Told Ya.

Yep, Jonah pretty much says it all.

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place.

"Wipe Them Out. All of Them. Yes, Even My Huckleberry.""

So, our health care system is so terrible that it needed to be plowed with salt last year, but starting with a call to the clinic at 10:30am and ending with me walking back in the door of my house at 1pm, I and my awful cough/laryngitis had a non urgent-care appointment, saw a nurse and a doc, got throat swabbed, blood drawn, and chest X-rayed, chest listened to; and tested out negative for Strep, bronchitis, and pneumonia. All in 2.5 hrs.

Yeah, that's... awful. Let's never have to put up with that again.

--

And for the curious, the Doc confirmed what I'd figured - my pollen allergies are simply kicking in and having fun with the soft tissues and upper respiratory that my bad cold this last weekend ravaged. So my lucky coworkers get to have another couple of days of listening to me cough like Doc Holliday and wheeze like Emperor Palpatine.

Welcome to Idiot-Ville. Population: NPR

I heard this little gem last night on NPR when I was driving home. During a discussion of attacks on illegal immigration in Long Island, one of the interviewees claimed that using the phrase 'illegal immigrant' caused violence.

The story explains that Steven Levy, the Suffolk county chief executive is against illegal immigration.

Levy has taken a strong stance against illegal immigration, but he rejects efforts to connect those policy positions with acts of violence against Hispanics.

"It's a real disservice to try to say these things only happen in those areas where there might be a debate over the issue of illegal immigration," says Levy. "It's dangerous, because it gives the impression that if you don't have a debate over illegal immigration, Latinos are safe. That's not necessarily true."

Levy points out that even cities that welcome illegal immigrants struggle with crimes of racial hatred.

But Phil Ramos, who represents eastern Long Island in the New York State Assembly, says Levy does not appreciate that his words have violent consequences.


"If you say the word 'illegal' enough times as buzzwords in your speeches, these people cease to be human beings," says Ramos. "And that's what leads a group of six or seven young men to hunt an Ecuadorean man on the street like an animal, and just stab him and kill him."

Ramos was a police officer here for 20 years before he retired and ran for public office.

 Yeah, this makes sense -- there's now no difference between a man who claims "Illegal immigration is a violation of our laws and causes severe problems in our society" and a guy who says "lets beat illegal immigrants to death."

For what its worth, I'm against both illegal immigration AND beating innocent people to death.

Only a few moments later, the same program did a story on new breast cancer screening recommendations from a US Government task force. 

The message that breast cancer screening saves lives has taken root, and powerful breast cancer advocates who promote this message have earned women's trust. Perhaps that's why there's such a backlash against new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that advise against routine screening for women under age 50.

The task force recommendations were based on science studies that evaluated the effectiveness of mammograms. In one study, researchers determined that for every 1,900 women in their 30s and 40s who are invited to have a mammogram, one death from breast cancer was prevented.

When public health types look at these numbers, they conclude that it's not necessary to test every woman, every year — given the risks that accompany testing, including false positives, anxiety and scar tissue from biopsies.

But here's the rub: Individual women don't tend to think like public health folks. The 1 in 1,900 figure means little to a woman who has a sister, cousin or friend with the disease.

Nearly every woman interviewed for this story was profoundly hacked off, and I bet you that every single one would also be in favor of government run healthcare. Of course, nobody made the (to me) blindingly obvious connection that THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT RUNS HEALTHCARE.

Now Hear This: This Blog is an H1N1-Free Zone

This post is the last one in which we will use the word "H1N1". On MANP we refer to this particular virus as the "pig sick."

While We're On the Subject of Statist Idiocy, Theft and Medical Records...

If you march into your doctor's office and demand (or even ask nicely for) your medical records, the surly bitch* behind the counter has to give them to you.

Why? Because they are yours. Your medical records are your property and you own them.

So why don't you get a say in this government-inspired crusade to turn your paper records into bits and bytes?

When you go to a doctor's office for the first time, they make you sign a release listing the people with whom your medical affairs may be discussed. But apparently the privacy regulations don't cover changing your records from paper to a digital, interchangeable format that can be accessed from any facility in the USA.

While I understand the advantages of networked systems**, I wonder why We The People don't get to opt out of a system that could have our personal medical data stolen by Russian hackers and sold to anyone who wants a list of all the people in Nebraska with a prescription for Oxycodone.

I'm also not thrilled about the records coming into the possession of nosy and officious government burocrats who decide that since Joe Smith took Valium for nerves 10 years ago, he can't fly a plane or own a gun.

Finally, the glibness with which meatpuppet talking heads throw around the term "digital medical records" just irks me. Its pretty clear they've never had to make 2 stakeholders agree on a common standard for anything, to say nothing of every doctor's office in the country.

*Apologies if you work in administration in a medical facility and are a sweet angel whose voice is likened to the choirs of heaven. There should be more of you and its a pity you don't work in my neighborhood.

**Blah blah blah, waste fraud and abuse. Blah blah blah improved efficiency. Blah blah blah, better understanding of the patient. Some of these are good arguments, but the downside of digitizing the nation's medical records isnot getting enough news.

Once More Unto the Breach...

Looks like our Great Leader may nominate Kansas Governor Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. I wonder if she paid her taxes....

In Which the Stench of Hypocricy Becomes Overpowering

Every once in a while, someone says something so stupid, it makes me want to drink Windex.

Every couple weeks or so at work, I end up talking to a woman who cannot shut up about The Healthcare Situation In This Country, and how Socialized Medicine is the Way Out Of Our Crisis.

According to her, the fact that we haven't established a universal government-run health care system is a combination of greed, stupidity and outright sabotage on the part of the (evil) Republican party.

SOooo. Fast forward to today and once we dispense with her rejoicing over Obama's transformational historic victory, we had this conversation.

Me: Has open enrollment started yet? (Thats when you get to pick which health plan etc you want)

Her: Next week.

Me: What do you usually pick for the medical plan? The HMO or the PPO.

Her: Oh, the PPO. I really like to pick my own doctor.

Me: -- Sound of brain eating itself-- I'm screaming now at a pitch that only dogs can hear.

Her: You're strange.


I'd be perfectly happy to let this idiot and her good intentions go right to hell, but there are too many of them and they want to take me along.