Have a Great Surgery Baxter

Best of luck today with your knee! The doctors and nurses will be taking great care of you!

al-Awlaki

um uh……dude….?

Anwar al-Awlaki said no permission was needed to kill Americans as they are from the “party of devils”.

And where were you born Anwar?

Mr Awlaki, an American-born cleric of Yemeni descent, is said to be a on CIA hit list authorised by President Barack Obama.

So I guess Obama is just doing as you request??

Healthcare Stories continue to be entertaining

I almost stopped reading this article in the LATimes after this sentence:

The growing ranks of Americans without health insurance — more than 50 million, according to the Census Bureau’s latest estimate — are a clear symptom of a dysfunctional healthcare system.

Or maybe it’s a clear symptom of unemployment. ?

But I kept going. The article is about how Americans don’t want to accept rationing no matter how rational the reasoning behind it. Ie X doesn’t help, so we should reduce X and Americans say NO, don’t ration! It notes the Preventative Services Task Force rules without looking at costs, but only at effectiveness and so Americans are irrational by concluding that rationing is a part of the recommendations.

It’s fair to debate how best to achieve healthcare reform. But it’s hard to see how healthcare costs can be brought under control if attempts to make the system more efficient and effective get waylaid by irrational fears about rationing.

Anyway – in todays Washington Post is a front page story on – rationing. How much is 4 months of life worth in regards to Provenge a new prostate drug that has shown some change in life expectancy after use. It costs close to $100,000 and medicare is deciding whether to cover it or not. They claim they are reviewing it’s effectiveness and are not concerned with cost, but everyone around them agree this is not really the case. In the end, if Medicare refuses to cover it, then private insurers will refuse to cover it.

“It is extremely chilling if, after spending a huge sum of money, time and effort to get a drug through FDA approval, you’ll then have to go through it all again to see if CMS will pay for it,” said Allen S. Lichter, head of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

And if pharma doesn’t send out mediocre drugs that may be expensive, how do researchers improve on the products?

Going back to the LATimes and those pesky Americans:

They’re much more willing to put up with rationing by income, which the current system imposes by allowing wealthier people to buy more and better care, than accept even the whiff of rationing by the government.

This is true. If it’s income that rations, then products at least get a chance to get out there, get practiced on and improved until their costs come down and suddenly everyone can afford the new and improved version.

[in a hurry - sorry if the first draft is incoherent. Read the two articles and you'll get what I mean!]

“Clarity”

I like that word.

Ed Morrissey talks about Glenn Reynold’s Examiner column today. Glenn recommends clarity over compromise or confrontation as the order of the day.

what Americans need more than anything is clarity about what those choices involve, about who is making them, and about who is avoiding them.

I would agree. And I would agree that is why Chris Christie is so popular. He is crystal clear about what is needed, when and what he’s going to do and what your responsibilities will be.

Friday Fun

Third member of the family: Axel.

I don’t know. You tell ME what kind of dog he is!
(boxer/American bulldog?) The humane society touted him as a boxer/Siberian Husky!

The Election

Congratulations to all!

Especially the new mayor of Chappell, Nebraska – Terry Akeson!! All politics is local and Terry will make a great mayor. (not that I’m biased about a cousin or anything)

I think this is my favorite quote this morning- from Ed Driscoll on Instapundit:

I wonder what Chuck Schumer is thinking about Reid’s victory…

[Schumer was thinking he'd like to be majority leader if Reid lost. Instead Schumer lost that spot.]

Colorado is apparently a strong purple. I figured we would glow bright red, but I was wrong. So hold on for recounts and those Alaska write ins.

Congratulations to all the winners out there.

Tancredo

I voted today.

This story was at the forefront of my mind. [recap: Man who was robbed, turns into a felon for shooting the robbers in the act. The robber, an illegal alien, gets to self deport vs stand trial. Similar story happened with a friend of mine who's 15 year old daughter became pregnant by a 21 year old illegal drug dealer. No statutory rape charges were allowed. Drug dealer continues to come and go.]

Tancredo always sounds sane one on one. His sound bites, and his speeches suck. Let him be sane lest I regret this.

For “Sanity” followers, these folks haven’t a clue.

LOL – the NYTimes is already spinning the next two years for Obama and the Democrats.

The economy is bound to turn you know, it’s part of a cycle and it’s great to be a politician who can just “ride the wave”.

And if you look at it that way, history suggests that the expected big bang of 2010 may well end up reverberating loudly through our politics for a long time to come.

That’s because, in the years ahead, the country might well experience the kind of economic recovery that the White House had hoped would take hold in time for this year’s elections.

If history rewards these yahoos with that spin, I am tossing all the history books in my house. If the economy recovers after Tuesday, some of it will be luck, but it will be because some stability happens within government to allow the economy to take off again without having to wonder what else it needs to pay for.

UPDATE: It’s either that, or we’re just racists.