It’s quite the depressing read.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
What To Do About The VA Scandal
I wrote in passing yesterday that if President Obama or the people of this country had any self-respect, he’d resign over the scandal of the Veterans Affairs hospitals, which needlessly sentenced an unknown number of American veterans to death through their combination of managerial incompetence, medical malpractice, and monstrously cruel indifference to their clients. Other heads of government have resigned for less. President Obama presented himself to the public as an authority in the field of health-care management and as an executive who not only would insist upon but also would in fact achieve the highest standards in transparent, honest, competent government. He has failed, comprehensively. An honest man acknowledges his failures.
We know from years of experience now that the president is the very antithesis of an honest man. And in his own self delusion, he considers himself indispensable.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The failure of socialized medicine:
Many have wondered about Barack Obama’s prolonged silence concerning the disastrous situation at the Veterans Administration hospitals and then his odd detached demeanor (well, maybe not that odd for him) when he finally did discuss it at a press conference.
The answer is simple. His lifetime dream of a free public (single payer) healthcare system for all just disintegrated in front of him. Forget the wildly ambitious and pervasive “Affordable Care Act,” the government couldn’t even handle the health of our wounded servicemen, acknowledged for years to be by far the group most deserving of medical attention in our country. With veterans dying while waiting lists are falsified, it’s hard to see government healthcare as anything but incompetent, disgraceful and quite possibly criminal.
Government has failed utterly. Does anyone have any doubt that Halliburton or even the dreaded Koch brothers could have better handled the health of our wounded warriors? Probably almost any business would have. There at least would have been some accountability. (It’s interesting to see the quaint Bernie Sanders, the one self-described socialist in the Congress, as opposed to the closeted ones, being the most outspoken defender of VA malfeasance and urging us not to “rush to judgement” on a three page bill.)
But it’s not just healthcare, although it’s certainly prominent, important and symbolic. The Obama administration has been the best advertisement for libertarianism across the board in recent memory.
Well, we’ll see what happens this fall.
Why Our Political System Is Screwed
…in one basic chart.
The voters no longer pick the politicians; the politicians pick the voters.
Of course, we also suffer from the “I hate Congress but I like my Congressperson” syndrome.
Killed By Safety
In the book, I describe how a launch abort system could end up killing the crew on an otherwise-nominal flight. Here’s a real-life example of someone who was killed by a safety device.
I recall that my late grandmother (she’d be almost a hundred and twenty now if she’d lived) refused to wear a seat belt, because she was afraid she’d end up being trapped in the car.
The Tree Rings Of Pyongyang
The latest from Mark Steyn.
Sexbots
Will they put human prostitutes out of business?
This sort of begs the question of what will be a sexbot and what will be a human in the future.
Your Faith In Humanity
Thirty-eight questions that will utterly destroy it.
I think my favorite is whether or not NASA invented thunderstorms to cover up the sound of space battles.
[Via Geek Press]
Safety First?
Alan Boyle has the storya prequel story of his interview of me in Second Life last night.
Virtually Speaking, Science
I’m going to be talking to Alan Boyle in Second Life this evening, about NASA, safety and the Russians.
Republicans Aren’t American
So says Howard Dean:
He was addressing a Democratic crowd in Colorado, and went off on a tirade against Republicans. Yes, he really did say that Republicans aren’t American. And that they should stay away from the United States, and go to Russia where they belong. One gets the feeling that if the Democrats ever have the opportunity, they will have us all arrested. Or deported.
The totalitarian impulse never lies very far below the surface of the Left.