From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ---
Main Entry: thought·ful ---
1 a : absorbed in thought : MEDITATIVE b : characterized by careful reasoned thinking (a thoughtful essay)
2 a : having thoughts : HEEDFUL (became thoughtful about religion) b : given to or chosen or made with heedful anticipation of the needs and wants of others (a kind and thoughtful friend).
Good morning! Did you have a restful sleep? Yes, I know it's 3 AM, I just thought... well, the whole orderly staff thought a little early morning air would do you some good after all that commotion yesterday. I have to say you're a pretty feisty old gal for 86!
How's that?
You're 78?
Still, you should really take better care of yourself. Just look at those bags under your eyes! You're no spring chicken and all that protesting just causes stress. Here, why don't we wheel you over to the balcony so you can get some of that fresh healthful air.
Yes, I know it's cold. But look at the spectacular 14th story view! A clear night sky full of stars, and if you lean over the railing you can see all the way down to the empty parking lot. Just like the Ferris Wheel at the 1892 World's Fair, back when you were a little girl.
Now if I can just unlatch this... stupid... mmmp... sliding... mmph... door. Crap.
Certainly not I. Whole Foods founder John Mackey has health care reform ideas that I could embrace (via a commenter at AoSHQ, from Sweetness & Light, from The Wall Street Journal):
It's a perfectly sensible list of capitalist-friendly reform items (including tort reform! health savings accounts! increased competition among insurers!) that would bring about immediate savings for those who currently are un- or under-insured, without throwing the baby out with the bath water. I repeat, who knew? I haven't been in a Whole Foods store in over a decade, but I may make the half-hour trek to Ann Arbor, on the strength of this article alone.
From the Sweetness & Light remarks:
Mr. Mackey admits he used to be a "democratic socialist" in college. But when he began a business and barely made money while being accused by workers of not paying them enough and customers of charging too high prices, he began to take a more capitalistic worldview.
He discovered the works of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Friedman. Mr. Mackey is also an avowed admirer of author Ayn Rand.
As the CEO of Whole Foods, John has been attacked in leftwing and union publications for his supposed anti-union views. Mr. Mackey wrote about unions on his blog:
Unions as they evolved in the United States became very adversarial, untrusting, and opposed to the success and prosperity of the business. This is my major objection to unions today — they harm the flourishing of the business for all the stakeholders. Instead of cooperation between stakeholders, they focus on competition between management and labor. Instead of embracing the notion of the ‘expanding pie’ vision of capitalism — more for everyone, or win-win — they frequently embrace the zero-sum philosophy of win-lose."
Despite such backward views, Whole Foods Market somehow managed to be one of only two Fortune 500 companies listed among the 25 Best Companies to Work For in 2005.
And now here he is, a former uber hippy, who ran a health food store – quoting Margaret Thatcher and opposing Mr. Obama’s takeover of our healthcare system.
John Mackey proves there is hope for all of us.
I'm ... dazzled! Mr. Mackey, this non-vegetarian salutes you.
When President Obama tells you he’s “reforming” health care to “control costs,” the point to remember is that the only way to “control costs” in health care is to have less of it. In a government system, the doctor, the nurse, the janitor, and the Assistant Deputy Associate Director of Cost-Control System Management all have to be paid every Friday, so the sole means of “controlling costs” is to restrict the patient’s access to treatment. In the Province of Quebec, patients with severe incontinence — i.e., they’re in the bathroom twelve times a night — wait three years for a simple 30-minute procedure. True, Quebeckers have a year or two on Americans in the life-expectancy hit parade, but, if you’re making twelve trips a night to the john 365 times a year for three years, in terms of life-spent-outside-the-bathroom expectancy, an uninsured Vermonter may actually come out ahead.
As Louis XV is said to have predicted, “Après moi, le deluge” — which seems as incisive an observation as any on a world in which freeborn citizens of the wealthiest societies in human history are content to rise from their beds every half-hour every night and traipse to the toilet for yet another flush simply because a government bureaucracy orders them to do so. “Health” is potentially a big-ticket item, but so’s a house and a car, and most folks manage to handle those without a Government Accommodation Plan or a Government Motor Vehicles System — or, at any rate, they did in pre-bailout America.
Read it all at the link (NRO).
UPDATE: Heh ... Now go watch Treacher be funny. :-)
From BreitbartTV, via comments at AoSHQ. Y'all watchin' them health care debates on C-SPAN? Why not?!?
The always to-the-point Nice Deb blogs (with the supporting video I've been meaning to post all week, plus quotes from the world's other biggest liar -- Michael Moore -- on his admiration for Obama's rope-a-dope health care strategy): Surreal: Obama Says He Has “Not Said That He Is A Single Payer Supporter”
She also attended one of Claire McCaskill's Town Hall meetings (at which, oddly enough [rolls eyes], McCaskill was no-show, but the event still proved interesting):
Even the NYT disputes Obama's claim that you'd be able to "keep your current insurance."
Here's the NYT on these assurances, which they politely call "aspirational" only. As in, a lie.
These assurances reflect an aspiration, but may not be literally true or enforceable.
The legislation does not require insurers or employers to continue offering the health benefits they now provide. The House bill sets detailed standards for “acceptable health care coverage,” which would define “essential benefits” and permissible co-payments. Employers that already offer insurance would have five years to bring their plans into compliance with the new federal standards.
The Senate health committee bill goes somewhat further by offering an “option to retain current insurance coverage.”
The legislation could have significant implications for individuals who have bought coverage on their own. Their policies might be exempted from the new standards, but the coverage might not be viable for long because insurers could not add benefits or enroll additional people in noncompliant policies.
Dallas L. Salisbury, president of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a private nonpartisan group, said: “The president and Democrats in Congress are saying what they would like. Their promises may not be literally true because your health plan may change, and your doctor may no longer accept your insurance.”
You won't keep your coverage.
By design.
The Castaways, 1965:
One note: I will not be unhappy if the voting public lets Teh Won, and large segment of Congress, go in 2010/2012.
You Stay Here While I Swim and Get Us Some Universal Health Care
Special Guest Commentary by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
The statistics are sobering: the cost of American health care is rising almost as fast as the cold, briny water bubbling up from our floorboards. So far we have already lost the 8-track player and several Vic Damone tapes, and if allowed to continue these trends threaten to engulf all of us within the Oldsmobile. We must quickly wake up and face the facts: inaction is no longer an option. That is why it is critical for the future of all the occupants that one of us swim off and get us some kind of free health care program. I nominate me.
Why me, you ask? As I explained to you back at the party, I am passionate about many things. Politics, sailing, the art of Leroy Niemann, Dewar's, my etchings. And let's not forget that sweet tight body of yours, which I must say looks stunning in the watery glow of the dashboard lights. But did I also mention my passion for universal heath care? Hey Baby, ol' Teddy Bear is all about that. As the Conscience of the Senate, I have led the fight to win comprehensive national medical benefits for you and other vulnerable Boiler Room Girls who have been denied coverage by their heartless employers. I fervently believe we're all on this boat together. Okay, Oldsmobile. Now, if you'll just let go of my arm, I'll make a break for it and continue the fight for your health care rights back at my lawyer's office.
Seniors and about-to-be-seniors-Boomers (of which I am one), wake the hell up. If you don't think your ass is going to be out on an ice floe if this thing passes, you're crazy. The only way this abomination can work is with extreme rationing of care ... you know, that horrible thing that eeeevil "Big Business HMOs" started doing when that total coverage model for every hangnail, burp and damaged hair follicle was found to be unsustainable. C'mon ... you were screaming about it constantly!!!ELEVENTY!!!!
1. If it was in any way beneficial, wouldn't the hogs at the trough in Congress be taking it for themselves first, instead of staying outside of it?
2. Who is expendable? Not young, working taxpayers. Or "the children." Can you say Booooomers? Sure you can. And the largest generation in the history of ever is on the cusp of becoming the largest, health-challenged demographic in the history of ever.
