Weekly Wilson

When I was a student in Paris our class took an overnight trip to Normandy.  We visited Omaha Beach, explored the German bunkers and paid our respects to the many brave soldiers buried in the American cemetery.

German bunker…

interior of bunker…

American cemetery…

    You may notice an unfortunate lack of accompanying pictures for my upcoming three-day trip to Las Vegas (March 29 – April 1). I am boarding a plane (from Chicago) at the crack of dawn on Saturday and winging my way west to the city that never sleeps. (Or is that New York City?)

     As I sit here in Chicago, there is a nasty combination of snow/rain and something resembling sleet being dumped upon the city. I am watching it obscure all view of Lake Michigan, and I’ll just bet that the workers across the street working in the Central Station developments of the South Loop are really happy to be working in a semi-blizzard (she said, facetiously).

    I have plans (or perhaps I should say “had”) to walk to the Field Museum tonight for “Members Night.” If this keeps up, there will be no walking…only driving.

     In just a few moments I have to leave the safe, comfy confines of my condo to go feed my son’s cat. Usually, I do this in the evening, but the aforementioned “Members’ Night” at the Field Museum will make it impossible to feed the cat in the evening. <sigh>

     I an addition to anticipating the warmer climate and great good fun of Las Vegas (I have tickets for Spamalot and Tom Jones), I am looking forward to getting out of this unpredictable and not-that-pleasant weather. My college-age daughter in Nashville (Tennessee) tells me it is seventy degrees there and she is going canoeing. There will be no canoeing anywhere near Chicago on this blustery, wintery-looking day!

     I spent parts of the past week producing Horror Flash Fiction for a contest (under 500 words). All were rejected, but I remain happy in the knowledge that, soon, I will be going to a WARM place.

      Since I am not taking my computer with me to Las Vegas, I will not be posting until April 1st (not a long time…only 3 days without me, and others will carry on in my absence), so I am going to post my horrifying 500-word Flash Fiction piece entitled, “Konerak: New Age Zombie.” It’s pretty horrifying, if I do say so myself.

     I would say, “Enjoy,” but that seems like the wrong term for a zombie Flash Fiction piece.

     More on Vegas later; happy reading!

      With the recent news that America’s casualties in Iraq have reached 4,000 dead soldiers, we should be asking ourselves, “What is this war costing us, not only in the tragic deaths of our brave soldiers, but in (borrowed) dollars and cents?”

     The April, 2008, issue of Vanity Fair (“The $3 Trillion War” by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, p. 147) lays it out for us. Before the war, President Bush’s economic adviser suggested that the war might cost $200 billion. Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called that “baloney.” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested that increased oil revenues would allow Iraq to pay for its own post-war reconstruction (also “baloney”). The team of Rumsfeld and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Douglas pegged the war in the $50 to $60 billion range back then, back five full years as of March 19, 2008.

    So, how much is this war really costing American taxpayers?

    A lot.  At least close to $800 billion and rising. The Administration has already asked for $200 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal year 2008. And it’s not going to get better, Folks; it’s going to get worse: much, much worse.

     According to the Vanity Fair article (p. 148), “But even the $600 billion number is disingenuous, which is to say false.  The true cost of the war in Iraq, according to our calculations, will, by the time America has extricated itself, exceed $3 trillion.”

     First, there are issues with the “accrual” versus “cash” accounting system used to explain costs. Another relevant quote: “In the case of the Iraq war, the future obligations are huge. They include the cost of replacing military equipment, which is being used up at 6 to 10 times the peacetime rate.  They also include the cost of providing health care and disability payments for our returning troops.”

     Almost every Democratic candidate campaigning in Iowa before the Iowa caucuses in January  (especially Senator Joe Biden) pointed out the huge cost of caring for our wounded young men and women, who are being saved, because of advancements in medicine, at rates that far outstrip anything seen in any previous war. If you look back at my previous Joe Biden article, there are some specifics there.

     The problem is, these brave soldiers’ lives are being saved, but many are horribly wounded and many that are “whole” will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The already over-burdened Veterans’ Administration system is just not equipped to handle the wave of returning soldiers with major problems, both physical and psychological. Problems with V.A. coverage have forced many soldiers to purchase their own health insurance. In 2000, the Veterans’ Administration had a backlog of 228,000 pending compensation claims; today, the number is over 400,000. It takes an average of six months to process an initial claim and, if a veteran appeals, as 14% do, it takes another 2 years to process the appeals, while the veteran waits in limbo for needed health care. The V.A. has run out of money and it takes more than 30 days for a seriously wounded veteran even to be seen by a doctor. (Figures from Vanity Fair, April, 2008,  p. 148).

     We have relied on the National Guard in this war, and that has taken workers from the civilian labor force and imposed burdens on many families whose loved ones have been called to serve. This is a hidden cost of the war. Another “hidden” cost of the war comes about because the Administration has requested nearly all the money to fight the war in the form of “emergency” funding, which then makes the money given free from standard budgetary caps or vigorous scrutiny. When we read stories of pallets of cash being flown to Iraq and then disappearing (and we have), we have the “emergency” nature of the funding to thank…or blame…for that. The Vanity Fair piece (“The $3 Trillion War”) calls this entire method of paying for the war “budgetary sleight of hand that makes a mockery of the democratic budget process.” (p. 148).

     Casualties:  The Pentagon has its own peculiar method of counting casualties. It classified more than half of those who had to be evacuated from Iraq as non-combat casualties (p. 150), because the Pentagon splits hairs when deciding who was killed in the war and who was merely killed in a tank accident on their way to the war, for example.

At least 2.1 million individuals will have been sent to Iraq before the war ends. When we consider that 44% of the Gulf War Veterans (a war that only lasted a few weeks) have applied for disability compensation and almost 90% of their claims were approved, we can see that this is going to be an expensive post-war. (Today, we spend $4.3 billion per year paying disability compensations for Gulf War Veterans, Vanity Fair, page 150, as are the figures in the previous two sentences).

     The Vietnam War cost the United States an estimated $560 to $805 billion (in 2006 dollars) and 58,000 Americans died there, as did one million Vietnamese. (Mother Jones, “Apocalypse Then, November/December 2007, p. 47). Twenty years after Vietnam, 15% of Vietnam veterans still suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Mother Jones, “Apocalypse Then,” November/December 2007, page 47).

     Here’s another Big Eye-Opener: we have borrowed the money to finance this war, primarily from countries like China, and we will have to pay the money back with interest. The interest, over only 10 years, will add $615 billion to the cost of the war, pushing the cost into the $2.8 trillion ballpark. (Vanity Fair, p. 150). As the authors of the Vanity Fair piece (Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes) conclude (p. 153), “The price in blood has been paid by members of the volunteer military. The price in treasure has been financed entirely by borrowing…Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed. They cannot.”

     Another Big News Flash, for me, regarded how much “the surge” has cost. McCain is very “high” on the surge while on the campaign trail, telling us how well he says it has worked, but he fails to mention that the cost quoted to the American taxpayer footing the bill was for only four months of expenses, while the surge has and will go on for far longer than that. The surge was supposed to cost $5.6 billion in January of 2007 when we deployed another 21,500 troops. (Vanity Fair, April 2008, “The $3 Trillion War”) However, that cost was for deploying combat troops alone. The cost will be closer to $11 billion (also for four months) when the other 15,000 combat-support troops are factored in, with the surge continuing for 12 to 24 months. (p. 153, Vanity Fair article). Since we are now entering April, obviously the price tag we were given for only four months of “the surge” is going to be much higher.

     When you consider how many bridges won’t get repaired in this country and how many roads and schools and other infra-structure improvements will not be able to be made in this country because of the cost of this war, you have to factor in a figure that is a “realistic but conservative estimate (for the war’s macro-economic impact) of roughly $1.9 trillion.” (Vanity Fair, p. 153).

     To sum up, using the words of Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes who did such a good job of laying it all out for us this month:”Thus, the total cost of the war ranged from $2.8 trillion in strictly budgetary costs, to $4.5 trillion if one adds in the economic costs…The President and his advisers wanted a quick and inexpensive conflict. Instead, the Iraq War is costing more than anyone could have imagined.”  The article goes on to say that these costs will most likely end up being half again as much as Vietnam, two times that of Korea, and four times the cost of World War I.

     A Chicago man identified by police as 24-year-old Roberto Gonzalez was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital on March 20^th, following arrest by Chicago police, who subdued the victim using both a chemical spray and a TASER gun. Gonzalez— (whose family says he was 37)—died about 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 20t, following the altercation with Chicago police.

    Gonzalez was standing outside the Loma Linda Bar at 2658 S. Trumbull Avenue with his cousin, Cesar Garza, 28, who confirmed to police that the pair had been drinking and that Roberto “might have” taken drugs.

    Gonzalez, it should be noted, has a rap sheet going back ten years which includes at least a dozen arrests for battery, armed Robert, possession of drugs, reckless conduct and violating a protective order.

   Two plainclothes police officers who had been circling the block outside the Loma Linda approached the two cousins and told them to move on.  Garza left, but Gonzalez did not.  Garza was picked up a few blocks away by police officers after he left the scene as requested.  It was from the back of the police vehicle that Garza watched as police struck Gonzalez for ten minutes, used a chemical spray on him, and tasered him twice. 

    Said Garza, the dead man’s cousin, “They shouldn’t have done this. He (Gonzalez) was on the floor, wiggling away from police. How could he fight back?”

     Another witness, who declined to be identified, said police asked Gonzalez to take his right hand out of his pocket, after which officers attempted to arrest him.  The unidentified witness saw police strike Gonzalez and, as Gonzalez resisted arrest, the witness heard officers say, “Stop, or we’ll tase you.”

    The rallying cry, “Don’t tase me Bro!” became famous worldwide after a University of Florida student in Gainesville, Florida, tried to ask then-Presidential nominee John Kerry a series of questions, culminating in one that dealt with his membership in the Skull and Bones Society, of which George W. Bush was also reputedly a member.

    In an incident at the Toronto Airport in October of 2007, a Polish immigrant on his first trip outside his native country, arriving in Canada to visit his mother—a man who spoke no English and had just arrived at the terminal, waited for hours to be met by his elderly mother. He became more and more agitated as the hours passed.  His mother could not enter the secure arrival area where the man waited, and the man could not communicate with airport personnel, nor they with him, due to the language barrier. Nor could the man contact his mother. The man’s subsequent fatal tasering by officers called to the scene was caught in its entirety on a horrifying cell-phone video taken by another passenger.

     Glen Lebyba, a Glendale, Colorado resident having a mental breakdown was killed by three tasers administered after his family called police for help. His sister Shelly said, “Glen was in a medical emergency, down on the ground, no threat.”

     An Indiana resident, James Borden, was tasered six times by police, leading to his death.  His brother, Steve, said, “They juiced him to death.”

   Another incident of a mental patient being tasered to death occurred on Long Island, New York. The victim was David Glowczenski. His sister, Jean Griffin, said, “We called them (police) for safety because he was so disoriented…and an hour later, he was dead.”

     In yet another sad story that occurred on August 4^th in Lafayette, Colorado, Jack Wilson’s son, Ryan, was TASERed when the 22-year-old entered a marijuana field and did not stop when police commanded him to do so. When he ran, Officer John Harris pursued the young man for half a mile and shot him once with an X-26 TASER.  Ryan fell to the ground, convulsed, and died. No alcohol or drugs were found in his system. But Ryan Wilson did have a previously-undetected heart abnormality (narrow artery).

     The TASER was used against political protesters demonstrating against Florida Governor Jeb Bush at a Rick Santorum fundraiser in Pittsburgh on October 9^th, 1974. We can assume it will be used again, this summer, during the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

     The TASER was invented in 1974 by a man named Jack Cover, who called it the TASER, meaning “Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle,” after a hero of 20^th century adventure novels. Since its inception, it has undergone modifications and morphed from Air Taser, Inc. in 1993 to Taser International, Inc. in 1998.  The M-26 re-design was part of something known as “Project Stealth,” which intended to give law enforcement a weapon to use against those resisting arrest that did not cause deadly force.

   But does a TASER represent deadly force?

   In the instances cited above, including nearly 200 in 5 years, the answer is yes. Today (2006) “more than 9,500 law enforcement agencies in 43 countries use the TASER. IN 8 years, 184,000 were sold to law enforcement personnel and another 115,000 were sold to citizens in the 43 states where owning a TASER gun is legal. They cost $300 to $400 and are even available in the color pink! (“Death by Taser: The Killer Alternative to Guns” by Silja J.A. Talvi, on “In These Times,” Nov. 18, 2006.)

     A TASER is propelled towards the subject using compressed nitrogen, which launches 2 penetrating probes or bars. The barbs are listed (by various sources) as being released from 15 to 35 feet away at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Amnesty International cited 150 deaths by June of 2001, and that number has risen dramatically. In fact, the increase in deaths from TASERing was so dramatic in Detroit that the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality worked to see that taser guns were banned in that city. Said Ron Scott of that organization, “There needs to be more study done on the effects of TASERS.” (Jim Lynch, “The Detroit News,” Feb. 18, 2005).

     The T-wires that connect with the person’s body, frequently piercing clothing and skin, cause rapid muscle contractions. The impulses, which deliver 50,000 volts per application and can “re-stun” repeatedly thereafter, have insulated wires connected to the gun. Repeated shocks are often given in quick succession. One individual, described on October 12, 2004 on the blog “The Early Show” was stunned 9 times and died. “He committed no crime; he didn’t do anything wrong,” said the blog.

     Dr. Roland Kohr, an Indiana physician, says that being TASERed may potentially kill an individual under stress or one who has drugs in his system.  “The application of the TASER was the trigger factor for the stressful event that caused the elevation of blood pressure, the elevation rate, which stressed an already damaged heart to the point that it went into cardiac arrest,” he said in court testimony. In the case of Jack Wilson’s son, Ryan, an autopsy showed a narrowed artery to the heart, although Ryan was in good health and was neither drunk nor on drugs at the time of his death. Since he had just been chased for over a mile by the police, he certainly would have been “stressed.”

    Another method of TASERing an individual is dubbed “dry stunning.” It is administered directly on the subject’s skin, giving a cattle-prod-like effect. Those who have been TASERed describe the effect as debilitating, with full body seizures, mental disorientation, and loss of control of bodily functions. The University of California student TASERed in the library there (video available at http://www.altenet.org/rights/44455/) seems to have been in extreme pain and crying out for help.

    Chicago victims are not confined to Roberto Gonzalez on March 20, 2008. A 54-year-old man and a teen-ager were among other TASER victims in Chicago on February 11, 2005, and there are others.

     It would seem that “TASERing” people is something that can, for some subjects, be as dangerous to the victim as shooting them with a gun would have been.  In the March 20^th event in Chicago, Ilana Rozenzweig, chief of the agency that reviews police conduct (Internal Affairs), promises a complete investigation, including autopsy results, evidence gathered at the scene, and witness statements.

    None of these investigations will bring back any of these victims, the innocent or the guilty. Their numbers are rising.

     Further study of TASERs as a police tool, as urged by Lucas County Sheriff (Toledo, Ohio) James Telb is indicated before more victims, some of them innocent of any wrongdoing, die as a result of the overzealous use of what is supposed to be a non-fatal law enforcement tool. Most video of the student and political protesters would suggest that, had they been allowed to do so, the students would have departed the premises without further incident. The Florida and California students being TASERed at least survived, although their ordeal is difficult to watch on video.

    The 40-year-old Polish man had done nothing to bring his TASERing on himself, but he is just as dead as Roberto Gonzalez of Chicago.

      TRANSFUSED BLOOD OVER 6 WEEKS OLD MAY KILL YOU

     A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Colleen Gorman Koch and Cleveland Clinic colleagues, examined the transfusion records for 6,002 cardiac surgery patients in the wake of several smaller studies that indicate that, if transfused blood is nearing its expiration date (6 weeks), recipients are 64% more likely to die in the hospital.

     In Dr. Koch’s study, 2.8% of those who received old blood died in the hospital, compared to 1.7% who got fresher blood.

    Over 14 million units of blood are transfused into patients across the United States each day.  Blood can be stored and used for as long as six weeks, although evidence exists that the loss of nitric oxide over that six-week period can render the old blood less effective than fresher supplies.  That finding has led other researchers to attempt to rejuvenate the old blood with this critical agent (nitric oxide) for delivering oxygen to tissues.  Nitric oxide has been shown to disappear from the blood after six weeks in storage, in other studies.

     On Wednesday, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) stated, “The New England Journal of Medicine” study is narrow and non-randomized,” and that FDA regulatory action would be “premature.”

     Dr. Ross Herron, medical director for the American Red Cross said, “I don’t know if we would be able to get enough blood donors to offset that (regulatory action by the FDA).”

     Heart surgery patients are among the largest consumers of donor blood.  Some hospitals have already modified their procedures for cardiac surgery to minimize the need for blood transfusions for heart patients.

Uploading pictures can be a fun, exciting and thankless task.  Among things that can inevitably go wrong: incorrect picture sizing, attaching to undesired location on the webpage and an invitation to wild bear attacks.

Several tips to help with uploading pictures:

1) Select a picture you actually want to upload

2) Keep eyes open at all times

3) Using a mouse to assist with uploads can decrease the time spent uploading by 98%

4) Uploads are best done with a computer

5) Do not try to upload pictures directly from a non-digital camera

6) When uploading pictures, best to leave pants on

Who doesn’t love a nice kitten upload?  Satan, of course.

Vaux-le-Vicomte is another stunning château not far from Paris.  Nicolas Fouquet, a powerful court financier to Louis XIV, challenged architect Le Vau and decorator Le Brun to create the most luxurious palace of the day, and the result is one of the greatest châteux of the 17th century.  It was perhaps a little too luxurious, because when King Louis XIV saw it he was furious that anyone dare surpass him in this fashion.  He ruined Fouquet by arresting him and confiscating all his assets.  Fouquet never recovered. Louis XIV took charge of Fouquet’s gardener, André Le Nôtre, who went on to design the gardens of the château de Versailles, his greatest triumph.

Some aerial views…

Fontainebleau is a beautiful château located near Paris.  It is a cluster of styles from different periods.  Louis VII built an abbey here that was consecrated by Thomas Beckett in 1169.  A medieval tower survives, but the present château dates to François I.

Aerial views…

Interior…

      Who knew that an area of our brain known as the medial orbifrontal cortex could affect whether we enjoy something purchased at bargain basement prices as much as an item or service for which we have paid Top Dollar? New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conducted by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and at Stanford demonstrates that the price people pay for something can change how much pleasure they derive from that item or service.

     Neuro-economist Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology and Baba Shiv, a Stanford University behavioral economist had subjects evaluate bottles of wine. One bottle of wine cost $10; one bottle cost $90. In reality, both bottles were filled with the same exact wine.

     The researchers then conducted a brain-imaging study of the wine tasters and learned that the wine drinkers who thought they were drinking the more expensive vintage experienced a greater degree of activation in their media orbitofrontal cortex. These wine drinkers also reported that the expensive wine was better, even though, in reality, the wines were identical.

     Many studies have shown that, because of a general assumption that something expensive should be better, consumers value everything from clothing to food more highly when the price is marked up.  This effect, called the price-placebo effect, because it seems similar to the placebo effect in medicine, has been reported in a number of studies over the years. Researcher Baba Shiv said, “The price-placebo effect comes from the fact that you form this global belief that low price equals low quality.” My friends who believe that anything marked “Sony” must be better than a competing brand would fall into the majority of buyers.

     In addition to the wine study, there was a corollary study involving solving word puzzles.  Subjects were offered an “energy drink,” which they were told would boost their puzzle-solving performance. Some were asked to buy the drink at full price of $1.89. Others were offered the same drink, but told that, because of a bulk purchase, they could purchase the energy drink for only eighty-nine cents. Those who paid full price for the energy drink were able to solve nearly two times as many puzzles as those who received the discounted energy drink.

    Some of the explanation for the improved puzzle-performance on the part of those who paid full price was attributed to persistence: “I paid full price and I’m going to hang in there and solve this (these) puzzles!” The studies bring up an interesting question: If I paid Top Dollar for something, and, as a result, derived more pleasure from it, was I ripped off, or did I actually get a better deal than the person who got a discount? If you found that comment confusing and contradictory, join the club; it becomes almost like as complicated as chess trying to decide if it is better to get a bargain or to pay full price.

     The implications in these studies were very interesting, in light of the large number of consumers today who purchase many items in discount houses such as Sam’s Wholesale Club, Circuit City, Best Buy, and/or CostCo. When I recently purchased a Calvin Klein black pea coat from Sam’s for $25, I remember feeling that, although the coat looked good on me, fit well, and was a “name” brand with a much-higher price tag attached (from the original Calvin Klein stores), I found myself telling people that the coat had come from Sam’s Club and “only cost $25.” Rather than enjoying it less because of that fact, however, I actually think I enjoyed it more, feeling that I had gotten a bargain.

     I wonder if the item makes a difference? A coat, after all, is more of a necessity than wine, puzzles or hookers…the third purchased “service” the article discusses at length.

     The original article discussed former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s purchase of sexual services from a prostitute in The Emperors’ Club known as “Kristen” and debated, at length, whether Spitzer got 10 times the value for his $1000-an-hour tryst of someone who only paid a prostitute $100 an hour.

     For me, the ultimate answer to that question is whether the price Spitzer paid— his future in politics, his family, his reputation and his aspirations for higher office—were worth the few hours of hedonistic pleasure he derived in hiring a high-priced call girl for sexual services. Logic would suggest that Spitzer not only crossed the line morally, but also paid far more than what “Kristen’s” services were worth.