Socialized Medicine Horror Stories

Coming soon to an American hospital or doctor’s office near you.
(HT: Thomas DiLorenzo)

Obamanomics

OK, I think I have this whole Health Reform thing figured out now.

1. Congress passes massive new entitlement program;
2. Program is funded by increased taxes on interest and dividends;
3. Reduced incentive to save and invest leads to reduced capital formation;
4. Less capital leads to higher unemployment;
5. Lather, rinse, repeat, as increase in entitlement mentality and decrease in employment opportunities combine to drive more people into dependency on Big Government.

Now some people may view this prospect with trepidation. I confess I did, until I realized the true genius of The New Economy 2.0:

1. Under Obamanable economics, no one will need a job since the government will provide everything. The American economy will enter an era of unprecedented prosperity;
2. Money to fund the new Jobless Economy will come from China. As Paul Krugman recently explained, the Chinese will keep lending to the US, ad infinitum, even as the US Government launches a currency war against them.

How could I ever have doubted?

Media Blackout on Agent Orange

Coverage ignores effects on Vietnamese victims


War Remnants Museum, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Why so little interest in a genuine, man-made ecological disaster, as opposed to the global warming fraud?

SJMN: You have to be crazy not to love the government

The San Jose Mercury News thinks John Patrick Bedell's 2007 arrest for, "approaching a 6-year-old and his father at Mountain View's Bubb Elementary School and threatening them with a 6-foot-long stick when they wouldn't let him join their soccer practice" was a sign the guy was a bit off. For definitive proof, though, the SJMN reporters cite, "his rants against the government on YouTube, and his Internet postings, blasting marijuana laws and speaking out on the death of a Marine colonel and 'the September 11th demolitions.'"

Well, what do you expect from the Establishment organ that willingly destroyed its own reporter after he rocked that same Establishment by blowing the lid off the CIA-Contra crack cocaine connection?

Calif. analyst sees job losses under climate law

OK, I'll bite: what constitutes "modest job losses" in a state with double-digit unemployment?

The Economics of Ammunition

If you are a regular shooter, you already know that ammunition supplies are low relative to demand, resulting in scarcity and high prices. Over at the National Association for Gun Rights Blog, M.L. McPherson has written a piece on the economics of the current situation.

Unfortunately, Mr. McPherson places the blame entirely too much on the election of Barack Obama. It is true that His Peacefulness's elevation to the throne office of POTUS did send people scurrying to gun shops in record numbers: at the time, I worked part-time in a gun shop and witnessed the phenomenon at first hand. The coronation of Emperor Barack I actually began the third phase of our ammo woes.

Phase I was caused by increased industrialization, particularly in China and India, which increased demand for industrial commodities like lead, copper, and tin. I recommend Hot Commodities by Jim Rogers if you want the full picture of of the commodities shortage (BTW, food supplies also are at record lows). Ammo was readily available; we just had to pay more for it.

Phase II began with Dubya's Grand South Asian Conquest. Ammo disappeared from store shelves as the manufacturers switched over production to satisfy the feral federal government's demands. Police departments were forced to cancel firearms training and qualification due to uncertain ammo supply. Prices increased sharply.

Phase III, of course, began the day after the 2008 federal elections. Prices skyrocketed, and still stores and ranges had to resort to rationing ammunition sales.

The market has normalized a bit, with the reduction in industrial demand resulting from the global recession and the reduction in military demand resulting from the downsizing of military operations in Mesopotamia. I predict a new round of market disruption next spring, as O-BOMB-A! attempts to play Alexander to Dubya's Philip. "I am Yeswecanias, King of Kings! Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and tremble!" Stock up while you can.

Hustle the East

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."

~ Rudyard Kipling, The Naulahka

What do you expect when you run a bridge through Oakland?

Officials: Crack may keep Bay Bridge closed past Tuesday

Obama and Congress want this type of medical care for everyone

Further evidence of the superiority of altruistic, government-provided medical care:

At least 1,200 veterans across the country have been mistakenly told by the Veterans Administration that they suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease.

More than 10,000 veterans exposed to possibly infectious bodily fluids while undergoing endoscopic procedures at three VA hospitals in the Southwest.

Nothing like this ever happened before guns were invented

New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica lays the blame for Steve McNair's death squarely where it belongs: with America's gun culture.

Meanwhile, the benighted sorts over at Taki's Magazine insist that McNair's death had something to do with his decision to carry on an extramarital affair with an emotionally unstable 20-year old woman. Someone needs to bring these people into the 21st century!

Mr. Lupica also wisely reminds us that America's gun collectors, hunters, target shooters, and self-defense practitioners collectively murdered Yetunde Price, the half-sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Pay no attention to the reprobates who would say that Ms. Price's death might have been the result of her decision to choose, as her new boyfriend, a known gang member just out of prison on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and illegal firearms possession, and of the boyfriend's decision not to get Ms. Price to a hospital promptly after she caught a bullet intended for him.

Mr. Lupica noted that the pistol used to kill Mr. McNair was a semiautomatic. Perhaps, in a future column, he will tell us the type and caliber of gun used to kill Julius Caesar.

Somehow, it's just not the same

Audie Murphy and 50 Cent share the distinction of having suffered more gunshot wounds than any other film actors.

Chump change you can believe in

Obama continues spending like a drunken Congressman. What depression recession?

Ahmadinejad: Neda's death is 'suspicious' - CNN.com

"CIA spokesman George Little responded, 'Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd and offensive.'"

Nah, they'd never do anything like that!

Stars and Stripes accuses U.S. military of censorship in Iraq - CNN.com

From the story:

CNN has been denied embed requests on occasion but never because of the past conduct of individual journalists.

Indeed. It is difficult to imagine an organization more servile to the regime than CNN.

Navy Vet Who Foiled Israeli Attack Honored

42 years later, the cover-up of the attempted massacre of USS Liberty continues. The truth is slowly leaking out.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918)

Rapper Dolla contracts lead poisoning, dies

Our cultural firmament is made darker by the extinguishing of this potty-mouthed idiot bright young star.

I'm too broken up to continue. Please excuse me.

Use a Gun, Go to College

Student who shot classmate to graduate, no jail time

Sadly, I don't believe we've heard the last of this sociopath.

Government-Run Health Care

Somehow, I'm supposed to be thrilled with the prospect of a similar system to this for me and my family.

Leni Riefenstahl, Call Home

Flickr pretend photographic adoration of the Leader is something new.