Saturday, August 15. 2009
Government is the most powerful and dangerous "special interest" that exists. Everybody knows that. George Washington predicted it.
Government power is the flaw of democracy. That's why they wanted a Constitutional Republic, but Lincoln and FDR erased that ideal for most purposes. What "Constitution"?
It's the businesses, poverty pimps, and unions (so they do not have to fuss about it) that support government medical care (but the poor already have Medicaid). It's the people who do not support a government take-over. They are not impressed by how government runs things, for good reason.
I heard on the radio today that the Prez admitted that he has never read the latest medical care bill. Well, a good salesman can sell ice to Eskimos.
It is wonderful to see that Americans still want freedom from government control, aka "government help." Kudlow points out today that, in Georgia, you can get good medical insurance (including Major Dental - wow! My teeth are a mess) for $120/month. Of course, federal law forbids interstate medical insurance.
Why? It's supporting some friends of some politicians. Government is the most insidious and potent "special interest."
Toon via S,C &A;
Thursday, August 13. 2009
If you missed Part 1, it's here (with a little bit of Vermont history).
In the early 1800s, few towns had architects. They did have builders. And they had Pattern Books.
Pattern books were like blueprints, produced by well-known or entrepreneurial archtects in the big cities, just the same as builders' development houses of today are built from patterns.
I like this one. People up there tend to their front gardens with loving care for their own pleasure and for the delight of passers-by:
More fun photos below the fold - take a minute to feast yer eyeballs.
Continue reading "Woodstock, VT architecture, Part 2"
Wednesday, August 12. 2009
I actively oppose ObamaCare for its many dangerous details and for its needless excess. At the same time, I regret that the tack taken by President Obama and Congressional Democrats has set back the prospects for constructive, needed reforms. They have bullheadedly and ideologically gone in wrong directions, too far, and inflamed natural and largely justified public doubts and passions.
We face some core problems, such as breakthrough technologies increasing medical costs – and survivals and comforts, about a quarter of the uninsured actually being citizens in need of help, individual insurance sometimes being difficult to get, payment rates tilted to discourage general practice doctors so specialists are overused and paid, inefficient paperwork, tort attorneys seeking largesse – sometimes more than justice – causing undue defensive medicine costs. Almost all agree they exist. Almost all agree they require remedy. And, almost all agree on the general nature of the remedies.
Strict focus upon these, with realistic expectations and clear details of treatment, would likely have led to broad consensus and rapid passage. They could be dealt with specifically, moderately, inclusive of proven ways, and incrementally to make adjustments.
The overreach by the president and Congressional Democrats, however, uses these core legitimate concerns to launch a wholesale reshaping of all of health care. Such overreach is inherently defective simply because it is impossible to run such a large-scale endeavor, in addition to how ill-defined or speculative much of it is. It is recognized as a major grasp for control over our lives by central government, arousing the fears and resentments of most Americans at being controlled by remote bureaucrats. When the enormous direct costs are calculated, and the major disruptions and restrictions imposed on most Americans are individually calculated, there is little payoff either to the economy, improved health care, or most individuals. To add to the debacle, some of the core ills are not even treated.
The lines of debate have been hardened into battle lines due to the sheer lies expressed by the president and leading Congressional Democrats, easily exposed by their own recorded words to the contrary, and the insults hurled by them and their minions against everyday Americans’ right to express their concerns.
Candidate for president Obama usually restrained from these excesses, broadly and amorphously referring to the broad consensus on the core problems, and his electoral supporters restrained their language and true intents in order not to undermine his election. Thus, President Obama began his administration with widespread faith for reasonable hope and change. President Obama and Congressional Democrats, and their ideological allies, have succeeded in near utterly destroying this faith, as demonstrated in the rapid large declines in their and their proposals’ poll ratings.
There are now three possible ways this may play out: The overwhelming Democrat majorities in the Congress may ignore their electoral fate in 2010 by ramming through their discredited and dangerous program. Unlikely. The entire enterprise may be abandoned or voted down. Most likely. Sane heads in Washington may come together to salvage and reshape remedies or improvements for the core issues. Possible, but not probable, as too much heat, resentment and distrust has been created by the course to now. But, possibly and hopefully, once the lessons have seeped in, saner heads come to the fore, and some of the angers cooled, the treatment of these core issues may come.
Now, for those who have read this far, what should health care reform look like?
First and foremost, each measure taken should be discretely restricted to a specific core issue. That will aid understanding and informed discussion. In itself, this will go a long way toward reforming the Congressional excess of loading down bills with hidden payoffs and extraneous issues, and contribute toward increased confidence in Congress’ intents and behavior.
Second, it must be recognized and accepted that some core issues may, thus, either be rejected or not go to the lengths that some may desire. Somes’ perception of the perfect should not delay or imperil the adoption of the good. Some reforms may be better than others, and some reform may be better than none. Again, in itself, this self-restraint and respect for a democratic and open process will go a long way toward restoring confidence in the sanity and trustworthiness of various policy proponents.
Third, all details must be widely published, with adequate time to read and discuss them. No more bums rush of the public.
Fourth, all such bills passed should contain a definite sunset provision, of say 5 years, upon which they must end or be readopted, and improved as experience may dictate. This will reduce the realistic fear that what may be bad legislation cannot be stopped and will continue to wreak its havoc.
Tuesday, August 11. 2009
Vermont was settled later than most of New England, in the late 1700s by people from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Pioneers, attracted by cheap land. You could cut down all the trees and raise sheep, and the rivers provided endless power for mills. Woolen mills, stone-cutting marble and granite mills, lumber mills, etc. You could transport stuff down the rivers to the big Connecticut River.
They did cut down all the trees: by 1850 most of Vermont was denuded of forest, whether for lumber, grazing, charcoal, or firewood.
(In the 1700s, Vermont was considered part of the New York colony, but New Hampshire had claims on it. For a few decades, Vermont was the independent Republic of Vermont until they joined the union in 1792.)
After producing the woolen garments for World War 1, Vermont's mills slowly closed down, the Vermont wool biz (Big Wool moved west) dried up and was replaced by dairy for the distant cities when the trains came through. Now, with factory dairy, there isn't even much of that any more, and the trees have grown back (and so have the Moose, Black Bear, and White-Tailed Deer). The milk cows today spend all day in sheds until their productivity drops and they are turned into Mcdonalds burgers.
The wealth evident in the fine houses built in Woodstock from roughly 1800-1840 (replacing shacks, log cabins, and other humble dwellings) was a combination of its being a Shire town - a county seat with court and jail and lawyers - and the woolen mills. Those businesses attracted tradesmen and farmers, roads spread out, and the town thrived for a while. In 1830, this town of 3000 souls (then, and 3000 now!) had five newspapers.
Today, Woodstock is all about tourism, with endless interesting summer and winter events, and skiing, of course, in the winter. The village is preserved in amber by a fierce architectural review board and its designation as a National Historic District. Laurence Rockefeller had a lot to do with that (his Woodstock home is among the photos below the fold).
And, today, Vermont has the distinction of having the lowest per capita income in the US, having surpassed Mississippi a few years ago. The poorer they get, the further to the Left they move. It is not rational and it is utterly self-created (taxes and regs) and self-defeating, but it's a free country and, here at Maggie's Farm, we value the freedom of people to do stupid things if they want to. (I just hate it when people make obviously predictable mistakes on my nickel.)
The Wiki on Woodstock, VT here. Worth a visit. Bring camera.
I took the photos below early on Saturday morning. The temp was 48 degrees F at 5:30 when I typically go out to begin my exploring of a place (hence no people around in some of my photos). By mid-day, the temp got up to a balmy global warming crisis of 73 degrees.
I offer no architectural comments on the details of these structures. I don't have the time, and I lack the eye for detail that Mrs. BD has. My brain tends towards weight, balance, harmony, and emotional comfort - and only notices detail when it intrudes. However, I do know and believe that God is in the details. More on that later (maybe).
Many fun photos below the fold. All of these buildings are in town -
Continue reading "Woodstock, Vermont info and architecture, with some thoughts about old-time New England, Part 1"
Monday, August 10. 2009
 We have frequently opined here that too many Americans go to college, wasting time and money and extending adolescence in those who could and should be doing real things in the real world, and getting life experience instead of mastering beer pong and Leftist theory about how to remain a dependent throughout life on the effort of others. A solid high school education was good enough for Bill Gates, and ought to be a good platform for lifetime learning for them as wants it.
Anybody can go to the library and find a free book to guide them through Aristotle, Plato, Aquinus, Locke, Burke, and Hume. Anybody who doesn't feel moved to do so does not belong in college anyway: for them, it's just expensive day care as it was for Sebastian Flight.
Knowledge is cheap and readily accessible these days for all (thank God) - but learning is never easy.
The smart people I know just used their silly academic credentials so they could get a good apprenticeship in some useful and profitable line of work. That's what I had to do. My fancy law degree (which cost me lots of money) just gave me the chance to learn law afterwards. It is a dumb and/or corrupt system in which academic credentials, however empty or enriching, are required. Monopolistic, I believe, on the part of the Big Academia industry/cartel.
I have no trust in Big Academia. Like the tort bar, Big Academia is bought off and in the pocket of the Lefties. Follow the money...
Reason agrees (with a Reason video).
Photo: Harvard Yard. They can give you a pricey credential, but what you can do with it or chose to do with it, in the end, depends on you.
It's tough to visit Woodstock, VT without focusing on the Federal and neo-Colonial architecture. I will post much of that on later posts, when I can get my act together.
Photo below was the view from the Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee (yes, most of the group went downstairs to watch the glass-blowing) on Friday night's dinner). This sight felt like symbolism for the wedding:
More random photos below the fold -
Continue reading "A 3-day weekend in Woodstock"
Sunday, August 9. 2009
 I cranked up my trusty Stihl Farm Boss last weekend to do some jobs, and my neighbor who has some heart problems brought me a cold Rolling Rock and asked me to cut down an old Pear tree which was productive 20 years ago but which has been in serious decline since it has been in the shade of several big trees.
For a cold one, a year's supply of good fruit wood for meat-smoking, and for the pleasure of helping out a neighbor, I was happy to do it. My stock of wild cherry chunks from last year is running low.
As long-time readers know, I always have mishaps with chain saws. Someday the thing will kill me. So be it. The two nuts of the cover blew off somehow and the chain blew off right after we got the big old tree down. Could only find one of the nuts. So it was a case of "pass me another cold one, let's light up some Cubans, and I will finish this job later."
Don't you hate to leave a job half-done?
Saturday, August 8. 2009
Democrats are complaining loudly that the American people are stupid and should shut up about President Obama’s health care program, cap-and-tax program, spend us into deeper deficits program, tax away our incentives program, apologize to our enemies program, castigate our friends program, and all his other radical remakings of America. Democrats are moving from their virtual pogrom to annihilate us uncooperative American kulaks to the next step of more physical coercion by their SEIU thugs.
Which brings to mind these lines from Shelley’s poem Ozymandias:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
During the past week, I’ve had conversations with old friends – leftist, centrist, and conservative – with whom I experienced the political battles of the 1960’s. All of us have a similar take on what’s happening now, compared to then. Then, it was a challenge against authority primarily by the privileged young who didn’t want to serve in the war, which dissipated rapidly once the draft ended, while their ideologues took refuge in academia to rise to insulated tenure of attachment to their old slogans and some of their ilk to gerrymandered seniority in Congress. Obama was a tot then, but raised on their radical bromides. Now, it is the broader swath of working and middle class Americans, a far larger and more potent population, who are fed up and angry with being exploited and insulted by those who feel it their right and duty to impose their schemes to rearrange and endanger everyone else’s lives and weaken the America that sustains us. We all feel the potential for violence is high. Enough everyday Americans will defend themselves against thuggish attacks upon their right to speak out.
I wasn’t a proponent of street violence then, nor am I now. I abhor it. And, just let any one of the Democrat thugs try to physically attack me or silence me or anyone nearby and they better stand the f*ck by for a real thumping. At 61, I still fit in my Marine Corps uniform, and know well how to defend myself. I’m just one member of a rapidly expanding, reluctant force of ordinary Americans who will. Those who have spent their lives cloistered in ivy and Congress have never met our resistance before, are shocked, and are in for more rueful surprises if they keep on their vile attacks on our democracy, peace and prosperity.
 Well, it's not all bla bla bla.
As in this case: Most women are not, in my view, angry bitch psychotic academic victimized mini-monsters. The Retriever's Grandma, for instance (image on right from that post).
Here at Maggie's (Maggie is herself a tough old broad with a sense of humor and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty), we hold strong, cheerful, independent, humorous, tender, gutsy, intelligent, loving women in the highest regard.
More re women: our hero Charles puts Palin in perspective. I think he is right. Nothing to do with her charisma or gender. We like her very much, and hate the contempt she receives for having a non-elite life style.
Disney accused of defending heteronormativity. Not a joke. It does sound perverted, doesn't it? Not by accident.
American women have it worse than any women in the world. Just ask any wife: she'll tell ya all about it if you can get her off the computer for a minute. Always shopping for the latest new colors in burkhas to get stoned in, you know?
How do our neopuritanical Sociologist types discuss such things? Bruce found this, about social stratification on the internet. I learned a new word: homophily. It also sounds like a perversion, but it means that people often tend to hang out with people they feel comfortable with.
Well, golly gee! Smack me with a mackeral and call me Edna! Thank God for the science of sociology to inform us of that. Maybe I am an exception, but I very much enjoy people who are different too, if they bring something to the table. Still, family is family, a paisan is a paisan, and a tribe is a tribe.
A re-post from 2007 -
 A brief break from my vacation in Dark Harbor on Islesboro on Penobscot Bay (there is no cable out here, and happily no TV either. Primitive dial-up internet, but once a week is plenty for that hassle) to highlight this piece by Jonah Goldberg at NRO called "Isn't that Special?"
I am always pleased to see folks knock the concept of "self esteem." What we humans need to aspire to is Self Respect. Self respect is hard-earned, or never fully-earned, but a worthy goal. A quote from the Goldberg piece:
These investments in self-esteem paid off royally, according to a report, “Egos Inflating Over Time.” Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and a team of psychologists combed through the answers of 16,475 college students nationwide who took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory survey between 1982 and 2006. Their conclusion: Today’s American youth are the most self-absorbed since we’ve studied the subject. “We need to stop endlessly repeating, ‘You’re special,’ and having children repeat that back,” Twenge told the Associated Press. “Kids are self-centered enough already.”
Read the whole thing - link above.
 Meanwhile, we will assemble the routine lobster, corn, potato and steamer clam dinner, but with a giant pot of hand-plucked Maine mussels also, cooked Italian-style in the kitchen, with garlic bread on the side.
We'll do the lobsters, cod, potato and clams on the beach, in a sand hole on hot rocks and coals under a pile of seaweed and sand - a true clambake. We wrap the hunks of cod (salt and pepper first) in rockweed (our main seaweed up here), and it tastes much better than lobster, in my opinion.
Family-picked Blueberry cobbler for dessert. Yes, we did bring a mini wine cellar with us, and plenty of fine champagne too.
The drinks provide that instant and unearned self-esteem; the harvesting of the fine wild foods provides the self respect, Maine-style. Yes, we fished at 4 am this morning, and fetched some fine cod with clam as bait. Saw a whale, too.
Images: Upper photo is of Islesboro. Lower borrowed from our friend neoneo, because I do not do cameras on vacation.
Friday, August 7. 2009
Useful for the front or back porch, or the deck of your Boston Whaler. You can buy these functioning repros here.
Thursday, August 6. 2009
 We all know well that a collection of lies, deceptions, half-truths, fear, and cynical manipulation are what passes for a soul in many politicians.
Still, the bald-faced lying about the Dem health scheme has reached new lows.
1. Pelosi claims protesters are carrying swastikas. They are? What a jackass.
2. Did you notice that, just like with Global Warming, it's not Health Care Reform this week. Now it's Health Insurance Reform. Less scary, I guess, but the same bill.
3. The Director of the DNC included this assertion in his email about dealing with the "mobs":
These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They’re trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.
That is 100% baloney.
4. Senator accuses WH of assembling an enemies list.
5. The coming middle-class tax hikes for medical coverage. Henninger:
Every policy wonk in America may have known this was always an everybody-into-the-pool proposal, and Mr. Obama has talked himself blue saying people could stay with the insurance they’ve got or the doctor they’ve got, “if you’re happy with that” and don’t like the public option.
A lot of people simply don’t believe this. How come? White House adviser David Axelrod said this week, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.” It could be they’ve already thought about that. For many people, the first six Obama months already have been an unsettling Dantesque tour through levels of government “help” they never knew existed.
Rove comments re those taxes:
The House version of Mr. Obama’s health-care—excuse me, “health-insurance”—reform already has four taxes that will largely be paid by people making less than $250,000 a year. There’s $8.2 billion in taxes for using health savings accounts and other tax-free medical savings vehicles to purchase over-the-counter drugs. There’s an 8% tax on employers who don’t offer insurance: The Congressional Budget Office says workers in those businesses would pay the $163 billion cost via lost wages.
There’s a 2.5% “Tax on Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage” in the House bill that applies to people who either don’t have insurance or whose policies the government deems inadequate. Finally, there’s a $2 billion “Comparative Effectiveness Research Tax” on all private and “public option” insurance policies.
If some version of ObamaCare is passed, the president will break his tax pledge several more times while adding trillions to the deficit, dismantling the best elements of our health-care system and slashing Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.
The level of hysteria, it is clear to me, comes from the rare opportunity for the Left to nationalize - and thus to politicize - a giant sector of the economy, and one which is closest to peoples' hearts. If they blow it again, the chance may not return for another 20 years. And yet they have already blown it, because their bill is an atrocity.
Wednesday, August 5. 2009
 "Positive Psychology," an intellectual fad for the masses. These people talk about "happiness interventions." It's nuts, if you ask me, but I guess it attracts research grant money. Nobody has the wisdom to tell anyone else how to be happy, and anyone who purports to do so is a fool. A commenter to that article posted this:
A lifetime of happiness no man alive could bear it, it would be hell on earth. Bernard Shaw.
Happiness is nothing more than good health and bad memory. Albert Schweitzer
To be stupid, selfish and have a good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking all is lost. Flaubert
I have posted on the subject here and here and also our Do Americans expect too much from marriage? (and I still think happiness is a dumb subject. It's what I call "psycho-utopianism").
Funny how disparate posts can seem to come together. Our Sowell quote yesterday captured it: The universe, or reality, was not designed to make people happy. But if you are one of those people who view happiness as a sociological phenomenon, see neoneo today on dystopias.
I am more inclined to the negativity proposed in our link to Nyquist this morning. One quote from him:
Chapter 3 should be titled “The Virtue of Guilt.” If you haven’t done anything bad in recent weeks or months, consider what you presently have in mind. You are wicked by nature, so you are guilty by nature. Therefore, it is appropriate to feel guilty. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Don’t be slipshod and weak. Suck in your gut and make a new start. Guilt is the stick across your back sent to make you better. Is guilt unpleasant? It’s supposed to be, and it better be. Feel guilty often, and have plenty of regrets. People who have no regrets are dangerous. They will suck you in and suck you down.
I do not know much about what Psychologists do or study. I do know what Psychiatrists try to do, which is to relieve disability and unreasonable pain. That can be difficult enough. Worrying about "happiness" isn't my problem. I happen to be reasonably happy right now, but I will not be in ten minutes when I attack my pile of bills and paperwork.
 The Admin requests that all send the names of sites and organizations you wish to denounce to flag@whitehouse.gov. Enemies of The People?
Being a loyal ObamaMinion, obediently following the directions of our Great One, I am sending this email as requested to the White House to report naysayers. I have criticized the various plans for ObamaCare, even though I am not fully aware of all their details since their drafters have protected me from seeing their thousands of pages of tiny-type, thus shielding me and my eyes from strain and saving medical costs as promised. My decades of experience and earned credentials in health care are, obviously, brainwashing me from grasping the opportunity to pay more for less. I won’t name names of my fellow critics at Maggies Farm, with similar claims to expertise, who use pseudonyms to either hide that they are secretly receiving large stipends from lobbyists or that they really don’t exist and have spent years constructing elaborate covers. In full spirit of cooperation I must also inform on my wife, raised under state-directed health care in Europe, who refuses to wait months for treatment of her ailments as she was raised to and for not using cheaper outmoded medicines, instead quickly going to the doctor here and using more advanced drugs. Similarly, I must denounce my sons for asking whether I will be there for them even though I am an older Dad whose coming senior medical costs may be more expensive than a taxpayer rebate on trading in the old car I would leave for them so they can have a new one. Heil Obama!
Editor's note: Details on Health Care Snitches at Moonbattery. Should Maggie's be on the White House shit list? I doubt it: we're not important enuf. But we will try to keep the truth coming, as best we can.
Image from Wizbang, who finds it creepy. I wonder what's with all the ghosts, and also what's up with the merging of the medical caduceus with the Obama logo? Is Obama supposed to be my doctor now, or WTH?
 The smaller ones are best for indoors, but the larger helos are good outdoors, as long as it isn't too breezy.
Rechargable lipo batteries, with recharger.
Link here.
Tuesday, August 4. 2009
We have a couple of Pee Wee Hydrangeas in our compact front entry garden, which is part shade. They are the dwarf form of the big Oakleaf Hydrangea, and are not too easy to find.
I highly recommend them for shrub/perennial borders. Like everything else, they take several years to reach their full size (which is around 3'x3' or 4X4). Ours are in full bloom right now:
Sunday, August 2. 2009
A re-post from June 30, 2008. Sure is hard to believe that was one year ago, because it feels like yesterday.
 With TV, you are more-or-less forced to watch the thing because it tends to grab our passive brains. With blogs and newspapers, you can easily skip stuff you chose to ignore. So if I am boring you with my northern Italy travelogue posts, please skip over them. It's just fun for me to post the photos - and it motivates me to get them organized.
One day last week we took the train up to Domodossola to catch the regular Centovalli train (not the tourists' Lago Maggiore Express which doesn't do much stopping) through the Alps to Locarno, Switzerland, on the northern tip of Lago Maggiore.
It is our travel custom to make things complicated and to plan tight connections - and to thereby create adventures, memorable mishaps, stress, and close calls. The free-spirited Mrs. BD thrives on such things, but I do not. As it turns out, The Dylanologist loves to cut things close, too, and to dash off somewhere when he has a free 3 minutes to spare.
We got off the train halfway at the whistle-stop of Santa Maria Maggiore (nobody else got off) to take a hike in the Alps. We planned to hike up the mountains in a circle through the mountain hamlets of Toceno and Craveggia, and to arrive back down at Santa Maria Maggiore in time for the last train to Locarno, to arrive there with 16 minutes to find and to catch the last boat down Lake Maggiore to where we were staying in the cozy village of Baveno.
We are tireless and intrepid walkers, but we characteristically underestimated the distance of our hike as we always do, and did not expect the heat. No water, and no cafes open. But we did get to stumble into the rarely-visited Alpine village of Craveggia (pop. 730). Eventually, with ten minutes before the train and without knowing our exact location, we swallowed our pride and flagged down a passing house painter who happily and cheerfully got us to the station in his tiny two-door rattletrap car - just as the tiny train pulled into the tiny "Disney Italy" station.
No passport checks, by the way, training into Switzerland. We brought them anyway.
Here's a map showing the northern tip of Piedmont where it pushes into Switzerland. The Centovalli train runs on one track from Domodossola to Locarno, at the tip of the Lake, over fearsome gorges and hairy mountain cliffs.
Let's begin this photo tour, though, with this northern Italian lovely in a cafe on the old square of Domodossola, who our sneaky paparazzi Dylanologist photographed on my dare. I call that "La bella figura." Plenty of real blonds up there.
Travelogue of this side-trip with lots of photos below on continuation page -
Continue reading "The Centovalli Train, re-posted"
Saturday, August 1. 2009
Is the era of the small town over in America? Bookslut thinks so.
I'm not sure how "small" is defined. As readers know, I work in a city (Hartford), sleep in exurbia. Everybody needs places to be a bit anonymous - but not too anonymous.
At the least, you want your regular shopkeepers, bartenders, and maitre d's to know your name - but you can do that in both city and country when you find the places you like.
Photo: A small town in NH, c. 1890. Note the large scale elimination of trees from the hillsides, typical of the 1800s in New England. Firewood, charcoal, and lumbering, thus creating hillside pastures and driving the bear and moose up to Maine. Also note the fine streetside Elm trees, now all gone due to the Elm Tree Blight.
No CVS or Dunkin Donuts in evidence: how did people survive?
Thursday, July 30. 2009
In neither the House draft nor the various Senate drafts of health care legislation can one find any tort reform. According to reliable sources, the excess costs of “defensive medicine” due to providers’ fear of law suits is 9-10% of our total national health care spending. Just capping punitive damages has led to a 3.4% reduction in per capita health care spending in those states with caps. In California, with a cap, malpractice premium increases have been 75% lower than nationally, and claimants collect in 1/3rd the time as elsewhere.
President Obama promised the AMA convention that he would support reasonable tort reform. So far, he like Waldo cannot be found on this issue. Patients do have a right to justice when due. Tort attorneys do not have a right to a cornucopia of claims.
News reports have followed the health industry players involvement in the legislative drafting, but nothing has been reported about tort lawyer lobbying. Perhaps they don’t have to lobby, as about half of Congressmen and Senators are lawyers, and only a very few are doctors.
On the other hand, if government runs all health care, try suing it. Ha!
Oh! Did I forget to mention that in the 2008 elections 76% of lawyers contributions went to Democrats, and 84% so far in the run-up to the 2010 elections?
And, Oh My! Then there's this move in Congress of a $1.6-billion tax break for lawyers. Just what we need, having the government make it easier for lawyers to launch more frivolous or speculative cases.
 Like Massachusetts, Maine decided to try its own government medical insurance plan. Betsy recounts the grim outcome of that effort.
It's not your grandfather's Maine anymore. 23% of the state is on Medicaid - which is welfare. Whatever happened to the gritty, independent New Englanders? And why don't they pack up the U-Haul and move to Texas, where there are jobs, low taxes, and opportunities?
Nobody imagines that a good job market will ever return to Maine with their current politics, taxation, and increasingly decadent culture. What are the people waiting for?
Wednesday, July 29. 2009
How many people really imagine that Presidents and Washington have power over the economy?
Governments, of course, only really have power to damage economies. Economies have lives of their own, following their own natural laws like weather. Even the Almighty Fed is very limited in what it can do.
Still, people seem to think that Presidents are somehow responsible, and I suppose that is because politicians seek any advantage, no matter how insincere.
Neither Bush nor Obama are responsible for the recession. It's called a "business cycle." People are blaming Obama now, and the O is trying to blame Bush. It's all stupid boob bait.
Besides cycles, what has the power to damage economies is government intervention like taxation, deficits, subsidizing of failing businesses, and regulation. Those things hobble economies, holding them back from what they naturally want to do (which is to produce things, including labor, and to price them), and I have no doubt that businesses have been worrying about what the Dems might do to hobble them.
Lefties always seem to love wealth and money, but to have contempt for those who create those things. Most of the very wealthy people I know are Dems or "Independents."
Our Constitution begins:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
From the earliest days of our Republic, we’ve considered and argued ways to improve its representation of citizens. We are a Republic, of elected representatives, not a direct Democracy (except in some states with direct initiatives to be voted upon).
In either case, legislation voted upon by legislators or directly by voters, the complexity of the issues at hand and of the language to express it, compounded by the number of pages of fine print, the confounding interactions, and the many unknowns, makes the task of understanding and judging often Herculean, Solomonic and Einsteinian all at once.
The strength, wisdom and knowledge of Hercules, Solomon and Einstein are simultaneously required when considering thousands of pages of tiny-type recasting 1/6th of the US economy and 100% of the health care received by 100% of our citizens. Put health care legislation together with the rushed economic legislation of the past 6-months, and we’re talking about 1/4th of the US economy recast. Add in the changes in tax code to come to pay for it all and you’re well past ½ the US economy remodeled. Literally everyone in the US, and indirectly most of the world, will be directly and seriously affected.
We’ve toyed with various adjustments, some legislated and some voluntary (usually obeyed only at the convenient whim and self-interest of elected representatives) to increase the deliberation and independence of legislators, and allow the public time and information to weigh in. For the most part, they’ve failed or been inadequate.
Not that they will be the ending solution, I’ll propose some more to bolster our and our legislators’ ability to make sounder decisions:
1. All members of legislative committees, entrusted by other legislative members with the detail evaluation of legislation, must attend all open and closed door meetings. That leads to wider and more careful deliberation. This duty is paramount over prestigious memberships in too many committees to be able to perform adequately in each.
2. All legislation must be publicly published on the Internet in full at least several weeks before detail hearings, to allow even minimal familiarity by those affected, the more knowledgeable, and by the public who has the right to transparency in order to know.
3. All legislative committee hearings must hear from an equal number of experts chosen by each political party, regardless of the weighting of party membership on the committee, to increase the likelihood of more information and views being heard.
4. All the members of each legislative committee must vote and publicly explain their vote.
5. All legislation funding or affecting more than one agency of government must either be broken down into its components for separate votes or be held for vote in the next biannual Congress once the public vote weighs in indirectly on the information received from hearings and legislators’ positions.
Yes, these reforms may slow some legislation, but experience with untoward consequences of haste and shadows makes that a positive result. Yes, these reforms will shift the workload of legislators toward deeper involvement with the details of legislation, the benefits of that being evident. Yes, true crises may require quick action at times, and if so there’s nothing to stop wise legislators from breaking such legislation into more carefully constructed and deliberated parts.
Yes, we can have a more perfect Union, more perfect Republic, closer to Democracy and to the capabilities of Hercules, Solomon and Einstein.
Tuesday, July 28. 2009
 One year ago, I parked my car (legally - no No Parking signs) on the side of the road to eat my take-out Thai lunch as a break from the office, while admiring a lot full of fancy used cars.
Cop pulls up behind, turns on flasher. "What are you doing here?"
"Eating my lunch and looking at the pretty cars, officer."
"License and registration, please."
"OK. Here they are." (Goes back to his car to check it all, then returns)
"You need to move along."
"WTF? F-you. I'm an attorney, and I am doing nothing wrong. What's the matter? Didn't get any last night, ahole?" "All right, Officer."
I happen to be white. Policing happens to everybody, and sometimes it is a damn annoyance and ridiculous. I decided not to send a letter of complaint, because they might be on the lookout for my gold-plated Rolls 5 year-old Lexus sedan after that. You have to use your brains: cops are your employees, and they are pros, but also pricks sometimes.
As an attorney, when a police officer stops you and says "I smell alcohol on your breath. Have you been drinking?" the correct response is never "Officer, I see powdered sugar on your chin. Have you been eating jelly donuts?"
The Dems never listen to my advice.
I have advised them several times over the past years to do something very simple: put every American citizen on Medicare, and raise the Medicare tax as needed to cover the costs (with no employer contribution, however - purely from the income-producer. The Medicare FICA tax is currently 2.9% on all income: all they'd have to do would be to double it or at most triple it, I imagine, since the older folks who cost most of the money are already on Medicare. Thus if you make $50,000 you would pay around $4000, and double that for $100,000).
Was my suggestion too simple?
Mind you, it is not what I would like to see done, because it would put an instant government stranglehold on our medical care, medical research, the drug and biotech industries, etc - not to mention threatening the survival of Docs and hospitals. And not to mention politicizing medicine.
But since the Left loves to control things centrally, I have no idea why they didn't do something so obvious and easy.
 Of your tax dollars to produce one, one-week job. That isn't efficiency, in my book. Wouldn't a tax cut have worked better?
Or a $50,000 check mailed to each American? That would have surely produced a short-term stimulus...altho I believe economic cycles heal themselves anyway, and best, without government intervention, just like everybody gets over the flu after a while except those who were already dying.
If the US Treasury had sent me a $50,000 check (shamelessly borrowed from my kids and future grandkids), I would have bought myself a used S&W .45 revolver for $700 to shoot beer cans off a big old log, and used the rest to pay off kids' college debts.
And around $1500 of it to bring our veterinary account up to date. Vets are paid better than Docs these days.
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