Thursday Reading

If it's Thursday, it must be time for Fred Fry's Maritime Monday 173 - a week's worth of sea related links to keep you busy through the remainder of the week and into the weekend. This week Fred covers Mann Lines, a right whale listening network, a burning flagship and much, much more.

I could be wrong, but I swear I heard Jamie Dupree mention on the Neal Boortz show yesterday that the proposed health care reform was setting up a system to cover the medical costs of illegal aliens by reducing coverage of senior citizens and the senior citizens should be unhappy. I hereby notify the White House that people out there are unhappy with the proposed health care plan! My list of "White House enemies" includes Neal Boortz, Jamie Dupree, Rush Limbaugh, most of the Republicans in Congress. Now, what's my reward for ratting out naming these people? What if I self-report my dislike of the plan - is there some sort of camp I could go to get my mind right? Can I get a "lttle red book" with the sayings of Chairman O?

Speaking of health care reform - you might have missed Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey from February reporting on the book of former senator Tom Daschle, the former proposed "health care czar":

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

A similar provision is in the proposed law. You can explain to your aged parents that their lives no longer matter and they can't get treatment because they are too old. Leaving them on a ice floe is optional. But make sure you hide their car keys and checkbook. You don't want them flying off to India to get the procedure done outside the proposed system...

UPDATE: CDR Salamander (paying attention, White House?) notes a certain "diversity industry" aspect to "medical deform."

I don't know why, but lately I have developed some interest in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and here. I was busy when this work was first published, either oppressing anti-colonial forces or protecting a fledgling democracy, depending on your point of view:

Take for example the idea of “truth”. The conservative approaches truth as something that can be verified, tested and believed in and although they understand that “truth” may be flavored by a persons perspective they still believe that there is an independent truth that exist. Thus a conservative who approaches an issue, say the current manufactured lunacy that suggest America never landed on the moon will point to specific facts and provable reality. Like the fact that the Lunar Lander is sitting on the moon right where we left it and it should be viewable through the recent remote moon survey projects being conducted by a number of countries. So to a conservative for any question you should be able to establish some parameters for investigation that could be carried out and proven, one way or the other.

A “realistic radical” of the Alinsky school is completely unconcerned with the verification of “fact”. Alinsky states in respect to a community organizer, “he does not have a fixed truth-truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing. He is a political relativist.” Their concern would be first to determine which opinion would be the most useful to their immediate and long term agenda. That the Lunar Lander is still sitting on the moon or not is of no interest to them. What is critical is the usefulness of stating that the entire moon landing program was a lie by the government and further reason that you should not trust the status quo and to undermine your sense of national pride at having accomplished such a magnificent feat of human science and exploration. The radicals purpose would be to sow discontent, mistrust and shame for attempting to mislead the world so that they could use the moon landings as another wedge issue in the furtherance of their revolution. This willingness to arrogantly disregard verifiable truth in service of a greater revolutionary “truth” is a central aspect of Alinsky’s tactics.

Hmmmm. Wedge issues.

UPDATE: Betsy Newmark sees through some myths of "cash for clunkers. I'm in the market for some car repair on a car that is not eligible for trade in as a "clunker." I think the repairs might, maybe, improve gas mileage and reduce emissions, will not incur the environmental harm wrought by making a new car and will keep my Saturn mechanic employed. I'm looking for a little federal money to help me out here so that I can make you, tax payer, "assist" me in getting this car fixed. We could cut out the middle man and you can just send your share of the money directly to me. I figure your share is $100. Just email me for the address to send the money. In exchange, I will forward your email address to some people in Nigeria who have millions they want to deposit in your bank account.

Question: Can Speaker Pelosi (D. Ca) and the truth exist at the same time in the same place? See this outrage.

Lex does a critique of our education system. "They've done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time."

Murdoc links to a way to cut food costs. First, move to Florida...