Comments on: Free crack.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:11:36 +0000

Everything you’ve said jeff (tmmo) about the cost being too high and dire outcomes of National Healthcare was said back then to try to keep the government from having and funding National Parks. And it didn’t happen.

By: LAMary

LAMary — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:50:31 +0000

Crabby, those are such perfect looking deer. I know they eat the garden and spread ticks and things, but, awwww. They look like Bambi.

By: Crabby

Crabby — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:56:04 +0000

Big deer hangout around here (S. Ohio)

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/jazzbass4/Penn/untitled.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a375/jazzbass4/Penn/DSCN0615.jpg

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:06:46 +0000

Flip side — by way of my wife, a former NPS naturalist ranger and PhD in non-formal education/natural resources interpretation: over 98% of all visitors to national parks never get more than 150 feet from their car.

If i weren’t a conservative, i’d say there should be federal legislation requiring everyone to spend at least one week a year not using a car (special provision for disabled persons, etc.), and call for a national program to ensure that each person take at least two nature hikes a season. Ideally with Shelton Johnson.

By: ROgirl

ROgirl — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:58:07 +0000

Good Vibrations always had me confused. I thought it was “gotta keep those love good vibrations a half man weather.”

The real lyrics are pretty strange anyway: “gotta keep those lovin’ good vibrations a happenin’ with her.” Thank you, Brian Wilson.

By: Lex

Lex — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:48:01 +0000

Rana: Hooper didn’t think the teacher was dumb; he was just stunned that she couldn’t see it his way, too. (And he’s a pretty polite kid. He just often finds himself confused, for good reason.)

Sue: Dahl! Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? (smacks self in head)

And for all interested in mondegreens, there’s KissThisGuy.com. Enjoy!

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:18:48 +0000

Ask any hospital administrator – we have a national health care policy. That’s not saying “end of discussion,” but for context, it’s important to think it through from that angle. The debate is how big it should become, and whether it should be more state-by-state, or more federally managed.

Right now, you have an implicit “right” to emergency care, unevenly (unequally) provided across the country through public hospital ERs. There’s broad agreement this is not enough, and may actually cost more than providing more comprehensive care. But jumping from that system to a “right” to equivalent care for all residents of the country, regardless of location — that’s comparable to going from a commitment to provide shelter for all citizens to making housing a right, and defining it as no less than 600 sq ft per person with private bathroom & kitchenette as a legal minimum standard. I can argue that getting to that outcome is desirable and morally incumbent on us, but still say that making it a right, when we have no idea how to pay for it and deliver it, simply puts the government simultaneously on the defensive and forces intrusion into the economy in a way that is very likely to actually impede the delivery of housing services to those getting it right now.

Making the House/Senate plan level of health care a “civil right,” which is what i hear said with great sincerity and passion, is going to have more negative outcomes than positive ones, even beyond the unsustainability of that level across the board. It will take us back to the pre-1997 entitlement approach to governmental benefits, and the sticky trap of AFDC and litigation as social work. Add in that we couldn’t have afforded that cost, socially, even before 2008, and i gotta say “whoa.”

By: Deborah

Deborah — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:53:18 +0000

MarkH, do you see a correlation between not having National Parks and not having National Healthcare? They are both interested in preserving our greatest National treasures that commerce was/is squandering. Are they not similar?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:39:39 +0000

What Dexter said. I’m watching episode 2 right now courtesy of the direct feed from PBS, and saw your post. How close we came to not having national parks, if not for the well-known Muir, and many others I had not heard of. TR certainly becomes a big hero when the power of the Antiquities Act is dropped in his lap. Then Hetch-Hetchy happened and broke Muir’s heart, as you said. The series is excellent and more than worth your time.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:29:30 +0000

I watched the Ken Burns thing. It was special to me because I learned a lot about the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir. I have blogged here before about my awe-filled visits to Muir Woods and Yosemite National Park when I was in California when I was a young man. I drove to Yosemite a few times and like TR and Muir, I slept on an army poncho thrown on the ground , under the stars. Back on the coast, I walked around in Muir Woods totally awe struck.
I had forgotten the little footnote I had read about the Hetch-Hetchy dam/reservoir project that broke John Muir’s heart and spirit.
When I was a kid in school in Indiana, we were taught Indiana history.
I wonder if California kids were taught about the political power play that was exerted to dam-up that wonderful valley a hundred years ago.
I thought this show last night was well worth the time.