Tag Archives: zBarack Obama

My Business Model Sucks — YOU Take It

Posted on November 30, 2009 | Leave a comment

Minnesota has one of the oldest High Risk Pools, Minnesota Comprehensive Health Insurance, in the country.  All told, there are 35 of them and the Gopher State has been at it since 1976.  It’s mission, a noble one.

Since becoming operational in 1977, MCHA has served as an insurance safety net for Minnesotans who have been turned down for individual health insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

Sounds great.  And to a whole bunch of people it is.  With pre-existing conditions they are able to find health insurance where normally they might not be able to.  Only problem?

In 2008, MCHA spent $136.5 million more paying for medical care and administrative costs than it collected in premiums and other revenue.  In 2009, those losses are projected at $150 million.

That’s a whole lotta money.  Now, without going into the Oughts and Ought Nots of the thing, the point remains; that’s a lot of money.  And the main strategy of the MCHA to get to the point where they don’t lose that kinda money year over year?  Obama’s Health Insurance Reform.  Yup.  The only way for the MCHA to quit losing money is to go out of business.

And the only way for the United States to AVOID losing money is to STAY out of business.

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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Honduras

Posted on November 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

This one I don’t get.  There is a country.  This country has a Constitution that says a President can only serve 2 terms.  The current President wants to serve at least 3.  The legally sanctioned Vice-President along with the Constitutionally called for “Senate” arrest said President and strip him of his power.  The Vice-President, a political ALLY of ex-President, reluctant to do so, accepts the job of President and is willing to hold elections and step down to the winner.

Obama calls foul.

So, America crafts a deal that would call for the disgraced President to regain his office IF he recognizes the elections in November, per the Constitution.

Now, the rascal is backing out.  He even sent a letter to Obama.

Obama: Love – 40

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Posted in Politics: International

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A New Low

Posted on November 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

Unbelievable.  Then again, maybe it IS believable.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night injected race into the national debate on health care, saying any black lawmaker who votes against President Obama’s sweeping overhaul isn’t really black, the Hill newspaper reported.

“We even have blacks voting against the health care bill,” Jackson reportedly said at a Congressional Black Caucus reception Wednesday night honoring the 25th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s run for president.

“You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man,” the Hill reported him saying.

What an ass.

And on a second note:

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

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Posted in Health Care, Race

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Adult Talk in the World

Posted on November 16, 2009 | 1 comment

This assessment should shake up team Obama:

BEIJING — China’s top banking regulator issued a sharp critique of U.S. financial management only hours before President Barack Obama commenced his first visit to the Asian giant, highlighting economic and trade tensions that threaten to overshadow the trip.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that a weak U.S. dollar and low U.S. interest rates had led to “massive speculation” that was inflating asset bubbles around the world. It has created “unavoidable risks for the recovery of the global economy, especially emerging economies,” Liu said.

The situation is “seriously impacting global asset prices and encouraging speculation in stock and property markets.”

I LOVE getting schooled by China!

schools in session

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: International

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A Picture

Posted on November 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

Incredible.obama bow

Does he KNOW he is the leader of the Free World?

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Posted in Politics: International

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How They Spend Their Time

Posted on November 14, 2009 | 2 comments

A long time ago I worked at a corporate cafeteria.  In addition to serving lunches to the folks that had an office in the building, we would also cater events; weddings, anniversaries and what not.  On top of that, we would cater corporate lunches and “moral boosters.”  You know, that lunch outside serving picnic food and a coke.  Or, maybe it’s just a free ice cream sundae one afternoon.  All good ideas.

As I worked these that one summer, I was struck by one thing.  These high paid professional people would wait in line, in the sun, for a long long time to get a hot dog or a scoop of ice cream.  I never have understood it.  And now that I’m that professional worker in that office building and have the opportunity to wait 40 minutes in line for some chocolate ice cream, I smile and just keep on keepin’ on.

This story in France reminded me of those days:

An angry crowd hurled missiles and tipped over a vehicle near the Eiffel Tower in Paris Saturday after a company promised a massive cash giveaway but then failed to deliver, police said.

Trouble flared among the crowd of around 7,000 people when they realised the Internet company Rentabiliweb were not going ahead with the publicity stunt to give away some 40,000 euros (60,000 dollars).

Much like the cube dwellers on the offices above, these people apparently value their time at about $2,50 an hour.  See, I’m guessing that the whole ordeal took about two hours,  and the most likely payout for these folks would be $5.  Again, to be clear, these people would rather just blow hours of their time fo $5 than actually DO something.  Now, to be fair, maybe I’m making too big a deal over nothing.  Maybe the idea of spending time in a park in front of the Eiffel Tower is time well spent and heck, 5 free dollars with the chance to earn more seems like a bonus.  I think it’s a sign of what happens when people have an entitlement attitude.  When they are used to being take care of.  When they forget that they have to earn what is theirs.  My proof in this theory?

Police arrested around 10 people and nine were remanded in custody as anger erupted in the shadow of the Paris landmark.

I am afraid that this is where WE are heading.

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Posted in Politics: International

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What Have We Become

Posted on November 9, 2009 | 5 comments

Stumbled across a letter to Joe Lieberman tonight over at American Hatriotism today.  It’s awesome.  Basically you have someone over there talking about how awful, simply AWFUL, Mr. Lieberman is for coming out against the health care bill.  After a WHOLE bunch of discussion on the fact, we get to the point where a letter is penned and delivered to the Senator’s office.  I’ve captured all I could stand the beginning and then added my response to it.  If ya want, stop on over the Hatriotism and see if the comment got any action:

Dear Mr. Lieberman,

Do you sleep well while …..

so many Americans struggle to bear the pain and anguish they are experiencing today?

Far be it that people ought to struggle.

somewhere in America a hard working student finds out there is no means, no money, no way to college?

Is that hard-working student willing to work hard at a job?

a mother and father are struggling to provide the bare necessities for their disabled child?

Good bless then for being able to supply the necessities for their child; disabled or not.

an elderly man who fought for his country eats a can of beans for dinner and must dress in several layers of clothing because he can not afford a decent meal or to heat his meager home?

We thank him for his service; service to ensure that we are all free.  Free to be responsible.  Or not to be responsible.

a Mother over-medicates her baby with tylenol for his earache because she can not take him to the urgent care or doctor for treatment?

She should take the bay to urgent care or the doctor for treatment.

a family will huddle in the cold behind a dumpster to block the wind because they have nowhere else to go?

Before they go to the government, they should go to church.

a husband and wife lie in bed discussing how to break it to their children that they will soon lose their home and have to move?

The tender mercies of learning not to borrow money you can’t afford to pay back.

a couple that saved thousands for a home they will now lose when the bank takes it away?

This should be sent to Senator Frank actually.

a father tells his family he has lost his job and they can no longer count on him to take care of them?

A real father would say that he has lost his job and will do whatever it takes to take care of them.  Even if it means working 3 others.

a mother tells her children there isn’t anything left in the house to eat?

How many different ways can you say the same thing?

another father wonders how many more days, weeks, months before he will work again and worries how they’ll make it until then?

Jeez.

The whole rest of your letter is the same point on and on and on.

And the real tragedy?  Passing a law isn’t going to change any of that.

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Posted in Health Care, Liberty, Raising Men

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This Isn't Going To End Well

Posted on October 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

We know what happens when the government pressures banks to lend to people they wouldn’t otherwise lend to, right?

So, what does Obama wanna do when banks won’t lend to people they don’t want to?  He pressures ’em.

President Obama is prepared to take “every appropriate step” to pressure banks to lend more money to small businesses, he said Saturday, the latest in a week of salvos his administration has directed toward financial institutions.

Obama said banks should return the favor for a $700 billion taxpayer-financed financial bailout package by lending more money to small businesses, without specifying what steps he would be willing to take to mount pressure on the banks.

Too many small business owners remain unable to get credit, Obama said in his weekly radio address, despite his administration’s efforts to jump-start lending, which was virtually frozen when the financial crisis took hold last year.

“These are the very taxpayers who stood by America’s banks in a crisis, and now it’s time for our banks to stand by creditworthy small businesses and make the loans they need to open their doors, grow their operations and create new jobs,” Obama said.

“It’s time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system and more broadly shared prosperity,” said Obama.

Because 9.8% unemployment just isn’t high enough.  You know what happens when you start a Rookie?  He gets beat.

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Posted in Economy

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You Know They Are Desperate When

Posted on August 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

Check this post out over at alan.com.  In it, a commenter is responding to Alan’s post that a woman on Medicare is opposing Obamacare, or Universal Health Care.

In the post, Alan is quoting an article in The Washington Monthly, which in turn is speaking about an article in the Wall Street Journal.  In that article is a story of a woman whose mother is on Medicare and whose sister is also on Medicare.  The family is attending Town Hall meetings to express their opinion on Medicare.  Alan and Co are just shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you that someone on the government dime would protest anything the government suggested.

The reporter from the Washington Monthly saeth thusly:

Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care has kept her mother alive. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care provides treatment and care to her sister. Based on the descriptions, it’s safe to assume the costs associated with treatments for Campbell’s mother and sister are enormous, but taxpayers and a socialized health care system pick up the tab. What’s wrong with that? Not a thing.

Except, of course, that Diane Campbell is now trying to convince people that health care reform is both radical and dangerous.

So, once a person is on government assistance, they are no longer able to, or at least shouldn’t, offer objection to further plans made by the government.  “Shut up citizen, listen and obey” is the message here.  There may be a whole host of reasons that these women don’t want this program pushed through.  Lord knows there are enough of those reason to fill a book.  But we couldn’t be bothered with those details.

But it gets even better.  See, Alan and The Washington Monthly go even further and bring up images of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

No offense to Diane Campbell, who must be suffering greatly.  But she has bought the right-wing meme that Obama is akin to Hitler and that health care reform will liken America to Nazi Germany.

So, now, not only is the Left offended that a sick grandmother would object to Obamacare, they bring up Hitler and the Nazi’s.

But the best is saved for last.  In the comments, in fact, the first one, we have a reader who claims that this woman MUST be a racist.

The only conclusion I can reach here is she’s a racist.

Awesome.  The bad news is that we have to continue to manage our way through this kind of nonsense.  The good news, when the Left resorts to this, you know we have won the hearts and minds.

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Posted in Health Care

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Two Parallels in One Article

Posted on July 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

I’ve admitted before that I am no economist.  Fact is, I haven’t even ever taken a class in economics.  However, I did major in mathematics and work significantly with statistics at my current job.  As I tell my boss, “I’m nifty with numbers”.

So, as I wax poetic on all of these economic issues I do so with a bit of trepidation.  See, really, from an “expert’s” point of view, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Which makes seeing two of my most often repeated mantras in text at one time very exciting.  This article from Mises.org just made my morning:

Mandating benefits for employees imposes costs on employment. The would-be worker bears the cost. It makes the worker more expensive to hire. The employer has to pay not only a salary but also a benefit. If you make it more expensive to hire people, fewer people will be hired.

It is no different from eggs at the supermarket. If they are $2 each, you will purchase fewer of them — you will economize. This is nothing but the law of demand: consumers will demand less of a good at a higher price than of a good at a lower price. A salary plus benefits amounts to a price that the employer must pay to purchase the work of a laborer. At a higher price, less work will be purchased by the employer.

You should read the whole article; it’s fantastically simple.  And for once, I see in print, what I seem to intuit.  And furthermore, it is verbalized with economic expertize that I simply can’t claim:

There is no real reason to prove these assertions empirically since they flow from the logic of economics.

The article is entitled  “The Jobs Program” and deals with health care:

Sadly, there is no way that free health care can be granted to all living things with the stroke of a pen. Broadening availability will require that the entire sector be turned over to the private sector, so that it can be controlled through the price system like everything else.

But while Mr. Rockwell is speaking about the current health care bill, his article could easily be speaking about the new minimum wage increase slated this month.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care

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