly with the Chinese business environment. The Chinese in turn will have a lot less to fear from the world as their corporate environment becomes more international and complex.
However, what you won’t see much longer is the expected explosive stock growth of US companies penetrating the Chinese market. Their economic growth is already slowing markedly.
In fact, as bad as things have been here, they’ve been worse in China. Due to their increased international reliance, they suffer as the world suffers. The only difference is they don’t suffer as much when the world prospers.
Bottom line, corporate wise we don’t have as much to fear from the Chinese as we did twenty years ago. The Chinese government is another story entirely. We’ve grown to rely WAY too much on their investing in the US government. If that dries up, we’ve got a real mess on our hands. This of course would directly impact the Chinese economy as well. However, as world history has shown, Chinese communist rulers have never been reticent to expect their people to suffer at the expense of their government in ways we’d never allow our government to do. So, we’ve handed the Chinese a huge influence in our government. They have trumps we don’t. Our quest now is to eliminate the deficit. However, this president doesn’t seem to have the political ideology to do it in such a way to compromise his social agenda. So, I expect China’s expected investments in the US to continue to rise exponentially. However, given China’s stagnating economy, I don’t expect that money to be there for Obama. And, Obama won’t have the political willpower to match what the Chinese would be willing to do. So, China, to me, at this time, has become a lot more of a political issue than the traditional economic and military issues.
Five kids attending Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, were sent home for wearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo. The school is actually the one that enforced it. For those unaware, California is in the United States. The “Mexican” students protesting are in the United States as well.
“I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican heritage day,” Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, told NBC. “We don’t deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July.”
First of all, Annicia’s not in Mexico any more. If these kids had done this in Mexico, I’d be on Annicia’s side. However, she’s not in Mexico. Cinco de Mayo is meaningless for the most part in the United States. She’s in school to learn United States heritage, not Mexican. And, United States citizens, of which those five kids’ parents are, pay for the school Annicia is attending, not Mexicans. If she wants to show respect for her Mexican heritage, that’s fine. However, stomping on her adoptive country’s heritage is not. Freedom of speech is what was being fought for at Puebla. That’s the heritage. They weren’t fighting for Mexicans living in another country to trample on that right for others.
Second of all, Annicia, her friends, and the school, have come to a conclusion that is not at all supported by facts or history. From another source:
When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz’ superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.
Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.
It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?
In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.
Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That’s why Cinco de Mayo is such a party — A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!
Although Mexico won on Cinco De Mayo, they did not have the resources to fight a sustained war with France. France teaming up with the US Confederacy was a nightmare the Union feared most. Maximillian’s loss at Puebla hurt France so bad that it was unable to help the Confederacy. This assured the Union an eventual victory over the Confederacy. In gratitude to Mexico, the United States loaned Mexico men and equipment enabling Mexico to fight off France and gain their ultimate freedom.
Cinco de Mayo would have been meaningless in history if it were not for men wearing the US flag.
So, these “Mexicans” at Live Oak High School have it all wrong. As wrong as they can get it. What’s more disturbing is the faculty at Live Oak apparently is equally as clueless.
Annicia thinks the five kids should apologize. I think the faculty of Live Oak should apologize to the entire student body for failing them which led to a conflict that would never have occured if they had done their job correctly.
Over the weekend we almost had a car bomb go off in Manhatten. They immediately arrested a Pakistani trying to book a flight to Pakistan. President Obama praised the work of the police in capturing the inept car bomber wannabe.
In Arizona a deputy was shot by a Mexican drug dealer. President Obama is worried about a law that would single out Mexicans.
How do you suppose they singled out a Pakistani booking a flight to Dubai? Do you think they scanned the tickets to the Middle East looking for a Smith?
I expect Shakira and Linda Rondstadt will be performing charity events to protest the arrest of the Pakistani and call for boycotts of Times Square. Anything else would be quite hypocritical.
