MOCKBADOC

Something else to worry about.

2011-11-25T08:57:00.001-08:00

So now it is becoming even more clear that the entire Manmade Global Warming thing has been one colossal hoax. When the 5000 emails recently obtained from the most prominent climate scientists on earth are completely reviewed, only the very most committed Gore-ites will be able to continue to carry the AGW water.

This, on the other hand, is something much more serious. The animals are beginning to fight back, people. This is how it starts.

Crony Capitalism?

2011-09-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

The only over-the-counter asthma medication, Primatene Mist, will be pulled from store shelves this year. The reason? A treaty signed by the U.S. that commits to limiting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a measure to protect the ozone layer.

Of course, if every asthmatic on earth simultaneously sprayed an entire Primatene inhaler with reckless abandon, it would result in precisely zero effect on the ozone layer. But alas, ozone is not the point.

A few years ago, the old tried-and-true generic albuterol inhaler was also pulled, citing the international treaty. Conveniently, pharmaceutical manufacturers immediately unveiled the "new" albuterol (non-generic, of course). It doesn't work as well as the old stuff, and it costs about twenty times as much. Quite a coup.

Follow the money, as usual. This is a perfect example of crony capitalism.

What are they up to....?

2011-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Okay. I figured the NC governor quote I blogged earlier - the one about suspending elections for the sake of jobs (especially those of Democrat politicians) - was just one, "off-the-reservation" bureaucrat making the mistake of being honest accidentally.

But now this from Peter Orszag, the former head of The Merciful and Wise One's Office of Management and Budget.

Two open and honest admissions of contempt for our Republic in one day??? No longer an accident. They are up to something. I suspect redirection. Everybody make sure your wallet is still there.

Obama the Shape Shifterhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

2011-09-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Look out everybody. The self-annointed "Middle Class Warrior" is brushing off the "Negro dialect".

What is he up to now? Even most black people must surely know by now that he only turns black when he wants something. Don't they? Don't they?

Good God, please tell me they know by now???? He's a fraud. Fo' shizzle.

You Gotta Be Crappin' Me.

2011-09-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

I saw this, and I am mostly mad with myself for being surprised.

Democrat Play Book:
Step 1. Commit unspeakable and horrific treachery against the Republic.
Step 2. Spend all the tax money on silly crap, print more money, spend all of that money...lather, rinse, repeat.
Step 3. Incur the rightful wrath of the People you have screwed.
Step 4. Insist on changing the rules so you can't be removed from office.
Step 5. Insist that anyone who believes we should have elections as scheduled is a redneck Nazi homophobe racist. Or worse yet, a Tea Party conservative. Or both.

You know, it reminds me of a conversation I had with the smartest person I know concerning the concept of tort reform. If the law no longer provides a legitimate way to achieve redress of grievances, victims are incentivized to seek remedy through other avenues. In other words, if you can't sue someone who has wronged you, then maybe you consider the idea of burning their house down.

Apparently the Democrats have made the calculation that there are simply not enough people out here in the real world who will fight a literal, real-world revolution to keep our Republic a Republic (and not of the Banana variety). We shall see. We shall see.

...the company you keep...

2011-08-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Congressman Paul Ryan,

As recently as one week ago, I would have considered your entry into the Presidential race a welcome miracle. Now I begin to wonder if I might have been too hasty in my opinion of you.

I am not suggesting that you aren't everything I thought. Your "Cut, Cap, and Balance" plan, although doomed from the beginning, had the sort of defiant-in-the-face-of-certain-defeat that characterizes the Thermopylaean position true conservatives face these days: facing an uneducated army of looters, moochers, union thugs, and race-baiters, led by ideologically-driven college professors, "community organizers" etc.

Then I read this Weekly Standard article, and it gave me pause.

If your closest friends and confidants include this brand of political elites, then I fear I misjudged you. I mean, come on; let's be honest. It is exactly this crowd that began our slide into this mess...not to take anything away from our current President, who turned our skid into a full-on, fishtailing, multiple turn-over interstate crash, of course.

But if we are ever to get out of this mess, you might want to consider talking to people for advice who have a bit more credibility as real conservatives, and not just the New England Yacht Club.

Sincerely,
MOCKBADOC

The IBEW thug stereotype confirmed. Well done.

2011-08-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

I guess we won't have to wait any longer for the union thuggery to recommence this election season. This poor guy in Michigan learned the hard way that "collective bargaining" is, to paraphrase Don Corleone, "an offer one can't refuse".

Funny Picture on Drudge

2011-08-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry. This is just funny. Or maybe I'm just exhausted. Either way, it makes me smile.

A Tribute to Ron Paul

2011-08-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

I respect Congressman Ron Paul very much. In fact, I think I'd like to just hang out with Ron Paul and his son Rand. I really can't think of a single issue on which I think he is simply dead wrong. And while I consider myself a Constitutionalist more than a Libertarian, I feel that his presence in the office of President would be a wonderful thing for the office.

However...

All of this having been said, I just don't see how he could ever beat Obama in a general election. There are a number of reasons for this, in my opinion.

While a very intelligent man with very well-considered (and correct) opinions on a myriad of issues, his delivery lacks a certain something. He comes off a bit whiny and a bit professorial at times. Like it or not, leaders have to have a bit of gravitas, and I fear he may be a bit lacking in that department
Tea Party aside, many in our country - and it is to our shame, incidentally - just simply don't see the sort of danger we are in as a country. For these citizens, voting someone who openly advocates the sort of austerity measures he does would be nearly impossible.
Obama, for all his obvious flaws, can absolutely count on his Mooter and Looter Coalition to vote for him to keep the hand-outs coming just a little longer. Whoever we nominate to oppose him must be able to unite a vast coalition of people, not just little bits and pieces of the conservative-leaning people in the country.

In my humble opinion, Ron Paul has been a wonderful thing for the Conservative movement despite these facts, and despite (and probably because) he has not been, and likely never will be the Republican nominee for President. So thank you, Mr. Ron Paul. Thank you for being a wonderful, brilliant man with equally brilliant ideas and a wonderful heart. But please don't start undermining one of the other nominees that almost certainly will be the person running against Obama next year. Another 4 years of that maniac will be our end, and despite what you may think about your Republican opponents, any one of them would be better than four more years of Obama.

So let's all make nice and get behind Rick Perry, even if some of you have to hold your noses to vote for him. He beats the hell out of the alternative. Then, we'll hold his feet to the fire like we never did with Bush, and we Conservatives will make a good President out of him, whether he likes it or not. My gut tells me that he will be great (one way or another).

BATFE Agents Promoted

2011-08-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I really don't know what all the fuss is about. People generally do tend to get promoted for a job well-done. And since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) mission is, apparently, to kill American civilians, these guys really do deserve to be promoted. The brilliance of their success lies in the fact that Americans will continue to be gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers with ATF guns for decades to come. Well played, gentlemen.

It should be noted, however, that bonus points would have been given if they'd been able to (a) shoot someone's children with a sniper rifle or (b) burn a bunch of people and their children alive. Keep up the good work, guys.

British National Health Service: Service with a small "s".

2011-07-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Not that any one cares any more, but I am still fighting (although more quietly) to stop the Obamacare juggernaut. Part of the reason can be found in this story out of the Mother Country.

The United Kingdom, whose ubercompassionate socialist health care model has had its virtues extolled by virtually every member of our American Pharoah's regime, has continued to fall victim to the cruelest of enemies: reality.

This just in: a shocked British government has just reported that it is investigating an unsubstantiated report that unicorns may not be real.

Neither the Tooth Fairy nor Father Christmas could be reached for comment.

Oh. Sorry. I didn't know we were still debating this.

2011-07-28T15:52:00.001-07:00

I realize that those of us who have been "deniers" of the so-called indisputable truth of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have been utterly dismissed. So much so that some have even suggested that we be lumped in with Holocaust deniers, etc. Which is what makes this story so damned funny.

Viva la Revolucion.

Hooray.

2011-01-04T13:45:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note to celebrate. This is Nancy Pelosi’s last day as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The ship is sinking slightly more slowly, at least momentarily.

Speaking of ships…

Thank goodness they fired that Navy Commander for making “lewd” movies to boost his crew’s morale several years ago. I’d hate to think that lewdness would be tolerated in our new kinder, gentler, more fashion-conscious gay-friendly military.

In a related story, Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il, and the ghosts of Hitler and Stalin are still laughing until they vomit, then catching their breath, then laughing some more.

“…with a whimper…”

Oh My…

2010-12-13T09:55:00.001-08:00

A federal judge in Virginia has just struck down the individual mandate in PPACA (“Obamacare”) as un-Constitutional.

This is relatively likely to land this issue before the Supreme Court. It’ll be fascinating to see how this ends up.

Insurance.

2010-12-03T08:49:00.001-08:00

I hope you all will forgive me if I take a moment to review something that should be rather elementary.

When politicians speak of “insurance”, you must be careful not to fall for their favorite trick: lying.

Let’s take this phrase, which has become incredibly popular:

“You will not be denied insurance on the basis of pre-existing conditions.”

Sounds wonderful, right? I mean, that’s the whole problem with those pesky insurance companies. Denials.

Okay. So here’s where it gets a bit weird. What exactly do you think insurance is? It is a way of diffusing risk. The first step in “insuring” someone is to assess their particular level of risk. For example, when you apply for life insurance, they are certain to ask you if you smoke. Why? Because people who smoke die sooner than those who do not. They take the information you provide, then assess your risk and assign an amount they feel will cover that risk. That is your premium – the amount you must pay to have them insure you. The idea is that the premium should be less, in general, than the costs of having something bad happen to you.

So when people talk about removing the pre-existing condition concept from insurance, they are actually talking about something other than insurance. No insurance company will insure your car, for example, after the wreck has already occurred.

So what will happen? If insurance companies are forced to cover pre-existing conditions, this must simply be added into their computer program that spits out an amount of money that will balance that risk. It is quite literally impossible for this NOT to raise premiums.

Insurance that has no mechanism for assessing and pricing risk is not insurance. It is welfare. Words are important.

Happy Birthday

2010-11-10T08:15:00.001-08:00

Today is 10 November. A mere 235 years ago, on this date, the United States Marine Corps was created by an act of the Continental Congress. Twenty years ago on this date, I celebrated my first Marine Corps Birthday…at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California (Marine Boot Camp). There wasn’t much celebrating, of course. It seems like we got to scarf down something special during our four-minute evening meal or something.

In subsequent years, I’ve become progressively proud of my Marines. In an era where there seems to be little to celebrate, I can whole-heartedly celebrate the past, present, and future of the U.S. Marine Corps. If you want to feel proud of your country again, do an image search (or better yet a video search) on Bing or Google for “US Marines”. I guarantee you will smile, laugh, and probably cry. They should make us all so very proud. I am blessed to have been able to be a tiny part of that grand history.

Tonight, I will drink a toast to the Corps. I will say a prayer (as my family does often) for their safety, guidance, wisdom, bravery, and success. And I will look forward to the day when they can all come home to their loving families and friends ‘stateside’.

God Bless the U.S. Marines.

Guts.

2010-10-10T21:52:00.001-07:00

No comment necessary. I am hereby nominating this guy for the Nobel Prize. Maybe we can just give him Barry’s.

Our Friends to the South

2010-09-30T21:58:00.001-07:00

Problem on the U.S./Mexico border? What problem?

Great News!

2010-09-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

According the the New York Times, the TARP bailout programs are likely to cost nothing in the end.

That’s right. I said NOTHING. In fact, they may even net us little people (the slightly more than 50% of us who actually pay taxes) a tidy little profit.

So I guess I’ll just kick back, relax, and wait for my refund check from good ol’ President Barry from his “stash”.

Should I hold my breath?

More Shots Fired at the Second Amendment.

2010-09-20T11:15:00.001-07:00

Costco owes the whole country an apology, but especially the family of this innocent American hero.

Illegally crossing an international border and committing theft of tax dollars? No longer a crime.

But minding your own damned business, shopping, and exercising the Constitutional rights that you have put your own life on the line for? Apparently a capital offense, at least in Sin City. Come to think of it, that may be the only thing you can get in trouble for in Vegas.

If the same rules of engagement placed on our military were placed on the Las Vegas police, this guy would have gone home that night and slept in his own bed. And if more people exercised their Constitutional right to pack heat like this poor soldier did, the police wouldn’t have to be so aggressive when responding to a scene – the Citizenry would have already gotten things under control.

I am a huge supporter of the police, almost all the time. It’s an extremely difficult and largely thankless job under horrible conditions. This, however, definitely sounds like a bit of a hair trigger, IMHO.

Rest in peace, sir. I have a sinking feeling that a lot more of us won’t be far behind.

Semper Fidelis.

2010-09-10T10:21:00.001-07:00

Even as demoralized as I’ve been lately, my Band of Brothers never fails to put a smile back on my face.

No better friend; no worse enemy than a United States Marine.

Hail To The Chief. Ugh.

2010-08-30T10:46:00.001-07:00

Hey look, everybody. It’s the Metrosexual Safety Nazi in Chief.

Is there anybody who is still proud of electing this goober???

Once Again, Great Job, Guys.

2010-08-30T10:43:00.001-07:00

Prepare to be assimilated.

The architects of Obamacare, just in case any of you were still wondering, have removed all doubt about the purpose. Writing in an online article for the American College of Physicians (who supported Obamacare, incidentally), the insider bureaucrats openly state that small physician practices will likely become a thing of the past, replaced by large – probably hospital-owned – practices.

Only now are some in the medical community starting to wonder,

“Hey, you don’t think they’re trying to destroy us, do you?”

Too little too late, morons. You threw your lot in with the communists. Now enjoy being a little medical cog in their hateful machine.

Just don’t say we didn’t warn you. Idiots.

Amen, Doc Zero. Again.

2010-08-20T09:43:00.001-07:00

Once again, a superb piece of work from Doc Zero.

Peggy Noonan should burn her typewriter. Can’t touch him.

Andy Griffith? Truly, the Dark Side is Powerful.

2010-07-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

I. Have. No. Words.

I am so demoralized right now, I want to put my head down and just sob.

Never thought you’d do us like that, Andy. Welcome to the Enemies of the Republic list, old friend.

Mayberry weeps.

Tyranny:1 Citizens:0

2010-07-28T10:57:00.001-07:00

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has pulled the teeth out of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law.

This isn’t over, of course. But the message is clear and ominous: a sovereign State’s right to protect its citizens will not be recognized in federal court.

Even being on our own would be better – instead, we have our own federal government actively seeking to undermine our safety and security. This is so bizarre there really aren’t words.

Shocker. Yet another liberal anti-Semite.

2010-07-27T17:22:00.001-07:00

Oliver Stone apologized today for calling Adolf Hitler a “scapegoat”. His comments in London earlier this week provoked a short-lived rage by the Jewish community.

Why do liberals hate Jews so much? I don’t have the slightest idea. Perhaps the better question is why Jews love liberals so much.

I guess the Jews will get the memo that liberals like Oliver Stone are on the same side as Islamic fascists eventually…probably about the same time Black Americans will get the memo that liberals have spent the last century working to turn their entire culture into a drug-addled and welfare-dependent slave class.

I’m guessing both epiphanies will come too late to save the Republic.

Sorry, Charlie.

2010-07-22T13:49:00.001-07:00

This is pointless because they won’t do anything to him. Still, it makes me grin a little.

Now let’s see…who is left on the list?

Chris Dodd
Bawney Fwank
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Chuck Schumer

Maybe we’ll get to their numerous ethics violations sometime later. Or not.

I’m…uhh…sorry…?

2010-07-22T13:38:00.001-07:00

Okay. So this Sherrod woman at the USDA in Georgia is the victim of the year now? Is that accurate? I’m just checking. Let me see if I’ve got this straight real quick… Let’s go back over Mrs. Sherrod’s speech before the NAACP…:

1. She grew up on a farm, but hated agriculture. (She is, by her own admission, doing a job she finds uninteresting and sort of beneath her dignity).

2. She found out that she was a shoe-in at the USDA because she was a minority and there was an unfilled quota (her words not mine). So she is, by her own admission, only at the USDA because of the color of her skin.

3. She further found out that government jobs, like diamonds, are forever. She believed, by her own admission, she was an un-fireable bureaucrat.

4. A white farmer came in for help. Her first instinct was to deny his request for help because he was a dirty, evil white cracker devil. She is, by her own admission, a racist.

5. Eventually she relented and decided she would help the honky. Okay, so maybe she is a repentant racist.

The NAACP simply loved the part about her hating whitey and considering letting him starve to death instead of doing her job and helping him.

Does that pretty much cover it? Soooo…where’s the part I’m supposed to feel sorry for her about?

This, Apparently, is Social Justice.

2010-07-09T12:47:00.001-07:00

“I’m about the total destruction of white people. I’m about the total liberation of black people. I hate white people. I hate my enemy. …”

“I hate white people – all of them! Every last iota of a cracker, I hate ‘em’”.

“Through South Street with white, dirty, cracker whore [expletive] on our arms. And we call ourselves black men with African garb on.”

“What the hell is wrong with you, black man? You [inaudible] with a white girl on your damn arm!

“You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!”

These are quotes from a very nice young man named Maurice Heath. Mr. Heath calls himself Minister King Samir Shabazz, and is the head of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Funny thing about Maurice. He was prosecuted for voter intimidation by the US Department of Justice. He was found guilty. Then his conviction was dropped by that same justice department, on the orders of the Obama regime.

I guess this is payback on white people for something. I can’t figure out why our infants should be killed, though. Maybe Mr. Obama can help me understand.

As for Mr. Health, the fact that he hasn’t been put down like a rabid dog is to the eternal shame of the city of Philadelphia. We should demand that the Liberty Bell be removed to a city with real men. With actual testicles.

Finally! Jimmy Buffett Speaks Out on the Oil Spill.

2010-07-09T10:46:00.001-07:00

In today’s installment of “Famous People and Their Useless and Moronic Opinions”, Jimmy Buffett, who has made a career out of about 1.5 decent songs and being an aging drunk pothead, blames the Gulf Oil Spill on George W. Bush.

What a shocker. I think if I were Obama, I’d politely decline Mr. Buffett’s support. Or maybe he’s like,

“Hooray! A gray-haired, eternally adolescent drunk pothead hippie doesn’t think I stink as President!”

If Jimmie was a rocket scientist, he’d have figured out a way to keep scalpers from buying up all the tickets to his Relief Concert 12 seconds after they became available. Way to give power to the people, Jimmie.

This is a good start.

2010-06-28T20:57:00.001-07:00

I just had to copy this from Frank J. over at IMAO. Hilarious as usual. Also not a terrible idea.

“There’s talk that General Petraeus may change the rules of engagement in Afghanistan. We here at IMAO have obtained an advanced copy of what those new rules may be:

LETHAL FORCE CAN BE APPLIED WHEN…

* Someone is shooting at you.

* Someone is shooting near you.

* Someone is shooting another Transformers sequel.

* Someone blows into a vuvuzela.

* You already tried fisticuffs, and that didn’t work.

* You have written permission from your parents.

* Someone makes a “Yo’ Mama” joke that really stings.

* You ask, “Can I use lethal force against you?” and you’re pretty sure you see the guy nod.

* You’ve run into the inventor of clamshell packaging.

* Someone just looks extra, super terroristy.

* Hippies.

* Someone throws a puppy at you.

* You’re absolutely sure there’s no media around.”

Bummer…

2010-06-23T13:51:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess it was naive of me to hope for something so incredibly awesome. General Mattis got passed over for the Afghanistan job. Of course, had he been picked, the war would have been over in about 14 seconds, and Obama would’ve claimed all the credit anyway.

No, instead, Captain Terrific chose the same guy he called a liar when he was a lowly U.S. Senator from Illinois. He chose to send General Petraus to Afghanistan. This is what Mr. Wonderful’s Official Fan Club over at moveon.org used to think about General Petraus. Remember this little gem? It seems like only yesterday…

GENERAL PETRAEUS OR
GENERAL BETRAY US?

It is amazing what good leadership can do. Under Bush, this guy was a war criminal. Under Obama, he is a hero. And all it took was the President becoming a liberal democrat, just like the media. Wow.

Friendly Advice

2010-06-23T09:46:00.001-07:00

Fantasy Pick to Replace McChrystal

2010-06-23T08:20:00.001-07:00

Okay. So Obama may not even fire the good General for his hilarious (and entirely accurate) digs on Vice President Biden, et al., but if he does, my vote for his replacement goes overwhelmingly to this guy.

General James Mattis, USMC

Of course, picking him would indicate that Obama actually wants to win the war in Afghanistan, and I don’t really think that he does.

Why do I like General Mattis so much? I think I can put it best by using his own words.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

God bless you, sir. Chesty Puller would be proud. Semper Fidelis.

New Bumper Sticker…

2010-06-23T08:02:00.001-07:00

If you’re interested.

Huh?

2010-06-18T08:40:00.001-07:00

So this is what it takes to humiliate France? Wow. That is surprising. There is so much for them to choose from. They have at least a hundred years of colossal failures, yet it is this that has them finally feeling shame? Amazing.

And to think they used to be one of the most powerful nations on earth.

Way to go, guys.

2010-06-18T08:36:00.001-07:00

I think it is appropriate this week, as the American Medical Association is meeting in Chicago (insert your own joke here) that we recap the great successes of the AMA over the past year.

Wow. That is harder than I thought. I guess the big news this last year was that the AMA sold doctors down the river by signing on to the health care “reform” bill monstrosity. The price for their betrayal? Well, they will tell you that they did it because they were promised a permanent fix to the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate formula used to calculate physician reimbursements under Medicare (and therefore under all insurance). The result? A big fat nothing.

They sold us out, then got sold out themselves by slimy politicians who were acting, incidentally, like slimy politicians. It isn’t shocking that the Democrats lied about fixing the SGR to get the support of the AMA and many other physician groups. What is shocking is that these idiots in charge of these groups apparently didn’t get the memo that Democrats lie. Good grief. I’ve known that since I was like, in the 2nd grade.

Grow up, guys. The Obama regime hates us. We stand in the way of their ultimate goals. We must be destroyed. Stop helping them.

God Bless America, Indeed…

2010-06-14T21:20:00.001-07:00

Doc Zero does it again. This piece moves me to tears. I hope and I literally pray that his fantasy of worldwide Liberty comes to pass. We shall see. Will the servants of “the pit” win, or will those of us who love Liberty for All prevail? I shall serve Liberty with my dying breath. What about you?

Really?

2010-06-14T21:08:00.001-07:00

What happened? I thought Pelosi and the rest of the brain trust were supposed to bring costs down. Oh well. I guess some pigs are more “equal” than others.

Why Nurse Practitioners Don’t Scare Me

2010-06-11T13:15:00.001-07:00

A lot has been said lately (finally) about the apparent ascendancy of “mid-levels” – a fancy name for Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants – into a position from which they could challenge actual doctors (M.D.s and D.O.s) as Primary Care Providers (PCPs). I’ve been talking about this since the beginning of this blog, and I’m glad that others are getting on board.

This fear has been heightened by a couple of recent developments. First, there is the even greater aggressiveness of mid-levels, especially Nurse Practitioners, in staking just such a claim for stand-alone privileges. They have now gone so far as to crassly start calling themselves “Doctors” through a clever little trick of making their relatively brief training result in a “doctorate” degree – the D.NP. Second, there is the new health care bill, which promises to dump tens of millions of patients onto a primary care network already strained to the breaking point by years of neglect and financial attack from third-party payers, especially the federal government.

The concern boiled down is that mid-levels will push doctors out of the PCP business. There is reason to be concerned. Originally conceived to help ease the burden on PCPs touched on above, but now being paid 85% of what their doctor counterparts receive from Medicare, mid-levels have definitely begun to challenge their role as mere physician “helpers” and are now pushing – through their extremely powerful and even more extremely vocal unions – for more and more authority.

I have spent years in fear of this scenario. It won’t just be bad for doctors. It will be bad for patients. Nurse Prac…er… “Doctors of Nursing” simply aren’t trained like doctors. Neither are Physician Assistants – who, by the way, have their own lobby which is now pushing for them to leave behind the “assistant” part of their title and be called “Physician Associates”. Ugh.

I have had a bit of a change of heart, however. Don’t get me wrong – this whole deal is unbelievably unfair. To ask people to give up 12 years of their life to become “Board Certified Family Physicians”, and then to allow someone to do their job with less than 1/3 of the time spent and less than 1/10 of the money spent is simply obscene.

But here’s the thing. I am a good doctor. I work hard to be good at what I do. And I challenge any Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant to do my job better than I can. They won’t be able to. At least not with the kind of consistency that will make them able to steal my patients.

I feel confident in my abilities. I don’t have to refer every sore throat to an Otolaryngologist. I don’t refer every diabetic to an Endocrinologist. If insurers and the government think that a PA or NP can do my job cheaper than me, let them wait until they start to see the bills from the multi-specialist care those patients will receive.

If insurers start paying NPs and PAs like doctors, or start pretending they are doctors on par with me, then I will stop accepting that insurance. I am confident that my patients would rather see me than a nurse or PA. In fact, I am working overtime just to ensure that patients know the difference and can tell their insurance company (or the federal government) to stuff it if they go this way.

I’m not depending on anybody else to protect my job. I can do that on my own. Is it fair? Of course not. But nobody ever said life was fair, and as a self-sufficient Southerner and American, I specialize in winning unfair fights. Try and beat me at my own game, nurses. Do it without your union and without the government having your back. Do it on your own, like I am doing it, and then you’ll be worthy of the title “Doctor”, and not have to steal it through word games or trickery or political slight-of-hand.

The gauntlet is thrown down. I challenge you. But I don’t fear you. You haven’t earned that yet, either.

Amazing.

2010-06-11T10:00:00.001-07:00

This may be my favorite Doc Zero piece of all time. It’s been a while since I felt a giddy rush of excitement, but this tirade delivered just that. Feel the terror, bureaucrats. Feel it.

Islam. The Religion of Peace.

2010-06-10T09:45:00.001-07:00

Here is what the peaceful Muslims in Afghanistan are up to. Well, when they aren’t killing other Muslims who disagree with them, or setting pipe bombs to kill infidels.

Why are we at war with these creampuffs again??? Oh yeah. Now I remember.

OH NO!!!!!

2010-06-09T19:51:00.001-07:00

SOMEBODY DIED AND LEFT THE FORTUNE HE SPENT HIS LIFE BUILDING TO HIS FAMILY!!!!! THE HORROR!!!!! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?!? THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW!!!!! QUICK!!! SOMEBODY FIND SOME WAY TO SEIZE HIS MONEY BEFORE HE GETS TO DO WHAT HE WANTED WITH IT!!!!!

Hey, NYT. Butt out. Just because you can’t manage your own fortune doesn’t mean that you should mourn when someone else can.

This guy started with nothing and built something amazing. Don’t ruin it by looting it with your grubby little commie fingers to give it away to your buddies.

Obama Supports Terrorists…Again.

2010-06-09T09:47:00.001-07:00

Breaking News: Obama is going to give $400 million to the Palestinian leaders of the Gaza Strip. You know. The place from which rockets are launched that kill Israeli men, women, and children. Yes, that Gaza. The festering cesspool of vitreol and hatred that breeds terrorists like that water planet in the Star Wars movies bred clone warriors.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’d just as soon not send my hard-earned money to provide welfare and comfort for our enemies. Just sayin’.

Sanctions, Schmanctions…

2010-06-09T09:02:00.001-07:00

Thank goodness. Since the other sanctions have always proved so successful, I’m absolutely relieved that the U.N. has decided to talk even slightly less cordially to Iran about possibly not blowing up the world, please.

Whew. Guess I can scratch Iran off my list of worries now. Thanks, United Nations. You guys are the best.

Bye, Helen

2010-06-07T11:01:00.001-07:00

Helen Thomas, long-time crone and decaying Washington D.C. landmark has announced her immediate retirement. Tragically, she was undone by nothing more than going off on an anti-Semitic rant. On video. To a rabbi.

So since when has being exposed as a liberal anti-Semite (forgive the redundancy) been something you would be forced to resign over?

Guess I missed the memo or something.

Regardless, bon voyage, Helen. Enjoy your cackling, cauldron-stirring retirement.

Too Long...

2010-05-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Okay. It's been too long. Mostly I'm just sick of looking at Nancy Pelosi's picture on the top of my page, so I'll try and post enough to get her down there...somewhere.

Where to start?

1. The Dimocraps crammed Obamacare down our throats despite our vehement opposition. This is bad. We all know or at least suspect it. Well, at least most of us. The other 30% of us are members of some sort of union and are expecting a payoff.
2. O'Bow-Mao has shown his true colors. He is a Marxist, an Alinsky pupil, and Mohammedan sympathizer and is doing every thing he can during his (God willing) single term to rip the guts out of our free system to achieve his nefarious goals.
3. O'Bow-Mao wishes to destroy us. He will try to achieve this through:
a. Amnesty for illegal aliens to our country - a move that will ensure that the Dimocraps will have enough votes to stay in power for a little while longer. They've never been too good on the long game.
b. Cap and Trade - this is a wealth generator for the Dimocrap elite like Gore, even though the pseudoscience has been thoroughly discredited by their own nefarious emails.
c. Their continuing warfare against anybody who actually does or makes anything of real use.
4. A deep-water oil well exploded, threatening to inundate the Gulf coast with crude oil. This is bad. Of course, this is nothing more than a convenient disaster for the Libs, who want to drive us right back into the Dark Ages.
a. They were supposed to be - under the principle of "Enormous Government is Good For You" - watching the store. The enormous salaries you silly useful idiot taxpayers pay for government stooges to inspect these oil platforms was supposed to ensure that stuff like this can't happen. Of course, they are morons. They can't even pay their own taxes under the ridiculous tax structure they've created, and they certainly can't be trusted with stuff like this. So they dropped the ball (duh) and a giant explosion caused a disaster that they love. They love disasters. They are an excuse for even more giant government.
b. If they hadn't been such idiots, we could have been drilling on land and not a mile underneath the ocean. They are idiots. Did I mention that? The EPA should go directly to Hell.
c. The media are supposed to be our stopgap between out-of-control tyranny and us. They are useless, because the colleges they go to are inundated with idiotic unable-to-do-anything-useful Commie professors who poison their little tiny minds with Commie drivel. They then set out to make stupid doofuses like O'Bow-Mao seem to be intellectual giants. Obama is an idiot. I may have failed to mention that. Where is the outrage? Sorry. They spent their outrage on trying to show that Bush was the Antichrist or something.
d. They will use this as an excuse to make gasoline cost $12/gallon. Then you stupid plebes will learn that driving those stupid clown car "Smart Cars" is really smart. You know they are incredibly stupid. They are just going to make you drive them because it is funny to see a bunch of people driving golf carts and thinking it is cool.
e. Louisiana is trying to find a way to mitigate the disaster that will certainly devastate their coastal ecosystem. Unfortunately, they are being prevented from doing anything useful. By whom, you ask? Well, by the massive government agency entrusted with protecting their coastal ecosystem, of course. The EPA is preventing Louisiana from protecting herself. Why? Because the EPA wants the disaster to happen. It helps them to further their political agenda of destroying your liberty. It's what they do. The EPA should go directly to Hell. Did I mention that?
5. Arizona finally got sick of waiting on the Federal Government to do its Constitutional duty to protect the sovereign borders of the U.S. They passed a law that declares that being an illegal alien is...well...illegal. Shocker!!! Now the government that is derelict in its duty is refusing to do its duty. So much so that the government bureaucrat that is given the responsibility for deporting illegal aliens is refusing to deport illegal aliens. If he worked for me or any other small business owner, he would be fired immediately. What do we do? Applaud him for his open-mindedness.
a. Our own government applauds and gives a standing ovation to a foreign dictator (El Presidente of the hopelessly corrupt and hypocritical Mexico) when he bashes Arizona's law on the floor of the Congress. This was so disgusting that I can't even blog about it. There isn't enough soap in the whole world to make me feel clean after this display of anti-patriotism.
b. The Dimocraps are all Communists. From top to bottom. I beg them to prove me wrong. I won't hold my breath. There are no "Blue Dogs". There are just Red Commie scum.
c. Arizona is the first shot in the new battle for the right of free people to defend themselves in a country founded on the principle of people having the right to defend themselves. We support them or we die. Pure and simple.

What else? I think that just about covers it.

To recap:
1. Democrats are disgusting pieces of trash who would rather have the applause of dictators abroad than the appreciation of hard-working Americans.
2. Unions are filthy mob-run pyramid schemes who will ride the dying carcass of American productivity until it is well and truly dead at their hands. They are parasites of the lowest order.
3. Obama is the puppet of people who hate America and all she traditionally stands for.
4. We are doomed to a life of unnecessary toil and struggle if we don't destroy and eradicate these domestic enemies before they actually do any lasting damage.
5. Any so-called Republican that sides with these enemies of Liberty is worse than a traitor.
6. The EPA should go directly to Hell.

Did I leave anything out? Let me know.

Oh. And the Democrat Party should go the way of the Whigs. There is only one way to redemption, and it is either (a) Secession or (b) dismantling of the Democrat Party.

Yours Truly,
MOCKBADOC.

Hey, Beautiful...

2010-01-19T20:49:00.001-08:00

Whatchya doin' after the Scott Brown victory speech?

When Will France Learn to Just Shut Up?

2010-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

If you understand even the most basic elements of the history of the nation of Haiti, this story is beyond ironic.

Even being French is no excuse for this degree of stupidity. "Pot, I'm not sure if you and Kettle have met..."

Deep Thoughts for 2010: No. 2

2010-01-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Thirty-eight percent less zen than Deep Thought No. 1:

The pathetic, whimpering demise of Western civilization can be summarized by this recent web advertisement:

"Buy your Emo mugs, T-shirts, and magnets here!"

Discuss.

Deep Thoughts for 2010: No. 1

2009-12-30T14:45:00.000-08:00

The Day Science Died

2009-11-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

I've always been considerably mistrustful of "evidence based medicine", although I could never quite put my finger on why. As is too often the case, it is only in retrospect - when it appears it may be too late to do anything constructive - that I see the reason.

Benjamin Disraeli, First Earl of Beaconsfield and conservative 19th-century British Prime Minister once famously quipped that "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. As I've become a student of public health statistics, I've found that Disraeli was right on target. Statistics in medicine is, more often than not, the science of deception using what should be the most unassailable of all techniques: mathematics. A skeptic of mathematics is, of course, immediately dismissed as an idiot or a nut or both. Nevertheless, I find myself in that dwindling group of physicians that views "studies", the new intellectual currency of medicine, through doubtful eyes.

This week's shocking reversal of opinion about the importance of screening for breast and cervical cancer by no less an authority than the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) indicates that I and my fellow heretics were right to be skeptical. This comes hard on the heels of the head-spinning announcement by the American Cancer Society that, on the basis of "studies", the benefits of routine screening for preventable cancers have likely been overstated, and that treatment of these cancers in the early stages may, in fact, do more harm than good.

Really? Three years ago, the American Cancer Society repudiated a British researcher's "evidence" that there was minimal benefit to screening for breast cancer in women under 50. This study, it should be noted, concluded that the undeniable benefits of early detection in women under 50 were outweighed by...cost (http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/new_research/20061208.jsp).

It would not be insane to at least consider the political context in which these recent statements were made. If and when health care becomes a government industry, they have a strong financial interest in cutting costs. What is the real meaning of these recent announcements? They are the first evidence of health care rationing. When cost-containment is a primary concern, there are some patients who are cheaper if they will simply die before they get expensive.

The medical establishment has now completed its transition to government surrogate. Propagating their own brand of dubious evidence and pseudo-scientific "evidence", ACOG leaders can now attend the same lavish Washington cocktail parties attended by the other members of the enlightened collectivist intelligentsia and manmade-global-warming devotees. Real doctors - the men and women who actually treat patients every day - have been betrayed by the societies created to facilitate the effective treatment of disease. We can no longer trust our own societies. And sadly, patients feel they can no longer trust us.

Where do real doctors go from here? It's a pretty bleak picture. Real doctors are few. Having spent centuries mastering the science of medicine, we lost our way somewhere along the road and forgot what science was. Science is observation. Our real-life observations of our patients and their experiences, however, have been denigrated by the medical establishment for decades. "It's only anecdotal," they would say. "Where's your real evidence?" Generations of doctors have emerged from their training as automatons - depending on others to be their eyes and ears. We always assumed that those hired eyes and ears were working for the benefit of patients as we were. Instead, they were being paid to sign their name to ghost-written research. They were on the payroll of for-profit companies. They were on the payroll of a government who now shows its true motive - to become one giant cost-obsessed insurance company. Only now does my gut instinct about "evidence-based medicine" find things placed into focus. I pray it isn't too late for our profession and for our patients.

The first step is to do everything in our power to distance ourselves from the hopelessly corrupted medical establishment - and fast. They had already sold us out for transparent government promises; now our patients are their new targets. They must not be allowed to use our memberships as tacit approval of their actions. Cancel your memberships. They are worthless anyway.

We must, as real doctors with real patients with real concerns, secede from our "profession" and return to what we were entrusted to do. If the government and Big Insurance won't allow the market to work on the large-scale, we must endeavor to do it on the small-scale. I can do examinations for a low price for as many patients as will pay me a fair price for my services. If patients pay for their own mammograms, I'll bet we can find willing radiologists to read those tests for a discount - and end up better off in the end by-passing the endless paperwork and red tape. The increased demand for these procedures would, of course, lead to lower costs per procedure. I would be surprised if some enterprising pathologist wouldn't be willing to do the same regarding Pap smears. Nothing says that we can't do this on our own, if there are simply enough of us left. We don't need permission from the President, the HHS Secretary, or the insurance companies. We only need the approval of our patients. But most of all, we need their trust. If we start now, we can still salvage what is left of it and be real doctors again. If we start now, we may yet rescue our science from death by the strangulation of greed and corruption.

If we start now.

The President Who Cried Wolf...

2009-10-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: My thoughts on this matter do not represent an official medical opinion, and should not be considered as medical advice.

President Obama has declared the outbreak of H1N1 influenza pandemic a "national emergency". This is a very serious claim. For those of us in health care, a mention of an influenza pandemic conjures up memories from countless stories in our training about the 1917-1918 outbreaks that infected an estimated 20 million people in the U.S. and likely killed 850,000.

The current H1N1 influenza outbreak, just to put things in perspective, has killed 100 Americans. There are, to be certain, 100 heartbreaking personal stories to accompany these tragic and untimely ends. We would do well never to forget this. There are real people with real families in real pain behind these nameless, faceless numbers.

But we have a responsibility to weigh this matter with tremendous care. We are being strongly "encouraged" at present to be vaccinated against this strain of influenza, and this latest "emergency" declaration suggests that vaccination may soon be mandatory. The vaccine has been rushed through production - there is no debate about that. There are reports that the vaccine itself may be dangerous. Are we better off taking our chances?

In this time of confusion and fear, we see in sharp focus why it is a problem when people in leadership positions lie. The President and his staff have rendered themselves unworthy of trust. From Rahm Emmanuel's oft-quoted mantra of "never let a crisis go to waste" to the constant din of misrepresentations and obfuscations concerning their health care take-over plans, Administration officials have built a bulwark of lies in their short time in office. Their HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sibelius, made her most powerful contribution to this effort by castigating a reporter who coughed incorrectly, without using his sleeve. The President himself calls physicians greed-obsessed tonsil vultures and serial amputators.

In this climate, when every statement from those in charge is suspect, this latest declaration lacks any convincing quality. Combined with the relatively low mortality numbers and the dubious quality and efficacy of the vaccine, I am left with no choice but to choose to take my chances. This is tragic. After all the advances made in the field of immunology, the work started by Richard Jenner and smallpox now finds its hard-won trustworthiness undone - not by failure, but by the careless abuse of power by a self-obsessed and single-minded fascist.

Once again, the danger of health care dominated by an all-powerful State is clear. There is no longer any objective science. All the researchers are controlled by them. The CDC belongs to them. The media belong to them. Resistance is futile. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right and the vaccine is some sort of mind-control ploy. Or perhaps they are simply flexing their political muscle. Maybe they are simply using an engineered crisis to overwhelm the system to bring about their further take-over of all facets of American life. More likely they are simply using the crisis to line their pockets in some way.

Or maybe this really is a big deal, and the blood of millions will be on their hands. No shots will have been fired to achieve this genocide. All it will have taken will have been a few lies.

Demand to Read It.

2009-10-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

The cowards who run our legislative branch have refused to make the actual text of their health care bill available to the public before they vote on it. This is simply unacceptable.

This shocking lack of consideration for the rights of their constituents is made even more noxious due to the fact that they are now on the record refusing to promise to read it themselves.

So we are expected to sit back and allow them to commit our tax money for a program with the potential to balloon out of control (as has every socialized health care scheme on earth) with no one minding to spend the time to actually see what is in the bill.

My guess is that they accurately believe that we would be outraged by the stunning lack of honor demonstrated by the text, like...oh, I don't know...Harry Reid's little ploy to save his Senate seat by making Nevada (and only Nevada) exempt from having to participate in the state contribution portion of Medicaid. That means that all the medically-indigent patients in Nevada will be paid for entirely by money from taxpayers from the other 49 states, who also get to pay taxes for their own medically-indigent population, as well as contribute to the state contribution to the program.

This is despicable, but not really surprising. Harry Reid is a sleazy scumbag. None of us needed this to convince us.

The bottom line is this: we must demand, loudly, to be able to read the bill. The stakes are just too high for this catastrophe to occur without anyone knowing what is going on.

The Tax Collector

2009-08-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

What could be a more natural activity than working for one’s own existence? Even in his most primitive state – perhaps especially in his most primitive state – man is productive in order to feed himself and his family. Even in these tribal societies, however, an embryonic manifestation of what Adam Smith called “the division of labor” is evident.

Some are superb hunters and kill more than they need – the excess is traded to others, to the benefit of both. Some make the best bows, and make many more than they can use. They “sell” the excess for something that they need – perhaps to the hunter in exchange for meat. This arrangement is through mutual consent and results in their mutual benefit. If the hunter decided to keep all that he killed, it would be left to inferior hunters to hunt their own meat, to their mutual detriment.

To suggest that the natural state of man is socialistic or fascistic in the modern sense is laughable. Primitive man would see no function to be served by the bureaucrat – who neither hunts nor sews, nor does anything else productive, for that matter – whose only function is to redistribute in a more “equitable” way, being sure to skim a little for himself in the process.

No, the function of the bureaucrat is more closely approximated by another historical figure – that of the biblical “tax collector”. These detested men were the agent of a foreign and deaf government, and made their living by extorting money from the taxed.

Now is the age of the bureaucrat. These modern-age “tax collectors” have so imprisoned us, so choked the very natural act of free trade between free peoples, that they have secured for themselves a permanent place in our society, constantly draining its life-blood – never quite enough to kill their host; just enough to make it anemic and sick.

They have twisted our thinking. We have believed their lie that without them, we would be lost. They have so consistently and successfully led us astray, and for so long, that we now almost believe them when they say that we are inherently evil and unjust to our fellow man; that without them, our free trade between free agents would result in unmitigated suffering; that without their leadership, we would all fall off a cliff of our own greed to our demise.

If that were true, if mankind so desperately needed a bureaucrat for its survival, then surely our weak and pitiful species would long ago have been rejected by an unforgiving planet.

I ask again: what could be more natural than working for one’s own living? And if this is true, what could be more evil, more destructive to that natural state of Man than the demented twisting of that natural productivity into the instrument of Man’s torment?

Under the thumb of the bureaucrat class, millstones are tied to the necks of the most extraordinarily productive, thus negating the potential benefits their natural gifts might otherwise give to a grateful society. On the watch of the bureaucrats, the least productive are elevated to positions of supremacy and lordship. When the natural order of things is so drastically changed, one has to wonder what is at work. Certainly this chaos is not a natural phenomenon. Rather it is being done to us intentionally. And to find the source of our discontent, one needs look no further than the ever-more-powerful tax collector/bureaucrat.

And while there is redemption, even for the tax collector, he must recognize that his work, stealing behind a cloak of legality, is evil at its core. His theft from the productive to sell favors to the unproductive is no righting of wrongs – it is the unleashing of a poison that eats at the heart of society itself.

I’ve heard a particular phrase so often that it no longer has the sting of a lie – it has the soft sound of the accepted truth: “One must serve society…” This is an infernal misrepresentation. Man was never meant to serve society. Society was created to serve him. Society should not be a burden. If it were, primitive men long ago would have abandoned it in favor of the natural liberty God gave them.

Society is a tacit contract between equals – undertaken to the mutual benefit of all. When one man uses that society as a weapon to disenfranchise another, whether that other is poor or rich, it is not social justice. Neither is it justice when people are taught to genuflect before a superior for the means of their very existence. No, these are not symbols of social justice. Instead they represent the most despicable form of social injustice. They are the hallmarks of slavery.

Do Not Forget.

2009-08-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

There are approximately 63,000 American troops in Afghanistan, as part of an international force of greater than 100,000. As of today, 295 of those international troops have died since January 1, 2009. This is already more than died all of last year.

More troops have died in Afghanistan since March of this year than died there during the entire three-year period from 2001 to 2004.

Somehow, this has escaped the notice of the “Support the Troops, Oppose the War” crowd. They accused G.W. Bush of “genocide” during his terms, and protested with bloody hands and faces contorted in pretend-grief. Yet their vitriol has fallen strangely silent now. I’m certainly no apologist for G. W., but this doesn’t pass the smell test with me. “Hypocrites” doesn’t seem to quite capture it.

No, as usual it will fall to us to support, care for, pray for, and uplift the Soldier, the Sailor, the Airman, the Marine, to an all-sufficient God, trusting that He is able to protect those we love from danger.

Once again, we fight in silence. Without fanfare. Without help from well-funded political machines, nor desiring such help. The veterans. The wives and husbands. The mothers and fathers. The children. The America-lovers. The Liberty-protectors. The productive, the independent and self-sufficient.

Those of us who struggle in silence, neither seeking hand-outs nor demanding apologies; working to feed our families, and, it turns out, many others’ families as well. Once again, we will take time out before, after, or during our seemingly interminable toil to offer thanks for the opportunity to work an honest day, to beg mercy for ourselves and our families, to ask forgiveness for our shortcomings, and to offer a heartfelt prayer for men and women, many of whom we have never met and will never meet.

We will ship care packages as our mothers and fathers taught us to do, and as they learned from their mothers and fathers. We will send letters. We will pray prayers. This is our work as those who love what our country used to be and what, God willing, it will be again someday, when this madness is past.

We may shed a tear as we realize how blessed we are to spend our nights at home with our loved ones, and as we realize that there are 63,000 American heroes who have chosen to spend their nights away from theirs as their gift to a nation that can not, will not understand the nature of that sacrifice.

Finally, with tears rolling down our cheeks, the returning heroes, embraced by loving arms or by the flag they faithfully served, will be welcomed home. Without fanfare. Without vitriol. Without expectation.

And then, still silently, we will return to work as before.

Mystery Solved: The Death of Michael Jackson

2009-08-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

At long last, the odd and twisting case of the death of pop icon and tragic precautionary tale Michael Jackson has been solved. It was, it turns out, murder. His killer? The American private health care system.

So says immensely-qualified sage Charles Osgood, known best by his dulcet-toned CBS Sunday Morning hosting duties, but also, apparently, an expert on the complexities of health care.

“Michael Jackson was one of those Americans who liked his health care plan – and decided to keep it,” chides Charles Osgood. “That health care plan was Dr. Conrad Murray and his supply of sedatives”.

Yes, Mr. Osgood. That is definitely an apt analogy. The majority of the American people are just like Michael Jackson. We all have private doctors, hired at $100,000 per month, who are under orders to give us rhino-doses of tranquilizers. At this point, the 24-hour senility watch on Mr. Osgood should have sprung into action. But sadly, he rambles on:

“And yet, he [Dr. Conrad Murray] was only doing what his patient demanded – and in a way, what you hear many Americans demanding: providing privately-funded health care, unfettered by government regulation of any kind…”

Well said, Charley. Oh, and as a doctor myself, I really appreciate your point-of-view. Let me see if I’ve pretty much got your point, okay?

1. Americans who like their health care plan are just like Michael Jackson.

2. The illegal abuse of a corrupted physician’s privileges by a sad, twisted personality with the money to buy and sell some people like furniture, and the selling of wildly improper and dangerous care, just to make a buck, is a perfect analogy to the way most Americans interact with the health care system.

3. By extension, people who are drug addicts are simply exercising their right to health care choice, too. They’re not “drug dealers”; they are “curbside pharmacists”.

4. By further extension, men who visit prostitutes are simply exercising their rights to health care choice as well. They’re not hookers; they are “reproductive therapists”.

5. Doctor Murray was a very typical doctor. His willingness to inject massive doses of surgical anesthetics into an emaciated and clearly-addicted media personality is exactly what the hundreds of thousands of health professionals are forced to do on a daily basis. We are mindless drones, our finely-honed skills for sale on the open market, to be used, misused, or abused at the behest of the highest bidder. We are stupid, idiotic, and depraved vessels of medical knowledge, ready to bow to any master, whether government, insurance industry, or rich patient. Thanks, Charley. I guess lousy journalism is the only respectable profession left.

6. Americans demanding that their government stay out of their private decisions about how they hire people to care for the health of them and their children is rash, erratic, and irresponsible. They are idiots, incapable of even self-preservation without “government regulation”.

I won’t presume to speak for the entire physician community, Mr. Osgood. As for me, though, I would find your genuflection at the altar of medical fascism to be deeply offensive, were you not so entirely irrelevant. You are as important to the real nature of this debate as your contemporary Andy Rooney, but without the Vaudeville side-show entertainment value.

I am glad to hear that you think that people who gripe about changes in their health care are so repulsive, though. I’ll be sure to remember that when Medicare goes down the tubes. Will you remember to keep your mouth shut? Or simply fulfill your destiny as a journalistic hypocrite?

Howard Dean: Dissent Is “…undermining the country”

2009-08-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

The hypocrisy is almost unbelievable. On MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Dean claimed that Republicans are so obsessed with undermining President Obama that they are willing to “undermine the country” in order to do it. He laments the fact that Republicans and Democrats can no longer sit down and work through things.

Why on earth would anyone try and sit down and discuss anything with fascist-leaning Democrats? What possible benefit could come from negotiating with them? There is not a single thing about fascism that I want to give in to. They have nothing to offer that is beneficial. I do not want the government to control industry. I do not want government to control health care. I do not want government to control finance. There really isn’t anything to “sit down and have a conversation” about, Governor Dean.

As for undermining President Obama, well, yeah. I guess I do hope that he is undermined. Since he has conclusively demonstrated that he is an enemy of the U.S. Constitution, he is to be resisted and defended-against. So are all the other Democrats.

They are attacking the Constitution. They are making us unsafe in a world that wants to destroy us and our freedom. They are spending us into an oblivion that will make us weak, poor, and indentured for generations.

As for undermining the country – Obama and his American fascist party are doing that without a single finger being lifted to help.

Swedes.

2009-08-24T20:57:00.001-07:00

As someone who has personally diagnosed and treated literally hundreds of cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia, I find this strangely hilarious.

I felt a strange wistful feeling of melancholy earlier this month when I learned that a new urine test was capable of diagnosing these diseases. The old way that I'd always used - a good old sterile cotton swab - seemed okay to me.

Of course, the "old" method was still better than the Inquisition-worthy method described to us as raw Marine recruits in the early 90s. I won't go into any gory detail, but I'm sure you can imagine what sort of twisted sadistic lies can be cooked up by drill instructors intent on helping young Marines to...err..."...keep [their] honor clean...".

I felt many things when hearing these men explain the non-existent procedure used by the Navy doctors to diagnose "the clap". Not once did I feel "manly".

Hmmm.

2009-08-24T20:54:00.001-07:00

Yeah. This is a much better idea than that old stupid conservative idea about abstinence. I mean, if they can't speak, they can't complain.

Not that I oppose male circumcision, of course. Just government-mandated ones.

Take No Prisoners.

2009-08-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is what we do with Al Qaeda terrorists captured on the battlefield. I wonder what the Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen currently on the battlefield in Afghanistan putting their lives on the line think about this.

But I'd rather light a candle than curse the obvious darkness. Hey, the glass is half-full, right?

To my brother Marines; to all the soldiers, sailors and airmen fighting these clowns: this is simply a rare second chance to do things the "right" way this time.

After his brief homecoming in Kabul, this dude will be back on the lines. I wouldn't dare presume to tell you what you should do, but I will say that I, for one, won't be shedding any tears if this terrorist's next encounter with you ends a bit differently.

Offended.

2009-08-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

President Obama is "offended". That's a shame. I guess I'll admit that I've been a little offended lately too. Just one difference, I suppose. He is offended at our recognition of the truth in his agenda. The things I've been offended about have been outright lies, or as our newly-Christianized President likes to call it "false witness".

Since we're all buddy-buddy now, all open with each other about our feelings, Mr. President, I think it will be okay if I tell you now that I was offended when:

1. You accused family doctors like me of routinely performing unnecessary tonsillectomies on defenseless children because it pays better than doing the right thing.

2. You accused family doctors like me of amputating the feet of diabetics because it pays better than doing the right thing.

3. Your party called me a "Nazi".

4. Your party called me a "brownshirt".

5. Your party called me an "insurance industry plant".

6. Your party called me a memeber of an "unruly mob".

7. You set up a website for "fishy...misinformation" (translation: the truth) about your plans for health care for no other reason than to intimidate me into silence.

8. You claimed I could keep my insurance even though you know that is a lie.

9. You claimed my patients could keep using me as their doctor, even though you know that is a lie.

10. You resumed the hideous practice of encouraging disabled and sick military veterans to contact the Hemlock Society for advice on what to do rather than get appropriate treatment.

11. You framed your support for socialism as some sort of Christian "moral imperative" to a staged audience of religious leaders of the most liberal possible stripe.

12. You apologized to our enemies and our allies for how lousy you think our country is. Again, and again, and again, and again.

13. Your Homeland Security Department described people who disagree with expanding government as "Right Wing Extremists" (a.k.a. "terrorists").

14. You told Planned Parenthood that you supported taxpayer-funded abortions, then lied to our face and said that you don't.

Shall I go on? No...I don't think so. I'm glad we had this little chat together. I feel better. Hope you do too. And I am really sorry that you are offended at the truth. That must be really difficult for you. I wish I could say that I won't do it again, but you see, those of us in the real world have to deal in truth. We don't have the luxury of lying and bending the truth for political expediency. Real men tell the truth, even when it hurts.

I pray every day for your wisdom and good judgment as our President. Furthermore, because I am commanded to, I forgive you for your repeated offenses against me and the people like me.

Please start telling the truth. It might be liberating.

Semper Fidelis!!!! Score one for the real men of America.

2009-08-22T23:31:00.001-07:00

This is so awesome, I can't add a single thing. Watch this slimy eel squirm. I bet it's the first time he's ever talked to a man with real...er...guts before.

Just a little weekend cheer for all the warriors fighting to keep our Liberty.

And hang in there. We aren't alone.

The Counterattack

2009-08-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Democrats are going to make this monstrosity happen. They are going to cram this medical doo-doo sandwich down our throats, despite large majorities of the American people opposing it.

The question now is whether or not we will be able to kill it once it's "out there".

Better get your big-boy and big-girl britches on, folks. It's time to ensure that 2010 sees the end of these authoritarian bullies. Make it a landslide. The Democrat party needs to go the way of the Whigs and Tories.

Bring it.

Canadian Health Care Is So Awesome...

2009-08-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

How awesome is it?

So awesome that the President of the Canadian Medical Association acknowledges that the Canadian health care system is "imploding".

Fun.

Free Speech Only Counts If You're a Liberal.

2009-08-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/14/lefty-boycott-succeeding-in-getting-advertisers-to-drop-glenn-beck/

Don't like Glenn Beck? Fine. Don't watch him. I think Keith Olbermann is an idiot, and that's why I don't watch him.

What's different about us and them? I would never try to silence Olbermann. His idiocy is its own reward. The unmitigated failure of the ideology he espouses is self-evident.

The next time somebody tries to label you a Nazi, just remind them of this. Of the two of you, only one of you is trying to silence opposing views like the Nazis did.

Nazis.

2009-08-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

In psychology, as many of you know, there is a term called "projection". It refers to the tendency of some people to "project" their own insecurities or feelings onto others.

People who are judgmental, for instance, may be constantly lamenting the judgmentalism of others. It is a well-known phenomenon, and I think it is of supreme interest these days.

Those of us who believe in Liberty, free association, free-market capitalism, and smaller government have been labeled recently as "Nazis".

At first, I took these comments exactly as they were intended. I presumed that those who used these epithets to describe people like me were simply meaning to be offensive. I took the bait. I was offended.

Then over the last couple of days, something started to occur to me. I think it will be of interest to you too.

Who exactly were the Nazis, anyway? The word "Nazi" is a shortened version of the name of a small German political party in the early 20th century. The full name of this party in English is the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Notice anything? Yes. The Nazis were Socialists.

What did the Nazis believe in? Their main goal was to create a totalitarian state, a state in which the government was all-powerful. Hmmm. This doesn't really sound much like me. I want the government to be LESS powerful. Let's move on.

The Nazis advocated a so-called "middle way" between capitalism and communism, which has been called "corporatism". I'm a free-market capitalist. This doesn't sound much like me either. Interesting.

The Nazis also detested the development of international market capitalism, and denounced it often. Again, this sounds very unlike what I believe in.

The Nazis identified people with whom they disagreed and sought to silence them. I am an advocate for complete freedom of speech. The Nazis demonized the German religious communities. I believe in complete freedom of religion.

Finally, and most troublingly, the Nazis used unemployed people and lower-wage workers as thugs to intimidate and assault those who disagreed with Hitler and who tried to disagree with him publicly. This group were called the SA or "brownshirts". Yet again, I would hardly think of myself as someone who would organize blue-collar workers and jobless malcontents to intimidate my political opponents.

But it seems to me that I have noticed some of these characteristics in the ideology of some people. Let's review:

1. Socialists

2. Advocates of larger, more powerful, more intrusive central government

3. Opponents of free markets

4. Opponents of free speech

5. Opponents of free exercise of religion

6. Organizers of unemployed people and low-wage workers, encouraging them to silence opposition.

No, this doesn't really sound like us at all. But it does sound suspiciously like them.

They advocate socialism.

They are pushing for more powerful and intrusive central government.

They are the ones constantly talking about how the "out-of-control free market" caused all our current problems.

They oppose free speech through their "hate speech" laws and harrassment of opponents (Joe the Plumber).

They are the ones who are anti-religious, constantly pushing to place secular humanism and social engineering propaganda into our childrens' textbooks.

And finally, they are the ones using the unemployed (ACORN) and low-wage workers (SEIU, UAW, etc.) to indimidate their opponents into submissive silence.

One should be careful when labeling others, I think. One might be accused of simply projecting.

2009-08-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm considering offering the "Don't Tread on Medicine" logo as a bumper sticker, if there's any interest. I'm not sure what the cost might be, but it will be low. Just want to get it "out there". Let me know if you're interested!

Hilarious.

2009-08-10T17:48:00.001-07:00

Just to lighten the mood a little bit. This is sick-funny. Sad. But sick-funny.

Saul Alinsky would be proud. As he said, we must "ridicule our opposition".

I am the mob. Are you?

Bracing for the Unthinkable

2009-08-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

I just finished putting up Title II of HR 3200 with commentary on FB. I keep finding things that are simply unbelievable in this bill.

Nevertheless, I fear that it will pass. It won't be without outrage. It won't be without consequences for the cowards in Congress who won't even face their constituents. But we have long ago lost our ability to control them.

We are already a "tyranny of the majority", I fear. And as I've stated before on this blog, there will always be more of "them" than "us". There will always be more people standing in line to take what others have earned than there will be people to earn it.

This bill will further the cause of "squeezing the productive bit of the economy to fund an unprecedented expansion of the unproductive", as it was put so eloquently by Daniel Hannan, the brilliant Minister to the EU from the U.K.

The only good that can come out of this is the Law of Entropy. The what? The Law of Entropy. You see, eventually, the government will run out of our money. Those few of us left who actually pay taxes to fund everyone else will eventually stop, either willingly or unwillingly. Those in government who seek unlimited power have forgotten that their power is entirely dependent on money that is earned by others. Those "others" are quickly learning that this nightmare can only continue so long as we choose to work hard to provide them with that money.

I've never been an anarchist. I believe that government (although it should be severely limited) is a necessary evil. This current trend, however, can lead only to ruin. When the government has no more money, because it has paid off all its cronies, can no longer protect us from outside invasion. A bankrupt government can no longer enforce domestic tranquility. It can no longer provide for the common welfare.

A bankrupt government is worse than no government at all. It continues to suck the life blood of its host even as the host itself breathes its last.

May God help us.

HR 3200, Section 122 continued: The New Face of Health Care

2009-08-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

HR 3200, Section 122 (continued)

Now we get into the real meat of the issue. This is what your health care will look like, regardless of whether you “choose” the private option or the public option.

“(b) Minimum Services To Be Covered- The items and services described in this subsection are the following:
(1) Hospitalization.
(2) Outpatient hospital and outpatient clinic services, including emergency department services.
(3) Professional services of physicians and other health professionals.
(4) Such services, equipment, and supplies incident to the services of a physician's or a health professional's delivery of care in institutional settings, physician offices, patients' homes or place of residence, or other settings, as appropriate.
(5) Prescription drugs.
(6) Rehabilitative and habilitative services.
(7) Mental health and substance use disorder services.
(8) Preventive services, including those services recommended with a grade of A or B by the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services and those vaccines recommended for use by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(9) Maternity care.
(10) Well baby and well child care and oral health, vision, and hearing services, equipment, and supplies at least for children under 21 years of age.”

Translation:
Benefits offered by the private insurance companies must include the following:
1. Hospitalization
2. Outpatient care
3. Emergency room care
4. Doctor visits
5. “Other health professionals” – this term is so vague it’s terrifying. What is included in this??? Nurse practitioners working unsupervised? Shamans? Acupuncturists? Chiropractors? Herbalists? Marijuana dealers? This leaves the door wide open for them to thoroughly ruin primary care specifically, and the physician community at large.
6. Durable medical equipment (as deemed necessary by Der Kommissar and his/her board of government goons).
7. Prescription drugs (no doubt only the ones allowed by Der Kommissar). You won’t be getting Levaquin. I’m sure generic penicillin will work fine. If not, it’s cheaper for us if you just go ahead and die.
8. Rehabilitation
9. Mental health care
10. Substance abuse treatment
11. Preventive care (as defined by the USPSTF, the government agency that decides what you need and don’t need).
12. Maternity care
13. Well-baby and well-child care
14. Full-coverage, including dental, oral health, vision, orthodontics, and all equipment and supplies thereto appertaining for all “children” 21 years of age or younger. You get to buy other kids’ braces.

HR 3200, Section 122 (Part One)

2009-08-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

“SEC. 122. ESSENTIAL BENEFITS PACKAGE DEFINED.
(a) In General- In this division, the term `essential benefits package' means health benefits coverage, consistent with standards adopted under section 124 to ensure the provision of quality health care and financial security, that--
(1) provides payment for the items and services described in subsection (b) in accordance with generally accepted standards of medical or other appropriate clinical or professional practice;
(2) limits cost-sharing for such covered health care items and services in accordance with such benefit standards, consistent with subsection (c);
(3) does not impose any annual or lifetime limit on the coverage of covered health care items and services;
(4) complies with section 115(a) (relating to network adequacy); and
(5) is equivalent, as certified by Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to the average prevailing employer-sponsored coverage.
(c) Requirements Relating to Cost-sharing and Minimum Actuarial Value-
(1) NO COST-SHARING FOR PREVENTIVE SERVICES- There shall be no cost-sharing under the essential benefits package for preventive items and services (as specified under the benefit standards), including well baby and well child care.
(2) ANNUAL LIMITATION-
(A) ANNUAL LIMITATION- The cost-sharing incurred under the essential benefits package with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified in subparagraph (B).
(B) APPLICABLE LEVEL- The applicable level specified in this subparagraph for Y1 is $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family. Such levels shall be increased (rounded to the nearest $100) for each subsequent year by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (United States city average) applicable to such year.
(C) USE OF COPAYMENTS- In establishing cost-sharing levels for basic, enhanced, and premium plans under this subsection, the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent possible, use only copayments and not coinsurance.
(3) MINIMUM ACTUARIAL VALUE-
(A) IN GENERAL- The cost-sharing under the essential benefits package shall be designed to provide a level of coverage that is designed to provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to approximately 70 percent of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the reference benefits package described in subparagraph (B).
(B) REFERENCE BENEFITS PACKAGE DESCRIBED- The reference benefits package described in this subparagraph is the essential benefits package if there were no cost-sharing imposed.”

Translation:
1. The “private option” has to meet the following standards:
a. It must provide certain benefits, to be outlined below.
b. “Cost sharing” is the term used to describe the ways insurance companies pass costs on to their enrollees to account for increasing medical costs. These methods include co-pays, annual limits on what they will cover, etc.
c. Under this bill, insurance companies will not be allowed to cost-share with an enrollee unless that enrollee spends more than $5,000 in one year on health care, or the enrollee’s family spends more than $10,000. This number adjusts upward each year, based on the consumer price index.
d. No matter how much well-baby care or well-child care or any other preventive care a person receives, even if it’s a million dollars each year, a private insurance company can’t charge them a penny in cost-sharing for it. These costs just get passed along to everybody else through higher premiums. More nails in the private insurance coffin.
e. They will not be able to impose any limits on what they will cover, either annually or lifetime. If you want it, they have to give it (and then pass their costs on to everybody else).

This is socialized medicine by proxy – using a private entity to do the dirty work for them. In this sense, they aren’t destroying the private insurance market, any more than a virus destroys its host cell. They will simply ruin the private insurance market by imposing regulations that create socialized medicine through them.
f. Private insurance has to be “equivalent” to the “average” employer-provided coverage in a particular area. It can’t be worse, but it can’t be any better, either. We’re all in the same crummy boat.

HR 3200, Section 121

2009-08-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

“SEC. 121. COVERAGE OF ESSENTIAL BENEFITS PACKAGE.
(a) In General- A qualified health benefits plan shall provide coverage that at least meets the benefit standards adopted under section 124 for the essential benefits package described in section 122 for the plan year involved.
(b) Choice of Coverage-
(1) NON-EXCHANGE-PARTICIPATING HEALTH BENEFITS PLANS- In the case of a qualified health benefits plan that is not an Exchange-participating health benefits plan, such plan may offer such coverage in addition to the essential benefits package as the QHBP offering entity may specify.
(2) EXCHANGE-PARTICIPATING HEALTH BENEFITS PLANS- In the case of an Exchange-participating health benefits plan, such plan is required under section 203 to provide specified levels of benefits and, in the case of a plan offering a premium-plus level of benefits, provide additional benefits.
(3) CONTINUATION OF OFFERING OF SEPARATE EXCEPTED BENEFITS COVERAGE- Nothing in this division shall be construed as affecting the offering of health benefits in the form of excepted benefits (described in section 102(b)(1)(B)(ii)) if such benefits are offered under a separate policy, contract, or certificate of insurance.
(c) No Restrictions on Coverage Unrelated to Clinical Appropriateness- A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any restriction (other than cost-sharing) unrelated to clinical appropriateness on the coverage of the health care items and services.”

Translation:
1. Private insurance has to meet government-approved standards for the benefits they offer.
2. You will be permitted by your government to buy additional insurance to supplement the lousy insurance they offer – just like Medicare enrollees have to buy additional “Medigap” insurance to cover some of their expenses.
3. Insurance companies that want to be part of the new government “insurance exchange” and actually try and live under their thumb as I’ve described above have to meet certain requirements, as will be outlined in part in the next section.
4. Once again, you will be permitted to buy coverage for “extras” like vision, dental, etc. Permitted. Ugh.
5. A QHBP, “qualified health benefits plan” (one of the insurance companies that’s playing ball with the government) will not be permitted to restrict benefits except when that restriction is deemed to be “clinically-appropriate”.

This one almost slipped right by me. Who gets to determine what is and what is not “clinically-appropriate”? Well, Der Kommissar, of course! He/she will make this determination after consulting with a health board, which is described in later sections. This board will only have a few doctors on it. The vast majority of its members? Government appointees from the ranks of “labor” (unions), federal employees, etc. That’s right. A bunch of bureaucrats and political spoils will be deciding what is and is not “clinically appropriate” for us. Evidence-based medicine will be drowned out by the voices speaking for the government bureaucracy. Sick.

HR 3200, Sections 114-116

2009-08-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

“SEC. 114. NONDISCRIMINATION IN BENEFITS; PARITY IN MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE DISORDER BENEFITS.
(a) Nondiscrimination in Benefits- A qualified health benefits plan shall comply with standards established by the Commissioner to prohibit discrimination in health benefits or benefit structures for qualifying health benefits plans, building from sections 702 of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 2702 of the Public Health Service Act, and section 9802 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
(b) Parity in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorder Benefits- To the extent such provisions are not superceded by or inconsistent with subtitle C, the provisions of section 2705 (other than subsections (a)(1), (a)(2), and (c)) of section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act shall apply to a qualified health benefits plan, regardless of whether it is offered in the individual or group market, in the same manner as such provisions apply to health insurance coverage offered in the large group market.
SEC. 115. ENSURING ADEQUACY OF PROVIDER NETWORKS.
(a) In General- A qualified health benefits plan that uses a provider network for items and services shall meet such standards respecting provider networks as the Commissioner may establish to assure the adequacy of such networks in ensuring enrollee access to such items and services and transparency in the cost-sharing differentials between in-network coverage and out-of-network coverage.
(b) Provider Network Defined- In this division, the term `provider network' means the providers with respect to which covered benefits, treatments, and services are available under a health benefits plan.
SEC. 116. ENSURING VALUE AND LOWER PREMIUMS.
(a) In General- A qualified health benefits plan shall meet a medical loss ratio as defined by the Commissioner. For any plan year in which the qualified health benefits plan does not meet such medical loss ratio, QHBP offering entity shall provide in a manner specified by the Commissioner for rebates to enrollees of payment sufficient to meet such loss ratio.
(b) Building on Interim Rules- In implementing subsection (a), the Commissioner shall build on the definition and methodology developed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the amendments made by section 161 for determining how to calculate the medical loss ratio. Such methodology shall be set at the highest level medical loss ratio possible that is designed to ensure adequate participation by QHBP offering entities, competition in the health insurance market in and out of the Health Insurance Exchange, and value for consumers so that their premiums are used for services.”

Translation:
1. Private insurance companies can’t discriminate against people. Duh.
2. Private insurance companies have to cover mental health problems and substance abuse treatment.
3. Private insurance companies that use “provider networks” – you know, the lists of approved doctors you can see on the plan – have to be able to demonstrate that those networks are able to meet the standards that Der Kommisar sets for them.
4. Private insurance companies have to refund money to their enrollees for any year they don’t spend enough on providing care. This places a cap on the amount of money private insurance companies can make. Too bad the “public option” doesn’t have such a provision – refunding tax dollars in such cases.

Notes:
Remember something here. The socialized “public option” will be taxpayer-funded. All this stuff I’m telling you about is simply the set of rules governing the insurance you may choose to have instead of using the crummy government health care. It’s a lot like school. Sometimes you live in an area with lousy public schools, so you may choose to spend extra to send your kid to private school or even home-school them. But you still have to pay taxes for the public schools. This is simply ludicrous, that the government is not just messing up the public insurance they’re going to offer; they are also trying to ruin the private insurance option. Yet, they still maintain that they aren’t trying to destroy private insurance. Right.

HR 3200, Section 113

2009-08-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

HR 3200
SEC. 113. INSURANCE RATING RULES.
(a) In General- The premium rate charged for an insured qualified health benefits plan may not vary except as follows:
(1) LIMITED AGE VARIATION PERMITTED- By age (within such age categories as the Commissioner shall specify) so long as the ratio of the highest such premium to the lowest such premium does not exceed the ratio of 2 to 1.
(2) BY AREA- By premium rating area (as permitted by State insurance regulators or, in the case of Exchange-participating health benefits plans, as specified by the Commissioner in consultation with such regulators).
(3) BY FAMILY ENROLLMENT- By family enrollment (such as variations within categories and compositions of families) so long as the ratio of the premium for family enrollment (or enrollments) to the premium for individual enrollment is uniform, as specified under State law and consistent with rules of the Commissioner.
(b) Study and Reports-
(1) STUDY- The Commissioner, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor, shall conduct a study of the large group insured and self-insured employer health care markets. Such study shall examine the following:
(A) The types of employers by key characteristics, including size, that purchase insured products versus those that self-insure.
(B) The similarities and differences between typical insured and self-insured health plans.
(C) The financial solvency and capital reserve levels of employers that self-insure by employer size.
(D) The risk of self-insured employers not being able to pay obligations or otherwise becoming financially insolvent.
(E) The extent to which rating rules are likely to cause adverse selection in the large group market or to encourage small and mid size employers to self-insure
(2) REPORTS- Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner shall submit to Congress and the applicable agencies a report on the study conducted under paragraph (1). Such report shall include any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure or create adverse selection in the risk pools of large group insurers and self-insured employers. Not later than 18 months after the first day of Y1, the Commissioner shall submit to Congress and the applicable agencies an updated report on such study, including updates on such recommendations.

Translation:
Private insurance premiums have to be the same for everybody enrolled. In other words, whether you are 19 and in perfect health, or you are 19 and have drug-abuse-related diseases, your premiums are the same. Sound fair? There are a few exceptions to this rule:
1. Older people can be charged up to twice as much for their premiums as younger people
2. People in certain geographical areas may have to pay more than people in other areas.
3. Family coverage can cost more than individual coverage. Duh.

There will be a top-bureaucrat in the government called “The Commissioner” (or Kommisar, if you prefer). He/she will conduct studies to ensure to see which companies chose to self-insure rather than go with the other available options. He/she will then report to Congress how the self-insurance thing is going, and make recommendations so that it is less attractive for companies to self-insure.

HR 3200, Section 102 (Part Deaux)

2009-08-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

HR 3200: Section 102 (continued)

“(c) Limitation on Individual Health Insurance Coverage-
(1) IN GENERAL- Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan.
(2) SEPARATE, EXCEPTED COVERAGE PERMITTED- Excepted benefits (as defined in section 2791(c) of the Public Health Service Act) are not included within the definition of health insurance coverage. Nothing in paragraph (1) shall prevent the offering, other than through the Health Insurance Exchange, of excepted benefits so long as it is offered and priced separately from health insurance coverage.”

Translation:
1. You will not be able to get private insurance ever again after “the first day” on which this bill becomes law and goes into effect. The only insurance you will be allowed by your government to get will be the “Exchange-participating health benefit plan” – their code-word term for “The Public Option”, which is socialized medicine.
2. You will be permitted by your government (doesn’t that sound a little odd to anyone else?) to continue to have “excepted benefits”. What are “excepted benefits”? Well, for that, you have to go to yet another enormous Congressional document, the 1200+page Public Health Service Act, and look for Section 2791(c). Don’t worry. I’ve done this for you.

“Public Health Service Act, Section 2791
(c) EXCEPTED BENEFITS.—For purposes of this title, the term ‘‘excepted benefits’’ means benefits under one or more (or any combination thereof) of the following:

(1) BENEFITS NOT SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS.—
(A) Coverage only for accident, or disability income insurance, or any combination thereof.
(B) Coverage issued as a supplement to liability insurance.
(C) Liability insurance, including general liability insurance and automobile liability insurance.
(D) Workers’ compensation or similar insurance.
(E) Automobile medical payment insurance.
(F) Credit-only insurance.
(G) Coverage for on-site medical clinics.
(H) Other similar insurance coverage, specified in regulations, under which benefits for medical care are secondary or incidental to other insurance benefits.

(2) BENEFITS NOT SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS IF OFFERED SEPARATELY.—
(A) Limited scope dental or vision benefits.
(B) Benefits for long-term care, nursing home care, home health care, community-based care, or any combination thereof.
(C) Such other similar, limited benefits as are specified in regulations.

(3) BENEFITS NOT SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS IF OFFERED AS INDEPENDENT, NONCOORDINATED BENEFITS.—
(A) Coverage only for a specified disease or illness.
(B) Hospital indemnity or other fixed indemnity insurance.

(4) BENEFITS NOT SUBJECT TO REQUIREMENTS IF OFFERED AS SEPARATE INSURANCE POLICY.—Medicare supplemental health insurance (as defined under section 1882(g)(1) of the Social Security Act), coverage supplemental to the coverage provided under chapter 55 of title 10, United States Code, and similar supplemental coverage provided to coverage under a group health plan."

Okay. So what does this mean exactly? Let’s go back to the text of the bill…

The so-called “Public Option” will not include “excepted benefits”. So under your new government health insurance, you will not have any of the following benefits, and will have to buy them on your own or just not have them:
1. Dental
2. Vision
3. Accident or disability
4. Liability coverage
5. Workers’ compensation
6. Insurance for injuries sustained in automobile accidents
7. Long-term care
8. Nursing home care
9. Home health care

How does the Public Option sound so far to you? To me, it sounds like pretty lousy coverage. I mean, seriously. No dental? No vision? No long-term care, nursing home care, or home health care? Most private insurance includes stuff like this.

HR 3200, Section 102 (Part 1)

2009-08-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

“SEC. 102. (of 453) PROTECTING THE CHOICE TO KEEP CURRENT COVERAGE.
(a) Grandfathered Health Insurance Coverage Defined- Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term `grandfathered health insurance coverage' means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met:
(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT-
(A) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.
(B) DEPENDENT COVERAGE PERMITTED- Subparagraph (A) shall not affect the subsequent enrollment of a dependent of an individual who is covered as of such first day.
(2) LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS- Subject to paragraph (3) and except as required by law, the issuer does not change any of its terms or conditions, including benefits and cost-sharing, from those in effect as of the day before the first day of Y1.”

Translation:
Section 102 deals with your current health insurance through a non-government health insurance company – the insurance that you currently have, and that you will have on the day this law goes into effect:
1. Private insurance companies will be prohibited by law from enrolling any new customers in their plans after the first day this law goes into effect.
2. If you already have health insurance (and don’t try to change to another company), then your dependents will be allowed by your government to be enrolled on your plan.
3. Your benefits on your private plan are prevented by law from being changed, even if those changes are for your benefit. For example, you couldn’t switch to a better plan that suits your changing needs as time goes on.

Likely Effect:
If you decide you don’t like your private insurance plan, for whatever reason (and there are plenty of reasons made likely by the later provisions in the bill), you are prevented by your government from changing to another private insurance company or from changing your existing plan to one that is cheaper, or that better meets your needs!

Your President and your Congressional representatives are telling you that this bill will not serve to weaken or destroy the private insurance industry. Judge for yourselves. Just remember this: if there is no viable private option for you (and this portion of the bill tells you that there is not), your only recourse is to become enrolled in the “public option”, the socialized medicine plan run by the government – the same government that is calling those of us who oppose this bill “Nazis”.

The only thing "fishy" is HR 3200

2009-08-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

Because President Obama has accused those of us opposing the socialized medicine bill, HR 3200, of disseminating "misleading information" and of resorting to despicable tactics of fear-mongering, I thought I'd turn to the bill itself. I don't have to scare you. The bill does that on its own. Following posts will excerpt directly from HR 3200.

HR 3200, Sections 111 and 112

2009-08-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

HR 3200
“SEC. 111. PROHIBITING PRE-EXISTING CONDITION EXCLUSIONS.
A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion (as defined in section 2701(b)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service Act) or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect to an individual or dependent based on any health status-related factors (as defined in section 2791(d)(9) of the Public Health Service Act) in relation to the individual or dependent.”

Translation:
Rules for surviving private insurance providers:
1. They can’t exclude care for pre-existing conditions. This means that the premiums for everyone in the private plan will have to go up to cover these conditions; another nail in the private insurance coffin.

“SEC. 112. GUARANTEED ISSUE AND RENEWAL FOR INSURED PLANS.
The requirements of sections 2711 (other than subsections (c) and (e)) and 2712 (other than paragraphs (3), and (6) of subsection (b) and subsection (e)) of the Public Health Service Act, relating to guaranteed availability and renewability of health insurance coverage, shall apply to individuals and employers in all individual and group health insurance coverage, whether offered to individuals or employers through the Health Insurance Exchange, through any employment-based health plan, or otherwise, in the same manner as such sections apply to employers and health insurance coverage offered in the small group market, except that such section 2712(b)(1) shall apply only if, before nonrenewal or discontinuation of coverage, the issuer has provided the enrollee with notice of non-payment of premiums and there is a grace period during which the enrollees has an opportunity to correct such nonpayment. Rescissions of such coverage shall be prohibited except in cases of fraud as defined in sections 2712(b)(2) of such Act.”

Translation:
A private insurance company can’t kick someone out for non-payment of premiums until a “grace period” has elapsed after notifying the insured person. Okay, whatever. It won’t really matter anyway, because there won’t be any private insurance companies left. Only the “public option” will be available.

Why I Fight

2009-08-08T16:59:00.001-07:00

I am a General Practitioner Physician. I strongly oppose the health care reform bill being debated currently.

I oppose it for reasons of personal survival - I owe $250K in college and medical school debt. I ask no favors from anyone, but I DO ask for the opportunity to ply my trade as there is demand for it - not unlike a baker, plumber, or grocer - and negotiate directly with my customers, as they do.

I oppose it on ethical grounds - it has been conclusively proven throughout the ages that there are never enough "rich" people to exploit to the benefit of those more numerous voters extending their hands for favors from an indebted government. An organism can be parasitized only so long as blood remains in its veins. Then both host and parasite die together. I oppose it because it must, if it is to work properly, place greater value on some lives than on others, creating an Orwellian "tyranny of the productive", in which the elderly, chronically-infirm, disabled, or congenitally-imperfect are sacrificed to the benefit of those who can provide more tax revenue and drain less. It is the exercise of eminent domain applied to human life. This weapon, already visible in embryonic form among private insurers, would be utterly terrifying when wielded by an almost unstoppably-powerful and monolithically-large and deaf government.

Finally, I oppose it on historical grounds, as our government has shown itself pathologically and perpetually unworthy of even the most rudimentary trust.

In the final analysis, however, and part as a result of this well-earned lack of trust, I oppose it because they clearly want it so badly. I have come to the conclusion that anything they want badly enough to label their own constituents as unruly Nazi mobs, or to seek protection from their own voters using paid union thugs, just simply must be opposed with total abandon.

A Look At Our Future?

2009-08-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Forget for a moment how you feel about the notion of socialized medicine. Let's just imagine, for a moment, that it happens.

Let's say that you or a loved one are unhappy with your new government health care plan. What do you do? Who do you call? To whom do you complain?

Well, if government runs it, it would seem that you would go to them, right? So basically, you would bring your complaint before your Congressional representative.

That would be the same group of Representatives and Senators who, this week, labeled the outraged opponents of socialized medicine as "Nazis carrying swastikas", "unruly mobs", "crazies", "Republican shills", and so forth.

This is the way your health care will work when government holds the power over it. Stop and think about that for a moment. Is this what the American people want? To be ignored when they act alone to change it, and to be demonized and villified when they organize to change it?

Something Fishy This Way Comes...

2009-08-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Very interesting developments today. A White House spokesperson put out a call to forward emails and websites disseminating "fishy" opinions on the current Health Care Destruction Plan directly to the White House website.

Let me give you a moment to digest that...

Yes. I said it. Your President has made it known that he wants you to turn in your neighbors, associates, co-workers, even family members who have "fishy" opinions about health care "reform" as they have designed it. Why? To "fight disinformation", they say.

The real reason? Intimidation. I am nobody. Just an average, ordinary family doctor in an average ordinary town. Does it scare me that the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth wants to enlist my fellow citizens to help to compile a list of people that disagree with him? You bet it does.

I read a very moving speech by a British military officer once. In it, he spoke about the many times he's heard people speak and write about the "fearless" exploits of men in combat. He correctly pointed out that to call these men "fearless" is a great disservice. They were always afraid - often terrified out of their wits. They were not fearless. Instead, they did their great and heroic deeds despite that fear.

Our own Founding Fathers knew that by pledging their "lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor" by signing the Declaration of Independence, they were very likely signing their own death warrants.

Heroism isn't what you do because you're unafraid. Heroism is what you do despite being afraid.

I am terrified at the prospect of a government teetering so closely to the edge of absolute totalitarian despotism - so close to it that it feels the need to label people like me as "Nazis" (Nancy Pelosi), "Saboteurs" (Harry Reid), "Extremists" and "Terrorists", "Unruly Mobs", and now, "Disseminators of 'Fishy' Opinions"; so close that it feels it important to compile names and locations of people that disagree with them. I am terrified and heartbroken.

Nevertheless, allow me to follow, in some small way, in the footsteps of the Signers by saying, so that it will be clear to all, that I believe that the attempt to "reform" American Medicine by any means like HR 3200 will be a disaster. Let me further say that I believe that its conception grew out of nefarious, self-serving, socialistic, and unAmerican beliefs held by its authors, the liberal democrats who now hold power. I further believe that those same democrats are cowards of the most despicable stripe, as they are afraid even to face their very own electorates during their August recess, and that their sick, twisted attacks on the American citizens who have taken time out of actually working for a living to come and protest this demented bill (as is their God-given, Constitutionally-protected right) is the worst sort of political elitism.

Again, I ask you. Why do they want this so badly? Why would they jeopardize their entire political careers for this bill? Put yourself in their shoes, but imagine that you are a corrupt, self-serving, elitist, lying politician. What could possibly cause you to put everything on the line?

The only logical explanation is that they believe that securing the power over our health care will give them unspeakably more power than they currently weild. And if this is the case, then this is reason enough to fight it, and to fight those who support it.

My confidants have my login information. If I disappear to a work camp or re-education facility unexpectedly, my site will remain open, God willing.

I literally pray every day that Americans who love their Liberty - dearly-bought with the blood of her sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers - will "humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways" so that God will hear from heaven and "heal their land".

May He hear us, and deliver us from the spreading evil that threatens to finally quench the shining torch of Liberty from the earth. His will be done.

The American Public Health Association: Traitors

2009-07-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

APHA, the association of American public health professionals, has signed on to HR 3200 as well. This comes as no surprise to me.

Public health is becoming to this administration what Josef Goebels was to the Third Reich. They are a rubber stamp, giving the illusion of scientific credibility to the outrageous claims made by democrats. It is one filthy hand washing the other: public health funded entirely by government ensuring that government always has plenty of your money with which to fund them. I speak from experience.

I am currently studying public health, working to earn a Master's degree. What I've discovered is that it should actually be a Master of Arts degree: the art of bilking taxpayers out of their hard-earned money to fund ridiculous, frivolous, and unhelpful studies (oh, and paying yourself a healthy salary in the process). At least I have learned how to debunk their unscientific studies a little more effectively.

The American Psychiatric Association: Traitors

2009-07-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

The American Psychiatric Association (APA), the national credentialing group for American psychiatrists, has expressed full support for HR 3200, the House of Representatives' socialized medicine bill.

I'll let you insert your own punch line here.

American Osteopathic Association: Traitors

2009-07-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

The American Osteopathic Association, the country's credentialing board for D.O.s (Doctors of Osteopathy), after nearly 100 years of struggling, chips securely on their shoulders, to be respected as equals to M.D.s, have put the debate to rest at last by stupidly signing on to HR 3200, the House of Representatives bill that would destroy American Medicine and patient choice.

Like the ACS, they base their support largely on their mistaken belief that being rid of the SGR as the index that determines Medicare reimbursement will somehow solve all of our problems. They apparently believe that by allowing their support to further propel this anti-American bill through Congress, they will gain a seat at the imaginary table where "changes will be made" that will ultimately make medicine in this country whole again.

Want some advice, D.O.s? (1) Leave the chakra adjustments to the Buddhists, and (2) Never trust the government. They don't plan to involve you or me. They plan to destroy us, and our patients along with us. They want to make you, me, and all our patients so dependent upon them that we can't live or breathe without them (or without paying a tax for the privilege). You shame yourselves by going along with this charade.

American College of Surgeons: Traitors

2009-07-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

In a particularly idiotic move, the American College of Surgeons recently expressed their support for HR 3200, the socialized medicine bill authored by the socialist House of Representatives. They based their support on a one-dimensional line of complaint, namely the use of the SGR or "sustainable growth rate" as the index to be used to calculate reimbursement rates through Medicare. HR 3200 promises to scrap the SGR as the index of importance.

Just a couple of problems, though. First, who has ever known Congress, when dominated by either party, to keep promises? Do the 70,000+ members of the ACS seriously believe that this bill will keep anybody in Washington honest? If they do, then this naivete would cause me to seriously question their credentials to perform surgery on kitchen toasters, much less human victims.

Secondly, there is the issue of the utter stupidity of trading one onerous regulatory policy for another, sure-to-be more onerous one, considering that the authors of both strategies have historically shown themselves pathologically incompetent and unwilling to hear logical arguments.

So let me get this straight. The ACS doesn't like the way government decides reimbursements by fiat, so they lend their support to giving more power to that government, so that it is even more capable of deciding reimbursements by fiat. Nice one, ACS. You should be so proud.

American College of Physicians: Traitors

2009-07-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Reading this press release from the American College of Physicians (ACP), the certification board for U.S. Internal Medicine doctors, it becomes clear that they, like many of the other groups on the traitors list, believe that it is better to jump on to the socialized medicine bandwagon now, in the hopes that they can negotiate with the Chicago mobsters for some pittances or indulgences in the future. In short, they sold you and me out for self-interest.

The House of Representatives' socialized medicine bill (HR 3200) is so clearly and fundamentally flawed that it would take an absolute idiot to fail to see that it paves the way for the destruction of American Medicine and the private health care market. And since I have more respect for my fellow doctors than to think them idiots, I have to believe that ACP knowingly and callously allowed their name and their reputation to serve as evidence that doctors were behind this legislation. This gives momentum to this bill that it shouldn't have, or, if you prefer, provides comfort and welfare to our common enemy. For that, the ACP have shown themselves to be traitors.

The AMA: Traitors.

2009-07-27T16:57:00.001-07:00

I don't have much to say about the American Medical Association. I think it will say it all if I let you in on a little bit of MOCKBADOC "inside baseball".

When I was preparing my "Consequences" entry, I had to put a good bit of thought into whether I should include the AMA in this group. I had intentionally excluded unions and self-reported communist organizations from the list of "traitors", and the AMA qualifies as both a union (of specialist physicians) and a self-professed communist organization.

In the end, though, I decided to place them in the traitors group because of their undeserved national prominence, and the fact that there are still a few people who haven't gotten the memo on this socialist advocacy group.

Well done, AMA. You made it on the list!

ACOG: Traitors.

2009-07-27T16:49:00.001-07:00

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) may be the blindest supporter of all. Their leadership is dominated by leftists, and most of their members probably don't even realize it. They are selling their support to the members by claiming that 1/5 of women of childbearing age and 1/7 of pregnant women are uninsured or underinsured. I guess they are trying to make the case that mandatory, government-issued "coverage" of these women will help their members' bottom-line.

As someone who has delivered babies and cared for many women patients myself, many of them uninsured and more of them insured by some sort of government agency, I'd like to ask ObGyns this one simple question:

How is that reimbursement from the government working out for ya?

After pondering that question, ask yourself if you'd like the other 4/5 of the currently privately-insured women of childbearing age and the other 6/7 of the currently privately-insured pregnant women to have the same kind of "insurance" that is notoriously late with payments and consistently cuts your pay without the chance of any kind of appeal. Then make your voice heard with your traitorous Board.

American Academy of Nursing: Traitors.

2009-07-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

The AAN goes so far as to have a whole page on their site dedicated to their support of HR 3200. This gives us a rare opportunity to see just how ridiculously blind many of these socialized medicine supporters are to the realities of the bill they just signed on to.

I personally know many nurses who are appalled at the provisions in the bill. Are you a nurse? Are you employed by a doctor or a hospital? This bill puts your job at risk. Oh, of course the government will be more than happy to employ you once your doctor has had to shut his or her doors. Their arms will be wide open to embrace you...at about 1/2 your current salary.

AARP: Traitors.

2009-07-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

The website that allows you to join the 50+ savings club known as AARP has this little nugget on the bottom of their main website. Describing what they're about, they say:

"AARP is dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age. We lead positive social change and deliver value to members through information, advocacy and service."

I defy them to explain how the mission of "enhancing quality of life" is accomplished through a bill that (1) paves the way for euthanasia as a cost-cutting measure, (2) destroys a patient's ability to choose their doctor, (3) rations care and medications in order to cut costs, (4) virtually ensures a shortage of doctors for the aging baby-boomers through draconian reimbursement cuts and (5) creates waiting lists for appointments and procedures.

This one is easy. Have an AARP membership? Cancel it. They sold you out.

AAFP: Traitors.

2009-07-27T16:26:00.001-07:00

The American Academy of Family Practice (AAFP) supports destroying health care. I find their press release on the subject to be a laughable attempt to be "part of the debate". They have played with the fire, and now are being burned.

I, for one, as a family doctor, will not forget that they allowed their name to be used in support of a bill that would do more in a season to destroy American Medicine than all of the insurance companies combined have not been able to do in nearly 100 years.

To my family medicine colleagues: there is another family medicine board that has not, as yet, identified itself as traitorous to our profession and our Liberty: The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM). I strongly suggest that those of you in family medicine switch your allegience. Your board has sold you out.

Consequences

2009-07-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

Now that the truth about the socialized medicine bills coming out of Congress is out, the future of this latest attack on our Liberty is uncertain, at best. I am encouraged by the number of responsible citizens who have taken the time to actually sit down and read the 1000+ pages released by the U.S. House. I am even more encouraged to see that they are horrified by what those pages contain. Say what you will about the blogosphere - they are doing what the "real" media are not. They are researching and reporting facts.

(Kinda makes you wonder what is involved in getting a 4-year degree in journalism entails, if it doesn't include stressing the importance of research and reporting, doesn't it?)

But now to the point. Without regard to the outcome of this battle, it is time for those of us who believe in Liberty to name names. There is now a list of the groups who have come out in support of House Resolution 3200, which, it is now clear, would result in the destruction of personal liberty in health care choices, would ration health care, and would decimate American Medicine.

(from http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2009/07/supporters-of-the-americas-aff.shtml)

Some of the names on this list come as no big surprise. Many are unions, and as such, would benefit personally from this anti-American bill. Unions have always been, and continue to be, a smoldering ember of outright communism that we have always allowed to exist within us, smoldering, always with the risk that it will burst into a full-blown socialistic fire to destroy us. Nevertheless, they are what they are, and their support of a bill that would basically guarantee their ability to sell their votes for free health care for life (the exact cause of the recent problems at GM and Chrysler, incidentally) can be taken in stride.

Many of the others are similarly excluded, because they are notoriously socialistic in their missions. At least these organizations make no secret of their leftist designs on government - to make the majority suffer for their special pet projects.

Now, though, we come to the painful part. We have to decide what to do about the following organizations who signed on to this bill. Their support is being used to push it along, and therefore, their support should be seen as their endorsement of all that it says. We must not listen to their ex post facto excuses about their reasons for supporting it. The support of this bill says it all.

I strongly suggest that you consider making a list of these organizations. We must not forget their names. We must not forget this moment - when a group of people sold us out for their own self-interest. By their support, they said that the well-being of their organization meant more than your security and more than your Liberty. I, for one, plan to make it my mission to prevent one penny of my hard-earned money from ever going to any of the following traitors:

AARP

American Academy of Family Practice

American Academy of Nursing

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American College of Physicians

American College of Surgeons

American Medical Association

American Nurses Association

American Osteopathic Association

American Psychiatric Association

American Public Health Association

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

International Association of Fire Fighters

YMCA

Tell them how you feel. Let them feel how you feel. If this is a battle (and I believe that it is) then this is a list of new ideological enemies. These are some of the people who have banded together against you. It is time for us to band together against them. It is time for consequences.

"Evidence-Based" Medicine - the Sword Cuts Both Ways

2009-07-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Want to see how effective Obama's health care plan will be? Look to the much-vaunted British Health System for guidance.

One of the major elements of the democrat plan is the so-called "Pay for Performance" or P4P provision. The lie is that when doctors are payed based on a government algorithm that grades their success, they practice better, cheaper medicine.

That has now been conclusively proven to be false. I wonder if anybody will listen, or if they are too blinded by ideology to respond to reason. I'm sure that they won't let the facts get in the way of a good vote-buying opportunity.

You see, the objective is not to make health care delivery better, or cheaper, or more equitable. The objective is to increase our dependency on the government for everything - even our very survival.

I feel dirty.

2009-07-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

I have spent the majority of my adult life pursuing and practicing medicine. I think I'm pretty good at it. I certainly try to be, at the very least. I feel sure that I've helped some people. I feel relatively sure that if left alone, without somebody hovering over my shoulder, watching my every move and scrutinizing my practices to ensure that I am using their particular version of "best practices", I'd still treat my patients like I'd want to be treated. I practice medicine the way it was taught to me - as an art as well as a science.

Want to know a secret? Picture this: two patients, about the same age, with about the same complaint. Ready for the shocking medical truth? I may not treat these two people exactly the same. Infinite variables exist, which guide the decision-making with regard to the way I speak to the two different patients, the medicines I may prescribe, the education I provide to them...it goes on and on. That's why medicine can only be properly practiced by a living, breathing human doctor.

This is surely offensive to those who believe that medicine can be reduced to a series of algorithms; who believe that the best treatment for a particular condition must necessarily be the one that is cheapest and most efficient for the collective. By this logic, the most "efficient" medical care would undoubtedly be practiced by a computer, which can stick to the now-worshipped "evidence-based" algorithm with a ruthlessness that can never be approximated by even the most devoted human practitioner of "cookbook medicine".

Because I reject this notion wholesale; because I believe that what I do matters; because I want to help my patients to live better lives, even if it is expensive sometimes; and because I have spent my life trying to be worthy of the kind of trust I see in the eyes of a terrified mother with a sick infant, in the eyes of an elderly person gasping for air, in the eyes of a family who knows that one of their loved ones is dying - because of all this and more, I feel dirty, violated, and sickened when I hear our President saying the things he presumed to say tonight on TV.

To suggest that a typical doctor, faced with a child with a sore throat, would seriously contemplate subjecting him or her to a tonsillectomy simply to secure a higher reimbursement is the most disgusting sort of lie. I shouldn't be surprised. He has never been afraid to lie to accomplish his infernal objectives before. But this time it was more personal. He's been very careful not to alienate doctors in the past. He is counting on us to be good little soldiers, taking whatever he decides to give us for our work, and make this big socialist vote-buy possible. He tipped his hand.

What he feels about us is now painfully clear for all who will care to listen to his words. Left to our own devices, we doctors are opportunists - seeking to parlay our education and skill into filthy lucre even at the expense of our patients' safety...especially at the expense of our patients' safety. The mere suggestion should be disgusting to any decent doctor. That this sort of suggestion would be made in the context of his attempts to undermine our hard-won relationship with our patients so that he can ram his socialist agenda down our throats is more than "politics as usual". It is a violation of the most hideous sort. Pot, meet kettle.

NASA: Your Tax Dollars at Work

2009-07-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

I have always been a bit of a NASA nerd. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid, like many others. I wept when the Challenger exploded. I dreamed of going to "Space Camp". Sadly, when I grew up, I came to realize that it is a miracle that the bureaucratic government bozos at NASA can launch Microsoft Windows, much less a spacecraft.

This week gave us our greatest glimpse in years into their mind-numbing incompetence. First they grounded the entire Shuttle fleet after the liquid fuel tank shed foam once again, once again damaging the orbiter. The jury is out on how damaged, exactly.

Then, on the 40th anniversary of the much-celebrated moon landing, they admitted (to the nearly audible "AHA!" of conspiracy theorists worldwide) that they had "lost" or even perhaps "recorded over" what were the previously-unreleased and reportedly the best film evidence of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

I am undecided about this issue. I must admit, though, that it looks a bit suspicious after this week's revelations. Great job, NASA. If this is the best that our government's "best and brightest" can do, it heralds disaster for health care.

I'm running out of room in my "Government Incompetence" file, but maybe I can stuff this one in there.

Cannibalism

2009-07-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

The socialist health care advocates have scored perhaps their greatest victory. They have reduced the once proud members of America's once noble medical profession to self-serving cannibalism.

The American Medical Association has endorsed the House health care reform bill; they were placated by promises not to cut the wages of specialists in order to increase the wages of primary care doctors.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has endorsed the House bill; I have no idea why they would have done so, unless they are banking on improvements in their bottom line once the rolls of the uninsured are artificially shrunk. Another possibility is that they were simply too chronically sleep-deprived to actually read what the bill says.

Most personally devastating, the American Academy of Family Practice has also endorsed the bill. I shouldn't be surprised - the AAFP has been leaning progressively socialist for the past few years, and I guess have finally succumbed to the perpetual brow-beating about health care entitlement being the new civil rights fight of our time or something.

So the AMA gambles that specialists will be able to defeat primary care, the AAFP gambles that the government will give us a largely symbolic recognition of the things we've done for years without being reimbursed by them, and ObGyn gambles that being reimbursed a pittance for the relatively small number of uninsured people they see will be worth losing money on the majority who are currently insured. The growing rift between our specialties is now official. Just as they planned, the government has broken our backs by pitting us against each other. We can't all be winners, of course. And experience suggests that we'll all lose.

These groups have now dug their own graves. Instead of serving as the lone voices of reason in the struggle to save the doctor-patient relationship, these groups have instead thrown their support behind a 1000+ page bill that ensures that none of us will ever be free to practice real medicine again. Now we will be nothing more than unwitting tools of the socialist left, as they buy votes with our labors.

This bill makes buying or selling private insurance illegal. Once it's in place, our income and ability to practice medicine the right way will be at the mercy of the same intellectual giants who have responded to a lack of money by printing more worthless money, have doggedly refused to slow the largest cause of expensive health care - uncontrolled frivolous litigation - and openly admit that the new public "option" will be based on the same flawed Medicare model that has largely contributed to this whole mess in the first place.

Well done, guys. It will actually be sardonically hilarious to watch as the realization sets in that *gasp* Nancy Pelosi can't be trusted. Prepare to reap the whirlwind.

Trusting Your Gut

2009-07-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

Why do the Democrats want this health care plan so badly? You've got to wonder. Polls show lukewarm support at best for this idea. Now David Axelrod, asked about the growing opposition to this plan, even in the current generally-sympathetic Democrat-controlled Congress, is quoted as saying "This isn't about a process. It's about results".

Excuse me, Mr. Axelrod. I think it is very much about the process. In fact, it is all about the process. That's the whole point of our form of government. It is designed to be a stumbling block to would-be tyrants like you and your boss who desire to impose their self-serving will on an unwilling people.

So why is this such a big deal? Why is it so important to them to get it done before the end of the year? Whatever your opinions on the state of American Medicine, you have to admit that it's a bit unsettling to have your elected leaders trying so hard to cram this through. Disagree? Try putting the shoe on the other foot.

If roles were reversed, and a Republican President and two Republican houses of Congress, both with unstoppable majorities, were pushing something you weren't entirely sure about, I would expect you to be a bit alarmed. I would be, too.

Unfortunately, the "fair-weather patriots" who protested loudly every time GWB scratched his face are nowhere to be seen. Their hypocrisy cries out for notice, but no one says a word. Their opposition to large government, to war in foreign lands, to illegal wiretapping, to imprisoning and torturing terrorists - all has gone silent.

They say you can be known by the kind of people you call your friends. I believe the same is true for those you oppose. If that's true, then those of us who oppose this administration's actions are probably just about right in our thinking. At least we call it like we see it, unblinded by ideology.

Nobody likes a pest. And in my experience, when somebody continues pushing something well beyond the point of uncomfortability, there is usually some ulterior motive. Just as the ultimate cynic (and well-known racist) President Lyndon Johnson used support of the civil rights movement to "ensure the [black] vote for the next 50 years", this promises to make an already government-addicted public powerless to remove these socialists from power.

Michael Moore: Mister Invisible

2009-07-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Funny. I thought Michael Moore, the self-proclaimed champion of the blue-collar classes, would be all over this. I guess unemployment is only bad when there is a handy conservative to blame.

At least they'll all have the same crummy health care as their working counterparts, unless a miraculous return to common sense occurs.

Well done, Mr. Moore. Your self-righteousness has helped doom a fifth of your Michigan neighbors. Not that you care, of course. You'll remain conspicuously silent as your hero's deranged policies ensure slow (or no) recovery. Cap and trade will make the U.S. a hogtied nation, competing with India and China with both hands tied behind our backs.

Remember when you were so excited about "owning" GM and Chrysler? Remember your mocking laugh when imagining their factories being converted to make wind turbines? Didn't exactly work out that way, did it? Oh, well. I'm sure nobody will hold you accountable. Nobody ever does. So sleep well. There are still 4/5 of your fellow Michigan residents who are gainfully employed.