It is so good to be around

I can't tell you how good it is to have your arms around me again.

I mean, of course, having both hands on the newspaper and reading my column again. (If you're reading this column via the miracle of the Internet, then please adjust the sentiment to fit your reading device.)

The point is I've been AWOL from column writing most of this summer because of prostate surgery in early June and heart bypass surgery in late July. It was a hard summer. Sometimes I wondered if I were ever going to get my head above water again.

But thanks to some good doctors, nurses and a couple of good hospitals, not to mention the well wishes from family, co-workers, friends, readers and -- dare I fail to mention -- a loving "significant only," I'm on the mend and, best I can tell, good to go for a while longer.

If you're interested in the details, please continue reading. If you're not, skip to the end, where you'll find a couple of the pithy observations you've been missing for so long.

Late spring brought a diagnosis of prostate cancer, and by early June I was at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., having the misbehavin' little thing removed. Then, about six weeks after the surgery, I went into the office of Dr. Thomas Lambert, my longtime and most excellent Las Vegas cardiologist, for a routine post-operation checkup. I flunked an EKG in spectacular fashion, so he scheduled me for an angiogram first thing the next morning.

Flunked that test, too, and soon I heard the word heart patients dread" "bypass."

He introduced me to thoracic surgeon Dr. J. Randy Feikes, a second-generation Las Vegas "chest cracker" who 72 hours later did just that to me at MountainView Hospital. He bypassed two arteries, closed me up and sent me to the care of nurses. They took phenomenal care of me and six days later sent me home, where I got better each day. Now I'm pretty much good as new.

Now, I don't want to kid you. Recovery from both surgeries was pretty gritty at times. And, believe me, I don't recommend going through either, much less both back-to-back. But once you climb past a certain point in the recovery, you begin to dwell less on the misery two major surgeries can impose upon your mortal shell and more on the renewed opportunities the miracles of modern medicine can provide.

In other words, I feel damn lucky. I'm cancer free (knock on wood) after the prostate surgery, and Dr. Feikes' plumbing work appears to have fixed the clogs (knock on wood again).

As always, I give my general physician, Dr. Eun-mi Park, a lot of credit for her attentiveness and getting me into the care of specialists in time for good outcomes. She has saved my life more than once. When I saw her last week for a checkup, I asked her what the hell else could happen to me. She peered over her glasses and asked: "Do you think you will live forever?"

"Well, yes," the Episcopal priest part of me thought. But as an ink-stained wretch who as a young reporter covered more crime scenes than I care to remember, I understood her point. "Well, no, doc," I replied.

"OK, then. You're doing fine. Come back in three months for a checkup."

Which I will do. But not before contemplating the miracles of two good hospitals, some extremely competent doctors who have chosen to work in Las Vegas and at Mayo, and a bunch of angels in the form of nurses.

Thank you.

But enough about me. Let's get back into the groove with a few thoughts facing us as Nevadans.

Casino oversight

Going forward, what kind of changes do we need to make in regulation to mitigate future downturns in our most important and privileged industry?

As old-timers will recall, we threw overboard the old "Howard Hughes Rule," which limited ownership of casinos to a certain number or percentage of the market. That decision allowed massive consolidation of previously competitive casinos. Much of that consolidation was approved as gaming companies went private-to-public or public-to-private and then took on massive amounts of debt, which now threatens their sustainability.

Weak balance sheets are never good for the visitor experience -- unless, of course, we're willing to go the way of lesser tourist towns.

Seems to me we need to think about this as a state. The restructuring of gaming, I'm afraid, isn't over. And as that happens, we need to make sure our casinos go from financial strength to strength, and not debt to debt.

I don't have all the answers, but I know we have some pretty smart people in the state who do. Maybe our new governor can make this a priority.

Harry's big problem

Sharron Angle besting traditional GOP candidates, it seems to me, jibes perfectly with the mood of the country (Hello, Alaska). This is the year of the principled outside conservative, coupled with the potential of a historic mid-term rout of the incumbent national party. Objective political observers think both the House and the Senate could switch from Democrat control to Republican control in numbers not seen since the 1940s.

Yet, media pundits (who are 90 percent liberal, by the way) sing a never-ending chorus about how Angle's conservative views defy this national trend and are not a plus, but a liability.

What? Sounds more like whistling in the dark than real analysis to me.

Unlike all Democrats in hot races in other states, Angle's opponent, Sen. Harry Reid, can't distance himself from his role as majority leader and chief advocate of the Obama agenda, which includes an oversold and poorly conceived health care "reform" bill and stunning, massive deficit spending. He was directly responsible for the ugly back-room deals that pushed the Obama agenda over the top.

And, perhaps most hurtful, Reid's fix for the economy -- spending the grandkids' money -- has simply not worked in any demonstrable way in Nevada. As much as Sen. Reid tries to divert attention from these realities to make this election about Angle, the stars seem aligned against the unpopular Democrat.

I'm not saying Harry can't defy the trend. According to the latest Review-Journal poll, his opponent is a 2-point dog with some 50 days to go.

But 6 percent of the voters are undecided. Will they break against the national trend or run with the herd?

I'd say the latter -- and that'll end the career of Harry Reid.

ObamaCare betrayal

It's hard to fathom when you look back on it, but Democrats passed health care reform without actually reading it. Even today, they can't fully explain the consequences of their legislation.

As a recent patron of major medical procedures, I wonder what our care will be like once the plan is implemented.

For example, without suffering a catastrophic event such as a heart attack, I went from being a walk-in patient to having open heart surgery in five days.

Could that happen after ObamaCare takes full effect? Thanks to competition in health care, I had many options, locally and regionally, for quick access to great doctors and highly specialized medical equipment. Will future patients have the same options? Or will people have to fill out endless forms and line up as the specialized equipment becomes scarcer under government oversight?

One thing is for sure: The president sold health care "reform" to us by telling us that we all should -- and would -- get the same fabulous health care that he and members of Congress get.

Brothers and sisters, that didn't happen.

Just an idea

If the church pastor in Florida who threatened to burn copies of the Quran instead urged parishioners to download a copy of the book and then, on the count of three, delete them, would he still have caused an international firestorm?

Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@ reviewjournal.com) is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media.