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I understand that city people aren't known as heavy recreational readers, but your singular ignorance about Thoreau's time at Walden is bizarre. I haven't heard of anyone who makes long and frequent trips to hospitals or camps in a hospital parking lot.
I'm surprised that you didn't bring up our frequent incestuous relationships. That always seems to be a popular topic among the urban hordes, something always good for a chuckle among sophisticates. You must really love your life. Otherwise, why would you mount venomous attacks on ours?
There's a life beyond hypochondria and thanatophobia. For example, I believe that it's a positive benefit to live where teenage girls can safely walk through parks at midnight. They can't where you live. I believe as well that it's a positive good to see a starry sky, untroubled by the light pollution of exciting urban lifestyles.
It is a fact that the states with the highest recreational readership rates are in the Great Plains and Intermountain West.
Thoreau was a joke. It's ridiculous how English majors have put this spoiled dandy on a pedestal, as if he was some type of Mother Theresa or Gandhi, starving for some cause. He never had to worry about money, and obviously didn't have to work in order to put food on the table while he wrote about living the hard life.
I actually wrote a paper in an English class about this very subject, which was supposed to be a paper showing our ability to argue in a persuasive manner.
My English professor actually gave me a "D" based only on my opinion. She had been teaching the usual line about what a genius that silly joke of a man was. My paper was very well written and very persuasive. She was just p*ssed that I disagreed with her. Typical English major. All agreeing with each other on some handed-down propaganda, without any of them doing any of their own thinking.
Point being, that just because someone disagrees with you, does not mean they are not well-read. Using that argument to try and win an argument with someone, rather than actually arguing the facts at hand, is a weak argument. "Wait, if you disagree with me you must be uneducated, therefore, no matter how convincing your argument may be, it must not hold water....." Can't you do better than that?
My professor was not any better than that. She gave me a "D" for disagreeing with her opinion. Because she could. Which did not mean that I did not actually win the argument. It just proved she was a very bad loser.
I would say that pretty much any concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic or the Los Angeles Master Chorale or any production by Los Angeles Opera qualifies as a world class cultural event.
I am giving as examples what I know first-hand; I am not claiming that (for example) Los Angeles Opera is "better" than the Met in New York. But I am claiming that it is equivalent. Yes, that is a strong claim, and we could argue it back and forth, which would be off-topic for the thread anyway.
Nor am I claiming that world class cultural events in the United States are limited to Los Angeles and New York, but those are the strongest obvious cases to be made in answer to your question.
I even agree with you that American society in general is in a "depraved state", but your rhetoric on the matter is exaggerated. I don't mind a bit that you don't care for urban areas - that doesn't offend me just because I am completely content here. Although I live only ten miles from downtown Los Angeles, I live on a pleasant, walkable, safe, tree-lined, middle class street.
But less take into consideration that living in or near Los Angeles is a death sentence for many people. Particularly older retired people. It is the deadliest place on the country for them to live. Dangerous due to the heavy smog in the area.
We left the Silicon Valley years ago, when the air was better than it is today, with the doctors telling me to take my wife and one son out of the air immediately out of the area, or to arrange their funerals as my son would not live over 90 days and my wife not over 6 months if we remained there. We left the area, and they got healthy immediately as the doctor told me they would. Later I developed problems that had occurred due to the earlier smog I lived in. I know a lot of people with the same story.
Older people that want to live, are often leaving the polluted cities, and going to clean air areas of the country to live, due to the problems such areas as Los Angeles have that will kill them if they live there.
I like living where the air is clean, skies are bright blue, clouds are white, and mountains 98 miles away are viable without smog hiding them from view shining bright and clear. The other option would be in the populated California areas with great operas, etc., and be buried in one of their final resting place, a cemetery along with my wife and living childen.
I prefer a physician. They are obviously better educated and we may safely assume that they're smarter.
You may want to rethink your assumptions. I work as an R.N. in a huge hospital based primary care department that is affiliated with Brown University medical school as well as two colleges that have NP training programs. The preceptor physicians in my department clinically train both resident physicians and resident NPs. The resident physicians and resident NPs clinical training is identical as is their performance expectations. Actually I find most of the resident NPs clinical performance much higher initially than that of the resident physicians because most if not all of them have many years of clinical experience working at the R.N. level compared to the resident physician's foundation being more didactic and less clinical. By the time both these physician and NPs residents complete their training they all pretty much have equaled out and both have met the same "entry level" training to begin their primary care practice. What happens after both enter the work force will determine if either will become exceptional or mediocre practitioners. That being said, I would much prefer receiving my primary care from a rural no name college trained exceptional NP than a mediocre Ivy league school trained physician.
Pretty much the same conclusion I came to. The small town we'd been looking at was 100 miles away from decent comprehensive medical care. There are some who will put up with that to live in a small town or rural area but we are not those people. Retirees continue to flock there, though.
I am now hearing that many physicians in that town are no longer accepting new patients.
What town is that?
Everybody is so cagey and never say where. You don't have to put your address or even your town but it would be helpful to put something!
They will find doctors but the issue is the expertise. Take a look at the Chief of Medicine. He has a foreign degree (Damascus U) and a residency in a very modest, small US hospital. Sorry, but I would look for better credentials for my family doc, let alone the chief of medicine.
This is part of the issue with rural medical care. Unfortunately this is also only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to physicians, a hospital needs a host of trained professionals including laboratorians, pharmacists, imaging techs, nurses and even purchasing agents, billing professionals and a host of others. In many cases a rural hospital will be struggling to fill and keep those positions filled with anyone who meets the minimum qualifications. There are other issues involving facilities and the availability of specialized equipment and procedures.
Sometimes a local hospital can stabilize a patient and arrange transport to a more suitable facility. It is much better to have direct access to appropriate care immediately.
I like living where the air is clean, skies are bright blue, clouds are white, and mountains 98 miles away are viable without smog hiding them from view shining bright and clear. The other option would be in the populated California areas with great operas, etc., and be buried in one of their final resting place, a cemetery along with my wife and living childen.
You are describing a situation which was prevalent decades ago. I lived in Los Angeles from 1958 to 1962 and quite often we couldn't see the mountains. Now, normally the air is clean, skies are bright blue, clouds are white, and mountains 98 miles away are visible without smog hiding them from view. Yes, there are still some smoggy days, mostly in the summer. But the transformation in the Los Angeles air has been nothing short of miraculous. That has come about through draconian regulations on stationary sources of air pollution plus a gradual revolution in controls on automotive tailpipe emissions. Cars now have electronic fuel injection instead of carburetors and they have catalytic converters in addition to various other controls including recirculation of crankcase gasses. Also, cars are required to have a smog check every two years as a condition of renewing the registration.
[quote=Tuck's Dad;47818450]I don't think the trend has anything to do with the ACA - that is insurance based regulation.
That I agree, I am 30 miles out from a hospital. I've noticed that on some of the Doctors list of what insurance they will take and they seem to Not be taking ACA's insurance. I am glad to have something else. In fact when I went in for a colonoscopy they asked and I said Blue X and Blue Shield, they wanted to know which one which ours is Federal. They would take ours but not the Blue X that the ACA carries or else cash up front and you deal with the insurance.
I would say that pretty much any concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic or the Los Angeles Master Chorale or any production by Los Angeles Opera qualifies as a world class cultural event.
I am giving as examples what I know first-hand; I am not claiming that (for example) Los Angeles Opera is "better" than the Met in New York. But I am claiming that it is equivalent. Yes, that is a strong claim, and we could argue it back and forth, which would be off-topic for the thread anyway.
Nor am I claiming that world class cultural events in the United States are limited to Los Angeles and New York, but those are the strongest obvious cases to be made in answer to your question.
I even agree with you that American society in general is in a "depraved state", but your rhetoric on the matter is exaggerated. I don't mind a bit that you don't care for urban areas - that doesn't offend me just because I am completely content here. Although I live only ten miles from downtown Los Angeles, I live on a pleasant, walkable, safe, tree-lined, middle class street.
I admit the large metros on either coast are beyond my realm of existence. But given their exposure in the media, I feel I have somewhat of an idea of what they are like. I had the opportunity to visit them when I was younger, but never did. Now, given the state of airline travel, and my current mindset, I doubt I ever will.
I'm considered a snob, because I don't like rock or country music in any of their various forms. I like jazz and traditional pop music written before 1960. However, classical and opera is something I've never developed a taste for.
The reason I question the term "cultural event", is I've often found today that it has a wide definition, that often includes high profile rock and country acts. For years, I always thought "concert" meant a classical music event. When someone said they went to a concert, I thought, well, this person must have exquisite taste. It wasn't until years later that I learned the modern use of the word "concert" includes virtually any musical performance.
...the Doctors list of what insurance they will take and they seem to Not be taking ACA's insurance.
What does "ACA's insurance" mean here?
I didn't know that the ACA had an insurance company.
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