Sick People

There are some sick people in this country and this is the latest outrageous crime.

Organic food

I am glad to see this study and report because I have always questioned in my mind the concept and practice of "organic food" and whether it is better for us or not. Glad to see that I may have been correct all along. I have always thought of it as being a 20th Century fad.

Common Sense

We all need a good dose of common sense in the USA these days and I love this piece from Bill Maher regarding not-for-profit. This should be mandatory reading for every American who cares about the country.

Health Insurance

This country will never be able to afford anything until it gets its house in order and disengages from all foreign entanglements especially foreign wars and foreign aid of any type to countries which are able to stand on their own feet. Bringing all troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan would be a good place to start.

As for the insurance companies, they all need to be not-for-profit so that they can't gouge us for everything under the sun. They also need to level the playing field with regard to group plans and individual plans. My dental insurance is a prime example. Since I am retired I have to pay for an individual plan but it has many many exclusions in procedures that someone with a group plan does not have to endure. Why is that? It should not be. And to make matters worse, Medicare does not cover dental procedures at all so I must buy an individual plan from a private insurance company.

An alternative to various plans being discussed by congress would be a "single payer" plan. Some people are opposed to that and I would like to know why. Some people are also opposed to plans like those in Canada and other countries and call them "socialized medicine". This infuriates me because for one thing Americans are paranoid and scared to death of anything that resembles socialism, even beneficial socialism. Then they complain that people in those countries may have to wait a long time in the waiting room to see someone. Well, at least they can see someone and be covered by insurance. As for long waits in a waiting room I know of some people with Kaiser who presently have to do that so it must be in the way a particular hospital is run, not in the way the care if paid for.

I just fear that the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies have a stranglehold on Congress and nothing will change until that is broken. A prime example of this problem can be seen in drugs that cost one thing in this country and much more in Canada for the same drugs. This is a good indicator that something is seriously wrong and we need to end this practice.

Only in San Francisco...

Only in a liberal city such as San Francisco would someone call CNN conservative. In fact, I know one conservative who hates that channel so much that he refers to it as the Communist News Network. I certainly couldn't see Ted Turner and his wife Jane Fonda as being involved with a conservative anything but in San Francisco politics black is white and white is black.

A giant passes...

I grew up with Walter Cronkite and will never forget his coverage of the first moon landing nor his coverage of the JFK assassination. We were both space enthusiasts and his "oh boy" on man setting foot on the moon is just what I felt too. I do feel like I have lost an uncle. Uncle Walt will be greatly missed.

French Tourists

Who the hell was the Francophobe who wrote this pile of garbage? I have been in France four times and have never had a problem there or anywhere else with people from France. I have, however, grown very tired of noisy and aggressive Russian tourists, both at home here in San Francisco, and in Thailand. They are loud and arrogant. The few French people I have run into here or there have not been. This piece reminds me of something that a person who hates France might have written as there is no objectivity in this piece whatsoever.

Stimulus Screw Up

Wouldn't you just know it? The various states have found a way to screw up when it comes to receiving the Federal stimulus funds. Why couldn't the Feds just tell the states what to do or where to go?

Drone attacks on northwest Pakistan

Will these drone attacks make the USA any safer? I doubt it. In fact, this will probably strengthen the resolve or our enemies to attack us again. I am sure that planning for another attack has been on-going since 9/11 anyway and this will only hasten the day of another attack. In my opinion this is an unwinable war.