Taxing taxes

Apple computer has more money than the Federal Government; how could such a travesty occur? Obama is afraid of taxing rich corporations, as it would tarnish his image of an easy-going, nice guy President. They better study economics 101, and go back to the old mercantile system.

Drug/health rip off.

The pharmaceutical industry makes an exorbitant amount of money on brand name drugs. After proprietary patents run out, the rest of the drug companies can make their own generic brand of the drug, using the formulation of the original research company. The way things stand, the research company gets to market its drug at an inflated cost for up to fifteen years, recouping the research dollars, they put into the development of the drug, and then the drug becomes available in a generic version. The generic version is generally 50% cheaper than the original.

 

The Ontario government suggests some changes to this time honored and carefully controlled market. They suggest generic drugs should be available for 25% of the initial brand name drug cost. This upsets the old boy network of pharmaceutical sales – BUT would greatly help the consumer and put less of a strain on health care costs.

 

If they are going to change the system, they might as well make some more changes that seem inevitable. Drug stores complain about the amount of money they can make: they have a set rate of eight+ dollars to fill a prescription, plus the mark up they add to the price of the drug. The bottom line should be how could we reduce the amount of money a sick person has to pay to stay healthy. And drug stores should lead the way.

 

Pharmacies would never willing give up that “eight dollar dispensing” fee, but when the entire process is looked at in a modern, more productive light, certain inevitabilities are exposed. Why do we need a person to count out individual pills: this is a less sterile environment, the pills are subjected to human contaminants and any airborne contaminants in the store, plus human error when counting drugs. I’ve personally received incorrectly processed prescriptions. When you pay for 120 pills, the only way to know there are 120 pills in a hand-counted pill bottle is to count them. I sometimes divide my pills in half, and have found shortfalls over 20 pills. This becomes a real problem when you bring it under sight to a pharmacy’s attention. You’ve paid for the full dose, and they claim they’ve given you the full dose, but you only received 100 pills. It your word against theirs, and no one ever wants to admit to an error.

 

Standardization in manufacturing would end this problem, ensure the drugs are counted under sterile conditions and make sure the amount is computer checked. Certain drugs are always prescribed by doctors in standard doses: it’s a redundant system that costs the consumer too much money.

 

It makes too much sense, which is why it will be a long time before they surrender that old method of making money. Everyone talks about modernization, but it runs into roadblocks when old money making schemes are threatened with new, safer and cheaper solutions.

Canadian Commissionaires?

Canadians have a government controlled not by the people, but by a small band of unelected, anonymous and imprudent individuals in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).  This over-powered and slippery organization acts like Royalty; respectively, there is an elected King, along with an endless entourage of sycophants, advisers and court jesters waiting to catch his ear.

 

The PMO looks at government policy through the light of the polls.  With an accountant’s empathy, everything is reduced to numbers.  If half the country supports you, why change things?  This means the PMO’s office is spinning its wheels trying to look busy, when all they are doing is maintaining the circumstances that got them elected.  The most important issue for our breed of politicians is to get re-elected and keep their cushy jobs.  The goal is certainly not to be innovative and find solutions for our Nation’s problems in a sensible fashion.  Once elected, greed, ego, power and self-importance are more essential than the melt-down of our entire economy.  Housing, Medicare and jobs become issues that receive a lot of hot air, empty promises, and expensive commissions to study the problem, then release a lengthy report that no one reads and offers no solutions.  Even the politicians that intended to fight for change are seduced by the golden pensions and financial rewards.  Before they’ve moved any furniture, their extended family, friends, neighbors and friends of friends all receive affluent jobs and are now set for life.

 

One of the greatest excuses for unnecessary employment would have to be the “commissions” they form whenever they pretend they want to study something.  No one even bothers to find out how many other “reports” there are, read the existing literature on the subject or talk to people that are currently experts in the field.  There are dozens of reports on how to save our public system, not the least of which is the PM’s Blue Ribbon Panel Report on health care from the 1990’s.  Why were its solutions never applied?  What about the suggested changes from that $15 million dollar Romanow Commission Report?  Erstwhile Minister of Health Alan Rock believed the changes would reorganize hospital administration costs enough to fix our medical system.

 

If the changes would cure our ailing system, why were they never implemented?  Sadly, these expensive commissions study the problem, then offer solutions no one reads. 

 

The clock has been ticking too long: someone needs to rewind it.  Once they have a commission studying the problem, the initial issue is supplanted by another issue, and now the global economic meltdown.  What was exceedingly critical has been replaced by something even more devastating.  It might be argued that our Government welcomes these imminent disasters as they refocus our attention on more current and calamitous events.  And, they get another chance to grab the spotlight and look like they are ready and prepared with the perfect plan “to save the nation”.  Hogwash.  Another chance for more commissions.  Finally, a job for Uncle Bill.

 

Purporting to do something while actually doing nothing really shines through the cracks in these committee doors.  MPs spend 50 percent of their time on these government controlled committees dong studies and reviewing legislation.  They guzzle public money and waste the valuable time of hundreds of parliamentarian employees.  These studies are then used for nothing more than a doorstop.  MPs know this, yet persist with the sham, wasting their time, their staff and public money.  But that’s why there are so many well paid jobs in Ottawa.  Sticking to your principles and demonstrating leadership on issues is a one-way ticket to being ostracized from your colleagues and the system.

 

Parliament must be reformed to allow MPs to tackle problems that matter to the public.  The public needs to be engaged in the political process; otherwise, nescience will make them their own victims.   Never expect sympathy from the greedy fat cats we sent “abroad”.  Circumstances and the human faces behind them are gone; our government protects itself and only sees spread sheet columns and how the numbers add up.  Needy citizens will become needier, the poor will become poorer and struggling middle class workers will be poor and needy very soon.  Needless to say, an economic meltdown might hurt us, but our well-padded politicians have exorbitant pensions that ensure luxurious retirement.  Our tax dollars at work again.  Ironically, one hundred years ago there was no income tax, and a political career meant trying to help your constituents

Within and without

A man is made

Worry not: worry creates a life of tribulation. If you do the best you can, you always know there is nothing more that can be done. Be happy your best work went into the job.

Be happy to help and always helpful and honest.

Be calm despite a raging storm. Storms always waste their energy; put yours to better use.

Health and happiness are more important than all the money in the world. If you are miserable and in pain from your health, what good is money? Expensive pain killers take joy from life and what is life without joy?

Shape what you do or else indolence will shape you.

Contentment is a stat not a goal. When you cease to need, you will be content. Appreciate everything; share things – do not selfishly hoard or gloat and amass.

Think of others before yourself. Why be selfish? Why should you get things and not someone else? Do you need more? Deserve more? Earn more?

Think about others, for only other people can every think about you. Make sure they are nice thoughts.

Notice your neighbors and what they need: this gives you a chance to give.

Walk a block in Christ’s sandals; you will have more than a lifetime of perfection to emulate. Without knowing how, try and know why Christ did the things he did. Good things.
Understanding is not necessary if you have complete faith.

Hearing and not responding is stupid and the worst thing you can do. Please don’t be that stupid……..
Listen rather than talk. You can talk to yourself all day; you might only get one chance to listen.
Concern yourself with reality, not selfishness.

inside man

Viewpoint.  Attitude.  It all depends on which side of the fence you’re on, what team you play for, what Country you’re in and often what your religious beliefs are.  Deep and intrinsic values become part of us, part of what makes us free thinking individuals and usually never change. 

 

What makes a man a man is a lifetime of experience, choices and the consequences of those choices.  He learns what is significant to him, important values that makes him unique and special.

When debating the nature versus nurture environment, a man’s natural inclinations can be affected by experience.  Even a person who was born with a caring and loving temperament can change into a mean and hateful person.  Imagine a child growing up in Afghanistan: all he knows is violence and death.  His home has been bombed since he can remember, and whatever explanation he was given results in hate.  Perhaps he lost his family in a bombing raid, or was crippled for life.  Whatever the circumstances, his experiences made him an angry individual full of rage.  A perfect candidate for a suicide bomber.  Whatever the global political situation, America is responsible for creating the very hate they hope to control, fueling the terrorists they wish to abolish.  Religion is the greatest motivator of all; spiritual beliefs transcend this world while unwavering faith is the basis of all religion.

 

As someone progresses through life, they develop character, personality and morals.  Once someone has matured and has charted his course through life, it is often hard to change such a person.  Like teaching a dog new tricks, as it were.  What makes a man is a process of events and resolutions.  Standing up for who you are makes you believe in yourself and sure of who you are.  Unless you have a change of heart brought on by dire circumstances and traumatic events.  Viewpoints sometimes change –especially if you have a gun pointing at your head.

Some think that this is how you take the measure of a man; how ardent are his beliefs, his morals and everything that has built his character.  If someone would throw away everything they believe, people would have a pretty low opinion of him.  We could only wonder what was so important it changed what he once was – personal pain, shattered beliefs or unrequited love, there are as many reasons for a man to change as there are to make him into who he was.  What lies in the heart or mind is personal; without a personal explanation, we can only guess at what made someone change.  We should not condemn someone for changing, just try to understand that it must have been the most important thing in the world to that person. 

Freedom to think means the freedom to change into anything someone wants to be.  Do not judge; we are all no better or worse.  Judge not lest you be judged by the very standards you use to judge someone else.  Unfortunately, people judge other people every day, and think they are morally superior and entitled to judge anyone they please.  How unenlightened some people are.  Live and let live.  Love and let love be the most important factor in your life.  It’s been said that love is our one saving grace.  Sanctimony, envy, jealousy are not pleasant emotions.  Only through love will we ever know grace and contentment.  df

for write or right

why do

education denied

Education.  Intellectual discovery and scientific breakthroughs.  Imagine if the pursuit of knowledge was as always as great as it was during Roman times.  We would be centuries ahead of our current understanding of the universe.  Perhaps we would be travelling to the stars themselves.  Alexandria was more forward thinking and progressive than any city in history, and remains so until the current day. 

Imagine if that pursuit of knowledge were allowed to flourish for two thousand years.  What discoveries we could have made!!  Alas, the onlydiscoveries made that matter have been in the last hundred years.  Once the draconian and oppressive censorship of the church was removed, human thought and desire to explore was unleashed, and look at was has been accomplished in so short a time.The church promoted a fear of discovery, linking it to an overblown doctrine that involved

fire and brimestone, and the importance of living a strict life to avoid destroying your soul.  They liked things as they were; they could instill fear in anyone by threatening excommunication, and had everyone so brainwashed that they would obey the church in every respect.  Even the Romans didn’t let their pantheon of Gods dictate how they acquired technology: however, the Catholic church perpetuated a fear of God so one-sided, they didn’t even let people learn how to read so they could read the bible for themselves.  Hence, the church interpreted the holy scripts to promote their own ends.

Ultimately, certain books have the power to influence thousands of readers.  I would have to stress that the more someone reads, the chance of intellectual tunnel vision is greatly reduced.  For every one thought, there could exist an opposing thought, perhaps a variety of alternate views.  Consider the number of opposing religions that flourish throughout the world.  Sometimes these beliefs exist solely because they have never explored other ideas, and some of these people have never had access to the books that might show them something else.  Religious censorship.  Brainwashing.  Whatever you call it, it deals with withholding information.  Rumour has it that the Vatican has hidden important books over the years, merely because they judged them to be too informative.  Unfortunately, civilization was kept in the Dark Ages because the Roman Catholic Church did not want to lose control and power. 

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the only centers of learning were the church.  The church decided what people could read; it also decided who should be taught to read.  PLEASE, don’t get me wrong here.  I am not attacking Christian values: I am a Christian myself.  I’m just pointing out facts.  The “Dark Ages” was perpetuated by the cloistered and exclusive nature of learning.  Certain sciences were considered heresy; moreover, anything that would move humanity closer to understanding the world around him was considered heresy, and the church feared they would lose their overwhelming power over society. 

Why has society learned more in the last hundred years than it did over hundreds of years.  Information.  It’s easier to stand on the backs of the intellectual giants because of the rapid exchange of information.  The Internet is an explosion of information availability; the eventual impact on our lives is only now being exploited and tested.

The great mathematicians and thinkers had to re-learn formulas and math that had already been discovered by the Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks and Babylonians.  Ancient texts and manuscripts, called palimpsests, have been found recently that had vital mathematical formulas and text scrapped off, and turned into <b><i>Illuminated Manuscripts.</i></b>  The writing material was in short supply back then.  Accordingly, basic concepts had to be re-invented, re-discovered.  When knowledge is freely available to everyone, unexpected innovations are made, because people acquire a foundation of learning by studying what is already known.  That is why our society has advanced so quickly, and so far. 

Newton’s laws of physics took us to the moon.  Where Einstein’s theory of relativity, the discivery of quarks, nanotechnology, robotics, or rocket science will take us is unknown.  Where the new sciences will take us is uncertain; nevertheless, it will be fantastic.