News Roundup

Well its been a long time since I've done this but here are some stories I've seen today that think are worth reading over lunch.

The traditional yule fear factor, James Lileks talks about how the word Christmas is becoming the un-word for the season. Because other holidays are celebrated at this time of year, stores seem to be reluctant to wish people a Merry Christmas so as not to offend anyone.

This falls under the Oops category. One of the electors from Minnesota made a mistake on their ballot and cast an electoral vote for John Edwards instead of John Kerry. None of the electors admitted to the mistake and once the vote is made, it can't be changed. It will become a footnote in history that John Edwards received 1 electoral vote in the 2004 election. But just think if the election was tied at 269 for Bush and 269 for Kerry. This mistake would have cost Kerry the election.

And finally, an interesting article on ethics.

THIS year witnessed the beginning of an ethical revolution. Voters in Australia and the US overwhelmingly endorsed the proposition that doing good is radically different from feeling good. This U-turn away from sentimentality is also taking hold in Britain.

My property taxes are paying for THIS?????

I paid my property taxes Monday night and part of the total was a special assessment to keep the County trauma centers in the South Bay part of Los Angeles open. We were told if the assessment didn't pass a few years ago, the main County trauma center (Harbor UCLA) would likely be closed due to budget cuts. So most folks I know, including homeowners, voted for the assessment. I did not vote for the assessment because I figured the County Board of Supervisors would still close the trauma center once the tax increase was passed by the voters. I'm glad that I've been proven incorrect so far, I hope I will continued to be proven incorrect in the future.

Another large County hospital not too far away from Harbor UCLA is King/Drew Medical Center. The hospital has had a large number of medical and financial problems which has led to the hospital's accreditation as a teaching hospital and as a place that qualifies to treat Medicare and Medical patients has been in jeopardy. I don't know if King/Drew has actually lost their accreditation as of this time, but if they have a large part of their funding has been lost.

The LA Times (yes, I'm quoting the LA Times, a rarity) has a long story on an investigation into King/Drew and some of the problems the hospital has had. It appears that a number of the people who work at King/Drew are treating the hospital as their own private piggy bank and expect the government to keep spending money without question. Now that the trauma Center at King/Drew is scheduled to be closed, and if things don't improve the entire hospital could be closed, some of the mismanagement is coming to light. Its sad that a number of people working at the hospital and/or on the governing body of the hospital have chosen to work towards their own enrichment instead of the good of the community, as was one of the purposes of the hospital being built in the first place.

I hope the County, State and Federal governments will look into the practices of not only King/Drew, but also all County hospitals so the waste and fraud will be minimized so the money the county allocates for public health will be available to treat patients and not pay for workers who don't show up, file false worker's comp claims or are paid for work they are not doing. Since the County workers are paid by our taxes, we the taxpayers need to remind them and us, they work for us and we can and should demand accountability for our money.

Was Terminator based on reality???

Wired News has a story on armed battlefield robots the military will be sending to Iraq in the Spring.

As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing.

"Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip.

This would be great for our troops, the robots can check the houses for bad guys and if the bad guys decide to blow themselves up, we lose a robot not a troop. The bad guys facing the robots will be in for a nasty shock, instead of them taking out infidels, they will be taking out machines. Also, the machines that will be hunting the bad guys won't feel fear or pain or get tired or feel compassion for the bad guys. I just hope they work out as planned.