Simple Acts Of Kindness

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This barber, who offers haircuts for the price of a single hug.

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The man who gave the shoes off his feet to this homeless girl.eac5115a-2e3f-43a1-b496-102b2a0e39fe.jpg

This Motorcyclist who stopped to help an old woman pass safely

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The police officer who handcuffed himself to a woman to make sure she knew she’d have to take him with her

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The many people who helped make this boy’s dream come true.

This dog owner who mourned by giving.
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This store employee who gives extra service.
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The person who decided to put new tires on a stranger’s car just because he needed it.
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The crowd who decided a fan should be able to watch the show, no matter what.
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This dry cleaning place that helps the unemployed for free.
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These kids helping an injured member of their rival team to score.
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The man who played for fun and gave his winnings away.
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This man who missed this train helping this older lady with her bags.
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This man who gave something to a homeless man no one gives something to occupy his mind.
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And Dan, a man who twice a week buys coffee for every patient, nurse, and doctor at local cancer centers.
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The people at the animal hospital, knowing how hard it is to say goodbye.
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This man who gave his umbrella away so this cat could have a dry night.
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“Kindness lasts forever!”

Holland Where Healthcare Is Free For Everyone

English: Oktoberfest, Munich, GFDL, from Ukrai...

English: Oktoberfest, Munich, GFDL, from Ukrainian Wikipedia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Something happened today that has been playing on my mind since ten this morning. Peg and I were running errands and one of them was to drop off some documents with my financial advisor Joe. We stopped at the post office to buy stamps, and to post a document by Priority Mail. Joe’s office is just around the corner from the P.O. so I drove there to save a stamp and drop the asset inventory he asked for. I was looking for a parking space when a man stepped out from his car, it was Joe. I rolled down the window and handed him my package. What’s this he asked? It is the information you asked for. “How was your trip to Oktoberfest,” I asked?

“Eighteen days of hell,”  he answered.

“How so,” I asked?

“I had walking pneumonia the whole time, fever, and all.”

“What did you do about it?”

“I  stayed in Holland with a friend who took me to the local urgent care facility.”

“Free health care, how did it work?”

“They told me to put five tablespoons of sugar into some warm water and to drink it.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

“You came home with pneumonia and had it treated right?”

“Yes, and now I feel fine, but the trip was a total disaster.”

We wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and he went to work; Peg and I continued our run of errands.

What has bothered me all day is the treatment he got in Europe, the fabulous continent, where health care is free for everyone.  Our Hope and Change President who is transforming us into Europe is on a path to treat us all with sugar-water, and to charge us a huge premium to do it.  I hope I can sleep tonight.

Irish Diet

Grumpa Joe is in need of some serious weight loss so he fell for this diet, hook-line-and sinker.

My Weight Loss Coach

My Weight Loss Coach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An Irishman was terribly overweight, so his doctor put him on a diet. 

“I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, then eat regularly again for 2 days then skip a day …
And repeat this procedure for 2 weeks. The next time I see you, you should have lost at least 5 pounds.”

When the Irishman returned, he shocked the doctor by having lost nearly 60 lbs.! 

“That’s amazing!” the doctor said, “Did you follow my instructions?”

The Irishman nodded…

“I’ll tell you though, be all the saints, I tot I were going to drop down dead on dat turd day.”
 

 
“You mean from the hunger?” asked the doctor. 

No, from the bloody skipping!” 

We Need a Do Over

Cray X-MP/24 (serial no. 115) used by NSA

Cray X-MP/24 (serial no. 115) used by NSA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The National Security Agency

The National Security Agency (Photo credit: @mjb)

The Edison bulb lit up over my head again while Peg and I were having our pork chop. I think the Smoking Loon Merlot had something to do with it. The Obama Care sign up website has been bothering me ever since it became clear that the site is worse than any hurricane that has hit North America. One question keeps coming into mind, how can the world’s most powerful country be so stupid as to allow a software program bring them down? We are the world’s software experts. Our computer scientists are known worldwide for their ability, yet we introduce software that will control one sixth of the US economy that is a pile of cow dung. “A few glitches” O said. It is becoming apparent as the days roll by that the glitches are major screw ups in the architecture. He will never admit it but he owns this one. There is no way to blame it on Bush or the Republicans.

The engineer in me has been working overtime to figure out what I would have done differently. The problem with this type of analysis is that I have the benefit of the Monday morning quarter back. Nevertheless, I began analyzing what I would do. The first thing is I’d hire my brainiac son who is a computer scientist. He works on huge financial analysis software and is known for his ability to test the living crap out of his programs before they go on-line. The problem is that he won’t take the job because he is more conservative than I am, and he would rather see the big O flushed down the toilet.

Any software needed to do this job has to perform fast, and must handle terabytes of information. Hmmmn, where have I heard that before? Yes, the NSA does exactly that. They monitor billions of phone call, e-mails, and video cameras daily. They respond quickly at the command of the Big O. They have a complex of buildings in Utah to house their new computers designed to handle the load with capacity for the future. Those are the guys, I will call to consult on this problem.

How is it possible that the huge government of over educated liberals failed to see the NSA as a contractor for the health care program? They would most likely handle it like a kiddy game compared to the work they do spying on us.

All I can come up with is that the NSA is the NSA, and Health Care is Health Care and never shall the two bureaucrat organizations meet to coöperate with each other and make synergy happen. The number one problem we have is a government that is too large, second, we give the government too much money, and three, we propagate bureaucratic empires.

After World War II the Japanese government was broke; their economy starved for cash. We didn’t help them because we didn’t want them to rebuild their war machine. Yet, by the nineteen eighties the Japanese auto industry started a war against the US big three and they won commercially. How did they do it? They didn’t have cash to invest extravagantly like GM, Ford, and Chrysler, in fact they had but a shoe string budget to invest. Today, the Japs make the best cars in the world.

Necessity made the Japs think outside the box, they worked with their government in a positive way. Japanese engineers came up with ingenious ways to make things with limited stamping presses and tooling. The government handled a plan to protect their markets while attacking the US market. The engineers stole an idea from the progressive die makers and applied it to making auto body parts. Our guys in America thought it was a stupid idea and laughed them off. The result was a car body made in Japan with superior fit and minimal assembly. They were also smart enough to hire an US quality control consultant who taught them the basics of just in time manufacturing. The US auto industry controlled by the UAW unions were too stupid to see the value of the process.

What does this have to do with Obama Care? The point I am making is that attacking the problem with a team and a very specific well-defined goal would have resulted in a superior roll out experience and Obama would have signed up 2.5 million people on day one.  The health care software didn’t need tons of money to reach the goal, but it will to fix it. We need a do over.

Cars, Cars, Cars, and More Cars

This has been an awful summer for me. The 2013 Monet Vision escaped being photographed, Peggy and I did not leave home for anything,, and I failed to visit a single Cruise Night in Frankfort. Maybe it was latent grief creeping out on the tenth anniversary of Barb’s death, or maybe it was a lower back pain that wouldn’t quit, or maybe learning that I suffer from Low T, or maybe it is simply because I reached middle age, whatever, the summer blues took over my mind and body.

Today, a good friend sent me a video link, that cheered me and picked me up beyond my expectations. I only wish he could have done it earlier, like in June. The video features a very large car show in Minnesota, touted as the largest in the world. The cars are amazing and beautiful. If you grew up in the fifties like I did, this video was like traveling back in time. Take a peek and enjoy these mobile works of art.