Setback

I mentioned in a recent post that I had found an old pair of my combat boots and that I'm refurbishing them.  I've experienced a couple of minor setbacks.  One of the cracks isn't filling in as well as I'd like.  No worries, I'm moving forward and accepting that one.  The other one is that, after sanding some areas down to bare leather, the shoe polish alone was not enough to blacken the leather.  After about ten coats of polish, I've decided that I'm going to re-strip the boots and dye the leather.

To reiterate, I'm not worried about this.  The boots are old and were in very poor repair when I started this project, and I have no timeline.  This is about learning stuff.  I'm reasonably confident that my finished product will meet my expectations.  Either way though, feel free to wish me luck.

Employer-Sponsored vs. Government-Sponsored Insurance

I am not sure if I've said it before, but I support socialized medicine in the US.  My rationale is twofold... first, I believe that we would reduce costs significantly if we removed insurance companies from the equation, (IE, getting rid of the profit motive,) and second, if we socialized medicine, everyone would have access to basic health care, which would realistically reduce costs further, because we could catch problems earlier and mitigate, rather than waiting until it's an emergency.

A while back, Bernie Sanders proposed legislation that would incentivize employers such as Wal-Mart, who have a huge number of employees who make wages low enough to be qualified for medicatd, to increase wages.  The idea behind the legislation is that medicaid acts as a pseudo subsidy for these companies by shifting medical costs from that company to the federal government.  The incentive to raise wages would be that the government would fine the employer for having too many employees that are eligible for Medicaid.  I thought it was a great idea, but this article managed to change my mind.

The premise of the article is that Sanders's idea effectively serves to keep insurance with employers, which has the unintended outcome of reducing the power of labor, which is a perspective I had not previously considered, and one that makes me even further in favor of socialized medicine.  Allow me to illustrate my point.

Let's say that I'm working a job and get laid off.  Under the current system, I essentially lose my insurance when I lose that job.  (Yes, I can keep insurance through COBRA, but the costs are prohibitively expensive, and it's still only for a limited time.  And yes, I can directly purchase private insurance, but again, it's not cost effective.)  As a result, I am significantly more likely to accept the first job offer I get, even if it's at a far lower wage, just so I have insurance.  If the government were to provide for basic needs, such as food assistance and health insurance, I'm in a position to hold out a bit longer until I find a job that pays me what I'm worth.

Those opposed to socialized medicine say that welfare is a disincentive to work.  For years, they've held out the welfare queen as the example.  I will concede these people exist.  However, study after study after study demonstrates this is the rare exception, not the rule.  And realistically, those who would exploit the system will find a way to do so, no matter what system is in place.

Another objection is that the government would create "death panels" to determine who lives and who dies if socialized medicine were to come into play.  In response to that, I say we already have death panels; they're known as insurance companies.  In fact, they're death panels twice over.  The first hurdle you need to jump is getting a job that provides insurance.  No job essentially means no insurance, and no insurance means no healthcare.  Second off, insurance companies are known to deny lifesaving treatment.

I get that not everyone shares my perspective.  I do, however, believe that most people agree our current system is broken.  There have been tons of ideas floated and tested in order to fix our broken system, but nothing seems to work.  Logic would dictate that eventually one would admit it's worth trying something completely different.  It makes even more sense when you see other countries with socialized medicine that provides the same level of healthcare (or better,) to more people, at the same cost (or less.)

I'd really love to know what Sunny has to say on this, since she spent time in a country with socialized medicine.  I'm always open to learning more. 

Sore

Last Thursday I played flag football for my weekly PT session with the Marine Poolees.  It was a fun departure from the usual running and calisthenics, and everyone enjoyed it.  I've got to admit that I'm sore, though.  I used parts of my body that apparently have been long neglected.  My hip flexors and IT band are both quite sore.  What really surprised me most, however, is how sore my feet are.  The day after PT, the tops of my feet hurt as if people had been stepping on them all day.  Since then, the bottoms of my feet have been stiff, like sore muscle stiff, when I first get out of bed.  Those first few steps hurt!

For the record though, I'd absolutely do it again. 

Getting Closer

I see the Department of Justice has reclassified certain marijuana products from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3.  In case you're not aware, Schedule 1 means that a given drug has no accepted medical use and has a high potential for abuse.  Schedule 3 drugs are acknowledged to have medicinal value and has fewer regulatory restrictions.

I smoked a LOT of pot in my younger days and absolutely believe this is a step in the right direction, and I may or may not indulge in the occasional edible if I'm in a location where it's legal to do so.  I don't believe that pot is completely harmless, but I am fully convinced that it has medicinal value, and that it's no more harmful than alcohol.  I believe the federal government should decriminalize marijuana and allow states to regulate the sale and consumption.  As I say this, bear in mind that I live in a state that only allows medicinal marijuana, and even that is tightly regulated.  I'd like to see it legalized here, but that's a separate discussion.  Either way, it looks like we may be getting closer. 

Finding a Hidden Treasure

I've been doing some spring cleaning around my house and I ran across an old set of jungle boots I had when I was active duty.  The last time I remember seeing them was over 15 years ago, and they're at least 35 years old.  When I had put them away, I put shoe trees in them, and gave them a spit shine before placing them in the back corner of a closet.  When I found them, the shine was still there, under a thin layer of dust, but the leather has dried considerably, leaving them stiff and cracking in places.  I've decided that I'm going to recondition them and wear them to a PT session.

I've already acquired a bottle of leather conditioner and have been applying the conditioner in thin layers for the last couple of days.  The leather has been soaking up the conditioner like dry, cracked dirt soaks up a gentle summer rain, and I'm happy to report that the leather is regaining its suppleness and flexibility.  Before starting with the leather conditioner, I washed the entire boots with a strong solution of murphy oil soap, which I already had on hand, and was something widely suggested by my internet research.  Following a good rinse to remove the soap,  I left the shoe trees in the boots, and let them dry naturally in the sunlight.

With the leather being so dry, a lot of the polish flaked off, leaving bare leather that was ashen.  The leather conditioner has returned the healthy color tone.  I'm thinking another day or two of conditioning and then it'll be time move to the next step, which will be lightly sanding the leather to get rid of the shallow cracks, and then using a leather repair kit to fill the deeper cracks, followed by another round of sanding to blend in the repair work.

Once that's done, I'm going to apply some gun bluing to the metal eyelets to restore the black color where the bare metal is showing through, and then I will apply several layers of shoe polish and return them to their spit shined original glory.

In the end, this is nothing more than something to occupy my time, and a chance to learn a new skill.  I've never reconditioned leather before.  If I can't fully restore the boots, or if things really go sideways and I ruin them (highly unlikely,) I won't be upset.  But as it stands now, I'm reasonably confident that I can restore them to their former glory.  Wish me luck.

Loving My New Mattress

Last week I purchased a new mattress.  The last mattress my lovely bride and I purchased was a memory foam bed and box spring, which we bought with part of our tax refund roughly fifteen years ago.  The bed was expensive at the time, somewhere between $1500 and $2000, but it absolutely served us well.  My biggest complaint with that mattress was that it was hot.  I had to start wearing wicking pajamas in order to not wake up drenched in sweat every night, and even that didn't fully eliminate the problem.  It was a trade-off though, because that mattress was crazy comfortable.  Until it wasn't.

Over the last few weeks, I started noticing back pain, and it was getting progressively worse.  It was in the very lower back, just above the hip, on the left side.  It took me a while to figure out it was likely the mattress.  I wasn't 100% sure it was the mattress, because I wasn't smart enough to try sleeping somewhere else to see if that fixed things, but regardless wifey was good with my suggestion to buy a new one.

As I started research, my online shopping initially took me to mattress stores, where I quickly, but unsurprisingly discovered that I could expect to fork over well above $2000 for a good quality bed.  Then I remember my friend James telling me that he purchased a mattress in a box for a very reasonable price, and he loved it.  Once I did my independent sleuthing, I discovered that I could get a high quality kind sized mattress for less than $700.  Done!  I bought another memory foam mattress.

The first thing I noticed with the new mattress is that I was no longer sweating at night.  That cooling technology really works!  My back pain was reduced the next day as well, and I was quite hopeful.  A day or two later though, my hopes were put into question, because I woke up with a sore lower back and thought the love affair with the new sleeping hardware might be short-lived.  However, the morning after that, my pain was again reduced and I remembered that I'd been doing a bunch of manual labor around the homestead that was likely the root of the discomfort in my back.

Saturday, I took a road trip to see a friend of mine, and all said and done, I spent about five hours in my car.  It had been a long time since I'd done that, and when I got home, my lower back, neck, and shoulders were all quite stiff.  I fully expected I'd be very uncomfortable the next morning.  That, however, was not the case at all!  I awakened feeling quite refreshed, with only the slightest stiffness in the very lower portion of my spine.  Within an hour, my back was completely pain free.

After about an hour of moving about, all of the pain in my lower back was gone, and THAT was when I realized this was the first time my back hasn't at least been stiff for several months.  The pain and stiffness had been slowly creeping up on me, and I just thought it was a sign of aging.  It's crazy how much difference it made.  I feel more energetic, more mentally alert, and years younger.  I'm loving this new mattress!

Republicans and Religion

 It's been really wild to watch interactions between the Republican party and Christians over the last few months.  Before I talk about the present though, I'd like to talk about the history of politics and religion, at least as I know it.

For those of you who don't know, I was raised as a fire and brimstone Southern Baptist.  My early memories of church had me singing "Jesus Loves Me' in Sunday School, immediately followed by the pastor sharing a sermon that invariably said follow the rules or spend eternity in flames.  Sermons ended with a tearful plea from the pastor to come to the alter and repent, so you can avoid endless suffering.  I remember watching "Late Great Planet Earth" in that church.  I don't remember much about the movie other than skulls, and fire.  Overall, this church filled me exclusively with fear of God, and utterly failed to share any of the love and selflessness.

When my parents moved us from Kansas to Iowa, my mom never sent us back to Church.  I honestly don't know why, but in retrospect, I am thankful.  As it was, I turned my back on God in my late teens to early twenties.  I did attend some church lock-ins with high school classmates, but nothing clicked.  I remember my mom watching  Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, and "PTL Club" with Jim and Tammy Bakker,  

I remember Graham as genuine.  I remember Tammy Bakker always singing poorly and crying.  I remember taking perverse delight in the Jessica Hahn scandal that brought them down.  I remember being horrified to learn as a young adult that my mom financially supported Swaggart and again taking delight in his scandal and downfall.  I remember the Moral Majority group staunchly supporting the Republican party, and promoting "traditional family values."  I kind of always remember evangelical Christianity walking in lock step with the Republican party platform.

While not raised Catholic, I also seem to recall a friendly relationship between Republicans and Catholics, especially when it comes to abortion and homosexuality.  I believe Donald Trump had strong electoral support from the Hispanic community, which I also think skews Catholic.  This is my impression and I haven't deeply researched, so take it with a grain of salt.

Now, let's fast forward to the present.  Over the last year, Donald Trump has shared memes that show him as the Pope, as Jesus, (though he denies the Jesus one,) and when the public rejected his Trump as Jesus picture, he quickly shared a Trump with Jesus as a follow-up.  And this is where it's been fun to watch, because Trump and Christians have had an almost incestuous relationship.  I've seen Christians support a ton of Trump's $h!+ that they would never tolerate from someone else...

They wanted to throw Clinton from office for adultery, but fully exonerated Trump's affair with a porn star.

Trump bears false witness (lies) as casually as the average person breathes, and his supporters eat it up. 

They supported his practice of stiffing contractors (theft) as "good business," while believing that he supported the little guy and small businessman.

This, of course, only discusses the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. Let's touch on some of the teachings of Jesus...

 Jesus teaches that we should pray for and love our enemies.  Trump's default behavior is that you serve him, or he punishes you.

Jesus teaches that we should turn the other cheek.

Jesus teaches that we should serve others.

Jesus teaches that we should help those in need.

Jesus teaches that we should be compassionate. 

In short, Trump is not a good man, based on these ideals.  He has broken multiple tenets of Christianity, yet he attracts Christians like moth to a flame.  Only recently, now that he has shared an image of him as Jesus, are these supporters crying foul. Maybe this is because they see a crisis of faith, because that's what the Antichrist is supposed to do, right?

Again, I'm only speculating.  While I have rediscovered my faith and am attending Church, I am not an apocalyptic Christian and haven't spent a lot of energy focusing on Revelation and the end times.  But I can't help but assume that Evangelical Christians, who tend to be highly focused on the end of the world, would see Trump's latest action as ... ummm ... questionable.

... let's expand this to Republican elected officials.  Those guys are in quite the pickle.  They have sworn their fealty to Trump.  Now Republican constituents are up in arms over the Jesus Trump picture, and the elected officials have to somehow calm down their party base while not pissing off their sovereign.

Of course, the media and the liberals are predicting this will be Trump's downfall.  Pardon my skepticism, but I've heard that song before.  We, as a society, have the attention span of gnats.