Eric the Red

With the latest attempted terrorist attack, security officials are considering a roll-out of millimeter wave x-ray technology. Critics say that this technology amounts to a virtual strip search and presents an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

While I’m sure the critics would love to prevent TSA screeners from seeing the small penises, cellulite, saggy tits and rolls of fat, I have an additional concern: the scanning technology is obsolete.

While this technology allows security personnel to virtually “strip search” everyone in a matter of seconds, I feel that the TSA should publicly physically strip search everyone who intends to board a plane, wrapping it all up with a full cavity search. Think about it folks: millimeter wave technology means that these devices can be detected, and the terrorists know that they can be detected. These improvised explosives will now have to be hidden in a body cavity (where millimeter wave technology cant see) so that a terrorist can re-assemble them into a working device during the flight.

Of course, we could just break down the barriers that prohibit intel agencies from sharing information and allow the authorities to do their jobs and profile people. That would save us all from having out nether regions exposed to the general public.

I laughed out loud when I read this one:

“Polls indicate that Canadians know full well the system is unsustainable in its current form, says Stuart Soroka, Director of the Canadian Opinion Research Archive at McGill University. And yet it’s us who are apparently easily alarmed by scare tactics. Mr. Soroka’s studies also find that the more dysfunctional the system gets, the more Canadians seem willing to entertain alternative options. It took war to shake the official narrative of ours as an exclusively peacekeeping nation; it may take health care catastrophe to get Canadians to finally agree to a real debate on the subject. If those pleading for reform are right in their predictions, it may yet come.”

The same article tells us that the Canadian system consumes 40% of budgets.

Meanwhile, Obama continues to prance around the country telling us that the program will be mostly paid for by eliminating waste from existing government programs and reducing medicare payments. Excuse me? Where will these reductions in Medicare spending come from? Simple: rationing.

How about other government waste? There will be a hodge-podge of tax increases that will not affect the majority of Americans, so the rest of the funding for this program *must* come from cutting waste in the existing government. Other idiots agree.

Please tell us, Mr. Obama, what this waste is, how much money can be saved and how quickly it can be saved. Tell us, or we will continue to not believe your lies.

Greetings all! It has certainly been a while since I have written here!

With all the nonsense in the media about hope and change, I decided to read my way through the health care bill under consideration (as of the date of this writing), and I have summarized it for you along with my impressions.

Please note that I am opposed to the bill in its current form.

Feel free to read the bill for yourself and disagree with me:

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission that your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get and, unlike with an insurer, there will be no appeals process.
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with taxpayer-subsidized “free” healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (such as SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (in my opinion, leading to total government control of private plans.)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services (in my opinion, illegal aliens).
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled, you will have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. In my opinion, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The government will set wages. In my opinion, the AMA sold its doctors out.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives to this plan are permitted.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll.
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll.
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” What a mess!
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. In my opinion, seniors and the poor will be negatively affected.
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you’ll all be paid the same
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: The government will reduce payments to cancer specialty hospitals who’s costs exceed those of non-specialty hospitals. In my opinion, this will result in cancer patients being singled out for rationed care.
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: If doctors treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, they will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input, which is vaguely defined.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, (perhaps) euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Such consultation is mandatory. This appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. In my opinion, this will lead to government intervention in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

As always, I encourage all to read this bill in its entirety and draw their own conclusions. Frankly, I do not see how any health plan can claim to reduce costs without rationing care and reducing quality. Many others agree.

I agree with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland that pursuing other measures, such as:

• Creating special tax credits for individuals to purchase insurance
• Creating portability in insurance plans
• Allow businesses to band together to purchase plans as a group
• Allow individuals to purchase insurance on a nation-wide scale, rather than state by state
• Curtail frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals

Additionally, I believe that we need to establish a nation-wide pool with limited eligibility, to allow individuals who have lost their jobs due to no fault of their own, children, full time college students and people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable insurance. Yes, I know about COBRA and SCHIP, but I do not think they are effective in their current form. I also think that like car insurance, a certain degree of health insurance (such as covering hospitalizations to deal with car accidents and the like) should be mandatory for all.

I fully believe that every American should write to their representatives and the White House and be very loud in voicing their opposition to this bill. We cannot afford to rush a program through that is not carefully considered.

Finally, someone has stopped the madness. Ruth Bader Ginsberg has halted the sale of Chrysler to Fiat. Hopefully, the taxpayer will not be left holding the bag as the bankruptcy court and appeals court think we should.

News flash: bankruptcy is NOT about preserving the operations of a company. It never was. Bankruptcy is about the secured creditors getting the maximum return on their assets. If that means the operation continues, then so be it. Otherwise, the assets are sold so that the secured creditors get their money back.

The implications of trashing the interests of the secured parties are massive. First, this undermines the rule of law. Bankruptcy law has always placed the interests of the secured parties ahead of all others. This ensures that businesses can get financing they critically need since the lenders are first in line to recover their funds.

Second, lack of security will discourage investment in businesses that critically need it. Who will want to lend money if the contracts that protect that loan can be tossed at the whim of the executive branch? Its simple: no one.

Overall, the Obama administration has been turning this country into a banana republic. It started with the bullying of retirement funds over the chrysler case, the appointment of various “czars” with little to no congressional oversight and attempts to ram legislation through with little or no debate. Lets hope that SCOTUS will stand firm.

An open letter:

Mr. Obama,

In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.
God help us…
Cory Miller
Just an ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American… www.cmillerdrilling.com

I got my $600 tax rebate check last week, but I didn’t bother running out to spend it simply because the $600 would benefit maybe the Chinese, Taiwanese or some other foreign economy.

Really, the whole concept of a $600 rebate is stupid. We give people money, tell them to spend it, and then hope that the economy recovers because of consumption. But an economy cannot survive because of consumption; only with production and self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, we don’t have much of that here.

A better economic stimulus maneuver would be to make those $600 rebates available in the form of a low interest business loan program to encourage expansion in manufacturing (look at the foreign exchange rates), while transferring the gas tax to the oil companies from the pumps. This transfer would encourage the oil companies to lower prices (lower per gallon means lower profit margin and less tax) while freeing up some extra monthly cash for consumers.

The more I hear about economic aid, the more I think its just keeping us out of a major depression that (one day anyway) will be long over due. Many of the mistakes of the present were mistakes in 1929. Among them:
– Businesses purchasing capital assets on credit
– Purchase of houses and other personal real estate on credit
– Purchase of stocks, cars, home furnishings on credit

In other words, people and businesses bought everything on credit, and when jobs were lost or sales declined defaults occurred. Waves of defaults drained bank reserves and resulted in tightened credit from more solvent institutions. The result was an inability for further spending and more losses, along with mass unemployment.

Today, we have lots of houses bought on credit that have lost value. Consumer spending is driven by credit. There is little liquidity. The governments solution: get more credit and make consumers spend more money. The Fed is lowering interest rates to make it easier to spend, but without increased liquidity in consumer bank accounts, this is a short term fix. Eventually, the situation will present itself again.

The Fed needs to stop lowering interest rates to spur stock purchases. The government should stop pushing people to spend and start pushing them to save and reduce their debt levels. They should tackle the issues associated with a lack of liquidity, and take steps to boost or maintain credit to BUSINESSES and NOT CONSUMERS to discourage layoffs.

With less reliance on shaky credit, the economy will be in a position for long-term growth.

In an act of EXTREME stupidity, Verizon Wireless has decided that its cell phones should sound an alarm if the user dials 911. What Verizon has utterly failed to understand here is that when people dial 911, their lives are in danger because they have walked into a break-in in their home, or someone breaks in while they are at home and they are forced to hide or die.

So why does Verizon think its appropriate to alert attackers to the locations of their victims? Will Verizon be sorry if this utterly idiotic “feature” results in someone being beaten, kidnapped or killed, or will they just say “whoops, my bad”? I mean, how the hell can they call something this stupid a feature?? And apparently Sprint is susceptible as well.

The article I cite here quotes a Verizon spokesman who claims:

The tone our customer experienced is our interpretation of Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act calling for a provider of telecommunications service to offer service that is accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities. The tone, indicating that 911 has been dialed, is one of several features designed to make wireless service is accessible and easy to use, especially for those with disabilities. Other features include a voice command key where customers can use their voice to dial by name or number; a voice echo feature so that a person who can’t see can hear the number or letter if sending a text; read back text messages and speech output of signal strength, battery strength, missed calls, voicemail, roaming, time and date.

I assume this spokesman is talking about the blind. So lets take a look at this statistically.

Compare this to 1.1 million people in the United States who are legally blind. So domestic violence affects three times as many people as blindness. This means 3 times as many people are likely to be in a situation where contacting law enforcement while remaining hidden could save their lives.

Maybe the tone is so you have something soothing or upbeat to listen to while your killer hacks you to death. Ugh…..

As the BratBoy Ship continues to burn, a question remains: who is Rick Altmann?

I think this scam continues to go forward. Think about it folks….why do you get defrauded – and allow others to be defrauded – and not involve law enforcement (think of the amounts of money lost here) – unless you are equally guilty of fraud? Better to try sweeping the mess under the rug…they better hope the rug is big enough!

Step 1: Generate some sex appeal
Step 2: Build a fan base that buys your vaporware
Step 3: Profit

Thats what happened with “Ethan” Reynolds aka the Brat Boy. What shocks me isn’t that they used skin shots to sell (everyone does), its the massive defense launched by their fan base.

Here is a blog that almost became one of the “best” gay blogs of 2005.

Sure Ethan, you were used….as were Ben and Blair….but as the saying goes: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Shame on YOU Ethan/Gerald/JR/whatever your name is! Enjoy the house your fraud and fans built!

If I were a fan, I would screw dealing with paypal, screw dealing with the banks and deal with the FBI or use this internet crime link or this mail fraud link because I think this scam is still a scam that someone is trying to run from. I did! This one is probably more removed from the scam than the rest…i suppose only time will tell.