Third time in December ‘04. Christmas week, a good time to be reflective and not too confrontational, and I’ll try to move in that direction. One news story from the past week I can’t resist is the one in which Governor Arnold wants to take away your lunch break. The three martini lunch died years ago. Now the quick sandwich at your desk is under attack. Actually, what Arnold proposed is that your employer should be allowed to crack the whip for six hours instead of the current five hours before allowing you to stop for a bite to eat. And people criticize me for using the term "wage slave." I just want to know, "Why does Arnold care when I break for lunch?"

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Changes afoot at our local daily newspaper. I don’t know if the paper will look any different, but the editor has handed in his resignation. You may have heard Paul Emery and myself interview Rich Somerville on the radio a while back. He’s a guy with plenty of journalism savvy and experience, probably a good fit for a conservative, small town daily like The Union, but he didn’t last long. He and publisher Jeff Ackerman both write weekly columns, and there have been subtle remarks by each which indicated they weren’t always on the same page. The simple explanation would be that Ackerman is even more conservative than Somerville, but only in the currently popular political definition of "conservative." I suspect The Union’s editorial stance now will shift a bit to the right, although many of you will wonder how that’s possible. But I’m hesitant to call it "conservative." I look for the paper to become more obvious in it’s pro-development, anti-environment bent. If you’re already passing on The Union for that reason, I predict you’ll want to keep even more distance under the next editor.

Another story in The Union last week about that Canadian company that’s been threatening for years to reopen the Idaho-Maryland mine. There was nothing in it which you could call "news," except the fact that it was a small story on page three. In the past, whenever these guys have passed out press releases about their grand plans to reopen the mine, The Union has plastered it all over the front page. I think some journalistic genius may be catching on that these guys aren’t at all ready to dig up any gold; they’re just fishing for investors who might be interested in digging up gold. The modern day, corporate version of a grizzled old guy with a pan and a mule looking for a grub stake.

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The Bushwhacker floated his nominee for the new Secretary of HEW last week. It doesn’t matter who he is. The interesting part of the story is that the feds are looking to dump even more health care costs on the states, while the states are trying desperately to duck that financial hit. That argument would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic. Ultimately, whatever money we choose to spend on health care comes from the same source–taxpayers. Which pot it comes from is completely irrelevant.

There are just three things that matter in public policy about health care. In no prioritized order, one is the fact that no one is talking about the profiteering in the delivery of health care products and services. The states and the feds are arguing about who’s going to pay, but the argument assumes that we have to pay whatever the insurers and the providers are demanding. No one in government is discussing what the consumers know–that the same health care is available in other countries for a fraction of what we’re paying these rip-off artists in this country.

Second is who gets the health care. The affluent pay their health insurance premiums, while certain poor people get somewhat inferior health care at the taxpayers’ expense, but we categorize the poor, excluding some while taking care of others. In other words, some people just don’t have any access to health care.

Finally, the age old question about who pays. The most wealthy people don’t pay taxes, and the poorest people don’t pay taxes. Those in the middle are picking up the check and paying the tip. Okay, that’s true of all government services, but health care isn’t really a government service. All government is doing in health care is taking our money and doling it out to businesses which we assume are providing health care to a selected group of poor people. Bad business; bad government.

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I listened to a series of stories on NPR last week about how males may now be obsolete. Not just human males but all males. It seems that fetal stem cell research has discovered that the Y chromosome can be sustained independently, kind of like a sourdough culture. So now it’s a one shot deal, guys. After that it’s test tube city and you’re out of here. This research, which was conducted on mice by the way, was inspired in part by the fact that the Y chromosomes have had a steadily declining number of genes over the centuries and the eons. I say that if those Y chromosomes can’t hang on to their genes, they’re just going to have to run around in their boxer shorts. By the way, do you know how to tell X chromosomes from Y chromosomes? You got it. Pull down their genes. Save the males.

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