Sunday Musings 1/31/16

As I thought about my budget for February, I realized it was a Leap Year, which means we get one more day of news about this wacky Presidential election which has the possibility of having very unusual outcomes, particularly if certain GOP candidates become President.

One thing we know for sure, the next President will not be an atheist. 51% of voters will never vote for an atheist.  We rank lower than Communists, Socialists, and any number of other measures as being unworthy of being elected President.  Frank Bruni wasn't commenting on that survey, but he did note something similar.

"It’s impossible to know the genuineness of someone’s faith. That’s among the reasons we shouldn’t grant it center stage."

"Religion was integral to our country’s founding. It’s central to our understanding of the liberty that each of us deserves. But so are the principles that we don’t enshrine any one creed or submit anyone — including those running for office — to religious litmus tests."

Link to Bruni's GOP Holy War

God help us if the Tea Party gets elected to the White House.  They really want to dismantle the government and run it like a business.  That is what brought us lead in Flint, Michigan's water supply and that is why our infrastructure is falling apart.  You cannot replace every bridge, pipe, tunnel, sewage treatment facility in the country when it breaks down.  Replacement needs to be methodical.

And the NIH, the National Institute of Health, helps keep us healthy in ways that are very unknown to the public.  I was out to dinner with the son of a friend of ours who is going to Business School and wanted to thank those who helped put him in a position to be accepted and get a scholarship to boot.  One of his friends is in a combined MD/PhD program.  It is very hard to get into these because not only is it competitive but very smart people want to be part of it because the work is the leading edge of medical research.  And it has been funded by the NIH since the 1930's.  These students get free tuition and a small living allowance because they are becoming both Medical Dr's and scientific researchers.  The NIH created and has continued the Program because Dr's tend to focus on the here and now and see only the patients issues.  Scientists tend to function in their Ivory Tower focusing on theory.  Someone needs to bridge that divide and it is this small number of Dr Scientists who are trained by NIH funding who perform that role.  There is no profit in much of the research.  The profit comes when these guys/gals figure something out and then the Pharmacy companies try to find the drug.  If the NIH is disbanded as some Tea Party types would like to do, this program will disappear and progress on many aspects of understanding the science of disease will be retarded.

My new friend is studying infectious disease.  His current focus is drug resistant TB, but what he learns will be useful for fighting all drug resistant infectious disease.  How is that not a critical role for the government to try and provide some level of safety to its citizens?

I spent a portion of last night watching Eric Clapton's 70th Birthday show.  He played Crossroads, which was originally written by Robert Johnson in the 20's and then became a signature song for Cream in the 60's.  And I mused, how many other song writers from that era still have their music being played 100 years later with attribution to their greatness.  Other than Irving Berlin, and people like Mozart, Beethoven, etc, not very many.  So when Eric Clapton calls Robert Johnson the most important Blues Singer ever, he is really making an understatement of greatness.  I miss my records, I  had two Robert Johnson recordings, but you have to downsize and you cannot keep everything.