Ketchup Is A Vegetable

I have argued here before that we should never agree to “malpractice reform” until the medical profession comes up with a way to police itself and remove incompetents from its ranks. Thus, the case against said “reform” has gotten a lot stronger in the wake of a recent criminal prosecution in Texas.

In Kermit, TX, Anne Mitchell is charged with a third degree felony for blowing the whistle on a doctor she believed to be incompetent who was practicing at the local hospital where she is a nurse supervisor. Ms. Mitchell sent an anonymous letter to the State Medical Board suggesting a review of five cases where she believed the doctor, Rolando Arafiles, Jr., had engaged in “a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures,” according to the New York Times. She has lost her job, cannot get another, and faces prison and fines.

As I have pointed out earlier, the medical profession does not adequately protect the general public from medical incompetence, and prefers to shield its members from outside criticism. This leaves malpractice as the only realistic tool for policing the medical profession. Now we have the full force of the state’s prosecutorial apparatus brought to bear on a woman who believed it was her duty to inform the medical board.

“We are just in disbelief that you could be arrested for doing something that you had been told your whole life you were obligated to do,” Ms. Mitchell said.

That might be true in a rational universe, but there is nothing about the medical profession’s obsession with self protection that is rational. I say we better hang onto that medical malpractice practice a while longer.

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I am not in favor of supporting any religious events, charities or rituals, so I am never in favor of the President of the United States attending the National Prayer Breakfast. That is especially true now. I don’t care how many presidents attended in the past, it is now clear that the event’s sponsor, the Family, is a dangerously powerful, darkly secret conspiracy against individual freedom. We should not give it more power by blessing its events.

None the less, if he had to go (and I expect President Obama would rather avoid the drama that would accompany not going) it is good that he turned it into his event… a lecture on the need for civility in government discourse, strong words in defense of gay rights. Good for that. Now let me be uncivil.

The President said that we cannot discuss policy if we continue to question the motives of the opposition. In dealing with the GOOP, I am not sure that is true. In particular, the President concluded: “We may disagree about the best way to reform our health-care system, but surely we can agree that no one ought to go broke when they get sick in the richest nation on Earth. We can take different approaches to ending inequality, but surely we can agree on the need to lift our children out of ignorance; to lift our neighbors from poverty. ”

I am fairly certain the GOOP doesn’t give a damn if people go broke because they got sick and I am certain they don’t care about lifting children out of ignorance and neighbors out of poverty. These boys are not their brothers’ keepers. They are the people who saw the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to make money. I am sure their primary interest in Haiti today is development of new resort hotels. They are ruthless money grubbing worshippers at the altar of capitalism. To make their system work best they need lots of people living in ignorance and grinding poverty.

Ignorance is particularly useful to them because educated people can see through their lies. Morons, the unwashed masses I pretend to be writing to all the time, are stupid enough to believe that the Constitution only grants rights to American citizens, that it guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, and the endless string of lies about the current government that cement together what is becoming an effective assault on our future.

If you can keep stupid people living on the edge of poverty you can keep them frightened and malleable. It is no coincidence that the quality of life for the average American middle income earner declined significantly in the Busch years while the percentage of the wealth held by the top two percent got bigger and bigger. It is no coincidence that the GOOP is fighting hard to maintain that trend by standing in the way of healthcare reform and Obama’s new stimulus plans, such as the jobs bill.

The model for the GOOP is the British Empire which sustained itself on the sacrifices of an impoverished underclass that found it better to fight the Empire’s wars than starve to death on the streets of London. The GOOP vision for our future looks more like George Orwell’s 1984 than Augustine’s City on a Hill. We should always keep that in mind when we think their motives don’t count.

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