Comments for Fat Head

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People

Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:37:28 +0000

Don’t look at me. Tom’s the one who brought up Denny’s.

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:59:17 +0000

A very happy birthday to The Older Brother! Enjoy!

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by LCNana

LCNana — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:10:43 +0000

Tom, welcome back. Older Brother was a very bad boy while you were away. He told us a lot of nightmarish bedtime stories about what big bad nasty governments can do to us! He scared us with tales about something called an economic meltdown, and about what “food” really costs and stuff like that! Kept some of us awake!!!!

It was pretty hairy there for a while (sorry Tom!!) and there were some shaky fingers on some delete buttons – but he didn’t frighten us all away! We’re soooooo glad you’re back. Can we just talk about the toxic stuff scientists and nutritionists are doing to us? What am I saying – like that’s going to help us sleep! (Happy B’Day OB and welcome back Tom!)

I’m glad he’s back, too.

Booo! Supply demand curve!!!

Sorry. Just had to take one last shot.

Thanks (to everybody) for keeping an eye on me while Tom was gone.

–The Older Brother

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Jesrad

Jesrad — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:56:56 +0000

Happy birthday Mr Older (or is it Mr Brother ?)

Here’s a little gift for you : http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/this-is-not-a-joke-government-issues-study-of-a-study-about-studies/
Enjoy

Well now, I’m just “Older.” Thanks for the link. Government is truly the gift that just keeps on giving.

Cheers

Comment on The Older Brother lets his inner econ nerd run wild (finale) by Pierce

Pierce — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:06:41 +0000

Said I wouldn’t post again, but this is too good to resist.

http://www.economist.com/node/21555472

I’m happy to return to discussions of pastured bacon.

Yeah, me too!

thanks for the link. Interesting read.

–The Older Brother

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People

Drew @ Willpower Is For Fat People — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:44:35 +0000

Happy birthday! I hear Denny’s has a “Build your own pancake” special going on.

thanks Drew. So your advice is to eat a carb-bomb? Guess I really pissed you off with the economics stuff, huh?

–the Older Brother

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Erik

Erik — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:40:42 +0000

Happy birthday, Bro!

But, seriously, you didn’t have to wait all this time for a senior citizen discount. Just ask the vague question, “do you offer a Senior Citizen Discount”, and they’ll usually just give it to you. I’ve been getting them since I was 43.

Thanks. I don’ think my ego could take it. I figure it’s worth paying the extra 10% for them to pretend I don’t look that old. I still try to show waitstaff my ID when I order a martini.

Cheers

Comment on The Older Brother Is A Senior Citizen by Tammy

Tammy — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:31:52 +0000

Happy Birthday Older Brother !!!!

Comment on The Older Brother lets his inner econ nerd run wild (finale) by Bong Kim

Bong Kim — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:59:34 +0000

Please read O.E.C.D. date sheets about U.S. and other advanced countries health care system. Unfortunately the U.S. is the last place holder last time I checked. Claim your opinion based on facts not on your fantasies. Cheers.

I’ll take that one myself. (This is Tom, not the Older Brother.) Where a country ranks on that scale depends entirely on which factors the ranking organization decides to consider and how much weight each factor is given. The U.S. ranked #1 (that would be first) in responsiveness (i.e., receiving treatment in time to save your life) and also in survival rates for several diseases. The ranking organization chose to give those factors a very low weighting, while giving “fairness” a very high weighting. In other words, a country in which everyone receives equally slow and ineffective health-care would out-rank the U.S. because it’s more “fair” if everyone suffers equally, as opposed to the U.S., where the wealthy can buy as much health-care as they choose while the poor can’t.

But if you really want to believe people receive better health care in Honduras than in the U.S., knock yourself out, my little socialist friend.

And from The Older Brother…

So you’re citing for your facts the “Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development?”

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Good one. An organization of taxpayer-financed jet-setting gasbag apparatchiks dedicated to “global development.” i.e., helping governments develop government policies to address societal issues — caused by governments. How’s that working out for you?

I love your sense of irony.

Let’s take one of the OECD’s most popular health care chestnuts, the idea that the evil US health care system, despite all the money we spend, ranks abysmally low against the rest of the world in infant mortality rates. We’re at nearly three times the rate as Slovenia. Slo-freaking-venia, for crying out loud! How could that be? Don’t you just take the number of pregnancies, subtract the number of live births, and divide that by the total pregnancy number?

Nope. You don’t count stillbirths or what’s considered “non-viable” pregnancies. But countries define viable differently. In the US, we are very aggressive and go to extraordinary measures (and expense) to bring extremely premature babies to term. Many fail, and this gets counted in our total pregnancy AND mortality numbers. Other countries simply do not invest in the resources for this level of care, and therefore many of the same pregnancies never make it into to those numbers.

So, in the US, if 2 out of 10 pregnancies are extremely premature, and we save one of those and rest live, we have 9 live babies, but a 10% infant mortality rate. In many other countries, the same set of circumstances gets counted as 8 pregnancies, all successful, for a butt-kicking 0% infant mortality rate! Of course, there’s one less baby going home with Mom.

Here’s an excerpt of a study in BMJ:

“Several institutions, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), provide international rankings of countries based on perinatal, infant, or child mortality.1 2 3 4 This annual updating of the health of children worldwide receives considerable attention in the lay press and medical journals, and frequently serves as the basis for political rhetoric, especially in industrialised countries.5 6 7 8 The subject is particularly pertinent in Canada and the United States; Canada placed 14th among about 35 OECD nations in 1960, ranked sixth in 1990, and began a steep descent to its current position of 25th place in 2008.2 The United States ranked 13th in 1960 and 22nd in 1990 and is currently in 31st place among OECD countries.2

Although the intent of such international comparisons is to spur improvements in children’s health globally, the validity of the rankings is questionable. Wide variations in birth registration procedures, even among industrialised countries, mean that comparisons of crude infant mortality may reward countries with a pragmatic approach to birth registration (that is, those which register only infants who survive or have a reasonable chance of survival). The medical literature documents wide variation in the registration of live births and stillbirths, especially with respect to births at the borderline of viability (for example, those with a birth weight of less than 500 g).9 10 11 12 The World Health Organization recommends that international comparisons of infant mortality should be restricted to live births with a birth weight of at least 1000 g.13 The classification of deaths as neonatal deaths versus stillbirths and birth registration practices related to infants with lethal congenital anomalies (including the registration of live births that occasionally follow prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy for congenital anomalies) are other potential sources of variation.11 14 15″

The OECD absolutely knows this, yet they use it to proselytize for government health care as superior to our now much hobbled system. That means they’re freakin’ liars. So whose facts are really fantasies, and didn’t you really already know that?

Thanks again. I wasn’t going to mention this, but Tom narc’ed me out as turning 55 today (or, as my hopelessly self-centered baby-boom generation likes to call it, “approaching middle age”). A good laugh is always a great birthday present.

–The Older Brother

Comment on The Older Brother lets his inner econ nerd run wild (finale) by Elenor

Elenor — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:02:57 +0000

Hmmm, well, perhaps I may have over-reacted to his suggestion that I think ANYthing positive about Hannity and Coulter and the religious right… But having just wasted seven hours yesterday trying to get help from the not-so-local IRS office… and having it turn out that *I* knew more than the “counselor” about dealing with the taxes owed by the business for last year, I’m (still/again/always) very very very jaundiced about “our” govt.

And the progressives (and so-called conservatives) who think something wonderful can come out of a huge herd of people with all the flaws that flesh is heir to — and who are protected from their own mistakes, missteps, and intentional failings so they have no incentive except personal incentives to learn and excel, or even to do an acceptable job — really get my goat! (Grass-fed, of course.) Why does anyone think that, if one or two humans, motivated mainly by their own interests, often make decisions and choices that are less-than-optimal for the whole group, gathering up 100 or 200 of them will suddenly make them all wise?!
{grumble grumble}

Ah. Anyone having had to spend a day interacting with the IRS is officially free to be a little touchy. Hope it worked out okay for you. If anybody down there asks, you never heard of me, okay?

Cheers!