Tilting at Windmills - brief information on various topics

Washington Monthly, May, 1999 by Charles Peters

Remember how physicians were almost unanimous in their opposition to Canadian-style single-payer health system? Experience with HMOs is changing that attitude. In a recent survey of 2,162 medical students, residents, and faculty members reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, 57 percent said they supported single-payer.

Have you ever been guilty of an act of rudeness or inconsiderateness on the highway? I have. And I have often wanted to apologize immediately but I haven't known what to do. Although there are many widely recognized gestures of anger on the road, e.g. the shaken fist or the extended middle finger, I don't know any way to say "I'm sorry." I've tried bobbing my head down or waving a hand but the meaning simply isn't clear. Too bad. I'm convinced a lot of road rage could be nipped in the bud if the original offender only knew how to say, "The mistake was mine."

I rise to Al Gore's defense in the matter of his supposedly luxurious boyhood at the Fairfax Hotel. The latest example is a column by Michael Kelly that refers to the hotel's "Louis XV furniture" and its "Embassy Row" location. It was and is on Embassy Row. And it is a luxury hotel today, but back in the '50s and '60s when the Gores lived there, there was no Louis XV furniture and nothing remotely luxurious above the first floor Jockey Club restaurant. I know because Al's sister Nancy was a friend and my wife and I visited the Gores' apartment. The Fairfax was, in fact, a moderately priced residential hotel. Among its tenants was a young journalist named Meg Greenfield who wasn't making enough money in her job at the Reporter magazine to afford anything fancy.

What is happening to PBS? Two hours for a show called "The Courage to Be Rich"! Not to mention all the hours devoted to appraising antiques, based on the hope that that thing in Aunt Maude's attic may turn out to be worth a lot of money.

If you're terrified of those big trucks as I am, here's a little tip about how to avoid tangling with them on the highway: If you can't see the truck driver's mirrors, the driver can't see you. So if you're so close to his rear or to his sides that you can't see the mirrors, you're in danger. Also, when you're immediately in front of a big rig, the driver may not be able to see you. And remember, it takes a fully-loaded truck going 65 miles an hour about 350 feet to stop. And truck drivers don't like to hit the brakes because of the damage it does to the tires.

And just in case you aren't terrified, here are a few figures that may inspire a prudent regard for the hazard these trucks present. In 1997 alone, the crashes in which they were involved killed 5,355 people and injured 133,000.

Those statistics are for trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds. A new passenger vehicle, Ford's Excursion, is going to be almost that big. It weighs 8,600 pounds and is nearly 19 feet long. It is the latest entry in the SUV market, which now accounts for more than half of new vehicle sales. You don't want to tangle with the things anymore than you do with trucks. "With a vehicle that size, it's going to crush any other vehicle it crashes with," says Clarence Ditlow, president of the Center for Auto Safety. As for the Excursions contributions to air quality, the Sierra Club estimates that it will emit 130 tons of carbon dioxide over a 120,000-mile life.