How do YOU measure time?

“Let’s take the shortcut,” my son often suggests as we head to school.

I smile that wry smile of a parent who knows better, and explain that his way takes longer. “This IS the shortcut,” I say, in that quiet, paternalistic way that still chafes me when I hear it from others.

Like most nine-year-old boys, he is not so easily deterred.

So, one morning when we had the time, I took the exit from the bypass (where I was driving 70 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone) onto the business route, and into town. “It’s 8:31” I said. “Let’s see what time it is when we rejoin the usual route to school. We entered Main Street and slowed to 45 mph. We passed the Barnes and Noble bookstore, where he, his mom and I often get coffee and read or study. We passed the turnoff to our “other kitchen,” the Mexican restaurant where we dine at least once a week.

We drove past the store above which is his karate school, then past the hospital where his mom is a student nurse. Finally, we crossed the bypass and slowed to a stop at the traffic light where our normal exit meets Main Street. 7 minutes. And, I pointed out, we had green lights all the way. If we’d not caught the light green at Route 114, it would have been 9 or 10 minutes. Staying on the bypass would only have taken three minutes to cover the same distance.

“But", he said, "I still think my way is shorter.” OK… I’ll grant him a certain stubbornness that comes genetically from his mom, but he’s smart enough to know that 7 is much larger than 3.

Then I realized that he doesn't measure time the way I do.

His “shortcut” had many more visual stimuli than the bypass. Many places he recognized, places with many positive experiences. Even the red lights are “faster” if you get to look into the car next to you, and view the traffic crossing on the side street. What makes my route “faster” is the very absence of such stimuli. It’s a boring, limited-access highway with banal scenery and no traffic lights.

If time is measured in seconds on a clock, my way is, without question, faster. If time is measured by the seconds in between stimuli, the three minutes on the bypass go with painful slowness.

I’m driving him to school, not competing in a NASCAR race. Four or five minutes rarely make the difference between being on time and being late. To a nine-year-old, becoming aware of significant locations in his life and their relative position on the way to school is an important part of learning. There are days he may not learn that much, trapped in a classroom for six hours. Not to mention, saying “yes” to a nine-year-old that costs me nothing but four or six minutes is a rare opportunity for me. He hears “no!” far too often.

So today, we took a different “short-cut.”

Making the Federal debt ceiling understandable

OK let me try to put this in terms we can understand.

President = me

Congress = my credit card companies

Federal Debt Ceiling = the combined credit limit of all my credit cards

Federal budget = my spending habits each year

Federal total tax revenue = my salary

Mandated federal spending = my rent and minimum payment on my credit cards

Let's say I make $100,000 per year but am planning to spend $200,000. And, I'm $500,000 in debt on my credit cards from spending too much in previous years (but the interest rate is low).

My credit card companies said they'll freeze my credit limit (they've been raising it each time I hit the max in the past) unless I come up with a spending plan that limits my spending over the next 10 years to only about $150,000 per year (still way more than my income).

If I don't come up with that plan by Aug 2, they'll stop letting me use my charge cards. I can still use my salary to pay the rent and minimum credit card payments, but I can't borrow more.

Of course, if I cut $50,000 out of my spending each year, my florist, my travel agent, my barber, and my clothier are all going to feel some pain. Maybe my kids, too.

So where has my analogy gone astray?

You know your scenario is too involved when...

it makes the Drudge Report for being too provocative.

Iowa Terror Drill Portrays Immigration Foes as Killers

Critics: Iowa terror drill portrays immigration foes as killers

describes how the scenario itself made news:

"The exercise scenario describes shootings occurring after rising tensions in the community because of an influx of minorities. The newcomers, some who are American citizens and some who are illegal immigrants, were to have moved into a rural area from urban areas in search of more-affordable living. The newcomers are not welcomed by racial extremists, and controversy sweeps the community.

"One of the fictional suspects involved in the shootings is described an 18-year-old white male with a quick-tempered father who is a firearms enthusiast with ties to an underground white supremacy group. A second fictional suspect is described as an isolated 17-year-old white male student who was befriended by the older student and who mimics his new friend."

Someone got a bit too carried away with their creative writing skills. According to the article, local supporters of illegal immigrants (I mean, undocumented citizens) are outraged, and so are the white supremacists (excuse, me, militia groups exercising their constitutional rights). The school that is hosting the drill is embarrassed.

Unless the exercise objectives include understanding and infiltrating the minds of the terrorists (I'm sorry, I meant to say "misunderstood man-caused disaster suspects"), then merely a report of a group of people shooting students is enough to trigger a terror response.

Something to add to the Lessons Learned database...

Soon they'll be gone...

This was passed along to me by a member of that society, a retired Vietnam area Marine pilot.

SOON TO BE GONE
By Capt. Steven Ellison, MD
A MILITARY DOCTOR


This should be required reading in every school and college in our country. This Captain, an Army doctor, deserves a medal himself for putting this together. If you choose not to pass it on, fine, but I think you will want to, after you read it.

I am a doctor specializing in the Emergency Departments of the only two military Level One-Trauma Centers, both in San Antonio , TX and they care for civilian Emergencies as well as military personnel. San Antonio has the largest military retiree population in the world living here. As a military doctor, I work long hours and the pay is less than glamorous. One tends to become jaded by the long hours, lack of sleep, food, family contact and the endless parade of human suffering passing before you. The arrival of another ambulance does not mean more pay, only more work. Most often, it is a victim from a motor vehicle crash.

Often it is a person of dubious character who has been shot or stabbed. With our large military retiree population, it is often a nursing home patient. Even with my enlisted service and minimal combat experience in Panama , I have caught myself groaning when the ambulance brought in yet another sick, elderly person from one of the local retirement centers that cater to military retirees. I had not stopped to think of what citizens of this age group represented.

I saw 'Saving Private Ryan.' I was touched deeply. Not so much by the carnage, but by the sacrifices of so many. I was touched most by the scene of the elderly survivor at the graveside, asking his wife if he'd been a good man. I realized that I had seen these same men and women coming through my Emergency Dept.. and had not realized what magnificent sacrifices they had made. The things they did for me and everyone else that has lived on this planet since the end of that conflict are priceless.

Situation permitting, I now try to ask my patients about their experiences. They would never bring up the subject without the inquiry. I have been privileged to an amazing array of experiences, recounted in the brief minutes allowed in an Emergency Dept. encounter. These experiences have revealed the incredible individuals I have had the honor of serving in a medical capacity, many on their last admission to the hospital.

There was a frail, elderly woman who reassured my young enlisted medic, trying to start an IV line in her arm. She remained calm and poised, despite her illness and the multiple needle-sticks into her fragile veins. She was what we call a 'hard stick.' As the medic made another attempt, I noticed a number tattooed across her forearm. I touched it with one finger and looked into her eyes. She simply said, ' Auschwitz .' Many of later generations would have loudly and openly berated the young medic in his many attempts. How different was the response from this person who'd seen unspeakable suffering.

Also, there was this long retired Colonel, who as a young officer had parachuted from his burning plane over a Pacific Island held by the Japanese. Now an octogenarian, he had a minor cut on his head from a fall at his home where he lived alone. His CT scan and suturing had been delayed until after midnight by the usual parade of high priority ambulance patients.. Still spry for his age, he asked to use the phone to call a taxi, to take him home, then he realized his ambulance had brought him without his wallet. He asked if he could use the phone to make a long distance call to his daughter who lived 7 miles away. With great pride we told him that he could not, as he'd done enough for his country and the least we could do was get him a taxi home, even if we had to pay for it ourselves. My only regret was that my shift wouldn't end

for several hours, and I couldn't drive him myself.
I was there the night M/Sgt Roy Benavidez came through the Emergency Dept. for the last time. He was very sick. I was not the doctor taking care of him, but I walked to his bedside and took his hand. I said nothing. He was so sick, he didn't know I was there. I'd read his Congressional Medal of Honor citation and wanted to shake his hand. He died a few days later.

The gentleman who served with Merrill's Marauders,

the survivor of the Bataan Death March,

the survivor of Omaha Beach,

the 101 year old World War I veteran.

The former POW held in frozen North Korea

The former Special Forces medic - now with non-operable liver cancer


the former Viet Nam Corps Commander..

I may still groan when yet another ambulance comes in, but now I am much more aware of what an honor it is to serve these particular men and women.

I have seen a Congress who would turn their back on these individuals who've sacrificed so much to protect our liberty. I see later generations that seem to be totally engrossed in abusing these same liberties, won with such sacrifice.

It has become my personal endeavor to make the nurses and young enlisted medics aware of these amazing individuals when I encounter them in our Emergency Dept. Their response to these particular citizens has made me think that perhaps all is not lost in the next generation.

My experiences have solidified my belief that we are losing an incredible generation, and this nation knows not what it is losing. We should all remember that we must 'Earn this.'

Written By CAPT. Stephen R. Ellison, M.D. US Army

My own personal note: If it were not for these faithful, loyal, strong persons, there would not be a United States of America.

I ask that you pray for these aging and dying service members. I also think every American citizen should read this. So, if you agree, send it on.

This is an "honors" blog

This isn't just an ordinary blog anymore. It's an "honors blog."

What changed? Will the content be more stimulating? The topics more intellectual?

Nope. The only thing that changes is the name. I decided to call it an honors blog.

Preposterous, you say? (Actually, you probably said something less Cambridge-sounding than "preposterous" didn't you? Something starting with a "B" maybe?)

Now you understand my surprise at finding out that's how "honors" classes in Shenandoah County Public Schools are named. The teacher and principal decide. There's no standard for an "honors" curriculum. No guarantee of extra challenge. Nada.

One parent told me their kid says, "It's just that kids who want to study go into an honors class. They don't do anything different." My son says it's not even that. He says half the kids choose the honors class, the rest are there because it fits into their schedule.

So, I'm now a part of the "Local Advisory Committee" for Gifted and Talented Education. I think maybe my first goal will be to establish a "truth in advertising" policy for "honors" classes.

Now that you've read your first "honors blog" post, don't you feel smarter?

Just read "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. If there was no one in your youth who was a source of education, intellectual challenge, inspiration, then I'm really sorry. If there was, this book will make you want to reach out to that person and reconnect.

Why I'm not likely to go to Haiti

It has little to do with the politics -- only FEMA teams are likely to be called, and we're a state resource, and it has little to do with logistics -- it's a smaller area than was impacted by Katrina. No, it's cultural.

We went to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward six weeks AFTER Katrina, in order to start the orderly search for the dead. We left Virginia on Oct. 8, the day of the Pakistan earthquake that killed 79,000 people, and three days before Hurricane Stan killed 4500 people in Guatemala. In both of those cases, as we painstakingly clawed through rubble to find and document weeks-old bodies of Americans, they used bulldozers to create mass graves.

In Haiti, where people die of violence, hunger and disease in the city streets on a good day, I doubt that either its government or ours is going to send us in to find and extract the dead one at a time. They'll just bulldoze them along with the rubble and start rebuilding shantytowns.
It's a cultural thing as much as anything else. We Americans and Europeans have a sort of obsession with burying our dead and make quite a show of it. In developing countries, where death is always around the corner, it's not quite the same.

They're not wrong, just different.

Watch what you ask for, Mr. President

A recent article in Time magazine features President Obama and his wife talking about their marriage:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says only once since Jan. 20 has White House life annoyed him.

It was the Saturday in May when, trying to be a good husband, he kept a campaign promise to take his wife, Michelle, to New York after the election for one of their "date nights" - dinner and a Broadway play.

"People made it into a political issue," Obama told The New York Times Magazine for an article about the Obamas' marriage, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue. The article was posted on the Times' Web site on Wednesday.

"If I weren't president, I would be happy to catch the shuttle with my wife to take her to a Broadway show, as I had promised her during the campaign, and there would be no fuss and no muss and no photographers," he said. "That would please me greatly."

Yeah, well it would please me greatly if you weren't President either.

Man up. The libs were all over President Bush every time he played golf or went to Maine. But you've played golf almost as much in your first nine months in office as President Bush did in almost three years. And the liberal media said squat about it.

Rick...