the will to exist

When America inevitably votes itself something called universal health care, it is my belief that we’ll see more stories like this one: Tape shows woman dying on waiting room floor

A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.

While casual readers will come away with the impression that this woman died because of a failure of private healthcare, I am not a casual reader.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees the hospital, released a statement Tuesday saying it was “shocked and distressed by this situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care.”

Sounds like another one of those callous private companies that only cares about profit, which we’ve all been taught is evil - only government can force people to be good and honest, right? The truth is that profitable companies are the ones that do a good job of providing health care. Government, which doesn’t have to turn a profit because it takes all its funding by force, is generally the agency that provides the most mediocre health care. I should know, I’ve received this type of mediocre care in the military. No choice, I just got whichever doctor was on duty, no matter how incompetent or bored they happened to be. Some of them were bored and incompetent. A few were pretty good. But I didn’t have a choice which ones I got. It was a crap shoot every time I needed treatment.

The key to this story is that New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has a .gov web site - it’s a government agency. A bureaucracy. This lady died under the “care” of a government agency, the same kind of care you can expect when you vote for universal health care.

What is HHC?

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) was created by New York State legislation in 1970 as a public benefit corporation, governed by a Board of Directors, to oversee the City’s public health care system in all five boroughs. The Corporation consists of 11 acute care hospitals, 6 Diagnostic and Treatment Centers, 4 long-term care facilities, a certified home health care agency, and more than 80 community health clinics, including Communicare Centers and Child Health Clinics. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, MetroPlus, HHC operates a Health Plan which enrolls members in Medicaid, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus. HHC facilities treat nearly one-fifth of all general hospital discharges and more than one third of emergency room and hospital-based clinic visits in New York City.

Someone should ask Barack Obama or John McCain (who will play along with the idea of health funded by theft) why this lady who was being provided New York’s version of universal “health care” had to die on camera on the floor of a psychiatriac ward.

The inevitable clarion calls for more rules, more oversight and more bureaucrats will be heard because people are naturally horrified by such a lonely and undignified death. In ignorance, we will march one step closer to ultimate mediocrity in health care and our options will narrow just a little further. More people will go crazy as they realize that freedom of choice in America is just a pipe dream. Some of them will die while being prodded by the indifferent foot of a bureaucrat. The cold eye of a surveillance camera paid for with tax dollars stolen from that person while he or she was still sane will record the entire event, a silent witness to the involuntary downward spiral that happens in a society with too much government and not enough love to go around. We’ll find out what her name was, and we’ll vote for more cameras and more rule books and more petty authortarianism and then we’ll forget about the woman who died alone on a cold floor in a cold room in a city populated by more government employees per capita than almost any in the world. See your future if you can. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the 2nd Amendment, we should expect to see a flurry of gun rights activism all over the country. We should also expect to see desperate struggles for bureaucrats to retain their power of intimidation over the law abiding segment of the population. Bear in mind, once again, that it is this officious attitude that has resulted in a higher per capita incarceration rate than any other developed country.

Two things to keep in mind during these coming struggles - 1) The struggles will NOT affect criminals. What is being decided is whether law and order respecting citizens will be able to enjoy the right guaranteed by the Constitution. Criminals already ignore municipal, state and federal gun restrictions on a routine basis. 2) Despite the shrill harping you’ll hear from your bureaucrats nationwide, no one will be less safe if guns are permitted to LAW ABIDING citizens in places like Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. Those places will in fact, become safer. The more armed law abiding types you have roaming around, the safer you are. That is a safe rule of thumb to follow. This is a culture war of authoritarians against individualists.

Having said that, I would encourage you to take a moment to read how Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and her posse are clearly stating that they are above the law.

If someone could get 50 concealed carry permit holders together, organize a legal defense for them, and have them show up at the airport with their weapons I would participate. I’d love to see the city of Atlanta try and win that battle in the Georgia court system - it is clearly unlawful for the city to try and declare any “gun free zones” that contradict state law. I am more interested in re-asserting my second amendment rights and expanding the scope of where I can carry without being harrased by petty bureaucrats than anything. I wouldn’t cry if Shirley Franklin lost sleep over not being able to tell me what to do either. I already drive to the airport with my gun fairly frequently - I’m not a threat to anyone non-violent on the premises. Someone needs to stand up before we’re all constantly bowing. If gun owners who have already been vetted by the state to carry showed up en masse and peacefully dared the police to arrest them, it would force the city to abide by the law. Maybe georgiacarry.org can get an organized protest together.

Update: Georgia Carry has filed a lawsuit against the City of Atlanta.

An attorney for Georgia Carry showed up at a press conference by Franklin and DeCosta to hand them a copy of the suit. DeCosta took it, while Franklin walked away.

Franklin and DeCosta had called the press conference to say they will stick with their no-guns policy for parts of the airport outside federal jurisdiction, which include parking lots and main lobby and ticketing areas. Franklin said she will lobby Congress to authorize gun bans in any public facilities that get federal funds.

I’d love it if someone could clarify for me who put Ben DeCosta in charge of all the airports in Georgia? I thought he was just Shirley Franklin’s personal lapdog and socialist associate.

Microsoft doesn’t want you to use VMWare for virtualization of your information technology environment. At least, that is the message they are sending to the company I work for. For the last two years, when we’ve called for support, Microsoft’s Indian technicians seem confused and offer us conflicting information, wasting a great deal of time and causing us boundless frustration.

Today, we tried to call about a problem with DFS (distributed file system) - unfortunately the Microsoft technician noticed that the machine with a corrupt volume is virtualized and immediately went into a song and dance about it being VMWare and not being able to support the issue. Bear in mind that we had just dropped $500+ on the call. But Microsoft, in all its wisdom, has a policy that is more important that continuing to earn my company’s business.

Except as described in this article, Microsoft does not test or support Microsoft software running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. For Microsoft customers who do not have a Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft will require that the issue to be reproduced independently from the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software. Where the issue is confirmed to be unrelated to the non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software, Microsoft will support its software in a manner that is consistent with support provided when that software is not running together with non-Microsoft hardware virtualization software.

Two hours later, we’re still arguing with Microsoft about why they won’t support us. From my perspective, the company doesn’t want people using VMWare because they offer a competitive product (which I’m not interested in). Practically speaking, when Microsoft pretends that problems are caused by using VMWare when they are not, they are doing themselves a great disservice - offering me an incentive to spend time searching for alternative solutions to Microsoft’s entire line of products. Arrogance in customer service policy making never benefits the company making the policies.

Microsoft’s technicians did a very poor job of explaining the policy. We were put on hold multiple times without explanation. We were transferred multiple times and hung up on once. If this is the best Microsoft can do, they are doomed. Moving forward, I’ll be looking for ways to avoid doing business with the company. I’ve been a beta tester and long time supporter, but increasingly, Microsoft is out of touch with the people who keep it solvent. The company has become too bloated with bureaucracy to stay effective. Time for some spin offs.

VMWare’s virtualization product is better and more mature than Microsoft’s offering. And that is why we’ll continue to use it despite Microsoft’s attempts to strongarm us in a different direction.

Related information:

http://www.vmware.com/support/policies/ms_support_statement.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897615

The most important decision the Supreme Court has made in my 37-years has been handed down.

I’d like to tell all the anti-gunners to suck it right about now, but that would be petty. Instead, I’ll just say that I hope Michael Bloomberg drops dead from shock.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The Heller decision is significant, but the battle against the unreasoning fear and ignorance about firearms being purposely spread through our society is just part of a much larger war against self-reliant individuals that is far from over. Eternal vigilance is necessary. The freedom lovers and the doers and those who care not for the mediocrity of the state must continue to ignore the bad laws when necessary and to campaign against the purveyors of collectivist ignorance.

This is one tiny victory in a war that we’ve been losing badly for decades. I’ll be standing by for a full analysis, but the small victory today warms my heart. It’s been pretty cold, politically speaking, for people like me who believe that idiots and not guns are the problem.

Perhaps the most important statement Mike has made on the topic of Iraq is:

One of the main reasons we made so many mistakes in Iraq was that high officials in the Bush Administration were often afraid of the truth and viewed a serious foreign policy question with ideological blinders.  Instead of honestly appraising the facts on the ground, they saw only what they wanted to see.  And instead of encouraging candor and even dissent, they ignored or attacked those who disagreed with them.

How many have died needlessly because of arrogance? It is criminal. Absolutely criminal. And the immense suffering of Iraqis was prolonged and enhanced needlessly because of a few bureaucrats and their immense ignorance and stubborn insistence that they were the only ones who knew what was right for the people who live in the birthplace of civilization.

Mike’s article contains some very important thoughts, and as usual, is honest and well worth the read. Please take the time.

There is no way to know how many American lives were lost in Iraq due to the tortures we inflicted upon Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other places.  This is no argument of moral equivalence.  I have seen the atrocities committed by al Qaeda and other terrorists, and I am not saying that Americans have ever come close to those acts.  New Yorkers saw the atrocities of al Qaeda, as did many others.

Yet, when we tortured detainees, we lost something very important, something that America and its allies need in order to prevail against terrorists, not just in Iraq, but all over the world.  We scarred our honor.

Whatever you think of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I will not judge you for your opinion. What I am interested in doing is making the best of a bad situation. I think that Michael Yon has the same goal. Torture, in any form, is a moral abomination that is not justifiable. Using torture to win is actually losing. Go read the article and see if you don’t agree. The Bush Administration has been wrong from day one on this issue.

I have stopped watching the “news” and listening to my XM Radio in the last month. I just can’t stomach the inanane prattle that passes for coverage of the Presidential campaign. There are no voices on the television or radio that are speaking to me, the disenfranchised freedom lover.

Rather, all the voices saturating the airwaves are belong to shrill sycophants pretending that there are significant differences between the two finalists. And maybe there are. Neither of the two candidates is interested in actual freedom though, and that turns me off. I don’t care what the two bobbleheads have to say anymore because I have a hard time believing anything either one of them says. They both sound about as sincere as a telemarketer to me.

I’m boycotting the mainstream media. I’ve started listening to a podcast called Free Talk Live. Free Talk Live is entertaining, with a lot of pseudo-psycho callers. The show is oriented on talking about free markets and freedom thinking, and I suppose that when you create an environment hawking freedom, you’re bound to attract a lot of people who are marginalized by our current societal acceptance of authoritarianism.

I hope the show continues to find and challenge new listeners to think about whether or not the status quo in the United States is taking this country to places where we want it to go. I think next year I’m going to cancel my XM subscription and put that money into supporting Free Talk Live. I don’t agree with 100% of the show’s positional statements but I am excited about the freedom activisim and think it’s healthy to expose myself to the ideas being exchanged. And I love it when Paula calls in and talks about how she is getting “Washington” to take care of various doomsday problems that she’s discovered.

Mark and Ian broadcast from Keene, New Hampshire, which long term, is the state I plan to move to.

This video is an unfortunately accurate parody. Foul language ahead, but not as foul as what the TSA is doing to indoctrinate Americans into unthinking stupidity and blind subservience. Sure, they aren’t really dancing around and calling you “bitch” at the airport. Try questioning their authority though. Look at one of the petty bureaucrats in a defiant manner. Argue with them. See what happens.

The sad truth of the matter is that our love affair with authoritarianism and unthinking obedience is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Transportation Security Administration is having image problems. Instead of dealing with core issues they have decided they need new uniforms and badges.

Polls find that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is one of the least popular agencies in government, ranking down in the depths of hell with the IRS. Passengers complain about rude treatment, inflexible rules, long lines and seemingly illogical and inconsistent policies. One thing they don’t tend to take issue with, however, is the uniforms. They don’t say things like, “Please make the screeners look more like real police.”

The TSA is comprised of lazy slobs who serve no purpose other than to make every person passing through an airport feel as subservient to bureaucratic whims as is possible. In a place where artibitraty rules are more important than common sense of course there is an atmosphere of barely repressed discontent. I’ve thought more than once about punching a TSA agent right in the mouth and I know I’m not alone.

The new uniforms and badges will only make the situation worse. Until TSA learns that the vast majority of people passing through their queues should be treated like honored guests and friends instead of suspects, the hatred of the organization and its stupidity will continue.

To be fair, I’m sure that many of the employees of the TSA are nice people once you get them out of those dumb uniforms. But many of them are just fat jackasses who enjoy lording it over “regular” people trying to get from point A to point B. The TSA know as much about real security as I know about building a particle accelerator. If the United States had efficient trains like Europe, no one would fly. It just isn’t worth the hassle.

The new uniforms and badges will just waste money, like the TSA in general.

I will be running my first triathlon in August. I am 37-years-old and I figure now is as good a time as any to get started. I am training by running three days a week, biking two, and working out with dumbbells five.

The most unexpected part of the exercise process, for me, is that the more I exercise, the more I want to exercise. I am addicted to the process because it makes me feel good. Not the pain and the effort during, but the feeling of satisfaction I get afterwards.

I am running further and faster now than I was in my teens. I feel as good as I can remember feeling in more than ten years. I want to continue this process! This first event is pretty easy - it consists of a two-mile run, an eight-miles bike event and a 400 meter swim.

I just got done with an eight-mile bike ride on very hilly terrain and I feel a sense of great accomplishment! I burned 600+ calories and didn’t collapse in a fat heap of heart attack.

Future Pundit makes the case that being smart means living longer.

The inequalities in all cause death rates between Americans with less than high school education and college graduates increased rapidly from 1993 to 2001 due to both significant decreases in mortality from all causes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other conditions in the most educated and lack of change or increases among the least educated. For white women, the all cause death rate increased significantly by 3.2 percent per year in the least educated and by 0.7 percent per year in high school graduates. The rate ratio (RR) comparing the least versus most educated increased from 2.9 (95% CI, 2.8–3.1) in 1993 to 4.4 (4.1–4.6) in 2001 among white men, from 2.1 (1.8–2.5) to 3.4 (2.9–3–9) in black men, and from 2.6 (2.4–2.7) to 3.8 (3.6–4.0) in white women.

While there are some differences between intelligence levels and levels of formal education, the two factors usually tend to hold hands and skip to the front of life. Those who cogitate more often and crack the books more often also tend to be more aware of factors that influence mortality and the current treatments and preventative steps available.

Audacious Epigone offers some factors that influence longevity and strongly notes that the dominating factor in long life is IQ. I wonder what 127 gets me?