Occasional Brief Observations

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Intl Vulture Awareness Day

September the 5th is International Vulture Awareness Day 2009. From the IVAD 2009 web site "Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction. The International Vulture Awareness Day has grown from Vulture Awareness Days run by the Birds of Prey Working Group in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England, who decided to work together and expand the initiative into an international event."

Photo Gallery of 10 Vulture Species — International Vulture Awareness Day!

Blog entries mentioning vultures:

Misc updates: vultures needed - Jul 26th, 2009
Science and side effects... - Oct 29th, 2008

Tempest in a tea pot

Recently the CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc., John Mackey, penned an editorial in the Wall Street Journal on health care reform that has caused quite a stir. For the 'sin' of opposing and criticizing the proposed Democratic-led versions of health care (albeit indirectly), he has been roasted in the blogosphere and there are moves afoot to organize boycotts of Whole Foods. So, what did Mackey say that was so outrageous?

Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness. Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.

Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Read 'The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare: Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit" for the entire piece.

OK, so what caused the outpouring of vitriol? After reading the oped this blogger isn't exactly sure. The eight actual recommendations made by Mackey (quoted above) are fairly unobjectionable, even if one does not feel that they are the solution... He also says that the current rates of deficit are not sustainable (something that is the position of the Obama administration); agrees for the need for health care reform (OK); that reforms be financially responsible (same position as the Obama administration); and that freedom of choice be maintained (ditto). Where he differs is regarding the role of government (he is against) and whether health care is a "right" (he says not).

OK, so folks can have differing opinions and still have a civil debate, or at least they should. Unfortunately for many this is not the case, from the screaming "death panel" folks on the right, to the ones throwing stones at Mackey and calling for boycotts on the left. Seeing the "Yoo-hoos" and "boycotters" one is forced to sympathize with Mercutio! Let's see if the President can "reset" the debate with his address o both houses of Congress next week!

Quick side notes: The board of Whole Foods really should severely chastise or even get rid of Mackey. Having an opinion one way or another is OK, but for the CEO of a public company to take a public position on a critical, political issue (not directly related to the company) that risks hurting the company... well, that is a breach of his fiduciary duty that is unacceptable. There should be consequences. As for those unhappy with Mackey's editorial, starting boycotts is really not the answer. Even were this to hurt Whole Foods' (e.g. by reducing sales) it would probably only be felt by the cashiers, shelf stockers, and other employees, and would not affect the object of their ire...

Great quotes...

"We are coming to the end of the month of August, which for many means the end of the summer holidays. As we return to our daily activities, how can we not thank God for the precious gift of creation, which we can enjoy not only during the period of vacations! The different phenomena of environmental degradation and natural calamities, which unfortunately are often reported in the news, remind us of the urgency of the respect owed to nature, recovering and appreciating, in every day life, a correct relation with the environment. A new sensitivity to these topics is being developed, which arouses the correct concern of the authorities and of public opinion, which is also expressed in the multiplication of meetings at the international level...

... the Church is not only committed to the promotion of the defense of the earth, of water and of air, given by the Creator to everyone, but above all is committed to protect man from the destruction of himself. In fact, "when 'human ecology' is respected in society, environmental ecology also benefits" Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where is existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the "final authority," and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.

How important it is, therefore, that the international community and the different governments be able to give the appropriate indications to their own citizens to address in an effective manner the ways of utilizing the environment that turn out to be harmful. The economic and social costs stemming from the use of shared environmental resources, recognized in a transparent way, must be assumed by those who use them, and not by other populations or by future generations. Protection of the environment and the safeguarding of the resources and climate call for all leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity, above all in the weaker regions of the earth...

With these sentiments I wish to encourage all the participants in the United Nations summit to enter into their discussions constructively and with generous courage. Indeed, we are all called to exercise responsible stewardship of creation, to use resources in such a way that every individual and community can live with dignity, and to develop "that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God"

- Pope Benedict XVI's address at a general audience at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. Full transcript here.

Well, he's nothing if not consistent! He usually has secularism and atheism in his sights (e.g. see: Papal Letter Blames Atheism for World's Worst Woes), and this time they are implied to be responsible for climate change and the degradation of the environment.

Pope: Atheists are Responsible for Global Warming
Pope: Atheism weakens committment to human rights
Pope Connects Abuse of Creation With Atheism

Previous blog entries related to the Pope:
Random pictures... - May 25th, 2009
No Papal benediction - Sep 30th, 2008
The danger we face - Sep 14th, 2008
Better the second time around - Jul 23rd, 2008
HH Tekel - Jun 17th, 2009
Well said ?!? - Apr 17th, 2008

Thursday, September 3, 2009

UMID M1 (more)

Some random screen captures:

Couple of reboot times (using BB Bold stopwatch):

And a resume time:

UMID M1 first look

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

UMID M1 first look

Unboxing:

With a desktop (HP TouchSmart):

With a laptop (Sony Vaio PCG-4A1L - 10.6 inch monitor):

With a Flipstart:

With a Blackberry Bold:

With a Zaurus SL-C3000:

All together:

The Keyboard:

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

That explains it... (death panels)

So, many pro-reform people are scratching their heads, wondering how so many of the anti-reform people made the jump from the current proposals re health care (more correctly, health insurance) reform legislation e.g. HR 3200 to "death panels" and the like.... Seems like a complete non-sequitor, with no basis in reality. And it is, or should be!

Some people, however, are more twisted... Consider, John Yoo, who took language from health care legislation and used it to relax the definition of torture to such an extent that almost any/every action became "enhanced interrogation techniques" rather than torture! Read the article below from The Public Record for a refresher...

"John Yoo, the author of one of the infamous Aug. 1, 2002, “torture” memos that formed the legal basis for so-called “enhanced” interrogation techniques against high-level terrorist detainees, used a statute governing health benefits when he provided the White House with a legal opinion defining torture.

Yoo’s legal opinion, which was signed by Jay Bybee, the former head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), stated that unless the amount of pain administered to a detainee results in injury “such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions” than the interrogation technique could not be defined as torture.

Waterboarding, a brutal and painful technique in which a prisoner believes he is drowning, therefore was not considered to be torture.

Jack Goldsmith, who succeeded Bybee at OLC, said that Yoo, a former OLC attorney who now teaches at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., arrived at that definition by relying on statute written in 2000 related to health benefits.

“That statute defined an ‘emergency medical condition’ that warranted certain health benefits as a condition ‘manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain)’ such that the absence of immediate medical care might reasonably be thought to result in death, organ failure, or impairment of bodily function,” Goldsmith wrote in his book, The Terror Presidency.

“The health benefits statute’s use of ’severe pain’ had no relationship whatsoever to the torture statute. And even if it did, the health benefit statute did not define ’severe pain.’ Rather it used the term ’severe pain’ as a sign of an emergency medical condition that, if not treated, might cause organ failure and the like…. OLC’s clumsily definitional arbitrage didn’t seem even in the ballpark.”

Read the rest here: How a Health Benefits Law Formed the Basis For the ‘Torture Memo'

So, don't call these screaming "death panel"people yahoos, many are "Yoo-hoos." After they (e.g. Palin, various Republican legislators, etc.) were comfortable going enthusiastically along with Yoo's legal legerdemain without blinking, it should hardly be a surprise that they can get to "death panels" from the current legislation!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Health care re-form IX (Apologies due?)

There has been a lot of snickering about seniors who have expressed sentiments along the lines of "keep the government's hands off my Medicare," the (oft unstated) implication being: 'these duffers don't have a clue to what is going on so they can be ignored and their concerns dismissed out of hand'. Not very long ago, even the President elicited guffaws on this topic. But consider....

Of the approximately 44.8 million (2008) Medicare beneficiaries, around 10.2 million have opted for Medicare Advantage plans i.e. approximately 23% (or just under a quarter). From Wikipedia:

"... With the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Medicare beneficiaries were given the option to receive their Medicare benefits through private health insurance plans, instead of through the Original Medicare plan (Parts A and B)... For people who choose to enroll in a Medicare private health plan, Medicare pays the private health plan a set amount every month for each member. Members may have to pay a monthly premium in addition to the Medicare Part B premium... The private plans are required to offer a benefit “package” that is at least as good as Medicare’s and cover everything Medicare covers, but they do not have to cover every benefit in the same way. Plans that pay less than Medicare for some benefits, like skilled nursing facility care, can balance their benefits package by offering lower co-payments for doctor visits. Private plans use some of the excess payments they receive from the government for each enrollee to offer supplemental benefits. Some plans put a limit on their members’ annual out-of-pocket spending on medical care, providing some insurance against catastrophic costs over $5,000, for example. But many plans use the excess subsidies to offer dental coverage and other services not covered by Medicare and can leave members exposed to high medical bills if they fall seriously ill..."

So, it may be the government that is ultimately paying, but the seniors who are on Medicare Advantage and who are worried about government interfering with "their Medicare", are not necessarily the doddering old fools that they are being made out to be! The more so, because the administration has labeled Medicare Advantage a rip-off, a handout to the insurance companies, and has proposed its elimination! This group of enrollees, at least, contrary to the President's multiple assertions that 'anyone/everyone satisfied with their current private plan can keep it and will not be forced to change', will not have a choice if the administration gets legislation that eliminates these "overpayments."

Bottom line: a senior who has and is happy with his/her current private health insurance (via Medicare Advantage) plan, and who is faced with losing that plan and being moved to original ('government') Medicare might well want to have 'the government keep its hands off their Medicare.'

Note: the above does not address the underlying issues regarding the relative costs or worth of Medicare advantage plans versus traditional Medicare; nor if they should be cut, eliminated, or left alone... The only issue being addressed is the mockery being aimed at some that have expressed the sentiment above...