Just Don’t Call It “Socialized Medicine”

The words “socialized medicine” drives many Americans crazy.  There is an overwhelming fear as if the mere thought of socializing medical care will destroy our nation.  The AMA has done an outstanding job of instilling this fear.  They started their campaign in the 1930s against Medicare (socialized medicine for social security recipients).  AMA publicists included a phony quote from Lenin proclaiming “socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the Socialist State.”  Is there any reason to anticipate a change in AMA philosophy?  No.

Between the AMA, medical insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical companies there is one objective and that is to keep Americans hooked on the support of a system that makes doctors, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers very rich.  In a June 29,2009 BusinessWeek commentary it was reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates their annual payments to doctors at $744 billion.  Do you know a poor doctor?  I am sure there are some somewhere in America but they are rare.    

How much is spent on cancer treatments every year?  Breast cancer was an identified illness at the beginning of the 19^th century (President John Adams daughter died from the disease). There is still no preventative drug for this disease.  PSA screening tests for prostate cancer have recently been called into question but most doctors continue to recommend them. Doctors treat men for the disease even though the treated men are more likely to die than those who have not been screened.  It’s all part of a scam to treat people for cancer but not cure them.  A wonderful money machine.

A doctor at the University of Vancouver in Vancouver, B.C. questions prescribing medication for high cholesterol.  He backs his contentions with data that shows there is no longer life resulting for people who take statins to reduce the bad cholesterol.  My doctor says taking the pills is the right thing to do.  Of course it is a money maker for the pharmaceutical companies.  Cholesterol lowering medications are Levacor, Zocor, Pravachol, Lipitor, Crestor, Simvastatin (a generic for Zocor) and more.

Are the medical insurance companies really earning extraordinary income?  I did the research and found these astonishing net income amounts

- Aetna                                                            $1.831 billion USD (2007)

- Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield            $3.095 billion USD (2006)

- Cigna Corporation                                        $1.1 billion USD (2007)

- Kaiser Permanente                                       $1.3 billion USD (2006)

- Regence Group                                             $6.7 billion USD (2006)

As far as pharmaceutical companies are concerned look at CVS Caremark as just the tip of the iceberg.  Their quarterly net income for the period ending March 31, 2009 was $738,400.

Do we need a complete overhaul of our medical care system in the United States?  The answer is obvious.  The question is how do we provide the needed care at a cost that everyone can afford?

HUBRIS

From Wikpedia ,“In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of humility, not always with the lack of knowledge. An accusation of hubris often implies that suffering or punishment will follow…”

This word is used to describe persons of power who thought they could do what ever they wanted without facing consequences but in the end they did experience a humiliating punishment.  Politicians are the most common people to be defined as suffering hubris.  Some corporate heads have faced the same fate.

The most well known political names suffering hubris are former President Bill Clinton, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Nevada Senator John Ensign, and today South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.  There are so many others that the names would probably fill a page.  Cheating, lying, adultery, etc. is not limited to one political party.  Furthermore this kind of behavior is not new.  Past presidents John F. Kennedy, Eisenhower, FDR, and Andrew Jackson are all known to have had sexual dalliances.

Richard Wagoner, the former General Motors CEO, is the best example of a corporate head who thought he could do no wrong.  Merrill Lynch’s Stan O’Neal, Fannie Mae’s Franklin Raines all left there positions in disgrace.  After three weeks of mounting criticism of his $140 million compensation package, Richard A. Grasso, the chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, resigned. 

What we learn from this is that occasionally that even the misbehaving mighty can fall.  They just can’t see it coming. 

Are Minorities Reaching CEO Levels?

Let’s be honest.  You don’t have to be White to lead a large corporation.  The number of minority people obtaining the corner office is growing and will continue to grow because stock holders are color blind.    You do have to be smart to hold those jobs.  That is really all the stock holders want.  They want success that leads to higher earnings.

The succession of Ursula Burns, an African American woman, replacing a White woman as CEO of Xerox Corporation is not the first minority woman to obtain this high a position.  Indra Nooyi obtained this position at Pepsi Cola in 2005.   Many minority males have been reaching the CEO position for quite some time.  Here is a list of those I am familiar with:

- Coca Cola, Muhtar Kent  

- Pepsi Cola, Indra Nooyi

- Xerox Corporation, Ursula Burns

- Merrill Lynch, Stan O’Neal (ex CEO)

- Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines (ex CEO)

- Time Warner, Richard D. Parsons (ex CEO)

There are even more minority persons at the first level below CEO.  Can you name any?

Honest Election in Iran is an Absurdity

The idea that an election for the president of Iran would be honestly held is an absurdity.  That nation has one man who controls every aspect of life there.  He is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  In terms of constitutional authority, Mr. Khamenei is plainly the most powerful man in the Islamic Republic; no decision can be made without his consent.  It is Mr. Khamenei who will decide the person to be president of Iran.  In the unlikely situation that the elected president makes no difference to him, then the results will be reported honestly.

If the goal of Mr. Khamenei is the destruction of Israel and the dominance of the Middle East by Iran than there is little point in negotiations with members of a government that has no final authority.

It is reasonable to conclude that President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and others in the U.S. foreign affairs department know that Mr. Khamenei is the one person that must be part of any negotiations.  So why the speeches and hand held out as a jesture of friendship?  It can’t hurt and it just might prevent another war.

The First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice

by Rabbi Norman Cohen, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles

The media are crowing about President Obama selecting the “first Hispanic Supreme Court justice”.  I have news for the media.

We already have had a Hispanic U. S. Supreme Court Justice.

He was Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, U. S. Supreme Court Justice from 1932 – 1938, a Sephard Jew of Spanish ancestry.  His father, Judge Albert Cardozo, was Vice President and Trustee of the famous Spanish-Portuguese synagogue in New York City, Congregation Shearith Israel.  Young Benjamin was Bar Mitzvah in that synagogue, and as an adult was proud of both his Jewish and Hispanic heritage.

It is the oldest congregation in the Western Hemisphere, having been founded in Recife, Brazil ca. 1630 and moved to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1654.  Its present location is at 70th St. and Central Park West.  I spent some of my religious and social activity time there as a teenager in the 1950s, when the Rav was the famous Dr. David de Sola Pool. 

One thing that surprised me there were the names on the memorial plaques…they were just like my Puerto Rican friends and not at all like my Jewish friends.  Study of this history and culture has become a hobby of mine.

Most American Jews, who are of Ashkenaz origins, neither know of nor understand this important component of the Jewish people.   

Jews were a major component of the populations of Spain and Portugal for 800 years (~ 700 – 1500 CE).  Ladino, the “Sephardic Yiddish” based on pre-1500 Spanish, is still spoken by 200,000 Jewish descendants around the world, mainly in Mediterranean regions.  45 of the 50 most common Hispanic family names are of Jewish origin. All Hispanic given names ending in “el” are Hebrew phrases with reference to G-d.  Like Gabriel, Emanuel, Rafael, etc.  Many Spanish words and names of places are of Hebrew origin.

If you represented all Jews who were murdered in the Holcoaust by a crowded Dodger Stadium, those Jews whose family names were Gamboa and Graciano would fill a section of box seats.  Gamboas and Gracianos are in Jewish cemeteries all over the world …. even in Poland, Canada, South Africa and Israel.  That’s just two Sephardic-Jewish family names.  

A recent analysis of the DNA of 20 statistical sample of men of Spain found that 20% have the Jewish genetic haplogroup, viz. they descend from Jews.  The only way that this is possible is that there was already massive assimilation of the Jews of Spain in the centuries leading up to the Inquisition.

There are organized groups of b’nai anusim —- descendants of Jewish victims of Inquisitions in Spain, Portugal and Latin America who were forced to convert, or who hid and abandoned their Jewishness out of fear of persecution —- who are clamoring for acceptance as Jewish returnees.

It is estimated that a significant fraction of the Hispanics of the Southwestern USA and Northern Mexico are of Jewish ancestry and don’t know it. 

But the media would not think of, nor recognize, Benjamin Cardozo as a “Hispanic”.  They want a “genuine” Hispanic, certainly not one who was also a Jew.

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August 8, 2009: A Daily Kos article on Cardozo is an interesting addendum to this article.  A Poll at the bottom of the article indicates that 59% of those participating believe that  Cardozo was the first first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.

 

Non-White People Are Part of America

If you are not a White Christian can you be part of America?  The answer is an emphatic yes.  The question is personal to me.

Just 25 years ago a salesman at my employer asked me if I celebrated Thanksgiving considering that I am Jewish.  Huh, what does my religion have to do with celebrating a national holiday?  In his mind I was not part of America because I am not a White Christian.  He was wrong.  President Barack Obama has settled that question.

James W. von Brunn, the white supremacist, charged with the killing of Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. is an aberration.

Non-White Americans are all as much a part of this nation as White Christians.  Laws related to Affirmative Action have become more irrelevant as employers and most people have realized that color, ethnicity, and religion are not tests of a man’s quality.

That is what was stated in Declaration of Independence.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  We, our parents, or grandparents emigrated to the United States because we/they believed those words.  It’s a goal this country is still trying to achieve.  We are getting closer.  Happily the KKK is becoming history.

Retirement Plan! What Retirement Plan?

This Newsday video is worth a laugh .   The link is  http://www.newsday.com/media/flash/2009-04/46217527.swf

White Men Founded America

Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s choice to sit on the Supreme Court ,has repeatedly said these words many times in both writing and in speeches. “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Sotomayor’s words are not racist.  However, her words and thoughts should be challenged.  One need only look at the history of the United States to know that those dammed white males are the ones who brought this country to this place in the 21^st century.

It was white men who founded America.  They were primarily men of European decent.  The Dutch colony was New Amsterdam (it became New York).  There were Quakers who founded Pennsylvania and the city of brotherly love (Philadelphia), Amish, French, and Germans.  Most prominent were the English.

So those white males, that Mrs. Sotomayor despises so much, were the ones who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, made the legal decisions and fought the wars that made America second to none.

Now Mrs. Sotomayor thinks she can reach better conclusions.  My question to her and all of those who doubt American intent is, Why did your family decide to move to this country?  White men have proven their resolve to build a better nation.  Did your native country do as well?

Buying A Camera – Consider Alternatives

I have found no report on market share of each digital camera manufacturer.  I am sure that data exists somewhere.  When I read camera advertising in the Los Angeles Times the clear winner is Canon in terms of amount of space used for that brand.  Most of the advertising is for Canon and Nikon.  I am enrolled in a digital photography class and of 15 people but only two do not own Canon cameras.  Clearly Canon has done a better marketing job.

That is sad because there are many other brands that produce excellent products.  Consumer Reports July 2009 issue lists four brands of point and shoot cameras that are “standouts: Canon, Casio, Panasonic, and Samsung.”

There may be perfectly reasonable reasons for Panasonic and Casio poor marketing through camera shops.  One might be that by direct sales they cut out distributors and retailers and can earn more on every sale.

Perhaps auto manufacturers could sell directly to consumers.  That would certainly be one way of increasing profits.  Maybe not.

My Panasonic Lumix FZ28 is referred to as a Superzoom.  It is a point and shoot camera that looks like an SLR.  The difference is that there are no interchangeable lenses and it weighs less than 15 ounces with the battery installed.

The results I have obtained from this camera have met all of my expectations.  The super zoom goes out 428mm.  That means an object 700 feet away looks like it was right in front of me when I shoot the picture.  The high ISO rating of 6400 (In [HIGH SENS.] in scene mode, the ISO sensitivity automatically switches to between [ISO1600] and [ISO6400] and the available flash range also differs.) enable me photograph without a flash in many instances.

Latino Boycott of the Census Makes no Sense

A Los Angeles Times Editorial

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Funds and services depend on an accurate count; boycotting could hurt those who need those things the most.

The latest effort to push illegal immigrants further into the shadows of civic life comes from an unexpected quarter. Not from those who would gladly deport every single person residing in this country without permission, but from advocates who profess to have their best interest at heart. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders is urging illegal immigrants not to participate in the 2010 census. The group’s supposed logic? That the statistical invisibility of 11 million to 12 million people will be a powerful lever to move legislators and the Obama administration to act with urgency and create a pathway to citizenship.

This misguided advice could have come from the Minuteman Project. Because an undercount means that the very places where illegal immigrants reside and use services, those states and counties already in desperate financial straits will be shortchanged of federal funding that would help all residents. Are these church leaders also urging illegal immigrants to not send their children to school? To avoid hospitals? To forgo driving on highways? An undercount means diminished funding for those public necessities and many others. Furthermore, census data determine voting districts. Are these advocates calling for fewer elected officials who might actually negotiate a pathway to citizenship?

In a report on undercounting in the 2000 census, the accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers calculated that states loses more than $3,000 per uncounted resident. California, for example, is already out hundreds of millions of dollars because of an undercount in the 2000 census of an estimated 500,000 people. Los Angeles, Alameda, San Bernardino, Orange and San Diego counties will lose the bulk of that money, with L.A. losing more than $600 million over 10 years.

Unfortunately, this boycott movement seems to be gaining momentum; it dovetails with an existing fear of government detection. But anyone who boycotts the census has a poor understanding of U.S. history. Political power in this country is tethered to visibility. It is not a coincidence that in the past, the voiceless — Native Americans on reservations, enslaved African Americans — were purposely not counted in the census. (Actually, for taxation and representation purposes, the latter were counted as three-fifths of a person.)

There is no logical reason to fear participation. By law, all personal census information is sealed for 72 years, and no one who fills out a form is going to be deported as a result. With nothing to gain but much to lose, boycotting the census would be a strange tactic for people who have marched by the millions, revealing their numbers for the world to see. Whatever happened to “Today we march, tomorrow we vote”?

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See my column Why are most Mexicans in Mexico so poor?