Irreverent. Irrelevant.

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.  And, if it is a nod to America’s rejection of the type of leadership from the past eight years, then he deserves it.  Maybe not yet…but that is for another post.  I am changing the subject.

Let us revisit Orwell’s 1984…”whoever controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past.” Here they are speaking about the events in history, and our recollection of it.  Oh, and manipulation of it.  My interest came from two stories that caught my attention today.

I have been loosely following CERN’s work on the Hadron Collider since AirForceStepDad stated “I just know they opened up some kind of hole-in-time…” when it broke.  Don’t mind him–he took the pills during Desert Storm.  So I was dismayed that a researcher in the facility was arrested. First, there was conflicting information on the French physicist working in the vicinity of the Large Hadron Collider had been arrested with links to Al-Qaeda. He was in contact with the organization, and although he had not begun preparing for any specific action, he had expressed an interest in carrying out attacks. My info discrepancy came from the actual number of individuals arrested, from NPR and the BBC coverage of it.  Hate to ignore blogs, but I was looking for traditional media on this one, because a few originally led me to believe that he was actually working ON THE LHC. Which terrified me.  But he was not, and in fact he was working on the Beauty Quark with independent researchers (also neat subject matter…and anti-matter), and so was not actually working with CERN on figuring out the origins of the universe (and I guess the Higgs Boson – Thanks wikipedia!). For their part, CERN did make sure that they knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the electrical failure from last year was exactly that.  Even still, the thought of terrorist activities so close to the only gigantic particle accelerator is not all that comforting. The physicist was unnamed in reports.

This led me to a blurb that I know I heard somewhere…Iranian Atomic Scientist missing, or kidnapped?  I searched for a bit, but wasn’t able to find anything until I ran across Al Jazeera’s information. Apparently, Shahram Amiri is  missing, and was purportedly working on Tehran’s nuclear program.  From what I read however, there is speculation on whether he defected or was kidnapped.  Al Jazeera indicated that many media outlets believe he defected to the west, while his family dismisses that notion.  So then, Iran goes and holds Saudi Arabia (there they are!!!) responsible for not protecting Amiri when he disappeared from their country.  Here’s a thought: If you want to play the “Big Boy Totalitarian Country” game, you don’t let your important people leave the country.  I think that is the third rule down the list. 

While the Iranian foreign minister claims that they have proof of American interference, but U.S. officials have said that they don’t have any information on Amiri. He went missing before the secret site at Qom was revealed, by about three months, so it is safe to guess that he is safe. But…ummm….unless he is here, and quite secure in the United States, I think we should be a little more concerned.

Which brings me to my important point. Once I found the article on Al Jazeera, and had his name, then I found all sorts of articles about his disappearance, with the headline that most often included “nuke scientist” (Is that considered proper?).  These were all within the last week.  What concerned me about Iran was that there was no report of his disappearance, and if he had ended up with really vicious people, we wouldn’t have known until a few days ago–if at all.  More disturbing is that if his disappearance was reported…it’s getting harder to use a search engine to find news from a specific day, specific event, or for events over a year ago. 

I, like many people rely on digital news.  What is beginning to happen is, without the help of a blogger’s link, sometimes you cannot search and find information about what happened if it was too obscure, or if it was too long ago.  Obviously, there was no report of his disappearance.  I also tried searching for information reported when the LHC malfunctioned last year, and consistently came up with the physicist’s arrest.  I gave up and went to CERN’s  site for the date of the incident, then was able to find news in a search.  In searching for this information, I realized how easy it is to manipulate information over time.  I have heard numerous people screaming “1984!!!” without realizing just what that would mean. The true danger from 1984-style media control does not lie within the United States, simply because there are so many “citizen journalists”.  There are, however, repressed societies that can foster misinformation and virtually change the past  before their very eyes (although a more subtle approach would probably be preferable).

Ahmadinejad not in a position to lecture, but he made some good points.

I had to take a day to collect myself after hearing Ahmadinejad’s UN speech. I actually had to lie down directly after hearing it. Don’t get me wrong–I DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING he says (and really disagree with what he does, for that matter), but I tried to listen to the speech with an open mind.  I also try to listen often to the EIB with an open mind…although my teeth remain clenched more often than not. The Iranian leader’s speech was actually a nice break from that.

Yesterday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a scary amount of sense in what he had to say. Now, he does not have the mandate of God to sit in the ivory tower and shout down the truth at us, not with the magnitude of human rights atrocities that have and are still occurring in Iran. But…we majority nations–the U.S. (anihilation of many Native Americans, slavery, acutal use of atomic weapons, the Jim Crow/civil rights era, McCarthyism), Great Britain (imperialism on a GRAND scale, religious intolerance, oppression of the poor); add to this list the former Soviet Union, China, Germany, Israel–can not exactly claim purity, and can only speak from the perspective of repented sinners that have not been 100% rehabilitated. Not one of us may cast the first stone.

That being said, if it helps, remove the man himself from the statements and just listen to the speech. There are parts that could appeal to anyone and every nation.   I can only pull from the experience of being an American, so this is what I heard.

Friends and Colleagues; Today, I wish to share with you a few points about the changes that should take place. First, Clearly, continuation of the current circumstances in the world is impossible. The present inequitable and unfavorable conditions run counter to the very nature of human kind and move in a direction which contravenes the truth and the goal behind the creation of the world. It is no longer possible to inject thousands of billions of dollars of unreal wealth to the world economy simply by printing worthless paper assets, or transfer inflation as well as social and economic problems to others through creating severe budget deficits.

The above statement would ring true with about 95% of our U.S. population, although we (myself included) would pick and choose what aspects of the statement we agree with.

How can one imagine that the inhuman policies in Palestine may continue; to force the entire population of a country out of their homeland for more than 60 years by resorting to force and coercion; to attack them with all types of arms and even prohibited weapons; to deny them of their legitimate right of self-defense, while much to the chagrin of the international community calling the occupiers as the peace lovers, and portraying the victims as terrorists. How can the crimes of the occupiers against defenseless women and children and destruction of their homes, farms, hospitals and schools be supported unconditionally by certain governments, and at the same time, the oppressed men and women be subject to genocide and heaviest economic blockade being denied of their basic needs, food, water and medicine.

When he spoke to Katie Couric, there was some ambiguity on whether Ahmadinejad now believes (or whatever) that the holocaust did occur. How one cannot believe that this happened is completely unfathomable, but he does state that the genocide and the consequence  or outcome (creating Israel) do not logically make sense. It was, after all, a Nazi Germany that perpetuated the crimes, and our solution (although noble in intent) was to partition off a part of Palestine? In my lifetime, there has always been an Israel, and thus, there have always been strained relations with other nations in the middle east.

There has been unbelieveable cruelty from both Palestine and Israel towards each other. In the U.S. we tend to hear the Israeli side, and it is heartbreaking what they go through in an attempt to simply live their lives.  But a clear picture requires the other side of the story as well.  An interesting take on the Palestinian side is from the documentary “Death in Gaza,” which is well worth the time a viewing takes. After watching the documentary, genocide may not be the best descriptor, though.

Regrettably, in the current international relations, selfishness and insatiable greed have taken the place of such humanitarian concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity, and justice. The belief in the One God has been replaced with selfishness. Some have taken the place of God and insist to impose their values and wishes on others. Lies have taken the place of honesty; hypocrisy has replaced integrity and selfishness has taken the place of sacrifice.

Hmm….he goes on to say:

Deception in interactions is called foresight and statesmanship; looting the wealth of other nations is called development efforts; occupation is introduced as a gift towards promotion of freedom and democracy, and defenseless nations are subjected to repression in the name of defending human rights. Friends and Colleagues; Settlement of global problems and administration of justice and maintenance of peace will only be materialized with collective determination and cooperation of all nations and states. The age of polarizing the world on the premises of the hegemony or domination of a few governments is over.

Before “Practice what you preach, brother,” is said, take into consideration the truth in those words. I cannot understand how this is the same man who pretty much authorized the torture and murder of election protestors and supressed the media (so the rest of the world wouldn’t find out about it?  Really? In the age of Twitter???) during the same time frame.  And while he also has a real problem with Israel, the recommendations he made to the UN to restructure are pretty logical too.

1 – Restructuring the United Nations in order to transform this world body to an efficient and fully democratic organization, capable of playing an impartial, equitable, and effective role in the international relations; reforming the structure of the Security Council, specially by abolishing the discriminatory privilege of veto right; restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people by organizing a referendum and free elections in Palestine in order to prepare a conducive ground for all Palestinian populations, including Muslims, Christians and Jews to live together in peace and harmony; putting an end to all types of interferences in the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East, and in all countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe…  [he then goes on to talk about Israel/Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay--and how interference adds to violence there]

2- Reforming the current economic structures and setting up a new international economic order based on human and moral values and obligations. A new course is needed that would help promote justice and progress worldwide by flourishing the potentials and talents of all nations thus bringing well-being for all and for future generations;

3- Reforming the international political relations based on the promotion of lasting peace and friendship, eradication of arms race and elimination of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

4- Reforming cultural structures , respect for diverse customs and traditions of all nations, fostering moral values and spirituality aimed at institution of family as the backbone of all human societies;

5- Worldwide efforts to protect the environment and full observance of the international agreements and arrangements to prevent the annihilation of nature’s non-renewable resources.

Still, I feel that we need to discuss with Iran why they want to enrich uranium, then, lend Iran the assistance of our  best scientists, and help to keep the nuclear activities focused on electricity and medicine. Maybe forge a new partnership in creating something great that would benefit many nations? Someone on Huffington Post made a good point; if Iran gets and uses a nuclear weapon to harm anyone else in the world, they will cease to exist (some nation will make sure of it)–and nobody really wants that.

Had we and the British not interfered and had Mosaddeq overthrown, Ahmadinejad, his regime, and his views might not be before us today.  Iran could have been our greatest ally in all of the events of the past half-century, and especially throughout the last decade. But here we are instead. *sigh*

(Oh, and by the way, a Republican administration made the original “overthrowing” happen.)

Officially Sick & Tired

I have stayed out of this Health care debate pretty successfully until now.  I’m not a doctor, insurance agent, or a politician.  I have no special interest in this at all…except that I am again uninsured (unemployed again…geez, that sounds horrible, but a 5-hour commute to work every day would not have been possible)…but this is a debate that is completely full of ugliness and b.s. being slung from both sides. I don’t completely agree with any side vs. the other in any way, but I do have a few ideas that might be of interest. 

Here’s what my primitive, 28-year-old brain came up with. A major part of this is raising taxes. YES…simply plan to raise taxes in the area of Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security. Tell the truth about it!! They are payroll taxes anyway, and at my basic calculations we will need approximately $420 billion to get this thing started.

1. Employ parts of the Whole Foods method. If you haven’t heard about this, read here, but understand that I do deviate quite a bit:
   • Create health savings accounts (HSAs) for each individual American. I think a good number here would be $1500 (hence, the $420 billion for the 280 million of us that are currently here).
     • Every American with a Social Security Number will be assigned this account on January 1 of their first year of life.  Parents can opt-out at birth for religious or other objections.
     • Annual contributions to the HSA will make it at least equal to, but no more than the prescribed minimum, here $1500. So, if someone only uses $150 of their HSA, the Fed will only add back $150 on the following Jan 1st.
     • The amount of the HSA will increase over time, because it will accrue interest.  Safe investing should cover this.  If an individual opts not to use any of the funds, the government will not need to add anything to it, nor will it hurt the economy if the money sits and accrues interest (ok, except that it won’t be in the process of being spent at Best Buy).
   • Turn the much talked about “public option” into a High Deductible Insurance plan that is federally funded.
     • The federal government, businesses and individuals should put funds in reserve that people could use without private insurance or demonstrate need. For my purposes, we’ll call it Federal High Deductible Insurance (FHDI).
     • Set the deductible before insurance pays at a reasonable, but attention-getting level above the HSA level.  So, if there is $1500 in an individual’s HSA  and the deductible is set at $2000, once an individual has exhausted their savings acct they must pay $500 out-of-pocket before any public option kicks in.
     • If individuals opt to not purchase any form of insurance, they will pay into the FDHI fund as part of their federal taxes. They won’t have to pay any extra if their income level causes their HSA to be dormant, unless they have no private insurance and have to use the FDHI.
     • If businesses don’t directly insure their employees, they will have to pay into this fund annually based on their number of employees.
2. Costs could possibly be contained in the existing insurance companies if we do this first step in setting up HSAs for U.S. citizens. Reasons why:
   • Citizens can choose to either spend all HSA funds first before allowing insurance or other coverage to kick in OR can use the HSA to cover costs private insurance does not cover (i.e. if insurance pays 70% of a procedure the HSA funds can cover the other 30%).
   • Only once the HSA is exhausted might a person go to their private insurance or a publicly-funded option, and may even elect to choose less expensive insurance.
   • If individuals have private insurance they must use this instead of the FDHI, but could use the public option if their insurance company refused to pay for a procedure.
   • I too think it is a.)ridiculous to forceinsurance companies to cover random people with pre-existing conditions that have never had insurance and b.) ridiculous to define pre-existing conditions as being pregnant while switching from one insurance provider with similar coverage to another. I can understand reluctance to cover persons with pre-existing conditions who have not previously had any coverage…for this reason I believe the FHDI would be the best and only option.  For those who are switching between companies with similar coverage and benefits, we absolutely should force insurance companies to treat them as lifelong customers.
   • One other enhancement that might help the above situation would be to standardize the benefits among all insurance companies and at least have similar levels of coverage for approximate costs…not carbon copies, but this would not only give companies a space to compete but a way to judge similar coverage from another company. Also there may be a place for a mandatory, basic plan that exists with the same benefits and at the same price point with all companies.
   • Insurance companies should be allowed to compete across state lines, since the FDHI ideally would operate on a national level.
3. Some other important points about the HSA that might make it work
   • Anyone can refuse to use their HSA, but just like the payroll taxes we pay for medicare/social security, it would still be funded by every American. This is a necessary evil, because the public option is “insurance for when insurance fails”.
   • Any citizen’s HSA will become dormant or inactive when they begin to make over $250,000 per year.  It can become active again if their income falls below this amount.
   • It might still be okay to allow the individuals described above to use the high deductible public option if they choose not to purchase private insurance.  They would simply have to pay the $2000 out-of-pocket first.
   • When an individual either reaches the age or otherwise becomes eligible for medicare or medicaid, their HSA will rollover into this general fund. This, of course, means we have to fix these programs.
   • End-of-life counseling is a great idea.  Providing the funds for it is also a great idea, so when the funds rollover, there might be a portion set aside for this purpose. 
4. All employers must either offer some form of coverage or pay into the national HSA fund and the FHDI fund.
   • This has been a talking point that has angered many Americans–to force the small business owners to offer insurance at much higher rates than large businesses.  A Health Cooperative might be the best plan here.
     • Small businesses can band together in what is recently being referred to as a marketplace or exchange, since the difference between them and large companies is numbers.
     • The more small businesses (and individuals who for whatever reason need to buy their own) that band together in a state, a region, a profession, etc., can get more competitive rates.
     • These co-ops may need to operate across state lines, to take advantage of the greatest numbers possible
     • These co-ops might be of interest to fragmented organizations, where they might find the most competitive rates if they band together in larger numbers.
   • In order to get into the co-op, a small businesses might pay a one-time fee (per corporate entity) to the FDHI, a reasonable amount that would not only bolster the FDHI, but allow the business access to the cooperative network, then set this up as a deducted benefit to their employees.
     • For the sake of being fair, large businesses (with whatever criteria will classify them as large) will not be allowed to put employees into the co-op systems.
   • If they opt not to insure employees directly, they can either:
     • Pay a fee anually to the FDHI through their business taxes, or
     • Set up their access on the network, but set it up so individual employees can choose their own coverage, but still work within the discounted co-op structure with whatever network fees that might entail being covered by the employer.
5. The other cost-cutting measures would be to fix the issues in the medical profession itself.  Currently, medicine is advancing quickly, but malpractice issues–that drive up cost–are in need of overhaul. I don’t know enough to wax poetic, but I’m willing to pay for the innovation, not so much the litigation. There is the problem within the insurance and government way of thinking that they will bargain for the average cost of a service and pay only what they deem is the “fair” price. Let’s investigate if this is really fair to the physicians that take care of us

I feel that this might be an idea–a rough draft–of a direction we could go.  We’re slated to spend $900 billion on this anyway…These ideas give choice; they allow for competition; they cover those who are not otherwise covered; these ideas give an idea of the source of funding, and how they go back to medicare in the long run; they should appeal on some level to all Americans. 

In conjunction with whatever health plan that is chosen, there will need to also be a huge effort and focus on better health choices and prevention through lifestyle changes.

Surely we can agree on some comprehensive reform where everyone on every side wins something. There is no place for any more ugliness in a civilized, adult problem-solving process.

Neat!

I just added the RSS from President-Elect Obama’s change.gov site on the right sidebar of my blog.  Same kind of setup as his candidate site, but we’ll see how popular this one is.  Spread the word!