We Already Ration Health Care

Ezra Klein makes the point that those claiming that health care reform might lead to rationing of care and waiting lists like exist in Canada or Great Britain are missing the point. Currently in the United States, we ration, we ration, we ration.

This is not an arguable proposition. It is not a difference of opinion, or a conversation about semantics. We ration. We ration without discussion, remorse or concern. We ration health care the way we ration other goods: We make it too expensive for everyone to afford.

The Government Channels 3 Stooges

Feckless, hopeless, bureaucratic incompetence has been with us since George Washington went to the dentist and left the chair with choppers of oak and pine.

Normally stable, productive members of society suddenly fall prey to absurdities within the system, doing nothing to stem the flow of idiocy if it falls outside the well-defined boundaries of their job description, even when the result is laughable to anyone and everyone on the outside looking in.

Such lunacy exists in the story of Edward Hawkins, a convicted felon who disappeared in 2007 while on parole, which set in motion a series of nonsensical events that continues to this day.

Dawkins died of cancer a year later, after 340 attempts by parole officers to located him had failed. Dawkins' family has his death certificate, as well as the urn that contained his ashes. But that's not stopping the Washington, D.C. Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency from continuing to contact the family to ascertain Dawkins' whereabouts.

Local police also call and snoop around in attempts to locate Dawkins, as he is on supervised parole until 2016.

Finally, after a little publicity, it appears the CSOSA is wising up, asking if Dawkins' family can mail them a copy of the death certificate, because being a government agency, they apparently have no access to any sort of computer network that might link them to the official government documents.

Rest in peace, Edward Dawkins....wherever you are.

Agency is Still Seeking a Man Who's Still Dead , via The Washington Post

Journalism, Dudley Doright Style

"Help, help! I'm being oppressed!"

Such is the essential battle cry from the Bruce duo, Sanford and Brown, in a Washington Post article entitled Laws That Could Save Journalism. They are apparently helpless, tied to Internet Protocol railroads tracks as the Google train heads their way.

Bruce and Bruce attempt to make the case that in order for journalism to survive the digital onslaught of Google and bloggers and linking (oh my!), the legislative branch needs to get on the stick and change the rules.

Hey, WaPo...change your robots.txt file to disallow Google and see what happens. You have the power. You could pull the trigger at any time. My prediction is that your traffic drops 80% in the first week. I'm sure your online advertising and marketing teams would stand behind this decision.

Bruce (one of them, or maybe both) suggests loosening up ownership restrictions, because the public always benefits from monopoly? Let's see, it usually leads to higher prices, less choice, and eliminates competition. Sounds like America to me!

They also recommend changing tax policy to benefit the press - because business taxes are the root cause of rapidly dropping circulation and people wanting their information delivered in a different manner, right?

I never, ever go to the Washington Post website unless I find a link from some other site (blog, commentary, etc.) that looks interesting. Did you hear that, WaPo? NEVER.

So if you want to enforce some rule that says other sites can't link to your content or paraphrase it, or apply fair use principals, you'll lose my traffic and that of others like me.

With a news aggregator, I can quickly drill down and find what I want to read. I neither have the time nor the inclination to noodle around the WaPo site, hoping to stumble onto something.

Stop looking for a government bailout or a rule change, and embrace capitalism. I know it's hard, especially when you supported capitalism when it was successful at knocking off your competitors, but you don't get to pull a switcheroo now that you're the prey instead of the predator.

Watch this, WaPo...I'm going to link to your commentary. You'll probably get a couple of visitors because I did that. I'll expect a check in the mail for sending business your way.

Laws That Could Save Journalism

Dogs Rock

Here's a pic of Allie, a rescue dog we're test-driving this week to see if she's a fit for our nutty clan.

We're big dog fans, and all of our canines have had different personalities and brought individual measures of joy into our lives.

Gene Weingarten, in a Washington Post article, talks about his pal Murphy, and much of what he says resonates.

Money quote: My point here is that -- and I say this before a potentially hostile audience -- we must always remember that dogs are, in the end, only dogs. To paraphrase the British writer Frank Skinner, never expect too much from an animal that is surprised by its own farts.

Murphy's Law - h/t to Andrew Sullivan