Healthcare lie refuted by Stephen Hawking

On July 31, Investors Business Daily published an article on the issue of end of life counseling with the following passage:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

Well, they got it wrong. OK, people make mistakes ... maybe. They retracted the article and published a "correction" with:

This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.

Huh? So where's the rest of the correction? According to Stephen Hawking himself:

I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.

The lies about health care reform perpetrated and spread by many Republicans and right wing media is a tactic that, while it might have been born of ignorance on their part, if not malice, is certainly causing much confusion in the debate. Apparently those opposed to reforming healthcare realize they don't have many valid talking points, or realize the favorable talking points are too good. So they actually want the confusion.

The end of life counseling provision is there to ensure that doctors or other counselors are paid for the service. This is part of making doctor-patient relationships more complete through counseling on this and many other matters. Next thing we'll hear from this opposition is that provisions for dietary counseling is the government telling us what we can and cannot eat.

More will be coming on this.

What is Middle of the Road Extremism?

Middle of the Road Extremism is really about making decisions on political issues on a per-issue basis. You can be a Middle of the Road Extremist, too. You just have to identify at least one issue where your view falls on each side of the middle. That doesn't necessarily fit for everyone. Some people are indeed one sided, either liberal on the left, or conservative on the right. These are the people we have traditionally considered extremist, especially if their views go far to that side. What Middle of the Road Extremism means is the freedom to decide without being coerced to take all your views in the same direction.

Your views don't need to go in the same directions as mine. If you have the opposite views as mine on all issues, you would still be a Middle of the Road Extremist. I'd just disagree with your views.

Here's a sampling of my views:

• Abortion - On the right, opposed to murder of lives before birth
• Animal Rights - On the left, to save the whales, but allowing lab raised research animals
• Environment - On the left, wanting to stop destruction of the planet
  
• Firearms - On the right, fully support the 2nd Amendment, including carry
  
• Gay Rights - On the left, favoring rights for people that love each other
• Healthcare - On the left, favoring a single-payer government system with "private option"
• Immigration - I favor more legal immigration, but illegals need to get back in line
• Religion - Jesus Christ is our salvation. But that is neither left nor right
  
• TV News - I watch both CNN and FoxNews
• Unions - On the left, favoring rights to collective bargaining, strikes, etc

Compassion for a sick bomber

Just what is the right compassion to hold for someone who kills 270 people? If the compassion is because they are sick, then shouldn't we have that same compassion for the sickness in their mind that caused them to do such evil? I can have such a compassion for Mr. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for his sicknesses ... both of them. And I do have such compassion. But this compassion does not justify releasing someone from prison. If it did, then we should release all who are sick with a terminal illness from prison. And every terrorist is sick. And it is a terminal sickness. Would we release them all? I think not. We can have compassion for the human being but not for the evil that infects.

Crazy Politics

It's time I get this blog rolling. There's too much crazy stuff going on with politics in Washington DC and elsewhere these days. Where was the CHANGE we were supposed to have?

Road to the left of me, road to the right

I've been calling myself a middle of the road extremist for decades. I can recall using this term as early as 1976. That makes for at least a 30 year old road.

This label does not mean I always have a centrist view on everything. That indeed is true for some things. But for many other issues, I could be left of center, or right of center, or maybe even flying overhead. You might have to look in a direction you did not anticipate to find me.

I used the term "extremist" somewhat as a pun on words. Usually, people are labeled extremist or radical if their views are far to one side or the other. So it would seem that someone in the middle would never be called an extremist. But in my case, my views do sometimes go to an extreme. They may go far left. They may go far right. And they may be smack dab in the middle where everyone else is to the left or right.

Future posts here will hit on some specific topics. They may be current issues. Or they may just be things I've been an extremist about for years or decades.