Bump's Stump

Just read a most interesting book, "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande. The author discusses the aim of medicine today -  and makes a significant suggestion to improve it. 1. The aim now, so to speak, is to preserve life as long as possible . 2. The author makes an excellent case for preserving a reasonable quality of life as considered by the patient, close family, and the medical people involved. The Author, a Medical Doctor himself, has noted a trend developing as the scientific community is experiencing an exponential growth of pharmaceutical products, nuclear medicine and other curative treatments that are increasingly able to extend life, but with essentially disastrous consequences. The advancing fight against cancer illustrates what he considers an undesirable trend. It is now possible to extend a persons' life to a non-reversible point where the patient is no longer aware of his existence, surroundings, family or friends. The patient is technically alive in t...

Americans are avoiding the obvious. We are thoroughly enmeshed in a  religious war with the Religion of Islam that threatens us and most other nations of the world. It's guerrilla type war rather than a conventional one, but  war nevertheless. Battles usually involve a small number of victims, but not always. The attack on 9/11 for example, resulted in a very large death toll. There are have been several other large and vicious attacks as well. Usually they involve a few perpetrators led by an independent leader and designed to murder as many people as possible. Americans persist in referring to each attack as an "isolated terrorist incident" , or some other even less disturbing woods.  Actually, they are the attacks of a singularly vicious enemy. An enemy like no other we've seen looking back in time several centuries.  It is a large war that has two alarming characteristics:  1. The support and attacks are largely coming from people who have nothing to los...

The GOP has an impressive history. It's ancestry more or less started with Abe Lincoln and ended most recently with G.W. Bush. Along the way there were some stalwart fellows and some duds, but overall the Grand Old Party evolved to stand for small government, less federal footprint on citizens, to favor states rights where ever possible, and the common sense attributes: "beware of spending money you don't have as it inevitably leads to failure." The GOP also  has a history of favoring a strong military to help defer policies unfavorable to America, and for protection of the Nation if threatened". At the moment however (2016) the GOP seems to stand in unity for very little indeed.  Several Republican candidates are contesting to be President, and with the exception of Gov. John Kalish, and before he dropped out Dr. Ben Carson, the others have degraded campaigning to the most disgraceful level since the days of duels. Meanwhile, the agenda, policies, plans o...

Watched the academy awards last night. The show was one of the worst I can remember. It began with the usual pre-ceremony red carpet celebrity walk, and the interviewers from Channel 5 were excellent - but what is that entire two hour part of the program all about? The known and unknown are captured as they supposedly arrive and walk the torturous five hundred foot red carpet path headed to their pre-assigned seats in the theatre. This display on the entry path consumes more time than a Republican political debate - and is twice as meaningless. Year after year the pampered celebrities wander aimlessly towards the theater, bumping shoulders with their fellow pretty people and stopping at each microphone held by a Hollywood Press person. The press people are strategically standing in the middle of the surging crowd. They stop as if they have no choice, and proceed to prattle about the beautiful multi-thousand dollar dresses and tuxedos that almost defy describing.  There are some ...

Tim Cook has become a folk hero in my book.  The government  has ordered him, as President and CEO of Apple, to effectively eliminate the critical secrecy now inherent in their products. He said "NO", and good for him.   The FBI says they are only interested in 'how to read the encrypted' data in Apple's IPhone products.  They have ordered Apple to show them how to break their encrypted programing.  Tim Cook says that Apple does not know how to do it.  I suspect they do - but it  makes no difference.  He also states that Apple does not want to do it and has no plan to try. He feels that to obtain and them make this information public would have terrible consequences to the entire industry of computer technology and information security. The FBI insists that it do so anyway.  Apple (rightly) believes that no government entity has the right or the power to make the demand in the first place. Common Sense The Government, federal, s...

CAPITALISM. The Pope is an obviously intelligent and devout person. With his knowledge of the Catholic Church and it's history, it is surprising that he is so naive regarding real world economics and it is especially discouraging hat he does not advise the church how to better apply it's assets to help the poor. These two factors are areas that recent Popes appear to avoid. Capitalism requires "competition" and in my view "competition" is a stimulant to progress. I believe the impulse is part of the human character  at birth, and  stops only at death. The current Pope would rather this was not true.  He has been going around the world preaching the evils of Capitalism vs the benefits of Progressive Socialism .  He has made a terrible mistake. He needs to go  back to school on these subjects. Progressive Socialism, and it's close relative, Communism,  have repeatedly failed when attempted.  They have  always failed and certainly are faulty poli...

It must be the season or what I ate last night, but whatever the cause I am disposed to think more about religion. I continue to question the basis for teaching something that more or less defies intelligent study. It is difficult for me to simply accept  any leap of faith .  This rejection automatically leads one to consider a more scientific explanation of human experiences. Admittedly, in many ways this is a desolate picture. According to this view,  the end of life is just that. The end. There is no afterlife. No heaven or hell. Just, the end. While  I do question religions' importance. I absolutely believe that religion has comforted human beings since day one.   It simply cannot be disregarded as a psychological and  philosophical benefit to mankind. I hope that one day I will be able to make that leap of faith so critical to all religions. Meanwhile, the clock begins ticking at birth,  and  everyday death is closer.  Early mankind app...