Aside from the issues of censorship, responsibility, etc., I was semi-appalled last week to see a television commercial for pro wrestling where one of the wrestlers took after Santa Claus with a baseball bat. Now, there's the Christmas spirit. Just the thing to keep peace and good will in the holiday...

The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

- Arabian Proverb

Wait, wait....Sex isn't a recreational activity???????

LNTHOMP previously posting as LEENT. U.S. Navy (ret.)

I have enough money to last me the rest of my life. Unless I buy something.

AAP Endorsed Principles on Access

1.     Every child must have health insurance.

2.     Health insurance should be a right, regardless of income, for all children, pregnant women, their families, and ultimately all individuals.

3.     All health insurance plans should have a comprehensive age appropriate benefits package such as that of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

4.     All children should have access to primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical sub specialists, pediatric surgical specialists, pediatric mental and dental professionals, and hospitals with appropriate pediatric expertise.

5.     All health plans should have levels of reimbursement that promote unrestricted access to health services for children.

6.     Health insurance should be fully portable and provide continuous coverage.

7.     Administrative aspects should be streamlined and simplified.

8.     Families should have a choice of clinician(s).

9.      Health plans should complement and coordinate with existing maternal and child health programs to ensure maximum health benefits to families.

In other words, the members of the AAP believe that there should be nationalized health care.  This is the same stance that is taken by the American Medical Association or AMA.  I think that a nationalized health care program would be the ruination of the best medical care in the world.  I think that it is simply a lie that those that are uninsured don't get good medical care - everyone else foots the bill for them, however.

My son, a surgeon, doesn't belong to the AMA because he too doesn't think that American's interest would be best served with a national health care program.  Further, because of litigation and illegal immigration he tells me hundreds of trauma centers throughout the US are not staffed or not staffed properly.  On the one hand, doctors are being sued out of a job and on the other they don't get paid for their services or the hospital that they work for can't afford to properly staff because they can't bring in enough from the paying customers to make up for the free loaders. That emergency care is regularly postponed across the country because doctors will not work nights and weekends because they are not being compensated enough to want to work the 80 to 100 hours a week that was "normal" for a doctor to work only a few years ago. 

Can you imagine the above if we had nationalized medicine?  The first thing that would happen would be the senior doctors, those with the most experience, that had practiced for 20 or more years would simply retire.  If that chasm didn't cause shockwave across the medical industry, then, few young talented people would enter the field with the prospect of four years of college, four years of medical school and up to six years of internship and residency (a intern and/or resident makes about $40k a year on average) ahead of them so they can make $105,000 on contract from the government while trying to pay off a 1/2 million in debt that it took to get them where they are.  Those unlucky to have their whole careers ahead them with little prospect of making any real money for all the effort they had put forth, will simply stop working the long hours that the typical doctor is expected to work now.  If all doctors in our country simply worked 40 hours a week, like the majority of Americans do, we would need two to three times the number of doctors that we have now.  The above is just a taste of the personnel disaster that nationalized medicine would cause.

How the hell does a parent monitor advertising? I appreciate the conservative bent here but it's foolish to die by that sword to the sacrifice of common sense. I mean, let's think above the belt-line. I want my 7 year-old to be able to watch his Transformers cartoon while I attend to my honey-do list; I shouldn't have to worry that the Cartoon Network will be advertising a late-night program in a Y7 slot! Or if my son wants to watch the Broncos choke with me then we ought to be able to do it without having to flip the channel during every commercial break! As Jimmy Johnson would say, "Duh-umb"! The AAP's recommendations don't call for bigger government. They're not asking for the creation of an oversight commitee. They are simply asking our government to make some rules that the Brats in corporate America have to follow (i.e.- advertise without corrupting--case in point, Noel Sheppard). As much of a corny lyric as it sounds, children are our future. We need to be willing to rip the head off anything that places "grown-up" narcissism over childish naivety and s**t straight down its neck!

Never use your gun to pistol-wip a Liberal. That could mar the finish.