A chuckle with a serious note...

There's an old sea story in the Navy about a ship's Captain who inspected His sailors, and afterward told the Chief Boson that his men smelled bad.

The Captain suggested perhaps it would help if the sailors would change underwear occasionally.

The Chief responded, "Aye, aye sir, I'll see to it immediately!

The Chief went straight to the sailors berth deck and announced, "The Captain thinks you guys smell bad and wants you to change your underwear. Pittman, you change with Jones, McCarthy, you change with Kwiatkowski, and Brown you change with Schultz. Now get to it!!"

THE MORAL: Someone may be promising "Change," but don't count on things smelling any better!


A large corporation that I used to do a lot of business with has an unwritten rule of management that goes "When you take on a new assignment you must change something."
If you don't change something you will not get credit for any successes. Why? Because it was your predecessor that put the organization in place for you. On the other hand, if something goes poorly it must be your fault because it was fine before you managed it! However, if you do make a change then any successes can be claimed as yours due to the change you made. If something fails, well at least you tried.
I personally find this amusing in a corporate setting but quite unsettling in the larger view of government and society. I think we all would agree that things could be better in the US health care system and being good to the environment is never a bad thing. But.... and this is a big one, changing these things without looking at all views is both dangerous and irresponsible. We would not be affecting one group, department, division, or company. We would ruin an entire country. And once people become reliant upon the government for something it is very hard and very expensive to break that reliance.

I currently am planning on spending Wednesday evening August 26th trying to get my elected official to the house of representatives to notice my opinions - please don't mortgage my great-grandchildren's future on another set of government boondoggles. Let's find more cautious ways of moving forward lest we lose so much of what 10 or more generations have worked to build up.

The US economy, health care, and power grabs

So many have written about the major debates in the US Legislative branch of the federal government and some folks are fed with hearing about it. We can't quiet down however because what happens in the next few months will have repercussions for generations to come.

Fact - the federal government passed a massive "stimulus package" to prod the economy at a cost of over $800 billion. After it failed to pass at a cost of $700 billion (estimated) the dealing started and many representatives were swung over when pork was added that benefited their constituency. Why is this important? It tells me that about 25% of the US Congress did -not- believe in the legislation but were willing to sell their votes. The record of voting can be checked at http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/
So far the economy has fallen faster and further than predicted "if we do not pass this critical spending bill" (Barrack Obama - February 2009)
I am sorry to report that my elected representative to the House did not listen to the tens of thousands of calls to vote no and moved forward in support of one of the most reckless pieces if legislation in the history of this nation. He also sits in the camp of elected officials who is avoiding actually getting in front of his constituents during the August break.

Fact - the current bill in the US House of Representatives has so many places with language, I believe left ambiguous on purpose, to be argued, abused, or further refined to make government the final authority on all things healthcare. Find the bill here: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf Read a break down of the biggest problem sections here: http://theconservativecomeback.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-is-in-health-care-bill.html

I do not trust a piece of legislation that takes days to map out (due to most of the bill being referenced changes to other legislation rather than being a simple stand alone bill)
From page 30 -
SEC. 123. HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a
panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.

Could this mean that the government gets to pick what medical procedures are covered for you? It certainly seems more than possible to me. We've all seen the abuses of power on lesser issues, what's to stop abuses with so much money on the line?

I won't pretend to completely understand this section from page 239 but this single line scares me to death - it brings to mind one of the great lies "I am from the government and I am here to help you."
(d) ESTABLISHMENT OF SEPARATE TARGET GROWTH RATES FOR CATEGORIES OF SERVICES.—

One couldn't make up language much more frightening. Sounds like they're setting up the framework for rationing services based upon what they establish as "rates of services per covered patients" (the language is mine but it's just a fancy way of saying "You only did 1 tonsillectomy last year with 950 patients so you can only do one per 950 patients next year. Nevermind that health problems do not care about statistics or that the bills language leaves too much room for the quota to be lowered if the Doctor doesn't do any of a particular procedure in a year - "No soup for you" extends from Seinfeld to your health care.

I've rambled enough - if you're still not decided read the list of questionable sections and read the language in the bill yourself, I don't think you'll be undecided much longer.

In closing - any veteran is a hero to me. This one is more so after watching his YouTube posting several times, see it for yourself - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRE5UK6NQU

My first musings

I have so many topics floating around in my head that I realized a need for some order to the spiderweb of ideas, theories, and observations. Part of this was driven by the great desire to call attention to some thoughts weighing heavily on my mind.

Consider this a bookmark for thoughts to come including -
Corporate ethics - or lack thereof
Government responsibilities - and the limits of those responsibilities
Christianity - I cannot blog without at least occasionally writing about my Lord and Savior. It's not a religion, it's a relationship of love and indebtedness.
The environment - where people are freaking out with insufficient information and where the world society is being flat out lazy.
Baseball - I love the sport as a fan, backyard player, coach, and umpire.
Cars and Motorcycles - I love to drive, ride, and maintain vehicles.
Information Technology - I am a Systems Administrator / Engineer by trade as well as by passion.

Look for more to come soon although soon is certainly relative! I have a busy week including evening commitments but plan on making my first sizable post within the week.

Thanks for following me this far!