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I received the following note about my articles from a friend, who had the following request: “Harris, I know that you, more than most, do your homework, do extensive research and you have many informative sources to dig out even the smallest data to confirm and support your submitted facts. With this in mind, could you please double your efforts and try your mightiest to find any good news, that is, if there is any? I’m starved for anything that will cheer us up and make us look forward to the future.”
With my friend’s entreaty in mind, I googled “good news” to see if there was anything that might cheer him up and, to my surprise, my search generated 317,000 references in just 17 seconds. It’s truly mind boggling!
Following are ten of the first references that popped up, all of which looked interesting and worthwhile:
goodnewsnetwork.org
happynews.com
goodnewsdaily.com
silverliningnews.com
goodnewsblog.com
goodnewsbroadcast.com
heroicstories.com
greatnewsnetwork.net
greatnewsindia.com
It turns out that there is so much good news it’s almost overwhelming, which raises the question: Why don’t we hear more about it? The answer seems fairly obvious: bad news sells and good news doesn’t. Tragedy, disaster and fear attract the eyes and ears of readers and listeners, and advertising rates are based on the number of eyes and ears that the various media attract, so that’s what we get.
Here’s a sampling of just some of the good news that my brief search surfaced:
Lady Liberty’s Crown Opens to Tourists, First Time Since 9/11: July 4th marked the first time visitors could tour the crown of the Statue of Liberty since it was closed following the 9/11 attacks. 240 visitors per day will now be able to reserve a spot in line to climb the 354 steps to the top. But everyone can tour the crown from home by taking the new online virtual tour. (goodnewsnetwork.org)
Simple lotus meditation exercise for your inner harmony and happiness…
(goodnewsdaily.com)
Teachers. You Made A Difference Awards: No less than 13 educators, one from each school district, in Licking County were honored with the “You Made A Difference” teaching award as given out by students. (goodnewsblog.com)
“Good News Broadcast has a mission to find, receive, create and broadcast to the world, life-affirming, thought-provoking, educational news, entertainment and events; content that is non-violent, non-sectarian, non-political. We elicit the positive side of news from the world’s public, media and journalists in order to generate compelling domestic and international stories.”
“A driver’s headlights quit on the highway at night. Another driver slows, turns on his brights, lights her way for over an hour to her exit… then turns around to drive back to his original destination.” (heroicstories.com)
“Scientists, doctors unite to fight malnutrition. In a new fight against worldwide hunger, a doctor who has long treated malnourished people is working with plant scientists trying to improve the nutritional content of food.” (greatnewsnetwork.com)
“…the story of a school and a college which rose from the dust. ..Way back in 1938, the Hindi School at Ghatkopar was one of the only two of their kind in Bombay [now Mumbai]. It was in doldrums when a young postman, Nandkishor Singh Thakur, pledged to give his spare time to the school.” (greatnewsindia.com)
I’ve decided that I’m going to check at least one good news website each day before looking at any of the dozens of emails that flood my inbox every morning. It seems like a good way to start the day. Perhaps if we all did this it would give us a better perspective on the world and offset some of the bad news that seems so overwhelming at times. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
If there was ever a “gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” it’s the Obama administration.
Following are some of the more misguided, ineffective and/or egregious actions that the president and his administration have taken to date:
In what may turn out to be the most misguided action of many, Obama’s signing of an Executive Order to close Gitmo within one year is proving to be an example of a tendency to shoot from the hip, without thinking his policies through.
Immediately upon taking office, Obama launched into a reckless spending spree amounting to trillions of dollars, and by the administration’s own estimate the total projected ten-year budget deficit will be approximately $9 trillion.
One of the more amazing aspects of Obama’s seizing control of General Motors and Chrysler was the little noted fact that the person the administration put in charge of managing this complex assignment was an unknown 31-year-old staff member who had no experience at all, none, not just in business but in any other type of enterprise, such as government or the non-profit field.
Two recent examples of the administration’s misplaced priorities reveal an attitude that’s hard to fathom. We can’t drill for oil anywhere in America or in our own coastal waters, but The Wall Street Journal has reported that we have agreed to “lend $2 billion to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance oil exploration off the country’s coast near Rio de Janeiro.” So, we can buy oil from Brazil but we will not permit drilling off the coast of Florida, while the Chinese and the Russians have both made deals with Cuba to drill in Cuban waters that are only 90 miles from the U.S., in an area that intrudes into our coastal territory.
Although the administration has paid out just 10% or 12% of the $787 billion stimulus appropriation, they have also encouraged massive expenditures for dubious results. For example, a giant utility, AEP, proposed a $670 million project with the goal of reducing the earth’s temperature by an imperceptible 0.000092 degrees Celsius over the next 85 years?
Within days of declaring that “earmarks” would no longer be tolerated, Obama signed legislation that included almost 9,000 earmarked expenditures.
Team Obama has been notably ineffective in vetting applicants for appointment to various positions in his administration, such as approving people who were guilty of evading taxes. Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle and Van Jones are three examples.
Other failings of the Obama administration’s policies that are too numerous to detail here include appointing czars to oversee and/or manage almost every aspect of the free market, opposing the expansion of nuclear power facilities in the U.S., closing Yucca mountain to storage of nuclear waste, responding to the financial meltdown by bailing out companies that clearly should have been allowed to fail, among others.
Obama’s assertion that he would be a “Uniter” not a “Divider” has proven to be nothing more than campaign rhetoric. He has exhibited a tendency to take it personally when people don’t agree with him, for example, frequently referring to those who oppose his health care plan as un-American or dupes of an orchestrated assault by the Republican party.
Columnist John Stossel commented, “We can debate endlessly whether the Constitution authorizes any president to ‘overhaul’ the financial system. But I want to focus on a different matter: whether any president, with all his advisers, is capable of overseeing something as complex as the financial system. My answer is no, and it is ominous that a bright guy like Obama doesn’t know this. He thinks he must regulate the system because it is so complicated and important. In fact, those are the reasons why he cannot regulate it, and should not try.”
But, what if Obama and his gang are not really the bumblers many people think they are? What if they are actually so smart that they have figured out how to get everything they want and turn America into their idea of a socialist paradise in spite of the strenuous, sometime violent objections of the public? Sound crazy?
Could Obama’s plan actually be to plunge ahead with his initiatives, driving the country deeper into debt so fast in spite of public resistance, then suddenly stop and sit back, leaving us in the position of having no choice but to pay for everything on his agenda?
Americans could find themselves in the position of having to knuckle under to increased taxes that will be so high there will be little or no room for anything other than what Obama has put in place. The combination of higher income taxes, a VAT tax, carbon taxes, increased payroll taxes (to pay for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid), utility taxes, and any other type of tax Obama and his administration can dream up, could force Americans into near serfdom.
Thanks to the current debate about health care reform, one issue that has garnered public attention is the concern about rationing of health care, and the conversation, if it can be called that, has necessarily focused on the elderly.
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am one of the elderly, actually the very elderly in the view of most. I have lived a long and full life, much longer than I thought I would when I was in my 30s and 40s, even my 50s, and I have experienced a series of health crises along the way, some of which have landed me in the hospital.
That I am still around and functioning reasonably well at the ripe old age of 80 is testimony to the miracle of modern medicine and the skill of the doctors who have cared for me. And, since I ran a hospital for almost seven years, I also have a pretty good idea of how they function and what they can or cannot do for patients.
That said, should senior Medicare patients be worried about the health care plan that is currently being hotly debated across the country? In my opinion, yes. Although the “public option” appears to have been dropped from the House legislation, it will very likely appear in some other form in the legislation that is ultimately adopted.
However, as a beneficiary of Medicare insurance, I am primarily concerned about the specter of the rationing of health care, which is a major component of all government health plans. Canada, the U.K., Oregon and Massachusetts, to name the most widely cited, all ration care in addition to requiring people to wait to see a doctor or to have various tests done, such as MRI’s, CAT Scans, or be admitted to a hospital.
Furthermore, Medicare is already a major financial loser, with an unfunded liability of about $11 trillion for the current beneficiaries, even before adding another 74 million Baby Boomers to the pool. In other words, it loses money, big time.
To me, the claim that it is possible to provide health insurance for an estimated 45 million additional people without increasing the deficit or significantly raising taxes is ludicrous. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has scored the cost at about $1.6 trillion. It’s a simple concept, and no matter what the proponents of expanding the nation’s health care insurance may assert, not only will costs go up, but it must necessarily result in rationing of health care services. In addition, providing health insurance coverage for another 45 million people will also cause a significant shortage of doctors and nurses, which will increase the difficulty of getting care when it is needed.
What else concerns me, as one of the nation’s elderly citizens? How about out-of-control deficit spending?
Given my age, you may wonder why that would matter to me. The answer is easy: Uncontrolled spending is inflationary, and inflation is an extremely worrisome problem for seniors, most of whom live on a fixed income. Rapid inflation reduces purchasing power by depreciating the value of a nation’s currency, and its most virulent form, hyperinflation, causes money to depreciate so rapidly that it quickly becomes worthless. With the present administration, that worries me. Those who are living on a fixed income are the most vulnerable to the effects of inflation, and I would at least like to have the purchasing power of our income last as long as my wife and I do.
Another concern for the elderly is what happens when they reach the point where they are no longer able to care for themselves. The cost of assisted living or nursing home care is prohibitive for most people, many of whom may become a financial burden on their families. Not everyone has children who are willing and able to care for an elderly parent, which can cause a variety of problems.
Another concern for the elderly is the potential loss of their eyesight or hearing, especially to the degree that it threatens their ability to drive a car. In that sense, we are like teenagers. The ability to drive is very important to our sense of independence.
Finally, and perhaps the most worrisome concern for the elderly is the possibility of becoming afflicted with a condition like dementia, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. For a generation of people who have generally led independent, active and productive lives, the specter of these diseases can be especially worrisome.
Fortunately, aging is not all bad. In spite of advancing years, there are still many benefits, such as reading, taking an afternoon nap, watching our favorite T.V. programs, good movies, and remaining active in a variety of other ways, such as playing bridge or golf and enjoying the company of friends and family. In my case, I write. It helps keep me alert, informed and engaged.
Here we go again, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a host of other organizations, medical practitioners, researchers and trial lawyers telling us how and what we should eat. And now, buried somewhere in Obama’s proposed health care plan it appears that there is the potential of the federal government establishing standards for our well being, such as diet and exercise, including punitive measures to force people to be healthy.
I know obesity is reported to be epidemic, but I say, “Keep your cotton pickin’ hands off my food, out of my refrigerator and the restaurants I like. What I eat is none of your business.”
But, “They” say, “The grocery chains, the food processors and the fast food industry are making us fat. So fat, in fact, that high blood pressure, artery disease, heart trouble, diabetes, and a host of other ailments that are all caused or made worse by obesity are running rampant throughout our society.” And, “They” argue, “That drives up the cost of health care, which forces those who are healthy to subsidize those who are not.”
However, I don’t believe widespread obesity in our society is caused by the food processing or restaurant industries. We eat too much in general and a lot of fattening foods in particular. But that’s nothing new. People have been doing that for generations. There was even a time in some societies when being fat was fashionable. It was considered a sign of success and affluence, and well-to-do citizens were fat because they could afford it and wanted to flaunt their social status.
The cause of obesity in some people is genetic. In others, it’s just the result of eating too much or too many fattening foods. So, are we now going to be told how to live in order to change that? The Food Police apparently want to tell us what we should eat, presumably for our own good or to reduce the cost of health care for the greater good of society.
People eat they way they do for a variety of reasons: cultural, psychological, social, religious, or because they just love to eat. Whatever the reason, one thing seems clear: No one, not the researchers or the do-gooders who want to tell everyone else what and how to eat, and not even the all-seeing, benevolent government types have any real understanding of the effects of diet on our health, and their conclusions keep changing.
For example, when I was growing up (in the 1930s and 40s), butter and milk products were thought to be among the healthiest foods one could eat. People used to slather butter on everything, many still do, piling it up on bread, drenching corn on the cob with it, putting it on steaks, grits, oatmeal or pancakes, using it on the griddle or in frying pans, cooking vegis in it, etc., etc. Today, it is pretty well agreed that all that butter, or lard, is not good for us, although many people still cook and eat that way.
Times change and customs with it. So, what are we to make of the current obsession of Americans with so-called health foods, organically grown vegis, vitamins and supplements, and a host of other health products. The media is constantly reporting on research that one condition or another is the result of our dietary or lifestyle choices, but the conclusions change constantly, while the drug industry deluges us with commercials about their products, which are touted to cure everything that ails us, including being overweight and a multitude of conditions we never knew existed.
We are told that drinking too much wine is bad for us, but the French and Italians drink buckets of the stuff, starting at a very early age. It’s good for the heart, it’s bad for the heart, it’s fattening, it’s good for digestion, etc.
Trans fats are another dietary issue that has been headlined by the media, and Steven Malloy, on his Junk Science website, has noted:
…the trans fat scare is a great new rationale for food manufacturers to introduce new and, perhaps, more expensive products that they market as “good for you.” Food companies learned long ago that there’s more profit in reformulating and marketing new and “healthier” products rather than trying to fight the bad science wielded by the well-funded, well-entrenched and essentially unaccountable public health bureaucracy.
Thirty years ago, the diet police scared us away from animal fat-based butter and began singing the praises of what they said was a healthier alternative: Trans fat-based margarine. Now, the diet police have done an about-face and want to scare us away from those same trans fats – all the while omitting mention that their butter scare was bogus from the get-go.
In the final analysis, for most of us there is a direct correlation between what and how much we put into our mouths and our girth. Eat too much or the wrong kind of foods and just about anyone will put on more weight than they need or should have, especially if they don’t exercise enough. But, that isn’t the fault of the restaurants where we eat, fast food, gourmet, ethnic or otherwise, or the food processing industry.
We have choices, including pushing ourselves away from the table, and if we make bad ones, that’s our own fault.
Just about everyone, left, right and center, seems to be weighing in on the health care debate: nationalize the health care system (as in Canada and the UK), require health insurers to provide coverage for everyone, merge Medicare and Medicaid into one common health care plan for everyone, provide health care to the immigrant population, reduce costs by cutting Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals, etc.
The arguments rage back and forth, many anecdotal, others statistical or numbers based, but they all boil down to one basic issue: less government involvement vs more government involvement in health care.
Having run a hospital for seven years, I have given this problem a lot of thought and would like offer the following observations:
First, I must admit that my bias is against any form of universal or nationalized health care, “public option” or otherwise. My experience is that a major part of the cause of the problems in health care today is the extent of government involvement, federal and state, that already exists. For example, the costs that hospitals are forced to absorb as a result of government regulation, mandating everything from details of construction and maintenance to cleanliness to the ratio of nurses to patients. One of the principal reasons for high hospital costs is government mandates, all of which drive up costs.
Some simple things could be done that would go a long way toward improving the health care situation in the U.S.: Tort reform, removing barriers that prevent health insurance companies from insuring people across state lines, allowing insurance companies to offer a wide-range of policies, fewer government mandates on health insurance policies (such as pre-existing conditions), and Medical Savings Accounts, for starters.
ABC’s “20/20″ co-anchor John Stossel, noted: “‘Choice, competition, reducing costs — those are the things that I want to see accomplished in this health reform bill,’ President Obama told talk-show host Michael Smerconish last week. Choice and competition would be good. They would indeed reduce costs. If only the president meant it. Or understood it. In a free market, a business that is complacent about costs learns that its prices are too high when it sees lower-cost competitors winning over its customers. The market — actually, the consumer — holds businesses accountable and keeps them honest. No ‘public option’ is needed. So the hope for reducing medical costs indeed lies in competition and choice. Today competition is squelched by government regulation and privilege. But Obama’s so-called reforms would not create real competition and choice. They would prohibit it.”
And, economist Walter E. Williams commented, “President Obama and congressional supporters estimate that his health care plan will cost between $50 and $65 billion a year. Such cost estimates are lies whether they come from a Democratic president and Congress, or a Republican president and Congress. … At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along with President Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an inflation-adjusted $12 billion by 1990. In 1990, Medicare topped $107 billion. That’s nine times Congress’ prediction. Today’s Medicare tab comes to $420 billion with no signs of leveling off. How much confidence can we have in any cost estimates by the White House or Congress? Another part of the Medicare lie is found in Section 1801 of the 1965 Medicare Act that reads: ‘Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize any federal officer or employee to exercise any supervision or control over the practice of medicine, or the manner in which medical services are provided, or over the selection, tenure, or compensation of any officer, or employee, or any institution, agency or person providing health care services.’ Ask your doctor or hospital whether this is true.”
I’m always struck by the disconnect that seems to exist when people complain about how ineffectively the government runs programs, yet they are willing to trust that same government to manage something as big and complex as health care. President Obama summed up the inefficiency of big government organizations pretty well when he said, “Fed Ex and UPS are doing just fine, it’s the post office that’s always having problems.”
The following commentary on the health care plan that recently circulated on the Internet sums up the situation rather neatly: “Let me get this straight. We’re going to maybe have a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president who also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?”
In the final analysis, perhaps the biggest problem with health care reform is that Americans do not trust the politicians who are trying to reform the system.
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