Home Again

We took a quick trip to southern Maryland last Thursday to visit my sister and her husband. Two of her kids had moved back near them lately (both lived in Georgia) and just bought new homes within the past three months so we were dying to see them all again. One nephew is still in Florida but hopefully we'll see them soon also.

The trip down was long and tedious as there was extensive road construction in central Pennsylvania on Rt 81 and a sudden downpour at about 10:30 pm just before we hit the PA/MD border on Rt 83. Other than than the trip down was uneventful.

My big sis (she is 8 days less than a year older than me) and her family are doing fine. My nephew has a great job with a major aircraft manufacturer and was transferred to MD to take charge of a new Navy project. My BIL also is busy for a contractor who is also working on a new Navy project.

My niece bought a 1,200 sq ft condo and it is beautiful. Two bedrooms and only a fifteen minute drive from the school where she is a teacher. She also has a very nicely developed talent for home decorating and has done an incredible job with very little money.

My nephew bought a home that is almost palatial. I have never been inside a house like this. Their master bedroom suite bathroom is bigger than my bedroom. Two stories, 4,200 sq ft. Kowabunga. This Friday their kids just got their instruments (viola and alto sax) for elementary school band and are all excited about their first music lessons this week.

Saturday we had a delicious seafood luncheon at Stoney's Restaurant on Solomon Island. Solomon is a little place on the Patuxent River just across from the Patuxent NAS. This area is famous for its local crab industry and just a small sandwich is incredibily filling. The meat is very sweet.

My sister was treated for breast cancer this year and is doing very well. She has no trace of cancer cells and the disease is not expected to return. Because of her digestive problems and her cancer, she has been involved in nutrition for quite some time. She has finally convinced me to start making our own bread. She grinds her own wheat and bakes fresh bread several times a week, among other things.

She also uses something called Juice Plus which our family has decided to try. After four days I already feel like I have a lot more energy. This has been a problem for me the past few years and my physical activity levels have suffered as a result. I come home from work and feel like I want to go straight to bed. I am anxious to see how this works out and will talk about it more in the future.

All told it was a great visit. For the ride home I decided not to revisit the construction sites on Rtes 81 and 83 and took 95 N to 476, PA Tpke. No delays at all and we were home in record time, only a little more than 6.5 hrs driving as opposed to over 8 hrs on the way down.

Let It Go

Ted Kennedy is dead.
I will say no more about the man.
Let God judge him as He will judge us all.

More Whining

Every now and then the wife and I talk about moving to another state. We hate the taxes, we're getting tired of the cold and the snow and we've both had enough of the self serving politicians and the endless catering to special interests. We still have a daughter who is just starting her senior year in high school so the decision whether or not to move will come next summer.

Now the Governor of the State of New York is moving us closer to that decision. From the Daily News:

After complaining on a Friday radio show that he is the victim of an "orchestrated" campaign to push him out of office, Paterson told a blogger that some people are uncomfortable with too many black pols in power.

"Part of what I feel is that one very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories, then some people get nervous," Paterson told political blogger Gerson Borrero over the weekend.

Seriously, I'm thinking of moving just to avoid further embarrassment from idiots like him. He's far behind Andrew Cuomo in the polls and is now using racial politics to garner sympathy or to deflect attention from the worsening state economy or to mobilize his base.

Or he's drunk.

Whatever the reason for these insane comments, Paterson and his aides fail to realize that people get very uncomfortable when politicians drive their state and their nation into bankruptcy and blame nonexistent factors instead of their own incompetence.

Tell It To This Marine

A disabled vet lets a congressman have a piece of his mind.




H/T to Nicki Goomba

Lunokhods

In the previous post we touched on the subject of robotic vehicles.

I was watching the Science Channel this afternoon and saw a documentary, "Tank on the Moon," that detailed Soviet efforts to land a remote controlled vehicle on the moon in the early 1970's.

And they did, twice, on November 17, 1970 and January 15, 1973. Lunokhod-1 was operational for almost a year. Lunokhod-2 may have become non-operational as early as mid-May 1973.

There is a bit of hype to the program but it is still interesting. The Unmanned Space Flight blog has some input on this. This was not a top secret operation; instead, the rooskies were trumpeting their achievements while it was happening. The Lunokhod transmitted images of the tracks it left on the moon. It could do 1.25 mph.

During the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a feverish competition to be the first to set foot on the moon. We know who won this race, but less about a secret chapter. The Soviets many not have sent a man to the moon, but they successfully guided two small robots by remote control from the earth. For 16 months between 1970 and 1973, these "Lunokhods" traveled more than thirty miles over the moon's surface. With the declassification of the former USSR space archives, along with recollections by several of the key participants in the Lunokhod program, the true story of the Russian lunar robots can finally be told.

Watch Video

The Russian scientist responsible for the Lunokhod proejct, Alexander Komurjian, was invited to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1992. He assisted American scientists and engineers in designing the Rovers later used on Mars. He died in 2003.

You can buy a rooskie "Lunokhod" wrist watch on EBay for $35.

CRUSHER

The following videos are of a prototype autonomous combat vehicle currently under development by DARPA. It is not a little thing (6.5 tons) and they don't call it Crusher for nothing. It is designed to go around or go over any obstacle in its path.



This next video got some tunes to go with it.
A little more then halfway through this clip (1:30) you'll see what happens when Crusher gets excited.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

USS New York

Yesterday, Friday, 20 Aug 09, at precisely 9:11 am, the US Navy accepted the USS New York from its builders after two months of sea trials.

The USS New York is a San Antonio-class landing platform dock ship that was manufactured with over seven tons of reprocessed steel from the World Trade Center in its bow. It will be commissioned on 7 Nov 09 in NYC.

A beautiful, well-designed craft, platform dock ships are designed to transport nearly a thousand Marines as well as all their their gear to hot spots around the world.

The New York is one of three San Antonio-class ships to be named for sites associated with the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Somerset, named for the Pennsylvania county where one hijacked flight crashed, is being built in Avondale, and the Arlington, named for the site of the Pentagon, is to rise from Northrop Grumman's shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.

In speeches Friday, officers hailed the use of steel from the World Trade Center and the New York firefighters and police who lost their lives.

"You all are first responders now, " Jones told his crew. "This ship is now a first responder. Have no doubt of what our mission is. At the end of the day our job, our mission, is to be first responders. And it is my intent to execute that mission as fast as I can.

It's a great day for the Navy, a great day for the New York, a great day for the nation."

The ship's damage control systems are dedicated to the memory of Brian Hickey, captain of the Fire Department of New York's Rescue Company 4 in Queens. He was one of 343 firefighters who died in the World Trade Center towers.

Asked why the system is dedicated to Hickey, Northrop Grumman program manager John Wilson choked up. "A long story, " is all he could say.

I really, truly hope and pray that it kicks some terrorist ass. From the UK Times Online:

There is no shortage of scrap metal in New Orleans these days, but the girders taken from Ground Zero have been treated with a reverence usually accorded to religious relics. After a brief ceremony in 2003, about seven tonnes of steel were melted down and poured into a cast to make the bow section of the ship’s hull.

Some shipworkers say the hairs stood up on the backs of their necks the first time they touched it. Others have postponed their retirement so they can be part of the project.

One worker, Tony Quaglino, said: “I was going to go in October 2004 after 40 years here, but I put it off when I found out I could be working on New York. This is sacred and it makes me very proud.” Glen Clement, a paint superintendent, said: “Nobody passes by that bow section without knocking on it. Everybody knows what it is made from and what it’s about.”

The USS New York has its own website. From their website we learn this:

Governor George E. Pataki wrote a letter to Secretary England requesting that the Navy revive the name USS New York in honor of September 11's victims and to give it to a surface warship involved in the war on terror. In his letter, the Governor said he understood state names presently are reserved for submarines but asked for special consideration so the name could be given to a surface ship. The request was approved August 28, 2002.

Why Are We Surprised?

I had a regularly scheduled visit with my cardiologist last month. After he listened to my ticker and examined the EKG charts, I asked him what would happen to our relationship if HR 3200 was passed. He said that nothing would change, but that something must be done as half the hospitals in the state are going bankrupt.

Well, either he lied to me or he does not comprehend the havoc changes that will occur if this bill becomes law.

This cardiologist had treated my FIL since his first episode of congestive heart failure in 1986 right up until his death in 2007. He has also been my doctor since 2001 when I had a minor heart attack.

He has not fully realized what is happening, but the NY Times has finally seen the grim picture that Obama and his godless, homicidal democrats have painted for the rest of us. It is really a work of deadly art, a grotesque Van Gogh, a morbid Monet. And it should come as no surprise - liberals have cheered the mass murder of the unborn since 1972.

Now that they have set their sights on the elderly we can see what atheism has in store for everyone. Your value as a human will be gauged by your social utility - what you can do for society, how useful you will be. As an old, worn out senior you will be given the honor of serving your country one last time by being dragged outside the city walls and letting the wolves have at you. It's a lot cheaper than keeping your wobbly, skinny ass alive with expensive medication or surgery.

But back to the Times.

WASHINGTON — White House officials and Democrats in Congress say the fears of older Americans about possible rationing of health care are based on myths and
falsehoods. But Medicare beneficiaries and insurance counselors say the concerns are not entirely irrational.

Bills now in Congress would squeeze savings out of Medicare, a lifeline for the elderly, on the assumption that doctors and hospitals can be more efficient.

This is bull, absolute garbage. Government imposed controls never made anything more efficient. Government participation in any program drives up the cost and reduces options. Look at any government program, look at what they did to the Indians! The democrats use estimated savings to lie to us, to give the impression that cost savings can be realized just by simply managing the process better.

The problem is this, the process is already managed by the government and that's what is wrong with it.

President Obama has sold health care legislation to Congress and the country as a way to slow the growth of federal health spending, no less than as a way to regulate the insurance market and cover the uninsured.

The problem with the health care industry is that people who have no way of paying for health care are flooding our hospitals with deadbeats such as illegal aliens and drunks and others who use ambulance rides as a diversion. And they can't refuse them!

Let me explain. In the early 1990's my Department initiated a study on ways to reduce calls for police services. I was in Planning and Research at the time and did the statistical work up. The reason for the study was that our staffing was being cut and we just didn't have enough cops to go around. There was also another problem in "boutique policing" where political pressure was used to spin off specialized units from the general patrol population leaving fewer and fewer cops to respond to calls but that's another story. Let it suffice to say that in 1975 there were 98 cops alone on Patrol Platoon III and another 25 or 28 cops in CCT Platoon III (CCT served in six high crime areas- patrol covered the rest of the City) for a total of say, ohhhhh 125 cops on just Platoon III which was the 3 pm to 11 pm shift. There were two other Platoons (shifts) but Platoon III was the biggest. I estimate that there was probably 250 cops in all of Patrol and CCT.

By 1985 we were down to 150 cops on all Patrol shifts, Platoons I, II, III and IV. CCT was eliminated in 1979 and Platoon IV was created to handle peak call times from 2000 to 0400. I was working midnights then (Platoon I) and counted up the roster sheets myself. I couldn't believe it. There were times in the summer when myself and one other cop were the only ones assigned to the City's South Side (most violent areas) after 4 pm when Platoon IV went off duty.

So eliminating calls was important. One of the call categories we eliminated was ambulance calls. Prior to this our rules and regs stated that we would respond to all calls for ambulances - over 12,000 ambulance calls a year. Bogus calls for ambulance service by idiots, drunks and nutcases got to the point where the dispatcher was sending us to the location first to see if an ambulance should be dispatched. We're not doctors! But call after call would go out to the same location time after time for the same idiot:
Call #1 at 0100 hr - he has a headache;
Call #2 at 0245 hr - his tummy is upset; and finally
Call #3 at 0430 hr - he has just shat himself and doesn't know why he wants an ambulance but enjoys swearing at you in front of his drunken buddies.

Idiots would call an ambulance because they were lonely, scared or bored. By calling an ambulance a clean, reasonably intelligent person (also usually blessed with the patience of Job - I'd mace the son of a bitch after the second call) would respond with lights blazing and sirens blaring and make a fuss over them and take them out in a stretcher (big sympathy factor there from the neighbors who likewise were bored and stupid - it was like some kind of celebrity idiot reality show).

Then a fast ride to the hospital where they would be in a comfortable air conditioned room where they could annoy the staff for hours on end. Ambulance calls always peaked during the hot summer months. Doubt me? Just find an ambulance EMT or an emergency care RN or doctor and ask them. Ask them about the idiots who show up in the ER three of four times a week or the people who use ER's as clinics at 2 am because their four year old welfare snapper has the sniffles for God's sake and is accompanied by her useless mother and brother and several cousins who profanely demand that 4 year old spoiled Tamika be seen by a half dozen RN's and DR's while the poor bastard in the next room on one side is having a heart attack and a whore on the other side is getting stitched up because her pimp split her ass sideways with a straight edge razor. It's the man keepin' us down!

And not one of them pays a frigging DIME for this service! WE DO!

This is the kind of shit that drives up health care costs and makes it more difficult to serve people who really need health care. And I'm not even going to touch on defensive medical practices because of the stinking parasites that call themselves lawyers. Not all lawyers of course - just enough of them to add at least another $100 billion in costs to the health care system.

Okay, . Back to the Slimes.

Mr. Obama has also said Medicare and private insurers could improve care and save money by following advice from a new federal panel of medical experts on “what treatments work best.”

The zeal for cutting health costs, combined with proposals to compare the effectiveness of various treatments and to counsel seniors on end-of-life care, may explain why some people think the legislation is about rationing, which could affect access to the most expensive services in the final months of life.

Damn right - it's the only way. This is just another step to what has been going on for decades, cost transference. Nothing new here, just keep moving along folks.

Hie Thy Ass To Remedial Pistol Training

Stolen from Exurban League as reported in CNEWS:

LONDON -- The London man who dodged 19 police bullets as he fled a robbery spree denies taking a shooting stance, insists he told the pursuing officer he was unarmed and says he was clearly visible under a street lamp.

Holy Ricochets Batman! If this fleeing felon was a Matrix agent I could perhaps understand why nineteen 9mm Happy Loads were distributed haphazardly through the streets of London at 1000 fps without hitting the intended target.

Two words - Fire Discipline. If ya can't hit the damn thing, put your pistol back in your pocket, catch your breath and have a nice cuppa while the Range Officer who trained you is subjected to ritual disembowelment.

"He (the police officer) was trying to kill me," Paul Wayne O'Connell insisted yesterday in an interview with The Free Press from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre.

I think the officer was actually imitating the High Speed Copper and Lead Fairy, just doing his part to give good little English children their daily minimum requirement of screaming fits and shattered glass. He was followed in close proximity by the Shit Your Pants Pixie.

"But I don't want his badge or compensation. I just want to get the help I need. Drugs have wrecked my whole life. All I wanted was to get better." O'Connell said he was "hoping to get caught" last Wednesday during a five-hour robbery spree so he could get out of the drug culture and into treatment.

But he was trying to help dearie! In a hellish version of Obongo's economic stimulus package, the officer in question was also providing economic relief to London's unemployed carpenters, plasterers and glaziers and an opportunity to train emergency care doctors and nurses.

I wish Mr. O'Connell luck in his quest for sobriety. That he has survived thus far is perhaps an indication that God indeed has decided to intercede on his behalf. So I will pray to the Father of All Mercies that He will deliver Mr. O'Connell from his addictions and that the London Metropolitan Police Department will never give that officer a shotgun or hand grenades.

Scotland The Brave - Not

Last Friday I took my wife and my youngest daughter to my favorite pizza restaurant on Marshall Steet near Syracuse University - Cosmo's Pizza.

I have been eating pizza there since I was a SU freshman in 1967. I just love their pie and so does my family. After our dinner, we took a walk on the SU campus and ended up in front of the Hall of Languages which was the home office of the College of Liberal Arts where I got my BA degree.

I wanted to stop here to show my daughter something.

About fifty yards in front of this building is the memorial for 35 SU students murdered in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This is the memorial:

Today the evil son of a bitch who murdered those students and 244 other innocent souls was released from prison by Scottish authorities and allowed to return home to a hero's welcome in Libya. For humanitarian reasons because he is dying from prostate cancer.

Humanitarian reasons.

Savor those syllables. Allow yourself to roll that phrase around your head and then gently waft the contempt of the Scottish ministers to your senses. Immerse yourself in the irony.

I am outraged. I cannot imagine a deliberate act that is more calculated to infuriate the families of those students, the families of every victim of that terrorist act.

You can express yourself by sending an email to the Scottish Affairs Office here. This is what I sent.

I am a retired Syracuse Police Lieutenant and a 1971 graduate of Syracuse University. Last Friday I took my wife and daughter to view again the Lockerbie Memorial in front of the Hall of Languages.

The recent decision of your government to release Abdelbaset Al Megrahi to a hero's welcome in Libya is an outrage. This was a slap in the face to every American family who lost someone in that awful bombing. The government of Libya did everything it could to deny comfort to the families of those murdered by this piece of trash, and now you compound it by this act.

You are beneath contempt.

Always A First Time

Obama Unaccustomed to Having His Lies Challenged
By Doug Patton
August 17, 2009

Barack Obama is one of the most spoiled politicians ever to capture the imagination of a nation. He has enjoyed what author and newsman Bernard Goldberg has described as “a slobbering love affair” with the American media. So many members of the Fourth Estate in this country have so thoroughly compromised themselves to sell his radical agenda that the American people no longer trust them even to report the news. And now, as the president and his toadies in Congress run into a brick wall in their efforts to take over the American health care system, they are shocked to discover that many of the same people who put them in office last year are outraged at their lies.

American citizens have been vilified, marginalized, lied about and smeared by these Washington hucksters. Good people, frustrated at the arrogance of their government, are being called names like a mob, Nazis, evil-mongers, terrorists, etc. Meanwhile, the president and Congress are watching the poll numbers they live by fall into the basement. I wonder why. Most of us learned in kindergarten that when you call other people names, they are not likely to react kindly. And they certainly are not likely to vote for you again.

It is almost axiomatic that people tend to project their own motives onto their fellow citizens. With that in mind, think of the deceit of this president. He speaks of doctors who remove tonsils for the sheer greed and profit motive. Is that what is in his heart? Does he really believe that a doctor would remove a child’s tonsils just to make money?

Recently, he went a step further and suggested that physicians sometimes look at the profit contrast between administering oral diabetes medication or other treatment with “a $30,000 or $40,000 leg amputation.” This statement is so despicable on so many levels it is hard to know where to begin!

Let’s start with the fact that he was once again shooting from the lip with no earthly idea what he was talking about. There is no scenario where a doctor makes $30,000 or $40,000 for a leg amputation. Their compensation generally is between $900 and $6,000 depending on the complications. Therefore, it is tempting simply to dismiss Obama’s ignorance and not comment further; but he is, after all, the President of the United States, so further comment seems essential.

Does this president really have so little regard for the medical practitioners of this country that he believes an American physician would cut off a limb just to put money in his/her pocket? Is this how his mind works? Does he have no shame? Does he actually know of such a doctor? Does he have evidence of such a contemptible act? If so, why is he not reporting it? We all know the answer to that. He is simply a liar who will say or do anything to drive home his agenda.

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-IN, recently referred to the health care bill as “regrettable.” As a good friend of mine pointed out recently, “Regrettable is when I leave my car out in the rain with the windows down. This is an outrage!”

My friend is right, and one of the few people in public life with the guts to tell the American people the truth is Sarah Palin, who has described the health care bill as “evil.” She is right, of course, which is why Barack Obama’s political hit squads are working overtime to kill her chances of ever being anything more than the former governor of Alaska.

This White House and its goons in the media can tell lies until hell freezes over, but they will not stifle the American people’s thirst for the truth, especially about something as personal as their health care. We will not stand for this tyranny. We will hold Barack Obama and his accomplices accountable for their lies.
__________________________________________________________

© 2009 by Doug Patton
___________________________________________________________
Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.
___________________________________________________________

Here's How It Works

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the bar-owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings."I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man as he pointed to the tenth man,"But he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible



A big H/T to Charlie the Cop for this one.

Things Change

One of the most important elements of any criminal prosecution in America is the identification of the suspect beyond a reasonable doubt.

This has been a concern for law enforcement officials for millenia. In many ancient societies, criminals were branded or otherwise multilated in order to identify them.

A frenchman, Eugéne François Vidocq (1775-1857), of the Sûreté was the first person to actually try a system that used more scientific (and less brutal) methods to identify criminals. He simply proposed memorizing how people looked using policemen with above average memories - it wasn't much but it was a start. This was aided by the use of photography.

Another frenchman Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) developed a more rigorous system using physical measurements of the criminal. Starting around 1870, these measurements were rendered into a formula. About thirty years later the Bertillon System was discredited when it proven to be unreliable in a case in Kansas.

Fingerprints have been also been used to verify authorship or ownership for thousands of years. The Persians used them in the 1500's on government documents and the fact that no two fingerprints seemed alike was observed and a treatise written in 1686 by Marcello Malpighi, a Bologna , Italy, university professor.

The use of fingerprints as a means to ascertain personal identity slowly formed during the nineteenth century. In 1888 Sir Francis Galton, cousin to Charles Darwin, began to investigate the use of a criminal identification system based on fingerprints. The first criminal prosecution to actually use fingerprints to identify a suspect occurred in 1892 in Argentina. Both the Bertillon system and a rudimentary fingerprint classification system were in use in Argentina at the time.

In 1900 England adopted the Henry fingerprint classification system and in 1901 the Fingerprint Branch was created in Scotland Yard.

In the United States, the first government agency to utilize fringerprints for identifying criminals was the New York State Bureau of Prisons in 1903. In 1924 the FBI was ordered by Congress to create a fingerprint identification division. By 1946 over 100 million fingerprint cards were on file.

Now persons who are arrested are fingerprinted by special booking scanners. The defendant just palces his hands on the plastic lenses and a laser scans his prints. The prints are then stored in automated systems (AFIS) that classify them and search for hits.

Fingerprints are still a valuable tool, but the use of DNA has opened up entirely new identification techniques. DNA testing was haled as the new standard for criminal identification; states now routinely take DNA samples from everyone arrested for a fingerprintable offense (misdemeanors and felonies). This was widely greeted as progress, as the most accurate, infallable scientific method for determining the identity of a criminal or victim.

Until now.

Israeli scientists have shown that DNA evidence can be manufactured and used to implicate innocent people. In fact, for someone who has access to the equipment, it is easier to fabricate DNA evidence than it is to fake a fingerprint.

Of course this is not a situation where your typical crackhead will whip up a batch of fake DNA and smear it all over the prostitute he just killed. The equipment and skill set needed for this is still fairly sophisticated and beyond most citizens.

But I wonder about governments and the expensive laboratories they maintain...

DNC Wild Kingdom

In the wilds of Mount Victoria in the Phillipines, a new species of carnivorous plant has been discovered. It resembles a slipper and can kill large rats with its digestive juices. The stem portion can grow as large as four feet long.

Conservative scientists are experimenting with a variant that resembles a pair of Birkenstocks that will eat liberals from the feet up.

Man's Base Appetites

I was reading several Philadelphia Eagle fan blogs yesterday and was mildly surprised to see that the pro/con ration was maybe fifty/fifty.

I was over to my buddy Cookie's blog, the Cook Shack, this afternoon and read his take on Michael Vick's hiring by the Eagles and decided to examine my own feelings about his recent good fortune and to delve into the reason why I react to his situation the way I do.

About six years ago I was conducting some initial surveys of missing persons and unsolved homicides in our part of the state. I also got interested in the studies of serial murderers and found that some of them displayed their homicidal tendencies by killing animals.

This 2003 study cities the interview of violent and nonviolent offenders in a Florida correctional facility. The study found that there is a much higher likelihood that violent offenders, as children, committed acts of animal cruelty, particularly on their pets. What was even more chilling was that the manner in which these animals were tormented or killed resembled the manner that they tormented their human victims. This was not true for nonviolent offenders who also committed acts of animal cruelty as children.

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that Michael Vick is a serial killer, nor am I suggesting that he could be a serial killer in the future, nor that all those who engage in this activity are potential serial killers or potential violent felons.

I am suggesting that dog fighting is not a "sport" like hunting or racing. It is an ignoble exercise designed purely to satisfy a base human appetite for gambling, violence and bloodshed.

And I am suggesting this - that dog fighting will attract people who desire to see animals tear each other to pieces. Same thing goes for cock fighting.

This amuses them; this excites them, this entertains them. And perhaps for a small percentage of them, this will not be enough. And these are the people that will prey on humans. They have already become insensitive to suffering and bloodshed and like low grade pornography, they are ready for the next step.

It not only amused Michael Vick to witness this savagery, he provided an organized outlet so that others could satisfy their immoral, bloodthirsty appetite for suffering and death. And for this reason he should not participate in any professional sport.

It's not that I hate Mr. Vick; I don't hate him - I don't know enough about him to say whether or not he is an evil person. I realize that anyone can change their ways and that people can be redeemed (Jesus has done this for us) and conduct themselves as useful, productive citizens. And indeed I welcome the opportunity for Mr. Vick to prove himself. But there has to be an element of accountability. Professional sports must prove itself to be a haven for role models, not ex-offenders. We cannot, as a society, keep sending the message to our youth that no matter how completely you screw up, it doesn't matter. It does matter, it matters a lot. Our prisons are full of this message. Mr. Vick should be free to pursue any career he chooses (except perhaps as an animal trainer) but he should not be allowed to reenter professional sports. He had his shot and blew it.

Now I like to hunt. Last November I only had one chance to take a shot at a deer running by me. I completely missed it. I was very relieved that it was a complete miss because I did not want the animal to suffer while we tracked it down to dispatch it. I wanted a clean kill and then harvest the meat. If I did not intend to harvest the deer, I would not be out in the woods.

Hunting is a sport, a great sport. I feel acutely alive when I am hunting. Every sense is heightened. I am completely focused. Thoughts of work, finances, stress factor - all is gone as I concentrate on my physical surroundings and prepare myself for a possible encounter with some prey. Even if I do not see a deer (or a turkey), I walk out of the woods refreshed and revitalized; joking with my family and friends who have joined me for the morning.

This is hunting, this is sport. Dog fighting is a bloody, idle diversion that must be eliminated.

When Idiots Run For Office

I know this is old news, but I am still shocked at the incompetency of the Obongo people in how they lie to the American people. Truly, without the full blown cooperation of the Obongo News Network (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc.) this administration would have been stillborn last November. Well, mebbe not; McCain was DOA even before the RNC convention. His famous "Fight With Me" soliloquy was really, "Jerk Off With Me" and proved to be so at the ballot.

I am referring here to the Shelia Jackson Lee fiasco where an Obama supporter falsely portrays herself as a primary care physician at a news conference held in a hospital. The supporter, Roxana Mayer, is not even close to being a doctor.

Read the link, there's more as we see that someone else attending the faux conference also has socialist ties.

I swear, every time you kick over a stone in Obongo's front yard these damn commies come scurrying out like ants.

The 800 Step program

That's the number of steps that it takes to get to the top of this gorge located in the Watkins Glen State Park. You start at the doorway cut into the rock on the right side of the picture. The 800 Step Program begins there.


And the steps just keep on going past some of the most beautiful and unusual natural scenery you've ever seen.

There didn't seem to be much water in the gorge.
The further up you go the darker it gets as the ravine progresses. The foliage changes as the available light gets dimmer then brighter again. Pretty soon there are sections when the only plants you see are at the top of the ravine. Then suddenly there is more light and there are plants all over the rocky overhangs.

The path is very slick with condensation as you go up higher and higher. I was pretty slick with sweat myself. The stream and the various small falls cooled things off very nicely but the temperature was still almost ninety today and very humid.

We stopped to read a placard about an endangered species of dragon fly and were warned not to mess with them. About ninety seconds later one of the dang things decided to mess with us. It buzzed my daughter and she provided an amusing little dance for a few seconds. It landed on the ledge of the walkway and I snapped this pic. He's about two and a half inches long. He's wearing glasses.
We didn't make it all the way to the top; almost but not quite. My knees started throbbing and after another tourist warned us about the last set of stairs cut into the gorge, I decided to give these abused joints of mine a break. I am glad I did. I'm sitting on the sofa typing this and waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in.

There were plenty of folks taking pictures or just resting on the path. Luckily there were many sections were it was level or nearly so. It would have been more difficult if we were constantly climbing.
It was a easier going down (physically) but the stress on my knees was worse and the slick stone steps... well, ya had to be careful. I would hate to have to be carried out of the gorge on a stretcher.
I was kinda glad to see the parking lot at the end of the trail.
It was seven bucks to park and there was a pretty constant flow of traffic in and out of the park. People would walk the trail (about an hour) and then leave.

It took two hours to drive here, a round trip of 175 miles. On the way home we stopped at the Waterloo Retail Outlets for a bit of shopping and then a nice little country restaurant for a late lunch. Not a bad day at all.

I think we'll do Howe Caverns next. It's even closer to home - only about a hour and a half drive.

Obongo's Spokesman - Robert Goebbels

So where are the Nazis? I keep looking for them in those townhall meetings and I only see concerned and pissed off citizens. I wonder if what Gibbs and Pelosi and Reid are seeing is through an alcohol/cocaine inspired haze.

After listening to Obongo's propaganda minister, Herr Gibbs, for the past few days I find myself wondering when the lying son of a bitch will finally click his heels, snap to attention, toss his right arm up in the air and scream, "Jawohl Mein Führer!"

And while I wonder about Nazis lurking in Democratic cupboards, read some of these quotes from real Nazis, like Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

“Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.”

"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion."

And now from Herr Hitler himself:

"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. "

"If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed."

"The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force."

"The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."

The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.

What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.

Again I ask, who are the Nazis?

At The Races - NASCAR

I had an opportunity today to play hooky in Watkins Glen. I attended the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. My SIL had an extra ticket so I spent the day watching race cars go by me at 160 mph. The last time I was at Watkins Glen for a race was thirty years ago - the 24 Hour Endurance Run. My brother was a member of the pit crew for his boss and they needed me also - well, they needed another pickup truck and I came with the Ford F100 or no F100. It was very cool having access to the pits and watching second hand IROC Camaros trying to stay running for the entire race.

That was then. This is now. I forgot how noisy these cars are. There were several spectacular crashes and luckily no one was injured. Some 43 cars participated. There are only two road races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit. Watkins Glen is the roughest on brakes due to the number of turns. One turn requires that a driver slow down from 180 to 85 mph. The picture below is just before turn five.

The stands were still filling up when we got there at about 11:30 am. The race was rained out yesterday and my dauh=ghter and her family got soaked. We were hit with rather violent thunderstorms yesterday all through central NY and I was afraid that today was going to be a repeat. As it turned out, it was 92 degrees and partly sunny; thankfully there was a nice breeze and the rain held off until the race was over amd we were well on our way home.

Some of the pictures I took were during the red flag portion of the race when it took them over twenty monutes sto clear the wreakage off the track. They pulled over and parked just down from the turns (between 6 and 7) where we were sitting.

Those are NASCAR officials in white coveralls behind the safety cage on turn six.

This is for my daughter, go Army!

The race was red flagged on lap 63 after a real bad accident that eliminated about seven cars. They parked 'em and shut 'em down about 75 yards before turn five until they got the track cleared.

This is a picture from the last lap. The top ten finishers were:
1. Tony Stewart
2. Marcos Ambrose
3. Carl Edwards
4. Kyle Busch
5. Greg Biffle
6. Juan Pablo Montoya
7. Kurt Busch
8. Max Papis
9. Clint Bowyer
10. Denny Hamlin

Geezers N' Goons

There is a great post at WhizBang by Shawn Mallow that delves into the panic that must be gripping the administration of amateurs to inspire Obongo to issue the "hit them twice as hard" directive.

I am wondering if he would have the nerve to say that if it were detachments of Marines instead of senior citizens that was giving democratic congressman hell.

He's finally screwed the pooch this time. Drank from his well of invincibility one too many times to discover it's nothing but pure Kool-aid, and now his shiny, golden veneer is starting to strip away.

He and his gaggle of political goons are scared.

Of seniors. Your grandma standing up at a townhall meeting and shaking her arithic fist while screaming "No!" has the democrats crapping their pants.

As per his bidding, he and his White House Chicago thugs have been forced to regress from an empty "hope and change" blurb to violent rhetoric like "If you get hit, we will punch you back twice as hard."

Is this the Sopranos?

Valiant prose like that really makes one proud to be an American right now, doesn't it? Such class.

We are witnessing an administration and an entire political party to begin to unravel right before our weary eyes, and all in such a short amount of time.

In his attempt to take control over one-sixth of the US economy, it appears that Obongo is suffering from premature expropriation. And what a mess he has made of it. His liberal base is frustrated by limp popular support and surprised at the stiff resistance he has aroused. Obongo has instead proved to be political Viagra for conservatives.

Losing control of their seemingly once invincible aura, they have helplessly transformed almost overnight into a frightened Chicago street gang, who, frankly, have gotten the shit kicked out of them by the Neighborhood Watch program.

Get over yourself, America ain't buying the program Sparky.

This week was a turning point. It may well become the defining moment of Obama's presidency, making him one of the most destructive presidential care-takers in the history of our nation. His master plan of blowing up our country's institutions in favor of his own warped socialist desires, along with his willing, power-drunk congressional conspirators, is finally starting to sicken the citizenry.

To quote one of our past enemies, Obama has managed to "awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

He has no idea.

I'm praying that it is true.

Shoulda Seen It Coming

I was watching Glenn Beck this evening; the guest host was interviewing British EU representative, Daniel Hannan, and Hannan was speaking about the Brit's National Health Service. Hannan said something very profound and now it makes all the sense in the world why the dems are trying to cram national health care down our throats.

The British NHS is the third largest government employer IN THE WORLD.

IN. THE. WORLD.

The only larger government employers are:

1) the Chinese Army (2.8 million) and
2) India's Railways (1.6 million).

The British National Health Service employs 1.4 million - in comparison the US Army has about 547,000 soldiers - 10 divisions down from 18 (remember Al Gore's re-inventing government? That's where our government employees were cut).

The UK has a 2009 projected population of 61,113,000; 67.1% are between the ages of 15 to 64 years which is slightly over 41 million. We'll take that as the UK's labor pool.

So, if there are 1.4 million NHS employees - that means that 3.4% of all persons in the UK that are old enough to work are employed by the NHS. And according to Mr. Hannah, most of these workers are administrators, not doctors or nurses. Good heavens no! The Brits don't need people actually working to provide health service, they need people reporting on the people who are actually working.

Can you imagine how many government employees there would be in a USA version of the NHS? In a prior post i mentioned five or te thousand. Boy was I dreaming!

The USA has a 2009 projected population of 307,212,000 (CIA Factbook again) of which 67% are also between the ages of 15 and 64 (works out to 205,832,000). If there was the same ratio of public health employees in the USA as in England working for the NHS, that would translate to 7,028,000 persons.

US public health would be the largest employer in the world. Period.

Just think of it. All those employees"empowered" by the federal government - all those wage slaves beholden to the democrats.

This is the point that Hannan made, public health is nothing more than a power grab by the democrats to guarantee a bloc of voters who are not only sympathetic to the DNC, but actually dependent upon it for their livelihood.

Obama Wipes His Arse

Do you remember the scene from "Matrix: Reloaded" where the Frenchman, the Merovingian, states:

"I love French wine, like I the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favorite. Fantastic language. Especially to curse with. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculé de ta mère. It's like wiping your ass with silk. I love it."

President Obongo feels the same way about socialism.

"I love socialism, the same way I like race pimps. I have sampled every aspect of total state control. Socialism is my favorite. Fantastic system. Especially to rule over mindless morons, greedy bastards, traitorous democrats and eliminate patriots. It's like wiping your ass with the Constitution. I love it."

The Won

Gird, Not Grill

It's time, my fellow patriots, to gird your loins. Things are getting dicey; there is a lot of push back from both sides and the smoke and noise are getting thick. The dems are ignoring the voices of countless millions and they do so perhaps at their own peril, but then again - perhaps not. They are emboldened by the poser in the White House.

I have never seen or heard so many pissed off people in my life. People who never expressed any political opinions before are talking about the push for government sponsored health care and the arrogance of the government.

What are we to make of this? I feel that as a country we are on the cusp. We have allowed things to get out of hand and now we are paying for it. The socialists have been gradually turning up the temperature for decades, the water is starting to roil; it will be boiling very soon.

What will the politicians do? Gauging by their past performance I think that they will go along with their leadership and ram this crap down our throats.

What will we do? Gauging from our past performance ... nothing. Oh, there may be some isolated instances of resistance, but nothing that conventional law enforcement measures can't handle. And by resistance I don't mean a few hundred thousand people marching on DC. I mean people getting hurt, or worse.

The fact that it has gone this far indicates to me that perhaps we have reached the tipping point. I sure hope I'm wrong, but too many people are receiving cash and services from the government. Far too many people feel entitled; they refuse to be responsible for their own lives and demand that others take care of their "needs." They want everything but are willing to pay nothing, not even a pittance.

If you want it, then you have a right to it. Not only a right to it, you have the the right to impose it's cost, whatever it is, on others.

Health care as proposed by the liberal democrats will boil down to this. Illegal aliens between the ages of 20 and 40 will have more access to government health resources than a 70 year old American retiree who has paid taxes all his life.

Justice For Jefferson

Answer:
Frosty Francs
Siberian Shillings
Refrigerator Rupees
Polar Pesos
Shivering Shekels

Question:
What does a politician get when he hides his bribes in his freezer?

La. Congressman William Jefferson (D) was found guilty on 11 out of 16 bribery charges today by a Virginia federal jury.

Former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented parts of New Orleans, was accused of accepting more than $400,000 in bribes and seeking millions more in exchange for brokering business deals in Africa.

It took jurors five days to reach a decision after an eight-week trial. Most of the trial was government testimony. The defense wrapped up its case in a matter of hours.

The feds had Jefferson on tape brokering bribes. Of course the liberal MSNBC (I refuse to give them a link) tried to emphasize that he was found innocent of five bribery charges involving the $90,000 in cold cash recovered from his freezer, but he was found guilty of conspiring to pay other bribes involving African government officials.
Mheh.
Now Jefferson can keep his ass in the icebox so his federal bunk buddy has something cool to slip into at night.

It's Starting

Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media, wants "fishy" communications that disagree with the official position of Obongo the Circus President to be sent to the White House.

Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that "rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation." Phillips wrote "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

So if you blow in your father-in-law for casually criticizing the proposed health care bill over Sunday dinner, the White House will...

....

....

well, what?

I propose emailing this to the flag@whitehouse.gov address and let them know that the White House and the Democratic Party is disseminating disinformation about health care to the American public that something must be done about it.

UPDATE:
Vinnie at The Jawa Report has a great suggestion for that White House snitch address, just -

start using it as your email in blog comments. When the spam scrapers come along, they'll scrape it and start bombarding it with spam. I'm sure there's a spam filter, but, hey, it'll suck bandwidth.

Get lots of penis-enlargement spam yourself? Well, why not just forward it to the flag@whitehouse.gov email addy.

Brokeback Detective

I am watching the DVD "Iron Man" tonight. I really like Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark. He has a rather storied past but he is spot on for this role.

Then I find out that Director Guy Ritchie is filming a queer Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downy Jr. as Sherlock and Jude Law as his assistant/lover Watson.

I mean, really ... wth? Does Professor Moriarity make it a threesome?

But former Post movie critic Michael Medved doesn't think much of the new offering from Ritchie, Madonna's former husband.

"There's not a seething, bubbling hunger to see straight stars impersonating homosexuals," he told Page Six.

"They know that making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office. Who is going to want to see Downey Jr. and Law make out? I don't think it would be appealing to women. Straight men don't want to see it."

But that's not the point - it never is and it never was. This movie is a social statement and the people bankrolling this cinematographic turd do not expect to make a dime. Profit is of no concern to those who are bent on the corruption of the entire nation. I wonder if Soros has a piece of this action.

Product Placement

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.-- John Adams

A big H/T to Charlie the Chicago cop.

Got Dem Car Clunker Union Blues

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Four of the top five models sold so far under the U.S. “cash for clunkers” program, aimed at boosting the auto industry, are made by foreign automakers, according to Transportation Department data.

Ford Motor Co.’s Focus was the top seller, followed by Toyota Motor Corp.’s Corolla, Honda Motor Co.'s Civic and Toyota’s Prius and Camry, data from the department showed today.

Looks like the United Auto Workers are not gonna get another heavy dose of taxpayer relief as eighty percent of the top models are not American manufacturers. The Obongo administration is also not releasing the data on this program either. Over 150,000 requests for clunker rebates have been received so far from auto dealers but we don't know how many were for Ford vehicles.

This could be embarassing for Obongo and his Circus Czars. American consumers could be reacting to the unprecedented federal takeover of automobile manufacturers and the blatant support of UAW pension funds with taxpayer money. I would really like to see the numbers on these rebate requests.

I bought a Ford last year for myself and a Chevy for my wife the year before. I will never own another Chevy or Chrysler after this years corporate buy out. Ford did not receive one, but they still employ UAW workers and I doubt that I will allow the UAW to build another car for me.

Makes Me Nervous

I never saw a close up of the new Surgeon General of the United States. But if I was bent over a gurney with my pants around my ankles and heard someone enter the room snapping on a pair of latex gloves, I surely would not want to glance around behind me and see her wriggling her fingers in anticipation.

I want someone who can demonstrate authority over their own appetites before they cram their hamhock fingers into unmentionable places that don't belong to them.

In this picture it looks like she is tracking a corndog as it makes its way down a ballpark aisle.

Government Healthcare

Do you want to know what really bothers me about the government taking over health care?
Bureaucrats.

I have worked for local government most of my adult life. I have seen the various attitudes of civil servants; they range from super conscientious to out right lazy frauds. Most lie somewhere in the middle. Not that they are bad mind you, but they are all subject to civil service-itis. You do what you need to do to get by. Sometimes in order to get by you don't have to do much at all. Just keep your supervisor happy (that can be another problem!) and don't do anything outrageously stupid.

But there is one thing that a bureaucrat wants above everything else - stay gainfully employed. Let's face it. Real go-getters do not go into government for the most part. Many bureaucrats are less than ideally situated for service type positions and the standards for government employees are also less than ideal, even more so with minorities.

I am sick of talking to idiots that you can barely understand. I am sick of dealing with bureaucrats that put you on hold and pass you off to someone else because they are too damn lazy to actually do something for you.

Several years ago it took me three days of constant phone calls, two and a half hours a day, to finally get someone in the IRS to help me recover a $1,000 refund that the IRS would not send me. I was literally a shuttlecock in a bureaucratic game of badminton. I have never had to talk to so many surly, useless assholes in my life.

I do not want to have to go through the same thing when an life saving operation or medication is denied me by some jackass in Washington with a GED who knows nothing about medical procedures but plenty about petty-assed rules and regulations. I want my doctor to be making those decisions.

This is the rub. Bureaucrats do not work for you. They work for the government and if the government/politicians wants to cut health care cuts by 25%, all the bureaucrat has to do is deny one quarter of all the claims that cross his desk. It's simple. No consideration is needed other than a scrap of paper with a running tally of the day's calls. Every forth caller gets screwed and the desk jockey is a hero. That desk jockey is hundreds or thousands of miles away. He is insulated by thousands of other office monkeys just like himself. If you get real pissed of and threaten them or mock them or make them feel uncomfortable, you'll have your ass hauled off before a federal magistrate. It is happening already.

And bear this in mind:

It will take thousands upon thousands of brand new government employees to handle this juggernaut.

All of them brand spanking new bureaucrats to run one-sixth of the US economy. And guess who will be hired? ACORN type idiots. If Obongo can't get his Brownshirts one way, he'll get them another. Government databases can and will be used to filter requests - this will just be another way of controlling an unruly population. Piss off the government types and your prescription for beta blockers goes south. Criticize a congressman and you'll never see that stent. But full speed ahead for abortions and transgenderized freaks who want both types of plumbing and tits on their front and back to entertain their friends. Sorry about that image. Back to business.

As of January 1, 2009, there were 1.9 million civilians employed by the federal government, not including 1.4 million sworn personnel in the military. Go here to find out how many federal employees and retirees are in your state and county as of 2008. Then perhaps increase it by who knows how much if Obongo and the democrats have their way.

Let's see how much.

I looked up the open job categories in the US Dept. Health and Human Services. I selected a low level Accounting Technician (GS-0525-5) that starts at $30,772/year. Even if just 10,000 new clerks are needed (low ball) that is still a cost of over $307 million. Factor in another 25% (again low ball) for fringe benefits and we are now considering reoccurring personnel costs of over $375 million a year without providing a single additional aspirin.

Say that we only need half that amount - 5,000 clerks; that's still a start up personnel cost of almost $190 million and you'll still need probably two or three hundred supervisors at twice the cost of an account technician; that's an additional 15 to 23 million dollars.

And where will these people work? New construction? Rent out existing structures for 5,000 workers? For crying out loud, 5,000 people need toilets - who is going to clean them and replace the soap and paper towels?

What is the cost going to be for desks and chairs and telephones and utilities and parking and janitorial services; data processing/computer/application program support cost?

And where will the feds find these people? Unemployed billing clerks who lost their jobs when Uncle Sam became Dr. Sam?

This US Dept. of Labor website lists the number of billing and postal clerks associated with the health care industry. I did some thumbnail addition for "Billing and posting clerks and machine operators" for all employer types that would most likely come under government control once we have socialized medicine.

In 2006 this number was over 112,000. That is slightly over twenty percent of all billing/postal clerks in the nation. And lets not forget that this does not include the billing/clerical/accounting positions already existing in the Federal government.

In physicians' offices alone there are over 92,000 billing/postal clerks (in 2006) who mostly handle insurance claims. That's what my wife does every day (medical billing) for a small group of doctors. Now factor this: the feds will most likely not hire enough clerks to handle the volume of claims.

Remember, those 92,000 clerks in doctors' offices all over the country will be calling and faxing and emailing claims to the federal government (not including hospitals and clinics and pharmacies, etc.). This is where the delays will come in. Nine months to get permission for an MRI? A year and a half before you are notified that your request for brain surgery has been denied? Sounds an awful lot like the UK and Canada to me.

Do the math. This is the government who cannot give you an idea about the effect of providing medical services to millions and millions of illegal aliens, but can tell you the location of every cow on every farm in the country who may have some kind of bovine disorder.

This is going to be a real cluster.

Useless

The following story took my breath away. I have never heard of such negligence/cowardice on behalf of supposedly trained first responders. God forbid if this is what the Obongo-ites have in store for us once the government takes over our health care. This is a classic example of how liberals save money by allowing people to die. From the UK Daily Mail:

Police, firemen and paramedics refused to go to the aid of an accident victim who was drowning in just 18 inches of water... because they believed it was too dangerous.

A senior fire officer banned his men from using ropes and ladders to climb down a 15ft bank to the victim after carrying out a ‘risk assessment’.

Acting on advice, ten police officers who attended the emergency also failed to rescue father-of-three Karl Malton, 32, as he lay face down in the shallow ditch.

This unconscious victim of an auto accident died while over a dozen emergency personnel stood around and did absolutely nothing.

His body lay there for three hours after a decision was made to send for a ‘water rescue team’ based more than 50 miles away.

When relatives arrived at the scene, they found emergency workers standing around drinking tea.

Oops, didn't catch this first time around. They were doing something. My bad.

An inquest into Mr Malton’s death yesterday heard that officers no longer have to swim or receive life-saving training.

Last night Mr Malton’s father Peter branded the emergency services’ response to the tragic accident as ‘unacceptable’.

Officers don't have to swim?? The poor SOB was in 18 inches of water!! They only had to wade through knee deep water and turn him over! Check for a pulse! Do something!

I don't call this unacceptable, this is criminal negligent homicide, which is- "The failure to use reasonable care to avoid consequences that threaten or harm the safety of the public and that are the foreseeable outcome of acting in a particular manner."

These assholes stood by and did nothing to provide assistance. I would hazard an opinion that the death of Mr. Malton was the forseeable outcome of ... drinking tea. Might as well throw grand larceny and official misconduct into the charges; they were getting paid to save lives and stood around instead with their thumbs up their arses.

Can you imagine professional firefighters arriving on the scene of a major conflagration and doing nothing but drink tea while people scream for help behind a wall of smoke and flames?

The case has prompted fresh controversy over how health and safety restrictions are preventing the emergency services from fulfilling their most basic duties. The issue flared up two years ago after another inquest heard how two police community.

Oh sweet Christmas, you mean this has happened before? No public oficials have been beaten to death yet? What are these safety restrictions?

Paramedic Sonya Lawrence arrived within 14 minutes but began to search on the nearside of the car, although it was damaged on the offside.

Another 19 minutes later a second ambulance crew arrived and found Mr Malton, who had been thrown unconscious into the dyke by the collision.

He was lying face down in the water and appeared to be dead. Paramedic Fergus White climbed over a barrier before deciding it was too dangerous to go down the bank.

‘If we had access to him we would have carried out resuscitation but we had no access,’ he said. ‘The bank was very steep and unstable.’

Mr White admitted he could not be ‘100 per cent sure’ that Mr Malton was dead. After a further 28 minutes a team of firemen arrived and set up ladders and ropes on the bankside but were ordered to stop by senior officer Edward Holliday.

I think of my career and the number of times I put myself at risk. I think of my fellow officers who did even more. I think of all the cops and firefighters who have died in the line of duty. Then I read what this idiot has to say:

Mr Holliday said: ‘I made the assessment that it would be inadvisable to enter the dyke until a properly trained and prepared crew arrived.’

He called in a water rescue team from Lincoln, more than 50 miles away. Mr Malton’s body was finally recovered using a boat at 2.18 am, more than three hours after the crash.

Now look at the following photograph. It is representative of the drainage ditches that line the roads in this area of England.

This is the sight that terrified English public safety officers; an 18 inch deep water hazard in Satan's Ditch paralyzed them with fear. You'd think the cops were facing a Wehrmacht Panzer Division on the other side of the Rhine.

Thank God they all refused to endanger their afternoon tea and stayed on the road surface where it was safe for Earl Grey. In complete safety they waited for someone to bring them a Higgins Boat or some damn rowboat located fifty miles away.

So they could rescue a man who was lying in 18 inches of water.

Today, are these the same type of people who stormed ashore at Gold Beach on D Day?

I. Think. Not.

I am somewhat embarrassed to think that I was in the same profession as this crew of incompetents and cowards.

Obongo's Shovel Ready Medical Plan For Seniors

H/T to USA Admiral