An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 30 September 2007
Answer for Grumps
I’m sorry. What was Fred’s plan again? I don’t believe I heard it.
Americans have the best healthcare in the world. Some, however, choose not be insured; others cannot afford it. Every American should be able to get health insurance coverage that is affordable, fully accessible, and portable. Coverage should meet their individual needs and put them in control. Those who propose a one-size-fits-all Washington-controlled program ignore the cost, inefficiency, and inadequate care that such a system offers. Access to affordable, portable health care can be made available for all Americans without imposing new mandates or raising taxes. Current government programs must also be streamlined and improved so that those who truly need help can get the health care they need. I am committed to a healthcare system that:
- Realigns programs and creates a system around individual consumers and patients by providing more information and more opportunities to choose affordable health care options that best meet their needs and those of their families.
- Improves the individual health of all Americans by shifting to a system that promotes cost-effective prevention, chronic-care management, and personal responsibility
- Modernizes delivery and administration of care by encouraging the widespread use of clinical best practices, medical information technology, and other innovations.
- Increases competition and consumer choice while streamlining regulations through free-market solutions that benefit individuals and reduce costs for employers.
- Promotes and speeds medical research and life-sciences innovation.
Grumps, ya really gotta dig a little deeper. 
An Unholy Cow
I’m adding another blog to the roll over there:
The Truth About Margaret Sanger
Thanks to Calvin.
Healthcare or Control?
Government should not run the system
By ROBIN SMITH
Health is a state we should all individually pursue and work to maintain.
Poor health befalls most of us over time requiring the utilization of medical services and interventions. Currently, there is a debate as to whether the government is the entity best equipped to meet individual health and medical needs.
In Tennessee, a well-intended program, TennCare, replaced the Medicaid program, meant to aid those who are disabled and financially unable to meet their health needs. TennCare lacked a residency requirement for almost a decade with rampant fraud with inclusion of those who would not have met the criteria for the Medicaid program. The bulging rolls consumed money taken from our children’s education, state highway funds and other programs in our state. TennCare patients were limited to only a few providers and hospitals.
Look at TennCare experience
Recently, “TennCare reforms” dumped some of the sickest individuals onto a frail safety net with the creation of a new state program to attempt to fill the gaps. This quick reminder of health care at the hands of the government serves as a rendering of the behemoth bureaucracy through which sick individuals will have to navigate to receive medical services.
Reports last week of hospitals in England turning sheets over rather than replacing with fresh laundry portray budget crises in a socialized medicine system. A Canadian doctor, interviewed last week, touted that his patients could get a CT scan in a day … he’s a veterinarian. Human patients typically wait 30 days to receive the same scan to assist in diagnostics and treatment.
Dr. David Gratzer, physician and Manhattan Institute fellow, published data in July 2007 reflecting outcomes comparisons of health treatments. Five-year cancer survival rates for leukemia are almost 50 percent in America, just 35 percent in Europe. Prostate cancer survival rates in America are 81.2 percent and 44.3 percent in England. Standardized treatments for diseases and illnesses such as these show outcomes favoring American medicine.
Proponents of universal health care speak of the longevity of Europeans at almost 77 years of life compared to 75 years of life in America. Unfortunately, lifestyle and dietary choices of Americans inflict more harm to individual health than most influences.
The solution to our health-care woes begins in our homes in making good selections of consumption, with turning the TV off and getting outside for a walk. The government needs to provide taxpayers a refundable tax credit to purchase an individual policy to meet their health needs and choices. For those who don’t pay income taxes due to income level are those who will qualify justly for the state and federal health programs that exist.
Americans select a cell phone and choose a plan to meet their individual needs. Why should the important decisions of choosing a health-care provider for you and your family along with the hospital where you want to be treated be made by the folks in Washington who are reporting that Social Security and Medicare is about to run out of money?!
Excellent question! (extra emphasis mine)
Morning Coffee 9/30/07
Mom says school censored daughter’s Jena Six T-shirt
Super’s daughter was prohibited from wearing the T-shirt inside Smyrna High, along with some other students.
“When I persisted to ask why, the quote was that ‘It could cause problems,’ ” Super said. “It’s a political statement. I feel strongly about free speech. I feel like (my daughter’s) rights were infringed upon.”
While I don’t believe in censorship, I don’t think the halls of public institutions of “education” are exactly the best place to express your opinion on a t-shirt. Although, given the indoctrination of said public institutions, I’m actually surprised the shirt was a problem.
Rice says talks between Olmert, Abbas ‘gaining momentum’
At some point, Rice said, Hamas will have to make a choice; “is it prepared to be outside that consensus or not; is it prepared to be outside the Arab consensus or not?”
Meanwhile, Abbas told the Washington Post, in an interview published Sunday, that an offer similar to the 92 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a Palestinian state extended at Camp David in 2000 would not be enough.
He insisted on the pre-1967 borders, speaking ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled meeting with Olmert in his Jerusalem succa to discuss a memorandum of understanding on principles for a peace deal.
When you lose territory in a war, you don’t just get it back cuz you whine a lot, unless the victor agrees. Now, why Israel would agree, I have NO idea. It’s not like the Palestinians are just going to say, “Ok, we got the land back, we won’t slaughter you anymore.”
China bans bra, underwear, sex toy ads
China has banned television and radio ads for push-up bras, figure-enhancing underwear and sex toys in the communist government’s latest move to purge the nation’s airwaves of what it calls social pollution.
In other words, China doesn’t want to be like the U.S.
Germany Terror Plot Suspect On Run in Britain
About 10 other members of the gang were said by German prosecutors to have escaped and one is now in Britain. The arrested three — two of whom were German nationals who had converted to Islam — were alleged by prosecutors to be members of an Al Qaeda splinter group called the Islamic Jihad Union.
At the time the British and German authorities denied that there were any links between the cell and Britain. Security sources also played down reports that there had been telephone contact between members of the cell and people in Britain.
However, it emerged Saturday that the Germans have told Britain that at least one of the fugitives has since made his way to this country. A security dragnet has been put in place by Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command to try to arrest the man.
So, how did they find out there was really a connection? A little ‘water boarding’ maybe?
Book banning efforts bring on title fights
The story seemed like a surefire hit for children. A pair of penguins take care of an egg that isn’t theirs and then raise the baby penguin, after it hatches, as their own.
How heartwarming. And who doesn’t love penguins?
Plenty of parents, it turns out, when both penguin parents are male.
What an ignorant statement! It’s not the penguins the parents object to, ya twit! It’s the AGENDA that’s being pushed on their kids. (And no, I do NOT approve of book banning!)
Darfur attack kills peacekeepers
An attack on an African Union army base in the Sudanese region of Darfur has reportedly killed 12 peacekeepers.
Nothing is going to change in that country until they change themselves. The world can continue spending money and blood in that place, but until those who are being affected by the brutality stand up to it, and fight back, there’s not much anyone can do.
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is due to arrive in Sudan on Sunday, leading a group of elder statesmen and women to discuss peace in Darfur.
There are no women ‘elder statesmen’?
Experts expect Justice Kennedy to swing left
The Supreme Court is set to begin a term that could lead to enhanced rights for terrorism detainees, a ruling against part of a child pornography law and shorter prison terms for crack cocaine dealers.
Whatever happened to the court’s march to the right?
Damn good question!
Man Eats 21 Pounds of Grits for Title
He’ll never want breakfast again.
Pat Bertoletti, a mohawk-sporting chef from Chicago, gulped down 21 pounds of buttery, goopy grits in 10 minutes to win $4,000 in the first World Grits Eating Championship at Louisiana Downs on Saturday.
The grits were presented in 2-pound trays, each about 8 inches by 6 inches and 1 1/2 inches deep, said Ryan Nerz, a spokesman for Major League Eating.
Blech! Yes, I know….I’m a bad Southerner. Nasty stuff!
Tom Cruise extortionist found dead
A MAN who was due to face court after agreeing to plead guilty to plotting to extort more than $US1 million ($A1.14 million) from actor Tom Cruise for the star’s stolen wedding photos has been found dead. David Hans Schmidt, 47, had been under house arrest and was looking at up to two years in jail.
Authorities said it appeared Schmidt had committed suicide, according to an AP report.
Police reportedly noted that a tracker placed on Schmidt had not moved and he was found dead in by officers at his townhouse about 3pm yesterday.
Odd.
Todd Schmitz said Friday that he is leaving the board. He represented District 26, which includes Ward 5 in the city of Fond du Lac.
(…)
Any resident of District 26 who is interested in filling Schmitz’s position should send a resume and cover letter with name, address and phone number to the County Clerk’s Office, P.O. Box 1557, Fond du Lac, WI 54936, by Monday, Oct. 15. For more information on the County Board or district, call 929-3000. A map of the district is also available at the County Clerk’s Office.
I can think of a few people who would be great in that position. Wonder if they live in that particular district……Â
Burma Shave
This Explains a Lot
Ahmadinejad walks away with a win
One of the world’s truly dangerous men, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left New York a clear winner this week, and he can thank the arrogance of the American academy and most of the U.S. news media’s studied indifference for his victory.
If the blood-drenched history of the century just past had taught American academics one thing, it should have been that the totalitarian impulse knows no accommodation with reason. You cannot change the totalitarian mind through dialogue or conversation, because totalitarianism — however ingenious the superstructure of faux ideas with which it surrounds itself — is a creature of the will and not the mind. That’s a large lesson, but what should have made Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University this week a wholly avoidable debacle was the school’s knowledge of its own, very specific history.
n the 1930s, Columbia was run by Nicholas Murray Butler, to whose name a special sort of infamy attaches. Butler was an outspoken admirer of Italian fascism and of its leader, Benito Mussolini. The Columbia president, who also was in the forefront of Ivy League efforts to restrict Jewish enrollment, worked tirelessly to build ties between his school and Italian universities, as well as with the powerful fascist student organizations. At one point, a visiting delegation of 350 ardent young Black Shirts serenaded Butler with the fascist anthem.
Butler also was keen to establish connections with Nazi Germany and its universities. In 1933, he invited Hans Luther, Adolf Hitler’s ambassador to the United States, to lecture on the Columbia campus. Luther stressed Hitler’s “peaceful intentions” toward his European neighbors, and, afterward, Butler gave a reception in his honor. As the emissary of “a friendly people,” Luther was “entitled to be received with the greatest courtesy and respect,” the Columbia president said at the time.
It was such a transparently appalling performance all around that one of the anonymous authors of the New York Times’ “Topics of the Times” column put tongue in cheek and looked forward to the occasion when “the Nazi leaders will point out that they were all along opposed to any measures capable of being construed as unjust to any element in the German population or as a threat to peace in Europe.”
Arrogance, though, is invincible — even to irony.
Three years later, Butler sent a delegation of Columbia dignitaries to participate in anniversary celebrations at the University of Heidelberg. That was after Heidelberg had purged all the Jewish professors from its faculty, reformed its curriculum according to Nazi educational theories and publicly burned the unapproved books in its libraries.
I guess CU was just carrying on the ‘tradition’.
