Thieves work

The Oregon-paid thieves that stole time on their cell-phones for private usage and, in some cases, stole the phones themselves should be prosecuted for theft and fired. There are a lot of people unemployed these days that, if they could get a job, would work hard and honestly to keep it.

Over-charged; under-served.

Well, the US is just not getting much bang for its medical buck! Except for Canada and France (who spend just a tad more than half what the US spends for health care) we spend twice as much as all other G20 countries. And here is the down side: the US ranks just above Hungary for bottom position on countries who did not live up to their predicted life expectancies. The way that works out, The Doser notes, is that the US pays a lot more and it doesn't help its people live better.

(True to form, The Oregonian doesn't have its current newspaper on line yet, so The Doser's reference to the source needs to be the labored one: The above information was reported August 23, 2009, in The Oregonian in a front page story by Andy Dworkin entitled What's so Special about Health Co-ops? The statistics Dworkin uses are from the WHO.)

The Demographics of Peace to War.

The National Geographic magazine in its September 2009 issue has a short article about an interesting, even hope-inducing, program. A way to look at the program is through its published 2009 Failed States Index. The countries of the world are rated on the basis of 12 criteria and the result is extended on a list of which countries are on survival tracks and which are not. Somalia leads the world as enduring the most compete failure. The US is in only "moderately" successful condition. Norway leads the world as a stable, successful government. You might find it interesting to look at the entire results and the program of its sponsor: The Fund for Peace.

A real drug on the fiscal market.

The Doser thinks that we've lost the "Drug War!" To continue fighting it seems much more drastic than simply declaring victory (must save "face") and leaving the field of battle. If there was any benefit resulting from it, which The Doser does not perceive, it would still be wiser (and infinitely cheaper) to abandon it and spend our money caring for the citizens that still want to use dangerous products.

So it's not made of green cheese.

The Doser thinks the earth's moon has only romantic potential. Why undertake another expensive program to look over a lousy piece of real estate?

Not a Legitimate Statement of Opinion.

In the Doser's opinion, the armed NRA thugs that showed up at the appearance of the president in Arizona should have been arrested, hand-cuffed and jailed. Such a clearly-stated threat toward the President, saying as it does that he should be assassinated, is not free speech, it is calling "FIRE" in a crowded theater.

Everything changes; nothing changes.

The Doser notes, with very reserved hopefulness, that the Iranian ex-legislators and the Iranian clerics are suggesting the deposing of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The reason for the very reserved optimism is that Iran has a recent history of deposing themselves out of the frying pan into the fire. Remember the satisfaction we felt when that despot, the Shah, was deposed? We must continue to look to "Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei" to see how things are going.

How may we direct your call?

Please indicate the purpose of your call. This list may be heard again.

Dial 1 for amputation
Dial 2 for angioplasty
Dial 3 for appendectomy
Dial 4 for bilateral cingulotomy
Dial 5 for cholecystectomy
Dial 6 for circumcision
Dial 7 for heart transplantation
Dial 8 for lobotomy
Dial 9 for pancreaticoduodenectomy
Dial 10 for episiotomy
Dial 11 for diverticulectomy

For all other procedures Dial 12.

American "wet backs."

It seems to The Doser that the three persons who wandered, despite a warning, across the Iranian border are likely to be one of three sorts: inept CIA assets; Iranian provocateurs; damn fools. Little reason to let Iran get too much of an leverage over us for them.

To share or not to share, that is the question.

Governor Kulongoski,referring to the reality of fiscal parameters,recently remarked: "We must accept that state government cannot be all things for all men." The Doser observes: "It was ever thus! The issue always is - do I want whatever there is for myself or do I want to share whatever there is with other people?"

Marriage re-visited.

Marriage is a religious exercise - like baptism, faith-healing, confirmation, exorcism, transferring one's sins to a chicken, anointing, divination, wearing church-designed underwear, extreme unction, symbolic human sacrifice and last rites. Marriage was designed for religious couples to make a church-community announcement that they intended to commit to each other and, possibly, raise babies.

Not too long ago, however, it burgeoned mightily: 1. gaining acceptance among non-religious people as a social exercise and 2. invading our civil law at several places, mainly in taxes, finances, inheritance, and land law.

What we now need is a way to honor the relationship of non-religious people who commit themselves to each other and think of, possibly having children.

Let us not be unmindful of the unquestionable reality that the religious/"marriage" people have not done their thing successfully in a lot of recent years. Their failures suggest that they actually ought to be ignored when they claim the power to define how people doing the commitment/family thing are required to do it.

The Doser suggests a first step: let's figure out an honoring way to describe that process or event or state where non-religious people decide to step out into the future as a committed pair of people.

Losing a non-communication link.

No Saturday deliveries of advertisements by U.S. Postal Service! The Doser joins the chorus that says: "Ho hum."

Good news - just short of the best news.

Good news! At least some of the children of the prolific,obsessive Octomom may not have to be supported by the tax-payers. There is being arranged a "reality show," the proceeds of which will go to support them.

Incomprehensible

The Doser is, reluctantly and painfully forced to consider that the Worthington jury did wrong. It cannot be that they believed, on the evidence, that one of the parents that was attending the dying of their child was guilty of breaking a law and that the other, also in attendance, did not break the law. The Doser has not been an exemplary father but it is not comprehensible to him that a parent would not do whatever was necessary to save one's small children. The bumper sticker quote of Mohandas Ghandi came to mind: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Thinking on it, The Doser has difficulty envisioning Jesus telling two parents to let their child die so as to avoid secular physicians. All in all a sad business! Another round follows in, perhaps, January 2010 when the elder Beagleys, same family, same church, let their teen-age child die with a medically curable disease.