Following is an essay on the recent history and status of the United States of America. I found it to be well written and I agree with, and have been personally espousing, most of the observations and conclusions it contains.…
Social Friction
What’s wrong with this picture? The following news story is about a community seeking to redress its loss of civility. While admirable, this, in and of itself, is not newsworthy in today’s largely brusque and inconsiderate American society. What makes…
Lessons from the past – 1979 Valedictory
The Economist recently posted a 1979 Valedictory from Sir Nicholas Henderson, Britain’s retiring ambassador to Germany and France. I found it fascinating, not only as a revealing window into a period of history often underserved, but as premonition of the ever…
Health Care Reform: $2.4 Trillion and $85.6 Trillion
The web site pagetutor.com put up an excellent illustration of what 1 trillion dollars looks like. The original site is here: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html I excerpted the post here to help illustrate how much the United States spends on health care. What does…
Health Care Reform: The Cost Drivers – One Academic’s View
What drives the rapidly escalating increases for the cost of health care in the United States? The following are the views of one PhD on that topic. Key excerpts: 80% of total health care spending linked to chronically ill patients…
Health Care Reform: The Options
. There are a plethora of plans and proposals for the reform of the U.S. health care system being promoted by every imaginable interest group, vested interest and limelight seeking politician. I have gathered a few repsentative samples here to…
Health Care Reform FAQ
A PDF file version of this post is available here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/healthcarereformfaq.pdf =================================================================== Q: Why should I care about health care system reform in the United States? A: Because: The nation can no longer afford the current system, not on…
Thoughts on Health Care Reform
I was recently asked by our friend, Gary DuBois, to join a conversation of Americans, ex-patriots and citizens of other countries about the state of the health care system in the United States and prospects for meaningful reform. Gary asked…
Server Rebuild Complete
As reported here, the night after the frame on the truck broke our server was mysteriously wiped out. The hosting company said they didn’t know how it could have happened and also reported the backups were also gone. We have…
Straight in the Eyes
. 6 March 2009 Amazon Basin Rainforest . The trip into the Amazon basin begins by air, but must end on the water because there are no roads. Click here for the rest of the story: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/ecuador/straightintheeyes.pdf .