Tag: US

The despicable state of US healthcare system

A friend of mine was admitted to the hospital over a severe ear infection. His wife describes their ongoing ordeal with his treatment, or lack thereof, at the hospital.

I would like to believe this is an isolated incident, but I hear stories like this all the time.

The father of a good friend of my wife’s is quite possibly terminally ill having suffered a bad stroke several months ago. He’s been hospitalized practically ever since the stroke. The stories of his maltreatment by healthcare “professionals” are appalling and quite frankly make me hope when it comes the time for me to go, I’d just go quickly rather than suffer unnecessarily while being “treated”.

I believe all this is due to the privately run healthcare facilities trying to save every possible penny at the expense of pain and suffering of people in their care. Cost cutting to the bone is not good in everything.

-TPP

We can’t afford four more years

Washington Post reports that the US poverty rates increased to 12.7% last year. The poverty rates have been going up every year for the past four years.

In New York City, the poverty rates are up to 20.3% from 19%. That’s one in every five New York City residents living under poverty levels. I guess that happens when you have millionaires running the city.

I find these statistics completely mindboggling. To me they demonstrate a complete failure of the federal and city governments. We’re spending unlimited funds to fight tyranny around the world, but then let our own citizens get poorer and poorer with seemingly no concern. When is the last time you heard George W. Bush talk about fighting poverty [1]?

It is not the job of non-profit organizations and charities to take care of the poor. It is the government’s job to make sure poverty doesn’t exist, as much as possible. The government is failing in its job. Switch it!

-TPP

1. The social security system reform doesn’t qualify, as it would actually increase poverty

The net being regulated by Christian conservatives

Declan McCullagh, of Politech fame, reports about the .xxx TLD roadblocks and how the Christian conservatives have been getting more and more power in the US regulatory agencies.

He also lists concrete examples of how these Christian conservatives are flexing their newfound powers in ways that threaten the 1st Amendment rights and/or don’t make any sense whatsoever in the context of a global network like the Internet.

-TPP

Privacy is in the eyes of the beholder

There’s been some interesting debate recently on whether or not police can search your garbage without a search warrant. Apparently the police, district attorneys and judges think they can. They seem to believe since that stuff is put there to be discarded and people know it’s going to be handled by sanitation workers and even sorted for recycling there is no expectation of privacy, so it’s ok for the police to search it without a search warrant. And they routinely do.

Journalists of the Willamette Week newspaper in Portland, OR decided they’d exercise their rights to search this public depository of personal information by going dumpster diving in the Police Chief’s, the Mayor’s and the District Attorney’s garbage cans.

They then went to said persons asking whether it was ok to search garbage. All of them said yes…until the reporters told them they had gone through their own garbage. How the tables suddenly turned.

The Police Chief was so upset he cut the reporters off midsentence and stopped the interview. The Mayor summoned the reporters to her office and nearly arrested them on the spot. The District Attorney, however, was playing the “hahhah, it’s funny” game and apparently wasn’t upset at all.

-TPP

NRA out to lunch

Now, I don’t really usually care much what the kooks [1] at NRA are up to, but this time I have to wonder what in the hell are they thinking off.

In 2004 Weyerhaeuser Corporation in Oklahoma fired employees who were carrying guns in their cars parked in the company parking lot stating it was a violation of the company policy barring firearms from company property. The parking lot certainly is company property, so it’s not an entirely unreasonable to hold employees in violation the firearms policy by bringing guns onto the parking lot.

NRA wasn’t having any of it. If it was up to them, kindergarten cops would drive to work in a tank, so they called up a couple of friends in the Oklahoma State legislative office. The friends quickly passed a law that prohibits employers from banning firearms from locked vehicles parked on company property.

The legislation was co-authored by one interesting Oklahoma State Senator named Frank Shurden. He’s also known for other interesting bills. Looks like he’s trying to do that again. He sure got some balls. Wait, but it doesn’t end there. Senator Shurden also wants teachers to paddle unruly kids. I wonder if he’s into S&M. He sure fits the profile.

The law to allow firearms in locked vehicles hasn’t been enacted, because several companies in Oklahoma are opposing the law and got a temporary restraining order against enacting the law.

NRA wasn’t having any of it. If it was up to them, you could hunt deer with an M16, so they called up a couple of friends in the US Capitol. The friends quickly drafted a bill introduced in the US Senate last Friday that would essentially do the same thing as the law in Oklahoma. Naturally several companies are against any such laws, so NRA is calling on nationwide boycotts against them.

Yay for 2nd Amendment!

-TPP

1. No, I’m not talking about NRA members, some of which may actually be quite sane however misguided they may be on a variety of issues. The leadership is, however, pretty much your standard garden variety kook

Hot Coffee here, Hot Coffee everywhere

The controversy over animated, literally, sex scenes found in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas reached the US Capitol earlier this week. Bunch of politicians figured a game that features prostitution, graphic violence, car jackings and other violent crime can’t have sexually suggestive contents in it, even if hidden from the retail version and only to be uncovered by modding the game with 3rd party software.

Hillary Clinton opened her presidential campaign with a media blitz suggesting this game alone is cause for all harm ever done to the youth of America. It turns out she was hoodwinkled into doing this by ambulance chaser extraordinaire, Mr. Jack “Thumper” Thompson. Mr. Thompson has made a career of exploiting high profile incidents like the Columbine shootings to extort money from innocent 3rd parties, like the video gaming industry.

Turns out Thumper is not the only lawyer trying to profit from this.

An 85-year-old grandma, Florence Cohen, is suing Rockstar Games, the maker of GTA: San Andreas, and their parent company Take-Two Interactive, because these awful companies put PORN in the game she bought for her grandson.

There’s just one big issue with this lawsuit. Her throroughly traumatized grandson is 14. At the time she bought this nice game for her nice grandson GTA: San Andreas was an M-rated game, which means it’s not suitable for people under 17. She bought it regardless. She is now claiming she was somehow deceived. If I was the lawyer for Rockstar Games, I’d offer to settle for $1.

The sanest opinion regarding all the media generated controversy on the issue was written by Steven Johnson, author of a book “Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter”. He’s mockingly encouraging Hillary Clinton to devote her energy on a much more popular game that “instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.”. That game is, of course, high school football.

-TPP

Karl Rove – a backstabbing bitch

Honesty and integrity in the White House? Humbug!

Karl Rove’s defense to identifying Joseph Wilson’s wife as a CIA agent is: “I didn’t mention her by name, therefore I didn’t commit a felony”. What utter bullshit. That sort of defense works only for retards. You don’t become an advisor to the White House by being a retard, even under the Bush administration…I think.

Any reasonable person with a functioning brain will see Karl Rove’s word spinning as exactly that, word spinning. When you say Mr. Soandso’s wife is a CIA agent, I don’t think anyone is confused as to who was named as a CIA agent, unless Mr. Soandso has multiple wives. Joseph Wilson has only one wife.

Looks like when that defense didn’t work, he’s now saying that the media already knew she was a CIA agent, he was merely repeating information he’d heard from a reporter. This is, of course, the “if your brother jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?” defense. It usually doesn’t work for 5-year-olds either.

Step down Karl Rove. You’re about to face felony criminal charges, if there’s any justice in the White House.

I’m betting $1,000 he’ll get a presidential pardon on the same day he’s convicted though.

-TPP

The Supreme Court has lost it?

The Supreme Court ruling today on a case against the city of New London, CT greatly expanded local government’s “rights” to seize private property under eminent domain.

Originally the use of eminent domain was restricted only for public use (roads and other public infrastructure) or to get rid blighted property. Today’s ruling allow local governments to seize ANY property if they can demonstrate the planned use for the land would generate more tax revenue for the city.

The reaction to the ruling has been a big “wtf”. A quick Internet search reveals widespread opposition to the ruling from the American Farm Bureau Federation to small business owners across the country. Several local newspapers have written about local residents’ and business owners’ concerns about specific projects (New York Nets stadium in Brooklyn, a shopping center in DC targeted for demolition so that another shopping center operator could take it over, etc.).

It seems to me that The Supreme Court just abolished private property rights in the US. I am puzzled as to why.

-TPP