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The only affordable healthcare insurance…
…is to exercise and eat right. No one can afford remedial healthcare – at any price. At best it will only miserably stretch out your death. I own the federal trademark on the advertising slogan “Exercise and Eat Right.”™ I’ve been in the preventative health business for 30 years. I’m 66 and only see a doctor for my required flight physicals. I wouldn’t go then if I didn’t have to by law.
There are a few things we can do to improve this situation. We could mandate the implementation of sustainable agriculture practices to stop poisoning ourselves. We could ban proven harmful ingredients in prepackaged foods like High Fructose Corn Syrup and Genetically Modified Crops. We could mandate proper nutrition be taught in school. None of these practical solutions are politically feasible however, so it’s up to you to learn what to eat. Food is the new medicine, says Tufts University School of Nutrition but physician training doesn’t even include nutrition. As for exercise, all one has to do is get one’s heart beating fast every day. No end of ways to do that and it takes only one minute.
Physicians are the new priests. People used to pay Physicians of the Soul to relieve their self-induced maladies, or witch doctors. Superstition is still the rule. I think our health would improve dramatically if physicians were restricted to setting broken bones, repairing hernias and gun shot wounds but people have “faith” so most will continue running to the doctor every time they sneeze. Reminds me of what that great enlightment philosopher Denis Diderot said, “The best physician you can run to is the one you can’t find.”
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The Senator from China
The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people too, have first amendment rights like people so can now contribute as much as they want to candidates of their choosing. The ruling also permits foreigners to contribute whatever they want to help us decide what’s best for us. This should be interesting. The people who will actually get all the money, the media, will love it. Think I’ll call Hugo Chavez today; see if he’ll back my run for governor. I might finally get some press attention. But I’m getting off track. “I yield my time to my esteemed colleague from China,” says our esteemed colleague from Boeing…
When are we gonna get it, that a government for sale to anybody is a really bad idea! I have promised to end government for sale in Oregon by Executive Order my first day in office. No contributions, no gifts, no favors, no bribes of any kind will be allowed to choose our elected representatives or influence their legislation. I don’t know if this will actually improve things but things can’t get any worse so why not try something new?
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THE TEA PARTY CROWD:
“I have several “tea bagger” friends, and they are funny. They are against big government but support the creation of the Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Administration for $62 billion annually.
They are against deficit spending but support the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, projected to cost $3 trillion.
They are against “Wall Street” and “Fat Cats” but they support the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which rescinded key protections within the Glass-Steagall Act, enabling the current financial crisis. They are also against the Federal Reserve (and are clueless as to its purpose) but complain about lack of lending.
They are strict constitutionalists, but they are in favor of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, suspending of habeas corpus, torture, extraordinary rendition, and other Bill of Rights abuses. They are against government control and intrusion, but they support the Patriot Act.
Tea-baggers are amazingly self-contradictory and they really don’t know what they are mad about.
There are no simple solutions to any of the issues we face. However, there are rational approaches that can work with a concerted effort. Sadly, ignorance always has a price.”
Dr. Steve Belovich, Richfield, OH.,
Letter to the editor, The Progressive, March 2010
Can’t add anything to this…
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The government we deserve…
When we condemn congress we’re really just condemning ourselves. We have always had a government for sale to everything but the public interest. Lincoln above all understood this and we’ve been governed by executive orders ever since. The President can do anything his heart desires without the consent of congress, the courts, the constitution or even the people’s will. If we don’t like it we can impeach him but until then, he’s the Captain! Most states, Oregon included, grant their governors the “executive power.” The reason is obvious – every ship needs a Captain in time of trouble. If you don’t think Oregon and the rest of the country is in trouble you haven’t been paying attention.
I have made my intent clear, that if elected I will issue several executive orders my first day in office. Our legislature in Salem is as gridlocked by stubborn ideology as is the one in Washington, DC and therefore, useless. I intend to mostly ignore them and simply do what needs to be done. Here again is the list:
- Pardon all persons ever convicted of a consensual crime.
- Institute publicly funded elections and ban all contributions/gifts to office holders and candidates.
- Found a state bank to make low interest loans to develop Oregon’s infrastructure. http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/but_governor.php
- Institute single-payer legal.
- Fund engaging new interactive PC teaching courses on all subjects to improve learning, starting with math and civics.
- Re-empower juries to judge the law.
- Ban Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
- Legalize Hemp.
- Eliminate all taxes and fees on businesses. (Businesses don’t pay taxes, they collect them).
That should fix things nicely. I think you deserve it, seriously.
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What are we waiting for???
Back in ’92, as a Chief Petitioner on an Oregon Initiative to close the Trojan Nuclear Plant, I published a full-page treatise in the New York Times and all Oregon newspapers calling for the U.S. to build a solar power infrastructure based on a McDonnell Douglas invention called a GenSet. Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque has been tinkering with it for years to make it slightly more efficient but we could have been installing these things 20 years ago to supply 100% of the nation’s power – at one-tenth the cost of the Middle East wars for oil. Our shuttered auto factories could have been mass-producing these things. Detroit would not have a 50% unemployment rate and we could have eliminated our biggest national security threat, the radioactive fuel pools at commercial nuclear plants.
Oil companies weren’t too keen on this renewable fuel idea since these GenSets can also produce hydrogen gas for our cars and trucks and to heat our homes. Thanks to our lobbyist-controlled government, the public interest doesn’t always coincide with private interest. You can read more on this in Chapters 21 & 22 of my autobiography. Click on the book cover on the right.
A national Apollo type program to create a solar/hydrogen infrastructure would save us from the impending and certain economic collapse of our currency and economy. Worth doing, eh!
It’s time to email your congressman. Send them these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjUvxtwJ1OM&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95kmrb-5Ugw&feature=channel
http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2008/solargrid.html
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Government by Ponzi
The U.S. budget deficit for 2009 is $1,400,000,000,000. That’s not the budget, that’s the DEFICIT! $1.4 Trillion is $12,600 per family. The interest on this borrowing will cost another $2.8 Trillion over the life of a 30-year T-Bill. This year’s deficit alone will cost our kids and us $37,800; more than the average family earned in 2009. The 2010 deficit is going to be even bigger.
Is this nuts or what? Almost all the deficit spending went to military adventures and government employees. A tiny fraction was put into infrastructure capital, the remainder wasted, gone forever. Jesus.
Speaking of Jesus, we should follow his example and kick over the moneychanger’s table. Our moneychanger is the Federal Reserve; that privately owned franchise to legalize usury. Why are we paying interest on our own money! It’s unconstitutional of course but the constitution is whatever the judge says it is even when it says exactly the opposite! Judges, like the politicians who appoint them, watch the election returns. These elections are brought to us courtesy of the Republican and Democratic National Committees who dictate the candidates we’re allowed to choose between. This is no democracy. It’s a Ponzi scheme.
Yeah, but what can one person do about it? Well, you can vote for me. If elected I will establish (by executive order) a state bank to make 2% interest loans to develop and expand Oregon infrastructure projects and fund new sustainable manufactures. I will also (by executive order) ban political contributions (bribes) to office seekers and office holders. What can one person do?
Quite a bit actually, like this man: “The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.” Benjamin Franklin
Or this man: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies…if the American people ever allow private banks to control the currency…the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Thomas Jefferson
Uh oh, we have both a private bank and a huge standing army.
Viva la revolución!
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Why Johnnie Won’t Read
One third of high school graduates never read a book after graduation. Forty-two percent of COLLEGE GRADUATES never read a book after graduation! This is the outcome from an education system that consumes $10,000 per year per student of taxpayer money. Kitzhaber, Bradbury and the other candidates continue to foster the illusion that MORE money spent on education would solve our problems.
You must read this, then tell me more money spent on a Prussian military school system like ours will ever improve anything: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/hp/frames.htm
If we want to improve education we need only copy the system that produces the highest per capita income in the world, Switzerland’s. And while we’re in a copying mode, let’s adopt Holland’s healthcare system, also the best in the world. And if we want to get our budget under control we can copy Costa Rica and outlaw armies; that alone would cut our workweek in half with no loss of wages! We keep trying to re-invent the wheel when the obvious answers are available on the shelf.
Personally, I’m convinced the only alternative when a government like ours loses all moral authority is to fire them all and start over. It’s either that or bankruptcy, chaos and anarchy. We’ve reached that point. Of course, since most will never read this blog I may as well be talking to a fencepost. Nevertheless, one must do what one can.
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How to End Unemployment Tomorrow
It’s so simple you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it before. Shorten the workweek and raise the minimum wage. It works every time!
Everyone must have employment because everyone has living expenses. It’s either a job or hit the streets with the homeless. Inventions in laborsaving machinery and processes cause unemployment. The natural consequence of improving productivity is that someone loses his job. (more…)
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What would Single-Payer Be Like?
Single-payer healthcare means that ALL medical expenses are paid from tax revenue and are delivered free to the user. Doctor and dentist visits, medicine, tests, hospitalization, surgery – everything! It’s just like being in the military, truly socialized. What’s that I hear going off, alarm bells from the petrified opinion group? Just stick with me for a second and I’m sure you’ll see the advantages. I’ll take the questions one at a time:
Q. Government delivered healthcare! You have to be kidding! They can’t do anything right.
A. The government won’t be delivering healthcare, our physicians, dentists and pharmacists will. The only role the government plays is paying the invoices, checking for fraud and licensing. They already do this with every provider for Medicare/Medicaid. This would just extend to the young the same service now provided to the elderly. (more…)
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