Or prefer a greater order of submissiveness
Just like Milton and Mrs. Friedman, TMR endorses your right to choose.
And this the last post about constitutional government and economic freedom I intend to write this morning.
Jan 9, 2013
Depends on whether you like your girls with guns
Or prefer a greater order of submissiveness
Just like Milton and Mrs. Friedman, TMR endorses your right to choose.
And this the last post about constitutional government and economic freedom I intend to write this morning.
Makes me sick
The electrical teevee news on CNN and MSNBC was drearier and more banal than usual this morning. So I flipped over to the Fox thigh fest. The theory was that if a guy is going to kill brain cells he might as well try to stir his hormones in compensation. It didn't work very well. So I shut it all off, got out the check book, and started paying bills, first the health insurance premium.
Now, extreme self-revelation is well and good. Hell, it almost a staple of bloggery, but I'm uncomfortable with it. Readers already know the most intimate facts of my life -- retired wire service man, political operative, semi-skilled handy man, a devourer of books with an unhealthy interest in firearms, water sports, and women who manage knees-together allure with bits and pieces of fabric giving a decent scope to a man's imagination.
So I offer my invasion of my own privacy here reluctantly and only in service of larger truth.
Here's what I spent on health care last year:
About 200 Federal Reserve Cartoons, all out-of-pocket. Broken down, that represents one uninsured prescription renewal, perhaps 30 generic ibuprofen and aspirin tablets, a partial box of bi-carb, a few pair of one-dollar reading glasses (1.25 and 1.5 diopters if you must know), and a modest number of band aids. Disregarding a spendy surgery -- only partially insured -- to ameliorate a hearing problem years ago, that's a reasonably typical year.
I report this only to claim that I am not a frequent defiler of the venal healing industry -- either that part of it representing American socialism or its near-relative, my "private" insurance.
My reward? An 18 per cent increase in the already back-breaking premium which has more than doubled in six years. And if you go by the news, I'm luckier than most.
I talked this over with an insurance expert, an old friend. He said it's complicated (No shit, Sam Spade?) but that if you're looking for a one-word reason, "Obamacare" is accurate. Surprise, isn't it? Who would have thought that free or cheap doctoring for x million more people might require a little extra from people who pay for it?
---
Al Capp used to get big laughs at the expense of ATT when it held a government-protected monopoly on telephone service. Ma Bell's ambitions were modest, he admitted. She would happily settle for owning all the wealth in the country. And if you want to draw comparisons between that and His Ineptness's new death grip on you, your doctor, and your insurance company, why, it's okay by me.
Now, extreme self-revelation is well and good. Hell, it almost a staple of bloggery, but I'm uncomfortable with it. Readers already know the most intimate facts of my life -- retired wire service man, political operative, semi-skilled handy man, a devourer of books with an unhealthy interest in firearms, water sports, and women who manage knees-together allure with bits and pieces of fabric giving a decent scope to a man's imagination.
So I offer my invasion of my own privacy here reluctantly and only in service of larger truth.
Here's what I spent on health care last year:
About 200 Federal Reserve Cartoons, all out-of-pocket. Broken down, that represents one uninsured prescription renewal, perhaps 30 generic ibuprofen and aspirin tablets, a partial box of bi-carb, a few pair of one-dollar reading glasses (1.25 and 1.5 diopters if you must know), and a modest number of band aids. Disregarding a spendy surgery -- only partially insured -- to ameliorate a hearing problem years ago, that's a reasonably typical year.
I report this only to claim that I am not a frequent defiler of the venal healing industry -- either that part of it representing American socialism or its near-relative, my "private" insurance.
My reward? An 18 per cent increase in the already back-breaking premium which has more than doubled in six years. And if you go by the news, I'm luckier than most.
I talked this over with an insurance expert, an old friend. He said it's complicated (No shit, Sam Spade?) but that if you're looking for a one-word reason, "Obamacare" is accurate. Surprise, isn't it? Who would have thought that free or cheap doctoring for x million more people might require a little extra from people who pay for it?
---
Al Capp used to get big laughs at the expense of ATT when it held a government-protected monopoly on telephone service. Ma Bell's ambitions were modest, he admitted. She would happily settle for owning all the wealth in the country. And if you want to draw comparisons between that and His Ineptness's new death grip on you, your doctor, and your insurance company, why, it's okay by me.
Jan 7, 2013
It doesn't bother me much that fresh-hatched Senator Tammy Baldwin is gay, purportedly the first and only openly gay U.S. senator.
It is annoying, however, that she embraces the rhetorical style technically referred to as "flibbertigibbet." She brings nonsense -- and, more important, noncommunication -- to an oratorical height we've missed ever since Teddy Kennedy went away.
It is annoying, however, that she embraces the rhetorical style technically referred to as "flibbertigibbet." She brings nonsense -- and, more important, noncommunication -- to an oratorical height we've missed ever since Teddy Kennedy went away.
"Revenue is hugely important, spending cuts are hugely important, but the way you approach spending cuts, we have to make sure that we don’t you know, cut off our nose despite our face, that we don't impede economic growth and prosperity for American families."
Well, first off, Tammy, if you're actually intending to, you know, vote for one budget choice or another, it would really help us to know which of the two choices is hugelier. If they are hugely equal, there's no point in choosing between them, is there? So you might as well go back to Madison to protest something and have a sit down strike or something, right?
Second, about our noses and faces. You will still be in the senate during my first administration and, unless you improve, be placed on the list of lawmakers who should be suspended until they have demonstrated competence in the use of idiom as it is practiced by native speakers of English.
Well, first off, Tammy, if you're actually intending to, you know, vote for one budget choice or another, it would really help us to know which of the two choices is hugelier. If they are hugely equal, there's no point in choosing between them, is there? So you might as well go back to Madison to protest something and have a sit down strike or something, right?
Second, about our noses and faces. You will still be in the senate during my first administration and, unless you improve, be placed on the list of lawmakers who should be suspended until they have demonstrated competence in the use of idiom as it is practiced by native speakers of English.
Jan 4, 2013
Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso
I knew El Paso pretty well in my more youthful years, even though I did not fall in love there with a Mexican girl.* My West Texas memories are of hot, dry semi-desert, a fine place for hiking and casual shooting in a landscape so deserted that you barely worried about where your bullets fell to earth.
But a blizzard? I know it happens once in a while, but it's still disorienting. Blizzards happen in places like Iowa and South Dakota, not down in the Sombrero provinces.
Anyway, Texas authorities are asking folks to kinda avoid Interstate 10 in the area until they get things sorted out. Texas authorities, being what they are, seem to have asked nicely instead of issuing decrees and threats as do our Road Masters** up here in in the Ethanol regions. And Texas citizens, being what they are, think it over and come to a friendly conclusion. "Yep, Roy, I think them highway cops got it about right, so we'll wait a day or two and not go over there gettin' in their way."
---
Yes, I rather like Texas and Texans. Always have. Taken as a whole, they are no more full of shit than us Yankees, and their lies tend to be quite a little more entertaining than ours.
In fact, I'll shortly announcing my appointment of a certain Texan to be secretary of defense in my first administration. He'll be fine, although I'll have to remind him every once in a while that Texas is not permitted to conduct its own foreign policy.
---
*Not with Ciudad Jaurez so close, but that's another post.
**Make up your own Buick pun.
But a blizzard? I know it happens once in a while, but it's still disorienting. Blizzards happen in places like Iowa and South Dakota, not down in the Sombrero provinces.
Anyway, Texas authorities are asking folks to kinda avoid Interstate 10 in the area until they get things sorted out. Texas authorities, being what they are, seem to have asked nicely instead of issuing decrees and threats as do our Road Masters** up here in in the Ethanol regions. And Texas citizens, being what they are, think it over and come to a friendly conclusion. "Yep, Roy, I think them highway cops got it about right, so we'll wait a day or two and not go over there gettin' in their way."
---
Yes, I rather like Texas and Texans. Always have. Taken as a whole, they are no more full of shit than us Yankees, and their lies tend to be quite a little more entertaining than ours.
In fact, I'll shortly announcing my appointment of a certain Texan to be secretary of defense in my first administration. He'll be fine, although I'll have to remind him every once in a while that Texas is not permitted to conduct its own foreign policy.
---
*Not with Ciudad Jaurez so close, but that's another post.
**Make up your own Buick pun.
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