A videographer backed up all his stuff on the net, using MegaUpload as his backer upper site. A day or two before the Feds shut down MegaUpload at the behest of MPAA for streaming copyrighted movies, this guy had his hard disk crash, wiping out all his videos. He is suing to get his backups back off MegaUpload and onto his new hard drive so he can use them. For this "service" he paid $107.
He would have done better to back up to CD's on his own computer. For real security, he should have stashed the backup CD's "off site", say at his folks place, just in case he suffered a house fire.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
It's Snowing for April Fools Day
No fooling. It was 50 degrees and sunny this morning. Now it's snowing hard and down into the 30's.
Suppose the Supremes kill Obamacare?
Suppose that intelligence breaks out over the Supremes and they rule Obamacare totally unconstitutional and null and void? What happens next?
There will be a great hue and cry for Congress to "do something". OK, so what should Congress do?
We ought to address the real health care crisis, wild and crazy spending that's bankrupting the country. The US spends 19% of GNP on healthcare, which is TWICE what any other country in the world spends. For this torrent of money, the country does not get better health than the rest of the world. Real numbers, like life expectancy and infant mortality don't show any benefits from all the money poured down the drain. A good dozen countries have better numbers than the US and spend way way less. If we could bring the price down out of the stratosphere, it would be easier to pay our doctor bills. Let's try the following
1. Interstate competition in health insurance. We ought to allow any licensed insurance company based in any state to sell policies in every other state. Up here we only have TWO insurance companies to choose from, and both of them are expensive. If we had more choices we would get better prices. The insurance companies hate this idea, but we ought to do it anyhow. The commerce clause was intended to give Congress the power to do exactly this sort of thing.
2. Allow and encourage purchase of drugs from any first world country, say Canada. Also England, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland. US made drugs are sold overseas for a fraction of the price that US citizens have to pay in this country. If we could legally import any foreign drugs it would cut the price of pills a lot. The drug companies hate this, but we ought to do it.
3. Reform the FDA's approval process. Right now the FDA bureaucrats can jerk drug and device makers around, demand ever more expensive clinical trials, and make the cost of getting a drug or device approved for use prohibitive. The FDA should only test for safety, NOT effectiveness. Doctors and insurance companies will weed out ineffective things far faster than FDA bureaucrats. No ethical doctor will proscribe things that don't work, and no insurance company will pay for such treatment.
4. Protect doctors from the lawyers. No lawyer should be able to sue a doctor who proscribed FDA approved medicine, EVEN IF the FDA later revokes that approval (Vioxx). Lawyers should not be allowed to advertise for plaintiffs on TV (or anywhere else) . Malpractice is a creation of state law, so the states need to do the heavy lifting here. Lawyers hate this idea, and most politicians are lawyers.
There will be a great hue and cry for Congress to "do something". OK, so what should Congress do?
We ought to address the real health care crisis, wild and crazy spending that's bankrupting the country. The US spends 19% of GNP on healthcare, which is TWICE what any other country in the world spends. For this torrent of money, the country does not get better health than the rest of the world. Real numbers, like life expectancy and infant mortality don't show any benefits from all the money poured down the drain. A good dozen countries have better numbers than the US and spend way way less. If we could bring the price down out of the stratosphere, it would be easier to pay our doctor bills. Let's try the following
1. Interstate competition in health insurance. We ought to allow any licensed insurance company based in any state to sell policies in every other state. Up here we only have TWO insurance companies to choose from, and both of them are expensive. If we had more choices we would get better prices. The insurance companies hate this idea, but we ought to do it anyhow. The commerce clause was intended to give Congress the power to do exactly this sort of thing.
2. Allow and encourage purchase of drugs from any first world country, say Canada. Also England, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland. US made drugs are sold overseas for a fraction of the price that US citizens have to pay in this country. If we could legally import any foreign drugs it would cut the price of pills a lot. The drug companies hate this, but we ought to do it.
3. Reform the FDA's approval process. Right now the FDA bureaucrats can jerk drug and device makers around, demand ever more expensive clinical trials, and make the cost of getting a drug or device approved for use prohibitive. The FDA should only test for safety, NOT effectiveness. Doctors and insurance companies will weed out ineffective things far faster than FDA bureaucrats. No ethical doctor will proscribe things that don't work, and no insurance company will pay for such treatment.
4. Protect doctors from the lawyers. No lawyer should be able to sue a doctor who proscribed FDA approved medicine, EVEN IF the FDA later revokes that approval (Vioxx). Lawyers should not be allowed to advertise for plaintiffs on TV (or anywhere else) . Malpractice is a creation of state law, so the states need to do the heavy lifting here. Lawyers hate this idea, and most politicians are lawyers.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Europe bubbling like a pot.
The gloom and doom, end of the world, talk has died down in the MSM after the Greeks gave a haircut to their creditors. It's been a couple of weeks since I last saw a "The Euro is Doomed" article.
But all is not well in Euro land. Today's Economist has a cover story on the coming French bankruptcy. And the WSJ reports that the German central bank will no long accept bonds from Ireland, Greece. or Portugal as collateral for loans. And the European Stabilization Mechanism is only E500 billion. Which is just barely enough to bail out Portugal, but nowhere near enough to bailout Italy or Spain. And the Economist is still calling for "more European integration" by which they usually mean Germany will guarantee/bailout everyone else. The Economist thinks this is a wonderful idea. The Germans aren't on board with it, and the Economist blasts Angela Merkel and the Germans as reactionary stick-in-the-muds every time it hears a German begging for a little air.
We need to pay attention, 'cause we will be next.
But all is not well in Euro land. Today's Economist has a cover story on the coming French bankruptcy. And the WSJ reports that the German central bank will no long accept bonds from Ireland, Greece. or Portugal as collateral for loans. And the European Stabilization Mechanism is only E500 billion. Which is just barely enough to bail out Portugal, but nowhere near enough to bailout Italy or Spain. And the Economist is still calling for "more European integration" by which they usually mean Germany will guarantee/bailout everyone else. The Economist thinks this is a wonderful idea. The Germans aren't on board with it, and the Economist blasts Angela Merkel and the Germans as reactionary stick-in-the-muds every time it hears a German begging for a little air.
We need to pay attention, 'cause we will be next.
Friday, March 30, 2012
The Taxman Cometh.
Alder Brook Sportsmen's Association, a Littleton gun club of which I am a member, had a special meeting last night to approve new bylaws. Seems like our ever hungry town government has voided the club's tax free status, assessed the club property at $86,000, and levied $3800 worth of taxes. That's a lot of money for a couple of acres of scrub land, with no frontage onto public roads, so far out of town it's almost in the next town. $3800 divided among the membership would jack up dues by $100 per member per year. Alder Brook Sportsmen has been around since 1962, and after all that time we suddenly became taxable.
We got a lawyer, who claimed that if we did a load of gov'mint paper work, rewrote the club's bylaws, jumped thru a lot of obscure hoops, and filed paper work with Littleton, Concord and Washington, we could become a tax free non profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Thank goodness we have some dedicated volunteer club officers willing to wade thru this swamp. The new gov'mint written bylaws were adopted by unanimous vote.
If they make life this difficult for a little private club, imagine what a small business, which actually makes money, has to go thru.
We got a lawyer, who claimed that if we did a load of gov'mint paper work, rewrote the club's bylaws, jumped thru a lot of obscure hoops, and filed paper work with Littleton, Concord and Washington, we could become a tax free non profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Thank goodness we have some dedicated volunteer club officers willing to wade thru this swamp. The new gov'mint written bylaws were adopted by unanimous vote.
If they make life this difficult for a little private club, imagine what a small business, which actually makes money, has to go thru.
The Alarm Cat went off last night
It's o'dark thirty and this high pitched piercing howl wakes me. I get up to inspect, and there is Stupid Beast, in fighting stance, back arched, fur fluffed up, tail fluffed up to a good two inches diameter, defending the front door. I flip on the porch light and I can see tracks in the fresh snow (yes it's still snowing up here). More tracks lead down the steps and across the street. I'm not enough of a woodsman to say what kind of tracks, but they were medium sized, say from a 20 pound animal of some kind. Any how the cat seems to have scared it off.
So I say some soothing words to Stupid Beast and go back to bed.
So I say some soothing words to Stupid Beast and go back to bed.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
You don't expect us to read 2700 pages?
So said a Supreme the other day, referring to Obamacare. Well, actually Judge, I do expect you to read the whole damn thing. And pass an examination on the contents BEFORE you judge the case.
The point is, we should never pass a 2700 page law. Give me 2700 pages, and I can find a clause in there somewhere to authorize ANYTHING I want to do. Give a bureaucrat a 2700 page law and you have authorized him to do anything he wants to do.
The court ought to declare the whole damn thing unconstitutional on account of terminal vagueness.
The point is, we should never pass a 2700 page law. Give me 2700 pages, and I can find a clause in there somewhere to authorize ANYTHING I want to do. Give a bureaucrat a 2700 page law and you have authorized him to do anything he wants to do.
The court ought to declare the whole damn thing unconstitutional on account of terminal vagueness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)