RE. "CLIMATE CHANGE".

RR #1

You mean that I can go to Hawaii, where I have a MD license, and just sign up for welfare and become a beach bum?  Where do I sign up?

GS

America has always prided itself on its work ethic.  American capitalism is supposed to reward you for working hard with a higher quality of life,while socialism makes sure that everyone’s life is “average.”  A new study shows that America has taken another step closer to socialism.The Cato Institute released a study showing that welfare benefits pay more than a minimum wage job in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Even worse, welfare pays more than $15 per hour in 13 states. According to the study, welfare benefits have increased faster than minimum wage.  It’s now more profitable to sit at home than it is to earn an honest day’s pay. Hawaii is the biggest offender, where welfare recipients earn $29.13 per hour, or a $60,590 yearly salary, all for doing nothing.Here is the list of the states where the pre-tax equivalent “salary” that welfare recipients receive is higher than having a job:
 
1.          Hawaii: $60,590
2.          District of Columbia: $50,820
3.          Massachusetts: $50,540
4.          Connecticut: $44,370
5.          New York: $43,700
6.          New Jersey: $43,450
7.          Rhode Island: $43,330
8.          Vermont: $42,350
9.          New Hampshire: $39,750
10.       Maryland: $38,160
11.       California: $37,160
12.       Oregon: $34,300
13.       Wyoming: $32,620
14.       Nevada: $29,820
15.       Minnesota: $29,350
16.       Delaware: $29,220
17.       Washington: $28,840
18.       North Dakota: $28,830
19.       Pennsylvania: $28,670
20.       New Mexico: $27,900
21.       Montana: $26,930
22.       South Dakota: $26,610
23.       Kansas: $26,490
24.       Michigan: $26,430
25.       Alaska: $26,400
26.       Ohio: $26,200
27.       North Carolina: $25,760
28.       West Virginia: $24,900
29.       Alabama: $23,310
30.       Indiana: $22,900
31.       Missouri: $22,800
32.       Oklahoma: $22,480
33.    Louisiana: $22,250
34.    South Carolina: $21,910
Now do you think we should reform welfare?
 
ALSO LOOK AT THIS:
IF the minimum wage is raised to $15 an hour and a person works a 40 hour week for 50 weeks look at what he will earn:
$15 X 40 = $620  X 50  = $31,000.  NOT as GOOD as some of the above but STILL pretty good for many uneducated people.

RR #2

"BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE". 

ANOTHER CLINTON PRESIDENCY?  NOT AGAIN...

In recognition of the 8 years of DRAMA that was the Clinton Presidency, I established a special Category on this web site...and then forgot it.

I would always remember Bill Clinton as the President with the moistened finger forever raised into the wind.  Enough, already.

But now comes Hillary, a woman as equally endowed with testosterone as her husband...and the Drama begins again.  See "Reliving History - And Learning From It", by Peggy Noonan, in WSJ Sat.-Sun., Feb 15, 2014, Opinion, pA17.   Referring also to President Obama, Ms. Noonan makes an important point:

PORTRAIT OF A PHYSICIAN AS AN OLDER MAN:

Commentary on an Article: “Fall from Grace”

By George A. Sprecace, M.D., J.D.

In the Winter 2014 edition of Pharos, the publication of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, there appears the article entitled “Fall from Grace”, by J. Joseph Marr, M.D.  Although offered by “a retired academic physician and business executive”, Dr. Marr offers an excellent review of the progress of Medicine and particularly of the voyage of physicians during the last 60 years.  I can also address this course, as a privately practicing clinician for the last 57 years…and counting. 

My comments will be of little value unless the reader has studied Dr. Marr’s article, which I recommend particularly to younger physicians…since older doctors have lived it and are continuing to live it.  As will immediately become evident, I disagree with the author’s conclusion, beginning with the title of the article. 

1.      We have not fallen from Grace: we are being  pushed.  But we will have a soft landing, if only we can survive the next few years.

2.      The subject matter brings to mind the title of three songs: “9 to 5”; “I Surrender, Dear”; and “I’ll Do It MY Way”.

3.      “…from shaman to skilled labor”.  Wrong.

4.      Dr. Marr rightly indicates that many physicians have been “complicit” in the changes that now challenge physicians. But he wrongly attributes this to “hubris”. The real error in physicians’ approach has been their understandable desire to protect their patients from the adverse effects  of those changes, rather than allowing them to feel their own pain – and to thus be motivated and politicized to resist. 

5.      The nexus of physician / nurse / patient, with the legitimate addition of physician extenders, survives as the indispensable core of medical care, with the physician as the diagnostician and coordinator of that care.  That the physician now can supervise and guide the work of several non-physicians enhances rather than diminishes the physician’s central role in the process. 

6.      “Patient visits per unit time”: a corrosive idea.  We learned in medical school that, of the three attributes that a physician can offer his patient (ability, affability, and availability), the most important is availability.

7.      Yes, younger physicians are different…as are their entire generations.  It remains to be seen whether these younger MD’s, the  “9 to 5’s”, will have the foundation, the grit and the joy of practicing Medicine for the many decades that their older colleagues embrace – despite the current “troubles”.  Or will they succumb, not as much to “burn-out” as to ennui.

8.      And that brings up the future.  Demography is Destiny.  Patients will increase in number, age and debility. Physicians will decrease in number and commitment. But those who remain will be highly valued and appreciated for their knowledge and for their devotion to their patients.  They will be sought out.

9.      And, so, I end with a quote from Dr. Marr’s fine review, and with my reaction:

“The physician will become – has become – decreasingly the guide and guardian of the system and more and more of a supervisor in the mosaic of provision of care.” Wrong.

GS

(www.asthma-drsprecace.com)

February, 2014

POT POURRI.  What else during a blizzard?

• "Internet Security": an oxymoron  like none other.  Producers of related hardware and software should be held legally to the principle of "Strict Liability" for producing products which are "in defective condition, unreasonably dangerous".  Only then may they be motivated to develop an entirely new and secure "Internet". 
• Public Education: The Tragedy that keeps on taking.  In States like New York and Connecticut, legislatures are pulling back on and diluting efforts like "No Child Left Behind" and "Common Core" that are designed to improve teacher accountability and learning, responding to the constant threats of Teachers Unions and their stupid supporters. Shame on you all.
• New York's New Mayor: are New Yorkers headed for a municipal USSR?  Mayor DeBlasio is a true believer.  "Such men are dangerous".
• The Long-Term Unemployed.  See " More Men in Their Prime Are Out of Work and at Home", by Mark Peters and David Wessel, in a recent edition of the WSJ.  Another tragedy...and another problem requiring education and re-education.  These folks should go back to school for retraining and career change.  Meanwhile, they should take whatever multiple jobs are available.  And they should move to wherever jobs exist.  What they should not do or be allowed to do is to keep taking long and longer-term unemployment payments from a government that should be more  properly assisting them, as noted.
• Russia: Always the Adversary; Never the Ally.  Why can't we get used to that fact and act accordingly?  See "A Front-Row Seat For The Death Of The Russian Re-Set", by Matthew Kaminski, WSJ Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, Opinion, pA13. 
• "America's Power Is Under Threat", by Peggy Noonan, in WSJ Saturday - Sunday, Feb 8,9, 2014, Opinion, pA17.  AND HOW! Both domestically and in foreign affairs...and it's the fault of our "leaders" and their followers.  Here the author is writing about our power grid, vulnerable to atmospheric nuclear attack as well as to high-powered rifles.  And then there is cyber-warfare.  Ms. Noonan's last statement should be writ large; "You always want to think your government is on it.  You want to think they see what you see.  But really they're never on it.  They always have to be pushed".  But there are two situations which almost despite our efforts are providing some cover for us in two trouble-spots; Israel in the Middle East, and Japan in Asia.  Whether this administration likes it or not, they are both valuable surrogates for us. 

ANOTHER MOVIE REVIEW: "Monuments Men".

The real news is that there have been so many reasonably good movies in 2013 and entering 2014...instead of the usual tripe.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Slavery and Redemption…In New England and in Connecticut.

The following is based partly on personal research and partly on a Public Access TV program which I host for the Custom House Maritime Museum of New London, Ct.  For this program (on Feb. 6, 2014), my guest was Dale Plummer, Historian and President of Norwich Heritage Trust, Inc.

Slavery was a “disease” that the earliest settlers brought to this country from England.  For a rendition of that sad experience, see the movie “Amazing Grace”, telling the story of William Wilberforce, a member of Parliament who struggled for decades to outlaw Slavery in that country.

In the colonies, the Indians were the first to be enslaved. Then came the Blacks, mostly from the lucrative West India trade.  Contrary to some popular beliefs, including my own for a time, many colonists in New England and in Connecticut held slaves.  There were those who disapproved.  They were of two types: those who were “anti-slavery” but who tolerated it out of self-interest; and “abolutionists”- considered dangerous radicals – who braved ostracism and worse to  participate in the work of the “Underground Railroad”. By the early 1800’s the tide began to turn.  A famous example of this is the story of the Amistad, centering in and around the Custom House of New London – incidentally the oldest continually operating Custom Office in the nation.

The related turmoil of the 1840’s and 1850’s led directly to the Civil War.  After resisting the idea of allowing Blacks to fight with the North, the change that occurred in 1862 and 1863 resulted in a Black force of nearly 200,000 soldiers and sailors, including two regiments from Connecticut, who conducted themselves with discipline and bravery. 

The rest of the story continued to be outrageous, especially but not only in the South, until the Civil Rights Movement and resulting legislation of the 1960’s. 

The story continues today, better – but different. Racism is present but muted and much more isolated in the citizenry.  Several decades of “social engineering”, about which Senator Patrick Moynahan warned in the late 1960’s, has seriously undermined the fabric of Black society from without and from within.  A crazy tolerance of poor public education, promoted by Teachers’ Unions and by the liberal Democratic Party, and protected by Black “leaders”, threatens to lock many Blacks in place for some generations.

So, the challenge remains. But now this is soluble. However, the solution must come from within the Black community itself…not from without.  Move to solve your problems.  The rest of us are waiting to help.

GS

TIME FOR ANOTHER POT POURRI, THIS TIME ON DOMESTIC AFFAIRS.

• If there ever was a reluctant "Commander in Chief", it's this President.  Is he intentionally down-grading our military preparedness, or is he conflicted as to what to do, or is he just confused and in over his head?  In any case, he is demoralizing our fighting forces.  He is relinquishing this nation's decades-old role as arbiter of world crises.  He is confusing our allies.  He is emboldening both our historic and our new enemies.  Is this his legacy?
• Regarding the Environment, this President presents the picture of ambivalence on big issues.  Pebble Mine: block it permanently!  Keystone Pipeline: allow it to proceed!  National Parks: prohibit all resource searches and mining.  The Arctic: wake up! Now, was that so hard?
• Regarding Class Warfare, between the "haves" and the "have not's", this President is at his demagogic best.  As stated clearly in another recent offering in this Rapid Response section, the distinction is between the "do's" and the don'ts; between the "wills" and the "won'ts".  It is between the offspring of stable two-parent families and the many others.  It is between the results of good schools and WORK...and lousy schools and truancy - which Blacks particularly  have embraced in a death-grip with their cynical Democratic representatives and Teachers' Unions and their "leaders".  What stupidity!
• Regarding Immigration Reform, both Democrats and Republicans are hypocrites here, playing up to their perceived constituencies instead of strengthening the nation.  First, effective control of our borders...and of the illegal activities of our employers.  Then, a defined path to legal status for those already here, within a few years.  Children born here or already brought here should be the first to achieve legal status. A quota for all others seeking entry, including family members not yet here.  After the above, a defined path to U.S, citizenship within a reasonable time for those who seek it.  
• Regarding that societal festering wound, Abortion, return the issue to the individual states for their determinations, including the issue of "personhood".  That's the way it should have been decided by the Justices in Roe v Wade - that medical and legal and ethical stain on our jurisprudence...and on our common sense and common decency. 

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.

The America that works, and the America that doesn't. The America that contributes, and the America that doesn't. It's not the haves and the have nots, it's the dos and the don'ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don't. That's the divide in America.

It's not about income inequality, it's about civic irresponsibility. It's about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It's about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country. That's not invective, that's truth, and it's about time someone said it.

 The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting "income inequality." He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that's not just.

That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced Detroit. It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America.

It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal. The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victimhood and anger instead of ability and hope.

The president's premise - that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful - seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.

Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure. Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.

You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college - and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take.

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an inequality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.

He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine.

Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.

The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime's worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.

The simple Law of the Harvest - as ye sow, so shall ye reap - is sometimes applied as, "The harder you work, the more you get." Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.

Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.

He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts. It is a false philosophy to say one man's success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man's victimization.