Friday, December 31, 2004

Asia Disaster - Relief Appeal

This is an entirely different kind of blog post - and utterly serious. The worst disaster to be visited upon humanity since World War 2 occurred the day after Christmas along the margins of the Indian ocean. Unless you have been living in a cave the last few weeks, you know well what has transpired. As I write this the death toll has crossed 150,000, with over 500,000 injured; and that's just the immediate casualties...

I won't belabor the point. These people need help. The relief organizations putting boots on the ground in the stricken areas need all the help they can get. And the help they need is money. Readers of this blog are, to a person, a very privileged group, and it is an obligation of privilege to help ease the suffering of people stricken by misfortune. As we enter the New Year I beseech you to pull out the credit card and make a generous donation to the relief organization of your choice right now. If you have already done so - my thanks for your help.

To make it easy - here's two of the primary relief organizations with the largest reach:

UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/index.html

And the IFRC: http://www.ifrc.org/

Don't be shy - there is no better use for your money. And don't think that with all the donations pouring in that your's won't matter much. A few hundred bucks is a year's wage in much of this part of the world. Your donation, no matter how small, will have a real, immediate, potentially life-saving impact. Kick off the New year by doing good in the face of disaster... donate generously, and donate now. Thanks in advance!

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Socialist Medicine

Imagine a healthcare system where distant, faceless bureaucrats determine your choice of hospital, doctor and course of treatment (or even if you are eligible for any treatment at all). Where the availability of hospital beds, trained healthcare workers and medicines continually shrinks, while at the same time the cost burden on average citizens grows ever more onerous. Where hospitals close rather than open, where nurses and doctors are treated as labor expenses to be minimized rather than professionals to be cherished. A system groaning under the burden of a vast, ever-spreading institutionalized bureaucracy buried under mountains of pointless paperwork, restrictions and rules. This is the nightmare of Socialized Medicine, as presented to you by your elected representatives. This is the nightmare lived daily by Europeans and, especially, Canadians, who as we all know groan under the tyranny of Socialism run amok. Everyone knows America has The Best Healthcare System in the World ™.

Well, if you still haven’t quite figured out where I’m going with this yet: WAKE UP!

What I described is the US healthcare system. Face it people – the US healthcare system is “the best in the world” ONLY to politicians on the payroll of the drug and medical insurance companies. Our healthcare system is a National Embarrassment… no; DISGRACE. Government bureaucracies pale in comparison to the slime-filled rat’s nest of private insurance and HMO bureaucracies. Our healthcare cost per capita is higher than any other developed country, yet fully 15% of the citizens of the US have no health coverage at all – a number that is INCREASING. We are the only developed nation where the infant mortality rate is going UP, we are the only western nation to run out of flu vaccine. Many of the drugs that people use were developed here, the research funded by OUR tax dollars, yet we pay MORE for those drugs than the citizens of any other country.

Sure – some citizens get unbelievably good health care (but not you), some hospitals are the leading institutions of their kind in the world (but not the one you can go to), some doctors get filthy rich by being the best in their field (but not yours). If you are lucky enough to work at a company rich enough to afford it, you might just have decent medical coverage (are you sure? Have you read the fine print?). And every year they look at the pile of money they spent on your health insurance, and every year they ask themselves…

I am Canadian (proud to say – even more so now that the Canadian Supreme Court approved legislation allowing Gay marriage, but I digress…). I lived under real socialized medicine for 30 years. Yes - that very same socialized medicine American politicians point to with quivering fingers and trembling voice as the paradigm of Socialist Evil Incarnate. There is NOTHING that gets me more fired up than that bullshit. What the FUCK do US politicians know about Canadian healthcare? The only time they ever leave the country is when some business execs need to spend some “quality time” with them in some nice European restaurants or Asian shopping districts). More to the point, let’s not forget: THEY all get free Government funded healthcare coverage (for life!). Of course the US healthcare system is great…. for them. Which is interesting because the system they have is, well, socialized.

Let me explain how healthcare worked when I was a starving student in Canada. Pay close attention, this is very complex, something far too complex for US politicians to try to explain to their constituents:

1. You get sick.
2. You go to a Doctor. Any doctor, anywhere, any time.
3. Doctor cures you.
4. Doctor submits bill to Government.
5. Doctor gets paid.

Everybody who pays taxes contributes to healthcare costs. Nobody can opt out and everybody is covered. The person responsible for all this is elected by the voters. Prices are negotiated annually between the CMA (Canadian Medical Association) and Federal Health Dept. Everybody wins (but nobody wins too much), and more importantly, nobody loses. Americans get stealth fighters and “Democracy” in Iraq, Canadians get universal free healthcare.

This is why the Canadian healthcare system has some of the lowest costs in the world. This is why Canadians all got their flu vaccines. This is why Americans cross the border by the millions to buy their medicine from Canada. This is why my mother had her brain cancer cured without having to fill out a single form, pay a single nickel, or fight any bureaucrats.

Your elected representatives are perfectly happy to have the Government take care of their healthcare needs, but as for YOU…? Well, that would be Socialism, and we can’t have that, now can we?

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Safety Doesn't Sell

This is an astounding story. It's just a little thing in a big world, but it's is just SO arch-typical.

The story aired on npr today. The story was about a safety device that stops a table saw blade dead cold the instant it comes in contact with human flesh, preventing someone from sawing off their fingers, hands, etc. The demo video (done using an uncooked turkey sausage – apparently the same conductivity as your finger) is one of the most amazing video’s I’ve seen. Click on the link below to go to the npr story page to watch the video, then come back here.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4182602

Isn’t that just freakin’ fantastic? Now I don’t know if you use power tools or not, but everything except drills scare the crap out of me. I have a vivid imagination, and I too easily picture my circular saw taking a screaming whack out of my thigh if I get distracted at the wrong instant… And I have several friends who have lost body parts to table and radial arm saws. This is a big, BIG deal. This is the airbag of power tools (as someone stated in the story). As soon as they make a circular saw with this; I’m buying one. These guys are going to be rich, skeptics in the story not withstanding. They have something I’d KILL to have thought of.

But that’s not why they are in my blog. It’s because of what happened after they invented their device, before they decided to make their own saws. They spent YEARS trying to get just ONE of the existing power tool manufacturer’s to license their device for incorporation into their products. Years, and not even a nibble. Why? We all know the reason – it’s always the reason… stupidity. The official reasons, as best as anybody can tell are the usual fossilized group-think schlock:
(1) There might be a false trigger,
(2) They’d have to spend money to re-tool their production lines,
(3) If they put it on some models, people who cut their limbs off using the other models would sue,
(4) People won’t want to pay extra for the safety feature,
(5) Safety doesn’t sell.

They are all basically #5. Safety doesn’t sell. Un-fucking-believable. On second thought; no it’s not. It’s completely believable. Is anybody out there old enough to remember when automotive airbags were new? Remember the FIGHT to get those into cars? Now how many of you would buy a car without (multiple!) airbags. Car companies stick airbags everywhere in their scramble to out-safety each other. Safety doesn’t just sell; people demand it, and will pay a premium for it (Michelin doesn’t spend all that money on those slick “baby” ads for nothing).

Think about this the next time you cavalierly fire up some power tool. Think about what they were thinking about when they designed that tool you are holding: “safety doesn’t sell”.

I hope the Saw Stop guys CRUSH their competition.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Liberal - Conservative Parity Violation

There seems to be a basic characteristic of Liberal positions that is fundamentally different than Conservative positions. One is not the negation of the other (pro-life means no abortion but pro-choice does not mean mandatory abortion).

I think the difference is this: Liberal positions typically allow people to make their own decisions, while Conservative positions typically decide for you.

Liberal: You can marry whoever you want.
Conservative: Only one man and one woman can marry (from the same social class, of course. Oh, and you have to be the same color, too).

Liberal: You can have sex with whomever you want.
Conservative: You can only have sex with your spouse (see above).

Liberal: If you choose to have sex, use contraception if you don’t want a baby or disease.
Conservative: If you don’t want a baby or disease, don’t have sex. Contraception is not allowed.

Liberal: If you get pregnant, you can decide to have the baby or get an abortion. Your choice.
Conservative: If you get pregnant, you must have the baby. Get an abortion and you will be tried for murder (what about mis-carriages?).

Liberal: If you cannot afford something essential, like food, shelter, education or health care; it should be made available to you.
Conservative: If you cannot afford something essential, like food, shelter, education or health care; you are being punished and deserve it. So do your kids.

Liberal: The Death Penalty is a bad idea because you can’t correct your mistakes.
Conservatives: The Death Penalty is a good idea because it’s permanent. (If we got the wrong fella, so what? We never execute rich white guys.)

Liberal: One person, one vote.
Conservative: One white male landowner, one vote.

Liberal: All people have the right to live their lives to their fullest potential.
Conservative: All people have the right to live their lives according to their social station.

Liberal: That which is not forbidden is allowed.
Conservative: That which is not allowed is forbidden.

In a Liberal world, you get to make you way through life as you see fit, provided you don’t hurt others, and if you screw up then you get a chance to fix your mistakes and try again.

In a Conservative world, you get to make your way through life as the authorities see fit, provided you don’t violate the Rules, and if you screw up then too fucking bad.

Which one do you prefer? The choice is yours. For now.