Healthcare Hullabaloo: Bar Bets

Wanna make some money? Here’s some easy bar bets that you can use to take some money from your friends and acquaintances. (It does help if they had a few beers before you make these bets, but it is not 100% necessary.

BET #1: Hey, I bet you don’t know what Neil Armstrong said when he became the first man to step on the moon!

99% of people who take this bet will say “"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Great answer, but they’re wrong. What Neil actually said was "That's one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” It seems that NASA’s crappy 1960’s radio cut out at the most inopportune moment and nobody here on Earth heard the ‘A’. Subsequent digital analysis of that famous sentence proved that there was an ‘A’ in there. Plus, the quote makes a heck of a lot more sense with the extra ‘A’.

BET #2: Hey, I bet you don’t know who the first American in space was!

While not quite as much of a sure thing as the Neil Armstrong quote, this one should still make you some money. Most people will confidently say that John Glenn holds that honor, but again, they’d be wrong. The first American in space was Alan Sheppard. John Glenn was the first American to ORBIT the Earth – Alan’s short flight was a simple up and down affair, but he did reach the edge of outer space. For some reason, people forget all about Alan’s flight and give the honor to John Glenn, who must have had a better Press Agent.

Alan also had the greatest quote ever issued by an astronaut (in my humble opinion).. When he was asked what thoughts were doing through his mind in the seconds before blast off, Alan quipped that he thought “My God! This thing (his rocket ship) was built by the lowest bidder!!

BET#3: While on the subject of firsts in flight, I bet you don’t know who made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean!

Pshaw! Even a 3rd grader knows that Charles Lindberg, ole “Lucky Lindy” himself, made this historic flight in the “Spirit of St. Louis”, the plane that now hangs in the Smithsonian! Yeah. That’s an easy one, but once again, it’s the wrong answer. The feat was accomplished by British aviators Alcock and Brown who made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919, eight years before Lindbergh made the first SOLO flight.

BET#4: Here is a straightforward bet without any trick answer. Most people know that the B-29 named the “Enola Gay” dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan in World War II. The Enola Gay, now fully restored, also sits in the Smithsonian.

I bet you that you don’t know the name of the airplane that dropped the second atomic bomb – you know – the one that actually ended the war.

Most people don’t know the answer, and for the simple reason that it’s important to be first. Like the loser of the Super Bowl or the World Series, second place just doesn't seem to count for much in America.

Regardless of the order of their feats, Armstrong, Glenn, Sheppard and Lindbergh will always retain their well deserved place in American History. They all brought glory to the USA by their historic firsts, and they have cemented their place in the Pantheon of American Heroes.

We need our heroes. In fact, need one in New Jersey right now. Here’s why:

In spite of the Medical Marijuana law being approved in New Jersey and passing all the legal hurdles, the program has yet to get off of the ground. One major sticking point is that physicians are scared stiff of being the first one in the state to write a prescription for it.

Even though Medical Marijuana is now legal in New Jersey, it is still a Federal crime to possess it. And since the DEA, the organization that gives physicians the right to write prescriptions is a federal agency. Physicians are afraid of losing their DEA license if they write a prescription for medical marijuana.

A physician without a DEA license is almost worthless. In fact, in states like California, physicians writing scripts for Medical Marijuana usually prescribe no other medications, so they have nothing to lose. They are depicted as being a bit of a joke, but they are just victims of the ridiculous Federal system- the only doctors who feel safe prescribing marijuana have nothing left to lose.

It’s time for the Federal government to step up and repeal the ridiculous laws that are crippling the use of Medical Marijuana. These prejudiced laws were written back in the days when alcohol was banned, Bonnie and Clyde terrorized the Midwest, and many American still didn’t have indoor plumbing. Federal laws against Medical Marijuana need to go the way of Flappers, Speakeasys, segregated water fountains, and outhouses. We’ve grown as a nation in so many ways since the days when marijuana was depicted as the evil weed. We now know much better. The Feds need to throw yet another anachronistic prejudice aside. They need to allow their suffering citizens legal access to this medicine.

The gig is up – everyone knows that the only reason why this isn’t happening is because Medical Marijuana doesn’t come in a little brown plastic bottle, and it isn’t manufactured by a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Oh, and by the way, the airplane that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki Japan on August 9, 1945, practically single handedly ending the greatest war the planet has ever experienced was called ‘Bockscar’. It resides in the National Museum of the United States Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio.

You owe me five bucks.

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