Free up health care market

My column for the West Band Daily News is online.  It’s called, “Free up health care market.”  Here’s a little bit:

When health care decisions are made in the free market, all of the other normal market forces are brought to bear.

   For example, while the naive among us might like to believe that all of the remarkable new drugs and medical devices that keep us alive and improve our quality of life are created by altruistic nerds working at minimum wage in some laboratory, the fact is that they, like the rest of us, are motivated by the profit motive. These remarkable scientists and physicians earn a good living because the companies for which they work reap the profits off of their intellectual product. If there wasn’t any money to be made, the scientists and doctors would be out of work and the health care businesses would be in another line of work.

   Much as the socialists among us like to sneer at the profit motive, history proves that there has never been a more powerful and productive engine to the betterment of mankind.

Slow Learner

The whole Obama/Gates fiasco continues to fascinate me and illuminate my own ignorance on race relations in America.  But let me back up… 

My family dates well back into 17th century America.  As far as Americans go, we’re relatively old.  The last real immigrant in our family was well over a century ago and… well… he was an odd ball   At the same time, I am a child of the South.  My parents are Texans and whenever I lived in America, it was below the Mason-Dixon line (until I moved to Wisconsin).  I’m proud of my family and my heritage. 

My childhood days were spent in Riyadh.  My friends were British, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Saudi, Greek, and whatnot.  I never knew a distinction in race and my parents never instilled in me a bias - favorably or unfavorably - on the basis of race or religion.  My school was international and my upbringing was beige. 

Then, when I was eleven, we moved back to America.  I was immersed in a culture that I didn’t really understand.  There was racial animosity that I couldn’t understand or appreciate.  Years later, I understand the legacy of it better, but still don’t buy into it.  I hold no animosity for the ills perpetrated on my ancestors and can’t conceive those who blame me for the travesties committed by my ancestors.  We are people.  Individuals.  I take people as individuals and hope people take me as an individual.  I truly can’t fathom those who look at other people as a member of a race, class, etc. and transpose an entire persona on them based on that.  It just seems moronic. 

So… here I am… educated by history, but oblivious to the emotions of America’s racial/racist past.  It’s a curse and a blessing.  Perhaps I’m “post-racial,” but that assumes that I was, at some point, racial. 

Back to the genesis of this post… In evaluating the Gates/Obama mess, Gates was a jerk, Obama spouted off with worn and inaccurate racial rhetoric, and it would be best if we have serious discussions regarding race relations instead of obsessing about the bloviations of a couple of goofs.

Favorable Loans

It’s good to be the king(s).

Despite their denials, influential Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd were told from the start they were getting VIP mortgage discounts from one of the nation’s largest lenders, the official who handled their loans has told Congress in secret testimony.

Both senators have said that at the time the mortgages were being written they didn’t know they were getting unique deals from Countrywide Financial Corp., the company that went on to lose billions of dollars on home loans to credit-strapped borrowers. Dodd still maintains he got no preferential treatment.

Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad’s two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for a beach house in Delaware and an eight-unit apartment building in Bismarck in his home state of North Dakota.

Cows on Grass

As some of you might know, I like my steaks.  I like big, bloody, juicy, yummy, if-you-put-steak-sauce-on-it-you’re-a-moron, steaks.  Yum. 

One of the things I have noticed since moving to Wisconsin is that the beef is corn fed.  There is a very distinct difference in texture and taste between a corn fed cow and a grass fed cow.  Now, I grew up on grass fed cows, so I’m a bit partial, but for any true steak lover, I’d highly recommend eating a cow that was raised on grass.  That’s why I’m delighted to see stories like this:

Now, I raise 100 percent grass-fed beef and pastured pork. I have 150 head of Black Angus cattle and 100 pigs. I also raise 100 lambs per year, 2,500 free-range chickens for meat, 300 egg-laying chickens and 200 turkeys, which are sold mostly for Thanksgiving. I also have ostriches and bison, which are sold for the meat.

It’s my goal to teach consumers how to eat safe and healthy foods. This means food raised without hormones, antibiotics or chemicals, which is how I raise my livestock. I raise the livestock cage-free and without inhumane treatment.

Cows were meant to eat grass in the field, not stand on concrete eating corn.

And for the record - to stick my neck all the way out there on a controversial subject - there is no better cut of steak than the porterhouse. 

The tenderloin comes in a close second, but it’s not really a steak… more of a roast. 

Anyone else hungry?

W.O.W Expanding

Great!

Beer wholesaler W.O.W. Distributing Co. plans to expand its Sussex facility, a move that will add 25 jobs.

Michael Vick Conditionally Reinstated to NFL

Do you have a problem with this?

Michael Vick was reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday and could play in regular season games as early as October.

Vick can immediately participate in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and can play in the final two preseason games — if he can find a team that will sign him. A number of teams have already said they would not.

I don’t.  While I understand the argument that NFL players are role models, it’s a bit idiotic to allow the rapists, wife beaters, murderers, child abusers, drug addicts, alcoholics, and other thugs to play and forbid a guy who served his time for dog fighting.

Obama Administration Disses Russia

Obama gives Russia a taste of the back of his hand. 

“The relationship between the United States and China will shape the 21st century, which makes it as important as any bilateral relationship in the world,” Obama said.

and...

An interview U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gave to an American newspaper was front-page news Monday in Moscow, where his characterization of Russia as a weakened nation hit a raw nerve.

Biden said Russia’s economic difficulties are likely to make the Kremlin more willing to cooperate with the United States on a range of national security issues.

“I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold,” he said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal published Saturday.

Biden’s comments appeared to catch the Kremlin by surprise, coming less than three weeks after President Barack Obama said on a visit to Moscow that the U.S. wants to see a “strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia.”

Russia is not going to react well… This is not going to help in getting their support in Iran/Georgia/Poland/etc.

Union Asks Doyle to Intervene

This is interesting.

The International Association of Machinists has asked Gov. Jim Doyle to take an active part in any negotiations with Mercury Marine Inc. to keep the engine manufacturer from closing its Fond du Lac factory.

Mercury recently said it is considering moving its Fond du Lac operations to Stillwater, Okla., a move that would eliminate as many as 2,000 local jobs.

IAM members in Fond du Lac recently ratified a four-year contract with Mercury that included a provision permitting the contract to be modified in the event of extreme circumstances.

Proposals received from the company last week, according to the union, would eliminate nearly all the terms in the current contract.

Now, the machinists are asking for Doyle to become involved.

I don’t know the terms of the contract, so I can’t speak to that.  I do think it’s interesting that the union is asking Doyle to come in on their behalf.  If Doyle accepts the invitation, it is automatically putting him in an adversarial stance with the company.  That won’t put him in a good situation if he is also trying to woo the company to stay. 

Still… it says something about out current culture when workers appeal to government when they don’t like the terms of a private contract that they have yet to ratify.

Wisconsin’s Industrial Space Vacancy Rate is Up

Not good. 

The industrial space vacancy rate in southeast Wisconsin (including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Kenosha, Walworth and Washington counties) rose from 7.1 percent in the first quarter to 7.9 percent in the second quarter, according to the second quarter southeastern Wisconsin industrial report from Milwaukee-based real estate brokerage The Dickman Company Inc.

The region’s industrial had a negative net absorption of 479,306 square feet of space, according to the report.

The industrial space vacancy rate in Milwaukee County rose from 9.0 percent in the first quarter to 9.9 percent in the second quarter, with a second quarter negative net absorption of 691,000 square feet of space, according to the report.

Waukesha County fared far better. Although its industrial space vacancy rate rose from 5.1 percent in the first quarter to 5.3 percent in the second quarter, the county had a positive absorption of 636,051 square feet of industrial space.

Idiot

Note: this is not how a responsible gun owner behaves. 

Misspellings Corrected

A Madison company has paid to fix a highway sign south of Wausau with three misspellings.

The word “business” and the names “Rothschild” and “Schofield” were misspelled on the sign along I-39.  The word “exit” was the only word spelled correctly.

WSAW-TV reported that Decker Supply Company, the Madison company which made the sign, fixed the errors at its own expense over the weekend.  The sign had been installed by a separate company.

Doggie Butt Rap

Since I’m embarrassing myself today with “three words”...

Three words: Doggie Butt Rap. 

Trailer Choir-Rockin The Beer Gut

Fuzz Martin played this yesterday morning and it had me laughing my a$$ off.

Deliberation

Zing.

“Most of us believe that the decision as to major reform of how Americans get their health care in this country deserves at least as much time and deliberation as it would take to select a puppy to live in the White House,” he said. “It took the president six months to decide how long and which puppy he was going to have. ... To expect Congress to do something on major health care reform in six days is totally irresponsible.”

Whale Found On Bow of Cruise Ship

That’s not good. 

A rare whale was discovered wedged on to the bow of a cruise ship when it docked in a Canadian port.

The 70ft fin whale, a threatened species in Canada, was found when the Sapphire Princess docked at the Port of Vancouver, the cruise company said.

It said it had “strict whale avoidance” measures and it was unclear where, when or how the whale became stuck.

Tourists looked on as the dead whale was examined by fisheries department staff.