Today’s Most Comical Quote July 30, 2009
At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville, SC, a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-S.C.) to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
Failed Stats Class July 30, 2009
The corollary is amazing: in Panama, which has only one-tenth of Canada’s population, people are apparently immortal!!
Ohmigosh, Here We Go Again! July 27, 2009
Let me make this point clear: I don’t support some form of government-sponsored healthcare because I’m liberal. I support it because it is the option chosen by every other civilized nation aside from Mexico, and I support it because it would dramatically improve healthcare in our country. I don’t have a dog in this fight; if private insurance worked better, I’d get right behind it.
I say that because it’s going to look like I’m picking a fight with conservative leaders when I say, they are literally trotting out lies before us… again. Not misstatements or overstatements. Lies.
This tidbit from Crook and Liars: You see, Canadian Shona Holmes has been the conservative darling of late. Her story is pretty compelling: suffering from a brain tumor, she could not get appropriate treatment in a timely fashion on Toronto. So she came to the U.S. and got swift, excellent treatment. We know this, of course, because it’s being heralded throughout the conservative blogosphere, because Ms. Holmes has appeared before Congress, and because she’s been on CNN and Fox. It’s a success story for the U.S. system.
Except, well, there’s this thing: it’s not true.
Ms. Holmes, it turns out (this according to the Mayo Clinic website, where her treatment occurred) didn’t have a brain tumor. What she had was called a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. I don’t want to belittle this: if I had this condition I’d want treatment. But according to the John Wayne Cancer Center, a Rathke’s Cleft Cyst is “not (a) true tumor or neoplasm; instead, they are benign cysts.”
So, it turns out that Ms. Holmes was given timely appointments with appropriate specialists in Toronto. She just didn’t like it, is all. She wanted more and better treatment than was medically appropriate, and she got it by paying for it (just as you could here in the U.S., presumably no matter what form of healthcare we adopt).
Even more galling is that the GOP folks who have made Ms. Holmes a cause celebre here in the U.S. continue to tout her story, even though they know the facts don’t square with the truth.
Crooks and Liars, indeed.
The Definitive Explanation: Why Free-Market Healthcare Doesn’t Work July 27, 2009
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has explained (as he often does, so well) precisely why free-market healthcare doesn’t work. A couple of key points he makes, if you want to save some time (my clarifications in parentheses):
- “Quite a few (Americans) seem to believe that this view (the view that free markets are the answer to the healthcare problem) reflects the lessons of economic theory. Not so. One of the most influential economic papers of the postwar era was Kenneth Arrow’s “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care” (1963), which demonstrated — decisively, I and many others believe — that health care can’t be marketed like bread or TVs.”
- “…someone other than the patient ends up making decisions about what to buy (insurers do). Consumer choice is nonsense when it comes to health care.” (This struck me as the crux of the matter: anyone who has ever had anything serious at all is familiar with the fact — it is indisputable — that you don’t get to choose when it comes to healthcare today. Krugman points out that insurers refer to your healthcare and mine as “medical costs,” and it’s an expense item on their income statements — something demanding to be lowered. And yet the fiction of choice drives much of the opposition to single-payer systems.)
- Krugman points out that there are several examples of successful health-care systems, in addition to socialized medicine or single-payer. But, damningly, he categorically states (and he is absolutely correct in doing so) that “there are, however, no examples of successful health care based on the principles of the free market.”
His blog post gives the perfectly sensible reasons why. You should read it.
It’s About Math, Kids July 24, 2009
Forbes Magazine reported on the top 15 degrees in terms of what graduates earn when they get out of school. Twelve of them — twelve out of fifteen — were some kind of engineering (petroleum, chemical, computing, etc.). The other three? Actuarial Science, Computer Science, and Construction Management.
It’s about being able to do numbers, everybody.
But… How Normal is This Quitting Thing? July 10, 2009
The Mudflats reports: Since 1900, about 1200 people have taken a first-term oath of office as governor of a state in the U.S. A number of them have left office because they were tapped for federal government posts (a la John Huntsman, taking the post as Obama’s ambassador to China, or Spiro Agnew taking the vice-presidency). A few governors were arrested or impeached. One was incapacitated with a nervous breakdown, and one left office just ahead of the posse (for impeachment).
How many just up and quit?
Three: Jim McGreevy, Eliot Spitzer and Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin Quits. Again. Or Does She? July 4, 2009
My take on Sarah Palin’s departure as governor of Alaska leans a little both ways.
On the one hand, this really is a disturbing trend for someone who would even campaign for our highest office:
- After graduating from high school, she attends Hawaii Pacific college for one semester, then leaves.
- She transfers to North Idaho College for two semesters, and leaves.
- She attends the University of Idaho for two semesters, and leaves.
- She attends Matanuska – Susitna College for one semester, and leaves.
- Finally, she attends the University of Idaho for three semesters and graduates.
- She was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2003, and quit the job less than a year later.
- And now: she serves 2 1/2 years of a four-year term, and rather puzzlingly quits the job.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say that this is not a good-looking resume for the toughest job in the world. I mean, aside from briefly sportscasting (did she quit that one?) and being mayor of Wasilla, that’s her entire adult life right there.
On the other hand: I would guess that she’s doing one of two perfectly reasonable things: either she’s stepping out of formal politics entirely to focus on her book and on giving speeches and being helpful to the Republican party, or she’s preparing to run for president in 2012 and wants to be free from the fund-raising shackles on elected officials. In the former case: she is the only thing the Republican brand has got going right now (aside from Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly), and it would help the party a lot if she spent tons of time in the lower 48. In the latter: strike while the iron’s hot, Sarah. She could raise untold gobs of cash right now for a presidential run, and it’s not weird for her take advantage of her opportunity. She hinted at that in her speech.
So, you know, it’s both disturbing and understandable.
I Am Not Making This Up Dep’t: July 4, 2009
- Rush Limbaugh stated on his program that Michael Jackson “flourished under Reagan, languished under Clinton/Bush, and died under Obama.” What…the… ?????
- The chyron (words on the lower portion of the screen during a segment) on Fox News (“fair and balanced,” remember?) read thusly yesterday: “Cap & Trade Cover-Up? Media Focuses on Michael Jackson’s Death.” I honestly wish I were making this up, but I kid you not:
Friends of all varieties (conservative or otherwise): can you see that you must stop watching and listening to these people? The level of wingnuttery has gotten truly appalling at this point.
