Featured Article: The Ludwig von Mises Institute
A Special Message from Lew Rockwell
April 15th is a horrible day, because it sums up all the wealth destruction called taxation that we are subjected to all year long.
As Murray Rothbard pointed out, taxation is the worst method of looting us. Inflation is destructive, of course, and it might make a loaf of bread cost $10. But at least you get a loaf of bread. With taxation, you get nothing—except theft and other violations of our civil liberties.
Society, as Mises noted, is divided into two competing classes by interventionist government: the taxpayers and the tax consumers. If you are a payer, you are automatically demonized as greedy. On the other hand, those who want the fruits of your labor involuntarily transferred to themselves and their favored pressure groups are the compassionate.
At the Mises Institute, we have a different view. You have a right to what you earn, and those who use the threat and reality of government violence to take it from you are muggers in expensive suits. As Murray said, the State is just a Gang of Thieves writ large. Read More . . .
The politicians blab about spending cuts, but it is all lying propaganda. They plan to increase spending, but use the specter of alleged spending cuts as another excuse to pick your pocket with more taxes. (Spending cuts? Please throw us in that briar patch, Br’er Government.)
Then there are the attacks on tax “loopholes,” when you are allowed to keep some of your own money. As Mises said, it is through these loopholes that capitalism breathes.
But centuries of pro-tax indoctrination has had its effect. Eighty percent of people, according to a Pew study, think it’s immoral to “underreport” one’s income. It’s as if the politicians own us, but generously let us keep some of our own earnings.
That Pew survey does provide one ray of hope: more and more young people dissent from the morality of coercive taxation. We saw the anti-tax passion of the Ron Paul movement, and we see it at the Mises Institute.
It’s true, more and more young people reject the notion of taxation. They want lower taxes. Most of all, they want no taxes. They think they should be able to keep their own earnings.
With our publications, classes, website, and conferences, we are reaching these young people about taxes and the rest of government.
The young don’t want to be sheared. And they are looking for the freedom answers, for example that private property should be inviolate, for moral and economic reasons. They understand, as did 16th-century economist Juan de Mariana, that the only free country is one where no one is afraid of the tax collector.
The Mises Institute is rallying the young to our ideas on taxes and everything else. Please help us, in the shadow of April 15th, continue to do so, and to step it up.
PS: Needless to say, the Mises Institute does not accept one zinc penny of government funding. We depend on generous supporters like you to make our ideas widely available. Won’t you help?
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Europeans had common ancestors 1,000 years ago
By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press, BERLIN
Scientists who compared DNA samples from people in different parts of the continent found that most had common ancestors living just 1,000 years ago.
The results confirm decade-old mathematical models, but will nevertheless come as a surprise to Europeans accustomed to thinking of ancient nations composed of distinct ethnic groups like "Germans," "Irish" or "Serbs."
"What's remarkable about this is how closely everyone is related to each other," said Graham Coop of the University of California, Davis, who co-wrote the study published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Biology.
Coop and his fellow author Peter Ralph of the University of Southern California used a database containing more than 2,250 genetic samples to look for shared DNA segments that would point to distant shared relatives. Read more . . .
While the number of common genetic ancestors is greater the closer people are to each other, even individuals living 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) apart had identical sections of DNA that can be traced back roughly to the Middle Ages.
The findings indicate that there was a steady flow of genetic material between countries as far apart as Turkey and Britain, or Poland and Portugal, even after the great population movements of the first millennium A.D. such as the Saxon and Viking invasions of Britain, and the westward drive of the Huns and Slavic peoples.
The study did find subtle regional variations. For reasons still unclear, Italians and Spaniards appear to be less closely related than most Europeans to people elsewhere on the continent.
"The analysis is pretty convincing. It comes partly from the enormous number of ancestors each one of us have," said Mark A. Jobling, a professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, England, who wasn't involved in the study.
Since the number of ancestors each person has roughly doubles with each generation, "we don't have to go too far back to find someone who features in all of our family trees," he said.
Jobling cited a scientific paper published in 2004 that went so far as to predict that every person on the planet shares ancestors who lived just 4,000 years ago. . .
"Although, as the authors note, the approach is inherently 'noisy' (i.e. error-prone), it still does give results for European populations that are in reasonable agreement with historical expectations," said Mark Stoneking, a professor evolutionary anthropology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, who also wasn't involved in the study. "It would be interesting to see this applied in situations where we don't have such good historical information."
Coop and Ralph said the findings might change the way Europeans think about their neighbors on a continent that has had its fair share of struggle and strife.
"The basic idea that we're all related much more recently than one might think has been around for a while, but it is not widely appreciated, and still quite surprising to many people, even scientists working in population genetics, including ourselves," they said in an email to The Associated Press. "The fact that we share all our ancestors from a time period where we recognize various ethnic identities also points at how we are like a family - we have our differences, but are all closely related."
Just don't expect news of closer family ties to prompt a surge of brotherly love in Europe or elsewhere.
"There have been many studies that we've been involved in showing that groups which are fighting each other furiously all the time are actually extremely closely genetically related. But that's never had any impact on whether they continue to fight each other," Jobling said.
"So for example Jewish and non-Jewish populations in the Middle East are extremely similar genetically, but to tell them they are genetic close relatives isn't going to change their ways."
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/07/5402230/europeans-had-common-ancestors.html
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/07/5402230/europeans-had-common-ancestors.html#storylink=cpy
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International News: We have entered the age of the individual capitalist
By Julie Meyer, Editor, Entrepreneurial Country
The phrase “responsible capitalism” is never going to set the world on fire. Movies will not be made about it, and MBA graduates may sneer. And yet, businesses that are built responsibly, particularly small and medium-sized companies, are destined to succeed.
Against a backdrop of sluggish economic growth on either side of the Atlantic, small businesses and entrepreneurs have created a disproportionate share of new jobs. You would be hard pressed to find bright young sparks under 30 who would not rather work for themselves. Read more . . .
The digital world has enabled authors, artists and kitchen-table entrepreneurs to punch above their weight, and grab a share of revenue in transactions without needing the expensive infrastructure of a big company. Responsible companies are being created by individuals every day of the week.
We have entered the age of the individual capitalist, the natural entrepreneur working hand-in-hand with big business. The UK’s most successful small and medium-sized enterprises are defined by key relationships with large companies that provide access to the mainstream markets.
Ultimately, entrepreneurs have responsibilities – to shareholders, employees and customers – to ensure the integrity of their relationships with their corporate partners.
Accountability happens at the individual level, and the fluid nature of business relationships introduced by the internet enables people to act responsibly more easily than ever before. Today there is no trade-off: doing business responsibly is actually good business.
This article originally appeared in The Financial Times
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Canadian Medicare does not give timely access to healthcare; it only gives access to a waiting list.
--Canadian Supreme Court Decision 2005 SCC 35, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791
http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2005/2005scc35/2005scc35.html
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Medicare: A Framework for Medicare Reform
John C. Goodman, PhD, President, NCPA
Executive Summary
Health care is the most serious domestic policy problem we have, and Medicare is the most important component of that problem. Every federal agency that has examined the issue has affirmed that we are on a dangerous, unsustainable spending path:
According to the Medicare Trustees, by 2012 the deficits in Social Security and Medicare will require one out of every 10 income tax dollars.
They will claim one in every four general revenue dollars by 2020 and almost one in two by 2030.
Of the two programs, Medicare is by far the most burdensome — with an unfunded liability five times that of Social Security.
On the current path, health care spending (mainly Medicare and Medicaid) will crowd out every other activity of the federal government by midcentury.
There are three underlying reasons for this dilemma: Read more . . .
Since Medicare beneficiaries are participating in a use-it-or-lose-it system, patients can realize benefits only by consuming more care; they receive no personal benefit from consuming care prudently and they bear no personal cost if they are wasteful.
Since Medicare providers are trapped in a system in which they are paid predetermined fees for prescribed tasks, they have no financial incentives to improve outcomes, and physicians often receive less take-home pay if they provide low-cost, high-quality care.
Since Medicare is funded on a pay-as-you-go basis, many of today’s taxpayers are not saving and investing to fund their own post-retirement care; thus, today’s young workers will receive benefits only if future workers are willing to pay exorbitantly high tax rates.
Ideas Changing the World, National Center for Policy Analysis, John Goodman, PhD, President
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Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.
- Ronald Reagan
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Medical Gluttony: Obama Administration: Largest Tax Hike since WWII
Recently, April 15th, so-called "Tax Day," served as a reminder that our federal government takes more of our money each year to fund a multitude of things not within its constitutional authority or purposes.
President Obama bragged recently that our deficits are coming down at the fastest rate in 60 years. And it is true: deficits as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) are falling faster under Obama than they have at any point since the end of World War II, says the Washington Examiner.
However, when the federal government's deficit fell from 30.3 percent of GDP in 1943 to a 4.6 percent surplus in 1948, the change was almost entirely due to deep spending cuts.
In 1943, federal government spending made up 43.6 percent of the economy. By 1948, that spending sunk like a rock to 11.6 percent.
And yet, despite forecasts of economic doom by Keynesian economists, the U.S. economy boomed after WWII.
Taxes actually fell during this period too, from 20.9 percent of GDP in 1944 to 16.2 percent in 1948.
Fast forward more than 60 years to today, and taxes are rising faster now under Obama than they have under any other president since WWII. Read more . . .
When President Truman came into office in 1945, federal taxes were 20.4 percent of the U.S. economy. When he left office in 1953 they made up just 18.7 percent.
President Eisenhower then lowered taxes even further to 17.8 percent by 1961, and President Kennedy lowered them further still to 17.6 percent.
President Johnson then raised taxes for his wars on Vietnam and poverty to 19.7 percent.
President Nixon then cut taxes to 17.9 percent by 1975, before President Ford raised them to 18.5 by 1977.
President Carter raised taxes even further to 19.6 percent, before President Reagan cut them to 18.4 percent and President Bush cut them to 17.5 percent.
President Clinton then raised taxes to 19.5 percent of GDP by 2001 before President Bush cut them to 17.6 percent in 2008. The financial crisis then sunk the economy, lowering tax collection to a post-WWII low of 15.1 percent.
President Obama's many tax hikes will send taxes as a percentage of GDP as high as 19.3 percent in 2015, before falling to 18.9 percent in 2017.
From 2009 to 2017, taxes as a percentage of GDP will have risen 3.8 points, a larger tax hike than any other American president since WWII.
Source: Conn Carroll, "Taxes Rising Faster under Obama than Under any Other President," Washington Examiner, August 7, 2013.
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Medical Gluttony thrives in Government and Health Insurance Programs.
It Disappears with Appropriate Deductibles and Co-payments on Every Service.
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6. Medical Myths: Universal Intimacy
Why Is There a Hookup Culture?
By Dennis Prager
It is well known that most college students engage at one time or another in what is known as a "hookup" -- an emotionless, commitment-less sexual encounter.
Yesterday, I interviewed Donna Freitas, author of "The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy."
In our dialogue, we agreed that her book subtitle was accurate, but we disagreed as to the cause. Freitas, who holds a Ph.D. in religious studies, blamed it on peer pressure, the sex-drenched social media of young people and the ubiquity of pornography. I blamed three other culprits: feminism, careerism and secularism. Read more . . .
I was in college and graduate school during the heyday of modern feminism. And the central message to women was clear as daylight: You are no different from men. Therefore, among other things, you can enjoy sex just like they do -- just for the fun of it and with many partners. The notion that nearly every woman yearns for something deeper when she has sexual intercourse with a man was dismissed as patriarchal propaganda. The culture might tell her to restrict sex to a man who loves her and might even marry her, but the liberated woman knows better: Sex without any emotional ties or possibility of future commitment can be "empowering."
Feminism taught -- and professors on the New York Times op-ed page continue to write -- that there are no significant natural differences between men and women. Therefore, it is not unique to male nature to want to have sex with many partners. Rather, a "Playboy culture" "pressures" men into having frequent, uncommitted sex. And, to the extent this is a part of male nature, it is equally true of women's natures.
Another feminist message to women was that just as a woman can have sex like a man, she can also find career as fulfilling as men do. Therefore, pursuing an "M-R-S" at college is just another residue of patriarchy. Women should be as interested in a career as men are. Any hint of the notion that women want, more than anything else, to marry and make a family is sexist, demeaning, and untrue.
One result is that instead of trying to find a potential husband, young women are under feminist pressure to show that they couldn't care less about forming an exclusive, let alone permanent, relationship with a man. And this provides another reason for her to engage in non-emotional, commitment-free sex.
The third reason for the hookup culture is the radical secularization of the college campus. The concept of the holy is dead at American campuses, and without the notion of the holy it is very difficult to make the case for minimizing, let alone avoiding, non-marital sex. Sex, which every great religion seeks to channel into marriage, has no such role in secular thinking. The (SET ITAL) only (END ITAL) issues for students to be aware of when it comes to sex are health and consent. Beyond those two issues, there is not a single reason not to have sex with many people.
That's why colleges -- secular temples that they are -- throughout America reinforce the centrality and importance of sex as a mechanical act. There are "sex weeks" at many of our institutions of higher learning that feature demonstrations of sex toys, S&M seminars, porn stars coming to speak, etc.
Feminist teaching about male-female sameness; feminist teaching that women will derive their greatest meaning from career, not from marriage and family; and the complete removal of religious values and teaching from the college campus are, indeed, "leaving a generation unhappy, sexually unfulfilled [certainly most of the women] and confused about intimacy."
But this is not how Dr. Freitas sees it.
As Esfehani Smith wrote in her review of the book for the Wall Street Journal: "In the book's conclusion, Ms. Freitas says that she wants young adults to have 'good sex,' a category that can include, she suggests, hooking up -- as long as students recognize that casual sex is 'just one option among many.' Yet this jars with the nearly 200 preceding pages on the corrosive effects of casual sex."
Kudos, then to Dr. Freitas for delineating the tragedy. But I suspect that it is her very Ph.D. that prevents her from understanding either the roots of this human tragedy or its solution. Both would involve the moral and intellectual rejection of the very institution that granted it to her
Read the entire column http://www.dennisprager.com/columns.aspx?g=278ef6fe-2535-4255-8e54-e9dee622334b&url=why-is-there-a-hookup-culture-n1582306
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Medical & Sexual Myths originate in secular temples on campuses.
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Overheard in the Church Pew: Absolute Sincerity
In church, recently, while awaiting the service, I heard a sweet little old lady seated behind me, quietly whispering a prayer. It was so sweet and sincere that I just had to share it with you. Read more . . .
She said:
Dear
Lord, this has been a tough several years...you have taken my
favorite actor Patrick Swayze, my favorite musician Michael Jackson,
my favorite salesman Billy Mays, my favorite actress Elizabeth
Taylor, my favorite singer Whitney Houston, and now, my
favorite announcer Dick Clark.
I just wanted you to know that my favorite politician is Barack Obama.
Amen.
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The Church Is Often Where Unfiltered Opinions Are Heard.
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Advocates Applaud Senate Passage of S. 743
November
14, 2012 by
Filed under Campaign, Congress
& Courts
November 14, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Advocates
Applaud Senate Passage of S. 743
After
Decade Long Campaign, Federal Whistleblower Bill Sent to President’s
Desk
After a decade long campaign by the Make It Safe Coalition to restore federal whistleblower protections, we applaud yesterday’s Senate passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, S. 743 (WPEA), by unanimous consent. The House of Representatives approved this measure in September, also by unanimous consent. Congress’ sweeping endorsement of S. 743 demonstrates the strong bipartisan support for this government accountability legislation to expand protections for federal employees who disclose wrongdoing and protect the public trust. Longtime whistleblower champion and retiring Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) was joined by his cosponsors Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in advocating for passage of this crucially needed reform legislation. A full list of Senate cosponsors can be viewed here. We cannot thank these champions and their staff enough for their marathon commitment to the WPEA.
Whistleblower advocates from across the ideological spectrum celebrated this government accountability and taxpayer protection measure: Read more . . .
“AFGE
is proud to join a bipartisan group of lawmakers and a coalition of
worker, good government, and civic advocates in applauding passage
of S. 743, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act by the
Senate. For far too long managers in the federal workplace have
faced little or no accountability when they retaliate against
federal workers who blow the whistle on fraud, waste and wrongdoing
on the job,” said
Beth Moten, Legislative Director for American Federation of
Government Employees. “The
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act marks the beginning of a
new day of free speech and due process rights for federal workers
such as Transportation Security Officers who protect our nation’s
airports, food safety inspectors, government scientists, and others
when they speak up on behalf of the public.”
“After
a 13 year roller coaster campaign, Congress unanimously has given
whistleblowers who defend the public a fighting chance to defend
themselves. This is a major victory for taxpayers and public
servants, but a major defeat for special interests and bureaucrats.
Free speech rights for government employees never have been
stronger,” said
Tom Devine, Legal Director for the Government Accountability
Project. “It
would be dishonest to say our work is done, however, or to deny that
government whistleblower rights are still second class compared to
those in the private sector. House Republicans blocked two
cornerstones of the legislation: jury trials to enforce
newly-enacted protections, and extension of free speech rights to
national security workers making disclosures within agency
channels.”
“A
transpartisan impulse expressed through bi-partisan consensus. Good
to see the U.S. House and Senate finally do something right for the
American people,” said
Michael Ostrolenk, National Director of the Liberty Coalition. ”The
passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is an
important first step in protecting citizens against Federal waste,
fraud and abuse of power.”
“Congress has just made a major bipartisan stride to stand behind conscientious federal employees who stand up for taxpayers,” said National Taxpayers Union Executive Vice President Pete Sepp.“Whistleblowers are true trailblazers on the path to fiscal responsibility in Washington, and passage of S. 743 is a hopeful sign that more progress and more protections lie straight ahead.”
National
President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union
commented: “This
is a vital piece of legislation that expands protections for federal
employees who disclose fraud, waste, abuse or illegal activity on
behalf of taxpayers and in the best interests of our nation.
Notably, it includes specific protection for the scientists who work
for our nation, are committed to valid research and who should not
be swayed or penalized for their work. NTEU is very pleased to see
its passage before the end of this current session of
Congress.”
“This
opening salvo to the lame duck shows that Congress can put aside
partisan posturing and deliver more government accountability to the
American public. These hard-fought reforms will substantially
improve the status quo for federal whistleblowers and
taxpayers,” said
Angela Canterbury, Director of Public Policy for Project On
Government Oversight. “It
has been a long time coming, but the federal workers now will have a
better chance at real justice when they suffer from retaliation for
exposing waste, corruption, and abuse. These courageous workers
deserve no less for their service to us and our country.”
“Reforms
such as these create a vehicle for workers to safely call out
potential hazards in the workplace without retaliation from the
employer,” said
Keith Wrightson, worker safety and health advocate for Public
Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “By
giving federal workers more opportunity and resources to identify
hazardous workplace situations, the government will become more
efficient.”
“Whistleblowers
are critical in making the government more efficient and
accountable. This legislation finally gives Whistleblowers the
respect and protection they deserve,” said
David Williams, President of Taxpayers Protection
Alliance. “Congress
has shown the American people that they are willing to work together
and put partisan differences aside to do the right thing by passing
the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.”
“We
hope that this law will begin a process to change the culture of
federal agencies when it comes to whistleblowers,” said
Celia Wexler, Senior Washington Representative, Union of Concerned
Scientists Center for Science and Democracy. “People
who protect the public from unsafe drugs, tainted food, defective
products, and environmental hazards should not fear for their jobs
when they speak up for safety and scientific integrity.”
The WPEA includes critically important upgrades to the broken system for federal whistleblowing to better serve taxpayers. Though it does not include every reform that we have sought and will continue to seek, the bill will restore and modernize government whistleblower rights by ensuring that legitimate disclosures of wrongdoing will be protected, increasing government accountability to taxpayers, and saving billions of taxpayer dollars by helping expose fraud, waste and abuse. Overall, the WPEA’s provisions will restore free speech rights closed through arbitrary loopholes and create new protections for federal scientists and Transportation Security Administration officers. The bill also will strengthen due process rights, such as a two-year experiment in normal access to appeals courts (effectively breaking the Federal Circuit’s monopoly on appellate review); provide compensatory damages; create whistleblower ombudsmen at Inspectors General offices; and strengthen authority by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to help whistleblowers through disciplinary actions against those who retaliate, and to file briefs in court supportive of whistleblower rights.
The Senate cosponsors and their dedicated staff worked closely with their House colleagues, Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD), retiring Representative Todd Platts (R-PA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Steve Pearce (R-NM), and their committed staff, to reach a bipartisan compromise that could pass this usually contentious Congress. After a hard-fought campaign, Congress has finally enacted this important reform.
A menu of key reforms can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/PwafFC
The bill can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/UDaepU
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VOM Is an Insider's View of What Doctors are Thinking, Saying and Writing about
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9. Book - Movie Review: By James J. Murtagh, M.D.
"Breaking Bad": Character is Fate
Meth-cooking Walt reaches new height of art: No Excuses
Warning: spoiler alert. If you have not seen the final episode of Breaking Bad, do not read further. The episode contains a major plot twist which is discussed in this Op- Ed.
It is fiendishly appropriate that the modern Greek tragedy, Breaking Bad, ends almost exactly 2400 years since Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex. Breaking Bad, demonstrates the most intense hell on earth, forcing its worst characters to kill the people and things they love best. But unlike any other modern drama, the main character finds at least partial redemption in admitting, "I did it because I wanted to"- a completely novel idea in modern times!
For five years Breaking Bad, like The Shield, like the Sopranos, and "The Wire", shows evil in all its seductive guises. Of these, Breaking Bad was most shocking, even moving its audience to cheer for the central character, Walter White, the average man in this morality play, the chemistry teacher dying of lung cancer who decided that he had no way out and had no choice but to turn to crime and cook meth. His almost-innocent beginning led to worse crimes and eventually he ends up a drug king pin. Even White's murder of innocents- including an innocent child- evoked a morbid fascination. How much could one man get away with? Read more . . .
But then the twist. Tonight in the finale, Walt made no excuses. This may be a first since the Greeks and Shakespeare- Walt actually took responsibility and admits he has no one to blame but himself. He had been telling himself that he turned to crime to save his family. Tonight he admits, "I did it for myself. I liked cooking meth. I was good at it."
Whoa! No one in the Inferno, or the Sopranos, or the Wire or the Shield, admitted that they had free will. Most, like Michael Corleone justified themselves, "I had to do it for my family."
The average Shakespearean villains, from Richard III to Macbeth blamed the stars or the weather or the witches. Rarely did a villain admit "I am the author of my own suffering". It was the highest form of Shakespearean art when characters transcended and admitted what they did- Hamlet, King Lear and Othello.
Oedipus was perhaps the first to realize his own free will brought him to his fate: "Apollo - he ordained my agonies - these, my pains on pains! But my hand that stuck my eyes was mine, mine alone - no one else - I did it all myself!"
In modern times, criminals blame a series of dominos in their life. Variations on the twinky defense. Lesser Greek characters also tried to blame crime on micro events- "we started the Trojan war because of an argument, a woman, an apple."
Fate reserves circles in hell for treacherous murderers even below simple murderers. Not being caught appears infinitely crueler than being fried by 2,400 volts in an electric chair. There is a deep freeze as cold as great lake Cocytus Dante described at the bottom of the ninth circle of hell, reserved for the great traitors of all time.
Dostoevsky also believed that punishment was essential to redemption of the human soul. Hell's best-kept secret is that we create it for ourselves. Walt connived, threatened, hoodwinked and betrayed to make a bad end. But Walt, at the last minute, realizes, makes sincere contrition and achieves a redemption.
Robert Frost wrote that torment by ice can be much more painful than by fire, metaphorically contrasting passionate torments with death by hatred. Walt's enemy’s fate is death by ice, frozen into a bland cubicle, with no hope of redemption.
In a larger sense, society also had a hand in Walt's demise. Had Obamacare been in place, and Walt had affordable health care, Walt would have had no reason to turn to crime. Is it worse for a hungry man to steal a loaf of bread, or a dying man to ask for medicine? Perhaps worst of all is the society that creates the criminal by making him steal the bread or the drug.
Congress should take note. Can Congress claim that it has no free will? I hope our lawmakers watched the program and decided to end the abomination of gridlock and the lack of medical care.
Shakespeare granted the release of death as the greatest boon to both homicidal heroes and villains. Hamlet, Oedipus and Walt all lived in worlds "rotten." The deserts of New Mexico have much in common with Hamlet's Denmark.
"To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all." Walt had few options at the end. He asks his adversaries to end his life.
Not all villains could be punished by no punishment. The Iagos and Richard IIIs delight in escape. Could fitting punishment depend more on the nature of the criminal, than on the crime? For some criminals, capital punishment is devoutly to be wished. For Dante, divine punishment was necessary for the operation of a divine Universe.
Do we, in the modern world, including our leaders, suffer even more because the possibility of punishment often seems remote?
Sophocles heard it long ago upon the Agean, the turbid eb and flow of human misery.
Walt- your end puts you in the company of the greats. We will miss you.
James J. Murtagh Jr. jmurtag@mindspring.com
This review is found at http://www.medicaltuesday.net/BookReviews.aspx
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The Book / Movie Review Section Is an Insider’s View of What Doctors are Reading and Seeing.
10. Hippocrates & His Kin: A Common Ancestry; A New Way to Stop Smoking.
If all the countries of Europe had a common ancestor only 1000 years ago, maybe we all had a common ancestor some 6,000 years ago?
—Suppose their names were Adam and Eve? Read more . . .
Adam and Steve could never have produced such a family. You can’t reproduce hooking up to the rectum. You can’t even have a face to face meeting that way. One would throw his spine out of joint to try to get an approval from Medicare without a face-to-face meeting, wouldn’t he?
When God made Woman after creating all the other mammals, He greatly beautified creation by moving the mammary glands from the groin to the top of the chest. He also made marital union far more pleasant and exciting.
—Can you imagine watching the Academy Awards with all those beautiful women with their gowns draped around breasts still in the groin?
Ella Mae Lopez in Sacramento was sentenced to 63 days in jail for slapping Deputy Matt Campoy as he excited the main jail in uniform at the end of his shift. Lopez kept blocking his path as Campoy tried to avoid her until she finally slapped him in the face. Lopez explained she was only trying to serve time in a smoke-free jail in order to quit smoking cold turkey.
—Sixty-three days of not smoking is probably about the same success that smoking withdrawal clinics achieve.
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Hippocrates
and His Kin / Hippocrates Modern Colleagues
The Challenges of
Yesteryear, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
11. Restoring Accountability in Medical Practice, HealthCare, Government and Society:
The National Center for Policy Analysis, John C Goodman, PhD, President, who along with Gerald L. Musgrave, and Devon M. Herrick wrote Lives at Risk, issues a weekly Health Policy Digest, a health summary of the full NCPA daily report. You may log on at www.ncpa.org and register to receive one or more of these reports.
Pacific Research Institute, (www.pacificresearch.org) Sally C Pipes, President and CEO, John R Graham, Director of Health Care Studies, publish a monthly Health Policy Prescription newsletter, which is very timely to our current health care situation. You may signup to receive their newsletters via email by clicking on the email tab or directly access their health care blog.
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University (www.mercatus.org) is a strong advocate for accountability in government. Maurice McTigue, QSO, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar, a former member of Parliament and cabinet minister in New Zealand, is now director of the Mercatus Center's Government Accountability Project. Join the Mercatus Center for Excellence in Government.
To read the rest of this column, please go to www.medicaltuesday.net/org.asp.
The National Association of Health Underwriters, www.NAHU.org. The NAHU's Vision Statement: Every American will have access to private sector solutions for health, financial and retirement security and the services of insurance professionals. There are numerous important issues listed on the opening page. Be sure to scan their professional journal, Health Insurance Underwriters (HIU), for articles of importance in the Health Insurance MarketPlace. The HIU magazine, with Jim Hostetler as the executive editor, covers technology, legislation and product news - everything that affects how health insurance professionals do business.
The Galen Institute, Grace-Marie Turner President and Founder, has a weekly Health Policy Newsletter sent every Friday to which you may subscribe by logging on at www.galen.org. A study of purchasers of Health Savings Accounts shows that the new health care financing arrangements are appealing to those who previously were shut out of the insurance market, to families, to older Americans, and to workers of all income levels.
Greg Scandlen, an expert in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), has embarked on a new mission: Consumers for Health Care Choices (CHCC). Read the initial series of his newsletter, Consumers Power Reports. Become a member of CHCC, The voice of the health care consumer. Be sure to read Prescription for change: Employers, insurers, providers, and the government have all taken their turn at trying to fix American Health Care. Now it's the Consumers turn. Greg has joined the Heartland Institute, where current newsletters can be found.
The Heartland Institute, www.heartland.org, Joseph Bast, President, publishes the Health Care News and the Heartlander. You may sign up for their health care email newsletter. Read the late Conrad F Meier on What is Free-Market Health Care?.
The Foundation for Economic Education, www.fee.org, has been publishing The Freeman - Ideas On Liberty, Freedom's Magazine, for over 50 years, with Lawrence W Reed, President, and Sheldon Richman as editor. Having bound copies of this running treatise on free-market economics for over 40 years, I still take pleasure in the relevant articles by Leonard Read and others who have devoted their lives to the cause of liberty. I have a patient who has read this journal since it was a mimeographed newsletter fifty years ago. Be sure to read the current lesson on Economic Education.
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance, www.cahi.org/index.asp, founded by Greg Scandlen in 1991, where he served as CEO for five years, is an association of insurance companies, actuarial firms, legislative consultants, physicians and insurance agents. Their mission is to develop and promote free-market solutions to America's health-care challenges by enabling a robust and competitive health insurance market that will achieve and maintain access to affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans. "The belief that more medical care means better medical care is deeply entrenched . . . Our study suggests that perhaps a third of medical spending is now devoted to services that don't appear to improve health or the quality of care–and may even make things worse."
The Independence Institute, www.i2i.org, is a free-market think-tank in Golden, Colorado, that has a Health Care Policy Center, with Linda Gorman as Director. Be sure to sign up for the monthly Health Care Policy Center Newsletter.
Martin Masse, Director of Publications at the Montreal Economic Institute, is the publisher of the webzine: Le Quebecois Libre. Please log on at www.quebecoislibre.org/apmasse.htm to review his free-market based articles, some of which will allow you to brush up on your French. You may also register to receive copies of their webzine on a regular basis.
The Fraser Institute, an independent public policy organization, focuses on the role competitive markets play in providing for the economic and social well being of all Canadians. Canadians celebrated Tax Freedom Day on June 28, the date they stopped paying taxes and started working for themselves. Log on at www.fraserinstitute.ca for an overview of the extensive research articles that are available. You may want to go directly to their health research section.
The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/, founded in 1973, is a research and educational institute whose mission was to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense. -- However, since they supported the socialistic health plan instituted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, which is replaying the Medicare excessive increases in its first two years, and was used by some as a justification for the Obama plan, they have lost sight of their mission and we will no longer feature them as a freedom loving institution and have canceled our contributions.
The Ludwig von Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, President, is a rich source of free-market materials, probably the best daily course in economics we've seen. If you read these essays on a daily basis, it would probably be equivalent to taking Economics 11 and 51 in college. Please log on at www.mises.org to obtain the foundation's daily reports. You may also log on to Lew's premier free-market site to read some of his lectures to medical groups. Learn how state medicine subsidizes illness or to find out why anyone would want to be an MD today.
CATO. The Cato Institute (www.cato.org) was founded in 1977, by Edward H. Crane, with Charles Koch of Koch Industries. It is a nonprofit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute is named for Cato's Letters, a series of pamphlets that helped lay the philosophical foundation for the American Revolution. The Mission: The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Ed Crane reminds us that the framers of the Constitution designed to protect our liberty through a system of federalism and divided powers so that most of the governance would be at the state level where abuse of power would be limited by the citizens' ability to choose among 13 (and now 50) different systems of state government. Thus, we could all seek our favorite moral turpitude and live in our comfort zone recognizing our differences and still be proud of our unity as Americans. Michael F. Cannon is the Cato Institute's Director of Health Policy Studies. Read his bio, articles and books at www.cato.org/people/cannon.html.
The Ethan Allen Institute, www.ethanallen.org/index2.html, is one of some 41 similar but independent state organizations associated with the State Policy Network (SPN). The mission is to put into practice the fundamentals of a free society: individual liberty, private property, competitive free enterprise, limited and frugal government, strong local communities, personal responsibility, and expanded opportunity for human endeavor.
The Free State Project, with a goal of Liberty in Our Lifetime, http://freestateproject.org/, is an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. The success of the Project would likely entail reductions in taxation and regulation, reforms at all levels of government to expand individual rights and free markets, and a restoration of constitutional federalism, demonstrating the benefits of liberty to the rest of the nation and the world. [It is indeed a tragedy that the burden of government in the U.S., a freedom society for its first 150 years, is so great that people want to escape to a state solely for the purpose of reducing that oppression. We hope this gives each of us an impetus to restore freedom from government intrusion in our own state.]
The St. Croix Review, a bimonthly journal of ideas, recognizes that the world is very dangerous. Conservatives are staunch defenders of the homeland. But as Russell Kirk believed, wartime allows the federal government to grow at a frightful pace. We expect government to win the wars we engage, and we expect that our borders be guarded. But St. Croix feels the impulses of the Administration and Congress are often misguided. The politicians of both parties in Washington overreach so that we see with disgust the explosion of earmarks and perpetually increasing spending on programs that have nothing to do with winning the war. There is too much power given to Washington. Even in wartime, we have to push for limited government - while giving the government the necessary tools to win the war. To read a variety of articles in this arena, please go to www.stcroixreview.com.
Hillsdale College, the premier small liberal arts college in southern Michigan with about 1,200 students, was founded in 1844 with the mission of "educating for liberty." It is proud of its principled refusal to accept any federal funds, even in the form of student grants and loans, and of its historic policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity. The price of freedom is never cheap. While schools throughout the nation are bowing to an unconstitutional federal mandate that schools must adopt a Constitution Day curriculum each September 17th or lose federal funds, Hillsdale students take a semester-long course on the Constitution restoring civics education and developing a civics textbook, a Constitution Reader. You may log on at www.hillsdale.edu to register for the annual weeklong von Mises Seminars, held every February, or their famous Shavano Institute. Congratulations to Hillsdale for its national rankings in the USNews College rankings. Changes in the Carnegie classifications, along with Hillsdale's continuing rise to national prominence, prompted the Foundation to move the College from the regional to the national liberal arts college classification. Please log on and register to receive Imprimis, their national speech digest that reaches more than one million readers each month. The last ten years of Imprimis are archived.
John and Alieta Eck, MDs, for their first-century solution to twenty-first century needs. With 46 million people in this country uninsured, we need an innovative solution apart from the place of employment and apart from the government. To read the rest of the story, go to www.zhcenter.org and check out their history, mission statement, newsletter, and a host of other information
Medi-Share Medi-Share is based on the biblical principles of caring for and sharing in one another's burdens (as outlined in Galatians 6:2). And as such, adhering to biblical principles of health and lifestyle are important requirements for membership in Medi-Share. This is not insurance. Read more . . .
PATMOS EmergiClinic - where Robert Berry, MD, an emergency physician and internist, practices. To read his story and the background for naming his clinic PATMOS EmergiClinic - the island where John was exiled and an acronym for "payment at time of service," go to www.patmosemergiclinic.com/ To read more on Dr Berry, please click on the various topics at his website. To review How to Start a Third-Party Free Medical Practice . . .
PRIVATE NEUROLOGY is a Third-Party-Free Practice in Derby, NY with Larry Huntoon, MD, PhD, FANN. (http://home.earthlink.net/~doctorlrhuntoon/) Dr Huntoon does not allow any HMO or government interference in your medical care. "Since I am not forced to use CPT codes and ICD-9 codes (coding numbers required on claim forms) in our practice, I have been able to keep our fee structure very simple." I have no interest in "playing games" so as to "run up the bill." My goal is to provide competent, compassionate, ethical care at a price that patients can afford. Private Neurology also guarantees that medical records in our office are kept totally private and confidential - in accordance with the Oath of Hippocrates. Since I am a non-covered entity under HIPAA, your medical records are safe from the increased risk of disclosure under HIPAA law.
FIRM: Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, Lin Zinser, JD, Founder, www.westandfirm.org, researches and studies the work of scholars and policy experts in the areas of health care, law, philosophy, and economics to inform and to foster public debate on the causes and potential solutions of rising costs of health care and health insurance. Read Lin Zinser’s view on today’s health care problem: In today’s proposals for sweeping changes in the field of medicine, the term “socialized medicine” is never used. Instead we hear demands for “universal,” “mandatory,” “singlepayer,” and/or “comprehensive” systems. These demands aim to force one healthcare plan (sometimes with options) onto all Americans; it is a plan under which all medical services are paid for, and thus controlled, by government agencies. Sometimes, proponents call this “nationalized financing” or “nationalized health insurance.” In a more honest day, it was called socialized medicine.
Michael J. Harris, MD - www.northernurology.com - an active member in the American Urological Association, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Societe' Internationale D'Urologie, has an active cash'n carry practice in urology in Traverse City, Michigan. He has no contracts, no Medicare, Medicaid, no HIPAA, just patient care. Dr Harris is nationally recognized for his medical care system reform initiatives. To understand that Medical Bureaucrats and Administrators are basically Medical Illiterates telling the experts how to practice medicine, be sure to savor his article on "Administrativectomy: The Cure For Toxic Bureaucratosis."
David J Gibson, MD, Consulting Partner of Illumination Medical, Inc. has made important contributions to the free Medical MarketPlace in speeches and writings. His series of articles in Sacramento Medicine can be found at www.ssvms.org. To read his "Lessons from the Past," go to www.ssvms.org/articles/0403gibson.asp. For additional articles, such as the cost of Single Payer, go to www.healthplanusa.net/DGSinglePayer.htm; for Health Care Inflation, go to www.healthplanusa.net/DGHealthCareInflation.htm.
Dr Richard B Willner, President, Center Peer Review Justice Inc, states: We are a group of healthcare doctors -- physicians, podiatrists, dentists, osteopaths -- who have experienced and/or witnessed the tragedy of the perversion of medical peer review by malice and bad faith. We have seen the statutory immunity, which is provided to our "peers" for the purposes of quality assurance and credentialing, used as cover to allow those "peers" to ruin careers and reputations to further their own, usually monetary agenda of destroying the competition. We are dedicated to the exposure, conviction, and sanction of any and all doctors, and affiliated hospitals, HMOs, medical boards, and other such institutions, which would use peer review as a weapon to unfairly destroy other professionals. Read the rest of the story, as well as a wealth of information, at www.peerreview.org.
Semmelweis Society International, Verner S. Waite MD, FACS, Founder; Henry Butler MD, FACS, President; Ralph Bard MD, JD, Vice President; W. Hinnant MD, JD, Secretary-Treasurer; is named after Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, MD (1818-1865), an obstetrician who has been hailed as the savior of mothers. He noted maternal mortality of 25-30 percent in the obstetrical clinic in Vienna. He also noted that the first division of the clinic run by medical students had a death rate 2-3 times as high as the second division run by midwives. He also noticed that medical students came from the dissecting room to the maternity ward. He ordered the students to wash their hands in a solution of chlorinated lime before each examination. The maternal mortality dropped, and by 1848, no women died in childbirth in his division. He lost his appointment the following year and was unable to obtain a teaching appointment. Although ahead of his peers, he was not accepted by them. When Dr Verner Waite received similar treatment from a hospital, he organized the Semmelweis Society with his own funds using Dr Semmelweis as a model: To read the article he wrote at my request for Sacramento Medicine when I was editor in 1994, see www.delmeyer.net/HMCPeerRev.htm. To see Attorney Sharon Kime's response, as well as the California Medical Board response, see www.delmeyer.net/HMCPeerRev.htm. Scroll down to read some very interesting letters to the editor from the Medical Board of California, from a member of the MBC, and from the late Deane Hillsman, MD. To view some horror stories of atrocities against physicians and how organized medicine still treats this problem, please go to www.semmelweissociety.net.
The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (www.AAPSonline.org), The Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943, representing physicians in their struggles against bureaucratic medicine, loss of medical privacy, and intrusion by the government into the personal and confidential relationship between patients and their physicians. Be sure to read News of the Day in Perspective: Don't miss the "AAPS News," written by Jane Orient, MD, and archived on this site which provides valuable information on a monthly basis. Browse the archives of their official organ, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, with Larry Huntoon, MD, PhD, a neurologist in New York, as the Editor-in-Chief. There are a number of important articles that can be accessed from the Table of Contents.
The AAPS California Chapter is an unincorporated association made up of members. The Goal of the AAPS California Chapter is to carry on the activities of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) on a statewide basis. This is accomplished by having meetings and providing communications that support the medical professional needs and interests of independent physicians in private practice. To join the AAPS California Chapter, all you need to do is join national AAPS and be a physician licensed to practice in the State of California. There is no additional cost or fee to be a member of the AAPS California State Chapter.
Go to California Chapter Web Page . . .
Bottom line: "We are the best deal Physicians can get from a statewide physician based organization!"
PA-AAPS is the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country. Since 1943, AAPS has been dedicated to the highest ethical standards of the Oath of Hippocrates and to preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine. We welcome all physicians (M.D. and D.O.) as members. Podiatrists, dentists, chiropractors and other medical professionals are welcome to join as professional associate members. Staff members and the public are welcome as associate members. Medical students are welcome to join free of charge.
Our motto, "omnia pro aegroto" means "all for the patient."
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12. Words of Wisdom, Recent Postings, In Memoriam, Today in History . . .
Words of Wisdom
Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have a choice. –Henry A Kissinger (1923 -
Moderation in all things. –Cleobulus (6th century BC)
Moderation multiplies pleasures. –Democritus (460-370 BC)
Some Recent Postings
In The March Issue: