Anyone that says they can predict the long-term effect of any piece of legislation is either delusional or disingenuous.  The Congress is now debating a healthcare bill that may, or may not include a “public option.”  I have no idea if having one will be a good thing in, say, twenty years, but there is an aspect of the debate that bothers me.  People argue this as though it was something new-uncharted waters.  The United States has had publicly-funded healthcare for years.    

I joined the US Air Force in 1958, and was instantly covered by one of the best full-coverage plans in the world.  It cost me nothing, and covered everything for me, and almost everything for my family.  There were a few restrictions, some expected, some odd.  You had no choice of doctor, sunburn was considered self-inflicted, and they had a deep-seated dislike for chiropractors.  However, my firstborn was delivered in a military hospital, and cost me nothing.  The second child was delivered in a civilian hospital, and cost $9.00.  I am currently covered by Tri-care For Life, a partnership between the military and Medicare.  It costs me $150.00 per year.  In my entire life, I might have spent $5000.00 on healthcare for my family of seven.

There are flaws in the current publicly funded systems, but none so grievous as to make me wish for something else.  Although they don’t cover nearly as many people as the current proposal would, I would invite the congressional combatants to think of our current plans as pilot projects-charts for the water on which they are contemplating sailing.  It’s less scary that way.

Tags: healthcare, public option

It is time to get out your Christmas cards list! Yes, you read this right…Christmas cards.  This is coming early so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list.  Send the ACLU a Christmas card this year.
As they are working so very hard to get rid of the Christmas part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Make sure it says “Merry Christmas” on it. Here’s the address; just don’t be rude or crude.
ACLU 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn’t know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 42 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone.

Tags: ACLU, Christmas

It irritates me a great deal when people can’t fight fair.  Unfair verbal combat takes many forms from simple crossed communications (Q: Honey, have you seen my cufflinks?  A: If you’d put them away, you’d know there they are.) to outright lying and character assassination.  The things that mark it as unfair and illegitimate usually fall into two categories; stuff that isn’t true, and stuff that has no bearing on the argument.  If you’re arguing that an individual is a bad business person, don’t say they’re ugly, even if it’s true.  During one of Spiro Agnew’s many political campaigns, the opposition ran an ad in which an unidentified voice said, “Spiro Agnew?” and then burst into laughter.  Cheap shot; not a fair fight.  

So, what prompted this tirade?  Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara is investigating allegations of insider trading.  He told the news media, “…some of the defendants-taking a page from the drug dealer’s playbook-deliberately used anonymous, hard-to-trace, prepaid cell phones in order to avoid detection by law enforcement.  When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such.”  I have no opinion on the guilt or innocence of any of these people, but I get irritated when a federal prosecutor feels the need to slander an entire sub-industry and the generally under-privileged folk that use prepaid phones.  Without saying so, he manages to imply that using one is evidence that you might be a common criminal.  Well, Mr. Bharara, I have just such a phone on my desk.  What, if anything, I use it for is none of your business, but if you think it classifies me as a common criminal, just follow the link back to my home page.  I’m sure you can find me from there.  Or are you just so insecure about the American system of justice, that you can’t let the case live or die on the evidence.  Go ahead, fight the bad guys; it’s what we pay you to do.  Just fight fair.  (and for the English majors out there, I know it’s “fairly.”)