The Democratic Party’s Guide to Problem Solving:
Step 1) Point out that 38 million Americans are uninsured.
Step 2) Pass a healthcare law that knocks 6 million additional people off their insurance.
Step 3) Set up a healthcare exchange that reportedly insures 6 million people.
Step 4) Declare victory.
It is often in the deepest depths of our despair where we find our inner strength. In a world where we often times feel like everything is upside down and nothing makes sense, sometimes it is best to admit that you don’t even have a plan but that you are willing to trust God’s plan. Trust in your heart and the goodness in yourself, even as you are bitterly disappointed by the world around you. The older I get, the more I am convinced that the world is truly separated by good people and bad people. The obligation that we have to our creator and to the rest of humanity is to make sure that the people on the good side never give up.
I have decided to personally take on what the Democratic Party describes as the number one problem facing this country today, which is the widening income gap and the burdensome problem of income inequality in this nation. Starting next month, I will start drastically decreasing my work hours and will begin earning only 40 percent of my previous income. I sincerely hope that the Democratic Party is correct in their assumptions that my actions today will help close the widening income gap and eventually benefit our lowest earning Americans over the long run. Thank you. God bless you all. And God bless the United States of America.
Sadly, I suspect that most historians will look back at February 13, 2014 as the day the United States officially lost the war in Afghanistan. If you look at the objectives going into this war, our goal was to defeat the Taliban and to put in place a government that would act as an ally in the region and prevent terrorists from operating with impunity.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai acted in complete defiance of the United States today when he purposefully released many of our prisoners of war that we had handed over to him. He set individuals free that were directly involved with the killing of our troops. Many of these released prisoners will start immediately planning their next attack against our forces.
Wars can be lost multiple ways. They can be lost militarily or they can be lost politically. The soldiers of our military can keep their heads held high knowing they did everything that was asked of them. Many of them sacrificed more than most of us could ever imagine. This war was lost politically. Our politicians and government officials have once again let us down. But let there be no doubt about it… this war has been lost.
Time for your bedtime story everyone.
Once upon a time there was a brave and powerful leader named Barack Obama that told a mean and evil country named Syria that if they ever used chemical weapons against their own people that this would cross a “red line” resulting in serious repercussions. Syria then used chemical weapons against their own people.
President Obama then told Syria that this was very mean and that he was going to attack them to teach them a lesson. Then out of nowhere popped out a Russian leader named “Pooty poot”. The Russian leader said “Please don’t attack Syria… I will make them promise to destroy all of their chemical weapons by February 5th”. President Obama said “Ok Pooty Poot, but if they don’t have all of their weapons destroyed by February 5th then they are GONNA GET IT!”
February 5th eventually came and went. Inspectors then went into Syria and announced to the world that only 11 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons had been destroyed. The brave and powerful President Obama then responded to this defiance by hosting a steak dinner with the President of France and talking with various Senate Democrats regarding the need to increase the federal debt ceiling… and everyone lived HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
When I decided that I wanted to be a family doctor back in the 1980s, I was unfortunately not very forward thinking. I pictured how great it would be to practice medicine as it was in the 1980s without anticipating all of the changes that would happen in medicine within my lifetime. As I embark on this new chapter in my life, I need to do a much better job predicting what the world will look like another 30 years from now as a foundation for my new set of life goals. Based on all of the information currently available to me, I am considering the option of becoming the American version of “Mad Max”.
I once had a 30-year-old patient that was in a severe car accident that left him with a traumatic brain injury. The patient was permanently wheelchair bound but completely oriented and able to communicate. He was brought to my clinic by his home health provider and multiple family members. They were all arguing loudly as I entered the room. The conflict was due to the fact that they had stopped buying him cigarettes when they would go out shopping for him and they would not allow him to buy any when he was out with them.
I think the whole room was shocked to discover how quickly I sided with the patient. I told the caretakers, “You are not taking care of an eight year old child, this is a thirty year old man. If the man wants cigarettes, it is not your place to stop him”.
As the man smiled at his family with vindication, I turned to him and said “Their job is help you provide for your needs, my job is to explain to you how idiotic it is to continue smoking in your current condition”. I spent the next fifteen minutes describing the physiological effects of smoking. I explained the increased risk of stroke and how his life would be negatively effected if his condition deteriorated even slightly further. I basically frightened the living hell out of him.
Over the course of the next few months, the patient weaned himself down and eventually completely off of cigarettes. He did this on his own terms and was filled with a sense of pride. Both he and his caretakers thanked me for the unusual way that I handled their conflict.
As a society, we have become too paternalistic. We have reached a point where we feel justified in forcing our own opinions on other adults because we think that we know what is good for them. We rob others of their autonomy. Regardless of our intentions, it is morally wrong. If you want someone else to change their behavior, then all you should really have to do is present a convincing argument.
I am a chameleon. I will adapt and change according to my environment. If you vote for politicians that devalue my hard-earned money to solve our problems then I will move my money into hard assets. If you vote to increase taxes on the highest earners then I will simply work less and decrease my income. If you vote for someone who attempts to micromanage the way I practice medicine then I will simply stop working as a doctor. If you vote for people who attempt to deny me of my God-given constitutional rights then I will move as far away from you as necessary in order to preserve them. You need to understand that I am a chameleon… and I plan to always stay at least five moves ahead of you.
Growing old in this strange new world
A single gray hair in a bed of dark strands
Isolated and different
Just waiting to be plucked and discarded
Still so much to offer a world that I no longer recognize
Unappreciated and misunderstood
Longing for a day that is long past gone
And wanting to make sense of it all
Never say that I quit and walked away
The tide simply eroded the place where I stood
The principles instilled in me
About hard work and decency
And how far these things can take you
They are now just faint echoes of my ancestors
And I wonder if anyone else can still hear them
Strange new world, indeed
Al-Qaeda-linked forces have just captured Fallujah in Iraq. The United States fought some of its bloodiest battles in order to win Fallujah over the past decade only to turn around and be commanded to abandon it for political purposes. How would you feel if your own child gave his life in order to protect a bridge only to have your own government turn around and detonate this bridge themselves? This is what is happening in Iraq right now and it disrespects everyone who fights for us overseas. Our military deserves much better than the country we have become.