George A. Sprecace M.D.,
J.D., F.A.C.P. and Allergy
Associates of New
London,
P.C.
www.asthma.drsprecace.com
RAPID
RESPONSE (Archives)...Daily Commentary on News of the Day
This is a new
section. It will
offer fresh,
quick reactions by myself to news and events of the day, day by day, in
this rapid-fire world of ours. Of course, as in military
campaigns,
a rapid response in one direction may occasionally have to be followed
by a "strategic withdrawal" in another direction. Charge that
to
"the fog of war", and to the necessary flexibility any mental or
military
campaign must maintain to be effective. But the mission will
always
be the same: common sense, based upon facts and "real politick",
supported
by a visceral sense of Justice and a commitment to be
pro-active.
That's all I promise.
GS
THIS IS NOT ONLY ABOUT JOE BIDEN'S, CHALLENGE. It is a trip down memory lane about a nation that was rational and moral... and forward to a nation whose Leftist hysterics are neither.
Regarding
the "purge" of Homeland Security Leadership. What would you do if an
entire Department charged with implementing the Boss's directives
persistently ignored those directives - and then negligently allowed a
Chinese spy to enter and roam about your private residence loaded with
malware of all kinds? THROW THE BUMS OUT!
"Should Noncitizens Be Represented In Congress?",
by Rivkin and Raile (in WSJ April 23, 2019, Opinion, pA17). Based on
"education, training and belief", I think not. The U..S. Constitution
gives "aliens" significant rights...but I have never heard or read that
voting is one of them.
GS
RR#2
SUPPOSE, AS A LIFE-STYLE CHOICE, YOU DECIDED TO "indulge
in unhealthy behaviors, become sedentary and watch too much television,
eat too much, drink too much, smoke too much...feel adrift and become
depressed and socially isolated...and - without intellectual
stimulation - accelerate cognitive decline?" Good Choice? I think not! AND THAT IS WHAT OFTEN HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE RETIRE FROM WORK. See: "THE CASE AGAINST EARLY RETIREMENT", BY Richard W. Johnson (in WSJ April 22, 2019, Encore, pR1.
And now I'll go off to my work, a 35 hour week in this, my 87th year of life.
GS
SUNDAY, April 21,
2019
HYPERBOLE SEEMS TO BE THE "COIN OF THE REALM" THESE YEARS. Overlook the hyperbole, but DON'T overlook the FACTS. The following is a "trip down memory lane".
THE FOLLOWING IS DIRECTED TOWARD ALL VICTIMS OF "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME".
Having
majored in English Literature in college, I spent a lot of time with
the writings of a master psychologist for the ages: William
Shakespeare. The following would be some of his terms for the above:
"O Gull, O Dolt, As Ignorant As Dirt".
"Beetle-Headed, Flap-Ear'd Knave."
"Highly Fed and Lowly Taught".
"All Eyes And No Sight".
"Not so Much Brain As Ear Wax"
"I Do Desire That We May Be Better Strangers".
I should really stop now. Having too much fun.
GS
RR#3
"HEALTH CARE FOR ALL". Of course we all need health care. But that's not the end of the discussion; it is the beginning of it. "Medicare for All" is so glib...so dumb. It is a sound -bite to be expected only from unprincipled politicians. The
elements of Health Care begin with the responsibility of every person
to take care of his or her own health. Despite this obvious statement,
nearly 50% of all health care delivery is based on life style choices. And
health care delivery is not a "national lottery". You don't go to the
doctor for a chance to strike it rich. We must have medical malpractice
reform, without which over 20% of all health care costs will continue
to be the result of "defensive medicine": tests and procedures and care
delivered to protect the provider years down the road. And health
care has to end at some time. The majority of all health care costs are
generated during the last 6 months of a person's life. And although a
strong majority of elderly support the idea of an Advanced Directive, a
minority of them actually have such a document. And how is this
health care to be paid for? I have been writing about this for decades.
Now comes an analysis in the WSJ entitled: "Europe's Alterntive To Medicare For All", by Herzlinger and Barua (April 17, 2019, Opinion, pA15). So: stop with the glib and stupid and uninformed opinions. Health care delivery is the responsibility of us all.
WATCH: Bernie Sanders Supports Abortions Up to Birth, Okay
to Kill Babies Up to Birth Because “It’s Rare”
Cory Booker Defends Voting for Infanticide: Bill to Care
for Babies Born Alive Just “Creates Schisms”
Pro-Abortion Republican Bill Weld Challenges President
Donald Trump for GOP Nomination
North Carolina Legislature Passes Bill Stopping
Infanticide, Requiring Care for Babies Born Alive After Abortions
More Pro-Life News
Massachusetts Bill Would Legalize Abortions Up to Birth,
Babies Born Alive After Abortion Can be Left to Die
Alabama Bill Would Ban Abortions and Make Killing Unborn
Babies a Felony
Abortion Activist’s Crazy Claim: “Unplanned” Movie Will
“Radicalize” Pro-Lifers, Make Them “Violent”
Teachers’ Unions Push Abortions on Children as Young as 12
Without Their Parents’ Knowledge
Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
MONDAY
and TUESDAY, April 15 and 16,
2019
THE CATHEDRAL
OF NOTRE DAME.
Here is an opportunity for America to repay France to some extent for
that country's help in the American Revolution...and also an
opportunity to demonstrate America's foundation "Under God".
Donate and send France a sufficient number of our Giant Redwoods to
rebuild the Cathedral.
For
a long time, and just from paying attention to the legal side of my
interests, I have had the distinct suspicion that we have been
witnessing an increase in prosecutorial abuse, leading to unnecessary
and excessive criminal charges, excessive penalties - and worst of all,
the conviction of innocent persons. Such abuse on occasion has even
included intentionally trumped - up charges.
I have also long
thought that the conviction and jail time of an individual on trumped -
charges or the withholding of exculpatory evidence should require the
guilty prosecutor to serve the exact jail time that the innocent victim
served.
Now comes a book by Emily Bazelon and reviewed in the NYTimes Book
Review of April 14, entitled "Charged".
"It's all clear to me now". And if not corrected, it will be a cancer
in both the "Body of Justice" and in the "Body Politic".
ON
ANAPHYLAXIS, ITS DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT. Listen Up, Folks.
The life you save may be your own.
AND REMEMBER EPINEPHRINE!! That is the proper initial
treatment...not the other stuff, which is too often substituted.
AN OFFERING FOR HOLY WEEK AND FOR PASSOVER.
"A
classic episode of The Twilight Zone begins with a jewelry thief
fleeing the police and getting shot. He is awakened in the afterlife by
a man dressed in white, a 'guide' who assures him he has only one
concern:
'Your comfort. My job is to see to it you get what you
want - whatever it may be'. Incredulous, the shameless crook is soon
wallowing in wealth, wine and women. Eventually, however, he becomes
bored and argues there must have been some mistake. 'Look, I don't
belong in heaven,' he says. 'I want to go to the other place'. The
guide responds, 'Whatever gave you the idea you were in heaven'...This
is the other place.'
In the episode's closing narrative, we're
told, 'Now he has everything he's ever wanted - and he's going to have
to live with it for eternity.'"
(From Editorial, Columbia magazine (Knights of Columbus) April 2019).
GS
RR#3
JOHN
KERRY, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I WAS STARTING TO MISS YOU...
I
ORIGINALLY LEARNED THIS FABLE IN ITALIAN - AND I STILL KNOW IT.
But no translation needed here.
See you in November, 2020.
GS
THE NEW ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
THE NEW ANT and the Grasshopper, Two Versions:
The ANT AND THE
GRASSHOPPER
Two Different Versions ...
Two Different Morals
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and
plays the summer away.
Come
winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he
is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC
show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a
video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can
this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is
allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and
everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green'
Occupy
the Anthill stages a demonstration in front of the ant's
house
where the news stations film the Black Lives Matter group singing, We
shall overcome.
Then Reverend Al Sharpton has the
group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper while he damns the ants.
He later appears on MSNBC to complain that rich people do not care.
Former
President Obama condemns the ant and blames Donald Trump, President
Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and
the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi &
Chuck Schumer exclaim in an interview on The View that the ant has
gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an
immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper
Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The
ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs
and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is
confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The
story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends
finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house
he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house,
crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The
grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house,
now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the
ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2020.
I believe that you are an ant - not a grasshopper !
FRIDAY,
April 12,
2019
RR#1
WHAT
IS IT IN THE SERIOUSLY IMPAIRED UPBRINGING OF THESE RECENT GENERATIONS
THAT PRODUCES THESE HARE-BRAINED AND EVEN PSYCHOTIC IDEAS?
The
goals of Leftists are becoming certifiable. And they appear to be
contagious, at least among their feckess Democratic fellow-travelers.
Or is it Fear?
RR#2
"WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS..."
Spirituality,
for sure: the belief in a Supreme Being, a Creator. I find Atheists
unbelievable: they can't be so stupid, so lacking in common sense.
Religion? It's helpful, but neither necessary nor sufficient.
Clericalism (which I define as an overriding quest by clergy for
worldly power) is a turn-off for most of the Laity.
By
contrast, the world is turning against what it needs now: against the
Church and toward secular Muslims in Europe; and against all religion,
especially the Catholic Church and Judaism in America.
With that
introduction, I strongly suggest reading several articles in the April
2019 edition of CATALYST", published by The Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights. Leaven that with a visit to my web site
section entitled "Catholic Church": over 200 personal articles and
postings, some of them definitely critical of my Church.
But a development of our spiritual side is definitely "WHAT THE WORLD
NEEDS NOW...."
GS
MONDAY
through WEDNESDAY, April 8 through 10,
2019
RR#1
PREPARATION FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS: PAY
ATTENTION...
and start working for your candidates, and against those others.
You
might begin by reading about America's current situation in an article
by Peggy Noonan - generally leaning Left but unable to misrepresent.
See: "The Two Americas Have Grown Much Fiercer"
(in WSJ March 30-31, 2019, Opinion, A15).
Now
pay close attention to what the many crazy, fevered Leftist candidates
are advocating and yelling. If they are not called out and countered
and out - voted...they could win on energy alone. And then the battle
would be totally different. See the following articles.
"All Bernie's Socialists"
(Editorial, WSJ April 9, 2019, pA16)
"Busting The Legislative Filibuster"
(Editorial, WSJ April 8, 2019, pA16).
This is Real, Folks.
GS
RR#2
THE BLOOM IS OFF THE ROSE.
Humanity
has always been capable of the greatest Good and the greatest Evil.
That has certainly been evident throughout the history of America.
Now
and in the last few decades since the rise of the Progressive movement,
we have been progressively going to hell in a hand-basket. The
reconstituted Democratic Party, their Hollywood sounding board and
their Media apologists have been leading the way. And more recently we
have found that our "institutions of higher learning" have been
learning the bad lessons.
See "Cheating On The SATs", by William
McGurn (in WSJ April 9, 2019, Opinion, pA15).
Public morality has always depended upon private, personal morality.
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care?".
The 2020 Election will be a critical test, with great consequences.
GS RR#3
"YOU WANT THE TRUTH?...."
View
the excellent interview by Bret Baier with Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell on the 6PM edition of Fox News, Wednesday, April 11, 2019.
Many vital topics, clearly asked and clearly answered. Or can't you
"...handle the truth?"
ISLAM is one of the world's three great Religions, all stemming from
the same common root.
SHARIA
LAW is yet another man-made effort at domination of one class of
peoples by another class of peoples: inhumane, despotic. execrable. In
non-Muslim countries, the former should be accepted; the latter should
be totally rejected. And in Muslim countries, time is long past to do
the same...to save the Religion and the Law.
Meanwhile, politicians do their thing: 1) A camel is a horse designed
by politicians; 2) a Horse's Ass is what's left.
ANOTHER
POT POURRI,
reflecting the acidified stew we are presented as daily fare.
The
best of these offerings is by Shelby Steele: "The Right And The Moral High Ground"
(in WSJ April 1, 2019, Opinion, p17." From a fine historian and
author...not to miss.
I
hate to paraphrase myself, but - "The Climate Needs Nuclear Power",
by Hansen and Shellenberger (in WSJ Apriol 5, 2019, Opinion, pA15).
"Connecticut Voters Need The Power To Hold
Referendums",
by Paul M. Rosenberg (in ctmirror.org, March 23, 2019). Yea,
sure...while the only possible means to implement this choice is
through the General Assembly. Fat chance, more's the pity. They are too
busy ignoring the State debt and arguing about legalizing Cannabis for
the general public, and "Assisted Suicide".
IN
AN EARLIER OFFERING OF RAPID RESPONSE TODAY,
I referenced an article entitled "The Climate Needs Nuclear Power" (WSJ April 5,
2019).
Now come two book reviews: "Chernobyl Reconsidered: The worst nuclear
accident in history contains lessons
for the present" (in NYTimes Book Review, april 7, 2019
One
lesson is not to trust the then-Soviets - and probably now the Russians
- with anything except perhaps space-travel. The other lesson is all
too familiar to us. Referring to today's many dangers: "To keep these
modern invaders at bay requires separating fact from fiction, and
depending on expert advice. Will we avert catastrophe by honestly
judging the benefits and risks of each energy source without hiding the
costs - and will politicians have the guts to act on those judgments?
Not yet."
GS
WEDNESDAY,
April 3,
2019
YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE
PACKAGING (teaparty.org.).
But the contents are gold.
REGARDING
POPE FRANCIS...
a disappointment thus far in commission and omission.
The
most recent and continuing comments by His Holiness regarding
world-wide "migration" have, in my opinion, no basis in either reasoned
or moral judgment.
See the commentary by Rachel Ehrenfeld posted
in the Rapid Response offering on my web-site dated March 29 - 30,
2019. Contrary to the enlightened actions of then Pope John
Paul
ll throughout the 1980's, actions that brought the European continent
out of the hell of Soviet domination, Pope Francis is contributing
materially to the decline and fall of that same European continent into
another tyrannical force: The Nation of Islam. Why? That is the
disappointment of commission.
The disappointment of omission is the
failure so far of Pope Francis to address the accelerating decline and
fall of the Catholic Church, most recently in the failed 2019 Synod -
about which the Pope commented with pointed "silence".
It is said that "the Ways of the Lord are not the ways of Man".
Definitely.
