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What might you be doing at 92? — 21 Comments

1. Amazing woman.

   I met a man a few months ago who was 92, looked more like 72, and acted like he was 52. He does not exercise, he likes a glass of wine with dinner, he eats whatever he wants, and his primary pastime is listening to classical music. In other words he doesn’t do much to promote his health. Some people have inherited longevity genes that are amazing.

   On a good day (and I have many good days) I think I may live another ten years. On my bad days (I just had one yesterday) I think I may last another two years. I started running back in the 60s when it was just beginning to be popular. Moved on to mountain climbing, then working out at the gym. Have always been weight conscious, tried to eat the right foods, and worked at being healthy. Mostly because my livelihood, being an airline pilot, depended on being able to pass two physicals a year. I still go to the gym (I am mostly doing heavy [heavy for me anyway] lifting with low reps, interspersed with high intensity interval training) walk a lot, work around the house and yard and try not to sit too much. (Although sitting at the computer and roving the blogosphere is my most unhealthy habit.) I don’t drink, my diet is severely restricted to fruits and vegetables, eggs, whey protein, with occasional chicken, lamb, or turkey. In other words, I am trying to do everything right to promote an active old age. But entropy is having its way with me. I’m thankful to have made it this far and not be drooling in a nursing home. If I make it to 92 and can still go to the gym and work around my yard and house, I will be a happy man.

2. Best of luck to you, J.J. it sounds like you are taking great care of yourself!

3. J.J.:

   I hear ya.

   Heredity seems huge to me. And as we get older (and I’m getting up there now) concern increases, as does vigilance.

   My father died relatively young, and had a host of illnesses such as diabetes. He didn’t take care of himself especially, but he didn’t have a lot of bad habits, either. My mother was somewhat more active (he had a bad back; she didn’t) but not exceptionally so. Her one activity was playing tennis into her early 80s, but only in the warm months and maybe once or twice a week. That was it. Otherwise, she ate exactly what she wanted to, and was a lover of sweets. She lived to be 98 and was in pretty good health until well into her 90s.

4. like the sun rising, a comment that covers something elucidates a new set of threads to bury it.

   What might you be doing at 92?

   what makes you think you can get to 92 with healthcare rationing and a war coming? She was born outside the era of obama care, leftist medical twiddling and all that!!!!!!!

   Aged-Based Health Care Rationing
   http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v3n3/age.html
   Has the time come when we decide that prolonging the lives of the elderly who “no longer serve the land” is truly a burden on the youth of society? Is the day of rationing our nation’s health care services on the basis of age close at hand? As the ranks of the elderly swell, and demands on the nation’s scarce health care resources increase, the once whispered suggestions that health care should be rationed by age are now growing audible.
   http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v3n3/age.html

   Age-Based Rationing of Healthcare
   https://cbhd.org/content/age-based-rationing-health-care-0

   PDF: The Elderly and Health Care Rationing
   http://law.unh.edu/assets/images/uploads/publications/pierce-law-review-vol07-no2-smith.pdf

   Is it Justifiable to Ration Healthcare on the Basis of Age?
   http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/406431_4

   Why the Elderly Should Support Health Care Rationing
   http://www.over65.thehastingscenter.org/why-the-elderly-should-support-health-care-rationing/

   hey people, you lost… its not the US you remember, and by the time you get to 80 let alone 90 this stuff will be law and working.

   its easy since the caucasians that would vote against it will be a minority and the rationing will hit this evil race of racists and all that – so the imported and the left will ration care..

   but that is if you survive a war that is coming, since the russians can now shut down our ships and electronics remotely.

   On 10 April 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the waters of the Black Sea and on 12 April a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber flew over the vessel triggering an incident that, according to several media reports, completely demoralized its crew, so much so that the Pentagon issued a protest

   The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer

   As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up — or about to be — with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.

   The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft — unarmed — repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

   the woman your discussing was born before socialism, before health care of the left, before the improvements of obama and all that!!!!!!

   and lastly, it will probably be the new TPP that obama is working on that will seal the deal

   but all three of these subjects seem to be verboten, as they are not the subjevct of a thread and as soon as they are mentioned avoidance kicks in and a new set of posts appear that steer people away from it!!!!!!!!!!

   First of all, it is the largest ever international economic treaty that has ever been negotiated, very considerably larger than NAFTA. It is mostly not about trade, only 5 of the 29 Chapters are about traditional trade.

   The others are about regulating the internet, and what information internet service providers have to collect, they have to hand it over to companies under certain circumstances, the regulation of labor conditions, regulating the way you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital, health care system, privatization of hospitals, so essentially every aspect of a modern economy, even banking services are in the TPP.

   So that is erecting and embedding new ultramodern neoliberal structure over U.S. law and the laws of other countries. And putting it in treaty form.

   By putting it in a treaty form, there are 14 countries involved, that means it is very hard to overturn, so if there is a desire, a democratic desire to do it on a different path. For example, to introduce more public transport. Then you can’t easily change the TPP treaty, because you have to go back to the other nations involved.

   Now looking at that example, what if the government or a state government decides it wants to build a hospital somewhere, and there is a private hospital has been erected nearby.

   Well the TPP gives the constructor of the private hospital the right to sue the government over the expect loss, the loss in expected future profits. This is an expected future loss, this is not an actual loss that has been sustained, this is a claim about the future.

   We know from similar instruments where governments can be sued over free trade treaties, that that is used to construct a chilling effect on environmental and health regulation laws. For example, Togo, Australia, Uruguay are all being sued by tobacco company Phillip Morris to prevent them from introducing health warnings on cigarette packaging…

   It is not even an even playing field, lets say you were going to let companies, make it easier for companies to sue governments, maybe that is right, maybe the government is too powerful and companies should have the right to sue them in certain circumstances.

   But it is only multinationals that get this right. U.S. companies that operate in the U.S. in relation to investments that happen in the U.S. will not have this right.

   sorry, but if we continue to talk about drivel while they continue to succeed unopposed, your not going to make 92 unless your a politician or billionaire who can travel to other countries

   perhaps finding out how they are thinking of taking your 401, rationing monies, sanders is suggesting command and control, and russia/china are cooking up wars turning up the heat more and more..

   troops are amazing on the ukraine border waiting for spring to pass and the mud to go away.. china is building miltary bases and air strips on japans land and threatening the US for sending troops to australia. they are building islands to extend their international borders, and more and more

   you want to know how world war II happened
   good people like you refused to focus on it just as your doing… over and over you refuse to look at whats cooking in favor of mostly mental masturbation…

   its silly to ask what you will do at 92 when your not doing much to insure you will be allowed to live that long

   you have to get their first, and i suspect that after 20 years of ACA and progressives, you wont be alive… if your jewish, you have even more to fear… which is why they are fleeing other western places like france.

   wake up…

5. Artfldgr:

   You write, “what makes you think you can get to 92?”

   That’s part of the point of the question, actually. It it is meant to subtly raise not only the question of what a person might be doing at 92, but whether one will even get there.

   Also, the topic of the changes in the health care system, including what’s happening to the elderly, has been explored quite a bit on this blog, and in depth, as well as all around the right side of the blogosphere. It is hardly a secret.

   Haranguing people is not going to help your message get through.

6. And I just read this by Leon Hale who just turned 94 http://blog.chron.com/leonhale/2015/06/a-little-bit-left/
   “Many thanks to all for the Happy 94th Birthday wishes. I had a splendid day, hurting in only three places. – When you get this old, sometimes people ask how it feels. To me it’s like I’ve become something other than myself, a strange wrinkled creature, creeping along cautiously as if something is about to grab me. But Babette says if I’d become something else, I wouldn’t know that I had changed, so there must be a little bit of me left in there somewhere. “

7. Neo.. you missed my point..

   the point i was making might better be said: If you could get to 92, would they let you get to 92?

   Obamacare Architect Says Society Would Be Better Off If People Died At 75

   Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, says that society would be far better off if people quit trying to live past age 75. His new article entitled “Why I Hope To Die At 75” has the following very creepy subtitle: “An argument that society and families–and you – will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly”. In the article, Emanuel forcefully argues that the quality of life for most people is significantly diminished past the age of 75 and that once we get to that age we should refuse any more medical care that will extend our lifespans. This is quite chilling to read, considering the fact that this is coming from one of the key architects of Obamacare.

   and i have brought up the other parts of this movemetn, and you should know, that if you dont quash this, you may have to decide how you would go… would you go like SAUL in soylent green? or maybe there will be carousel?

   You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social boat, if you’re not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself – George Bernard Shaw

   Shaw also called for the development of a “deadly” but “humane” gas for the purpose of killing, many at a time, those unfit to live

   this kind of philosophy has spread everywhere. It is being taught at colleges and universities across the United States and it is even represented throughout the ranks of the Obama administration.

   For example, Barack Obama’s top science adviser John P. Holdren believes that implanting sterilization capsules under the skin of women could be a way to reduce the size of the population and increase the quality of life for everyone…

   A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.

   The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births

   then there is the new office of population affairs
   http://www.hhs.gov/opa/

   and hillary may escort yo to the grave earlier:
   In a speech to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Awards Gala, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she admires “Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision.” Secretary Clinton said she is “really in awe of” Sanger for Sanger’s early work in Brooklyn, New York, “taking on archetypes, taking on attitudes and accusations flowing from all directions.”
   

   you may be over the age now… which means that things may change fast for you… and me as well as others.

   first of all, the people who find this a horror, did not have babies, and the children of those became “studies” women… so they are gonna help you into the grave… the wealthy want the planet for their kids…so they will help you into the grave…

   and a war, will help them implement all this willy nilly… if you think obama was moving fast, wait till there is a conflict…

   will they decide to off you so a young person that can fight will get your wealth and food? maybe.

   I would look to whats happining in the Uk to get a clue…

   British Doctors Now Asking Elderly If They’re Ready to Die
   http://www.thedailysheeple.com/british-doctors-now-asking-elderly-if-theyre-ready-to-die_042015

   Retirement Crisis in the United States
   http://sdonline.org/53/retirement-crisis-in-the-united-states/

   The great 30-year experiment in 401(k) and similar retirement financing schemes that depend on stock market investments has failed. Even before the stock market crisis of 2008, the signs were everywhere that very few workers would be able to accumulate enough wealth through these accounts to insure retirement financial security. As a result, most are looking forward to — or rather becoming resigned to — working longer and seeing their standards of living dramatically decline when they do retire. They will become increasingly dependent on their adult children if they have any. Up until 1980 each generation of workers since the nineteenth century had more retirement security than the previous one. Now each has less. This U-turn in retirement security joins wage stagnation and rising inequality as fundamental class issues facing working people.

   the easiest solution for those that wont suffer their own ideas is to off you… that will happen once there is a conflict, economy goes sour and all those elderly neoneocons will be using up resources best used for the people who are more important…

   -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

   “rentier” – a quasi-Communist term for “saver”

   though this state of affairs would be quite compatible with some measure of individualism, yet it would mean the euthanasia of the rentier, and, consequently, the euthanasia of the cumulative oppressive power of the capitalist to exploit the scarcity-value of capital. Keynes

   a huge proportion of things, from zero interest rates and onwards to euthanasia, feminism (and its policies), abortoin, and more… are all designed to converge on limiting the boomers and their kids and have succeeded in erasing them

   unless you think that the minorities coming over the border and are easily bought will fight for your elder years, your already screwed but just dont know it or believe it enough!!!!

8. Harriet sounds like an amazing woman! The article does a good job of capturing her spirit and attitude. She semi quite humble, but there undoubtedly is truth in her attribution of some of this to genetics.

   Also, as she states, she’s basically walking, but 26.2 miles in 7 hours is a very good walking pace and walking that distance in a single outing is admirable at any age.

   Go, Harriet, Go!

9. “Haranguing people is not going to help your message get through.”

   Especially if, like me, you skip over them. What I wonder is why certain people don’t get their own blogs instead of trying to hijack other people’s. (Actually, I don’t wonder. I know why.)

10. Haranguing people is not going to help your message get through.

    really? so the feminists and left being so polite has worked, and their haranguing didnt work… which is why they lost on abortion, they lost on college rape games, they lost on financial aid, they lost on the ACA, they lost on obama, they lost on changing the laws for families, they lost on the establishment of gay marraige, they lost on…

    in this era, haranguing is the ONLY thing that works..

    and its not usually employed first… and after 10 years and less than two years left before conflict most likely starts, being polite and ignored is better.

    the squeeky wheel gets the oil
    the bent nail attracts the hammer

    haranguing works better than being polite
    you helped teach me that…

    your thread “Our changing moral judgments” basically ignores that those morals were changed by haranguing..

    when we wanted to discuss obama and his past and other things, the left did what? politely asked to stop, or won by haranguing? how about those speeches they stopped?

    if you knew WWII Was coming what would you do? be polite? shut upo and go home? let the jews die and go to their fate? ignore it? really! what would you do if you knew or thought you knew given the way that they were amassing troops, building arms illegally, escalating rhetoric, and your fellow people were too distracted to look?

    “I know there is no point in haranguing him because he will just shut down, but I want to cover every angle.”
    ― David Sheff, Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction

    he should have given up on his son, right?

    so what your saying is i should give up on my fellow man, the posters and you… and not try hard and harder to wake some up to the signs that are easy to see if one looks?

    Adlai Stevenson – said kennedy should not go to texas and did not harangue him… turned out well… no?

    Dwight Eisenhower – only warned us of the industrial complex…

    John Parker warned the people about the dam … An estimated 2,209 people were killed making it the worst disaster in the history of the US at that time..

    Cyril Evans warned people, but the captain of the titanic ignored him. An angry Philips told him to get off and Philips never passed along the ice warning to the bridge or the ship’s Captain.

    the military and scientific american warned that the levees would break. and they did… how many died in lousiana?

    Jimmy Harrell / On the morning of the disaster, rig operator and Transocean employee Jimmy Harrell was seen to be in an argument with a senior BP official. BP wanted Harrell to substitute lighter seawater to hold the gas in place and stop it from rising up the drill pipe / and deepwater horizon crisis happened

    Katsuhiko Ishibashi warned of the danger of an earthquake-induced nuclear disaster at an International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics conference held in Sapporo. [then the japanese nuclear disaster happened]

    Brooksley Born identifyed and tried to stop the US markets from melting down..

    John O’Neil warned of al qeada

    Roger Boisjoly could not save the challeger crew

    During the 1930s, Winston Churchill warned Britain and the Western world about the dangers of Adolf Hitler and Germany. It was the strongest warning ever by a politician! Still, that warning was ignored.

    Douglas Launcelot Reed was a British journalist, playwright, novelist and author of a number of books of political analysis. His book Insanity Fair (1938) was one of the most influential in publicising the state of Europe and the megalomania of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War.

    Bonhoeffer warning to the church in the 1930s essentially went unheeded

    a former KGB officer warned the US about ISLAM and russias use and quotes he was personally present in that the soviets would turn ISLAM against america and would turn americans aginast her… hows that turning out?

    time will tell…
    regrets if i am right, jokes if i am wrong.
    lets hope its funny… not trajic

11. Artfldgr:

    “Haranguing” has the following meaning:

    a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; diatribe…before a public gathering.
    …any long, pompous speech or writing of a tediously hortatory or didactic nature; sermonizing lecture or discourse.

    In other words: telling people they are stupid and they are ignoring your great wisdom, insulting them, and overwhelming them with more verbiage than they have the time or inclination to read does not work to convince people of anything ON THIS BLOG. Most people here don’t even disagree with all of what you write by any means (although they may disagree with some of it), but even many of those who are inclined to agree with you in substance are often put off by your harangues and often tune you out.

    I also submit that most of the people here have not responded positively to harangues by feminists, etc.. This is not a random sample of people.

    I allow you to continue to comment here because I still think that the substance of what you say often has value. But your haranguing and insulting people has no value and is counterproductive to your goals.

12. You are remarkably patient Neo. My strategy is the same as Wooly Bully’s. I have not read deeper than a sentence or two into any of Y’s posts in a long time. I occasionally wonder if I am missing something worthwhile; but, it just isn’t worth the effort.

    Wish I knew the secret to longevity. Well, honestly, I do not worry about that. What I do worry about is being cognizant, and reasonably self-sufficient to the end. No complaints. If I last another 6 weeks, I will be the first male in my known family to reach 80; and Mother didn’t make it to 50.

    JJ, I don’t know if those semi-annual physicals help. Maybe if you see more diligent Docs. (I swear that mine tested my hearing by whispering, “that will be $xxx; if I wrote the check I passed.) One pre-employment physical hiccup did change my dietary habits in a beneficial way; because it got the attention of both me and my wife.

13. Oldflyer:

    I consider the whole longevity thing to be very much of a crapshoot. Congrats on your impending milestone birthday!

    I do find, as I get older, that one thing I need to conquer is the idea that time is running out. I realize that time IS running out, but that thought weighs much more heavily on me than I ever thought it would, and not necessarily in a way that sparks positive change.

14. My maternal grandma lived one day past her 108th birthday. A few months before that day I visited her in her assisted living home. She was asleep in a recliner when I arrived so I sat down and waited for her to awake. After about 20 minutes she awoke, looked around and then asked me, “I am still alive?”

15. “I am still alive?”

    Some say we’re dead but don’t know it.

16. “I am still alive?”

    I sometimes wake up asking that question, and I’m half that age!

17. Artfldgr,

    I made this comment to you under a recent post and I’ll repeat it here:

    Neo isn’t an activist as much as you want her to be one. She’s a commentator, no more, no less.

    The majority of her commenters are not activists, either. They talk about Left activism as a quasi-bogeyman and observe its effect, but the notion of adapting the Marxist activist method to actually compete for civilization is apparently mostly beyond their ken. For the most part, their civic impulse is channeled and thus sterilely contained to electoral politics.

    You’re right that self-limitation on display here is a fundamental problem because activism is the only social cultural/political game there is.

    Electoral politics are insufficient.

    To make the difference you want, you need to seek out, identify, and organize people who are like-minded with you, which Neo and many of her commenters are, and activist, which Neo and most of her commenters are not.

    When you have your like-minded, activist team, basically trained with enough passion and will to compete, make your plans and lead your mission. Surge bold into the social arena. Compete. You’ll probably be defeated by superior activists. Take the defeats as vital lessons to strengthen your mission and train your men. Learn and adapt. Surge bold into the social arena. Compete.

    You might not win – it’s competition. They show up, too. But the only way you might win the activist game is to compete.

    As far as Neo’s blog, keep commenting, but my suggestion is to focus foremost on construction of your mission. When you’ve built up a social activist movement that can be joined, or you’ve joined one, seek out people at your favored online gathering sites and elsewhere who are sufficiently like-minded and activist to join you in the arena as a teammate.

18. I have not read deeper than a sentence or two into any of Y’s posts in a long time. I occasionally wonder if I am missing something worthwhile; but, it just isn’t worth the effort.

    When you have something you want to say to me directly, you know where to find me. Assuming it’s worth my time.

19. At a Naval Aviation Facebook page, I have become the Birthday Badger, as Facebook keeps telling me everyones birthday, so I send appropriate wishes. I shall remember to add you to the list, as you are a Naval Aviator. You should make it, with the Birthday Badger pulling for you!

20. Oldflyer: “JJ, I don’t know if those semi-annual physicals help. Maybe if you see more diligent Docs. (I swear that mine tested my hearing by whispering, “that will be $xxx; if I wrote the check I passed.)”

    My employer’s physicals were very comprehensive. Took most of a day. Blood and urine, electro-cardiograms (both resting and after exercise), complete eye exams that required dilation, extensive hearing tests (always difficult for me because of my Navy years sitting behind an R-3350), lung function test, balance testing, a thorough hands on exam by the doctor (including the dreaded prostate exam), and a short interview with a company psychologist. The FAA required exam was always less thorough. I heard about docs who would only check you pulse/BP, urine for sugar,the eye chart for eyes, and the whisper test for hearing, but I figured they were a waste of my time and money.

    I still get an annual physical (kinda like getting regular oil changes for your car 🙂 ). It consists mostly of blood work, hands on exam and an interview about my health complaints and what might be done about them. Most of my issues are met with the following, “You are now older than dirt, and most people your age have that problem.” On my physical after my 80th birthday, my doctor congratulated me on surpassing the average life expectancy, and said whatever I was doing seemed to be working or….. that I may have inherited some good genes.

    As an old aviator I believe (and I’m sure you do too, Oldflyer,) in routine maintenance for humans, just like the routine maintenance we performed on our airplanes to keep them fit for flying. That said, I realize that entropy is at work on both humans and machines and wil not be denied. We are able to take airplanes into overhaul and turn them out as good as new, a process that we don’t yet have for humans. Even with overhauls, airplanes eventually reach the end of their useful service life. And so do we humans.

    I know the end is drawing ever closer, but I want to be as active and engaged as possible, even though I’m older than dirt.

21. SCOTTtheBADGER: My dad was a Naval Aviator in WWII. I carried his wings with me on the first flight of the 200 MPH airplane that I completed last year. I’m 68 y.o. and still flying with my hair on fire.

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