Friday, June 26, 2009

Why Not Just GPS Implants?

It's probably just a ruse to get rid of E-Verify to woo the illegal immigrant vote (more on this later), but New York Senator Charles Schumer (Far Left-N.Y.) says the current online system for checking people's eligibility to work in the U.S. is "unfair and ineffective."

That system, called E-Verify, taps into databases at the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to check if a job applicant really is authorized to work in the U.S., either by dint of citizenship or visa. In other words, it's a frontline defense against illegal immigrants' taking legal citizens' jobs away, and against employers' gaming the system.

E-Verify, however, is staunchly opposed by stalwarts such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (gee, I wonder what their motive is) and all Democrats except some of the Blue Dogs.

Democrats aren't really concerned about jobs (see: taxes, regulation, unionism, tort law, etc.), but--as always--about votes.

Thus E-Verify is an enemy to be swatted down and sent off into oblivion, so the illegal immigrant vote will collectively know the Democrats are on their side.

Step two of this political fox trot is to grant amnesty and eventually citizenship to the illegals, who will then be indelibly grateful to the Democrats and vote for them forever, meaning the U.S. will become virtually a one-party country (according to liberal thinking).

Now, back to my headline about GPS implants: Schumer said he prefers a biometric ID card over the "ineffective" E-Verify system.

If he has his way, soon we'll all be lining up to have a hologram of our heads made to be implanted in some kind of U.S. ID Card.

I say take all this a step closer to its logical conclusion and put little GPS tracking implants inside each of us and assign us a number for tracking.

At the same time they can hard wire the implant so it can control our voting hands; then in the voting booth our little pinkies will always punch the button for (guess who?) the Democrats.

Why fiddle with half-measures?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Painting 'The Doctor' Far From Today's Reality


Sir Luke Fildes lost his eldest son Phillip on Christmas Eve 1877 while a doctor spent a compassionate vigil at the child's side. In commemoration, Sir Fildes painted "The Doctor" (above) in 1891 to depict "the physician in our time."

This same painting was used by the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1949 to stop President Harry Truman in his attempt to nationalize health care. The message was "Keep Politics Out of This Picture."

The AMA can't use this picture or tactic this time around. Things have changed too much.

Some of us who've lived long enough can actually recall how doctors once did make house calls and could even be reached on weekends and evenings for emergencies. (Today, you get a voice recording commanding you to "Dial 911.")

To say the least, we've come a long way in our medical care, and in one sense Obama is correct--the system is broken if you're looking for compassion and home visitations.

But it's not really broken, just adapted to a new reality. We're now a nation of 300 million people with nowhere nearly enough doctors to even treat all of us, let alone make house calls (though some still do and swear by it).

Medical care is now like visiting an auto mechanic. "Doc, it hurts here." "Let me take a look." A few small probes and examinations later, and the doctor is ready. "Fortunately, nothing is broken. I'll prescribe you some painkillers. You should be fine in a few days."

Okay, so I've simplified things here a bit (I left out the two sets of x-rays and follow-up MRIs), but the general picture of "sick care" in America is just that. It's like taking your car into the shop, except it's your body--and your life.

Paucity of time and doctors can account for our new reality, but the biggest contributing factor to what Obama calls our "broken" health care system is Medicare and Medicaid.

Since most doctors won't accept the payment structure of Medicaid, leaving that to emergency rooms, your family doctor is modelling his or her practice on the Medicare payment structure--the more procedures he or she can perform, the more the office can bill for your visit. ("I also notice your car's belts are getting worn. We'd better replace those for $125 before you get stuck on the freeway." Get the analogy?)

So, the next time you hear politicians' bemoaning our "broken" health care system, remember it's only broken because Medicare made it into an assembly-line industry, with each nut, bolt, worker, and procedure along the line being billed for and paid separately.

This is the typical pattern with government: First break it, then blame it on others and come rushing to the rescue to garner votes for the next election, reality be damned.

Politicians just created the housing and credit crises by pushing banks to create "affordable housing." Now they're blaming the bankers and everyone one else in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac food chain and claiming to have the solution with "more regulation."

If they really wanted to "fix" health care, all they have to do is fully fund Medicare and come up with a payment structure that rewards healthful results rather than procedures. That'll stop the cost-shifting to private insurers and build some efficiencies into the system.

Instead, they'll give us more regulation (read "rationing") and expand Medicare, the very cause of the crisis in the first place.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Welcome to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Bozeman, Montana

The City of Bozeman, Montana (population: 27,509), is now screening job applicants for their "moral character" by asking them to fork over logins and passwords for all their social networking memberships.

No doubt a simple picture of you at a party with some hot babes or dudes with a keg of beer nearby would get you scratched immediately. Anything really suspicious and you'd probably be turned over to the local gestapo.

Obviously, you'd have to be an idiot to surrender such information. Either that, or awfully desperate for a dead-end government job.

Put it this way: If Barack Obama doesn't have to produce a birth certificate even when he's on vacation in his birth state of Hawaii to prove he's a U.S. citizen, why the hell should any birth-certificate-holding citizen have to compromise his or her privacy and integrity for a job way down the government food chain?

Remember when they ask you for such info that one doesn't even need to pay one's taxes to work for the president. A nice double standard.