Abortion Rights: Oklahoma Is Terrible

There is a new law in Oklahoma requiring all abortions to be documented on a website. While this is not strange to have health statistics published, the issue is that the first 8 questions could potentially identify women in small towns. This is unacceptable, and I would love to support the Center For Reproductive Rights in their lawsuit against this flagrant ignoring of both the constitution of Oklahoma, but also the Supreme Court of the USA. We will not accept these tiny chips away at our rights as a woman.

Last Time I Checked, Abortion Was Legal And There Was A Separation Between Church And State

I am deeply frustrated that the health care reform, however it ends up, may be derailed by the abortion question. There is no question abortion is legal (as determined by Roe V. Wade in the 70's) and it should be covered by health insurance. Democrats should stop being wusses on this issue.

Perhaps we should have a trade. You (you right wing freaks) can have your guns where ever and whenever you want them (even though they kill people, and it is not what the constitution says if you read it), and you can keep your F*cking hands off of my womb and tell me what to do.

I am beginning to think I need to be more politically active on this issue. More to come!

Polifact: Pants On Fire

Check out Politifact. It is a very cool website that takes major statements on both sides of the aisle and checks them out for "truthiness". It calls out the bullhonkey from the bulls and let's you know what's what! Enjoy, it is becoming a daily visit for me.

Universal Healthcare: Insurance Companies Already Ration Care

So here is an interesting video about why we need universal coverage, and honestly, it is pretty compelling.


Insurance companies are for PROFIT. They report to shareholders, not patients. Check out this op-ed by a former message maker for the industry. Therefore insurance companies already ration care. If there is a belief that the government will ration, well at least they have some sort of conscious about it. And there is government run medical insurance - it is called Medicare, and it will most likely be gone before we get old enough to use it, along with our social security benefits.

I beginning to think that insurance companies need some competition to make sure that they stay on the up and up, and a government option would need to have actual business people helping them be as cost efficient as possible.
My personal take that there is confusion because some people are concerned about the cost of care, and others are concerned about the uninsured. While these things are related (see my earlier posts on the topic), they are not fulling correlated. And my guess is that the people who are fully insured care less about uninsured and those who are uninsured or under insured are concerned about universal coverage. These are not the same issues and it is making it hard to have a coherent conversation because the factions care about different things.....

Justice Department: Part II

Apparently, it is official. Obama to do nothing to step in about the possible persecution of CIA operatives. This is a major mistake from my perspective. Here is an op-ed debate on the topic so you can decide for yourself......

Thoughts on Healthcare Reform

Some ideas to consider when thinking about healthcare reform. Firstly, I am ashamed, as an American, of republican activists who are against this who are using death threats and threatening violence as social protest. We have legislative and judicial systems for a reason. On another note:

Here are some of the key drivers of why healthcare is so expensive, we need to address these issues before we can fix the system:
a. The last 6 months of someone's life cost of care dwarfs the totality of costs in all of the rest of someone's life. We do need to acknowledge that we heroics with marginal benefits that cost endless dollars is not an option. Especially with 47 mm baby boomers moving into the end quarter of their lives. This does not equal death panels.

b. Malpratice premiums are insane because of the litigious nature people in the USA. This is also the reason why practitioners are forced to overcare with expensive tests and procedures. Things go wrong in medicine, it is unrealistic to think that just because something goes wrong means that someone is incompetent.

c. Hospitals have to charge inflated rates because they have to service everyone who comes into their emergency room, which people are using as a form of medical care. Until hospitals can separate out those costs to know how much they are bringing in on paying customers, we will have no idea of how much procedures should cost.

Just some thoughts, I am enjoying getting educated on the topic, and I learn something everyday.

Legalize It Already

photo from economist.com





There is more and more of a movement to legalize marijuana.

Check out this article from California about the federal government no longer going after medical marijuana suppliers.

And the Economist going even further to saying all drugs should be legalized globally, let's focus on less expensive treatment of potential addictions (which is always a steady proportion of the population regardless of legalization) instead of spending 44 billion dollars per year it takes in the global drug wars. Please also check out the copious comments after the article, it is a very interesting debate and at times not so "nice". People are passionate either way for sure.....

They make a very compelling argument that legalization is indeed the "least bad" solution.

The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend

The interaction between the USA and Russia right now is very interesting - especially Obama's new tactics to engage on mutually "beneficial" topics. Obama is trying to get Russia to help us halt Iran's nuclear weapon development by using the missile defense shield as the carrot, or should I say not developing the missile defense shield as the carrot. Touche!

Check out the NYTimes article on this topic. What I find so interesting about this administration is that they are fundementally changing foreign policy from the predesesor. That is actually very rare over history, despite campaign rheotoric. I have my bucket of popcorn as I watch!