There's a Thud coming that I'm not sure we'll survive: planetfall. I'm not ready to throw MY "end of the world" party, but I might just be pondering the guest list...
In the meanwhile, here are some ordinary Thuds, Mark One, Mod Zero...
Thud the First: Obamacare. It's going down big-time. Coupla things you might not know about it's onrushing failure: The Canadian company that was hired to set up the Web presence of ObamaCare, CGI, is the same outfit that tried and failed to set up the infamous Canadian Firearms Registry, which NEVER worked to specification, despite better than 20 times it's original budget being spent. With a change to Coservative Government, the Canadians wisely decided they could do without the Registry, and pulled the plug on it. OUR Government should have figured out that this outfit couldn't organize a three-car funeral procession, but they didn't. That's possibly because of two women, Valerie Jarrett, who has a personal association within CGI, and Michelle Obama, dittoe...
Thud the Second: Obamacare (again). The company that is supposed to "fix" the HealthCare.gov site is QSSI, a subsidiary of United Health, Inc. For those who don't follow the healthcare financial scene, UHI is the giant outfit that was already involved with Government healthcare before Obamacare even took effect. They run the Western portion of the Government/Military healthcare system, TriCare, having muscled Wisconsin Physicians' Services out of the contract. WPS had done a very good job. UHI had previous problems, which we might call "growing pains" if we are charitable: When UHI took over Tricare, they also took over Express Scripts, the companion service to Tricare which provides pharmacy benefits. When they took over Express Scripts, there was a perfectly good Web presence already there for the service, and it operated flawlessly. Never mind that, UHI gave the old website the boot, and put in theirs, which operated like a 1995 website, complete with big delays loading and many error messages and "come back later" advices. Ummmm....isn't this the exact failure mode of Healthcare.gov? Well, UHI finally fixed the Express Scripts site, and strangely enough, their fix makes it look and operate like the old Express Scripts system. Problem for Healthcare.gov: there's no prior system to fall back on. Smarties in the IT bidsnez say the entire site will have to be re-coded from scratch. QSSI is NOT up to that task, but they are in charge. Does this whole mess begin to look more like planned failure than incompetence to YOU? It does to me.
Thud the Third: Obamacare (I can't shake that feelin'...) Remember those 23 Executive Orders signed by the President on 01162013? #16 of those orders states:
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
As I reported earlier this week, it appears that healthcare orgs connected to Healthcare.gov ARE asking the "gun questions". Of course, there is Federal law that specifically prohibits the Government from compiling lists of who owns guns, and this Executive Order ignores that law. With the few that have gotten through on Healthcare.gov, selected a plan and linked to the plan, those gun questions are getting asked, and that data is being compiled. The anwser is the same: "I refuse to answer that question." THEN we get to see if healthcare is actually a "right" as Obama pretends that it is. If it's a right, you cannot be denied it by refusing to answer questions about non-medical things. If refusing to answer the gun questions means you get denied a healthcare policy, then it's not exactly a "right" that you have health insurance, is it?
Thud the Fourth: Suicide "prevention". This gets fairly philosophical, so bear with me. If a person has true personal freedom, does it not include the right to terminate one's own life? If it does include that right, why does the State spend so much money trying to dissuade folks from exercising that right? If it does NOT include that right, why aren't suicide attempts classified at Attempted Homicides? They are not so classified. This becomes an issue because of high-profile suicide attempts. For some insane reason, the minions of the State believe that they have a DUTY to heroically prevent suicides, sometimes at great risk to their First Responders. Then again, some folks live by an actual Code of Honor which allows them the freedom to end their lives. Note that the Nation of Japan has never repudiated the ancient Code of Bushido, they simply don't ascribe to it at present. Many, many folks took their own lives over the years according to that Code. Is Bushido wrong? If you say yes, can you prove that empirically and not just by inserting your own personal Code? I didn't think so. Get the damn Government out of our personal life choices that affect no one but us.
Only four Thuds this time. Subscribe to my Facebook page and you will get several more on a daily basis...
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