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Author Archive for Tony Coyle

I'm a technophile with an enduring interest in almost anything real or imagined. I suffer fools badly, and love trashy science fiction, plot-free action movies, playing guitar, and baking (especially scones. You haven't lived 'til you've eaten my scones). My wife & I are Scottish, living north of Atlanta, GA, with two children, one dog, and a growing collection of gadgets. I work for a living.

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By Tony Coyle on August 19th, 2009

Stop Discriminating against Sick People!

Stop Discriminating against Sick People!

Jonathon Alter was a guest on “the Ed Show” tonight on MSNBC. In a noisy debate with Ed, he said that the goal of healthcare reform should be “to end discrimination against sick people”. He said that the path to reform was largely irrelevant. That whether or not there was a public option was largely irrelevant. That healthcare reform is a civil rights issue, and that reform had nothing to do with the mechanics of that reform.

To be clear, Mr Alter stated that he was personally very much for a public option. But he was also very clear that regardless of the public option, this reform needed to pass.

I agree with Jonathon. Discrimination against sick people must stop. Discrimination against people with ‘pre-conditions’ must stop. Discrimination against people, must stop.

It’s time to act. Call your congressman. Enact healthcare reform.

Civil Rights • Current Events • Health • Politics
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Who needs a public option anyway?
By Tony Coyle on August 18th, 2009

Who needs a public option anyway?

One of my republican friends asked me”who needs a public option, anyway?”over a beer the other evening. He was responding to my shout of dismay over Ms Sibelius statement that the public option was “not really necessary” to health care reform.

So who needs a public option?

People who are currently uninsured, of course. Most of them are not uninsured by their own choice, but by the choice of an insurance company. A few may have elected to remain uninsured even when eligible, due to cost of premiums, etc . Many younger colleagues fall into this latter group, which has the effect of raising insurance rates for everyone else (since the remaining population are older and higher risk)

People who cannot afford to lose their insurance. Many people maintain are locked in to their insurance because of conditions that would be considered ‘pre-existing’ by a new insurer. Even if able to be covered by a new insurer, their premiums would likely be higher, or their coverage would carry many more restrictions. Health costs are already high - who would choose to voluntarily increase their expenses while reducing benefits?

And people like me. I have a job. I am in reasonably good health, and have decent employer-based health insurance for myself and my family. But I am effectively locked into my current employment. I would love to start my own business, but I cannot afford to be without healthcare. Private healthcare is so expensive, my baseline operating costs would be simply exorbitant. The risk of starting a business is already high. The penurious cost of private healthcare makes a high risk venture, insanely high.

In my travels I meet a great many people - and many people feel equally locked into employment: “I’d love to quit this job and go do
X but I can’t afford to give up my healthcare”.

Lack of a public option is killing America’s spirit of entrepreneurship. It’s killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The ability of common Americans to start their own ventures without hindrance is central to the spirit of independence and vitality that made this country an economic powerhouse in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The fact that republicans are most viscerally against a public option demonstrates that they are not “for business”, but are simply and solely for “big business”.

Featured • Health • Medicine • Politics
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By Tony Coyle on August 11th, 2009

The Wagons are circling!

While reading the Wall Street Journal this morning (courtesy of my hotel) I was appalled, but unsurprised, to read two extremely partisan opinion pieces on Obama’s healthcare proposals and the ‘reaction’ to them.

In a piece entitled “The Health Care Grail”, William McGurk clearly criticizes the White House, who “yesterday unveiled a new White House Web site accusing critics of scaring Americans ‘with half truths and outright lies’”. Unsurprisingly, Mr McGurk makes no mention that this is indeed a valid, and independently substantiated, criticism of the astroturf campaign against healthcare reform. Instead he attempts to make the case that this administration’s healthcare reform proposals are a “Doctrine” and that “the president and his allies see disagreement over health care as less a political dispute than the trampling of sacred doctrine”

American Culture • Communication • Current Events • Featured • Health • Media • Politics • ignorance • snake oil
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By Tony Coyle on August 04th, 2009

More GOP Astroturf?

I watched Rachel Maddow last night, and one of her segments focused on the disruption of recent Democratic Town Halls by ‘grass roots activists’. Her piece exposed the activists as following an agenda designed by a DC lobbying firm. In many ways this is worse that the Tea Party fiasco, since that was unfocused and generally laughable kookery. This, however, is targeted directly at health-care reform, and appears to be heavily funded by lobbyists for that industry (indeed, Rachel mentioned that some firms were sending ‘representatives’ to every state).

I also happened to see many of the same clips on Fox & Friends this morning (forced upon me in the hotel gym). F&F ‘reported’ the ‘protests’ as legitimate outpourings of anger against the ‘government’s plans for healthcare reform’.

I was surprised. Not!

Think Progress has more on the Lobbyist memo.

American Culture • Current Events • Fraud • Health • Politics • Uncategorized • hypocrisy • snake oil
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By Tony Coyle on May 12th, 2009

The Crisis of Credit - visualized!

In my never ending quest to understand more about why we are currently in a recession and why my house is worth less than a brace of Latte’s from Starbucks, I seek insight from teh intertubes. I found such insight at the Church of the Apocalyptic Kiwi - (who were also inspirational during the presidential race, fyi)

Enjoy!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

American Culture • Communication • Current Events • Economy • snake oil
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Not Ready to Meet their Maker?
By Tony Coyle on May 12th, 2009

Not Ready to Meet their Maker?

Reading through my back issues of the Economist, I came across this article from March. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association religious people seem curiously unwilling and unready to die.

According to the study, by Andrea Phelps and her colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, religious people seem to use their faith simply to cope with the pain and degradation involved in treatment, and that they are more willing to experiment with more aggressive treatments, even though such treatment rarely makes much difference to the outcome or their life expectancy.

Dr Phelps and her team followed the last months of 345 cancer patients. The participants were not asked directly how religious they were but, rather, about how they used any religious belief they had to cope with difficult situations by, for example, “seeking God’s love and care”. The score from this questionnaire was compared with their requests for such things as the use of mechanical ventilation to keep them alive and resuscitation to bring them back from the dead.

According to the study, three times as many ‘religious’ people requested aggressive life extension measures (mechanical ventilation and resuscitation) versus the least religious.

I would expect that the religious would be happy to eventually ‘meet their maker’ - but I suppose this is yet another aspect of the cognitive dissonance we find among religion and it’s adherents.

Featured • Health • Noteworthy • Religion
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NYT says “It’s Torture!”
By Tony Coyle on May 08th, 2009

NYT says “It’s Torture!”

The NYT today published an obituary for a deceased American fighter pilot who was captured by the Chinese:

Harold E. Fischer Jr., an American Flier Tortured in a Chinese Prison, Dies at 83…
From April 1953 through May 1955, Colonel Fischer — then an Air Force captain — was held at a prison outside Mukden, Manchuria. For most of that time, he was kept in a dark, damp cell with no bed and no opening except a slot in the door through which a bowl of food could be pushed. Much of the time he was handcuffed. Hour after hour, a high-frequency whistle pierced the air. [...] Under duress, Captain Fischer had falsely confessed to participating in germ warfare.

So - when the Chinese do it it’s torture. When the US do it it’s “harsh interrogation”.

We expect more consistency of our major news organizations. We expect more of our own government.

It’s time to call for a special prosecutor, Mr. Attorney General.

[via Glenn Greenwald, and Andrew Sullivan]

American Culture • Civil Rights • Current Events • Featured • Language • Media • Politics • War • hypocrisy
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By Tony Coyle on May 08th, 2009

Civilised Debate!

I’d forgotten how refreshingly loud British government debates could be. Prime Minister’s Question Time is a classic opportunity for any MP to question and challenge the Prime Minister directly. I wonder how the US congress or senate would handle such a debate. If CSpan was this much fun, it would be prime time TV.

[viaAndrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish]

Communication • Culture • Politics
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By Tony Coyle on May 08th, 2009

MPAA to teachers - fair use needs a VCR!

According to the MPAA the fair use provision in our copyright laws is flawed and needs to be qualified. During the continuing DCMA hearings they have again surfaced the claim that ripping a DVD shouldn’t be allowed, since the teacher can copy the video using a video camera pointed at the TV screen.

Seriously!

That’s as ludicrous as requiring that teachers may only copy from a photocopy, and not from the original book!

They even created a video to demonstrate the process. Anyone concerned about fair use and copyright should be aghast at this blatantly stupid, but well financed, attack on rights. This ‘process’ is not only more cumbersome and time consuming (but teachers have loads of free time, right?) but also significantly more costly (you need a camcorder, tapes, and a tripod - in addition to the equipment you already have).

MPAA shows how to videorecord a TV set from timothy vollmer on Vimeo.

via [Ars Technica]
video after the fold

Communication • Education • Featured • Intellectual property
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By Tony Coyle on May 06th, 2009

In honor of Maine, and Gay Marriage

This week marks another turning point in gay rights (go Maine, and we’re hoping New Hampshire’s Governor signs, too). A little reminder that there is still a lot of opposition from certain quarters, but with friends like John Stewart I’m certain things will continue to work out!

American Culture • Current Events • Entertainment • Humor • Sex
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By Tony Coyle on May 06th, 2009

Ann Coulter Free? - sadly not!

I was browsing the interwebs when I saw an ad that said “Ann Coulter Free”.

thought - that’s good - this must be an idiot free zone! Then I saw it was an ad for her blog, which is free! They should pay you to read it - the resultant therapy bills must be quite high. Although I’m certain that reading Ann Coulter would free your mind - more than few paragraphs and I’m certain mine would be running for the hills.

American Culture • Language • Web Site • hypocrisy • ignorance
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The GOP are for Healthcare reform! Honest!
By Tony Coyle on May 06th, 2009

The GOP are for Healthcare reform! Honest!

Frank Lutz, in yet another sterling example of Republican doublespeak, calls on the GOP to ’support Healthcare Reform”. Only one problem with that statement - the GOP has absolutely no proposals to reform healthcare. Not one! The only perspective he offers is how to sound like you are for reform, yet offer no proposal of your own. From the article:

“You simply MUST be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM,” Luntz advises in a confidential 26-page report obtained from Capitol Hill Republicans. “The status quo is no longer acceptable. If the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,’ then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless.
“Republicans must be for the right kind of reform that protects the quality of healthcare for all Americans. And you must establish your support of reform early in your presentation.”
Instead, Luntz says Republicans should warn against a “Washington takeover” of health care, and insist that patients would have to “stand in line” with “Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare.”

That would be instead of standing in line waiting for a ‘for profit’ bureaucracy to determine your fate.

As it currently stands, the current proposals are too limited, since none of the current proposals on the table include single-payer, as used in most of the developed world. In fact, at recent senate hearings physician activists in favor of single payer were removed from the chamber and arrested for interrupting the proceedings, while the committee went on to hear solely from industry lobbyists in favor of industry-based solutions.

[via Politico]

Censorship • Civil Rights • Current Events • Economy • Health • Politics
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The myth of the American Elite
By Tony Coyle on May 05th, 2009

The myth of the American Elite

I came across a wonderful post at firedoglake today, a few days after it posted.

Dean Baker, writing about the Fiat-Chrysler merger, highlights the growing disparity between so called ‘knowledge workers’ and the blue-collar manufacturers who have so often been at the sharp end of outsourcing. As he states

The media coverage of the auto bailouts has focused on the need for union autoworkers to take big pay cuts, causing them to once again miss the real story. The Fiat-Chrysler deal shows that the pay problem is at the top, not the bottom. At the end of the day, the new Chrysler is still likely to be producing most of its cars in the United States. What the new company will be getting from abroad is technology and top management.
[...]
While this story of the US becoming a high skills center in the world economy may have been comforting to the elites, and was widely promoted by economists and the news media, there was never much truth to it. Highly skilled professionals did well in recent decades not because they succeeded in international competition, but rather because they were largely sheltered from it.

Over the past ten years those elites have gained in accelerating salaries and in a lower tax burden (see also my earlier post on the rich/poor tax divide) while the blue collar workers wages have largely stagnated, and fallen behind in real terms. As Baker says

If we compare wages for assembly-line workers in Europe and the United States, there would not be much difference between the pay of UAW members and their counterparts in Europe. However, there would be a very large difference between the multi-million dollar pay packages of the top executives at the US companies and their European counterparts. The pay gaps persist among the more highly paid engineers and management personnel.

The remaining differences are that European workers do not need to reserve a significant portion of their weekly wage to cover healthcare costs, that they receive many more vacation days (between four and eight weeks for most Europeans), and that their supervisors, engineers and management are not a world apart in terms of salaries, benefits, and lifestyles.

Current Events • Economy • Featured
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