Reducing The Cost of Health Insurance

Posted on April 17, 2012 | 3 comments

One of the contributors to the price of medical care is the price of malpractice insurance.  And with a simple change in tort laws that price of malpractice has diminished:

RALEIGH – The state’s second largest medical malpractice insurer has cut its premiums in response to the effects of tort reform laws in North Carolina and other states as well as to put it on a more competitive footing.

Mag Mutual Insurance Co. has cut doctors’ premiums by an average of 7.4 percent for 2012, North Carolina Department of Insurance spokeswoman Kerry Hall says. The company calls 3 percentage points of that a “tort reform credit.”

There’s a whole bunch of ways top reduce the cost of medical care besides forcing young healthy people to buy a product they don’t want or even need.

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Posted in Health Care

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Taxes: The Left Wins – I Lose

Posted on April 17, 2012 | 2 comments

I have been waging a continuous war on taxes and increasing them.  I personally think that the best way to cause our elected officials to reduce the size of government is to reduce the amount of money we give ’em.  Those on the left feel that the best way to balance the budget is to INCREASE taxes.  Now,  unless they are pure Marxists who simply will not accept any other form of economic structure than that of transferring money from the wealthy to the poor, what my friends are saying is that we need to increase taxes to increase REVENUE.

The more money IN, the better off the budget/deficit will be.

Sadly, for the second year in a row and for the last 24 out of 30 years, the left has succeeded in growing revenue.  In 2011 the United States Federal government will have taken in $2.3035 trillion.  This represents a 6.51% increase year over year 2010.

If I’m lucky I can achieve my goal of shrinking government in 2012 but it doesn’t look good.  The Tax Policy Center is calling for a 2012 tax receipt increase of  $165.1 billion in 2012.  And it only looks to get worse year over year after that.

Sigh.

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Government, Politics: National

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People Who Are Bad At Money Don’t Have Money

Posted on April 17, 2012 | 8 comments

Poverty in the United States is a problem.  When folks are poor they are less healthy, receive less education and are more likely to raise children who are poor themselves.  And there are a lot of noble efforts to curb poverty in the US.  Much of that effort is, of course, centered on taking money from people who have it and giving it to other people who don’t.

There are schools of thought that say, “The wealthy are able to give their children unfair advantages.  We need to remedy this unfairness by proxy; giving money to the children of the poor.”

Not surprisingly, I don’t agree with this.

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Posted in Idiots on Parade, Life, Middle Class

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The Best Of Times

Posted on April 15, 2012 | 1 comment


Watching the Twins today. Had a great moment with my 6 year-old kid. Earlier in the weekend we began exploring what a batting average is. I explained it this way:

If Jeter has an average of .312 it means that if he has 1,000 chances to get a hit or get an out, he gets a hit 312 times.

As we watched the Twins some freakin’ guy named Clete steps to the plate for the hometown 9.  The child laughs at Clete’s .000 AVG 0 HRS 0 RBIS line.  Just as I say, “If  ‘ol Clete here were to get 1,000 chances to get a hit, he’d get ZERO of ….”

And then the bastard goes yard on me. Me boy fell out laughing. How cool is it that he got that?

Then he asked me if I thought the Twins would win now that we were up 3-2. I said, “No.” He said, “Why not daddy?” to which I replied, “Cause we’re a horrible ballclub son.”

He just nodded and said, “Yup.”

I just saw that we lost 4-3.

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Posted in Fun, Life, Raising Men

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Gedankenexperimente

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Do you ever have that great moment or feeling when you finally find the name for that thing you think other people think makes you a weirdo?

I do and I found it the other day:

A while back, Sam introduced us to Trolley Problems. I refer to Trolley Problems as a proper noun, since it’s a category of thought-experiments (Gedankenexperimente) that I will be using to test our moral intuitions vis-à-vis euvoluntary exchange.

And it’s real:

A thought experiment or Gedankenexperiment (from German) considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences. Given the structure of the experiment, it may or may not be possible to actually perform it, and, in the case that it is possible for it to be performed, there need be no intention of any kind to actually perform the experiment in question. The common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question.

Ahhh, it makes all the difference just to know.

 

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Posted in Fun, Life

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The Left’s War On Women: They Can’t Stop

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

This is an amazing experience.   See, normally it’s the left drumming up “victim” scenarios and propping themselves up on the strength of the populist message with not an iota of policy behind it.  This has resulted in the right trying to stand for the tough but correct choices required to manage a country.  For ever it’s been the the democrats setting up these faux stories and then watching the republicans just whack away at vapor.  Again.  Again and again.

I’ve been amazed at how well it works, how enticing that “whacking” can be and then, finally, why the right allows itself to get stuck time and time again.

Now it know; it’s human nature.  See, it’s happening again.

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Posted in Elections 2012, Idiots on Parade, Politics: National

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Two Things I Didn’t Know Until Today

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Casually reading this morning.  Came across two things:

  1. Apparently prostitution is legal in the area of Columbia that the Secret Service agents were at when they did what they did.
  2. Barack Obama is really traveling in an effort to raise cash:

As of March 6, Mr. Obama has participated in 191 fundraisers, already topping the re-election cycle totals of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who held 167 and 173 fundraisers, respectively,

Yikes!

Obama, to date, has ALREADY held more fundraisers than Dubya and Bubba did the WHOLE of their re-election efforts.  As I was cleaning the house today I had to smile at the irony of these two stories being related to each other in my mind.

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Posted in Elections 2012

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Voter Fraud Made East Courtesy Eric Holder

Posted on April 14, 2012 | 4 comments

Without comment:

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Posted in Fun, Politics: National

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Of Honor, Tradition And Things Cool

Posted on April 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

During the Civil War a family here in Raleigh lost several brothers.  They were buried and then…lost.  They were buried in graves marked with headstone and forget.  As urban sprawl sprawled, they were forgotten and lost.  Until recently:

Raleigh, N.C. — The bodies of two Civil War-era soldiers were re-buried Saturday in Raleigh.

Brothers Joel and Joseph Holleman died and were buried in 1862, but their remains were unearthed in Raleigh last month by development. Excavation near PNC Arena turned up the brothers’ bones.

On Saturday morning, the two men rested under honor guard at the North Carolina Museum of History.

A horse-drawn artillery caisson bore them to Oakwood Cemetery where the North Carolina Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans buried them with a military and Masonic service.

One of the men was a Mason; he received a full Masonic funeral.  I wish that I had known this was taking place; I’da tried to go.

In the photos you can see North Carolina Masons marching in procession, accompanying their fallen Brother.  A lambskin apron is resting on the alter, presumably to be placed upon the coffin which shall contain his earthly remains, and with them laid beneath the silent clods of the valley.  Finally you see a Mason holding a sprig of Acacia; the symbol to Masons that we are all walking through our probationary state to be reunited again with the Supreme Architect of the Universe in that temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

I’m a sucker for pomp and circumstance; ritual and tradition.  This is good stuff today.

 

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Posted in Faith, Life

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North Carolina And Gay Marriage

Posted on April 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

Here in North Carolina, sadly, we have a fight brewing.  On the upcoming ballot is a constitutional amendment that would make gay marriage and all forms of civil unions unconstitutional.

I happen to be a big “states rights” kinda guy so I don’t have as much a problem with this initiative being on the ballot as I do that there are that many people who want it on the ballot.  Marriage, from the perspective of the state, is nothing more than a legally binding contract between two consenting and unrelated adults.  Nothing more and nothing less.

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Posted in Liberty, Politics: North Carolina, Republicans Can Be Leftists Too

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