Medical Dramas and Cop Shows

Other than "reality shows" that are not real and are just an excuse to hire cheap actors, the two biggest types of shows on television seem to be medical dramas and dramas about arresting people. Here is just how silly these three types of shows are.

Reality shows spend all their time with people yelling unrestrained at one another and spending time together willingly. Other than your children and possibly your spouse, how long would you put up with someone freaking out at you every two minutes if they were not under medical care? I especially like the shows about rich housewives who put up with psychotic friends who are always yelling and talking garbage, if you are a rich housewife, why are you with them and not getting a massage or in Hawaii?

Lets think about reality shows a little more. When my eldest daughter was about 6 we had some offers to put her in commercials. I was against it. She had not expressed an interest in acting at the time, nor at any time since. I don't remember her ever asking to take drama class. I grew up with kids in the industry including ones that you would know. I cannot think of one that benefited from the experience other that for short term monetary gain, which few if any managed to keep or put to beneficial use. So here is my question, if you wouldn't want to be a show biz mother, why would you let your family be filmed all day for a reality show and get paid pennies?

I don't know if Bruce Jenner really had a sex change operation, nor do I care one way or another; but, I am disgusted that he participated in having his children portrayed as vain, idiotic tools of the media. They are spectacle and not actors or performers. He participated in that. As bad as that is, Miley Cyrus's dad is worse. Currently, the 22 year old Miley is considering doing a naked concert. Her dad has supported her in her endeavors. Wow. Although I have known at least two women who have posed in men's magazines, I am not aware of any of their parents thinking it was a good thing. How many of us would actually promote our children posing nude, basically, selling their bodies for money? It is not reality television, it is perversity television where the lowest common denominator gets the highest revenue from advertisers.

Now let us consider medical dramas. In the last few years the two most popular were House, about a doctor who is a drug addict and "Grey's Anatomy" about a bunch of young doctors who all sleep with each other and have the emotional maturity of 13 year olds with limited parental supervision. I have to give some history. I have had arthritis since I was about 19, I have mechanical arthritis from being a gymnast and being one of the most highly ranked in pull ups in history. That is actually true about me. It cost me my hands as I was 15 by the time I had earned that recognition. Years later I had severe arthritic attacks and the doctors wanted to remove my knuckles and replace them with plastic. That is also true. After years of misdiagnosis it turned out that those severe bouts were not from the arthritis alone; but, from gout which inflamed my arthritis. A simple blood test showed that and after changing my diet I have avoided those except on very rare occasions and I now know what to do to prevent that again, it is called changing my diet and I have. Once identified it was pretty easy to avoid it.

Here is another interesting fact. My mother had cervical cancer and went misdiagnosed for a decade. Yeah, they missed it. Yet, on television medical dramas, they all seem to be about great doctors who misdiagnose diseases that are so rare that they have only been seen once or twice in history. Still, Dr House and the people of Grey seem to figure out, in the last 10 minutes, what the obscure and unlikely disease is. It took 20 years for my doctors to figure out that I had gout and I don't know if my current doctor even knows that and he is a really, really good doctor. His problem is that because I haven't complained about arthritis, having changed my diet decades ago, it is no longer in my medical records. Wouldn't medical dramas be more pertinent and useful if they brought up the diseases most commonly misdiagnosed? They are neither reality based nor useful.

Finally we come to police dramas. I want you to think back to all of the worst and most extreme crimes portrayed in police dramas and then ask yourself, how many times have police vehicles actually been blown up by hand grenades? Okay how many times have police vehicles been blow up by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices as are used in Iraq and Afghanistan)? The answer is zero; but, that doesn't stop us from having local police buy vehicles to protect them from such threats, threats that they have never faced in their history and you are paying for them.

I don't understand right wing extremists like Alex Jones complaining that the police are being more militarized, which they are, and then claiming that the second amendment should allow them to personally own military equipment. I do not believe either individuals nor the police need tactical nuclear weapons, tanks or bazookas to protect themselves. Do you? I am okay with the military having such weapons, I am a pacifist; but, I cannot understand the military thinking them these weapons will at least let them do what they perceive to be their job. As a Christian I also believe that God said that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword; but, I don't expect non Christians to adhere to that belief. My problem is with Christians who do not.

Here is the problem. How many shows really deal with the most common problems faced by people and families. Sorry, the number of fathers who want to have sex changes, the number of people faced with exotic diseases and the number of people faced with being blown up by terrorists while in police cars is so minimal as to be ludicrous and fantasy. How many shows actually deal with real family issues?

We laugh at shows like Adam 12 and Dragnet today; but, at least they dealt with the real issues of the day. Dragnet tried to make us believe that people who smoked Marijuana killed their children; ludicrous, but at least they didn't know what Marijuana did. The original medical shows were about diseases that you or your family might actually get and the decisions you might have to make. The first reality show was called "An American Family" about the Loud family and it was real. It was on PBS, regular television would not show it. Most of the family hated the fact they ever did it. Why don't we have television focused on the real problems we face, like a cop show where the cops fight to keep their pensions or a medical show about how many people they don't serve. Think about it.

Now here is an interesting fact, how much money was stolen during the "financial crisis", lol, how many billions did the big banks steal by rigging all the markets with them paying tens upon tens of billions in legal fines, JP Morgan paid over $25 Billion in fines. Remember they stole more than they paid in fines by hundreds of billions and cost this country Trillions in losses. Neither the Mafia nor the Mexican drug cartels could possibly steal as much from the average US worker as our friends on Wall Street have, tell me I am wrong. By the way, the banks gave a higher return on interest to the people that laundered drug money than they did to you and I They did however charge them higher fees, to be fair. Maybe not as high as the fee they charged your pension fund.

A Self Driving Car In Action

YouTube - Tesla's Autopilot System Is Creepy And Wonderful.

YouTube - A Ride in the Google Self Driving Car.

I want my readers to think about how self driving cars will change your lives in the very near future, remember, the technology is already here. Firstly, self driving cars don't break the speed limit so no more speeding tickets. They can also be programmed to avoid all parking violations. They are safer in heavy rain, snow and fog because they see using multiple sensors. Self driving cars also are not impaired by marijuana, alcohol or being tired on long trips. I forgot to mention that they also don't get lost and can automatically find the best way from one destination to another using real time traffic information.

Now lets consider how they will be used to control drivers and their choice of destinations. Parents will want their teenagers to be in self driving cars so that they can determine where those vehicles go. There will be no telling your parents that you are going to a friends house to study and going to a party somewhere else instead. Self driving cars will also be the end of taxi drivers and long haul truckers killing millions of jobs.

In 2016 Japan Will Begin Using Self Driving Cabs

The Wall Street Journal - RoboCab: Driverless Taxi Experiment to Start in Japan.

If after reading the link you still believe self driving cards are decades away, I don't know what to tell you.

A Link For A Friend

YouTube - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Marketing to Doctors (HBO).

I was talking to a friend who couldn't understand why he was being given blood pressure medicine when he had never had a problem with his blood pressure. This humorous video explains why.

I Deleted a Comment

This is a moderated blog, no comments are posted unless I have read them and found them acceptable. Cussing is not allowed and hijacking the blog is not allowed. In 7 years I have only deleted a handful of comments. I have even posted ones that were attacks on me. Most of the few posts I have deleted were accusations against specific people, without evidence, of committing crimes. Such things are for the police and not some random blogger.

Tonight I got a comment from someone claiming to represent "The Illuminati". LOL. I was even given a phone number to call. LMAO. I posted it for two seconds, so I could read all of it, and then deleted it. If someone really wants to give you a million dollars, they will not use the internet or e-mail to notify you. They will come in person. Please, don't fall for internet hoaxes.

Ben Carson is an Idiot and Hypocrite

I just finished a post on gun ownership that I will not release for awhile, at least not until the discussion of the multiple recent school shootings has died down and people are ready to actually think, rather than take presupposed positions, again. This discussion is not about gun ownership, it is about the hypocrisy and or lunacy of Ben Carson, Republican candidate for President.

Ben Carson would outlaw abortion and let just about everyone own machine guns. Is that rational or consistent? He would outlaw abortions because it kills people and what, let everyone own guns because they don't? Does that make any sense? I freely admit I am a pacifist; but, I would allow people to own guns to hunt for food or protect their families. I might not allow people to own nuclear bombs; but, just because I am a pacifist does not mean I would prevent people from owning tools, like guns, for lawful purposes. I am also not a vegetarian; but, I find I don't have to kill animals to get meat for myself. I am also not for killing animals for sport if the meat will not be eaten. It seems wasteful to me and unnecessary. That is not a good steward.

I had a friend, I don't know that we are friends anymore as I no longer trust him to do the right thing. He went fishing in Alaska and brought back more fish than he and his family could eat before it spoiled, a lot more. I was talking to him and he asked me to take some of the fish. I did. I said I would take enough for a meal, there were just two of us at the time. He insisted on giving me more than I could eat before it spoiled and still had more than he and all his friends could eat before it spoiled. I had one meal of it, the rest was eventually disposed of as I could not sell it or even give it away lawfully. Why did he catch more than he could ever use? How did that benefit society?

Here is a question for Mr. Carson. Should men and women be allowed to sterilize themselves? The Catholic church has said no in the past, would he side with them on this issue? I am against abortion in concept and have said so many times in the past. I am also against slavery and controlling others bodies. I would not outlaw suicide and I am against that too. Would Mr. Carson outlaw old people with terminal illnesses killing themselves or being assisted in doing so if they were not insane?

Did you know that technically, if you tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building and you survived because you landed on someone else and they died instead, you could be given the death penalty? Does that make sense? If not, why should crazy people be allowed to own machine guns? No matter what law we pass, we cannot stop abortions, there are too many pills and products that can induce an abortion or allow one to kill themselves. If you cannot stop someone from killing themselves then you cannot prevent abortions, the is just a fact. Oh, you might be able to induce a coma in people who are pregnant or suicidal and keep them in that state; but, would you actually be in favor of that?

I also want to know if Ben Carson is in favor of the death penalty. I can actually tell you why abortion is worse than the death penalty. Abortion kills the innocent and presumably some that will be guilty in the future, the death penalty does not kill as many innocents. Both kill innocents; but, the death penalty is more targeted to the guilty. With the thousands of people who have been killed in mass murders in the last decade alone, some of them had criminal records and some of them were bad people, I would bet money on that, not all of them were angels. If mass murderers kill as many innocents as abortion, they are as random, why would he support everyone owning a machine gun and be against abortion. Both are as likely to be used to kill innocents.

If Mr. Carson is against all murder then I would assume he would limit gun ownership to people who kill animals for food and not self protection. Your reasons must be consistent with your laws or you are a hypocrite. Perhaps, if Mr. Carson relies on the bible there is another passage or commandment that allows for the killing of others in the New Testament. Remember the adulterer that was to be stoned and Jesus stopped her stoning. Adultery is in the ten commandments, it made the top ten. If Mr. Carson is willing to allow insane people access to guns because things happen, would he allow adulterers to be stoned to death? Would you, I don't believe in murder so I would not.

Here is the biggest question for Mr. Carson. Who should be able to kill others, in groups or alone. If the answer is nobody, why should be have a military? If there are reasons why one should be allowed to kill others, what should the rules be? If the answer is because God said it, then do you believe in Jesus because he said we had to love our neighbor as ourselves and stopped the stoning of an adulterer. The answers to these questions may be completely different for Atheists and I am okay with that. I am not however for someone claiming biblical authority to ignore the bible when it calls for the tough answers and that is why I believe Mr. Carson is a weasel and a hypocrite.

Merit or Inherited Wealth Based Opportunity.

I read an article recently on how income inequality wasn't the real issue and that poverty was. I apologize for not having a link. I think I read it in the Huffington Post. I found the article interesting and agreed partially; but, I think it missed the second half of the equation.

Income inequality is not in of itself a bad thing. We should reward people for their contributions and the more you contribute, the more you should benefit. I think all capitalists and socialist would agree with that. It is only Communists that would disagree. Communism claims that we should take from each according to his abilities and give to each according to his needs. It sort of defeats the purpose of putting a lot of effort into anything. Unrestricted capitalism is a sort of everyman for himself philosophy where there is no room for working as a society.

Not very long ago we used to live in a world controlled and owned by kings and queens. It was a horrible world for most people and the monarchies could do whatever they wanted while the rest of the people had no rights and were constructively slaves. In England you could actually kill your wife for adultery and not go to jail; but, if you stole you would be killed. The same was true in many countries and is still true in parts of the Arab world. I guess it is all a matter of priorities. It was also a bigger crime to abuse your animals then your children or wife. In America you could own slaves, rape, beat and kill them and that wasn't that long ago. It was just capitalism at work.

Lets get back to my point. The two problems I see with where we are headed is the creation of extreme poverty which gives the disadvantaged practically no chance at improving their lot based on effort and the second problem is that those with certain advantages are not put under the same rules. The second part has to do with fairness. It is that all men are created equal concept and that everyone should have the right to pursue improving their life, everyone.

Every society decides how opportunities are given out and that aspect is more important than how money is distributed. Not everyone can become a doctor or a lawyer or even a scientist. Who gets to pursue those careers and who gets into college to learn those skills is determined in a limited number of ways. We can distribute those opportunities based on a lottery approach; but, I think that is foolishness. We can distribute it based on who can pay the most or even family lineage; but, that doesn't really serve any societal benefit and doesn't really seem fair or in keeping with our concept of democracy. We can also distribute based on merit. Merit includes more than just scoring high on tests, it would also look at how likely you were to benefit society if you were allowed those opportunities.