Tag Archives: health care

Healthy Self-Defense

Stanko & Tibor

To you the readers who are forced to read this as part of your plea bargain,

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about health issues in the family. Who’s got it, who doesn’t, who’s flaunting it and who knows nothing about it. Turns out some of us in the family are more into health issues than others. Why, even I, the junk food eating guru to the stars, have embraced a device to help me monitor my physical activity (it keeps sending me a message saying I’ll be dead soon if I don’t stop watching TV), as well as my sleep patterns and duration of said sleep (which are, respectively, dangerously erratic and woefully short).

Am I relying on technology to help me? No, it’s just a toy I can use to talk about at non-existent parties I never get invited to. But it has come in handy on those when I did do exercise or managed more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep without “the night terrors.” Yet this toy is merely an external device to help me look at things differently. It takes knowledge to be able to make choices that better me and my health, and you have to be careful about what people tell you is good for you.

5 Death Foods – No Bacon Cheeseburgers However

Most recently I was informed there are 5 things I should avoid eating to live a healthier life. Oddly, they skipped over the bacon cheeseburgers, so I am good with that. However, one of them was strawberries. Apparently, due to the high usage of pesticides and their residues, we shouldn’t eat that many of them. Which got me to thinking (because of too much caffeine and free time, really). I concluded I would be remiss – nay, dare I say,negligent and irresponsible to NOT feed strawberries to my children.

I see it this way. Rasputin long ago knew that by ingesting small amounts of poisons, he could build up an tolerance to them thus leading a long and fruitful life without fear of dying from the hemlock-laced vodka handed to him  by his enemies. Look how well that worked for him. He now has his own Wikipedia entry!

By illogical extension, I would be a responsible parent if I let my kids have all the strawberries they could ever eat, thus giving them the chance to build up this tolerance to these poisons. Kind of like increasing your alcohol tolerance when you were university. By the end of your first semester, you could drink a keg of beer and only have a mild hangover.

Furthermore, it would be wrong of me as a parent to deny them the preservative-laden junk food I eat if I want them to live a long time. Is there a risk of cancer? Well, sure, but I could just as easily get hit by a car being driven by a cancer patient fleeing his chemotherapy on the way to eating a bacon cheeseburger. See how logical it all is?

I would still insist my kids eat veggies and other healthy options (also probably covered in dirt and bugs and pesticides) but there has to be balance. They need a good self-defense against the evil-doers of the fruit world.

Poison Control
Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasputin

Fencing

Speaking of self-defense, why is fencing still an Olympic sport? I think there are maybe 26 people in the world who still do it, and frankly, I am not sure what societal benefits it brings. Wrestling makes sense. We need that sport for homo-erotic entertainment and it comes in handy when your child runs away from you and won’t take his or her medicine. The decathlon also makes sense to keep. I often have to run distances to avoid the police. Frequently, I want to toss a javelin at people I don’t like, so I should be prepared for that discipline. But fencing?

The 4 Truths

First of all, they have masks, so no one can poke an eye out. Mega-Sissies. No one wears a mask when fly fishing and you can easily poke an eye out there.

Second, they wear masks (yes, I’m repeating myself, but I am struggling for material to write), and they taught me in management school, never wear a mask unless it’s Halloween, you have an unhealthy fetish for 17th century French garb and you’re going the ball that evening, or conversely, you’re firing someone and they might spit in your face.

Third, they are all in white, which increases dry cleaning bills – especially if they manage to draw blood (although with those sissy epee thingies that look like they could use some Viagra, I can’t see how). Or if they’re eating a sausage with mustard and sauerkraut before the match. The percoehtylene needed to clean that would be astronomical! The damage to the environment from the dry cleaning alone should ban the sport.

Banking On Fencing, Are We?

Lastly, when am I allowed to use fencing in daily life? I can’t use it at the bank because they have this thing about wearing a mask in a financial institution.  Doesn’t work at the passport office because I’ll lose my place in line if I parry a thrust from some one cutting in line and I lose my footing on the carpet. I can’t use it at work as it’s considered a menacing management technique in meetings and during performance reviews. And let’s not talk about the bedroom! If I say I am “wielding a sword-like device” one more time, I’ll be on the couch again.

What does all this have to do with anything? Without  a healthy self-defense, we’re left only with self-offense. That, my friends, makes even less sense that the crap I wrote above.

Unflinchingly, undyingly and ungainly yours,
Jabba Druker

War on Health Care

Hello again dear readers of this comedic creation,

Is it really so soon that I am bombarding you with yet another episode of the world’s most under-appreciated and misunderstood comic? Yup, pretty much. But as I said last time, the dialogue for this has been ready for some time and it is just the drawing part that needed to be done. Which is no small part, but thanks to the beauty of computers is simplified somewhat.

I am finally getting around to finishing off this story line in the cartoon, which coincides with my current role at my company being finished off. Only heaven and the new manager know what I’ll be doing come Monday. Let’s hope it won’t prevent me from cartooning and blogging.

That’s what happens when you have too much time on your hands. And soon, there won’t be as much free time for such funnery (ooo, good made-up word!)

So keep reading, keep commenting, and if you have your own website or blog, please put a link to my blog on it, and I’ll do the same for you.

Be well, I’ll eventually be on the mental mend soon.

Radio Vitriol

Dear readers of this comedic rag,

I sit at home, sick like a dog, with pills taking the edge off my cold. So in between napping and a state of semi-awakedness (isn’t that a word?), I decided to post the latest comic that I completed while still semi-healthy, which was about 2 days ago. The germs in my body were fomenting some kind of rebellion, but I didn’t know it at the time. It looks like they are winning.

This particular episode will begin a short series called “Radio Vitriol” that I hope will amuse you and possibly offend some of you. But isn’t that the point of this comic? I had lots of fun coming up with the dialog for this series of stories as I get to make fun of everyone and everything AND use my gift for humor and illustration to serve humankind a steaming bowl of laughter and insight.

So enjoy this series, more is sure to come once I am healthy again. I am sweating again, so that is a sign I should lie down.

Oh, and one more thing:

A happy Passover and Easter to those of you celebrating. A note to the Jewish contingent out there – you know that saying that a piece of buttered toast always hits the floor butter-side down, well the same thing applies with matzah. Not sure if that applies to Easter chocolates or any grilled lamb dishes.

Take care all and be healthy. I am going to lie down and sleep.

-Jon

Irish Luck

There is not much to say about this one except it’s horribly late. I had it sketched almost a week ago but then life got in the way. And when that happens, my desire wanes and my attention drifts and I don’t feel like sitting down in front of the PC to cartoon.

I had to make reference to the recently passed health care bill in the US, and I am sure that will be fodder for many more comics, but I have other storylines to tend to.

Enjoy this one and keep reading.