The Senescent Man

This month (September) marks the fifth anniversary of The Senescent Man Blog.  We initiated this blog on or about the 3rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  We have now moved to a new blogger address (and a new wordpress address) to stay up with the times – the new blogger format more efficiently connects to twitter and other networking tools, and the software is much easier to work with than the old.  The new wordpress address (which we will run in parallel with the same postings for awhile) offer other features.  We’re going to test drive both for awhile until we feel we’ve homed in on the better new format.

The new blogger address for the Senescent Man is (rightfully): http://senescentman.blogspot.com; and the new wordpress address is http://senescentman.wordpress.com.  Try both of them on for size.  Let us know what you think.

We are hopeful that you and others that have been most loyal to us will continue to follow, and that we’ll add many others.

The health care debate rages. I've tried to stay out of it, believing something bad is going to come of it no matter whether I state my opinion or not, but now think I will weigh in with a couple of posts.

I watched President Obama's speech...when was it? A couple of Wednesdays ago, maybe? You know the one, where Representative Joe Wilson shouted "you liar" when Obama said no illegal aliens would be covered. I sat there fairly calm during it, and don't think I once shouted at the television. Though I did give the president some long-distance advice he didn't immediately take.

The thing that struck me most was that Obama said we could pay for most of the increased cost--just under a trillion dollars--with 1) increased efficiencies, 2) eliminating unnecessary treatments, and 3) ending Medicare/Medicaid fraud. Leaving the first two for a moment, who can argue with ending M/M fraud? That would be a good thing, right? I'm all for it. But...

...WE DON'T NEED ANY REFORM TO DO IT! DO IT NOW!!!

President Obama, do you know how stupid what you said sounds? If you know there is fraud in M/M, why haven't you appointed someone to root it out and end it? Why haven't you made this a priority? Why haven't you used it as a knife in the back of the departing Bush administration to show what a bunch of idiots they were? And if M/M fraud is such a problem that you can't be bothered to do anything about it, why in God's name should we trust your administration--or any administration--with an even bigger hand in health care? Good grief, Mr. President, think about your words.

How much fraud is there in M/M? I'd like to see it quantified in terms of percent of all dollars paid to physicians and care-givers, and in terms of actual dollars per year. I'd like to see some evidence as to why you think this is the correct number to base savings from ended fraud on? How long has this been going on? What are the specific steps that you propose to end the fraud? Who in your administration is handling this? To whom are they accountable? What savings do you expect in year 1, year 2, etc. from the increased fraud prevention efforts that you can implement immediately, without needing to go to Congress?

The answer, of course, is nothing. Obama is not doing anything special about rooting out fraud in M/M. If he were, he would already have been singing about it from the rooftops. He would have been chiding Bush, Cheney, etc. and making political points.

Mr. Obama, prove that the amount of fraud in M/M is enough to make a significant debt in that universal health care proposal of yours by ending fraud right now. Show us the savings. Maybe then I'll have a little trust in you, that you can do what you promise in regards to health care. Do it for the rest of this term. Then let's talk about health care reform.

Labels: health care, health care reform

I don't know Kanye West. I may have heard the name from time to time, but couldn't have told you if he was a band leader, a famous doctor, or a czar in the Obama administration. That's how far removed I am from popular culture. But of course I've heard the news and seen the sound bite of interest.

I conclude that Kanye West is a racist. Taylor Swift--who I also didn't know, so far am I removed from popular culture--a lilly white woman, was getting that award. Good on her. West, the black man, took the mic from her and began praising a music video done by Beyonce, a black woman, and I think West was saying or implying that Beyonce's music video was much better than Swift's video and that Beyonce, the black woman, should have received the award rather than Swift, the white woman. Do y'all think I've got that correct?

Obviously, West's action was that of a racist. He was incensed that the black woman didn't win, and so couldn't allow the white woman to have her 15 seconds of fame. I believe West's apologies are insincere, and he is a racist at heart and needs to be censured by the organization that was giving out the awards. So far am I removed from popular culture, I don't even know what organization that is.

Labels: racism

This month marks the fifth anniversary of The Senescent Man Blog.  We began the blog around the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  We have moved to a new blogger address to stay up with the times – the new blogger format will more efficiently connect to twitter and other networking tools, and the software is much easier to work with than the old. 

The new address for the Senescent Man blog is (rightfully): http://senescentman.blogspot.com

We are hopeful that you and others that have been most loyal to us will continue to follow, and that we’ll add many others.