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I just read this story about the British NHS -- socialized government provided medicine---

"Tom and Donna (not their real names) are professional shamen. They teach classes in shamanism at a “foundation”, where you can learn “soul retrieval healing”, help the dead “continue their journey into the Hereafter”, and investigate “the Fairy Kingdom”. These soul retrievers and Fairy Kingdom investigators also work for the NHS — where, according to Tom’s foundation profile, they “use complementary therapies to help those with mental health difficulties”. Shaman therapies are not the only unorthodox treatments for which the NHS will gladly pay."

So, if we get free public health care, we will cure ourselves through "shamanism" -- cool.
P.S. I hope you understand sarcasm

A little while ago I had a discussion with some friends of mine about the smoking ban being put in by lots of states in the US. Their contention was that it will reduce the cost of healthcare and I had at that time jokingly said that by that measure they might as well ban obesity, since that is even more expensive in healthcare terms.

Interestingly enough British govt. is taking a step towards exactly that. Here is a quote from here:


"People who are grossly overweight, who smoke heavily or drink excessively could be denied surgery or drugs following a decision by a Government agency yesterday.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) which advises on the clinical and cost effectiveness of treatments for the NHS, said that in some cases the "self-inflicted" nature of an illness should be taken into account.

This should be a wakeup call to those who believe that universal healthcare will provide equal healthcare to all...

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Portland real estate sale are down and even median is down in some areas.

A must watch video on why Recycling is a Grigri. It funny and eye-opening. Enjoy the show.

Funny cartoon on Immigration issue.

It is 4 pages long, but it is worth it...

And, you guessed it right this politician also wants to "help the poor". It is none other then the Indian politician Ram Vilas Paswan who "will shortly introduce a Health Insurance Scheme under which 250 million poor people will get free medicines."
"

What do you think will happen? Let me make a few predictions:
- A lot of this money will be wasted on bureaucracy to run this project
- A big chuck of the money will go to the politicians running this program. after all the are the real "poor"
- Another chunk will go to the drug companies who will supply overpriced and substandard medicines for this program, i.e. if they supply the complete contracted amount.
- This program will never end... it will only expand

This is very interesting and conterintutive

It seems that excessive government subsidies have made some foods like corn so cheap that it is being used in all sorts of processed snacks resulting in high carbohydrate, high sugar (high fructose corn syrup).
From this article

And, who is harmed? The poor of of course... It is the poor who generally don't have time to cook and can't afford the expensive fresh food, and what do the do

This is just another example of unintended consequence of a “supposedly good intention.”