Not Much today (18 August 09)

Workout notes Yoga (1 hour), walk: 1:01:40 (5 miles, 1.5 was 20:41 (warm up) then 3.5 2-1; last 2 in 23:05). Technique felt fine; cool morning.

Mathematics notes I was finishing up a paper and writing a smaller note when I decided to put some examples in my note. One of my examples directly relates to the larger paper I thought I was almost done with.

Good News: my second paper will be made more interesting.
Bad News: MORE WORK, right when classes were about to start!

Note to self: plan to finish work about 2-3 weeks prior to the start of classes. Oh well…I didn’t want free weekends anyway.

Just Saying….(18 August 09)

from Huffington Post.

Daily Kos: Burr: Public option okay if you leave private sector alone

Now this type of compromise sounds promising…example: let people buy into Medicaid?

more about "Daily Kos: Burr: Public option okay i…", posted with vodpod

17 August 09 am

Workout notes I got to the gym at about 7 and was done at about 8:48; in between I did 2200 yards of swimming (500 warm up, drill/swim, 10 x (25 fly, 25 free) on 1, 10 x (25 fist, 25 free) on 1, 200 cool down. Then 3 miles of running; a 10 minute mile to warm up then 9:30 mpm for the last 2 and then hit the shower.

Hence 5-7 am should give me plenty of time to get in to my 9 am class with coffee, time to review notes, etc.

Health care

Fact Check takes a look at the plans that President Obama is pushing; their main complaint is that he is using numbers that are unrealistically rosy (e. g., the plan will be more expensive than he is saying). Frankly, I believe fact check; to me the cost is worth it.

Still, as one libertarian blogger points out, much of the push-back against these plans have been false. He concludes:

Health care reform. I think I’ve seen about 5,000 tweets, Facebook and/or blog enties about how Obama is silencing debate. Most conservative complaints about Obamacare that I’ve heard (other than the ones saying complaints are being silenced, mind you) are flat… out wrong on facts and cross the line into paranoid fantasy. And if anyone is silencing debate, it’s these gullible fools showing up an town hall meetings shouting down their elected representatives. So forgive me for assuming that without anything real fpr opponents to complain about, the plan must not be too horribly flawed.

Mind you this blogger is “Mr. Free Market” all the way.

Paul Krugman: nice post here; I’ll reproduce his summary of how other countries get it done:

In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We’ve all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false. Like every system, the National Health Service has problems, but over all it appears to provide quite good care while spending only about 40 percent as much per person as we do. By the way, our own Veterans Health Administration, which is run somewhat like the British health service, also manages to combine quality care with low costs.

The second route to universal coverage leaves the actual delivery of health care in private hands, but the government pays most of the bills. That’s how Canada and, in a more complex fashion, France do it. It’s also a system familiar to most Americans, since even those of us not yet on Medicare have parents and relatives who are.

Again, you hear a lot of horror stories about such systems, most of them false. French health care is excellent. Canadians with chronic conditions are more satisfied with their system than their U.S. counterparts. And Medicare is highly popular, as evidenced by the tendency of town-hall protesters to demand that the government keep its hands off the program.

Finally, the third route to universal coverage relies on private insurance companies, using a combination of regulation and subsidies to ensure that everyone is covered. Switzerland offers the clearest example: everyone is required to buy insurance, insurers can’t discriminate based on medical history or pre-existing conditions, and lower-income citizens get government help in paying for their policies.

In this country, the Massachusetts health reform more or less follows the Swiss model; costs are running higher than expected, but the reform has greatly reduced the number of uninsured. And the most common form of health insurance in America, employment-based coverage, actually has some “Swiss” aspects: to avoid making benefits taxable, employers have to follow rules that effectively rule out discrimination based on medical history and subsidize care for lower-wage workers.

Krugman goes on to point out that what is being proposed (House bill) is a program similar to the one that Switzerland uses.

Other pieces of interest

Health care costs: cause of many bankruptcies.

Nate Silver: doesn’t see a good chance of a bill with a public option passing; he looks at the actual “votes that are there.” I am not as pessimistic.

Mark Louis at Daily Kos: says that we (liberals) shouldn’t be “all or nothing” (see the Krugman article above).

Tim Wise: talks about the racial factor in all of this.

16 August 09

Workout notes I did the Boredom to rivertrail via Glenn Oak course with an extra 3 miles on the trail for a total of 20 miles. It was warm; 75 F, 85 percent humidity at the start; 83 F, 69 percent humidity at the end. 2:16 at the 10 mile turn off; 4:43 at the end. I just died! Note: my right “behind the knee” area hurt when I overstrode. Also, slowing the pace felt ok; I felt horrible when I tried to keep up something respectable.

Other Topics

New York Times: women are performing in combat roles; the military is finding work-arounds to the rules that are supposed to forbid this.

Women are barred from joining combat branches like the infantry, armor, Special Forces and most field artillery units and from doing support jobs while living with those smaller units. Women can lead some male troops into combat as officers, but they cannot serve with them in battle.

Yet, over and over, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army commanders have resorted to bureaucratic trickery when they needed more soldiers for crucial jobs, like bomb disposal and intelligence. On paper, for instance, women have been “attached” to a combat unit rather than “assigned.”

This quiet change has not come seamlessly — and it has altered military culture on the battlefield in ways large and small. Women need separate bunks and bathrooms. They face sexual discrimination and rape, and counselors and rape kits are now common in war zones. Commanders also confront a new reality: that soldiers have sex, and some will be evacuated because they are pregnant.

Nonetheless, as soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, women have done nearly as much in battle as their male counterparts: patrolled streets with machine guns, served as gunners on vehicles, disposed of explosives, and driven trucks down bomb-ridden roads. They have proved indispensable in their ability to interact with and search Iraqi and Afghan women for weapons, a job men cannot do for cultural reasons. The Marine Corps has created revolving units — “lionesses” — dedicated to just this task.

A small number of women have even conducted raids, engaging the enemy directly in total disregard of existing policies.

On one hand, I am for equality. On the other hand, I cannot cheer that ANY human being (male or female) is exposed to the horrors of combat.

Weird Burglars steal a computer from a residence; they found child pornography on it and turned it in to the police.

http://conservationreport.com/2009/08/15/health-care-reform-dissenters-against-meaningful-health-care-reform-haven%E2%80%99t-done-their-homework/

Do you think that I am hard on creationists? In a press release for a creationist film, the film’s screenwriter refers to himself as “doctor”. PZ Myers has something to say about that:

I was rolling my eyes, nothing more, as I read that, until I hit those magic words, “Dr Kent Hovind”…then I had to smirk. Seriously? Tax cheat and fraud and recipient of an advanced degree from an unaccredited split-level diploma mill in Colorado, with a dissertation that begins “Hello, my name is Kent Hovind”, and that is little more than a collection of magazine articles snipped out and pasted in a scrap book…and that is Kevin Miller’s hero?

More evidence for my maxim: “those who are proudest of the title “doctor” have done the least to earn it”
(note: I am NOT talking about medical doctors here!)

Science: Animal Camouflage. The upper right hand corner stumps me.

Political Humor Maybe Glenn Beck was right about the government controlling your computer when you search for cars and participate in the cash-for-clunkers program? The Good Kentuckian has evidence!

Health Care Debate

Ok, we have one of the protesters demanding that we return our country to “what it was” when the Constitution was first ratified. Ok….slavery, only men could vote, Senators aren’t directly elected…and no social security or medicare.

Face facts: most protesters are completely clueless:

I hasten to point out that it is ok for her to ask questions. But if she is going to make a demand, she should understand what the demand entails.

(hat tip: Conservation Report)

Health Care
Not all non-Presidential town halls went poorly; Rep. Peter Stark’s went very well. Note the difference in the faces of our sides versus theirs!

Of course some liberals are up in arms over what Secretary Sebelius said today:

WASHINGTON – Bowing to Republican pressure, President Barack Obama’s administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama had sought the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation’s almost 50 million uninsured, but he never made it a deal breaker in a broad set of ideas that has Republicans unified in opposition. [...]

Some are saying: President Obama is selling us out!

Some are saying: “no public option now doesn’t mean defeat”.

I say: it isn’t over yet; this might be a huge “head fake” from President Obama. The idea is to demonstrate that the Republicans are NOT open to compromise; they want to defeat Obama, period. Hence he gives the blue dogs more cover to vote for our own bill. I got on the recommended list again.

15 August…too much! :-)

(David Horsey)

In all honesty: insurance companies make money by taking in as much as possible and then expending as much as possible; YOU are not their primary interest. Your money is; that is why I am more willing to trust a “government bureaucrat” than an insurance company adjuster.

President Obama’s Colorado Town Hall
It appears to have been a success; you can read a liberal take here.

Here he takes on the “death panel” types:

Here are his remarks:

Academia: A research professor takes on a touchy subject: those who don’t want jobs with high teaching loads are sometimes thought to be snobs. I disagree, as does this person. The reason this is touchy is that research intensive jobs are far more competitive than the teaching intensive jobs, and everyone knows that. Some can’t accept that though. Note: I am at a teaching intensive job and, to be brutally honest, my grad school compatriots who got the research jobs were smarter and more successful in grad school than I was. Is it really that hard to admit that?

Science and Religion
You have to be up on the “creationism/intelligent design” controversy to catch this joke.

Speaking of religion and science, surf here to weigh in on the question: which science discovery hurt religion more: Galileo’s or Darwin’s?

In my opinion, Galileo was an earlier “crack in the egg”; it blew geocentric astronomy and the idea of an “earth centered” universe out of the water. But Darwin really put the kibosh on the “humans are central” meme.

Of course scientists are secular; hence we are horrible storytellers. My daughter always fusses at me when we watch Star Trek together.

Game Theory and Foreign Affairs Will Iran develop nuclear weapons? We don’t know of course, but:

Many people wonder, but Bruce Bueno de Mesquita claims to have the answer.

Bueno de Mesquita is one of the world’s most prominent applied game theorists. A professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, he is well known academically for his work on “political survival,” or how leaders build coalitions to stay in power. But among national-security types and corporate decision makers, he is even better known for his prognostications. For 29 years, Bueno de Mesquita has been developing and honing a computer model that predicts the outcome of any situation in which parties can be described as trying to persuade or coerce one another. Since the early 1980s, C.I.A. officials have hired him to perform more than a thousand predictions; a study by the C.I.A., now declassified, found that Bueno de Mesquita’s predictions “hit the bull’s-eye” twice as often as its own analysts did.

Last year, Bueno de Mesquita decided to forecast whether Iran would build a nuclear bomb[...]

Surf to the article to read the conclusion.

Science: memories are subject to be altered! That doesn’t surprise me.
For example, when I restarted my running in 1996, I had memories of one speed workout at the Pensacola Junior College track where I did 8 x 400 m in 75 each. It was so glorious!
Trouble: my times of that era were much slower than you’d expect from someone who could do that workout. There is a reason for that….eventually I discovered my old running logs. I found that workout and….well, I did 7 between 82-83 and did the LAST ONE in 78. I had written that it was my dream goal to do 8 x 400 in 75 each.

My experience with this false memory is not unique; every time we recall an event, we can add details to it, and often those details are, well, false:

Spurred on by the controversy over recovered memory, other cognitive scientists found that false memory is a normal phenomenon. David Rubin, who studies autobiographical memory at Duke University, observed that adult twins often disagree over who experienced something in childhood. Each might believe, for example, that he was the one to get pushed off his bike by a neighbor at age 8. Apparently, even the most basic facts about a past event (such as who experienced it) could be lost.

Even harrowing memories—the so-called flashbulb memories that feel as if they have been permanently seared into the brain—are not as accurate as we think. Less than a year after a cargo plane crashed into an Amsterdam apartment building in 1992, 55 percent of the Dutch population said they had watched the plane hit the building on TV. Many of them recalled specifics of the crash, such as the angle of descent, and could report whether or not the plane was on fire before it hit. But the event had not been caught on video. The “memory” shared by the majority was a hallucination, a convincing fiction pieced together out of descriptions and pictures of the event.
[...]

While neuroscientists were skeptical of Nader’s findings, cognitive scientists were immediately fascinated that memory might be constantly revamped. It certainly seemed to explain their observations: The home run you hit in Little League? Your first kiss? As you replay these memories, you reawaken and reconsolidate them hundreds of times. Each time, you replace the original with a slightly modified version. Eventually you are not really remembering what happened; you are remembering your story about it. “Reconsolidation suggests that when you use a memory, the one you had originally is no longer valid or maybe no longer accessible,” LeDoux says. “If you take it to the extreme, your memory is only as good as your last memory. The fewer times you use it, the more pristine it is. The more you use it, the more you change it.” We’ve all had the experience of repeating a dramatic story so many times that the events seem dead, as if they came from a novel rather than real life. This might be reconsolidation at work.

Reconsolidation research has helped foster a growing sense that the flexibility of memory might be functional—an advantage rather than a bug in the brain. Reconsolidation might be how we update our store of knowledge, by making old memories malleable in response to new information. “When you encounter a familiar experience, you are remembering the original memory at the same time, and ?the new experience somehow gets blended in,” says Jonathan Lee of the University of Birmingham in England, who recently found evidence for this effect in animals. “That is essentially what reconsolidation is.” The evident purpose of episodic memory, after all, is to store facts in the hope of anticipating what might happen next. From the perspective of survival, constructive memory is an asset. It allows you to pull together scraps of information to simulate the future on the fly.

In short, our tendency to do this might actually have an evolutionary purpose!

Hat tip for the last two articles: 3-quarks daily.

Mixing Ultras and 5K runs (no politics)

This morning, I decided to make my humiliation complete and compete in a
local 5K running race. This was the Brimfield 5K. This is a well run 5K that many local runners shoot for; I’ve seen the winning time go under 16 minutes. Typically, 250-350 people do this race. The course is accurate and flat.

This year’s result: 24:09; mile splits were 7:49, 7:46, 7:48, 0:44 (yes, in the US, we have mile markers at 5K runs). This is 9 seconds off of my best 5K of 2009, and the fastest since my June and August ultra marathons. My PB on this course is 20:50, but that was 10 years ago, prior to my getting infested with the ultra bug.

One thing I’ve noticed: longer ultras tend to slow me down; to wit:

March 28 5K : 24:41
April 12: muddy 100 miler in 47:55 (“staged” style)
April 25 5K: 26:30 (Wildlife Prairie Park)

9 May 5K 24:29 5K
17 May Marathon walk 5:14:26
23 May 5K 25:40
25 May 4 mile 31:58

30 May 5K: 24:00 (blankey-blank-blank!!!)
6 June: 24 hour, 66 miles (50 miles in 12:46)
20 June: 15K in 1:27:23 (just wanted to finish without walking)

(9 July: 6:42 mile (downhill)

18 July: 5K in 24:59
(22 July: 1600 track in 7:03, solo)
2 August: 12 hour trail (11:36 for 29.3 rocky trail miles)
(5 August: 1600 track in 7:19)
8 August: 5K in 27:21 (grass)
11 August: 5K in 26:30 (track, after 800 in 3:18)
15 August: 5K in 24:09

I haven’t crunched the statistics yet, but it appears that I am slower in the 1-3 weeks after a marathon or ultra walk.

15 August 2009 (am, later)

Workout notes 5k race: 24:09 (Brimfield), 7:49, 7:46, 7:48, 0:44. This is my second best 5K run of 2009; I wish I could have squeezed another 10 seconds out.

I passed many in the last mile; that felt good. Yes, there was some spandex too. One of the younger ladies wore half length black spandex tights and had super-obvious VPLs.

Barbara went with me, bailed me out when I found out that I had no checks left in my check book. She walked her race in 57:37 and I walked the last .75 miles.

Results: oddly enough, though she finished dead last (254/254), Barbara was 3rd in her AG. I was 5/14 in my AG, and 82/254 overall.

Politics

Note: the Republicans cry “socialism” but fight for the “socialism that is there”.
Why can’t they just admit that they are for government involvement to a point? (Reason: that would blow their simple minded arguments to their simple minded constituents out of the water).

One note on style: my guess is that many of my non-virtual friends may be put off by the rudeness of the newscaster. But let’s face it: one of the problems with the pro-Democratic party elements of the media is that, in the name of civility, we have let the Republicans get away with blatant lying for far too long.

If the Republicans are against “socialism” let them be consistent about it: let them speak out against those forms of socialism that are popular, even among many (but not all) of their Republican constituents. Of course to do so would be political suicide.

If the Republicans really are “screw you if you are unfortunate enough to get a health problem but are unable to pay for it”, let them say so out loud. They won’t.

For far too long the Republicans have used our civility against us. No longer.

If a Republican wants to say “I believe in government involvement (or “to a point” ) but I don’t like this program because of X, Y, or Z”, fine! Let them say so and let them speak their piece. Treat them with politeness and respect. They might even have a good idea to offer.

If a Republican says “I don’t believe in government involvement in health care matters and therefore I am against medicare”, let them say so and treat them with politeness and respect.

But if all they do is cry “socialism” or “fascism”, go ahead and let them have it; show them to be the liars and hypocrites that they are.

As far as the “no one watches MSNBC” candard:

Fox News Wins Ratings Race (Again)
Fox News retained its #1 spot, averaging more total viewers in Monday-Sunday primetime (1.959 million, up 24% over May 2008) than CNN (767,000, down 22%) and MSNBC (756,000, up 10%) combined. HLN came in 4th with 535,000 total viewers, up a staggering 41% over May 2008. In weekday primetime, Fox News averaged 2.292 million total viewers, again more than MSNBC (891,000) and CNN (842,000) combined. HLN came in 4th with 618,000 total viewers.

In the Monday-Sunday prime demo (A25-54), Fox News took first with an average of 463,000 viewers (up 30% over May 2008), again more than MSNBC (250,000, down 9%) and CNN (194,000, down 37%) combined. HLN came in 4th with 192,000, again up a staggering 40% over May 2008. In the weekday prime demo, however, HLN (219,000 viewers) bested big sister network CNN (216,000 viewers) for the third place crown, while Fox News averaged 561,000 viewers and MSNBC averaged 270,000 viewers.

MSNBC Beats CNN (Again)
May was the third month in a row that MSNBC beat CNN in the weekday prime demo and the second in three months beating CNN in total viewers in weekday primetime, solidifying its standing as the #2 network in weekday primetime. Additionally, “The Rachel Maddow Show” was up 60% in total viewers over the 9PM timeslot a year ago (895,000 in May 2009 vs. 560,000 in May 2008 for Dan Abrams’ “Verdict”), and up 14% in A25-54, where it beat “Larry King Live” at 9PM for the 7th time in 8 months.

Programs
Fox News claimed 9 of the top 10 programs in weekday primetime, with the “O’Reilly Factor” (2.989 million total viewers, 702,000 A25-54) leading the pack for the 102nd consecutive month. “Hannity” (2.165 million total viewers, 551,000 A25-54), “Glenn Beck” (1.962 million total viewers, 472,000 A25-54), “On the Record with Greta van Susteren” (1.814 million total viewers, 452,000 A25-54), and “Special Report with Bret Baier” (1.784 million total viewers, 392,000 A25-54) rounded out the top 5. MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” was the only non-Fox News show to crack the top 10, coming in at #10 with 1.094 million total viewers and 323,000 A25-54.

Olbermann, Cooper Shed Viewers Year-to-Year
May 2009 was the first month since September 2006 that Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” declined against the previous year in the A25-54 demo. In May 2009, Olbermann averaged 323,000 A25-54 viewers, down 21% from his primaries-fueled May 2008 average of 408,000 (though up considerably from May 2007′s average of 200,000). Olbermann has been a ratings juggernaut for several years on MSNBC, with his last year-over-year monthly decline coming in September 2006 (compared against September 2005′s numbers, which were inflated due to Hurricane Katrina coverage).

My guess is that Olberman will continue to decline; he made his biggest splash when he was one of the first to express outrage over some of the excesses of the Bush administration. He’ll have to adjust without President Bush being there.

Maddow’s show is a bit more informative and she sometimes brings on Republicans. She doesn’t let them BS, but she does let them talk and get their legitimate points across.

15 Aug 09 (pm)

Posts of the day; we will be leaving for a 5K run in about an hour.

President Obama’s weekly address

If you wish to see President Obama’s town hall in Montana, you can see the whole thing here.

Humor (sort of)

A cat gets an online high school diploma; then again this cat couldn’t possibly be any dumber than some of the students that I’ve seen.

Speaking of academics, classes start soon and I’ve seen students starting to text during class. Yes, that irritates me, and I don’t like the idea of being a baby sitter. Some professors are using this device, but I understand that this device is illegal.

Science Interestingly, you sometimes hear people whine about atheists hurting the cause of educating the public on evolution. Here is some pushback against that “meme”. But the huge irony here is that atheists (in general) are leading the way for research into evolutoin!

More Science: the universe can be a hard place; here is a neat list of some “violent” natural activity that is out there.

Politics Yes, racism still exists (open racism) and yes, it affects people’s response to President Obama. This story is about some Ohio police forwarding racist stuff about President Obama from their work computers.

Politics Rachel Maddow did get something wrong on Thursday’s show: she reported that Shirley and Bannister currently represented grassfire.org; they haven’t since 2004. But Shirley and Bannister did more than attempt to set the record straight. Maddow hit back, hard.

Oh yes, she interviewed a principled conservative Republican representative on her show. Yes, Rep. Gao and I don’t agree on much, but this is what principled opposition looks like.

Paul Krugman: points out that Senator Isakson (who is in favor of allowing end of life counseling be covered) did call some of the “death panel” smears “nuts” but wants some distance between him and us.

Some more political humor
Tiny Frog has a funny quote

This is the spirit of it (I saw it at a Bill Maher board on facebook)

More on Health Care

A Peoria area doctor has been pushing for single payer for a long time.

PEORIA —

For more than a decade, Dr. William Albers has been one of the area’s singular voices on a singularly radical solution to the crisis in health care.

He has educated, debated and advocated the merits of a single-payer health plan in forums both large and small, talked to doctors, politicians and average citizens. And he is more convinced than ever that a health care system financed largely through private, for-profit, employee-sponsored insurance is a fool-hardy approach.

“We’ve had a private, free enterprise system for many years. In the last 15 years, the quality has gone down, the costs have gone up. Is this the system we want to continue?”

Now that reforming the nation’s health-care system is hot topic number one, Albers and others who agree with him – for instance, 16,000 members of Physicians for a National Health Plan, including President Barack Obama’s former primary care doctor – find their voices have largely been banished from the meatiest part of the debate.

A single-payer plan, based on the idea of Medicare-for-all, is the simplest, most effective means to provide universal health care coverage and cut national health care costs, Albers says. It’s estimated a single-payer plan would save $400 billion a year in reduced administration costs. It’s the only proposal that assures full universal coverage, he says.

“But in this country, the term ‘single-payer’ automatically shuts off discussion for many people, part of it is philosophical concerns about big government taking over, part of it is misinformation.”

A public option, or government-sponsored insurance plan, is one of the more controversial aspects of the current debate, in part, because it would compete with private insurers. A single-payer plan, however, would end private health insurance coverage, particularly employer-based coverage, as we know it. Single-payer is not on the table, Albers says, “but it’s the elephant in the back of the room.”

[...]
Albers, 75, is officially retired from the medical school, but he still sees some patients in Peoria and at the clinics in other cities. He still flies his plane to at least one of the cities when the weather is nice.

Here is a companion article that dispels misconceptions about single payer:

Myth: Interference. Patients will lose choices.

In a single-payer system, you have more choices rather than less, compared to a private system.

If you have private health insurance, most likely you’re in a network, which means you have to see a physician in the network, go to a hospital approved by the network or PPO (preferred provider organization.) You have to get prior approval for most tests.You have to get prior approval to go to a specialist. You can’t go to any old specialist.

In a public system, any provider who wants to can be a provider for Medicare or Medicaid. The number of doctors who don’t accept Medicaid is a problem, but the level of choice in a private system is not better.

It’s not the government bureaucrat between the patient and the doctor, it’s the insurance company.

Myth: Rationing, waiting for treatment.

There’s the fear that, to limit costs, there will be rationing with long lines for services, emergencies that go untreated. It’s true that in many countries with national health-care services and universal coverage, there are waiting lists for certain procedures. But that does not usually include emergency services.

The other side is we already have rationing in this country, only it’s based on ability to pay or not having adequate insurance. Patients who are not covered ration their own coverage by not going to the doctor or not going until disease is well established. They don’t take medicine because they can’t afford it. That’s rationing, as well. I think that’s worse than the rationing in a government system.

Myth: Government medicine, by nature, will be of lesser quality.

I don’t think that’s true.

Again, the VA is a good example. It was a laughingstock about 15 years ago. If one looks at it objectively, the VA provides high-quality care with high satisfaction at a cost of about $1,500 per patient less than private or public plans, even though they have a sicker population.

The VA is not perfect but it provides good care; military medicine is not perfect, but it provides good care.

It doesn’t have to be bad just because it’s run by the government. Nobody’s advocating setting up a bad program.

Edited and condensed by Pam Adams.

More: At Daily Kos, I modestly suggest that maybe President Obama knows what he is doing. Of course, we (on the left) have our “peanut gallery” who hyperventilate and throw tantrums the first time some “setback” is reported in the media “Obama doesn’t know what he is doing”, “Obama = Bush”, “Obama is a right wing corporate sell-out”, “Obama is a Republican”, etc. Often these claims are made by people who have never served on a committee and who have never even won as much as city council seat.

I wonder if Republicans have to put up with this from their friends.

Health care: town hall with Representative Fudge in Cleveland: Mano Singham’s report.

I’d like to see more of this at town halls:

A Democratic lawmaker, faced with a batty question at a town hall Wednesday, derided conservative pundit Glenn Beck for propagating lies about health care legislation.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) was asked, “Why are all Americans being forced into a government-run health care and insurance plan when only 46 million out of 312 million are uninsured?” The questioner went on to suggest that most people without insurance could get it without government assistance and concluded, “I’d be willing for the government to buy insurance policies for the 8.2 million chronically uninsured, but the other 37.8 million are not the responsibility of the American citizens and … and I am unwilling to throw my present health care away for them.”

Larsen responded: “With regards to the first comment about being forced to buy health care, I’ll say it again… The bill does not force anybody to buy health care … The bill does not force people to change their health care plan. If you’re in a plan, you will not be forced into the public option. You will not be forced into the health insurance exchange. Now folks will say that’s not true, but I’ve got facts on my side and you’ve got Glenn Beck on your side. It’s just not going to play out that way.“

Video:

Of course, the Republicans think that they are winning (following is from the Dick Morris e-mail list). Then again, many of the same people thought they were going to win in 2008 too.

From Dick Morris:

Obama’s Poll Numbers Plummet.

He Will Do Anything to Start Obama Care.

Dick Morris Has a Plan to Stop Him.

Read More Below.

Dear Dickmorris.com Reader:

Barack Obama and his radical friends in Congress are on the run. They know Americans are shifting away from supporting his so-called healthcare “reform” program.

As Dick Morris, the chief strategist for the League of American Voters, says, “Obama’s plan is nothing less than a slick attempt to nationalize all of America’s healthcare.”

Dick has prepared a powerful TV ad that exposes Obama’s takeover.

You can see the TV ad by Going Here Now

Dick’s ad also warns seniors that when Obama adds 50 million new patients into the government system, it will collapse Medicare, causing massive rationing of healthcare to people who paid taxes all their lives.

Obama and the Democrats in Congress can’t afford to lose the seniors. They are a key swing group.

Polling data shows our message is getting out there.

A new Gallup poll out this week shows that seniors overwhelmingly oppose Obama’s plan.

For example, lower percentages of seniors expect the reform plan to benefit them personally than any other age group — and more expect their medical care to worsen than improve by a margin of 39 percent to 20 percent.

And only 34 percent of seniors think healthcare reform would improve medical care in this country.

It’s no wonder that Obama’s overall job approval ratings are plummeting.

Have no doubt: Democrats in Congress are running scared.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Official Website: Glenn Beck’s flip flop on healthcare after switching from CNN to Fox

Highlights from the latest Daily Show headline coverage and guest interviews from the week of August 10th.

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