Sunday Musings 12/29/13

And a Happy New Year to you.  I am going to try and shut this down for a week.

The New York Times summarized an exhaustive inquiry into the tragedy in Benghazi.  It was really too much for me to read.  Link to Article   But it has some great lines that summarize the difficulties of the U.S.A. pursuing the Neo-Con dream of the US military making the world look like the U.S. politically.

"It shows the risks of expecting American aid in a time of desperation to buy durable loyalty, and the difficulty of discerning friends from allies of convenience in a culture shaped by decades of anti-western sentiment."

On to why everyone needs Health Insurance

Milliman, an actuarial firm, tried to do a study of health care costs for the uninsured under age 65.  They found that even with the uninsured paying 30% more on average in billing than what the insurance companies pay (what an outrage that is), 50% of that population will pay $2,700 and less in any given year.  50% will obviously pay more and 5% will pay more than $47,300.  The upper limit is not defined.  I have never had a house burn, but I know I have hundreds of thousands of dollars of value in my home, so I have homeowners insurance.  I know that eventually I will need health care and I  know that I cannot predict when that will be.  That is why I purchase health insurance.  So I don't have to face the prospect of choosing between death and bankruptcy.  That is the point of insurance and why every individual needs health insurance, just as states require every driver to have car insurance.

The Power of Freedom and the Draw of a Capitalist Society

I recently saw Twelves Years a Slave, the true story of a free African male with a family in Saratoga, NY who made the mistake of traveling to Washington D.C. in 1841, where he was abducted and sold into slavery with no rights whatsoever, and only his innate intelligence to help him survive and eventually figure out a way to regain his freedom through then limited legal means available.

Today, reading the book reviews, I noticed a novel about "a runaway slave in pre-Civil War South" and another story about "a Revolutionary War veteran and his slave, put to work as a breeding stock."  These merged into my brain the lengths people will go escape miserable situations for a shot at working as a free person in a safe environment.  They will take exceptional risks because the upside is so much better than their existence or what will happen to them if they fail.

My initial thought was just how wrong these idiots on and the viewers of the reality show Duck Dynasty are in their idealizing their flawed memory of life in Jim Crow America.  But it is just Television, and eliminating flawed thinking in rural America is a very long term task that is beyond any one individual or cause.  I know, because my father had some views that I can only describe as worthy of both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.  With my education, I could get him to acknowledge that he might be wrong, but it didn't change his views about Big Business. RIP Dad.

But where I really want to go with this is Immigration.  People are drawn to the U.S. because they want economic freedom and to be safe from corruption in all its forms.  People who are brave enough to get here by any means possible are not terrorists, they are the foundation on which the economy of this country is built.  They take minimum wage jobs, they perform horrendous tasks, and they want a better life for their children.  That is the commonality between runaway slaves and central americans who have walked across the Rio Grande.  The terrorists all flew into the US and overstayed their visas.  They were too soft to risk death coming across the desert. Sh*t, I am too soft to do that.  Thank goodness I was born here.

If there is anything I think the Republican Party believes in it is their origins as an anti-slavery party that believes in freedom for all individuals and respects every human life that resides in this country. There may have been laws non abided by, but no one was harmed by that violation, and now we need a plan for how these 11 mm undocumented workers are going to be brought into the system.  We cant' send them back because (i) it will shrink the labor force by 3% leading to a recession we cannot afford; (ii)  we probably cannot find them all; (iii) deportation is neither humane nor within the thinking of Judeo-Christian thought about kindness to others; and (iv) it is hardly pro-family to send the working father back from where he came while the rest of the family are U.S. citizens.

No one (Except those on Medicare) would every have kept the health insurance they had

The New Republic has a nice piece on the hubbub going on in certain circles of L.A. who's future health insurance will not cover stuff (except on a special needs basis) at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.  Never mind that other hospitals do a lot as well and even better than Cedars-Sinai and will be in the future health insurance network.  Reputation does not equal quality of care.

I now quote from Jonathan Cohn's article on the reality of all this.  This stuff was going to happen even without Obamacare.

"Even before Obamacare, employers and insurers were already moving in the direction of limiting networks and penalizing costly hospitals like Cedars.  Both the University of California and the City of Los Angeles aggressively limited provider networks affecting thousands of people without any reaction by the media or politicians.  Now, as more of this occurs, it is possible that Obamacare accelerated it, but it is also likely Obamacare gave the insurers the cover needed to do what they wanted to do to try and control costs."

"The only way to avoid this market driven attack on costs is to have the government do the job instead.  In other words, you need a single payer plan in which all hospitals accept everyone's insurance.   But that conversation never got past the phrase "government run medicine", and Americans chose to place their faith in market forces.  The insurers have adapted and so have the hospitals.  Now it is the consumer's turn, and that means relinquishing the idea that cachet always equals quality."

What irks me is not these changes, but that the GOP in their desire to destroy President Obama disown their own ideas on how to use the market place to control health care costs.  How are they ever going to implement this same stuff if they don't accept Obamacare as the starting place?

December Movie Reviews (V)

Stay tuned to this posting as I will update it as we see more this holiday season and I will change the Roman Numeral as I add to the list.

American Hustle:  A Great Story, well acted, good pace and lots of eye candy.  This is the best movie of the XMAS releases that I have seen.

Dallas Buyers Club:  A little late, we caught up with this November release and enjoyed it a great deal. A true story about mid-1980's AID's patients in Dallas trying to figure out what medicines will keep them alive, it is an uplifting story of individual growth and perseverance with great acting and a lot of eye candy along the way.

Wolf of Wall Street:  It is too long.  It was entertaining but not worthy of any rewards as it is not well edited.  You get the point, but they keep delivering it.  The eye candy here is off-the-charts.  At 3 hours, you either have to really want to see the movie and have nothing better to do with your time, or wait until you can stream it and get off the couch to refresh your beverage (maybe eat dinner too while you watch it).

Saving Mr. Banks:  No eye candy here except for some brief scenes with Rachel Griffiths.  And when I checked out the real story of how Mr. Disney got Ms. Travers to sign off on the movie rights to Mary Poppins,  I found the movie took a lot of literary license with family history.  Somehow pneumonia became raging alcoholism.  And this movie is a bit long as well coming in at 2:45 with all the previews.  I did shed a few tears watching it, so despite my criticism, I am glad that I went and was entertained while wondering what was going to happen in the past.

HER:  If you like personality revelation and growth in your movies, this is the one for you.  Add in some comedy and a sultry voice from a computer and you have the movie.  It is well done and entertaining.

Sole Survivor:  I read the book and know from the previews this one will be too tough for me to watch.  A true story about Navy Seals battling the Taliban, the title removes all suspense and all you are left with is the process.  Some reviews have called it the best military movie since Saving Private Ryan.

Philomena:  The true story of the discovery of Irish Nuns selling the illegitimate children of young pregnant girls who came into the Nuns care.  Judi Densch does a superb job with all the emotional variations of her character as she searches for her son.

So if you would like the summary:  American Hustle was the best (but Gravity is still my choice for best picture of the year),  then Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, her, Saving Mr. Banks and Wolf of Wall Street.  I'm not going to Sole Survivor so I cannot rank it.

Twelves Years a Slave:  While not really an XMAS movie in NYC, it may be elsewhere.  This is a must see movie if you want to understand the meanness and abuses of slavery, and see in the personal story of someone wronged by slavery the absolute wrongness in any modern absolution of its perpetrators back then.  It is also a totally engrossing movie during which you will never look at your watch.  It is right behind Gravity as my best movie of the year.



As for the news today, we find that the GOP Senators are starting to try and build some GOP support for package of modifications to Heritage Foundation/Romney/Obamacare now that some 6,000,000 people who did not have health insurance under the old system will have health insurance on 1/1/14.

And what do these ideas contain?  Well, Surprise, they want to keep the no exclusion of pre-existing conditions and the Health Care Insurance Exchanges.  They want to add less expensive catastrophic options and modify malpractice insurance (no objections here on that).  And Paul Ryan wants to end employer provided health insurance and replace it with tax credits for individuals to buy health insurance on the exchanges.  (I support this, but it doesn't mean you can keep your health insurance if you like it, as almost every person with employer provided health insurance wants to keep it.)  And the Ryan plan would not require everybody to have health insurance, but everyone would be enrolled and have to opt out.  That all seems quite close to Obamacare making me wonder what all the fuss has been about.

This Joke is not getting enough hits. You will laugh.

I copied this from a comment to an article on safest driving states.  Vermont was the safest despite having a higher than average level of drunk driving arrests.

Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer see's a car puttering along at 22 MPH.

He thinks to himself, "This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!"So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.

Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies, two in the front seat and three in the back, wide eyed and white as ghosts.

The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?"

"Ma'am," the officer replies, "You weren't speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers."

"Slower than the speed limit? No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly twenty-two miles an hour!" the old woman says a bit proudly.

The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that "22" was the route number, not the speed limit.

A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.

"But before I let you go, Ma'am, I have to ask... Is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven't muttered a single peep this whole time," the officer asks.

"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute officer. We just got off Route 142."

Sunday 12/22 Musings: Health Care Needs Serious Debate

Among other things.

Today is the shortest day of the year for sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere;  and for anyone whose personality swings around with the amount of sunlight in a day like my wife, the world is a better place for the next 270 days.

NY Sports teams are all hung up on the strategy of paying big bucks to older stars in the hope they all have near career years and bring a championship.  It's not working.  These basketball teams are unwatchable and boring.

In the Who Knew Category:  Only the Northeast calls sneakers, sneakers,  they are Tennis shows everywhere else.  And it is mainly the Northeast and mid-atlantic that call Tractor-trailers, tractor-trailers.  They are Semi's or 18 Wheelers elsewhere.  And garage sales are Yard Sales or tag sales in a lot of places.

RedStateVT commented yesterday that a family of 4 in New Hampshire, who make $100,000 a year, and will buy health insurance for $12,000 a year (plus co-pays/deductibles) were suffering because of Obamacare and would somehow have been better off under the old system.  I know RedStateVT's preferred management of this is to buy a $25,000 deductible for a relatively small amount of monthly premium.  And I also know RedStateVT has a family of 4 and the 1st or 2nd year on that plan, he met the $25,000 deductible.  How would that family in New Hampshire come up with that $25,000 plus other payments when they are complaining about $12,000. The answer in both cases is only with a great deal of pain and cutting back in the rest of their budget.

The real issue that all the hysterics about "Repeal" Obamacare obfuscate is that the old Fee for Service System generated a system where Healthcare represents 20% of GDP.  The European Single Payer plans are in the low teens.  But unless Republicans agree that a single payer plan is the solution it isn't going to happen.  Why, because the Health Care industry spends $500 million every year lobbying Congress to preserve the private sector involvement in the Heath Care industry.  I agree there are real reasons why that should be the case in many aspects of health care, but it also means we are not making progress on controlling this 20% of GDP, which some forecast will be 25% of GDP over the next 25 years as the Baby Boomers exit this world.

The GOP didn't even allow Medicare to negotiate bulk purchases of drugs when Pharmaceuticals were added to Medicare in Part D during the Bush II years.  That is the penultimate example of following the money.

For the system to work financially, the average person needs to pay 20% of their income for Health Insurance today or be subsidized by everyone else.  In addition, the cost of annual healthcare use/insurance for a couple over 50 is about $10,000 to $15,000 (without anything extraordinary).  You need to budget for that and, if you make too little, you need help.

Why can't we go back to the old system?  The old system created the problem.  Fee for Service and a belief that the government should not be involved created 50 mm uninsured using the system only too late and in too expensive a manner that the system passes on to the insured.  It also resulted in people who lose their jobs and have pre-existing conditions being unable to get insurance.  It also resulted in people who got sick losing their insurance upon renewal because they hit a lifetime cap or couldn't afford the repricing.  It resulted in a system where by a 77 year old Medicare patient gets surgery on both ankles for arthritis and the system pays $200,000 in NY and $40,000 in NH.

So, let's not pretend that repealing Obamacare is a good long term solution to the issue of controlling health care costs.  Obamacare contains incentives to pay for care, to bundle pay for fixing problems, and to try and undo the creativity in using fee for service to compensate hospitals enough to cover the uninsured.  In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the COBRA legislation that passed in a bi-partisan manner, and included "Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act:  Wikipedia notes:  "Congress passed EMTALA to combat the practice of "patient dumping," i.e., refusal to treat people because of inability to pay or insufficient insurance, or transferring or discharging emergency patients on the basis of high anticipated diagnosis and treatment costs."

The law has been criticized as an unfunded mandate, but the hospitals found a way to get the insurance system to cover the costs which raises the costs to the insured.  And undoing the requirement either leaves people dying in gutters (which is what was happening before) and violating nearly 2400 years of Western morality.  Hippocrates wrote the Hippocratic oath late in the 5th Century BC.  Do the GOP really want to undo that in the United States?  I don't think so as there is not an ounce of compassion in advocating that.

The Hippocratic Oath essentially makes the providing of healthcare a national utility that needs to be paid for.  Everyone uses health care almost every year and multiple times over a lifetime.  You cannot predict when you will need care.  I nearly died in 1993 (age 40) and would have without health insurance because being that cheap I wouldn't have gone to the Dr's with the regularity I did and would certainly have waited longer to go to the hospital then happened because of the Dr's orders.

Despite the example of Heritage Foundation/Romney/Obamacare working well in Massachusetts, on a national level implementation is a much rockier path but it is difficult to discern who is upset for valid reasons of fairness and who is simply upset because they were being subsidized by the old system and that subsidy is now going elsewhere.  (Follow the money)  I am assuming the website issues will be fixed, although I note as a full payer shopper for an individual policy, both Aetna and Anthem told me to apply directly and not through the NY website, which is supposedly working well.

I have gone on too long.  I wish the GOP would focus on getting things into law that would help control healthcare costs, such as:  Medical Malpractice Reform (or even General Tort Reform), allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk purchases of drugs, and separate access to health insurance from employment.  I admit I cannot imagine how we would transition from Private Sector Health Insurance to a single payer plan when (a) it would create a labor transition for tens of thousands of people, and (b) Medicare through the Advantage Plans (which my wife selected) is using the Private Sector Health Insurance so how does undoing that work.  This could all be done, but politicians would have to be serious about negotiation and compromise instead of "Repeal Obamacare."

The World is a Complicated Place (again)

David Brooks on Israel's need to find a solution to its demographic realities while maintaining security.

Link to David Brook's wonderful analysis


This piece by Uwe Reinhardt really does a good job of summarizing the basis of how reality shapes the health care debate.  What the GOP really wants is death panel's or lack of insurance rationing the availability of health care for the poor so that Medicaid costs are controlled.  or would Sarah Palin/Grover Norquist actually provide the revenues to pay for such care?

An Economist Explains the Health Care Debate

Tom Egan on what motivates the GOP to reduce the social safety net.

Current GOP would have been right at Home in mid-19th century England

And last a commentary on the values of austerity economics vs. traditional Keynesian/Friedman counter cyclical economics.  Remember in the latter you run a budget surplus when the economy is doing well to pay down the debt you built up in the recession.  Something the GOP forgot during the last 30 years when they were in power.

Why Keynes/Friedman are correct

And last a word from the Tea Party.  Contrast the lack of facts and economic policy basis in this presentation vs the other posts.

Jenny Beth Martin States the Tea Party Way or No Way

More Proof that Stupidity is Widespread

Or perhaps it is delusion.

38% of the US population believes Obama is more responsible for the Great Recession than Bush II.

Thankfully, 50% recognize and remember that the Great Recession started in 2008 before Obama was elected President.

1 in 200 Women Say They've Had a Virgin Pregnancy

I don't know who conducts these polls.  I don't know why I feel compelled to click on them.  And I certainly hope these delusion women in denial don't vote because they clearly don't have an ounce of intelligence.

The pollsters also managed to find a few virgin fathers which they said was harder to wrap their heads around and I hope they don't vote either.

Of course, maybe I am the fool for reading this sh*t and believing they actually conducted a poll of real people.  Who knows what to believe on the internet.

But Yahoo did publish it, and they fact check.  or don't they?

Fighting Poverty is Complicated

And the complete and utter focus on partisan politics does not allow for thoughtful debate.

The article I link to below does a good job of discussing the issue without presenting any recommendations for policy, which is OK, because it is a complex problem and there is no single silver bullet that will eliminate poverty.  There can only be a safety net of some design that does not remove the incentive to work, requires an effort to find work, and does not permanently reward procreation by welfare mothers while helping families with children.

As the article points out, no war on poverty can be a success unless it is really all about forming an environment that encourages the economy to create self-sustaining private sector employment.  That requires education (Link to "Why Students Do Better Overseas") and a public sector that is financially stable.  All you have to do is look at countries that are not financially stable to see how that sends poverty going in the wrong direction:  Argentina, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Venezuela.

The one thing that the article discusses, where I and RedStateVT will agree, is the issue of should the definition of poverty be a certain minimum basic quality of life or one tied to the median standard of living in the whole country.  I believe society has only the obligation to help maintain a minimum level of housing, food, clothing and health with incentives to find work.  There is no necessity to support more life style that can be afforded by those who have work.  This is why I support changing the Social Security Inflation measure from the measure that it is (a factor of wages including higher productivity) to one that is only a measure of price changes.  This will fix something like 20% of the long term Social Security funding gap, and I do not understand why this is so controversial to the AARP.

Anyway, poverty is a complex topic and one in need of constant review at the policy level to end things that are not working, continue things that are working and try new things that may work.

As for our current situation, I think a Depression era federal work program aimed at infrastructure and using unemployed construction workers would be what we need to drive the unemployment rate to a normal level and then we can work on balancing the budget and normalizing monetary policy.

Link to Article on poverty

One State in America

When this state implemented "Common Core" standards, those rated proficient in Reading dropped from 76% to 48%; in Math from 73% to 40%.  Some father of one of the no longer proficient sued the governor stating "that the standards were adopted without sufficient knowledge or understanding of the costs."  You think the problem might be insufficient intelligence to raise the grades or a lack of preparation by the schools to actually teach?  The problem is not the standards.

Meanwhile, this state has more smokers and are more likely to die of cancer than residents of any other state.  17.5% under 65 lack health insurance.  And Obamacare will transfer an estimated $15 bn to this state to pay for health care subsidies for the 308,000 eligible for Medicaid and another 276,000 eligible for subsidies.

This state loves the Tea Party and has 2 GOP Senators.  Yet, the state has a Democratic Governor who has implemented Obamacare (only Washington state has a larger proportion of people trying to participate in the ACA) and the Common Core and is selling the benefits to people who hate everything about President Obama.  The voters seem to be grasping that Health Insurance is good to have and schools need standards to work towards so students can compete in the global economy.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Kentucky and nominate its Governor Beshear to run for President in 2016.  Nothing will be more important in that election than a spirited defense of the good in Obamacare, aka The ACA.

Josh Barro Quote

I have no idea who Josh is but I found this observation to be true.

"Conservatives favor the same set of economic policies when the economy is weak and when it is strong; when unemployment is high and when it is low; when few homeowners are facing foreclosure and when many are.  The implication is that conservatives believe there is nothing in particular the government should do about economic cycles.  This is a big problem.  Recessions are terrible.  They create enormous misery by throwing people out of work and out of their homes.  How can a political ideology have nothing to say about how to address recessions?"

The current GOP economic policy basis seems to ignore both John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, both of whom would have supported and advocated exactly what was done in late 2008 and since then.  And they both would said it was a failure to regulate that put us there.  The government has a role to play in creating a flexible economic policy and systemic regulation to prevent excesses that can cause a recession/depression/high inflation.

Rhetoric Does Have Consequences

Democrats like to think that they have a shot at winning the War on the Poor.  They do, but only because it is unseemly to have the elderly dying in the street and poor children starving leading to increased levels of crime.

The other side of this is that, since the success of the Reagan Presidency and the necessity for Clinton to move to the center and promote welfare reform, the incessant drum beat of conservatives over the last 13 years that the poor just need to work harder so they can pay taxes after getting the jobs that tax cuts motivate (trickle down economics) has had a consequence with American voters.  There is belief held by some that there is waste in the system and the social safety net is an incentive to not seek work.

It is by no means clear to me which way this will turn out as I do believe there is substantial support for and intent by Republican Politicians to further reduce the Social Safety Net in all respects.  And I do not believe this topic alone will drive many votes from the GOP to the Democrats.

This dense column, written by a Reagan economic advisor, illustrates the truth based on hard facts and notes the President of the American Enterprise Institute (a conservative think tank) stating that “The social safety net is one of the greatest achievements in our society, and we have to fight for it.”

The Conservative attacks on the Safety Net are making progress

Along similar lines, today I read a piece that suggests that most of the people who hate Washington, and hate Congress, are still prone to support the party that they lean towards.  What this means, since the self-described haters are many more Republicans than they are Independents or Democrats, is that they are still likely to support the GOP Congresspeople who have shut down the government and prevented Government from working.  Thus, an extended period of gridlock without coherent policy is all too likely.

GOP Health Care Policy is in ObamaCare

And it is precisely the things that the GOP has promoted as good paths to controlling health care costs that they are attacking in ObamaCare now:  Higher deductibles, limiting insurance to in-network services to control costs and divorcing health insurance from employment.

Link to Just How Much Hypocrisy the GOP Has in their Anti-ObamaCare Rants


And we just got our new ACA compliant Group Health Insurance details here at work.  My cost is going down 7% to $485 per month for one 60 year old male, my deductible is going from $5,000 to $3,000, but I will have no out-of-network coverage.   That sure beats the $1,500 per month I paid in the individual market before I got this job before ObamaCare.

Follow the $ Again

This is one very good reason why the Democrats should find a way to work with the GOP on making the government smaller.

In 1971 there were 175 Registered Lobbying firms.  In 2009, there were 13,700.  They aren't there to advocate making the government smaller.  And they are not there to look out for the interests of a sustainable social safety net or efficient and fair fiscal policy.  They are there to carve up expenditures and tax policy in favor of their represented interest who is paying them a lot of money to do that.

I am sure that this is one cause of gridlock and Tea Party frustration with the system.

A discussion on various paths for the U.S. in Syria last night revealed to me the total cost of the war in Iraq, which was completely deficit financed raising the government debt that the GOP complains about:  $4 trillion.  I would trade off entitlement reforms for revenue increases that pay back that $4 trillion.  The GOP, at some point, needs to acknowledge that they approved the borrowing of funds for the War on Terror and raise the revenues necessary to repay that debt.

Why Does the Federal Gov't have any agencies encouraging Business Formation?

George Will does have a point in general, although I note that Export Finance is one of those functions, and that is an area where it is necessary to compete with other countries who have a national export finance agency.

Link to George Will


And I note that I suddenly have a or some readers in Malaysia, one of my favorite countries to visit and invest in.  If any of you know where in NYC I can get some Roti Canai, please let me know in the comments.  I am sorry Anwar Ibraham, who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1997 (he would not remember me), has not been able to surmount the hurdles placed in front of him to rise to the top politically.  I think he would be a good leader.

The Poor and Government Policy

One of the benefits of growing up in a rural area as the grandson of farmers is that I had exposure to lower income workers.  My parents worked for their paycheck and we were a layoff away from dramatically reduced life style.  But at the same time, I think the 1990's welfare reform was a big improvement on what we had before.  So, I have been ambivalent about extended unemployment knowing that there is welfare beyond the cessation of unemployment insurance.

This is why I believe that the GOP needs to improve their presentations if Charles Blow's review of their policy proposals is not accurate.  Unfortunately, at this time, I believe his presentation is accurate and I recommend a read of it.  It is especially accurate that the rich and middle class love to take advantage of tax deductions and any tax related/subsidy/government purchase cash flow they can find while arguing to reduce payments to help the poor.  Rest assured, if we are to balance the budget, there are a lot more $ flowing to rich and middle class than there is supporting the poor.  See the following link.

The Poor are not simply reliant on government handouts

And more complete and utter bullsh*t from the web that google enticed me into clicking on

This after I read an article on how the EU says  Aspartame is safe.  I know, every intelligent person already knows a lot of stuff on the web cannot believed, but the web is also where the uninformed go to find information on stuff they don't know.  This is how falsehoods become substantiated widely held beliefs and supports NIMBY'ism and other sources of frustration for me. Aspartame Side Effects There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption. It seems surreal, but true. How can one chemical create such chaos? Aspartame dissolves into solution and can therefore travel throughout the body and deposit within any tissue. The body digests aspartame unlike saccharin, which does not break down within humans. The multitude of aspartame side effects are indicative to your genetic individuality and physical weaknesses. It is important to put two and two together, nonetheless, and identify which side effects aspartame is creating within you. Aspartame Side Effects The components of aspartame can lead to a number of health problems, as you have read. Side effects can occur gradually, can be immediate, or can be acute reactions.

Aspartame Information: Aspartame Side Effects Aspartame Case Histories Artifical Sweeteners Phenylalanine Phenylketonuria Message Board Forum: Think you are having an aspartame reaction? Join Dr. Hull's aspartame message board forum and communicate with others! Ask Dr Hull Forum

According to Lendon Smith, M.D. there is an enormous population suffering from side effects associated with aspartame, yet have no idea why drugs, supplements and herbs don’t relieve their symptoms. Then, there are users who don’t ‘appear’ to suffer immediate reactions at all. Even these individuals are susceptible to the long-term damage caused by excitatory amino acids, phenylalanine, methanol, and DKP.

Adverse reactions and side effects of aspartame include:

Eye
blindness in one or both eyes
decreased vision and/or other eye problems such as: blurring, bright flashes, squiggly lines, tunnel vision, decreased night vision
pain in one or both eyes
decreased tears
trouble with contact lenses
bulging eyes

Ear
tinnitus - ringing or buzzing sound
severe intolerance of noise
marked hearing impairment

Neurologic
epileptic seizures
headaches, migraines and (some severe)
dizziness, unsteadiness, both
confusion, memory loss, both
severe drowsiness and sleepiness
paresthesia or numbness of the limbs
severe slurring of speech
severe hyperactivity and restless legs
atypical facial pain
severe tremors

Psychological/Psychiatric
severe depression
irritability
aggression
anxiety
personality changes
insomnia
phobias

Chest
palpitations, tachycardia
shortness of breath
recent high blood pressure

Gastrointestinal
nausea
diarrhea, sometimes with blood in stools
abdominal pain
pain when swallowing

Skin and Allergies
itching without a rash
lip and mouth reactions
hives
aggravated respiratory allergies such as asthma

Endocrine and Metabolic
loss of control of diabetes
menstrual changes
marked thinning or loss of hair
marked weight loss
gradual weight gain
aggravated low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
severe PMS

Other
frequency of voiding and burning during urination
excessive thirst, fluid retention, leg swelling, and bloating
increased susceptibility to infection

Additional Symptoms of Aspartame Toxicity include the most critical symptoms of all
death
irreversible brain damage
birth defects, including mental retardation
peptic ulcers
aspartame addiction and increased craving for sweets
hyperactivity in children
severe depression
aggressive behavior
suicidal tendencies

Aspartame may trigger, mimic, or cause the following illnesses:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Epstein-Barr
Post-Polio Syndrome
Lyme Disease
Grave’s Disease
Meniere’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease
ALS
Epilepsy
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
EMS
Hypothyroidism
Mercury sensitivity from Amalgam fillings
Fibromyalgia
Lupus
non-Hodgkins
Lymphoma
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)

These are not allergies or sensitivities, but diseases and disease syndromes. Aspartame poisoning is commonly misdiagnosed because aspartame symptoms mock textbook ‘disease’ symptoms, such as Grave’s Disease.

Aspartame changes the ratio of amino acids in the blood, blocking or lowering the levels of serotonin, tyrosine, dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline. Therefore, it is typical that aspartame symptoms cannot be detected in lab tests and on x-rays. Textbook disorders and diseases may actually be a toxic load as a result of aspartame poisoning.

Ever gone to the doctor with real, physical symptoms, but he/she can’t find the cause? Well, it’s probably your diet, your environment, or both.

Aspartame is the common denominator for over 92 different health symptoms at the root of modern disease. The Aspartame Detoxification Program demonstrates the most effective way to reverse disease symptoms is removing the underlying cause - aspartame.

I counsel aspartame victims worldwide and have witnessed nine out of 10 clients restore their health by following the Aspartame Detoxification Program. Begin with detoxifying your body of all residual chemical toxins from aspartame's chemical make up of phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol and their toxic by-products, and see if any adverse health symptoms remain. Try the Aspartame Detoxification Program, and within 30 days your symptoms should disappear.

Steps:

1. Remove all sugar-free products with aspartame from your diet.
2. Learn to 'read' your body. Begin recording any health changes.
3. Get a hair analysis.
4. Be happy with yourself.
5. Detoxify.
6. Restore depleted nutrients.
7. Exercise and get plenty of rest.
8. Eat 75% raw foods at every meal.
9. Drink water, water, water.
10. Get control of your life.

I designed this Ten Step Program to help protect your health and the health of those you love from being seduced by the sugar-free diet craze. Wishing you good health.

Newsmax.com is Garbage

I subscribe to this email producer to give me an eye on what is going on in Conservative discussions, but I have to admit this may well be a waste of time.

I quote this morning's complete garbage email which is complete and utter b*llsh*t!!!   I wonder if Warren Buffet and Eric Schmidt know they are being cited in this crap.

"Dear Reader,

There's a story developing now that may scare you.

A true threat to the Fed's, actually a true threat to every central bank's, cartel-like control over your financial security has risen up.

Steve Hanke was a Senior Economic Adviser to President Reagan.

He's calling this phenomenon "a competitive threat to all currencies."

He's right. 36 U.S. cities across 20 states have now abandoned our dollar. But that's not the only currency in danger. People are abandoning the Euro, the Pound, Yen... you name it.

Warren Buffett has warned that we should "fear paper money."

But it's not just paper money. In China they're actually abandoning their gold. So no money is sacred now.

The head of Google, Eric Schmidt, recently held a secret meeting in a remote cottage in the English countryside to discuss what's happening... and what's about to unfold. He revealed this story is "changing society."

Unfortunately, the mainstream media is keeping the American people in the dark about this. That's why we did our own investigation.

Now, this is controversial and it's not for everyone. But, you have to see our findings before it's too late. Click here to continue...

Regards,

"

Something the GOP Understands, but Democrats Do Not

Why Hyper Active Partisan Politics will continue

Car hits deer, airborne deer hits jogger

A good reason to run indoors or at least a ways away from a road.


Link to Article

Sunday Musings 12/8/13

I don't know about you, but I heard absolutely nothing yesterday about Pearl Harbor remembrances.  I am sure there was something in Honolulu, but it just shows that as the people who were alive at the time pass on, the anniversary importance fades.

The annual review of the year in books was in the NYT today.  I always enjoy looking at this issue to see how many I read, what I might like to add to my reading list and just enjoy learning from the little descriptions about things in books I will not read.  The thing today that stuck me today is there are still a lot of books published.  Many may only be read on a tablet, but I assume a sufficient number of copies are being sold for the business of book publishing to continue for the foreseeable future.  That is a relief.

It is also a relief to see my old neighbor in VT on the best seller list again with his collaboration series with Clive Cussler.  Go Jack Go.  I enjoy these books and will download Mirage today.

Thomas Friedman today discusses the need for the U.Ss\. to improve its education.  I have not been particularly concerned about this, but then again, I sent my son to private schools where he got a 1st rate education and learned how to think creatively in an independent manner.  I will put a link into why Friedman is concerned and he has convinced me that we need to motivate improvement across the board if the U.S. is to improve as a society.

His key political points are: (i) It requires a systemic response;   (ii) Democrats who protect teacher unions and fail to address growth in entitlement spending will force reductions in education spending that are harming our future; and (iii) Republicans who block investments in early education and immigration reform are harming our future.

The country needs a labor force that is globally competitive in order to create growth and good jobs.  "Just redividing a slow-growing pie will not sustain the American dream."  Education is the only path to success on that front for the middle and lower class.

Link to Friedman column

And Ross Douthat discusses whether young people will buy health insurance at higher premiums than before because they are required to by law.  The column is really the best argument I have seen from a conservative for universal health insurance through a single payer plan.  He did not intend that, but that is what he published.

Every young person becomes an older person and if they do not, they use the medical system or die suddenly in an accident.  The old system tried to incorporate the young into the medical insurance system by lowering prices for the young; that the insurance company could afford for the young because they did not insure anyone with pre-existing medical conditions in the individual market.

But someday, a certain percentage of those young will have pre-existing conditions and want heath insurance.  No young (or middle age or old) person knows today what their exact future will be.  But everyone needs medical care at some point and insurance helps keep the cost of that medical care affordable.  The point of all insurance is to spread the cost around so that if something happens, you have coverage.  I have had life and disability insurance because it was the prudent thing to do for my family.  I haven't  put in a claim, but I do not regret the expenditure.

So, everyone should participate in the health insurance scheme, just like every drive of a car needs car insurance. It was a Republican idea to do it the way it is done in Heritage FoundationRomenyObamacare.  If that does not work because young people do not sign up, it is a sign that a single payer health insurance for all plan is the only viable alternative to spreading the cost of health care around 100% of society.

Thank you Ross.

Link To Ross Douthat column

George Will is not letting up

Containment is better than war.


Link to George Will Column

Disagreement Between Kentucky Politicians

This is from some real journalists.

WASHINGTON -- It was just Wednesday night that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) railed against the Affordable Care Act, calling it a "catastrophic failure" for people everywhere.

"This is beyond fixing. It needs to be pulled out root and branch and we need to start over," McConnell said during an interview on Fox's "On The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "It's been a catastrophe for health care and for the economy at large."

But the governor of McConnell's home state came to Capitol Hill on Thursday with a vastly different message: the health care law is working, and people in Kentucky can't get enough of it.

"I have a U.S. senator who keeps saying Kentuckians don't want this. Well, the facts don't prove that out," Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) told reporters.

Beshear said more than 550,000 people have visited the state's Obamacare enrollment website since it launched on Oct. 1. More than 180,000 have called into the health care call center and about 69,000 people have signed up, or about 1,000 Kentuckians per day. Of those who have signed up, he said, 41 percent are under the age of 35.

"There is a tremendous pent-up demand in Kentucky for affordable health care," Beshear said. "People are hungry for it."

The governor also boasted of the law's economic benefits to the state. Over the next eight years, he said, it will generate $15 billion for Kentucky's economy and create 17,000 new jobs.

George Will Agrees With Obama on Iran Strategy

Will the GOP dismiss him as a RINO?  What is better?  War or Containment!


Link to George Will Column

A New Year's Resolution on December 3rd.

I vow to spend no more than 10% of my non-work time thinking or discussing politics.  This will be easier when I am no longer an Emerging Market's investor as of 1/31/14 and when I have an Obamacare individual health insurance policy at a reasonable cost for the 5 years to go until I reach Medicare.

See David Brook's column for inspiration.

Link to David Brooks


Of course, I had to read further in the paper and discover that conservatives groups are suing the government for any number of issues  in regards to the ACA.  I don't understand why they want to disable the one thing that has been done to make this country a fairer place to live by insuring every citizen has access to affordable health insurance while trying to contain the cost of health care which has reached 20% of GDP.  And these conservative groups do not say what they would replace the ACA with.  What we used to have is a disaster if it were to return.