Sex, Lies, and Red Tape

Just a couple of things from the news this morning that got my attention. The first is Jenny Sanford's statement regarding her husband's infidelity. Most of you know that I was born without a heart so I was incredibly surprised to be moved by it. She seems like a truly lovely woman and I'm touched by her ability to handle this with dignity, grace, and understanding. Her remarkable ability to forgive her husband and simultaneously draw a firm line about what part of his behaviour she's willing to put up with is inspiring to me. This is a stark contrast to the bitterness and vindictiveness that marks most public (and private) break-ups. Truly Mark Stanford will deserve the public flogging he'll recieve in the next few weeks until he's driven from the news cycle. His true punishment will be to watch the destruction of every good thing he's done crumble around him as the foundations of his credibility are washed away in the flood nor should he recive the dignified demise of falling on his sword but instead take the public pilloring he's due. But at the end of it, I hope that Jenny is still there. Does she deserve better than him? Does he deserve a woman as good as her? Absolutely not. But that is beauty of grace and forgivness. You always get far better than you deserve. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sc_governor_wife_s_statement

Secondly is Obamacare. His infomercial on ABC last night is simply horrifying to me. It sounds like America is Obama's Buger King. He's going to have it his way. A couple of really distressing things from last night are Obama's non-answer to a woman who asked if the elderly will still have the ability to pursue risky proceedures to extend their life if they so choose and Obama's presumtion that it's the insurance providers who need to be "kept honest."To elaborate, one question the President recieved a woman stood up and said that her 90 y/o grandmother had recieved a pacemaker and lived to be 103. Under his plan, would she still have that option. The President offered a long winded response that ultimately said those kinds of decisions would be made by a panel of "experts." This is anathma to me. I don't want my healthcare to be decided by any panel expert or otherwise. I may want that panel to tell me what their recommendations are and maybe what some prudent options are, but ultimately I want the best care I can pay for and based on my determination of what I want my quality of life to be. That determination should not rest with some politically appointed panel making decisons based on spreadsheets or flowcharts of data trying to predict what my quality of life will be or weather I'm too risky or too expensive to even bother with. The other think that really irked me was when Diane Sawyer turned to Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, and questioned him about Obama's assertion that it's the insurance companies that need to be kept honest. That the man actually responded with a polite response is a miracle in my eyes. It's a fallacious assumption by the President that insurance companies are the problem and it's disingenuous to lay whatever failings there may be in the health care system at their feet. And then to say the only way to make the game fair is to give the referee the ball (sorry, I know everyone else is using it. I can't think of a better analogy) is simply mind blowing to me. Why Mr. Williams didn't turn it right back around on the President and ask him who's going to keep the Federal Government honest I'll never know. The really sad thing is, we're going to get this "public-option" (nice way to play with words and direct the focus away from the real definition of state sponsored health care) weather we want it or not. Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security were just the camel getting his nose in the tent. This "public option" is the whole hump.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/HealthCare/Storyid=7919991&page=1

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090625043708.aspx