False Fact On Wikipedia Proves Itself

In short, someone made a false edit. A media outlet copied the false fact, and the outlet is used to prove the false fact.

It's a shame when media personnel are lazier than some undergrad that procrastinates too much.

Bloomberg is reporting some interesting stuff about the healthcare provisions of The Bill:

Hmm...sounds like an HMO on steriods:

One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

And it seems to imply that it will somehow "push out" any other options for healthcare:

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties.  “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

I'm all for healthcare reform.  But should this level of reform be handled via a stimulus bill that is being rushed through and getting only cursory review of it's 600+ pages, or is it an issue that deserves separate deliberation and discussion?    I think it should be separate. 

What other "stimulus" items like this are hidden in The Bill?

65%-35% ratio of stimulus to tax cuts.

Ironically, the nearly $300 billion in tax cuts for the middle class represent the largest tax cut in our nation's history.

More than Bush's $160 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy.   More than Reagan's marginal tax rate cuts.

The fact that the cuts go to those making less than $75,000 ($150,000 for couples) and not to the wealthy will make it so the Republicans will never acknowledge that the tax cuts are there.

But the largest tax cut in our history will be signed by Obama by next week.  Less than one month into his presidency, fulfilling a key promise of the campaign.

Now... as for the $500+ billion in stimulus.... I'm sure that the GOP will have no issues with publicizing that.   ;-)

p.s.  For everyone saying the stock market gave its verdict on Geithner's plan yesterday.....   be consistent.  The market jumped 80 points when the news of the bill compromise came out.   The "market" likes the stimulus bill.

--- Your friendly "caricaturer of reality"

Where do gods come from

Yearbook photos of well-known politicians.  Keep an eye out for Mike Huckabee and Dick Cheney.  Isn't Nancy Pelosi a fox?  *growl*

On a more serious note, Fareed Zakaria takes note of the rock-solid Canadian banking system .  It seems slow and steady does win the race.  He also obliquely makes a case for eliminating the mortgage interest deduction in the tax code:

Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north.

[...]

Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.

Again, via Sullivan .

Please! This is not only irritating but unwise.

Mozilla is pressing the EU to impose sanctions on Microsoft over brower issues.

I don't know about you but I use Mozilla 100% of the time. A lot of people do.

Ryan Paul has the story.

It's also worth noting that Microsoft's dominant position in the operating system market—which is cited as the company's unfair advantage over the rest of the browser makers—has also declined over the past year as Apple's Mac OS X operating system gains record traction. That factor by itself is eroding Microsoft's ability to retain Internet Explorer's entrenched status.

To the observant tech enthusiast, all signs seem to indicate that Microsoft's monopoly is on its way out. The Redmond giant is in no danger of annihilation, but it's definitely not positioned to dictate terms to the rest of the industry anymore.

...

The popularization of the open source development model arguably emerged as a response to Microsoft's monopoly. Developers had to find innovative ways to compete with an entrenched product. If the government had intervened in the software industry at an early stage and those conditions hadn't existed, the browser market could arguably be a lot less rich and competitive than it is today. If Internet Explorer had never gained the dominant marketshare to necessitate a change in the status quo, the only browser choices we would have today might be between an ad-encumbered Opera and a proprietary Netscape.

It's risky to let the government perpetually equalize the market, because sometimes the greatest innovations appear when inventors have to face tougher odds. It's also worthwhile to wonder what will happen when the shoe is on the other foot.

I agree with him. Mozilla's complaining sounds hollow in light of its ever-climbing market share. Competition is alive and well and Mozilla is benefiting from it.

Once again, like like Google before them , Mozilla is becoming a product of the system and creeping into the "parasite economy" whereby it devouts more and more time and money in using government to get what it wants instead of just by being better than its competitors....the old-fashioned way.

Do read the rest of Paul's article. Very interesting for tech-junkies.

The sun has set on the British Empire after all. This once proud country has been reduced to running ads on Pakistani television, begging Muslim bullies to leave it alone on the grounds that Britain is becoming Islamized. The taxpayer is putting up £400,000 to finance the campaign.

If bureauweenies determine them to be successful, more money will be wasted running the humiliating ads in Egypt, Yemen, and Indonesia.

An alternate approach would be to stop letting Muslims colonize what's left of their country. But then they wouldn't be able to plead for protected dhimmi status.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch ; on tips from SK and Burning Hot .

 Dennis Blair, the new Director of National Intelligence, testified yesterday as to the threat assessment of the global economic turmoil, and the unrest and instability that could outpace terrorism as the most urgent threat facing the US.

  The most important yet difficult issue we face is getting our banking industry to function and to get credit flowing again.

 Keeping financial markets alive and preventing the world economy from sliding into a recession must take precedence over all else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/washington/13intel.html

Mr. Blair singled out the economic downturn as “the primary near-term security concern” for the country, and he warned that if it continued to spread and deepen, it would contribute to unrest and imperil some governments.

“The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,” he said.