Category Archives: Health

Health, Importante, Politics

Dammit!

So the Republicans scramble to deliver their replacement for Obamacare but all they’re doing is cobbling together a bunch of talking points instead of creating a plan that will actually improve the delivery and payment of medical services. They have not addressed the deep rooted anti-trust issues that infect the entire system. The triad of Providers-Pharmaceuticals-Insurers will still rake in the bucks at the expense of the consumers. There is still no transparency that will enable consumers to make informed “free enterprise” choices among the various insurance policies that will be offered under the “new” health care plan.

Everyone knows that Bandolero is a strong proponent of free enterprise, and a strong opponent of government regulation. But unfettered free enterprise leaves the door open for abuse. This is because free enterprise at its roots is fueled by self-interest that easily becomes greed. Anti-trust laws make the free enterprise players responsible for abusing the liberties that make the system work. Self-regulation has rarely proven up to the challenge of keeping participants in line. Those that become more “successful” should be rewarded for their success, but not rewarded for abusing the power that success confers, particularly in regard to shutting out the less successful and disabling their ability to play on a level field. Unfortunately, there’s no oversight that can work other than oversight by government. Consequently, this is one area where Bandolero can support a role for government regulation. And, appropriate government regulation has to be a primary ingredient of any new health plan. Nobody other than government has a chance of breaking the triad’s grip over the health care industry and its ability to manipulate the system to assure that they will continue to get rich at the expense of the health care consumer.

Health, Politics

Radioactive Tuna

Sushi is not a staple of the Bandolero diet. It’s not even an occasional item on Bandolero’s table. It has been Bandolero’s observation that people who eat sushi do it to impress other people. They don’t eat sushi when they are alone, except for practice, but this is only done by wimps who fear they might puke in front of somebody if they put some new sushi thing in their mouth and it turns out to be a really bad surprise.

What brought up the subject of sushi, which we can all agree is not a subject anyone would expect to be brought up by Bandolero, was this report about radioactive tuna. It said tuna that got radioactive near Japan on account of the Fukushima disaster swam all the way to San Diego. But that’s still not what prompted Bandolero to to bring all this to your attention. Y’see, these tunas were radioactive with cesium-134, which was specific to Fukushima. That’s how they knew these tunas swam all the way across the Pacific Ocean. The “normal” tunas around San Diego don’t have any cesium-134. What they have – and this is why Bandolero brings up the subject of sushi – is cesium-137  which is left over from nuclear weapons testing on Pacific islands in the 1960s!

That’s right, y’all! Them sushi lovers be eatin’ 50 year old radioactive leftovers from cold war nukes!