I got an email from AARP yesterday. This was just the latest from them talking about health care. As usual, they go on about the myths that people are putting out there and how the all mighty AARP is here to dispel the rumor spewed by the great satan (or astro-turfers to NancyP). In this email, they have you enter a zip code and present you with a list of local newspapers. AARP will send a Letter to the Editor in your name. Below are their points.
Health care reform isn't socialized medicine and will not lead to rationed care. You'll still be able to choose your own doctor and health insurance plan.
Under health care reform, any decisions regarding your health will continue to be made by you, your doctor and your family – not by the government.
We can't afford not to fix health care. If we do nothing now, the cost of health care premiums will double in the next seven years.
Health care reform will strengthen, not hurt, Medicare. For people in Medicare, reform will protect your benefits, ensure you can choose your doctor and strengthen Medicare so it's there for your children and grandchildren
Now how does AARP know all this? It is really interesting how when you quote from HR3200, the proponents tell you how there is no bill, there are many bills, or some such nonsense to indicate how foolish you are. But when they speak, it is with the absolute certainty as you can see above.
What does AARP get out of this? Who knows. What we do know is that the head of AARP donated thousands to the Obama campaign last year. Of course as a citizen, it is his right. However as the head of what is supposed to be an impartial organization, he should show some better sense.
I won't be renewing when my current membership runs out. The small benefits that I get from membership isn't worth my soul.
2009-08-27
2009-07-27
Congraduations Lance
Armstrong, not that miscreant we have for a congressman.
The guy retires having won an unprecedented 7 tours in a row. Four years later he comes out of retirement as one of the oldest (but I think 2 years off the oldest) in the race and wins third place alongside someone who is about 10 years younger and a guy who was probably still in diapers when Armstrong began his career in the amateur ranks.
You must have an ego to get to this point in the sport. Yet when his teammate Cantadore violated the team orders and took off for his own glory, Armstrong worked with the team that day losing valuable time. Would that have made the difference and gotten him the yellow jersey? Probably not, but he must have been tempted.
Now it appears Astana is dissolving although I haven't heard anything official about that. Armstrong apparently is starting up a new American team backed by Radio Shack while Contadore is rumored to be leaving Astana as well and I think Johan Bruyneel has announced his departure too. I do hope Bruyneel ends up with Radio Shack. He has a great record.
So where does that leave Levi Leipheimer? I sure hope he bolts and goes with Radio Shack too. He is one of my favorites. And what of George Hincapie? I had heard that he was staying at Columbia, but someone has since told me that he is rumored to be maybe leaving too. Levi & George joining in on Radio Shack. That would be terrific. And if they could get Kloden too, they would sure have a contender.
The guy retires having won an unprecedented 7 tours in a row. Four years later he comes out of retirement as one of the oldest (but I think 2 years off the oldest) in the race and wins third place alongside someone who is about 10 years younger and a guy who was probably still in diapers when Armstrong began his career in the amateur ranks.
You must have an ego to get to this point in the sport. Yet when his teammate Cantadore violated the team orders and took off for his own glory, Armstrong worked with the team that day losing valuable time. Would that have made the difference and gotten him the yellow jersey? Probably not, but he must have been tempted.
Now it appears Astana is dissolving although I haven't heard anything official about that. Armstrong apparently is starting up a new American team backed by Radio Shack while Contadore is rumored to be leaving Astana as well and I think Johan Bruyneel has announced his departure too. I do hope Bruyneel ends up with Radio Shack. He has a great record.
So where does that leave Levi Leipheimer? I sure hope he bolts and goes with Radio Shack too. He is one of my favorites. And what of George Hincapie? I had heard that he was staying at Columbia, but someone has since told me that he is rumored to be maybe leaving too. Levi & George joining in on Radio Shack. That would be terrific. And if they could get Kloden too, they would sure have a contender.
2009-07-05
My 4rth of July yellow jersey
My brother, the captain*, and I bike from my house to my sister's house on major summer holidays. We started doing this when she lived in Hightstown and continued with the tradition when she moved in to her current house near the I-295/I-195 intersection in 1995. So I guess we'll heading towards 20 years of beach blanket beers.
Why Boo's house? Well because she has a large deck and a swimming pool. There may be other reasons, but those will do for now.
I expected the usual ride for libation and food on this 4rth of July. My brother punked out with some lame excuse about his wife breaking her leg so I had to go solo. Instead to swinging by Thomas Sweets in Princeton for a nice ice cream break, I decided to go for broke. I don't know. Maybe I was inspired while watching the beginning of the 2009 Tour de France.
I rode about as hard I am able. Now I'm overweight, closing in on 60, and smoked for almost 50 years (3rd grade until about a year and a half ago) so I'm not Lance Armstrong in disguise. Or believe me, it is a very good disguise.
Anyway I mashed up the big 8-10o hill on Great Road and kept on going. I was pooped when I got there, but when I looked at my speedo, WOW. I finally broke the two hour barrier. A new record for the ride. To celebrate, I snap a picture for proof**. Of course I immediately phoned my brother and allowed as how he must be the anchor.
Ok, so I guess there will be no yellow jersey for me, but it was a glorious day in the pedals anyway.
* The captain at our August 2001 family reunion (Boo's house of course)
** My record documenting my sub two hour timing.
Why Boo's house? Well because she has a large deck and a swimming pool. There may be other reasons, but those will do for now.
I expected the usual ride for libation and food on this 4rth of July. My brother punked out with some lame excuse about his wife breaking her leg so I had to go solo. Instead to swinging by Thomas Sweets in Princeton for a nice ice cream break, I decided to go for broke. I don't know. Maybe I was inspired while watching the beginning of the 2009 Tour de France.
I rode about as hard I am able. Now I'm overweight, closing in on 60, and smoked for almost 50 years (3rd grade until about a year and a half ago) so I'm not Lance Armstrong in disguise. Or believe me, it is a very good disguise.
Anyway I mashed up the big 8-10o hill on Great Road and kept on going. I was pooped when I got there, but when I looked at my speedo, WOW. I finally broke the two hour barrier. A new record for the ride. To celebrate, I snap a picture for proof**. Of course I immediately phoned my brother and allowed as how he must be the anchor.
Ok, so I guess there will be no yellow jersey for me, but it was a glorious day in the pedals anyway.
* The captain at our August 2001 family reunion (Boo's house of course)
** My record documenting my sub two hour timing.
2009-07-03
Happy Birthday Peachy
Today is Peachy's birthday. Congratulations.
She still has a job in this economy. Congratulations again.
visit her neglected blog at http://lauremdoes.blogspot.com/
She still has a job in this economy. Congratulations again.
visit her neglected blog at http://lauremdoes.blogspot.com/
2009-03-31
Eyes wide open.
One of us doesn't get it.
I'm watching commentators discuss executive pay caps and I am reading a forum where posters are talking about how great it would be if companies were legally banned from outsourcing jobs or taxed for doing so.
Now I assume that the posters believe that the result would be that we would all be employed with nice high paying jobs.
As best I can tell folks, that simply does not work. Well it does not work as long as we are working a basically capitalism framework. Maybe it works in some other; say socialist, economic framework, but not capitalism.
How come?
Because for the exact same product made to the same high quality, who in their right mind is going to buy the more expensive one? Oh, because of service. No deal. I'm talking about the same product, same service, same everything other than price.
So OK, maybe we have the government pass laws to force us to buy American? That doesn't help either. The rest of the world will buy the cheaper product made elsewhere. So they have more money to buy other stuff. Money we now don't have because we bought those government mandated higher priced products. So the rest of the world becomes just a little bit richer compared to us and we become just a little bit poorer.
So how did that buy American law benefit us? Well it did save those jobs, but the reason was that we all contributed to those workers employment by paying higher than market prices.
So you say, "OK, but you assume we're all greedy. What if we are generous and agree to buy our neighbor's product rather than some foreign product?" Unfortunately Virginia, it still doesn't work.
Let's take a very simplistic example. The only products are shoes and shirts. Assuming all the workers produce a single product, workers in CountryA can make 100 shoes per year, but only 50 shirts. Conversely, workers in CountryB can make 100 shirts per year, but only 50 shoes. We all want to just get along so we agree to make our own stuff. So we put 1/2 the workers in each country to work making shoes and 1/2 making shirts. CountryA produces 50 shoes and 25 shirts. CountryB produces 50 shirts and 25 shoes. So the world GDP is 75 shirts + 75 shoes. If we let the workers do what they do best, CountryA produces 100 shoes and CountryB produces 100 shirts. Under this plan the world GDP is now 100 shirts + 100 shoes. The world is simply richer when the products and services are done by the workers who do the job best.
What about the argument that says our national security requires a steel industry or fighter airplane industry? A society may certainly decide that those things are so important that they need the security of keeping that industry at home. The only thing we need to remember is that protecting industries or jobs is no free ride. We have to pay for it. If we are not the most efficient producers of these products, if we artificially subsidize them, we all become a little poorer than we would be otherwise. Maybe that is the right decision. But it is a decision we need to make with our eyes open as well as our hearts.
I'm watching commentators discuss executive pay caps and I am reading a forum where posters are talking about how great it would be if companies were legally banned from outsourcing jobs or taxed for doing so.
Now I assume that the posters believe that the result would be that we would all be employed with nice high paying jobs.
As best I can tell folks, that simply does not work. Well it does not work as long as we are working a basically capitalism framework. Maybe it works in some other; say socialist, economic framework, but not capitalism.
How come?
Because for the exact same product made to the same high quality, who in their right mind is going to buy the more expensive one? Oh, because of service. No deal. I'm talking about the same product, same service, same everything other than price.
So OK, maybe we have the government pass laws to force us to buy American? That doesn't help either. The rest of the world will buy the cheaper product made elsewhere. So they have more money to buy other stuff. Money we now don't have because we bought those government mandated higher priced products. So the rest of the world becomes just a little bit richer compared to us and we become just a little bit poorer.
So how did that buy American law benefit us? Well it did save those jobs, but the reason was that we all contributed to those workers employment by paying higher than market prices.
So you say, "OK, but you assume we're all greedy. What if we are generous and agree to buy our neighbor's product rather than some foreign product?" Unfortunately Virginia, it still doesn't work.
Let's take a very simplistic example. The only products are shoes and shirts. Assuming all the workers produce a single product, workers in CountryA can make 100 shoes per year, but only 50 shirts. Conversely, workers in CountryB can make 100 shirts per year, but only 50 shoes. We all want to just get along so we agree to make our own stuff. So we put 1/2 the workers in each country to work making shoes and 1/2 making shirts. CountryA produces 50 shoes and 25 shirts. CountryB produces 50 shirts and 25 shoes. So the world GDP is 75 shirts + 75 shoes. If we let the workers do what they do best, CountryA produces 100 shoes and CountryB produces 100 shirts. Under this plan the world GDP is now 100 shirts + 100 shoes. The world is simply richer when the products and services are done by the workers who do the job best.
What about the argument that says our national security requires a steel industry or fighter airplane industry? A society may certainly decide that those things are so important that they need the security of keeping that industry at home. The only thing we need to remember is that protecting industries or jobs is no free ride. We have to pay for it. If we are not the most efficient producers of these products, if we artificially subsidize them, we all become a little poorer than we would be otherwise. Maybe that is the right decision. But it is a decision we need to make with our eyes open as well as our hearts.