Last night I was happy as a clam, thanks to Ryan’s gift of a computer, and Matt’s talents that rehabbed the old machine. I sat at Homer’s, outside for Monday night “Picking on the Patio” with my latte and my laptop. I listened to a mix of John Denver tunes, a few original pieces and of course the old fashioned gospel selections, as I worked on HPS projects.
How perfect is that?
It was perfect until some schmuck, who looked to be about in his 60s, sat next to me and started smoking. While smoking is prohibited inside, the jam session is held outside and anything goes.
About that time Donna called so we could touch base on a few things and I decided it was time to bug out.
I have this love hate relationship with smokers. The love part is that I truly understand that it isn’t as simple as quitting. If quitting smoking is anything like my feeble and failed attempts at dieting, I know it isn’t that simple. At the same time, there’s a part of me that gets truly irritated with people that were given a perfectly healthy set of lungs by nature, and have no more appreciation for them than to sit and puff cancer sticks.
I simply can’t be around second-hand smoke. End of story. I’m working too hard to keep breathing to do anything that might further aggravate my pulmonary fibrosis. No smoky bars, nightclubs or restaurants for me. While some restaurants complain that smoking bans will hurt their businesses, I’m in the camp that calls ahead to make sure it’s a smoke-free zone.
I might have said something, but since I needed to talk to Donna anyway, and didn’t want to chat on a mobile phone in the middle of a concert, I just left.
When I got home I discovered the CNN YouTube presidential debates were on. Actually, it was a replay from earlier in the evening.
I set up shop with the laptop in front of the TV. I couldn’t miss this.
I have to say I thought the YouTube format was an improvement on some of the debates of the last few elections. Policy aside, it was striking to me what an impact one’s demeanor can have on one’s credibility. (Not that this was a new discovery) While no one exactly scored a home run, the debate did help me to cross off half of the candidates from my list of interest.
To be honest, I’d intended to submit a question to YouTube for the debate. I just ran out of time.
I was disappointed that, given the throng of entries regarding healthcare, that this subject wasn’t given more attention and came up in the last 15 minutes.
But my subject of interest didn’t come up at all. Maybe I’ll try to make an entry for the Republican debate.
My question was: Where will funding for medical research, and institutions like the National Institutes of Health, fall in your administration’s funding priorities?
I don’t mean to launch a massave should-we-or-shouldn’t-we debate here about the war in Iraq. Yet, I find it striking that so far we’ve spent more than $400 billion on the war (not even the entire defense budget – just the war) and yet the NIH budget, our nation’s leading federal vehicle to promote medical research, has seen budgets cut or left stagnate and in 2008 seems to be expecting a budget somewhere around $28 billion.
I’m not saying we don’t need to fight terrorism. I’m not that naive. But, we also need to fight the threats of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis and yes, we need to let the researchers learn from diseases like HPS.
How perfect is that?
It was perfect until some schmuck, who looked to be about in his 60s, sat next to me and started smoking. While smoking is prohibited inside, the jam session is held outside and anything goes.
About that time Donna called so we could touch base on a few things and I decided it was time to bug out.
I have this love hate relationship with smokers. The love part is that I truly understand that it isn’t as simple as quitting. If quitting smoking is anything like my feeble and failed attempts at dieting, I know it isn’t that simple. At the same time, there’s a part of me that gets truly irritated with people that were given a perfectly healthy set of lungs by nature, and have no more appreciation for them than to sit and puff cancer sticks.
I simply can’t be around second-hand smoke. End of story. I’m working too hard to keep breathing to do anything that might further aggravate my pulmonary fibrosis. No smoky bars, nightclubs or restaurants for me. While some restaurants complain that smoking bans will hurt their businesses, I’m in the camp that calls ahead to make sure it’s a smoke-free zone.
I might have said something, but since I needed to talk to Donna anyway, and didn’t want to chat on a mobile phone in the middle of a concert, I just left.
When I got home I discovered the CNN YouTube presidential debates were on. Actually, it was a replay from earlier in the evening.
I set up shop with the laptop in front of the TV. I couldn’t miss this.
I have to say I thought the YouTube format was an improvement on some of the debates of the last few elections. Policy aside, it was striking to me what an impact one’s demeanor can have on one’s credibility. (Not that this was a new discovery) While no one exactly scored a home run, the debate did help me to cross off half of the candidates from my list of interest.
To be honest, I’d intended to submit a question to YouTube for the debate. I just ran out of time.
I was disappointed that, given the throng of entries regarding healthcare, that this subject wasn’t given more attention and came up in the last 15 minutes.
But my subject of interest didn’t come up at all. Maybe I’ll try to make an entry for the Republican debate.
My question was: Where will funding for medical research, and institutions like the National Institutes of Health, fall in your administration’s funding priorities?
I don’t mean to launch a massave should-we-or-shouldn’t-we debate here about the war in Iraq. Yet, I find it striking that so far we’ve spent more than $400 billion on the war (not even the entire defense budget – just the war) and yet the NIH budget, our nation’s leading federal vehicle to promote medical research, has seen budgets cut or left stagnate and in 2008 seems to be expecting a budget somewhere around $28 billion.
I’m not saying we don’t need to fight terrorism. I’m not that naive. But, we also need to fight the threats of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis and yes, we need to let the researchers learn from diseases like HPS.
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