January 20, 2009

At last! An Idaho Baker!

Poster courtesy of Joyce Stevens
Thanks, Joyce!
Over two years ago, upon seeing the candidates for president in 2008, I complained that they were all Tater Tots, and what this country needed was an Idaho Baker.
We got him. No more hash browns!
God bless America. God bless our new president, Barack Obama.


Songs du jour:

"Joy to the world. All the boys and girls now. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me." Three Dog Night

"Birds flyin' high. You know how I feel...it's a new dawn...it's a new day...feelin' good." Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse

January 13, 2009

S. J. Robinson, Guest Author, Health Care Reform

S. J. Robinson and her novel, The Price of Death

A few weeks ago, in my rant about Americans having a lot of work to do to get this country back on the right track, I mentioned several target areas. Among them, the war, infrastructure, education, and health care. Here to speak on health care reform is fellow author S. J. Robinson, who is uniquely qualified to speak to our health care issues.

LET’S PUT ADULTS IN CHARGE
S. J. Robinson


S.J. Robinson is a former nurse, lawyer and authors. Her debut novel, The Price of Death, is a medical malpractice fiction illustrating the startling events that go on behind the scenes in our health care system. You think you know what is wrong with our health care system? You need to read this book. See more of S. J. Robinson’s information about our health care system and, more importantly, how to fix it, at . www.sjrobinson.com/


We have been relying on the free enterprise system to provide us with many of our needs for a long time—food, clothing, medical care, housing. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Why doesn’t it always work? Because no one is in charge!

A totally unregulated free enterprise system is like a room full of kindergartners without a teacher. The kids are likely to come up with some very creative ideas. The problem is that they don’t plan ahead.

We need some adults in charge, people with experience to set the guidelines for the kindergartners. That is what the government is supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, it failed with the banking sector and it is failing in our medical system.

In both these areas the government failed because the only goal it set was to make a profit. That’s right, by historical accident corporations are legally required to think of profits ahead of your welfare. The best way to do that is to convince the public to accept the least amount of service at the highest price. That is what caused banks to make loans that they knew were unlikely to be repaid, and why big pharma and insurance companies haven’t come up with an efficient, practical way to deliver health care to the millions of upcoming baby-boomers. We know what happened in banking, but did you know that the US spends twice as much on health care as any other country and we rank 37th in the world in health care delivery, just after Costa Rica?

Medicine has known for years that the human body has about a 50-year warranty and after that things start going wrong. We have also known that there are a number of baby-boomers who are approaching or have passed age 50, yet we continue to rely on the free-enterprise system to solve the problem of delivering health care to this burgeoning population. There are lots of good points about the free-enterprise system, but planning for this catastrophe under the old rules is not one of them.

We need adults in charge to reset the rules so that the kindergartners can come up with their great ideas in an environment that doesn’t kill us or them. Let’s reset the goals for private enterprise. The new rules should require the best, sustainable service possible for their customers, not making profits for their shareholders.

Thank you, Sue, for all of your efforts on our behalf. I'm one of the lucky ones who can cover my health care costs (but not much else!). It breaks my heart when I see people go without good health care. Visit her website and get involved. We can do better, America.


January 11, 2009

Mt. Rainier in a flood mode

Mt. Rainier, January, 2009

Maybe you heard. After our snow, came floods. I know this is a lousy photo, but it was lousy weather. This is what millions of gallons of snow looks like when it's melting into the local rivers and towns. The good news was, our levies held--there was some doubt if they would when the river rose 36 feet above flood level. All in all, great weather for writing. I got all the way through another edit of Bears in the Hibiscus.

It's two in the morning, and I've never dazzled anyone at this hour (Well, maybe when I was much younger...). Before I go back to bed, who's watching Bush tomorrow?

PS- If anyone needs a creative way to save a 100-year-old Chickering from flood waters, let me know...