Add Another Universal Healthcare Horror Story to the List

Check out this story from Britain, where a mother pregnant with twins was transferred between four hospitals in five days (250 miles in all) because the hospitals lacked the needed equipment.

At the end of the whole ordeal they still had to take one of her babies to another hospital because of a lack of incubators.


Still think universal healthcare sounds like a good idea? The US is already facing a shortage of 35,000 to 40,000 primary care doctors by 2012. All the touchy feeliness in the world won't change the fact that making healthcare "free" will cause the kind of resource scarcity here that Britain experiences every day.

More Good News From the Pump

This story by Dick Morris is a must read.

I'll admit it's not a subject I'm terribly knowledgeable about, but if he's on the money about this it's good news. What he lays out is how the slumping oil prices are creating hardship for all the right dictators (namely Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Morales, and the general Russian machine).

He points out that many of these leaders are not so popular in the first place and could easily fall out of favor with their electorates if the goodies they pass out (paid for by plump oil revenues) were to dwindle. He suggests that oil prices will stay low as these dictators increase production to maintain their spending status-quos.

In my mind this is all the more reason for our leaders to ditch the whole "green recovery" nonsense and charge full steam ahead towards squeezing out every last drop of oil that we can. All we have to gain is a lower cost of living for our citizens and a crippling of our worst enemies - a no brainer?

UPDATE: Via Conservative Grapevine comes another more detailed analysis of the situation as it pertains to the Middle East. This one's no more rosier for the dictators, but it's also suggests future problems for the West in dealing with the military adventures such economic strife could give rise to.

Gun Control Arguments Blown Away By Reality

This is one of those stories you keep in your bookmarks and pull out whenever you need to take a breathless gun control advocate down a notch.

A woman who was raped by a man last Saturday shot and killed him as he broke in her house again six days later.

Remember that in places like Washington D.C. it would have been illegal for this woman to have a loaded gun in her home as recently as last year. After hearing of a case like this such laws should strike you as tragically unreasonable.

Note also that her attacker came back after only six days. In her case she had a shotgun-a less likely choice for a single woman- but if she had been so spooked by the first rape that she'd rushed out to buy a more likely handgun for protection then... In Missouri they have a mandatory waiting period for handguns of "up to seven days". Who knows, she might not have lived to see her permit approved. (In IL, MA, NJ, and NC the wait period is "up to thirty days". In NY it's a whopping six months.)

It just goes to show that these issues are nowhere near as cut and dry as gun-control advocates would like to have you think.

Weighed Down By Union Work Rules

THE 22lb. list of union regulations that GM is subject to.

Some on the web are suggesting that the wages UAW workers command may not be as detrimental to their competitiveness as are the union regulations (regarding demotions, transfers, task delegation, etc.) the company is bound to follow. By the looks of the photo above that may well be true.

Will Illinois Corruption Finally Stick to Obama?

With the spectacularly audacious corruption being uncovered in Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich's case I can't help but wonder if any of the Obama faithful -now hopefully sobered by time and several quickly broken promises- will at least validate the concerns of those weary about electing a Chicago machine politician to the most powerful seat in the world.

The idea that Obama can spend 20 years in and around the Chicago machine- and not only survive, but thrive- without being either complicit in or willfully blind to massive corruption is fantasy.

Here was a governor putting a US senate seat literally up for sale. If it was "for sale" then it's also impossible that the whole Democrat power structure wasn't fully aware of it and even likely that it was business as usual. After all, there's no point in putting something up for sale to the highest bidder if you don't publicize it.

Damn Good Quote

I was reading an article about Obama's choice to send his daughters to an exclusive private school in DC when I came across this quote by Polly Williams. She is the woman credited for initiating the voucher school project in Milwaukee. What a great quote

'The president shouldn't be the only person who lives in public housing who gets to send his kids to private schools.'"

Too Liberal to Say "NO"

As I've pointed out many times before, liberalism will eventually lead to a point where it is virtually impossible for the government to say "no" to any outlandish request. Nothing will be too absurd when everybody believes the mantra : Who are we to judge? When victimhood is so lionized that success and fortitude lose their appeal, we will resign to retreat from all that sets the Western World apart from the rest. Britain's got a huge head start.

In yet another in a virtually endless stream of mind numbingly unfathomable stories from our friends across the pond: British courts gave three inmates a roughly $17,000 settlement because they were not provided with heroin (which they were addicted to) while in jail.

The Shameful Rationing of Health Care

This article from the New York Times sheds some light on the rationing that is inherent in any universal health care system. They look into Britain's universal health system where some people are being denied life-extending drugs because they're too expensive.

In the United States, such people would have the option of joining higher premium pools in return for nearly unlimited care- not an ideal option, but at least they have an option (besides dying). In the British system however, everybody is tied to one another through socialism, hence your best interest can be passed over for "the greater good". Before anybody gets all bleeding heart about it ask yourself this question: Who among your family would you sacrifice to "the greater good"? I can foresee some mother-in-law jokes in my head, but you get the point. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers.

The first law of economics is the law of scarcity: that there will never be enough of anything to satisfy everyone who demands it. When government runs your health care all your hard work, saving, or sacrificing is suddenly worthless. If some bureaucrat decides a 55-year old would get more years out of a heart transplant than your 60-year old grandfather, then that's that. Your grandfather could have never missed a day of work in his life while the 55-year old could have contributed little or nothing to the system- doesn't matter.

That's how you get a story like this one: A Oregon woman who was a part of the state run health care plan, was denied life saving drugs because they were too expensive. Instead they offered to help her commit suicide. Seriously. Doctor assisted suicide would be less expensive and would leave more money for "the greater good".

So the next time you consider calling a conservative heartless for resisting universal health care, be ready to tell them who's expendable in your family.

Denied Letter to the Editor

Sour grapes I know, but since I took the time to write it I thought I might as well share it. Below is a letter to the editor- or Voice of the People as it's called in our paper- which I submitted twice to the Kenosha News weeks before the election. Unfortunately it wasn't printed and my efforts were for naught

In one campaign stop Barack Obama told what he probably thought was an endearing story about how his 6-year old daughter always confuses the lyrics of rapper Snoop Dogg’s song “Drop it like it’s Hot”. She apparently thinks the song says “Drop it like a Sock”. Sounds cute enough till you wonder what she thought about the four times he uses the word “pimp” and refers to police officers as “pigs”, or the seven times he uses the “N” word in the same song. I wonder what she thought when he referenced the Crips street gang, suicide, smoking pot, “killers”, his AK-47, and making “the girls get naked” in still the same song. When she does understand- as her 9-year old sister likely already does- she may just ask why it is her daddy –a Harvard educated Presidential candidate- would listen to gangster rap at all- much less with her.

On the criminal proclivities of today’s youth this paper’s editors ask “What’s going on?”. How rich. Committed liberals like Mr. Obama and themselves have passed on no chance to “define deviancy down” by chiding any penalty or even stigma for pathological behaviors. In particular they cheered the welfare state that made fatherless homes profitable, then hamstrung the police and schools charged with cleaning up the ensuing mess by putting political correctness before common sense. The rest of society has, and will continue to pay for the moral relativism so fashionable on the left in which literally anything can be explained away- even a president/messiah who has yet to mature past gangster rap.

Another Radical Obama Alliance Uncovered

It is just beyond belief that something like this wouldn't make the news. Here's a United States Senator actively campaigning for a presidential candidate of another country and nobody even heard about it. Even if you put aside the fact that said candidate promised to apply Sharia law, even if the candidate was not educated by communists, even if the candidate didn't name his son after Fidel Castro, this is newsworthy.

Check out this video about the Kenyan radical Odinga and how Barack Obama was campaigning for him within the past year.

Democrats Own the Financial Meltdown

Those of you who have followed closely no doubt know that Democrats fought fiercely to stop further regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by Republicans. Here's a great video of what actually went down in the hearings. Send it to everybody you know.

It's All Coming Together Now

This article on a recent study of vegetarians/vegans must have some very self-righteous people rather conflicted.

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

This explains a lot- particularly the existence of the Green Party.

Great McCain Radio Ad

I've got to hand it to McCain's advertising team, they're doing a great job of getting key points across.

Disturbing LA Times Article

The LA Times has an article today about a Canadian doctor who's "warning" people that Sarah Palin's new found visibility may cause more women to pass on having abortions.

As it stands, 9 out of 10 babies suspected of having Down's Syndrome are aborted in Canada. Apparently any less than that is unacceptable for our most compassionate liberal friends.

Great, To the Point, McCain Ad

Matt Damon Needs A Kick in the Teeth

Though I still have no idea why celebrities are interviewed on such topics in the first place, Matt Damon went on a tirade against Sarah Palin.

He called the situation a "bad Disney movie" and bemoaned her lack of experience. He apparently took it as self-evident that Obama had more experience.

Not that I cared for him before, but I certainly won't be giving any of my money to his future ventures.

Interestingly enough Damon has been the figurehead for this new Darfur initiative that pleads for across-the-aisle cooperation in dealing with Sudan.

Note to Matt: "Good Will Hunting" was a movie. We don't really think you're some pensive savant who's pronouncements mean anymore than anybody else.

Russians Who Prefer Hard-Line Ex-KGB Types Also Favor Obama. Hmmmm..

A poll of Russians finds that they like ex-KGB Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a man who has a penchant for making his critics disappear- literally. Oh, and they also prefer Barack Obama.

33% of Russians polled said they would vote for Putin if given another chance against current president Medved, though oddly a full 44% would not say how they would vote. It would seem to me that 44% abstaining suggests a climate of fear in which those who don't back Putin at least won't dare go on record as rejecting him.

Obama recieved four times the support of those Russians polled than did John McCain.

So people who prefer a hard-line, authoritarian style government that crushes dissent also prefer Obama. At least conservatives aren't surprised.

Yeah America, Listen To This Guy

At MTV's video music awards last night British comedian Russel Brand (how he's considered well known enough to host an awards show is beyond me) called George Bush a "retarded cowboy" and mocked teens who swear off sex and remarked "a little sex every once in awhile never hurt anybody" (in an extreme case of irony, this guy has gone to rehab for sex addiction).

He also added this: "please ask of you, people of America, please elect Barack Obama, please, on behalf of the world."

Here's a link to the story, and another one.

Palin Derangement Syndrome

Here's a quote from one of the moonbats over at the Democratic Underground, showing just how unhinged the choice of Sarah Palin makes them:

"I will attack her for whatever reason suits the purpose of making her look bad to my audience.

When I am among secular people I will attack her for being a religious zealot. When I am among people from church, I will attack her for being of a heterodox denomination. When I am among liberals I will attack her for her conservative views. When I am among conservatives I will attack her for her for anything they are prove to view as shortcomings in ideology. When I am among women, I will deride the obvious pandering of her nomination and the fact that McCain must not think much of womens’ intelligence, when I am among conservative men who dislike women in authority, I will rub their noses in it.

If I can attack her for opposite reasons over the course of an afternoon, I will consider it an accomplishment.

Same goes for Johnny Boy."

Of course the Daily Kos couldn't let themselves be outdone. Here's a sampling of their "discourse" via Ace of Spades:

"If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained at the price of destroying one teenage girl, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect I see that as a cheap trade."

And:

"Are you telling me that you would not use character-destroying lies to ensure a war against Iran does not occur? . . . What choice do we have? When faced with monsters, we have to be monstrous ourselves."

And:

Are you telling me you would not destroy the love a family holds for one another, even if it meant letting someone who would destroy the constitution become president?

As Gagdad Bob from One Cosmos said, in what is easily the quote of the day:

"..hell hath no fury like a leftist who encounters a female or African-American who doesn't need him.

Something About the Politics of Fear....

Jonah Goldberg had another great article today, this one on the rampant gloom and doom at the Democratic Convention. Here are some of my favorite clips:

To hear the Democrats at their convention this week, you would get the sense that a recession is merely a technical term for the worst human misery ever visited upon a once-great people. You'd think Americans were listening to the Democratic speeches as they huddled around their kitchen tables - if they hadn't already been used for firewood - deciding which of their children to pack off to the orphanage and how much tree bark they can afford to eat next week.

But while Americans don't like the direction the country is heading, and hate high gas prices, they're pretty satisfied with their lives. Some 94 percent of Americans polled by Harris Interactive this month said they were satisfied with the lives they lead. According to Gallup, only 9 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs and only 13 percent are dissatisfied with their job security. The unemployment rate is at a five-year high of 5.7 percent, but it wasn't long ago when that was considered close to full employment.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, borrowing a line from Obama, complained that John McCain wants to give "$4 billion in tax breaks for big oil?"

No. McCain wants to lower the corporate tax rate to make us more competitive with our rivals. Yes, oil companies are included, but by this logic (as my colleague Ramesh Ponnuru notes), Obama's middle-class tax cut will be a tax break for hookers and serial killers.