Wandlung zum Guten?

With the inauguration only a few days away I can't help but pay some attention to our president-elect and how his (our) new administration is shaping up. The always entertaining reason.tv has given us this fun video (with an ironic soundtrack...).

A right to an MRI?

I'll start off with a light post for the new year. I was reading Fox News (yes I know - evil mainstream media but they actually do have good articles once and awhile) and I read this piece about a woman who was too large to fit into the MRI machines at her current hospital. The details of her situation aren't relevant here but I was interested in one of her statements:

"They should have machines that fit most everybody," Carolyn said.

Hey Canada! Someone thinks they have a right to fit into an MRI machine, no matter their size. Pass a law! Good luck getting the laws of physics changed to accomodate the need for larger MRI machines. I could suggest this woman should have just gone north to take advantage of Canada's wonderful nationalized medical system but it's too sad to even joke about since people are actually dying because of socialized medicine.

The answer is that Medicare — like all universal-coverage schemes — is operated by the government, and government resists innovation. In this case, resistance to innovation kills.

On that note, Happy New Year! Here's to hoping 2009 turns out a little brighter than 2008...