September 2007

I got my nap, so here we go. We take the trip to Gubmint health care again. Reading this article, I noticed it made a few good points.

Imagine if your car insurance covered oil changes and gasoline. You wouldn’t care how much gas you used, and you wouldn’t care what it cost. Mechanics would sell you $100 oil changes. Prices would skyrocket.

That is exactly what has happened here with health care. It is even more pronounced on those who have no copay. I see it all of the time with people carrying those little gold Medicaid cards. They don’t care what it costs, so they go to the emergency room for everything, to the point where ambulances must wait in line to drop off patients, because ER beds are full. 30 to 45 minute waits are not uncommon, and I have seen more than a few patients die on an ambulance stretcher while waiting. In fact, the chief deterrent to this is that long wait for service, not the cost.

Things will only get worse, and more expensive, if we establish any sort of government sponsored health plan. This will mean that expenses will spiral out of control. When that happens, the government will have to find a way to pay for it. There are only a few options:

1 Increase revenue (iin other words, raise taxes)
2 Control costs (through rationing or price controls)
3 More deficit spending

Any of those three would be a disaster for our health system AND the economy. More on that in future posts…

I was on duty for 48 hours, and then I had to teach an EMT class today, so there will be no postings today.

In this post, I discussed the problem of bad cops. There are more problems coming to light in the St George Police Department, the department that employed the Sergeant that was caught on tape in this incident threatening to frame a motorist because he didn’t show enough deference. It seems as if the motorist has good cause to film the local cops.

On a local website, a site that describes itself as a site “for the use of law enforcement officers employed by the St. Louis Police Department and their supporters in the St. Louis Metropolitan area,” a self described police officer had this to say:

I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone- and I WILL pull him over – because I will see “his gun” and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs.

Of course, the videotape from Kuehnlein’s police cruiser is currently missing. St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig is also being investigated by city officials who say he may have failed to inform them that the State of Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission concluded that, “Uhrig’s unwelcome sexual advances to a teenager, while on duty and under the guise of enforcing the laws, indicate an especially egregious mental state, show that he cannot enforce the law, and are cause for discipline.”

From the Heartless Libertarian comes a story about the Public Indoctrination Education System, and a Themed High School called the “Social Justice Academy.” A little research shows this to be an actual school.

That is right- now we are indoctrinating our students in political agendas, and we aren’t even hiding it any more. Click here and scroll down to “Social Justice Academy,” and you will find this:

Social Justice Academy (SJA), also one of Boston’s small schools, prepares students to be social activists who can identify problems and have the skills and confidence to solve them. Their approach to education is based on creating a more just and equitable world. To achieve that goal, the rigorous curriculum was designed to require students to engage in debates, research, analysis, reading, and writing that address issues including Race, Class, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Identity. Not only must all seniors complete a community service project which demonstrates their mastery of skills in research, writing, data analysis, critical thinking and public speaking, but they must all apply to and be accepted to a college in order to graduate, whether they plan to attend or not.

Why are my tax dollars going to pay for this obviously political crap?

The LawDog is talking about the film that is the subject of my previous post. The center of the argument seems to be that the University, being owned by the State, must allow students to exercise free speech wherever and whenever they choose, or face the wrath of the Constitution.

So, let me get this straight. You think that the students of a government run school should be allowed to disrupt lectures and classes, and that the teachers and administrators do not have the power to control or direct the students at any time, if said student is being disruptive?

So, if a student, say, stands up in the middle of class and begins a long diatribe that is disruptive to the learning process, the professor has no right to tell the student to sit down and be quiet? If the student refuses, the professor cannot ask the student to leave? If the student refuses to leave, the campus police cannot arrest him? If he resists arrest, the police must do what? Leave?

What if the person making the speech isn’t a student? Does the person give up these rights to speech just because he isn’t a student? If so, can a person go to the local kindergarten class and give an impromptu sex education class?

Or could it be that you are mistaken? Like it or not, the school has a responsibility to its students, the students are paying for an education, and they have a right to receive what they are paying for without loud mouthed trouble makers interfering.