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Have we not been educated since RvW that murder isn't murder if the child isn't born yet? What a head-scratcher. --The new HIPPA laws went into effect last week. More bureaucratic lawyer government coercion bullshit. Did you know sending flowers to someone in the hospital without going through all the proper channels is now punishable by a ten year prison sentence and a quarter million dollar fine? My father told me he's glad he's retiring in a few years, because they're killing the medical profession. This will be good for NO ONE except the LAWYERS. --Tonight I watched a John Stossel special. John Stossel is a libertarian who does some work for the Cato Institute and also does stories for ABCNews (besides CNN, the most liberally-slanted of the glamour media outlets in the US; they hate him, but he's a big draw, so they've tolerated his views for years). The show was called "Help me, I Can't Help Myself". It was all about "addiction". The US has elevated "addiction" to a national symbol. We are no longer in control of our own actions, we have "diseases". It's all bullshit, of course (well, I'll say most of it), and Stossel used a variety of means to expose that fact. We're not victims of anything but our own stupid choices. Quitting is a matter of making a choice to quit. But we have to call these things "diseases", otherwise a cottage industry would collapse, and insurance companies wouldn't pay for something that's in actuality a CHOICE. I think the best part was the "fat rights" groups who say society must be altered to accomodate them--for instance, in San Francisco (where else?), an obese woman fought against an aerobics studio because they "discriminated" against her based on the extra hundred pounds of lard she was lugging around. She won. Government stepped in to tell a private business they MUST hire this massive woman to teach aerobics! They called it "fatism". Now no companies in California can discriminate based on body type or size. Will we someday reach a point where business will have NO ability to make hiring choices at all?? That's how Stossel does things--he focuses on a specific topic, but also teaches other concepts that are in interaction with that topic (like too much government intervention/coercion interfering with private business decisions). The one thing I wish he'd covered is our nation's love affair with feel good prescription pills. Maybe next time. I wish Stossel had a weekly show. --The Lakers were on fire during the first half yesterday. Kobe Bryant was a MACHINE. Everything he threw up, no matter how tough the opposition or wild the shot, was predestined to drop through the hoop without causing so much as a ripple in the net. I haven't seen anything like it since Jordan circa 1993. --Have you been following American Airlines' descent into Hell? I'm no fan of unions, but Don Carty screwed them over, and now the unions are screwing themselves. I predict American will file for bankruptcy very soon, and that they'll eventually hire a bunch of lower-paid non-union workers. I just don't know if AA is going to be around for much longer. Meanwhile, the corporate culture at Southwest is healthy and unconventional as ever, and they posted their 48th straight quarter of profitability. --My brother Kody is buying a Ford Mustang Cobra tomorrow. I'm not sure of the color he's getting, but it's a manual but not a convertible. Kind of a K-Mart brand "sports" car if you ask me. It's sort of the Neanderthal jock of the sports car world. --The budget cuts at UNT are cutting DEEP. I still have hope that my Summer class won't be cancelled, but they're chopping off all kinds of classes and services. Guess that new dorm and the absurd new recreation center were kind of dumb ideas, eh? Prices are going up $40/credit, or about $600 per semester, and they're laying off hundreds of staff workers. The NT Daily released a special edition of the paper to talk about the problems... � � |