It’s been more than two weeks. Both e-mail and telephone contacts have failed to elicit any response. So far, my offers to debate my congressman during the August recess have gone unanswered.
It’s possible you have heard the term Blue Dog Democrat. This is used to identify a group of congressmen who in the past were frequently called DINOs, Democrats In Name Only.
My Congressman is Bart Gordon from the 6th District of Tennessee. Bart is in his 12th term. As such, he is one of the senior Blue Dogs, possibly the senior member of that group. Being that secure of an incumbent gives him sufficient leeway to ignore the interests and needs of his constituents and become a senior toady for those with lots of money.
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Someone recently asked me what the objections to single-payer are from those opposed. I’m glad they didn’t specify that it had to be rational objections. That would leave me searching for another topic.
My job was made somewhat easier by a column in the New York Times by Randy Cohen, former writer for David Letterman. Mr. Cohen suggests that Congress needs a Debate Umpire. He likens that position to a judge in a courtroom. The judge can rule and overrule to require participants to maintain certain standards as to logic, honesty and ethics. He assures that anyone using disingenuous arguments is called to task.
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Few aspects of our society need more correction than the corrections system.
For anyone unfamiliar with how I spend some of my recreational time, I do volunteer work in prisons with those suffering from mental illness. After a decade of such involvement I flatter myself that I have a better understanding of what goes on therein than John Q. Public or Joe the Plumber.
For anyone who jumps to the conclusion that I am a typical bleeding heart, let me say that I am atypical. I am a former commissioner of police. An astute visitor who has suffered through even just a few of my posts might have guessed that I am no more content with what obtains in the correctional system than I am in any other area.
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We, as an electorate, apparently are not as astute as we would like to think when it comes to recognizing intelligence, or its polar opposite.
The single-digit IQ of someone such as Senator Sessions is probably too obvious to warrant much more than a passing mention. Perhaps worth an extra moment’s attention is how ill-advised it was for the Republicans to make him their point man in the confirmation hearings of a minority female.
Even other racists are embarrassed to associate with someone with such a dearth of synapses. Other racists but not his fellow senators. The reason is probably that, seen next to him, they appear almost intelligent by comparison.
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Guess what the most important issue in Washington is. Healthcare reform? Wrong.
I just saw a news bulletin. The House Democrats have produced HR II, their 1,018 page version of healthcare reform. Well, now, not exactly.
So, what, exactly?
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For an old guy, my travels have been keeping the Arab world financially solvent this past month or so.
After enjoying 36 degrees in June up in the tundra around Mackinac Island I spent 9 days at Tennessee’s Fall Creek Falls State Park for my wife’s family reunion. This past weekend was devoted to my high school reunion in Chattanooga, the ‘Land Where the Sun Shines Bright and the Moonshine’s Delicious.’
You may not consider it of too great a consequence but, despite all of the great cooks in my wife’s family, I gained but one pound over that span of time. That qualifies as a miracle.
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You’ve heard all the good news coming out of Washington.
al-PhARMA has generously offered to cut their theft by $80 billion over the next 10 years.
The health insurance industry is promising to reduce their greed by 1.5% for the next 10 years.
HCA and other the poor hospital corporations (ignore all of those construction cranes) are offering to forgo a fraction of their annual increases.
What more could we possibly ask for? How about a bit of honesty and some serious savings?
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Apparently lots of people are as gullible as Charlie Brown. How many of you remember the New York Times‘ poll last month?
The exact question was, “Would you favor or oppose the government’s offering everyone a government-administered health-insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans?” Seventy-two percent favored such a plan. Twenty percent were ignorant enough to oppose it.
Do any of the “Public Option” plans look like Medicare? Don’t bet your bottom or your dollar. They sell you Medicare but deliver the worst of the private plans.
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Who do you trust? John Belushi got it right. Most academics get it wrong.
Everyone in academia knows just what a symposium is. At least they think they know. Have you read Plato’s Dialogues? One was named Symposium. Yes, the Greeks had a word for it: a drunken party. I could have heard much more intelligent talk at an Animal House toga party than I heard at a medical symposium held at Vanderbilt University.
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The astronauts had their Tranquility Base on the Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis. They wouldn’t share so I had to find one for myself. It is Buzzard’s Roost in Tennessee’s Fall Creek Falls State Park. And no, it wasn’t named for me.
Once again it’s time to veg out and gain some more weight. How else will I justify a new wardrobe?
I’m off in the morning for the annual nine days at the park. At more than 25,000 acres it is easily the state’s largest. It sits up on the Cumberland Plateau. That’s usually good for 5-8 degrees of relief from the Summer’s heat. I think that, being at a higher elevation, it is slightly further from Hades.
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