Chiefs Draft 2014

Boom or Bust

Well, this has truly been interesting. I can't help thinking that the Chiefs have either got it spectacularly right or spectacularly wrong!

Before the draft almost all the pundits had the Tribe taking a wide receiver with the first pick. Many names were mentioned but any of them would have been a shoo-in. Trouble is the Chiefs were reading a different book!

This is the Chiefs 2014 draft class...

Round 1 (23) - Auburn LB Dee Ford

Round 2 (No pick)

Round 3 (87) - Rice CB Phillip Gaines

Round 4 (124) - Oregon RB De'Anthony Thomas

Round 5 (163) - Georgia QB Aaron Murray

Round 6 (193) - Tennessee G Zach Fulton

Round 6 (200) - McGill OT Laurent Duvernay-Tardif

Round 7 (No pick)

“The Kansas City Chiefs top need entering the 2014 NFL Draft was receiver, according a series of polls we ran asking KC Chiefs fans the team's top needs. Exiting the 2014 NFL Draft, receiver remains one of the Chiefs biggest needs.

Let's examine the Chiefs current receiver situation, before the draft and after the draft.

What the Chiefs did (or didn't) do at receiver in the draft

Until they sign someone else, it looks like Dwayne Bowe and Donnie Avery will be the Chiefs top two receivers once again.

The Chiefs did not draft a true receiver, a position Chiefs fans thought they would be addressing not just in the draft, but high in the draft. Fourth round pick De'Anthony Thomas out of Oregon will play all over, including some at receiver.”

Why did everyone get it so wrong?

Some of the reasons may be above, but it is hard to believe that the Chiefs don't have a Plan B, somewhere? No-body can really think that there isn't a serious effort afoot to find someone who was un-drafted and can challenge for a spot on the roster.

Or, is free agency still an option?

Looking at the draft picks it's hard to get excited. A QB in Round Five? A RB in Four? A tackle from Canada in Six?

I hope they know what they are doing, but it's looking like a boom or bust draft to me. If it works out it could be very good, if not, it's plummet time!

Haunting Questions

QUESTIONS THAT HAUNT ME!

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours?

Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change?

They're going to see you naked anyway...

Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Why, Why, Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four

billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a thread a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up , examine it, then put it down to give the

vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light

fixtures?

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?

MY FAVORITE.........

The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

Lissingdown

Stuck in Lissingdown

As the Thames overflows in a few counties, the Somerset levels return to the sea from whence they came, the politicians crap themselves and the Tory voters are the ones who are being inundated; I reiterate my plan to solve the crisis in an historical way.

Folks seem to have forgotten that England is a green and pleasant land for a very good reason – it rains and it rains a lot. We can speculate about global warming and climate change, but it is all a bit academic to the poor sods currently sand-bagging their sodden properties throughout the West Country, Wales and the Home Counties.

We are currently “enjoying” a very mild winter. We have hardly had a frost worth speaking about and the days are getting longer and longer. We may get through to the end of February without one freezing day!

What a difference a year makes. Last February we were wondering if winter would ever end and piling more logs on the fire.

The old adage that England doesn't have climate it only has weather has never seemed so true.

What do we do?

We could appoint a Minister for rain. Example: last time a Minister for drought was appointed it rained incessantly for weeks. Maybe the reverse would do?

We could demolish the Thames barrier and flood the capital. The sight of all the MP's, merchant bankers and assorted big wigs paddling up Whitehall might cheer up the masses no end.

We could find the drain plug for the country and pull it out.

I have a better idea – a little thinking outside the box is required.

For example – in Bordeaux it will be 16 degrees on Friday with a little light rain.

So, we let the Scots keep their little country (where it has been surprisingly dry this winter) and reconstitute the English empire in France.

Or being charitable to the surrender monkeys, we simply swap England for those desire parts of France which we still, in theory, own – namely the Empire of Henry V.

So, we get the good bits with room to build enough houses to house us all and they can make do with Slough (if it stays above water) and Goole. Works for me!

Yes, I know they will moan a lot but who cares. Everyone in England gets a free holiday in France to find a swap partner and then on a date specified in the treaty of Troyes we go there and they come here.

Simples.

It can rain forever in the Thames valley and we will be high and dry in the Dordogne.

As the saying goes: It's cool in Goole, dry in Rye and in Lissingdown it's pissing down. We need to do something!

Chirstianity - no offence intended)

If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

I don't usually “do” jokes but this one is too good not to share!

Far away in the tropical waters of the Coral Sea two prawns were swimming around.

One called James and the other called Christian.

The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that inhabited the area.

Finally one day James said to Christian, 'I'm fed up with being a prawn; I wish I was a shark, and then I wouldn't have any worries about being eaten.'

A large mysterious cod appeared and said, 'Your wish is granted'.

Lo and behold, James turned into a shark.

Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate.

Time passed (as it does) and James found life as a shark boring and lonely.  All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them.

James began to realise that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

While swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and he thought perhaps the mysterious fish could change him back into a prawn.

He approached the cod and begged to be changed back, and, lo and behold, he found himself turned back into a prawn.

With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes, James swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail.
(The punch line does not involve a prawn cocktail - it's much worse).

Looking around the gathering at the reef he realised he couldn't see his old pal. 'Where's Christian?' he asked.

'He's at home, still distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy and became a shark', came the reply.

Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian's abode.

As he opened the coral gate, memories came flooding back.

He banged on the door and shouted, 'It's me, James, your old friend, come out and see me again.'

Christian replied, 'No way man, you'll eat me.

You're now a shark, the enemy, and I'll not be tricked into being your dinner.'

James cried back 'No, I'm not.

That was the old me. I've changed.'.........

(You're going to love this................................)

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'I've found Cod.

I'm a Prawn again Christian'

Armageddon

It's life Jim, but not as we know it.

Very late in life I have become a philosopher. It doesn't pay much, but it helps to pass the time.

So, what has brought me to this late, great career change?

I was musing (as you do in your dotage) about the arrogance of the human species. Particularly I was thinking about religion and disaster movies. An odd combination – as well you might think.

It seems that humans have an innate capacity for doom-mongering and pessimism. Given a modicum of encouragement, we will cheerfully forecast the end of civilization, the beginning of a new Ice Age, global warming destroying the planet (Soylent Green style!), shale gas fracking causing planetary cataclysms, etc. - and the et etceteras are manifold.

However diverse, these dooms, for which we are seemingly unable to escape, have one unifying feature. We do survive. There is always some remnant of homo sapiens who rebuild the planet and some sort of civilization. We endure. We go on. Our grand children’s grandchildren are born and live their lives. We assume that throughout the débâcle the human species goes on.

It occurred to me that this is not inevitable. There are disastrous scenarios where we do not survive.

For example, take our Sun – Old Sol. It's been cheerfully chugging along for billions of years providing us with all the energy needed for life on our planet to develop and be sustained. It does so with such predictable regularity we assume it's continued predictability is inevitable. It is not. Sometimes stars go “wrong”.

Although this is a remote possibility, it is still a real possibility.

From Wikipedia

“Although no supernova has been observed in the Milky Way since Kepler's Star of 1604 (SN 1604), supernova remnants indicate that on average the event occurs about three times every century in the Milky Way.[5] They play a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with higher mass elements.[6] Furthermore, the expanding shock waves from supernova explosions can trigger the formation of new stars.”

A comfort, but not an absolute guarantee. Most likely we will have destroyed the planet long before the sun jumps in and does us the favour.

But there is a quantitative difference, other disasters are for the most part survivable. The sun going nova is not.

And here's where philosophy and religion come in. We are often reminded that we are just a speck ( and a very small one at that ) in the cosmos – an insignificant little planet orbiting a very ordinary star.

Except for the earth ending in a kind of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Vogon induced way ( read the book if you don't know what I'm taking about ), we will all die in the nova explosion and, more importantly, so will all evidence that we were ever even here. That's a sobering concept. Imagine some time-warping space traveller arriving in our vicinity some billions of years hence. All that's left is a cloud of dirty dust where our solar system used to be. Everything ever known about the earth and the creatures it once sustained is gone and cannot be reconstructed. It is, for all practical purposes, as if we were never here at all.

This is not science fiction – it's science fact. Nova do occur in the galaxy at a somewhat predictable rate. If we are “unlucky” enough to become such a statistic then it's just hard cheese. We can do nothing about it. Our only hope then is the Voyager 1 ( http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ ) which may, with luck, be found in a distant galaxy in a distant time and cause some real consternation among whichever of God's creatures it ends up.

Training their telescopes on the star pointed out in the diagram plastered on the side of the spacecraft, they might just make out a small nebula and puzzle about who ( or what ) might have made the odd craft they have discovered. ( I suspect our own reaction would be the same should an alien Voyager 1 turn up tomorrow! )

Using the newly acquired Philosopher’s Stone I earlier alluded to religion now becomes far more than the opiate of the people – it becomes imperative for remaining sane.

Leaving aside the objections of The God Delusion and the Voyager spacecraft,

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Delusion ) we now need a Supreme Being in order simply to have a little confidence in our existence at all.

This may not scare you – but I confess to looking at things in a slightly different way.

As Good As It Gets - Open Range

 New Perspectives?

Two American phenomena particularly puzzle the British. Gazing across the Atlantic divide, American's twin obsessions - Obamacare and gun control - seem very hard to understand. Though we may be two peoples divided by a common language, language alone is not sufficient to explain this perplexing and, in many respects, inexplicable conundrum.

Might I suggest that everyone focus on two excellent movies (films for the Brits): Open Range, directed by and starring Kevin Costner; and As Good As It Gets, for which Jack Nicholson won the third of his Best Actor Oscars. If you are not familiar with the work – check out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Good_as_It_Gets) and Open Range (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Range) – which many consider to be Kevin Costner's best work.

If you haven't seen both films – I suggest you do: they will give you a neat perspective on guns and docs.

In AGAIG, the crunch scene in my view, comes when Dr Martin Bettes (Harold Ramis) is discovered by Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) – a waitress who Melvin Udall (Nicholson) relies upon to feed his obsessive-compulsive disorder - at her home in Brooklyn and she assumes that a major medical emergency is under-way concerning her perpetually-ill son, Spencer (Jesse James) aged about 10. Why else would a Doctor be at her house?

At the dining table with Dr Bettes and her mother, Carol produces a mountain of medical bills concerning Spencer and explains that he has not been well since he was six-months old. Dr Bettes asks if he has had allergy tests. She replies no – she asked but the “bastard HMO's” said they were not necessary and anyway her medical plan didn't cover them.

Dr Bettes is not upset as he comments that “bastard HMO's” is the technical term for the overworked, hard-pressed junior doctors that commonly treat people in ER.

The Doctor gets a blood sample and his nurse turns up, after commenting she had real trouble finding the house in Brooklyn (same same for Bettes who couldn't find it either). Hey we are talking Brooklyn here not the Moon!

Anyway, he sends the nurse off with the blood and explains that he has to do a lot of tests, but Spencer will soon begin to feel better.

The real humour in the scene comes when Carol asks who she should ring to get the test results and Bettes produces his card (with his home phone number on it) and tells her to ring him. Both Carol and her Mother are flabbergasted that they have a Doctor's home number and offer to become his sex slaves in return.

Carol is quite rightly concerned about the costs involved and is told that they will be considerable, but that Mr Udall (Nicholson) wants to be billed.

The scene has a happy ending as Carol's Mother convinces her that despite her reservations about letting Udall, a seriously crazy man according to Carol, into their lives they must not refuse his help, no matter what.

Although this is just a small part of the film, it is echoed in the predicament of Udall's gay neighbour, Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear) who after being beaten and mugged in his own apartment is forced to move out as he cannot afford the sky-rocketing medical bills.

So, why chose AGAIG to turn the spotlight on Obamacare?

Precisely because it is so unreservedly “upper middle-class”. It gives counterpoint to the idea that Obamacare is just for the poor. It should resonate with any parent who is trying to get affordable healthcare for their family and cannot. The moral here is plain but understated in the film. Good healthcare is only for the rich. If you are a waitress from Brooklyn or a gay artist who has fallen on hard times, tough.

Open Range concerns the other enduring myth - that guns are integral to and inseparable from modern American life. It's the Old West, or at least it's the Old West that Hollywood has so ingrained in our psyche that it has become the Old West that I and millions of Americans believe now to be real.

Costner (Charlie Waite - is the quintessential Western loner, a man scarred by the Civil War who only wishes to be left alone to herd cattle on the open range until his friends are killed or injured by the power-hungry local land owner and cattleman, Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon). He finds love in the person of the local Doctor's sister, Sue Barlow (Annette Benning) and despite his new-found purpose in life sets out with Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) to “set things right”.

The shoot-out which pits Boss and Charlie against Baxter's hired gunman and other assorted henchmen is really the OK Corral revisited. Despite over-whelming odds, Charlie's skill in killing (acquired at great cost to his mental health during the Civil War) enables the good guys to kill all the bad guys and Charlie to redeem himself by marrying Sue. An obligatory ride off into the sunset completes the action.

So, what do we learn?

Europeans have real problems understanding just how effectively the myth of the Old West still endures in America. Getting to grips with guns is not a matter of violating the Constitution - it's even worse – it's the small matter of violating John Wayne. In most States it's still the Wild West where carrying a firearm openly is quite legal if not almost obligatory. In an increasing large number of States carrying a concealed weapon is legal. Why?

Americans believe that carrying firearms prevents crime. Or, more precisely, it deters crime and enables the citizen to protect himself from harm. More importantly it gives the citizen a real stake in his democracy. After all, nothing focus the attention of the citizen more that shooting a bad guy before he shoots you.

In the news today: “EVERYTHING about Curtis Reeves suggested he was a responsible gun owner. A 71-year-old retired police captain and a doting grandfather who once taught gun safety training courses, Reeves had dutifully obtained a Florida state permit allowing him to carry a concealed weapon.

Reeves’s arrest last week on a murder charge, after he pulled out his gun and shot a man who had thrown popcorn at him in a Florida cinema, has added a grim new twist to the American debate about gun control.
Not since Wyatt Earp strapped on a six-shooter and strode off to the OK Corral has American enthusiasm for carrying guns in public become such a contentious issue.
An extraordinary nationwide surge in applications for so-called concealed carry permits has pushed the issue of hidden weapons — and the kind of people who want to carry them to the fore.”

It's essentially the Wild West and until the Hollywood image is overtaken by reality it's unlikely that even tragedies like the above will enable legislation to protect Americans from someone carrying a gun will have any chance of being enacted.

Hollywood has a lot to answer for.

The Road to Hell

South of Thickthorn (revisited yet again)

We got stuck at Elveden again on the way to London to see the folks for Christmas.

I couldn't believe it! It was the middle of the day on a Saturday, December 28th. I kept thinking, “Where are all these idiots going?” (Maybe they were all going to London to see relatives?)

Anyway, being stuck in the jam gave me another opportunity to mull over the progress (or more precisely the lack of progress) of the last bit of dual carriageway to be built, including the Elveden by-pass – opening Winter 2014. Or, if you prefer, another year away.

Snaking along at the pace of a snail with a limp, gives one plenty of time to consider this major road building project. Well, it's a major project if you consider 9 miles of road-building with one small stream to cross a major project. In their defence I must point out that they are taking four years to do it. That alone probably qualifies it as a major project.

One thing I discovered was that they are building at least two fantastically placed devices for the farmers to get from one side of the road to the other. One looks like the Hammersmith fly-over and the other is a very good impersonation of the Dartford tunnel.

Hang on, when the road is completed it's obvious that the farm equipment needs to get from one side to another. Doesn't it?

Wait a minute – the A11 has been struggling through Elveden for a long time – a really long time – like forever. So, I thought, how have the farmers been getting from one side to another in all the years it has been there? I can find no information to this rather puzzling question.

Then I considered other options for the farmer (and ones which might suit the tax-payer more).

First – the geniuses that thought this one up spent a long time building what they called access roads for the farms. In other words, they build nice paved sections a few hundred yards wide of the carriageways so the tractors and such can meander up an down gaining access to the fields.

Wait a minute - how did they access the fields before? I can find no information to this rather puzzling question either.

I have a brilliant solution to this costly problem. At the Thetford end (West side) we build the farmer a nice big storage shed and populate it with all his present machinery. Then at the Barton Mills end (East side) we build another nice big storage shed and populate it with duplicates of everything on the Thetford side – all at the tax-payers expense.

When the day's work begins, the farm workers only have to decide which side of the A 11 they are working on and go to the appropriate shed, collect their equipment and do what farmers do. (If they need to do some work on one side and then move to the other side we have even provided them with a nice new dual carriageway to get from one storage shed to the other) How good is that! And the cost is minuscule compared to the cost of the road – which by the way has escalated from the 30 million original estimate to 110 million.

Brilliant or what!

Whoever planned this project must have learned engineering at the Lego factory and project management at the University of Malawi.

What we have now is a completed bridge at the Barton Mills end, some sections of dual carriageway that are completed (but not joined up) and a bypass around Elveden which may or may not be ready (you cannot tell from the roadway and they won't let you tramp about the countryside to find out).

Here's another plan – a bit too late I readily admit.

First, build the bypass around Elveden first. Then build the one-mile section to join this up to the Thetford end. Then build the rest of the road south of Elveden.

Result? You get around the bottleneck at Elveden before you encounter any hold-up at all.

Make sense? I thought you might agree with me.

Oh yeah, and then think about building poxy little access roads for farmers. In the meantime they can jolly well wait for four years like the rest of us chumps.

Super Bowl for the Chiefs?

Chiefs Take to the Play-off Road

The KC Chiefs will have their work cut out for them if they are to make significant progress in the AFC post season play-offs.

With the number 5 seed just about clinched, it looks like the boys in red will take on Indianapolis in the first round at Indy. Significantly the Colts are banged up for the match-up at Arrowhead on Sunday – and may well play it safe by not showing too much. If so, look for the Chiefs to win fairly comfortably and put a marker down for the rematch.

If Indy is dispatched it's likely the Bronco wait at Mile High in the next round. So far this season the Broncos and Peyton Manning have owned the Chiefs. Looks like “one and done” all over again.

Things, as usual, are never quite that simple. Football isn't played on paper. The Colts may well parley the home field advantage and dispatch the visitors in the first round. They have some good players and play well at home.

Then we get to Mile High - in late December. The weather may have a great effect. If so it's the quick release, short passing game of the ponies which might prove effective. And, the Chiefs will have to do what they have been unable (as has almost everyone else!) to do – stop, of at least, slow down Manning. The prospects are not good. This is probably the Chiefs season in a nutshell.

If they can handle Denver away then they can win the Super Bowl. Nobody in the NFC looks anywhere near as good as Denver. But, it's a funny old game!

I predict: Chiefs to win in Indy and lose to Denver. Denver to play Seattle in the Super Bowl and the Seahawks will win.

Take it or leave it – but stay away from the bookies – this should be one of the most interesting play-off seasons for a long time.

Obama Rescued?

Can he survive the healthcare onslaught?

A follow-up to my recent in depth look at the problems besetting Obamacare finds me indebted to the Sunday Times again this week.

In a editorial by Andrew Sullivan, the difficulties facing the President are analysed and prognostications proposed.

He starts out by reminding us that second-term crises are not new. Reagan, Nixon, Clinton and Dubbya all suffered from malaise in their second term. What seems to be different is the fact that Obama has painted himself into a corner with his own mouth (pardon the chillingly daft mixed metaphor) by promising that people can keep their healthcare plans if they like them. They cannot and if your plan does not meet minimum standards then you have to get a new one.

Question is – can Obama recover?

Nixon, of course, could not. His crime? He lied to the people. Is Obama any different? Categorically? Possibly? Inadvertently? The answer rather depends on you political persuasion.

Sunday Times: “The first issue is indeed healthcare. He is attempting something transformative and immensely difficult in the American context, even though every other developed country has long since passed the threshold of universal care.

Americans, after all, are a conservative bunch – and no-one likes to feel as if their health, of all things, is being jeopardised by a law that Obama need never have passed. Many will see their premiums rise. If the federal website isn't fixed, more and more people are going to go nuts as the “computer says no”.

If confidence collapses, the critical cohorts of young people may not join the system, tipping it into an insurance death spiral, in which there are too many sick people enrolled and not enough healthy people to balance them out. . . . .

If he succeeds, then, it will be by the skin of his teeth, and the odds of him clawing back to more than 50% approval are low. But it's worth remembering that the healthcare law has been declared dead several times. It was never expected to pass the Congress in 2009, which was already grappling with stimulus for the Great Recession. It survived – just – but then nearly collapsed again as the Republicans seized the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat and the votes were suddenly in question. After that the Supreme Court, in a surprise decision, upheld it. The law is close to being zombie – dead but still alive, and staggering ominously forward.”

Can the Republicans kill it? Hard to do up against the Presidential veto.

Moreover the Republicans have yet to propose any kind of alternative except a return to the status quo – which has very little support. Even now in the law's darkest hour there does not seem to be anywhere near a majority for repeal – according to the Sunday Times.

Back to the Sunday Times: “For all those currently without adequate healthcare provision it will be a godsend. For those whose plans are randomly cancelled or changed just when they need them most it will offer peace of mind.”

Second-term Presidents are always looking to their legacy. Obamacare is going to be this President's legacy like it or not. He has no fall-back position – he must make it work.

Follow the Money

Money talks and bulls*** walks - Larry Stoner.

I have been racking my brain trying to remember the origin of the phrase, “Follow the Money”. Finally, I succumbed and looked it up on the ubiquitous Google. Very fittingly, in view of the real topic of this post, the quote is from the film All the President's Men – a doc-u-drama about Watergate. And the moral of the Watergate saga? When a President starts telling lies then he's in real trouble.

So, the Sunday Times this week has an article,Healthcare “lie” leaves Obama under siege, which says quite precisely that the President has lied and he's in real trouble!

President Obama -  either through carelessness, malice, incompetence or downright deceit has been forced to backtrack quickly on the Affordable Care Act (Obama-Care).

Instead of a spirited defence of his policy the President admitted he had “fumbled the ball” by unveiling a healthcare reform website beset with technical glitches.

“Yet he failed to address a more fundamental problem: millions of people had been told their existing health plans were being cancelled – despite having been promised 29 times during the battle to introduce the Affordable Care Act that ''if you like your insurance plan you can keep it''. - Sunday Times.

55% of Americans believe that he flat-out lied. Evidence that White House officials knew that millions of self-employed people would lose their existing plans, but hid this fact so that “Obamacare” could pass.

Given a chance before the media to “man-up” and admit the untruths the President resorted to a tangle of legalese instead. He ain't fooling anyone really. Hiding behind an inept administration is not going to placate those who don't like Obamacare at all and are now as happy as pigs in poop!

Without having to do anything, the President has handed them a bonus – an own goal of monumental proportions.

Under real pressure from Democrats who face mid-term elections next year, the President caved in. He announced that health insurers could extend by a year policies due to be cancelled because they did not comply with the new law.

Golly, thanks Mr President!

Just weeks after the Republican's were taking most of the flak for the government shut-down Obama throws them a life-line.

The Sunday Times thinks, “Obama's biggest challenge is that as problems mount there will be a clamour to modify the law in Congress. If they open this up for any congressional revision whatsoever, it'll be pretty much gutted. There is a good chance of it being overturned now.”

A respected polling organization believes given that Obama has more or less admitted lying getting back the trust of the people is going to be extraordinarily difficult – if not impossible.

“Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist, said he believed Republicans were afraid of Obamacare being successfully implemented because it would then become part of the fabric of the state, like the 1960's welfare programs Medicare and Medicaid, for the elderly and poor respectively.” - Sunday Times.

Another commentator said that he did not believe that the President had lied but that he had been “blissfully ignorant of the truth because it suited his political purpose.”

If that's the most charitable explanation then it really is pretty lame indeed.

So, where does this leave us and where do we go from here?

Back to the top, I'm afraid, “Follow the Money”.

Ask yourself – why were millions of people being told that their existing health plans were being cancelled?

Research required. I tried. I really tried. I managed to get to the .gov website which has simply oodles and oodles of information. So many oodles that it gave me a headache. I tried to research with Google searches outside the .gov network. Not entirely successful.

Forbes Thought Of The Day

“ Every time we have an election, we get in worse men and the country keeps right on going. Times have proven only one thing and that is you can’t ruin this country even with politics. ”
— Will Rogers

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/11/18/we-must-repeal-obamacare-to-make-society-much-more-humane/

Aside from the brilliant Will Rogers quotation the best explanation which ordinary folk might be able to understand is in the Forbes article above.

I especially like this bit I have extracted from the Forbes article:

“Of course, let us not forget that candidate Obama campaigned for years promising that Obamacare would reduce the cost of family health insurance by an average of $2,500 a year. But instead of going down, the cost of health insurance has shot up. More Calculated Deception? How could anyone think that mandating slews of additional benefits that health insurance would have to provide, in addition to requiring insurers to issue new coverage to everyone at standard rates no matter how sick and costly when they first applied, would do anything but raise the cost of health insurance sharply?”

Follow the Money! I repeat, Follow the Money.

Even a little common sense should have made the voters realise that extending quality healthcare to millions of folks who previously didn't have it was going to cost big bucks.

(You can make a very good case for the voters being very stupid, but politicians are not in the business of pointing this out to their electors – for very good reasons.)

Nevertheless, that's the system.

How about, just for a change we follow the cash. Data from the WHO (World Health Organisation) - BTW if you think the WHO is a communist plot please stop reading now and go and resume digging your bunker.

In the more than 10%-ers of spending as a percentage of GDP we have Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Moldova, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Tuvalu and USA.

Interesting? If we exclude the “minnows” whose large spending can be due to some very odd factors, we have Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland and the USA.

Is this some kind of exclusive club we should all aspire to join?

I'm not so sure.

Looking at a countries health spending as a proportion of all spending the USA (22.4%) is eclipsed by the Solomon Islands (23.1%) and Samoa (23.4%). Colombia is on the list at (20.1%) and Andorra comes is at a whopping 21.3%.

The USA spends 17.9 % of it's GDP on healthcare – the UK spends 9.6%.

What can we learn from these raw statistics – if anything?

Do you think the healthcare in the Solomons is about as good as the US?

Do you think the healthcare in Samoa is a bit better?

Do you think that Columbian healthcare is actually quite good?

Are the Andorrans among the most blessed folk on earth for healthcare?

Is the healthcare in the US twice as good as the UK?

I've got a “no” on all of the above. I may be wrong, but I'm from Missouri and you are going to have to show me.

I get very annoyed with folks using percentages to “prove a point”. Stop letting the stats blind you and answer a simple question – 10% of not a lot = ?? (if you said “not a lot” you are correct!)

You cannot use stats or mathematics to realistically analyse the cost of healthcare.

Why? Because the cost of healthcare is a bottomless pit. Putting it another way – the cost of healthcare in any society is going to increase as people live longer, new drugs and treatments become available (as drug companies try to recoup their costs by charging massive amounts for drugs which may (for example) provide an extra year of poor quality life for cancer sufferers), more and more people expect more and more from the system and the working (tax-paying) population decreases for simple demographic reasons.

In the Eastern Daily Press we have a senior Conservative politician saying much the same as I.

Anne Widdicombe is not a left-wing loonie. She has impeccable conservative credentials (for a British politician that is).

In the article, The NHS cannot do it all warns ex-minister, her main point is, “The NHS is not going to survive until the end of the century in the form that we know it. We've got to be grown up and recognise that.”

She goes on, “I wish people would stop thinking the NHS can deliver all it – it can't. It has never been able to provide everything and never will. The NHS is limited. It is limited in time and money. People have just got to accept that. It is no good looking for perfection in everything.”

She goes on, “We can only do what we have the resources to be able to do.

She pointed out (as I have already pointed out) hospitals never used to provide cancer care services like chemotherapy and radiotherapy as they do now. Every time they deliver one thing, another demand is put upon them. The demands are soaring towards infinity, so you will get pockets of extremely bad practice.”

She says, politicians are “frightened” of acting (Obama take note!!) because of the huge emotional attachment between the public and the NHS. (US readers do not switch off here – the kind of emotional attachment she is talking about is exactly the same as the attachment folks have for their healthcare plans – no matter how misguided. The President is rightly being pilloried for trying to break that attachment.

From a safe distance, it looks like human nature is at the root of Obama's problems. The folks who are attached to their plans are the self-employed, I believe. The Affordable Health Care Act sees some of these plans as not very good. Why? Well if you are self-employed and cost is your raison d’etre you are unlikely to have opted for a (perceived) expensive plan when you have the choice of a cheaper one. Can't really blame them.

Unless your view is that it is just irresponsible for some folks to effectively opt-out of Affordable Care – knowing full well that if the stinky-stuff hits their fan they will want someone else to pick up the pieces.

In the Western industrial societies, healthcare may be too important to let individuals irresponsibly opt-out. How we square the circle with individual freedom will tax the brains of the best of us.

Chiefs Flying High

Chiefs Sitting Pretty

As the first half of the season finishes, the Chiefs find themselves with the only unbeaten record in the NFL and with a winnable game at Buffalo next week and then the bye week things could not really be better for a team that could not beat anyone just twelve months ago.

The glory of the NFL remains intact. A very poor team from a year ago – but perhaps not quite as bad as the 2-14 record would indicate – can turn it around and sit proudly atop the rankings. How can this be, and what is even more important, can they keep it up?

Firstly the Tribe have been very lucky. It must be said. Every week we seem to run into a banged-up defence and a QB who is either a rookie or a cast-off. Meanwhile the Chiefs have had few injuries. The defence is playing out of their skins (hope they haven't peaked too soon) and the offence is adequate. The turn-over stats tell it all. Last season we gave the ball and the game away with reckless abandon.

The turn around has been as welcome as it is staggering. We keep the ball and grab turn-overs from the other guys. QB Alex Smith looks after the football, runs when he has to and completes enough passes to keep opposing defences honest. The run game is productive and new ways to get Jamal Charles involved have been found.

Result: Chiefs look a balanced team with a terrific chance to get to 9-0 with the bye week in the offing. Happy Days! Super Bowl here we come!

Not quite.

Lest we forget and get carried away, because of last year's disaster we have a very easy schedule this year. In fact the real season is the Western Division of the AFL. The six games against Denver, Oakland and San Diego will decided just how much progress has been made. We are one up on the Raiders. We have Denver in week 11 at Mile High. We have the two games against San Diego to come.

Only after we have played most of these games will a real evaluation be possible.

I did see most of the Broncos – Washington Redskins game yesterday and was quite encouraged with what I saw. The Redskins stayed with the home team for a long time – even leading at half-time. They ran the ball very effectively against the Denver defence.

True – they faded in the fourth quarter, but it does look like Denver is beatable by a team that looks after the football and can run it. We can beat the Raiders again, but it will be much closer out on the West Coast. San Diego remains an enigma. They could be good – or they could be atrocious.

Whatever happens, the combination of a new coach, Andy Reid, new management, a new proven QB and progress throughout the team means the future is looking rosy.

Whether a 2014 Super Bowl is achievable whilst questionable, but not out of the question.

US Politics

For your enjoyment my letter to the editor of the EDP (published on Monday, 28 October)

Sir

Mark Nichols, EDP Thursday, 24 October, “US Shutdown illustrates the strength of the UK system” exhibits a fundamental misunderstanding of the American system of government.

The American republic was created as a reaction to the tyranny of the UK Parliament. As such, the system was designed to make the three parts of the government equal and separate.

The Founding Fathers were determined that the rights of the states and of individuals were to be protected from arbitrary and tyrannical governments in a Parliament with no constraints on its powers – the system we still have today in the UK – except for the encroachments of European legislation.

The US shutdown simply illustrates that the system is working well; for when one part of the government puts its collective foot down, as the Congress did, then the true genius of the American political experience comes to the fore – compromise.

The system is designed to force Congress, the President and the Supreme Court to work together within an agreed framework – the Constitution.

The shutdown, whilst inconvenient for some and potentially embarrassing for many, is a far superior position than the mindless attempts to pander to the perceived public wisdom Parliamentarians are forced into by the shortcomings of the system they work under.

A 11 Mystery

Now you see it – now you don't

Congratulations to the EDP of 22 August for providing the impressive 
overhead views of the A11 dual carriageway work between Thetford and 
Barton Mills. According to the report, the Secretary of State for 
Transport, Patrick McLoughlin was impressed with the work that had been 
carried out.


The Secretary of State is very easily impressed.


Thearticle did contain one glaring error. Preliminary work started in 
June 2012 -- not in Jan 2013 as the EDP stated. The scheduled finish 
date is Winter 2014.


I know this because for a long time I was convinced the completion date 
was December 2013 and not as it is still more than a year away.


Anyway you care to slice it, they are taking two and a half years to 
build a 9.1 mile road with one small stream to cross and one village to 
be by-passed. That's about 3 and a half months per mile! Oh, yes did I 
mention it's as flat as a pancake?


One wonders which geniuses planned this work. Surely the Elveden by-pass 
section should have been done first. It would have been opened by now - 
greatly easing the congestion and inconvenience.


I seldom travel this road, but recently went to London and back twice in 
a week. I counted the number of men working to complete this project. 
There were 4.2 men per mile. With a workforce numbering that high the 
Great Wall of China would just about be half finished!


Never mind the cost – now estimated at £102 million.  Don't forget this is for only half a carriageway – except for the Elveden by-pass section only one new carriageway will be built – the rest will utilise the existing A 11.
Today they are falling all over themselves and breaking their arms trying to pat themselves on the back because they think they might be “ahead of schedule”. What a laugh!  (Note they are still predicting a winter 2014 opening date.)  The momentous news today is they might open one section of the carriageway whilst they do some work on the other. I may be sick!
Sorry the idiots who plan the work should be shot.  The idiots who do the work are just in cahoots with the others.  “Let's drag the work out for as long as possible – we can employ far fewer workers and have lots of tea breaks.”
it's a disgrace.! 

Thursday Morning Coming Down

Lost somewhere, sometime along the way?

I woke up this morning and I was feeling bad. (Don't worry, I'm not going to grab the guitar and sing The Blues, at least not yet).

It felt as if I was living a great Blues lyric, Sunday Morning Coming Down - “Then I washed my face and combed my hair, And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.” It was a Thursday.

I passed the central heating controls and flipped the heating on. It was May 30th. Had there been a climate change professor, a climate change Nazi, a climate change guru or a climate change capitalist with bulging pockets handy I would have gleefully chopped them up and put them on the bonfire. I could have masked the smell with sodden leaves from the garden.

Got breakfast. Heat still on. Braced myself to walk the dog. Put on my two fleeces, my scarf and my K.C. Chiefs hat and headed down the path. Dog may have preferred to go via the football club, but far too cold. Football club walk is exposed to the north wind.

Got home. Picked up the paper and turned to the weather section. The EDP is getting clever these days – burying the weather deep on page 14. It used to be on page two. Forecast for today – cloudy with high of 11 degrees. Yes, that's 52 degrees F. Wind off the North Sea at 10-20 mph. EDP page 12 headline – Grey skies fail to dampen spirits as thousands flock to Suffolk Show. (The capacity of English people to delude themselves never ceases to amaze me – this explains the “stiff upper lip” - it's frozen in that position!)

Meanwhile on page 11 comes the startling revelation that the “UK cut the most emissions across the EU in 2011”. France and Germany also cut theirs. Leader of the pack was Finland which cut emissions by 10%. Wooden spoon goes to Bulgaria whose levels rose by 9.6% in the same period. Anyone spotting a correlation here?

Back at the ranch, the EU is still in the grip of recession with millions of poor people suffering unemployment and cuts to their living standards. Any correlation here?

On page 14 we have an exciting development at the Wymondham Medical Practice. They have obtained planning permission to install a “biomass woodchip boiler to improve its green credentials”. I got confused. I stupidly thought that by burning wood (a carbon based organic material) Wymondham Medical would be adding to the greenhouse gasses. Apparently not. According to my research, burning wood does not count, because it is carbon extracted from the atmosphere in the first place to make the tree. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are carbon based organic material extracted from the atmosphere millions of years ago. Clear? It's just a question of time – apparently.

Time to draw breath.

Only a few brave scientists and public figures question the premise that global warming (if it exists) is caused by burning fossil fuels. Their concerns are seldom, if ever, given much publicity. Humans would much rather believe that danger is imminent and we are, Dad's Army-like, “doomed”.

Recent evidence has thwarted the climate change brigade. The rise in global temperature has either stopped or slowed to a trickle in the last five years. Lot's of carbon is being burned but little seems to be causing any global warming.

So, in the midst of the coldest spring in living memory here in the UK what conclusions can we draw?

It's always been super obvious to me that putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is going to cause global warming. But, folks who ought to know better seem to discount the ability of Gaia to cope with fluctuations in atmospheric carbon. More carbon in the atmosphere enables more plant growth. More carbon in the atmosphere enables the oceans to absorb more and oceanic creatures to use it to build shells and coral reefs. (Not sure? Check out the White Cliffs of Dover!)

Ah, say the nutters – it's not the change that's important it's the pace of change.

Let's see, how about some historical evidence. In general the climate has been getting warmer for about the last 12 000 years. Long before any fossil fuels were being used – or even discovered. What triggered this warming? You could spend all day and give yourself a serious Excedrin Headache Number 426 in the process reading about this very question. The theories are manifold. Some might even have elements of sound thinking in them. What is beyond dispute is no-one really knows for sure. But the Ice Age did end and global temperatures began to rise. They are still rising today.

Without real evidence how about a bit of logic? Where does the heat for this planet come from? The sun. Even fervent climate-changers will agree on this. What is then the most likely source of global warming? The sun.

What can we do to obviate the global warming if the primary cause is fluctuations in the sun's radiation? Nothing.

But this does not sell newspapers.

Sine qua non.

Hope Springs - Again

Chiefs Prospects 2013-14

Another year – another chance to be optimistic, or possibly realistic, for the latest incarnation of the 65 Toss Power Trap – and if you don't know what that is then you had better find out quickly or you are no Chiefs fan!

First let's look at the team from the top down. A new General Manager – and long overdue. We shall not mention the previous incumbent except to say that his football career is over. Scott Pioli is currently an NFL informationalist for NBC Sports' Football Night in America and NBC Sports Network's Pro Football Talk. Nuff said?

John Dorsey is now the man. Hid credentials are impressive. He has overseen the draft and free agency. Now he will be judged on results.

New coach – Andy Reid – he was not my choice and I still feel that the Chiefs rushed into hiring him. He has a winning record as an NFL head coach. He has had many months to evaluate the team and oversee the draft and training camp. He must now prove that he is not a stop-gap. Poor old Romeo Crennel. I can't find his current employment on the net. He was a proven NFL coach with experience. He lost 14 games last season. Reid cannot do worse. Or could he? If he does he will be a one-hit wonder and gone before you can say Hank Stram.

On to the team – for it is the players who play, the coaches just coach.

On offense we start with the QB. One thing we did learn last season is that without an NFL QB you are not going to win games of football. To their credit the management took this on board and brought in Alex Smith from the 49ers. He is a proven QB. With the right weapons and the right system he will prosper. We all have high hopes and hopefully he will deliver. But, if not, there are some intriguing subs in the frame. Chase Daniel was brought in to be the back-up and the Chiefs ditched Ricky Stanzl – who never took an NFL snap – to sign and keep as number three QB Tyler Bray. One for the future? Apparently he is making great strides and impressing the coaches. Could be very interesting if Smith gets injured. Bottom line – the Chiefs have rightly concentrated on upgrading the QB position and have, on paper, done a good job. Unfortunately, the game isn't played on paper.

Next to the QB the most important part of the offense is the O-line. Chiefs were dreadful – if even that good – last season as the years and lack of talent caught up with them. So, they quite rightly drafted tackle Eric Fisher as the Number 1 pick in the NFL draft. Then they promptly moved him to right tackle to accommodate the returning Branden Albert. ??

The rest of the personnel are adequate. The Chiefs have to run the ball. The O-line has to be able to run block and also protect Smith. They look better. The guards look ok-ish. The center is ok-ish. The depth is a concern. If they miss out on the injury stakes and Fisher develops they could be a force in the AFL West. Fingers (and toes) are crossed.

Running back – we have a premier NFL running back in Jamaal Charles. The back-ups are beginning to look better and better. The full-back has been strengthened. If Charles stays healthy and does not have to have 25 touches a game then things look rosy in the garden.

Receivers – much has been made of the Andy Reid-type passing game, where, apparently, a nine-yard completion is a long-gainer. We may be in for a surprise. But, apart from the enigmatic Dwayne Bowe the rest of the corps looks unimpressive. Jon Baldwin – a former number one pick – never settled and departed. I can see struggles ahead for this group.

Special teams look good – possibly very good. A new coach and an emphasis on this phase of the game has brought rewards in the pre-season. Colquitt is a class act and Succop is ok – remembering that the life of an NFL kicker is fraught with crises. Look forward to a big improvement in the return game.

On to the defense. Last year they struggled simply because they could not get off the field and the offense was a “three-and-out-machine”. Improved offense will sort that one, so what are the prospects?

The front three now look more like it. Poe in the middle should benefit from a year's experience. The line-backing corps now has some depth and some skill. Look for a big improvement here as well. The Chiefs spent some time and some effort on the secondary which has been revamped. New personnel must get quickly and get better fast. The pass rush was almost non-existent last year. If this season is no different then 8-8 might be a pipe dream!

Bottom line? Chiefs will be better on defense. That's not saying too much since they could hardly be worse.

Prediction time.

NFL pundits have the Broncos as the class act in the AFL West. Some think the Chiefs might make a wild-card spot. Some see 8-8 and some improvement.

Chiefs fans are always optimists. Don't forget by finishing 2-14 we get an “easy” schedule. Manning could be over the hill? Or get injured? We need to get out of the blocks fast and see where that leads us.

Win the first two and go from there.

Hope – again – springs eternal.

Thoughts of Chairman Mal

As the summer winds down, time for some gems to ponder

If pigs could fly, we all really would carry an umbrella

The answer to “how many beans make five?” sometimes isn't five. Sometimes it's a bean, a bean and a half, two beans and a half a bean.

If you hit a golf ball out where the big dogs pee – that means in the trees.

“What goes around comes around” means you should not try to pedestrianise the Thickthorn Roundabout.

The cloud that has the silver lining is usually hovering over the next village.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones – they should buy a bazooka instead.

If someone offers to bury the hatched with you - make sure you are wearing a Kevlar helmet.

Any idiot can be a moron.

Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?

How can a fat chance and a slim chance be the same thing?

Gormlessness is not next to Godliness.

How does a gravy train move along the tracks without slipping and sliding?

Aspire to inspire before you expire.

The irony of life is that, by the time you're old enough to know your way around, you're not going anywhere.

Every morning is the dawn of a new error.

Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses.

Even a dead cat bounces, but bricks don't unless you drop them on a trampoline.

Money talks: bulls**t walks.

Laziness must be next to Godliness – after all, He only ever worked for 7 days in his whole life!

Good advice: the only things ever to volunteer for are 1. Get paid 2. Go Home.

Tornado Alley

Mom Knew Best

Looking grim in Oklahoma. Big, big tornado smashes lots of homes, stores, schools.

This must be a slow news day, for SKY has had wall to wall coverage on all day. Not much else must be happening. Actually, the next day SKY have transported a crew to ?? and are reporting live and long from the scene.

About 25 people have been killed.

Meanwhile “in 2010 there were 358 murders involving rifles. Murders involving the use of handguns in the US that same year totalled 6,009, with another 1,939 murders with the firearm type unreported.” - Wikipedia

“Guns and cars have long been among the leading causes of non-medical deaths in the U.S. By 2015, firearm fatalities will probably exceed traffic fatalities for the first time, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.”

When I checked Fox News this morning they had moved on to other stories. One wonders what prompts SKY and the BBC to devote so much time to what we used to refer to as an Act of God.

Perhaps it's the absence of any real, dramatic weather events in the UK. Perhaps the SKY presenters felt they needed a holiday and even Oklahoma would do?

What can not be doubted is that tornadoes are a part of life on the Great Plains. Remember your Wizard of Oz? People who live on the Plains are used to tornado warnings and how to take shelter. Tornadoes are generally accepted as a hazard – but not a very large one. Storm warnings have greatly improved since the 1950's.

My mother was inordinately afraid of tornadoes. She was born in Massachusetts, an almost tornado -free zone and lived most of her adult life in Chicago. Not many tornadoes there either. Actually, the earliest recorded tornado in the U.S. was in 1671 in Massachusetts. Out on the Great Plains at that time there must have been many tornadoes that the Native Americans didn't chronicle. My Mother was just not cut out for Tornado Alley living.

Long before the early warning sirens went off she would study the sky for any sign of a funnel cloud – actually just the glimpse a thunder head would send her into a panic. She would stand at the door and scream at us kids to get inside and down in the basement. Meanwhile out in the street Reece and Albert would still be playing - as their Mother was, seemingly, oblivious to the imminent danger. Or, did they know something we didn't? I think it might have been the latter. The chances of a tornado killing you or destroying your house is about as great as Elvis being discovered working in a small café in Rickmansworth.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/10-facts-you-want-to-know-abou-1/50076

Tornadoes are dangerous weather events, but they are quite easy to spot! And, they move relatively slowly. Also, they move in a fairly predictable direction – mostly south-east to north west. With just a little bit of warning, it's relatively easy to avoid being killed by a tornado. You may have seen many of the folks in Moore, OK emerging from their storm cellar of shelter. (Again, remember your Wizard of Oz, poor old Dorothy and Toto were unable to get into the shelter with Auntie Em and the rest of the cast because they couldn't hear her banging on the door!)

Few folks who live in Tornado Alley have no shelter. Years ago, when hundreds were killed this was not always the case. Certainly Reece and Albert didn't have one – perhaps that's what their Mom knew – no use calling them in, they may as well take their chances outside. The majority of deaths caused by tornadoes happen when people are hit by flying debris. (Even a small stone or twig travelling at 200 m.p.h. can cause a lot of damage to the human body!) Therefore we were taught that if you are caught out in the open find a ditch or a small depression and lie flat. Unless the tornado grabs you, ala Dorothy, you have a good chance of surviving.

All the years I lived in Independence, Missouri I only ever saw three tornadoes. Two were in the air and did not reach the ground. No danger there. Only one was on the ground, but it was two or three miles distant and moving away.

I did see what an F5 tornado can do. My Dad and I were delivering milk in Ruskin Heights a few days after one of the worst tornadoes ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1957_Central_Plains_tornado_outbreak

44 deaths - Tornado began near Williamsburg, and moved NE through several counties. Major damage occurred in rural areas near Ottawa and Spring Hill, where homes were completely levelled and several fatalities occurred. The tornado continued into the southern suburbs of Kansas City, tearing through Martin City, Raytown, Hickman Mills, and Ruskin Heights. Entire blocks of homes were completely levelled, many of which were cleanly swept away. Many businesses including a grocery store, a shopping center, and restaurants were completely destroyed. Vehicles were thrown through the air and destroyed, and Ruskin Heights High School was badly damaged. A cancelled check from Hickman Mills was found 165 miles away in Ottumwa, Iowa.[1]

I love the bit about the check. It's another Wizard of Oz moment. Remember when the cow is seen swirling around in the tornado? The thing is tornadoes do do crazy things like that!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/?n=ruskinheightstornado

This excellent web page give a blow by blow account of the Ruskin Heights tornado.

The Ruskin Heights tornado was on the ground for a while. Travelling south on Noland Road past US 50 Hi-way towards Lee's Summit you can still see the scar on the land where the twister tore up the trees and bushes. I expect it's still visible after more than 50 years.

You might think that living in Tornado Alley might make people take sensible precautions.

Not necessarily so.

http://business.time.com/2013/05/22/oklahomas-dangerous-dearth-of-storm-cellars

Lots of otherwise sensible folks put storm-cellar provision on the same level as whale manure. It's low, really low when compared to the dollars required to provide shelters. Most people keep the money and take their chances with the twisters.

Money talks. Bulls**t walks.

The loss of life is regrettable, as is the loss of any human life. How much the folks of Moore contributed to their own demise, I shall leave to my favourite web site - http://www.darwinawards.com/ to work out.

What is sure – people will continue to live in Tornado Alley. Tornadoes will continueto be spawned from Super Cell storms and they will continue to kill people.

The English fascination with this meteorological phenomenon continues to baffle.