John, Paul, Ron and Ringo?

I consider it good practice to uniquely identify every magazine I own.

It is a practice I picked up working in the factory. Certain material carriers were more likely to mis-load material into production stations that others. The first step to curing the system was to identify the carriers that were problems and either pull them out of the system or fix them.

The easiest way to mark carriers was to mark the nose of the carrier with a wax pencil or a Sharpie. Pretty soon you would have two or three carriers with four or more marks on the nose and nearly all the other carriers would be pristine.

But we don't always carry a Sharpie or wax pencil. That is the reason for the identifiers.

Magazines can be the weak link in the reliable operation of a firearm. Same-same.

Sure, I could use numbers or letters like 223A but then an observer might assume I had 223 or 308 magazines.  That might be awkward some day.

Mrs ERJ looked at a couple of my magazines and asked, "I suppose you have two more named George and Paul?"

My response was, "Close but not quite. I am naming them after famous authors. I have two more named Ron and Paul."

Dead languages

I recently read an article suggesting that contracts and other documents written by the legal profession will no longer be in archaic, dead languages. The writer expects this transition sometime in the next ten years.

The writer implied that issues of grammar, tense and gender are too limiting for vast numbers of writers and consumers who no longer make a rigorous study of dead languages in college.

The language the writer was referring to is Standard American English.

Statins

Mrs ERJ asked me to look up the benefits and side effects of taking statins.

This is what I found:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4513492/

The role of blood cholesterol levels in coronary heart disease (CHD) and the true effect of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are debatable. In particular, whether statins actually decrease cardiac mortality and increase life expectancy is controversial.

Subsequent statin studies have led the United States Food and Drug Administration to issue warnings regarding the increased risk of diabetes and decreased cognition with statin drugs.

...statin trials conducted after 2005 have failed to demonstrate a consistent mortality benefit

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/9/e007118

The median postponement of death for primary and secondary prevention trials were 3.2 and 4.1 days, respectively.

http://doctormurray.com/statins-increase-the-risk-of-diabetes-even-greater-than-expected/

Researchers found... (a) 72% increase in type 2 diabetes noted in postmenopausal women taking statins.

Statins have not been shown to increase life expectancy in these patients or in others not suffering from clinical evidence of CVD.

As always, be skeptical of what you find on the internet.  I picked these articles because they referenced peer reviewed publication

Think this through
I want you to think through the consequences of telling your doctor that you won't take statins based on your own, independent research.

A note will go into your electronic file stating "Patient refuses treatment." or "Patient not compliant with treatment plan." Those notes will go into your file every time you get counseled on the results of your blood tests...at least annually.

If we continue to trudge toward Big Brother medicine, that could become a death sentence if medical care is rationed. You might go to a medical facility and need a procedure to save you life. The care givers might determine that it would be a waste of resources because you are a non-compliant patient.

Consider...just consider...graciously accepting the lowest dose of the cheapest commodity statin ($4/month) and religiously picking up the prescription when it is automatically filled. Nod your head in agreement like a malleable and righteous acolyte.

The nail that sticks up is hammered down.

TSA gropers not paid. No planes fell from the sky.

The two most hated arms of the Federal Government are the IRS and the TSA.

TSA gropers employees have been staging a blue-flu strike and backing up air travel. Travelers are howling and airlines are weeping.

Do you remember traveling before 9/11/2001? For sixty years nobody flew airliners into buildings and except for the occasional tourist demanding a vacation in Cuba there were almost no hijackings.

Then, in the post 9/11 TSA was born. I think it was by anal delivery.

DO WE REALLY NEED TSA?

That is a serious question.

Walls don't work

Some of my friends claim that I have too much respect for the study of economics.

Perhaps.

But I find that the discipline of economics provides tools and insights that are not available elsewhere.

For example, economics suggests that raising prices nearly always causes a decrease in demand. There are a few, rare exceptions but I will touch on those later.

If the cost to enter the United States increases then the number of migrants to choose that option will decrease by some amount.

That cost might be the cost of renting a boat. That cost might be months spent in a camp with little prospect of making money. That cost might be the cost of digging a tunnel or the cost of a broken leg or blown-out knee from scaling and then jumping off the fence.

Will every migrant be stopped? No, of course not. But neither will fines or jail sentences deter every criminal. Do we hear politicians claiming that traffic tickets, IRS fines and incarcerating felons should be eliminated because they are not 100% effective?

Of course not. The system keeps chugging along because it is a system. Each element contributing to the performance like overlapping shingles.

It is disingenuous to say "Walls don't work."  Walls are ONE part of a system.

Light posting today

Today is a mom-and-dad day and they have no internet.

Then off to Grand Valley to hang out with Belladonna.

It is going to be a LONG day.

Good fences make good neighbors

I happen to know some senior citizens who own some swamp land. There are trees growing in the swamp. Many of them are ash. Most of the ash died and the wind blew them over after the roots rotted.

The senior citizens have a neighbor who has been very helpful. He is a likeable guy.

The neighbor asked permission to cut the dead ash to heat his home.

The senior citizens know that I have a computer and printer and they asked me to type out the following conditions.

There is a wealth of expertise residing in my readers. Did they miss anything?

The picture in my head is that Dick (not his real name) will cut the logs into manageable lengths and winch them onto a lowboy trailer. I don't see the project taking very long.

Then he will buck to length and split on his own property. 
 
Conditions around cutting wood at the swamp:



· This permission is only extended to Dick Cissel. Dick may not extend it to anybody else.
· This permission is for a limited time, January 15-to-February 15, 2019
· An adult identified by the owners must be on-site when the cutting and loading is done to ensure safety and the presence of another adult with a cell phone.
· No drinking alcohol before, while cutting or while loading or transporting firewood
· No guns are permitted while wood is being cut and loaded.
· Wood is for personal use and not for resale
· Only windfalls may be harvested. The most dangerous part of cutting wood is felling trees.
· Harvesting of wood is to be done when the ground is frozen so trucks and trailers don’t tear up the ground.
· A meeting with the owners must be held before hand.
· An agreement must be signed that outlines these conditions. Signing agreement means you are willing to abide by the conditions
· Time of chain-sawing must be limited to three hours a day. Tired cutters get sloppy and have accidents.