Back in the 1970s, an American television series called “The Six Million Dollar Man” was very popular, with Lee Majors playing the role of a former astronaut who was severely injured in a crash and for six million dollars had his body built into a cyborg. His right arm, both legs and the left eye were replaced by bionic implants that enhanced his strength, speed, and vision far above human norms: he could run at speeds of 60 miles an hour, and his eye had a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities. He used his enhanced abilities to work for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) as a secret agent (and as a guinea pig for bionics).
Over three years ago, the San Diego Chargers signed the richest contract for a running back in NFL history, awarding an eight-year contract to LaDainian Tomlinson (LT) worth nearly $60 million. LT is not a cyborg nor can he run at speeds of 60 miles an hour, but he is today the fastest running back in the NFL. It has proved to be a wise investment for the Chargers so far. LT, also known as “Superman without the cape” is a superstar who in 2006 set NFL records with 31 total touchdowns and 28 rushing touchdowns. The NFL selected him as the Most Valuable Player and its Man of the Year. With his help, the Chargers had a 14-2 record in 2006.
What makes this such a compelling story is that in the 2001 NFL Draft, the Chargers traded their first round pick to the Atlanta Falcons for their fifth round pick. In other words, the Falcons got Michael Vick, who would have been the Chargers’ first round pick and the Chargers got LaDainian Tomlinson, the Falcons’ fifth round pick. Now the Chargers not only have the most dominant running back in the NFL right now, but also one of the most marketable, charismatic, and likeable players in professional football. The Falcons, on the other hand, have only a half-decent quarterback convicted of despicable crimes towards man’s best friend. The Chargers got a player who is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. The Falcons got a player who is devious, fickle, obstructive, hostile, rude, mean, defiant, glum, extravagant, cowardly, dirty, and sacrilegious. LT now owns San Diego football fans. Vick and the Falcons now own a set of tremendous problems.
LT is a great football player and an affable gentleman off the field. I take issue with him, however, over one deal he has signed recently. The local Palomar Pomerado Health District signed a contract with LT that will pay him $2 million over five years to use his celebrity in fundraising, with a goal of raising $500,000 per year. The district receives between $8 million and $10 million per year from taxpayers. Now the way I figure it, the district, with LT’s help, hopes to raise $2,500,000 in five years . But they are paying LT $2,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money over the five-year period for his fundraising activities. So they will clear only $100,000 per year while paying LT $400,000 per year. What is wrong with this picture?
Perhaps someone in authority in the Palomar Pomerado Health District is an admirer of LT or an avid fan of professional football. One would think that a man earning $60 million over eight years, with additional millions coming in from commercial endorsements, might think that he should give something back to the community - like $2 million to be used to provide healthcare for the needy.
Carl’s Jr. recently caused a controversy with its TV commercial about a pattymelt burger on flat buns. The ad shown here depicts an attractive, young, sexy, female high school teacher who, during the course of the commercial, gets on top of her desk and slaps her derriere while the teenage boys in her class look on with admiration as she writhes to the lyrics of a rap song called “I Like Flat Buns.” After complaints from all over the nation, Carl’s Jr. had the teacher removed from the commercial. One of the local newspapers got a variety of opinions about the original commercial in their “Letters to the Editor.”
Here are some excerpts from the letters.
From a “43-year-old, flat-bunned Republican woman with two teenage children“: I thought it…hilarious. It was….harmless little commercial…poking fun at our society’s obsession with sexuality.
From another adult: It was funny…hip-hop song was great.
From a high school girl: I didn’t find the ad…inappropriate. Funny…catchy.
From a older woman: Carl’s Jr. is trying to appeal to a younger age group, but how about appealing to a sense of decency.
From a man: Carl’s management …juvenile idiots. Actions…counterproductive…offending some potential market segments.
From a woman: Do I like the ad? No. Did it get us to talk? Yes. Job well done.
From a woman: …appeal to the lowest common denominator of human life!
From a mother and grandmother: …ad is offensive and irresponsible.
From a man: Viagra and Cialis ones that run during daytime NFL games are worse. …9-year old inundated with “consult your doctor to ensure you’re healthy enough for sexual activity.”
From a woman: …(should) change focus from sex to food…low regard for women.
From a man: …no one got it. It’s a parody…of pop culture, of MTV, MTV2, VH1, BET…
If you had written a letter to the editor of a newspaper, what are some of the words and phrases you would have used?
Do you consider this commercial an insult to the teaching profession?
In view of the recent accounts of young female teachers having a sexual relationship with their male students, do you think this commercial was a wise one to air?
What are your views toward those individuals responsible for producing this commercial?
A nickname is a short, clever, invented name used in place of the real name of a person, place, or thing. It is sometimes based on a conspicuous characteristic and may be used humorously or affectionately, in a derogatory fashion, or as a form of ridicule.
Nicknames abound today in our society. Even our President has many nicknames such as “Dubya“, “Shrub”, “Boy King”, “Bubble Boy”, “Generalissimo W. Bunnypants”, “Holy-Roller-in-Chief “, and “Whistle Ass”. The President in turn has himself created nicknames for some people he knows: “Turd Blossom” for Karl Rove; “Pootie Poot” for Vladimir Putin; and “Rummy” for Donald Rumsfeld.
I can now recall many nicknames for friends and classmates I had when growing up. There was “Skip” (the reason for the name is unknown); “Crip” (born with a malformed foot at a time when there was no political correctness); “Speedy” (the fastest runner in high school); “Popeye” (the kid with large, protruding eyes--he was bug-eyed); “Spanky” (a tall, thin guy who was a Mama’s boy); “Tank" (a big lineman on the football team); “Shorty” (one of the tallest guys in school); “Buck” (a big, tough guy always ready for a fight); “Moose” (the biggest, most awkward guy in high school); “Boopie" (a lovely young thing that attracted my interest in eighth grade); and finally, two other individuals to whom I shall now give special attention.
There was a boy in the neighborhood and in school who was known as “Fishin’ Worm” Gilpin. I can’t even remember his given name. It seems he got his nickname as the result of an incident that occurred when he was about ten years old. One Saturday afternoon, he wanted to go to the matinee at a theater to see a couple of western movies. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any money. One of the older neighborhood boys noted for his mischievous ways, seeing the predicament of the young man, offered him a way to earn the money to fund his afternoon of enjoyment at the movies. All he had to do was eat a dozen big, fat earthworms that the older boy had recently dug up as bait for a fishing trip.
Although reluctant at first, the younger boy finally relented and managed to swallow all twelve of the worms. Collecting the money that was promised, the young man then went to the theater and enjoyed an afternoon of pleasure. But there was a further price to be paid. When the older boy spread the news of what happened, this poor kid was forever thereafter known in the neighborhood and all through high school as “Fishin’ Worm” Gilpin. I do believe that had he been elected President of the United States, these guys still would have addressed him as President “Fishin’ Worm” Gilpin.
Finally, I must relate the story of another unfortunate young man who got saddled with a nickname under the most unusual circumstances. The son of one of the immigrant Greek families for some reason did not like the son of one of the immigrant Italian families. As a consequence, he started calling this guy “Scata” (pronounced Skah’ Tah). All the time the kid was growing up and all through high school, everyone called him Scata. He even called himself Scata. It wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered the word “Scata” in Greek means a word synonymous with excrement. We find it in the word “scatology” and the phrase “scatological humor”. This poor kid was being called a “piece of shit” for years by unwitting friends, classmates, and even by himself. The Greek kid grew up to practice dentistry and eventually became a respected citizen in the area. I don’t know what happened to Scata.
Did you have a nickname when you were growing up? I did. An uncle called me Wop(don’t ask me why), and my older brother called me Dick. Since my first name is not Richard, I could never understand the reason he called me that.
If you have any interesting stories about nicknames, please share them with us.
Back in July, two young women, one 27 and the other 19, got into a fight in a convenience store, during which time the 19-year-old stabbed the other woman. The stabbed woman fell to the floor. While the victim lay bleeding on the floor, none of the shoppers who wandered into and out of the store stopped to administer aid. The woman struggled to her feet three times before finally collapsing for the last time. In fact, according to the store's security camera, five shoppers entering and leaving the store stepped over her body to buy their snacks and other items. One woman, who stepped over her body four times, did pause once - to snap a photo of the dying woman on her cell phone. Finally, someone did call 911.
The stabbing victim died later at a hospital from the loss of blood. Could she have been saved if the store clerk or one of the shoppers had called 911 right away rather than to ignore her or to pause to take her picture? Meanwhile, one might want to know that the woman who did the stabbing and her accomplice were later apprehended.
It sounds like the store’s owner or clerk continued to take money from the shoppers as though nothing had happened. What responsibility did he or she have? What responsibility did the shoppers have?
A local newspaper columnist wrote “What a country! We’ve become so desensitized to violence that when it leaps off the movie screen or from the video game console, we confront it with the same shoulder-shrugging indifference we give a curiously shaped, oddly colored turd we leave in the bowl rather than with the abject, stomach-turning revulsion that we should. We lack an appreciation of the dignity of humanity with either a nonchalant ‘Hmmm, glad it’s not me’, or a laughing ‘Oh, snap! You got owned!’ attitude.”
This case brought to mind the Kitty Genovese incident of 1964 in which this young woman was stabbed repeatedly over a period of at least a half hour while screaming for help outside her apartment complex, during which time at least a dozen of her neighbors watched from their windows at three o'clock in the morning. The man left once for about ten minutes and then returned to continue stabbing her as she pleaded for help.
A New York Times reporter wrote an article with the headline “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.” When interviewed later, some of the neighbors said they didn’t want to get involved. Later investigation by police and prosecutors revealed that approximately a dozen (but almost certainly not the 38 cited in the Times article) individuals in the apartment complex had heard or observed portions of the attack from their open windows, though none could have seen or been aware of the entire incident. The newspaper article later prompted an investigation into what became known as the “Genovese Syndrome” or bystander effect, a psychological phenomenon in which someone is less likely to intervene in an emergency situation when other people are present and able to help than when he or she is alone.
To counter the bystander effect when you are the victim, a studied recommendation is to pick a specific person in the crowd to appeal to for help rather than appealing to the larger group generally. If you are the only person reacting to an emergency, point directly to a specific bystander and give him or her a specific task such as, "You. Call 911." These steps place all responsibility on a specific person instead of allowing it to diffuse. When one or more of the bystanders step in to assist, the other spectators are more likely to become involved.
Unless Congress renews the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a vital children’s health program, it will expire on September 30. President Bush has threatened to veto anything but a watered-down version of the bill. A Senate bill given bipartisan support would provide $35 billion over five years to increase the number of children covered from 6.6 million to 10.6 million. It would cover the cost of private insurance for low-income families and subsidize premiums for those families that are above the poverty line but still cannot afford the high cost of coverage for their children.
In the Senate version of the bill, the cost of the program would be funded by increasing the taxes on tobacco products. In his threat to veto the bill, President Bush has said that uninsured children can “just go to the emergency room” of a hospital. This is the standard of care that our president endorses for the medical needs of our children from poor homes. One of the major problems with Bush’s recommendation is that the states have to pay for the cost of ER care, which is considerably more expensive than standard care.
President Bush has offered $5 billion over five years to fund CHIP, instead of the $35 billion which the Senate bill recommends. In his veto threat, Bush said that the Senate CHIP bill is just the “beginning salvo of the encroachment of the federal government on the health care system”, and we all know how he feels about the federalization of health care.
At his news conference this past Thursday, Bush sought to get out ahead of the Democrats by painting them as big spenders and himself as a responsible steward of taxpayers’ money. He urged Democrats to pass a temporary extension of the health insurance program, and accused them of playing politics with children’s health care by waiting until the program was about to lapse to send him legislation they know he will veto.
Now let us contrast Bush’s position on extending health care to America’s children of poor families with what is happening in Iraq. The United States government, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has experienced some cost overruns in the construction of a children's hospital in the southern city of Basra and other facilities by hiding the expenditures in seemingly unrelated accounts. There appear to be some accounting issues, including fraud allegations. The hospital project's original cost of $50 million has ballooned to more than $149 million and the building of the hospital has not yet been completed.
A State Department spokesperson said that his department had not had the chance to fully review the cost overruns , but he added that full attention would be given to the matter. "Despite the challenges, we are committed to completing this project so that sick children in Basra can receive the medical help they need," he said.
I find it appalling that our federal government, which wants to stay out of the health care business at home, can find over $150 million to build a hospital in Iraq so that sick children there can receive the medical help they need, while denying our own poor children the medical help they need. In addition, the CHIP program would not cost the federal government a cent to fund. Remember, since the program would be fully funded by a tax on tobacco, a product that kills over 400,000 Americans every year, the President could still find the some $4 billion a week he needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (see the update below), while keeping the federal government out of the health care business at home.
UPDATE (Sunday, September 23, 2007):
The Bush administration has announced that it will increase its 2008 financing request for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere by almost $50 billion. This increase will bring the amount the administration is seeking to finance the war effort through 2008 to almost $200 billion.
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