We piled out of Los Angeles as soon as the national parks opened. We headed toward what the elite quaintly call the “flyover states.” The federal government own large chunks of the land there and moved Native American tribes to reservations in these states to get them out of the way. These states are largely free of COVID-19 and the overly aggressive restrictions on our lives. Enjoyment of our time was abridged by an incident that has now engulfed us all.

Watching the strangulation of a human being is stomach-churning. After three minutes I had to stop and skip to the end when the limp body of George Floyd was rolled onto a stretcher. The fact this was done by a person who was supposed to be a “lawman” made it completely appalling.

As the response to the incident started flooding our phones and email, it was quite apparent there was universal condemnation of the person wearing the uniform. I searched my mind to think when we were as unified in our country against an action by people wearing uniforms. I lurched all the way back to May 4, 1970, when improperly trained members of the national guard shot four students who were protesting at Kent State. Blacks,… Read More

As a poor, orphaned, “colored” boy born in the Deep South in 1939, I never had a moment’s doubt that someday my life would be better. My optimism flowed from the unbounded optimism of my maternal grandmother, with whom I lived in the immediate aftermath of my mother’s death, which occurred in 1943. The optimism of my grandmother came from her faith in God and her belief that our nation was a God-loving country which would someday, soon, “live out the true meaning of its creed,” as Martin Luther King Jr. so often said. That creed, Dr. King reminded us, was embedded in our Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”

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Only a few days after I wrote that one of the real benefits of the pandemic would be the advancement of telehealth, a new policy was announced by Seema Varna, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Ms. Varna announced the loosening up of rules for providing patients greater access to their medical professionals via telecommunication. It is time to look deeper into the subject.

Prior to this policy change, CMS would only authorize charges for rural care. That recognized the practical aspect that doctors, etc., were not generally available in some areas and the only access for routine medical care was a lengthy trip across a county to see a doctor. Not only is this a problem for folks in rural areas but likewise for city folks. They have just as much of a struggle accessing their medical professionals because they are forced to fight crowded urban traffic for even a simple matter. Now that CMS has authorized these charges, hopefully all the private insurance companies will follow suit.

This issue came to the fore after I previously wrote a column about the undue burden that had been forced on doctors needing to maintain all… Read More

Even though we have been in 71 countries and more than forty states, we are accustomed to the culture of California and big cities. People talk about the “flyover states” and that is where this trip has taken us. Life is much different and refreshing.

The fact that these states did not experience the amount of hysteria over COVID-19 reflects their difference in life. We are willing to sacrifice a lot to live on the coasts. Just the idea that people in flyover states are indifferent to using plastic straws while our coastal society has made it a focus of our culture displays the small difference in our lives. The fact that no server has said “Do you want change” when presented with cash equal to more than the check amount speaks volumes about their life. They would never make such a presumptuous statement. They just bring the change back, never assuming the extra money is theirs.

We make movies and TV show in our culture and many times they are about people living in small towns. Almost invariably it casts a negative light on their “small” lives. It seemed to us with the many interactions with the people we encountered that they like their “small”… Read More

We were leaving California on Highway 15 heading toward the Nevada line. Those who have driven to Las Vegas are familiar with the route. As you approach the top of the hill you can see Primm, NV, far off in the distance on the other side of the state line. Primm is the first place you may begin legal gambling. As we started to descend the hill with our eye on escaping California, we saw a vehicle pulled over by the CHP. Then another and then another. A total of six CHP vehicles, positioned on the side of the road with radar guns to capture motorists in the last moments before leaving the state. Quite the essence of why someone might never want to return.

We were headed to a rendezvous with some refugees from the Republic of California. They had moved just a year ago to a neighborhood in Henderson, NV, where they acquired a house with a pool in a neighborhood where kids played on the street without fear of kids being kidnapped. When we entered the house we found people not quivering with fear of being on the verge of death. I got my first hugs in more than two months from someone other than the Beautiful Wife. We went to have lunch where we had table service. Yes, the… Read More

A friend of mine practically begged me to watch O.J.: Made in America, insisting it had much deeper meaning than the subject of murdering his wife and another person. When the verdict came in for the civil case (which O.J. lost), it came in concurrent with the 1996 State of the Union. A clip from that speech showed President Clinton stating, “We need to open a deeper dialogue with China.” How poignant. We have been severely confused about our relationship with this communist country run by dictators. Now there is the current situation regarding COVID-19.

It is evident that listening to the Chinese government is akin to the old saying about teenagers: “How do you know when a teenager is lying? Their lips are moving.”

After much analysis, it is clear that the virus came from a poorly managed lab in Wuhan. I don’t believe the Chinese intentionally let the virus spread from the lab or that it was manufactured there. What no one has asked is why were they studying these viruses for so long? One of their lead doctors had spent 15 years studying these viruses and bats. It is said that the source of the SARS virus was due to similar circumstances (bats). Here is… Read More

Monday becomes Tuesday becomes Wednesday becomes Thursday. Someone says have a nice weekend and you wonder what they are talking about. Your human contact is limited. You are just aching to hug someone. What is the answer to that? ROAD TRIP.

We live in Los Angeles in which der leaders have decided to lock us down through July 4th. That is a county of 10 million where the deaths from COVID-19 equal about 5-6 average days of typical deaths in the county (based on 75-year average lifespan). That is .015% of the population. Los Angeles is the hot bed in California. The state has lost .008 of its population to the virus or fewer than three days’ worth of its average death rate.

The Beautiful Wife and I will be going to the Free States of America. We are aiming toward Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore. We will see Crazy Horse, the Grand Tetons, Little Big Horn, Deadwood, Sturgis and more. We will cross through Nevada and Utah on our way to see Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. Going to see some friends along the way. Refugees from California.

When are we coming back? Not quite sure. Not much on the schedule here. No lunches planned with… Read More

On Sunday, our Arrogant-Lazy-Authoritarian-In-Chief (ALAIC), Gavin Newsom, said, on television, that the federal government had a “moral obligation” to cover his behind for his excessive lock down order issued March 19 of this year, an order that remains in effect. It remains in effect, even though the original rationale for the order, that is, that 22 million Californians would be infected by the disease by today, proved to be grossly overestimated. ALAIC Newsom wasn’t just a little wrong, he was wrong by about 22 million people, and his order has threatened the financial stability of the very hospitals he was hoping to protect, not to mention driven millions of Californians to bankruptcy. ALAIC Newsom said that the number of unemployed people has reached “Depression-era” numbers, and he now faces a $54 billion budget deficit and 25% unemployment numbers.

The problem is that these “Depression-era” numbers are entirely of his own making. He overreacted to the disease, pure and simple, acted prematurely, and rather than use public health protocols that had been used over and over again for other flu-based and communicable… Read More