I have three separate issues to discuss in this post.
1. Another example of how refusing to pay taxes costs us all indirectly
Recently a local crime involving a convicted criminal who was sentenced to eight years in prison less than three years ago renewed questions about sentencing rules. The Nashville Chief of Police held a news conference during which he expressed his extreme disgust with the judicial system. The convicted criminal had been sentenced to eight years in prison for a violent crime, only to be released after only 30 percent of the sentence. The police chief said he had been told it was a money issue but he was convinced the justice system was at fault.
I see this as a money issue related to one of my favorite complaints. In our self-centered focus on taxes we continue to strangle our local governments. Local news reports are regularly populated with stories about the extreme efforts local school boards make to keep schools open with inadequate funding. Incarceration of state and local criminals is funded by state and local taxes just like the schools. Prison overcrowding forces early releases and we all know prisons rarely provide effective rehabilitation. The only way to protect citizens is to keep the criminals separated from law-abiding citizens as long as possible. The way to do this is to provide funding for prisons to keep these criminals away from us. Every time local voters vote down a legitimate tax increase the repercussions are broad and long lasting. Inadequate school funding creates more young people being unprepared for life. Unprepared young people are more likely to become involved in criminal activity. Underfunded prisons are forced to release un-rehabilitated criminals early into a society under-protected by under-funded police departments. The root cause is self-centered greed on the part of local taxpayers.
2: Discipline and punishment
As noted above, current punishments for criminal activity are largely ineffective and unnecessarily costly. I have a solution to propose: public flogging. This should be the second-level punishment for non-violent crimes like burglary. More serious crimes with violence against victims should get this as first-level punishment. The public aspect would serve as a graphic example of the consequences of doing a crime. It just might be a better incentive to obey the law than a few months in jail. To take this a bit further, we could provide for combination punishments where a weekly public flogging was part of a reduced prison sentence. Saves money and maybe reduces recidivism.
3: Why health care reform is in trouble
The heavily funded private insurance companies are using their “influence” to buy opposition to the public option in an effort to maintain their un-defensible profit margins. This protection of profits comes at the cost of some poor, uninsured sick people dying. The connection is unverifiable but the motive is certainly there. The Democrats who are apparently being paid off with some promise of wealth and power should be exposed. If you know the facts about why a Democrat opposed the public option, please let the world know. Maybe I’m wrong. If I am wrong I need to be corrected publicly. Do it here.
DRP
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Religion and human accomplishment
There are three major religions with origins in belief in the same deity. The root messages of all three religions are almost identical; only the rituals and surface trappings differ. If I report that a religion promotes honesty in one's dealings with others, charity for poor and needy, respect for oneself and others, humility, acceptance of the existence of a deity and wholehearted efforts to lead a good life all three of the great religions can accept this as a generic description of the teachings. People are still too uncivilized to see past the surface differences and accept the commonalities.I believe it is wrong to hold onto grudges either as individuals or as members of one or another religious group. As human beings we are rapidly approaching a barrier to our societal maturity. We need to learn to work together for the common good of all people and sincerely put aside arguments over the correct way to worship our common deity. If we continue to put more effort into proving ourselves better than the other group we will remain distracted from our real problems and never achieve the things we as human beings can accomplish.
Some things we can do might include:
1. Vastly improved life spans for everyone by advancing our real understanding of the mechanisms diseases and aging while learning how nutrition and lifestyle apply to lifespan
2. We can work through the barriers of knowledge that limit our understanding of the physical universe. With this knowledge we will become able to exercise the human nature of curiosity and exploration beyond this tiny little piece of the universe. This universe was not created just for decorating our sky. It is a tease to give us incentive to work together and spread humanity to the millions of worlds available to us.
3.Full medical knowledge will eliminate human suffering, especially that suffering caused by other humans.
The list of possibilities is limitless. Each of us, if we decide to, can think of something humans might achieve with cooperation. We each possess a built-in tendency to believe. The beliefs we accept are generally fed to us by religious leaders trained in certain styles. Religious style is very much like language. It provides for communication of abstract concepts in terms of concrete existence. The abstract concepts are the same - only the language differs. Once we accept this we begin the erode the barrier to our true destiny as the masters of this physical universe until we decide, each of his own accord, to pass on to the next level and share the next existence with our deity of choice and those who go before or come after.
DRP
Some things we can do might include:
1. Vastly improved life spans for everyone by advancing our real understanding of the mechanisms diseases and aging while learning how nutrition and lifestyle apply to lifespan
2. We can work through the barriers of knowledge that limit our understanding of the physical universe. With this knowledge we will become able to exercise the human nature of curiosity and exploration beyond this tiny little piece of the universe. This universe was not created just for decorating our sky. It is a tease to give us incentive to work together and spread humanity to the millions of worlds available to us.
3.Full medical knowledge will eliminate human suffering, especially that suffering caused by other humans.
The list of possibilities is limitless. Each of us, if we decide to, can think of something humans might achieve with cooperation. We each possess a built-in tendency to believe. The beliefs we accept are generally fed to us by religious leaders trained in certain styles. Religious style is very much like language. It provides for communication of abstract concepts in terms of concrete existence. The abstract concepts are the same - only the language differs. Once we accept this we begin the erode the barrier to our true destiny as the masters of this physical universe until we decide, each of his own accord, to pass on to the next level and share the next existence with our deity of choice and those who go before or come after.
DRP
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
We are lazy, misinformed Americans
The following text was sent to me in an email. I cut and pasted it here so I could respond to it. The facts presented here are most likely true. I will not deny the intent of the text is, on the face of it, is positive. I disagree with the conclusions presented though and I have to respond. Please read the entire document. Take a moment to let what was said sink in. Then read my opinion that follows.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
original text from an email:
EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.
Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason... They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..
If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do..
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
What you do with this article now that you have read it.......... Is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren't so darned true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ---.
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.
Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
to my doom...'
When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge T ax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Ser vice FeeTax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge=2 0Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What has happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'
And I still have to 'press 1' for English!?
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!! YOU can help it get there!!!
GO AHEAD - - - BE AN AMERICAN!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My opinion:
Yes there are 545 people making our decisions for us. There is a reason. The fathers of our country did not imagine a population of 300,000,000 and the evolution of the media. When the constitution was crafted the average person was no less than weeks away from breaking news and the elected representatives were elected by people who knew them and what they stood for. It was a good system and it worked for many years.
Things have changed. There are more of us but we have immediate access to any information we choose to get. What do we do with this access? We watch untold hours of television all the time bombarded by 30-second messages from advertisers. We spend many hours enraptured by discussions of our favorite sports teams and the latest “reality show” results. We invest much of our work time actually thinking about our fantasy team strategy. We have let the media take charge of our country by letting it numb our minds. Instead of studying the voting records of our elected officials, reading their resumes, looking up their financial reports, and asking important questions we let our opinions and votes be managed by the most prevalent and slickest 30-second political ad. We accept these professionally produced messages when they connect with values inserted into our psyche by other slick, professional ads. We have abdicated the control of our country to the media. The media is controlled by the money. The money is controlled by the businesses and people who believe they have the right to rule the country.
Yes, the 545 people discussed in the text do the actual “work”. They get away with what they do because we’re too lazy to interfere. Too lazy that is until a series of sound bites and slick advertisements rouse the mob mentality in us. We still do not think for ourselves though. We are manipulated by the people in charge. They shouldn’t be in charge. They should be serving our demands. We now have the information to make socially viable decisions. We do not have to be told what to think. We need to take back our government and demand the elected officials at all levels stop being self-serving, power-hungry whores and be the public servants they should be. We (most of us anyway) are intelligent enough to listen to serious, fact-based discussions, and, with open minds, make good decisions. Given facts and unbiased scientific analysis the combined mental power of 300,000,000 people will make this country what it was meant to be. The 545 can do the grunt work. We’ll make the decisions.
Or we can remain lazy, misinformed pawns doing the mob work of the money people.
DRP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
original text from an email:
EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.
Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason... They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..
If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do..
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
What you do with this article now that you have read it.......... Is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren't so darned true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:
Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.
Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts
Anyway!
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.
Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.
Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ---.
Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.
When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.
Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid.
Put these words
Upon his tomb,
Taxes drove me
to my doom...'
When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge T ax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Ser vice FeeTax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge=2 0Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY? Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What has happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'
And I still have to 'press 1' for English!?
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!! YOU can help it get there!!!
GO AHEAD - - - BE AN AMERICAN!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My opinion:
Yes there are 545 people making our decisions for us. There is a reason. The fathers of our country did not imagine a population of 300,000,000 and the evolution of the media. When the constitution was crafted the average person was no less than weeks away from breaking news and the elected representatives were elected by people who knew them and what they stood for. It was a good system and it worked for many years.
Things have changed. There are more of us but we have immediate access to any information we choose to get. What do we do with this access? We watch untold hours of television all the time bombarded by 30-second messages from advertisers. We spend many hours enraptured by discussions of our favorite sports teams and the latest “reality show” results. We invest much of our work time actually thinking about our fantasy team strategy. We have let the media take charge of our country by letting it numb our minds. Instead of studying the voting records of our elected officials, reading their resumes, looking up their financial reports, and asking important questions we let our opinions and votes be managed by the most prevalent and slickest 30-second political ad. We accept these professionally produced messages when they connect with values inserted into our psyche by other slick, professional ads. We have abdicated the control of our country to the media. The media is controlled by the money. The money is controlled by the businesses and people who believe they have the right to rule the country.
Yes, the 545 people discussed in the text do the actual “work”. They get away with what they do because we’re too lazy to interfere. Too lazy that is until a series of sound bites and slick advertisements rouse the mob mentality in us. We still do not think for ourselves though. We are manipulated by the people in charge. They shouldn’t be in charge. They should be serving our demands. We now have the information to make socially viable decisions. We do not have to be told what to think. We need to take back our government and demand the elected officials at all levels stop being self-serving, power-hungry whores and be the public servants they should be. We (most of us anyway) are intelligent enough to listen to serious, fact-based discussions, and, with open minds, make good decisions. Given facts and unbiased scientific analysis the combined mental power of 300,000,000 people will make this country what it was meant to be. The 545 can do the grunt work. We’ll make the decisions.
Or we can remain lazy, misinformed pawns doing the mob work of the money people.
DRP
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Some Science opinions (random and unconnected)
Random science opinions volume I
1: What kind of person actually believes lights in the sky could be some extraterrestrial visitation. What kind of alien would fly around showing lights if they were trying to hide their presence. If they were not trying to hide their presence why not announce themselves and start some interaction.
2: Some current science disciplines are only slightly removed from art and imagination. What kind of science can describe a 5-ton 200 million year old lizard from a couple crumbling rocks weighing a few pounds? There is a lot of legitimacy in paleontology but imagination also plays a significant part. Paleontologists have a lot of hard evidence but come on, how can they describe the size, shape and lifestyle of an extinct creature from a couple old, rocky bones?
3:Astronomers and astro-physicists like to believe they have a grasp on their subject but their theories are based on imagination filtered through incomplete science. In a way similar to paleontologists, they describe complete systems based on interpretations of measurements with very wide ranges of inaccuracy. The understanding of our universe has not yet reached the equivalent of the earthworm's concept of automobiles. I enjoy the theories but I have always been a fan of science fiction.
4: Psychology is another art and imagination based science. From what I see in the news and TV crime shows (kinda qualifies my opinions, right?) you can always find a psychologist to support your personal opinion on a subject. Any diagnosis is always a personal interpretation based on some hard behavioral science combined with the Doctor's personality.
5:Medicine. Doctors are not allowed to practice their craft the way it should be practiced. The pressures of profit and liability require them to limit the time they spend actually getting the information they need to make accurate diagnoses. With a need to see as many patients as possible in the shortest period of time the average doctor treats the patient's first described symptom and brushes aside anything else. With lawyers lurking behind every patient, every doctor must practice defensive medicine: expensive tests that would not be ordered without the liability threat. As patients we like to believe our doctors are concerned about our well being and know what they're doing. Most doctors actually know what they're doing but get in a habit of quick, simple, defensible diagnoses instead of looking for real problems.
1: What kind of person actually believes lights in the sky could be some extraterrestrial visitation. What kind of alien would fly around showing lights if they were trying to hide their presence. If they were not trying to hide their presence why not announce themselves and start some interaction.
2: Some current science disciplines are only slightly removed from art and imagination. What kind of science can describe a 5-ton 200 million year old lizard from a couple crumbling rocks weighing a few pounds? There is a lot of legitimacy in paleontology but imagination also plays a significant part. Paleontologists have a lot of hard evidence but come on, how can they describe the size, shape and lifestyle of an extinct creature from a couple old, rocky bones?
3:Astronomers and astro-physicists like to believe they have a grasp on their subject but their theories are based on imagination filtered through incomplete science. In a way similar to paleontologists, they describe complete systems based on interpretations of measurements with very wide ranges of inaccuracy. The understanding of our universe has not yet reached the equivalent of the earthworm's concept of automobiles. I enjoy the theories but I have always been a fan of science fiction.
4: Psychology is another art and imagination based science. From what I see in the news and TV crime shows (kinda qualifies my opinions, right?) you can always find a psychologist to support your personal opinion on a subject. Any diagnosis is always a personal interpretation based on some hard behavioral science combined with the Doctor's personality.
5:Medicine. Doctors are not allowed to practice their craft the way it should be practiced. The pressures of profit and liability require them to limit the time they spend actually getting the information they need to make accurate diagnoses. With a need to see as many patients as possible in the shortest period of time the average doctor treats the patient's first described symptom and brushes aside anything else. With lawyers lurking behind every patient, every doctor must practice defensive medicine: expensive tests that would not be ordered without the liability threat. As patients we like to believe our doctors are concerned about our well being and know what they're doing. Most doctors actually know what they're doing but get in a habit of quick, simple, defensible diagnoses instead of looking for real problems.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Party politics is ruining our country
Party politics is ruining our country.
I have always been an opponent of the party-based political system we practice in this country. By letting political parties exercise influence and control over our elected legislators, we abdicate our roles as citizens. When we release ourselves from responsibility for the actions of our elected officials we become simple spectators and commentators. As citizens we have rights and responsibilities. We have the right to express our opinions in a community of valid media including the internet. We have the responsibility to become informed about the facts and to respond to our government’s activities. As citizens we have become lazy. We let others do our thinking and we seem to feel that the ability to quote or even paraphrase the latest sound bite or political headline demonstrates our understanding.
One-liners, sound-bites and thirty-second television ads are not informative; they are manipulative. That such tactics exist and persist is demonstration of the power the parties wield over our public opinions. Legislators should exist to inform us then listen to us and carry our desires onto the voting floor. They should not be part of any power-and-money centered organization working to influence our opinion. Many citizens have realized the influence of money on politicians and how susceptible they can be to the machinations of special interests. Political parties are, in effect, special interests disguised as social groups. No candidate has a real chance of success without allying himself with one of the two parties. Sure, there is a sprinkling of independents but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. In order to gain the support of a party a candidate must express agreement with most of the party’s philosophy and be willing to follow the party’s direction on issues. For any candidate the party alliance effectively isolates him from his constituency and the opinions and desires of the very people who elected him.
Voters have been guided by the party system for so long they see is as the law. It is not law as envisioned by the men who drafted the constitution. Party-centered activities are not described in the constitution. Cooperation between individual legislators on common issues is a good way to get important work done. This cooperation should be the choice of each individual lawmaker; not the choice of some party leadership. Inter-personal cooperation should be based on each legislator’s mandate from his constituency on specific issues, not a tacit agreement to be guided by the minority whip or some other imaginary position. When two or three people are effectively in charge of voting, these people wield a power over the legislature far beyond the intent of the constitution. They also serve as a single point of influence for special interests. It is easier to influence one person with offers of money, power, or other desirables than to spread the same resources over the entire group. This serves to subvert the legislative process.
As voters we should make every effort to support candidates who express refusal to be managed by party leadership. A candidate with the guts to stand alone against the party structure may well be the type of leader we need to take back our government. There is no reason why, as citizens, we cannot become knowledgeable on the issues and express our desires to our elected representatives. If we can do this we should then expect our representatives to respect our whishes; not the party line.
DRP
I have always been an opponent of the party-based political system we practice in this country. By letting political parties exercise influence and control over our elected legislators, we abdicate our roles as citizens. When we release ourselves from responsibility for the actions of our elected officials we become simple spectators and commentators. As citizens we have rights and responsibilities. We have the right to express our opinions in a community of valid media including the internet. We have the responsibility to become informed about the facts and to respond to our government’s activities. As citizens we have become lazy. We let others do our thinking and we seem to feel that the ability to quote or even paraphrase the latest sound bite or political headline demonstrates our understanding.
One-liners, sound-bites and thirty-second television ads are not informative; they are manipulative. That such tactics exist and persist is demonstration of the power the parties wield over our public opinions. Legislators should exist to inform us then listen to us and carry our desires onto the voting floor. They should not be part of any power-and-money centered organization working to influence our opinion. Many citizens have realized the influence of money on politicians and how susceptible they can be to the machinations of special interests. Political parties are, in effect, special interests disguised as social groups. No candidate has a real chance of success without allying himself with one of the two parties. Sure, there is a sprinkling of independents but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. In order to gain the support of a party a candidate must express agreement with most of the party’s philosophy and be willing to follow the party’s direction on issues. For any candidate the party alliance effectively isolates him from his constituency and the opinions and desires of the very people who elected him.
Voters have been guided by the party system for so long they see is as the law. It is not law as envisioned by the men who drafted the constitution. Party-centered activities are not described in the constitution. Cooperation between individual legislators on common issues is a good way to get important work done. This cooperation should be the choice of each individual lawmaker; not the choice of some party leadership. Inter-personal cooperation should be based on each legislator’s mandate from his constituency on specific issues, not a tacit agreement to be guided by the minority whip or some other imaginary position. When two or three people are effectively in charge of voting, these people wield a power over the legislature far beyond the intent of the constitution. They also serve as a single point of influence for special interests. It is easier to influence one person with offers of money, power, or other desirables than to spread the same resources over the entire group. This serves to subvert the legislative process.
As voters we should make every effort to support candidates who express refusal to be managed by party leadership. A candidate with the guts to stand alone against the party structure may well be the type of leader we need to take back our government. There is no reason why, as citizens, we cannot become knowledgeable on the issues and express our desires to our elected representatives. If we can do this we should then expect our representatives to respect our whishes; not the party line.
DRP
Thursday, September 10, 2009
My personal health care story (all true)
How the lack of health care affects me personally.
I have been unemployed for going on 6 months now. I am 57 years old and have a cluster of chronic conditions needing regular medications and doctors visits to assure survival. I have absolutely no form of insurance. It’s been several months since I saw a doctor and I don’t know how my conditions have progressed. My unemployment checks provide enough income (along with my wife’s disability check less than $800 month) to pay rent, utilities, a few groceries, and a weekly bankruptcy payment. By the way, the bankruptcy was caused in no small part by medical conditions and expenses. I have managed to get help from PPA for my maintenance medications such as insulin. A proper diabetic diet is more expensive than we can afford. Without the support from drug manufacturers (via PPA) I’d probably already be dead. Every week we have to decide where to most effectively spend the unemployment check – food, medicine, electric bill…etc. My wife’s disability check is eaten by the rent so everything else falls to me. I have managed to maintain an internet connection so I can keep up my job search. I have a recent degree in Information Technology and a Linux+ certification. The longer I remain unemployed the less likely it becomes that I will find work. My physical problems pretty much limit the kind of work I can do but no-one wants to hire a 57year-old entry-level computer programmer. I’ve been looking into freelance work and bidding on projects but I cannot compete with Indian, Pakistani, or other offshore software development companies.
To add to this situation, my wife also has some significant health conditions requiring expensive medications. We have managed to keep her prescriptions filled so far this year but this month she reached the gap in her Part-D coverage. Now we have to pay full price for her medicine which is not possible. Regular price for her medicines (using generics where available) exceeds our total income per month. I don’t know what we’ll do next month. We’re planning to make decisions based on her needs and our ability to pay and select one prescription to refill per month and try to stretch the medicines out like water in a desert.
We applied for additional help from TennCare – the Tennessee version of Medicaid but our total income is a few dollars over the limit. Before my unemployment checks started we had one month of extra coverage from the TennCare/QMB. My wife was reimbursed for her $98 Medicare premiums and for her prescription co-payments. That helped a lot. We lost this help once my unemployment checks started.
My most recent job loss was influenced in no small part by my increasing inability to perform the physical parts of my work to suit the company. It is after all a young man’s world. I have a strong set of marketable skills and experience to share even if I can no longer climb ladders all day, can’t see as well as I once did, or have trouble hearing. I want to work at something productive and constructive. I want to spend my time writing and debugging code and developing the next great website.
DRP
I have been unemployed for going on 6 months now. I am 57 years old and have a cluster of chronic conditions needing regular medications and doctors visits to assure survival. I have absolutely no form of insurance. It’s been several months since I saw a doctor and I don’t know how my conditions have progressed. My unemployment checks provide enough income (along with my wife’s disability check less than $800 month) to pay rent, utilities, a few groceries, and a weekly bankruptcy payment. By the way, the bankruptcy was caused in no small part by medical conditions and expenses. I have managed to get help from PPA for my maintenance medications such as insulin. A proper diabetic diet is more expensive than we can afford. Without the support from drug manufacturers (via PPA) I’d probably already be dead. Every week we have to decide where to most effectively spend the unemployment check – food, medicine, electric bill…etc. My wife’s disability check is eaten by the rent so everything else falls to me. I have managed to maintain an internet connection so I can keep up my job search. I have a recent degree in Information Technology and a Linux+ certification. The longer I remain unemployed the less likely it becomes that I will find work. My physical problems pretty much limit the kind of work I can do but no-one wants to hire a 57year-old entry-level computer programmer. I’ve been looking into freelance work and bidding on projects but I cannot compete with Indian, Pakistani, or other offshore software development companies.
To add to this situation, my wife also has some significant health conditions requiring expensive medications. We have managed to keep her prescriptions filled so far this year but this month she reached the gap in her Part-D coverage. Now we have to pay full price for her medicine which is not possible. Regular price for her medicines (using generics where available) exceeds our total income per month. I don’t know what we’ll do next month. We’re planning to make decisions based on her needs and our ability to pay and select one prescription to refill per month and try to stretch the medicines out like water in a desert.
We applied for additional help from TennCare – the Tennessee version of Medicaid but our total income is a few dollars over the limit. Before my unemployment checks started we had one month of extra coverage from the TennCare/QMB. My wife was reimbursed for her $98 Medicare premiums and for her prescription co-payments. That helped a lot. We lost this help once my unemployment checks started.
My most recent job loss was influenced in no small part by my increasing inability to perform the physical parts of my work to suit the company. It is after all a young man’s world. I have a strong set of marketable skills and experience to share even if I can no longer climb ladders all day, can’t see as well as I once did, or have trouble hearing. I want to work at something productive and constructive. I want to spend my time writing and debugging code and developing the next great website.
DRP
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Re-visit some of my older posts
If you are part of the ongoing debate about health care reform you should read some of my older posts. Click on the [older posts] link near the bottom of the page. Scroll down to read the posts from last month.
Comments on the President's stay-in-school PSA
The president’s speech to school children
The absolutely unreasonable opposition to the president’s speech outrages me. People have full right to mount any valid opposition to President Obama’s policies. I don’t have to agree with them to let them express their opinions or opposition. The speech in question was not presented as a promotion of the President’s agenda. It was a valid non-partisan inspirational message to encourage children to stay in school. I think people are sending the wrong message to their children when they disallow the speech on partisan grounds.
Children who are old enough to be influenced by a politician’s speech are also susceptible to their parents’ influence. Parents should teach respect for the office of the president and basic human respect for the individual holding the office. Parents also have a responsibility to teach their views to their children. A well prepared child will listen to a politician’s speech and filter what he says through the standards and beliefs provided by the parents. If you are afraid your children will be unduly influenced by a political speech maybe you are not being effective in your teaching at home. Talk to your kids and prepare them for the world. Denying them exposure to the world and not teaching them how politicians, teachers, and even clergy promote their own agendas actually makes them more vulnerable to the influences you are trying to protect them from.
Another personal opinion: I believe the message sent to children by forbidding their access to a public service announcement from the leader of our country helps continue the erosion of support for our government. Parents should become more personally involved in the political growth of their kids. Let them hear the messages then teach them how to recognize spin, propaganda, and partisan messages. They will be better citizens for your efforts and less likely to succumb to the mob mentality promoted by sound bites and professional spin doctors. Maybe I’m being too generous with my opinion of parents today. I know I was never taught anything politically constructive by my parents. It has taken me 50 years to develop a valid political thought process. Someday I might take time to write down the influences my childhood had on my politics and the true crap I had to unlearn before maturing.
drp
The absolutely unreasonable opposition to the president’s speech outrages me. People have full right to mount any valid opposition to President Obama’s policies. I don’t have to agree with them to let them express their opinions or opposition. The speech in question was not presented as a promotion of the President’s agenda. It was a valid non-partisan inspirational message to encourage children to stay in school. I think people are sending the wrong message to their children when they disallow the speech on partisan grounds.
Children who are old enough to be influenced by a politician’s speech are also susceptible to their parents’ influence. Parents should teach respect for the office of the president and basic human respect for the individual holding the office. Parents also have a responsibility to teach their views to their children. A well prepared child will listen to a politician’s speech and filter what he says through the standards and beliefs provided by the parents. If you are afraid your children will be unduly influenced by a political speech maybe you are not being effective in your teaching at home. Talk to your kids and prepare them for the world. Denying them exposure to the world and not teaching them how politicians, teachers, and even clergy promote their own agendas actually makes them more vulnerable to the influences you are trying to protect them from.
Another personal opinion: I believe the message sent to children by forbidding their access to a public service announcement from the leader of our country helps continue the erosion of support for our government. Parents should become more personally involved in the political growth of their kids. Let them hear the messages then teach them how to recognize spin, propaganda, and partisan messages. They will be better citizens for your efforts and less likely to succumb to the mob mentality promoted by sound bites and professional spin doctors. Maybe I’m being too generous with my opinion of parents today. I know I was never taught anything politically constructive by my parents. It has taken me 50 years to develop a valid political thought process. Someday I might take time to write down the influences my childhood had on my politics and the true crap I had to unlearn before maturing.
drp
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Personal Attacks on Barak Obama
I received another email today trying to convince me that President Obama is not a real citizen and does not deserve to be president. My response to such claims is the focus of this article.
What is the ultimate intent of this movement? Do you want Joe Biden as our president? Do you want another election? Are these claims being supported by international anti-American groups wanting to tear down our government? Do you people propagating these attacks really know where the claims actually originate? Such disruptive statements serve no purpose except to weaken this country through divisiveness. I'm sure there are people in the CIA who could explain this process better because they have used the same process to cause disruption in target countries. It is entirely possible we are being attacked by the Taliban, AlQueda, or some other anti-American organization. If we let these unfounded claims divide us, we are much more vulnerable to more overt attacks and less likely to mount a cohesive response to a real attack.
If you people are anti-American at heart and you believe in disrupting the American government you have to be careful how far you go. All you have to do is make one overt threat and the government you hate will be acutely aware of you. (and all that implies)
If you are propagating this stuff because you think there is truth in it, I want to know who your actual sources are and I want to research this myself. I happen to know that anyone can make up any story along with "photoshopped" images to support that story. Truth is not required. You people must think for yourselves and think about why this stuff keeps coming around. Do you want to be a part of an attack on our country because you're too stupid to choose DELETE instead of FORWARD.
As the Geico Gecko said: "c'mon people"
DRP
What is the ultimate intent of this movement? Do you want Joe Biden as our president? Do you want another election? Are these claims being supported by international anti-American groups wanting to tear down our government? Do you people propagating these attacks really know where the claims actually originate? Such disruptive statements serve no purpose except to weaken this country through divisiveness. I'm sure there are people in the CIA who could explain this process better because they have used the same process to cause disruption in target countries. It is entirely possible we are being attacked by the Taliban, AlQueda, or some other anti-American organization. If we let these unfounded claims divide us, we are much more vulnerable to more overt attacks and less likely to mount a cohesive response to a real attack.
If you people are anti-American at heart and you believe in disrupting the American government you have to be careful how far you go. All you have to do is make one overt threat and the government you hate will be acutely aware of you. (and all that implies)
If you are propagating this stuff because you think there is truth in it, I want to know who your actual sources are and I want to research this myself. I happen to know that anyone can make up any story along with "photoshopped" images to support that story. Truth is not required. You people must think for yourselves and think about why this stuff keeps coming around. Do you want to be a part of an attack on our country because you're too stupid to choose DELETE instead of FORWARD.
As the Geico Gecko said: "c'mon people"
DRP
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