Honduras – Still!!

Good Lord, I thought we were done with Honduras and could move on to health care or something!

Apparently not.

First off, like I told you yesterday, the OAS is STILL messing with Honduras.
But LaGringa watched the OAS meet and you should hear the new ambassador there from the US:

In her first official statement on her very first day, Ambassador Lomellin began to read a statement in a shaky voice. The statement began by condemning not ‘the coup’ but “Zelaya’s expulsion from Honduras …. not because he was removed but because of the way in which he was removed”. Read that carefully. That is a huge change from previous US statements. “Every country has the right to remove an official who abuses authority or breaks the law.”

Yeah Ambassador Lomellin!!

Then you need to hear the Panamanian Ambassador Guillermo Alberto Cochez. But go, read LaGringa. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, the Cochez stuff starts near his photo.

Also – Zelaya has been working to get out of Honduras and into Mexico. Or has he? Yes, no, yes, no.
Who the heck knows.

And finally – my local Longmont paper ran this Ana C Perez article on Honduras. It was so filled with inaccuracies, I was compelled to respond, and what do you know….they printed it as a guest commentary!

My thanks to LaGringa where I quickly found source materials to back up my “column” since I really have no credentials myself other than being an intelligent reader of actual news vs a believer in whatever some columnist says.

Below the fold is my response to the Perez column. (the paper doesn’t keep columns online for linking):

Clarity in Health Care Reform

From the NYtimes health blogger:

Over the next several weeks, members of Congress will be confronted with one scary story after another about what will happen if they try to cut health care costs.

Tax the costliest health insurance plans? Workers will be denied medical care. Reduce the growth of spending on home health care agencies? Elderly patients living alone will be left to fend for themselves. Set up a commission to reduce Medicare waste? Again, the elderly will suffer. Impose a tax on plastic surgery? That’s unfair to unemployed women looking to enhance their appearance. (Seriously, the plastic surgeons are making that case.)

But here’s the thing: It is abundantly clear that our medical system wastes enormous amounts of money on health care that doesn’t make people healthier. Hospitals that practice more intensive medicine, to take one example, get no better results than more conservative hospitals, research shows. And while the insured receive better care and are healthier than the uninsured, the lavishly insured — those households with so-called Cadillac plans — are not better off than households with merely good insurance.

Yet every time Congress comes up with an idea for cutting spending, the cry goes out: Patients will suffer! You’re cutting bone, not fat!

Um, maybe Congress could just mind it’s own business. That’s my take from this intro.

Indian Country

The U.S. government has not done well by Indians here. Not just in the past, but recently as they’ve badly invested their money and screwed them out of land and resources.

$3 billion may be going back to them. Hopefully it includes some agreement about taking care of themselves from now on and covers all past debt. It’s overdue.

Lessons for the future. If you win a war, don’t make written agreements that you have no intention of keeping.

Just Messing with Honduras

LaGringa

The “international community” has imposed two new requirements on Honduras as a condition to recognize Honduras. They now insist that in addition to complying with the Tegucigalpa Accord, Mel Zelaya (and everyone else) must be given political amnesty − despite the fact that Mel Zelaya was the one who insisted that amnesty provisions be taken out of the Accord.

Additionally, Oscar Arias says that President-elect Pepe Lobo must get President Roberto Micheletti to resign. So, in other words, Arias is turning the Tegucigalpa Accord back into the San José Accord. He’s worried that Lobo will receive the presidential sash from Micheletti. Too bad that Oscar Arias doesn’t know that the Honduran presidential sash is received from the president of the congress, not the outgoing president.

Who are these people??? What the hell is wrong with them? Lobo has already been hinting about amnesty for Zelaya even though Zelaya is the one who insisted amnesty be removed from the accord.
And if Micheletti resigns, then who holds that spot during this transition? Is Lobo to be transitioned by a secretary?
Oh Honduras, I have a lot of confidence in you as you re-find your place in this idiotic world.
May your industry thrive amongst yourselves.
May your military keep you safe from Chavez and his ilk.
May your people prosper.
And may you still be sane when I come to visit!

If only

If only Bill Clinton had arrested bin Laden for something, we could have avoided 9/11.

If only Bill Clinton had treated the attacks on the World Trade Center as terrorism vs crime.

If only I had some ham, I could have ham and eggs for breakfast, if I had eggs.

And if only George W. Bush hadn’t let bin Laden escape we could have saved ourselves years of war.

The last one is from John Kerry who felt it important enough to say again, “bin Laden is free because of W” that he wrote it out for the Washington Post. This man wanted to be leader of the free world. He’s like 10 years old.

In the meantime Steve den Beste at Hot Air has a post up on thinking. Materially or Teleologically. Regarding socialism:

So to materialists, it’s apparent that socialism is a nice idea, but one that doesn’t work and shouldn’t be adopted.

To teleologists, none of that matters. What matters is the fact that it’s a beautiful idea. It’s how things should be. In a world in which socialism was implemented and which worked the way the teleologists think it should work, you really would have a utopia. The fact that it’s invariably failed when used doesn’t change any of that. (When asked to explain all the failures, usually the answer is, “They didn’t do it right.” But for teleologists, a long string of failures doesn’t matter because fundamentally teleologists don’t believe things like that make any difference.)

The author dismisses claims that human thought has any power because frankly it’s easier that way. Thought of course has influence. (see this study on baby chick thought processes on a robot) But it’s not just your human thoughts, it’s mine, and his and hers etc, etc. You can’t outthink without actions too. There are consequences for actions that have nought to do with thought.

And I’ve seen antiwar gatherings. Their thoughts are not peaceful. Frankly, they’re hateful. I’ve never dreaded an encounter worse than getting involved in so called “peace lovers” and discussing reality with them. They’re mean. How can you be mean and influence peace? Not happening.
(John Kranz at Three Sources also quotes the piece and notes his own fun with a “unicorn rider”.)

So if John Kerry thinks that by calling out ex President George Bush on Tora Bora and somehow that will lead to everyone promoting the capture of bin Laden……he’s loony.

In the meantime reality strikes Iraq and those who think with bombs kill a lot of people. I wonder what sort of influence they think killing their own neighbors will have on the election.

The lesson here: Think positively, think nicely, do what needs to be done. Even if it’s ugly.

Climategate

Yes, it’s back to climategate vs emailgate because it seems the Russians are behind the hacking.
The Russians are “actual” scary vs fake scary like the US is, so the subject of the email hacking will soon be dropped.

Anyway – Ace of Spades has a great post up today with many links.

Since there is no raw data and climate scientists are all saying “this means nothing, there is still human caused global warming”, my question has always been, just what DID you do to the data.

Climate Skeptic, gives a civilian example.

Let’s say you had two compasses to help you find north, but the compasses are reading incorrectly. After some investigation, you find that one of the compasses is located next to a strong magnet, which you have good reason to believe is strongly biasing that compass’s readings. In response, would you

1. Average the results of the two compasses and use this mean to guide you, or
2. Ignore the output of the poorly sited compass and rely solely on the other unbiased compass?

Yeah – you and I would choose 2. Apparently global climate scientists chose number 1.
Riddle me that one eh?

Iraq

Keep and eye on Iraq as we near their elections.

Yesterday 4 police officers were killed at a checkpoint and 5 people (4 students) were killed at a school in Baghdad.

Sunday News on Charity

Apparently all the giving you folks are doing for charity is hurting the U.S. Government’s tax base.

The $300 billion donated to charities last year cost the federal government more than $50 billion in lost tax revenue.

ahhhhhhh

ps – I just googled charity giving” for 2006/7/8
2006 – $295 billion
2007 – $314 billion
2008 – $307 billion

I can not imagine that charitable giving has increased this year with 10% unemployment being reached. How this wah, wah story made the front page of the NYTimes without a mention of total giving going down and hence a zero effect on tax revenue is beyond me. The government did not get that tax revenue last year so why do they think they’ve now “lost” $50 billion in tax revenue due to charitable giving is beyond me.

If you actually read the story, it’s full of snark about what “types” of charitable groups are being ok’d by the IRS (and hence shorting the government). Groups like Woohoo Sistahs – a social group who also raise money for cancer research is one of their examples.

I don’t know if it’s the government or the MSM or both but they seem to have it out for the little guy. Apparently only the big well known established people count. Small business and small charities are scoff worthy.

Healthcare, again

Here’s a story in the LATimes about the Senate bill about some proposals to require coverage for alternative therapies. (ie acupuncture and dietary supplements)

Acupuncturists, dietary-supplement makers and other alternative health practitioners, some of whose treatments are considered unproven by the medical establishment, would be brought more squarely into the mainstream of American medicine under the health legislation now before the Senate.

The legislation would allow doctors to incorporate alternative health providers in some treatment plans. It also includes language that some believe could require insurance companies to expand their coverage for alternative therapies, on which Americans now spend $34 billion a year.

Here’s the thing…..the sob stories on health care are about cancer, and disease and horribleness. They are about affordability of treatment to save lives.

1-if you require insurance to cover alternative treatments, the first thing that happens is that insurance premiums will go up. doh

2-if you require insurance to cover alternative treatments, the second thing that happens is that the price of alternative treatments will go up. (see the price of higher education) doh

3-shouldn’t insurance have requirements that save live endangering things, and not a crick in the neck or seasonal affective disorder? You insure your house against fire, not against leaves in the eaves.

Again I say, why is it so hard for the Federal Government to just focus on what they are actually in charge of first before messing with the rest of the country?
VA/Indian Medicine/Medicare.

Health Care

Doesn’t it sound like a good idea for the US government to fix

The VA
Indian Health Care
Medicare

BEFORE they touch anything else?