Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

As many know, my truck is on the road without me and I’m playing Safety Manager at my current company. I am taking this opportunity and going back to school and one of the rules of higher education is, you must take required classes to fulfill any degree requirements. I suppose they think it will make students well rounded instead of focused only on their chosen fields. Or it could be to get more tuition and textbook money out of the already broke students or it guarantees an opportunity to push an agenda, but that’s probably just my opinion.  Either way, I now know how the population has been brainwashed into believing what people tell them.

Today’s lecture covers weather, the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. The earth has always had natural cycles of climate change, except during the Industrial Revolution when the cycle was clearly man-made,  there have been so many studies the science is now settled that man causes climate change.  We don’t have enough time today to discuss it, just believe me, I know, it’s true. There exists in the world Climate Change Skeptics, but they are like the Flat Earth Society (chuckle, chuckle). Really! Look it up! There are people that truly believe the earth is flat. If you want more details about Climate Change take my other class and anyone that doesn’t believe is a crazy person and shouldn’t be believed.

I was going to mention emails that exposed the phony research, but I just want a grade and to move on with my life. Besides, arguing with these sorts of people is like convincing someone to change religions, facts mean nothing because they are so entrenched in what they already believe. Plus, I’m sure he had more reports and studies off the top of his head than I did, because I have a life and have to work for a living at something besides preaching my beliefs onto others. I also wanted to find out what kind of car he drives, because hybrids have a  bigger carbon footprint than a gas guzzling SUV. Is he vegetarian? and if he enjoys electricity? But today, I’m satisfied making it out of class without my head exploding.

California Air Resources Board

Meanwhile, in California, the Air Resources Board (CARB) is in the process of decimating California’s economy by forcing unrealistic standards for on-road and off-road diesel particulate emissions. This is having horrific consequences on not only California’s trucking industry, but all of the heavy construction equipment, buses, dump trucks, anything with a diesel engine must meet these new unrealistic standards.

The problem is the head of the research falsified his credentials when he was hired he said he had a PhD from UC Davis. I’m sure it was a typo or a misunderstanding because his PhD is really from Thornhill University, which only exists on the Internet and a PO Box and is owned by an accused  serial child molester. Mail in $1000 and you too can have a PhD. Seriously, how can someone lie on their resume and still be employed and anything he has ever done is now suspect. He is still employed and his “research” is unchanged.

How can CARB trust research done by a phony and dishonest researcher they employ? Easy, the research went through a peer review process and was confirmed as valid. The fact that six out of the twelve peer reviewers were involved in the original research and also employed by CARB is not a problem for the Chairwoman, who also hid the fact of the fake credentials from the rest of the board and is the same chairwoman who says since she isn’t an elected official and she doesn’t have to worry about the consequences of any regulations that come out of her office.

The science is settled.

CARB Chairwoman says she is saving lives and these regulations are good for the future of California and she doesn’t care about those businesses anyway. Since her husband was the attorney for Exxon and the Valdez oil spill, seems she is making money from both sides of the environment issue.

The arrogance and hubris of these people is incredible. If you’ve been in California recently, it’s illegal to idle more than a few minutes and even if you have an APU it’s still a fine, unless it’s a CARB approved APU. CARB officials descend on businesses, warehouses and construction companies like SWAT teams looking for running reefer trailers, idling trucks and inspecting engines for violations, while carrying guns pretending like they have a purpose in life besides generating revenue for the state.

Links:
Thornhill University: Where the air board’s diesel expert got his Ph.D.
Still shameful / Air board’s response to scandal is appalling
Research fraud spurs CARB member to call for truck rule suspension
http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/marine2005/portstudy0406.pdf

the picket line that is. This was the second time I had to deal with this “dispute” at a small steel mill in Canada. The first time, there were more people “on strike” – about 50 men and women – and they were far more boisterous. There is nothing like waking up in the morning and driving to pick up a load with everyone there giving you the “bird”, demanding you go away, and trying to stop you – albeit temporarily – from doing your job.

According to their court injunction, strikers have the right to block or hold up a truck coming into or leaving the mill. The steel company has hired security officers to “protect” the truckers and their equipment.The picket line is monitored by video surveillance.  The rules state that you are to pull up to a pre-designated line and shut down. The driver is to have NO contact whatsoever with the strikers. You are to remain in your truck. There will be two security folks standing in front of your truck on either side and one or two at the rear of your trailer. Their mission is to make sure the strikers – strike – and don’t “cross the line” and don’t touch your truck, the freight or you. The agreement with the union gives the strikers 10 minutes to hold you up and security, the minute you shut down, starts the clock.

After the 10 minute period has expired, you get the signal to fire up your engine and move, very slowly, forward as the strikers move aside and you and your truck proceed to the “regular” guard shack. Since you’re not allowed out of the truck the gates are opened and you are to proceed 100 yards away from the strike “point.” Quite conveniently that’s also where the mill’s scale is and adjacent to it is the shipping office staffed by non-union salaried employees.

In total, there are 198 striking employees at this mini-mill. The strike began this past May. According to the United Steel Workers Union, one of their main objections is the company’s insistence on a two tier pay structure. New hires would receive less money and a reduced benefit and vacation package compared to existing employees. According to Valerie Hill of the Hamilton Mountain News: “Such two-tiered structures lead to dissension as new workers resent both the union and the higher-paid workers.”

The company responded that it “believes this proposal is fair to the company and to its employees and would contribute to ensuring stability and global competitiveness during this challenging economic period.” The mill experienced a net loss of $32.7 million for the three months ending March 31, compared to net income of $163 million in the same period in 2008 and production was down 35 to 40 of capacity.

Once inside the mill, the loading is taken care of by management personnel. They’re slow operating the huge gantry cranes but the job gets done – safely. Actually, its a nice change not to have to deal with the “typical” lazy union attitude that drivers find at many steel plants. Once loaded, you’ll pull outside to secure and tarp the load then proceed back to scale to get your paperwork. Then, it’s back to another predetermined “line” outside the main gate to wait another 10 minutes while the strikers and security officers do their thing.

I pick up for this steel company at their plants in the US. The Canadian strikers do not have the support of their fellow employees. In this dog-eat-dog economy, the prevailing feeling of these workers is if one plant gets shut down or goes on strike, that’ll be more business for them and a further guarantee of work. On a personal note, I don’t agree with a two-tier pay system under any circumstances, but the strike seems to be having little effect on the mill’s operations and has caused lot of bad will among truckers who for years have picked up and delivered there.

Yeah, right. “Very likely over” and how about, “…but it’s going to feel like a very weak economy.” I’ve been hearing not only Bernanke but variety of people in and out of the administration talk about how the economy is getting better. There’s a theory that if you say something often enough and loud enough that people will believe it. Didn’t the last unemployment numbers go up? But don’t worry about the facts, listen to people that know better than us.

Everyone knew things were slow and the markets were down for several months before the experts actually came out and told us we were in a recession. Wouldn’t we see the recovery several months ahead of the experts too? Being on the front line of this economy, truckers are going to see the recovery faster than most. How are rates lately? When brokers offer something under 80 cents and think they’re doing you a favor, this economy has a long uphill battle.

You can get a decent rate, but it’s usually going into an area where it’s tough to get out of. A good rate is offset by the deadhead you need to run to get it or find something else. As usual we’re spinning our wheels going nowhere fast.  At least fuel is holding steady and not spiking up and down like it was.

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I didn’t know where the holiday originated, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It says that the first Labor Day here in the US was celebrated back on September 5th 1882 in NYC. After workers were killed by US Army soldiers and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike – the President at the time – Grover Cleveland – put reconciliation with labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation declaring Labor Day a national holiday was spearheaded through Congress – it passed unanimously – and was signed into law six days after the end of the strike. FYI – the Pullman strike involved violent disputes between the unions and the railroads.

So now you know where Labor Day began. Fast forward to 2009. I just drove the 600 miles from wherever I was to just West of Jacksonville. I’m tired. Including myself, there was a lot of trucks on the road. Obviously “we” didn’t have the day off like the stock market, Federal government employees and of course, the sales, safety and operations people who work for the carriers. They’re home, “we’re” not.

For the record, as of today, there are 15 million people unemployed in the US. The percentage is almost at 10%, the highest level in years. Last month, the economy bled 250,000 jobs. Foreclosures – not from the ranks of adjustable mortgages or where people got homes for no money down – but from conventional mortgage holders. Somehow, we – I should say – greedy businessmen are going to have to start hiring 125,000 folks a month in order to stop that percentage from rising higher. Listening to the Labor Secretary on the radio today, telling people to go back to school – take advantage of the “many” government programs available and get “other” jobs only caused my stomach to turn. After she added that Pell Grants are easily obtainable as I try – and I’m employed – to come up with $900 to pay my son’s college tuition because we can’t get a loan – well, I thought here’s another rich Obama “official” living in liberal fantasy land.

Also, one year ago today – Labor Day – the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Combined they hold over 5 1/2 trillion dollars in mortgages. They were given a $100 billion dollar bailout. One year later, credit is extremely tight whether you run a trucking company, an airline or small manufacturing concern. While the Obama Administration continues to oversee these two entities, they have offered no strategy as to how to successfully manage them. We’ll have to wait until February, when they say they will have some sort of plan. Meanwhile companies continue to go bankrupt and eliminate jobs because they cannot obtain credit.

Today, by the way, is the biggest home improvement day of the year. Yes, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Target and the rest were open. Their employees celebrate the holiday by working. Today more people “dig-out” their Christmas lights than at any other time of the year. No I’m not kidding. And please permit me a senior moment – when I was a kid – nothing was open. Back then there was also talk of a 4 day work week someday. Computers were going to make our lives so much easier. The way things are going, I don’t think our kids will be celebrating this holiday – not so much a holiday – in future years. There is no talk of working less – just more – and for less money than you probably earned five years ago. If you lucky enough to have the day off, enjoy it.

Photo credit: http://www.oldcitypics.com/images/empire-state-workers-1930.jpg

I’ve seen your billboards. I’ve heard your commercials. You know the ones. How one freight train will take 250 trucks off the road and improve highway congestion. How your trains are so fuel efficient. How service via rail is so superior. How you protect the environment. How by using trains I can reduce my carbon footprint.

Railroads, I’d like to tell you just where I’d like to put my footprint. And it has nothing to do with carbon or the environment. You people have lost your minds. And I’m going to take a few minutes just to tell you how wrong you are and how your message to the American public is a bunch of hooey. Oh your slick, I’ve got to give you that. But I, for one, can see right through all your nonsense.

Let’s start with the most important point. America doesn’t care what you have to say. Trains are no longer sexy. Kids want to be truck drivers and jet pilots, not train engineers. What fun is it to just to go forward and occasionally in reverse? When America thinks of trains, they think smoke, loud ear piercing horns and having to wait at annoying rail road crossings while your cars jingle jangle across the tracks. And while folks are sitting in their cars waiting for your train to someday pass, they’re praying its doesn’t go off the tracks and spew ammonia or some other lethal chemical all through their neighborhoods.

America hates trains. In fact, the day you chose to get rid of the friendly red caboose at the back of your lineup of toxic clickety clackety noisy rusty railcars, America’s love affair with the train died. Trains are dangerous. They’re too big and too heavy. They scare people. When is the last time someone asked for a train set for Christmas? When is the last time you took a train somewhere? Have you ever shipped anything by rail?

Jim, my jibber-jammer is down. I need that part. Ok, I hear ya Bill, I’ll get my guys to get it on the next train out. You should have it in two or three weeks. Listen, nobody even knows how to ship anything by rail. Don’t you need to be right on the tracks? What if the material is oversized? How do you get it to the railroad? Where are the railroads? How would I get something from Charlotte to LA? Do I use the Burlington Northern or the Carolina Illinois Railroad which will transfer it to the Midwestern Union Pacific or Santa Fe or California Wyoming Express to yet some other train so it gets to LA somehow someday?

Can I tell you a little secret? Make sure nobody is looking. Ready? OK. There is NO railroad in the world that can do anything without trucks. All the switches, locomotives, rail yards, freight cars, engineers, lights and horns don’t make any difference without trucks and truck drivers. Because even if JB Hunt, Schneider, UPS and Swift intermodal their trailers anywhere, they still have to be picked up and delivered by truck. Ain’t no darn railcar going to drive into Wal-Mart and back up to a dock with the freight.

When America thinks freight transportation they think truck, not rail. When America thinks rail they think hazardous chemicals, hot molten tanks cars with white clouds of smelly smoke and yellow mucus liquid oozing from the top and freight cars with graffiti sprayed all over them with hobos, beggars, criminals and illegal immigrants riding inside or on top top of them.

Railroads, nice try, but trucks are the foundation of America’s movement of goods. If you eat it, drink it, sleep on it, sit on it or ride on it, mostly likely it was delivered by truck. In fact, the backbone of any rail system is the truck, not the train. And you know it. So good luck with your “campaign” but you’re not fooling anybody.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cemeteryrodeo/2049011904/

I arrived in North Bay Ontario in the late afternoon. Small factory in a somewhat residential neighborhood. Lots of trees and definitely working middle class. I could park in their driveway overnight. Another company truck later parked along side me until the morning. That night though, a terrestrial downpour with pellet sized hail pounded the truck. The night before, just south of Detroit, similar weather. Thank goodness my tarps don’t have any holes. I woke up at 12:45 AM thinking it was already morning.

The crossing into Canada was easy. PARS bar code sticker on the bill of lading along with the necessary copies of the commercial invoice, my passport and drivers license and the rather attractive female customs agent told me to have a nice day. Too bad our US customs agents don’t take the same efficiency and courtesy course. My company had, the day before, faxed the paperwork to the wrong office. Always confirm with the broker that they have received the fax and have cleared you through. After correcting the error the broker expedited my clearance within an hour.

For those who haven’t been truck’n in Canada, it’s no big deal. From the Ambassador Bridge crossing from Detroit into Windsor – $22.50 toll – you’re probably going to have to get on the 401 to go where you have to go. The 401 is quite similar to California’s I5, just worse. The traffic and the backups are terrible. Everywhere I went, Canadians talk about the 401. We certainly have our share of bad roads in the US, but the 401, as far as I’m concerned, is a Provincial (national) disgrace. You will sit there for what seems like forever and for no apparent reason the traffic moves again. I’m sure our Canadian driver colleagues say the same thing trying to go through Nashville or crossing the GW Bridge in NY.

Get caught in the express portion of the 401 and you will surely miss your exit. Most of the time I don’t how I ever got on the express side. There is a Flying J at exit 346 in Mississauga just west of Toronto, that is next to impossible to get to. If you’re in the express lanes you cannot get off. And for that reason, I elected to keep going to try out instead the Fifth Wheel truck stop in Milton at exit 320. In Canada you must keep your mind on what you’re doing or you will drive past your exit as the number is only given once. And when you do get off – know which way to turn before hand. Unfortunately my GPS doesn’t work in Canada, so I’m doing it the old fashioned way – referring to a map.

At first glance the Fifth Wheel is a dump. The large parking lot is unpaved sandy gravel and after a heavy rain it is a lake. Make sure you have boots and an umbrella. Under typical circumstances I would have gone elsewhere, but I was exhausted. I had just received a preplan to pick up a steel load in Cambridge along with the court ordered instructions on how to cross the picket line when I got there. That’s just what I feel like dealing with on a Monday morning in another country. So until then I have nowhere to go for the next two days. And there is no way in hell I’m getting back on the 401.

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reporting from North Bay, Ontario – and what a mess it is. The way things are going I’m going to have to drive this damn truck until I die. Hopefully it won’t be at the Flying J in Houston or somewhere equally horrible. The state of America can pretty much be summed up by a commercial that Pizza Hut is now running on television. It’s for their pasta product. They take a family, supposedly out to dinner, to some eye-talian restaurant somewhere to enjoy the pasta. They’re blindfolded. Oooo – this pasta is sooo good. Oooo – it’s sooo nice to be at a real eye-talian restaurant. NO YOU MORONS – TAKE OFF YOUR BLINDFOLDS – YOU’RE AT HOME!!! Ha, ha, ha – we fooled ya! You didn’t fool them – they’re idiots. How dumb can you be? Just like the rest of America.

Mr. Presidente Obama is making a classic dumb mistake. He has joined the ranks of the smart-stupid. Harvard, Yale, Princeton – whatever – MBA, law degree, Ph.D. in Economics???? Doesn’t matter. You got the education and the contacts, but you’re still dumb as a stick – no common sense. And while we’re at it, let’s throw in all the Senate and House members on both sides of the isle – that’s the Congress if you don’t know it yet – if we can tear them away from those absurd town hall meetings – - and of course, the pasta is soo good at this eye-talian restaurant crowd – that’s about 85% of Americans – and from what I can hear – 99% of our fellow truck drivers. A whole lotsa no smarts.

And the cherry on top is the Obama administration with their 1000 page – let’s keep it really complicated and confusing – “health care reform” fiasco. Mr. President – you big dummy! – with all due respect – what are you doing? Are you nuts? KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! KISS baby!! A, B, C – 1,2,3 – bla, bla, bla. How about 25 pages! How about 5! How about 1!!!  Health care reform – we will do #1 this, health care reform – we will do that #2 and so forth and so on. Remember me? Because if I lose my job I HAVE NO HEALTH CARE! And the mandatory participation thing? Why? If some dumb ooo I love this eye-talian pasta doesn’t want health care, that’s one less idiot we have to worry about. Worry about me who pays taxes! What ever happened to everyone having the same health care plan as the members of Congress?

So, Mr. President, you big dummy – again with all due respect – Iraq is still a mess and you have not gotten us out. Afghanistan is, well, Afghanistan. Who cares? If one of your daughters was of age, would you send her over “there” to be blown up by the Taliban – excuse me – Ta-lee-ban? No, of course you wouldn’t! What happened to getting Osama Bin Laden? Do you need 1000 pages to figure out how to get that slimy SOB?. And what about Mexico, Iran, Israel, North Korea, China and every other freak’n place we Americans don’t care about, but you seem to want us involved with. I say kick ‘em to the curb. American all the way baby!

Mr. President – it’s time to punt. Take a time-out. Run the commercial. You and you alone are blowing this health care “thang” big time. Regroup. Deep six the 1000 pages. You’re scaring the bee-jesus out of just about everyone. Slow down. Fix what needs to be fixed first. Do health care next summer. People need jobs. I need freight. I have health care now – I can stay in my dumb job another year more until you get it right. You hear me Mr. President? I sure hope so. Change course because the ship is in stormy dark waters and that majority you now enjoy ain’t gonna be there after the next election.

So, I’ve been gone for a bit. Life has a way of sneaking up on you from behind and felling you with a 2×4. First, the economy, yeah yeah, I know, old rant and not just mine, but this has been going on for longer than many realize and certainly longer than the gubberment admits to. The trucking industry is always a good indicator of the health of the economy. We may notice before anyone else does.

THEN, of all things, medical care. Cost me a house in a good neighborhood. Still, I would leave things the way they are, before I would ever support the crazy ideas they are trying to shove down our throats. The problem with gubberment run health care is : it’s run by the gubberment… Really, how much more would you need to know?

The crashing (spiraling down the toilet) economy in 2007 didn’t help a lot of course. Ended a great local job pulling end dumps and put me back out on the road full time. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a point in every OTR truckers life that he or she must get away – far away – from being on the road. A person can only take so much of everything “trucking” that is thrown at them. That being the rules, regulations, personalities, safety and fuel managers, truck stops, rest areas, stupid drivers, shippers, receivers, brokers and so on and so forth. Enough becomes enough and it just becomes time to park the truck and walk away, if only for a week or so.

So with that thought in mind, I had waited well over three weeks for my company to figure out how to get me home. I was not aware until the very last minute that this was even going to be possible. And the stress of that alone was enough to almost push me over the edge of whatever sanity I had left. You know what we all go through sitting around the house waiting on a load – well reverse that – sitting in a truck stop somewhere waiting 3 days to get a load home, knowing full well that the QUALCOMM could beep with a trip going in the opposite direction from where your loved ones are expecting you to be.

OK so I got home – completely wasted. Fast forward 24 hours later. I’m sitting in the “aft” deck smoking/bar lounge of the Carnival cruise ship Sensation sailing toward Freeport & Nassau in the Bahamas. And like the true iconoclast that I claim to be – in complete defiance of American foreign policy – I’m puffing a truly remarkable Ramon Allones, a premium cigar produced on the island of Cuba for Habanos SA, the Cuban state-owned tobacco company. No toothpicks here baby.

Have you ever gone on a cruise? Thank goodness for two incomes. That’s the only way we could afford it. Leave Sunday – back at 7 AM on Thursday. Did someone tell you that you gain weight on a cruise because of all the food. That’s pure nonsense. Because if you’re not eating – baked Alaska, tiramisu, shrimp, duck, lamb or the many other delicacies offered, you are walking – everywhere. If you’re the “typical” trucker – not accustomed to getting out of your butt numbing Bostrom seat – you will get blisters on your feet. Between your stateroom to anywhere on the ship – on shore to your tour to the beach to the bus to the taxi in and out of the casino to the spotless odor-free bathrooms or the gift shops and back to the dining room – you will have easily walked MILES! A 5-10 mile walk a day would not be exaggerating how much you will walk. By the last day I had dropped two belt holes. By the way, the drink pictured to the left, from the famous restaurant Senor Frogs, is called a “Blowjob.” I have no clue why, but it was really good!

I will be telling you more about truckers cruisin’ in later posts. But before I close, whatever cruise or cruise line you choose, you will get completely immersed in the experience. This was my second cruise – we have another one booked for next February – a three day cruise to nowhere. You will meet people from every city and country in the world, waited on hand and foot, sleep in the most comfortable bed with the finest linens, eat incredible exotic food, hear absolutely no discussion about the economy or how the Democrats or Republicans ruined whatever – all while your floating hotel silently glides through the clear blue seas at about 13 knots. And finally, if you stay away – like I said in my last Christmas post – from the chrome shops and save a little each week in an envelope, you too can easily discover your own total immersion.

*** I took all the photos in the post. The first one is on the beach at Freeport. Most of the island, also known as the Grand Bahamas, was damaged by two major hurricanes back in 2004. There is still extensive damage throughout the island and poverty is quite evident in many of the sections we drove through.  The second photo was taken about 5 PM at sea between Freeport and Nassau – most of the sunbathers had gone below to change for the first dinner seating at 6pm. The third photo is the drink I spoke of. The fourth and last photo is the “animal” towel that is left on your bed when it is turned down every night while you are at the shows. A different animal every  night. You also get two chocolates and your ice bucket is refilled for a nightcap.

As far as I know education is NOT guaranteed under U.S. Constitution. Neither is health care. I’m not going to throw out a lot of numbers about how much our government spends on education, but it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a TRILLION dollars. That of course, comes out of the money we pay in taxes, primarily property taxes. In Florida, where I live, approximately $12,000 dollars per child per year is spent on education and the construction and maintenance of schools. It has been reported that it costs taxpayers about $100,000 to provide the children of illegal aliens, who don’t pay taxes, with a K-12 education.

I was, only briefly, a student of the public school education system, having attended K-10 in a New York City private school. My parents thought it unsafe to send me to public school. They were right and spent a lot of money on a quality education for me, while also having to pay taxes to educate every other child. Only much later when we relocated to a suburb of NJ did I attend a public school. My experiences there were terrible. My son also attended public school and was a honor roll student in high school. That was until a terrific program that had him in smaller classes with one on one instruction got cut. At that point the education “system” failed him as it did me. He would have been better off it he had stayed with me in the truck and been “home” schooled.

I don’t have any more kids to be educated. I really don’t give a damn about the “socialized” education system that we’re forced to pay for in this country. Like my parents, I now have to pay to educate other people’s children, including those who reside in my country illegally. I’m tired of it. Primarily because my government, who can’t seem to figure out how to provide health care to millions of people who need it, doesn’t give me any options. If I don’t pay for education, since I have nobody to educate, then let me contribute to providing everyone with health care. I should have that option. I should also have the option of something like this – checking a box on my 1040 that allows me to give $5, $10 or $25 more to provide BETTER care for the elderly through Medicare/Medicaid.

This discussion, by the way, was had by myself and four other OTR truckers at the T/A off I-90 in Harborcreek PA. We missed Everitt Mickey, Linda Sunkle Pierucki, Porter Corn and Terry Smelser. Although I’m a company driver, the other guys/gals in the group were owner operators. And we’re all concerned about, not education, but how the heck we’re going to receive medical care the rest of our lives. We’re all closely watching what’s happening in Washington. As I said in an earlier post, this “issue” has been “negotiated” since Truman (tried and failed) to made it a priority back in the 40’s and 50’s. That’s over 40 years of hot-air from our government without a workable solution. How pathetic. And a lot of people have died because of it.

Photo credits: ecology.scizone.info, http://www.fitnessbetterhealth.com/images/health-care.jpg, sfs-group.co.uk,