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Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton)'s Blog (70)

Is comparing Health Care to Auto Insurance fair?

Unless you live on Mars or something, you've probably heard some politician comparing health insurance to car insurance. It sounds like a good argument, but isn't for several reasons that hit me last night in a rare moment of clarity. Here's a top ten list why that comparison just doesn't work.. 1. Auto insurance is mandated at the State/local level. Nothing in the Constitution grants Congress the right to mandate something like this. A state law that requires me to have insurance… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on November 19, 2009 at 2:30pm — 4 Comments

May my colander be ever changing

Recently, Lisa Robinson posted something on Parchment and Pen entitled "Is Truth Really Not Relative". If you haven't read it, I really recommend it. That and Michael's recent post on… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on November 2, 2009 at 12:30pm — 3 Comments

The Cost of Health Care

A lot has been said about the current cost if health care. This is usually talking about two different things though. The first is used as the rationale to get the government involved. It is the current cost to the consumer. We hear how much more we pay than other countries and how we can't keep doing that. It is going to bankrupt us. Or so they say. But I believe that there is a direct correlation between the US being the wealthiest nation on earth and the amount we spend on health care. It is… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on October 10, 2009 at 11:53am — No Comments

This says it all

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The bottom number on the Oximeter is my pulse. It shows what just a little bit of activity will do to me. All it needs is the sound track of me being so out of breath that it sounds like I ran a marathon. A 239% increase in my pulse by doing nothing more than taking an 8… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on September 21, 2009 at 4:26pm — 8 Comments

What's in a number?

We keep hearing that there are 47 Million Americans without insurance. It is a number inextricably linked to the "crisis" of health care. But everyone I know that wants medical insurance, has it. So I wanted to know who makes up this 47 Million Americans. Turns out, that a lot are not even Americans. The 47 Million figure comes from the “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in t… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on August 21, 2009 at 9:40pm — 21 Comments

For the first time in my adult life...

To take a bit of liberty with Michelle Obama's statement, for the first time in my life, I'm starting to fear my government and what they are becoming. First, the White House and the OMB are wanting to reverse a policy that kept it from putting tracking cookies onto the computers of any computer visiting the White House web site. Of course they say they are going to take public comment on the topic. LOL

Wanting to do this, while al… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on August 14, 2009 at 2:08pm — 84 Comments

Integrity

I believe that every type of relationship has one thing in common. It is built on trust. Violate that only if you want a lonely and hard life. The good news is that our integrity is one thing people can't take from us. We squander it away. It is not good that we squander our integrity away, but it is good that we are solely responsible for it. It is a reservoir that is slow to fill, yet quickly emptied. Yet given the risks of losing it and all the relationships that it supports, we rarely take t… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on July 31, 2009 at 3:30am — 1 Comment

What is broke in "health care"

I have no problem with my care. I don't think this is a "care" problem. I think if something is broken, it's on the insurance side. As the LA Times recently pointed out, the practice of "rescission" is now being reviewed. Rescission is when the insurance companies focus on the policies that are expensive to them and cancel them for whatever reason they can find. That is what happened to me. After three ye… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on July 25, 2009 at 8:04pm — 11 Comments

The theology and expectation of healthcare

Obama is making a full-court press trying to get universal healthcare passed in the next three weeks. What's the rush (other than his sliding popularity rate)? He's painting this as a huge and immediate financial crisis that needs immediate attention to lower costs. But it wouldn't take effect for years (the taxes and infrastructure have to get in place first), and even when it does, it isn't going to make costs go down. At best, and we know all these governmen… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on July 20, 2009 at 12:00pm — 10 Comments

A time to celebrate

Bear with me as I pull an Andy Rooney and ramble on a bit. We celebrate the 4th of July. Not very profound, I know. LOL We also celebrate birthdays. We celebrate anniversaries. We celebrate Christmas, Easter, and even Groundhog Day. We even celebrate the Lord's supper. We celebrate with fireworks, costumes, music, showers, parties, and on and on. All this celebrating makes me wonder if the word has any significance any more. Do we actually celebrate these *days*, celebrate *on… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on June 30, 2009 at 10:07pm — 1 Comment

Of Parenting and Painting(s)

I had a clear moment and was thinking last night about Father's Day. Parenthood reminds me of being a painter. Let me explain with a bit of a tangent. Since I can't read much any more, I enjoy audio books. One of the factors I consider in selecting the book is the length of it. I want to get the most for my money as long as it is a topic/genre I enjoy. Same thing for movies. While I don't go out to see them any more, if I am looking at two movies On Demand from my cable provider, I generally ten… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on June 19, 2009 at 3:19pm — 1 Comment

Why I don't want to be in the car business

Congratulations, if you are an American, you now own Government Motors. We have people that either lied to us about the facts or couldn't see the inevitable coming when it came to a failed car maker, micro-managing our entire economy. That should give you chills. What really scared me though was the comments about how our "investment" was going to be returned. I'm all for getting "our money" back, but the government has already shown that they will spend countless billions to make sure GM contin… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on June 1, 2009 at 9:00pm — 5 Comments

Dead to this world

Someone sent this to me asking for my input on it. It is really longer than I can digest, so I recommended they post it here for comment. I figured you guys would make a great sounding board.

Anyway, they asked me to post it and they'd just follow the discussion. There is some stuff proposed here that may disturb or upset your apple-cart. If so, help flesh-out why it is wrong and where. Daniel

… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on May 30, 2009 at 6:57pm — 10 Comments

Project Management and Politics

Maybe I don't understand politics, but I thought it operated in the real world. It was in the real world that I learned to do project management. I was told that there were three things that could be controlled in a project, time frame, cost, and quality. You could have any two of the three at the cost of the third. If you wanted it fast and cheap, you'd suffer quality. If you wanted quality, it would be expensive to do it quickly or cheaper if the schedule was more loose. You get… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on May 20, 2009 at 1:53am — 2 Comments

My "Bucket List"

I've heard more than one person lately talking about their "bucket list". You know, that list of things that we all want to get accomplished before we "kick the bucket". I think we get more and more centered on that as we get older. We realize our time is running out. It's natural. But that's just it. It's the me-first "I want" attitude that is natural. I've heard some of the things on people's "bucket lists". They include things like travel, adventure, and so forth. But where are God'… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on May 13, 2009 at 11:30pm — 10 Comments

Google's Goats

This is a perfect example of why I don't like the symbolism over substance of the whole "green" push. Google has recently decided to replace their lawn-care service with 200 goats that will be brought in (along with a herding dog) about one week out of the month to eat back the grass. Sounds like a good idea...until someone replaces the touchy-feely with some intelligence. First, since it is feelings based and not based on something substantial, you will never appease all the different c… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on May 1, 2009 at 8:34pm — 20 Comments

Taxing "the rich"

As state budgets tighten up, we are seeing more and more stories about how states are doing things to get more revenue from "the rich" and those evil large corporations. Sorry, but that "cutting off the nose to spite the face" approach is just plain idiotic. In this economy, it is the absolutely worse thing you can do. In a day and age when we need more jobs and more investment, why would we drive it elsewhere? Why… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on March 31, 2009 at 10:52am — No Comments

Life Lessons

It's been a while since I felt up to blogging, but I had some "Life Lessons" that I wanted to share. Every parent has principles that they want their children to learn. These are things that I would hope my children learn early and deeply. If I were writing an addition to Proverbs, these would be included. I'll probably be adding to this once I remember some of the rest of the stuff I wanted to include. Feel free to add your own words of wisdom to the list: Life Lessons Live life… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on March 7, 2009 at 9:42pm — 4 Comments

Why I'm grateful to Barack Obama

There will be plenty of time over the next 4-8 years to criticize Obama's policies and actions. I'll be doing my fair share of it as needed. But there is a huge thing that Obama has already done for America that none of his future actions can take away. So before the Obama feeding frenzy starts by the conservative pundits, I wanted to point out the historical nature of his presidency that needs some focus before it gets lost in the clutter. Obama being the first black president is big. It's rea… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on January 21, 2009 at 4:30pm — 6 Comments

The False Promise of America

Today I have a new president. As someone old enough to remember segregated schools and doctor offices, it is an event worthy of celebration. Seeing so many people unite in patriotism and support for our president is a good thing. But it is also troubling. It troubles me because it is built on a false promise. President Obama ran on a platform of hope. Doesn't matter what you hope for, he was the answer. Doesn't matter how you define hope, he promised to deliver it. I wish him well in his presid… Continue

Added by Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton) on January 20, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments