July 13, 2010
It is true that we shall not be able to reach perfection, but in our struggle toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties with which we have been gifted to the best possible account.
Confucius
Words for America.
September 18, 2009
These are the things that I find particularly senseless this week in our society. Maybe if we call out on these things we’ll be able to change them?
* ACORN claiming conspiracy
* Media calling the transport of girls from South American for the purposes of prostitution “allegedly” illegal
* America being more upset by Kanye’s drunk antics than Chris Brown’s domestic violence
* Common sense missing from the healthcare this-is-so-not-a-debate
* Scant attention paid to Rep Joe Wilson’s calling Strom Thurmond’s bi-racial daughter revealing her father as a “smear”
* San Diego Padres decimate themselves and fans/taxpayers aren’t storming the clubhouse for their stadium money back
* NFL/SD Chargers trying to get more corporate welfare during these hard times by threatening to leave and then are still blacking out games
* No one pointing out that the civil service/public pension systems have the same impact on performance as Socialism and Communism
* The EU’s continued denial of the threat of Iran/appeasement of Islamic fundamentalists
* The anti-American/anti-Israel UN
* Financial industry bonuses continue
* CA changes the accounts into which it takes quarterly tax payments and doesn’t tell anyone! Will probably charge late penalties for the payments they rejected
* Public unions act like govt jobs are an entitlement
* Court requiring CA to free criminals
* Legislature and Gov of CA denying there will be danger in releasing so-called “low-level” career criminals
* Pedophiles are ever let out of prison
* Cashiers who can’t calculate change
* Dumbing down education
* Executives splurging on their office decoration while considering lay offs
* LA wasting money to figure out why aged water pipes are breaking instead of on speeding up replacement
Oh, there’s so much more. But let’s all have a good weekend!
September 5, 2009
That’s all I can think these days as I observe the world around me. As an extremely analytical person it’s more than disconcerting that I can’t explain it all. The unreliability of group-think, the hysteria/profit driven sound-bye media, political party manipulations, incompetence and economic panic are not new concepts in my lifetime. What’s going on is all and more of this. Chaos and unreality seems to permeate every level of our society.
The examples are everywhere -
The list goes on and on. I’m on overload. All because virtually no one questions what’s going on. No one is accountable. The world has gone insane. Or I have.
August 31, 2009
When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well. And when the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well.
Andrew Cuomo, NY Attorney General
August 25, 2009
A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.
Thomas Paine, Author of “Common Sense”
August 24, 2009
Airline passengers don’t need a bill of rights dictated by the government – what they need is good customer service.
This is yet another area where the government should not step in to play parent to wayward children, in this case the customer. The bottom line is that customers are shopping on price – the lowest – and not paying attention to information on customer service. Even when they know it’s lacking. I bet if you ask any of the passengers who have been stuck on the tarmac they would still choose that same airline if it saved them $100 over a competing fare. I know I would, myself having suffered extensive on-board delays with less than stellar circumstances.
I’m not without empathy or my own experience. I’ve been stuck in an airport for 9 hours then stuck on the flight for another 7 without toilets or food and left to sleep in the airport to make the next day’s connecting flight. Another trip turned a 5.5 hour trip into an 18-hour trek – also without food or anywhere to sleep. Having flown since I was 6, I have have countless other stories – unexplained smoke in the cabin, 9 hour flights in a seat the didn’t recline and so on and so forth. At no time did I expect or want the government to intervene on my behalf.
What government intervention may be needed here is the easing of regulations that prevent passengers from choosing to disembark after being held captive on a non-moving plane.
The rest – that’s up to us. Share your customer service nightmares at online travel sites, file complaints with consumer protection agencies, sue the airline for false imprisonment, take a train. But please, do not invite government into one more aspect of our lives where we should be adults responsible for ourselves.
August 9, 2009
I think I have is straight now.
There is 1 major House of Represenatives Bill
There are 2 major Senate Bills – HELP and the Senate Finance Committee Bill.
There are the July proposed reimbursement and regulatory changes proposed by CMS where health services are is reimbursed and regulated differently depending on where the exact same health service is delivered (private practice vs. hospital vs. outpatient hospital department).
Then there are a number of other healthcare reform related bills that have not been even reported on in the media.
Our elected officials are offended by the idea of reading what they are voting on.
Debate is limited and voters are just not being heard. Partly because the system cannot handle the volume of communications and partly because representatives prefer to spend their time with campaign donors and partly because of the rush to passage without voters being let in on the process.
The CMS proposals were published in the federal register in July and are open for comment. The Congressional Bills are *not* printed and available for people to read. None are written in plain English so as to allow the lay reader to be able to understand the full implications (e.g., amending section 28, paragraph (a)(i)(L)(2) to add the word “shall” instead of full text or deleting what is existing and creating wholly new law). Even expert readers cannot possibly read and understand all of the implications of the 1000′s of pages in less than 90 days.
There are always unintended consequences, biases, powerful lobbies and mistakes involved in passing legislation. Congress and the Executive Branch do not care.
Private Insurance companies will still exist and be able to make billions of dollars on a broken health care system that is only going to get more complicated.
Medical school is still expensive. Student loans are still expensive.
There is still no mechanism for treat doctors like humans who make mistakes and no mechanism to weed out the bad and crooked doctors without persecuting all the other good ones.
Preventative care is still not a priority.
Large numbers of Americans will still be obese.
People who abuse their bodies will still cost those who don’t.
People who don’t have insurance will still cost those who do and the taxpayers. Any attempt to “fine” or “incent” those who don’t will probably hurt those the program is intended to help because that’s what always happen in our system of passing mass law changes without real consideration and care.
Organized interests will still win over the average citizen trying to live their life.
Private insurers will continue to make billions. Campaign funds will still grow.
Not so confusing after all.
Right?
August 4, 2009
Obama attempts to clarify his healthcare reform goals -
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
Does he succeed? I’m not sure and it’s hard to tell how it aligns with the various administrative agency and Congressional efforts, either.
What’s your take?
July 28, 2009
An independent commission to focus on Medicare quality and save money. How?
A secret bipartisan cabal to reform healthcare without a public option. What?
Obama still pressing for health insurance that will compete with the private for-profit insurers. How?
Bills that will penalize those who choose not to purchase insurance. Great concept since we end up picking up the tab. But how is it determined if there was really a choice or just financial inability?
Taxing the “rich” to pay for everyone else’s healthcare. Don’t they already endow and subsidize the rest of us?
Congress still gets the platinum plan out of our salaries.
The quality, quantity and availability of Veteran’s healthcare still in question.
Where is this all going and why??
July 21, 2009
Is there anyone else out there that is confused by all this talk about healthcare reform? I truly have no idea what the heck is going on out there.
We have the Stimulus health care changes that were made a few months ago.
We have CMS-released proposals for 2010.
Then there is Congressional and Obama health care reform bills.
It’s all a bunch of gibberish.
Are we expanding Medicare while we cut it? Are we creating a government insurance plan to compete with the capitalist insurance companies? Are we letting medical lobbies like the radiologists decide what care should be available and where? Are we forcing hospitals to provide billions of dollars in free medical care by cutting their reimbursements in advance? Are we forcing pharma companies to provide free drugs and to whom? Are we going to have the government decide what medical devices and equipment will get used?
Is there anything out there that clearly explains what the hell Congress is doing and is that even possible given how they simply append more words to the millions of words already out there instead of starting from a comprehensible fresh start? Does anyone understand what changing subparagraph b of A of 2 does to that other cross-referenced section of the Social Security Act?
How can we the people support that passage of something we don’t understand – and will likely never fully understand the implications of until it’s too late?
This is no way to implement a radical change to our economy and government. This is far too serious for a TARP-like rush to action.
