It's been quite a while since my last post. I'm a family man with a full time job, and it's not always easy to find time to blog. 
    I'm here today to talk a bit about health care. I'm hearing a lot of noise , mainly from the left, about the health care crisis we're supposedly  suffering in this country. I've worked in the health care industry since 1983 and I'm not able to square this hysteria with the circumstances in front of me. Our set up here may not be typical, but I can assure you that anyone needing care in this town will get it regardless of ability to pay. 
     I work in a community hospital in a growing southern city. The town is sustained by a very healthy industry that has created an unusual number of millionaires for it's size, and our hospital has benefited greatly from their largesse. Through their financial support we enjoy an excellent facility on a par with what one would expect in major cities. We service not only our immediate community, but also several neighboring rural counties. 
     The city itself has, due to it's prosperity, become a magnet to Mexican and Central American immigrants, and this demographic shift has not only dramatically increased the population but has physically and culturally changed the town nearly beyond recognition. A very conservative guess would be that 25 -30% of our patients are Hispanic.
    The bulk of our patients are blue collar with insurance, but any uninsured patient will be treated. My current position is with the outpatient radiology center. Every effort is made to accommodate physicians requests to "work In" patients needing immediate diagnostic studies but falling short of needing to be seen in the ER. 
    Our ER, incidentally is one of the busiest in the state,  and, unfortunately, is frequently the primary source of care for many patients who don't maintain relationships with private practices. This results in a constantly packed waiting room as patients seek treatment for colds, flu, and other maladies that would best be addressed at a doctor's office. Nevertheless, they do receive medical attention.

    So, the situation: A way better than average small town medical center supported, in part, by the generosity of wealthy local citizens that will see any patient regardless of insurance, ability to pay, citizenship status, ability to speak English, etc. etc. etc.  If a patient needed an urgent MRI today, it would be arranged within a few hours. And this would hold equally true for both the wealthiest person in town and the most destitute.  No waiting lists. No hassles. The system works.

     I shudder to think how this smooth, working system would clog and grind to a near halt if we were to institute some form of socialized medicine in the U.S.  Just ask any Canadian how long they'd have to wait for an MRI ordered today. (Better yet, check out On The Fence Films.) Hillarycare would, I believe, render our system every bit as insanely inoperable as theirs. Good old fashioned capitalistic prosperity drives our operation. Government involvement can only leave it in tatters.

 

If you get a pink slip in Brussels what do you do? Start looking for another job? Nahhhhhhhh! You take to the streets! Those wacky Euros just can't seem to make the connection between poor production and poor performance. Who's to blame? Why it's those evil, money grubbing capitalist pigs at VW. Here's a fun quote:

Francis Wurtz, French European parliament member and head of the parliament's left bloc, complained multinationals were making European workers fight each other and accept ever worse conditions.

"If we allow that to happen there will be no social Europe left," he said.

I hope our Belgian pals keep their placards and marching shoes handy, 'cause I'm sure this is just the vanguard of corporate exodus. Socialism, my Belgian brothers, has decimated every culture it's infected.

   This post goes under my  "Why I abandoned liberalism" tab. Check out this over at Oliver WIllis' blog. This is a classic example of the intellectual vacuum that is liberal discourse.  Oliver's point here is that Michelle Malkin was proven wrong in her coverage of the spurious AP source dust up currently being highlighted by Michelle and others. 
    What I'm taking issue with here isn't the fact that Oliver is utterly misguided on this issue. He is. But it's the churlish, sophomoric manner in which so much liberal discussion takes places that helped to push me to the right. Pay particular attention to the comment sting on that post from Oliver.  To be sure plenty of insults are hurled at the left from conservative bloggers, but you just don't see this sort of pettiness. The lefties just consistently  spiral downward  to vulgar, personal attacks against anyone daring to disagree with their point of view. Surely if they had a coherent argument to make they'd make it. But time after time after time we see instead that kind of shill name calling supplanting legitimate debate. 

                                          Here's another taste from an earlier post of mine. 

  

   I'm open to argument on this, so if anybody wants to convince me I'm making too much out of this feel free to comment. Last weekend I took my family to the movies, and among the many previews was one for an animated feature due to be released in the US in January called Arthur and the Invisibles.
     I have no reason to think that the content of this film is suspect in any way. My misgivings are with their choice of Madonna and Snoop Dog for the voices of two of the characters. Even before his arrest earlier this week on drug charges Snoop Dog was low on my list of role models for my kids. The guy has multiple arrests just this year, and, among other unsavory  things, has even been featured in a version of the Girls Gone Wild videos ( no way I'm linking to that one!). I also don't consider Madonna with her apparent disdain for Christianity, her embrace of Kaballah, and her over all trashiness to be a paragon of moral virtue or a sterling example for my 10yr old daughter. 
     It may be argued that since they're only doing the voices their impact will be minimal. But I know from talking with my kids that they are aware of the actors behind the characters and I think it matters. Imagine if the voices were being done by Jenna Jamison and Ron Jeremy.  In my book there are only a couple of shades of difference.
     To me this seems to be another example of the subtle, slow erosion of our standards. Hollyweird: Eroding your standards since 1915

Check out this review of Kill Your Teacher over at Front Page Magazine. My wife has suggested many times that I'd make a great teacher. Here's why I never persued it. The Madness! The Madness! Here's a bit:

 Shifren tells of his referral of one student to the principal's office for discipline for stabbing another student in class with a pencil. The student soon returned to class with a taxpayer-paid community activist, designated as a "parent rep," who screamed at him in front of the class. "I'm tired of you kicking Black kids out of your class," she yelled. But Shifren points out that every student in his class was Black.

 

Dear Mom,

Wow! Great news about the election! We’re so looking forward to coming home to a liberated America.

There was jubilation in the streets throughout Saskatchewan to be sure. Moonbeam closed the new age book store and I took the day off from the hydroponic farm to drive into town and celebrate. And celebrate we did! There were the usual burnings of the American flag and Bush in effigy, of course. The library had children’s programs and a Noam Chomsky reading. Everywhere was a festive atmosphere. MB and I splurged and both had colonics to symbolize the cleansing of the Republican evil from the American gut..

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know we got the plane tickets you sent, and not a moment too soon as it turns out. Moonbeam slipped a disc attempting a particularly ambitious Yoga pose 19 months ago, and we’re still waiting to get an MRI. We’ve been seeing a local shaman in the meantime, but she never seems to get any better. But, hey, the wait is the least we can do to ensure universal healthcare, but see if you can get her an appointment anyway.

Uncle Steve sends his love, but, plead as we might, we weren’t able to convince him to come home with us. He’s still convinced that “that basta*d Nixon” will have him arrested at the border. We tried to convince him that Nixon was dead and that 40 yrs was long enough to wait, but he just starts mumbling and hides under the Subaru.

So, I guess we’ll be seeing you next week. My mouth is watering in anticipation of one of your tofu and goat cheese casseroles. Hug Dad for us,

Love, Woody

You just gotta love them Frogs. Check out this item over at Little Green Footballs.

Check out Robert Shibley's response to Carol Iannone's criticism of F.I.R.E.s take on the Amy Guttman controversy.
The dust up over University of Pennsylvania president Amy Guttman appearing in photos with a student dressed as a suicide bomber at her recent Halloween party has occasioned quite a bit of negative comment within the blogosphere. F.I.R.E. holds that President Guttman has no obligation, and indeed has no business, vetting students costumes. Carol Iannone disagrees:

Well, that wasn't such a pleasant night. But, we have a whole 2 yrs in which to turn things around and a president to elect. And nothing could aid our cause more than having the Dems wreck things for 24 months. Let's Get Busy!

 Well, at 7:10 am I cast my first general election Republican vote! Felt pretty good, y'all. Thank God I came to my senses before it was too late.

  Ok, then on the way to work I heard the most ironic Harold Ford ad yet from neighboring Tennessee.  It begins with "Are you conservative? Do you have traditional conservative values?" Then the sound of a needle slipping off of a vinyl record.."Then don't vote for Bob Corker!" The ad then rattled off a list of sins they imagine Bob committed against true conservatism. But the best was kept for last. The tag line was: " He's not one of us! Not by a long shot!...I'm Harold Ford and I approve this message."  I mean COME ON! The Democrat is attempting to woo conservatives by proclaiming the Republican's not one of "US." Sheesh!
   I don't know why Harold just didn't run on the Republican ticket. His entire campaign has been run as though he were.

  I'm local to Chattanooga, and stong early voter turnout was the lead story on the local TV news.  You can see the Chattanooga Times Free Press story here and the same in Nashville's Tennessean here.  The last time I can remember this much electoral interest being generated in this area was the 92 Bush/Perot/Clinton debacle. Tennessee shamefully fell to Clinton in that one. My read locally is that Corker is heavily favored, but that's no doubt skewed by the fact that this is Corker's home turf. 
    Off topic a bit: During the 92 race I remember one old country guy on the local TV news declaring: "I'm votin' for Bush 'cause I don't think I can stand four years of Hillary!"  If he'd only known...   

 I just deleted a post entitled "Shameless Hypocrisy from the Academy" that I posted just a couple of hours ago. At issue in the post was the recent revelation of photos of University of Pennsylvania president Amy Guttman posing with a student dressed as a suicide bomber at her annual Halloween party. This can be found at The Democracy Project . The gist of my post was that it was very hypocritical for the president of a university allow such a get up at her party and to pose for a photo when colleges and universities routinely trample the constitutional rights of their students for far more innocent violations of their hysterical, politically correct, and illegal speech codes. I linked to several posts from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) website citing examples of this sort of abuse coming on the heels of costumes/ costume parties deemed to be racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive.
Well, my new blog buddy edmcgon did me a great service (pigskins and politics) by pointing out that The University of Pennsylvania had no significant mentions off abuse on the F.I.R.E. site. And on checking for myself I found that F.I.R.E. actually gives U of Pa a green light (best) rating in terms of their upholding first amendment rights. Whoops!
I originally just updated the post with his comments, but on reconsideration I felt it was best to delete the post altogether since I could hardly accuse President Guttmann of hypocrisy. Much the opposite. So, I took it down.
Thanks to edmogon for the heads up. I should have done my homework on this one, and I'll be doubly circumspect and thorough with my research in future posts.
I feel the issue of freedom of speech on our campuses warrants our attention, and I encourage everyone to follow that link to the F.I.R.E website. There's tons of enlightening info there. Thanks

    The other day I posted about the ideological debate I'm having with my Mother in Law. I later inadvertently deleted the post. Anyway, the gist of that post was that my mother in law, a devout christian in her 70s, surprised me by voicing her support of the Democrats and blaming all of our nations troubles on the Republicans. I was surprised since by any measure she's someone you'd expect to be a staunch conservative.  But a peek at her background helps to explain the disparity.
   She grew up in depression era West Virginia where her dad worked a coal mining concern. He later worked on some to the big TVA project. They were fairly poor and there was FDR coming on strong with the relief projects, so it's understandable that she grew up in a Dem leaning household.
    What's more difficult to understand is the fact that she still reflexively supports the Dems in the face of all the evidence that they've become a very different party since the 30s. Mom in law is pro-life, for lower taxes, not thrilled about gay marriage, etc, etc, etc. Yet, she adamantly refuses to even consider the evidence.
    This morning I told her that I was going to work on her for the next week about changing her party loyalty and she replied "I've been a Democrat all my life. My Momma and Daddy would roll over in their graves if I voted Republican".  Goodness!
     Last night I was with she and my Father in Law as they watched reports of the John Kerry blow up on ABC, and it seemed pretty obvious that they were pretty much accepting everything they were being told at face value.  Ok, at one point while discussing these things with her she told me that I just hadn't been paying attention to what's been going on. And yet she's getting all of her information unfiltered from the MSM!
      And there's no doubt that she'll vote come Tuesday. In Georgia a ballot cast for a Democrat is pretty much a wasted effort (as I well know from my years as a confused liberal voter), but I'm still a bit frustrated that I've not been able to break through her resistance with reason. And the whole issue underscores the danger of a media nearly unified in support of the left.

Just a quickie!

I saw Michelle Malkin's post on Hollyweird on the campaign trail , and she ended with this:
   
"Will Cameron Diaz do a repeat on Oprah this year about how, like, rape could be legalized if we don't make the right voting choices?"

I'm thinking that Cameron is more insightful than she's knows, 'cause if you vote for the Jihad loving Dems you may have the Rape Sheikh  coming soon to a mosque near you!

I just read this at Michelle Malkin's site regarding the whacked out response from Hollywood producer Don Murphy to the prolife rebuttal to Michael J. Fox's recent pro-stem cell research ads on behalf of Democratic candidates. The rebuttal ad features several Hollywood celebrities, and this guy just came unglued over this. I'd paste it here, but the language is too vile.
    This episode is a perfect example of the sort of  mindlessness from the left that drove me to conservatism. Nowhere in this tantrum does this guy attempt to address any issue. It's simply 6th grade name calling.
     He begins by accusing the ad of being morally and logically unsound and of mocking Fox, but there's nothing else to support this. Anyone who could find this ad mocking of Michael Fox would probably hear jungle drums in the background of a Bob Coker ad. He obviously thinks his point is sufficiently self-evident as to need no illumination.
     The rest of the post he simply obscenely defames the actors and ends with a call for medical experimentation on Patricia Heaton. Man o man!
      Anyone with any capacity for reason will find this sort of intellectually vacuous tripe unacceptable. This is an extreme example, but as I read more and more from the liberal blogs I found that vitriol and outrage were nearly always used in place of reason. A sure sign of an indefensible position. You simply don't hear this from the right.
       I count myself as very fortunate to have escape from this inane jungle unscathed.