Oops.

Observations:

#2:  Republicans *appearing* to worship at the feet of the insurance companies.

#5: Your Father and your Mother need more than just catastrophic medical insurance.

#6: You are killing me, and many others with your LIES. And I don't mean figuratively or rhetorically.  I mean LITERALLY KILLING ME.

#7:  You are fucking all of us, now and continually.  You don't even kiss us first, let alone buy us dinner.

#8: You are stealing millions, even billions of dollars from the American Citizens every day by refusing to take care of this issue.

#9:  You lie.  See #6.  You lie all over the damned place.

Give me time on #10. I'm sure there's something in there too.

We CAN Afford This!

Read: CAN!

I decided I wasn't going to present figures for this argument.  Here's my challenge to you - if you disagree in any way, even the slightest little bit, I'm putting it on YOU to prove me wrong.  I invite you to provide documentable evidence to contradict me.

Eric Won'tor said we can't afford this health care proposal currently being discussed in the President's Health Care Summit.  That's the same as saying, I can't afford to buy my groceries at Safeway.  Well, not with the cash in my right pocket.  But if I dig into my left pocket, check book or debit card, the money's clearly there.  I don't really agree that the proposal on the table is the right one, but it's what we have to work on at the moment.

I use my state to start with.  My state spends five-big (read: $5 billion) annually through our state's department of Labor & Industries, in the payment of medical claims and fraud investigations for injuries claimed by employees to have occurred while working for their paychecks.  Time loss payments come from a different fund.

Every state has a similar department, with similar numbers, per capita.

This state generally declines most claims (not all states do, granted), forcing workers to hire a lawyer and defend their claims, costing the state even more.  Why does this happen?  Because if people get hurt playing around on Sunday and they don't have insurance, they commonly don't have any way to pay for their injuries, so they make it to work on Monday, and, oops! fall at work or some darned thing, just to get it covered.  The dance between employee and employer with these claims is extraordinary - it's not good.

There's always the argument that it costs more for the state to fight the fraudulent cases than it does to go ahead and cover them.  Tripping over a dollar to save a dime is just stupid.

If these people had some sort of automatic universal coverage, there would be no need whatsoever for the state to pay medical claims or to investigate the fraud.  This state, or any other.

Same things goes for Veteran's Administration.  The medical care component could be assumed under a national plan.  After all, if vets have automatic coverage under a national plan, what's the point of keeping the VA's medical component?

With each state contributing the dollars currently spent, the dollar savings, I would bet, would actually be substantial because you'd be eliminating duplication of services, and there would be no necessity for fraud on the individual claims level.

All the myriad of displaced workers working in 50+ state/federal departments could easily find work in the newly robust health care system.

Please read the book, The Healing of America by T.R. Reid.  It does a good job of outlining many international health care systems, public and private and variations of both.

Where am I wrong on this?  The gauntlet's on the ground.  I challenge you - let's hear it!

Cough! CouBULLSHITgh!

In the early morning hours, as the radio alarm clock was playing, I heard a comment about how members of Congress are becoming frustrated with a "broken system".

"There are many fine people in Congress."  I specifically heard that one.  Then this person went on to say, "But the system is broken."  Really?

So what?  The solution is to, you know, leave?  Give up?

Can I?  Can I call BULLSHIT now?

A "system" does not live and breathe.  An elected member of Congress does.  A "system" does not make decisions on how it will work.  Members of Congress do.  A "system" does not take bribes.  Or perks.  Congressmen...

Fix it you fools.

Or, is the plan that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em?  Yeah, the one where you too become a lobbyist and go forth and rape the constituents without worrying about being voted out of office?

All I can hear is George Carlin saying, it's all "high quality bullshit".

Naw, That's Just Silly

Maybe I just grew up in a simpler time.

I grew up in L.A.  The "Wild West" by all accounts.  I remember seeing the smoke from the Watts Riots (the first Watts Riots in '65).  I've lived in the Pacific Northwest for the last twenty years, and I've noticed a startling occurrence.

The cops in Portland Oregon shoot a lot of people.  I mean, A LOT.  According to copwatch.org, there's been more than 50 in just the last 10 years.  The most recent shooting of a young, unarmed man distraught over his brother's death, has resulted in turmoil for the city of just over a half a million residents.  Maybe it's just me, but that just seems like a lot, even to someone who grew up in L.A.

I sometimes make comments, off the cuff, that are relatively silly.  I did so around 2006 after another young man, mentally ill, was shot by a Portland Police Officer.

I said, "geez, you'd think they could, like you know, use a lasso or something on these guys - it could prove a lot less lethal."

Four years later, and I've thought about that comment a number of times.  Yes.  I grew up writing school reports about Will Rogers, and I regularly visited with my family the ranch and inn owned by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.  Perhaps I was predisposed to the whole cowboy thing.

But seriously, I've seen many a cowboy and charro execute phenomenal lassoing techniques.  Beyond the obviously silly, maybe it's true that guns shoot to kill, tazers don't work on the people they're needed most on, and bean bag guns...well, those are just stupid.

The hysterical thought comes in thinking about retraining cops to use a lasso - a skill that takes hours (read: years) to master (which is presumably why it's not used).  Just think of all the YouTube vids of all the cops getting caught up in their own ropes!

Then again...maybe there would be just one less dead kid out there on the streets.  I mean, do we have to shoot them?  Really?  If you're a cop, and you're that scared of a frightened kid, you should hang it up.

I actually am a fan of law enforcement - they've saved my bacon a few times over the years, and for all those times, I am incredibly grateful to all of you.  For all of you who've managed to find solutions to disastrous situations without killing anyone, I forever thank you.

In case you're interested, here's a video of some trick roping I found.  It's kind of interesting, and certainly nostalgic.