WASHINGTON — A missile launched from a Navy cruiser soared 130 miles above the Pacific and smashed a dying and potentially deadly U.S. spy satellite Wednesday, the Pentagon said. Two defense officials said it apparently achieved the main aim of destroying an onboard tank of toxic fuel.
Don't believe the evil Pentagon? Perhaps you'd rather believe the Chinese, who claimed to have killed a satellite in space last year?
So, are we all going to just ignore all those years of derision, lies, and attacks from the haters of the United States? Those who wrote long "scholarly" articles deriding "star wars" as fantasy? Those who poked fun at it? The ones who said anyone who disagreed with them were idiots and fools, or lackies of that fool Reagan?
Now we know who the crooks and fools are, don't we?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Day 2008
For Jeannie
Forever Love
You are my forever love.
I shared with you
Adventures and joys,
Times good and bad.
Happiness and tears we
Treasured in our years.
I loved you just the
Way you were.
You are gone but
The love is forever.
Some thoughts on unconditional love.
If there is any lesson for me to learn from my life so far, it is that love must not abate. It must not hinge on reciprocity. If you have truly loved, love on, no matter what. Admit that the harsh act or word of a loved one is undesired – but love on. Otherwise you will build up for yourself great suffering.
That passage was sent to me by my mother a few years ago.
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.
Forever Love
You are my forever love.
I shared with you
Adventures and joys,
Times good and bad.
Happiness and tears we
Treasured in our years.
I loved you just the
Way you were.
You are gone but
The love is forever.
Some thoughts on unconditional love.
If there is any lesson for me to learn from my life so far, it is that love must not abate. It must not hinge on reciprocity. If you have truly loved, love on, no matter what. Admit that the harsh act or word of a loved one is undesired – but love on. Otherwise you will build up for yourself great suffering.
That passage was sent to me by my mother a few years ago.
Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A Dirty Little Secret
Year after year, the cost of medical care keeps rising, ever faster than anything else – even gasoline over the longer run.
Why? Rich doctors? Nurses on easy street? Perhaps it’s unnecessary tests – a lot of folks say that. Is it that we’re paying the cost for the rest of the world for pharmaceutical research? That’s certainly an argument for which one can find some support. Much of the hot air around the topic boils down to “we have the best system – of course it costs more,” and that contributes to a solution, it makes no difference whose – Obama’s, Hillery’s, or even Romney’s – that boils down to mandatory health insurance for all. In other words, "everything thing’s fine, just make sure everyone’s insured."
But is that right? Let me tell you about what looks like a dirty little secret to me.
Having been given an artificial heart valve in 2004 (no complaints about that care, by the way) I regularly have a blood test called a “Protime.” Basically, rate of clotting. PrimeCare, the lab associated with my general practitioner, billed my insurance, and later, me, $43. The breakdown on that was $23 for the test and $20 for taking by blood.
On he advice of a doctor, we – Jeannie and I – switched to Sanford Medical (yes, that Stanford) Labs. The cost there? $15 ($7 test, $8 taking blood). Enough of a difference? Sure. But that’s not the whole story. It turns out if Stanford were billing my insurance – or me – the cost would be $36 ($21 test, $15 draw), close to the PrimeCare number. The $21 difference? The cost of supporting the health car administrative structure, including, mostly, bloated insurance company costs (and perhaps margins?). The cost for supporting all that seems to be 140% of the real cost of the care.
So is our Protime test unrepresentative? It sure isn’t. Many of you (hopefully) get tested for cholesterol. That’s called a Lipid Panel. I had that today. Cost? $24. Also a metabolic C. $19.00. One charge for drawing all three, the same $8. Go ahead, ask your lab what your costs are. (Your doctor will likely not know.)
It looks to me like most of the money I’m paying is for the insurance industries’ ridiculous overhead. And we rail against oil companies?
Do I have a solution? I’ve been accused that I often don’t. I don’t here, either, but that demand is what sends us off to debate baloney – just as the politicians are doing. They all agree that the health insurance industry should remain untouched in the solution. Why is that? The health care lobby has them all by the short hairs? (I can’t say “balls,” can I?) If so, that includes Barack Obama. So much for “change.”
Why? Rich doctors? Nurses on easy street? Perhaps it’s unnecessary tests – a lot of folks say that. Is it that we’re paying the cost for the rest of the world for pharmaceutical research? That’s certainly an argument for which one can find some support. Much of the hot air around the topic boils down to “we have the best system – of course it costs more,” and that contributes to a solution, it makes no difference whose – Obama’s, Hillery’s, or even Romney’s – that boils down to mandatory health insurance for all. In other words, "everything thing’s fine, just make sure everyone’s insured."
But is that right? Let me tell you about what looks like a dirty little secret to me.
Having been given an artificial heart valve in 2004 (no complaints about that care, by the way) I regularly have a blood test called a “Protime.” Basically, rate of clotting. PrimeCare, the lab associated with my general practitioner, billed my insurance, and later, me, $43. The breakdown on that was $23 for the test and $20 for taking by blood.
On he advice of a doctor, we – Jeannie and I – switched to Sanford Medical (yes, that Stanford) Labs. The cost there? $15 ($7 test, $8 taking blood). Enough of a difference? Sure. But that’s not the whole story. It turns out if Stanford were billing my insurance – or me – the cost would be $36 ($21 test, $15 draw), close to the PrimeCare number. The $21 difference? The cost of supporting the health car administrative structure, including, mostly, bloated insurance company costs (and perhaps margins?). The cost for supporting all that seems to be 140% of the real cost of the care.
So is our Protime test unrepresentative? It sure isn’t. Many of you (hopefully) get tested for cholesterol. That’s called a Lipid Panel. I had that today. Cost? $24. Also a metabolic C. $19.00. One charge for drawing all three, the same $8. Go ahead, ask your lab what your costs are. (Your doctor will likely not know.)
It looks to me like most of the money I’m paying is for the insurance industries’ ridiculous overhead. And we rail against oil companies?
Do I have a solution? I’ve been accused that I often don’t. I don’t here, either, but that demand is what sends us off to debate baloney – just as the politicians are doing. They all agree that the health insurance industry should remain untouched in the solution. Why is that? The health care lobby has them all by the short hairs? (I can’t say “balls,” can I?) If so, that includes Barack Obama. So much for “change.”
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