Monday, August 31

Maritime Monday 177 Posted at gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.


You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 127 here. (Published 15 September 2008).

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Monday, August 24

Maritime Monday 176 Posted At gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.


You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 126 here. (Published 8 September 2008).

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Sunday, August 23

‘Rescued’ Cargo Ship ARCTIC SEA Hijacked by the Russian Navy?

First, the Russian Navy sends half a fleet thousands of miles to rescue the crew of the Maltese-Flag cargo ship ARCTIC SEA despite having no obvious reason to do so.

Next, the Russian Government has to deny accusations that the ship was carrying secret cargo on behalf of the Russian Government.

Then, the Russian Government has imprisoned not only the hijackers but also the crew which still have yet to call home to their families.

The crew members were not allowed to go home on Thursday: like the hijackers they were taken to the Lefortovo remand prison for questioning. In Arkhangelsk the families of the crew waited for their loved ones with their eyes glued to their televisions. However, there was no indication of when the men would get home. “I only know what was said on television. I hope that I can see my husband as soon as possible”, said mechanic Vladimir Kazhinin’s wife Olga to Helsingin Sanomat by telephone.

Vazir Fazylov, the father of seaman Dmitri Fazylov was surprised that his son was not even allowed to call home. “Nobody is saying anything. We’re just watching TV. This is stupid.” – Helsingin Sanomat

And now, the Russian Navy plans to tow the ship over 4,000 miles to Russia for ‘further investigation’. (Bypassing the ship’s flag-state of Malta.)


It’s almost like the Russians know that there is something on the ship worth hiding. Surely, they have already investigated the ship from top-to-bottom, and any part of the ship not accessible due to cargo onboard would be accessible in Algeria once the cargo was off-loaded. Algeria would be the place to inspect the ship given that the cargo is headed that way and it would be somewhat idiotic to offload all that timber just to re-load it, unless there is something secret hidden under it after all.

One more thing. Why are the Russians towing the ship all the way back to Russia? It would be much faster and safer to sail it under its own power. The Ship operator had stated last week that it was planning to send out a replacement crew to the ship. Maybe the Russians don’t want more prying eyes around?

It is almost as if the Russians have hijacked the ship themselves.



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Nazism/Stalinism Remembrance Day - 23 August


Earlier this year, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has come out and condemned both Nazism and Stalinism as being equally bad:
OSCE condemnes both Nazism and Stalinism

05.07.2009 - On Friday the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution that equates the Nazi regime with Soviet Stalinism. The resolution, titled “Reunification of divided Europe” and put forward by Lithuania and Slovenia, states that Europe has suffered from two totalitarian regimes: the Nazi and the Stalinist. Both brought about genocide and crimes against humanity. For a final and Europe-wide condemnation of totalitarianism, the OSCE resolution offered to set a Nazism/Stalinism remembrance day on August 23 . On 23. August 1939 Europe-dividing Molotov-Ribbentrop was signed by Germany and Soviet Union, dividing Europe between two dictators and paving way to the start of II World War. The resolution states so that both Stalin and Hitler were responsible for the start of this most devastating war. I can only agree to this point of view. - CommunistCrimes.Org
This resolution called for today, 23 August, the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, to be a day of Remembrance of all the victims of Hitler and Stalin.

As you can imagine, the Russians were not amused, and responded in typical fashion by threatening Europe:
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian lawmakers threatened the OSCE with "harsh" consequences on Saturday after the European security body's parliamentary arm condemned both Stalinism and fascism for starting World War Two.

Russia's delegates stormed out of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's annual parliamentary meeting after members passed the resolution, drafted by a delegate from the host nation Lithuania, a former Soviet satellite.

"This is nothing but an attempt to re-write the history of World War Two," Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the foreign relations committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, told Interfax news agency.

"The reaction of the parliament to this document will be immediate and it will be harsh." - CommunistCrimes.Org
The Russian's response back home to questions about Russia's actions during World War II has been to criminalize the discussion of how Russia enslaved Eastern Europe at the end of the war.

Along with the calls to remember the victims of the joining of Nazism and Stalinism on this August 23rd, this his whole issue is yet another reminder that Russia has yet to go through an accounting of the Crimes of the Soviet Union like Nazi Germany went through. It is good that Europe has made this step. However, until Russia makes an honest accounting of it's Soviet past, we will not see any change in Russia's current behavior.

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Here is one image from the book 'RED primer for children and diplomats':


In 1939 a wonderful opportunity for world peace came from the most unexpected source. Although the Soviets opposed Fascist dictatorship and imperialism, they saw a means which could be used to further the ultimate triumph of the Communist brand of Socialism. A mutual non-aggression agreement was made with Hitler.

Hitler invaded Poland and the Soviets moved in to prevent the Nazis from taking over the whole country. The Soviets murdered some 11,000 Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyn Forest and peace and order were established in Poland, for a while. - Link
The Soviet Union was busy killing people well before Stalin made a deal with Hitler and was killing long after World War II. Here is a handy Desktop Wallpaper summarizing the 62 Million Deaths attributed to Soviet Rule:

You can find it here: The New American Myth

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Wednesday, August 19

Democrats: 'The goal is Single Payer. The path is via the Public Option' (Video)

The great thing here is that you don't have to believe me. Here is a video of Democrats explaining that the health insurance 'Public Option' is the way of getting to a 'Single Payer' system in the US.

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(Direct Link) Video found via Ace of Spades.
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And in case you have not seen it yet, here is a video of now-President Barack Obama talking about Single Payer health care in that his plan will wipe out private health insurance in 10-20 years.

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(Direct Link)
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One thing to take away from this is that most of these Democrats are lying, given that most of them have denied that single payer is the goal contrary to the statements that they made in favor of single payer in the videos posted here.

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Corn is Food - Not Fuel

One of the great things about summer is the ability to have corn on the cob.


Corn is great, but there is no comparison to eating fresh corn right off the cob.

Which makes taking corn and turning it into ethanol fuel a huge tragedy and I dare say even a crime. We should not be turning corn into fuel or corn syrup either! We should be growing this corn for the benefit of the planet, especially those who live in constant hunger. (Or better yet, how about letting farmers plant other than grains out there...)

Now someone is going to point out that ethanol is not normally made from 'sweet corn' which is pictured above, but from 'dent corn'. During some debate a year or two ago, there was one congressman waving a cob of dent corn declaring that nobody eats it, so it is 'OK' to turn it into fuel. Well that is just B.S. For starters, cornmeal is made from dent corn and livestock eat dent corn. And when you start turning it into fuel, you now create a competing demand for the product resulting in increased prices all around. So in the end we are not saving any money, we are just shifting where we pay. This means that the price of ethanol made from corn does not reflect the true price of making it nor does the claimed benefits of reduced reliance on foreign sources of fuel reflect the other costs to society.

There is plenty of fuel in the US that can be used for fueling the country, if the Democrats will let us drill for it. Let's leave the corn for the dinner table.

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Monday, August 17

Maritime Monday 175 Posted at gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.


You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 125 here. (Published 11 August 2008).

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Previous Editions:
As linked below or click on the label ‘MaritimeMonday’:
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Saturday, August 15

Socialist Obama as the Joker - 'Hope' Poster Style

I tinkered with the Obama as Joker image and converted it into the Hope poster style.

Because it is the weekend, that's why.

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Wednesday, August 12

Real Health Care Insurance Reform (and it does not take 1,000+ Pages!)

The whole Health Care debate in Washington is making me sick. Really, out of the whole Congress, all they have managed to do is come up with ideas to really screw up the system for good.

Like many other people I think the Democrats are planning to wreck the health care system so that they can force a Government-run single-payer system.

Don't think that I am happy with the Republicans either. They have done little to stop this train wreck called 'Reform'. See CNN's article '5 freedoms you'd lose in health care reform - If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear.' for more on what the Democrat's planned health insurance reform is going to cost you. They say that these are not the actual bills as the bills floating around have to be amended. But do they plan on amending everything in these Bills? And if they need amendments, how can all these Congressmen running around telling us how great this as yet unwritten reform legislation is? Especially given that this is Legislation that nobody has read.

In short, the Democrats appear to be planning to force all of us into Government-mandated HMO plans, not that HMO's worked at cutting expenses the first time around. (They did however make lots of American's appreciate the ability to choose which doctor you wanted to see!)

Given the lack of any real discussion on behalf of those leading the country on the specifics of reforming health insurance, I started thinking about how the health care system can be made better and cheaper.

It took all of five minutes to come up with a plan that changes how we get health insurance. One of the problems is that most of us get our health insurance through our employer. We need to move the relationship between the health insurance companies from the employers to those who are being insured. Here is a simplified illustration of a typical arrangement:




In terms of fixing health care insurance, part of the solution I think involves improving Flexible Spending Accounts. They are a part of many current medical insurance packages offered to employees.
A flexible spending arrangement (FSA), or Flexible Spending Account, as they are commonly called, is one of a number of tax-advantaged financial accounts that can be set up through a cafeteria plan of an employer in the United States. An FSA allows an employee to set aside a portion of his or her earnings to pay for qualified expenses as established in the cafeteria plan, most commonly for medical expenses but often for dependent care or other expenses. Money deducted from an employee's pay into an FSA is not subject to payroll taxes, resulting in a substantial payroll tax savings.

The most common FSA, the medical expense FSA (also medical FSA or health FSA), is similar to a health savings account (HSA) or a health reimbursement account (HRA). However, while HSAs and HRAs are almost exclusively used as components of a consumer driven health care plan, medical FSAs are commonly offered with more traditional health plans as well. An FSA may be utilized by paper claims or an FSA debit card also known as a Flexcard. - Wikipedia
These Flexible Savings Accounts have some major problems:
Use it or lose it - One major drawback is that the money must be spent within the coverage period as defined by the benefits cafeteria plan coverage definition. This coverage period is usually defined as the period that you are covered under the cafeteria plan during the "plan year". The "plan year" is commonly defined as the calendar year.

Any money that is left unspent at the end of the coverage period is forfeited back to the company; this is commonly known as the "use it or lose it" rule. It should be noted and called out for emphasis that under most plans your "coverage period" generally ceases upon termination of your employment whether initiated by you or your employer unless you continue coverage with the company under COBRA or other arrangement. An unfortunate possibility, especially in the case of unexpected, immediate layoff, is that should you have unused contributions in your FSA and no additional qualifying claims during your coverage period you will have the added insult of "losing" these funds.

A second requirement is that all applications for refunds must be made by a date defined by the plan. If funds are forfeited, this does not eliminate the requirement to pay taxes on these funds if such taxes are required. For example, if a single person elects to withhold $5000 for child care expenses and gets married to a non-working spouse, the $5000 would become taxable. If this person did not submit claims by the required date, the $5000 would be forfeited but taxes would still be owed on the amount.

Also, the annual contribution amount must remain the same throughout the year unless certain qualifying events occur, such as the birth of a child or death of a spouse. - Wikipedia
There has been lots of talk about saving people money when it comes to health care. So, if they are serious about saving people money, then how about making the following changes to how Flexible Spending Accounts work.:
  • De-link FSA's from the employer. Make them linked to the employee so that the employee does not lose the benefit and their savings because they are changing jobs or have lost their job. We already have Savings and Checking Accounts with the bank, so why not also having a Health Care 'Flexible Savings' account with the bank as well.
  • Remove the 'use it or lose it' rule. It is a pain to have to guess how much money to put aside each year. Congress can't figure out how to run 'Cash for Clunkers' just a couple weeks and yet we are expected to guess our medical bill costs for a whole year, each year. And not for anything, but President Obama is all bent out of shape about how many unnecessary medical tests and procedures are performed each year. How many of them are merely people spending leftover cash in their FSAs that they would otherwise lose. This would also allow people to save up during good years for when they might need the money for medical expenses later on.
  • Eliminate the limit on how much money you can put in your FSA account. Who cares how much money people put away in their FSA. If there has to be a limit, how about making it high enough to cover all of a family's health care expenses, including health care coverage. Oddly enough, it is employers who place a limit on these accounts to reduce their liability. However, limits actually punish people who already know that they have lots of incoming medical bills.
  • Allow people to deduct money from the account. It is possible that these accounts become overfunds for the needs of the account holders. So they should be able to withdraw excess funds without penalty. This would reduce the hesitation of people to fund the account in cases where they are not sure of a need for additional money to meet medical bills or a fear of having too much money trapped in the account. In order to prevent abusive parking of the money to avoid taxes by putting money into the account to withdraw the following year when income is reduced, have the tax rate applied to the withdrawn funds equal to the highest rate paid over the last three years. if the money is not withdrawn in the year that it was earned. (And no, there is no need to have a withdrawal penalty like with IRA's and 401-K's)
These changes will save Americans money and as a result reduce the cost of health insurance as well as health care, given that medical bills will be paid through these accounts with funds excempt from taxes.

By fixing these FSA accounts and making them available to all Americans regardless of employer or employment, you can then better use them as part of an improved Health Care System as explained below.

By shifting the health care plan from a group plan offered by an employer, this new arrangement removes all links between the employer and the insurance company. Instead of paying fees to provide you with health insurance through a company group plan, the employer instead pays a similar amount directly into your FSA account. You then pay for your health insurance coverage through the FSA account. The impact to the employer should be negligible and they probably would benefit since they would be removed from having to find and oversee a health insurance program as well as look at finding less expensive coverage when the group rates go up when it comes time to renew the following year. (Why would they pay into an account? Why do they provide you with health insurance?)



Quit or lose your job and your relationship with your insurance company does not change under this arrangement. This provides the 'continuity of coverage between jobs' that the President and Democrats (and everyone else) is looking for.




Of course if you lose your job your old employer will no longer been contributing to your insurance costs, but they also won't be paying you for anything else either. (This is why changing FSA rules is so important to permit you to save extra for medical expenses.) And when you find a new job, you won't have to change your insurance company because your insurance policy is between you and your insurance company.

Now the insurance companies are going to have to deal with lots of clients with different types of contracts. This should not be a problem in the age of computers. Given that many states have their own requirements, the insurance companies already have many plans to deal with already. Individual plans can be grouped together and classed in terms of levels of coverage as a way for insurance companies to reduce administration costs for providing insurance.



Insurance companies can even offer plan holders in each level a new 'level plan' to consolidate those in that level to an identical plan or those with these plans can be grandfathered in and all new people getting coverage be offered a standard plan at each level. In doing this you have now grouped people into potential groups of millions across the country with the same type of insurance.




By standardizing plans in terms of level of coverage, it would give consumers a better way of shopping for health care.

Insurance for those who are unemployed
Let's look at the situation for people who are unemployed. They are no longer getting a salary from an employer nor are they getting an employer contribution into their FSA. They are however getting unemployment insurance. For those people, they would need to elect how much of their unemployment insurance money they would like to go directly into their FSA account. The Government can set some minimum percentage that must go in as an incentive to keep their health insurance current.



In this case unemployment insurance takes the place of the employer in terms of providing funds to the person's Flexible Savings Account.


The 'Public Option'
Some are demanding that the health care overhaul include some sort of Public Health Insurance Option.

Many others claim (and I think with good reason, given the President's own words in the video linked here) that Democrats want a 'public option' as a means of eventually moving to a single payer system given that the public option will not be under any sort of need to actually operate in a way that revenue covers expenses.

I think the only way that a public option might be viable is to turn Medicare into a health insurance company in the form like the private firms I explain above. Make it run under similar rules like the US Post Office. If the post office does not make a profit, then it has to raise rates.

By having Medicare operate like the other health insurance companies, you now also permit those currently under the 'public plan' Medicare to switch from Medicare to a private plan. Given that some people are demanding an option of a public plan, there should be a private plan option for those already under a public plan like Medicare.

Forcing Medicare to compete against other insurance companies would better fit another Administration goal of fostering competition be forcing the public plan to compete to keep those that use their insurance satisfied. If done right it could even provide Medicare with additional funding by attracting young healthy people who pay for insurance but collect little from it.

It also permits those under Medicare to search out plans that better meet their needs. Some doctors do not take Medicare patients. This permits those under Medicare to switch to a insurance plan that their doctor will accept. If the 'public plan' were truly forced to be competitive, then they would do what is needed to get more doctors to take their insurance, such as improving compensation for doctors. (Other than forcing doctors and hospitals to take their insurance through legislation.)

So if there is going to be a 'Public Option' then there should be a way for those already stuck in the 'Public Option' of getting out of it into a 'Private Option'. Because if the flow is only towards the public option, eventually everyone will be stuck in that program.



Also, as the diagram above illustrates, retirees can also direct a portion of their Social Security payments to their Flexible savings account. Isn't this one reason we have Social Security?

Summary
The suggestions above on their own would be a major change to how health insurance is provided in the United States. That is what the Democrats claim to be searching for. So here it is.

My suggestions do not solve all the problems. Nor do they directly address the issue of cost but then again, neither do the bills the Democrats are offering. For that, there needs to be a serious look at reducing the expenses that health care professionals have to deal with. The Democrat's plans only address reducing the income of doctors while exposing them to the same risks. This has been done in other countries with the result being a shortage of doctors and nurses. This then results in the importation of health care professionals from the third world, creating huge problems in the countries where their services are desperately needed. In the case of the US, I doubt that there are enough medical providers in the world to make up for a loss in American interest to become doctors and nurses.

One other point concerning rationing. Our economic system runs on money. You can look at money as the rationed item. It is not possible to properly (and fairly!) address the health care needs of 'the poor' without taking the whole situation of the poor into account. After all, if they are willing to spend money on expensive sneakers, drugs and other personal items, but are not willing to pay for a doctor's visit, then I do not see why the rest of us should pay their healthcare related bills.

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Tuesday, August 11

A Simple Reason Why the Town Hall Mobs Will Continue

There is lots of talk about recent town hall meetings with members of Congress getting ugly and people shouting down those attempting to talk*.

There are calls for people to be civil and calls by conservatives to be constructive, so that members of Congress are forced to answer questions about the health care reforms that they are trying to ram through Congress instead of running away citing a fear of 'the mob'.

Looking at some of the videos posted on the Internet I do not think any discussion about being civil in these meetings is going to do any good. This is because they do not appear to be people who get their information from the Internet and if they are, they are not tuned into conservative websites. They probably get their information from traditional newspapers and the evening news. Those news sources are glossing over how incredibly bad this health care reform bill is and are even covering the President's back by promoting it and demonizing anyone who comes out against it.

Instead of being indoctrinated, these viewers are getting outraged that not only is this happening, but apparently nobody is doing anything about it. Many of them honestly appear outraged and that is not going to go away just because organized conservatives are trying to not give liberals any ammunition against those against the Democrat's Health Care reform bill. They have managed to get a chance to give Congress a piece of their mind, and they are going to let their Congressman have it.

This seems pretty plausible to me, especially given that it is not just Republicans who are lashing out at their Congressman, but Democrats and independents as well. I suspect that we have seen nothing yet.

*One of the problems (in addition to not being able to read the legislation that they are voting on) is that these members of Congress are talking too much and not listening enough if at all...

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Monday, August 10

Maritime Monday 174 Posted at gCaptain

This week's edition of Maritime Monday has been posted at gCaptain.


You can find last week’s edition here.

You can find Maritime Monday 124 here. (Published 11 August 2008).

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