Sexy Currency

Let’s talk about sex. Whoo hoo! Yep, sex, sex, sex. It turns out Obama’s gay marriage stance isn’t going down too well. It’s now ok to look at kiddie porn in New York, so long as you don’t own it. And Canada is about to issue a pornographic $20 bill. Oh, yeah.

Issue One: Gay Rage. Yesterday, Obama came out of the closet on behalf of something he’s always believed in deeply but previously refused to support for no reason whatsoever except that he wasn’t evolved enough to act on his beliefs until Joe Biden evolved him: gay marriage. Yep. Now gay marriage will be the law of the land. Oh, wait. . . there’s some fine print here. Hmm. Has Obama lied again?

Indeed he has. Right after Obama decided to declare his support for gay marriage, people with brains (i.e. conservative) began to snicker that Obama was trying to mislead his supporters. By last night, his supporters had caught on. In a rather nasty article, Gawker noted that Obama’s promise was all smoke and mirrors. Observe:

“It seems fairly clear from the network's coverage that his announcement amounts to much less than meets the eye. He now believes that gay couples should be able to marry. He doesn't believe they have a right to do so. This is like saying that black children and white children ought to attend the same schools, but if the people of Alabama reject that notion—what are you gonna do?”

Oh, the irony of accusing Obama of supporting modern segregation. I love it when liberals get all self-righteous on each other. Perhaps they can now call him an Uncle Tom like they do to Clarence Thomas?

In any event, the tone of the article is downright rude, like when they called Obama’s state’s rights evasion: “a half-assed, cowardly cop-out.” And I suspect the tone will only get worse over the coming weeks because one thing the gay lobby is not is civil. The fun is just beginning and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time with his campaign struggling to find its footing.

Issue Two: I Own What? In 2009, Professor James D. Kent of Marist College in New York was convicted of promoting a sexual performance of a child and possession of child pornography, i.e. kiddie porn. But part of his conviction was just overturned. Why? Because the evidence was found in his web browser’s cache, which stores everything you’ve looked at, and he argued that he was not even aware his browser had a cache, so he can’t possibly have knowingly possessed the porn.

New York’s appellate level court agreed that images found in a cache are not proof of possession. Kent’s conviction still stands for the 13,000 images of 8-9 year old girls in lingerie which he had on his harddrive, but apparently those in the browser don’t count as him having “dominion and control over the images.” Now, on the one hand, I can understand that a browser may capture an inadvertent image. I’ve been re-directed to all kinds of places I never wanted to be and those images get into the cache, and it shouldn’t be a crime to have a couple such images stumble their way onto your computer. But give me a break, there is no doubt he was out there looking for this stuff and was just too stupid to clean out his cache. What this ruling does is essentially make is legal to look at kiddie porn in New York so long as you don’t save it to your harddrive. That’s like saying it should be illegal to possess heroin, but it’s not illegal to shoot up on it so long as you use somebody else’s stash.

Issue Three: Porno Dollars. Finally, Canada, i.e. Northern Maine, will be issuing a new $20 dollar bill in November, and it isn’t going over too well. That’s largely because they picked a stupid design. Apparently, a focus group which looked at the bill thought it was “too pornographic” because it contains three naked women clinging to the 9/11 Twin Towers (in America). Here’s the bill, eh:

Interestingly, the structure is not the 9/11 Twin Towers, it is a memorial called the Vimy Memorial, a wartime memorial honoring thousands of Canadian servicemen and which symbolizes the unity between France and Canada. And the topless chicks are known as the Chorus, and they represent Justice and Peace, Truth and Knowledge, Hope, Charity, Honor and Faith. Here is a photo of the memorial.

Personally, I think the bill is uglier than a sewer of Pelosi. Plus, I’m wondering why no one was offended by the swamp monster wearing the tee-shirt with the old lady on it? But I won’t laugh too hard at our neighbors from the Moose Realm because I’m sure our next dollar won’t be much better. In fact, here’s a sneak peek. . .

At least it’s not a damn coin.

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How Good Is European/Canadian Health Care Really?

I’m convinced. We need a government-run, single-payer health care system. Why? Because our health care system is miserable -- it’s the worst in the developed world. And everybody else's is so good. Yep. The end.

What’s that? You want me to produce evidence? Fine, but it’s a waste of time. . . just like reading a bill before you vote for it.

Let’s start with life expectancy. Did you know that the United States ranks 50th out of 224 nations in life expectancy? That’s pretty bad. Of course, we live to an average age of 78.11 years, whereas the world average is only 67. So I guess that’s not so bad. And I guess I should mention that the European Union only ranks 41st, at 78.67 years. Interesting. . .

Hey, did you know that the most observable determinant of life expectancy is obesity. And if you factor out the increase in obesity in the United States between 1991 and 2004, the American life expectancy would increase by six months to 78.71, a little better than the EU. Wow, I never saw that coming!

Ok, so the life expectancy thing didn’t work, but we ALL know that the United States leads the world in infant mortality. What? That’s not true either.

The US infant mortality rate is 6.26 deaths per 1000 births, placing us 44th on the list of 224. The EU rate is 5.72 deaths per 1000, placing them 42nd. Only two spots higher. But there's more you say? Not all countries count infant mortality in the same way? In Canada, Germany and Austria, premature babies weighing less than 500 grams are not considered living children and are not counted toward mortality statistics. In Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby is not considered a baby unless it is at least 30 centimeters in length at the time of death. In some countries, babies that survive less than 24 hours are considered “stillborn” and are excluded as well. Hong Kong and Japan classify these as “miscarriages” and don’t count them either. Norway has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world until you add these exclusions back in. When you do that, the have the same rate at the US.

Who could have guessed that the two big reasons cited for switching to a single payer system are false? I wonder what else we don’t know. . .

• Breast cancer mortality is 88% higher in the UK, 52% higher in Germany, and 9% higher in Canada than in the US.

• Prostate cancer mortality is 604% higher in the UK, 457% higher in Norway, and 184% higher in Canada than in the US.

• Colorectal mortality is 40% higher in the UK and 10% higher in Canada than in the US.

• Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases like heart disease. For example, 56% of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs receive them. This compares to 36% of the Dutch, 29% of the Swiss, 26% of the Germans, 23% of the Britons, and 17% of the Italians.

• Canadian and British patients face waits that are twice as long as those in America.

• The US has 34 CT machines and 27 MRI machines for every million Americans, whereas Canada has only 12 CT machines and 6 MRI machines per million, and Britain has only 8 CT machines and 6 MRI machines.

Nor are foreigners all that happy with their systems. Just like Americans, more than 70% of Germans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and Britons report that their health care systems need either “fundamental change” or “complete rebuilding.” That is surprising if one is to believe that the single payer system is such a good idea?

Further, the idea that American drugs are expensive compared to the rest of the world is a myth. Recent studies have shown that while the US, on average, has higher prices for newly originated drugs, it has the lowest generic prices compared to other countries. The US also has the lowest over-the-counter costs. Moreover, while the US consumer would have spent, on average, 3% more for the same basket of drugs in Canada and 27% more than your average German, the American would have spent 30% less than the average French patient, 9% less than the average Italian, 8% less than the average Japanese, and 24% less than the average Briton.

Finally, consider that the world is piggybacking on American innovation.

• The top five US hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in every other developed country combined.

• Since the 1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology has gone to US residents more than the residents of all other countries combined.

• The United States spends three times as much as the rest of the world on R&D in biotechnology.

So maybe, in the end, our system isn’t the disaster we’ve been told? Or maybe, emulating the European/Canadian single payer model just isn’t a good idea.

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Democracts Don’t Find Canada Stimulating

I love Canada. . . mostly. It seems very pretty and I have truly liked the Canadians I have met. I’m a big user of Canadian oil and timber. I’m grateful that Canadian soldiers have fought alongside Americans in every conflict that I can think of, and have always distinguished themselves. I wouldn’t wish Canadian healthcare on anyone, and I really did not like “The Red And Green Show,” but that’s ok -- into every relationship a little rain must fall, eh?

Unfortunately, that rain is about to turn into a downpour, and it ain’t water falling from the sky. The democrats, in their union-sopping protectionist ways, have chosen to start a trade war with our dear friends the Canadians.

All over the country, federal, state, and municipal authorities are now scouring their worksites looking to make sure that Canadian products are not being used by their contractors and are demanding that contractors certify that they are using only American made products. It’s “Buy American” time, stimulus style. This a great way to treat a friend.

In response, a group of cities in Ontario have banned U.S. companies from competing for billions of dollars worth of municipal contracts. Hmm. . . no one could have seen that coming -- at least no one with a “D” behind their name.

I understand that Canadian authorities also may have seized the crews of various American television productions taking place in Vancouver, and may have sent teams of suicide pipe-fitters south of the border with instructions to fix our infrastructure or die trying. No doubt this is what Janet Napolitano was talking about when she accused Canada of allowing terrorists to cross their border.

So far, Obama has remained silent on this issue, to avoid inciting awareness.

In all seriousness, protectionism is a fool’s game. The historical evidence and theoretical evidence is so overwhelmingly one-sided that you really do have to be an idiot to believe that protectionism is a good thing. I hope that somebody in D.C. wakes up before this goes too far.
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