May 1, 2013 · 5:23 am

Reluctant Blogger

I said to myself, “Self, forget blogging about current events and work on that short story.” So I did. Slogging away I piled up 13 pages in a story and ground to a halt. After reading it over, I determined that I was telling the tale all wrong and needed a different approach. Six pages into that, I happened to stop by a book store and buy a book on ‘how to write a short story.’ Big mistake. I had never thought about this stuff before and had just been doing it by feel or instinct. I wondered if it was like over-analyzing your golf swing when you step up to the ball? If you think about it too much, you can’t do it.
Meanwhile, some news items on which I have strong opinions were passing by and blogs were writing themselves in my head on my daily walks. But I resisted while the six pages of the new approach to my story languished. For example.

Two women that I admire died on the same day, April 8th. Margaret Thatcher, famously called “The Iron Lady” died on that day at the age of 87. Also passing on that date was Annette Funicello at age 70. The two women could not have been more different. Thatcher, strong willed and determined, rose to political power to be the Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990 despite the rough and tumble all-male politics of the time. Sticking to her conservative principles, she reversed the economic decline of her country at a time when her philosophical soul mate, Ronald Reagan, was doing the same thing in the US following the disastrous Jimmy Carter.

Funicello was simply America’s sweetheart and came on the scene in the middle ’50 as a youthful star on the Mickey Mouse Club. This was about the time we got our first TV set and young fellows of my vintage were getting our first shot of hormones. Walt Disney was a bit of a prude but he knew marketing. Those tight sweaters on the blooming Mouseketeer girls were no accident. Of course, her later movie career did not distinguish her as much as her determined and classy battle with MS. Maggie and Annette, RIP.

Another story that caught my fancy was the petulant tantrum of the child dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. While his people starve and only 26% have electricity in this impoverished country, he spends lavishly on weapons and his million-man army. To get attention, he decided to declare war on South Korea and the US. It appeared he might be crazy enough to do it and then he disappeared from the news with the coverage of the disgusting bombings at the Boston Marathon. The tales of tragedy and heroism and the subsequent search and apprehension of the two Islamic Terrorists (there, I said it; the President and his minions can’t seem to get those words past their lips) took Kim Jong-un completely out of the news. Without the spotlight, he lost interest in his own threats and we have not heard a peep out of him since. Not much to be said about Boston, the coverage was wall to wall.

A couple of other related news items crossed my field of vision that may not have been so obvious to your average news junky. First, the April 22 issue of “National Review” had a cover story on the “miracle of the Canadian oil sands” called “The Quiet Gold Rush” by Charles Cooke. He actually visited the various oil sands projects and saw first hand the process, the restoration of the mined areas and the extensive emission controls. Every “environmentalist” should read this article.

The second piece was in the “Financial Post” on April 13th The FP is the Canadian “Wall Street Journal”. It is called “Hedge fund billionaire leads donors in pushing Obama on Keystone XL”. Tom Steyer who made billions running a hedge fund now has taken on the task of saving the world from global warming. Nearly all rational people are now forced to admit that temperatures have not increased a bit in at least the last decade. I don’t know what it is with these hedge fund guys? They must all feel really guilty about making obscene amounts of money in a business that does nothing but make bets with rich people’s money. Steyer, like George Soros, another absurdly wealthy hedge fund player, all feel they have to remake the world to conform to their own prejudices.
Steyer has decided that his enemy is the Canadian oil sands and has lined up like-minded liberals to pool their money and blackmail Democrats and Obama to veto the pipeline. Not satisfied to sabotage the Keystone XL to the Texas coast, they also are funding the opposition groups to stop the Canadians from building a pipeline to their own coast where they would ship the oil to China. Why don’t they go fund groups in Saudi Arabia to oppose the oil industry there? Or maybe Iran?

The American public overwhelmingly supports the construction of the pipeline (65%) and the Democrat controlled Senate does too (62-37) and well as the House. Now the unions are protesting in favor. Still Steyer and his fellow limo liberals plan to fund Democrat senate challengers against senators who support the pipeline. Great idea, Tom. Go for it.
The news that really got me fired up was that the FAA planned to stick it to the flying public by furloughing the air traffic controllers to meet a 4% cut in spending instead of cutting some other less critical expenses. This was part of the Obama Administration’s cynical attempt to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible so that they could gain political points on the GOP. They were petulant that the Republicans would not agree to raise taxes again after doing so in January and their first action was to cancel White House tours for school kids on spring break. Really? Out of a $3.6 trillion dollar budget the first place you are going to go to find cuts of about $40 billion is tours of the White House for school kids?

The cuts to the air traffic controllers delayed 6700 flights for a couple of days before the Democrats realized they had mis-calculated and they, not the Republicans, were getting blamed for this obvious boondoggle. They quickly passed a bill to allow the FAA to restore the controllers, something they really could have done without congressional action. Whew! Just in time for the congress to fly home for a much needed break.

Note: WSJ article on 4/24 called “The FAA Strikes Again, the FAA Brags”.

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April 2, 2013 · 7:12 pm

Rehab Rainbows

fishing 1

In our childhood we have all experienced the agony of waiting for some much desired event:  A birthday, a vacation, getting out of school for the summer, or perhaps being able to drive for the first time.  Sometimes our imagination so glamorizes the event that when it arrives it fails to live up to expectations. This can even happen to grown ups.

In late January and February of 2012, when I had my heart bypass surgery, followed by the second surgery to fix things, I was one sick puppy.  I spent nine days in the hospital in Bellingham with the fix and was weak as a baby when I got home.  I could barely walk around the loop in our neighborhood (about 1/8th of a mile).  During the long and difficult days of trying to rebuild my strength (and my hemoglobin levels) one of the things that kept me going was my anticipation of our annual fishing expedition to Minnie and Corbett Lakes scheduled for the first week of June.Dad fishing 1

My fishing pal, Rob, and I have been doing a spring trip for many years and staying at the yurt on Minnie for the last five.  For several of those trips we have taken along two other guys, which helps with the expenses but requires that each of us act as half-assed guides for our guests.  Not that our guests were raw novices but the boats are two-man situations and we know the lakes and what flies and techniques generally work.  For this trip we decided that we would go by ourselves. Although I was getting stronger by the day, I did not feel all that enthused about acting as a guide and running the boat for myself and someone else. For Rob’s part I guess he felt if we fished together he could keep an eye on me.

Rob and I have fished together so much that we function smoothly, each guy anticipating the other’s moves without much discussion.  He casts lefty and I cast right-handed so we can both sling away without shooting line over the other guy’s head.  We never have much debate about when to move to another spot or change up the strategy…fish dry flies on the flats or chironomids off the drop offs?  Whatever.  Rob’s boat is perfectly set up for two guys to fish with Hurley up on the deck in the bow, protecting us from low flying suicidal waterfowl and other fishermen encroaching on our territory.

By the end of February, they pulled the PICC line (the permanent IV thingie in my arm) out and Loi no longer had to pump antibiotics into me twice a day.  The docs were gradually sorting out my chemistry and I was getting stronger.  With the usual crap weather in early March, I headed to the mall and walked in the dry warmth with the other old farts.  The sainted surgeon who did the chest fix cautioned me against swinging a golf club or other exertions that might interrupt the healing of my abused sternum.  Having blown it open once, he did not have to beat that into my thick skull.  I did want to get out my new 6-weight fly rod and see how my casting was going to work but held off.

The time was fast approaching when it would be too late to cancel at Minnie Lake and Rob and I agreed to go for it.  I was getting stronger and now up to walking 3 miles at a crack and getting faster at it.  In mid-April I finally dug out the Winston and did some casting in the back yard.  My dreams of being a bionically-created championship caster were dashed, but I was able to sling it out there in my typically awkward fashion. Good enough.

Through May my anticipation for the trip built and I spent more time than required to prepare the menu and shopping lists.  We do our own cooking at Minnie and rely heavily on grilling… mallard breasts, moose steaks etc. Not complicated. fishing 5

On the 3rd of June I drove up to Whistler, and Rob, Hurley and I headed over mountains on the Duffey Lake Road to the Douglas Lake Ranch and Minnie Lake.  We have experienced some really hot weather on some of our trips to Minnie Lake in early June.  Not this time. It was cold, wet and the wind was howling.  We went fishing anyway after we unloaded our gear.  Apparently the fish were pissed at the weather too and uninterested in anything we had to offer.  We scratched out one measly rainbow each.

The next morning brought more of the same, except windier.  Minnie Lake sits out in the open with few trees around it and when the wind comes from the west it sweeps the lake and renders negotiating the lake with an electric motor nearly impossible.  The adjacent lake, Stoney, about a half mile away, has a sheltered back bay that’s fishable in the worst of conditions, so we headed over there.  Apparently the fish in that lake didn’t like the cold weather either.

The next morning we rose to even worse conditions and the temperature inside our yurt was 2 degrees C.  We restarted the fire in the wood stove and crawled back into our sleeping bags.  In the afternoon we fished Stoney again with lean results. The final day of our stay at Minnie continued with a bit less wind and rain and we did manage to fish a somewhat sheltered bay on Minnie and pick up about a dozen ‘bows each but nothing big (4 to 6 lbs).  That evening we gave in and hit the outdoor shower.  On previous trips the biggest challenge in using that balky thing was fighting off the mosquitoes.  This time with that icy wind blowing we each managed to break the record for shortest shower.  Dad fishing 6No bugs.

The next morning we packed up and headed to Corbett Lake.  Before we left we checked the water temperature.  It had been so cold that the temp in the lake had actually dropped 5 degrees during our stay.  No wonder the fishing was lousy!

We caught a couple of rainbows that afternoon at Corbett but things were still not great and the weather the next morning turned even nastier.  We donned layers of clothes and full rain gear and went anyway.  Anchored with our backs to the wind, we flipped out some chironomids and settled in to wait.Dad fishing 2

Chironomids represent a staple of BC trout diets and there are literally thousands of species of these tiny insects.  Fishing these sometimes microscopic flies usually consists of dangling an unlikely-looking imitation on a long leader below a floating strike indicator.  Because dedicated chironomid fishermen are so smug about their skill in this technique, I have always derisively called it “bobber fishing for snobs”. But it works, so I have slowly accepted it.  With the wind and the rain on this morning, it seemed like a particularly good idea.

Hurley had curled up on the bow taking a nap in the rain and Rob and I stood with the cold wind at our backs and stared at our floats.  As happens in these situations, what with morning coffee and cold weather, a man’s fancy turns to urination.  Considering several layers of clothes and major shrinkage (hey, cold weather plus icy fingers), this would be a two-handed operation, so I put the fly rod down.  With the rain pants around my knees and in mid relief, my strike indicator was jerked under the surface.  Not bothering to tuck Mr. Happy away or hoist my rain pants, I grabbed the fly rod and set the hook.  The rod throbbed in my hands and the fish came out of the water like a pissed off porpoise and headed for deep water.

fishing 4Rob and I both shouted when we saw the size of the fish, waking Hurley who joined the chorus.  With my reel screaming the fish took another couple of jumps about 20 yards directly off the bow.  It was too much for Hurley and he launched himself into the water after the fish.  Rob and I were both screaming at Hurley visualizing the dog, fish and line all intersecting but the fish had reversed course and by the time Hurley got to where the rainbow had last jumped, it was long gone and jumping behind the boat.  Hurley swam back and Rob unceremoniously hoisted him out of the lake where he took up his rightful place on the bow.  In the several attempts to get the big fish in the net, Hurley crowded to get a better look and stepped on my other fly rod snapping it cleanly.  Rob netted my fish and I was finally able to pull up my rain pants.  We guessed the fat rainbow at 8 1/2 lbs and gently released him.

We both figured that would be the big fish of the trip, but a short time later, Rob latched on to another monster that, when boated, proved to be of equal heft, though longer and skinnier.  Later we each caught nice twin 5-pounders along with a number of other lesser trout.  I guess they were finally getting hungry.

We fished another day at Corbett and then the following morning (both so-so) before packing up and making the 4 1/2 hour trek back over the mountains to Whistler.

The trip may not have lived up to my fondest expectations, but it sure gave me something to look forward to during an extremely low ebb in my health and spirits. And landing the biggest rainbow trout of my life with my rain pants around my knees will be remembered for a very long time.  Thanks Rob.

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January 17, 2013 · 5:02 am

The Demonization of Inanimate Objects

Today I was driving around in my car and listening to talk radio. OK, I know, I’m a right wing radical. But Dear Readers, can you really defend the crap that serves as musical entertainment on the radio these days? The offerings of No Doubt? Or, Lady Gaga? Justin Bieber? Come on, listening to that crap would have you driving off the road into a tree on purpose.

Anyway, I heard this guy espousing that if Connecticut (in case you missed it, the state where the recent Sandy Hook massacre took place) had laws restricting the number of shells allowed in magazines then fewer kids would have been killed. He argued that if mags were restricted to 10 instead of 15 or 20 rounds, everything would be just dandy. This is what passes for intelligent thinking on the subject of gun control that has been much in the news in recent days. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but people who don’t know shit about a subject should try to keep quiet. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with guns would know that it only takes seconds to change magazines. That’s hardly enough time for frightened six year olds to organize a counter attack on the shooter.

The anti-gun movement has been all aflutter with this latest opportunity to pass even more restrictive laws on guns. This comes from politicians who see a chance to get some face time and pander to a constituency that consists primarily of people who have never been in the military and have never hunted or owned a firearm. C’est normale.
The sad news is that they will probably pass something and the most likely candidate will be gun registration. Lawmakers will ignore the fact that Canada has already tried gun registration and it failed miserably. It was recently rescinded. It cost about a hundred times more than it was supposed to, compliance was spotty and it did absolutely nothing for the death rate by guns. Nor will the anti-gun folks consider the experience of Mexico that has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. They also have a much higher rate of gun related death than the US and fully 2/3rds of the guns in the homes of Mexicans are illegal. Registration simply doesn’t work.

In this image, here are two weapons for consideration. The lower one would be banned by Feinstein’s legislation, but the top one would not.  The surprising thing is that they are the same weapon, a Ruger 10/22.  They are identical rifles except for the added cosmetics.  If you think the bottom one looks scary, you should see it with the round drum rather than the banana clip.

The obvious fact that the only people who register their firearms are the honest owners who would never shoot anyone seems to elude people who say, “We must do something!” What never occurs to these people is to look seriously at the nut bags that do this stuff. Not many gun owners suddenly decide to shoot up a kindergarten. What’s going on with those that do?

It occurred to me that the current push to demonize guns is the same mentality that dominated after 9-11. In the aftermath airline travelers had their cuticle scissors, nail clippers and cork screws confiscated under the absurd theory that an 80-year-old grand mother might use one of these “weapons” to take over an airliner. Subsequent attempts at airline sabotage tightened regulations and soon we were subjected to restrictions on the size of our shampoo bottles. Our toothpaste tubes could not be larger than a bureaucrat’s flaccid penis. Then we had to take off our shoes and belts and have our genitals groped. While grannies were being strip-searched and wheel chair bound passengers fondled, the TSA could not do the one thing that made any sense… profile. Young men of Arab extraction and from Middle Eastern countries do one hundred percent of all terrorist attacks. Is some special attention given to them? Not a chance.
This demonization of the inanimate object and not the person committing the crime is hardly new in our modern society populated by too many greedy lawyers and generous judges. Fell off your bike? Sue the bike manufacturer. Broke your neck on your trampoline? Sue the maker of that thing. No matter that you jumped out of tree in an attempt to launch yourself over your garage, its the trampoline’s fault. No blame is attached to the fools who injure or kill themselves using perfectly fine equipment. No individual is ever to blame for their misfortune or foolhardy behavior.

Like the baby pool I saw on the back porch of my friend’s place. Maybe 3 feet in diameter and 4 inches deep when filled, it had the following warning emblazoned on the inflated tube, “No diving”. Really? You think someone who could read would actually attempt to dive into a pool of water 4” deep? Maybe. So the company lawyers dictated that the message be put there.

Blaming the gun and not the shooter in these incidents is no different than confiscating granny’s scissors or your corkscrew. It won’t do anything but it will give some people and politicians the conviction that, “at least we’re doing something!”

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December 19, 2012 · 6:59 am

Sandy Hook

Preface & disclaimer from the author:  I couldn’t help but weigh in on this issue, maybe as much to organize my thinking as anything. However, if you are expecting any brilliant explanations out of this piece, I suggest you save your time and read the sports pages. No body really knows why some people drop off the deep end and suddenly start killing indiscriminately. When it’s little kids, we have even less chance of understanding. After the grieving we need to have a rational discussion about it. Perhaps this is a place to start. Send me your comments.

Adam Lanza’s decision to devote last Friday to slaughtering 27 people including 20 school children aged 6 and 7 and then killing himself has set off a media frenzy and collective grieving unlike anything we have ever experienced. I guess it is the horror of imagining anyone so callused and cold being able to look innocent and helpless children in the face and then shoot them. Trained and hardened combat veterans cannot do that to a wounded or unarmed enemy.

For pure body count Anders Breivik of Norway wins the prize. He killed 69 and injured 170 in his bombing and then shooting attack at a summer camp on an island off the coast of Norway. And, Seung Hui Cho killed 32 and injured 17 in the Virginia Tech massacre. But for pure horror, Sandy Hook beats all.

Most recently James Eagen Holmes killed 12 in his theater attack in Aurora, CO but perhaps the most infamous incident prior to Sandy Hook was the 1999 Columbine High School shooting carried out by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold where 12 students and one teacher were killed.

Robert Leider, a U. of PA School of Law fellow had a thoughtful article in Monday’s WSJ (“Breaking the Gun Control Stalemate”). Inevitably, when one of these tragedies occur, the left cries out for more gun control laws and the gun rights people argue that if someone at the school had had a gun they likely would have stopped the asshole before he ran out of ammo. Note: Mr. Holmes may well be insane but he was smart enough to choose a theater in Aurora that did not allow people to carry a gun inside. Colorado has a “concealed carry” law and in most theaters you can pack your sidearm.)

David Kopel wrote a piece for the WSJ today (12/17) and points out that all of these shootings occur in “gun free zones” and says, “… these shooters are weaklings and cowards who crumble as soon as an armed person shows up.” Indeed. In the recent Clackamas Mall shooting in Oregon, after killing two people the shooter shot himself as soon as he saw a legally armed citizen aiming his gun at him. While some jurisdictions are allowing teachers to carry guns (Harold Independent School District in Texas just voted to allow teachers to pack heat and Utah already does) the emotionally driven push will be toward further restrictions on guns. This, of course, will accomplish nothing.

Biker Lance Armstrong wrote, “It’s Not About the Bike.” It’s also true it’s not about the gun. Recently 36-year-old Min Yung jun in the Chinese village of Cheng Pin stabbed an 85 year old woman with a kitchen knife then stabbed 22 children between the ages of 6 and 11 outside an elementary school. He cut some of the children’s ears and fingers off. This is the most recent of a string of knife attacks on school children in China and 20 have been killed and 50 injured so far. China does not permit private ownership of firearms. [Editor’s note:  China now requires you to register any large kitchen knife purchases with your name, ID card number, address and you must state the purposes of knife use.]

The one thing that all these mass killings have in common is mental illness. The VA Tech shooter had a history of mental problems but privacy laws prevented VA Tech being informed about it. And, because he was never actually committed to an institution, he was able to legally purchase firearms. As Adam Lanza’s life gets dissected we will learn more about this young man’s mental problems. Unfortunately, we will never be able to ask his mother about it and also question her about the wisdom of keeping a collection of guns where he could get his hands on them.

Dr. Steven Segal of the U of California-Berkeley has written extensively on the subject of civil commitment law in the US. The legal system can take credit for making it pretty tough to keep mentally ill people in hospitals where they can get help. He points out in the Kopel piece that the number of beds in state mental hospitals has declined to 1850 levels. Given the amount of money spent on health care, this is difficult to comprehend. He also contends that there is a strong correlation between homicide rates in various states and the strength of their involuntary commitment laws. Clearly, if we want to get a grip on mass shootings the mental health system is a good place to start.

Many people have speculated about the role of bullying, the Goth culture and video games. There seems to be no question that the wall-to-wall media coverage of this stuff seems to be a trigger for some unstable individuals to try to emulate the fame of an Adam Lanza or Dylan Klebold. Already there have been a couple of copycat attempts following the Newtown tragedy. The media needs to take a serious look at how they handle this kind of story.

I’m not too convinced that bullying or the Goth culture has much to do with it. These young men all seem to be social outsiders and as such are likely bullied, and Goth seems to be a place for weirdos anyway. As for video games….. The last game I played was “Frogger” and something with a rolling ball so I am hardly an authority. However, I have seen the ads and many seem to involve a lot of realistic shooting of multiple targets. I suppose most kids can play these games with no ill effects but perhaps one in ten million youngsters with psychological problems will be desensitized and motivated to try shooting real people.

Like I said in my disclaimer preceding this piece, I don’t make any pretense to having a solution. I am quite certain, however, that passing more restrictive gun laws on law-abiding citizens will accomplish nothing. I personally would endorse tightening up restrictions on gun ownership for persons with a history of drug or mental problems. And would not I oppose closing the loopholes on gun shows. But, as a practical matter in a country with an estimated 200 million guns already floating around out there….. Yeah, exactly. This, of course, will not prevent the politicians from bloviating on the matter endlessly.

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November 26, 2012 · 6:17 pm

American Idol President

For President Obama dial: 1-866-BaddAss and for Mitt Romney dial: 1-866-DAWhimp. Cast your votes and vote as many times as you want!! Long distance charges may apply.

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (L) and President Barack Obama debate in front of moderator Bob Schieffer during the final U.S. Presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida

Big surprise. Despite record high unemployment, a desultory economy, sky-high gas prices, and scary levels of national debt Barack Obama was re-elected yesterday going away. Go figure. Not only that, a number of far left Senate candidates were returned to office and the Senate remains firmly in control of the Democrats.

Millions of words will be written about this election and I have not read a single one of them. Too discouraged. Let me spout off with a few thoughts and then I’m done with politics.

My first reaction is: What the Hell are the people who voted for Obama thinking?! Clearly, for the majority of voters performance had nothing to do with their vote. The first clue for me should have been the popularity of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. Neither can sing worth a pinch of coon shit yet they are the most popular singers out there. Likewise, the Kardashians. Why are they famous exactly?

During the election Obama did appearances on John Stewart’s show, Letterman and with other celebrities rather than interviews with serious news outlets. Famously, he had no time to meet with Netanyahu when they were both in NY for the UN meetings but he did find time to go on The View and smooze with the fawning blowhards that host that show. His handlers obviously knew which were the important appearances to garner the votes. This election reminded me of one giant playing of one of Jay Leno’s bits called “Street Walking” where he asks basic third grade level questions of people on the street. Natch, they probably pick the dumbest ones but you are left shaking your head at the end of the bit thinking, “My God, these people are eligible to vote!” Apparently they voted in large numbers last Tuesday.

While that may offer some amusement, the real issue is the changing demographics in the US. Blacks voted 95% for Obama and Hispanics were not far behind at 75%. Women (inexplicably) went 55% for BHO. (I guess free condoms are important after all.) Those groups are growing.

Romney’s candid comment that 47% of the people would never vote for him because they receive direct benefit from the government is, unfortunately, true. Many receive food stamps, welfare, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Additionally, government employees are not going to vote against the party promising bigger government. Nor are union workers, teachers, environmentalists, lobbyists and trial lawyers who believe that the Democrats will keep the money flowing and some of it will drift their way. A lot of people don’t want less government spending no matter how irresponsible.

So in a larger sense, Americans are voting themselves into the same hole enjoyed by a number of European social democracies…. Bankruptcy. Apparently the metastasizing national debt means nothing to the majority of voters. Let the next generation worry about it.

Gas prices and unemployment did not matter either apparently. The rogue EPA was of no concern to New York and New Jersey voters who overwhelmingly elected BHO and Democrats. Many of those voters have been out of power for a couple of weeks courtesy of Sandy. Given four more years of Obama’s EPA when they get done with outlawing fracking and shutting down all the coal fired electrical generating plants and the lights go out in the North East for lack of capacity, maybe they will think again.

The Obama guys knew they could get away with blaming Bush even as the election approached: “…Go back to the policies that got us into this mess…” That massive lie was never refuted or even attempted. Yes, it’s complicated but it had to be addressed. Think about it. The current recession is the fault of the unprecedented prosperity we’ve enjoyed since the Reagan era? Or something else? Clue to my liberal friends: It’s the policies of easy money by the Fed and lending money to people who could not pay it back.

This election proved once again that negative campaigning works. Massive numbers of negative commercials in key states early in the campaign painting Romney as a corporate raider and greedy capitalist and that proved effective. The first debate overcame some of the negative image but not enough.

The media played its usual role in cheering on the Democrats and ignoring stories harmful to Obama, particularly Benghazi. This is malpractice but a fact of life. The media and Hollywood wanted Obama and now they have him. Congrats.

After the euphoria of the Obama supporters subsides the hard reality will set in. This election insures that ObamaCare will survive and be implemented and the substantial tax increases and policies associated with it will kick in. The electorate will certainly not appreciate the result. Taxes are surely going up. The Republicans who still control the House will not be able to resist the Democrats in their desire to impose a tax increase on the “rich”. The only question is how far down the income scale they deem the wealthy to be. Clue: The Rich don’t have enough money to make a difference so the middle class will get hit eventually. Creating massive inflation is the only way to corral the runaway debt. I’m certain that’s the Democrat’s hope and plan. Gee, this is going to be a lot of fun.

Unemployment is probably going to limp along. The young people who voted for Obama better be prepared to live in their childhood bedrooms for a few more years. Or maybe for a long time.

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September 14, 2012 · 2:50 am

Regarding Rachel

   Some of my readers have emailed expressing dismay at my Global Warming piece, calling it a “right wing rant”.  Based on my complaints about Ms. Carson and her book Silent Spring  that lead to the ban of DDT and the resulting death of millions in the poorer countries of the world, some readers have decided that I am both uncaring about the environment and “stuck in the 50s in my opinion of women”.  About this latter charge I confess utter mystification.

I assure the few people who may actually read this blog, that I care very much about the environment, like nearly all my fellow hunters and fishers.  This will be evident in an upcoming piece.  I do find fault with anti-capitalist, radical environmentalists who blindly follow dogma and are not swayed by accepted science or common sense.

About the stuck in the 50s charge…. Probably true.  I admired and respected women then and still do.

Ms. Carson remains an icon of the environmental community and is often credited with being the founder of that movement.  Fair enough.  But, why the reluctance to admit she might have been wrong about DDT?  One of my readers helpfully referred me to a website to defend RC.  One of the references in that article (A National Geographic piece entitled “Bedlam in the Blood” (about malaria) contained a quote from Dr. Robert Gwadz of the National Institute of Health.  He said, “Banning DDT may have killed 20 million people.”

This is from a reference supposedly defending Ms. Carson!  Another piece from the same site by John Tierney of the NY Times carries the title “Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Out Science”.  You can guess what that says about ol’ Rach.

We hear what we want to hear and find whatever confirms our prejudices, either on the Internet or in print.  A friend of mine years ago was a professor of marine biology at U of Miami Marine Laboratory.  He said our personal battle against our own prejudices was a constant process.  Once you get rid of one prejudice you adopt another. I am no different than anyone else in this regard.

But, pointing out Carson’s error of half a century ago is not the same thing as walking into a Wisconsin tavern and loudly proclaiming that Brett Favre was a lousy quarterback and should have retired years ago.  On second thought, maybe it is.

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August 31, 2012 · 5:54 pm

An Open Letter to Mitt

Dear Governor Romney,
I know you have a lot of expensive political advisors and professionals who have been at this ‘getting elected’ business a long time.  However, I hoped you might be open to some thoughts from an ordinary taxpayer out here in the boonies.  If not, you know where to file this.
First off, good choice of Paul Ryan.  That signals you plan to make the remaining days of the campaign about issues of concern to the voters out here:  jobs, the deficit, the control of entitlements and healthcare.  From the line up of speakers it looks like the Democrats plan to make the election about abortion and gay marriage.  Good luck with that.
I’m sure you know that no matter what some people are going to vote for Obama.  He could be photographed waving the Koran in one hand and a Communist flag in the other while buggering Bo, the First Family’s dog and the faithful will still vote for him.  This fact was demonstrated once again when Greta Van Susteren of Fox News was interviewing teachers, friends and family members of Paul Ryan shortly after his selection for VP.  One, his teacher, who has known Paul all of his life and respects and admires him, admitted he will not be voting for the Romney/Ryan ticket. Why?  Because he’s in the teacher’s union and he’s voting his self-interest.
Besides the unionized teachers there are a few other groups that vote in mass for the Democrats no matter what.  The Environmentalists and Trial Lawyers come immediately to mind.  No matter what the Romney/Ryan campaign might promise these groups, they will never vote for the GOP candidate.  If you acknowledge that fact, why not go after them?
Let’s start with the Department of Education.  From what I have been able to determine, the DofEd now has an annual budget of $70 billion, up from $29.4 billion in 2009.  What could they possibly do to justify that amount of money?  It’s just a bunch of bureaucrats living large and not educating one single student.  Look at their org chart!  If ever there was a bloated, inefficient outfit, this is it.  There are 151 individual programs aimed at educating K thru 12 kids.  All that money spent and look at the product coming out the other end.  Soft target.  Hit it hard.  It won’t cost you any votes, that’s for sure.
The EPA is another bloated bureaucracy wielding far too much power and demonstrating Obama’s increasing tendency to rule by decree.  In a recent WSJ piece (“EPA Smackdown #6”) the Federal Appeals Court just spanked the EPA for a ruling aimed at putting Texas coal fired electric utilities out of business.  According to the American Action scorecard this is the 15th time the Obama EPA has been over ruled.
With the price of oil once again flirting with $100 per barrel and gas nudging at $4.00 a gallon this is a good time to go after the enviro-wackos and the out of control EPA.  Obama said repeatedly that his policy was “all of the above… nuclear, oil, coal and gas”.  Bulls___!  The first thing they did was shut down Yucca Mountain  ($12 billion down the drain) and go after the coal industry.  Then they put all public lands and the coasts off limits for oil drilling and now they are trying to figure out how to shut down “fracking”, the enormously successful natural gas method that has cut the price of natural gas nearly in half.  And today they announced some new CAFÉ standards for autos that mandate 55 mile per gallon autos by 2025.  That will guarantee adding at least $2000 to the cost of a car and make them all that much more dangerous to drive.  Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, (by the way, what do those guys at the Department of Energy do?) famously said that “somehow we need to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe.”  Really?  Does eight dollar gas sounds like a good path to economic prosperity?
Finally, (and I’ll keep this short) it’s time to take a swipe at the Trial Lawyers.  I know no President ever mentions them because almost all the folks in Congress are lawyers.  But, you and all businessmen and women know that the tort lawyers add to the cost of everything in a significant way.  They drive people out of business and add enormous costs to healthcare and insurance.  It’s time to put an end to their gravy train.  Go after them and call for significant tort reform.  They give almost all their money and votes to Democrats anyway. Nothing to lose.
Anyway Sir, good luck to you.
Dick Draper
Dedicated Taxpayer

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July 28, 2012 · 6:20 am

Hitching

You don’t see that many people hitch hiking these days.  Certainly not like in the late ‘50s and ‘60s when I was doing it as a matter of necessity.  Where we lived up in Whistler, BC you see quite a bit because we have many young people from all over the world who come to work in the resort.  Many do not have cars and hitch back and forth to work.  Of course, it’s a closed community with only one road in and out so it’s pretty safe.  I will pick up these kids unless they are wearing their trousers at half-mast, have their baseball cap on sideways or are carrying a skateboard.  I know. So shoot me.

    
Back in 1959 when I went off to Cornell I frequently hitch hiked back and forth to my home in Buffalo.  Generally it wasn’t much of a problem to get a ride, but that was before well-publicized abductions and car-jackings came into vogue. And, before 24-hour news channels came into being. In 1960-61 I put my thumb to the test in what turned out to be about 10,000 miles of hitch hiking around the US.  I had good luck and bad on the road and certainly some bizarre experiences.  Before getting into all that, maybe a little background.

    

I went off to college at 17 and was quite naive. Public high school had been great fun and not too difficult but, Cornell was another matter.  I figured everyone there was smarter and better prepared than me.  I had to work my ass off to catch up and survive academically.  It was also necessary to work for my food since it became clear early on that this college thing would be a self-financed deal.  On top of all that I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life.  In short, I was a confused young man.  I quit my job two weeks before the end of the term to study for my finals.  My roommate had flunked out already and I knew he was a Hell of a lot smarter than me.  (You know it’s true Laddie).  Of course, that cut off my meals and being broke I subsisted on wheat germ mixed with sugar that I stole from the cafeteria… and lots of coffee.

Returning to Bay View I found out that my Mother had run off with the guy who would become husband #3 of an eventual four.  My stepfather had become bitter and more ornery than usual over this turn of events and I found it impossible to live with him.  So I spent the summer with my good friend Bill living in his family’s cottage on Lake Erie.  We both worked at a nearby beach as lifeguards and spent the summer in a blissful bachelor existence.  During the long evenings in the beach house I discovered that Bill, who was in his second year at Kent State, felt as disillusioned with college and vague about his future as me.  Over the course of the summer we agreed that we should both take a leave of absence from college and hitch hike around the country.  Our goal was (at least mine) to “grow up” and see what the world had to offer.  The universal opinion on this plan seemed to be that we were “ruining our lives.”  We went anyway.

When the beach closed for the summer we each shouldered a Navy sea bag and headed south.  To make good our escape and get clear of Buffalo, we took a bus to Pittsburgh.  From there we hitched in the rain to Washington, DC.

After a night in a cheap motel we spent 15 hours the next day going 300 miles.  Following a pleasant night in Lucy Nathan’s Tourist Home in Raleigh, ten minutes of hitching got us a 700 mile ride to Leesburg, FL where things once again went dead.  It was the middle of the night with no one on the road.  When the cops came by the third time, they invited us to sleep in their brand new jail.  We accepted.  I must say I was a little nervous when they took our ID and locked us in, and I was relieved when they let us out in the morning.  Not as nice as Lucy’s but, certainly better than sleeping in the ditch with the snakes.  The next day several rides took us to Miami.
    
File:Liften in de woestijn.jpg
In hitch hiking you never know what the day will bring.  Often you can stand on a likely spot for hours with no luck.  Or, you will get rides of short distances and get dropped off in the middle of nowhere.  And then suddenly you will catch a ride of hundreds of miles with someone who is going exactly where you want to go. It’s totally random.
    
In Miami Bill and I set up housekeeping in a one room apartment near the Orange Bowl and started looking for work and sailboats to sign on as crew.  At a local shipyard we found that we could sign on as crew and do the dirty work that the union guys did not want to do anyway.  We spent our days sweating in the sun chipping and painting anchor chain and doing other grunt work.  It paid the rent and kept us in beer.  We found an opportunity to get on the yacht “Holiday” owned by the Squirt Company.  That chance kept moving around and getting delayed so, (impatient me) signed on with the “Brigantine Yankee”.  Bill waited it out for months but finally got to make some great trips on the “Holiday” that took him all through the Caribbean, up the coast to Acapulco and on to California. We both got what we were looking for, I guess.
    
I made two hitching expeditions to Rollins College in Orlando where my good friend Pete was a student.  On my second visit we drove back to Buffalo together for Christmas.  The Yankee was undergoing renovations below decks at the time.
    
Returning to Miami I rejoined the Yankee and stayed until early April.  I knew it was time to try to earn some money if I wanted to go back to school, so the brilliant plan was to hitch hike to Alaska where, I had read, opportunities to make big bucks abounded.  I had joined up on this leg of the adventure with a fellow named, Rip Bliss who had been a fellow deck hand on the Yankee.  The trip would be complicated by the fact that Rip had no money.  Thus, our sleeping arrangements on the long jaunt from Miami to Chicago and LA were on various occasions:  An orange grove; a tomato hot house; a railway car and the odd field.  We also relied on the kindness of strangers.  

We often got picked up by religious types and were invited to their services.  We always accepted for the pitch usually included a meal.  I attended in my year of travels; Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Mormon and even Jewish services.  I regarded it as a broadening of my understanding of my fellow man.
    
File:Map of US 66.svg

Our goal was to hitch hike the length of Route 66 which stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles.  As usual we had good and bad luck and we met some interesting characters along the way.  One day after spending all night trying to get out of Springfield, MO (and searched by cops three different times) we got a ride from a guy who owned a cave…. as in tourist attraction cavern.  He gave us a free tour of the caverns lunch and a ride back to Rt. 66.  We struggled to get to Tulsa and then got a long ride to Ft. Sumner, NM where we slept in a railroad car.  

The next day we got picked up immediately by a WAC (as in female Army) who took us all the way to Rip’s home in Carpinteria, CA. – 1000 miles or so.  Now every guy who’s ever stood by the side of the road with his thumb out has fantasized about being picked up by a sexy female.  Our female did not inspire lustful thoughts. She did, however, stop every 100 miles or so and buy another six-pack.
    
After a couple of days of food and rest at Rip’s home we continued our journey up to Seattle and arrived (both of us at this point) pretty much broke.  The Alaska thing would have to wait.  Funny thing…  I never have made it up there.  We needed jobs quickly and after getting turned down by the smoke jumpers, hooked on with the Forest Service with their Pine Shoot Moth Survey.  The purpose: To discover the extent of infestation of the pine shoot moth in the ornamental shrubs in various communities in Western Washington.  They were worried that these critters would get into the commercial timber and raise Hell.  
This job had one advantage and one major drawback, the latter being, we would not get our first paycheck for a month.  The advantage was we would be paid per diem while we traveled around the state.  At least we would eat and have a place to sleep.  This worked fine for a couple of weeks until they discovered I had one semester of Entomology and other science courses.  I got yanked off the road and brought in to run the lab and manage the office.  I also got to live in the office located in an abandoned lumber warehouse.  I slept on a half-couch with my feet propped up on a folding chair. I kept milk cold by plugging the bathroom sink and running the water slowly. I salvaged a hot plate and a couple of pans and for amusement trapped mice. 
    
I was desperately low on cash when I got a well-traveled letter from Jack Alexander, a guy who had come aboard the Yankee as a guest.  He wanted me to call him about a job.  When I called, he offered to send me a round trip plane ticket to Minnesota to look it over.  I was suspicious.  It sounded too good to be true.  On the other hand, what did I have to lose?  Besides, I had never been on a commercial flight and, I was extremely tired of my own meager meal plan.  I had never experienced luxury like that jet flight to Minneapolis and back!  The job involved ostensibly working for the family owned Cold Spring Granite Company, then the largest in the World.  But, the real job was playing big brother to his young sons, aged 13 and 9. His wife was a wheelchair bound MS patient and he traveled all the time.  He wanted me to spend the summer with the boys at their lake cottage and teach them swimming, sailing, gymnastics and anything else constructive I could think of.  The money, with food and lodging included, would be generous enough to enable me to go back to Cornell.  It was a summer job that I would do for the next three summers and always included an extensive canoe trip into the border wilderness between Manitoba and Ontario at the beginning of each summer.
    
That first year as the summer wound down Bill hitch-hiked up from Southern California and we spent a few days at the lake before hitching together back to Buffalo.  Thus we finished the trip as we had begun a year before…. Standing together at the side of the road with our thumbs out.  


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June 23, 2012 · 4:55 am

Healthcare Follies, Part Two

 In this post I will chronicle my own personal journey through the Canadian and US healthcare systems with my recent heart surgery. Perhaps that will more clearly explain what you can expect if ObamaCare is not spiked by the Supreme Court with their decision next week.
Late last summer I noticed that I was getting out of breath walking up hills or even climbing stairs.  I was well aware that I had a flaky aortic heart valve.  Four or so years earlier when I had some work done on my knee, the “gas passer” in his pre-op exam, told me that sooner or later I was going to have to replace that valve.  I figured that time had arrived so I went to my family doctor in Whistler and he referred me to a specialist.  My appointment came back four months in the future.
    
Through the hunting season I was taking it slow.  Moose hunting at 5500-foot was not a sprint up the mountain and putting out the decoys a bit of a challenge.  I managed to land a 7-foot sturgeon without keeling over.  Finally, my appointment with the cardiologist came up on the calendar. (January 18.) For my legal protection let’s call him Dr. J.  He gave me a stress test and I flunked.  I checked into Vancouver General Hospital the very next day and they gave me the angiogram.
    
Turns out that in addition to the flaky valve I had some serious blockages in my coronary arteries (common among long term diabetics like me) and a triple by-pass was the major plan.  While they had my chest cracked they would give me a pig valve too. I would have to sit in the hospital until my surgery hit the top of the waiting list.  The average wait time, I was told, was two weeks but one poor fellow had already been sitting in the hospital waiting for a month.  You could be bumped at any time if someone showed up in worse shape than you.
    
I did not want to wait.  Once it was clear what needed to be done, I was anxious to get on with it.  Besides, sitting around twiddling my thumbs is torture for me.  My daughters and I were looking for alternatives for heart surgery in Bellingham and Seattle and I had accepted that heading south and paying cash was the way to go.  I needed my medical records to leave and my daughters fought through the bureaucracy at the hospital to get the required documents signed.  “Fine,” they said.  “We’ll send them to you in six weeks.”  That kinda put a kink in my plans to head south.
    
I don’t know if my threats to leave had anything to do with it (probably) but one week after my stress test I was headed to the operating room.  Nine hours later I had new plumbing and a dandy new valve.
    
Five days later and already coughing, they sent me home.  The coughing got lots worse and I was passing out because I couldn’t catch my breath.  I could feel the stress on my chest incision and my wired together sternum.  Loi drove me to VGH Emergency where we spent the day with me mostly laying on a gurney in the hall with dozens of other folks.  Finally they sent me home with more prescriptions.
    
The next week was Hell.  Fortunately, Loi kept notes because I don’t remember much of it.  I did not sleep much except in the recliner in the living room.  All night I would pace to keep the coughing at bay and when I had a “spell” I generally wound up passed out.  Early one morning I woke up to find myself lying in the middle of the living room.  No idea how hard I hit when I went down.
    
The only way I could communicate with Dr. J., my cardiologist, was via email.  I was begging him to take me seriously and do something.  I explained that I could feel the bones in my sternum moving around.  He was not concerned and his only suggestion was to move my appointment for the following week from the afternoon to the morning.  What a prince!
    
On the 9th of February.  I asked Loi to take me to Bellingham and St. Joseph’s Hospital.  They examined me and discovered that my chest cavity was half full of fluid and one of my sternum closure wires broken.  They sent me home.  (After this whole thing was over I pressed St. Joe’s to explain why they sent me home.  They explained that they had phoned my Canadian cardiologist, Dr. J., and he had told them he had it under control and was seeing me one week hence.  He suggested another cough syrup.)
    
That weekend was the worst yet.  No sleep, constant coughing and chest pain.  At one point I passed out and fell out of my chair. On Monday Loi drove me back to St. Joe’s Emergency.  This time they admitted me and Dr. Douglas, their head of cardiology,  came down for a look.  Xrays showed that my chest cavity was full of fluid and I had broken all three wires holding my sternum together and two of them had actually pulled right through the bone.  My incision had ruptured and fluid was running down my chest.  Infection was the big worry.
    
They sent me down to “Echo” where a doctor with a scary long needle went in through my back and started drawing fluid out of my chest, eventually getting 2.3 liters of juice.  My collapsed lung mostly re-inflated.  Dr. Douglas explained that they would have to crack my chest again and repair the damage but couldn’t do that until they got my chemistry sorted out.  Everything was a mess and it would be three days before they could get things under control and operate.
    
So, under the knife again only this time with big worries about infection.  They left tubes in my chest to drain and flush and a plug in my arm to pump me full of antibiotics.  I spent nine days in St. Joseph’s and for a couple of weeks afterward still had a thing in my arm where Loi pumped antibiotics into me twice a day.
    
Prior to the fix-it surgery I had told Dr. Douglas that if he successfully brought me through this that I would treat him to a round of golf and kiss his ass on the first tee.  He has yet to collect, although I am prepared to pay up at any time.  I am fine now.  Back to fishing and playing golf and making plans for travel with Loi.  She was a saint through all of this and it was probably more stress on her than me.

The lesson here is simple.  The original surgery was fine.  My Canadian surgeon did an excellent job.  The follow up care was where the screw-ups occurred. My cardiologist was incompetent or simply did not give a shit. I’m pretty sure it was the latter and if I had not taken the initiative and headed south, his inattention might well have killed me.

In my experience, Canadian hospitals are understaffed both in nurses and housekeeping personnel.  Hence, the nurses are stressed and the hospitals are not as clean as their American counterparts.  There are not enough doctors.  You cannot get a family doctor in south Vancouver.

Canadian health care is what you will get if ObamaCare becomes the US system.  Canadians hope it does not because they want someplace close to go when they really need quality care quickly. And, my liberal friends….. if you get ObamaCare you are going to hate it. 

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June 20, 2012 · 4:31 am

Healthcare Follies

This is going to be a two-parter.  The first part focuses on ObamaCare and some generalized discussion on the differences between the US…shall we say…“Commercial”, privately-funded healthcare model and the socialized or single payer (government) model.  Part Two will discuss my own personal interaction with both systems earlier this year.
Part One

Any day now the US Supreme Court is going to rule on the constitutionality of the so-called “ObamaCare Law”, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It was signed into law in March of 2010 after a divisive battle featuring some unseemly political bargaining like the “Louisiana Purchase” and “Cornhusker Kickback”, both the blatant purchasing of votes.  Of course, that was just the beginning of the political maneuvering to get the bill passed and of the granting of exemptions to the provisions of the bill to supportive politicians.  If it’s so great, why do you need an exemption?

              
26 states joined together in challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare, which is essentially a federal takeover of the healthcare system and a giant step toward the “single payer” system currently used by the UK and Canada among others.  It had been a liberal/progressive dream for years and with a left wing Democrat in the White House and liberals in control of both the House and Senate, the perfect opportunity to cram it down the throats of a reluctant nation.  One of the more onerous provisions of this 2700-page monster was the forcing of every citizen to purchase health insurance from the Federal Government. That provision represents one of the principal sources of funding for the program and one of the pieces most likely to annoy the Justices.
              
The other major source of financing the program is the looting of Medicare, an already bankrupt program.  One half of the costs are provided by these cuts mostly from chopping $204 billion in funding to the Medicare Advantage Program, a highly popular and effective program enjoyed by some 12 million seniors.  Have not heard about this?  The Obama Administration and their allies in the media know that seniors vote in high numbers and when they figure out that they are the ones getting shafted by Obama, they could cost Obama his re-election. 
To help mitigate the bad karma, Obama spent millions of dollars in taxpayer bucks to run TV ads featuring Andy Griffith touting how great ObamaCare would be. Obama’s soldiers also came up with an $8.5 billion “demonstration project” sponsored by the Dept. of Health and Human Services designed to postpone the cuts until after the election.  The Government Accountability Office called this project a “scam” and said HHS should cancel the program.  In other words, the Administration is spending $8.5 billion of taxpayer money to help insure Obama’s re-election chances. Gee, does this sound like it might be a tad illegal?
              
Anyway, we’ll know soon when the Supremes weigh in. As a side bar, Obama insulted the Supreme Court yet again when the issue of ObamaCare came before them as he did once before in his State of the Union address.  I dunno, but I have never considered it wise to piss off people in a position to decide your future.
              
I have never been able to understand the liberal/ progressive obsession with government run healthcare.  It does not work very well, certainly not as well as the US system.  Statistics prove it.  For example:
               Breast Cancer:  US % fatal= 25%                      UK % Fatal= 46%
               Prostate Cancer:  US Fatal= 19%                      UK % Fatal=57%
               Heart Death    UK 19.5% higher than US
Canada has 1/3 fewer doctors than the OECD average.  You must wait an average of 17.3 weeks in Canada before you can see a specialist.  9.7 weeks for an MRI and 36.7 weeks (9 months) to visit an orthopedic surgeon.  Often Canadians will journey south of the border and pay cash rather than wait for their “free” homegrown healthcare.
              
And it’s really not free.  There are fees and, of course, taxes are high.  British Columbia spends 40% of its budget on health care demonstrating once again that the economic laws cannot be contested, this one being:  “When something is free, there is never enough of it.”  Financial pressure on the system in Canada has brought on cuts in housekeeping staff and increase nursing workload.  That and aging infrastructure has resulted in an increasing number of hospital-acquired infections (MRSA, VRE and C. difficile) killing hundreds.
              
Then too, there’s always the question of how the money is being spent.  Anything run by the government tends to get bureaucratic and top heavy with administrators.  The UK public health system, for example, has more bureaucrats than doctors.
Canadian hospitals spend a much larger percentage of their budgets on administrators than do their American counterparts.  ObamaCare has mandated whole new bureaucracies by the hundreds.
The flaws in the US healthcare system can easily be improved and corrected by some simple changes.  I have written about these in detail in the past.  That seems a much preferable solution than tossing out the entire system in favor of the single payer model with its demonstrable failures.
But, the political left instinctively favors the government solution and they refuse to learn from experience or accept facts that conflict with their group dogma.  They believe that once adopted that “free healthcare” will become another “third rail” of untouchable government largess and help keep the most generous party (them) in power.  How’s that generosity working out for European socialist economies right now?

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