I am blessed that last month my son son became a member Upsilon Pi Epsilon (ΥΠΕ), the International honor society for people with interest and ability in Computer Science (CS).
I am impressed that in a small school, the UPE inductees include a young woman and young man with a visual handicap.
Tomorrow night you will be [nodding | shaking | scratching] your head at President Obama’s State of the Union Address. As a politician, Obama (or his speech writers) will make sure that all of the right buttons are pushed. As a citizen, you will be shaking your head at all of the unfulfilled promises of the campaign trail. And as a real live person, you will be scratching your head as to [where are we now? | what should we do? | long range plans?]. Yes, Barack Obama is the ultimate enigma. Perhaps, recent election results will energize him to new ideas and directions. Hopefully the face-to-face with the massed Congress will be a wake up call to both the Congress and the President. I suspect that despite the applause, most of the 435+100+9+1 will sleep through class. Do not blame the professor (at least I expect him to show on time, the Secret Service will see to that), I suspect insufficient pre-class preparation by the occupants of the lecture hall is the main problem.
A note on the front of the Wall Street Journal Tuesday made me sad. I will miss Kate McGarrigle but I will always hear her song.
America will likely wake up Christmas morning with a terrible hangover.
The Senate seems hell-bent-for-leather to get some sort of health reform bill passed. Or maybe that is slip one past. The vote set for Christmas eve will give Americans no health, no reform, no care, and a huge bill.
Nominally the bill is to reduce cost by reforming the health care industry and the way that insurance against illness is paid. But because of concessions to special interest groups, the tax payers will end up footing the bill for universal insurance for the indigent while the “Cadillac” health plan covered folk escape paying the proposed fees due to carve-outs and special exceptions.
Medicare pays so little for many procedures that many caregivers will not accept new patients if their only insurance is Medicare. If all patients fees are regulated at the same rate, the level of care will decline, if only because doctors and other personnel leave the system to find something they can afford to do. No there will not be death committees, but you may have to wait so long for care that you do die or wish you could.
This is not reform. This is more of the same nonsense that caused the problem in first place.
My recommendation:
End the deductibility of payroll health insurance. This should be taxable income to the recipient. This gets non-health care business out of the health care business.
End the limits that states can put on health plans sold in state. This would open the markets to all comers and give consumers price and coverage choices that are not available today. Existing consumer protection laws could be used to prevent fraud and abuse.
Have individuals pay for all medicine and procedures. Have insurance companies reimburse the individuals if they are insured. This will ensure that, where possible, families will shop for value, achieving a balance between level of care and affordability.
Publish the secret codes that describe medical procedures. This would allow consumers to ensure that they are billed for the care actually administered. Today the codes can only be used by those who have purchased the copyright license to the code book. As a result, it is impossible to determine what was billed for, insure accuracy in billing, or negotiate for a better price. Insurance companies pay more, consumers cannot assist in reducing cost. The code monopoly needs to end.
Allow purchasing insurance for all coverage with an exclusion for an existing condition. A phase in of coverage for a controlled existing condition could be an option.
The best outcome for the existing bill is that it will self-destruct in conference committee. The likely outcome is that it will get even more expensive.
The RIAA’s sister organization in Canada, the CRIA has been called to account for $6 billion in royalties due to artists that have not been paid. Apparently this may have some effect on the juries that are deciding cases in their parallel anti-piracy cases. I wonder how much the U.S. RIAA has failed to pay.
My brother sent me a story about Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana is going geothermal for their heating and cooling requirements. This is one of the more practical ideas available to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Those concerned about global warming may enjoy this. It’s superstringy, from The Reference Frame. Or maybe not.
My neighbor has a hobby restoring classic British sports cars. I have seen his work on his own cars and on jobs that he has done for others. The work is always top-notch. He does take the time to do the job right. He has a fine web site too.
John Burton Works on Triumph
John drives his Austin Healey 100.
Despite the lack of evidence, politcos of all stripes will meet in Copenhagen next month to divey up the worlds wealth. Ostensibly, they are going to cool the earth by reducing carbon emissions. Some are calling it Hopenhagen. But the real reason they are meeting is to transfer money from the richer countries to the poorer countries using some phoney-baloney carbon credit scam. But while they have been trying to get it together, the world has changed. The poor countries used to include India and China. “Not any more” as Inspector Clouseau would say. Nontheless, they would like to be on the receiving end of the wealth transfer. It is more like HopeIgetsome. Oh, and did I mention that somehow this is going to cool the earth.
Friday’s Wall Street Journal has an op-ed editorial wondering if Sarah Palin is ready for a comeback. Hey guys, to make a comeback, you have to have been somewhere. Sarah Palin is nowhere, nohow. Possible Commander-in-Chief? Not. Should I count the ways? Abuse of power. Deriliction of duty. Desertion. Sarah Palin is one way that the Republicans could lose in 2012 after the taxpayers get the bill for the current session of Congress. They could run one of my cats and win. But not if they run a quitter.