Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely - Lord Acton

So I was at lunch with my Mom and we were talking about politics. I generally stay away from the topic but we were discussing the above quote and it’s correlation to career politicians.

I would like to live in a world where politicians only hold office for 5 years or so and then they have to go back to their original career path. This way you always have new ideas and fresh blood. I’m tired of 80 year old congress men who can barely speak, their ideas are old and quite often they can be bought. The world is moving quickly and we need new ideas to survive as a nation.

Also, while on the subject I also want to point out that socialized medicine actually sucks and for those of you who think it might be a good idea I urge you to educate yourself on the tragedies that have occurred in other countries participating in socialized medicine.

Below I have listed actual newspaper headlines from Britain…

• Kidney cancer patients denied life-saving drugs by NHS rationing body NICE
  - April 29, 2009 [Daily Mail (UK)]
• Girl, 3, has heart operation cancelled three times because of bed shortage
  - David Rose, April 23, 2009 [Times Online]
• NHS 'failings' over elderly falls
  - March 25, 2009 [BBC]
• Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions
  - Jenny Hope, March 20, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• Failing hospital 'caused deaths'
  - March 17, 2009 [BBC]
• Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told
  - Simon Johnson, March 13, 2009 [Telegraph UK]
• 1,000 villagers wait for a dentist after just one NHS practice opens
  - March 10, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• Disabled children wait up to two years for wheelchairs
  - March 4, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
• NHS under fire over waiting times
  - February 25, 2009 [The Scotsman]
• Government procrastination blamed for HIV-contaminated blood tragedy
  - February 23, 2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
• Specialist nurses 'vastly overworked'
  - February 20, 2009 [Harwich & Manningtree Standard]
• Hundreds of operations cancelled at Lothian hospitals
  - Adam Morris, February 19, 2009 [The Scotsman]
• Stop asking for antibiotics to cure coughs and colds, Government tells patients
  - Daniel Martin, February 17, 2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• Only five out of 51 hospital trusts pass hygiene test, say inspectors
  - Sarah Boseley, November 24, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
• Heart patients dying due to poor hospital care, says report
  - Sarah Boseley, June 8, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
• Private healthcare managers could be sent to turn round failing NHS hospitals
  - Philip Webster, Political Editor, and David Rose, June 4, 2008 [The Times]
• Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her
  - Olinka Koster, March 26, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• Dental patients face care lottery
  - March 26, 2008 [Metro(UK)]
• Lung patients 'condemned to death as NHS withdraws their too expensive drugs'
  - Jenny Hope, March 24, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• Women in labour turned away by maternity units
  - John Carvel, March 21, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
• Health inequality has got worse under Labour, says government report
  - Andrew Sparrow, March 13, 2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
• NHS chiefs tell grandmother, 61, she's 'too old' for £5,000 life-saving heart surgery
  - Chris Brooke, February 28, 2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
• NHS patients told to treat themselves
  - James Kirkup, January 4, 2008 [Telegraph UK]
• The World's Worst HMO
  - Stephen D. Moore, November 24, 1999 [Random Thoughts]

And those are only a fraction of the crazy headlines that can be read HERE.

And while I’m on my soap box I just came from a four day conference where I attended several sessions on Green Meetings. For the record I knew global warming was crap, climate change is a farce, and this whole going green trend is retarded.

The only thing I like about green initiatives when it comes to meetings is that you support the local community where your meeting is being held by using local produce. Also please note that we are currently going into a small ice age which has naturally occurred throughout history and is no cause for alarm. The planet has been through thousands of climate changes and has adapted very well, it’s us humans who have problems with change.

That is all, carry on.