Friday, October 19, 2007

HIATUS



take care, ya'll...

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Randomly Incoherent Thoughts On The Looming Debacle

Universal Healthcare.
You hear about all the time.
It's coming, whether you are ready for it or not.
Its become the new 'basic right' of the political talkers.
Even this terminology is a lie. Healthcare, paid for by somebody else, is not a right.This is an entitlement.
A right is free to all, to be guaranteed and safeguarded by The Power, and costs a third party nothing.
Test this idea yourself. Does the right to free speech guarantee a taxpayer funded newspaper on every doorstep?
Does the right to bear arms mean the government is obligated to provide guns and ammo?
I'm not opposed to universal health care. Who could be against something like that, anyway.
What I'm opposed to is government run health care dressed up in bullshit terminology.
A pig by any other name is still a pig.
And calling socialism "universal" is still socialism.

What will be the effect of socializing the health care industry?
What makes people think that the same government that couldn't keep a bridge from falling down can do medicine right?
It sounds like a stretch to compare bridges to medicine, but in my view the stretch in the other direction.
Bridges, and their construction, are science. Exact. Precise. We know for sure what it takes to keep it in the air. There's not much guess work involved. It'll either work, or not.
Medicine ain't so simple. As much art as it is science, lots of educated guesswork is involved in getting a diagnosis right. And what cures most, wont cure all.
Who ya gonna blame, who will be accountable, when a misdiagnosis is made?
When talented, and gifted, professionals decide the govt isn't worth dealing with anymore, who will pay the costs in lost lives? New medicines not discovered? New techniques not tried?
Will the government set pay scales for doctors? Most definitely. Part of government control involves price fixing. Strange ain't it? We like our baseball players to get paid monstrous salaries which leads to ever greater perfection of their craft, but haven't stopped to consider what price controls would do to the future of medicine.
Will there be price controls on how much lawyers get paid suing doctors? Somehow, I doubt that, since it will be lawyers ultimately writing, and approving, the legislation. H
How many lives have lawyers saved? How many new cancer breakthroughs are discovered in a courtroom?
Can you show me one person brought back from the brink of death by John Edwards? Given this,can you really justify his level of wealth compared to any doctor?

Will the lawmakers be served under the same health care coverage? Or will there be one system for them, and one for us, like it is now?
Can any senator rightfully, and morally, claim that he deserves better care than any one member of our military? Well, they currently do now. You really think this will change when we go to government medicine?

For me, there is only one over riding principle when deciding health care policy:
The most good, to the most people, for the longest length of time.

And there ain't no way in hell I'm going to trust this to the same people who couldn't deliver water to their own charges in the Superdome.

It's Good To Know There isn't Anything Important To Cover

First, it was three nooses hanging from an shade tree at a Louisiana school

Then, it was noose hanging inside a police department locker room.

Another one Ground Zero.

With Columbia University not to be left out,either.

The latest is a two-fer hanging from a forklift on Long Island.

All of this is national news.

Is it really racism rearing it's head in some of the nation's most liberally minded bastions: New England and a public high school.

Or maybe there is just a rash of pranksters taking advantage of a bored media to get some anonymous headlines.

Friday, October 12, 2007

This Week's Picks

Chicago BEARS! over Minnesota by 6

Green Bay over Washington by 3

New York Giants over Atlanta by 4

Dallas v New England Total Points: over 53

all four pays 12-1
Do you ever get the idea that some recognitions have lost their meaning?

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

If We Run Out,We Can Just Print More

First it was $5,000 for every baby born.
Now, it's free 401k money.

I refuse to sell my vote so cheaply.
When she starts talking about free houses, gasoline and groceries for middle class incomes, then I'll vote for her.

Until then, I'm sticking with Ron Paul.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Just Keep Passing The Collection Plate Right Past Me

The Catholic Diocese of Orange County recently settled four sex abuse lawsuits concerning allegations against lay teachers(not clergy) at three Orange County schools. This time, no priests or boys were involved (ain't that a switch?).
[LINK]

One case in particular jumped out at me.
The move to settle came a week before the anticipated jury trial in the case of a woman called Jane C.R. Doe. The former Mater Dei High School student said Catholic officials were partially responsible for her abuse by former assistant basketball coach Jeff Andrade. The former student alleged she had been abused for two years by Andrade, starting in 1995, when she was a minor.
This gal was freshman basketball player, who had sex with an assistant coach. Due to her age, I guess it falls under the legal definition of abuse. But was it, really?
In her deposition, she testified Andrade first accosted her in the coach's office, grabbed her, groped her and forced her to have oral sex. Later, she had sex with him at the school, in his car, in his house and in Las Vegas.
I doubt she was just randomly accosted, or forced to have sex. Flirtatious signals were sent,I'm sure. Taken advantage of, yes. But forced?
I'm not buying it.
If she didn't like screwing and blowing the coach, I'm sure she could have stopped the activities.
I've had a teenage daughter, and still do. I can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do. And I doubt this girl was much different.
And if my daughter came home from practice all upset, and told me what her coach tried to do, I assure you all, his testicles would be hanging from the marquis before nightfall. And I don't think I'm much different from any other Dad in this respect.

I suspect what we have here is a sexually active teen who gave it up to the coach. And a coach who was behaving way out of line, and should be in prison to say the least. Keep in mind, also, this was a basketball player. Girls who play basketball are not generally the weaker of the weaker sex. In all my observations, nobody messed with a basketball chick who didn't want to be messed with. That's just the way it was.
I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

So, this gal is going to receive a million dollars for bad decisions she made when she was 14 and 15. Decisions she continued to make for two years but later found a way to blame on somebody else.

To be sure...
The Church hierarchy brought much of this shit on itself, and I'm not raising a finger to defend their crimes.
And there must be reason (i.e. something to hide?), why they want to avoid trials on so many of these cases.
But there sure seems to be a bit of 'piling on' with all the piglets sucking at the teet for a payout.
And with all the covering up that appears to be going on, I don't think we're going to see the end of it anytime soon.

And is why I haven't put a dollar in the plate in over four years.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

What happens when one crotchity old cat finds one fresh new shoebox?


Contentment.

Princess Diana: Ten Years Later

She's still dead.
Let it go, already.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007