The Health Care Circus

Fox, to its credit, carried most of Obama's circus live. Surprisingly, Cspan did not, or at least not on the two Cspan channels I can get. The pols put on a pretty good show. This was a public relations effort, both sides were talking to the TV audience, not to each other. No agreements on anything were reached, at least not in front of the TV cameras.
The PR effort was a Mexican standoff. The Republicans stuck with their position of malpractice reform, interstate sale of insurance, importation of drugs from Canada. The Democrats told endless tales of woe, and called for passage of Obamacare to relieve the woes, the spending and to save the Union.
Obama came out against interstate sale of insurance, saying that people would flock to cheaper insurance from states with fewer mandated coverages, and that was bad, we have to force everyone to buy expensive cover everything policies. He also implied that the democrats will try to jam Obamacare thru Congress using reconciliation.
Obama also came out against catastrophic only coverage, saying that full coverage was only a few pennies more that catastrophe only coverage. That's not true. I switched from a $12K full coverage policy to a $3K catastrophe only policy. The $9K in savings more than covered my office visits. Plus, since I was paying for it out of pocket, I bothered to get my prescription switched to low cost generic drugs.

Tom Harkin (D) gets it wrong

Senator Tom Harkin is ranting on TV saying that malpractice reform doesn't work. He said NH had to repeal it's malpractice law.
Not true Tom. It was passed, it's worked so well the doctors insurance fund has a $100 million surplus that the governor tried to pinch to balance the state budget.
In NH, tort lawyers must present their case to a special medical malpractice court. If the lawyer doesn't like the verdict of the special court, he is at liberty to sue in regular state court. BUT, the verdict of the special medical malpractice court MUST by read aloud to the jury. The jury, not being fools, pays close attention to the verdict of the special court. Malpractice suits have been cut in half.
Trial lawyers attempt to repeal this reform every legislative session, so far with no success.
So Senator Tom Harkin, for somewhere-or-other in the heartland, malpractice reform is alive and well in NH. And it has reduced our cost of medical care.

Insurance pools?

The great Obamacare debate is on TV as I type. Obama is claiming that creation of "insurance pools" would offer health insurance for a lower rate than at current. Sounds too good to be true. The cost to insure a family is the same whether they are in a "pool" or on the beach.
A "pool" isn't the same as health insurance offered by employers. Companies get a better rate than individuals, mostly because workers are in good health. When their health fails they stop working. A "pool" composed of anyone who walks in off the street ain't gonna get the discount the big boys like Caterpillar and Microsoft get.

The Nature of Horses Stephan Budiansky

Good read which I picked off the stacks at the Abby Greenleaf public library. Subtitle is Exploring Equine Evolution Intelligence and Behavior which is a good summary. Archaeology now places the domestication of the horse on the northern shores of the Black Sea. A grave of a "cult stallion", complete with grave goods and dated to 3000 BC was discovered. The teeth of the stallion showed wear marks characteristic of a bit, this some 500 years before the earliest wheel. Leading the the conclusion that the horse was domesticated for riding first, and for pulling chariots only later. Which makes a certain amount of sense, the urge among teen aged boys to show off by riding a half wild horse is understandable, and doesn't require fancy technology, like spoked wheels, yokes, axles and axle bearings. Whereas to ride bareback, you just jump on and hang on.

Second Winter Storm Warning fizzles out

Last week they canceled public school on account of forecasts of mega snow all over NH. Today we got a few flakes, maybe an inch, after a forecast of a foot or more. In fairness, the TV is reporting that western MA got clobbered good, but it didn't make it up here to Cannon. They say yet another storm is coming tomorrow. We need the snow...

Don't weep for me, Toyota Part II

Poor Toyota is really getting slammed in Congress today. I have mixed feelings about it. The accidents and deaths are terrible, but ruining a company and throwing it's people out of work is not very nice either.

Atlantic Monthly Columnist flunks high school chemistry

Megan McCardle wrote in her Atlantic column

"I've read a lot about prohibition, but I never read about the government's deliberate effort to make industrial alcohol undrinkably poisonous. Thousands of people seem to have died as a result."

Looks like Megan never took high school chemistry. Anyone who did knows that denatured alcohol is poisonous. Plus the containers are marked with skull and cross bones for those who don't read. Denatured alcohol is drinking alcohol rendered undrinkable so it can be sold for industrial uses without paying liquor taxes. Of course journalism students are not required to know anything about the real world. Which is why fewer and fewer people read the MSM. Why waste your time reading stuff written by the profoundly ignorant?