Hey everyone, my mind has been racing about so many things, I haven't been writing because there's just too much stuff, it would take hours. Business has been picking up for me, that's good, but it means I've been short on hours lately.
Here's some new links:
Physicians for a National Healthcare Plan
.
Businesses are getting behind it too.
National Coalition on Healthcare
New America Foundation
Center For American Progress
Healthcare....
This is so important to me. I'm tired of superficial debate on this life and death problem.
This is a big issue, I don't know where to begin.
Health Insurance Companies are the problem. It's just a sick and twisted way to make money.
What do Health Insurance companies do? They take your money, and they repay you by trying as hard as possible to deny you treatment. Even if you have Health Insurance they're not going to cover everything you need. Got examples anyone? I think we all do.
They NEVER SEE THE PATIENT. but they know what you need? Sure. all they care about is profit, I doubt they care if you die, except that it cuts off the money you payed them when you were living.
What a waste of money. We spend more per person than any other nation on earth, and we have little to show for it. You know why? because it goes to pay assholes with telephones an computers who try as hard as they can to make excuses for refusing to pay for treatment. I like statistics, One third of our healthcare costs goes to this waste
The most amazing argument I hear against universal healthcare is that "patients don't want a government bureaucrat standing between them and their doctor telling them what to do" oh yea? how bout a for profit insurance company bureaucrat in the private sector who's trying to milk you for every dime? We have hardly any choice about our private insurance anymore, it's more like gambling than trying to find a good product. I'd prefer the government, if only for the fact that I get to elect those assholes, and there's a chance they will actually care what I want. Freedom of choice is a joke. A simpler system would save us all a lot of money overall, and give us more choice about the things that matter.
What choices do you want as a patient? Probably all you want, is to choose your doctor, consent to your own treatments, and get professional medical advice when you need it. Insurance companies do none of these things, they just interfere and make life difficult for both doctors and patients.
Sorry Blue Cross Blue Shield, you serve no good purpose. I want single payer national care.
Does anyone really think that health insurance middlemen make our system better? They don't keep costs down, they push them up by their very existence.
I think doctors and scientists are some of the hardest working, most motivated people you will ever meet, and they are the ones closest to the patients, that care honestly about your well being. Is there a doctor out there that thinks health insurance companies are useful? I really doubt it.
I want some kind of "socialized" medicine, I don't know what people are afraid of. We need a simpler more efficient system like Single Payer National Healthcare. It's really in our self interest as individuals and as a nation.
The employer based system is dead. The reason is simple, it's because our companies are no longer the most powerful and profitable in the world. The system started around the time of unions and WWII. Companies realized it would be cheaper to give health benefits than to increase wages so workers could pay healthcare costs themselves. So we pawned off the cost on them for decades. Now, money is tight for most businesses, and international companies are competitive with US companies, the employer based system will not work, get rid of it.
The cost of providing benefits is killing our companies (GM?). The best thing we could do for our economy is take this burden off their backs, the government could provide it far cheaper than our current patchwork system ever could. It's a simple equation, if you insure the biggest pool of people you save money because the risk and the cost are distributed widely. Plus all the paperwork you save by having a sensible system, without all the middlemen trying to make a profit.
Some things the government just does better. Healthcare is one of them. Because they could simply cover everyone.
If you are reading this,
then I know you care, Call your congress people and state reps. You can find out who they are and get their contact info by looking under my 'FavLinks' on the right.
Physicians for a National Health System
Check them out for great info.
PS is any of this controversial? besides the profanity, it seems like common sense. I don't understand how politicians could oppose such a thing.
Actually, yesterday on NPR they were mentioning the costs in this state of jailing a person per year ($45,000!) and a new measure to decriminalize the possession and sale of small quantities of drugs. This is about to happen - I do not know when the legislation will be introduced, but likely a side effect of the Senate going to the Dems will be the passage of a decriminalization bill very soon.
I'm sure there are people that do care that Marshawn smokes pot. I'm not one of them, and everybody pretty much knows my stance on the decriminalization of pot, and even legalization/regulation of it. The government is missing out on an enormous opportunity, particularly with marijuana, since it is such a commonly used illegal drug with no dramatic downturn in use likely to occur. It's potential damage to society is infinitesimal compared to alcohol. I do think that usage would increase, but hardly at a dramatic rate. Worrying about the social ills of dramatic increases in drinking did not stop the repeal of Prohibition. The medicinal aspects of its use are incredibly important in my mind (I trust pot far more than I trust some dubious, overpriced pharmaceutical), and also bringing pot out of the shadows will reduce the criminal element involved.
Turns out Marshawn got charged for the gun in the car. 3 years probation
:::link:::
I have no idea how much it actually costs, because the figures I got from pr-drug/anti-drug groups varied so wildly they were just unreliable. So I went to our government's drug enforcement web site. The numbers I had there were a little too vague. But here is, I think, a good enough estimate.
In NYS alone there are 4680 people serving time for pot. That is a cost of $163,800,000. And that is just for incarceration, there are still costs for enforcement, legal costs, and subsequent costs for families.
Peter raises a good point, Marshawn was in a smoke filled car when he was caught, and that should pose legal problems for him. Unlike Phelps who was just at a party.
James, I love Data! if you find any let me know.
Decriminalization may be the first step, but I think the black market problem is very serious, and would have a huge impact on crime. When I lived on the west side, the only think i worried about was crackheads. Desperate addicts. The violence surrounding drug use and the drug trade is a major reason why good people, and families, have left inner-city neighborhoods.
Making it legal and de-criminalized are not even close to the same thing. With making it not a crime to have small amounts you would still have a lot of the street element I think. Would crime fall some yes it would. But see if you made it legal it would take a lot more of the streets and then violence out of it. You could get tax money and put a certain amount of that into rehab for people who want to quit. Plus you could tax growers and things like that.
I think that there are a lots of reasons why pot is illegal.
-cuts into Tobacco company money (tobacco companies put a lot of money out there)
-Hemp clothes could compete with other fabrics
-Government can't figure out how to regulate it
-War on Drugs is a big Business
I think there is nothing wrong with pot. And I think Phelps is a coward. What he should have said is something like this.
" I'm a young Guy who went to a party, who can say they have never tried drugs at a party, I'm not saying it is ok to do this, and I'm not saying to kids that they should do this, but this is a drug and it is no different than Drinking to get drunk, or getting plastered at a football game" He then should have found some stats on drug use from one of those anti drug campigns and ""ed it as an example that weed is a common place drug and that it isn't a performance enchancer and explain that, doing that is cheating and wrong. But what he did was some fake "I'm Sorry". He isn't sorry at all, he is sorry someone took a picture and sold it on him.
I don't think there is anything wrong with smoking weed. In some circles it is looked at, as so bad. But in some circles if you said you did drugs and you said it was weed, people would laugh and say that isn't a drug. I think though there is a difference between smoking at home and in a car. In a car that you are about to drive that could wind up hurting some else and that ain't cool at all.
I do think that weed can be a gateway drug. I think you have some people who smoke it and that is fine and they never do anything else. But some people who would never do drugs think, well it is weed there is nothing wrong with it. Then once they try it, it leads to other things. An example I can think of is a "laced blunt" it might be called a WU but not sure about that term. It is a blunt with weed and than that had cocaine in it also.
I think the big problem with drugs is that people don't want to admit that drugs are a very personal thing. Person A will try something and will get addicted and will steal from family to get high, and Person B will smoke up only during a concert or at a party.
I am trying to find stats on the number of people serving time for offenses related to pot so we can estimate how much a year we are spending on prisons alone, leaving aside enforcement and legal costs to the state. But god damn, it is so tough to find verifiable numbers.
I think it is more reasonable to push that it be de-criminalized rather than legalized. While I am not sure I want the government to tax/regulate pot, it seems stupid that our jails are filled with people who are not really a danger to anybody at all.
I agree about marijuana being more of a gateway drug simply because of the source. But that isn't to say alcohol or cigarettes aren't. They are as well gateway drugs but I think less than marijuana because they are legal.
I am certainly not opposed to legalizing and taxing it. I do think there would be more widespread use of it and we may see health effects similar to that of cigarettes. Although I can't imagine anyone smoking an entire pack of joints in a day. I do believe that would be along the lines of "smoking yourself retarded". But eventually it would probably gain a similar stigma that smoking cigarettes do.
With all of that said I'm certain it will be a cold day in hell before its ever legalized.