I Pay But I Don't Get It

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I have a good job. I buy the health insurance my Human Resources Dept tells me to buy. (This is not, by the way, a "free market" as described by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and the other neo-classical economists.) I pay enough that I could be driving a Mercedes - hell I could be driving a Hummer - and going about 2400 miles per month (at current gas prices).

But my coverage stinks. It's rationed by insurance company beancounters. If I see their doctors - and a complete physical takes about two hours and 30 seconds - two hours waiting and 30 seconds in which the doc says "You're breathing. That's good. You're blood pressure is high, if it gets higher we'll put you on meds."

But that's ok. As long as I don't get sick I'm ok. That's why my blood pressure is high. I'm worried about getting sick. Or losing my job. In either case I'll lose my house.

One thing I don't worry about is that my octagenarian father has good health care. He worked hard all his life. He takes care of himself. And he's on Medicare. It's great. Efficient. Government run. Not sexy like the Apollo Mission to the moon, but very important. And for the health care that my kids teachers get. They go to public school. The teachers are in the unions. And the health care is good. The kids too get good health care. Even if their parents work but don't get health care, then, thanks to Presidents Clinton and Obama, and despite the efforts and vetos of President Bush, they get health care.

But one of the things that really gets me, the thing that makes my blood boil - which is why I'll need blood pressure meds - is that close to 50 Million Americans - one out of six - have no health insurance. And it's people between the age of 18 and 65. People who work, or would work, if they could find jobs. This is wrong on many levels.

The other thing that is killing me - almost literally - is that people who make $Millions - insurance industry executives, and lobbyists and rich "Philosophers" Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, and O'Reilley - wait, they're not philosophers, they're not Thinkers - they're actors - and they are telling me what's good for me. That's un-American. They are sending people to disrupt "Town Hall meetings with Representatives from Congress.

On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry, speaking at St. John's church in Richmond, Virginia said "give me liberty or give me death." Those guys have taken my liberty and are giving me death.

Dear President Obama, Senators, Reps. in the House,

We elected you and the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate to fix the problems created and exacerbated by the neo-cons and the Republicans, and to do this by governing from the left of the center.

You have your work cut out for you.

Good luck.

I have your back.

But I can't support you when I'm drowning.

(first published on Daily Kos)

Good News, From a Marxist - Trotskyite Perspective, About the Whale Hunts.

Hunting whales for food violates international law (WSPA, National Geographic). It's illegal. Iceland and Norway ignore the ban. The Japanese claim to adhere to it by claiming to hunt whales for "scientific" reasearch. After the experiments are complete, they eat the subjects. The experiments seem to be in methods of killing and butchering whales. But here's a news flash - scientists don't eat the dogs, cats, chimps, rats, and fruit flies on they which they experiment. Systematic "scientific" study of different recipies is not permitted by the treaties that ban commercial whaling. The Inuit, Pacific Coast Native Americans and aboriginal Icelanders claim it's their culture. This may be true, however, as Captain Paul Watson, of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has observed, their traditional culture includes neither modern factory ships, nor commercial sales of whale meat to the Japanese.

But there is good news, at least from a Marxist - Trotskyite perspective, about the Whale Hunts.

Mercury causes brain damage - which is why I don't eat tuna.

PCB's disrupt endocrine function - which is why I am giving up all fish. And I would go hungry rather than eat whale meat.

Eating whale meat is like eat rats that have been killed with rat poison. Not a good idea.

The "good" news is that whale meat is so full of mercury, PCB's, and other toxins (Informaworld, Human Health Significance of Organocholorine and Mercury Contaminants in Japanese Whale Meat, Simmonds, Haraguchi, et al, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health) that it will kill the whale eaters, perhaps before they kill all the whales. Maybe the real question the Japanese "Scientists" are answering is "Which will happen first: epidemic Parkinson's in Japan or Extinction of the Whales?"

Maybe this explains Lou Dobbs' nonsensical rants about Obama's birth. Maybe Lou Dobbs is not a racist, maybe he has eaten so much tuna and whale meat that he has mercury poisoning. And maybe it explains George W. Bush, Norm Coleman, Anne Coulter, Larry Craig, Bobby Jindal, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, and all the rest. Maybe they've eaten so much whale meat, tuna, and mercury laden caviar that they have Minamata Disease - mercury poisoning. After all, they are as mad as hatters.

What do you think?

Single Prayer Health Care

Wasilla, Alaska, July 27, 2009. The Republicans have finally released their health care plan. Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, and Rush Limbaugh, joined by Bobby Jindal and the Blue Dog Democrats, have announced their plan: "The Single Prayer Plan."

The good news is that the health care plan is free. All you need to do is pray that you don't get sick, and pray that you don't need medicine. The bad news is that it is not proven to be effective.

Hunting Now Considered Feminine Behavior

Anchorage, Alaska. Dec. 25. Hunting Now Feminine Behavior for Conservative Republicans. It is well known that hunters want to kill to be in touch with their primitive side. They want to dominate beings and kill them in order to feel tough, masculine, heroic, and all that.

Of course, this begs the question of "How does shooting a defenseless living being at a distance of 100 yards or greater, or from a helicopter Sarah Palin Style, make one feel tough, masculine, heroic and all that?" This raises a second question. Given that Sarah Palin hunts, and given that Palin is a female and a de facto role model of femininity for conservative Republicans, then isn't hunting now a
feminine behavior for conservative Republicans?

New Jersey's Gangster Rabbis

New Jersey's Gangster Rabbis - Next to Jack Abramoff they look like Boy Scouts.

The Gangster Rabbis allegedly stole money. One allegedly offered to broker the sale of a kidney. And they allegedly bought and sold hack politicians like shmatas. Big deal. They don't come close to Bernie Madoff, and he wears normal clothes. Eats lobster. Summers on the Hamptons. That is, he used to.

But Abramoff, he was one of the biggest, baddest Jew-hoods pretending to be a mensch. He's like Arnold Rothstein - fixed the World Series, Meyer Lansky - hit his "friend" Bugsy. While Abramoff was only a low level hack in the organization, he helped steal THE COUNTRY, nu, they suborned the Department of Justice - the whole Executive Branch - and much of the Legislative Branch.

But the good news about Abramoff's Gang is it seems to be those guys are as farklempt as they are meshugah. Sure they still dally with men and women to whom they are not married. Sure they have that shicksa from Alaska, who really only likes one Jew.

Ciao, Shalom, Peace,

Glossary
Farklempt - pron. "far-klempt", fucked up.
Meshugah - pron. "meh - shu - gah" crazy and stupid. Or stupid and crazy. Or Republican.
Nu - pron. "new" - in this context - well, nu, we discussed that yesterday.
Shiksa - pron "shick-sah", non-Jewish woman.
Shmatas - pron "shmah-tahz" - rags, clothes, washed up hack politicians.

Single-Payer Health Care

The Critics of a single-payer health care system, which would expand Medicare to cover everyone, claim to be against rationing health care. Their fear is that some nameless bureaucrats will tell me which doctors I can see, and tell my doctors what to do. In truth that is precisely what we have today. Insurance companies ration health care. Insurance company bureaucrats tell us which doctors we can see and tell our doctors what to do - if we have insurance.

If we don't have insurance, and we're really, really sick, we go to the emergency room. This is an inefficient use of emergency room resources. It is paid for by the people with insurance and the
taxpayers. However, unless you're in a diabetic coma or have just had a heart attack or stroke, the ER is not designed to treat cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic illness.

Insurance industry run health care is motivated by the managers of insurance companies to maximize revenues and minimize expenditures. The Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservatives would call this a “Market Failure.” Just as national security operations should not be defined and run by private contractors, health care should not be run by private industry.

Our government, in the words of President Lincoln, is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” A government run health care system would be motivated by citizens demanding high quality health care for the people.

Haiku of earth sea and sky

This a magic place
No Witch, Wizard, Genie, Jin,
Just Technology

Yet a dark side here
From burning the rocks and tar
Poisons gas and heat

Nunuck bear home floats
Bed of ice on open sea
Melts nanuck to die

North Pacific Gyre
Toxic plastic looks like food
Bags we use but once

Turtle sees plastic
Floats like jelly but not food
Turtle eats to die

Death food in the sea
Dumb animals eat plastic bags
Why it look like food

We burn coal and oil
Mercury hot gas carbon
We burn rocks for heat

We strive for more stuff
Nuclear is still claimed safe
Safe if you are dead

Chesapeake near death
Algae grow on chicken waste
Oxygen all gone

Baby Orca dies
Endocrine system failure
PCB's in food

We kill for more stuff
Won't never have enough
We must kill for stuff

Iceberg floats submerged
Waters dance from ice to sea
Deep, Cold, Wild and True

Still waters run deep
Tuna Burgers Water Song
Breathe feel ride the waves

Children of the west
To live sustain the garden
Must learn harmony