The new model for an old system

Or, "I told you so," again.

The current version of ObamaCare is a watered down amalgamation of compromises built on one Progressive premise: Single Payer System is the goal.  They started their overhaul of 1/6th of the US economy with that end in mind, weren't able to get there completely this time (mostly due to voter outrage), and settled on something that Conservatives will still hate for too many reasons to list and Progressives will despise because it's not pure enough.  But, as Bob says, "baby steps".
Well cool.  But let's take a peek into the future and see what the adults over in Great Britain are doing, now that they've had the NHS single-payer system for sixty years:

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered widespread cuts planned across the NHS, many of which have already been agreed by senior health service officials. They include:
* Restrictions on some of the most basic and common operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and orthodontic procedures.
* Plans to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets for the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to be told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends.
* The closure of nursing homes for the elderly.
* A reduction in acute hospital beds, including those for the mentally ill, with targets to discourage GPs from sending patients to hospitals and reduce the number of people using accident and emergency departments.
* Tighter rationing of NHS funding for IVF treatment, and for surgery for obesity.
* Thousands of job losses at NHS hospitals, including 500 staff to go at a trust where cancer patients recently suffered delays in diagnosis and treatment because of staff shortages.
* Cost-cutting programmes in paediatric and maternity services, care of the elderly and services that provide respite breaks to long-term carers.

 Hm.

Oh yes.  And this:

The Sunday Telegraph found the details of hundreds of cuts buried in obscure appendices to lengthy policy and strategy documents published by trusts. In most cases, local communities appear to be unaware of the plans. (emphasis mine)

The "trusts" referenced above are Primary Care Trusts, government agencies in charge of patient health decisions like when, where, how, and by whom patients are treated.  Way to be forthcoming and honest there, buckos.

Hm, indeed.  So what we've got here is pretty much what I've said a few times before.  Single-payer systems lead inevitably to rationing.  Who gets rationed out first?  The unproductive (ie. those who suck up more tax dollars than they pay in).  Which means the very young, the very old, and the infirm.  Go back and look at the list of cuts made by the NHS.  Who gets affected most?

Exactly.

Do you know anyone who is very young, very old, or infirm?  Do you want some bureaucrat in a dark office in Washington making medical decisions that will affect the quality of life of those people?  Do you want government inefficiencies (shortages, essentially) to be responsible for the death of those people?  And then these folks who think they can run your life, health, and death better than you can have the elephantine stones to BURY THEIR CUTS TO YOUR HEALTH SERVICES IN THE DAMN FOOTNOTES OF DOCUMENTS NO ONE WILL EVER READ?

You people sicken me. 

Which would be fine, except that if I get sick in a single-payer system, I might never get well again.

Don't Mess with Senator Gregg

Just in my humble opinion... laws don't mean very much if you're just going to change them every time you get a new idea.

Netanyahu

I almost forgot to post this.  Shame on me.  This is groovy stuff.  Here's how the pro's outgun mainstream media.  Follow this link to see the whole interview with Larry King: http://thechristianworldview.com/tcwblog/archives/4004 

Here's part one to whhhhet your appetite.


AND an interview with Couric...

Curious Lucre

This website is more fun that it should be:  http://www.lileks.com/money/index.html
Please go there and prepare to laugh in that special way.  Click on "next" for each country (where it says back HOME next on each page).  You'll get much more out of it that way than if you just go back to the "Home" page after each one.

Siesta

Thought this was kind of an interesting little story:

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village.
A tourist complimented the local fishermen
on the quality of their fish and asked
how long it took them to catch them.

"Not very long." they answered in unison.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?"
The fishermen explained that their small catches were
sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families.

"But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children,
and take siestas with our wives. In the evenings,
we go into the village to see our friends, have a
few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs.
We have a full life."

The tourist interrupted,
"I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you!
You should start by fishing longer every day.
You can then sell the extra fish you catch.
With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?", asked the fishermen.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring,
you can buy a second one and a third one,
and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.
Instead of selling your fish to a middle man,
you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants
and maybe even open your own plant.
You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City ,
Los Angeles , or even New York City !
From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the fishermen again.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years." replied the tourist.

"And after that?", said the fishermen.

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting,"
answered the tourist, laughing. "When your business gets really big,
you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the fishermen.

"After that you'll be able to retire,
live in a tiny village near the coast,
sleep late, play with your children,
catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife,
and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And now for Biden

When Joe Biden says something, my ears perk up.  Not because I have an unfathomable notion that he'll say something important but because it's always interesting to see how he's going to spin it.  "...these are not only women’s issues, they are issues of middle class economic security,” according to Joe.  Paycheck Fairness Act, huh.  Sounds to me like you just want to keep track of where your revenue is going to come from to support your habit of using America like a credit card.  Yes, I'm sure you do care about the middle class.  Where else are you going to get your monthly allowance?  Now go outside and play until dark and try not to hit anyone with your motorcade this week.

Man of His Word

You know, as far as I'm concerned our president gave us all the information we needed to make good voting choices prior to the election, and the mainstream media was kind enough to sweep it all under the rug and beautify the situation.  His wife even told us prior to the election that Barrack wasn't going to let us go back to our lives as usual.  Along the way he's been kind enough to tell us that he just wants to spread the wealth around, doesn't want his daughters punished with a baby, informed us that he has no interest in a free market, and attended a church for years that has a total crazy person for a preacher.  But I don't want to make this post all about Obama because quite frankly, I'm sick of hearing his name all the time.  I'm sick of knowing that our president is an amoral postmodernist Marxist with short term tactics designed to build long term empowerment of the federal government but an all around good golfer and a great dad.  Plus I don't want to hear anyone gripe about how I came down on their precious Obama, savior of the poor and downtrodden, forgiver of debt, and healer of the world.  Obama is a symptom of a nation with a fever.  He believes what he believes, and no one can fault him for having strong convictions.  It's just that they're completely off base.  I hope America starts working out and taking its meds.

This story (you can watch the video by clicking the link) is a little old, I guess, but it's a good illustration of my main point in this post.  In his own words:

"For some reason people keep being surprised when I do what I said I was going to do. So, I say I’m going to reform our HCR [health care reform], and people say well gosh that’s not smart politics maybe we should hold off. Or I say we’re going to move forward on DADT [don't ask don't tell] and somehow people say well why are you doing that, I’m not sure that’s good politics. I’m doing it because I said I was going to do it, and I think it’s the right thing to do. And people should learn that lesson about me, because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficit and debt step up cause I’m calling their bluff."

I don't think anyone is the least bit surprised that you've been able to get done what you said you were going to do, Mr. Obama.  After all, you've had the media eating sugar cubes out of your hands for a couple years and both houses of Congress have been prostituting themselves out to you from the beginning.  No, people are continually surprised that you ought to know better than sell out your nation, and yet you do it anyway. Yes, that does keep surprising people.  Liberals, like fire ants, all crawl up your pants in pretty much the same way, and it's never pretty when they get to their final destination.

"And people should learn that lesson about me, because next year when I START presenting some DIFFICULT choices for the country..."  What exactly does that mean?  When you start presenting difficult choices?  As if an unresolvable national debt, increasing the probability of hyper-inflation, boosting support for immoral activities, catering to fundamentalist Islam, and talking down to everyone in your preachy self-righteous voice isn't difficult enough.

What's this "step up" business you keep talking about?  Why don't you step up, sir, and quit being an appeaser?  Why don't you step up and explain how government run health care will ultimately lead to shortages and a decline in the quality of health care?  Why don't you step up and explain how bureaucracy causes waste and slows progress?  Why don't you step up and tell people that making babies and then taking their lives is wrong?  Why don't you tell people we fight wars to win with a purpose, not just to fart around or dominate the globe?  Why don't you step up and tell people they can't have everything they want unless they work for it?  Why don't you tell people that America has bought too much on credit and now needs to starting paying its bill like a big boy or girl?  Why don't you explain how stealing from one fellow American to pay for another is still stealing?  I wonder what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would think about benevolent theft?  You know what's funny about "big government" people...you're always trying to help people get things in the short term, but you leave waste in your path and make the country poorer in the long term.  Of course you're 4 to 8 year tenure would be over by the time that happens. 

Take housing for one example.  You, big government, helped bring about the current financial meltdown.  You know it.  People are beginning to learn about it and understand it a little bit.  But you'll still probably get away with it for another few years because you're so good and retelling history the way you want it to be heard.  But people are getting more and more educated despite what you do to keep them stupid by taking over public education.  People are wising up despite what you do to confuse them in the mire of legalese.  The People are going to take back this country from you, the dictators, and you'll be lucky to fly a cargo plane full of rubber dog [crap] out of Hong Kong (little Top Gun reference there). 

That's about all I've got to say about that.  For now.

Divine Comedy

A post from former SNL comedian Victoria Jackson can be read here. An interesting discussion on the Christian's role in politics.

Claude

I'm sorry to have to tell you this

But "the internet is over".

Thank you, Artist-Formerly-Known-as-the-Artist-Formerly-Known-as-Prince-not-to-mention-the-unpronounceable-symbol-thingy.  I appreciate you telling us.  Now I can go back to my 1980's life, just like you.

History

I'd like to share an article with you from the Wall Street Journal from April of this year.  It's a short easy read but a good primer on the Mideast conflict and explains that the US may not be backing up its ally in the region.  After reading this article let me know what you think.

On a related note, I had an interesting discussion with someone the other day.  That individual asked me something that may put a shiver down your spine.  "Do you think the Lord might have put this particular president in power so that the prophecy in the Bible regarding all nations turning against Israel can be fulfilled?"  In other words do we need a president in office that is non-threatening to countries in the Middle East like Iran that have leaders shouting "Death to America!" for prophecy like what is in Zechariah and Ezekiel to come true?  I can't really answer that at this time.  Who could?  It's food for thought I suppose.

All I know is, the Lord said to Abraham (Abram at the time): "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."