As I sat there and waited, four other patients came in and registered.  Each one of them said that they were there for their 10:30 appointment for the same doctor that I was there to see.  Right away I knew I would be waiting for a while.  It is no wonder that you have to wait so long when you are at a doctor’s office.  There is no way that the doctor could see everyone at 10:30.  So, why do they do that?  Why not schedule to appointments fifteen minutes apart?  Why not have some consideration for your patients?  I sat there for 40 minutes waiting to get in to see the doctor.  I don’t know about you, but I could use that extra forty minutes in my day.

My wife’s hospital visit was worse.  She was scheduled for a routine test.  Her appointment was for 8:30AM at Millard Fillmore Suburban.  We got there ahead of time like we normally do for doctor’s visits.  They ended up taking her in at 10:15, which was almost 2 hours after the time we were scheduled to be there.  That is downright annoying.

And how much worse is it to sit and wait in a hospital waiting room than it is to just show up an hour later when they will actually take you in for your procedure.  The whole process drives me nuts.

I probably shouldn’t complain though.  I remember twenty years ago when I had to go to ECMC for some Xrays or something, it took like 4 hours of sitting and waiting before I got in to get my Xrays done.  At least it isn’t that bad anymore.  Well, maybe it still is that bad at ECMC.  I don’t know.  But, I know that I speak for most Western New Yorkers when I say that sitting and waiting in a doctor’s office or a hospital waiting room just plain sucks.  There is no simpler way to put it.

Kids will be kids.  When an adult catches them acting in a manner that is inappropriate like bullying, then yes they ought to put a stop to it.  Anyone who doesn’t stop it is a sorry excuse for an adult if you ask me.  I really don’t think we need any laws or any new formal policies to handles something that is so ridiculously common and so common sense.

People think that common sense can be legislated through some kind of law or some kind of official policy.  Really?  How stupid do you have to be to be to actually believe that?

You can’t make me not like someone by passing some friggin law.  You cannot make one kid like another one because of some school policy.  It isn’t going to happen.  You people who think that it will make a difference should all be put into a room where I can come in and belittle all of you like a big bully.  I can come in and call you the names you deserve to be called by being whiny little babies.  You don’t think it’s fair that your kid has to learn to cope with the basic realities that life is not all hugs and kisses.   Kids are going to be mean and nasty to each other when nobody is looking.  Teach your kid to deal with it.  There are far worse things that are going to happen to them in life than this.

How To Stop Bullying

If your child is being bullied, you should call the school principle and voice your concerns to them.  Tell him or her that you are teaching your kid how to kick the other kid’s ass.  Let them know that you are giving your kid the green light to do it too.  Tell them that you are no longer requiring your kid to just sit and take it. 

Tell your kid that the next time this bully acts out against him that he should tell the bully that this is his last chance to stop.  Of course the other kid won’t.  So then your child should go punch the other one directly in the face repeatedly as fast and as hard as possible.  That will shut the other kid up.  Bullies have a tendency to back down when someone actually challenges them.  When your kid goes apeshit on the bully he is going to earn newly found respect from everyone in his class.  That will give him back all the self esteem plus some that he has let the bully take from him up till now.

The Big Picture About Bullying

The fact that there is such bad bullying happening today is due to the fact that parents do not raise their kids with as many moral standards as they used to.  Kids used to be brought up going to church and being taught not to do things like bullying.  These days less and less kids are going to church.  It is not so much the fact that they don’t go to church.  Not going to church is just a reflection of the fact that kids’ manners have been moved lower in the average parent’s priority scale.  Kids are more spoiled than ever before.  By their own parent’s example they are being taught that material things are extremely important.  They simply aren’t being taught to respect each other the way they should be.  That is the root of the problem.

So now you want to blame the bully’s parents right?  Yeah.  Well it is their fault.  But, it is also your fault for not doing enough to make sure that your school teaches moral values to kids in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic.  You have not done enough to let your lawmakers know that having kids taught moral values in school is important to you.  You continue voting for people who think that all morality should be taken out of schools completely.  It is as much your own damn fault as it is anyone else’s.  Stop electing the piece of crap liberals who think kids should not be exposed to moral teachings in school.

You want bullying to stop for your kid?  Send them to one of the great local area Catholic schools.  Those schools still believe that common values and respect for fellow man should be taught as part of any responsible school curriculum.

It could be a reflection of the level of education a person achieves as well.  Obviously as a person’s education level increases, their communication skills also tend to increase along with it.  The two items are somewhat correlated even though they are different.

The thing that brought this to my attention was the fact that you see search engine results improving based on quality.  For Google at least, it is becoming apparent that they are actually figuring out ways of using filters to determine some level of quality about any given website.  Although they obviously aren’t 100% accurate, they are certainly much better than they used to be.

This is a trend that is bound to continue.  Not only will you see it continue online, but you will also see it happen in many other areas in life.  The salesman with the best communication skills will sell more product than his counterparts.  The politician with the best communication skills will quickly rise to power as is evident with president Obama.  The business man with the best communication skills will climb the corporate ladder much faster than others.

Doesn’t this just make perfect sense?

Shouldn’t we then encourage our children as much as possible to better their communication skills on every level?  Shouldn’t we discourage them from writing to each other using abbreviations for words instead of writing complete sentences with proper grammar?   Shouldn’t we try to make ourselves good examples for the children around us to learn these habits?  Shouldn’t we demand that our schools deny diplomas to students who cannot write in complete sentences using reasonable grammar?

Parents and educators alike are accepting sub-par performance from children and young adults when it comes to communication skills.  Students, regardless of age, should be expected to speak English and write English very well.  Neglecting this basic and fundamental prerequisite to a better life is truly a disservice to that child.  We should not let them down.

I love learning about World War II on there.  It reminds me of all of the cool war stories I heard from veterans that frequent the VFW post that my dad used to hang out at.  Dad is a Korean War vet.  I have uncles who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  So, I can relate to the stuff they talk about on these shows.  I have heard stories about Iwo Jima, sinking Jap submarines, the invasion of Okinawa, dancing with Betty Grable at a USO event and getting drunk all over the world.  This one Vietnam vet told me about how intense it was to be a door gunner flying over a hundred miles an hour skimming the tree tops in Vietnam in a Huey.  Cool shit huh?

The other day I was watching this debate about whether or not the Jewish people were actually militaristic when they fled Egypt.  The theory is that maybe they weren’t actual slaves but instead were kind of employed by the Egyptians to help them build their massive stone projects.  It is hard to tell how much validity there is behind that theory, but it is interesting to think about. Then they went on to speculate about how the Jewish people actually escaped the Egyptian Army.  They made more sense of it than the legend in the Bible does.

I also really like watching the show about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.  There are so many fascinating things about that era.  Back then, you could actually walk up to the White House, knock on the door and ask to see the president.  How weird is that?  Can you imagine what would happen to presidents in this era if that was still the policy?  Pretty much every one of them since Dwight Eisenhower would probably have been whacked.  Now you can’t even send a letter to the president that will actually be read by him.  My, how times have changed.

What are your favorite shows?

I have come to the conclusion that it is primarily the person’s genetics.  How else could you possibly explain a baby dying from cancer at age 3 when they have done nothing wrong and only been fed healthy foods?  Pick any of these childhood diseases.  How can you explain them other than faulty genetics? 

How else can you explain the guy who lives into his 90’s and still smokes?  How else can you explain the physically fit jogger who dies of a heart attack at age 50?  What about the fat slob who is still alive in his eighties that has been 80lbs overweight for as long as you’ve known him.

I am willing to admit that certain lifestyle habits would certainly trump good genetics.  Take for instance the habitual narcotics user.  He is destined for a short life because of the things that some drug users do like share needles or become homeless or commit crimes to pay for their drugs.  Consider the homosexual man who decides to engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners.  His lifestyle choice is almost certain to land him some kind of STD in a relatively short period of time.

But, as far as the more minor things that people do to affect their lives like smoke cigarettes, drinking alcohol and not exercising, it appears that genetics will overpower those types of vices to some degree.  Thank God for small favors.

I rationalized this way of thinking as being the reason why I need to not worry so much about poor lifestyle decisions that I have engaged in over the years.  Instead I should just worry about living healthier now.  Hopefully genetics will forgive me to some extent for the various ways I have punished my organs over the years.

Are you worried about your health?  Think about how I rationalized this concept.  Maybe you can find some solace in it as well.