A nice guy.

You would be hard pressed to find a nicer guy than Congressman Joe Sestak (D Pennsylvania). Mr. Sestak is a mild-mannered, soft spoken fellow who engages people with a kindly smile and focused eyes. He served many years in the United States Navy and a couple of terms in Congress.

Nonetheless, I learned at a town hall meeting yesterday that Congressman Sestak has a tenuous grasp on the facts of American life. When I asked him how the government was going to pay for the new health care plan, he said that according to the Congressional Budget Office the cost was completely covered by the provisions in the bill. Incredible. When reminded that the CBO has been frequently in error with these predictions he continued the party line that this was fully paid for unlike so many of the previous entitlements created during other administrations.

I give Mr. Sestak credit for staying on message. He knows how to filibuster with long-winded answers that essentially dodge the facts, repeat a mantra, and serve to wear down any opposition. He failed yesterday. More than three quarters of the people present were in opposition not only to the health care plan but also many of the other programs he supports. When asked about how the government could simply take over the college loan business from private banks, Mr. Sestak casually mentioned how it would save money. Never did he address the issue of whether or not it was appropriate for the government to engage in this activity. One fell swoop, according to the good congressman, its finished. I was left wondering what else the government wolf had in mind to swallow.

And so it went. People respectfully confronted the issues only to be met with well intentioned but ill-reasoned responses. This is a sad commentary on the quality of elected officials in the United States. But its not all bad. The people are awake and on the march. If this level of interest is sustained through November, there is the possibility of a sea-change in the political make-up of the nation.

Published in: on April 4, 2010 at 1:26 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Experiment Concluded

The United States of America has always been a work in progress, a  grand experiment. Now, the experiment has concluded. Human nature being what it is, the citizenry of this nation have succumbed to the siren call of socialism. In reaction to poor leadership, worse leadership was installed, all by the common vote, all above board. It will be told in history books of the future that this year, 2010, was the one in which tyranny sunk its fangs into the victim, injected its socialist infection, and thereby terminated the best hope for freedom loving souls of the world.

The disease is touted as the cure, healthcare for all as a way to stave off bankruptcy. Only fools believe this. Spending a trillion borrowed dollars, destroying the private efforts of millions, and strangling the future innovation through monstrous regulation will do nothing to improve the economics of the country. At the same time, it will not provide quality healthcare. It will do the opposite as too many places around the world have seen. Consider that in Spain, many medical equipment suppliers wait more than 300 days for payment, sometimes as long as 500 days, and the single-payer system is billions in the hole. The same can be said for Britain, France, and so on. But not in America! This time it will work! This time we’ll get it right! And the dolts and morons chant and cheer: Huzzah to the chief!

Every future healthcare decision will be decided by a blind committee, by some abstractly constructed algorithm. Just as in my novel, Universal Coverage, the body politic will dominate every aspect of future medical endeavors. Citizen will be pitched against citizen as the zero-sum game of the socialist construct spreads through the system. The stain of contempt between once amiable parties will surface where it is least expected. Every act of a medical person will be questioned as a political move in favor of one person over another. Bitterness will be the common bond of a miserable population.

It won’t stop with health care. The socialist march, the tyrannical beast, will scratch and claw until it consumes the energy industry, the remainder of the manufacturing sector, and what pieces of the transportation business it does not already dominate. This animal is never satisfied. After it has consumed the entire wealth of the nation it will turn on itself as it has in every political subdivision around the world.

Thus ends the American Experiment, with a sigh and moan, a plea for the common good. It is a self-imposed failure, the preference of humans for the yoke of predicable mediocrity instead of the magnificent potential of freedom.

God help us all.

Published in: on March 19, 2010 at 11:39 pm  Leave a Comment  
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A Tale of Two Cities

Let’s take a look at two cities: Tehran, Iran, and Los Angeles, California, USA. In Tehran, the people are in the streets, protesting and risking their lives, after an election of the most dubious outcome. In Los Angeles, people are in the streets, burning cars, looting stores, and brawling, over the victory of their local basketball team. Wow, talk about a contrast!

Imagine that on their quest against tyranny, the Iranian people happen to catch the news from LA. They see thugs in the street destroying property and defying the police over the outcome of a game played with a ball. Incredible, isn’t it? the Iranians would be asking themselves. Of course, people in LA and the United States in general, take elections for granted. In Iran, this has proven not to be the case. In fact, in America you have the right to destroy public and private property without fear of having the responsibility to compensate for it because you were having a good time after your team won some make-believe title. Wonderful country, eh? Probably not a good idea to try this in Iran, especially where the Mullahs dwell.

In my perusal of some media outlets here in the United States, I have not found the above mentioned comparison. I have found a good amount of slobbering on the part of a media devoted to the current US administration and congress. Mostly they have embraced the slow by slow approach of a presidency which is gradually showing its lack of clarity and adaptability. In the mean time, people die in Tehran while the editors yawn and frown for fear of a bolder approach which might be to expose the silliness of LA compared to the gravitas of Tehran. However, to do this might pluck another thread from the seam that binds them to their king and his court, that is the newly installed US administration, which has made clear it will deal with tyrants, nuclear provocateurs, and fascist re-treads, all in the name of, “Can’t we all just get along.” Funny, I think that phrase came from LA, too.

So it goes in the world today, which can be fun if you’re in LA and help yourself to smashing a coffee shop window, setting fire to a police car, or destroying a city bus, and the authorities will kind of sit on the sidelines until you get tired and go home. But if you’re in Tehran and the bullets are flying at you because you want the right to choose your leaders, well, that’s something different now, isn’t it? And if the former beacon of freedom, that shining city on a hill, has dimmed its lights because ideologically it is more in step with your oppressors than with your desire for liberty, well, then you can’t be blamed for thinking that a darker age may be upon you.

Nonetheless, for those of you in Iran willing to gamble with your lives, consider that your effort is not in vain. Freedom is yours for the taking and can be achieved without help from the past reliable allies.

As for the editors of the media here in the United States, too many of you are cowardly and ignorant souls bent on the destruction of the very system that provides you with the protection to practice your trade. Thus, you’re incapable of reporting how and why this truly is the best and worst of times. Talk about dim bulbs.

Published in: on June 17, 2009 at 12:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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