Vince's Solution to Healthcare

Before I get to my solution to America's healthcare problem, let me explain that I don't believe that a problem exists. The United States has the finest healthcare system in the world. It ain't cheap, but would you want it to be? Would you trust your eyes or your heart to a low budget, under incented, government trained doctor? When a Canadian Premier needed surgery recently, did he go to Montreal? Toronto? Nope, he went to Boston*. If you need prostate surgery, my advice is to stay here in Columbus, not go up to Canada. If it's too expensive for you, then cut out the lawyer's portion, not the healthcare professional's portion.

Okay, so how am I going to solve the healthcare problem our liberal government believes exists? I'm going to become a Congressman! Simple. Just like that I've protected myself and my family. You see, those guys aren't subject to the socialist system they are trying to foist upon us taxpayers. They won't stand in lines like we did for the Pig Flu vaccine (a foreshadowing of Obamacare). Their life or death will be decided by God or their family instead of a government panel like our's will. They will keep the same Cadillac plan and stay right here in the USA for the prostate operation. By then maybe we will be better off going up to Canada. How ironic is that?

Seriously though, running for Congress isn't an option. Writing my Congressmen is. I've written six letters to them in the past year. Speak from the heart; it's easy. An overwhelming majority of our fellow countrymen oppose government healthcare, yet Obama continues to talk of ramming it down out throat. Get mad. Speak up (here's a link to house.gov). November may be too late.


*Here is a link to the story at CBC.ca.

Happy Veteran's Day

It's 11:00 am on November 11th. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Today is Veteran's Day. Today I am grateful for my many friends and family members who have served in our armed forces defending our freedom here and abroad, in peacetime and at war. These are crazy times. It is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between peace and war, terrorists embedded in our own armed forces open fire on their fellow countrymen, and some among us seem bent on appologizing for the very strengths the make our country great. These are times when thanking a veteran is especially important.

I remember my Dad telling me back in 1976 that he hoped I would be lucky enough to avoid being drafted in the war Jimmy Carter was sure to start. Dad served in the Air Force and was in Viet Nam during the Tet Offensive of 1968. He knows of what he speaks. I was lucky Dad. Thank you and the many veterans I know for standing up to protect the freedom and liberty I enjoy every day. I am truly honored.

Why I Voted Against the Ohio Casino Amendment

Today the State of Ohio votes to amend our constitution to allow casino gambling in our state. According to the pundits it should be a very close contest. I voted against Issue 3. Hopefully it will come down to one vote.

There are a lot of issues surrounding this relatively simple ballot item. Liberty, jobs, state's rights and revenue are among them. Defending the few liberties we Americans have left is high on the list of priorities these days, but we are free to fly to Vegas or drive to Indiana or michigan to gamble. To me, that's not the real issue. I've played poker since I was ten and made a craps blanket with friends in 7th grade. Let our citizens gamble if they want to.

Jobs are important, especially when some are trying so hard to remake our country and eliminate some traditional industries. Still, it is not the government's responsibility to create jobs. That duty falls to small companies and private industry. Government's job is to get out of the way and let all Americans flourish and pursue the American dream.

Our great nation went to war over state's rights when the northern states asserted that slavery was wrong and tried to impose their will on the southern states. It was the ugliest period in our short history as a nation. May we never repeat it.

Those issues are all important, but it was taxation that swayed my vote. Proponents of Ohio Issue 3 call it revenue, but make no mistake, it's a tax on the citizens and guests of the state of Ohio. In fact it's a huge tax with estimates as high as $1 billion. A billion? Shouldn't that make us taxpayers shudder? Are we really going to give the government another billion? We Ohioans pay enough. When I was in Junior High School Ohio had the 5th lowest tax burdon in the nation. According to the Tax Foundation, last year we had climbed to 43rd. Enough is enough! Remember how the Ohio Lottery was going to fund schools and keep property tax rates down? Didn't work folks. Does anyone think that the Casino Tax will cause our property taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, or any tax to decrease because we are taxing the gamblers of this state A BILLION BUCKS? I don't. That's why I voted against Ohio Issue 3. The answer isn't more tax, it's less spending. C'mon man! Thanks for reading.

Moving my websites

So Geocities finally shut down. The passing of an era. They have hosted my personal site and the Columbus Metro Golf Club site since HTML 3.0. Old school. After some brief research into Facebook and Twitter, Blogspot quickly emerged as the most appropriate host for the next generation of my sites. Stay tuned for the relaunch*

Vince's Blog never really amounted to much; a sort of underachiever. Hopefully as my main site it will enjoy a more diverse life. And the CMGC site will come back to life on a sister Blogspot site. Stay tuned for more on that. Till then, thanks for reading.


*Not that anyone is really seeing this.

My Sprint 8 Program

I plan to climb Wheeler Peak, the 13,161 foot high point of New Mexico, this fall. In order to make the 16 mile, 3600 foot climb without ruining my week or killing myself, I need to get in shape. While I'm a firm believer in the No Magic Diet (to lose weight, you must burn more than you consume), it's hard to ignore the success Lance Armstrong has has with interval training.

The Sprint 8 program appeared in the April 2006 issue of Outside Magazine and it made sense to me immediately. It's very simple. After warming up, you do 8 seventy yard wind sprints, 8 thirty second bursts on a bike, 8 twenty second bursts on cross county skis, etc. My plan was to start my Sprint 8 program twenty weeks before the climb. The chart at right shows my progress. You can read more about the program on my website at www.geocities.com/vresor. Here are my updates.


7/14/06: Wow, over a month since my last post to the Sprint 8 blog. no wonder my progress has gone slack. Is it an American wearing the maillot jaune in the Tour de France? Or maybe the brutal sales training session this week? Maybe it's time to add a more aggressive diet adjustment to the Sprint 8 program? Regardless, it's time to pick up the pace if I'm to lose enough weight.


6/12/06: It's been six weeks since I started the Sprint 8 and yesterday was the first day I was able to sprint 8 windsprints without pain in my knees or quads. It was quite rewarding. Losing nine pounds makes me feel good too, but it makes me wonder if there is a more effective measurement of dieting success. I'm much less interested in what I weigh than in my cardiovascular condition and how well my pants fit. Maybe I will add a line to the chart showing waist circumference?


5/29/06: A second word to the wise for prospective Sprint 8 programmers: do not grill spare ribs the night before your weekly weigh in. Seriously though, a pound a week is a pretty good pace and will lead to 20 pounds I won't carry to the top of Wheeler Peak.


5/22/06: The running is getting easier now that I've gotten over the muscle agony. A word to the wise for prospective Sprint 8 programmers: do not eat half a large pizza the night before your weekly weigh in.


5/10/06: My mountain bike and the Sprint 8 program go well together, but I broke down and bought a pair of running shoes and wanted to try them out. I walked the seventy yard sprint "course" twice and jogged it once for a warm-up, but my quads felt like they tore on the first real sprint and I could only jog the rest of them. Nice. I bet that will feel good in the morning.


5/7/06: Today was the first day I tried actual wind sprints for my Sprint 8. It had probably been 25 years since I last sprinted (as in on foot) and I wondered if my knees would come apart. They didn't and I was able to muster 6 seventy yard sprints.


5/3/06: My Sprint 8 program started today after a long winter of Ohio slothdom. I could only muster 4 thirty second sprints on my mountain bike. Thankfully I didn't puke.

The Van Lane

So I'm driving to work this morning and there's a huge white van in front of me for several miles. All I can see is the non-descript read end of this huge white van. This isn't anything new of course and it prompted me to create a new post.

First you have to understand that I call anything bigger than a car a van. That includes vans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks, conversion vans, RVs, and anything else car drivers can't see through the windows of.

Anyway, there I am tooling down the freeway seeing nothing but the back of this van and it hits me, there's always a van hugging the fast lane! When someone comes up behind me, I move over. That's the law, right? Evidently vans are exempt. Maybe it's a special sticker van drivers get on their license?

Car drivers can see through the windows of cars in front of them. That's safe. That lets you react more quickly to brake lights and other things up the road. Vans block the view. It's downright dangerous and I think they should have their own lane. The Van Lane.

The Pneumonia Diet

My incessant hacking finally turned to pneumonia. As if a weekend spent staring at the ceiling wasn't bad enough, pneumonia cost me four days in the hospital. And as if four days in the hospital wasn't bad enough, it began with 28 hours in the ER.

Don't get me wrong, my doctor is a great guy. The problem is that everyone thinks he's a great guy and consequently he's booked around the clock. That means when you're in the hopital, you see a Hospitalist. When you're in the ER, you see an ERist. I was sick for nearly a month and never saw my doctor.

Oh yeah, what about the Pneumonia Diet? I lost 10 pounds in two weeks on the Pneumonia Diet. I overwhelmingly prefer the No Magic Diet, but the Pneumonia Diet is definitely effective. Good luck.

Ground Zero

So I'm broswing Conde Nast at B&N and come across an article updating websites from the road. Just two days ago a co-worker asked me "what does blog mean?" Apparently I'm an authority. Anyway, here I am. Hopefully I'll think of something profound to publish. Thanks for reading.