Finished goal of running the distance of 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C and back!!!...plus 339.1 miles


0.0 miles run this week.
Daily running average for the week is 0.00 miles per day.
Total amount run in the past 800 days is 2,419.1 miles.
Daily running average overall is 3.02 miles per day.

Day18 Thursday 09/16/10

Tonight I’m posting about a novel I read a few years ago that regained wide popularity near the time Barack Obama was elected President. The author is Ayn Rand and the novel is “Atlas Shrugged”. Rand has a deep repertoire of books including fiction and philosophy, but this one has a special value in these present times because many consider the story to be a possible foreshadowing of what this country could unfortunately become. The book was published in 1957. In 2009, fifty-two years after being published, “Atlas Shrugged” re-emerged as a best-seller making Amazon.com’s top 50 list. Two days ago, USA Today reported, “…according to a Library of Congress survey, ‘Atlas Shrugged’ may be second to the Bible as the most influential book read in America.”

The novel deals with free enterprise and the threat of a government taking over the companies and money of brilliant, leading industrial minds in a final effort to spread wealth, only to destroy the little that is left in their civilization. It is right in line with the stimulus packages, Bailouts and Health Care decisions that have been made over the past two years. The stimulus packages have not been effective in proportion to their exorbitant sums of intention, the bailouts allowed the government to wrap its tentacles around the affairs of banks and major corporations, and Health Care Reform is likely going to be a government ordered obligation, which tens of millions of Americans will be forced to possess at the likely consequence of higher premiums and worse care.

As an aside, I stumbled upon an interesting open letter today from an article, which a doctor composed concerning America’s current health care crisis:

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.


While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD

Back to the point, the novel, written over half a century ago, eerily deals with some very real issues that are happening today. The staggering numbers in which it is selling and the comparison of possibly being the most influential book in America next to the Bible should be reason enough to make this a must read, even if you read only one book this year.

I ran 2.2 miles today and it was not one of my better days. On a brighter note, this blog still has some work to be done that I am getting close to completing. Just a couple more bells and whistles to keep you better informed with its progress.

2,038.4 miles to go.