Friday, September 18, 2009

Obama-care: A fairy tale

This is a true story. A friend of mine with is a serious runner. He has not been a runner his whole life. In fact as I understand things, he was a big fat bastard until 3 years ago, when he started taking care of himself and running.

Anyway, he is a runner now. He ran the Cincy marathon and is looking forward to the Columbus Marathon coming up in a few weeks. In fact he is looking forward to running a half marathon in Dayton tomorrow morning. Not so fast.

Here’s the main conflict in this story: He started feeling a pain in his calf about a week ago. I suggested he had an injury. Unfortunately I was right. His doctor diagnosed (pre MRI, ultrasound, other tests) that he had a stress injury, fracture, or worst of all a blood clot! Today he was tested for these things, as of noon the doctors had ruled out blood clot (thank goodness) and were looking at the other options.

Every test was expedited. Every option explored. Why? My friend really wants to run. The medical team is working hard and fast to treat my friend. Because it is what he desires. The treatment is by default personalized.

My question is, how would this story play out under Obama-care?

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Time to define lying. Again.

Once again I feel the need to point out that a lie is only a lie, if you believe what you are saying is untrue. So to reiterate:

1) Bush didn’t lie - you can debate WMD's but I think it's pretty clear GWBush thought they were there;
2) I don’t think Obama lied - He apparently changed the language just prior to his speech;
3) I don’t think Joe Wilson was lying - Joe didn't know Obama had just changed the bill;
4) Bill Clinton lied - He knew damn well what the stain on the blue dress was.

Clear?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Is it really 2009?

I heard a tale of professional malfeasance today I can only describe as unbelievable.

A buddy of mine is looking to hire two senior technical people to work in China. My buddy is an executive in an American software company that is opening a branch in China. As with all branch operations the manager is in place and is someone that has served time in the US and should understand how hiring works in the modern world.

Anyway, after a fairly significant search and vetting process my buddy has found the two candidates to whom he’d like to offer the positions. These two candidates are supremely qualified. These two candidates are also women. Female.

The manager in place raises three concerns with hiring these women. “One, we know that women aren’t really good at math. Two, we know that two women working in the same office will experience their cycles at the same time and fight. Three, I will lose face with my peers because they will think I am a fool.”

Really, the guy said this. My buddy explained to this fellow that the company they work for does not make hiring decisions based on race, religion or sex. So these two women will be hired.

I can’t figure out whether the manager is retarded or if China is so far behind the US socially that this is considered a reasonable attitude. Have we time travelled to 1926?