A Believable Outcome

From This Morning's National Review 2008 Predictions:

In the coming Republican administration, Mitt Romney will be secretary of the Treasury, Rudy Giuliani will be secretary of homeland security, Fred Thompson will be attorney general, Mike Huckabee will be secretary of health and human services, and John McCain will be secretary of defense — following a remarkable election where GOP voters nominate “None of the Above” as their candidate for president, who then wins in a landslide when matched up against the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

"Predatory" Lending Touched On

From today's Victor Hanson's 2007 review on National Review Online:

as if poor buyers had a gun to their heads when they bet that housing would continually appreciate

The Benefits Myth

So, my Girlfriend’s sister seems to enjoy making everyone in the world feel bad for her and a favorite weapon is to complain about not having a job with benefits. Basically, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in an unpopular field at an out of state college and is now riddled with debt while unable to find employment in that unpopular field. She does have a job and it’s not bad, just not up to her own untenable standards.

Part of the constant complaining that her presence comprises is about how “lucky” I am to have a job with benefits that pays well. In her eyes, I’m some type of cartoonish fat cat bad guy because I’ve never worked as an adult for nine dollars an hour. Lucky decision I made when choosing an employable degree and in-state college. Lucky interview I had for my current position. Lucky to work 50 plus hours a week and never say no to supervisors.

Fortunately I can summon the attention span of a praying mantis when I feel like it and I learned years ago that arguing with someone like that was about as useful as learning to fry crickets. In basic summation I am sympathetic to her and others in the same situation even in the face of criticism for being deemed successful. I can’t help though to believe her anger to be misguided and ill-informed. Misguided because I think everyone should own their decisions, including career. And ill-informed because of what I refer to as “The Benefits Myth”.

I started to think about benefits recently as the company I work for recently changed health insurance providers. The new company sent a regionally ethnic speaking (heavy and insultingly Hispanic accented) stooge to introduce them. I knew that everything was devolving once the speaker referred to the company’s goal as promoting my “health care destiny”. As I understand the presentation the new company’s goal is to encourage customers to take charge of their own health care from diagnosis to treatment, basically the worst thing a customer could do is get sick in any way that requires a real live doctor and anything stronger than can be had over the counter. I wish I was kidding when I refer to the presenter’s promotion of webmd.com and the virtues of aspirin.

Of course this new plan had the requisite increase in costs over the old one even though its actual usefulness was difficult to appreciate. This fact led me to do some looking on the web in regard to health care plans available to the individual. On eHealthInsurance.com I was able to configure a local quote from Blue Cross/Blue Shield with the same level of coverage as the company my employer chose for less. Now it was only about two dollars less a month but nonetheless I was stunned. In addition to the insurance stooge, my employer sent an HR tool to preach about how much the company cared about and contributed to employee benefits.

Besides feeling that I had learned the true health insurance contribution of my employer I also believe the benefits myth discredits those who complain of a lack of benefits. In five minutes of research I located an identical plan at a nearly identical price that anyone in my area can obtain.

It would be naïve of me to believe that my new argument would cause my Girlfriend’s sister to flinch. I’m lucky because I can afford my benefits, remember. Because I know that my argument can’t go anywhere with those devoid of logic is the reason why I’m writing about it.

Just because my employer negotiated with a particular insurance company doesn’t mean they’re the only option. Complaints about health care in this country are as common as Starbucks today and a lot has to do with the myth of lack of accessibility. Of course, the majority of complainers believe that the government can do a better job thinking about and providing healthcare for them and are simply too indifferent to explore any options before speaking. It’s that choice that they are really complaining about and the desire for simplicity that drives the universal healthcare bandwagon.

The unfortunate thing is that those pushing for such an extreme don’t bother with facts as they jump to conclusions. The assumption of righteousness on the subject only blinds ignorance and leaves the rest of us to deal with the consequences. Because of such pomposity we may one day be “lucky” to be relieved of 60% of our incomes as taxes to pay for it.

Drastic Climate Change

on Mars. Seems the Mars Rover was equipped with a V8 filled with premium Chevron, so now all the Martian polar bears are in danger!

But of course, this has nothing to do with the Sun. How can the Sun possibly cause climate change?

Thompson...Hunter...Brownback...Romney

The more I review the field of 08 candidates, one of these gentlemen so far would receive my vote for president. As time comes closer, primaries approaching, people dropping out, one not even making his official announcement yet, best chances of legitimately capturing ticket, etc. it really looks like Romney is gonna get my nod unless if something changes. Of course, we're probably gonna hear Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, so my point is probably moot...but these four gentlemen for me personally are the closest definitions of conservative you can get. Unfortunately though, these gentlemen don't have the name value (particularly Hunter and Brownback. Romney is picking up steam) to face the Clintons, Obamas, and Edwardss.

I WOULD throw in Newt Gingrich in the conservative mix, but Gingrich has proven time and time again to not being able to match up to the liberals. Historically, everytime this guy gets confronted by Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, or any other prominent liberal, Gingrich goes down in flames. And just recently Gingrich had a lovefest with John Kerry over global warming (that wasn't a debate. How many times did these guys agree with each other). Gingrich recently was at a women's conservative conference explaining the farce of global warming and it's just mere weeks later where now he thinks it's a major issue deserving of attention.

Very underrated candidate to me would be the other Thompson: Tommy. And if Jeb Bush would run........to me, of all the Bushes (including George Sr), he is the most qualified Bush of them all. Unfortunately, I think this country is getting a little tired of the Bush mantra. Since 1980, we've had some sort of Bush in office - nationally and gubernatorialy (sp).

I wouldn't mind supporting Tom Tancredo, but the only problem here is he seems to hinge upon the immigration issue and that issue only. You need a broader base of issues

Bill Frist dropped out, so he's off my radar.

Chuck Hagel would be fine with me if he's not so anti-military

So, in order so far and relying solely on issues perspective, I like 1) Hunter...2) Brownback...3) Romney...4) F Thompson

There goes the neighborhood

Well, it is Santa Fe. I'm sorry guys - I guess they're invading you from the east coast now too.

Global Warming as National Security

From the "How to make our country materially less safe" file. A "bipartisan" bill would direct the Pentagon and CIA to treat global warming as a security issue and conduct wargames, analysis, etc. The reason the Pentagon might conduct wargames for something like the invasion of the mainland US is that they could do something about it, namely send hot lead (or depleated uranium) and high explosives at the badguys. What are the Pentagon and CIA going to do against the environment? This is not their proper function! Passing a bill like this is akin to doing our enemys' work for them. Any personel/resources assigned to this task would not be doing their assumed previous task of protecting our country from its enemies. If Congress insists on some sort of global warming impact/readiness plan, a much better way to go about it would be to create funding for the scientific community. For that matter, just about any scheme for accomplishing that goal would be better than derailing our national defense.

Your tax dollars at work

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is apparently so busy that when the RIAA volunteered to write the USPTO's reports, the USPTO thought it was a win-win situation. The extracted content in the first link is the condemning part. The press release doesn't sound so bad. Probably because it leaves out mention of national security being harmed when the RIAA is forced to sue children and therefore look like a badguy. People installing file sharing software on sensitive systems (and configuring said software to share sensitive files from those systems) appears to be the only real problem. That doesn't mean file sharing software is evil, it means people are stupid.