Name:
While I do not agree with the author that "we agree that basic health insurance should be universal" if what he means is that I should be forced to pay for yours, I do think there's a lot of sense in what he's saying. If we're going to be forced by Obama and Co. to buy a bill of goods, shouldn't it at least be the bill most likely to provide some tangible benefit AND be sustainable in some basic sense?
If you've raised children over the past 40 years, you've seen "Sesame Street." For years, "Sesame Street" had a segment featuring this song: "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong."
There were always four objects. Three of them were very similar, while the fourth was distinct. Young viewers were challenged to discern which object was different.
My kids are older now, but as a physician, I have been reminded of "Sesame Street" as Congress undertakes debate over health reform, especially the so-called public option -- a government-funded and managed insurance plan supporters claim will provide choice and competition in health care.
Public option proponents like to predict that this new optional insurance will work "just like Medicare, but for everyone," a line that sends chills of sheer terror through medical providers.
Medicare has four parts: Parts A through C and Part D, the fairly recent prescription drug benefit implemented by the Bush administration. Let's put Medicare to the Sesame Street test. A and B are wholly government-funded and operated. C is different, but still government-run. All are effectively single-payer systems.
In contrast, Part D is federally funded and organized, but administered by private insurance providers. Market competition impacts its costs. Which of these parts is not like the others?
Read this physician's answer and the implications here:
'Sesame Street' holds key to health care
Labels: Health, ObamaNation
After a full week of vigorous (euphemism for "torturous") physical therapy, I am definitely much stronger than I was last week. Thank God for some really good therapists and a location very close to our house.
Despite my semi-isolation, it's been a fun, loud week at Granny's House. Baking marathons, shopping trips, little-girl sleepovers, late movie nights, water fights in six inches of a splash pool, and the annual swapping of sister clothes and shoes have brought all the smiles we're used to when we're blessed enough to have all the kids and grandkids in the same place for even a few weeks.
I can't claim to get in Sarah Palin's head and know all the reasons that prompted her to make the decision to resign. What I do know is that as I've watched her since the election, I've often wondered if I'd be willing to stay in a situation that continues to devastate her family. Ironically, the very "ethics" rules she put in place to combat a state full of corrupt politicians became the weapon of choice of her enemies as they have slowly and painfully drained her family of resources, forcing her to defend herself against ridiculous charges. But whatever her explanations, she will continue to be ridiculed and marginalized by the left and by elements of the so-called "big tent" right who are embarrassed by her very existence. At least now she can breathe and take some time to think about whether she wants to continue to subject herself and her family to more of the same in the run-up to 2012...
Planning an airline trip this summer or fall? Check out this handy comparison of the fees charged by the different carriers for checking bags, changing itinerary, sending unaccompanied minors, etc. The fees can really make a difference! (Click on the chart to enlarge.) The State of the American Airline Industry
The Papa has been monitoring the attendance and activities at the Tea Parties around the country this weekend. Not that you'd have heard much about it anywhere else, what with all the MJ-All-The-Time coverage and the mainstream media's reluctance to even acknowledge the rising discontent in the country over the economic "fixes" we're enduring. But it is interesting to see how many folks braved heat and rain yesterday to make sure their voices were heard.
And speaking of weather, San Antonio is experiencing one of the hottest, driest summers on record. The upside is that our economy here is one of the best in the country--not that it's great anywhere right now, but if you're willing to endure three-digit days and brown lawns, you can live in a place with fairly low unemployment, still-booming housing and hotel industries, a state with no income tax and no budget deficit, and a business environment that is attracting employers coming from both coasts. But did I mention it's really hot?
I'm enjoying a little book called Life's Little Annoyances: True Tales of People Who Just Can't Take It Anymore. There's something therapeutic about hearing other people's strategies for dealing with phone menu loops, rude clerks, junk mail, rejection letters, etc. Amazon has it for a bargain price, so get a copy and make yourself feel a little better :-)
Last night I dreamed that I went out with the kids in the yard and did cartwheels. Hope your dreams for the summer are just as fun but more realistic ;-) Have a great week!
Labels: Books, Family, Health, Political Action, Political Observation, Vacations, Weather
And they will be.
After being asked when the public should begin judging the success of the nearly $800-billion stimulus plan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered, "I think we should begin to judge it now."
Let's take his advice.
The administration warned that if we failed to support a stimulus package, unemployment would hit a dire 9 percent by 2010. With the stimulus, unemployment, it claimed, would stay in the 8-percent range.
This week, the Labor Department announced that the jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, higher than any time since August 1983.
It's not as if the administration was close. As the New York Times notes, "the difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It's as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice."
Don't get too dejected, though. We still have an economic plan with a heaping dose of hope.
Surely, you'll feel better when the president begins doling out his two-pronged, faith-based explanation — and if we're lucky, he'll do it at a "town hall" meetings with approximately 100 of his closest friends.
First, you should always assume things could have been worse.
If you can stomach the particulars, go on reading:
Labels: ObamaNation
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another.
The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
Labels: Science
BASEL (Reuters) - Financial products should be treated like medicines and sold to consumers only when they are certified safe to prevent a repeat of last year's financial meltdown, the world's central bankers said on Monday.
First regulate drugs, then food, then cigarettes, then transfats, and now mutual funds. Why should we be surprised??
Central banks seek rankings for financial products
Labels: Theater of the Absurd
Living life almost exclusively from a recliner for a few weeks is a good way to gain perspective on a lot of things. In the past few years I've not been particularly active anyway, so it's not like I came to a dead stop from a full run, but it has enforced a certain amount of inactivity even though I'm technically "ambulatory." I don't enjoy asking folks to wait on me for the simplest things...but I have learned to appreciate aspects of the stillness and the time to think, read, process, and plan. Three more weeks of non weight-bearing and I'll begin to integrate into a more normal life again. In the meantime, I am attempting to squeeze all I can out of this unexpected sequestration...
Annie, Caleb, Erin, and Judah are on their way! If everything goes according to plan, they will roll in here some time Tuesday night to begin our summer of fun :-)
I've finally gotten a clear enough head (depending on the hour) to start thinking about rearranging our room so it doesn't once again become, quite literally, my downfall. The traffic patterns and the bedding and other features of the room are not conducive to avoiding falls, so painful as it is, I'm giving up some of the things I love to make sure I can walk, which I love even more. I'm pretty helpless to do much about it myself, so everything right now depends on ordering other people around, also not my favorite thing to do (though several of my kids would dispute this). Moving right now is out of the question, so we have to find ways to make this place work... (And thanks to Lyric for prodding me into making some of these hard decisions!)
Can I just say right now that if I start trying to pay several of you a couple hundred thousand dollars a month to sit in my room and give me large doses of prescription painkillers, just say no? Hearing about the dangerous cocktails that have killed so many celebrities and recognizing the names of the drugs from the little pharmacy at my side WORRIES ME! I'll be so glad to get back to the place where my pain can be controlled with Motrin!
Congrats to friends Kelly and Tami on the start of their new business, South Texas Technology Solutions. We've had to rely on Kelly's Solutions many times and are so glad to see that he'll be making a living doing what he truly loves! Go Kelly!
Yeah, if you want to come and see me this week and you go past a Long John Silver's on your way, I love the crab cakes. My appetite has been the pits since my accident and I'm wracking my brain trying to think of things to eat that sound good. True, my activity level is low and I don't need a lot of food, but getting even a few bites down each day is a challenge.
Since we won't be taking an out-of-town vacation this year as planned, we just bought 24 season passes to Fiesta Texas (Six Flags). The Papa has bought a little splash pool for the kids, and together with the trampoline and the grill, we should make good use of the deck. Also planning some little crafts to do with the grandkids and a tea party with the littlest girls, as well as a night or two with all 27 of us camping out here at Granny's House. We might take a short trip to north Texas to see extended family and include a zoo or botanical gardens trip while there, but mostly we'll be enjoying each other very close to home.
Hug each other close and try not to take for granted the gift of...walking :-)
Labels: Family, Food, Friendship, Fun, Health, Homemaking, Vacations
Something seems off with our young president. He appears jarred. Difficult history has come over the transom. He seemed defensive and peevish with the press in his Tuesday news conference, and later with Charlie Gibson on health care, when he got nailed by a neurologist who suggested the elites who support a national program seem not to mind rationing for other people but very much mind if for themselves. All this followed the president's first bad numbers. From Politico, on Tuesday: "Eroding confidence in President Barack Obama's handling of the economy and ability to control spending have caused his approval ratings to wilt to their lowest level since taking office, according to a spate of recent polls." Independents and some Republicans who once viewed him sympathetically are "becoming skeptical."
You can say this is due to a lot of things, and it probably is, most especially the economy, which all the polls mentioned. But I think at bottom his problems come down to this: The Sentence. And the rough sense people have that he's not seeing to it.
For an understanding of the concept of The Sentence, read yesterday's column by the inimitable Peggy Noonan. Her insight can tell us a lot about why things are "off"...
To-Do List: A Sentence, Not 10 Paragraphs
hat tip: Lyric
Labels: ObamaNation, Political Observation
Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was a care package I received yesterday from some new friends I've never even met in person. We are readers of each other's blogs and we've carried on a bit of email and f-mail correspondence and a phone call or two, but that's it. This little box contained a lovely CD set, some fun homemade body butters and soaps, but the most fun of all was the T-shirt in the box, proving that these friends really do pay attention:
If you need to ask, you haven't been reading my blog long enough ;-)Thank you SO much to Kendra and Lisa and their families, for the new friendships and the thoughtfulness.
(And if you think you've spotted Galt, do let me know.)
Labels: Books, Friendship
Nearly as tragic as the life and death of Michael Jackson is the fact that Liz Taylor now has an "empty" life without him. Proof that the most charmed life in the world can't protect you from feeling alone and meaningless with the baubles begin to crumble:
"My heart…my mind… are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can’t imagine life without him. We had so much in common and we had such loving fun together. I was packing up my clothes to go to London for his opening when I heard the news. I still can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. It can’t be so. He will live in my heart forever but it’s not enough. My life feels so empty. I don’t think anyone knew how much we loved each other. The purest most giving love I’ve ever known. Oh God! I’m going to miss him. I can’t yet imagine life with out him. But I guess with God’s help... I’ll learn. I keep looking at the photo he gave me of himself, which says, 'To my true love Elizabeth, I love you forever.' And, I will love HIM forever."
~~Elizabeth Taylor
Labels: People
Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.
Read the rest here:
The Climate Change Climate Change
Labels: Science
