Uncommon Common Sense

Roman Polanski. Apparently he's a famous, Oscar-winning director--I don't think I've seen any of his films. Thirty-one years ago he was arrested for the statutory rape of a thirteen-year old girl. I'm sorry to be brutal, but to put this in perspective, he drugged her with qualudes and alcohol and then sodomized her. He admitted to having sex with her in court, plead guilty to a lesser charge and then fled the country. He has been living "in exile" in France since then, avoiding countries that have extradition treaties with the U.S. (France won't extradite to the U.S. because we have the death penalty.) But this past weekend, Polanksi went to Switzerland to accept an award, and at the request of the U.S. government, was arrested and is being held for extradition. The French are protesting loudly that one of their citizens is being subjected to such horror. Debra Winger, the Hollywood has-been and brilliant legal mind, proclaimed: " We hope today this l...

My last post addressed some of the things we can do to improve health care without government involvement. I got a few comments, but wanted to address a couple in particular. These comments brought up issues that are worthy of response. One of the comments is as follows: " I would like to direct your attention to the writers first stated premise - there is no trust in the government with one sixth of our economy. My question is, how did it become one sixth of the economy? With every step of a 'free' enterprise system being everything but free, freedom is placed upon the back of those who are a dwindling base of contributors to support the greediness of astronomical proportions and the government is the recipient of easy target fingerpointing. If we insist on blaming government for a sick system, we are trying to fix the wrong problems." My initial reply was the following: "There are many causes of the problems in medical care which I have also written about on m...

I have spent a lot of time picking apart the liberal plan for reforming health care in the U.S. I do not have any confidence in a government that cannot run anything cheaply or efficiently. They are the last people I would trust to manage one sixth of our economy--I wouldn't trust them to do my lawn care. So, it's high time to talk about what can and should be done instead. Here are some ideas that would go a long way to lowering the cost of health care for everyone without a government takeover of health care. 1) Individual responsibility: As with anything in life, when we are directly responsible for the outcomes of our decisions, we are better for it, individually and as a society. That responsibility includes being accountable for our life choices, the amount of risks we take and paying our bills. It seems like a no-brainer doesn't it? Unfortunately, we have gotten away from that thinking in reference to our health care. If I choose to have multiple sexual partners, why...

I listened to the President's speech last night with a somewhat skeptical ear. But I tried to keep an open mind. He was obviously passionate and visibly irritated with those who disagree with him, but he said some good things. I am concerned however, that it is just a bunch of words. People love to have their "ears tickled" with what they want to hear and politicians are master ear-ticklers. I am withholding judgment until I see any actual legislation that includes the things he promised last night. You see, he kept talking about, "my plan", but he hasn't written a bill. He has left that job to the House and Senate. That's fine--that's their job. But I have read the House version of the bill and the promises he made last night are simply not contained in it. If those promises are to be met, a new bill must be authored because the current House version of the bill is totally irreconcilable with the President's speech. For example: 1) Illegal alien...