I talked with a friend Wednesday, who I had not talked to for a couple of years. We talked several times over the next two and he questioned why I had not sent him any rants lately. Truthfully, I have been stressed recently and big-picture-philosophy is bumped down on the priority list when life [...]
If you like the new insurance arrangement enacted by our elected officials, then you are happy. If not, then not. But there is one thing that is undeniable, the United States of America is at a cross roads predicted 235 years ago, and which will affect the next 235 years of most of the world.
The Great American Experiment followed the sacrifice of, “lives . . . fortunes . . . and sacred honor” in defense of an idea. The idea that individuals, free from the tyranny of central command and control, protected their individual interests better than any unrelated protector, no matter how kind, caring or otherwise motivated. The Great American Experiment was funded, fought, and died for on the promise that freedom led to higher standards of living for everyone, greater innovation in business, agriculture, and every other aspect of life for everyone it touched, successful and failing alike. The government would be as limited as possible, the people as free as possible. Continue reading Lead us Mr. President, even if you must run to the cliff ahead of us.
Health needs have existed longer than there has been an American medical industry. People have died of cancer and heart disease far longer than we have known of their existence. So what has changed? Technology.
When it was common for a doctor to visit the sick’s home and order, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,” aspirin was the state of the medical art. How ridiculous would it seem if the people of that age complained that access to aspirin was a basic human right, to be provided by the government at taxpayer expense? How ludicrous would it have seemed if someone would have suggested that we all pay taxes to hire people to buy the aspirin from Bayer and then deliver it to us for “free”? That generation would have wrinkled their noses at such a suggestion and said, “No thank you, I can buy my own aspirin.”
Continue reading Take two aspirin and meet me at the DMV in the morning.