Canadians Have ‘Canadian Style’ Health System

What does it mean to have a Canadian Style Health System.  Steven Colbert has managed to qualify the distinct differences between health care in the United States and health care in Canada.
Republican House leader John Boehner would have us believe the Canadians are a bunch of socialists who deny their children their basic human needs.  [...]

Taxing Tobacco

Tobacco taxes our health care system with many chronic ailments. And tobacco is taxed by the government. On Wednesday, April 1, 2009, the federal tobacco tax on a pack of cigarettes will go up $.62, from $.39 to $1.01. This must surely be a good thing, right? Well, like other efforts at social engineering, it cuts two ways.

Caring For An Old Dog

Sadie is almost sixteen years old, her birthday is next July.  She is beginning to show the inevitable signs of aging.  Sadie has moved from the definition of ‘Senior” to something resembling ‘Elderly.’  Watching her age is painful – and presents moral and economic delimas.
Sadie is half Schnauzer and half Cocker Spaniel – sort of [...]

Dead Body Found in Woods

I am cleaning my office.  Stacks of paper, piles of books, new book shelves – there is not enough room.  So I am compelled to throw something away.  This ritual is not done arbitrarily – I have to look at everything and rethink the value.  I came across an old news clipping.  It has no [...]

The Prophecy of Ohg Rea Tone – 2009

Prophecy is only valuable if it presents opportunity for change.  Absolutes are for the cynical, for those who presume their destiny is predetermined.  Free will suggests we have something to say about our life.  In the tradition of ancient Bible Prophets we will offer some conditional prophecy for 2009:

If we reward failure, failure will be [...]

Obama and Sustainable Solutions

President Elect Obama must govern from the center if he is to have a lasting legacy.  What does this mean?  Simply put, solutions to problems must be sustainable over time.  Solutions which are overturned with changes of political party are not useful or productive.  Legacies are built on centrist resolutions to problems.
Let’s look at a [...]

Which Came First? Religion or Depression

There’s a cartoon with a chicken and an egg in bed together. The chicken is smoking a cigarette with a very satisfied expression on his face, and the egg is restless and disgruntled. The caption above the egg says, “Well, I guess that answers the question.”
That’s how I think of the relationship between depression and [...]

Rednecks for Obama

We live in Missouri, rural Missouri.  Down the road a piece, just over the hill and down through the holler, rests the country store.  The folks like to sit around the pot belly stove and yack a bit.  They only fire up the stove in the winter, but it is a comfort just to have [...]

McCain’s Health Care TAX

Senator John McCain again figures on the lack of sensibility by 51% of the population.  He may be right.  But we will investigate his Health Care TAX position for laughs.
Suppose you are a young family.  The husband makes, say forty thousand dollars a year.  The wife also works and makes twenty-five thousand dollars a year.  [...]