Gender spenders: San Francisco to foot bill for sex changes

Published November 09, 2012FoxNews.com

In the midst of cash-strapped Californians approving new taxes to prevent further cuts in essential state services, San Francisco health officials appear to have found the money to fund what they say is a much-needed service to residents living in the City by the Bay:

Sex changes.

The gender-switching surgeries are part of a comprehensive program for treating transgender people that the city's Health Commission green-lighted on Tuesday and announced two days later. Backers say it will help ease the mental anguish of people who feel they are trapped in bodies of the wrong gender, but critics wonder why the taxpayers should foot the bill.

“Taxpayers cannot afford this, as there are unintended costs and unintended consequences unrelated to the actual surgery, such as their longer-term hormone treatment, psychology needs and other longer term health issues,” said Thomas Moyer, a City by the Bay resident and author of “A Conservative Survival Guide to San Francisco.”


Under Mayor Ed Lee, the city's current budget topped $7 billion for the first time in history this year. In addition to the local tax burden, residents have seen their cash-strapped state slash an array of services.

The idea of taxpayer-funded sex change operations came out of talks between public health officials and transgender rights advocates who wanted mastectomies, genital reconstructions and other surgeries covered under San Francisco's universal health care program. City

Public Health Director Barbara Garcia said the program could be in operation late next year, once her department has studied how many people it would serve, how much it would cost and who would perform the surgeries.

Transgender advocates hailed the vote.

“All Americans, in consultation with their doctors, should be able to receive the medical care they need to live healthy lives,” said Kristina Wertz, program director for the San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center. “That’s why we applaud San Francisco’s decision to allow transgender people the ability to receive the medical care they need to be healthy.”

But Moyer said people should pay for their own sex changes, and public money would be better spent elsewhere.

“This surgery is not an essential health function, especially when it would be taking money away from those suffering from chronic illnesses like cancer, Aids, and heart disease,” Moyer said. “We are already stretched too thin as San Francisco is facing a budget deficit and won't be able to afford the costs of this.”

My California born and raised wife and I trekked to Southeastern Alabama last Thursday night...and we are still here. I had much negative adrenalin flowing after the Tuesday elections, but pulled myself through to assure as best I could my wife had a nice birthday the following day. My youngest daughter and her boyfriend dined with us, and my wife claims she had a nice day and evening.

I'll submit that I might be the only guy who ever got away with giving his wife a football themed cake for her birthday dinner dessert.

My wife months ago told me she wanted to go to the Georgia at Auburn game for her birthday. I sleuthed, searched and negotiated and ended up with seats for us and my youngest kid three rows from the field on the Auburn side for Saturday night.

I've been in personal attendance at triple digit major college football games in the past. Saturday night was my wife's 2nd game. She was mesmerized by the pre-game pomp and circumstance, and as I was catching video on my iPhone she said "get the eagle! get the eagle!" as real Eagle "Spirit" circled the stadium before his 50 yard line "touchdown" pre-game.

My wife apparently thinks a lot of me thinking I could get a real soaring eagle firmly in iPhone video lens sight....

After kickoff, most of our personal game highlights went downhill, though I noted real time that Loufla and his Georgia Dawgs still have a legitimate chance path to a National Championship.

My wife and I decided to mellow out and enjoy nature today on a beautiful now mid-November day at Southeastern Alabama's Chewacla State Park and hiked near every charted trail we could identify.

Chewacla State Park is the commonly accepted Southernmost Point of outcroppings and hills associated geologically with the Appalachian Range.

Here's a 10 second video that captured the calming sounds:

http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w91/ ... 689741.mp4

And a pic which for some reason is flipping left even though I rotated it to the right.
This one of my wife is right....very right....as now she wants a gun for Christmas....


If Olivia Newton John inquires with her 1975 voice, I guess I've been mellowed. As I have tried......

My wife has requested a handgun for Christmas. I have an all pink Glock 23 lined up if I feel the giving is appropriate for expectations of her use, and I am still ascertaining same through Q&A with her.


Upon initial questioning she has had thoughts of just knee capping or something of her possible assailant.

I told her that if she wants to carry a gun, if engaged it needs to be in a court law chamber approved level of need to defend against deadly force, and therefore she needs to shoot to completely take down the bad guy.....without question, if attacked.

Turns out she was thinking of gun ownership with regard to knee capping or winging or something.

She'll work through her thoughts.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I took a handgun refresher this week. The instructor, after the second weapon round discharge.....a .357 revolver...... pulled back the target and said "take this home to your wife and show her that 99 of your hundred rounds were kills".

I let him know that my wife would expect as much in my gun performance.

My prior experience with guns did not always meet various laws of various states.


That smell of gunpowder at the range might become addicting.

That .45 semiautomatic pistol I shot was addicting. Ny instructor noted, " holy crap," you obliterated the torso of this would be perp.

I snapped this photo this evening about a mile from Loufla's house. Then I got to thinking, Lou has that beard and the right hair....if he dyed it white and added some padding to his suit.....maybe....

On Dancer and Prancer.....

Santa Claus is apparently keeping an elf or two in Naples, Florida.

Doctor: Camacho brain dead; testing continues on former champ

CBSSports.com wire reports
Nov. 22, 2012 9:05 AM ET

Hector 'Macho' Camacho (right) passed along his boxing talent to his son, Hector Camacho Jr. (Getty Images)
Family and friends of former boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho kept a somber vigil Friday at the hospital in Puerto Rico where he remains on life support.

Doctors in San Juan have said Camacho is clinically brain dead from a shooting earlier this week in his hometown of Bayamon. But relatives and friends told The Associated Press they are still wrestling with whether to remove him from life support.

"It is a very difficult decision, a very delicate decision," said former pro boxer Victor "Luvi" Callejas, a longtime friend, in a phone interview. "The last thing we lose is hope and faith. If there is still hope and faith, why not wait a little more?"

Camacho's oldest son, Hector Camacho Jr., told reporters his father has not been disconnected from an artificial respirator and that he believes he is still alive. Two of Camacho's sisters have asked that he remain on life support until Saturday.

Aida Camacho, one of the boxer's aunts, said in an interview that the family could decide by late Friday whether to donate his organs.

As some relatives and friends continued to pray for a miracle, condolences kept coming in for the boxer's family and preparations have begun for memorials and a funeral Mass.

Gov. Luis Fortuno said he lamented what he called a sudden loss.

"'Macho' will always be remembered for his spontaneity and charisma in and out of the ring," he said.

Also offering condolences was governor-elect Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who defeated Fortuno in November.

"The life of Macho Camacho, like other great athletes of ours, united the country," he said. "We celebrated his triumphs in the streets and we applauded him with noble sportsmanship when he didn't prevail."

Camacho was shot Tuesday night as he sat in a car with a friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, who was killed in the attack. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket, and a 10th bag open inside the car.

Police have made no arrests and continue to interview potential witnesses. Capt. Rafael Rosa told reporters Friday that they are tracking down several leads, but added that very few witnesses are cooperating. He declined to say whether police have identified any suspects.

Camacho Jr. lamented the violence that has consumed Puerto Rico, a U.S. island territory of nearly 4 million people that reported a record 1,117 homicides last year.

"Death, jail, drugs, killings," he said. "That's what the streets are now."

Camacho's sisters have said they would like to fly Camacho's body to New York and bury him there. Camacho grew up mostly in Harlem, earning the nickname the "Harlem Heckler."

He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought high-profile bouts against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997, ending the former champ's final comeback attempt. Camacho had a career record of 79-6-3.

Camacho also battled drug, alcohol and other problems throughout his life. He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison on burglary charges, and a wife also filed domestic abuse complaints against him twice before their divorce.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertain ... 256.column


Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck dead at age 91

Arts critic
10:34 a.m. CST, December 5, 2012

Dave Brubeck, a jazz musician who attained pop-star acclaim with recordings such as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital, in Norwalk, Conn., said his longtime manager-producer-conductor Russell Gloyd.

Brubeck was one day short of his 92nd birthday. He died of heart failure, en route to "a regular treatment with his cardiologist,” said Gloyd.

Throughout his career, Brubeck defied conventions long imposed on jazz musicians. The tricky meters he played in “Take Five” and other works transcended standard conceptions of swing rhythm.

The extended choral/symphonic works he penned and performed around the world took him well outside the accepted boundaries of jazz. And the concerts he brought to colleges across the country in the 1950s shattered the then-long-held notion that jazz had no place in academia.

As a pianist, he applied the classical influences of his teacher, the French master Darius Milhaud, to jazz, playing with an elegance of tone and phrase that supposedly were the antithesis of the American sound.

As a humanist, he was at the forefront of integration, playing black jazz clubs throughout the deep South in the ’50s, a point of pride for him.

"For as long as I’ve been playing jazz, people have been trying to pigeonhole me,” he once told the Tribune.

"Frankly, labels bore me."

He is survived by his wife, Iola; four sons and a daughter; grandsons and a great granddaughter.

High School Girls' Basketball Teams Wins 107-2

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Bloomington South High School girls' basketball team beat Arlington High School 107-2 on Tuesday night in Indianapolis, prompting an official with the state prep sports association to say he never wants to see an outcome so one-sided again.


"(The score) is probably not what we would like to see," Chris Kaufman, a spokesman for the Indiana High School Athletic Association, told RTV6 in Indianapolis.

Bloomington South coach Larry Winters told the Indianapolis Star there was no effort to embarrass Arlington or run up the score. Winters said he played all nine of his players.

"I didn't tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing (to Arlington)," Winters said, telling the Star that Arlington's defense was in an aggressive 2-3 zone. "We were not trying to embarrass them or run up the score."

Arlington's only points came on a free throw in the second quarter and another in the third. In Indiana there is no "mercy rule," where games are halted when a score gets out of hand.

First-year Arlington coach Ebony Jackson says she was disappointed with how Bloomington South (8-1) handled the game. Her team is 0-6 this year and has lost 23 straight games.

"No, it's not OK, but (Winters) will have to live with that," Jackson said, according to the Star. "If that's how they want to carry themselves, that's fine. I'm focused on me and mine, and we'll just keep going."

Lochte takes over worlds with eight total medals

Updated: 2012-12-18 08:02

American swimmer claims six golds in dominant performance in Istanbul

Ryan Lochte completed a six-gold dominance of the world short-course championships on Sunday before revealing that a childhood snub by a sporting legend inspires him to give away all of his medals.

The 28-year-old New Yorker clinched his fifth and sixth gold medals of the week when he won the 100m medley and anchored the US 4x100 medley relay team to victory. The result matched his medal total from the last championships, in Dubai in 2010.

His career short-course total now stands at 30 medals, including 20 gold.

The American's prowess in the pool in Turkey was matched by his generosity out of the water after he revealed he gives all of his medals away.

"I remember when I was a kid I was looking up to this superstar, an Olympian. I'm not going to mention his name, but I asked him for an autograph and he said no," Lochte said. "I was 8 years old and I was crushed. He wasn't even concentrating or preparing, he was just in an elevator.

"I went back to the hotel room and my parents asked me, 'So? Did you get the autograph?'. I told him he said no and I remember telling my parents that if one day I ever get there in the same position, I'll do it."

Lochte won the 100m individual medley, a day after he broke the world record in the event. The five-time Olympic champion finished in 51.21 seconds, ahead of Kenneth To of Australia and George Bovell III of Trinidad and Tobago.

To started well and led at the halfway mark. He held off Lochte over the breaststroke leg, but the American accelerated in the freestyle to move ahead.

Lochte then joined Matthew Grevers, Kevin Cordes and Thomas Shields to win the 4x100 medley relay in 3:21.03, with Russia second and Australia third. Lochte's time of 45.22 was the fastest on the team.

He also won silver in the 200m backstroke.


"All the races I have done last week are starting to catch up," he said. "But it is the last day of the tournament and there is always something left in the tank."

Radoslaw Kawecki of Poland beat Lochte and said he deployed the same tactics as his rival.

"We both wanted to wait until the final 50-75 meters and start pushing really hard. I am happy I came out on top and proved that I was better prepared than Lochte," Kawecki said, adding it felt "great to be better than a world-record holder".

Lochte broke the world record in the 100m IM with a time of 50.71 in the semifinals on Saturday, eclipsing the mark set by Peter Mankoc of Slovenia in December 2009. On Friday, the American broke the world record in the 200m IM.

Lochte, a five-time Olympic champion, and the heir to the now-retired Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time, is the only swimmer in history to win eight medals at the same world short-course championships.

"I swim in a bunch of races, but that's what I train for. I like change and that's why I want to do everything," said Lochte.

"For me, this is fun in the sport of swimming. I train for everything. I push my body to limits other athletes are afraid of. That's why I am able to swim two races in 30 minutes."

The United States ended the five-day championships with 27 medals, 11 of which were gold, ahead of China with 11 medals including three gold. China ranked second in the medal tally with three gold medals, five silvers and three bronzes.

Hungary was third with a 10-medal tally, three of which were gold.

(China Daily 12/18/2012 page23

My wife happened to get a new camera with a couple of lenses for Christmas. We went about ten miles east of our home this afternoon to catch some nature shots in a swamp on the way to the official Everglades National Park.

The one above is with my iPhone, though my wife's pics are much better of course when she gets them to me to share. She has amazing pics of a Red Shouldered Hawk trying to eat a squirrel tree frog, up close and personal.

Look to the left of the flower in my iPhone pic and note the eyes of an alligator staring back.

I believe he is telling me to take Notre Dame and the points...... I'm going back to the same swamp tomorrow morning to seek a second opinion.


Switching....sort of...

All day long today as we skirted the swamps of South Florida for photo ops I thought of the crash of Eastern Flight 401, in The Everglades about 18 miles short of the Miami Airport in the early 1970's. The real life tragedy became "made for TV" movie fodder in the later 1970's.

As I checked my memory on the details, I was somewhat surprised to realize that Eastern Flight 401 crashed exactly 40 years ago today. December 29, 1972. I was a high school junior, and dating a high school sophomore majorette on that evening as we followed the news breaks in her parent's den.

When I lived in Miami in the late 1970's and early 1980's and was flirting with getting a pilot's license I had a friend who had a Bonanza we flew several weekends in the years we were neighbors. A few times we sought out the old Eastern 401 crash site to fly over just to say we did. When we flew over in those days, it was normally a good place to site white tailed deer.

Bringing this back around, maybe I'll see a white tailed deer in the swamp near here tomorrow morning.

For Cali:

Darkstar wrote:For Cali:

Thanks, and LOL! It's unexpected to me that I would ever miss San Francisco area living, but the music scene I do now....I realize.

My wife and I just watched a Dirty Harry movie I had previously missed.

"The Dead Pool."

Many nice cinematic shots from scenes and locales we could both name in the beautiful City of San Francisco.

The movie showed up on schedule on an Encore channel flavor and we quickly bit.

After about five kills my wife noted that I might shoot as well as any Clint Eastwood character might have ever done.

This is the girl who wanted a gun for Christmas, but I gave her annual Disney passes as a well received diversion.

(if she catches on to the diversion, I have a Glock 27 and a CWP holster for her in mind)

I posted this on the Browns forum but I know there are some here who are not on the other so I'm going to post it here as well.

Job question for the masses.

As I'm perusing possible next career opportunities, dabbling into (MY) unknown of "other than government" work. I've hit a couple things I could do based on past experience, one of them being sales. I figure if I can sell the Marine Corps to families in one of the richest parts of tennessee during a time when the war isn't popular, I could sell a product that people want.

While I am capable of High Pressure sales, I felt much better about myself when not doing that and just trying to fill the customers needs and have them wake up the next morning not regretting making the decision. I have been thinking about markets that could be lucrative for the next 2-5 years.

Obviously one of the biggest markets is Health Insurance, with the new Obamacare, a lot of people I have spoken to in the industry are unsure as to how it is going to affect them and their sales, though some have progressed.

I know that the only way to make it in sales is to put in the work, which I am not opposed to.

I guess I am asking for anyone who has worked the Health Insurance bit, what companies anyone has had experiences with, and good/bad. And on either side from the consumer aspect of it as I know little about them.

I have recently spoke with the regional manager of AFLAC and have scheduled an appointment with the district manager.

Doing my research on the internet has yielded....mixed results at best. With some glorifying various companies and others villifying them.

I am 90 percent sure that many of the people who have complaints were expecting instant money without hard work, but I'm sure some of the complaints are legit.

Just wondering if anyone here has any opinions, good or bad.

Baron, just a quick start here but my first advice would be to not take an opportunity just for the sake of timing and convenience. I think with your life you are a very marketable commodity to good American business people. Tout your Marine service loud and proud and people will notice.

There are "niche jobs" in sales that few ever think about that command good bucks. I know you have a degree, but I forget the area of study. I once hired non-technical people who sold commercial electric installation projects and averaged $350,000. I also hired non technical people who sold IT services and made six figures to $500,000. The common denominator in the folks hired were that they were smart, had good communication personalities, and worked hard to do the research and prep for trying to close each deal.

Next recommendation would be to rid yourself completely of any negative thoughts about sales. A good sales person seeks prospects who could really benefit by what is offered, and makes certain the prospect reaches a total realization, and then signs the contract. My career has skirted and included sales most of the way and I can truly say I never "sold" anything to anyone I did not believe was a good match. I've walked away from opportunities to sell when my analysis was it was not a good mutual match.

I would guess that AFLAC has no shortage of sales leads given their marketing campaign, and getting good leads is nice when just starting in sales.

Supplemental insurance is a different animal (no duck pun intended) than "traditional" health insurance. When I owned a recruiting firm years ago I had a sales person from a supplemental insurance company call on me for products to offer my employees. His "pitch" included specifics such as "lose a finger, get $3,000, lose a hand get $10,000, lose an arm get $25,000." I forget what the value of one eye or two eyes were....

Now I see AFLAC has cancer insurance and some offerings that the guy calling on me did not have in those days. I did much of my software work in the insurance industry and I would guess that AFLAC's proximity to the base in Columbus GA has opened their eyes to recruiting discharged Veterans.

Again. this was just a quick start and thought.

I will note that two of my three kids now in the workforce are in professional sales with my encouragement and are doing quite nicely and feel very good about what they do and have done.

Both are good looking girls, but neither was a career battle tested United States Marine as you are. Know your assets, and your target, when you sell.

I agree with Cali! I would also encourage you to consider Real Estate. The market is changing pretty fast and the past 4 years have weeded out a lot of dead wood agents.

Think about it, eMail me off line if you wish.

Thanks UD and Cali I will take your advice and look into it!