E-mail Forwards: Sometimes a Little Virus is a Good Thing

The constant arrival of E-mail "forwards" can get tiresome after awhile. Some are worth reading, but a large number are simply boring, contrived, and well, goofy. But not all of them.
I received the one copied below the other day. It may or may not be a real letter from a real doctor to the President. In my mind it's irrelevant. It certainly reflects reality in our society.

One of the most widely read essays I have written for this blog (Oct. 2009) was titled "The Best Place To Be Poor."   The subject of that piece is very similar to the email in reference and I think it is a topic worth revisiting. To this day the site receives many visits from people all over the world who have "googled" that phrase. I suspect that they don't find the result they are seeking from that inquiry. They read it anyway. I can only hope it gives them a different perspective than they had before.

In that post I included a link to an article written by a doctor named Linda Halderman. I strongly suggest that you read it again even if you already have done so in the past. It can be found here.

The content of the forwarded email is as follows;

Dear Mr. President:
   During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.  While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.
   And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. 
  It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
   Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

The good doctor (real or conjured from someones imagination) makes a point that truly IS worth forwarding. I won't mind if you forward a link to this article so that more people from all over the world will be reminded of the long term consequences caused by well meaning "solutions" imposed by government interference in societal problems.

Sometimes forwards like this "go viral" on the internet. (The best my articles have ever gone is bacterial.) In this case, maybe the doctor's letter will cause a virus that is beneficial. The current situation is deadly.

The American People Need A Waiver, It's Only Fair

Shortly after Americans waived goodbye to their right to make their own health-care choices they waived goodbye to scores of congressmen and women who voted to take those rights away from them and give them to government instead. Sixty- three net seats in the Parliament of Whores were switched to the party that voted against Obamacare. A goodly number were switched in the Senate as well.

Perish the thought that Republicans might become confused by the switch and become deluded into thinking people are pining for the "good ole days" when George W. Bush was throwing capitalism under the bus. I'm guessing people weren't enamored of the "compassionate conservatism" which preceded it either. But then I've always been an optimist when it comes to the legion of Rip Van Winkles awakening at last, so I might be wrong about that part.

Since that electoral cleansing is only partially finished, with repudiation 2.0 not scheduled out of beta release for two more years, some have been groping for a way to prevent the destruction of the whole health insurance industry before it's too late.

And the inspiration for a possible solution recently came to me from an odd place. It's the Obama administration's HHS department (not usually a very inspiring place) where they had already admitted that the whole scheme won't work by telling over two hundred unions, large corporations and other FOOs (friends of Obama) that they could have a waiver.

Of course the first exemption they gave was to themselves, as usual. But the major leak of "non-requirees" turned into a flash flood in the last few weeks when it was learned that another five hundred plus FOOs were added to the list of organizations who were allowed to opt out. When 773 different organizations and over two million people are exempted from a law it's fair to make the case that the law should have never been made. If it's such a good law why isn't it good enough for everyone? (Including congressmen and other political opt-outers.)

The "progressive" movement is about nothing if it's not about "fairness." So just as it was when we were kids and were taught that the rules were for everyone, most Americans don't see much fairness now that it's clear that only some of us will be forced into this nightmare of lost rights and future lost loved ones.

So it's my recommendation that we all line up outside the office of HHS Czar Kathleen Sebelius and demand our waiver, too. All 311,987,238 of us (minus the two million already waived) should ask her why she is pro-choice on abortion but no-choice on all other "health-care" decisions.

If we all get waived, maybe we can wave goodbye to the biggest government power grab in this nation's history without wasting two more years while the clock ticks off the last moments before a total repudiation occurs.

Duck and Cover

When I was a boy we were taught in school that it was probable that we were soon to be fried by a nuclear bomb.

The suggested strategy for saving one's self was to keep an ear out for the air raid sirens which were mounted atop each fire station in Chicago, and when the alert came, to quickly dive under your desk and curl up into the fetal position. Unless, of course, it was 10:00 on Tuesday morning, in which case it was just a test, so you could keep doing whatever you were doing at 9:59, supposedly with no fear.

The boys always wondered why the enemy was so stupid that they wouldn't just make sure they attacked at that time on a Tuesday. The girls probably thought that too, but we didn't talk to them except to razz them, so it was hard to tell what they were thinking.

It was a scary time to live in that's for sure. Kinda like now. Only now, the children are not the ones who are scared. (Most of them voted for hope and change and are clueless regarding what this stuff really means in the "real world future.") The adults however, are feverishly searching Craig's List to see if they can procure an old school desk with what's left of their unemployment checks.

Yesterday, the agent of such change took his marching orders from his advisor, Rahmsputin, and told us to expect the political equivalent of that cataclysm because he is contemplating using the "nuclear option" on us to change our society forever. And make no mistake, if the government expands it's control over us to include our medical decisions, there will be plenty of dead (and poor) people as a result.

The use of a revenue bill to skirt the rules of the Senate by using the nuclear option (sometimes referred to as "reconciliation" by politicians with a sense of humor) to overturn the wishes of even the bluest of states, Massachusetts, so he can pass step one of the socialization of health-care is just an updated version of what, as kids, we knew of as "MAD."

The "MAD" (mutual assured destruction) concept was used to inform the Soviets that if they sent an ICBM our way, we would destroy all of their country and people as they were doing the same to us. No winner.

The case is the same here, the Democrats will be dead politically, and we will just be, "plain old dead."

The Magic Citizen

Usually an improbable rumor about a national leader, unless it's substantiated quickly,  makes the rounds and then fades away as it becomes apparent that it has no legs. Some are like bad pennies though, and they just keep popping up over and over. Too bad we can’t just do a “Snopes” check and be done with them. But when some "web news" sites claim a Federal Judge has set a trial date for a law suit concerning such a story, it starts to grow toes, if not legs.

The question about President Barak Obama’s citizenship is just such a story. Even though it never occurred to me that it might be true, and it still doesn’t, I find the evolving interest in it to be more intriguing all the time. It’s not the question of whether or not Obama was born in the USA, and is therefore qualified to be its President under the ever more ignored and increasingly irrelevant U S Constitution, but instead, the question of why the one person who can make it disappear forever into the diaper pail of crazy conspiracy theories will not do so, that facinates me. That one person is of course, the Magician in Chief himself, whose power to make things disappear is becoming legendary.

President Mandrake’s opening act was turning two U S car companies, a bevy of the countries largest banks, and a gigantic insurance company into federal subsidiaries. Changing rabbits into birds ain’t got nothin’ on that one.

He then waved his magic wand and created several trillion dollars of “Monopoly” money out of thin air. From a distance it even looked like the real thing. All this while the audience gave standing ovations. Even Penn and Teller haven’t been able to top that.

And now, just a few weeks ago, when confronted with the inconvenient realization that the suddenly observant populace discovered that illegal aliens would be allowed to belly up to the government buffet table of universal health insurance coverage, he made Houdini proud by making sixteen million people disappear in just a few quick speeches.

Right before our eyes, he turned the somewhat dubious 46 million uninsured victims of the greedy, capitalistic health insurance companies into only 30 million by pretending that the previously included sneak-ins and legal aliens never existed by dropping the number without explanation.
Viola!    Simply by changing the number he cites of the already magical, roundly accepted tally of the unfortunate in his speeches, he removed 16 million from the rolls of the wretched.  If he can remove another 35% after each such performance, he should have the “crisis” completely evaporated in no time and can get on to his next trick.

It’s listed on your program as “making any chance of future prosperity or job growth vanish into the smoke and mirrors of the Cap and Tax legislation.” In the same moment the first part is completed, hundreds of millions of dollars will materialize in the accounts of Goldman Sachs and other slick dealers who are already prepared to implement the scheme in the grand tradition of the "Chicago Way".  Mayor Daley’s pet Chicago Climate Exchange is conveniently ready for the transition from “voluntary” to mandatory trading.

But back to the citizenship fiasco. The question remains, why wouldn’t the President just show his birth certificate to the people who elected him and be forever done with it? All the rest of us have to do so when enrolling in school or getting a passport or any of a plethora of other official government functions. Surely it’s just as important to prove you meet the requirements to be President as it is prove you can travel legally in other countries.

It was only after conferring with my good friend Homer in an e-mail exchange on the subject, that I decided to write about his curious refusal to co-operate on such a mundane matter.

In my electronic correspondence with my fellow wonderer, I speculated on some scenarios which could explain it. I thought perhaps there was some other information on the certificate which could be embarrassing, like perhaps a different fathers name? Or no fathers name at all? But I’m guessing that’s not it. Most politicians today get forgiven for almost anything they do, much less what their parents did, and the today’s most adored man knows he would get a pass.

Following that, I opined that maybe he was being advised by his campaign team, (which is now governing in permanent campaign mode) to drag this out as long as possible while trying (with the help of their media toadies) to link the whole episode to middle of the road conservatives and Republicans instead of the fringe groups where it has found it’s only traction. In this way, when they deem the time to be right, they can show the proof and portray all his opponents as conspiracy kooks. After all, if you are that close to the edge, how can any credence be lent to your opposition to our “progressive” solutions?

But I have finally settled on a combination of the last one and one other. That being the illusionists’ tactic of never stopping a distraction while it can be of any use at diverting attention away from the sleeve which has the card inside it. So for now, I’m sticking with that conclusion because it’s the best one I could make up on short notice.

Seemingly, only a blind showman would ever select Nancy Pelosi as “the pretty assistant from the audience“, nevertheless, she is busy readying his biggest trick thus far, and that ace up his sleeve is the ever morphing health-care nationalization legislation which will set them up for the grand finale.

The President’s citizenship diversion is only one small part of the show, and we get distracted at our own peril. I don't believe the President is ineligible to hold our highest executive office, but if we get sideways on our attention, the final act in this magic show may make our rights disappear in a puff of socialist smoke.

Three Cheers for Rudeness

A mini fire storm has erupted in the media in regards to the rudeness of a congressman who lost track of where he was when he audibly blurted out his opinion of a whopper the President of the United States had just uttered to a joint session of congress.

As if it was a real news story, it is being covered by just about everyone with a keyboard or a TV camera pointed at them.
But the truth is, the rudeness "story" is a purposeful distraction designed by clever spin meisters and then parroted by the dim bulb "reporters",  in a media which seems enamored with changing the subject from the truth (or lack thereof) of what the president said, to how he was called on it.
The story they want you to focus on is all about the loss of civility,  in a society that has been anything but civil since the very beginning of our republic. A check of history yields so many rude attacks on the veracity of various presidents that they are too numerous to cite in this space. And even the arena of the insult isn't particularly rare. The former president, George Bush, was actually booed in that same venue by the very same folks who are righteously indignant this time around.

The (hopefully) soon to be deposed, and ever so polite senate majority leader, Harry Reid, called George Bush "a liar" way back in 2002 in a dispute about moving nuclear waste to his state's Yucca Mountain. And according to a web search, former President Harry Truman, once described Richard Nixon as "a shifty-eyed goddamn liar . . . He's one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides."
So much for civility in the past. Now, what about the current president?

He has been calling so many people liars lately, (not to mention other names) that I doubt if it even fazed him when the tables were turned, although the congressional joint session "outing" probably caught him a tad off guard. He hadn't planned on it and it wasn't on the teleprompter. I guess he ignored it, but I admit I wasn't watching.
Maybe his earlier call to have liberal operatives report the identity of any fellow citizens who say anything "fishy" about his government run health insurance scheme was merely a way to call them liars to their faces. If so, damn sporting of him I'd say!
In lieu of that, he has settled for saying (ad-nausem) that unnamed people were "lying" about his plan. Which is particularly difficult to do since he says there is no specific plan yet. And that is darn convenient as well if you are trying to get people to agree with something (in a hurry, as usual) which no one can describe in detail. As we all know, Lucifer hides in the details of grandiose plans.

Regular readers of my essays will remember that the Cato Institute ran some very respectful ads in many large newspapers across America which started with the line, "With all due respect Mr. President".
Those ads were a paragon of civility as they called the President on his lies. With the exception of you folks and a few others, no one much noticed. Those challenges to his integrity surely weren't the "news" stories that the recent crude approach has become.

The real story isn't news to anyone I know.  Birds fly and Politicians lie.
Republicans, Democrats and all the rest. They think, "you just can't handle the truth".

So what is the President's record on telling the truth? I'm afraid it is abysmal.
More importantly, does he lie on the so called "health-care" issue and did he lie about the issue in question regarding the inclusion of illegal aliens in accessing health-care insurance under a new law?  The answers are, yes and yes.
In various bills in various committees of congress, amendments have been proposed (that the president knows about) which would specifically exclude illegal aliens from participation and they have been voted down each time. (by Democrats by the way, which is beside the point)
And THAT is the real issue, not the rudeness of the person who exposed it in an inappropriate manner.

From my perspective, that is the truth about lying.  So, three cheers for bad manners when it comes to focusing attention on matters of this importance.

Even a polished speaker can have a slip of the truth.

Back in June, ABC “News” aired what the Investors Business Daily called an Infomercial for President Obama’s government run healthcare scheme. As reported by that newspaper, the President was asked during that shallow depth presentation if he and his family would abide by the rules, regulations, limitations, exclusions and restrictions of his healthcare “Reform”. I didn’t see the masquerade on TV myself, (apparently very few people did, it had abysmal ratings) but his answer to the question and refusal to pledge is a matter of record.

His reply? After ignoring the call to pledge to the same system we will be forced into, Obama admitted “If it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care”.
What I have called "the politicians life boat" in an earlier essay has just been secured to the ship for exclusive boarding as soon as the inevitable iceberg appears.

I’m sure the White House press corps would usually be disappointed in the low TV rating of the sales pitch but I’m also guessing that since what one blogger called “Obama’s Michael Dukakis moment”, they are feeling like they are whistling past the grave yard until the danger of discovery of his unintentional slip of the truth has passed.

It was an “AH HA” moment if ever there was one, but with the exception of the IBD, I have not heard it mentioned anywhere by anyone. Granted I have been out of town for a few days, but this happened back on June 24th so I’m guessing most of you have never heard of it either. Please let me know if you have just so I’m not laboring under a misconception about how the media toadies have swept this under the ever lumpier rug.

It just brings up another sad thing about the untimely passing of my favorite pitchman, Billy Mays. Had he been available to do the infomercial professionally, instead of sending out Obama to make the amateurish admission to what only the terminally gullible didn’t already know, the President’s political operatives might be humming now instead of whistling.




Addendum;
On July 16th, Rep. Dean Heller R-Nev. Offered an amendment to the House version of this monstrosity which would require that members of congress enroll in their own government run healthcare program.
Democrats defeated the amendment 23-18.

Cruising in perilous seas aboard the USS Healthcare

What should be the debate of our lifetimes has been on the horizon for a long while but has now come to within cannon range of the ship of state.
I say it should be the debate of our lifetimes, but now I’m not so sure it’s going to happen at all, much less be a vigorous exchange of well informed and rational ideas. The result may be a disaster of Titanic proportions.

Before I begin to explain my solution to the problem with healthcare in America, let’s try to identify exactly what the problem is and why it became a problem. Only then can we gain insights into what the system has become and what is being proposed to “fix” the system.

Despite political wailing to the contrary, it’s clear to anyone who does thoughtful analysis of (and comparisons to) healthcare in the rest of the world, that in this country we enjoy a very high level of care, a very high level of access, and a very high level of innovation. Indeed, people flock to these shores to receive the treatments they cannot get in their own countries in time to make a difference. It is especially true of countries who have already begun their own experiments in government provided “care”. Canada’s debacle is evident and would already be over if it’s citizens were forbidden to seek care in this country. We have provided the “steam control” valve for that boiler.

Which leaves the one problem that almost everyone agrees we need to solve. The dilemma is, we desire more care than we wish to pay for ourselves. The cost is “too” high. We would rather spend our money on other things. So this is the one true problem to which we all seek remedy.

The reason the price is high is the same as it is with every other commodity or service that has ever existed. Namely, the demand exceeds the supply at the price we wish to pay. If it sounds like I have chosen to relay something that is so obvious it is almost insulting to anyone reading it, please consider that most of the people who have selected the current crop of “fixers” are deeply in denial about that fundamental truth. They have been told the price is dear because of inefficiencies, greedy providers and the like, and sadly, they choose to believe those things, rather than the simple truth.

The excess demand for health care has been created by government policies. Some old policies, and some not so old. And if you think there is excess demand now, and therefore high prices because of those old and not so old policies, just wait until you get a bead on the new policies being readied for you and the even higher prices that come with them.

When government interfered with healthcare prices by allowing employers to compensate their employees with tax free health insurance, it caused a huge surge in demand for the services. The cost rose in response. That was one of the old policies I referred to.
Then, when government decided to take money from some people and give it to others to whom it did not belong in the form of Medicare and prescription drug benefits, understandably, demand went up some more and the cost rose some more.
When state governments decided that in order to get votes (power) they would vilify insurance companies for not writing policies that included coverage for almost everything that anyone wanted, (and could possibly be related to health in one way or another) demand went up and the cost went up some more.

These states were actually able to get the insurance companies themselves to agree with them in exchange for protection from competition and the huge profits to be made by charging for these spurious add-ons which enjoyed no great demand on their own. In other words, they cut a deal which we weren't in on.
The result of all these policies was the rapid and predictable rise in the cost of health insurance.

So, those are the main reasons for the cost being “too high”. The other factors most often mentioned (by advocates for government provided insurance) are quite small by comparison.
I can assure you that more government interference, which is the cause of the problem, will not be the cure for the problem. That would be the textbook definition of insanity.

As for the USS Healthcare, the course (government insurance) and speed (full steam ahead, just like the TARP bailouts and “stimulus” law) have been set by Captain Obama. But the icebergs are still there and the result will be dead people, just like the Titanic of old.
These dead people won’t be as easy to see as the bodies floating in the Atlantic in April of 1912. These people will be the unseen dead, the multitudes who die because they cannot get the tests or treatments they need, in time, or at all, in many cases. Many more will die from not taking the medications that will never be invented because of government run healthcare. Most people will never make the connection between the flotilla of corpses and the ship of fools.

I propose a different speed and direction for the liner, a carefully plotted course along a well traveled, proven route. The destination is an island, an imaginary Isle of Freedom. A place without busy-body armed thugs forcing people into a system where they have to pay for everything they don’t want, but do not receive the services they desperately need.
It would be a place where two or more private citizens could make arrangements among themselves to insure for the services they want, not those that have been mandated by politicians. America used to be such a Isle.

If a person living there wants to buy a high deductible, major medical policy to cover only “in hospital” care for catastrophic health issues such as accident or disease with no coverage for anything else and a company offers it at a price the person agrees to, he/she could purchase it without interference from government or anyone else. If you didn’t desire coverage for marriage counseling, obesity, insanity, substance abuse, skydiving accidents, maternity benefits, anger management or anything else, you wouldn’t be forced to pay for it.
If you desired coverage for all or any of those things, you would be free to arrange to have it provided at a price acceptable to both parties.

Ship's Captain Obama wants to form a newly created government company to provide “competition” for private companies. It’s nonsense of course. The result will be the end of private insurance. No one can compete with a company that has unlimited funds and no profit motive. And the people who profess to be “pro choice” on some medical questions are decidedly anti-choice when it comes to health insurance.

The cost of this insane legislation is estimated to be one TRILLION over the next decade. Keep in mind, the government has never overestimated the cost of any program it has implemented. A better bet is that it would be double that. We will never know except in retrospect.

Additionally, such a function of the federal government is not found as a listed power in the US Constitution and therefore is unconstitutional. (refer to the tenth amendment) Not that anyone on the healthcare ship gives a hoot about the Constitution. But that's a different topic.

It is not enough to oppose these dangerous and costly programs, one must be willing to propose alternate solutions, so now I’ll propose some things that the federal government can do about this “crisis”, something that is constitutional, and which I believe will immediately make things better. Things which, unlike vast new government programs and mandatory bureaucratic rules, can easily be undone if they prove ineffective. Things which expand choice and freedom and require no force to be used in their implementation. In other words, the American way as we have always understood it until recent times.

One of the few enumerated powers of the federal government is to regulate commerce between the states to be sure that goods and services flow freely. I believe that the congress should pass a law to override the anti-freedom laws of many states concerning health insurance. Those which mandate certain coverage and forbid competition by out of state companies. This is certainly an inter-state commerce question as envisioned by the founders.

I also believe that the tax policy of allowing deductions for providing health insurance to employees should be extended to the people themselves. Anyone who provides health insurance to anyone, including themselves, should be allowed to deduct that cost from their taxes. Further, all health expenditures should be deductible to whomever provides them. And lastly, any healthcare benefits received by anyone should be tax free to the recipient. The cost of this “government program” to this country? Zero.

And no, less tax revenue to the federal government is not a cost, despite what is taught at some goofy left wing schools.

These are the freedom/free-market solutions to our high costs. And they will work wonders if ever given a chance. More people with the health insurance they truly want, at a price set by the market, not some group of elitist health Czars. More people insured at lower prices. That is the goal, right?
And better treatments and medications being developed using the money that is saved by not being diverted to the “cause of the day” coverage.

However, I am not the Captain or even a crew member, so my suggestions will never be addressed on the bridge of this ship. As a passenger, I will probably go down with the ship though, with the Captain and crew floating away in the lifeboats afforded to the elite rulers in congress and the White House. They always make provisions to exempt themselves from the “cures” they impose on the rest of us. They have their own health plans and retirement plans quite apart from social security and other boondoggles.
Meanwhile, my children and grandchildren will be adrift along with yours.

Unfortunately, the supporters of this course will not drown at a different rate than those of us who spotted the icebergs. In death we all will finally be equal, because the destination this crew has set sail for, is the Isle of Equal Misery.