Posse Incitatus

Irony, P.C. Nonsense and Healthcare

First the irony: Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Ft. Hood gunman, graduated from Virginia Tech, the scene of our nation's worst mass shooting (April 16, 2007 — 32 people dead, many wounded).  Also, Ft. Hood is located in Killeen, Texas, the site of a mass shooting in 1991 at Luby's Cafeteria, in which 23 people were killed and 20 wounded.

Strange how there can sometimes be synchronicity — either for good or for bad.

As for the P.C. nonsense, well, it's more than just nonsense — it's appalling.  Let me explain.  Gen. George Casey, the Army's top officer, said: “Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse."

Come again? Losing out on some diversity is worse than 13 fine Americans getting shot dead by a crazed gunman while serving their country?  This is preposterous.  Saturday Night Live's satire writers will be out of a job pretty soon if this keeps up.

And then there's the case of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who's working hard to ensure there's not an anti-Muslim backlash in the wake of the Ft. Hood shootings.  Perhaps she really ought to be devoting her attention to the internal threats posed by Islamic fundamentalists who wish to do harm to our nation and to Americans.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If Americans desecrated the Grand Mosque, it would be open season on Americans in the Middle East. Scores would be killed.  But despite 9/11 and a slew of other events on American soil involving fundamentalist Muslim perpetrators (the WTC attack in 1993, Ft. Hood, Ft. Dix, the Little Rock Army recruiter, etc.), it is extremely rare to find cases of Americans attacking Muslims simply because of their faith.

We are a tolerant society, usually willing to give the benefit of the doubt to people of other cultures. (Yes, there are exceptions, and granted, our nation has an ugly history of bigotry against blacks, but we've come a long way.)

About 10 miles outside of Detroit, in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, is one of North America's largest settlements of Arab Americans (most are Muslim; some are Christian).  There are no attacks on them or their mosques.  Matter of fact, vandalism of churches and synagogues is far more common.

Enough on Ft. Hood. I also wanted to make a brief statement about a health care comment a reader made the other day.  If our Canadian friend insists the American health care system is so horrible for all who are not rich, I'd like to ask why it is that so many Canadians (many of whom are NOT rich) venture across the border to see American specialists, undergo surgery at American hospitals, or have tests done in American doctors' offices.  Could it be that they don't want to wait for many months in Canada?  Perhaps because they fear they may have an affliction that needs immediate attention?

I also take issue with the notion that health care is a "right." That's a broad, vague statement.  First, it depends on how you define "health care."  Does it include tummy tucks? Contraception? Viagra? Botox? Aroma therapy? Or just the basics? (And reasonable people could disagree on what constitutes "basics.") We'd best define our terms.

I believe all people have the right to get emergency care for serious illnesses and injuries (there's a law in this country that individuals cannot be denied treatment simply because they have no insurance and no ability to pay), and ought to have access to a primary care physician for checkups, routine tests, preventive care, etc. 

But that doesn't mean the whole ball of wax should be free. That is just not practical or feasible.  There are not enough providers around to make that pipe dream come true, nor is there enough money.  Try to make it happen, and you'll have rationing and long waiting lists.

People have got to get over the phony mindset that there's a "free lunch" when it comes to health care.  There is no free lunch.  Health care is a finite resource, and all of us need to foot part of the bill, including helping pay for insurance, paying deductibles, and living with co-pays.

If more people help pay their own way; if the artificially low reimbursement rates of Medicare, which distort the market, were eliminated, the result would be growth in the number of providers.  As it is, fewer and fewer young people want to go into medical school, in part because of the exorbitant cost (they don't want to incur massive student loan debt), but also because they are disillusioned by ham-handed government meddling, low reimbursement rates, burdensome paperwork, sky-high liability premiums, and last, but not least, the taxman, confiscating an ungodly portion of their hard-earned salaries.

Health care is complicated, and there's plenty of room for improvement.  But I utterly reject the notion that we've got to blow up the whole system and shove a 2,000-page Rube Goldberg boondoggle down America's throat.  If the Senate doesn't stop this freight train, the wreckage will be incalculable.

It all comes down to this

This Saturday's game against Purdue is the second-most important game of the season.  The most important was the game against Michigan - not only because it was a rivalry game, but also because that was a pivot point that saved the season.

Of course, the season can yet be lost, but a victory over Purdue makes that much less likely.  Given the state of the Big Ten, beating Purdue pretty much locks MSU into a (admittedly crappy) bowl game.  It knocks Purdue out of contention, and moves MSU up within the conference.

In this respect it is therefore a much bigger deal than beating Penn State.  Obviously, I'd like to win both games.  But this week is more consequential.  (Of course, if MSU had beaten Notre Dame, Iowa and CMU, we'd be 8-2 and already have picked out our floral shirts for the trip to someplace warm, but I digress).

Meanwhile, Michigan's woes continue.  Their athletic director apparently likes to shove university security around when asked for identification, but in the best interests of the school, there's no need to actually file charges.

With games against Wisconsin and Ohio State looming, the highly-paid coach of the 5-5 Skunk Bears has got to feeling the heat.

It is worth noting that his lucrative salary figures don't include the $2.5 million the University of Michigan is paying to cover his buyout from West Virginia.  That's a lot of money to shell out for a guy whose accomplishments to date have mostly centered on setting records for losses - both in quantity and quality.

The next two weeks will be crucial for both programs. 

Stand Up and Be Counted

As I write (10 p.m. EST), we are perhaps only an hour away from a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the colossus known as Obamacare, aka Pelosicare.  This 2,000-page bill represents a massive expansion of government power, intrusiveness, and spending.  It may well be, as the Wall Street Journal called it, "The Worst Bill Ever."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to garner the support of several dozen pro-life Democrats by permitting language prohibiting use of federal funds to pay for abortion.  However, this same concession might cost the Democrats support of some of their more ardent pro-choice members.  We shall see.

Opposition to the bill is strong, and there appears to be a considerable number of undecided lawmakers who, in my guesstimation, are more likely to end up as "no" votes.  But I could be wrong.

The outcome is likely to be close, and if this Rube Goldberg monstrosity does pass, at least we have the consolation of knowing the Senate will not fall in line.  Whatever the Senate comes up with, it will certainly be more reasonable and less destructive, thus ensuring that a conference committee compromise would tone down some of the extremism and overreach in the House bill.

Let's see what happens, and we'll take it from there.

Random Thoughts

I started a blog on Fort Hood Thursday night, but was frustrated by how much we DON'T know about the circumstances leading to Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's shooting spree Thursday.  So I held off.  Then this afternoon, we got word of another nut job with a gun, this one a disgruntled ex-employee of an Orlando architectural-engineering firm who had been fired in 2007 for poor performance.

Frankly, I'm just going to throw out some random thoughts this evening, or food for thought, as it were:

-- Will the mainstream media focus on Maj. Hasan's past allegations that fellow soldiers picked on him because he was a muslim?  Will CNN and the New York Times and Time and Newsweek play up stress, or mental illness, while ignoring Hasan's frequent rantings against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?

-- Will they blame Hasan's upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, where he might have had to kill fellow muslims, rather than blame Hasan himself?

-- Will CAIR and left wing loons become hysterical with fears that the Ft. Hood shootings will trigger an outbreak of violence by Americans against muslim and/or Arab Americans?  After 9/11, the media hyped the fear that bigots would lash out against muslims/Arabs, but in reality it did not happen.

-- Will anyone in the lamestream media remind their readers and viewers of the Ft. Dix, New Jersey incident in 2007? That's when five muslim immigrants planned to enter the fort under disguise and kill as many soldiers as possible. How about Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, who is charged with killing an Army recruiter in LIttle Rock, Ark., last summer?  Federal prosecutors have also charged two North Carolina muslim men for allegedly conspiring to kill personnel at the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico. 

-- Is it true Hasan had posted comments on jihad websites that dealt with suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism?  How is it possible that the military or FBI or Homeland Security didn't know about this?

Muslim fanatics are still plotting to commit acts of terrorism against American citizens, and probably will continue to do so indefinitely. If Time and Newsweek and the New York Times insist on spinning B.S. about stress and anger precipitated by U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern wars, rather than assign the blame where it belongs and acknowleding fundamentalist muslims' hatred of the United States, their circulation figures and ratings will remain in freefall.  People aren't stupid, after all.

As for the loser in Orlando who drove to the business where he used to work and tried to kill ex-coworkers, it seems to me that family members and friends must have observed alarming behavior in recent months before he went over the edge.  Troubled people usually give off telltale signs.  Did family members attempt an intervention? Did they urge him to seek professional help?  I don't know. It's possible they did, but he wouldn't listen.

What'll you bet this Orlando incident leads to another round of gun control stories and anti-Second Amendment propaganda?

Ours is a troubled world.

Fort Hood

Awful news out of Fort Hood.  As is usual in these situations, there are literally dozens of conflicting versions - one shooter, three shooters, policemen killed, etc.  Until the facts are made known, there can be no analysis, thus the Posse will refrain from clueless speculation.

Our prayers go out to the families of the victims.

The subversive genius of V

The H1N1 flu has swept through the ranch, which is made it somewhat difficult for the Posse to keep up on blogging duties.

So it was that I didn't get to watch "V" until tonight.

It has been a long time since I enjoyed network tv, but this show looks promising.  It is also remarkably subversive: the Visitors are all about savvy media, and they way the play the network dude was quite amusing - and given how the Obama administration is beating up on FOX, the parallel was striking. 

And they offer free universal health care!

No doubt I'm reading too much into it, but it was still fun to watch.

I expect the show will go downhill because that's what good shows do.  Those that don't get cancelled (see Firefly).  Still, for a while at least I'll be watching.