| Monday
May 16, 2011 Health
care
Hi Jerry,
You'd stated:
"The analogy to automobile insurance seems to be
overlooked."
Actually I think that's exactly the right analogy. A
State (not the Federal Government) can mandate insurance coverage, but only
for liability (to protect other people from accidents you cause). Even a
state can't force someone to purchase collision or comprehensive insurance,
which covers your own losses. I reject out of hand the idea that anyone is
entitled to healthcare that they haven't paid for. We may choose to provide
immediate life-saving efforts, but if you've chosen to not purchase
insurance, once you're stable, you're out.
Cheers,
Doug
P.S. I'm VERY glad Huck dropped out. We don't need the
party to move to the social right any more than it has.
The problem is that rejecting out of hand the
idea that anyone is entitled to healthcare that they haven't paid for is
an exercise in futility. I reject out of hand most entitlements, but
doggone it, they keep being paid, and I keep being taxed for it. I don't
know the solution to the problem, but it is highly unlikely that people
will be allowed to die in the admitting rooms of emergency hospitals.
We may use taxes to do what amounts to buying
(paying for providing) catastrophic healthcare to everyone, and thus we
won't call that "compulsory premiums" although it wouldn't be different if
we did. We then look to see what limits we can put on everything else.
Perhaps we look at medical savings accounts. But the notion that we will
let people opt out for their children and then let the kids die in the
streets is the plot of a science fiction story I don't think I can write.
Leaving the matter to the states is one solution
and one I would favor, but then I favor leaving most problems to the
states. But I do not think you will be able simply to abolish what amounts
to tax paid health care, and if it's tax paid you are buying insurance,
and it's a compulsory purchase. It's just not called insurance premiums,
it's called taxes. And rejecting those out of hand gets eventually a call
from the public officers.
==
On Health Care Costs
Jerry,
In your essay, "A ramble on health care and
candidates", you almost come out and say the dirty little secret. It is
impossible for all to get the health care they would like and will die
earlier than what medicine could provide them. We are only discussing who
gets the short end of the stick; TANSTAAFL.
At the end of all the Sturm and Drang in the health
case argument no matter whether it's the Democratic or Republican solution,
all of the insurance contracts, laws, executive orders, and regulations will
say, "If you are not in one of these protected classes, you are screwed."
The only difference will be the number and types of protected classes.
The fabulously wealthy will be OK, they will set up
boutique hospitals outside the long reach of the government. So we are left
with all who are not fabulously rich which is most everybody else including
me and I assume you.
So the question is what sort of system can be set up
that most people will consider "fair enough?"
A way to cut to the chase in the silly season is to
ask the rhetorical question "Is your life worth the entire wealth of the
United States, including every individual's wealth? If not, then we are
discussing where do we draw the line and how."
It's amazing to see how people try to wiggle out of
the conundrum. It took me about a decade to finally convince my sister, a
nurse, that medicine is a limited quantity and thus subject to the dismal
science.
My hope is that surgery will not be so subject to the
dismal science because of the ultimate development of Niven's "autodocs"
that will come out of "Watson-like" software and autonomous robotics. But it
won't be in my lifetime...
Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE
You raise the key point: what sort of system can
be set up that most people will consider "fair enough"? And who will it
cover? Do legal residents have more coming than illegal immigrants? And so
forth. These are all matters that need far more consideration than they
have been given.
The obvious personal solution is to become one of
the fabulously wealthy, or else be somehow entitled to a first class
organization's services. Now how do we provide that?
The complaint of most physicians about insurance
is the micromanagement by non medical people. That extends often to
government paid programs as well. Some outfits like Kaiser seem to have
managed to insulate most of their medical people from the payment process,
and the result is that most patients have confidence in the system. It
works. But whether something like that can be cloned is questionable; and
often trying to grow successful institutions destroys them.
When health care is a free good the demand rises
without limit.
==========
Jane's Walks.
Hi Jerry.
How Jane Jacobs is now being honored and actively
remembered:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/
jane-jacobs-honoured-in-the-breach/article2013286/page3/
and the Jane's Walks mentioned in the article:
http://www.janeswalk.net/
The idea is to take a walk and observe your own
community, just like Jane Jacobs would have!
Unfortunately, all the walks just took place - I would
have liked to have gone on one. Hopefully next year....
Cheers,
Mike Casey
Sounds like a great thing to do. Jacobs remains
well worth reading. I don't always agree but she makes one think of things
that ought to be thought of.
=============
Jerry,
I thought you might appreciate the delicious irony of
draining the retirement funds of public employees to finance continued
deficit spending. Perhaps this will encourage them to grow a brain.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/
2011/05/16/government-hits-debt-ceiling-
treasury-urges-lawmakers-reach-budget-deal/
Jim C
==
Jerry,
This is unbelievable:
<snip> Geithner, who has already suspended a program
that helps state and local government manage their finances, will begin to
borrow from retirement funds for federal workers. The measure won’t have
an impact on retirees because the Treasury is legally required to
reimburse the program. </snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/
treasury-to-tap-pensions-to-help-fund-government/
2011/05/15/AF2fqK4G_story.html?hpid=z1
So, now all we need to do is make a law and that fixes
everything? They've lost their minds. non compos menti
-------- Most Respectfully, Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
Keep those printing presses working. Maybe we
will have $3 million postage stamps.
============
Global warming, global cooling, or whatever? Just
weather...
<snip>North Dakota's highest recorded temperature is
121 °F (49 °C) at Steele on July 6, 1936 and the lowest recorded temperature
is −60 °F (−51 °C) at Parshall on February 15, 1936. North Dakota is 1 of
only 2 states to record their highest and lowest temperatures in the same
year (the other is Utah in 1985).<snip>
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota
Jim
I am sure there is some underlying process that
can be modeled, if only enough money were spent on hardware and software
ans studies by expensive people. Apply at any major university.
==
David Evans, formerly of the Australian Greenhouse
Office, has become a skeptic.
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/
04/07/climate-models-go-cold/
Fundamentally, yes, CO2 is a greenhouse gas and should
in theory warm the planet, but it is only one variable among many in the
equation. The planet, through a mechanism we don't quite understand, seems
to compensate for the increased CO2. This has been clear since the mid-90s,
when climate science stopped being about science and became about politics
instead. According to our correspondent, at any rate.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
========
Subject: A sign of the times
Jerry, there's a new program on TLC (The Learning
Channel) that says quite a bit about the way things are going in the US:
Extreme Couponing. The program features regular people going to the market
and racking up a bill of several hundred dollars. Then they use their store
loyalty card, coupons, gift certificates and so on to bring the bill down by
anywhere from 80 to 95%. Granted, the show's on a cable channel, not
broadcast, but there still has to be a reasonably large audience for such a
thing to make a profit. Has the economy really gotten so bad that people
find it interesting to sit and watch other people save money on groceries?
Joe
Perhaps we all ought to be watching...
==============
Infected Android apps can hijack your texts
At least 11 Android apps contain malware that
is rigged to automatically send text messages from your Google Android
smartphone to phone numbers in China.
Email this Article <http://www.pheedcontent.com/
hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:301
c2ab14e22b1b01293f49852853d1f:4yKkx
mlOmlyDfUXfHcRBAAjk35SvYqdmJrLHR
h1zTvsNdwXxlJUXhJML7P9rYN6ujzYw8p
u1e8Aoog%3D%3D>
<http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorsel
Click.php?hfmm=v3:8aa45cecc740cab7deafdaef4a
d4d069:ieZ6JKbz3ZozrggrATm1eVeYGnEZwKrWAClo1
LNlqYjupIjpCYdekApwUBpUc6R%2FufSM0
mX2sNa%2FN%2BQ%3D>
<http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=9be92
b26f63f4abacc53359f6ecf581d&p=1>
<http://segment-pixel.invitemedia.com/pixel?
code=News&partnerID=167&key=segment>
<http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-8bUhL
iluj0fAw.gif?labels=pub.29851.rss.News.33683,
cat.News.rss>
<http://amch.questionmarket.com/
adsc/d887846/17/909940/adscout.php>
It's all true and it's all scarey.
=================
Science fiction in action!
Thousands Of XM-25s Headed To The Troops
May 16, 2011: The spectacular success, and popularity,
of the XM-25 grenade launchers in Afghanistan (since late last year, when
five of them were sent to combat troops), has forced the U.S. Army to hustle
and get more of them to the combat zone as soon as possible. Right now, 36
more are being hand-built (as all prototypes were), and these should be
delivered to infantry units by late next year. Meanwhile, mass production
has been ordered, and this will result in over 12,000 of the weapons being
delivered, starting in 2014.
It was obvious that the XM-25 was a success after only
55 of the 25mm rounds were fired in combat. The users protested having to
give them up after the few months of field testing. All this because the
XM-25s work as advertised, firing "smart rounds" that explode over the heads
of Taliban hiding behind rocks or walls, or hiding in a cave or room. Enemy
machine-guns have been quickly knocked out of action and ambushes quickly
disrupted with a few 25mm shells. Encounters that might go on for 15 minutes
or longer, as U.S. troops exchange fire with hidden Taliban, end in minutes
after a few 25mm, computer controlled, rounds were fired.
American infantry love gadgets, and they are extremely
eager to get electronics that help them in combat. The XM-25 is all that,
and the troops want more. In response, the U.S. Army decided to let the
paratroopers keep the five XM-25s, and to speed up plans to produce more.
The word has gotten around in Afghanistan, and every combat unit there is
asking for XM-25s. Although warned to keep operational details off public
Internet forums, XM-25 users are telling stories to other combat troops of a
wonder-weapon that actually works.
All this comes after years of testing and debating
whether the XM-25 was ready for a combat test. Finally, three months ago,
after yet another year of testing and tinkering, the U.S. Army finally sent
five of its high-tech, but long delayed, XM-25 grenade launchers to
Afghanistan. This was supposed to happen in 2008, but testing kept revealing
things that needed to be tweaked. The first troops to get the initial five
XM-25s were paratroopers. It was always the plan that another 36 would
quickly follow if there were no problems with the first five. But now those
36 are being rushed out as quickly as possible.
The years of testing and tweaking, in response to
troop feedback, paid off. Even the current batch of users had suggestions
for improvements, and some of these are being incorporated the next 36 being
built. The mass production model will have still more changes. The troops
also asked for a longer range (700-1000 meters) round, but this would
probably require some major engineering and testing. But such longer ranges
are required in a place like Afghanistan, where there's a lot of open
terrain, surrounded by hills and places for hostile gunmen to fire from. Yet
even with the current model, it's obvious that the XM-25 gives the troops
something they need, and now want. The XM-25 won't win the war by itself,
but it will make life much for precarious for Taliban fighters.
In development since the 1990s, the revolutionary,
XM-25 grenade launcher has gone through several major design <http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20110516.aspx>
changes. It was six years ago that six XM-25s were delivered to the U.S.
Army for troop testing. Two years, a few were sent overseas for testing in
combat situations. While the troops have been very enthusiastic about the
new weapon, there were a lot of suggestions, mostly about minor items. So
the army kept tweaking and refining the weapon.
The XM-25 was originally one of two weapons (the other
being a 5.56mm rifle) incorporated in the 8.2 kg (18 pound) XM-29 OICW
(Objective Individual Combat Weapon). The OICW was originally developed as a
replacement for the 40mm grenade launcher, with the intention of giving the
grenadier some rifle firepower as well. Didn't work out as intended.
The big problem was effectiveness. The older 40mm,
unguided, grenade rounds weigh 540 grams (19 ounces) each, the original 20mm
OICW round weighed half that. This was one of the several major problems
with the OICW. It was too heavy and ungainly, and the 20mm "smart shell" it
fired did not appear capable <http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20110516.aspx>
of effectively putting enemy troops out of action consistently, especially
compared to the 40mm shell it was replacing. So, in August, 2003, it was
decided to take the 5.56mm portion out of the OICW and develop it as a
separate weapon (the XM-8) and develop the grenade launcher part that fired
the "smart shell" as the XM-25. But the XM-25 would now use a 25mm shell,
which would generate 50 percent more fragments (and heavier ones at that)
than the 20mm shell of the OICW.
The 20mm and 25mm "smart shells" both use a computer
controlled fuze. The XM-25 operator can choose one of four different firing
modes via a selector switch on the weapon. The four modes include "Bursting"
(airburst). For this to work, the soldier first finds the target via the
weapons sighting system. The sight includes a laser range finder and the
ability to select and adjust the range shown in the sight picture. For an
air burst, the soldier aims at an enemy position and fires a round. The
shell is optimized to spray incapacitating (wounding or killing) fragments
in a roughly six meter (19 foot) radius from the exploding round. Thus if
enemy troops are seen moving near trees or buildings at a long distance
(over 500 meters), the weapon has a good chance of getting them with one
shot. M-16s are not very accurate at that range, and the enemy troops will
dive for cover as soon as M-16 bullets hit around them. With smart shells,
you get one (or a few) accurate shots and the element of surprise. The smart
shells can be used out to 700 meters, but not as accurately. At those longer
ranges, you can't put a shell through a window, but you can hurt a crowd of
gunmen standing outside the building.
The other modes are "PD" (point detonation, where the
round explodes on contact), PDD (point detonation delay, where the round
detonates immediately after it has gone through a door, window or thin wall)
and "Window", which is used for firing at enemy troops in a trench, behind a
stone wall or inside a room. The round detonates just beyond the aiming
point. For buildings, this would be a window or door frame, cave entrance or
the corner of a building (to get enemy troops thought to be around the
corner.)
The XM25 is still a heavy weapon, with the final
version coming in at 5.5 kg (12 pounds). The 25mm shells weigh over half a
pound each (270 grams). On the plus side, there is already a 25mm armor
piercing round (using a shaped charge capable of penetrating over 50mm of
armor) available. This makes the XM-25 capable of knocking out light armored
vehicles. Then there are the new versions of 25mm round, like fuel-air
explosive (or "thermobaric"). Such a shell would cause greater <http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/articles/20110516.aspx>
blast effect in an enclosed space, and actually suck most of the oxygen out
of a cave or closed room long enough to make surviving troops at least a bit
groggy. This gives the attacking troops an opportunity to rush in and kill
the enemy, or take prisoners. In combat, every little advantage helps. With
the XM-25, hiding behind rocks, trees, walls or in caves will no longer
protect you. There is also a flechette ("shotgun") round. The magazine holds
four rounds, which cost, on average $35 each. The XM-25, with its 4x thermal
sight, costs $25,000.
Meanwhile, a year ago South Korea got its first export
customer for its similar K-11 20mm infantry rifle. The UAE (United Arab
Emirates) ordered 50 of the $14,000 20mm/5.56mm weapon, to try them out. It
was two years ago that South Korea revealed it had developed the K-11, which
appears to be identical in concept of the U.S. Army XM-29 (or OICW). The
South Korean version weighs 6.1 kg (13.4 pounds) and combines a 5.56mm
rifle, with one firing 20mm computer and laser controlled shells. The South
Korean weapon appears to operate the same way as the 20mm shell of the
XM-29. The South Koreans plan to issue the K-11, on the basis of two weapons
per squad (an infantry unit containing 10-12 men). The K-11 is about 25
percent cheaper than the XM-29.
It's unclear if the South Koreans found solutions to
the problems the XM-29 and XM-25 encountered, or simply developed an
improved XM-29 and decided it was useful in small numbers. The South Koreans
have found that the 20mm smart shell is effective out to about 500 meters.
South Korean troops began receiving the K-11 last year, and there's nothing
to stop any NATO nation from buying a few K-11s for their troops in
Afghanistan. Then again, maybe not. South Korea recently halted production
of the K-11 because nearly half of those already distributed to the troops
had design or manufacturing problems. So it appears that the K-11 was rushed
out the door, while the XM-25 spent years finding and fixing problems before
turning some over to the troops to do whatever was needed with the reliable
and effective new weapon.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw
htweap/articles/20110516.aspx
John
“In preparing for battle I have always found that
plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Dwight David Eisenhower
==================d
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Monday |
