The McDowell Memo

Emergency Services dropping out of our ability to sustain  As many of you know for the last 10 years I have railed against government imposing training standards and equipment standards on small and rural Fire Depts and Emergency / Ambulance Services. We now know see the impact of those increasingly restrictive regulations on local communities in Upstate New York. Many small areas have stopped providing EMS and the slack has had to be taken up by adjoining communities. In some cases the communities have gone to charging which if the medical insurance industry would lower the co pays to a reasonable amount might be somewhat sustainable. But, they haven't and I assume won't unless the state forces them to. On average the co pay is about $350 for basic and $500+ for Advanced care needs. If you are the poor senior citizen living on Social Security in a rural area this could mean the difference between paying the bill and eating for the month.  Fire companys are not excluded f...

The Speed of a life may not be the Quality of Life we want I set tonight thinking about how when I was young I had so much free time to hunt, date, read, and yes sleep. Today we are awakened early each day to be able to get our "Face" on as they say. Today we have special body wash soap with fragrances , when I was young Gramma insisted on Borax soup better described as smell with sandpaper. It would take off all the dead skin and four or five layers of live skin. Ladies there was no need to defoliate. But you know my skin was a lot better then and I felt cleaner. For your hair you had what ever was on sale. No blow dryers or fancy hair machines there was a comb and Brylcream gel to slick it all down. Then for Breakfast you had a sit down with the folks and eggs and bacon and toast , no breakfast sandwiches made in a microwave they didn't exist, no bagels we didn't know what they were. You walked to school and stood in line at the door. Once in school , teachers ...

McDowell Memo: Let's talk about investigations and hearings For the last 30 years we have as a government had a series of investigations and Congressional hearings that have had no real reason for occurring other than Political points scored. This has been committed on the American People by both parties and for the most part not produced any valid charges. The Media on the other hand have stirred this activity to increase ad sales and this should have been the crime investigated.  As we progressed through the 70' s and forward we watched an erosion in the name of aggressive investigation and reporting of civil rights with no out cry from the left and certainly no legitimate effort by government to limit this activity. From Watergate forward elements with in the county and media outlets have constantly began investigating rumors and pipedreams about every one. Not that there were not scandals that were not investigated such as Chappaquiddick , gun trafficking by the Ob...