healthcare

Healthcare: Tear It All Down

I’ve never understood why it is that otherwise intelligent people instantly assume that a simple, massive change is the only solution.

(Brace yourselves. This rant has been building for a while.)

It’s a truism that every single complex problem has a simple, easy-to-understand, common-sense wrong answer. What’s wrong with complex solutions for complicated problems?

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Strange State

It’s highly unusual for a new president to address Congress within his first year, much less his first hundred days. With a near-deserted hall (thanks to COVID) in a fortified building surrounded by heavily armed riot police and not a few National Guardsmen, tonight’s address made history in several ways.

What wasn’t unusual was the content. Although it was delivered in an almost informal, folksy style, we heard exactly what we expected to. The tone was optimistic, and the message was clear: Biden laid out his agenda for the coming months, and he expects to make it happen. How, exactly, is another question entirely.

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Bloody Spring

Opinion

It’s happened again: We’ve had yet another mass shooting. Just between us, as more and more people start coming out of their year-long lockdowns, I predict we’re going to have a fair number more. We got a year off from them, but that just means we’ve had people become crazy at the normal rate… but they didn’t have obvious targets and so kept right on stewing in their basements.

Plus, every time there’s one of these shown on CNN, it seems other nuts see the television coverage and get inspired to do one of their own — as though being a copycat nut-job is somehow better than the first one, who might have been honestly acting out his own selfish frustrations on innocents rather than pretending to for the free press.

Don’t get me wrong: They’re both foul and almost inhumanly selfish. But the copycat is at least partly after the attention, which is worse — people’s lives are more valuable than that.

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Happy New Year. Now What?

We’ve survived 2020.

Hooray for us. So now what? What’s the new normal going to be?

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COVID-19: Flattening The Curve

Here’s what is meant by mitigating and flattening the curve.

COVID-19 has between a 5 and 20% hospitalization rate for severe symptoms.  If it infected as many people in the U.S. as influenza we would be looking at a minimum of 1.7 million people in need of hospitalization — and not just for a few days.

No country in the world is prepared to take on this kind of caseload quickly. (more…)

Virtue Signalling For Votes

“The only people truly bound by campaign promises are the voters who believe them.”
― Christopher Hitchens

There are two types of promises:  comforting lies, and those meant to be kept.  Campaign promises differ from normal ones only in the choice of subject; where a doctor might tell a panicked child, “Now, you might feel a little pinch,” a politician will promise to end world hunger (more…)

Help Fight Stupidity!

Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen:  This is war, and we need you.

I have read your learned articles on the healthcare debate.  I have reviewed your proposals on climate change and environmental protection.  For the many (the most of us) who haven’t written or even linked any of those, I’ve read your angry memes and mocking anti-Trump and anti-Republican posts.  I have seen these things, my friends, and in listening, the source of your anger has become apparent, as has the problem’s only solution.

The trouble is, you’re sick of corrupt morons in charge of things, and you’re tired of being treated like an idiot yourself by everyone running for office.  Tell me I’m wrong; I dare you. (more…)

Nothing To See Here; Move Along

(or, Why I Haven’t Written Much Lately)

Most of my posts here are about current events.  When an important new law gets signed, I’m all over it; when there’s a big mystery or scandal, I’m right here with my opinion.  Normally, when there’s a pause in the news for whatever reason, I’ll chime in with a suggestion on policy.

Trouble is, right now, nothing’s happening, and what is happening is just more of (more…)

My Healthcare Plan, Dammit

The newest Republican version of healthcare just passed the House and was instantly declared D.O.A. in the Senate.  Which is good; it’s not enough of a fix.  Then again, neither was the A.C.A. (otherwise known as Obamacare).

I’m not going to get into all the whithertos and whyfores right now; you can get that on every news channel.  (Besides, I’ve already written about it a couple of times.  Both are great articles; read them.)  Instead, I’m going to tell you (more…)