Wanderings

Wanderings

Yearly Archive: 2009

Wanderings > 2009

Mandatory Health Care Failing…AGAIN!

June 23, 2009 Political

Doing some checking on the Administration's plans for "Universal Health Care.", and ran across an article that documents the failure of Massachusetts' "Mandatory Health Care" program. Failing just like Canada and England where you have to wait for an appointment or some government bureaucrat to decide if or when you can have a particular treatment.

This was not a short article from The Objective Standard, but a very in depth look at the reasons the Massachusetts plan is not working and why it keeps costing more and more.

They stated "Yet two years after its inception, the Massachusetts plan has failed to achieve either of its goals. The plan did not lower health care costs, nor did it achieve universal coverage. Thus, given the growing popularity of mandatory health insurance, Americans would do well to take a close look at the results of the Massachusetts plan

Where Is He?

June 23, 2009 Faith

The other day, I kind of skipped over everything Job had to say in response to Eliphaz in chapter 23. There are actually some very interesting things to ponder.

Job says "complaining is rebellion." Hello! Think about it – you have a boss, who gives orders to get "something" done. Better yet, you give your child or employee their list of chores (their orders) for the day. How would you view their complaining about what you have given them to do. You know "I can't do that", or "why doesn't my sister/brother/someone else have to do this much?" After all the time you spent trying to figure out who whould be best for the job and what you know they can do…[more]

The real stopper came as I re-read that it was like Job laid out a map or floor plan, and said "it doesn't make any difference which way I go, I can't find Him!" (verses 8 and 9) Here was a man who knew the way of and to God. Yet he feels sort of lost, because he cannot see the one who's instructions he is trying to follow. It's like "I know He's here, I just can't see Him."

But I love Job's analogy of his being gold, tried in the fire. The immediate image is of a pot of gold being melted, along with all the impurities. When it is hot enough, the first thing a goldsmith (metalsmith?) does is pour off the dross, leaving the pure gold. The less dross, the purer the gold. To see the beauty of the gold, you have to get rid of the dull – that which does not belong there.

Oh that we might let our lives be purified. Sure the gold when it goes in the pot has all the junk mixed up with it, but to become better, it needs to be "fired".

The last thing I found in this chapter was Job's insistence that he has followed the right path – his feet held fast. Imagine that you are walking along the edge of a mountainous path – narrow and along the crevices. Your feet have to hold on to keep you from falling to injury or death.

When I was a boy in San Francisco, my friends and I used to go walking on Red Rock Hill. We learned early that we could either slip and fall from the top to the bottom, or we could walk down if we placed our feet correctly. Feet in the wrong place not only scrapped our legs, but out fingers were screpped raw and we tried to stop our slide.

Red Rock Hill is no longer there – it's been replaced by Diamond Heights, but the lessons it taught remain. Walk carefully and you can go up or down safely. Make a mistake, and you can start over again. Make a mistake, and your body will let you know. You could not blame the hill because it was your footsteps that took you down.

That sounds a whole lot like life. The path does not put itself under my feet – I move my feet in the direction I choose. Better tred carefully then.

Government to Solve Hate?

June 20, 2009 Political

Other day, stumbled across THOMAS, the web site for the Library of Congress. Someone had sent me a link about something that had been voted on and wanted me to read the bill. Checked out the issue, and then did not even bother to bookmark the link. Got an email today about the "new" Hate Crime bill being considered by the Senate – turns out the House has already passed it, so…off to find "THOMAS" [http://thomas.loc.gov/] to check out SB909.

Seems to me that a crime against a person is a crime. Will this new law mean that a person who hates my ideas and kills me is not committing a "hate crime"? That is the way the bill is written.

Kinda ticks me off [more]that even though the law is being written to "assist" State, local and Tribal law enforcement, there is an OR that says the Feds can come in, even if there are no convictions and "the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to State charges left demonstratively unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence; or…a prosecution by the United States is in the public interest and necessary to secure substantial justice."

What was that?

Why talk about helping get State, local or Tribal law enforced, when what you want is "your" idea of settlement. So, if you just happen to beat me up for some reason) and get charged with a felony against me (a senior, straight, African-American male), under this law, even if I forgave you and did not press charges, the Feds could come after you.

You don't have to believe me – read it yourself! S.B. 909

SB 909, under consideration in the Senate says "Whoever…willfully causes bodily injury to any person…because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person–". Then follows the Federal penalty for the crime. So, what do you perceive me to be? And then you got mad at me.

Better to do the crime over ideas or thoughts. Wait a minute, aren't thoughts part of our perception about someone? Wait, if you beat me because you think or perceive me to be a male and you hate males, does that become a hate crime? Whoa!

What a waste of taxpayer money. I've thought that all along when it comes to "Hate Crime" laws. Why do we single out crimes against certain people, when they are the same crimes. Murder is murder, Rape is rape. Assault is assault. Okay, so why not put stiffer penalties in existing laws for those crimes if that is what you really want to do.

To top it off, the bill may sound like it has some financial limits – currently set to $5 million over 2 years for "Grants", but there is a big hole where they allow "to be appropriated to the Department of Justice…for fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012 such sums as are necessary to increase the number of personnel to prevent and respond to alleged violations of section 249 of title 18, United States Code, as added by section 7 of this Act."

How much of your money is that? Just like the Government – set up a program and have no idea what it is going to cost. Where do those employees go after 2012? The law does not end then, but will go on and on.

Copyright 2009-2024 by Joe Suttle