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Why Sarah Palin is so Successful

February 7, 2010 by admin.

The day after Sarah Palin gave her keynote at the first ever Tea Party convention I watched the speech on You-Tube, and read about some of the highlights of her statements on various web sites.

Most of the Left in America find her distasteful, even disgusting. I have read or heard from leftists every kind of nasty proclamation about her. I cannot understand the vitriol leftist liberals use when addressing her. I find the woman fascinating for a variety of reasons. Personally, I see her as a real-world person, as opposed to a silver-spoon elitist who has never had to work for a living. She believes in God - so do I. She is people-oriented, understands what the working man and woman in this country are all about. She represents the America outside Boston, New York, Chicago or L.A. - that section of America where the “unwashed masses” live, and as Jimmy Stewart said, where “most of the living and dying goes on.”

I am currently reading a very good book titled Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead, by Bruce J. Avolio, and Francis J. Yammarino (2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, UK). The book discusses what makes up charismatic leaders, and talks about developments to expect in the next 35 years (2001 - 2034). One of the points the authors make is “…by 2034, a considerably larger percentage of CEOs in the USA compared to today will be women…” and minorities (p. 381). They also note that “Patterns of leadership behavior are likely to change by 2034 as women tend to be more transformational than their male counterparts…do more networking, are more focused on relationships and are more concerned about…social justice, equity, and fairness” (p. 381).

The interesting word in the previous quotation is transformational. This is exactly the kind of leadership Sarah Palin is exhibiting, as opposed to the old transactional style. To be fair, great leaders switch between both styles, depending on the circumstances, but the point is that leaders who primarily operate within a transformational framework are far more successful than their transactional counterparts. Within that construct, it is important to understand the difference between the two:

Transactional Leadership

Contingent reward -You will be suitably rewarded, provided you accomplish this task or goal.

Active management by exception - Leaders are always looking for errors, and stand at the ready to provide guidance.

Passive management by exception - Leaders take a less proactive approach, getting involved only when problems occur.

Laissez-faire leadership - Literally, “let the people do as they choose…”

Transformational Leadership

Influence (charisma) - Regardless of how the left despises her, makes fun of her, calls her every kind of vile name they can imagine, she manages to rise to the top with a smile on her face, exuding self-confidence.

Inspirational motivation - She believes a higher power has control over man’s destiny. She obtains her inspiration from a higher source than socialist-leaning law school professors.

Intellectual stimulation - Some describe Sarah as stupid. But the times I have watched her, she comes across as one whose thoughts are organized, well-formulated and balanced. I find statements such as the one she made at the Tea Party convention highly stimulating - “What we need is a Commander-In-Chief, not a law-school professor at the lectern.”

Individualized consideration -Many in the left are not concerned about the individual - they see a broader social picture. Sarah Palin has proven she can focus on individuals, as well as speak to huge groups.

Networking - Appearing out of nowhere to stand alongside John McCain for the 2008 Republican Presidential campaign, Ms. Palin has gone on to become influential in a variety of ways, including writing, and now speaking to a public audience over nationally syndicated television. Thus she has dramatically increased her sphere of influence and now has the ear of many who are well equipped to bring about real, actual, meaningful transformation in society.

Focused on relationships - Ms. Palin exhibits this no more clearly than with her family. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to manage all of the myriad responsibilities she has and continue to maintain a strong family life, but she does. She has said before that her family is the motivating factor for her to continue doing what she is doing. But, unlike elitists, it is not about the money or the power, it is about the vision, the purpose, and the people.

Concerned about social justice, equity, fairness - Without naming names in the current administration, it is clear that there is one-sided social justice at work, a social justice that most Americans do not share. Conversely, Ms. Palin sees the need for the kind of social justice that brings criminals to justice, rewards hard work, and dignifies the “Joe Six-Pack” of America.

Innovative - I am continually surprised with the ideas and notions Ms. Palin displays, especially in the face of tremendous adversity.

Responsive - She is not afraid to countermand opposition attacks with the confidence of her convictions, and a swift repartee) and she is ready to meet the needs of Americans.

Flexible - Nowhere is this more closely exhibited than in her efforts during the McCain campaign. I kept wishing that she was running for president and had a suitable vice-presidential nominee, rather than the other way around.

Perhaps a Sarah Palin & Scott Brown ticket is in order for the 2012 campaign. Both of these individuals are young, with a transformational leadership style, a can-do attitude, and a respect for all of the things that have made America great, and which leftists with a socialist agenda wish to destroy.

God bless America.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

A Conservative’s Twist On Paul Simon’s Genius

October 11, 2009 by Bill.

John Andrews, Denver Sunday morning talk-show host (710-KNUS) and director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University (CCU) had a great column in the Sunday Denver Post today - 10-11-2009. His article, titled “50 Ways” Back At You,” steals a notion from Paul Simon’s famous “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” and develops “50 Ways You Can Help Survive Obama.” I liked them so much I thought I’d list them here in numbered list format, rather than paragraphs so that they’re easier to read and appreciate. While almost all of the listed items are important, I don’t completely agree with 31 and 33 and don’t understand 46.

Cleave to the Constitution
Dust off the Declaration
Work harder
Save more
Borrow less
Repent, pray, get religion
Resist the divorce epidemic
Tithe to church and charities
Read the classics
Doubt judges and lawyers
Distrust the dinosaur media
Assert our country’s goodness: America without apologies
Gird against radical Islam
Reject surrender in Afghanistan
Quarantine Iran
Defend Israel to the death
Revive NATO
Suspect Russia
Suspect China
Beware Chavez and Castro
See the United Nations for the dangerous fraud that it is
Secure the borders
Re-arm urgently
Work for a colorblind community
Reject the race card and white guilt
Support charter schools, tax credits, and vouchers
Demand intellectual diversity on the campuses (emphasis mine)
Resist the mediocrity drug called multiculturalism
Encourage a stay-at-home mom
Give to a crisis pregnancy center
Support the shaming of abortionists and pornographers
Boycott Hollywood
Get arrested dumping tea in the Tidal Basin
Dare Congress to put themselves on Social Security and Medicare
Demonstrate for a time line when GM gets privatized
Rally for right-to-work
Picket for paycheck protection
Organize for offshore drilling
Sit in for nuclear power
Coalesce for coal
Demand a tax-favored, direct-pay option for your medical costs
Ridicule the climate alarmists
Tell Biden jokes
Circulate ACORN soup recipes
Start a Palin club
Launch a Messiah milkcarton movement (”Savior of 2008, mysteriously missing in 2009″)
Retire Pelosi and Reid in 2010
Draft Petraeus in 2012
Get active as a Democrat and elect more blue dogs, or…
Get active as a Republican - not because they’re so much better, but because opposition is liberty’s life-blood

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Back To The Old Paths

September 26, 2009 by admin.

It was a clear, calm and cold Colorado sky under which Johnny and Susan decided to go for a hike. Near the top of Cottonwood Pass just west of Buena Vista, they had chosen a far back country trail that promised untouched wild scenery, waterfalls and a serene lake at the end.

Perhaps it was that they had started early in the morning, or it was still just late April and there were snowbanks littered here and there along the path, but there was no one else on the trail with them. This did not matter: Johnny and Susan had each other’s company and that was enough for them and their current viewpoint of life: young, in love, with the entire world at their feet. Who needed anyone else?

As they walked, they pointed out to one another this small cluster of Aspen trees, that group of lichen-stained rocks, an occasional deer track emblazoned in the trail’s mud. Once in a while a tiny side trail would shoot off here or there - clearly not maintained by the forest service, just some point of interest for hikers who knew something about the area.

Johnny had a deeply back of mind sense there was someone or something else on the trail. It was only vaguely troubling to him, so he didn’t say anything to Susan as he didn’t want to needlessly trouble her with something that probably didn’t even exist. Just his imagination.

Finally, the temptation to scamper up one of the mysterious side trails got the best of them. This particular trail was only as wide as the sole of a shoe, but contained the portent of something particularly beautiful beyond. The forest was thin enough at this point that they could see a pool of blue sky beckoning to them near the crest of the trail, some fifty or seventy-five feet above them. They might be able to command a view of the Cottonwood valley they knew was immediately below them, but not visible from their current vantage point.

The cold wet grass wiped their calfs as they made their way up the trail. The trail was steep enough that they needed to grasp an occasional thin Aspen trunk for balance.

As they neared the top of the hill, the trail opened up to the fulfilled promise of a gorgeous panorama - it was clear at this point that they were higher than anything else within view.

Johnny was no more than three or four feet from the top when something long sprang at him. A mountain lion! The cat was huge, seventy-five or a hundred pounds, and clearly hungry. The cat’s mouth was wide open, revealing long brilliant white teeth. The nails on his paws were equally long and sharp.

As Johnny turned around to find out what all the commotion was about the cat hit him squarely in the chest, causing him to awkwardly stumble backward up the remainder of the hill where he nearly instantaneously disappeared from view.

Susan screamed, running up the trail after Johnny, and screamed even louder when she saw that Johnny had fallen off of a two hundred foot cliff and was now laying lifeless at its base, near the promised end of trail lake, blood staining the rocks he had landed on when he hit bottom.

Her screams did not last long. She felt the rip of the lion’s talons into her ribcage and neck and she was dead. The lion, hungry for the protein of meat–human or otherwise–began to feast on a complete meal: one he had not enjoyed in a very, very long time.

In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, there is a very interesting scripture that God gives to the Jews:

This is what the Lord says:

Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths. Which is the way to what is good? Then take it, and find rest for yourselves. But they protested: We won’t! (Jeremiah 6:16 - Holman Illustrated Study Bible)

For those who need a second or third version of the Bible for comparison, here is how it is worded in the Thompson Chain Reference of the New International Version (NIV):

This is what the Lord says:

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, “We will not walk in it.”

I believe that in this age of supposedly “post-Christian” America (where we’re also supposedly “post-partisan” and “post-racist”) we are at exactly the crossroads Jeremiah is speaking of: a point in which the Lord is asking us to simply stand and look around at all we see. But there is an enemy on the road, silently, steathily watching us, waiting for the exact moment at which to strike.

And we’re tempted by this side-path or that, even though we don’t know what that path holds for us.

When we’re tempted by this little side-path or that one, we’re supposed to stop and look and ask “What are the ancient paths?” In other words, what are the good paths - where do I walk that I will stay safe?

But we will not do that. Instead, we are looking to man (side-path) for our answers: this scientist, that politician, this theologian, that psychologist, this actor, that TV star, this musician, that artist, this atheist, that “I am Jesus” evangelist.

Anyone but the Lord. We have almost lost contact with Him. Even if we believe in God, which many say they no longer do, He has been relegated to a back corner, a place where we go to connect with Him when we really need something. We no longer trust Him for the answers to our big problems.

Why? Because we’re afraid that if we do, and we let it be known that we do, people will think we’re some kind of nut, that we’re out of our mind. Never mind that people are wrapped up in every other kind of superstition there is, from astrology to 2012.

I believe that even though the Old Testament was essentially given as the treatise by which to live for the Jews, it is also relevant to modern-day Christians. God’s wisdom is transcendent. OK, we no longer live by the Law inscripted on the tablets by God and given to the Hebrews by Moses. There is a new dispensation–that of Grace (yeah!).

That said, we cannot say that God meant those words for only one group of people. My wife has this example: The Jews were forbidden from eating shellfish. Why? Just some rule that God laid down so that He could make sure people were obedient to Him? Not at all! It’s a very practical thing: Shellfish are bottom feeders, and as such are dirty, nasty creatures. They might be good eats, but they’re not good for you.

So when Jeremiah gives us this sage advice, we should be paying attention.

There are five things he says in this extremely important scripture:

1. You’re standing at a crossroads. Seldom before in America have we been at such a period of turmoil and disagreement as we are now. This must be what it was like during the civil war period.

2. You must simply stop and look. The thing you’re being asked to do is simply nothing. Just stop and look.

3. Once you’ve stopped, you’re to ask “Where are the ancient paths?” This is interesting because it is stated as paths, plural, not path, singular. I don’t think Jeremiah means there is more than one path to God - I think here he’s talking about ways in which God would have us to go given the circumstances we’re clearly in. The word ancient also implies that we should be paying far less attention to the current thinking and get back to something old, tried and true.

4. We don’t know where the ancient paths are at. We have to ask God to show them to us because we cannot see them.

5. But they did not. The Jews refused to listen, stubbornly saying “No! We will not!” In other words, the temptations of what was currently going on in their day looked so much better than the ancient paths, they simply refused to cooperate.

The outcome for them was not so good. God doesn’t send an “ask for the ancient paths” call just because He thinks you could somehow benefit from its wisdom. He sends that call because He has had enough and if people don’t obey, He is ready to show them exactly Who is in charge (and it isn’t any American politician!)

So, here’s my thinking: It’s time to get back to God. Get on our knees and ask “Where are the ancient paths? Show those paths to us again!” It’s time to put away the nonsense and filth in which we’ve been reviling ourselves; time to stop equivocating things we know are wrong (e.g. I know porn is wrong, but hey, everyone looks at it); and time to get back to prayer, reading the Bible, and worshiping God.

This lines up with another old Testament scripture:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heavena nd will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (Second Chronicles 7:14 - NIV)

So the question is this: Will we just walk right past the crossroads - going to the right or to the left, or will we stop and look and ask God “Where are the ancient paths?” It’s clear to me that neither of the crossroads paths are the correct ones. What do you think?

Posted in Spiritual | No Comments »

The New Readin’, Ritin’ and ‘Rithmetic

September 16, 2009 by Bill.

I was a naive new teacher, anxious to help my high-school students learn more about computers. After all, they’d signed up for my Computer Technology course at a Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school just west of Denver called Warren Tech. My silly assumption was that they were in class because they wanted to learn something about the interesting (and OK, stressful, and OK, sometimes angry) world of Information Technology (IT).

I was naive in assuming they’d be happy to read technical materials, as I had when earning my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification years earlier. I assumed they were hungry for every jot and tittle of technical meat on which they could lay their hands.

I was wrong.

When the first shipment of Microsoft Certified System Developer (MCSD) books I’d ordered for my programming-centric students came in, one boy, who had pretended earlier to be anxious to have one, grabbed the book and threw it to the table saying “Yikes! That’s heavy!” Others followed suit.

Nowadays I go through a drill where I tell the students they chose to come to a technical school, and they’re receiving technical materials to read because that’s what we teach here. This isn’t your home high school where you have to take a history class, and you get this ponderous text book laden with way too many confusing graphics and sidebars and text, and even though you know you’re supposed to read it, you actually figure out ways around not reading as much of it–as long as you can pass the class that is. I tell them a technical school requires that you read, read, read technical materials all the live-long day. That the technology changes faster than some of them change their tee-shirts. That if you don’t stay ahead of this curve, you’ll likely fall way back behind it before you even know what hit you.

I cite examples: Windows Vista (ugh) is passe, now we look forward to Windows 7. In three years time, Windows 7 will have had millions of articles written about it, lots of which complain about how bad it is (though it’s really not) and how we yearn for a better Windows. Alas, if only Windows Mountain Lion (or whatever Windows 2013 will be called) would come out soon.

But none of it seems to sink in. To be sure, I have some students who hear what I say and really, actually read their books. But sadly, most books sit on the computer at school, waiting for their students to come read them. And when the students are there, even then the books go wanting.

The “new reading” is a lot like a business topic I learned years ago when getting my Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Administration (BSBA) - it’s “just in time” (JIT) reading.

The phrase JIT is used in the business world to denote inventorying practices in which stock items are monitored closely. When an item is close to running out, it is ordered, preferably by some sort of computer interaction. The idea is to keep as much inventory out of the warehouse so that one doesn’t have to pay for excess stock. It takes a precise understanding of how much stuff people are buying, what’s available from suppliers, and how quickly, and so on. The Japanese have successfully used JIT for years, but then they have a penchant for fine-tuning and precise control.

But with JIT reading, it’s not so much about the fine-tuning and control as it is staying away from as much reading as possible, keeping the reading either interactive (i.e. Flash movie) or person to person.

With JIT reading, you don’t consult a book unless (God forbid) you don’t have internet connectivity. And even then you might forget about it until later on when you do have network access. Instead of plowing into “all those words,” (a term I hear all too often anymore–by adults no less–when talking about the printed word) you jump onto Google or Wikipedia or a handful of other sites that have proven to provide quick results and you do your reading there.

But not too much reading mind you…just enough to get your problem solved and get you moving forward again.

Sometimes in the throes of JIT reading, you get tempted by an attractive new game site, or a funny, cool movie site, and you lose your momentum. This is akin to the days when Sally or Bobby came over to visit you just as you were beginning to read your History and well, darn it, History would just have to wait wouldn’t it?

JIT math works similarly. Got a heavy math problem to solve? Just whip out your HP or TI calculator, and get that booger done! No need for pencil, paper, formula books, and the like. If we’ve got computers to manage our math for us, why use our heads?

And I’m afraid to say, JIT writing works the same way. If you have to write, which most students consider anathema, you make your prose as short and sweet as possible. Not all students write this way, of course. I’ve had some students who were incredibly good writers, and not afraid to put pen to paper (or to be more technologically accurate - fingers to keyboard). But for the most part, writing has declined to the point where sentences are poorly formed, good spelling is nearly nonexistent, and even if you could follow the student’s train of thought, you couldn’t read it very well because you’re constantly stumbling over his/her poor writing and sentence constructs.

JIT inventorying–the business school concept that we order new inventory stock just before the last little bit is sold, thus saving storage and inventory costs–has worked very well for industry, hasn’t it? I mean, I can’t tell you the last time I was in Home Depot when they did not have something in stock that I desperately needed. You reach right in that sprinkler system bin, and–voila!–there’s the part you need. Right?

Yeah. Right. JIT inventorying is a good idea on paper, but maybe not so much when put into practice.

So, while I think JIT is here to stay, I’m working on ways to get kids to stop their JIT reading, writing and math, because it’s nonproductive, and it’s not doing them any good. It’s a sloooooowwwwww uphill battle, I’ll tell you. You have to model things for the students, then drag them along with you. And even then, you’re not sure they’re there with you–lots of times it feels like it’s just me in the room.

But I persevere. Because I have this tiny little doubt in my mind that reading, writing and math will go away anytime soon. That we’ll all just use technology for everything, and that way we can be couch potatoes who rely on computers to do our thinking for us.

I know a lot of the students would like to have it that way. But that’s not how it works.

Not now, not ever.

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Why Dirty Jobs Matter

September 10, 2009 by Bill.

I like to watch TED videos on my iPod Touch. I think TED stands for Technology, Education and Design. What happens is that the TED folks assemble some of the greatest thinkers on the planet to come together on a routine basis to talk about stuff.

Sounds ordinary, right? Well, the “stuff” they talk about is truly extraordinary. You’ll just have to run out to the TED web site and watch one or two to get the drift of what I’m talking about.

So, last night I’m working out on the elliptical machine at Bally Fitness and I’m watching a TED video by Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs.” This guy, dressed in ordinary workaday clothing, has no PowerPoint presentation, no props, no videos or music or gimmicks. He just stands up there and tells a story.

The story he tells is at once riveting and repulsive. He talks about castrating lambs on a ranch in Craig, Colorado–how it’s expected to be done, and how it’s actually done, and the difference between the two.

But the talk isn’t important because you learn something about castration. That part is fascinating and entertaining–Rowe is a very good story-teller.

What’s salient about Rowe’s 20 minutes is that he makes a very important American point: We’re losing the job battle.

While we have heartfelt and strong dialogs (diatribes?) about important things like health care reform and American soldiers overseas, we have almost lost the notion of what it means to be an American worker. Rowe talks about the need for technical schools and colleges; not enough plumbers, carpenters, electricians and the like. Not enough mechanical engineers–heck, not enough engineers period.

Not enough people willing to a) dig into the math, physics, chemistry and other hard topics required to understand the deepness of engineering, and/or b) not enough people willing to bend over and get their hands dirty and backs aching in the process of carrying out good old fashioned American work.

Rowe’s point is that it’s job first, other things second. In one part of the video, he talks about “safety third,” meaning that despite the platitude of “safety first” and OSHA laws, and of course each person’s regard for their own well-being, nevertheless workers undertake things like mining, deep-sea fishing, logging and other dangerous occupations because they’re good jobs, they pay well and they feed families.

He doesn’t say it, but I think the point stands out: In many cases, we’ve let ideology get in the way of practicality. Case in point: so-called “green” jobs. Pundits and politicians bring platitudes that talk about the need to switch over from 20th century energy sources to renewable energy methodologies.

Fine. I have no argument with that–though I don’t think the economics bear out a short-term forklift switching over to renewables from conventional energy resources. The problem is that we’ve let strongly ideological environmental groups get in the way of progress toward renewable energy goals. Can’t build offshore wind turbines in the north Atlantic because the folks on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will see them in the distance and their white blades spinning away will disturb the pristine view. It’s a beautiful site on Maui I can tell you. Don’t know why it’s anathema off the New England coast.

Can’t build transmission lines leading from a humongous concentrating solar array in the Desert Southwest to the nation’s cities because that would involve drilling holes in the ground for tower caissons and stringing unsightly wire across miles of American soil.

Can’t drill for natural gas–of which T. Boone Pickens claims there is enough for “100 years’ worth of clean-burning energy for Americans.” Why? Because drilling disrupts natural environments, and makes things unsightly and causes animals to have to rethink their living patterns or worse, kills them, and, well, there’s just something ideologically wrong about drilling for gas when there are other renewable energy sources we could be using instead. Never mind that the payback periods and inefficiencies of said renewables really aren’t sufficient enough for us to adopt them in a wholesale fashion…yet. Given enough time (decades) sure, we’re there. We’re all over that. But right now what we need is gas and coal and oil and power lines and power plants and refineries.

Which takes me back to jobs. It is ideologically unpleasant to watch Rowe’s Dirty Jobs TED talk because he talks about the politically correct (and wrong) method for castrating a lamb. And then he talks about an American worker who is, in the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy, able to “get ‘er done.” And the getting it done is actually better for the lamb, as it turns out. Oh, and it keeps ranchers employed.

So here’s the thing: Rowe is talking about something very basic and important. What he’s really saying is that we need to put America back to work. Which means that a lot of the students in our schools today really shouldn’t be planning on going to college to study things like history, and psychology, and social topics. The jobs just aren’t there in numbers large enough to support a lot of students in those majors.

Instead, students should be planning on going into technical schools to learn about jobs that are important to Americans. For example, Process Tech, a major students can take at many community colleges across the country, teaches young people how to properly operate industrial facilities such as power plants, factories, and such.

We need welders, carpenters, electricians, brick-layers, mechanics, linemen (OK, linepersons), cosmetologists, machine workers, miners, loggers, and other skilled tradepersons. We need to get back to building and farming. We need dental hygienists and nurses. We need engineers.

We’ve got plenty of psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists (and other ‘ists), cultural studies majors, historians, and English majors. Boat’s full. Don’t major there. No jobs there. Nothing to do or see there.

What we don’t need is one more guy or gal with a history degree working as a barista.

(As an aside, one thing I noticed on a recent trip to Europe this summer was that all of England, France and Italy was planted. Not with Kentucky blue grass, but with stuff people can eat and use. Corn, hops, wheat, sunflowers, lavender, and yes, tobacco. The land wasn’t allowed to lie fallow. It was used. While I recognize if you drive through eastern Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas you’re going to see lots of crops, I still wonder what the proportion of crops grown in America by acre of soil is to Europe. I bet there’s a drastic difference. It made me think: where are all the American farmers?)

Rowe’s point is that, of necessity, American jobs have to be dirty jobs. If we’re to maintain the status quo in this country, feed and educate our kids, house ourselves, maintain our health and make this country better–what I’m talking about is good old-fashioned improving our lot–we’ve got to get our hands dirty again. And our backs aching. And our bodies and minds working in harmony in the process of creating things that people need in order to live.

Turns out our ancestors had the right idea. It’s the dirty jobs that are the best jobs after all.

Posted in Politics, Education | No Comments »

Why It’s Important to Teach Kids Game Programming

August 31, 2009 by Bill.

Let me get this out right away: I’m not a game player. I own a Wii, but seldom play it. I bought a copy of “Left for Dead”–a popular zombie game–for my PC, but never play it. I own a Nintendo DS and every once in awhile play a card game called “Three Peaks” that I enjoy, but I don’t overdo it, with the exception of when we’re laying on a beach in Cancun and the only thing I’ve got to do is drink, sleep and play Nintendo DS. Then I overdo it. I also have a couple of games on my Apple Touch, but I only play my Mahjong game, and the last time I played that was when we were on a tour bus driving through the hillsides of France.

That said, I do believe in the power of teaching kids how to program games because I believe there is real power in connecting with students at their level, helping them understand the incredible effort game companies go to just to bring entertainment to people.

This is my third year teaching a game programming class. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve stumbled around with this topic quite a bit. I intuitively knew some things: that the C++ programming language, for example, is required as the language for most commercial games. (Oh sure, there are indies, and indie languages and game engines, but the real truth is that C++ is still the prevalent language within game programming companies.) I also know that you have to have graphics for games, but at first didn’t have much of an idea about how to get those graphics into the computer. I also knew that story was important (though lots of students will argue with you about that). And artwork, and music. Game programming is an incredibly rotund subject.

So here’s the thing: If you’re teaching game programming to kiddos, you have to teach a variety of subjects. I’ve come to realize these subjects have a very definite order: 1) Story, 2) Art, 3) Code, and 4) Music. So if you’re teaching game programming, you’re not only teaching students how to write C++, C#, Java or ActionScript 3 code, you’re also teaching them about developing stories, drawing, creating lifelike characters (2D or 3D), and other artwork (such as backgrounds, buildings, textures, sprites and spritesheets, etc.) and you’re working with music. Not to mention the soft skills like teambuilding, conflict-negotiation, and strategizing.

On top of that, you have to teach a fair amount of mathematics (algebra and trigonometry) and physics in the process, else budding game programmers won’t create realistic games.

If you’re teaching game programming, you’re practically teaching an entire school’s curriculum all in one classroom. Throw in some history, civics and current events, and maybe a little psychology and you’re covering the entire gamut. I would argue that many kids learn more about history through “Age of Empires” than their school history classes.

Here’s an even more amazing thing: I truly believe that if we teach more and more kids how to write games, and we show them how to bundle work products in those games, we can use games to solve some of the world’s weightiest problems.

What do I mean by that? Well, think about the SETI screensaver. The nutlogs at SETI, ever vigilant in scanning the universe for signals that indicate the presence of human life, use an ordinary screensaver to process data they’ve received from their telescopes. Anyone who downloads the SETI @ Home screensaver allows SETI to use their computer’s spare PC cycles to process data, assisting in the search for ETs.

Now that same kind of idea, put on steroids, could be used to find cures for cancer, AIDS, run computer models for weather and other high-end simulations, and yes, even work on data for space projects, among myriad other things. All while people think they’re playing a game. Clever game developers might even find a way for players’ avatars to participate in the process somewhat. An avatar might not look through a microscope and recognize a virulent disease, but the avatar might run a message, or push a button or perform some other task for researchers.

Think it can’t be done? Check out Free Rice. This game allows you to garner food for impoverished people in 3rd world nations, while simultaneously helping you with your vocabulary. It’s a crisp, robust, ingenious game that partners gamers, non-profits and hungry people.

So, it turns out that game programming is a really great thing to be teaching kiddos. They learn a ton of great stuff all wrapped up in a package they love. And once they get good at it, they might come together to create uber Free Rice games and involve Joe and Jenny Six-Pack in helping us work on problems–even though Joe and Jenny think they’re relaxing and enjoying playing a game.

Here’s the thing though: Teachers have to go through a serious paradigm shift if they’re going to teach all of the elements involved in a complex subject like game programming. It’s not just code, not just art, not just story: It’s bigger than a breadbox, and requires teachers to grow their own capabilities. I know I had to, and I’m still going through the growing pains. I’m just now using a set of books I think are really solid, and I know I’ve got a long, long way to go. But I also know I’ve got a GREAT bunch of kids who come to class every day, usually work through their break on their tasks, and happily read technical material and learn technical math in doing so. Education doesn’t get much better than that!

Posted in Education | No Comments »

“Health Care Reform” Debate Rages On

August 16, 2009 by Bill.

I have two daughters, one 29, the other 31. Neither of them have medical insurance. When they get sick, they first try to tough it out, then they find a healthcare provider that will take them in without insurance, and bill them or take a credit card in payment. They ask for generic prescriptions, and fill them at the cheapest place in town, typically Walgreens.

Ditto for the dentist.

As an aside: I find it interesting that in this whole Democratic health care debate, none of the Senators, Congresspersons, or even POTUS can find time to talk about free dental care for all. Guess that’s not as important, though I can tell you in the majority of cases, my daughters’ health emergencies have been dental in nature, and I’ve covered the bill.

Thank God they haven’t had something dire that required more attention than an Amoxicillin prescription or an extraction.

My daughters are a part of those 48 million who don’t have medical insurance who choose not to purchase it. So naturally, I like the idea of my daughters being able to obtain medical insurance.

I also support the idea of health care for all including immigrants (legal and illegal). Before you get hot under the collar about the illegals consider: They currently go to an ER where they must be treated. I think it would be a whole lot better from a cost perspective if they could go to a regular doctor to get treatment for their sinus infections and pregnancies, don’t you?

What I don’t support is the idea of the Federal government managing a national health care system.

Why? Well, because frankly, the Federal government can’t manage its way out of a paper bag. Can you name a Federal project that was not cost-overrun, did not miss its deadlines, and/or was not laden with pork that added things (at great cost) that should never have been added?

That’s what I thought. You can’t. I can’t. In the 35 years I’ve been watching the leaders in the Federal government, I can’t really point to any one significant project or endeavor that I thought was pulled off with great project management skills, managed well from top to bottom, ended up with the desired result, was pleasing to most people, and actually cut costs.

Yeah, yeah, there are probably some out there. No doubt. But I’m talking about the billion-dollar efforts that politicians paint with grandiose pie-in-the-sky colors and brushes.

Military? Forget it.

Nasa? No hope.

Education? Uh-uh.

Stimulus plan? Really? You’ve got to be kidding.

“Cash for Clunkers” program? A farce. A joke.

No, no. The Federal government should not be trusted with something as precious as our health.

Call me crazy, but I just don’t think the government has innovated anything - well, OK, maybe with the exception of attaching pork projects to bills.

I think health care–including medical research–should stay within the domain of the private sector.

I once worked for a company that developed 3D cardiac ultrasound software which was then bundled in with HP untra-sound scanners. For a lot of reasons, the company went out of business - but I think the company’s executives would admit that the government was a big part of the problem, not the solution.

I’m blessed. My employer provides medical insurance for my wife and I. In fact we have an ala carte plan, with a couple of different providers. I chose Kaiser Permanente (KP).

Let me tell you what I think of this company: As far as I can tell, KP is doing a great job managing their money, and their patients. Oh sure, there are people that will grouse about KP’s care. But let me be honest: I have had a couple of different (relatively minor) surgical procedures, the normal array of sinus infections and flu, and yearly physicals. KP’s doctors have been good about talking with me (not to me), and working with me to solve any health issues that have arisen. They’re responsive and they get the job done. Their equipment is state of the art, their facilities are all over Denver, and, near as I can tell, they’re always fully staffed.

POTUS, in his “town hall” meeting in Belgrade, MT on the 13th said that we should consider an insurance company that’s a great player–one who is working well with the Feds in laying out what the new health care legislation should look like: Aetna.

OK. But Aetna doesn’t run clinics or hospitals like KP, do they? They’re just an insurance company.

Several politicians have advised that we take a look at Cleveland care, because it’s a great example of how well public sector entities can run healthcare. Great, but that’s a couple orders of magnitude example when we’re talking about the Feds running healthcare for millions versus a city for 10s of thousands, isn’t it?

Several people have cited Mitt Romney’s Massacheusetts universal coverage plan, including Mitt himself. However, this healthcare plan is a disaster. It’s in the red, and stakeholders are panicked about how to fund it going forward.

Lots of people have talked about the danger of a nationalized health care plan for seniors. There has been talk of euthanasia options over clinical treatments, “counseling” the elderly (”You’ve had a good run grandma. Now it’s time to go.) and even letting the elderly suffer without treatment to avoid unnecessary treatment costs. The Rahm brothers like the idea of “life points”–the younger you are, the more points you get. The older you get, well, you do the math.

The Central Barack Station (CBS) cited a CBS/New York Times poll that says this is absolutely not the case. Why, the elderly will be perfectly safe under the new health care plan. In fact, life for them will be better rather than worse!

Right. The New York Times is the most liberal newspaper in the country, employing the likes of the far-left-leaning pundit Paul Krugman. Why would I believe a pollster as far left as that? It cannot be said to be accurate. It simply cannot.

The governor of Montana bragged after the Belgrade town hall that “if they’d send us the paperwork, we’d have this thing knocked out in 10 days.” Yeah, right.

If we’re going to do this thing, we have to have an honest debate, not one riddled with disenguous politicking and Pelosi name-calling. People are scared and they want answers from the Feds.

So, here’s my point: I would be more than happy to chip in an extra $100 - $500 per year in order to help fund healthcare for someone else. I realize that doesn’t sound like much, but given that we have to cover about 1/6 of the people without coverage, I think this is reasonable, and if the health care providers were willing to sit with us, we could craft a decent plan.

And, I think that companies like KP, who have experience in both the clinical and the operational elements of healthcare insurance should manage a national healthcare system. I could envision KP and similar companies working together to provide this kind of healthcare.

And what would be the Federal government’s role?

Sit back, watch, and stay out of the way!

Let Americans do what Americans do best - help other people.

Posted in Health, Politics | No Comments »

The Origin of Hell?

July 29, 2009 by Bill.

“For fire has been kindled because of My anger and burns to the depths of Sheol it devours the land and its produce and scorches the foundations of the mountains.” - Deuteronomy 32:22 Holman Illustrated Study Bible

This scripture is intriguing to me because I think it may indicate the origin of hell. This verse came from a “song” that God gave to Moses, ordering him to teach it to the Hebrews before they entered the promised land–the land flowing with milk and honey, the land, you will recall, in which Caleb and Joshua returned a good report and for which they were subsequently blessed–and before Moses died and “was gathered with his people.”

God knew that the Hebrews would almost immediately turn their back on His law and begin serving other gods, and so He wrote the song so that the Hebrews knew He knew, and understood what He was going to do to them should they commit such atrocities.

History shows that they did, and He did.

According to JewishEncyclopedia.com** Sheol is “very deep” and “marks the point at the greatest possible distance from heaven.” Sheol is a place of silence where warriors carry their weapons with them but have no power, they are mere shadows of themselves–hence they are the name “rephaim.”

Sheol is divided up into compartments. It has gates. It is a place where both the righteous and unrighteous go–the righteous to one day ascend unto God, the unrighteous elsewhere.

In the Deuteronomy verse quoted above, we see that God says that His fire burns to the depths of Sheol. If the righteous are also there, then my question is obvious: What becomes of them if they don’t deserve the fire of God’s anger? Moses, for example. Did he go to Sheol, and if so, was he rescued before God’s anger kindled and burned to its depths?

Another interesting phrase is that God’s fire “scorches the foundations of the mountains.” I assume the foundations of the mountains are the tectonic plates, which at their seams certainly contain untold quantities of molten rock.

But the most mysterious phrase is the one that says God’s fire “devours the land and its produce…” Clearly this has not yet happened. There have certainly been large fires over the millennia, but I (perhaps naively) assume this clause is saying the entire earth’s land and produce are devoured. This reminds me of Luke 12:49 where Jesus says “I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze.” Also 2 Peter 3:10, which says “But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.” And finally, Revelation 21:1 says this: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer.”

So, I’m wondering if this is a prophetic verse: God is saying that as He watches the Hebrews turn from His law to the foolishness of idolatry, His anger will so greatly kindle that His fire will ultimately burn up even Sheol.

Those that are found unrighteous are said to be cast into the lake of fire. This is the hell that I understand from my earliest days of Sunday school.

All of this activity seems to happen on the Judgment day, when the Book of Life is brought forward and those whose names are found in it are taken into the Lord’s presence, but those whose names are blotted out are cast into the lake of fire. I believe all names are written in the Book, but those who finally, ultimately and irrevocably reject God and His son are blotted out. I don’t think God happily does this blotting. I think this is a very sad time for the hosts of heaven.

Anyway, Deuteronomy 33:22 is an extremely interesting verse, one that is prophetic in nature and denotes God’s emotions toward a stubborn and rebellious people.

** http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=S&artid=614

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The Time Has Come The Walrus Said…

July 22, 2009 by Bill.

In Lewis Carroll’s famous 1872 poem The Walrus and The Carpenter there is quite a stanza:

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

In this missive I don’t intend to argue the merits of what Carroll was trying to say in his poem, I’m merely fixated on the notion that he succinctly sums up what we must all be talking about at this point in 2009 and beyond: The myriad things inadvertently swirling together that are bringing about worldwide chaos, perhaps even deep monetary depression.

The time has come for people to be paying serious attention to what their Congresspersons and Senators and POTUS are up to in Washington, because the decisions being made there are setting up nearly every American for a drastic decrease in lifestyle, one we have never observed before in this country. As much as people hate talking about doom and gloom predictions, there are a lot of these predictions out there and we simply cannot like ostriches put our heads in the sand hoping they’ll go away. I would steer you to this YouTube video as one compelling example.

The stimulus package is not working, and I for one have serious reservations a second package will somehow, like a drop or two of penetrating oil, ratchet loose the spending logjam. Americans are not spending, they’re saving. This is a good thing, and it hearkens back to post-Depression-era American ideals. But as happy as that is, there are big problems.

One issue is that between housing, various loans and leases, and credit-card debt, not to mention the dramatic losses in our retirement savings accounts (the 401-K became the 201-K overnight) Americans are in serious debt. This was not the case in the Depression. It wasn’t very long ago that a person had to pay cash for a car–there simply weren’t any financing mechanisms available. And that 20% down a person had to have in order to purchase a house could not somehow be merged into the financing package: One had to literally have 20% of the house’s purchase price in the bank in order to make the transaction.

But today there are all sorts of first-time buyer plans. People who shouldn’t be able to buy a house do so anyway, even though they cannot afford them. This creates a huge problem because once people decide they cannot go on living in their house, they simply bail out on the loan, allowing the house to go into foreclosure. If there were only a handful of such houses, there would be no crises, the banks would merely carry the notes on their books as bad debt until the houses were sold. But if there are hundreds of thousands of these houses on the market, as there are now, that is quite another issue.

The Federal government now owns the majority of private housing in America. Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac, both overseen by their chief benefactor, Senator Barney Frank, own 56% of American private property, foreclosed upon or not. This came about through loose legislation in the last part of the 20th century (thanks Bill Clinton), allowing for very creative mortgage loans such as loaning 120% of value (so dad could buy that speedboat he’d had his eye on), covering the 20% down spoken of earlier in a second mortgage and so on. These loose fiscal policies allowed almost anyone who was breathing and could sign his name to be able to buy a house.

This is the ships and sealing wax element of American society. We now have a double-whammy in which Americans have defaulted on a dramatic number of properties (causing a huge slow-down in new construction), resulting in the majority ownership of American property by our own wonderful government.

Additionally, the Federal government is now in the business of controlling American corporations. Instead of letting big companies like AIG and General Motors fail, as they would probably have in the mid-20th century, and as is properly mandated by supply-side economics, the Federal government saw them as “too big to fail” and came up with an elaborate bail-out scheme. This resulted in the Feds being able to tell corporate leaders how to run their businesses, and in some cases even led to one leader being replaced by another who may or may not know anything about the business. Let’s talk of shoes and ships, shall we? The two do not go together, anymore than private corporations and the Federal government are supposed to. And yet, here we are, trying to jam a ship into a shoe. Ouch!

Then there’s the great health care plan of ‘09. Health care is too expensive, we’re told. Not everyone is getting adequate health care. What we need is a unified plan, one in which every person has the right to affordable health care.

The problem with this is that the Federal government is again a big element of the equation. Anyone who knows anything about the Veteran’s hospital system and health care for our soldiers understands that the Federal government does a piss-poor job of providing any kind of health care. (I have my own story to tell about that, but will reserve it for another time.) Suffice to say that waiting times in clinics are very long and people who need expensive tests or procedures may be forced to wait months or years for treatment, ala the Canadian, French and English health care systems. The government has done a good job of putting out propaganda artists who pooh-pooh the suggestion that other countries’ health care systems are this way, that they’re a dream of efficiency and fiscal responsibility, but this is not the truth.

We need look no further than so-called “RomneyCare” in Massacheusetts or “TennCare” in Tennessee to find out how enormously expensive and ineffectual these state-mandated unified health care plans are. Mitt Romney is running around the country proclaiming how successful his brainchild was in Massacheusetts, but the truth is that the system is so expensive state lawmakers are looking at $1 B in excess spending on the program for this year alone and have recently gone so far as to remove 30,000 legal immigrants from the list of those eligible to receive “unified” health care. Guess it’s time for the legal immigrants in this country to start going back to the emergency rooms like they were before RomneyCare. I thought unified health care meant everyone had access, but I was wrong.

The push for a national health care policy is a classic case of saying that pigs have wings, that the Federal government can properly handle the doling out of benefits for all Americans (it can’t: anyone who doubts merely needs to look at the $56 T projected deficit for Social Security).

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently went to India (as a part of the Obama Apology Tour of ‘09) to admit that we Americans have been flawed in previous times in our reluctance to deal with CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, and to ask Indians to cooperate in the plan to set a worldwide limitation level for said emissions.

You see, the sea is boiling hot, and we have to do something about our CO2 emissions before most of Europe and all of Florida are flooded. And we see the Indians as the country that will one day soon overtake us as the owners of the bad habit of pushing billions of tons of the gas into the atmosphere, hastening the day when all the ice-caps melt, the seas rise, and Phoenix becomes a bonfire.

But (and this is a big but) we’re willing to pay the Chinese carbon tax so they can keep emitting (China has recently overtaken America as the chief CO2 depositor in the world). Why? Because we need the stuff they manufacture for us! We can obtain Chinese goods much cheaper than we can make them ourselves right here in the US (which would mean jobs for out of work Americans), but in order to do that the stodgy Chinese, who absolutely refuse to come to the worldwide Cap-and-Trade table to talk about so-called “carbon offset credits,” must be able to continue manufacturing and spewing out their nasty CO2. Readers can surely see we’re in a quite the conundrum. It’s like buying cigarettes for your mom, even though she has COPD, because you know she loves you and will give you good things.

But it’s more laughable than that because we will be borrowing the money to pay the carbon credits for the Chinese. And who will we likely borrow this money from? The Chinese, of course, the only ones today with any money to spend.

There are a variety of other smaller issues that come to mind: The Gitmo detention center closure, the cigarette tax (if we tax cigarettes deeply, people will stop smoking, but then our revenue stream will dry up and we’ll be asking Camel to put out ads to entice kids to start smoking), and runaway spending on pork projects included in virtual every 1,000+ page bill that is thrust in front of Congresspersons and Senators with the demand that the vote come as early as tomorrow, never mind that lawmakers have not yet had a chance to read these bills. Oh, and there’s that nasty 9.5% unemployment rate that’s really 11.5% once you take into account that a lot of Americans’ average work-weeks have declined to 33 hours (e.g. they’ve moved from full-time to part-time).

And of course, there’s the power grab by the Executive branch–what with 27 and counting so-called “czars.”

I’m having a hard time deciding what our country is becoming, but I think it’s slowly sliding down a slippery slope toward a socialist, communist, fascist oligarchy. I can tell you it is not the country Jefferson and Adams envisioned.

Some think we have a king that’s really a cabbage. I leave that determination up to you.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Prolotherapy: The Miracle Treatment You’ve Never Heard Of

June 17, 2009 by Bill.

Over the years, the right side of my neck has become very sore. I’m not actually sure why: probably a combination of factors such as leaning over to look into computer screens for years and years, improper posture when weightlifting, excessive chiropractic treatments, maybe even too much ibuprofen.

At any rate, during the last couple of years I had gotten to the point where I was experiencing tremendously bad headaches, manifesting themselves either at the top of my head, or at the base of my skull, where the muscles attach, often resulting in a tight headache band that wrapped my entire head in pain. The headaches were almost always on the right-hand side, seldom the left. Some of my headaches were so debilitating my toes quaked, and I could not perform any sort of movement without excruciating pain. Some were so terrible I spent the night fighting them and had to call in sick at work the following day. My headaches were so bad I was resorting to prayer: “Please God, take this headache away from me!”

Thanks to a previous injury–a minor back sprain–I had discovered ibuprofen, which my doctor at the time called a “miracle drug.” So to partially counteract my headaches, I would take ibuprofen at the least little sign of a headache coming on. I did not know ibuprofen is good for taking down inflammation and swelling. I just knew that it worked on my headaches. One of my doctors at Kaiser Permanente told me I could take three ibuprofen (200mg tabs) every six hours. That’s what I did.

I also found that pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) was also helpful. One doctor prescribed Imatrix for me–a well-known and popular migraine headache drug–but it did not even faze my headaches. When I came down with a barn-burner of a headache, I would take aspirin, ibuprofen, the Walgreens clone of Sudafed, and anything else I thought would work. After the headache had subsided (several hours later) I would have a stubborn residual ache, and would just generally feel like crap for a complete day following.

Interestingly, I also noted that my headaches would often come around when there was a barometric pressure change, from high to low. You would think that the opposite would be the case, that I’d get headaches when a high pressure system came bearing down on me. But no, my headaches came when high pressure was moving out and the low was coming in. Doesn’t make sense from a physics point of view, but that is the way it seems to happen. I’ve never noticed if my headaches come on when there isn’t anything unusual happening weather-wise, so I can’t comment.

I do know that excess wine (especially wine with sulphides in them) and beer can bring them on. Because of that and other reasons, I’ve really cut back on alcohol consumption, typically only drinking a glass of wine, or a beer on the weekends.

Because the headaches were getting worse, I was starting to become afraid that I had brain tumors or other equally horrible disease. So I went to the Kaiser Permanente doctor, explained my case and he prescribed an MRI and a CAT scan of my neck and head. The CAT scan revealed that I had arthritis in my neck, some bone spurs and a slight bulge between C2 and C3 (the upper bones in your vertebrae). My doctor pooh-poohed the notion of brain tumors.

The conversation then went to topics like seeing a physical therapist, taking a muscle relaxant (Flexiril) and a mild narcotic (Tramodol) and if things didn’t get better, perhaps even paying a visit to the neurologist.

One visit to the physical therapist told me I wouldn’t get anywhere with those people. We talked about things like proper workplace ergonomics and other stuff to which I’d already been paying attention. The therapist also performed an ultrasound on the area, which felt wonderful but did nothing for the pain. She noted that I tended to lean slightly to the right. While I took away some good stretching exercises, I knew for sure my healing wasn’t going to come about by PT.

It’s important to note that years earlier I had started visiting a chiropractor regularly for the pain, and continued visiting him on a semi-monthly basis.

Because my doctor wanted me to try a full course of PT before he’d refer me to the neuro folks, I felt I was out of options with respect to Kaiser. And besides, I wasn’t sure how crazy I was to have neurosurgeons fusing neck vertebrae. Sounds dangerous. I would much prefer a naturopathic approach if possible.

So I tried accupuncture, which did truly help, but did not completely alleviate the pain. I’m now a big believer in accupuncture’s powers and will continue to see an accupuncturist when I feel they are the best choice for what ails me.

Headaches unabated, in desperation I turned to the web. I began an Internet search: surely there must be others out there who were having the same kinds of problems. And there were.

In my research I found out about a type of treatment called prolotherapy. Here’s the idea: You experience some kind of injury, then begin to suffer chronic pain as a result. The reason for the pain has to do with your muscles and ligaments not being able to adequately repair themselves. It’s not a bone problem, it’s a muscle problem. Which is why chiropractic visits helped some, because an adjustment would take some of the pressure off of the muscles, giving them a chance to recover somewhat. But, as soon as my bones began working their way out of adjustment, the muscles would again become the ones who paid the ticket. The trick was in fixing the muscles, not the bones.

Upon visiting my prolotherapy doctor (Dr. Jo Douglas) I learned that my top of head and neck headaches were related. The pain would start in my neck, then traverse its way up a path to the top of my head. In 15 seconds she opened a prolotherapy book she had and turned to the drawings of various pathways like this in the human body, showing me the neck/top of head relationship. It was very easy to see, even from a layperson’s perspective, that there was a causal relationship. She asked if I occasionally had an ache in my eye socket, which I did.

She felt the muscles and ligaments in my shoulders and neck, and was quickly able to put her finger on the exact spot where I was feeling the most pain. If she pushed on it and then turned my head, I could hear a clicking sound. She noted that this was not a healthy situation. She showed me on a skeleton she had in the office how the bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments connect, how chiropractors perform their adjustment, and why prolotherapy would help me with my pain.

She then went on to explain what prolotherapy is and how it works. The idea is very straightforward: Your muscles, ligaments and tendons can become worn down due to an injury and never getting a chance to properly heal. But the miracle of prolotherapy is that if you inject a liquid into the injured tissue, it will be “like sending it to the gym for a rigorous three-hour workout” (in Dr. Douglas’s words). Over the course of 3 - 6 treatments, these injections give the tissue a chance to regenerate and build back up. She uses a naturopathic solution manufactured in Italy which, I believe, consists primarily of dextrose and glycerin (look here for more detailed information).

The science behind prolotherapy is this: If inflammation is purposely introduced to the offending area, this causes regeneration and healing. That’s why ibuprofen isn’t allowed during prolotherapy, because it cuts down on inflammation, precisely the thing I wanted happening during my healing.

Here’s the thing: The procedure hurts. Though the doctor rubbed my skin with a local anasthetic, she actually had to insert the needle into my muscle/ligament/tendon and inject the solution in there. And, she had to do it in several places, so there were several sticks. So it’s not a walk in the park. But it’s not that bad either. No pain, no gain, as they say.

Repeat procedures must be spaced out several weeks so the healing has a chance to work. During that time, I was not allowed to have any ibuprofen - only Tylenol, aspirin, or Tramadol. (Side note: Evidently, there’s more to the ibuprofen story than we’re being told, as Dr. Douglas’s office was pretty solid on staying off it for good. Sounds to me like ibuprofen may not be the best thing in the world to use for fighting pain. So now I’m curious about that and will have to do some more research.)

Here’s the great news: Prolotherapy works! After going through four treatments, I felt much better in my neck area. I was able to get up and move around without having to first resort to pain medications. My headaches stopped, and I was able to sleep better. If I did experience a minor ache or pain, standard off the shelf medications like apirin and Tylenol would help.

The procedures are expensive ($400/session) and medical insurance typically does not cover them (go figure).

In between procedures, the doctor put me on a daily whey protein drink (which was yummy) and collagen I & II. I’ve since stopped the whey protein, but continue to take collagen tables twice a day. Dr. Douglas is also quite intrigued with the role that amino acids play in keeping one’s body from aging. Though not by her recommendation, I’d begun taking L-Arginine and L-Ornithine supplements as a part of a cleanse I’ve been going through. When I asked her about them she said they were good, well-known amino acids, and evidence showed that they were best taken separately, as opposed to the combination tablets one can buy at Natural Grocers.

If you are suffering from chronic pain, and (short of becoming addicted to oxycodon) you’re quickly running out of options, I think prolotherapy is so worth the money. The procedures are expensive yes. But what price do you put on your happiness in life?

There’s a good story about the guy who invented Cortisone and the doctor who perfected prolotherapy both going to an AMA conference at the same time one year. Guess which therapy got the nod from the AMA? The one that causes pain and introduces inflammation to the muscle in order to permanently heal it? Doubtful! But that hasn’t stopped the AMA and pharmeceutical companies from venturing headlong into the practice of shooting Cortisone into people for short-term relief. The Journal of Prolotherapy recently published an article that discusses the findings that too many corticosteroid injections actually contribute to arthritis, which seems consistent anytime there is a story in which pharmeceutical companies are involved. Here’s an abstractof the article.

I’ve learned several lessons from this experience:

1) Don’t go to the chiropractor as often as I had been going. While I value the work chiropractors do, they can actually contribute to a muscle’s injury by working the skeletal structure around during an adjustment. It’s best to keep chiropractic treatments few and far between.

2) Slow way down on the use of ibuprofen, select other medications instead.

3)Trust my naturopathic instincts and do my research before going along willy-nilly with whatever an MD tells me. It’s not wise to trust everything a doctor says as the truth, partially because doctors, like everyone else, have natural biases, and partly because of the indoctrination by pharmeceutical companies which doctors routinely undergo.

One of the bigger players in the field of prolotherapy is Ross Hauser, who maintains several different web sites devoted to the subject, and was the author of the prolotherapy book mentioned above. Here’s the place to start when researching Dr. Hauser.

Posted in Medical | 1 Comment »