Health care = Big Government. No sh*t.

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Monday January 25, 2010 · 6:31 PM PST

2010/01/25 · 18:31

Bill O'Reilly, despite his Masters degree in Public Administration, never has a solution to any problem. He's a smart guy who can find the festering purulent ulcer emanating from the diabetic's leg, and he may even know how to debride and dress it, but he won't.

Here's the deal: there are two possible solutions--- and only two. One, we can provide health care for everyone and fund it with income tax or VAT or consumption taxes, ie, clean up the wound, OR two, we can amputate the leg, by stopping all mandates for hospitals and doctors to provide free or below-market care. Both will work equally well, but very different in their level of difficulty and pain. I'll start with the second choice.

Poll

4 votes Show Results

EMTALA

4 votes Vote Now!

EMTALA

should be repealed

0 votes

should be made unnecessary

3 votes

is a cool tropical drink

1 vote

was part of Phi Slamma Jamma in the 1980's

0 votes

AMA brings Common Sense to Health Care Debate

Grodge

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Saturday August 15, 2009 · 7:26 PM PDT

2009/08/15 · 19:26

Health care reform has been along time coming, and the American Medical Association has been voicing their opinion throughout the debate. The significant fact is that the AMA backs the main bill (H.R. 3200) that has come out of the House and has sent an email to physicians via their specialty societies outlining their rationale.

These issues have been continuously debated and modified for two generations, so when opponents of health care reform complain that it is being "rushed through", don't believe them. This is merely a ploy by the insurance lobby to delay passage so that they can stoke more fear. The AMA email:

Grodge

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Monday August 10, 2009 · 7:18 AM PDT

2009/08/10 · 07:18

Reagan economist Art Laffer's recent op-ed from the Wall Street Journal embraces the free market approach to health care which puts trust in health care consumers to control costs. Who better than the average Joe and Jane to know how their health care dollars are to be spent? He opines that the current Democratic plan will not cut costs, and indeed, is "worse than doing nothing." Is he correct? Let's go through it. Laffer is italicized, my comments are not.
W

Grodge

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Thursday August 06, 2009 · 10:18 PM PDT

2009/08/06 · 22:18

Grodge

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Friday July 17, 2009 · 4:09 AM PDT

2009/07/17 · 04:09

Obama has promised to make health care universal, to pay for it with current revenues, to improve or maintain quality and to reduce the cost of health care in the US as a percentage of GDP. Does his plan do it?

Poll

100 votes Show Results

The Democratic health care proposal:

100 votes Vote Now!

The Democratic health care proposal:

goes too far toward big government

43 votes

is just right and fulfills all the goals set out

9 votes

doesn't go far enough and appeases the Republicans too much

47 votes

seeking perfection is not worth it, so why bother

1 vote

Fred Upton Drifts Off to Sleep Again

Grodge

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Wednesday April 04, 2007 · 6:08 PM PDT

2007/04/04 · 18:08

I knew Fred Upton couldn't stay awake.

A while ago, Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) was showing some signs of lucidity by recognizing that George W. Bush's "surge" is a recipe for continued disaster. In February I praised Upton when he said: [Bush's] surge strategy will fail and only prolong the day that the Iraqis will finally pick up the baton and lead their own government.

Poll

16 votes Show Results

Fred Upton

16 votes Vote Now!

Fred Upton

makes perfect sense, Grodge is the one who's demented

2 votes

seems confused but probably means well

0 votes

is obviously getting more than just campaign contributions from Big Pharma

2 votes

enjoys only a passing acquaintance with reality

7 votes

call the Kalamazoo Psych Hospital

5 votes

Victor David Hanson provides a teaching moment.

Grodge

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Saturday March 03, 2007 · 12:06 PM PST

2007/03/03 · 12:06

"There is no teacher but the enemy."-- Gen. Mazer Rackham, Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

Victor David Hanson is not my enemy, but he is a tool, and like all tools he has some utility. For the unitiated, Hanson is the Last Bush Apologist and he writes drivel for the National Review. Today, Hanson has lived out his purpose in showing us that the US' mission in Iraq is indeed lost.

I'll accept the criticism that picking on Victor David Hanson is too easy, a fool's game. It's true that his columns are usually the most senseless compilations of worn out platitudes and irrational tautologies, but his recent piece represents a wonderful summary of everything wrong with Bush's war and he finishes with a clue to the question of whether Iraq can be saved.

Grodge

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Wednesday February 21, 2007 · 9:14 PM PST

2007/02/21 · 21:14

Make the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine mandatory for boys and optional for girls. Frankly, I'm hesitant to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for anyone, especially for the first five years of use until unforeseen problems can be studied. My bias is to keep such things optional for all, but if mandatory vaccination is to be instituted, I would argue that boys should be required before girls.

The purpose of any vaccine is multi-fold: 1) it should protect the individual from getting the disease, 2) the vaccine should protect other contacts from potentially getting infected and 3) a vaccine program can serve to completely eliminate a disease from a population, called "herd immunity". This has been successfully achieved with small pox, a disease not seen in over 30 years.

Most infectious diseases that are managed with vaccines are transmitted from an infected individual to an unsuspecting host through airborne transmission (influenza, measles, chicken pox, etc), or by exchange of bodily fluids directly (hepatitis, HPV, etc).

Poll

58 votes Show Results

HPV vaccine should be

58 votes Vote Now!

HPV vaccine should be

optional for all

22 votes

mandatory for boys and girls

21 votes

mandatory for boys, optional for girls

3 votes

mandatory for girls, optional for boys

11 votes

illegal

1 vote

Harold Ford Sells Out??

Grodge

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Wednesday February 14, 2007 · 9:12 AM PST

2007/02/14 · 09:12

or is this just that he needs a job?

Merrill Lynch said Wednesday Harold E. Ford Jr., a former Democratic congressman from Tennessee, is joining the financial services provider as vice chairman and senior policy adviser, effective March 5.

Ford served in Congress for five terms starting in 1996. He sat on the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Financial Services.

Ford will advise senior management on domestic policy issues, serve as a member of the firm's public policy and social responsibility management committee, and support a variety of business development initiatives in the institutional and retail markets, Merrill Lynch said.

Not sure what to make of it.

Jimmy Unleashes the Fury

Grodge

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Thursday December 07, 2006 · 9:08 AM PST

2006/12/07 · 09:08

The newest book to land on the nightstand is former President Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, his review and assessment of the Arab-Israel conflict beginning with his tenure up to the present day. I have perused the introduction but have not made much headway through the tome.

In today's Washington Post, Kenneth W. Stein, a professor at Emory University and former Carter Center scholar, offers the expected rebuke of Carter's conclusion about the occupation of Palestinian land by armed Israelis. Carter maintains that such occupation, a term that even Ariel Sharon has used, is not only counter-productive but unlawful. Stein voices the usual concerns about Israeli security, only he peppers his opinion with uncorroborated accusations about Carter's ethics and motivations. Criticism of Israel always demands a hefty toll and a thick skin.

Poll

44 votes Show Results

Engaging Israel and Palestine...

44 votes Vote Now!

Engaging Israel and Palestine...

certainly endangers Israel

2 votes

is counter-productive to US' interests

2 votes

makes no diference

0 votes

if done properly, may help

31 votes

Grodge should shut up til he finishes the book

9 votes

The "Regrettable" Mr. Bush

Grodge

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Friday May 26, 2006 · 12:05 AM PDT

2006/05/26 · 00:05

I almost avoided George W. Bush's press conference tonight. I tried, I really did. I took the dogs for a walk, but when I came home I discovered that the White Sox weren't playing, and I wandered into a room with a TV on. And, shazam! There they were, the dynamic dickheads of pre-emption: Bush and Blair, or should we call them Mr. 32% and Mr. 26%?

BREAKING: Bush causes Texas Power Blackouts?

Grodge

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Monday April 17, 2006 · 4:31 PM PDT

2006/04/17 · 16:31

Rolling Blackouts are being reported throughout Texas due to increased demands on the power grid with record high temperatures.

I'm not sure how this is Bush's fault, but I'm sure it is. Perhaps it is the lack of investment in needed infrastructure.

Let's see if he acts as slowly for a disaster in his home state as he did with Katrina.

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Health care = Big Government. No sh*t.

AMA brings Common Sense to Health Care Debate

Laffer is wrong about free markets and health care

Art Laffer, the free market & health costs

Obama's Health Care Mess

Fred Upton Drifts Off to Sleep Again

Victor David Hanson provides a teaching moment.

Vaccinate the boys!!!

Harold Ford Sells Out??

Jimmy Unleashes the Fury

The "Regrettable" Mr. Bush

BREAKING: Bush causes Texas Power Blackouts?