Faces In The Rocks

[I'll try this now and then. Great Four Corners
road trip with lots of digital clicking. I was looking
for faces. This is what I saw and what the camera
saw.]


Canyon de Chelly, Arizona: "Tough Guy"

Military vs. Civilian Spending

Think what might happen with just a few fewer tanks...

Over 8,800 M1 and M1A1 tanks have been produced for the US Army and Marine Corps, (and a relative few for the armies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) at a cost of US $2.35–$4.30 million per unit, depending on the variant. (“top-of-the-line” = $4.3 million) The M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank is made by General Dynamics Land Systems.

Supporting the Abrams is a Tank Recovery Vehicle. The United States Army requirement is for 595 M88A2 HERCULES recovery vehicles, the Marine Corps requirement was originally for 60 vehicles (now 66).The US Army has fielded 157 HERCULES and the US Marine Corps all its planned HERCULES. Unitary Cost: USD
$2.0 million. The Hercules is made by BAE Systems (AirBus, etc.).

Both vehicles are totally paid for with taxpayer dollars.

The top-of-the-line combine John Deere offers is the 9870 STS.Manufacturer's suggested list price: $0.337 million. About one third of one million. These are typically paid for by farmers and farming companies; only partially (tax breaks) with taxpayer money.

So, for the same money you can buy…

(One)

OR…

(Twelve)


And if you want something to put you upright after you take a turn a little fast…

(One)

OR…

(Six)

Which do you think are the more productive expenditures?

...And I mean in terms of national security, international relations, positive productivity, contribution to the U.S. economy. And esthetics. The "military/industrial complex" might think "tanks." And if you are not careful, and do not think about it critically, you might think "tanks" too. Or if, after thinking critically, you still think "tanks," then we have an ideological difference.

Two More Strikes Against For-Profit Health Insurance

How many strikes does it take to strike OUT?

How about these?

1.

Doctors (mostly primary care docs) hate ins. paperwork, want to quit

That's a very disheartening story from United Press International - UPI - about a huge survey of primary care physicians. Almost half say they are going to quit their profession or at least reduce their patient rosters. Of course, this is the very category of docs we need the most and have the biggest shortage of. Why this catastrophe?

"The reported reasons for the widespread frustration among doctors include: increased time spent dealing with non-clinical paperwork, difficulty receiving reimbursement from insurance companies and burdensome government regulations."

And...

2. New International Survey: More Than Half of U.S. Chronically Ill Adults Skip Needed Care Due to Costs

Bottom line in this study: The U.S. is last of eight advanced nations in the quality of care for the chronically ill. And we spend the most out of pocket on the problem.

Americans aren't ignorant of how bad it is, either. Never mind all those politicians blindly saying we have "the best health care in the world." We know better:

"...the eight-country survey finds that U.S. patients are significantly more likely to call for fundamental change in their country's health care system, with a third saying the system needs to be rebuilt completely."

Or as the NYTimes.com put it today (11.18.08), the U.S. is "The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill"

Just in case you don't know where the Scooter stands on this, check this out.

[Sorry about all the giant fonts. Sometimes Blogger just whips me.]

Why Are You Afraid of The Fairness Doctrine?

Obscenity in the Ears of the Beholder

Long story short: 1965 - 1967 I was the Program Director at the country's first 24/7 telephone call-in radio station, KLAC in Los Angeles. It was a double barreled hoot.

The dreaded Fairness Doctrine was in full force. Results? Right wing talk was crushed? Noooo. We had Bob Grant spewing the precursor mud of Michael Savage and Sean Hannity. We had Joe Pyne, doing confrontational blitzing that makes Rush Limbaugh look like a wimp. We had Ray Briem, a calm, hard-right, all-night talker. These guys were tough, uncompromising Righties, and nothing in the Fairness Doctrine shut them up or even inhibited them.

AND we had left-wing talkers, including the hilarious Arbogast (Bob) and Margolis (Jack) and the stunning Jill (daughter of Dore) Schary Robinson doing passionate left wing and feminist talk on the weekends. We even had genius comic Mort Sahl whamming away at the Kennedy assassination investigation and other conspiracies he suspected. We had several apolitical talk jockies Danny Dark among them.

In other words, KLAC had balance. We were never concerned about being completely 50/50, we just made sure all sides had a voice. Horrors! Un-American!

KLAC was #1 with lots of important demographics. Didn't suffer a whit from actual fairness and balance.

The only real threat to KLAC was the John Birch Society. These intolerant Righties launched boycotts against our sponsors because the JBS wanted all-Righty stations only. Just like they finally got all over the AM band. Goodbye Fairness Doctrine.

So don't listen to the fear mongers of Righty radio who dread the return of the F.D. and the very thought of genuine fairness and balance. Don't listen to the Evangelical religious broadcasters who fear it. Listen to Chuck Schumer, a very fair and balanced man. Support the return of the Fairness Doctrine. It's only fair.