Petreaus, a short poem & a long story!

                            A General with a penchant for surges
                              Confesses he can't control his urges
                        So before he was compromised to betray us
                     He changed his name to Citizen "Stud" Petreaus

Absolutely Not..... By God!

     A today's New York Times article about Insurance Premium Rebates compelled by the Infamous ACA/ Obamacare Law made me think about the young ideologue dude who wants to be the Missouri Attorney General.  He's the tough talking TV Candidate that is long on courage and short on explanation...

 Here is an excerpt from the Times article: 

     Insurance Rebates Seen as Selling Point for Health Law By ABBY GOODNOUGH New York Times  Published: July 30, 2012.  The law requires insurers to give out annual rebates by Aug. 1, starting this year, if less than 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect go toward medical care.
As a result, insurers will pay out $1.1 billion this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, with an average rebate of $151 per household.

      I trust that our "Conserative Candidate" will not welcome this news. His one plank platform seems to be "defeat obamacare"; for reasons that, I suspect, are less grounded in Macro-Economics Theory and Actuarial Analysis, and more grounded in his acquired passion to win the approval of his parents and their friends.... yes, to please that retiring generation who, of course, have exactly no idea about how to optimize Health Care Access in the 21st century.  What these aging "respected ones" do know is that it has always been prudent to oppose distributions to anyone less affluent than one's self. In the short run it preserves wealth and in the long run it insulates one's children from competition....long live Darwin!  Unless, shhh!, this "naturalselection/survival of the fittest -APP" is "far from optimal" when run on a post-modern/ instant feedback network (the planet), where secrecy is unachievable and brute force is unstoppable.

     But, what the hell, I don't care if the Insurance Companies keep ripping me off.  I don't want their rebate.  It is "tainted money" offered as a clandestine Communist conspiracy and, BY GOD, I will resist until I am dragged from my lien free land by Chinese Bill Collectors.  I know it's irrational, but it just feels right...Dad will be so proud!

Branson Council Chooses "No Name" Architect

     After Tom Treat, a local architect, invited an"AIA Promtional Posse" to consider the "disposition options" for Branson's Old High School, and after their report waxed enthusiastic to rehab the structure (surprise, surprise), and after a town hall meet that turned ugly, and after further considering at an "invitation only" session.... well the council finally took the next step and hired an architect.  Fortunately, according to the Tri-Lakes News Report, the council used a very sophisticated "4 point matrix" analytic to insure that they hired the most qualified architect.  They chose "General Design". 

     The Tri-Lakes Article reported that the council was pleased with their choice, although no information as to who "General Design" actually is was given, other than that "they were local".  A quick Google Search yielded a skeleton WebSite, with no identified principles, no indication of business type, an address on 65 Highway, and a 2012 Copyright date.  PS:  There was a picture of the "General Design" office on the Website.  Alas, it looked a lot like the side entrance to Tom Treat's House. 

     Why all the covertness.  Surley Branson's proper and upstanding "good-old-boys" know that no one in "our town" gives a shit about how they do the "cities business",  except maybe Darrin Codin, and of course everyone just thinks he's nuts.

Let's get Barack to Send Cash and Rehab the Old High School!

Rehab it for what?  Really, we don't give a damn what it winds up to be.  Everyone knows that a 60 year old multi-story school building filled with asbestos and a maze of classrooms is only good for one thing.  With three measures of "professional spin"and a big dose of "special interest", Branson can likely hijack some liberal federal dollars to enrich our "goodoldboy" design/construct club.  Not to mind that 5 million down the road when we've turned a "white elephant" into a "red nightmare", these same "mutually enabling professionals" will spin, plan, and fund the next new/old solution.  Of course, in the end the taxpayers will pay, or loose their homesteads.  The professionals will just change cities and pick new CPAP advisors.  Well, if this sounds cynical, just keep reading the "Independent" and offering ideas at patronizing neighborhood meetings.  Remember that while your being courteous and collaberative, the "goodoldboys" already lining up to ride this "cash cab" will have the "old/new building" amped, ramped and stamped.

PS  Thanks to Leap Tornado, the City has an extra $600,000 from a High School damage claim.  I have a great idea, lets spend it buying appetizers from the "goodoldboys" waiting in line for the score.  If we hurry they can share some with their favorite "conservative super pac" to help defeat the liberals.  Of course, bite the hand that feeds you...it's the Ozark way!

I Just Couldn't Work At "Family Pharmacy"

    There are three kinds of people who step up to the counter at their family pharmacy and say, "I would like to fill a prescription, please".  Indeed my family pharmacy actually has the name, "Family Pharmacy".  Unfortunately, there is nothing family about today's pharmacy.  They are the "foot soldiers" for "Big Pharma", the worldwide collaberating cartel that dances with government, panders to Wall Street, and constructively regulates you life by the distribution of little yellow and red pills.  This rant is however, not about the medicinal value of drugs.  It is about pricing! 

     First, according to Barack, about 8 out of 10 have insurance and really don't give a damn about the price.  They may care about the deductible or co-pay, but not the price.  They are either naive enough, or sufficiently narrow minded, to not see the debilitating power of uncontracted insurance premiums.  Second, there are the few, who for whatever tragic reason, are paying, or trying to pay, for their own drugs.  More often than not, they are the disenfranchised, totally ignorant of the market cost or the price spectrum.  Third, there is an even smaller group, who likely have insurance and personal means, but who simply get pissed off when their prescription receipt is cheerfully stapled to a sack of drugs sold at a predatory price.  I am part of the third group, and am pissed, not only because the scam financially victimizes me and countless millions like me, but because it further makes all of those people who make their living from the "drug industry" immoral hypocrits, no doubt self loathing, because they know that they're being used, yet daily perpetrate the scam in exchange for paychecks. 

     How sad that when some nice nerdy pharmacist hands me 30 Plavix, while apologizing that his discount price of $8.75 per tablet is so expensive, he never mentions that the same tablets are 96% less ($.44) at Northwest Pharmacy, a Canadian Pharmacy based in Washington State. Further, they "door deliver" for free. 

I am glad he's the one going home each night, knowing that he is a co-conspirator in this unconscionable Life/Death Rip Off. I just couldn't (forgive the pun) swallow it!

    Oh, but it gets worse.  Assuming that Congress passes the current pending SOPA/PIPA legislation, the "drug industry" will have blocked the low price "internet option" for we few Americans who care enough to be responsible.

PS:  It has been more than 3 years and Obama hasn't fixed this travesty, which does not appear to be that complicated.  Why not?   I voted for him in '08 for the last time, even if his reelection organization sends me 1000 emails a day!