I’m thinking about expanding my voting tally to include commercials and emails. But that might be too hard to track.

Which begs the question…is there an app for that?

Now, all of these people pretty much ran on 2 issues. Jobs and the economy. So far, here are the priorities that they have put first:

• Stop gay marriage
• Discriminate based on religious beliefs
• Stop early pre-school (or at least make it more difficult)
• And now – ban abortions and many forms of contraceptives.

When you guys lose your seats at the next election, try not to be too shocked.

Dumbasses!

And no, I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m barely a “little l” libertarian. I’d rather vote none of the above but I don’t have that option.

I’m going about this from a bit of experience in the not so distant past. My wife and I had been traveling in another state and unfortunately had to take a trip to the emergency room. It was early in the morning when she fell ill. Its happened before and we basically run down to the ER, she gets an IV and we’re good to go in a few hours. We had narrowed down the condition but at 3 in the morning, neither one of us could remember what the heck it was. Its noted in her medical file back here in Des Moines.

Are you seeing where I’m going here?

The check in experience took 20 minutes while my wife was sitting there, not seeing a doctor, but definitely in need of some help. Not life threatening at this point mind you, but definitely beyond sitting in the waiting room waiting for 20 minutes of paper work, most of which I filled out. If we could have simply flashed an insurance card with a universal identifier that would allow the hospital the opportunity to pull up her health information. Primary doctor, recent visits, notes on the file, allergies, medications, issues, insurance company, weight, last checkup, etc. This would have saved valuable time and filled in the gaps that the doctor needed later on.

Now as an engineer, I can tell you that a system like this is very possible. It is also very very risky. But still very possible and there are many companies that are out there putting these types of systems in place. There is a good chance that if you live in a large enough city in the US, you have such a system in your local medical network. So your branch family medical practice can update your file on a regular basis for when you come in for a checkup or come down with the flu or some other virus. Then, god forbid, you have to go to the emergency room, they can pull up that information because they are in the same medical network. Its slick, convenient and your information is always up to date and available for the doctors on the network.

But the catch is “on the network”. What happens when you move? What happens if you are traveling and need to go to the ER and they are not part of the network as what happened in our situation.

I’m a libertarian and I have a hard time getting behind government control. But this is something that I think that our government can help get off the ground. The system needs to work with us. I’m not sure if it is a simple matter of put it all in one master system and let the networks pull from it like a central library. Or…do you have the smaller networks tie together with some sort of system for routing information between the networks. So my identification number is much like a phone number where it knows that the first 3 numbers of my ID area a zone or state routing so the network knows that it needs to head in that direction to grab the file that it needs to be securely pulled across the ‘net.

Concerns
A lot of people will be afraid of this solution. It can be scary to have a centralized repository of this information as it will be a huge target for hackers. But I think that the system can be built. There are private networks that can be built up. Security checks and balances that will be required. Sure it will cost some money. But the overall savings and improvement to the health care system I think out weigh those costs. Now instead of 20 minutes to get in the door and extra tests that are done that are not needed since there is a full medical history gets us in and out of the hospital faster, and still provides a very high level of care if not better!

This isn’t part of the debate yet. Which is fine, we have other things to deal with like a–hole companies that are dropping guys like this guy.

I feel for the guy, I do. And I think that we need to take that insurance company out back and beat it around the head and shoulders until it gets a clue.

I’ve heard of other companies where their default answer is to deny the claim. No matter what, just deny it if it is over a certain amount. Then you have to re-submit the same paperwork and this time it will get through. But they figure that not everyone knows this trick so they get off by not paying. They purposely slow down the system and raise the costs by this one simple policy. And does it really save _that_ much money?

And don’t even get my started on pre-existing conditions. That statement alone makes me want to take a flame thrower to an insurance company.

Maybe the public option will fix all of this. But then again, it IS our government running that program which I have very little faith in them doing it well or cost effective.

So my fellow Americans, I urge you to write your representative. Write what you feel. Think of your situation and think of what it would be like to be told you have a curable disease, but insurance is going to deny it and you have no way of paying for it out of pocket. What would you do?

The Hockey Stick was never accurate–and CRU knew it

I’m still in a bit of shock about this. Politics at this level of research I’m not shocked on. But pushing people out, character attacks, and most of all, DATA MANIPULATION!

Let’s not gloss over that one shall we, they are manipulating the data to get the result that they want. Anytime a scientist talks about applying tricks, its a recipe for disaster.

Yet, apparently there is a bit of controversy. Many parents are going to hold their kids out from school tomorrow so they miss the 20 minute speech. They’re concerned that the President of the United States of America is going to spread a bi-partisan message to their children. Hello! ARE YOU LIVING ON THE SAME FREAKING PLANET!?!? Missing all day in order to not have your child here a 20 minute speech on responsiblity, hard work and commitment. A message about staying in school and doing the best that you can each and every day. THIS, this is the big controversy?

I’m at a loss. Apparently I’m not alone.

To combat the conservatards (yes, that’s the new name from the far right wing conservatives), the White House has issued the text of the speech. It can be found here

While I have disagreed with many past Presidents on a variety of issues, I feel that there should always be a level of respect given to the office no matter who is sitting there regardless of their political affiliation. He’s the President of the United States of America. Your America, my America, OUR America! One Nation, Under God! Does any of this ring a bell?

So let’s all calm down for a minute. Take a breath and realize that President Obama is going to do what George Bush, Ronald Reagan and many many others have done before him. He’s going to have a speech for the students tomorrow encouraging them to take responsibility, work hard, and stay in school. I hope that many of you that are thinking about keeping your kids out of school take the high road and make sure that they get their butts in school.

I’ll give them credit, you have to start somewhere, but there is a LOT more that can get cut. Keep going guys!

Now, the person stating he has no rights at a checkpoint is NOT cool. But I still think he was an ass and deserved a thumping. And that’s just listening to the first 5 minutes of the video.

The reason that this blew up and the reason that he was detained is by not answering a few simple questions and being an ass, he instantly raised suspicion that he was doing something illegal. If he had played it cool, I’m sure he would have been through the checkpoint in under a minute without them ever needing to check his trunk or anything else. But because he was abusive and non-cooperative, he was detained. I’m not saying that the border patrol agents were perfect here. But some people are just idiots and need a good beating with the clue-by-four!

NOTE: I do _NOT_ agree with the title of the video. I think it should have been ‘Dumbass makes a fool of himself to a federal agent!’

Looks like it might be time to install TrueCrypt for all of my files.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told nationally syndicated talk host Bill Press this morning that the recent flips of liberal Talk stations in several markets were a “disservice to the public.”

Stabenow said that, in the day of the Fairness Doctrine, “you had to have balance,” and continued, “I think something that requires that in a market with owners that have multiple stations that they have got to have balance — there has to be some community interest — balance, you know, standard that says both sides have to be heard.”

Stabenow told Press that the airwaves are “dominated by one view” that “overwhelms people’s opinions — and, unfortunately, incorrectly,” and said that “right-wing conservative talk hosts” are “trying to make people angry and saying all kinds of things that aren’t true and so on.”

When Press asked if it is time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, Stabenow responded, “I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard.” To Press’ inquiry as to whether she will push for hearings in the Seante “to bring these owners in and hold them accountable,” Stabenow replied, “I have already had some discussions with colleagues, and, you know, I feel like that’s going to happen. Yep.”

source

Whatever happened to allowing the free markets decide what goes over the air waves. The thing is, there is a reason why shows like Rush and Hannity have been on for a long time and are very popular. People listen to them…on both sides. Yes, it is true that they often spread the right wing rhetoric and often only tell one side of the story. But its one persons opinion.

But, what about the liberal point of view? Excellent question! Why don’t we have someone that is on the air waves spreading the liberal point of view. There is, its called Air America. Feel free to find one in your local area.

It still comes back to the free market. The people can choose to listen to Rush/Hannity or they can choose to listen to Air America or whatever other local radio talk show host that you may have. These shows are on because people listen to them so advertisers advertise on them. Allowing the government step in to control what opinions we can hear and which ones we cannot hear is a recipe for disaster. It can and will be taken too far and soon we will get one opinion coming across the public air waves. And it will be whatever party is controlling the government at that time. Which, once you control it, it will be hard for any other voice to be heard. It will be a sad day when the fairness doctrine gets passed.

Start writing to your representatives now before this ever gets off the ground.