Random rambling that should have been split into several different posts, but I have other things to do besides scheduling posts for you to not read later

I had a visitor last night.  He has not been around for a while and I was not pleased to see him. He is an asshole, and I am not particularly fond of him. We used to hang out a lot when I was in college and only needed three or four hours of sleep.  These days when my old buddy Insomnia shows up, I am not happy at all and it takes me a lot longer to recover. Last night he and I hung out from a little before two in the aye em until a bit after five in the aye em. I walked the house, tossed and turned in bed and watched some TV.  This morning i am irritable and tired.

I baked some biscuits for breakfast. they were not ready until after the wife left for work and the boy for school. Mostly because I got up late. There is nothing better than a hot biscuit dripping with melted butter. I am more than aware all of those carbs are not good for me. What the hell, one has to splurge every now and then.

Politicians kill me.  I am getting to hate them all. Democrats scream and cry about the Bush tax cuts. Repubs say tax cuts spur the economy. Democrats push for the payroll tax cut saying tax cuts spur the economy while Republicans scream we can't afford it.  Now I am a firm believer a tax cut benefits the economy, no matter who proposes it. Adding on even more benefits is a stupid and crazy idea, even if it is unemployment extension.  Seriously, 99 weeks is not enough time to find some kind of work?

I would encourage anyone to explain to me how not forcing an insurance company or the taxpayers to pay for contraception is "denying" women access to contraception?*  Haven't we been told incessantly that the mission of Planned Parenthood is passing out free contraception and women's health services?  We are told their mission is not abortion, but that I just described?  (BTW this is not about abortion-on my part). Not giving something away does not mean one is denied access.  Anyone can get contraception. The question is who is FORCED to pay for it. I still fail to see the Constitutional grounds the Government can use to force a private company to offer its employees certain benefits?  I do not understand the basis of dictating to a private insurance company what they must cover.

I think there are too many people that do not understand the concept of insurance. The goal of an insurance company is not to pay benefits.  That is how they make money. They are counting on a percentage of people not getting sick, or dieing, or wrecking their car in order to pay for the customers who have the bad grace to get sick, die or wreck their vehicle. An insurance company is not a bank where you put your premiums to hold until you get sick.  Do you think your premiums would come close to covering a bout with cancer or open heart surgery? My wife spent a few days in the hospital earlier this year.  Her bills were more than $25,000.  How many months and years of premiums will I have to pay to recover that cost? 

You might argue the costs of health care is too high.. Indeed they are.  State and Federal underpayment to doctors and hospitals is one cause. I contend that discussion is a different argument altogether. My concern here is the continued intrusion of the Nanny State into the very fabric of our lives.


* I cannot figure a better way to compose that awkward-assed question.