How Government Killed the Medical Profession

How Government Killed the Medical Profession | Cato Institute:
"Doctors Going Galt? 
...It has certainly affected my plans.
Starting in 2012, I cut back on my general surgery practice.
...While I had originally planned to practice at least another 12 to 14 years, I am now heading for an exit—and a career change—in the next four years.
I didn’t sign up for the kind of medical profession that awaits me a few years from now.
Many of my generational peers in medicine have made similar arrangements, taken early retirement, or quit practice and gone to work for hospitals or as consultants to insurance companies.
Some of my colleagues who practice primary care are starting cash-only “concierge” medical practices, in which they accept no Medicare, Medicaid, or any private insurance...
Medicine in the Future
In the not-too-distant future, a small but healthy market will arise for cash-only, personalized, private care.
For those who can afford it, there will always be competitive, market-driven clinics, hospitals, surgicenters, and other arrangements—including “medical tourism,” whereby health care packages are offered at competitive rates in overseas medical centers.
Similar healthy markets already exist in areas such as Lasik eye surgery and cosmetic procedures. The medical profession will survive and even thrive in these small private niches.
In other words, we’re about to experience the two-tiered system that already exists in most parts of the world that provide “universal coverage.” 
Those who have the financial means will still be able to get prompt, courteous, personalized, state-of-the-art health care from providers who consider themselves professionals.
But the majority can expect long lines, mediocre and impersonal care from shift-working providers, subtle but definite rationing, and slowly deteriorating outcomes.
We already see this in Canada, where cash-only clinics are beginning to spring up, and the United Kingdom, where a small but healthy private system exists side-by-side with the National Health Service, providing high-end, fee-for-service, private health care, with little or no waiting.
Ayn Rand’s philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged describes a dystopian near-future America.
One of its characters is Dr. Thomas Hendricks, a prominent and innovative neurosurgeon who one day just disappears.
He could no longer be a part of a medical system that denied him autonomy and dignity.
Dr. Hendricks’ warning deserves repeating:
“Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. 
Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. 
It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it—and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.”"

Listen to Allen West’s Blunt Response After Liberal Radio Host Claims It Was the ‘Guns’ That Killed 9-Year-Old in Ferguson | Video | TheBlaze.com

Listen to Allen West’s Blunt Response After Liberal Radio Host Claims It Was the ‘Guns’ That Killed 9-Year-Old in Ferguson | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"West continued, “As a matter of fact, there would not be the thousands of people who have lost their lives — or even in Baltimore you would not have an epidemic of shootings there, where you have some of the most restrictive gun laws.”

The former Florida congressman went on to say that Democrats are not willing to “face the facts” when it comes to the multitude of issues at play in the inner city — particularly their own purported role in creating the dynamic.

“Their failed policies within the black community, within the urban centers that are causing the breakdown of the family, that are causing the lack of education opportunities,” he said."

More Minimum-Wage Backfires

More Minimum-Wage Backfires - WSJ:
"The campaign for higher minimum wages continues to inflict damage on business employees and owners.
About the only ones not feeling the pain are the labor unions that back this movement. 
Meanwhile, in a growing number of U.S. jurisdictions, unions are succeeding in exempting themselves from the laws they seek to impose on everyone else.
Wal-Mart announced last week that second quarter operating income was down 10% compared to the same period last year, even as revenue was slightly higher.
Wal-Mart, a non-union shop under relentless media pressure to boost compensation, increased its minimum starting wage to $9 per hour in April, $1.75 above the federal minimum.
This amounted to a raise for more than 500,000 workers. The company says it is a worthwhile investment that is creating a better, happier workforce and a better customer experience.
But—minimum-wage activists, take note—increased compensation costs cannot simply be passed along to consumers at the whim of the company.
In conference calls with securities analysts and reporters, company officials made clear that wage hikes are among the factors exerting a negative impact on Wal-Mart’s profits.
Asked if the company would look to automation to offset the effect of higher wages, CFO Charles Holley reiterated that the company views the wage hikes as valuable investments and “exactly the right thing to do” but also noted that Wal-Mart “will always look for more efficiencies in our stores and in our supply chain and in our costs.”
Sounds like Wal-Mart workers should be as concerned as McDonald’s and Wendy’s employees about being minimum-waged out of a job.
But don’t expect pity from the leaders of organized labor, who are busy making sure they don’t have to play by the rules they’re demanding for everyone else. 
Cities including Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco and San Jose have exempted union contracts from laws mandating higher minimum wages.
Union chiefs say the laws unduly limit their flexibility to negotiate labor contracts, which are governed by federal law.
And perhaps they don’t care what the wage is so long as they can collect dues.
Or maybe they want the ability to give higher wages to longtime union members while dictating lower pay for new members.
Flexibility on wages could also be a useful tool to persuade management to accept a unionized workforce, with a demand for higher pay coming later.
But why shouldn’t workers who choose not to join a union enjoy the same freedom?
Too many of our media brethren continue to portray mandated wage hikes as a gift to workers, but it’s increasingly clear that such laws threaten the jobs of unskilled workers in order to benefit a special interest."

Hillary Server Trouble-Seven Years of Planning

Hillary Server Trouble | A.F. Branco | Conservative Cartoons
Branco Cartoon – Seven Years of Planning

Meet the Humvee’s replacement: Oshkosh’s L-ATV

Meet the Humvee’s replacement: Oshkosh’s L-ATV | Ars Technica:
"There may soon be a whole lot of used Humvees on the market—or in the scrapyard.
The US Army has picked its replacement for the aging vehicle originally designed as a Cold War replacement for the Jeep—and it comes from Wisconsin.
Eventually, the Army and Marine Corps could buy nearly 55,000 of the vehicles over the next 25 years, spending over $30 billion.

Fox: Clinton Aide Sent Hillary Classified Info | The Daily Caller

Fox: Clinton Aide Sent Hillary Classified Info | The Daily Caller:

"Fox News chief intel correspondent Catherine Herridge revealed that “email from aide Huma Abedin to Mrs. Clinton that kickstarted the FBI probe contained classified information from three intelligence agencies: the DIA, the NSA and the NGA.”

Those three agencies are the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency."

Yes, the bad guys won. Again-----How to Destroy a City in Five Minutes

How to Destroy a City in Five Minutes | World Affairs Journal:
"You don’t need a weapon of mass destruction to ruin a city.
Well, maybe sometimes you do.
You’re not getting rid of New York City without one.
But some of the world’s cities are so vulnerable, so precariously perched above an abyss, that a single bloodthirsty nutjob with a rifle can bring it to its knees in a matter of minutes.
Look at Tunisia’s resort city of Sousse on the Mediterranean. 
Two months ago, an ISIS-inspired nutcase named Seifeddine Rezgui strolled up the beach with a Kalashnikov in his hand and murdered 38 people, most of them tourists from Britain.
The police shot him, of course.
There was never going to be any other ending than that one.
And before the police arrived, local Tunisians formed a protective human shield around Rezgui’s would-be foreign victims.
“Kill us! Kill us, not these people!” shouted Mohamed Amine.
According to survivor John Yeoman, hotel staff members charged the gunman and said, “We won’t let you through.
You’ll have to go through us.”
Tunisia’s hospitality and customer service are deservedly legendary, but that was truly above and beyond.
It’s how Tunisia rolls, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.
Tourists are not going back.
A few still wander around here and there, but the locals are calling them ghosts.
Who else lives in a ghost town but ghosts?
Hotels are laying off workers.
Shops are empty and many will have to be closed.
The city is reeling with feelings of guilt and anxiety.
Guilt because one of their own murdered guests, the gravest possible offense against the ancient Arab code of hospitality, and anxiety because—what now?
How will the city survive? 
How will all the laid-off workers earn a living with their industry on its back? 
Sousse without tourists is like Hollywood without movies and Detroit without automobile manufacturing.
Even Tunisia’s agriculture economy is crashing. 
Prices are down by 35 percent because the resorts don’t need to feed tourists anymore.
Rezgui’s ghoulish attack was spectacularly successful, wasn’t it?
A single act of violence and—boom.
Just like that, it’s all over."

Trainwreck: The Rapid Silver Line leads to falling ridership, rising deficits

Trainwreck: The Rapid Silver Line leads to falling ridership, rising deficits | ITP Watch:
It’s been nearly a year since the $40 million Rapid Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line opened for business, so we thought it would be a good time to check up on how things are going.

The Fantasy: Promotional video from The Rapid showing the Silver Line causing economic development

In short, it’s a disaster:

• Since the Silver Line entered service, The Rapid has been losing ridership
• The Rapid is now losing millions operating the Silver Line
• No new economic development has been caused by the Silver Line

We review each of these items in this article.

Since the Silver Line entered service, ridership has declined

Wait, what? You thought ridership was increasing? One wouldn’t know it by reading The Rapid’s public proclamations. In fact, during the first few weeks of the Silver Line’s operation in August of 2014, The Rapid released statistics purportedly showing that ridership was increasing on both Bus Route 1, which largely overlaps the Silver Line’s route, and on the Silver Line itself. When one looks at the full picture, however, we see that riders mostly shifted from DASH service, the GRCC shuttle, and Route 1 to use the Silver Line. 

For instance, in September of 2014 the Silver Line had just under 60,000 riders. In the same month, the ridership on Route 1 dropped by 22,000 riders from September of 2013. The GRCC shuttle similarly dropped by 31,000 riders, and DASH South and West ridership dropped by over 5,000.

This is exactly what we expected and pointed out our position in a Crain’s Detroit article in May of last year. Since the Silver Line route added nothing new to The Rapid’s services, we didn’t expect much of anything to happen. And that’s exactly what happened. Nothing.

Even evidence that ridership is simply shifting from other routes to the Silver Line doesn’t tell the whole story. When The Rapid applied for funding from the federal government to cover the $40 million cost of constructing new permanent bus stops and purchasing buses, the system represented that the Silver Line would carry 7,200 average weekday riders and would attract 1,300 new daily riders to the system — all in its first year of operation. The trouble is that The Rapid’s overall ridership has declined, particularly in the last several months.

To the right is a graph showing the year over year ridership change at The Rapid. In just the first five months of this year, The Rapid’s overall ridership has declined by over 3%, with the most recent four months showing an average decline of 6% year over year. (All data are from the National Transit Database.)

In the most recent month where the data are available, the Silver Line’s ridership was approximately 3,000 per day, far from the 7,200 promised — and since The Rapid’s ridership is down overall, the number of new riders is in negative territory.

All this adds up to the fact that the Silver Line hasn’t added any new ridership to the system, meaning that $40 million was spent for nothing at all..."

School sends girl home with baffling letter banning her Wonder Woman lunch box

School sends girl home with baffling letter banning her Wonder Woman lunch box. | School | Someecards:
"In today's America, schools exist to teach children that life is a series of arbitrary rules handed down by a panel of incompetent adults who literally have no clue what living on planet Earth is like. 
It has been so since time immemorial, but somehow gets worse and worse every year.
Sometimes, the problem is dress codes, like this girl who got sent home because her collarbone was "too distracting."
Actually, the problem is often the dress code.
Or it's sex ed.
Or it's school lunches (also a recurring problem), or attendance for kids with cancer.
It's been a while, in fact, since we've had a good old-fashioned outrage moment about a zero-tolerance policy towards violence that goes way below zero into the realm of imaginary violence.
That's what happened in the case of this letter that was sent home from school with the daughter of Daniel and Sarah:
"Dear Daniel and Sarah, we noticed that Laura has a Wonder Woman lunchbox that features a super hero image. 
In keeping with the dress code of the school, we must ask that she not bring this to school. 
The dress code we have established requests that the children not bring violent images into the building in any fashion — on their clothing (including shoes and socks), backpacks and lunchboxes. 
We have defined "violent characters" as those who solve problems using violence. Super heroes certainly fall into that category. 
Please refer to the dress code section of the School Handbook. Your cooperation with our dress code will be appreciated."

Birthright Citizenship Is a Magnet for Illegal Immigrants, and It Has Real Economic Costs | National Review Online

Birthright Citizenship Is a Magnet for Illegal Immigrants, and It Has Real Economic Costs | National Review Online:

"According to Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) legal policy analyst Jon Feere, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security in April, between 350,000 and 400,000 children are born annually to an illegal-alien mother residing in the United States — as many as one in ten births nationwide. As of 2010, four out of five children of illegal aliens residing in the U.S. were born here — some 4 million kids."

Marathon Pundit: Detroit: $1 million US Customs center only being used to store equipment for politically connected catering firm

Marathon Pundit: Detroit: $1 million US Customs center only being used to store equipment for politically connected catering firm:
A top-of-the line $1 millions customs facility on the Detroit River sits unused.
From the Detroit News:
Two years after completion, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have never used the 4,000 square feet of offices, holding cells and labs built for the agency inside the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority Public Dock and Terminal at Atwater and Bates.
The facility includes a floor designed so that Customs could process cruise ship passengers.
The agency says the facility doesn't meet standards; port authority officials say they can't afford $170,000 computer and camera upgrades to make it suitable.
So the waterfront offices, next to the Renaissance Center, are crammed with chairs, linens, tables and signs owned by a catering company that hosts weddings and corporate events on the second floor of the building.
And what about those cruise ships?
More...
One cruise ship has stopped once in Detroit in the past two years, though, and the terminal is used mostly by Continental Services and Catering, a Troy-based company with deep ties to the Democratic Party.
The events held at the facility aren't church-basement style budget affairs.
Catered wedding receptions start at $18,500 at this taxpayer paid-for building. 
As you will see below--the customs cash sinkhole is only the tip of the cruise ship iceberg.
Related post:
$22 million in taxpayer funds flushed away on Detroit cruise ship" lurehttp://marathonpundit.blogspot.com/2015/08/22-million-in-taxpayer-funds-flushed.html

History for August 27

History for August 27 - On-This-Day.com
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770, Hannibal Hamlin 1809 - 15th Vice President of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln, first Republican Vice President, Theodore Dreiser 1871 - Novelist, journalist 


Charles Rolls 1877 - Motoring and aviation pioneer, co-founder of Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) 1908 - 36th President of the United States, Ira Levin 1929 - Writer ("Rosemary's Baby," "The Stepford Wives")


1789 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly. 


1859 - The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, PA. 


1889 - Charles G. Conn received a patent for the metal clarinet. 


1894 - The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. The provision within for a graduated income tax was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. 


1921 - The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL) 


1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 countries in Paris. Later, 47 other nations would sign the pact. 


1981 - Work began on recovering a safe from the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was a luxury liner that had sank in 1956 in the waters off of Massachusetts. 


1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. 


1996 - California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants. 


1999 - The final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons. 

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://www.libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2015/08/deception-and-distraction-by-tammy.html

Deception and Distraction

By Tammy Derouin

Have we truly become a nation of blind followers?  We are creating tyranny out of liberty and enslavement out of freedom.  Recent history provides a very good example of what can happen when the wrong man, party and philosophy are voted into office.  Because the masses refused to remove their blinders, they were manipulated.  When it becomes easier to believe lies rather than to search out the truth, a people, a nation willingly became dependent and the enslavement begins.

Tools of the tyrannical trade include limiting information, taking over the media, removing guns and weapons from the people, blaming others for your problems, taking over the educational system, indoctrinating the youth, creating chaos, taking advantage of the chaos so the people will rise up and beg for help.  Enter the tyrant.

History provides us with a very good example of what can happen if certain signs are ignored.  Because such a dark and destructive time took place during the modern era, we actually have books, pictures and films of the evidence.  Right now, such crimes against a nation, a people, and the world are still available.

American schools once taught the horrific effects of ignoring the signs of tyranny.  If government infiltrates the educational system, government will remove or reconstruct history to advance their political agenda.  This never ends well... 

Ben Carson Just Dropped A Bombshell About Black People That Everyone Needs To See

Ben Carson Just Dropped A Bombshell About Black People That Everyone Needs To See:

“Maybe I am not objective when it comes to Planned Parenthood, but you know, I know who Margaret Sanger is and I know that she believed in eugenics, and one of the reasons you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find a way to control that population,” Carson said. “I think people should go back and read about Margaret Sanger who founded this place – a woman Hillary Clinton by the way says that she admires. Look and see what many people in Nazi Germany said about her.”

Carson said that amid all the emotion on abortion and Planned Parenthood, Americans should investigate the organization and its history for themselves."

Budget deficit smallest of Obama presidency, but economy still sluggish: CBO

Budget deficit smallest of Obama presidency, but economy still sluggish: CBO - Washington Times
The economy is sluggish but growing and inflation remains low, painting a decidedly mixed picture for the federal government, the Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday, saying the fiscal situation is improving this year but will snap back by 2018 to swelling deficits and unsustainable debt.
The inflation rate is so low that Social Security beneficiaries probably won’t get a cost-of-living raise after this year, the CBO said.
But tax revenue is up and spending has stayed pat, which is helping reduce the pool of red ink in the federal budget.
Combined, those numbers mean the government will run a deficit of $426 billion in fiscal year 2015, down about $60 billion from 2014 and marking the smallest deficit of President Obama’s tenure.

WARNING: Obama Admin Exposed in Shocking International Gun Control Plot... They Meet TODAY

WARNING: Obama Admin Exposed in Shocking International Gun Control Plot... They Meet TODAY:

"When Barack Obama cannot bypass either Congress or the U.S. Constitution, there’s one place that’s his go-to for extra-constitutional action: the United Nations.

Obama administration officials plan to attend the Aug. 24 conference of signatories to the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty in Mexico City, in spite of the fact that the United States is not a member of the ATT."

Liberal madness!!!-----Muskegon investing in middle income housing

Muskegon investing in middle income housing:
"MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) – Leaders in Muskegon say they are putting their money where their mouth is.
Tuesday night, the city commission agreed to buy nine vacant lots at the corner of Fifth Street and Houston Avenue.
They plan to build and sell some new middle-income homes on the land.
Commissioners say they are getting into the home building business because private builders aren't willing to risk putting up houses on vacant city lots.
"They seem to think that building in cornfields makes a little more financial sense," explained Muskegon city manager Frank Peterson.
 "But we don't have time for them to come along and agree with us that Muskegon is a good place to build. 
What we would like to do is prove to them it's a good place to build and let them come in on their own after we have blazed a trail for them."
The city set aside $1 million for what they call their "market rate housing initiative." 
They agreed to pay $45,000 to get all nine lots at Fifth & Houston.
The hope to sell the houses for between $135,000 and $175,000.
..."I have no doubt there is demand for market-rate housing in near downtown neighborhoods," said Muskegon Mayor Stephen Gawron. 
"We are going to show them.""

Read the Scathing Open-Letter Charlie Daniels Just Penned to Congress Over Iran Deal: ‘Pathetic Excuses for Public Servants’ | TheBlaze.com

Read the Scathing Open-Letter Charlie Daniels Just Penned to Congress Over Iran Deal: ‘Pathetic Excuses for Public Servants’ | TheBlaze.com:

"Famed country musician Charlie Daniels posted a blistering open-letter to Congress on his band’s Facebook page Monday, blasting the legislative body for what he said was a lack of courage to “face down” an “out of control” president.

“The courageous politicians that once championed this nation have been replaced, for the most part, by a breed of milksop, politically correct, scared of their own shadow, pushover, pathetic excuses for public servants who are supposed to be representing a constituency of citizens who have to live with the circumstances of their timid folly,” Daniels wrote on the official Facebook page of The Charlie Daniels Band."

Focus on Anchor Babies Misses Broader Immigration Problems

Focus on Anchor Babies Misses Broader Immigration Problems | Economics21:
"The United States and Canada are the only two industrialized countries that confer automatic citizenship on babies born within the countries’ borders, even if their parents are not citizens. 
In the United States, this is a constitutional right.
The Fourteenth Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States …”
...One answer is to go back to the basic immigration plans agreed upon by the congressional leaders in 2007 and 2013.  
This would allow undocumented workers without criminal convictions to pay a fine, receive a special visa allowing them to work legally, and place them in line for a green card behind existing applicants.
This approach did not pass because members from both parties objected. 
Some Democrats said it was too tough because recipients of the new visas would not be able to receive welfare payments for five years and family preferences for future immigration were restricted.
Some Republicans thought it was too easy, equivalent to "amnesty," a code word for opposition to immigrants, because it opened a path for undocumented workers to stay here legally—and did not fully address security problems at the Mexican border..."