World According to Gleason

I feel badly for safety Chad Jones, whose Giants’ career probably has come to an end before it ever began.

Jones, the team’s third-round draft pick in 2010, was waived after failing a physical. He never made it to the field after suffering a serious leg injury in a horrific car accident two months after the draft. He reported to the team’s offseason conditioning program last month to continue his rehabilitation program, but wasn’t cleared to participate in football activities.

The Giants and Jones hope he can make it back with the team one day. But Jones clearly has a ways to go before being ready for the NFL. A numbers crunch necessitated the Giants waive him on Monday.

“We consider Chad to be part of the Giants family, and we’ll continue to work with him in his rehab,” general manager Jerry Reese said. “As we’ve said since his accident, we’re thankful he is alive and able to lead a normal life.”

Jones suffered multiple fractures and nerve damage in his lower left leg in the accident in New Orleans on June 25, 2010. He underwent several hours of surgery and has spent the past two years in an arduous rehabilitation regimen. Jones spent the last two seasons on the reserve/non-football injury list.

“Chad had a severe injury to his left leg, involving a complex tibial fracture with associated injury to muscle, nerves, and vascular structures,” said Dr. Scott Rodeo, a Giants associate team physician. “This type of injury is often limb threatening, and can sometimes require amputation. He has made a remarkable recovery to date, with successful salvage of the leg.  However, at this time he has residual sensory loss, muscle weakness, and tenuous soft tissue coverage in the involved lower leg. The resultant functional impairment precludes his ability to perform physically at the level required for professional football.”

“We would like to thank the Giants organization for the manner in which they have supported Chad since his unfortunate accident two years ago,” said Jones’ agent Rocky Arceneaux. “Their genuine support and caring has far exceeded their obligations and he and his family will be eternally grateful. Chad is experiencing a minor setback and we expect a full recovery within a few months.  He thanks everyone for their continued support and prayers. He will see his teammates on the field soon.”

kgleason@th-record.com; Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

Dear Self,
What is the matter with you?
You fancy yourself a big-time sports fan, if not a serious journalist. You fell for all the sports with a ball, other than soccer, a game clearly too deeply complicated for your tastes.
More to the point, you were well on your way to becoming a legitimate hockey fan. Some of your best friends played youth hockey. You went to many of their games, early in the morning and late at night, sometimes amid 30-degree temperatures and howling winds in open-air rinks. A few of them even went on to play college hockey.
You followed the sport through them, even developing a favorite team, the Islanders, because they won the Stanley Cup every year. You couldn’t skate a lick, but your buddies got you into playing street hockey, and you weren’t half-bad. Not nearly as good as you thought, but not half bad.
Then the unexplainable happened. You stopped following hockey. You stuck with football and basketball and baseball. You reached the point to where you recited all kinds of nerdy stats, watched football noon to night, collected thousands of baseball cards and played hoops all day.
Why did you stop following hockey?
Why?
I just don’t get it. You say there’s only so much you could pay attention to during those busy college years. You say you needed to develop your knowledge base in the three major sports when you started as a writer straight out of school. You say you simply lost track of the game somewhere between the arrivals of Gretzky and Crosby. I say hogwash!
You attended Montreal’s 1986 Stanley Cup parade after college graduation. You even touched the Cup! You offered to cover it as a part-time sports writer for Plattsburgh’s Press-Republican newspaper, but the editor didn’t want you writing anything because you weren’t any good or he didn’t want to edit it; he never did say why. So you wrote it from a fan’s perspective, typed it up on your typewriter and either gave it to him or put it somewhere – I forget.
You covered the 1996-97 Rangers of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier – cramming on the NHL after 10 years of hockey separation – and immediately learned that everything ever said about the accessibility and warmth of hockey players was true when Adam Graves read the uncertainty stenciled on your face at his locker, extended a hand and replied, “Nice to meet you. Sure, I have some time.’’
You were rewarded with the Rangers advancing to the conference finals against Philly. You were never so moved by a sporting event, never so blessed, as the night you worked every vantage point of Madison Square Garden two years later – April 18, 1999 – to watch fans paying tribute to The Great Gretzky skating around the arena one final time to Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best.’’
Then you stopped following hockey – again!
Now you want back in, want to watch every minute of this Rangers-Devils series for the Eastern title. You’ve watched as much of the Rangers’ playoff run as you could – now you want more. You want to see every second of Rangers-Devils – every second. You want to learn all the players and their tendencies. You want to call up your old hockey buddies and share in their excitement.
But you worry – again! – that you don’t have the time. Your schedule, busier than ever, won’t allow you to cram on the NHL after 15 years of hockey separation. You feel like an unworthy outsider trying to join an exclusive club of loyal and dedicated hockey fans.
Let me give you one final piece of advice. Follow this series and enjoy it as best you can. Because if you don’t, you are destined to miss one more scintillating hockey series, one more reason why hockey’s such a great game, one more playoff thriller that will only remind you of all you’ve missed in 30 years.
Yours forever,
Your conscience

I figured to share an early column — and the reasoning behind it — that I wrote at the NFL draft on Thursday.

Early stories or columns, or “earlys” as we call them in the business, generally are written at events before they end. In fact, often they are written before games even start. Medium- and large-sized newspapers produce several editions, switching content in and out of editions to bring the latest and most poignant news for each edition.

Early editions often hit the presses before the conclusion of events. For those editions, we write early stories. Our early edition covers Sullivan County, so only folks in that location received a copy of my column below. Our remaining three editions received a copy of my column written later in the night about the Jets’ pick.

NEW YORK — Against the backdrop of Bounty Gate and fines and concussions and lawsuits, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III made you feel real good about the NFL on Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall.
They even left behind a sweet scent inside college football’s own cesspool of lying and cheating and soul-selling for wins. Now they will brighten the NFL, a prospect that surely will help Roger Goodell sleep at night.
The league is sturdy enough to thrive amid the Saints’ bounty scandal. It will thrive amid rule-changes designed to reduce head injuries, and certainly thrive while lawyers argue over whether former players got a raw deal.
But Luck and Griffin certainly add a brilliant sparkle to the league. They are as polished a quarterback tandem as you will see atop the draft board. How easy to picture Luck and the Colts vs. Griffin and the Redskins contending for Super Bowls in the near future. Little imagination is needed to see a Colts-’Skins showdown for the Lombardi Trophy down the line.
They even have names fit for headline writers and marketers: Luck, RGIII.
Yet they bring so much more than arms and legs and minds. They bring personalities, Luck the awe-shucks gunslinger, Griffin the wide-smiling pass-run threat.
When Luck spoke in the interview room after being selected, he sounded like his boyhood idol, the fellow he replaces in Indianapolis. He is Peyton Manning without the résumé, humble and accommodating and appreciative. It was almost as if another Manning brother had been unveiled, a neat combination of Peyton and Eli with a dose of Archie for good measure.
“I’m truly honored and humbled to represent the team and the city,’’ Luck said, sounding a lot like Manning’s memorable goodbye speech to the Colts and Indy. “I will do it to the best of my ability.’’
Then he talked about rounding up his receivers and getting to work with them as quickly as possible. Sound familiar? “I realize you don’t replace a guy like that,’’ Luck said of Peyton. “If one day I’m mentioned alongside Peyton Manning, it would be a dream come true.’’
On this night, he was mentioned alongside Robert Griffin III, and that was just fine. The guy with the colorful socks and electric skills made it to the interview room a little while later. Griffin, like Luck, will be asked to resurrect a team that has plenty of missing parts. But Griffin seems up to the task of adding a fourth contender to the ultra-competitive NFC East. He was, ironically, a fan of Peyton Manning’s new team growing up, watching Washington coach Mike Shanahan do his thing in Denver. Now Shanahan gets the quarterback he’s been wishing for since he took on the task of building the Redskins.
“I play quarterback first,’’ Griffin said referring to his explosive running skills. “When there’s nothing there, then I try to make something happen.’’
He will make something happen in Washington, in the NFL. On Thursday, he followed Luck to the stage. But they really arrived side-by-side, two future stars, two gentlemen of the suddenly improved NFL.
kgleason@th-record.com; Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

The Giants have signed one of their key defensive players to an extension — and it’s not Osi Umenyiora.

Big Blue has locked up defensive end-turned linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka with a three-year deal through 2015. Newark Star-Ledger beat reporter Mike Garafolo reports that the total value of the contract is worth $21.75 million over four years, with  base salaries from 2012-15 at $2.95 million, $4.375 million and $4.775 million. According to Garafolo, the “new” money is $16.5 million over three years (2013-15). Kiwanuka received a signing bonus of $8.5 million and gets $10.95 million in guarantees.

Kiwanuka, 29, played in every game this season at strongside linebacker and as a lineman on passing downs. His three non-starts were games in which the Giants opened with an extra defensive back. Kiwi was fourth on the team with a career high-tying 81 tackles (61 solo), 3.5 sacks, 13 tackles for losses, nine quarterback hits, an interception, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Kiwanuka made a terrific recovery from  a herniated disk in his neck that limited him to three games in 2010.

Locking up Kiwi before Umenyiora means one of two things: Osi’s price tag remains too high for the Giants, or the Giants aren’t all that interested in extending Osi and will listen to trade offers.

Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

Let me preface this by saying that every time I think of one duty I would never undertake as long as I live, the words “school board member” shoot through my cerebellum like a 10-pound pinball.

I wouldn’t serve on a school board, any school board, for a well-greased salary, no less for the very modest sum of $0 per week, benefits included.

It is, without a doubt, the most thankless job on Earth. School board members learn early on that they can’t win. No matter the issue, no matter the level of logic emanating from their group, they just can’t win. And if you are a Newburgh Free Academy board member, you will invariably have an unhealthy number of occasions when community members — some of them entirely disengaged with reality — turn meetings into a slightly toned-down version of the WWE’s Royal Rumble.

So I respect the heck out of school board members. And I especially respect them at a time when they are being asked to make excruciatingly difficult fiscal decisions, decisions that drastically effect lives and livelihoods and the children they are sworn to serve.

But sometimes I have a problem with school boards.

And sometimes I have a problem with school-board decisions.

This is one of those times.

Faced with the need to make severe budget cuts, Newburgh Free Academy has decided to save $46,000 by dropping its crew program. The knee-jerk reaction might be, “Who cares?” Up until a month ago, I’m sure I would have accepted the move without more than an “Oh-that’s-too-bad.” But it’s worse than “oh-that’s-too-bad,” much worse than that.

I know, because last month I took a ride down to the Newburgh Boathouse. It’s the same Newburgh Boathouse that members of the crew team helped build, the same one in which members of the crew team maintain, the same one in which members of the crew team and their families spend countless hours raising money for upkeep.

Coach Ed Kennedy, who founded Newburgh crew more than two decades ago, has offered suggestions to cut costs. It was no use. The board was cutting crew.

I’ve been in this business for 25 years. I can’t remember ever coming across a high school sports team that did more for each other, for its school, and for its community, than Newburgh crew.

You know what crew members do when a schoolmate wants to join the team but doesn’t know how to swim? They take the kid aside and teach him how to swim. Think about that for a second: They teach a fellow student how to lose perhaps the his or her greatest fear, the water, opening up a whole other world for that kid.

You know how these kids spend most of their weekends? They are either competing in crew, practicing crew, raising money for crew or straightening up the boathouse. Ask any basketball team to clean its gym and see what kind of looks you get. Ask any football team to chalk and sod its field and see how that goes over. The crew team maintains the boathouse cheerfully. It’s their pride and joy, and this team has an overflowing amount of both.

I listened in on a team meeting last month. A girl talked about painting the docks while chest deep in the Hudson. The kids talked about picking up garbage around the boathouse. Kennedy talked about having to haul a bunch of trash a distance to the Dumpster, so what did he do? He got 80 of his kids and they formed a human chain handing off the trash until it reached the Dumpster. I believe that’s called teamwork.

“That’s kind of what this is all about,” Kennedy said that day.

For crying out loud, Newburgh crew should be the pride and joy of this school. Anybody who has taken a passing glance at the Newburgh Free Academy sporting scene the past year, with news that included six members of the 2009-10 boys’ basketball team cutting more than a thousand classes in three quarters while administrators looked up at the scoreboard, would agree that NFA should be showing off this program like it’s a rare jewel. Because it is.

Instead, Newburgh Free Academy is eliminating it.

And that’s impossible for me to accept.

In 1987, according to Kennedy, NFA wanted to become a blue-ribbon school. One of the ideas to help  reach that goal was to form a crew program. Two and a half decades later, NFA has decided to throw crew overboard.

These kids are rabid fund-raisers, spending most of the year selling something, anything, to raise money for their program. They do tons of volunteer work in the community. They have a collective average over 90 every year. They go onto college, many of them big-time schools. And I haven’t even mentioned that they perennially put forth one of the top teams in the state. That’s almost an afterthought given all they do that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.

The team is naturally devastated by the new. Kennedy left a note on the Newburgh rowing Facebook page. It read, in part:

kgleason@th-record.com; Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

We know, deep down, that trying to characterize an NFL team’s schedule for the coming season is a mighty risky proposition. The league is almost impossibly difficult to figure out during the season, no less in April. But we decipher the schedules anyway because it’s the NFL and we love the NFL second only to talking about the NFL, even before our lawns have been neatly manicured (at least mine. I don’t know about your lawn, but too many parts of mine resemble a cow pasture), even amid the buzz of baseball’s first month.

So I offer that disclaimer up front: This is all the highest form of speculation.

All that said, I’m going against the grain when it comes to the Giants’ schedule. I don’t think it’s as brutally difficult  as most folks believe it to be.

Oh there appear to be a lot of bulldogs on the schedule — notice I use ‘appear’ — make no mistake about it. But there appear — that word again — to be some softies as well, like Cleveland, Cincy, Tampa and Carolina. And I like how the games are positioned for the Giants, usually as important a factor as the overall strength in schedule.

For example, three of the first five games are at home. The Wednesday-night opener is against Dallas, not all that different from the Cowboys team that the Giants beat twice in the final four weeks last season and have swept in two of the past three seasons. The Giants will be favored. They will be fresh off winning the Super Bowl. They will be in prime time. They should win.

Then it’s Tampa Bay, Carolina, Philly and Cleveland. I like the Giants’ chances of winning three or four of those first five games.

Things get considerably more difficult with at San Fran and Pittsburgh among the next five. But there also are games against Washington (You think the Giants might be especially amped to beat a team that knocked off Big Blue twice last season?), Dallas again and Cincy.

The Giants follow with a well-placed bye, giving them an extra week to heal and prepare for Green Bay at MetLife Stadium.

Then we are looking at a final-five of Washington, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore and Philly. New Orleans — something of a wild-card without its head coach — and Philly are home games. The Giants have won their last seven games in Atlanta. The Giants are 5-4 in the regular season at Lincoln Financial Field.

So while it’s a difficult schedule for the Giants, I don’t think it’s quite as scary as many others, and certainly not a bad breakdown for the defending champions. Anyway, we’ve learned that the Giants need only a ticket to the postseason tournament to have a shot at holding the Lombardi Trophy.

 
Giants 2012 schedule

9/5 (Wed)     DALLAS                      8:30 pm       NBC

9/16               TAMPA BAY               1:00 pm       FOX

9/20 (Thurs)  at Carolina                 8:20 pm       NFLN

9/30               at Philadelphia          8:20 pm       NBC

10/7               CLEVELAND               1:00 pm       CBS

10/14             at San Francisco       4:15 pm       FOX

10/21             WASHINGTON           1:00 pm       FOX

10/28             at Dallas                     4:15 pm       FOX

11/4               PITTSBURGH              4:15 pm       CBS

11/11             at Cincinnati              1:00 pm       FOX

11/18             BYE

11/25             GREEN BAY                8:20 pm*     NBC

12/3 (Mon)   at Washington          8:30 pm       ESPN

12/9               NEW ORLEANS          4:15 pm*     FOX

12/16             at Atlanta                   1:00 pm*     FOX

12/23             at Baltimore              1:00 pm*     FOX

12/30             PHILADELPHIA          1:00 pm*     FOX

*Time subject to change

NEW YORK — It doesn’t really feel like opening day at Yankee Stadium, at least to me. The season is in its second week, six games old for most teams,  16 days removed from Mariners-A’s opening in Japan.

But there is no such thing as a typical Yanks home opener, the Stadium emitting a special warmth that, on this day, represents both goodbyes and hellos.

It was hard to say if the ovation given Mariano Rivera were any more vocal than usual. But you can bet most of the 50,000 folks in attendance were conscious of it probably being Rivera’s final opening day. So they stood and cheered upon his introduction, knowing that April quickly turns into September and, if they are lucky, October.

We can only imagine the Yanks without Rivera. It will be one more goodbye following Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada out the door. And yes, while Pettitte is back after a one-year retirement, he was nowhere near Yankee Stadium on Friday, instead honing his craft in Florida for his expected return to the rotation next month.

Posada, however, was right where he belonged, if not in catching gear than headed for the mound at 1:06 p.m. for first pitch. Rivera was going to catch the pitch, an appropriate reverse battery for all those games he closed with Posada behind the dish. But then another batterymate became available, his name Jorge Posada Sr., and the best opening day in baseball had a perfect beginning.

“I was warming up in the cage,” Posada said, “and my dad said, ‘You are throwing it too hard; throw it softer so I can catch it.’ ” Yeah, Jorge Posada added, “it was like old times playing catch with him again.”

The Yanks took the field and Posada jogged to the mound amid a standing ovation, his belly churning as if he were about to bend into his crouch. But his teammates didn’t jog to their positions. They jogged to the back of the mound and formed a line to greet Posada.

“I was really nervous to be up there, with all the eyes on you,” he said in the interview room outside the Yanks dugout. Posada looked terrific, well-tanned and rested. He looked, more than anything, like he was retired.

“It wasn’t difficult to come back so soon,” he said. “I’m enjoying home and enjoying retirement.” Just when it seemed like Posada was all the way into retirement, he then said, “It was difficult to come back — period — just to be here.”

Posada left the interview stage and went about joining 50,000 fans in cheering the Yankees. It was the bottom half of the first and Derek Jeter was about to lead off Yankee Stadium 2012, Posada’s Core Four buddy. Assuming he has at least another two seasons in him, Jeter probably will be the final departure of the four. But as the old saying goes, you don’t always decide when to retire; the game usually decides for you.

Posada got to decide on his own terms. He had legitimate offers from other teams. But he wanted to go from start to finish as a Yankee, maybe needed to. Pettitte is back for another run realizing that none of retirement’s perks include being cheered by 50,000 fans. Rivera likely will be gone following the season.

So we have another opening day at Yankee Stadium, each one special in its own way. This one was about goodbyes and hellos, and in Jorge Posada’s case, both.

 kgleason@th-record.com; Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

My friends at Bovada. (www.Bovada.lv) have placed odds on which Major League Baseball manager will get fired first,, and to the surprise of nobody, San Diego’s Bud Black is the odds-on favorite at 3-1.

Houston’s Brad Mills is second at 5-1 and Cincinnati’s Dusty Baker third at 11-2.

The rest:

Baltimore’s Buck Showalter (6-1)

Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire (6-1)

Colorado’s Jim Tracy (9-1)

Philly’s Charlie Manuel (10-1)

the Yankees’ Joe Girardi (10-1)

San Francisco’s Bruce Bochy (10-1)

the Angels’ Mike Scioscia (12-1)

Only one slightly surprising omission: No Bobby Valentine?

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First a word about Mega Millions.
Why is that people go hog wild when lottery jackpots reach exorbitant totals? People cross state lines, wait in grocery lines, buy $20 worth of tickets when the odds are essentially the same if you spend $2 – all because the jackpot has reached, well, mega millions of dollars.
But why isn’t, say, $10 million – or whatever the jackpot starts out at – enough to make the same people play who swarm the stores when it goes over a few hundred million? I mean, anyone with a working brain should be able to make $10 million last for a while, at least until you die, which is a pretty much all the time frame you need, no?
OK, so maybe $10 million isn’t quite enough to get people excited. Then why isn’t, say, $30 million or $40 million enough to get the fringe and non-lotto players to buy a couple tickets? Why does everybody go crazy over a $640 million jackpot? Are we that illogically greedy that we won’t play the lottery until it reaches nine digits?
I can see the thinking now: I’m not playing the lottery until it’s at least $100 mil. What am I gonna do with $50 million bucks? Can’t even get the kids through college with that.
Now onto something that makes a little more sense to me: odds, compliments of bovada.lv/, on each MLB team winning the World Series. And yes, wiseguys, the Mets do have a better chance at winning the World Series (80-1) than you of hitting Mega Millions tonight (176 million-1).
Enjoy!

Philadelphia Phillies 11/2
Los Angeles Angels 7/1
New York Yankees 7/1
Detroit Tigers 15/2
Boston Red Sox 10/1
Texas Rangers 10/1
San Francisco Giants 14/1
Tampa Bay Rays 18/1
Cincinnati Reds 20/1
Atlanta Braves 22/1
Miami Marlins 22/1
Milwaukee Brewers 25/1
St. Louis Cardinals 25/1
Arizona Diamondbacks 28/1
Washington Nationals 30/1
Colorado Rockies 35/1
Toronto Blue Jays 35/1
Chicago Cubs 40/1
Los Angeles Dodgers 40/1
Cleveland Indians 60/1
Chicago White Sox 65/1
Minnesota Twins 75/1
Kansas City Royals 80/1
New York Mets 80/1
Oakland Athletics 80/1
Pittsburgh Pirates 100/1
San Diego Padres 100/1
Seattle Mariners 100/1
Baltimore Orioles 150/1
Houston Astros 200/1

You wonder why people feel so beaten down, so frustrated, with trying to carve a decent life in the United States of America. Notice I didn’t say a decent living, because that draws a whole other set of complications and frustrations and emotions.

I’m talking about just trying to have a good life, free of scammers and spammers and criminals and bigots and (company) downsizing and (school cafeteria) super-sizing, free of inflation and deflation, free of regressions and recessions.

I’m talking about paying $75 to fill up your gas tank.

I’m talking about going years without a raise, or ones that are barely noticeable.

I’m talking about seeing a $50 charge on your cell phone bill for a plan you never ordered.

I’m talking about driving along with the kids in the back seat and some moron strapped to your bumper at 60 mph.

I’m talking about opening the door for someone and not so much as getting a thank you in response.

I’m talking about youth-league parents saluting volunteer coaches by complaining to fellow parents on the sideline about their son being in the wrong position.

I’m talking about kids learning how to play the blame-game early because their parents are the ones in the stands blaming officials for their team’s poor performance, the ones blaming teachers and administrators for their kid’s lousy results in the classroom, the ones blaming the coach for their kid not making the team, the ones blaming the system for not having a decent job.

But more specifically, I’m talking about a kid getting diagnosed with cancer. I could be you. It could be your best friend. It could be your kid. It could be my kid.

I can only imagine the devastation that such a diagnosis would bring, can only imagine the heartbreak and anger and fear the news would carry for the child, for the family, for all those who love that child. But speaking as a parent, once you come to grips with the heartbreak and anger and fear, you are left with another terrifying thought:

How am I going to pay for this?

I was talking to the mom of a Middletown High School senior diagnosed with Leukemia in September. Her name is Tisa MacCalla and she is a wonderful kid: a three-sport standout, an A-student, a captain in every sport, a role model in both the school and the community. She is doing remarkably well in her recovery, her perpetually positive attitude clearing paving the way.

She entered Westchester Medical Center today to start a two-week treatment program. She will receive 12 shots of cancer-fighting drugs during the two-week period. Each two-shot dosage costs $100,000.

In other words, those 12 shots will run $600,000.

The family can’t imagine what they would do if not for an exceptional health insurance plan that covers most of the costs. As it is, they will wind up incurring about $100,000 in out-of-pocket expenses during their daughter’s scheduled 26-month recovery period, from co-pays to lab work to gas and tolls traveling back and forth to Westchester. Those expenses alone can devastate many families. But the school, fellow schools in the Hudson Valley and communities — the unsung heroes in this story — have raised thousands of dollars to help offset the costs.

But the mom wonders what they would do without insurance, or even without a quality plan.

Would they have to base choices regarding their child’s health care around finances?

What kind of country do we live in that a company is allowed to sell a potentially life-saving product for $100,000 a dosage? Who allows this? I’m familiar with supply and demand. But is there no set of scruples or morals governing medicine that can dictate a child’s future?

My goodness, what is wrong with this country? This isn’t a political argument. I’m about as versed in politics as I am in new-millennium music, which is to say, not much. And this shouldn’t be a political argument. I don’t want to hear about Obama-care or the Bush regime or anything else that turns health care into another tired political debate. Surely we have, and have contributed to, enough of those debates — and nothing ever changes regarding the constant escalation of all prices. Bush, Obama — does it really matter? Health care has been a mess in this country seemingly forever.

But $50,000 for a pill. Come on.

The mom told me she was told that her daughter’s 26-month treatment will run about $10 million.

The family continues to thank god they have insurance good enough to only cost them near $100,000. But more than anything, they are thankful that they haven’t had to make potentially life-and-death decisions based on their income.

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