9 August 09

Workout notes I started my 16 mile walk at 8:30 am; I wanted some heat conditioning. I got it; it was 80 F with 76 percent humidity at the start and 87 F with 67 percent humidity at the end; my course (the East Peoria Trail) had one nice one mile stretch that was shaded. I walked to the 5 mile turn around on the first out and back and to the 3 mile turn around on the second; I was 2:21 at mile 10 and 3:51 at the finish.

I find that I get grumpier as I go along; unless I know the person I encounter on the trail I usually say nothing and, toward the end of the walk when I am in the “tunnel of pain”, I actually get annoyed when I am greeted! If I see the person in time I usually wave or grunt.

My technique usually falls apart when I get tired; I need to work on keeping the hip motion and “push-off”.

As far as others on the trail: mostly it was 10-12 mph cyclists on hybrids though I did see one facebook friend with her friends; they were out walking.

Issues of the day
Academia: there is no secret to this; some of my grad school buddies went on to achieve big things in the world of mathematics; I did not. This issue is discussed here:

Don’t get me wrong. I made a move this past year here to Soda-Pop College, and I’m glad I did. I’ve had a blast meeting and getting to know my new colleagues, and I definitely will be working on some classes and projects that are a step up from where I was.

But I also had one of those dreaded birthdays, you know, the ones that end in zeroes. And, shit, so it’s a career, and I’m happy to have it. And I do a great job at it. But if my buddy Stewie Standout is at MIT and I’m not (and he is!), well who cares?

It used to bug the shit out of me. And Stewie was just one of my grad school pals who went HIGHER and FURTHER than me. It used to eat at me. I had such terrible envy that I skipped a little get-together the rest of them had one year. (What a pissy little toad I was.)

But now I’ve got this little place near the beach. My college is NOT MIT or anything like it, but who gives a shit? I met some students in a summer colloquium. They’re great kids. They probably score 500 or so on the Math portion of the SAT (if the school’s stats are right), but I’m going to teach them like a mofu this coming term, and they’re going to make progress like you can’t believe.

I think that this is the right attitude; hey most of us math professors are NOT MIT material. But we can publish stuff (I am almost through with another paper and hope to send two of these out before the end of the month) and we can help the students who want to be helped; and yes I have a few of these every semester.

But of course there are professors at small places who have crappy attitudes; some just give up and some pretend, well, that there is no difference between them and the big guns at the MITs of the world (yeah, right).

And this is how someone responded to Mid Career Mike:

Oh, I see. Mike’s a LOSER. Mike didn’t succeed like his buddies, so now he’s changed the whole game. He didn’t just move his cheese, he gave cheese up and is eating cardboard instead.

I don’t buy for one moment that Mike is content at Soda Flop College, just like he wasn’t satisfied at Rural Raccoon. But for whatever reason he’s given up any real academic ambition because he’s not made the grade. I see this in so many of my older colleagues. I tell them about my recent publication and they tell me about their family or their golf game. As if it’s the same thing.

I’m not saying that Mike isn’t worthwhile. Perhaps he’s a fine teacher. But teaching is so low on my list of priorities, and was instilled upon me by my mentors all through grad school. (Yes, an Ivy.)

Perhaps I don’t even mean Mike’s a loser. He’s just not playing the same game as his friend from MIT is. He certainly isn’t playing the game – at the level- that I am either. His decision to accept his limitations, fall out of the game his buddies play, and call his mediocrity a success, is just a shell game.

I don’t think that Mike is playing a shell game or calling “his mediocrity a success” as he is being optimal and doing what he can do. Just because I put work into my research papers and are happy with them doesn’t mean that I don’t know that the big guns are doing stuff that is out of my league! Hey, some people are destined to train full time to run a 2:10 marathon and others are destined to train in their spare time to run a 2:30 while coaching the track team full time.

National Issues
It is way too early to say how President Obama’s plans on the economy will work out; they might be a success or they might be a flop. But there is an encouraging sign on the job front: the rate of job loss has changed concavity, so to speak. Of course, that doesn’t imply a turn around but there is a hint of promise.

Health Care

From here. I should point out is that one issue with this group is the inequities physician compensation.

A local medical doctor (facebook friend) points out that we already have rationing of care going on. Basically this is a link to a story about someone having payment for their children’s treatment denied by insurance companies. They fought the denial (with assistance from the doctors), over turned it but then had their company’s insurance premiums go up by 30 percent.

So, something needs to be done. I am going to visit Representative Aaron Schock’s office at 9 am tomorrow as part of Organizing For America. My visit will be brief; I’ll ask the staff to relay the message that I want Mr. Schock to work with the President on this issue and I’ll hand him a note with my concerns on it.

My concerns:

1. Coverage for the poor.
2. Coverage for those who have lost jobs, are between jobs, or whose jobs don’t offer benefits.
3. Coverage for those who have preexisting conditions and limiting rescission to cases of intentional fraud.
4. Keeping premiums affordable for everyone and having subsidies for those who need it.

Though I favor single payer, I am not wedded to one philosophy or another.

This is NOT a “town hall”; here is a report on one of these.

Other comments
This wonderful essay points out that the Constitution HAS to be interpreted; it makes no sense otherwise:

Here’s the third place we can agree: If the Constitution says Barack Obama is ineligible to be president, he’s ineligible to be president.

The Constitution is always right because the Framers were infallible, even about slavery and not letting women and Indians vote. The Constitution means what it says and says what it means, not unlike Horton Hatches an Egg, if it had been written 230 years ago by 55 guys.

The Constitution says:

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

About President Obama Some wish that he had a bit of Sarah Palin in him (to make his message more accessible to the masses). Others feel that his pragmatism is hurting him.

I disagree on the first count and on the second: I am not sure; the jury is still out.

It is true that we have a lot of stupidity in this country (hence the need for simple explanations?) but I wonder if surveys such as those that provided data for Maher’s post really include those who are more politically active? I am not sure; one of my previous encounters with a local Republican was a disaster (her “knowledge” was mostly Rush Limbaugh stuff) but some that I encounter on the internet appear to be well informed (if misguided )

More about Obama
I sometimes get needled when President Obama’s policies appear to be similar to those of President Bush:

(click to enlarge).

I think this way: “if a car is driven into a ditch, there are only so many ways to pull it out.” That is, given where we are now, there might not be many viable options. But I worked to elect President Obama to keep us from getting into some of these binds to begin with. Note: Obama said something to this effect in a debate for his 2004 Senate race against Alan Keyes.

Other stuff: I am getting annoyed that the terms “Nazi” and “fascist” are getting tossed about so loosely. Yes, some on our side did that too when President Bush was in office. But those terms really don’t apply.

Health Care Reform is not Nazi. A discussion of the issues isn’t nazi-like. This is nazi.

This is one reason I don’t worry about vigorous debates with conservatives; I know several and NONE of them are even remotely nazi.

Climate Change Denialist Crock