About 80 % of all medical visits involve relatively minor, routine care.

Health insurance should be used for the catastrophic, not the routine.

Over 20% of the 44 million uninsured in this country are not citizens.

Texans Deserve Lifeboats Off The Health Care Titanic

One of four Texans lack health insurance and one of five children live below the federal poverty threshold. For financially-strapped Texans, health care is a daunting challenge.

Many legislators seek to give Texans relief by expanding Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Because state-subsidized health care is unsustainable, this “relief” spells disaster.

Ozone Layer Destruction Overstated

There are at least four independent research efforts that fail to find alarming Arctic ozone loss as a result of increased atmospheric CO2.

Just A Cereal Salesman

"Ashcroft lost his job to a Mexican." Now this. G.W. Bush appoints a "cereal salesman" for Secretary of Commerce. Funny stuff. With the left, if you are not on "'their team", you are a nobody. Heh, heh. Hat tip to Baldilocks.

"President Bush has picked Kellogg CEO Carlos Gutierrez as John Evans replacement for Secretary of commerce.

Mr. Gutierrez is an American of Cuban descent, but spent much of his young adulthood in Mexico. He started out as a truck-driver in Mexico City's Kellogg subsidiary."

Gutierrez, Kellogg's CEO since April 1999, is credited with shaping a major corporate and marketing overhaul at Kellogg, narrowing the company's primary focus to cereal and wholesome snacks and reducing the company's debt. Under Gutierrez, Kellogg's net sales rose from $6.2 billion in 1999 to $8.8 billion last year, a 43 percent increase. Earnings per share increased 131 percent, from 83 cents to $1.92, and cash flow went up 82 percent, from $529 million to $961 million.

"Quite impressive."

"It was rather humorous to hear Democrat pundit Bob Bechel dismiss Mr. Gutierrez as a 'cereal salesman' on Fox News this morning. Ah, yes.

Welcome a new Blogger

Welcome w8r-g8r to the blogosphere, a new blogger via a link from Froggy Ruminations. He is a self-proclaimed "right-leanin', freedom-lovin', red-blooded, blue-collared, all-american, gun-totin' man".

He has a great post on the boy scouts and the ACLU. Check his new blog site out. Again, welcome aboard Wade.

Stay Home, You Pathetic Whining Maggots

An interesting op-ed piece by Ian Robinson written for the Calgary Sun:

Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots
By Ian Robinson Calgary Sun, November 14, 2004

The article was e-mailed to me. Heretofore, Mr. Robinson was unknown to me. After reading this article, I checked to see what else he had written for the Calgary Sun. Here are some of his other writings:

• I don't blame that Marine in Fallujah at all
• Canada crippled by dishonest pacifism
• When and if to pull the plug on dad
• Medicine could use some creative marketing
• We shouldn't let teachers think too much

They are short and easy to read pieces, and worth the read.

Congress Eyes UN Fund Cut
It's about time.
FromLGF::
The times, they are a-changing: Congress Eyes UN Fund Cut.

November 29, 2004 — WASHINGTON — Congress is likely to move to reduce U.S. funding of the United Nations if leaders at Turtle Bay don’t come clean and institute major reforms in the wake of the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, The Post has learned.

Recent interviews with Congress members and staff investigators revealed growing shock and outrage at the scope of history’s biggest financial scandal, in which Saddam Hussein is alleged to have ripped off $21.3 billion from a humanitarian program intended to provide food and medicine to the Iraqi people.

The officials said there is increasing sentiment to take drastic action, including cutting U.S funding if the United Nations doesn’t make radical changes in its secretive policies and questionable management procedures.

The $1.12 billion annual U.S. contribution to the United Nations represents 22 percent of the world body’s budget.

“This is life-and-death stuff. To see U.N. officials involved in a program that was used to pay off families of Palestinian suicide bombers, to discover that money from this program is now being used to fund the people killing our troops in Iraq is very troubling,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told The Post. “I definitely feel that people are fed up.” Flake has sponsored legislation that would reduce U.S. funding to the United Nations by 10 percent, and claims the bill already has 75 co-sponsors. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

Vaccine for Cancer Being Tested

From CSA

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have successfully eradicated skin cancer in lab mice with a new vaccine. Normal skin cells called melanocytes can grow rapidly and cause melanoma, the most common and deadliest form of cancer. Mayo researchers isolated an unusual protein and attached to it what they call a "scout" that, when injected, "recruits" T-cells from the immune system, attacks melanocytes, and destroys the tumors without damaging other parts of of the lab mices's bodies. If this kind of vaccine can be adopted for use in humans, it could have enormous benefits since skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, with at least 1 million new cases each year.

Challenges and Opportunities

From CSA

Now that the contentious 2004 elections are over, it is time for Americans who care about spiritual, moral, and traditional values to prepare for hard work in the coming year. The next few months will be a period of promising opportunities and difficult challenges. Hopefully, Mr. Bush will see more of his federal court nominees confirmed - even a Supreme Court Justice or two, or three.

We need to continue to pressure Congress to finally eliminate the unfair "double" tax on seniors' Social Security benefits. It is equally important that we keep up the momentum to modernize and improve Medicare and Social Security.