Someone's really stupid!

Is it me?

Recently, at a news conference, President Obama said "We're also discovering that insurance is complicated to buy." The Hartford has been in business since 1810; Prudential since 1875. If insurance could be purchased through a web site, wouldn't one believe that these companies and others, would have figured out how long ago?

If you want to lower the cost of insurance, increase competition. No more of this stopping at state lines. Or, international boundaries, for that matter. If an insurance company in Toronto, or London, or Berlin or Tel Aviv can offer a better product for less, encourage them to do so.

It has been proven time and again that competition reduces costs. If you want to reduce health care costs, increase the number of health care providers. Make the practice of medicine more attractive, more lucrative. Encourage more and more bright, young Americans to enter the field of medicine.

Don't threaten to sue them at every turn. Common sense would surely indicate that most medical malpractice lawsuits are bogus. A doctor's entire career hinges on his/her medical license. Is anyone likely to jeopardize that career by providing sloppy care? Eliminate medical malpractice lawsuits. Surely there is a better way to oversee the profession - if oversight is called for. 

Don't study ways to pay doctors less and less for the service they perform. The more hours a doctor must work to pay his staff, his office expenses, pay off the enormous cost of his education and still make a living, the more we set the stage for hurried care.

And, what about medicines? Today it probably costs as much to shepherd a new medicine through bureaucratic red tape as it does to develop it in the first place. Then, the manufacturer is subject to a lawsuit at every turn.

Look what we have done in the  field of electronic technology: phones, computers, tablets, whatever you call the latest machine. Imagine what we could do in the field of prosthetics and other medical devices if we could cut red tape and make their development profitable.

These steps seem so obvious. Or, am I just stupid?

Things to be Thankful for III

People who do dirty jobs.

In our modern, highly civilized society, there are still many dirty jobs to be done. Thankfully, there are people who do them!

The abundance of dirty jobs even spawned a hit television series by that name. Each episode meets and joins people doing dirty jobs. Mike Rowe, the multi-talented host of the show revealed in a recent interview, that the people who do these jobs do so with dignity and with pride in a job well done!

It says something about different people's perception of what is a dirty job, and also about the inner satisfaction of mastering your task and doing it well.

Tackling and completing a dirty job can often be a learning experience. My close acquaintances have all heard me talk of an incident from early in my Army career. Working a shift at K.P. (They call it Kitchen Police to disguise the fact that it is simply cleaning up after cooks and sloppily-eating soldiers, three meals in a mess hall.), the Mess Sergeant pointed to a small manhole-like cover on the floor and ordered me to "clean that grease trap!" What? I'd never heard of a 'grease trap'! I pried the lid open and beheld the most disgusting mass of... whatever it was that had accumulated and filled the 'trap'.

I guess I spent a few seconds too long staring at the mess. "Just roll up your sleeves, use your hands and scoop that stuff out of there", he instructed.  Fighting back the gag reflex, I did as told, scooped the mess into a bucket, finished cleaning the trap and replaced the cover. Then I hurried to a latrine to scrub and scrub and scrub.

Yes, I learned what is meant by grease trap, and how to clean one. While I've never again needed that knowledge, I did learn a larger lesson: no matter how dirty your hands, they will come clean. That lesson has served me well throughout my life.

On a few dirty jobs, such as in auto mechanics or as a pressman, where you get black grease or printing ink under your fingernails, it takes a little longer. But, your hands will come clean.

Every day, countless numbers of people go to work at dirty jobs. In heat, cold, or some other unwelcome environment, they do the work that keeps our civilization civilized.

Remember to take a moment, this Thanksgiving, to silently thank them.

More Things to be Thankful For.

Scientists and medical professionals. I don't mean to separate Physicians and other Medical Doctors from PhD scholars, but there are differences.

First, consider the scientists who are not involved directly in medicine. Their never-ending search for truth has done so much to improve our lives. In ways we daily take for granted.

As recently as the 1960s, I remember concerns about a possible world-wide food shortage. Fifty years later, scientific advances in pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, genetic engineering, animal health & well-being and farming practices in general. has resulted in a food supply threatened more by politics than by actual shortages.

And, just think what the medical community has given us. In recent years, five acquaintances have had hip replacement. At one time, hip failure meant confinement to a wheel chair. Today these people are all fully mobile and pain free.

In the year 2000, someone dear to me endured major surgery for lung cancer. Today this person is cancer free, healthy and hardy.

In the 1950s, it appeared that Polio was a real and present danger for everyone. Today, Polio is no more.

How blessed we are that people in laboratories toil endlessly to solve our most dangerous problems. No wonder the workplace of a scientist is called a laboratory... it is, indeed, a place of intense labor.

As you give thanks for the turkey and dressing, remember to include scientists, all that strive to bring you that abundant feast and your good health.

November 22, 1963

Do you remember what you were doing the day President Kennedy was assassinated? If you are over fifty years of age, you most likely do!

But, you do not have to have been alive 50 years ago to know about the conspiracy theories, and have formed an opinion.

Was Oswald the lone gunman? Probably, though it would have been a tough shot for even a highly trained marksman, which Oswald was not. He had just bought that rifle, and probably had fired it very few times.

We know that three Navy Seals, on the fantail of a ship, underway, fired three shots in perfect coordination to take out three pirates on a bouncing boat which their ship was towing. That kind of marksmanship is extraordinarily rare.

Was there a second gunman? Possibly. Was he/she in a conspiracy with Oswald? Very unlikely.

Was it a hired gunman? Theories point to LBJ, the CIA, the mob, Castro, the Russians. Any one of those is possible. None is probable. But they would have had no connection to a loose cannon like Lee Oswald.

If any of those forces were involved, no one will ever know. Unless, that is, someone, at some future date, discovers some irrefutable evidence. Or, perhaps someone makes a deathbed confession. Neither of which is likely.

So, why so many conspiracy theories? Because it is almost impossible to believe that any one such person as Lee Harvey Oswald could pull off such a feat.

This makes ir perfectly clear...

Few can deliver an opinion of the day's events with more wit and wisdom than can Mark Steyn.

Steyn examines President Obama's position on the Obamacare web site rollout in his latest column.

Read it... I promise you will not be bored!

Here's a sample:

"Ooooo-kay. So, if I follow correctly, the smartest president ever is not smart enough to ensure that his website works; he’s not smart enough to inquire of others as to whether his website works; he’s not smart enough to check that his website works before he goes out and tells people what a great website experience they’re in for. But he is smart enough to know that he’s not stupid enough to go around bragging about how well it works if he’d already been informed that it doesn’t work. So, he’s smart enough to know that if he’d known what he didn’t know he’d know enough not to let it be known that he knew nothing. The country’s in the very best of hands."

For more Steyn, check here.

Things to be thankful for

Engineers.

Yep! Those nerdy guys who actually like mathematics!

It is said there are three kinds of people... those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; those who wonder what happened! Most often, it is the engineers who make things happen!

Driving on the Interstate recently, we came upon a site where a new interchange was under construction. It looked like complete chaos. Big concrete support pillars sticking up out of the ground. Wooden frames, for holding concrete forms, one would guess. Workmen swarming all over the place.

My wife noted all this and mused, "Who figures out how all of this should go?"

Engineers.

The other day I was pressing a favorite old shirt. It was getting pretty ragged, and I concluded that it would one day have to go to the rag bag. Then, I noticed, not one button was missing. But, if I discarded the old shirt, all the buttons would go with it.

That started me thinking about buttons. (Ironing is, after all, pretty boring!)

There was a time when buttons were handmade from metal, wood, animal horn, seashell, or some other natural product. Buttons were expensive. Now they are so cheap, we hardly ever save them.

Engineers.

Some bright people figured out how to make machines that make buttons inexpensively and lightning fast, so they are now abundant in every conceivable color and style.

Go to any food processing plant and you will see marvelous machines that process and package food quickly and efficiently. That brings freshness quickly to your grocers shelves, at lower cost.

Back to ironing shirts. I remember when my mother spent many hours with hot, heavy old sad irons, ironing the family laundry. Such drudgery! I won't go back to riding a horse to work. Why should my wife go back to ironing shirts? Send them to a laundry where they have machines that can press a shirt beautifully, and fast. (My exception is ragged old shirts I wear only around the house. I press them!)

Engineers.

Engineers have contributed much to making our lives better, easier, tastier, healthier, safer... I could go on and on.

This Thanksgiving, give a thought to all those calculator wielding geniuses, those engineers who make things happen.

Typhoon Yolanda

The typhoon Yolanda recently struck the central Philippines. Damage was greatest to the town of Tacloban on the island of Leyte, and to the nearby island of Cebu.

I spent nine months (1946 and 1947) at U.S. Army Base "K", in Tacloban. (Then, G.I.s called it 'tack-low-buhn', but since the Filipinos called me 'psalm', the name probably should be prounced with soft "A"s, as in Psalms: 'tahk-low-bahn'

See http://www.gov.ph/crisis-response/updates-typhoon-yolanda/ for news of the typhoon.

For a little background, Tacloban has been through a lot. When the Japanese Army occupied the islands, the people of Tacloban were treated brutally. One friend of mine said she spent four years in hiding because the Japanese soldiers raped every young girl they could find. I heard many personal horror stories.
 

Because the east side of Leyte faces the open Pacific Ocean, General MacArthur chose that spot for his initial landing to liberate the islands. My youngest sister, Carolyn Baker's late husband, Hugh, was a soldier in those initial invading forces, and his outfit suffered heavy losses. Happily, I was not among those first American troops.

Tacloban was devastated by the force of the invasion. But the Filipinos loved the Americans and treated us like royalty.
 

When the atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered, the Pacific was 'full' of ships carrying material for the invasion of Japan. The U.S. Government made the decision to unload the ships - on Leyte - to provide empty vessels for hauling cargo (such as G.I.'s) back to the U.S.

There were hundreds and hundreds of trucks, tanks, Jeeps, and all sorts of ordnance to be disposed of. Not to mention mountains of boots and other non-lethal items. That was the job at hand when I arrived on Leyte. In additiion, we had 10,000 Japanese prisoners to repatriate, as soon as the economy in Japan could support their return home.


Ironically, we loaded the last Japanese soldiers on transports bound for Japan, on December 7, 1946 - five years to the day after they first invaded the islands. However, isolated groups of Japanese soldiers still occupied remote Philippine islands for decades.
 

I was appointed Chief of the A.G. Radio and Cable Section at Base "K". I had three G.I.s and four Filipoino civilians assigned to my office. During those nine months, we became close friends with the Filipino employees in the Adjutant General's Department. They were really smart, competent people. 

One girl, whose job was to complete each day's morning report, memorized the name, rank and serial number of every officer and enlisted man in the Department. An amazing feat.

My top employee was a man named Alfonso R. Amante, nicknamed 'Poonsing'. Poonsing had fought the Japanese in the resistance. Once his group was crawling through some underbrush when a Japanese soldier spotted him and fired.

The bullet entered the front, fleshy part of his left cheek, exited a few inches back, then entered the flesh on the back of his shoulder and exited again, leaving four bullet holes, but not striking any bone. 

Poonsing was out of action until he healed, and one day a Japanese officer spotted him at an open air market and asked if he was a member of the resistance. Poonsing replied that he was not. He said there was a full stalk of bananas hanging on the front of one of the market stalls. 

The officer drew his sword and with one swipe cut the stalk of bananas in half. He told Poonsing that was to show how easily he could cut his head off if he lied. Poonsing said he replied that "even if you cut me this way (indicating vertically through his body), I do not lie to you". Poonsing said when the officer walked away, his heart started beating again.

One day Poonsing asked me about the U.S. "If water can freeze on the ground, why doesn't your blood freeze in your veins?" He grinned, as if to say 'explain that one if you can'. I assured him that your blood will freeze in your veins if you are exposed long enough... and that it happens to people in northern parts of America every winter.

Next in line on the staff was Salvacion Caminong, "Salving". Salving and I also were great friends and, since I was so young (seventeen) Salving often played the role of 'mother' to me.

One day Salving wanted to tell me that a girl we both knew was pregnant. But she could not bring herself to use the word pregnant in conversation with me. So she told me the girl was "in the family way." I had no idea what she was talking about, until Poonsing explained it to me.

Another girl I knew was named Adoracion. Names like Salvacion (salvation) and Adoracion (adoration) are indicative of the Filipno's strong Christian faith, and family values.

At that time, there was a country song in the U.S. titled "My Filipino Baby". It was about a sailor with a Filipino sweetheart. But, the Filipino girls in our office thought it referred to an infant Filipino, the love child of a sailor and a Filipino girl. They hated that song, I tried to explain that in the U.S. it is common to call your girl friend your 'baby'. I'm not sure they ever believed me.
 

I left the islands 66 years ago, so most of my Filipino friends have grown old, if still alive. Please be aware that these people are not ignorant savages. They are smart, friendly people who have faced many hardships.

Fresh water streams are infested with some sort of bacteria which makes the water unusable, so their drinking water has to come from wells. Without electricity, I can't imagine what they are doing for water. Relief from the U.S. and other nations is now arriving on Leyte and Cebu.

The arrival of a U.S. Aircraft Carrier in Leyte Gulf is most significant. The Carrier has capacity for desalinizing large amounts of sea water. It has on-board hospitals and medical staff. And, it has a fleet of helicopters enabling relief to reach isolated mountain villages.

If you are looking for some worthy cause for a Thanksgiving donation, call the American Red Cross and ask that your gift be earmarked for Philippine typhoon relief.

Those Thieving Insurance Companies

The Federal Government, and others, keep telling us that the insurance companies are ripping us off, big time!

How do they - the Administration's hordes - keep getting away with this lie?

When I enlisted in the Army, a tough old Master Sergeant explained the Army's life insurance this way:
"You bet the government $3.20 that you are going to die this month. If you do, you win, and your beneficiary gets the $10,000.! If you do not die, you lose and the government keeps your $3.20."

Like most of what the Army told us: to the point, simple, true,

The whole concept of insurance can get under your skin. For decades I paid auto insurance without having an accident. Premium payments, it seems, were wasted money. On the other hand, supposing I had "won"... had an accident, and the insurance company had to pay off. Would that have been better? Supposing I was injured? Supposing someone died in the accident? Really, now... it's better that I "lost" and the month's premium payment was "wasted".

Well, not entirely 'wasted'. Those premiums had bought me peace of mind, knowing I was protected against catastrophic loss. Not a bad buy, actually!

A couple of decades ago, my wife was diagnosed with systemic lupus. Pretty scary at the onset, and I thought she was going to die. But, good medical care brought it into remission, and there were no further complications. We essentially forgot the entire lupus episode ever happened.

Eventually we downsized our business and gave up our company health insurance plan. When we applied for new health insurance, she was flagged with a preexisting condition, and no one wanted to insure her. We were directed to a high risk insurer, who insured her, with monthly premiums increased more than 400% over what we had been paying. Boy, were we angry.

Then, as my late sister used to say, "Up jumped the devil", my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. The high risk insurer picked up the entire tab, tens of thousands of dollars, and she received the very best care. Thirteen years later, she is still cancer free. She "won" in the old Master Sergeant's perspective, but that high risk insurer "lost", lost really big bucks.

Do insurance companies want to make a profit? Of course. Do they want to maximize their profit? Of course. It would be terribly dishonest to their shareholders if they did not. Are they ripping us off? Not in my personal experience.

Modifying Babies

Babies of all species are almost universally adored. Show off any baby... a puppy, a kitten, any wild animal, but mostly human babies, and expect a chorus of oooohs and aaaahs.

We love them. But why do we so often want to modify them?

Many dog owners will trim their puppy's ears or tail, to conform to a certain standard "look" for the breed. And, spay and neuter is the battle cry of animal lovers around the globe. Imagine being a dog. and hearing. 'I love you so much I am going to neuter you.'

But, much more frequent is the modifying of human babies.

Many primitive tribes punched a hole in their baby's nose bridge, or ear lobe, and inserted a small round bone. When the child healed, they replaced the bone with a larger bone. This process was repeated until the earlobe, or the nose bridge, was grotesquely elongated. Some even did that to their lower lip! Today we just use little gold rings...maybe even with a diamond!

For centuries, the Chinese bound a baby girl's feet to keep them from growing. They wanted their ladies to have tiny feet.

In parts of the Muslim world, a common practice, to this day, is to surgically remove the clitoris from a little girl's vulva. We call that genital mutilation. We call it barbaric.

A more common practice, started by the Jews, is circumcision. As soon as a baby boy is born, a Rabbi lops the foreskin off his tiny penis. Some say the practice was to discourage masturbation . Some say it was a matter of hygiene. (Whatever happened to soap and water?) Some say it was a religious practice. Today, in the western world, Jew or Christian, a boy can expect to lose his foreskin before he ever leaves the hospital nursery.

It is an age old practice that most likely will continue. Love your baby. Just modify it.

And, I won't even go into abortion, which says, "Before you deliver your baby, If you think you won't like him or her, just kill it."