I am headed for the beach and the healthy icy-cold salt water for the weekend. Beach scenery by Theo, who has tons of good stuff posted.
A. Elmer Crowell's Cape Cod decoys
Dalrymple: There is no right to health care.
Population of illegals is dropping
Why you ought to be able to buy a kidney. h/t, Cafe Hayek
Do as the Green Gods say, not as they do
Organic food isn't "healthy." h/t, Dr. Helen. We've been saying that for years. It's magical thinking, and a goofy fad.
The O's Science Czar wants to give trees legal standing. The guy needs to get back on his meds.
Our friend Sipp is featured in Cottages and Bungalows magazine - a magazine without which our truant Dylanologist cannot do.
Repubs unveil their own medical insurance plan
Peggy Noonan: Americans say slow down the hopey-changey
Drudge notes that this is the 12th Obama Time Magazine cover photo in 12 months. Maybe they are reading the polls.
Another prominent limo Lib has second thoughts. h/t, Riehl
Reason TV: The case against college as an entitlement
No, every other developed nation does not have government medical care
Related, from Neo-neo:
America is not in favor of the solution they want, or the one Obama is offering. That may not matter to them—after all, they know better than stupid Americans, and we should be wanting what our intellectual and moral superiors on the Left think we should want. But it is certainly a fact that, despite the 2008 election results, America has still not turned sufficiently to the Left for most of these people.
And Obama has been foundering of late as a leader. This should be completely unsurprising—after all, if you look at his history, why would he be a leader?
Related: Paul Krugman blows it (video). h/t, Insty. No, Canadians do not like their medical system. Nor do the people of Massachusetts: they have a mess up there.
From Marginal Rev:
If insurance companies do avoid covering people who are "likely to need care," this suggests that the uninsured are unhealthy. But 60% of the uninsured are in excellent health (Table 10) (In fact, overall the uninsured are only slightly less healthy than the insured).
To be sure, this doesn't mean that being uninsured is not a problem but, contra Paul, it does mean that insurance companies would be willing to cover most of the uninsured at the same rates as the insured if the uninsured could or would pay those rates. In Paul's story there is a market failure, in the latter story health insurance is expensive and some people don't buy it. The difference matters because the wrong diagnosis will almost surely lead to the wrong treatment.
People like Paul see market failure everywhere.
Related: Pelosi says insurance companies are "the villains." Language like that is born of desperation.
Related, from Luskin:
WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD WE EVER DO THIS? I don't think a majority should be able to vote to disposess a minority in any circumstance -- including to force that minority to pay other people's health care insurance costs against their will. But according to the latest polls, doing so isn't even what the majority wants. So why are we even considering doing this?
You know why, Dan. Power and control.
Krauthammer:
Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law. Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings. Yet you cannot find it in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in the full hour of his health-care news conference. Why? No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers.
