Author Archives: Dick

Keys Disease

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I like the Keys. I like living in the Keys. I like writing in the Keys. I like people watching in the Keys. I like sitting on the beach in the Keys. I like the Keys.

I do not like shopping in the Keys. It is simplicity itself to find a hat shaped like Flipper or a concrete mailbox support shaped like a mermaid or a manatee in the Keys. But KMart™ never has Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi™ when it is on sale, Home Depot™ doesn’t have the hinges I need for my kitchen cabinets, and Walgreens™ is out of milk. Again™.

Who cares.

It’s the Keys, mon.

Last week a manatee came right up to the boat to say Hi. With Mother’s Day just passed, another momma manatee with two calves swam in and out of our canals. Fisheries experts count just 1,000-3,000 manatee in all of Florida, so passing the time with one right here is special. I also saw my first leopard ray at my own beach last week. I swam with the dolphins. OK, OK, I actually swam near the dolphins but that was probably wise when a pod of them herded their evening meal up near the beach.

And today, I was attacked by a little amber colored crab in about three feet of water. That sucker was outgunned about 1,040:1 if we count sheer avoirdupois. I guess I should be glad he saw my back before he realized he could swim up the leg of my trunks.

I took one of my most praiseworthy photographs in the Keys last year (You can see that one along with some other seascapes here). But I took the best ever photo today and you can see that one right here.

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I like the Keys.

First They Steal…

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First Burma (Myanmar)’s military junta refuses aid. Then the junta steals the aid that does get through. This is an object lesson in how to kill your own people–deliberately–without firing a shot.

Once upon a time, the World Court prosecuted War Criminals. Is it time to prosecute these “Peace Criminals”?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

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Every Florida Democrat in Congress has written to Democratic Party Chair (and former Vermont Governor) Howard Dean. The congress critters have insisted that Governor Dean respect the Florida voters by seating the Florida delegates at the upcoming Democratic convention.

Huh?

Perhaps every Florida Democrat in Congress needs to have some respect for the rules of their own party. After all, it was the Florida Democrats who broke their own rules by holding their primary elections too early. The Florida Democrats knew they were breaking the rules because the Party leadership and every media outlet in the known universe told them so. I reckon even Al Jazeera carried that particular story.

Now they want to break the rules again.

Does anybody wonder why I don’t want to be a Democrat in any state?

Vamping Us

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The undead are popular this year. Moonlight, the CBS Friday night crime drama with a vampire as the lead detective, drew a 2.1 share last Friday. That may have been the episode in which our hero came back to life and then reverted to his nighttime habits, but the show is popular every week.

Vampire Power. David Pogue in the NYTimes calls it “the juice consumed by electronic gadgets even when they’re turned off (also called phantom loads, standby power or leaking electricity). They just sit there, plugged in, sucking electricity, at a cost to you and to the environment. According to the Energy Department, vampire gadgets account for about 25 percent of total residential electricity consumption in the U.S.”

Say what?

OK, I admit that we have a teevee or two, more than our share of VCRs that show the time rather than blinking, and a couple or seven electronic phones. We also have a refrigerator and two freezers along with a water pump to pump the water in and a sump pump to pump it out, an electric mattress pad, and an electric stove.

This household burns through 666 KW-Hrs per month or so. Vampire power measured in watts is 25% of that kilowatt load? So those blinking green lights would account for 167 KW-Hrs per month? 167 KW-Hrs??? I don’t think so.

This sounds more like the Far Green in action. I need proof. Like actual, measured data, instead of being vamped by hyperbole.


Congress is planning to announce a possible investigation into something. Whew. That ought to keep them out of trouble for the entire term.

Socialized Medicine in a Genuinely Socialized Country

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Li Rifu and Chen Yanfe live in Shuang Miao, a rural village in east-central China’s Zhejiang Province. Last year, Mr. Li and his wife were both diagnosed with cancer.

The NYTimes reported that “Ms. Chen’s reproductive tract cancer has gone into remission after $7,000 in medical bills. But Mr. Li’s fist-size malignant prostate cancer tumor has resisted two operations and four rounds of chemotherapy.”

They have spent nearly $50,000.

Of their own money.

In China where care is nominally free.

“With payments from the local health insurance fund capped at $4,300 a person per year, Mr. Li has had to sell many of his possessions, and still he has had to go into debt.

“It is a common occurrence in this country, nominally communist, but with little or no safety net.”

Medical care is more expensive in the U.S. than in China. Health care costs are skyrocketing here and health insurance premiums have risen four times faster than wages since 2000 according to the Scranton Times Tribune .

About 46.6 million people in the United States were without health care insurance in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.

As an aside, our U.S. believers in socialized medicine would have us emulate Canada, not China. Milk in Canada costs about $8/gallon.

Our U.S. believers in socialized medicine all have plans for affordable coverage for everyone. Their plans offer to cover all essential medical services with affordable premiums, co-pays, and deductibles and guarantee eligibility. Those covered will have income sensitive federal subsidies to buy the mandated insurance. Medicaid and SCHIP will expand. The plan will require employers to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the cost of a national insurance plan.

Let’s see. Federal mandates. Federal subsidies. Federal bureaucracy. That’s a great prescription. Reduced patient care. Increased taxes. Increased wait times. And “Press 2 for English.” Yeah, that sounds like Canadian health care.

Back to China. China has an economy growing over 10% annually. China has cradle to (early) grave medical coverage. China caps health care benefits at $4,300 per person.

I wonder what cap our U.S. believers in socialized medicine will impose.