For some awesome photos of the good our troops are doing in Haiti go to this blog. Clik Here
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Baby Feeding, Bust or Boom?
OK, here goes. I know I am going to get into trouble on this one but.......you guys know me. I can't keep my mouth/fingers shut/stop typing.
First let me say I am blogging from the wonderful state of North Carolina and the burg of Fayetteville. Yes, I am at my Warrior's home while he is away. Somebody has to go let the dog out at least once a month. Just kidding he doesn't have a dog here.
While shopping for my young soldier I was in the world's largest retail store. I am just walking along fat, dumb and happy (my usual state of affairs) when I see this young girl with a cape on backwards. I thought it was a cape. It looked like a cape, was shaped like a cape and if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it must be a duck. Right? As I passed this young lady (?) I noticed two little feet hanging out from underneath the cape. Now I will be the first to admit I fell off the turnip truck, BUT NOT YESTERDAY! (This is not a politically correct blog.....and never will be.) It was pretty apparent what was going on and I was not the only person who observed it.
OK bring on the NOW gang or as they are known in my vocabulary the National Organization of Nags! C'mom folks this was just over the top. And, I don't mean the cape either. Wal Mart, Monday at lunch time and no comments from the P-nut gallery either. I don't mind ah.....bre.....ah boo....OH nursing a child. I think it's ok. I have a very close friend who did it. Me personally am a bottle guy. However her through 4 children my close friend never nursed a child in public, to my knowledge. When she was at our house she would quietly leave the room at meal time and take care of business. If out in public, she would remove herself and said munchkin to the parking lot and do what was required. Then she would return.
But walking around in Wal Mart! This is over the top for me. Is nothing sacred anymore. Having said that I will say nothing that would embarress and old guy like me was exposed but, I gotta admit I was uncomfortable and so were some others around me.
OK Fire at will, or Pops I should say.
Pops
First let me say I am blogging from the wonderful state of North Carolina and the burg of Fayetteville. Yes, I am at my Warrior's home while he is away. Somebody has to go let the dog out at least once a month. Just kidding he doesn't have a dog here.
While shopping for my young soldier I was in the world's largest retail store. I am just walking along fat, dumb and happy (my usual state of affairs) when I see this young girl with a cape on backwards. I thought it was a cape. It looked like a cape, was shaped like a cape and if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it must be a duck. Right? As I passed this young lady (?) I noticed two little feet hanging out from underneath the cape. Now I will be the first to admit I fell off the turnip truck, BUT NOT YESTERDAY! (This is not a politically correct blog.....and never will be.) It was pretty apparent what was going on and I was not the only person who observed it.
OK bring on the NOW gang or as they are known in my vocabulary the National Organization of Nags! C'mom folks this was just over the top. And, I don't mean the cape either. Wal Mart, Monday at lunch time and no comments from the P-nut gallery either. I don't mind ah.....bre.....ah boo....OH nursing a child. I think it's ok. I have a very close friend who did it. Me personally am a bottle guy. However her through 4 children my close friend never nursed a child in public, to my knowledge. When she was at our house she would quietly leave the room at meal time and take care of business. If out in public, she would remove herself and said munchkin to the parking lot and do what was required. Then she would return.
But walking around in Wal Mart! This is over the top for me. Is nothing sacred anymore. Having said that I will say nothing that would embarress and old guy like me was exposed but, I gotta admit I was uncomfortable and so were some others around me.
OK Fire at will, or Pops I should say.
Pops
Friday, February 19, 2010
Geeesh! Can You Believe This?
We used to call ourselves "empty nesters". Now I just call me wild and crazy guy ( a little Steve Martin) with a computer. Surfing for articles that interest me and perhaps you. I could write little blurbs about each article but you would want the full story so I just give the Headlines and you can go to the ones that interest you.
Sort of a. I report, you decide.
Teachers fired! Well my goodness, that can't be true. Can it? Read more and why. Clik here.
Is this possible? More guns, less crime. Read this article stolen from NRA.COM Clik here.
Although I don't have a dog in this fight so to speak I think this article should be read. It should not be limited to the JD Hayworth/John McCain race for Senate. I really like the part where it refers to Senators not owning a seat. It also has a pretty dog gone good argument about how military personal shouldn't get special treatment just because they were in service of their country. Anybody who still has a flattop haircut and is supported by Sheriff Joe would get my vote, if I lived in Arizona. Clik here.
Into each life some rain must fall. This morning I attended the funeral of my cousin. He was a pretty good guy although we didn't get together as much as we would have liked we shared some common interests. He was married to a nurse, so was I. He loved my dad, so did I. His passed away earlier in his life. We both played football in high school and he would drive me to practice. He was older and had his operator's license. He played guard and so did I. You get the point. I feel bad for his wife and two boys one who is named Jacob, just like one of mine. Of course I went alone.
As I was riding from the funeral parlor to the cemetery I turned on the radio. Tiger Woods was making his apology speech. I listened. I am only going to say from what I heard and what it sounded like was not good. It sounded like to me he was reading it from a script. My ever so humble opinion based on what I heard was not good for Tiger. Perhaps if I would have seen it on the tube I may have reached a different conclusion. It just didn't sound, to me, sincere.
That is all,
Pops
Friday, February 12, 2010
Tim Pawlenty, Conservtive?
Mr. Pawlenty is currently being touted as a contender for the republican party as a Presidential candidate in 2012. Here are his latest thoughts, (Feb 12,2010) on health care.
Here are five ideas that could be passed as separate bills to reform health care:
1) Incentivize (yes, it is a word, I checked) patients to be smart consumers: When people buy food, clothes or cars, they compare prices and quality before making a decision. Why should health care be any different? Well, let me tell you Mr. Pawlenty. When I buy clothes, or cars I can read the label. When I have been with my family physician for 30 years I really don’t care what it cost. I have developed a relationship with a “person” . A relationship that transcends money. Being a politician where it is about power, I don’t suppose you would, or could comprehend that. It’s not about money! In Minnesota, we've created incentives for public employees to seek low-cost, high-quality health care, and given them the information to make smart decisions. That’s really swell. In the “public sector”. Let me guess, union controlled? Was there really a choice? I don’t need the government to “give me information to make smart decisions”. What have you done for the private section? As a result, the vast majority have migrated to more cost-efficient health-care providers, and we've seen zero or small increases in premiums in recent years. Migrated, hmmm, sounds like a nice word for accept this or face higher out of pocket costs. Any federal reforms should similarly make quality and costs more transparent and incentivize smarter health-care decisions. And, just WHO would regulate this transparency? Another government agency. Yep, now there’s a winner!
2) Pay for performance: First I would change this euphemism. Sounds like a hooker to me, pay for performance. Then again, my first job after graduating from the police acdamey was to work vice. Under our current system, health-care providers are rewarded for the number of procedures they perform, not for their performance. I like this concept of keeping score. I think we should do it with Congress. With the recent 10% approval rating we shouldn’t have to pay them anything. As a result, the system encourages unnecessary tests that increase costs. Might I point out that I believe every state in the union monitors doctors through a variety of agencies. Not to mention the Federal government does so. Just an added note. You and all like you make the assumption that Doctors have no ethics or morals. This is insulting to the thousands of hard working practicing physicians who put the patient best interests first every time they go to their office, hospital, or clinic. I suggest you make a written a public apology to all hard working ethical physicians. In Minnesota, we started an innovative program to measure and set performance metrics for providers and make the results public. We are changing our payment system to reward quality rather than quantity. Congress should pass reforms that allow people to stop paying for procedures and start paying for results. New reform? Is that the same as a law? This smells like a new bureaucracy.
On a real personal note: I am kind of a Bill Cosby kind of guy. When I go in for an appendectomy I look on the Doctor’s wall. I want to see if he got an “A” in Appendectomies in college. If he only got a “C”, I’m looking for a different guy to cut me open!
3) Liability reform: Another way to cut down on unnecessary procedures is to reduce the threat of lawsuits facing health-care providers. This can be a tricky issue for many Democrats, so I was encouraged when President Obama nevertheless opened the door to liability reforms last summer. At a minimum, we should establish uniform standards for medical liability limits to discourage interstate jury shopping that drives up everybody's health-care costs. We all ready have liability reforms. It’s called juries of your peers. If you want to have liability reform why not go after frivolous law suits. Getting burnt by “hot coffee” comes to mind.
4) Interstate health-care insurance: There is no reason a Minnesotan should not be able to buy health insurance from any other state. Doing so would dramatically increase insurance choices and cut costs through improved competition. I've proposed legislation to allow Minnesotans to buy health insurance from other states and am working with other governors to establish an interstate purchasing pool with strict standards. I love this. “Interstate purchasing pool. Now being the country boy that I am and not having a lot of book learnen does that sound like or mean one insurance agency for all the states? One insurance company, one premium, one government agency. Oh yes, government run health care. All that has to be done is add the 15 to 50 million, (who knows the real number) of uninsured. This is an initiative that the federal government could also facilitate. Beggin’ the pardon of the preachers and ladies who read this blog but, what the hell part of this guy is Conservative? This is another Federal government agency to be created. What we need is less Federal government not more of it.
5) Modernize health insurance: We also need to reform the traditional, employee-based health-care system. Workers today are likely to switch jobs many times over their careers. And that is what makes this America. It’s called Freedom. Perhaps it is a new word to your vocabulary but not to millions of Conservatives. With Freedom goes responsibility. The responsibility to make a decision. If I take this new job what are the benefits? What are the disadvantages? This is the American choice. The current system often punishes individuals who switch jobs or start businesses. That makes no sense. With all due respect to the politician, it makes perfect sense. Risk, reward. Advantage, disadvantage. Freedom, Responsibility. We should make health insurance transferable so employees can keep their coverage if they switch jobs; prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against individuals whose preexisting conditions were covered under insurance they lost through no fault of their own; I live in a state that all ready does that. Why do we need the federal government to do that. If it is important to a segment of society then should and can lobby their local representatives to make it happen. and (finally!) encourage the expansion of modern forms of paying for health care, like health savings accounts. Am I living in the only Utopian state of health care. My state all does that. I am currently enrolled in an HAS now, as we speak.
With all due respect to the governor this sounds like Democrat talking points. It certainly doesn’t sound like a true, small government, fiscally conservative, accept responsibility, hard work ethic, Conservative. IMHO, of course.
Pops
Here are five ideas that could be passed as separate bills to reform health care:
1) Incentivize (yes, it is a word, I checked) patients to be smart consumers: When people buy food, clothes or cars, they compare prices and quality before making a decision. Why should health care be any different? Well, let me tell you Mr. Pawlenty. When I buy clothes, or cars I can read the label. When I have been with my family physician for 30 years I really don’t care what it cost. I have developed a relationship with a “person” . A relationship that transcends money. Being a politician where it is about power, I don’t suppose you would, or could comprehend that. It’s not about money! In Minnesota, we've created incentives for public employees to seek low-cost, high-quality health care, and given them the information to make smart decisions. That’s really swell. In the “public sector”. Let me guess, union controlled? Was there really a choice? I don’t need the government to “give me information to make smart decisions”. What have you done for the private section? As a result, the vast majority have migrated to more cost-efficient health-care providers, and we've seen zero or small increases in premiums in recent years. Migrated, hmmm, sounds like a nice word for accept this or face higher out of pocket costs. Any federal reforms should similarly make quality and costs more transparent and incentivize smarter health-care decisions. And, just WHO would regulate this transparency? Another government agency. Yep, now there’s a winner!
2) Pay for performance: First I would change this euphemism. Sounds like a hooker to me, pay for performance. Then again, my first job after graduating from the police acdamey was to work vice. Under our current system, health-care providers are rewarded for the number of procedures they perform, not for their performance. I like this concept of keeping score. I think we should do it with Congress. With the recent 10% approval rating we shouldn’t have to pay them anything. As a result, the system encourages unnecessary tests that increase costs. Might I point out that I believe every state in the union monitors doctors through a variety of agencies. Not to mention the Federal government does so. Just an added note. You and all like you make the assumption that Doctors have no ethics or morals. This is insulting to the thousands of hard working practicing physicians who put the patient best interests first every time they go to their office, hospital, or clinic. I suggest you make a written a public apology to all hard working ethical physicians. In Minnesota, we started an innovative program to measure and set performance metrics for providers and make the results public. We are changing our payment system to reward quality rather than quantity. Congress should pass reforms that allow people to stop paying for procedures and start paying for results. New reform? Is that the same as a law? This smells like a new bureaucracy.
On a real personal note: I am kind of a Bill Cosby kind of guy. When I go in for an appendectomy I look on the Doctor’s wall. I want to see if he got an “A” in Appendectomies in college. If he only got a “C”, I’m looking for a different guy to cut me open!
3) Liability reform: Another way to cut down on unnecessary procedures is to reduce the threat of lawsuits facing health-care providers. This can be a tricky issue for many Democrats, so I was encouraged when President Obama nevertheless opened the door to liability reforms last summer. At a minimum, we should establish uniform standards for medical liability limits to discourage interstate jury shopping that drives up everybody's health-care costs. We all ready have liability reforms. It’s called juries of your peers. If you want to have liability reform why not go after frivolous law suits. Getting burnt by “hot coffee” comes to mind.
4) Interstate health-care insurance: There is no reason a Minnesotan should not be able to buy health insurance from any other state. Doing so would dramatically increase insurance choices and cut costs through improved competition. I've proposed legislation to allow Minnesotans to buy health insurance from other states and am working with other governors to establish an interstate purchasing pool with strict standards. I love this. “Interstate purchasing pool. Now being the country boy that I am and not having a lot of book learnen does that sound like or mean one insurance agency for all the states? One insurance company, one premium, one government agency. Oh yes, government run health care. All that has to be done is add the 15 to 50 million, (who knows the real number) of uninsured. This is an initiative that the federal government could also facilitate. Beggin’ the pardon of the preachers and ladies who read this blog but, what the hell part of this guy is Conservative? This is another Federal government agency to be created. What we need is less Federal government not more of it.
5) Modernize health insurance: We also need to reform the traditional, employee-based health-care system. Workers today are likely to switch jobs many times over their careers. And that is what makes this America. It’s called Freedom. Perhaps it is a new word to your vocabulary but not to millions of Conservatives. With Freedom goes responsibility. The responsibility to make a decision. If I take this new job what are the benefits? What are the disadvantages? This is the American choice. The current system often punishes individuals who switch jobs or start businesses. That makes no sense. With all due respect to the politician, it makes perfect sense. Risk, reward. Advantage, disadvantage. Freedom, Responsibility. We should make health insurance transferable so employees can keep their coverage if they switch jobs; prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against individuals whose preexisting conditions were covered under insurance they lost through no fault of their own; I live in a state that all ready does that. Why do we need the federal government to do that. If it is important to a segment of society then should and can lobby their local representatives to make it happen. and (finally!) encourage the expansion of modern forms of paying for health care, like health savings accounts. Am I living in the only Utopian state of health care. My state all does that. I am currently enrolled in an HAS now, as we speak.
With all due respect to the governor this sounds like Democrat talking points. It certainly doesn’t sound like a true, small government, fiscally conservative, accept responsibility, hard work ethic, Conservative. IMHO, of course.
Pops
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
