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This site provided by a retired physician with 54+ years of combined military and public service; a former hospital commander now serving as a public health officer and an elected hospital commissioner. "I am deeply concerned about the direction our society is taking...
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Mid-autumn 1995... I have decided to open a site of this nature in order to present to the community at large some of the issues that seldom get discussed on a local level, and to provide a forum for folks who may feel they have no way to voice their opinion in a manner that will be heard. Most of the topics are truly of community-wide interest ...or at least should be. A community can be only as good as its citizens make it.
The Community Foundation of Whidbey Island has not been formed. Whidbey has no local community-wide philanthropic foundation for the island as a whole, and many find that the closest "community foundation" is the Seattle Foundation. We should have a Whidbey Island Community Foundation (CFWI). This is a proposal. The topic of Managed Care is an issue with which I have years of experience, both in practice and in administration. This issue is really about Access to Care — an issue that will be of growing importance impacting all of us in the coming years. (Commentary series begun in 1997) Hot Issues in Community Health are just that. The issues may change over time, but some of the issues are ever-present, and merit more attention/awareness by our residents.
Responsibly Funding Public Health
is
a topic that State Legislatures should take very seriously. The State has
a responsibility to protect the public from hazards to the health of its
citizenry,
i.e. RCW 70.05.060,
and has seen fit to charge Local Boards of Health with
the responsibility for supervision over all matters pertaining to the
preservation of the life and health of the people within its jurisdiction.
Each county is charged with funding this responsibility
(RCW
70.05.140 and
RCW 70.46.085)
Prior to 1979
the Washington State Legislature had levied 21.5¢ per $1,000 to
provide Public Health with the necessary funding. That Legislature's having rescinded
the proscribed programmed millage was not in the public's best
interests, from a health-wise aspect, and led some counties to incorporate
some or all such millage into the county's general expense fund. This has led to what has become an uneven funding of
public health services across the state, disruptive of effective
planning and service to the public.
ObamaCare This is my understanding of what the original 1,017 page bill truly projected for the future of the deliverance and funding of health care in America, should it have been passed. Of course this bill has now been superseded by a 2,700+ page bill with even more ominous features (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), signed into law on March 23, 2010. There is no argument that reform is indeed necessary, but the reformation should be in the funding and accessibility to health care, tort reform, and the leveling of the insurance playing field to remove the excesses now rampant in the siphoning away of the insurance premium dollar. ObamaCare does not bode well for America... his administration knows little, if anything, about “the real world” provision of healthcare. A fundamental transformation is indeed afoot, change you will have to believe in – like it or not. (Since this was first written, ObamaCare has become law . . .get ready for the consequences, only a few of which are presently obvious!)
Federal Reserve's Inspector General: This is a live questioning of the current Inspector General of our Federal Reserve by Congressional member and former prosecutor Democrat Alan Grayson ...a perfect example of the incompetency rampant in our nation's "leadership". We, the people, need to literally clean the D.C. beltway of this ilk. Wake up, America!
Illicit Drugs are so easily obtained that any junior high or high school student can tell you where you can get them. It has always been thus. Illicit drugs are a leading cause of crime in our land, almost entirely because they are illegal. There is always an element of any society that is drug-seeking. Consequently a "War on Drugs" is destined to fail. There is, however, a way to at least defuse the sustaining factor — remove the profit potential.
Gun Control is an issue wherein there is no middle ground.
Criminals obey no laws imposed by our citizens, and those who think gun
control is the answer should
watch this video. What
America really needs is Criminal Control... mandatory 20 year prison
sentences strictly imposed and added to whatever other sentence is rendered
when firearms are used in the commission of any crime.
Then and Now What happened in America to have caused this tidal wave of change in our views regarding what is acceptable and what is not? "Political Correctness", a perverse concept of the appropriate by the progressive coalition (i.e. the "post-modern"), has altered how we conduct almost every aspect of our daily lives ...and it is getting more perverse by the day. Wake up America!! The Islamic Perspective Is Islam a religion, a social system, or simply a militant activist movement religiously followed? For moderate Muslims it is the former. The imams would have you believe it is the former. But for the fundamentalist Muslim — the Jihadist — it is the latter two. Islam is really a societal system, a fusion of 'religion' and government with an activist militant component, the fundamentalist Wahabi sect (read your history). Wahhabists eschew tolerance or mercy, two prime principles for the modern Muslim. What you have not learned about Wahabism, the true jihadists, will shock you when you fully understand the guidance driving fundamentalist Islamists toward the goal they believe Mohammed has charged them to accomplish — world dominion. Are you familiar with the Qur'an (Koran) and the term Sunnah? The latter is Arabic for “habitual practice” of the Prophet Muhammad as preserved in eyewitness records of his words, actions and approbations, and are known as the Hadiths. Hadiths have normative and legal status second only to that of the Qur'an. These two are directives for all Muslims. You can learn by reading them . . .or eventually learn the hard way by doing nothing. Either way you will experience what all activist Muslims believe to be the inevitable – Muslim world domination. Be advised... should you do nothing, you would do well to familiarize yourself with shari'a law. Shari'a is totally non-simpatico with constitutional law as we know it, and has absolutely nothing to do with religion per se, though the imams will loudly and passionately proclaim otherwise. Shari'a is purely a societal practice, totally unacceptable to the American way of life, but is insistently advocated by activist Islamists throughout the world today – even in America! Secular democracy and Islam are unalterably incompatible... so saith the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious, political, and social movement with the credo, "God is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations." Addendum -- 27 Feb 2011: British extremist cleric Anjem Choudary, founder and former chief of two Islamic groups disbanded by the British authorities under anti-terror legislation, is planning a Washington D.C. protest later this week in which he says he will call on American Muslims to revolt against the country and implement Shariah law, stating:
Update - 4 March 2011: A team of radical Muslims, under the banner of Shariah4America, today abruptly canceled their plan for a pro-Shariah rally at the White House, instead announced on their website plans to cover the Statue of Liberty with a burkha. ( Will Statue of Liberty be fitted with Muslim burkha?)
The Narcissist Humankind has ever been captivated (and often subjugated) by those among us who are driven by self-centered, self-effusive ego. The pages of history are replete with their feats, derring-do and struggles for recognition and/or power. Narcissism is quite often the personality trait that is at the center of this perpetrator's 'successes'. Could "the one" be one?
How do you fix Congress? Aren't you tired of all the self-serving going on in Congress? While you were with family and friends enjoying the holiday festivities, Congress and the president passed a $1 trillion omnibus bill with more than 5,000 earmarks... among other things that Congress "accomplished" for our own good over the holidays. "NO MORE EARMARKS". I recall someone promising this a couple of years ago. Who was that? And why has Congress determined it no longer necessary to respond to the will of the people? And do you know that after serving only 5 years, each congressman upon 'retirement' is qualified for a stipend of up to 80% of their last salary? It's long past time to reign in their out-of-control self-serving conduct and reestablish accountability to the electorate. Our First Amendment How long has it been since you've read the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution? Have you really read closely and understood the first clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution? It has to do with the ever-popular "separation of church and state" phraseology that everyone is so quick to recite. Such an interpretation is not a valid conclusion of this clause. I entreat you to read this brief discussion. By the way, can you name the five (5) rights enumerated in the first amendment?
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