Sargeant Preston

Meet Iditarod-Winning Sled Dogs
The Iditarod started yesterday. Safe and warm in my basement hidey-hole, I think it's great. Reminds me of Jack London stories and Sargeant Preston, whom I haven't thought of in a zillion years.


Sergeant Preston of The Yukon (1955) - TV Intro.
P.S. There seems to be some confusion over the spelling of Sargent. Spelled that way, it's a person's name. Spelled with a second 'a' (Sargeant), it's the military rank. Usually.

P.P.S. Joe points out that there is only one A in Sergeant. How did I miss that? Perhaps too many years of reading Beetle Bailey and hearing about "Sarge".

The American Health Care Racket

From Our World in Data
If you click on the play button (the little triangle down by '1970' near the bottom), it will show you the increase in spending as time goes by. When it is done playing, if you mouse over the graph it will highlight the record of individual countries.

Why do we spend so much more than everyone else? Perhaps because we think we like to think we are sick and we like spending money on doctors and lab work and drugs. Perhaps because we are willing to spend the money and the medical establishment is willing to take it. In any case, I suspect it's just our mind set: charge on until we are stopped, and then bust down the barricade and charge on some more. i.e. Crazy people run up bigger medical bills, and we Americans might be the craziest of all.

I dunno, but I suspect most of our health care dollars are spent on old people, and a lot of that is spent on people who are not even mentally with us anymore. It is easy to foist unnecessary treatments on people who are barely aware of what's going on. But hey, medicare will pay for it, so it gets done.

Via Detroit Steve

Politics

Wondermark by David Malki

I am trying to avoid hearing any of the bullshit emanating from Washington D.C., but even with all my shields up, some of it still gets through. This cartoon is like totally apropos, man.

There are three factors affecting politicians. One is their beliefs, another is practical matters and the third is playing to the crowd. Playing to the crowd is necessary as that is part of the job, representing your constituents is what you are supposed to do, and if your crowd of constituents is howling for blood, well then, you too are obligated to howl for blood.

But all that noise is just entertainment to keep the masses entertained while the congressional staff hammers out the deals necessary to actually get anything done, like build stuff, or keep useful services running. Or stealing all the monkey biscuits.

Beliefs, well, they may be in line with what you are saying, or they might get lost in the shuffle of all the shouting and horse-trading. But if you are a talented person, you can probably come up with some rationalization that shows how your beliefs align with your words and actions. And the people will love you and you will get elected to another term.

Tangerine

Tangerine by Christine Mangan

Not a great story, but not bad either. I finished it, which is a rare occurrence lately. We have two women who were close friends in college, but after college they go their separate ways for a bit, but then one tracks down the other in Tangier (Morocco), where residents are known as Tangerines.

Most of the action takes place inside their heads. One woman is kind of timid and weak. Her moods and perceptions vary from one moment to the next. The other is stronger, confident and more assertive. Her moods vary as well, but she stays on track.

There are entire aspects of the situation, sections that I might consider important, that are left out, left out because they are of no concern to the participants. They have a very different view of the world, but that might be because they are wrapped up with what's going on it their heads.

The New Yorker has a review.

Picked this book up at Costco where it had a Buyer's Pick sticker on the front cover.

Homes for the Homeless

New Orleans Louisiana 1841 & 1880

New Orleans reduced homelessness by 90% (and saved a fortune) by giving homeless people homes - BoingBoing

Kind of weird that New Orleans gets credit for doing something good / right when almost every story we get about New Orleans is about what an effed-up mess it is. It sounds like the story about free housing for alcoholics that I came across a few years ago. One might think that if you have a proven solution to a problem, other cities would jump on it. But maybe it doesn't really work, long term. Or maybe the political opponents of such a solution are too strong. If this kind of scheme really works, then I wonder who the political opponents are. Protestants (with their 'work ethic' philosophy)? Soup kitchens? Liquor stores? Or maybe people are too busy fighting other, more important (meaning more money) issues and nobody has time to spend working on this one.

Pierre Bear

Pierre Bear by Patricia M. Scarry

At first glance it looks like a harmless Little Golden Book, except is that a gun on the cover? Yes, it is, and Pierre uses it to go hunting. The book is available from Amazon, you can even get a new copy, but it will cost you $400. Quite an increase from the 25 cent price they cost originally.

Patricia was Richard Scarry's wife. Richard did the illustrations. I know of him because we bought several of his books for our kids.

Via Jack, who still has his copy.

Finland

Thunderstruck by Steve'n'Seagulls (LIVE)
Steve'n'Seagulls are from Finland and will be touring the USA next month. The comments on the YouTube page are great. My favorite: "Bro I heard ACDC covered this song". Via Detroit Steve.

Must be Finland's turn in the spotlight.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we started watching the second Season of Bordertown, which is set in modern day Lappeenranta, which is just across the border from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Akso started watching a Lindybeige video about the Battle of Bomarsund, which took place on a Finnish island in the Baltic Sea back in the mid-19th Century.