"Miscellany" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Miscellany

Some unrelated stories in the news....

First, a new survey of American workers indicates that a sizeable number of them would prefer more time off to more money. Forty percent, in fact, said they would choose fewer work hours than a $5,000 raise. That’s up 20% from a similar study three years ago. According to a researcher, workers don’t want the added stress, plus more today don’t think that working more will help their careers.

Second, another study reports that medical interns who work 24 or more straight hours tend to drive dangerously. Yes...and? The question is why people actually get paid to conduct research. Isn’t it obvious to any idiot that when you work long hours you tend to be drowsy, whether you’re a doctor or dockworker? The more bottom line is that drowsy doctors probably aren’t very good at ministering to their patients either, as in making wrong diagnoses or in prescribing the wrong medicine in the wrong doses. But we already knew that and so doctors have been cut back to eighty hours a week. What to do? Don’t get sick and don’t drive near people who are sleeping behind the wheel.

Third, more information bordering on useless, the outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary told Americans to eat less and exercise more. Most of the two-thirds of obese Americans couldn’t hear Tommy Thompson because they were eating too loudly.

Fourth, the Governator visited what’s left of La Conchita, the tiny California coastal hamlet that got smothered in a mud slide. A handful of bodies have been pulled out of the mud. Residents there want to rebuild, under overhanging cliffs though some don’t think that would be such a good idea. Kinda like, folks rebuilding in the Mississippi flood plain after their homes are swept away every few years. Or Alaskans living above the Arctic Circle need disaster assistance because the winters are so tough. Why are we paying for this idiocy?

And finally, the government of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, is telling international military rescue teams that their time on the ground is limited. They’ve also warned civilian aid workers that they could be in danger from rebels. The rebels say that’s nonsense, that they welcome the relief help. The U.S. has long propped up the fascists running Indonesia, first because they were brutal anti-Communists and second because they have oil. What noble priorities we have.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.