Best Golden Globes show ever!

Awards shows are generally insufferable, to say the least.  But this year’s Golden Globes were simply the best…because they basically came in the form of a press release. 

Since the writer’s strike has cancelled this years award show, so we were spared the 4 hour show and instead offered a one hour “announcement” show with none of the winners.  That meant no speeches, not political rants, not moral high-horsing about how Americans should be living their lives and, most importantly, no horribly scripted “witty” banter between presenters. 

While the idea of reruns and reality shows all year is about as appealing as, well, an entertainment awards show, let’s hope the strike lasts long enough to ensure the Oscars go the way of the Golden Globes.  If that can’t happen, let’s at least hope for a strike by the choreographer’s union so we don’t have suffer through dance numbers.  Is that too much to ask?

You can see the list of winners here, though we were all winners tonight.

The joys of socialized medicine

A lot of Democrats praise socialized medicine as the answer to all the problems with health care, simply have the government treat everyone equally.  Sounds great, on paper, but so did communism. 

What they don’t tell you is it’s “treat everyone equally poorly.”  As long as everyone suffers the same there’s no problem.  That’s why you find people who can afford it coming to the United States to get treatment from countries with socialized medicine.

One thing to keep in mind is this, a government that provides you with health care has the ability and incentive (think cost) to deny you whatever treatment they want.  Even governments don’t have unlimited resources, though Congress spends like they do.  To control costs the government will employ the same methods private health insurance does by denying coverage, but like in Medicare, they won’t tell you about the alternatives, the doctor will only be able to do what the government pays for.  Who do you appeal to when the government says no? 

Governments can also impose things on you that you may not want for the common good.  Such is the case in the UK.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is supporting a move to take organs from dead patients without consent to save lives.  While organ donation is a good thing, there are many people who don’t want it for personal or religious reasons.  No matter, the common good must be served.

The Government will launch an overhaul of the system next week, which will put pressure on doctors and nurses to identify more “potential organ donors” from dying patients. Hospitals will be rated for the number of deceased patients they “convert” into donors and doctors will be expected to identify potential donors earlier and alert donor co-ordinators as patients approach death.

But Mr Brown, who carries a donor card, has made it clear he backs an even more radical revamp of the system, which would lead to donation by “presumed consent”.

How long do you think it will be before dying patients are denied treatments that may save or prolong their lives simply because one or more of their organs are needed for others?  The government can justify it by the fact that 90 percent of all the money spent in Medicare is spent on 10 percent of the Medicare recipients in end of life care.  The same is true in the UK.

So to save money, they will let people die and take their organs to prolong the lives of people they deem worthy.

No thank you.

it says it all