Marvels of government-provided healthcare: Cardboard nurses

A couple of years ago I posted on the disastrous French healthcare system. Bad as it is, at least the French haven't resorted to the British healthcare's latest gimmick: CARDBOARD nurses.

Yessiree... cardboard nurses. Life-sized cardboard cutouts with voice boxes nagging telling people to clean their hands. The real problem is that bacteria-caused deaths are on the rise.

And how did that cardboard nurse program work out, you ask? Expat Yank has the details.

Maybe next time they'll come up with cardboard cutouts of Clive Owen or maybe Bear Grylls and see if people pay attention.



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Bureaucrats gone wild

At the passport office: The electronic chips used in US passports got outsourced to Taiwan because no American company meets the standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization and required by the State Department for border crossing procedures that involve the computer chip. How about finding a US company who is willing to develop it?

At the airline security check: Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring. Why anybody would be insane enough to get a nipple ring in the first place remains a mystery to me, but this is even more insane.

A guy in the UK got billed for the gas explosion that blew up his home.

Not only will bureaucrats make your life difficult, they make burial impossible: After a zoning commission refused a French village a permit to expand its (already full) cemetery, the mayor makes a symbolic gesture and bans anyone from dying, since there is no place left to bury them.

And you want the government in charge of your health care?



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"Don't treat the old and unhealthy", and the Sunday items

The government giveth, the government taketh away:
Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.
...
Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

Fertility treatment and "social" abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.

I wonder what the American abortion-on-demand crowd would say to that.

But don't expect the British hospital doctors to want to look after you when you are old and ailing:

One in three said that elderly patients should not be given free treatment if it were unlikely to do them good for long. Half thought that smokers should be denied a heart bypass, while a quarter believed that the obese should be denied hip replacements.

Richard Fernandez posts about the survey and comments,

Those unwilling to trust that there is meaning to universe can still hope there will be beds available at the NHS or compassion in the heart of a bureaucrat.

Small wonder that 70,000 patients have had to go overseas for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs.

The poor, and those who are too sick to travel, have no choice at all.

GM Roper had a few questions,

Do we tell the poor who tend to have more physical illnesses than more wealthy folk "Sorry, your poor choices of food, tobacco, alcohol, fill in the blank have made treatment for you impossible?"

Do we tell the elderly that "Sorry, your age makes you a poor candidate for open heart surgery?"

Do we empty the nursing homes because some of those patients won't ever get better?

Do we pull a Terri Schiavo on our handicapped because afterall, most handicapps are life long?

The fact of the matter is, that eventually choices must be made because as one commenter at Tom Smith's article noted it is either on the front end with insurance or on the back end with national health care. And, despite the Democrat pie in the sky dreaming, we cannot possibly provide all health care to all people in the country at any reasonable cost.

Cuban health care is an apartheid system where even Castro had to get a foreign specialist for his surgery. Even the Washington Post is documenting the failure of the Cuban health care system.

Another thing that those who praise the "free Cuban health care system" don't want you to know is that the medics regularly have to come to your house and go through your personal effects searching for evidence of your personal habits, such as the drugs you take, whether you smoke, and what you drink. How many Americans would be willing to even contemplate the thought of having a government employee violate their privacy for the sake of "free" health care?

But what about France, you ask? On March 18, 2006 I posted a list of links from the BBC on how the French health care system fails its patients. (you might have to go to the March 2006 archive and scroll down).

Health care is not free: as The Anchoress said,

There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. You pay for it, yes, with taxes, but also with incremental decreases in personal liberty.

Who is responsible for triage?

This week's WSJ's Five Best books, on the challenges of living with illnesses, selected by Laura Landro:




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The film about the very ill Edith Piaf has received 11 nominations at France's Cesar film awards.

I hope the beautiful Marion Cotillard wins the Best Actress award at the Oscars, the Cesars, and the Baftas. She was sensational.

I reviewed the movie last July. Here's the trailer


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Instead of shoes today, handbags:
Why 'It' Bags Are Out
Luxury bags fall victim to their own success; exclusive over ostentatious

Instead of one hot, recognizable style, retailers this spring will be pushing a variety of styles and brands, many of them lesser-known. Intermix, a high-end New York-based retail chain, is making a big push for handbags from labels such as Zagliani and Lanvin. Scoop is stressing Jamin Puech, Whiting & Davis and other relatively unknown, expensive brands. For spring, Henri Bendel is picking up LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton's brand Loewe, which is popular in Asia but hasn't been widely sold in the U.S.

I own Coach stock, so here is a suggestion,

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Send Little Miss Attila to CPAC! Here's how
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The Carnival of the Insanities is up!



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Iowa, Laurie's 100k, and more FIHMYs

Huckabee, Obama have huge night in Iowa. Don Surber has the photos.

Betsy says, Poor Hillary: they're just not into you.

Friend I Haven't Met Yet (FIHMY) Jeremayakovka's having huckmares, while Beth (another FIHMY) calls Iowa an archaic, stupid, expensive, absurd process that gives undue weight to voters that do not represent America as a whole.

Update
Iowa caucus critique
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FIHMY Laurie Kendrick is celebrating her first 100,000 views. Go say hi and help her get to 200,000.
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Maria - a very dear friend who's put up with me for decades - tells me that A cold spell soon to replace global warming. Right now it's 14F outside, so I want to know where's my global warming, or has it been replaced already?
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Another friend I haven't met yet, GM Roper, posts on healthcare: Just Give Me A Corner To Die In. The Anchoress (also a FIHMY) realizes that If you're not perfect you might as well just die, while Doug Ross (also a FIHMY) finds a sickening punchline.
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After Wednesday's troubles with my podcast, which had to be cancelled, I'll be doing a 15-minute podcast today at 11AM. FIHMY Siggy will be calling in, and you can join us by calling (646) 652-2639, and I'll also have live chat. It would be a big help if you could join us.

Hopefully this one will go better than Wednesday's!



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The Edwards love child, and today's other stories (if there are any)

If you go to the link, National Enquirer World Exclusive: John Edwards Love Child Scandal! there's nothing there. The Enquirer pulled it.
Update, 12:20PM: the article's back up.

However, this being the internet, Doug Ross has capture and text, on the affair with Rielle Hunter.

Ace quotes from No Prisoners,

This is a perfect "one-two" punch by the Clintons. First, have some cutout mention that the Republicans might make hay out of a question about Obama "selling" drugs. Second, have a tabloid allege that Edwards has fathered a child while his loving, devoted, wife if dying of cancer. Since all sources are either being denied/fired or suspect, the damage is not enough to knock out either opponent - only weaken them. This way the two (Obama and Edwards) can split the anti-Hillary! vote but, both remain in the race (with reduced support) so she doesn't have to face only one strong contender.

This is pure Clinton "magic".

Dan Riehl has the video Hunter made for the Edwards campaign.

Politico has the story on Roger Altman, The Clintonite who owns National Enquirer

But hey, another married man claims to be the baby's father.

Sing it, Diana!

Ooh, ooh, ooh....aaaahhh

You think that I don't feel love
What I feel for you is real love
In other's eyes I see reflected
A hurt, scorned, rejected

Love child
Never meant to be
Love Child
Born in poverty
Love Child
Never meant to be
Love Child
Take a look at me

Started my life
In a old, cold, run-down tenament slum (tenement slum)
My father left he never even married mama
I shared the guilt my mama knew
So afraid that others knew I had no name

This love we're contemplatin'
Is worth the pain of waitin'
We'll only end up hatin'
The child we may be creatin'

Love Child
Never meant to be
Love Child
(Scorned by) Society
Love Child
Always second best
Love Child
(Different from) Different from the rest

(Hold on hold on just a little bit longer) Mmmmm baby
(Hold on hold on just a little bit longer) Mmmmm baby

I started school
And a worn, torn dress that somebody threw out
(Somebody threw out)
I knew the way it felt to always live in doubt
To be without the simple things
So afraid my friends would see the guilt in me

Don't think that I don't need ya
Don't think I don't want to please ya
But no child of mine will be bearing
The name of shame I've been wearing

Love Child
Love Child
Never quite as good
Afraid, ashamed
Misunderstood

But I'll always love you
Always love you

I'll always love you
Always love you

I warned them and warned them and warned them.
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Hillary wants to show she's likable, so Bill goes on Entertainment Tonight while she stays in the helicopter.



The Anchores thinks Bill doesn't want Hillary to win.

(Note to Hillary: If you want to project the image of the leader of the free world, don't stand next to anyone who dwarfs you phisically.)
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UNICEF's picture of the year:

An 11-yr old girl being married to a pedophile.

Where is UNICEF?
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Mass. Universal Care Faces Year-2 Reality

For those who like to believe there’s a free lunch, the table at Massachusetts' universal health care scheme is being pared.
...
The Boston Globe reports on Massachusetts' changes for 2008: "The changes will probably cut payments to doctors and hospitals, reduce choices for patients, and possibly increase how much patients have to pay."

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Via Maria, Dennis Prager writes about Secular Europe or Religious America?


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Abortion and Oscar Elias Biscet

If you read yesterday's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean you know that President Bush has awarded Cuban political prisoner Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor:

Oscar Elias Biscet is a champion in the fight against tyranny and oppression. Despite being persecuted and imprisoned for his beliefs, he continues to advocate for a free Cuba in which the rights of all people are respected.

Mary Anastasia O'Grady explains how Dr. Biscet came about to his path as a dissident:

He is a medical doctor. He got his degree in 1985 and just the next year he started having problems with the government and the way it operates its medical system.

But in 1998 what the did was, he started investigating the use of a drug called rivenal to achieve abortions of advanced pregnancies and he produced a study which showed that the fetuses were actually being born alive and then the umbilical cord was cut and they were allowed to bleed to death or they were being asphyxiated in paper bags, and he produced a study, he presented it to the government, and he also denounced the government for its policies.

He was fired from his job, and things have gone from bad to worse for him in the sense that his conscience just did not allow him to go back.

You can watch Ms O'Grady's WSJ interview here.

In her article, Ms O'Grady explains,

In 1998, at a Havana hospital, he took the risk of engaging in a clandestine study on the administration of a drug called rivanol to abort advanced pregnancies. The drug was being widely used, particularly on girls as young as 12, who, having been forced to leave their parents and work in rural areas as part of their schooling, found themselves "in trouble."

Let me call attention to the fact that children are forced to do this: they belong to the state as soon as they turn twelve years old. Many of the girls are raped by adults in charge of the farms. I know a woman who was raped under those circumstances: there was no possibility of prosecuting the man who raped her. Fortunately she did not get pregnant.

Ms O'Grady's article continues,

The study concluded that rivanol resulted in viable fetuses being born alive. What often happened next horrified Dr. Biscet, who later wrote that, "the umbilical cord was cut and they were allowed to bleed to death or they were wrapped in paper and asphyxiated."

As a result of his vocal opposition to these abortion practices he lost his job, his family lost their home and Castro's goons were sent to beat him up.

These are the conditions under which Dr. Biscet is held when in solitary confinement:

I have translated the video:

In the video, Dr. Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejon, explains (at great risk to herself) that this is a full-scale replica of the dungeon in which Dr. Biscet was imprisoned, "despite the fact that Cuba has signed international agreements and rules on prisoner treatment".

Ms Morejon points to a piece of paper with her husband's words on the front wall of the dungeon. Dr. Biscet spent the months of November and December, 2004, including New Year's Eve, in a dungeon like it. She points to the narrow slot on the door, for delivery of food, and in some dungeons the slots are positioned at different heights. "There are no windows, no lights since for a while he didn't have a light bulb, no ventilation, in Cuba, a country with very high temperatures".

Inside the dungeon she points to a pipe for water, a hole for latrine. She shows the actual shoes he owned during that period, and how the leather rotted. She lists the meager possessions a prisoner is allowed: underwear, a towel, a sheet, toothpaste, cup, toothbrush, soap, deodorant, sometimes prisoners are allowed to have their Bible with them. No bed is provided. The prisoner sleeps on the floor, and "sometimes they are brought a filthy mattress at 10PM".

The food they are given is unfit for human consumption.

Ms Morejon asks, "We ask the world to intercede and ask Cuba to set my husband free. He's a man who loves God and justice, who believes in non-violence, and shouldn't be there [in prison], because all he's asked for is to live in democracy in his own country".

Notice how both videos point to a total disregard for human life.

Dr. Biscet's activism started when he saw how newborn children were murdered. Now he is suffering for his decency.

Dr Sanity has posted on the illness of the soul of the island prison's regime:

The apologists of tyranny are again hard at work trying to redeem the one of the last outposts of communist enslavement. They see a "worker's paradise"; a "healthcare utopia", but underneath the civilized veneer of Castro's Cuba is the same deadening illness of the soul that infected all the other failed communist and socialist "paradises".

And for that illness, the only cure is Freedom.

(Follow the links at my post for more on the subject.)



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Sarko walks out on 60 minutes, 70,000 walk out on NHS

Sarkozy walks out of TV interview: Sarko wasn't going to talk about his divorce, and he didn't:

"If I had something to say about Cecilia, I would not do so here," he said before cutting off further questions.

I like that.

No Pasaran has the link to 60 Minutes

Update, Friday November 2:
Kyle-Anne Shiver:

So, to all our American men, who have been cowed by the unisex armies of overbearing loud-mouthed gossips, I say it's high time you throw off the shackles of politically-correct indulgence and join the Sarkozy revolution. You too can be real men again, and all the real women will love you for it. Catty gossip has no place in the public discourse, and simply standing your ground and saying so, in no way makes you a "Male Chauvinist Pig," or even a borderline "sexist." It simply makes you a self-respecting gentleman of the highest order.

Amen to that!
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The latest trend in outsourcing:
Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS

Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.

And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.

The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.

Meanwhile at the Times of London, Quack Michael Moore has mad view of the NHS.

I expect Michael Moore will be rewarded with an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Update:
Welcome, Blog Report visitors.
Please read this week's Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, and please visit often.


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That "right wing baseless smear" meme on SCHIP

This morning's top story at Memeorandum is Right Wing Launches Baseless Against 12 Year Old Recipient of SCHIP", claiming that the kid's been "swiftboated", to which Macsmind replies Left Wing (George Soros) website defends RICHY RICH Family with BASELESS Defense.

Here is the situation: In present-day America health insurance is tied to employment. Mr. and Mrs. Frost have chosen not to seek employment in a large company that would provide health insurance (which is never "free") to their family. That is their prerogative.

However, they do have substantial assets, and nowadays thousands of self-employed people with less assets than the Frosts do pay directly for their own health insurance. Again, Macsmind,

I have a wife who has survived cancer (twice) and has ongoing medical conditions. I make 40,000 a year and struggle to pay insurance but pay I do. I won't even get into the outstanding medical bills. I don't drive a fancy car or have a hope in prayer of buying a house such as theirs. Nevertheless, the Frosts have made crappy financial decisions and are wrong to expect the government to bail them out.

The Dems are complaining that the "Right Wing" is picking on an innocent twelve year old.

Well, who decided to exploit the twelve year old in the first place? Mark Steyn points out,

Sorry, no sale. The Democrats chose to outsource their airtime to a Seventh Grader. If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man's job, then the boy is fair game. As it is, the Dems do enough cynical and opportunist hiding behind biography and identity, and it's incredibly tedious. And anytime I send my seven-year-old out to argue policy you're welcome to clobber him, too. The alternative is a world in which genuine debate is ended and, as happened with Master Frost, politics dwindles down to professional staffers writing scripts to be mouthed by Equity moppets.

But one thing is clear by now: Whatever the truth about this boy's private school, his family home, his father's commercial property, etc, the Frosts are a very particular situation and do not illustrate any social generality - and certainly not one that makes the case for an expensive expansive all-but universal entitlement,

Flopping Aces commenter:

If the family income is as reported they were already eligible for S-Chip in Maryland. The irony however is that at the end of the day this young man received hundreds of thousands of dollars of care at someone's expense because he needed it, whether he had private insurance or public assistance. It would seem the real beneficiary here would be the hospital and doctors who weren't paid for his care rather than the young man whose parents wouldn't or couldn't pay for private insurance and didn't bother to apply for S-Chip in Maryland or didn't know they could. Either way this bill is not the answer to this young man's alleged problem.

Let's make clear that every issue - be it on entitlements or whatever else - that is debated "for the children" should be debated fully and clearly. The moment anyone presents a "for the children" argument, you know that a full and clear debate is exactly what they are trying to avoid.

Update: Policy or pathos?



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Dean, and today's items

Via Instapundit, hurricane Dean is getting worse. The Irish Trojan's Blog advises that people in Jamaica and the Yucatan peninsula leave the area now. This is the time to do it, folks.
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Princeton University tops the US News & World Report list of American Colleges and Universities.

On the one hand, while I'm not a PU alumna, I've greatly enjoyed all the classes that I've audited at PU: The professors are enthusiastically pleased to be teaching undergraduates, they are throughly knowledgeable in their fields, and I greatly admire their scholarship and human qualities.
On the other hand, with an endowment of nearly $12 billion and undergrad tuition and fees nearing $50,000/yr, it's a good thing PU is ranking at the top - for that kind of money, it should. Several colleges are painfully aware of that, and are trying to look into a different ranking system.

Another issue is that getting into PU is next-to-impossible. No matter how good a student you are, the odds are only 1 in 12, at best maybe 1 in 10. But that will be a post for another day.
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BBC bias?
Watch this video: The BBC correspondent in Athens wears the PLO scarf to report on the Athens brush fires.
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Via Larwyn, time for the bullet woman photoshop!
And let's not forget the Minnesota man, and the puppy, too.
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If you're about to have quadruplets, leave Calgary.

Rove resigns, Fred's a low-rent name, and today's items

The WSJ has an interview where Karl Rove announced that he's resigned, effective August 31, and will apparently leave politcs,

He does not plan to work on a presidential campaign nor would he endorse a candidate.

With the 2008 election still over a year away, that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, who will the Koss people blame for everything? After all, they believe Pres. Bush has no brain.

Pajamas Media has a round-up.
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The GOP YouTube Debate Is Back On.

Thank you.

Now let's keep waiting for the Dems to debate on Fox News.
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No World War Here, Folks! Move Along! (h/t Larwyn).

Dan also has more on the two guys caught with explosives in Goose Creek, SC.
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Add another one to the gun-toting womanizing twice-married gay guy who is loved by his children and liked by attractive women lawyer -who might have lobbied on abortion sixteen years ago -Senator movie star on horseback meme:
Apparently, the name Fred is low-rent.

Unfortunately, the person saying this is named Monica.
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Abducens Nucleus blog has started a 5-part series of posts on what "free" healthcare gets you.

Bloggers of the world, unite!

Bloggers consider forming labor union

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

How do you spell c-o-n-t-r-o-l?

And if I don't toe the left-leaning line, will I get thrown out of the union? Are unionized bloggers going to form picket lines in front of scab bloggers' homes? Will they make a movie where a Marlon Brando-lookalike will wail, "I could have been a contender blogger?

Madrak hopes that regardless the form, the labor movement ultimately will help bloggers pay for medical bills. It's important, she said, because some bloggers can spend hours a day tethered to computers as they update their Web sites.

"Blogging is very intense -- physically, mentally," she said. "You're constantly scanning for news. You're constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you're sitting at a computer and your ass is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse."

If you want medical insurance, talk to a lawyer, incorporate as a small business, talk to an insurance agent, and pay your own premiums, you wuss. If you're not making enough money as a blogger to do this, get a job that does.

As for your widening a**, I have a cure for that, Ms Madrak: get up and go to the gym, walk around the block a few times, and Get.A.Life.

You can thank me later.

Update We had a good laugh over this in today's pocast.



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A Canadian Doctor Describes How Socialized Medicine Doesn't Work

Imagine having a hernia operation go wrong and instead of getting immediate medical attention, being referred to a pain clinic.
Waiting in the emergency room for five days to be admitted to a hospital.
Having a lottery to get a doctor's appointment.

That's the kind of thing that caused Dr. David Gratzer to change his mind.

Go read his article.

More dead from heat in government-controlled healthcare, this time in Hungary

The universal healthcare system in Hungary (PDF file) is financed through income tax and social-insurance taxes.

Maria just sent this: Hungary heatwave kills hundreds

Up to 500 people have died in the past week from a heatwave in Hungary, a top health official has said.
...
The daily mean temperature in the past week had reached 30C, she said.

In the southern city of Kiskunhalas, the temperature reached a record high of 41.9C.

Here in the USA, the elderly and frail move to Arizona and Florida, where they swim in cooled swimming pools and a 30C day (86oF) in the Summer is an invitation to have dinner on the veranda.

In 2003 15,000 elderly and frail people died during a heat wave in France. Many died in the emergency rooms waiting for someone to bring them water.

For more on socialized healthcare disasters, Socialized Healthcare has plenty.



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Remember those Cuban doctors Fidel sent to Venezuela?

Via Mike's America,
Growing numbers of Cuban doctors sent overseas to work are defecting to the USA

A large number of the defectors have fled from Venezuela, which has received some 14 000 Cuban medical professionals, more than the rest of the world combined. Currently, dozens have sought refuge in neighbouring Colombia, often living in precarious conditions, while they await permission to enter the USA.

Andres paid a price to get to Colombia. He and his wife had been assigned to the city of Punto Fijo on the northwestern coast of Venezuela, not far from the border. Their escape went smoothly until they reached the frontier, where Venezuelan guards refused to permit them to cross because the visas on their passports were valid only for travel within Venezuela. Only after Andres bribed the agents with nearly all their possessions did the guards let them leave Venezuela. “We gave them all the money we had, cellular phones, watches, and they let us cross”, he said. “We were in Colombia and we had reached freedom. We felt free.”

Andres and his wife were fortunate because not all defecting Cubans get across the border but are, instead, arrested and shipped back home. Once across the border, however, Andres and his wife found themselves stranded in north east Colombia's harsh Guajira desert without contacts or money to continue travel. Eventually, however, they were given a lift by truckers, who carried them to the capital, Bogota.

In Bogota, Andres has lived with two other defectors in an unused storage room provided by a church group. They have also received assistance from the UN High Commission for Refugees. But, as they wait for their US visas, many of the Cubans are fearful because of their uncertain legal status in Colombia, whose government has given few of them refugee status.

The working conditions are those of slave labor:

Several Cuban defectors interviewed in Bogota said that they fled not only because of oppression in their own nation, but also because of unreasonably poor and demanding work conditions in Venezuela. Andres said that he could not stand the conditions in Venezuela, where he lived in a crowded house with a leaky straw roof which he shared with fifteen other Cuban doctors waiting to be put to work.
...
The doctors also said that in Venezuela, Cuban minders monitored their movements, prohibiting non-work contact with Venezuelans. When not at work, the Cubans were required to be at home after 6 pm. One couple said that after they pointed out some problems with the programme, officials threatened to send them back to Cuba in retaliation.

The Cubans said that the programme they worked in, called “Inside the Barrio”, was also plagued with mismanagement and inefficiency. Although many clinics were severely understaffed, newly-arrived medics sometimes sat for months waiting for assignment to a post, they said, and often conditions in the clinics were rudimentary lacking even basic medicines.

And they're fleeing from Bolivia, too.

Read the article. Earlier this year the WaPo had

You should also bear in mind that Cuba's suffering shortages of healthcare workers because one-fifth of Cuba's health care labor supply - some 14,000 doctors and 6,000 health workers - has been contracted out to work in Venezuela. In return for these medical services, Cuba receives 90,000 barrels of discounted oil per day.

Chew on that the next time you read/hear about the charismatic-leader-helping-the-poor-offering-free-health-care-education-adult-literacy-and-job-training-initiatives-that-help-millions-of-Venezuelans/Cubans/Bolivians, and every time you hear about the excellent Cuban healthcare and other myths.

Too bad the folks who have been playing SICKO at the downtown movie theater for the past 5 weeks, and the folks who watch the movie don't care much about reality.

Update
Slide show: Cuban Healthcare in Decline (h/t The Real Cuba).

Update, Friday 27 July
More on the Sicko Propanganda.



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Moore goes door-knocking

He knocked on the NYSE's door (h/t Manuel)

Moore says

We

"We"?
Is that the imperial we, or the 400 lb we?

We are asking people to divest from private health insurance companies. We see no need for private health insurance companies in ths country. People in this country don't need a middleman between the doctor and the patient.

And he wants the government as the middleman??

"There is absolutely no truth to the right-wing promoted rumor that Michael is going to Iran -- none, zero, zip". Too bad the Iranians are waiting for him.


technorati: Michael Moore SICKO

Sicko, and Friday round-up

Updated
Via Larwyn, Prepare to be Sickened by SiCKO

Literally every day, the mainstream media in the countries whose government-run medical systems Moore holds up as superior models publish stories documenting the failure of mandatory, no-opt-out, state-run medical care. The laundry list of ills, in the U.K. alone, includes patients waiting months or even years for critical drugs and treatments (sometimes becoming disabled or dying because of the delay or lack of care), people denied therapies altogether because of rationing or cost (see, for example, an article last February in The Scotsman, “Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS”), an explosion in the size of the medical bureaucracy, and thousands of physicians taking to the streets earlier this year to protest.

One bottom line, so to speak, is particularly telling: Moore, who is obese, would most likely be denied a number of common health care procedures and treatments in one of his favored government-controlled socialist medicine systems, the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS), because of his excessive weight. Recently, the cash-strapped NHS actually started limiting or prohibiting therapies for residents who are fat or who smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

In Princeton, the Public Library has been banging the drum on socialized health care for a while, inviting Paul Krugman to ignore the facts about the French healthcare system and featuring a film on Cuba's healthcare at the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival, by which they not only managed to ignore Cuba's huuman rights record but also Cuba's apartheid health care system, even when three members of the audience tried to talk about it.

I expect the PPL will be showing SICKO soon.

Update: Michael Moore's Shticko: His health care jeremiad won't win any converts

And I won't be surprised if Sicko has wonderful things to say about the Venezuelan healthcare; too bad Michael didn't bring along any Norwegian reporters

Speaking of Venezuela,
Remember the fallen viaduct in Caracas?

Well, a new one's up.

In other Venezuelan news, The constitutional changes draft has been leaked: the path to an eternal Chavez dictatorship and kiss what's left of your private property good-bye. Update Dymphna has more on Hugo's latest.
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Joe finds some Academic Fantasies Exploited

Abbas: Hamas Creating ‘Empire of Darkness’ unlike Fatah's sweetness and lignt. The Guardian blames the US and Israel, of course.

Tony Blair's going to Rome

Head-to-toe Muslim veils test tolerance of secular Britain. Indeed.

El Cafe Cubano continues the Friday fast for all political prisoners

Unlike the Brits who allowed themselves to be taken hostage, the Aussies repelled an Iranian attempt to capture a boarding party. Update: Richard North has more on the story and how it's covered by the blogs and by the MSM.
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Via Irwin, June 20, 2007 Paul Krugman Four Years Ago Today. Krugman's wrong on things other than French healthcare, too.
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Via Bob, Harvard Dean of Freshmen Advertises "Scintillating and Sexy" Talk, since college students don't think of sex at all.
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George not-in-my-back-yard Clooney


technorati: SICKO
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ALA misspells my name

May 25 article at the American Libraries On Line website (emphasis added): Library Film Festival Riles Anti-Castro Community

The Princeton (N.J.) Public Library came under fire in mid-May over the inclusion of two documentaries about Cuba among 14 films in its 2007 Princeton Human Rights Film Festival. The controversy resulted in a shouting match at the May 12 screening of ¡Salud! What Puts Cuba on the Map in the Quest for Global Health, as well as accusations in the conservative blogosphere that the library was disseminating pro-Castro propaganda.

PPL Director and ALA President Leslie Burger told American Libraries that the purpose of the festival, now in its third year, is to highlight "what we think are human rights issues like the right to clean water or the right to a safe environment or the right to clean air." Emphasizing that the 2 1/2 day event is "not about the human rights records of countries around the world," Burger said that the film-selection committee chose ¡Salud! to spark discussion about what constitutes a quality public health system.

Which Cuba doesn't have.

Click on the photo.

But area resident Faustia Wertz blogged May 8 that she saw PPL's choice of ¡Salud! as well as The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. as indicative of the library's indifference to Castro's human rights record. "People started organizing letter-writing campaigns," Burger explained, "pressuring us to remove the films from the screening list, which we refused to do." She said the library also refused to "uninvite" Ellen Bernstein of Pastors for Peace, who is a frequent traveler to Cuba, as a speaker after the ¡Salud! screening.

"The thing about the two films is not that they're being shown. I have no objection to that. The facts on Cuba are not the facts that were shown," Wertz told the May 18 Princeton Packet.

A couple of things here:
That's Mrs. Wertz to you. Mrs. Fausta Wertz, while you're at it.

At no time did I ask that Ellen Bernstein be disinvited.

And I'm not an "area resident", I am a taxpayer in Princeton Township, whose taxes support the Festival.

"To have a film festival that doesn't address the blatant and egregious human rights violations in Cuba seems really unbalanced," agreed Maria C. Werlau of Summit, New Jersey, and executive director of Cuba Archive.

"If we want to have a discussion about people having public health care, we have to choose a film that allows us to have that discussion," Burger asserted. "Unfortunately because Cuba appeared in the title of that film, we never had that discussion." She added that PPL would continue holding the Human Rights Film Festival, "broadening our community involvement in it. We're willing to take the heat."

One suggestion, if the Princeton Public Library is calling its film festival the Princeton Human Rights Film Festival, it might be a good idea not to ignore the human rights abuses in the systems it defends, such as the medical apartheid system prevalent in Cuba, when three eye-witnesses in the audience wanted to talk about it.

The Princeton Packet at least emailed me before quoting me, and managed to spell my name correctly.

You can read my account of the PHRFF here.

Three botched surgeries, a foreign specialist and imported medications later, Fidel says he's "better"

Updated with a sneak preview of Sicko
Obi's Sister sent me the link to the AP story: Castro Says He's Better, Weight Stable

Fidel Castro's recovery from intestinal surgery 10 months ago was delayed because the first of several operations he had went badly, the communist leader said in a statement that gave the most detailed account of his health since August.

Castro, 80, said in the Wednesday statement that he is now eating solid food and improving after "many months" of intravenous feeding. It was the most information released about Castro's condition since his Aug. 13 birthday, when he asked Cubans to be optimistic but not rule out possible "adverse news."

Notice how it's a statement, not a personal appearance, a press conference, a phone call, or anything such.

The WaPo has a picture of Fidel reading the newspaper, which, as they notice, is undated.

Michael Moore, who's at the Cannes Film Festival and

praises the Socialized healthcare system that let 15,000 die from heat in 2003 (many waiting for ice water in hospital hallways).

(and who has a vested interest in not having to pay for his lifestyle choices) would be shocked to hear that El Comandante was at death's door because the excellent Cuban healthcare system (the same excellent Cuban healthcare system that could not treat Gabriel Garcia Marquez's cancer so he had to go to LA for chemo and radiation) botched up not once, or twice, but three times, or maybe more,

A January story in the Spanish newspaper El Pais described Castro as being in "very grave" condition after at least three failed operations for diverticular disease. The Cuban government denied that report.

After which, the excellent Cuban healthcare system had to be set aside and they called cancer specialist Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, and Castro required medications that were paid by the Spanish taxpayers.

But hey, it's free healthcare!

Obvoiously all of this stress is getting to him - the previously uniformed Fidel's letting himself go, perhaps inspired by Michael,

"I don't have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache, and get spruced up every day," he said, evidently referring to the preparation required for some of the official images.

Here's a picture of Michael. Apparently Fidel can't let go of the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro Appeals for Investment in Health Rather Than in Arms, or more specifically, invest in his tripe.

Update: Via Manuel, LiveLeak has a segment from Sicko, where Michael More is in an NHS hospital and says, "In British hospitals, instead of money going in to the cashier's window, money comes out!"


Update, Friday 25 May


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In other, more relevant Latin American news, Congress should approve a free trade agreement with Colombia, and Investor's Business Daily explains why:
Colombia Warning

Americans might not realize it, but Colombia has shown great friendship with the U.S, at a high cost to itself.

- It's lost 2,658 of its own troops in the drug war since 2002, but cut coca cultivation 9%, the United Nations found. Next door, the Venezuela that Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., praises is doing little about soaring trafficking.

- Colombia also has doubled oil production on the year, moving to become a top-15 U.S. supplier at a time when Venezuela is destroying its own energy industry.

- It has provided rare know-how to the U.S. in Afghanistan. Sending its own security forces into harm's way, Colombia's taken a top role in helping Afghanistan defeat the illegal drug cultivation that is a new threat to its stability.

- Do any Democrats remember that Colombia was first on the scene to offer swamp and jungle rescue teams, to help to the victims of the New Orleans disaster?

If Colombia is denied a free trade pact by Congress, its future will be severely hurt. To treat any ally in this way is unconscionable. But in the case of Colombia, it also is self-defeating.

More Fred Thompson

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but Fred's cigar is eloquent, indeed.

Two weeks ago I posted about Fred Thompson on Cuba's 'free healthcare'

Now Fred's got a new one, via Instapundit

Thompson to Moore from breitbarttv on Vimeo

Fred mentions Cuban dissident Nicolas Guillen, who was

in a mental institution for several years, giving him devastating electro-shock treatments

I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Moore et al would say,
but he had free healthcare!
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While you're here, did you listen to Thursday's podcast on Tony Blair, and Friday's on Israel yet?

Fred Thompson on Cuba's 'free healthcare"

The Myth of Cuban Health Care

If Moore wants a subject for a real documentary, I would suggest looking into the life of Cuban painter and award-winning documentarian Nicolas Guillen Landrian. He was denied the right to practice his art for using the Beatles' song, "The Fool on the Hill," as background music behind footage of Castro climbing a mountain. Later, he was given plenty of free Cuban health care when he was confined for years in a "mental institution" and given devastating, repeated electroshock "treatments."

More here.