The Weekly Enlightenment

An interesting tidbit from askheritage.org. Medicare denies 6.85% of all claims. This is more than twice any private insurer. So when some politician or liberal you know claims Medicare is great and a single payer system will work like Medicare, you can believe it. It's just that Medicare isn't all that great. Some might say that that is just because the government would get more false claims. If that is true, perhaps that is because people think they can get away with it more than a private insurer. But does a private company not get false or fraudulent claims? Of course not. But these insurers also have to get people to like what they are selling. Under a government plan, there will be no choice.

Breeding dependency. I am always amazed at how liberals continually enact policies that breed dependency and then express shock and outrage there is more dependency. For years liberals have effectively championed the replacement of the father in the family with government. Then be shocked when there are more single mothers. So surprise, you get more fathers leaving their families. They know taxpayers will take care of their family for them. But now we hear about the plight of single mothers and how we must appropriate more spending for them. To not do so, they tell us, is heartless. Well, without welfare, people would have to rely only on charity and it might not be enough. There's more incentive to stay together, to try to make things work, and so on.

The myth of green jobs. Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, who along with the legislature has destroyed Michigan's economy, is saying how she is going to create 40,000 jobs by 2020. I don't mind creating jobs (with liberals the buzzword is "creating" jobs, but strangely no mention if these are long term jobs), but she is talking about massive taxpayer subsidies (federal and state) and yet 40,000 jobs in 11 years works out to a little over 3600 jobs per year. Taking the $1 billion figure (the figure is likely higher), that works out to $25,000 per job. Not really a great deal considering that it will likely take more money and if it is a government job, you have to keep paying that person. But notice also that by the end of Granholm's term, the state is projected to lose 130,000 more jobs with no end in sight. Again, 40,000 is a drop in the bucket if you have bad policies.

I've written before about the injection of politics into sports. This is a great article for anyone that is interested.

MUST READ
* Fantastic article by Steve Forbes about wealth creation.
* I thought Afghanistan was a war liberals really wanted to win, and Iraq was just a distraction. Apparently not.
* So important are health care reforms that some Senators don't want to apply it to their states.
* Taxing the rich doesn't work out at all like expected.

What Propaganda...and Where is the Media?
* More kids singing to Obama, only this time on the set of CNN.
* Obama invites doctors to the White House, but the media neglects to mention the photo op was staged.
* With the Obamas, it is all about them.
* I definitely like the admission by Maxine Waters that many members would have tax disclosure problems. Would this be counted as evidence of a culture of corruption if it were Republicans...and where is the media?
* Can anyone else see how illegals are going to get health coverage? Also see this.

What Media Bias?
* Liberal TV host laments the incivility in politics, then literally shouts down a guest a day later.
* In what universe are rising unemployment rates good news?

Energy
* How taxes pervert our energy choices.

Miscellaneous
* A lot of black NFL players have said they wouldn't play for a Rush Limbaugh owned team. First to note that these players probably haven't listened to Limbaugh. Second, the media does have quite an effect. To sum up, Limbaugh thought the Eagles defense carried McNabb in his earlier days...up to debate but true in my opinion. He also said the media is desperate for a black QB to succeed. Which is undoubtedly true. Though blacks are statistically overrepresented in football in general, they are not in the QB position. Liberals think that the QB is a "smart" position, so if blacks are underrepresented there they think people will see them as dumb. It does take quite a football knowledge and talent to play at any position, in my opinion. And being a QB doesn't mean one is necessarily smart in general, perhaps only in football.