Monday, October 21. 2013
When government gets involved in things, those things become politicized. Same thing goes for medical care. The death panels are meant to be a buffer against popular clamorings, but they won't work.
When it comes to medical care, nutrition, vitamins, exercise, etc, the loudest quacks and cranks tend to prevail: The Quackish Cult of Alternative Medicine - Dr. Paul Offit's battle against charlatanism
Is there quackery in non-alternative medicine? Sure, but it is mostly unintentional quackery. Docs tend to cling to the most recent information they have read, but most of it proves, in time, to be in error: Trouble at the lab - Scientists like to think of science as self-correcting. To an alarming degree, it is no.
Best to go with a conservative physician who has a good dose of skepticism and common sense.
Dr. Ben Carson on government and medical care:
“This nation was founded on the principle that it would be a new type of nation, that was ‘for, of and by the people.’ A Constitution was put in place that would assure that the people would remain at the pinnacle of power and that the central government would never reach the point that it had control of the people. This fundamentally changes the relationship. It places the government at the pinnacle now that it is placed on a road that will give it control of everyone’s health.”
 Our old blogging friend, a socialist and lover of American country music Norm Geras has died
Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
Criagslist ad from Enid, Oklahoma
Search Escalates for Key to Why Matter Exists
Egon Schiele and The Sketch Pad Near the Deathbed
Banksy in Neverland - The curious appeal of a marginal artist
JFK Museum Updates Exhibit Following Complaints by Conservative Author - Author: JFK was ‘tax-cutting, pro-growth politician’
In Defense of Disney Princesses
Druckenmiller Blasts Obama: "Show Me When You Initiated Budget Discussions Without A Gun At Your Head"
Doctors prepare for Obamacare race to the bottom
Corbett, natural gas allies will square off against Democrats pushing to limit, tax fracking
Obama vows to veto legislation that would require him to enroll the Obama family in Obamacare
Climate Change Fascists Really Like LA Times Policy Of Restricting Debate
Now Ted Cruz is getting death threats
Feminists: Myopic, Or Corrupt?
Who is Bill de Blasio?
Walmart's (and America's) Lesson in Greed
In choosing to pivot to immigration reform, he has created a win-win
scenario for himself and the Democrats. Clever, clever.
Socialism: If You Build It, They Will Leave
CNN's Zakaria: Conservatives 'Hate America'
Chicago Teachers Union: ‘This City Belongs to Black People
Iran presented ‘no serious proposals’ at nuke talks, US officials tell Israel
“I’m used to sitting in jail cells with serial killers, did they think I would
be intimidated by some American college students?”
Sunday, October 20. 2013
Amusing, from Delicioustacos
Saturday, October 19. 2013
The change in medical care. I refuse to term it "health care," since health needs no care other than one's own reasonably-sensible and attentive but not health-obsessed life, combined with the main factor - luck. From a commenter at Allahpundit:
Perhaps the concept of ‘insurance’ isn’t the right one for health care?
I always liked the comparison that was trying to be made with car insurance…
Yet for there to be an equivalent your car insurance would have to cover:
- maintenance tune-ups, including oil and filter changes
- the cost of repairs for any reason
- a price break per gallon of gas
- an annual detailing
- the cost of tires
- a new muffler annually
- and never, ever raising the cost of your insurance no matter how many accidents you were in, how many tickets you got… anything
Imagine what car insurance would be like if we modeled that on health insurance coverage and you get an idea why health insurance coverage is so high. And why get fuel efficient vehicles if you are getting the gas subsidized? Or bother with the maintenance if you’ll get a brand new engine if you forgot about it? And the cost of such insurance would be… lower than what you have now?
The number of shades of maroon that went into trying to make this entire ‘insurance’ concept work for one’s health is plain nuts. It isn’t ‘insurance’ if you are going to use it constantly… you want something else.
Perhaps a clue.
Health insurance used to be an executive ‘perk’ because it was TOO EXPENSIVE to provide for everyone in the workforce. Businesses got a price break for it to entice people who would not normally come to work to do so during WWII. The war ended. The subsidy via the tax code did not. Strangely enough before this misbegotten idea got infested into the tax code and people’s minds, individuals did not drop over dead in the street and did work out payment schedules WITH hospitals and physicians. Amazingly that worked and there was a strong system of charitable hospitals and care givers to pick up the slack. Then government got involved and screwed it up.
Government is all about money. Government's expertise is perverse incentives. The Obama-thing, like the previous Hillary-thing, is not technically insurance. It's just pre-paid medical costs, spread across populations and subsidized, or not, by income and with bureaucrats deciding what you can get paid on it.
That's not an entirely insane idea, except that whenever government gets involved with things outside their Constitutional mandate, things turn out wrong and over-controlling by the standards of a free country. Always.
I do not believe that most Americans want every detail of their lives politicized. I think they want to be left alone, but maybe I am old-fashioned.
 Image via Eratosthenes' What's Your Excuse?
Infinity: Big and Bigger - Meet Georg Cantor, rogue mathematician and corrupter of youth.
Innocents Abroad: The Damariscotta Pumpkinfest
From the Department of Petty Controversies: Schools Cancel Halloween - Of all the conflicts to roil our educational system, this one is pretty absurd
High Marijuana Taxes Could Derail Legalization Plans
In India, Rapist's Wife Faces Harsh Judge: Tradition - In Conservative Hinterland, Women Without Husbands Face Destitution
Freaking out about NYC sea level rise is easy to do when you don’t pay attention to history
Noonan: Answering Paul Krugman
Muslims Gang Rape 12-Year-Old Norwegian Girl, Get Community Service
Is NBC Going to be the First Network to Die?
Mead: The Blue Mayor Who May Solve Our Pension Crisis
A rule of thumb among biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of
published research cannot be replicated. Even that may be optimistic.
Goldwater-Rockefeller Redux
The Great Eclipse - How Ted Cruz took the tea-party crown away from Marco Rubio.
Chris Matthews: I Wish We Could Go Back to the Days of Friendly
Politics, But the Racist Terrorist Tea Party Traitors Who Hate the
President Because He's Black Won't Let Us
Business Groups Preparing to Fight Conservatives over Immigration
Republican Civil War Erupts: Business Groups v. Tea Party
Middlebury College suspends student in 9/11 flag grabbing
Her quotes are something else
Spectator: Warming panic is over
LA Times bans letters from climate skeptics
Worried about global warming - but not for us
Lebanon
Security Forces Shoot Down Dreaded Israeli “Spy Eagle” - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/lebanon-security-forces-shoot-down-dreaded-israeli-spy-eagle/#sthash.R2Zme4Ac.dpuf
Friday, October 18. 2013
The Student Solution to Affirmative Action:
What would happen if all those white students who assert that racism is still a “major problem” and who approve of affirmative action as one remedy followed their beliefs and did not apply to selective colleges such as Williams, Wesleyan, Boulder and U.Va.? How would that alter the demographics of elite campuses?
The admissions offices at those schools would face a less-competitive white applicant pool and could boost minority acceptances. Thousands of white students with eight AP courses, a 4.0+ GPA, and 95th-percentile SAT scores would not join the mix and raise the averages.
The taxpayer-subsidized bird-shredders are beginning to be torn down. Good riddance to these insane contraptions.
Thursday, October 17. 2013
Good stuff, cheap: Sierra Trading Post
Good stuff, expensive: BestGear:
Day-To-Night dresses and interview dresses for younger professionals - with pockets - made in New York City: Nora Gardner
Wednesday, October 16. 2013
I am ashamed to answer not much, really, other than for friends and family. I am too self-centered. This guy did: Sen. Rand Paul’s summer break includes performing free eye surgery.
Tuesday, October 15. 2013
How is this for $230,000? I wonder whether the hobbits come with it.
I know, I know - most of the value of a property is the land - and its location, but the sheet of plywood over the door, you must admit, is a gracious touch.
The Washington Redskins are changing their name because of all the hatred, violence, and hostility associated with their name.
From now on they will be known simply as the Redskins.
Monday, October 14. 2013
From the article:
Bill de Blasio’s got the broad narrative right: We’ve got two New Yorks today, with a fat and privileged overclass lording it over everyone else.
What de Blasio won’t tell you is that the class profiting at everyone else’s expense is the city’s public sector. Because the campaign-finance laws privilege this class, their chosen candidates start out any race far ahead. But de Blasio won’t tell you any of this because if he’s elected mayor, this is the New York he’ll be working for.
Sunday, October 13. 2013
Prof. Randall Kennedy changed his mind: He likes them now - and forever
Shelby Steele: Affirmative Action Doesn't Solve the Real Problem
George Will: A ‘Wonderland’ moment for the court
We'll ask again: What race is President Obama?
Saturday, October 12. 2013
Exchange between Mrs. BD and a pupette strolling to lunch in the West Village:
"Mom, doesn't that lady look just like Yoko Ono?"
"Honey, that is Yoko Ono."
 Today's artwork is via our friend Theo
Sex Selective Abortion Gains Ground in the West
GPS chips for Alzheimer's patients
Duck Dynasty Stars: Producers ‘Told Us to Stop Praying to Jesus’ to Avoid Offending Muslims
How many Muslims watch Duck Dynasty?
The Mariano moment.
The Secrets of Bezos: How Amazon Became the Everything Store
Don't Buy the Media Spin: The Shutdown Is Killing ObamaCare
A sure-fire cure for academic anti-Americanism
White House Gift Shop Declares Bankruptcy
IRS, White House officials that shared confidential taxpayer info had 155 White House meetings
If We Are In An Economic Recovery, Why Are Major Corporations Firing Thousands?
Niall Ferguson: Paul Krugman Has Gotten Nearly Everything Wrong,
And Yet This Has Only Provoked Further Arrogance, Self-Flattery, and
Sneering At Those Who Got It Right
Horowitz: The Threat We Face
TSA Loudspeakers Threaten Travelers With Arrest For Joking About Security
Like North Korea?
From a piece at Brussels Journal:
My grandfather had purchased after WW1 some land and a manor in Hungary. He had a doctorate in economics and expert knowledge of agriculture. In a country dominated by large, badly managed latifundia, from his small base he created the income of the landed rich. That he achieved by producing for the market – not by ignoring it as did the absentee owners of the neighboring estates. Irritatingly for these, he even paid his workers above the going rate. Furthermore, he was, as an old worker put it decades later, “his best hired hand”. The locals could not understand grandfather’s agribusiness and the natural origins of his success. In a typical reaction, the native found a logical, explanation. It was that there is a gold mine under the “Black Castle”.
A Sure-Fire Cure for Anti-Americanism
Friday, October 11. 2013
Seems to be an excellent airplane despite initial glitches. Boeing designs, and builds a fair amount of it, but does all of the assembly. Similar to American auto manufacturers. There are engineers and manufacturers around the globe creating these wonderful things for us - people who know how to make useful things.
This via Cafe Hayek:
Soldier's Angels
How JFK's assassination changed politics
The Trouble With Malcolm Gladwell - I thought he was sincerely misunderstanding the science, but he knows exactly what he is doing.
Western U.S. best for business, Tax Foundation says
The family of a former Webster Thomas hockey player has sued the school
district and hockey coach for keeping him at the junior varsity level
for four years "in spite of his advanced skills."
$634 million spent on Obamacare website
UN Being Sued Over Causing, Covering Up Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
Should America’s favorite sport really be one whose economic structure is based on inequality and greed?
Want To Understand The GOP Hardliners? Talk To Their Constituents
Jack Shafer on the Limits of the Media’s Ability to Increase Political Knowledge
"Liberal Intolerance: You Believe What?" We've All Been There Sometime
Mayoral Candidate De Blasio Takes Aim at NYC Charter Schools
America's Racial Skills Gap
“Oh darling, let’s go slumming in Marseille!”
Climate change warnings -- science or "scientific-sounding"?
A Very Small Place in Hell for Giap
Jews Are Twice as Likely to Leave Bequests Than Non-Jews
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
ZERO
AMERICANS Sign Up for O-Care in Hawaii, Tennessee – Only 5 Sign Up in
Iowa - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/zero-americans-sign-up-for-o-care-in-hawaii-tennessee-only-5-sign-up-in-iowa/#sthash.bPU1QEt2.dpuf
Thursday, October 10. 2013
I don't want to spend time criticizing doctors. My father is one, after all. I also don't want to criticize the VA. I'm sure many of our readers utilize the VA services and may be happy with the care they receive. Or perhaps they aren't, I'm not sure. I don't use the VA and don't have personal experience, but my father did some work there while he was in the Navy years ago, and remains very critical of its administration to this day.
He always told me if I'd like a glimpse at what a government run program for health provision would resemble, take a look at the VA. My extended family members who have utilized the VA did so mainly because they could, and they lacked any other access to health services. None were particularly happy with it, except to say it didn't cost them much when they needed it.
I don't want to imply this kind of abuse can't happen in private practice. Certainly Hollywood stars have managed to find their fair share of enablers. But when it is the government running things, we're supposed to expect better, and when it's a single payer system, we won't have the range of choice to avoid charlatans.
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When Doctors Decide Your Disease Doesn’t Actually Exist