No Posts Today

I got beat yet again in my tennis league by someone fatter than I am so rest and recuperation is the motif. No posts today.

Sweet Revenge

Glenn Beck took the top rating in the key demographic of 25-54 year olds over Bill O'Reilly, who maintained his usual massive audience, and netted over 3 million viewers while he rages against the machine. I'm guessing some of those advertisers might want to come back, if they were ever there at all.

I Do Not Have To Agree to Disagree

I was speaking with a friend today and mentioned that roughly 85% of the country has health care insurance. He did not believe me and said we'd have to agree to disagree on this. I'm not writing this to show him up or prove I'm smarter. I'm writing this to let the reader know that my purpose is righteous and that I only seek to bring truth to those willing to listen. Because my arguments, if I'm quoting numbers or if there is something I assert as fact, it is because I can back it up. I don't just throw out statistics to support my point without knowing that they are not supportable and I usually will use the estimate that hurts my argument most to avoid distortion. So I don't have to agree to disagree.

Let's assume for one second that the administration is not using an exaggerated number when it says that there are 47 million people without insurance in this country (and I'll get to destroying this myth in a bit). At the end of 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population at 305 million and counting. Lets simplify this by increasing the number of insured to 50 million and decreasing the overall population to 300 million. It is clear then, that 1/6 of the country has no health care insurance, leaving 5/6 of the country as insured. I've done the math in my head as well as a calculator and reached the same result: 83 1/3 % of the country has insurance (or if you use the real numbers 84.59%). I will give the liberals credit in that the U.S. Census Bureau is the source of the 47 million number. They can latch on to bad news like a parasite to your small intestine.

OK, so now let's look at the 47 million uninsured. Non-citizens, who make up 7% of the population, account for 21% of the uninsured. A number which likely cannot be accurately calculated, but surely makes up a large portion of people between the ages of 18 and 40 is those who choose not to purchase coverage even though they could afford it (like me) because they'd rather use the money elsewhere. Let's also ignore EMTALA, the federal law that requires stabilization of patients before they can be transferred to another facility or allowed to leave. Further, let's ignore that emergency rooms across the nation provide care with the knowledge that they'll have to write off the bills. We also need to ignore that some states provide health care systems (Louisiana charity system) or mandate that hospitals provide a certain amount of care each year as charity (Texas at 5%) or that they have enacted a universal coverage system of their own (Massachusetts, broke, Oregon, no chemo, but we'll pay for assisted suicide, it's cheaper). Finally, let's pretend that there is no such thing as a charity hospital (like oh, say, Shriners International). It's also questionable how many of those uninsured are eligible for existing federal programs.

What you see from the above is that it takes a lot of pretending to believe that there is any sort of health care crisis in this country or that we have some horrible system of health care. Is it costly? Yes. Insurance drives costs up, not down as our economically challenged (or perhaps he's differently abled) President seems to believe.

My friend believes that we have a moral obligation to provide health care to all citizens, which he cannot get due to a preexisting condition. I believe that I have an obligation to do what I can to see that all people get health care. I have no idea what your moral obligation is, and I'm not willing to use the government to dictate a moral obligation to you (ironic how a group of people famous for screaming about how government should not influence their religion have no problem invoking it to dictate everyone else's morals). Maybe it's because people like Vice President Joe Biden doesn't believe in charity that they think government must act (he averaged $369.00 a year). Maybe it's because President Obama proposed removing tax exemptions for charity.

Or maybe I'm right. I think I've set out an argument even the most liberal person would have trouble disputing. I hope my friend knows that if he ever needed care he couldn't afford, I'd do everything in my power to get it taken care of, short of forcing others to pay for it, but I do not have to agree to disagree.

OK, Let's Talk Truth About Death Panels

There has been a good bit of backing away from the Death Panel moniker given by Sarah Palin by conservatives of late, with many saying they don't exist and never did. I give you the great head fake. Sarah Palin mentioned that she didn't want to worry about an Obama death panel denying care for Trig, her son with Down Syndrome. The supporters of the bill immediately pointed to the end of life counseling provisions saying there is no death panel. Talk show host fled away from the idea that end of life counseling constitutes a death panel. Rush Limbaugh supported the idea that end of life care was a death panel based on the VA death counseling handbook, which really makes it seem like it is suggesting taking the quickest way down. Sean Hannity followed. Most conservatives backed away from the use of the term, even as the provision was removed from the House version of the bill due to negative press.

Anyone notice what's wrong with this debate? I'll give you a hint. Sarah Palin was right and not in the same way that Rush was. Trig is a newborn. She was never referring to the end of life counseling when she coined the term death panel. She was talking about the panel of experts that decide what care is efficient and when. She was concerned that a Down Syndrome child who will likely never give a substantial contribution to society (other than smiling constantly and loving hugs, which is honestly probably the best contribution possible) would be denied care for such rudimentary things as colds because of the waste of resources. This expert panel does exist in the various bills. It would make treatment decisions for everyone in the country. And it would literally take an act of Congress to override their decisions. No appeals, no mercy, no treatment.

The greatest deception the Devil ever made was convincing man he didn't exist. Watch the terms the argument is made on before you've lost the point.

President Obama: Statesman, Politician, Ideologue, Moron and Asshole

Another great article from the American Thinker detailing the insults the President has leveled and what groups he has offended, including our closest natural ally, the United Kingdom.

A few thoughts of my own related to the article (you'll have to read it first to get the comments). Why does our president think that orthopedists treat diabetes? Or that the family doctor is going to be the one removing your child's tonsils?

I normally don't mind when our leaders offend France, but Nicolas Sarkozy is the closest thing to a friendly leader we've seen in France since they sent troops for the Revolution.

The Russian misstep is just hilarious.

His comments on Clarence Thomas after nominating the hack judge Sonia Sotomeyor are amazingly ignorant, especially for a supposed constitutional scholar.

What does the pattern suggest to you? A rookie political operative making honest mistakes? Or maybe an ideologue who thinks he so far above everyone else he just doesn't think about them?

As We Enshrine Senator Kennedy Among the Saints

An excellent recounting of the Chappaquiddick incident from the American Thinker:

For those readers unfamiliar with the events at Chappaquiddick Island, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1969, here are the salient facts:

After a party on the island, Senator Edward Kennedy was driving a young staff worker, Mary Jo Kopechne somewhere late that night. He later said he was driving her to her hotel. She had, however, left her hotel key and pocketbook at the party.

Kennedy drove off the bridge to the mainland and plunged the car into the Poucha Pond inlet.

Kennedy managed to extricate himself with the car which was filling up with water. He later claimed that he had tried swimming to the car several times. Instead of immediately notifying the police he called a "Kennedy advisor." Kennedy spent the rest of that night huddled with "Kennedy advisors" to come up with a story. Later, Kennedy and two "Kennedy advisors" went to the scene of the accident and tried to swim to reach the car. None of the men thought they should notify the police.

Later Kennedy went back to his hotel room where he complained during the night that he couldn't sleep because of a loud party. That next morning Kennedy chatted with the winner of a sailboat race. Then Kennedy met with the same two "Kennedy advisors." The three men then went back to the scene of the accident. Still no one called the police. Using a pay phone there, Kennedy did call friends asking for advice.

Around that time fishermen had spotted the car in the water and called the police. A police diver later testified that, "Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car"

Kennedy who was standing nearby at a pay phone and saw the police had discovered the body. The police had run the license plate and discovered that the car belonged to Kennedy.

At around 10:00 AM Kennedy presented himself (with "Kennedy advisors") at the police station.

By the time he presented himself to the police a sobriety test was impossible.

The judge at the inquest decided that some of Kennedy's testimony about the events that night were lies. Nevertheless Kennedy was not prosecuted for anything more than leaving the scene of an accident. He got a two-month suspended sentence. The judge said that Kennedy had an "unblemished record" and that he had "been, and will continue to be punished far beyond anything this court can impose."

A man whose shtick was about fairness and equality was only too happy to be treated by Massachusetts officials in a manner no person not named Kennedy would be treated. The rest of us would have been sent to jail for criminally negligent homicide (at the least).

July 18, 2009 was the 40th anniversary of Mary Jo Kopechne's homicide. She would have been 68 today.

One of the more insightful comments on the blog is that this "friend of the working class" passed away at his home in Hiannis Port, one of the wealthiest and most elite areas in the country.

And the Lies Just Keep on Rolling

Despite blame being laid at the feet of those unruly people protesting health care reform, the vandalism of Democratic Party Headquarters in Colorado was perpetrated by a Democrat. In fact, it was a setup by the Service Employee's International Union, which shares an address with ACORN among many other groups that are supporters of President Obama and tied in to his administration. The concerted campaign of disinformation from the left is being used to try and villify anyone who disagrees with the administration. But then, President Obama always thought people were just a bunch of white hicks clinging to their guns and religion.