Self-Care Reform

Self-Care Reform
After watching the 24 hour news coverage of the health care debates and protests last week I have come to one conclusion about where the blame lies for much of the costs of healthcare in America. No it’s not the insurance companies who routinely raise costs to hedge against losses. It’s not big pharma who charges seemingly huge amounts for drugs to cover the costs of past and future testing. It’s the populace at large…and I mean LARGE! As they panned the floor of the House one thing rang consistent, the people shaping our laws are way out of shape. The protesting crowds fared no better, the angry masses were just that, masses. One of the major costs associated with tending to our growing population is the way that we’ve been growing, fatter by the day.
We are fast becoming the fattest nation on Earth in what has been consistently referred to as the ‘Obesity Epidemic’. Sure there are those with true pre-existing conditions who will benefit from the health care reform but they are the exception to the rule. For the majority, their inability to bypass immediate gratification in the form of Super-sized burgers, fries, and stuffed crust pizza with unlimited breadsticks is leading to a whole host of expensive medical needs from heart disease to Type 2 diabetes, and more. We’ve gotten too lazy to shop, cook, or even walk in to a restaurant. We just drive-thru and eat on our stomachs like hungry sea animals. The Senate is trying to close the donut hole in Medicare coverage while the rest of the donut is being crammed down the gullets of a people hypnotized by a sign reading, “Hot and Fresh Now!”
We have become a nation of victims crying out for someone to come to our aid when personal responsibility fails us. When we are caught in the tractor beam that sucks us in to McDonald’s we scream for lawmakers to clamp down on the oils they use. “Oh, it couldn’t be the sheer amount of garbage we feed ourselves, it must be the fault of some partially hydrogenated trans-gender peanut oil right?” screams John Q. as their doctor executes a third triple bypass like it’s a gold medal event. “It couldn’t be the fault of the people to make good choices it must be their lack of education. We just need to put on better warning labels! That worked for cigarettes right? HA! HA!” says Big Brother as they pander for our approval. Mark my words on this one, the government getting involved in anything is not going to make things better, it never does.
My prescription is simple, put down the junk food and get active. Cutting calories will cut costs for you and everyone else. You won’t just add years to your life but you’ll add life to your years. To the protesters I say, stay angry on both sides by marching vigorously for at least 20 minutes a day, 4 days a week. As you progress in your dissent for life’s injustices, carry heavier signs, changing arms frequently. If your cause du jour gets taken care of find something that is worth marching for. For all others there will be a cigarette vigil on the steps of the Capitol. Those coming by bus are asked to bring extra lighters to supply those traveling by plane.

My Bromance with Paul Ryan

My Bromance with Paul Ryan
After watching the so-called ‘Health Care’ summit that was undoubtedly sponsored by the good people at Tylenol PM, I came away with two things; President Obama’s arrogance and hubris know no bounds and I am developing a slight Bromance for Paul Ryan. I say this with no desire to change my affiliation to Log Cabin Republican, but instead it is a political man-crush like the generation before claims to have had for the Kennedys.
Congressman Ryan has a quickly growing list of political battles he has fought and won recently on behalf of the American people, in and out of his district. As I think of these tick marks in his ‘W’ column, they grow in mythological worth and take the shape of the of the announcement of a champion knight entering the jousting arena…”And yea, did he defeat Barack the Mighty by standing firm on the hill, and thus did he face down mighty the Slaughter of which a rule was so named, and in turn did he take his chart of facts and stand on his beliefs on that mighty Sunday against Wasserman Schultz from the land of sun and sand.” You get the picture.
Alas, all of these stands Brave Sir Paul has made to beat back the lies and deceits of the Socialist agenda appear to be for naught. This latest round included his appearance on Fox News Sunday replete with what was referred to as his “Ross Perot” chart, as it was colorful and full of honest, common sense… which is generally frowned upon by the media. It would appear that exposing Team BO’s creative math claims that their plan would save $138 billion over ten years to the reality of spending over $600 billion to the negative is wasted breath. Regardless, thank you Paul Ryan for fighting the good fight. Time to put down my signs and ease up on the blogging…I need to go find a way to make slightly less money, work on my diet and exercise, I don’t want to have to visit Dr. Obama...or pay for anyone elses.

The Most Ethical Congress in history! Really…I swear!

The hits to the Dems keep a comin’ as yet another TWO prominent House members fall from grace. Just a few short years after Speaker Pelosi gave the campaign promise on the mount to “Drain the swamp” and bring us “The Most Ethical Congress in history” the quantity of scandal and greed is piling up pretty high. Of course we know from Nancy herself that, “Lot’s of things get said out on the campaign trail.” Oh how I wish we could power our cars and factories on the political snake oil we were sold at the ’06 mid-terms!
It appears that Congressman Rangel is having is Ways and Means gavel wrangled from him as he is finally taken down on the technicality of not claiming some past corporate perks. This is akin to Al Capone going up river for tax evasion. How quickly we are shown the shiny object that is the svelte and sexy Charlie splayed out in his Caribbean beach chair in hopes that we will soon forget there are scores of other charges pending. From ill-gotten and underreported rental gains to various other misappropriated funds the man who decided how we should be taxed found a big box next to his name that said ‘exempt’. Sorry Charlie, time to start redistributing your wealth too.
As well it appears today that Representative Eric Massa, also from the great state of New York will be turning tail and not running claiming medical difficulties. Initial reports cite that he is deathly allergic to scandal. There are rumors circulating that he sexually harassed a male staffer. Apparently Madam Speaker, it was fun to cast judgment when the offendee was a Republican (Larry Craig) but people in glass toilet stalls shouldn’t throw stones.
All this on the heels of quite a few other scandals that have been conveniently swept under the rug by the ‘mainstream’ media, such as Rep. Jefferson-LA, who borrowed a few of the extra life-saving vehicles during Katrina to retrieve the bribe money in his fridge.
It appears that when you drain the swamp all you are left with is scum. Will the last honest house member please do the eco-friendly thing and turn out the lights when you leave?

Green Jobs meet red tape as Obama debuts world’s most expensive caulk job

Green Jobs meet red tape as Obama debuts world’s most expensive caulk job

Just one year later and 90,000 jobs short, the green continues to flow out of DC as Team Obama tries to stimulate our economy. This time the well intentioned but ill-conceived Weatherization Program has not sealed homes with anything more than red tape. As well, the scant few homes that have been made more weather resistant have cost over $57,000 per job. One would think for that kind of cash the Feds could have built entire homes around the existing ones to provide the ultimate in protection. But alas the White House says the program is right on target. After all, they can dance with numbers like it’s a musical routine on Sesame Street. They claim that the amount of homes completed in 2009 was not intended to be the total but the correct portion for that year as an amount over the 4 years of the program. HUH? Even that bastion of liberal thought, ABC News, relayed that number as being 1.5% of the amount promised.
On closer inspection there seems to have been a number of procedural ‘mis-steps’ made by Reid and Pelosi. It appears they overlooked a little thing like the Davis-Bacon rule for equitable pay for federal projects. This took not only the whole year to sort out but is causing the project to be way over budget which must of course be why it’s so expensive to shore up these homes…the workers are getting rich! (I’d love to hear from them about the fat cash they’re making.)
What went wrong you ask? Well it seems the Bill was thrown hastily and haphazardly together like a drunken late night shopping spree. If you’ve ever had a few too many and meandered in to the grocery store you know what I mean. You end up spending a lot of money and have nothing to show for it. You wake up without eggs and bread and get stuck eating Little Debbie’s and Bagel Bites for breakfast. It has to make you wonder…if something as simple as weather stripping a few hundred thousand window sills is such a monumental task are these the people we want taking care of our medical needs? Keep your caulk away from me Barack.

Green Jobs meet red tape as Obama debuts world’s most expensive caulk job

Just one year later and 90,000 jobs short, the green continues to flow out of DC as Team Obama tries to stimulate our economy. This time the well intentioned but ill-conceived Weatherization Program has not sealed homes with anything more than red tape. As well, the scant few homes that have been made more weather resistant have cost over $57,000 per job. One would think for that kind of cash the Feds could have built entire homes around the existing ones to provide the ultimate in protection. But alas the White House says the program is right on target. After all, they can dance with numbers like it’s a musical routine on Sesame Street. They claim that the amount of homes completed in 2009 was not intended to be the total but the correct portion for that year as an amount over the 4 years of the program. HUH? Even that bastion of liberal thought, ABC News, relayed that number as being 1.5% of the amount promised.
On closer inspection there seems to have been a number of procedural ‘mis-steps’ made by Reid and Pelosi. It appears they overlooked a little thing like the Davis-Bacon rule for equitable pay for federal projects. This took not only the whole year to sort out but is causing the project to be way over budget which must of course be why it’s so expensive to shore up these homes…the workers are getting rich! (I’d love to hear from them about the fat cash they’re making.)
What went wrong you ask? Well it seems the Bill was thrown hastily and haphazardly together like a drunken late night shopping spree. If you’ve ever had a few too many and meandered in to the grocery store you know what I mean. You end up spending a lot of money and have nothing to show for it. You wake up without eggs and bread and get stuck eating Little Debbie’s and Bagel Bites for breakfast. It has to make you wonder…if something as simple as weather stripping a few hundred thousand window sills is such a monumental task are these the people we want taking care of our medical needs? Keep your caulk away from me Barack.

Greenies $ee Green…but not the bright light of common sense!

As the latest info from the front in the war against the Chicken Little Enviro crowd comes in, the cacophony of laughter from the irony is rolling across the country. It not only appears that Global Warming is a farce (at the very least man-made GW) but that the do-gooders who strapped themselves into the dork mobile known as the Prius were ‘risking’ their lives at an…ahem…greater pace than from the 50 year threat of rising tides and warming winds. Apparently the Green crowd is suing Toyota for some big green because their 100hp Prii are accelerating wildly out of control resulting in soft tissue damage. First and foremost, the words Prius and acceleration should never be in the same sentence. Even if Whole Foods was having a mega sale on Patchouli and Birkenstocks I don’t think a Prius could make the trip with any more speed than a fat kid on a big wheel going uphill on an icy street. Next, I think much of the ‘soft tissue’ damage already existed between the ears of the Hybrid crowd. Last but not least, while they can’t seem to abandon the failed notion that all of the data they’ve been fed about the warming doom has been a scam, they are quick to ditch the car and it’s maker that gave them the chance to be a part of something bigger. Let’s just hope they put the class in ‘class action’ and carpool to the lawsuit rather than fly.

Finally real stimulus for the economy…Lobbyist money!

The figures are in for the money spent on lobbying last year and while it’s a mere five percent increase that equates to $170 million dollars on the total 3.7 billion spent overall. It might not seem like much if you are bandying those numbers around like Dr. Evil holding the world for ransom, but when you consider where that money goes it is staggering. All of that money of course goes to a good cause eventually, a top notch chef, the waiter who served the meal, the trucker who delivered the supplies to the restaurant, etc., so obviously it doesn’t make any sense to cut this off. Regardless, there’s finally an industry in America that is growing! The Healthcare bill and maybe even the so-called “Stimulus Package” may have actually saved or created some jobs!
If you are one of the many that thinks lobbying means standing in the foyer of an elected official waiting to change his mind about upcoming legislation, you would be wrong. Lobbying has become the process of pedaling influence in the form of thinly veiled bribes. Be it through skyboxes for sporting events, access to the Big Pharma jet, or a never-ending supply of top shelf martinis, lobbying to sway opinion has turned in to a game of ‘Pimp my Congressman’. The average American who still has a job is glad for that, even if it came with a cut in pay, yet our elected officials are never without a yearly cost of living increase while spending more time ‘at recess’ than a poorly run day care center. And although I can cry crocodile tears at the hundred thousand dollar pittances Senators make, it is all the ‘perks’ from the lobbies that make living the DC ‘Cribs’ lifestyle so attractive.
I point this out not to rail against lobbyists or the process of lobbying in general. I’m merely trying to draw attention to the extravagant lives our Pols live, and to remind you that money, one way or another, comes out of our pockets. And for an administration that is bent on doing away with the culture of corruption and influence, they sure have no problem bellying up to the open bar. As well we certainly can’t ever get rid of the lobbying process, how would Washington ever know which way to cast their vote? The government just needs to quit making bad guys out of lobbyists when their glasses and tummies are full.