We Should All Listen More to Perry and the Brits...

Perry de Havilland, over at Samizdata.net, commenting on what fun things we have to look forward to here in the USA....

Millions and millions of Americans support Obama's desire to even more massively intervene in the market for medical care than the US state already does. And of course Obama's moves are just the opening salvo in a desire to eventually end up with fully socialist healthcare, along the lines of Britain's ghastly National Health Service, which has intermittently tried to kill me over the years.

I have tried pointing Americans at the British example to show them what an appalling idea it is to have the state directing any industry, let alone medical care. But alas it is very hard to overcome that special kind of insular American optimism that does not think what happens in another advanced first world nation can teach them anything, because in the USA things will be different.

Well yes, it will be different... in that the control obsessed Obama's of this world will find new, innovative and oh so wholesome American ways to end up with a third rate health care system much like Britain has today.

This might be a good time for Americans to invest their money in Swiss medical clinics as I suspect in the coming years expatriated medical care will be a serious growth industry... plus it has the added benefit of getting your money out of the USA and US dollar.

The current emergency government run healthcare program we already have is Medicare, which is taking in less money than it is paying out, to the tune of $168 billion in 2006 and $179 billion in 2007.

Add that with Social Security deficits, it gets even worse. According to the American Academy of Actuaries-

Considering Medicare spending in conjunction with Social Security spending further highlights the strain these programs place on the economy. Social Security spending as a share of GDP increases more modestly than Medicare over the next several decades, and as a result, Medicare spending is expected to exceed that of Social Security in 2028. Combined, Medicare and Social Security expenditures equaled 7.3 percent of GDP in 2006. This share of GDP is expected to increase considerably to a projected 12.7 percent in 2030 and 17.6 percent in 2080. Medicare and Social Security expenditures are even more striking when considered relative to total federal revenues. The trustees report that total federal revenues have historically averaged about 18 percent of GDP. Using this average, about 40 percent of all federal revenues in 2007 will be used to pay Medicare and Social Security benefits. If no changes are made to either program and federal revenues remain at 18 percent of GDP, this share is expected to increase to 80 percent in 2040, and by 2080, Medicare and Social Security spending would equal nearly all total federal revenues. These projections highlight the increasing strains that Medicare, especially in conjunction with Social Security, will place on the U.S. economy. Moreover, increased spending for Medicare may crowd out the share of funds available for other federal programs.

Someone needs to explain to me why spending MORE MONEY ON HEALTHCARE will make HEALTHCARE CHEAPER thus saving our economy from catasrophe.

Good luck.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Lecture: Pluto and Some Q&A

My favorite astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson gave a lecture/interview at the Los Angeles Public Library recently. He came to talk about Pluto and his recent book The Pluto Files, and as usual was Spock-like in his insight and logic in to the world of science and astronomy.


Here's the link to the full program where you can skip around to different parts of the lecture and Q&A session.


Here are two of my favorites from the lecture: Bush Innocent in War on Science



Remember this next time people talk about Obama "restoring science in America" or whatever, because I'm sure we'll hear about it again. His point about Bush appointing Judge John E. Jones III, who presided over Kitzmiller vs. Dover was especially poignant.

And this one, as Tyson destroys the silliness surrounding the conspiracies that will soon reach boiling point as we approach December 2012:



Just google it!

Iran should be liberated, and their regime eliminated......Part IX

I wrote part VIII about three years ago, when Iraq was unraveling. I had no idea that today Iraq would look like a stable democracy next to Iran.

"Iran should be liberated, and their regime eliminated"
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

It is now more evident than ever before that the Iranian Regime is the biggest obstacle to peace in the region and the rest of the world. The two biggest hot spots in the middle east right now are in Lebanon and Iraq, and in both places the Iranian Regime is the state sponsor of those trying to kill innocent people ON PURPOSE. Every other surrounding Arab state except for Syria is ready to recognize Israel and end the pointless struggle over a bunch of freaking rocks.

This will never happen with the Iranian regime still in power.


Those of us who do not wish to "submit to God" involuntarily agree that these freaking nutjob Islamofascists trying to either convert the entire world to Islam or put the rest of us to death need to be stopped.

President Bush stated the following quite clearly after 9/11 that

"Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.....Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.

Fast forward to the present. Hezbollah, the armed thugs whose salaries are paid by the Iranian Regime, have been trying to bleed Israel to death for over 20 years. They've wacked our US troops in the process. Today Iranian troops are fighting side by side with Hezbollah in Lebanon, just as they are with Al-Sadr in Iraq.

Sooner or later, if freedom for all from relgious persecution is to prevail, the Islamic Regime in Iran will have to fall. The sooner the better.

It remains to be seen how long it will take for the Iranian people to finally enjoy the liberty and freedom that we take for granted here in the US.

But one thing is certain, the Iranian people have had enough. And I don't think they are going to wait for help from the outside world before they take matters in to their own hands and finally push back against the bullies.

Michael Totten (now blogging for the time being at Commentary), who as usual has been running rings around the major news media organizations in providing breaking news about the Iranian demonstrations, had the following quote from Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski from his book Shah of Shahs, about the Iranian revolution in 1979, he describes the beginning of the end for the Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Now the most important moment, the moment that will determine the fate of the country, the Shah, and the revolution, is the moment when one policeman walks from his post toward one man on the edge of the crowd, raises his voice, and orders the man to go home. The policeman and the man on the edge of the crowd are ordinary, anonymous people, but their meeting has historic significance.

They are both adults, they have both lived through certain events, they have both their individual experiences.

The policeman’s experience: If I shout at someone and raise my truncheon, he will first go numb with terror and then take to his heels. The experience of the man at the edge of the crowd: At the sight of an approaching policeman I am seized by fear and start running. On the basis of these experiences we can elaborate a scenario: The policeman shouts, the man runs, others take flight, the square empties.

But this time everything turns out differently. The policeman shouts, but the man doesn’t run. He just stands there, looking at the policeman. It’s a cautious look, still tinged with fear, but at the same time tough and insolent. So that’s the way it is! The man on the edge of the crowd is looking insolently at uniformed authority. He doesn’t budge. He glances around and sees and sees the same look on other faces. Like his, their faces are watchful, still a bit fearful, but already firm and unrelenting. Nobody runs though the policeman has gone on shouting; at last he stops. There is a moment of silence.

We don’t know whether the policeman and the man on the edge of the crowd already realize what has happened. The man has stopped being afraid – and this is precisely the beginning of the revolution. Here it starts. Until now, whenever these two men approached each other, a third figure instantly intervened between them. That third figure was fear. Fear was the policeman’s ally and the man in the crowd’s foe. Fear interposed its rules and decided everything.

Now the two men find themselves alone, facing each other, and fear has disappeared into thin air. Until now their relationship was charged with emotion, a mixture of aggression, scorn, rage, terror. But now that fear has retreated, this perverse, hateful union has suddnely broken up; something has been extinguished. The two men have now grown mutually indifferent, useless to each other; they can now go their own ways.
Accordingly, the policeman turns around and begins to walk heavily back toward his post, while the man on the edge of the crowd stands there looking at his vanishing enemy.

May peace and liberty be upon the Iranian People.

The Iranian people are not happy with the election results

Michael Totten is keeping the updates coming from Iran:

Iran On Fire
The BBC says clashes between demonstrators and police in Tehran are the most violent in a decade.

Video below shows a human wave of demonstrators chasing frightened police officers.

He has a quote from the Huffington Post:

"My next door neighbor is an Iranian immigrant who came here in 1977. He just received a SAT phone call from his brother in Tehran who reports that the rooftops of nighttime Tehran are filled with people shouting 'Allah O Akbar' in protest of the government and election results. The last time he remembers this happening is in 1979 during the Revolution. Says the sound of tens of thousands on the rooftops is deafening right now." It's almost four in the morning in Iran."

Hopefully this Cox and Forkum illustration will bear fruit...

Iowahawk Tried To Warn Us....

.....we didn't listen. And now, this is very close to a reality-




Incidentally, I bought a new Ford Fusion a few months ago. I love it. For any of those idiots out there who say that the American Auto Industry isn't making anything that Americans want to buy, I give you the following evidence that you are dead wrong.

Here are the top selling cars in the US from the month of May-

1.) Ford F-Series: 33,381
2.) Chevy Silverado: 31,463
3.) Toyota Camry: 31,325
4.) Toyota Corolla: 23,576
5.) Honda Accord: 22,597
6.) Honda Civic: 20,723
7.) Ford Fusion: 19,786
8.) Chevy Impala: 18,709
9.) Nissan Altima: 18,408
10.) Ford Escape: 16,391


Ford has three in the top ten, with the Fusion at a healthy #7. Chevy is on life support from my tax dollars, and the car I bought was built by the company that didn't take any taxpayer money to stay alive. Sorry Chevy, but American Car Companies should be allowed to fail and disappear, and I don't see the point in rewarding failure.

What kills me is why did Ford wait this long to introduce this kind of sexiness to the American Roads?





And she drives as good as she looks.