Aetna ushers in a Brave New World

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Wednesday November 09, 2005 · 2:40 PM PST

2005/11/09 · 14:40

Last week, the New York Times, among other places, published a largely PR piece on Aetna's new plan to pay doctors to test their patients for depression. This ought to be good news. We should be happy that Aetna--big, heartless, claim-denying, profit-driven corporation that it is--is actually doing something to make the world a better place. It's not like they are necessarily up to something sneaky. The businesses that hire apparently lose large sums to depression in the form of absenteeism and reduced productivity. So if Aetna provides depression screening and increases depression treatment, employees will be served and employers will see their productivity increase. Aetna, in turn, will sell more of its product. It's the free market working for everyone.

Nonetheless, I find Aetna's plan deeply unsettling. Read More

Bush and Education

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Monday November 07, 2005 · 11:19 AM PST

2005/11/07 · 11:19

In a NY Times op-ed piece--Every State Left Behind--, Diana Ravitch makes the case, contrary to Bush administration policy, for a single national set of tests, standards and curriculum for America's schools.

Two of these (which are really just one--tests imply standards), are a good idea for more than the reasons she cited. We need to be able to compare educational success or failure at all levels, to be able to hold states up against each other to see who is finding the most success for their efforts, and we need to be able to compare our children's abilities to those of the rest of the world. Read More

White House goes after The Onion

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Tuesday October 25, 2005 · 8:58 AM PDT

2005/10/25 · 08:58

According to this NYTimes story, White House lawyers have written the satirical paper The Onion insisting they stop using the Presidential Seal on their web page featuring fake Presidential radio addresses.

It's simply baffling. Not only does it beg the question of proper use of taxpayer resources, it shows an utter misunderstanding of free speech protections for satire, and it just opens the door for the The Onion to retaliate with even more satire. While there has been no lack of material for them in recent weeks, they've got to be drooling over this.

One can only hope that Harriet Miers was somehow involved . . .

Americans' Bloody Cars

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Friday September 30, 2005 · 12:22 PM PDT

2005/09/30 · 12:22

Last night, on NPR's All Things Considered Scott Horsley considered how high gas prices would have to get before Americans would change their behaviour. The answer according to one survey: $4/gallon before most Americans would start driving higher mpg vehicles.

This is disturbing on a number of levels. First, that gas prices would have to go that high before anyone would do anything. Second, that the only thing Americans would do is drive different cars. In the report, there was no suggestion that a "change in behaviour" would include the use of public transportation, car pooling, living closer to workplaces, bicycling or walking more, or even increasing telecommuting. I hope that this is just presumptuousness on the part of the reporters and survey writers, but I fear otherwise.

Finally, last week, my company put up a sign up sheet for car pooling. (I didn't sign up because I'm a bicycle commuter.) One person, so far, has signed up, but I think that was a prank his colleagues were playing on him.

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