Archive for August, 2009
Are We The New National Socialists?
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 | General, Politics | No Comments
Those who don’t know their history are destined to repeat it and make fools of themselves. The right has been yelling about how the left is leading this country towards socialism and yet the right seems to be heading towards National Socialism. National Socialism is historically known by its German form Nationalsozialismus or Nazi for short.
I hesitate saying this because name calling has, of late, been an activity reserved for the right but there may be some validity to this. The Nazis were politically on the right,they were fanatical about their country they didn’t want any immigrants polluting their racial purity and after the war they tried to exonerate themselves from their atrocities with the plea “ We were only following orders”.
This” following orders” cop out seems to be the way our government is going to decide on the torture problem. The government seems to be waffling on whether they should hold people who were under direct orders from officials higher up responsible for their actions. Well what goes around comes around and usually bites you on the ass. The world and in particular the United States held German Nazis responsible and some of those faced death if they disobeyed the orders, which to me seems a lot more threatening then possibly losing your job.
We once faced a similar decision with the MyLai massacre where 300 -500 men , women and children were massacred. The only one convicted of a crime was William Calley. At the time, the press talked about indicting people up to and including The President. Then as now, the truly guilty will skate by.
Speaking of the truly guilty, Dick Cheney is ranting about how the torture helped keep America safe.The fact that most of the usable information was garnered before we proceeded with the illegal torture doesn’t get me as mad as something else. All this time I could have kept America safe by torturing someone, which means I didn’t have to have those cavity searches at the airport. On top of that Cheney is saying that we owe these torturers our thanks for preventing further attacks which is tantamount to denying that my efforts to prevent a further attack by brushing and flossing have amounted to nil.
I assume that Bowe Bergdahl the pfc captured by the aTaliban and facing a beheading is more then thankful that Cheney’s SS set the standard for torture at what we can get away with.
A Very Immodest Proposal
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 | Economics, Healthcare, Politics | 5 Comments
Blame it on the Republicans, they brought it up but I think in fairness we should at least consider it . Of course I am talking about the health care death panels.
The Republicans claim that the new health care bill has a provision in it that would allow for doctors to decide for the elderly when they should die. While it is inconcievable for me to think that doctors would want to take over a job that heretofore was left to God and the insurance companies that’s what the Republicans are saying. At first I was appalled at the thought but upon sober reflection I might see where it would have advantages.
When I used to go to Kmart they had a thing called the Blue Light Special. This was an item at a really low price that would last only a few minutes. People would crowd around a litle blue flashing light frantically grasping for a chance to get the sale item and in a lot of cases, I couldn’t understand why. Was it the item itself? No, because they would have bought it even if it was a Vanilla Ice record (Yes a record).
Perhaps the flashing blue light had mystical power that would make people do what you wanted them to do. No, cause I went around with a flashing blue light on my head and women still wouldn’t go out with me. What made it work was the time limit.
So maybe as we approach our later years, if we have an expiration date we might start clawing at enjoying life and appreciate it more. Instead of older people begging off doing things with the old refrain “No I can’t do that I’m too old” they might change it to “Hell yes I’m doing that, cause next week I go before the Death Panel.
I don’t know how this Death Panel would work though. Would relatives have a say in it? Cause that might prove to be a boon to the economy. Say you have a rich old aunt who is selfishly keeping her investments to live on. She has indicated that you may be the heir to her fortune but year after year with each new birthday you see “your” money being squandered by the old bitty on things like food. Now, if you were on the Death Panel you might soon be able to stimulate the economy with your modest yacht and Lamborghini purchases.Who would have thought that being on a Death Panel would be patriotic?
If we do institute this we may see an increase in healthier seniors, especially if the Panels have a physical fitness portion. We could televise it on pay per view which would defray the cost of the wonderful health care we are getting. Face it we all know that wrestling is staged and yet people pay millions to see that. Here we would have people literally fighting for their lives on television, I know I would pay to see that. I mean you haven’t lived till you’ve seen Seniors Dodgeball.
If we are really going to cost cut however we might want to consider an alternative. Maybe we should do away with babies. First of all they don’t vote, which could be a big stumbling block for the Senior Death Panels. Second anyone who has gone to a pediatrician knows that those immunizations cost a bundle, most of the old folk either have had the disease or the shots. Third with the possible exception of a few broken hips, senior aren’t as accident prone as children. Children are always skinning their knees something that seniors don’t often do. Not to mention the paucity of incidents of seniors putting peas up their noses.
I’m beginning to lean towards the idea of those Death Panels on two conditions: I get to serve on the Panel and I get an exemption from having to go before one.
P.S. Thanks to Jonathan Swift for the inspiration
Face the Nation
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | Life | No Comments
Blame it on my daughter,I almost forgot to write my blog. About two weeks ago she sent me an email that said she had pictures on the internet. I don’t get to see her family as often as I would like, so I was anxious to see the pictures. Their was one catch, in order to see the photos I had to join Facebook
Now I realize that lots of people are on Facebook and think it is great but I am not, by nature, what you would call, a Joiner or for that matter despite what the scientists say, am I sociable. At the last reunion for my family, my aunts, uncles and cousins were all asking “who’s that with Irene”.
My wife kept telling me to join also, and I was afraid that she would turn my whole family against me if I didn’t. I took the plunge, I mean what could be wrong with finding all the people from high school that I didn’t want to see when I was going to school.
Well I immediately realized why they call it a social network. They push you to contact people that have any relation to you. My wife was quick to put on my page that I was married to her. This in turn made facebook assume that despite the fact that my wife went to a high school in another state than me and did it twelve years later than me that I would have some connection to these people who went to school with her. It dawned on me that Facebook is like a giant game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. Combined with that is the ads on the right side that says find out who searched for you and above the ad is a picture of a woman who thus far has been, judging from her picture, a melon salewoman and it seems to indicate that this woman is looking for me. I will have to ask my wife if this is the same for her but I feel that a Chippendale’s salesman is searching for her.
Then I noticed in the upper right that Someone had invited me to join Mafia Wars which if you haven’t played is like virtual cocaine. In order to get ahead in this game you have to recruit everyone in your Six Degree Queque to continue the game. I even joined the Pirates game so I would have something to do while my energy was replenishing. This is getting to the point where I will be playing Fashion Wars for the same reason soon. They get you hooked on this and then if you are willing to buy extra energy you can use your credit cards to buy more. The good news is that soon you may be able to turn tricks if you are short on credit ( this is not true but if there are any women short on credit, I have some ((this will never make it past my censor, wife, so just disregard this fantasy))) .
Anyway I am on Facebook and I am hooked on Mafia Wars but I’m thinking of going into the Rehab Wars to kick my addiction.
Shout! Shout!
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | Healthcare, Politics | 2 Comments
Once again, the healthcare czars are enlisting the uninformed to do their work. Their latest tactic is to try to stop information by shouting at anyone who actually wants health care.
According to the numbers, the majority of Americans want a public option for healthcare. I can’t for the life of me think of why anyone, other then the healthcare industry, would not want a public option.
There was a time, a few years ago, when I didn’t have healthcare and I went to a doctor for a checkup and he charged me $125. Three months later I went again and he charged me $89. The difference was in that three months I had obtained healthcare. So when I didn’t have healthcare and I needed a break, one of those people who used to charge according to a person’s ability to pay decided that I was more able to pay the higher rate than the multi million or billion dollar health insurance company. So it seems that the bigger the organization the bigger the savings. Think how cheap healthcare will be when we have the largest organization paying the bills
You could argue that the government couldn’t do as good a job as the private sector but that ’s why it is called an option. If it doesn’t work for you then go back to your company paid plan. I only hope that with the economy still in trouble that you won’t need the public option when you lose your job. When I left a job they offered me the option of continuing my healthcare on the COBRA plan, all I needed was an extra $1000 a month.
I realize that many people think that the Government can’t run anything efficently but these people have obviously never heard of the IRS. So I would suggest that the people shouting have nothing to shout about. The healthcare bill does not endorse killing the elderly or any of the more outrageous ideas that they are shouting about,although it might include care for the emotionally or mentally challenged so maybe I stand corrected.