Nym does New York

I thought I'd include a few shots while I am in NY.

They are in no particular order....Rockefeller Center and the Tree, Empire State Building, and the gathering place of all our allies the UN. I felt the urge to salute all of friends and allies!!!!

Who are these people FOR anyway?

I saw this website on Google News. It seems to be a liberal blog-like site based in the UK. However, when I read these articles, my real question is, who exactly in government do these people actually agree with? I know it's been said over and over again, but is there any agenda for this segment of society other than to rant about "evil white men in power"?

Enjoy... http://www.counterpunch.org/

The winds of change blow again

Can someone tell me what the difference between an 'estimated timetable for success' and 'total withdrawl' is? I guess last week's vote has forced a wording change?

When was the last time a war was run (and won which I assume we still want to do) by dates and not objectives?

Clinton loves big business....

See the smiles....she is a republican in sheep's clothing.

http://apnews.myway.com/image/20051129/ATTACKS_REDEVELOPMENT.sff_NYRD104_20051129131458.html?date=20051130&docid=D8E6QUUOD

Nancy Pelosi

Why do I feel like that certain people from Centerline's party want us to fail? It just feels like the Leftist Guerrillas are more interested in saying 'I told you so' then actually giving their plan. Mr. Murth puts up a plan, then votes against it. Yet, Pelosi supports it still and asks for more.

Here is what I want....

I want to see the Pelosi Plan. Where is her plan? She asks for a plan from Bush and it is not enough. Did she not read what Joe Liebermann op'd today? Does she pay that no regard?

I really, really hate that bitch....as much as Spackler hates Rummy, Astrophile hates Bush, and Centerline loves Kerry.

In defense of open immigration

In case some of you had some fears as to what immigration would do to our country, I wanted to share a very personal story.

On November 3rd 2005, three of my relatives came from Cuba. They are husband, wife and child, ages 31, 27 and 3 respectively. The wife in this group is my cousin’s oldest daughter. They were born under communism which, in spite of what some of us think, is probably not the paradise it is portrayed to be.

They (husband and wife) have applied and been admitted to the University of Auburn as Graduate Teaching Assistants in the Graduate Masters in Spanish. They did this from Cuba, using my address, after they had U.S. Visas. In spite of being at my house, under relatively comfortable conditions, they insisted that they needed to get to Auburn, Alabama, to start exploring what other opportunities were there. In case you’re not familiar with the small town in the heart of Dixie, it is pretty far from Little Havana – in every possible way.

We arrived there Saturday night and, before checking into the hotel, he had applied for a job at the local WalMart (excuse me a moment while I wash my hands after typing such a vile name). I drove to work Monday morning and my wife stayed with them, as they don’t have a car.

He got called yesterday by the aforementioned enclave of iniquity and an interview was scheduled for today. He put on one of my old (very old) suits, which was still pretty big on him, and went for the interview. He advised the manager, as best he could, that he was available to do anything, everything and at any time, full or part-time. He was offered what he described as his “dream job,” stocking shelves from 11:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m., with one hour break, 5 days per week. “Fortunately,” he says, “I get to work weekends.” Why fortunately, you might ask? Because work does not interfere with his classes, he says.

I will grant that I have had some influence in his thinking, but even I could not expect what he told me next. He is happy they no longer qualify for Medicaid, and of the fact that he will not have to receive a penny of public assistance. In fact, he will be paying taxes in 2005, as they are looking for income that now stands at $42k. And this is just a start, keep reading.

Their only remaining problem was child care, which apparently could consume as much as $600 per month. But it was only a problem for a little while. They are tackling the problem together and, I proudly add, creatively. Here’s how:

While she takes classes, he will be delivering pizza in a used car I am financing on his behalf. He hasn’t found this job yet, but he feels confident he can get it, as many places are advertising for pizza delivery drivers. And he can have the little girl with him in te car while he does this (or so he thinks). Meanwhile, she has downloaded the state of Alabama’s requirements to become a certified child care provider, and wants to talk to me tonight about financing a child care business, since “this is an unfulfilled market need.” (She takes those words from me). She feels she could quickly become certified, given her background as a clinical psychologist.

Last, but not least, since my wife is driving up tomorrow and leaving them on their own (they have already rented an apartment), I looked for a rental car while they wait for theirs. Enterprise is the only game in town, and an economy car is $210.00 for the week. I made a reservation on his behalf. Not satisfied with that, he asked around the Spanish department where he will be working and was told that there is a place called, are you ready for this up in Horsham?, Rent-A-Wreck, in Montgomery, where he could rent for $150 all inclusive. It is, of course, not a good deal because the insurance cost will make it more expensive than Enterprise – but the important point is he tried to save $60.

All in all, not too bad for their 26th day in the U.S. All of which goes to show you a couple of things:

There probably is a ton of talent out there oppressed by communism, socialism and their European derivatives.
We could all be working for some immigrant some day.
Opportunity is what you make of it. None one of them speak English fluently; all three of them are part of a so-called protected class (a fact of which they are blissfully ignorant) and they have found not one, but a total of three jobs. And they’re looking at a couple of opportunities that will probably bring them above our average annualized wage for a family of their size before their first 90 days in the states.

A Democrat gets beyond the Rhetoric

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007611

Parental Notice for Abortions

Here is the background:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051130/pl_nm/court_abortion_dc

Not being a parent, I am not passionate about this one. However, I feel that rights of privacy to such items as this should not extend to minors. Society says that parents must parent but how can they unless they have information on what is or has happened to their children. We all have said several times how we have made stupid decisions when we were younger that we would not make again given our life experiences. This is one of the main roles of the parent: to impart their experiences on their children to ensure they do not make mistakes.

I am not sure why people think minors should have this right? They are not adults, they do have rights but certainly not the same rights as adults.

Interested to hear dissenting points of view.

New Xbox360

In an attempt to make this blog just not a political soapbox....

I braved the lines (ok, not really since I did a pre-order) and got the new Xbox. My initial impressions are that I am throughly impressed. The UI integration with the online community is seamless and much better than before. The online live area now acts as a portal to all of your games instead of the past where you drove it from the game. Much better design.

The games are nothing short of stunning if you have HDTV. Sound is great through a good system.

Go pick one up Carl!!!!!

Closer to Home to Battle Terrorism

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/28/D8E5RPBO5.html

Interesting to see how Miami ranks as a likely target. I have no problem with random checks and support them. I don't mind a search at any of the soft targets mentioned as I recogonize this is where an attack is likely to happen.

Healthcare costs are out of control

The problem with healthcare in America is one of cost brought about by the lack of options. I see no difference, as economic transactions go, between buying a car, buying a meal, buying a lap dance and buying medical care. And yet, in three of these, as an American I have significant options as to the quality of the first three – and very few as to the quality of the healthcare services.

As an example, I paid $5.97 for my lunch today. I could have gone to McDonald’s and paid under $3.00 or I could have gone to Shula’s Steakhouse and paid $45.00. You can have $1,000 lunches at the Four Seasons in NYC (parking not included). All of these choices would keep me alive, with varying degrees of satisfaction. Similar arguments could be made about purchasing the car (Chevy to Bentley) and, presumably, the lap dance, although I have no first hand experience.

The economic value judgments that drive me to the middle class lunch, car and lap dance I can afford completely disappear when it comes to health care. In that case, I want the very best health care regardless of cost – because I am not paying for it. Essentially, Donald Trump and I get, by and large, the same medical care.

The obvious consequence is that while he definitely earns it, most of us cannot. And the only reason we get it is because the medical and legal establishment (principally the medical establishment) while setting the standard of care at a level that is economically unfeasible to sustain, have created an artificial mechanism to obfuscate its true cost. And thus, healthcare costs go up at several times the pace of inflation – and more and more people cannot afford healthcare or its financing (insurance).

How has this problem been addressed elsewhere?

Most of the rest of the industrialized world has simply made a subconscious choice to lower the standard of care to a level that those of us who are insured would consider mediocre at best. This is, however, a level that the involuntarily uninsured would consider a very good level indeed.

This has created a truly tiered situation, whereby European, Latin American and Canadian elites come to the U.S. to receive essentially the same medical care those of us who are insured get, whereas the vast majority of the people in those countries get a standard of care we Americans would mistakenly consider substandard.

What would I propose as a solution?

Well, there is no easy way to get the genie back in the bottle…. But here are some thoughts:

Our population might be duped into believing that the same standard of care we the insured enjoy today could be extended universally without it becoming either prohibitively expensive or lowering its quality. This is, of course, an economic impossibility in so far as, whatever savings arose from standardization of claims processing would be more than offset by the proliferation of fraud intrinsic to the programs we have today (Medicaid and Medicare), not to even speak of the inefficiencies inherent to all programs run with someone else’s money (think DoD and FEMA).
Ideally, employers would get out of the business of funding health insurance….and people would get exposed to the true costs of health insurance programs, where all transactions would be subject to a high percentage based co-payment (maybe up to 100%), with catastrophic coverage provided by a shared risk pool (an insurance company) for those who wished to participate.
Ideally, we would allow more people into medical schools and allow foreign doctors to come and practice in the U.S. with lower licensing standards (in the same fashion as we allow tomato pickers and computer programmers to come in and compete). The government’s role would be one of informing, rather than one of making choices on our behalf.
Ideally, there would be more competition and consolidation of the depreciable assets involved in healthcare conveyance. The $2MM MRI machine should be available to take a look at my kidney (and the transaction priced accordingly), but I should be able to go to a much cheaper place to take a look at my broken toe.

I’d appreciate alternative points of view.

Interesting Article on new DOD Agency

From Robert... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600857.html