Too Many Dead And Too Young To Die

My morning routine begins with a couple of cups of strong black coffee and the morning papers.  They evoke a variety of emotions but rarely do they bring tears.  Yesterday's did.

It, of course, was Memorial Day.  The front page of the Spokesman Review was devoted to the locals who have perished in wars lasting for far too long for far too little gain.  Forty five of them.  Young men and one woman.  The oldest was 43.  The youngest 19.  All in the prime of life.

What an incredible waste.  Multiply this by every town in the country and you have thousands.  I cannot help but wonder if it has been worth it.  Multiply again the numbers of spouses suddenly single and children left without a parent.  Mothers and fathers who have lost a child.

I was so angry with George W. Bush for  beginning the war in Iraq.  It seemed to me so un-American.  Americans don't start wars, we finish them.  I guess that changed with Viet Nam when we engaged in a war different from what we were used to fighting.  Even then the enemy was mostly recognizable.  Now they aren't.  No uniforms.  Home made yet lethal weaponry.  We stand out like sore thumbs - which we seem to be even to the locals.

For what?  To stabilize a country not yet wanting nor able to be.  Yet we've committed billions of dollars in continuing aid to a corrupt government who has already bilked us of billions.  They scold us for our efforts on their behalf.  We hang our heads and apologize and put restrictions on our soldiers as to who they can shoot and under what circumstances.  My, how things have changed from the "Great Wars" where  we volunteered in droves to bail out our allies and produced generals like Bradley and Eisenhower.  Where are they now?

I understand why we have civilian over site of the military.  We don't want to be like Egypt and so many others where the military takes over.  On the other hand, civilians with no military experience seem to think they know better than the generals and we have one huge mess.

I guess this post is a day late and a dollar short.  I thank each and every member of the military for their contribution to peace in our country.  And I apologize for electing to high office those who haven't a clue as to how to run a war and won't listen to those who do.

We've gotten you into this mess.  I don't know how we'll get you out.  We can, however, elect those who understand the mission of the military and not overstep those bounds.  The question is, will we?

Thanks...

THIS Is What America Should Be About

Today is a red letter day for private enterprise!  SpaceX successfully docked it's Dragon capsule with the International Space Station.  This is what happens when you get together a bunch of rich guys who share a dream.

Making it even better they are filling a gap left when NASA abandoned the shuttle program for more esoteric pursuits like mining asteroids and landing a man on Mars, technologies that are no where near ready.  That left the delivery of supplies and transportation of astronauts to others - mainly the Russians.

Maybe not for long.  SpaceX is expecting to be able to shuttle humans within a couple of years.  Even better, other companies are working on competing designs.  Even better, they are America companies.

Perhaps best of all are the people involved.  Take SpaceX mastermind Elon Musk .  Among other undertakings he co-founded the company that became PayPal, the iconic Internet payment platform.   He put $100 million of his own money into this project. You have to love it.  One successful venture is rolled over into another and another and another.  Take that you Occupy Wall Street types who think the rich never give back!

How many other ventures are out there under the radar?  Hopefully a lot.  Fracking for instance.  Successful on privately held land.  Verboten on public land where the government rules.

If you doubt free enterprise works, just look at this achievement and think again.  If we don't give people like these the freedom to succeed others will step in.  Sir Richard Branson comes to mind with his Virgin Galactic Gateway.  At least it's in New Mexico!

Who Is The Real Joe Biden?

Joe Biden wants to be President.  He likes being at the center of power.  I wonder if he has any chance at all.  Well, only if Obama wins a second term.  And if Obama doesn't dump him.  There is more to it than that, however.

The vice presidency is no longer merely looking after the boss's health and attending funerals.  It became so much more with Dick Cheney.  Biden himself was chosen for his purported strength on foreign policy; an area in which Obama was void.

He touts the party line like a good soldier even with his foot firmly planted in his mouth.  That in itself is a trait that will haunt him in any campaign.  But an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal entitled The Dumbing Down of Joe Biden makes me wonder how much such ambitions are worth.  The premise is that he is to take the heat in order to take the heat off his boss.  With Biden it's pretty easy since he is gaffe prone, but to do it willingly?  That's loyalty!  Or is he already dumbed down?

Wouldn't it be something if some time a Vice President backed out on his own because he didn't want to play jester in the Presidential court?  Or any member of the House or Senate would denounce bad policy of their own party?  Those days are gone forever if they ever existed.

Instead we get a daily regurgitation of talking points no matter how ludicrous.  We come to mistrust politicians because we wonder if they can possibly believe what they're saying.  If they even realize what they're saying.  Like Biden's diatribe yesterday about   Romney's business experience being no more qualification for the presidency than for being a plumber.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he seemed to sense another gaffe and apologized of sorts to plumbers and private equity "guys".  But did he really believe it?  Consider Obama's sum experience before being elected was as a State Senator, a U.S. Senator for less than one term and a community organizer.  Not exactly a strong pool of experience.  Especially when you compare it to the total of Romney's experience including a term as Governor of Massachusetts.

Regardless of what you think about any of the candidates, do you wonder if they've been so desensitized they're little more than robots with a singular goal?  To get elected.  It no longer seems to matter what the people want and need.  All that matters is being able to remain in the cocoon of power or to get there no matter how dishonest, mean spirited or just plain dumb you have to be.  It's troubling to me just how easy it comes to them.

Death Panels Do Exist

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, better know as the Lockerbie bomber, is dead.  Good riddance some say.  Others say not so fast, we've not yet learned who his accomplices were.  For better or for worse, however, he is dead.

Had he not been released on compassionate terms he'd have been dead three years ago when he was diagnosed as having but three months to live with the latter stages of prostate cancer.  Yet he lived - and lived - and lived.

Why?  Because, as hard as it is to believe, he received better medical care in Libya, his home country, then he did in Scotland.  It had nothing to do with his being in prison or that he had been convicted of a heinous crime.  It was because the medications needed were denied not only to him, but to any man in Scotland by it's National Health Service.  That to my way of thinking is death by committee or a death panel.

According to The Wall Street Journal the Scottish Medicines Consortium, the rationing body of the NHS, decided that although certain drug combinations were known to be effective the cost effectiveness had not been demonstrated.  NHS.  National Health Service.  Health care run by and dispensed by a governmental committee.  Take note.

Upon arriving in Libya Megrahi was given the medical treatment needed to prolong his life and he survived an additional three years.  Today the needed treatments are available to only those qualifying under certain circumstances because this Consortium insists the 3000 pound per month price tag isn't worth it.  Tell that to the man suffering from what doesn't necessarily need to be a death sentence.

You may feel Megrahi got what he deserved and the extended life was certainly undeserved.  I'm wondering if too many will look at his circumstance from that point of view rather than what's really at stake - an individuals ability to obtain life saving drugs is being dictated by a committee who is looking at nothing more than the price tag.

Could it happen here?  You bet it could.