Simple Pleasures

scrumptious pineapple upsidedown cake, thanks to Mrs. Geck.

I’ve been blessed to be living with my cousin for the past month.  Not the least of her (and her husband’s) generosity to me is the fact that she’s an exceptional cook who truly enjoys the art.  (I think I’ve gained 10 pounds in the first month alone).

Just two nights ago she baked up this little number while we were enjoying dinner.  Needless to say it was exquisite.  We ate our first pieces while the cake was still warm from the oven!  (Nice touch).

I post not to gloat, but to express my gratitude.  My gratitude for family, for friends, for life, for love, and for health.  It can be a bleak world; occasionally, I don’t take the blessings of God for granted.

The End of Education

“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the general structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

George Washington

Farewell Address
Edited by
Fred Newton Scott

Obama’s Gamble: Our Healthcare

The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance…

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience
to remain silent.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Exactly, Obama. It’s the Post Office Having Problems…

That’s why we don’t want the government running healthcare.  Then it’d be “it’s the medical system that’s always having problems” instead of what we have now, which is the imperfect but highest quality health care system in the world.

Don’t allow the government to turn the world’s greatest healthcare system into another government program failure…  don’t allow our healthcare system become another Social Security, DMV, Medicare, Welfare, Freddie and Fannie,  or Post Office…

Contact your state senators and tell them you oppose any and all government encroachment upon our healthcare system.

The government already does too much.  Let’s not give it more to do.

Healthcare: “Death Panels” Fact and Fiction.

There has been a lot of confusion about what Sarah Palin meant when she referred to “death panels” being a part of Obama’s healthcare plan.

There are misleading fictions:

There’s this view:  The author of this blog who goes by the pen-name “Sweet Machine” writes in short that there’s really no such thing as death panels in Obama’s healthcare plan.  Rather,  Sweet Machine claims that death panels are really just:

“Voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care. Voluntary counseling sessions. There’s your death panel! Heaven forfend!”

Sweet Machine is simply mistaken.  What she’s written here is misleading.  When those who oppose Obama’s healthcare plan talk about ‘death panels’ they are not talking about voluntary counseling sessions.  Read on.

And there’s this view which also takes Sweet Machine’s position:

“Recently, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speculated that Obama and other Democrats wanted to set up “death panels” to decide who gets medical services and who does not.

In reality, the provision was designed to allow Medicare to pay doctors who counsel patients about planning for end-of-life decisions. The consultations would be voluntary and would provide information about living wills, healthcare proxies, pain medication and hospice.”

Then there’s the truth.

The “Death Panels” that Palin and others have referred to have nothing to do with these ‘end of life, counseling sessions’ mentioned above, but have everything to do with government- by way of policy choices- deciding which patients will be granted which treatments and which patients will not.  In other words, the government panel will decide who lives and who dies.  Read on.

What anyone who understands economics and government oversight knows is that the allocation of scarce resources will require some persons (government officials) to decide how much the rest (average citizens) will get. In this system it is mere matter of fact that some citizens will be given less than they need.  And why is this?  Because in a system where government can’t pay for everyone to have top-grade, gold-standard health coverage (like what Congress has) government will have to give to the rest (average citizens) nickel-standard coverage.

In short, in a government run system it would be a panel (a group of government officials) who would have to decide (make policy choices) about the allocation of scarce moneys across a national healthcare system.  This panel would decide which portions of the healthcare sector are to get cuts, just like this panel would decide what sector of healthcare would get increases in spending and so forth.  This government panel would choose, in the sensitive, deliberate, careful and caring manner of government panels, what cancer treatments A, B and C, for example, would be too expensive (and therefore disallowed) for patients falling into category X,Y or Z.  Since humans are not machines (no matter what Sweet Machine would have you believe) there will be some patients (average citizens) with cancer who just so happen to fall into this new government category X, Y or Z.  Those patients will be denied treatments A,B, and C. Some people who are denied treatments A, B and C will die on account of not receiving such treatments (or maybe die sooner, or in more pain, etc. than if they had received the treatments).  This government panel in so doing their function—just by doing their job, making the hard choices for fund allocation– will indirectly make decisions that will result in the loss of life that could have otherwise been saved, or improved, etc.

In other words: Just as Palin correctly stated, this government panel would be deciding indirectly who gets to live and who gets to die.  It would be a ‘death panel’.  This is a fact of the Obama healthcare plan.  This is the truth.  This is the insidious and callous reality of the way government works.

Palin is not saying these panels will decide directly “Joe will be given death, and Suzie given life.”  No.  But she is saying correctly that in a situation where Joe has been given 6 months to live if he doesn’t receive treatment A, B or C, and it turns out that Joe just so happens to fall into patient category X, Y or Z, then guess what?  Joe isn’t going to be given treatments A, B or C.  Why?  Because the government panel decided those treatments were too expensive to be given to patients falling into certain categories.

Too harsh?  Fine.  Maybe the government panel decides that patients in category X, Y or Z can only get treatments A, B or C after patients in category E, F and G get those treatments.  Joe then isn’t told that he can’t get the treatment at all, just that he has to wait a while for the E, F and G patients to get the treatments first.  But Joe only has 6 months to live.  What if the waiting period is a year long?  Two years?  (Not uncommon waiting periods for citizens under government run healthcare plans in countries like Canada and the U.K.)  Don’t trust me?  Fine.  What if the waiting period is only 5 months?  8 months?  Does it really matter?  Of course it does.  Joe wants the treatments now.  Joe deserves the treatments now.  Yet, on account of the decision of the government panel, Joe is going to have to wait.  In other words: Joe is going to die (or at least be much worse off before he finally gets the treatments).

If this government panel isn’t deciding the life and death of citizens then I don’t know what is.

The Sensitive and Caring DMV:

If you don’t like the name “death panel” because it seems too callous or too insensitive, stop by your local DMV and try to get them to issue you a renewed registration without showing proof of smog-check.  How about trying to get them to renew your license when you only have enough money to pay half the fee?  Then tell them that you only have half the fee because you have a son in the hospital.  See how caring they are.  See how sympathetic they are.  See how the DMV treats you and think to yourself: would I want my healthcare provider run in this same manner?

Government panel decides automobile regulations and fees, etc.  Government panel decides healthcare regulations and fees, etc.

You decide.

United States Only Industrialized Nation… Healthcare Debate

I was discussing the Obama Administration’s Government Health Care Plan with a c0-worker just the other day.  He is strongly in favor of government run healthcare.  He said two things by way of argument for why we ought to have government run healthcare.

His main argument: “The United States is the only industrialized nation on Earth that does not have universal healthcare.”  (He seemed to be implying that the United States needs to get with it; to catch up with the rest of the world.)

My response at the moment had been, “I think the United States ought to be the leader when it comes to policy, not a follower.”

Not bad.  But in retrospect I wish I had said more.  I wish I had said:

1. “Yes, we are the only nation on earth that doesn’t have universal health care.  That’s the reason people from around the world come here to get high quality healthcare.”
2. “Since when is ‘everybody else is doing it, so why don’t we?‘ a good argument for anything, let alone government policy?
3. “Aren’t those examples enough to convince you how bad the idea is, or do you need to see it dibilitate us here at home before you’ll realize it was a bad idea for them and us?”

*     *     *

(Add healthcare to this one)

Lists and Healthcare

Making lists can bring a sense of control.  Lists can make definite and finite those things that in our minds loosely fit can feel like infinite and uncontrollable tasks.

Lists often attempt to group like things.  But I find that lists of unlike things are just as pleasing to the mind- sometimes more so.

Here’s a list that I made two days ago.

• Pens
• Lighters
• Angels hat(?)
• Post Office
• Goat Milk
• Lactaid
• Jalepenos
• H2O
• Basketball shoes
• Die Hard Shoes
• Resume Paper(?)
• Look up book for mom (Sante Fe Ring)
• Honey

Two days later I’ve accomplished only four of those things.  Post Office.  Goat Milk.  Lactaid.  Honey.  But I have a few more things to add to the list.  And I’ve taken Angels Hat(?) off the list.

• Laundry
• Softball Plan (lunch w/ Jimmy and Travis)
• Out-of-State job searching(?)
• Bill Pay

The song I’m playing at this moment goes something like this (It’s Depeche Mode): “How sweet life would be, if I could be free from the sinner in me.  If I could just hide from the sinner inside, and keep him denied.”  How true, eh?

*     *     *

Healthcare, government and putting the two together.

I’m a Californian.  The California state budget has been in shambles for months and months.  The state legislature passed a budget that actually spends more money than it has coming in revenue.  Arnold used his line-item veto to try to cut some of that spending.  State services were cut, primarily in health and human services.  This basically means that people receiving state aid for things like medical care (people in wheel chairs, those with advanced stages of diseases and disorders like MS and autism) are going to get the short end of the stick- daily life will be that much more difficult for them and their families that care for them.

Ask yourself this question.  After witnessing the pathetic circus that was the budget fiasco in California and seeing how when cuts are made it’s almost always to those marginalized groups with very little political voice, after seeing all that, how on earth could you think that a government-run health care system was a good idea?

• What part of the government budget process was efficient?
• Where was government’s shining moment?
• Where was the good?
• Who benefited?  Who is suffering?
• Will health services suffer in California because of wasteful and unwise state government spending?
• Do you feel comfortable having the suits in Sacramento in control of YOUR health care?
• Do you really think they have your best interest in mind?  And if you do, what about when your best interest conflicts with your neigbor’s best interest?
• Who decides?  Government or you?

Think about it.  Because it will hardly think about you.

Waiting to be Annointed Cool and Troubled People…

“I believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States.  I’m just not sure if he’s willing to admit that to the rest of the world.”  ~~  Dennis Miller

Currently/Just Finished Reading:

Less Than Zero (Brett Easton Ellis).  Truly one of the most disturbingly depressing books I’ve ever read.  Young adult children of movie producers and actresses with far too much money, too much time on their hands and absolutely no purpose or direction in life.  They play with fast cars and even faster drugs.  The entire length of the book I kept begging the lead character (or somebody) to Wake Up!  Look what you’re doing to yourself!  Maybe a book of this sort should be mandatory reading for high school kids.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Gabriel Garcia Marquez).  A splendid tale of the sordid dark alleys in the hearts of men.  A tale that ought to be disturbing, yet it’s told in a manner that disarms, calling for reflection more so than judgment.

The Star Fraction (Ken Macleod).  Finally some science fiction worth reading. I believe I’ve found my new favorite Sci-Fi writer in Macleod.  His story moves along effortlessly with a newness and freshness that is enjoyable.  It seems his world is a political hodge-podge and that should be fun to sort through.

Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides).  An astonishing story for its detail, scope, and subject matter.  Eugenides spent I don’t know how many years writing this story of an immigrant Greek family growing up in Michigan from the 1920’s through to the modern day, but it belies an exactitude and reality as if Eugenides had truly lived through each of the events.  It’s a masterful tale.  Middlesex is repleat with everything from brothers and sisters getting married to the race-riots in Detroit to a hermaphodite as the central character.  The book may puzzle you and disturb you, but it won’t leave you bored.

Lullabies For Little Criminals (Heather O’Neill).  I happened upon this book while browsing the shelves at the library.  I found a gifted young writer in O’Neill.  Sitting down for a few minutes before bed to begin the novel, I found myself a couple hours later, one hundred pages in.  I simply couldn’t stop reading.

Belinda (Anne Rice).  A fun romp with some splendid Rice insights along the way.

Orpheus Emerged (Jack Kerouac).  I’ve read now three different novels by Kerouac, and though it’s literary blasphemy, I can’t say that I’m a big fan of his writing style.  Perhaps it’s the era in which he wrote, perhaps it’s my own dull wits.

Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond).  An interesting explanation at how societies emerged and evolved into our modern day politcal hierarchy, but the UCLA scholar leaves out one major point that to me is glaringly absent throughout the book.  He never talks about ideology/religion/belief.  Certainly, it seems to me, the history of ideas (intellectual history) and the rise and fall of religious ideas in the various regions of the world has a lot to say about the hows and whys of those societies.  For example, the Western world would not be what it is today without the influence and spread of Christianity, just as the East would not be what it is today without the Islamic influence.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer.

Quote of the Day

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle