The Rowdy Tao

Personal healthcare is so; well, personal when it touches you as an individual.   It really lights the lights of protest and is ripe for sound bites.   The one that gets me a little edgy is the cry that individual rights are infringed with any plan that is related to health care and people should be allowed to make all their decisions unilaterally.   I have a sympathetic ear for such concerns but in reality there is a catch and it is likely you will not hear much about it because it sounds radical or uncaring.   You hear a little piece of it when you read a boring spending statistic that Medicare spends the greatest amount of one person’s lifetime care costs in the last six months of life.   The tricky unknown in the formula is calculating exactly when your personal last six months of life begins.   Real boring stuff unless it is your life, a loved one or you are saddled with the payment policy to fund the spending. Here is the unpopu...

It is February 29, 2012 and I was looking at the new layout of my Facebook page and it struck me as odd that it says I am FROM Fithian, IL. (Not that it is bad to be from there) But then I started thinking heck, where am I from? I made good and kind friends in Fithian and attended my last 2 years and graduated from Oakwood Consolidated Township High School. Previous to arriving in Fithian I attended 2 years at Georgetown High School. I also attended school in Catlin, IL, Westville, IL, Chrisman, IL (twice), Kingman, IN, Dana, IN, Hammond, IN, and Hessville, IN. It gets a little foggy at this point but I recall living in Edgar, IL (rural area) and I had my day of birth in Paris, IL. (For several years I would send my mother a photo I took of Paris Hospital telling her the neighbors are still complaining about all of her screaming from that day). Then I moved to 420 Dobson Hall, Kirksville, MO; I don’t understand exactly why I remember my dorm room number but I don’t think I am from th...