Advocates of socialized medicine keep saying a "public option" is "simply a little competition for the greedy insurance companies." Excuse me -- what private insurance companies actually exist? The ones I know of are all regulated by the federal government and most state governments. Various health care providers have legislation passed to force insurance companies to provide this or that level of service in all of their plans -- they call it "parity" -- and this drives costs up. Government regulates insurance companies in countless other ways -- and cost is passed on to the customer, with each new law that passes. The only way to stop this from happening is to reverse or eliminate all of the regulations and to let private insurance companies compete in a free and deregulated market. Of course, there is one other option: the "public" option, which amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine -- single-payer government insurance for all. I'm sick of the debate being fought on terms of "keep the private sector" versus "have a public option compete with the private sector." Earth to everyone: THERE IS NO PRIVATE SECTOR. That's why health care and health insurance are such a mess, getting worse all the time. The solution is out there, and it's the exact opposite of everything being proposed. The solution is freedom in medicine, freedom for the first time since modern medicine came on the scene.
The public is split 40-40 on supporting or opposing the health care legislation, the poll found. An even split is welcome news for Democrats, a sharp improvement from September, when 49 percent of Americans said they opposed the congressional proposals and just 34 percent supported them
Frankly, I'm highly suspicious of their numbers.
Among seniors, opposition fell from 59 percent in September to 43 percent now. Almost four in 10, 38 percent, now support it, compared with 31 percent in September.
---"People talked about how good of a commander he's got in the field and [Obama] agreed. People said he ought to put a lot of stock in what that commander says, and he agreed with that. Of course, others pointed out that there's a chain of command above McChrystal that he ought to listen to, and he agreed with that as well," Levin said.
But Levin said that story was overblown and that the president and his field commander are on the same page.
"There's no rift with McChrystal," said Levin, "[Obama] said he picked McChrystal and he wants McChrystal to be direct ... He reiterated that McChrystal is very supportive of the deliberative process and getting the strategy right before focusing on the troop levels or resources."---
Get that friggin Ocare turdette plopped on the floor and on its way to the terlet; there's serious business to conduct.
I highly recommend checking out either one or both of Bill Whittle's works on the prisoner's dilemma, and how it relates to what is going on in politics. The links are below:
There was a really great magazine article (bookmarked, somewhere, GAH! I hope I can find it!) comparing Medicare costs between various communities/hospitals. The result was that two of the medical centers cited - one was the Mayo Clinic, and the other was a hospital in Pennsylvania - were the best both in terms of care AND cost. What they did differently was treat patients with serious illnesses AS A TEAM. This reduced a lot of expensive testing and unnecessary procedures.
I sent it to "my cousin the doctor" and he was thrilled. He knew about both places and said, yes, that's EXACTLY how to reduce costs (in government run programs especially.)
He should know. He's a podiatrist in a VA hospital!
STOCKHOLM – If Nobel judges are looking to improve the balance of women winning the chemistry prize, Israeli scientist Ada Yonath could be a strong candidate when the award is announced Wednesday.
Yonath's pioneering work in understanding how cells build proteins could make her a contender, possibly along with American George Feher. In 2006 the two shared the Wolf Prize in chemistry, which can sometimes serve as a barometer of future Nobel winners.
I was actually called once by the Nobel committee, and told I'd won the Nobel Prize for chemistry!
The actual winner, that year, was someone with the same name as me, and who lived in the same area, so I got the call by mistake.
I was a college student at the time, and had no interest in chemistry, so all I could figure was that someone was playing a joke.
I happened to see a news article a few days later talking about the actual winner, and it even had a brief mention of how "someone else" had been called by mistake.
Three of the scientists working to develop the technology for the atomic bomb, Dr. Robert H. McFarland, Dr. Francis McGowan and Dr. L. Worth Seagondollar, had all been taught undergraduate physics by my paternal grandfather.
She started out in Fashion Industry Management but I encouraged her to switch. I figured she could always work in the fashion industry with a marketing degree, but FMI is too specific, especially since that industry is suffering and probably be for a while.
For the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran’s most infamous human-rights abusers. Discuss COMMENTS (21)
But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer’s disputed presidential election, the group received word that - for the first time since it was formed - its federal funding request had been denied.
“If there is one time that I expected to get funding, this was it,’’ said Rene Redman, the group’s executive director, who had asked for $2.7 million in funding for the next two years. “I was sur prised, because the world was watching human rights violations right there on television.’’
from a profile of Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health:
Dr. Collins, 59, is settling in after nearly two months on the job but still contends with controversies that follow him like the exhaust from his hog.
First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.
It seems unlikely that scientists think religious commitment is literally a symptom of dementia. What the Times is really saying is that "many scientists"--how many is not specified--are prejudiced against religious people. It's one of the few prejudices the Times would discuss so glibly.
Hmmmm -- I know of a few people who, in their love of science would view religious beliefs as a "sign of dementia."
Gretchen Whitted is recovering in fair condition at Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she’s undergoing precautionary treatment for rabies after the family of raccoons bit and clawed her to the ground, then continued attacking.
Sheriff Grady Judd has ordered the county’s animal control officers to maintain 24-hour surveillance on the area including hourly checks of 16 traps in place throughout the neighborhood. Officers are hopeful sardines and wet cat food will attract some of the raccoons involved in attack.
Wildlife experts say raccoons are much more aggressive than most people think. “They have claws like a bear, they have teeth like a bear and they bark like a dog,” says Jason Levinson, of Animals Beware, a nuisance wildlife removal company.
Levinson says he gets four to five calls every day from people complaining about raccoons around or even inside their homes.
“They’re basically little bears on crack,” he said of their aggressiveness, especially when hungry.
Perhaps the only group more incoherent than the cinematic community in its reaction has been Polish officials. Mr. Polanski, who was born and raised in Poland, has received much support from his countrymen. In an irony evidently lost on Polish bureaucrats, government ministers of the Civic Platform Party began protesting Mr. Polanski's arrest on Saturday, one day after their government successfully passed a law making chemical castration mandatory for pedophiles in cases involving victims under 15.
It is a chilly, rainy morning her in CT, but I have my coffee and my health (in order of importance) so everything is fine. Hope today finds you all well.
LOL -- no, I decided to go with a non-profession-embedded nic this time, but I did use one that would let you all know it was me... ;)
boldandbeautiful -- gracias. Not usually up this early, but I got a call at 7:15 (while asleep) saying the TV I ordered last Monday (9 days ago), which is all of three hours from here by car, will be here Friday afternoon or evening. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper...
J.D. -- very sorry to hear about your sister. Prayers on the way up...
Help yourselves!
HAPPY...what day is it? Oh. Wednesday...HUMP DAY, Y'ALL!
ReplyDeleteHump Day Fruitcup - delicious and a nice ring to it!
ReplyDelete...it's tasty, yet lonely in here.
ReplyDeleteHello?!?
Woah, fruitcup. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePi Guy! :-)
ReplyDeleteSteel yourself...I'm gonna go check the news.
/shudder! :-/
Welcome back, Jack! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat Private Sector?
ReplyDeleteAdvocates of socialized medicine keep saying a "public option" is "simply a little competition for the greedy insurance companies." Excuse me -- what private insurance companies actually exist? The ones I know of are all regulated by the federal government and most state governments. Various health care providers have legislation passed to force insurance companies to provide this or that level of service in all of their plans -- they call it "parity" -- and this drives costs up. Government regulates insurance companies in countless other ways -- and cost is passed on to the customer, with each new law that passes. The only way to stop this from happening is to reverse or eliminate all of the regulations and to let private insurance companies compete in a free and deregulated market. Of course, there is one other option: the "public" option, which amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine -- single-payer government insurance for all. I'm sick of the debate being fought on terms of "keep the private sector" versus "have a public option compete with the private sector." Earth to everyone: THERE IS NO PRIVATE SECTOR. That's why health care and health insurance are such a mess, getting worse all the time. The solution is out there, and it's the exact opposite of everything being proposed. The solution is freedom in medicine, freedom for the first time since modern medicine came on the scene.
Ruh roh.
ReplyDeleteAP Poll: Health care overhaul has a pulse
The public is split 40-40 on supporting or opposing the health care legislation, the poll found. An even split is welcome news for Democrats, a sharp improvement from September, when 49 percent of Americans said they opposed the congressional proposals and just 34 percent supported them
Frankly, I'm highly suspicious of their numbers.
Among seniors, opposition fell from 59 percent in September to 43 percent now. Almost four in 10, 38 percent, now support it, compared with 31 percent in September.
Morning...and err Happy Humpin to everyone today! Lol :), Pi, Jack...everyone.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Teacup-Tempest front: Obama backed McChrystal in Afghanistan meeting
---"People talked about how good of a commander he's got in the field and [Obama] agreed. People said he ought to put a lot of stock in what that commander says, and he agreed with that. Of course, others pointed out that there's a chain of command above McChrystal that he ought to listen to, and he agreed with that as well," Levin said.
But Levin said that story was overblown and that the president and his field commander are on the same page.
"There's no rift with McChrystal," said Levin, "[Obama] said he picked McChrystal and he wants McChrystal to be direct ... He reiterated that McChrystal is very supportive of the deliberative process and getting the strategy right before focusing on the troop levels or resources."---
Get that friggin Ocare turdette plopped on the floor and on its way to the terlet; there's serious business to conduct.
I highly recommend checking out either one or both of Bill Whittle's works on the prisoner's dilemma, and how it relates to what is going on in politics. The links are below:
ReplyDeleteGame Theory and a Losing Strategy: Obama's Bad Judgment With The Prisoner's Dilemma
YOU ARE NOT ALONE (Part 1) (archive copy)
G'mornin', enuff!
ReplyDeleteThere was a really great magazine article (bookmarked, somewhere, GAH! I hope I can find it!) comparing Medicare costs between various communities/hospitals. The result was that two of the medical centers cited - one was the Mayo Clinic, and the other was a hospital in Pennsylvania - were the best both in terms of care AND cost. What they did differently was treat patients with serious illnesses AS A TEAM. This reduced a lot of expensive testing and unnecessary procedures.
ReplyDeleteI sent it to "my cousin the doctor" and he was thrilled. He knew about both places and said, yes, that's EXACTLY how to reduce costs (in government run programs especially.)
He should know. He's a podiatrist in a VA hospital!
enuff! :-)
ReplyDeleteWanna see heads explode? ;-)
ReplyDeleteIsraeli woman potential Nobel chemistry winner
STOCKHOLM – If Nobel judges are looking to improve the balance of women winning the chemistry prize, Israeli scientist Ada Yonath could be a strong candidate when the award is announced Wednesday.
Yonath's pioneering work in understanding how cells build proteins could make her a contender, possibly along with American George Feher. In 2006 the two shared the Wolf Prize in chemistry, which can sometimes serve as a barometer of future Nobel winners.
Senate Bill passes 93-7, it bans any transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay...
ReplyDeleteYet another campaign promise down the drain.
Suddenly the meme is The Great Zero and General McChrystal are actually "on the same page."
Never mind that NYSlimes article and all those flag rankers bellyaching about "chain of command"...
What page of the plan are they on and when will the troops hear about it?
Because is this is both heartwarming and heartbreaking...
http://tankerbabelc985.vox.com/library/post/survivors-in-afghanistan-need-immediate-help---56-surviving-soldiers-lost-everything.html
So much for that logistic system. So much for that COIN plan.
How many more outposts will be overrun before they stop repeating the same mistake?
PUNISHMENT
RAIDS,
R
I gotta get off healthcare or MY head will explode... :-(
ReplyDeleteThis is fun.
Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn
I was actually called once by the Nobel committee, and told I'd won the Nobel Prize for chemistry!
ReplyDeleteThe actual winner, that year, was someone with the same name as me, and who lived in the same area, so I got the call by mistake.
I was a college student at the time, and had no interest in chemistry, so all I could figure was that someone was playing a joke.
I happened to see a news article a few days later talking about the actual winner, and it even had a brief mention of how "someone else" had been called by mistake.
RENDER! :-)
ReplyDeleteThose guys are dying over there...more everyday...while our so called "Commander in Chief" dithers.
Will he have his own personal Cindy Sheehan dogging him the rest of his term? I HOPE SO!
Pi Guy! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're famous!
/as a footnote in an article... ;-)
Give it time, though. :-)
Prisoner's Dilemma video is really, really good
ReplyDeleteEver hear of the Manhattan Project?
ReplyDeleteThree of the scientists working to develop the technology for the atomic bomb, Dr. Robert H. McFarland, Dr. Francis McGowan and Dr. L. Worth Seagondollar, had all been taught undergraduate physics by my paternal grandfather.
Jack said...
ReplyDeletePrisoner's Dilemma video is really, really good
I thought so, too. If you take a look at the article, you'll see that much of it, word for word, comes out of his earlier article.
The article is good, too, because he has a chance to go more in-depth with it.
Pi Guy,
ReplyDeleteI know that someday I'll get to say, "I KNEW HIM WHEN!" about you. :-)
...and that's also the day I file adoption papers so I can be one of your dependents.
ReplyDelete/fair warning! ;-)
So...
ReplyDeleteEnglish muffin with rasberry preserves or English muffin with honey?
BOTH,
R
littleoldlady said...
ReplyDelete...and that's also the day I file adoption papers so I can be one of your dependents.
/fair warning! ;-)
Just send the papers over, and I'll sign.
:)
It's 3 AM here, so it's time to say, good night all!
ReplyDelete'Night, Pi WhataGuy! :-)
ReplyDeleteRaspberry preserves, please. And THANKS, Render! :-)
ReplyDeleteThere's a front page story about Brad Linge (Phillies' relief pitcher) at the NYTimes that I cannot bear to READ much less link. :-(
ReplyDeletePrepare to fight China, Qaeda figure tells Uighurs
ReplyDeleteYou all get nice and comfy. I'll make the popcorn!
Morning all, I think it's morning at least. Fruitcup has been served and my alarm clock woke me up. So what's up?
ReplyDeleteJust when so many members are talking about compromising on the "public option", Time Magazine steps up to the plate...Is Congress Giving States Too Much Power on Health-Care Reform?
ReplyDeleteWhy is no one asking the question, "Are the states giving CONGRESS too much power?"
I know. I said I wouldn't. Please pass the Advil® :-(
'Morning, Phil! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing about Wednesdays...they're so USUAL. ;-)
Well mine isn't so far. Got dragged out bowling last night. Then for drinks afterward. Shouldn't have stayed till last call. :p
ReplyDeleteYou youngsters! ;-)
ReplyDelete/I remember those days
//I THINK!
LOL, I ain't that young littleoldlady. I will be paying for it today. I am just waiting for the hangover to kick in. Hasn't yet and that bothers me...
ReplyDeleteAmericans will have to save more: Geithner
ReplyDeleteIt's probably safe to say we've officially entered the Twilight Zone and won't be capable of exiting anytime soon.
...Passes Phil the Advil®
ReplyDeleteI'll share! :-)
enuff,
ReplyDeleteI've come to the conclusion that we need to start all over again...with the kids.
But I'm too old and too tired to even THINK of what needs to be done. :-(
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteFruitcup! Thanks.
Busy day today. I will attending a college job fair. The good news, my company still has jobs. The bad news--we will be swmped with applicants.
Violet Tiger! :-)
ReplyDeleteGood morning! What sort of jobs are you offering?
Engineers, lol. But I am not allowed to say the company online.
ReplyDeleteNo, of course not. I didn't ask :-) Just wanted to know which industry type is hiring.
ReplyDelete/my daughter is a junior in college
What is she studying lol? My daughter is in pre-med.
ReplyDeleteMarketing, getting a business degree which I HOPE is general enough to give her lots of options when it comes to looking for a job.
ReplyDeleteIf she even needs interview tips, just ask. Recruiting has been one of my many assignments for about 15 years.
ReplyDeleteShe started out in Fashion Industry Management but I encouraged her to switch. I figured she could always work in the fashion industry with a marketing degree, but FMI is too specific, especially since that industry is suffering and probably be for a while.
ReplyDeleteWhy THANK YOU! We just may take you up on that kind offer! :-)
ReplyDelete*gurgle*
ReplyDeletecoffee ...
'Morning, Lucius! :-)
ReplyDeleteOn the buffet →
Still working on the IV Delivery System so you'll have to have it in a cup. Sorry!
zzzzzzz*** What? Oh crap time to run! See you folks in a little while I guess.
ReplyDeleteWell, already have to run.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day all!
Obama finally finds a place to trim the budget!
ReplyDeleteFor the past five years, researchers in a modest office overlooking the New Haven green have carefully documented cases of assassination and torture of democracy activists in Iran. With more than $3 million in grants from the US State Department, they have pored over thousands of documents and Persian-language press reports and interviewed scores of witnesses and survivors to build dossiers on those they say are Iran’s most infamous human-rights abusers.
Discuss
COMMENTS (21)
But just as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center was ramping up to investigate abuses of protesters after this summer’s disputed presidential election, the group received word that - for the first time since it was formed - its federal funding request had been denied.
“If there is one time that I expected to get funding, this was it,’’ said Rene Redman, the group’s executive director, who had asked for $2.7 million in funding for the next two years. “I was sur prised, because the world was watching human rights violations right there on television.’’
U.S. president to postpone visit to Indonesia
ReplyDelete---United States President Barrack Obama will postpone his planned visit to Indonesia in November this year to some time next year...[.]
"The visit has to be special and productive as President Obama has spent part of his childhood here," Dino said.---
{censored}
Everyone's RUNNING! Slow down, for goodness sakes!
ReplyDeleteBye, Phil! :-)
Bye, Violet Tiger! :-)
With more than $3 million in grants
ReplyDeleteYou would take this money away from Turtle Tunnels?!
/the idea!
Taranto dug up this little gem in the NYSlimes
ReplyDeletefrom a profile of Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health:
Dr. Collins, 59, is settling in after nearly two months on the job but still contends with controversies that follow him like the exhaust from his hog.
First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.
It seems unlikely that scientists think religious commitment is literally a symptom of dementia. What the Times is really saying is that "many scientists"--how many is not specified--are prejudiced against religious people. It's one of the few prejudices the Times would discuss so glibly.
Hmmmm -- I know of a few people who, in their love of science would view religious beliefs as a "sign of dementia."
Save the Planet! Don't wipe your butt!
ReplyDeleteThe circle of poverty, drugs, and violence only continues
ReplyDeleteThe search continues in Polk County for five raccoons that viciously attacked a woman near the front door of her Lakeland home Saturday.
Advertisement
Gretchen Whitted is recovering in fair condition at Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she’s undergoing precautionary treatment for rabies after the family of raccoons bit and clawed her to the ground, then continued attacking.
Sheriff Grady Judd has ordered the county’s animal control officers to maintain 24-hour surveillance on the area including hourly checks of 16 traps in place throughout the neighborhood. Officers are hopeful sardines and wet cat food will attract some of the raccoons involved in attack.
Wildlife experts say raccoons are much more aggressive than most people think.
“They have claws like a bear, they have teeth like a bear and they bark like a dog,” says Jason Levinson, of Animals Beware, a nuisance wildlife removal company.
Levinson says he gets four to five calls every day from people complaining about raccoons around or even inside their homes.
“They’re basically little bears on crack,” he said of their aggressiveness, especially when hungry.
Where Jews are concerned reality is surreal.
ReplyDeleteThis Time, the Jewish Ghetto Has Nuclear Weapons...But For How Long?
RTWT. Freakin' scary. :-(
The WSJ weighs in on the hypocrisy of the media in the Roman Polanski story
ReplyDeleteThis part at the end was interesting:
Perhaps the only group more incoherent than the cinematic community in its reaction has been Polish officials. Mr. Polanski, who was born and raised in Poland, has received much support from his countrymen. In an irony evidently lost on Polish bureaucrats, government ministers of the Civic Platform Party began protesting Mr. Polanski's arrest on Saturday, one day after their government successfully passed a law making chemical castration mandatory for pedophiles in cases involving victims under 15.
Now there's a thought.
Good Morning CCers!
ReplyDeleteIt is a chilly, rainy morning her in CT, but I have my coffee and my health (in order of importance) so everything is fine. Hope today finds you all well.
Good morning, folks...
ReplyDeleteHelloooo! Anybody home?
ReplyDeleteMorning C.
ReplyDeleteboldandbald! :-)
ReplyDeleteCtheP! HI! :-)
/I don't get to post "chris(t)" anymore? ;-)
'Morning, everybody!
ReplyDeleteJust dropping off the VB order and I'm outta here, since it's one of my day job days and I'm running late.
Have a great day, and I hope to catch up with you later!
Hi, little"old"lady!
ReplyDeleteGood to see you! ! !
I can't stay... going up for my sister's funeral, which will be Friday.
How are you?
LOL -- no, I decided to go with a non-profession-embedded nic this time, but I did use one that would let you all know it was me... ;)
ReplyDeleteboldandbeautiful -- gracias. Not usually up this early, but I got a call at 7:15 (while asleep) saying the TV I ordered last Monday (9 days ago), which is all of three hours from here by car, will be here Friday afternoon or evening. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper...
J.D. -- very sorry to hear about your sister. Prayers on the way up...
Doh! That should be "boldandbald" not "boldandbeautiful"!
ReplyDeleteThanks CtheP.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you, too!
yes, bald is beautiful! Thanks, C.
ReplyDeleteJ.D., I am so sorry. I will keep you in my prayers.
Thanks you, boldandbald.
ReplyDeleteWill someone tell realwest I said "Hi"?
I haven't been able to check in --- bad shoulder, etc., but I haven't forgotten you guys!
Gotta run and pack to catch a plane.
ReplyDeleteCatch you when I return.
Everyone take good care!
BaB - funny how the mind plays tricks on you when reading. After I posted, I thought "I bet that said bAldandbeautiful not bOldandbeautiful."
ReplyDeleteAnd still had it completely wrong...
Good thing my students never make mistakes like that!
And here I thought you were flirting with me. I was getting a little nervous.
ReplyDelete/
Morning Chris.
ReplyDeleteGotta run off to class before too long and see how little they've done for today.
Sorry...I was on the phone...
ReplyDeleteOh, {[{J.D.}]} I am SO sorry for your loss!
Later Lucius.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning lol, I mean littleoldlady. (I wasn't laughing at you)
;)
boldandbald,
ReplyDeleteGo ahead! Everyone else does! ;-)
New thread.
ReplyDelete/everyone out of the pool
Lucius -- good morning. Have fun in class!
ReplyDelete