We need more affordable health care not government funding

First, I believe that health care needs to be more affordable – Why is health care more expensive in the US than many other nations?  Three reasons basically – We are are richer than any country, Supply and demand for the best technology on earth, legislation and paperwork, and a litigious society

Instead of focusing on building the least efficient mechanism for providing health care – Government Mandate – focus on the cause.

There is no fundamental right to healthcare

The constitution clearly outlines in Article I Section 8 what the government is supposed to do and spend money on – No where in there is there anything about Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, or National Healthcare.

It says simply this:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.

PERIOD.

To define “General Welfare” I referred to a dictionary written before the implementation of most government based welfare systems specifically my 1898 edition of The Century Cyclopedic Dictionary says: Welfare – A State or Condition of doing well; prosperous or satisfactory course or relation; exemption from evil; state with regard to well being; state with respect to well being such as the spiritual welfare of a society

In the context of the constitution this means to keep the economy of the US healthy and to keep the people happy in support of the union – NOT the health of individual people.

What rights do we have and what should the government provide as outlined in the constitution? Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and those guaranteed by 4501 words plus the 27 amendments.

No where in this document does it say that my pursuit of happiness should be infringed upon at the discretion of 537 people in suits in order to support those less fortunate than myself. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ideals, that we as human beings should look out for each other not mandate taxes levied upon the masses.

Everyone should read it, but if you can’t spare 100 hours READ THIS

Have any of you read this convoluted health care bill? There are more than  1400 pages (this is fewer than the novel War and Peace). I’ve read every single one of them.  Here is the briefest reasonably accurate summary of the 100 or so primary mandates and stipulations of the Bill being signed into law Today March 23rd 2010.

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore

Unfortunately, I’m beginning to believe that the time is near when once again a small group of people with altruistic ideals will gather and write powerful words with strong ideals such as these lesser known but powerful words from the US Declaration of Independence-

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;

The days of the media player are as dead as the Sony Walkman.

The iPod Touch, droid, and iPhone are all platforms that support gaming, GPS, internet, and communications (of all types).   In the meantime, Microsoft is still supporting Windows, Windows Mobile, xBox and Zune as seperate but connected platforms.

What it needs to do to dominate is consolidate these sperate platforms into a unified vision and brand that works seemlessly with Windows, Linux and Mac.

Zune while far superior in ergonomic design, display quality, and software integration with Windows can’t compete with the smart mobile devices available today.  Windows Mobile 6.5 is a huge disappointment and devices like the droid skyrocket and surpass their sales in mere weeks of launch.   Why is this?  Some aspect is hype but  the deep reason is functionality.  Within weeks of launch there are nearly twenty thousand (20,000) applications for droid.   Zune HD – Launched in late summer and still there are less than 12 – That’s TWELVE.

DUH

Want to win?

By next July here’s what Zune has to do and by the end of 2010 you’ll have real marketshare:

• Kill Windows Mobile 7.0 NOW
• Leverage Microsoft brand recognition and create a unified marketing direction for consumer portable devices
• Seemless integrate this device with Windows Media Center on xBox and Windows 7
• Provide a compelling Mac experience
• 3G Phone capability AND skype
• Improve the browser
• Put an application store on Zune
• Support Java and .Net development for applications
• Make it easy to choose
• Keep all the great stuff you have now

Twitter Search #SPC09 or follow me @WebGuyNJ

It made top 5 trends on Twitter this morning as more than 15,000 tweets went out of the Keynote address.   Here are some of the highlights as I saw them.

Search – Now scalable and recoverable without a single point of failure.

Development – Integrated with Visual Studio 2010 allows building deployments and deployment from within the VS UI.  Developer dashboard built into sharepoint.  Sandboxing that allows what can be deployed and when.

Data Services – Bind live SQL data as site content types

Governance – Content types and Meta data traverse sites, site collections, web apps and farms.   Inhernent tages, ratings and Social Networking tie ins

UI – Ribbon bar, Live oin browser WYSIWYG site editing

Upgrade – Simplified and fixed major SNAFUs from the 2007 bsituation where site owners get to choose when they get the new features and UI

Sitting in SharePoint Joels session right now.

• Windows 7 and the Vista Marketing Fiasco
  • Cool little things about Microsoft Products
• SharePoint and Office and why these are great together and what does this whole social networking thing offer to business anyway
  • Scripting
  • SharePoint implementation and the unexpected acceleration of adoption
  • Governance why is something so important so difficult?
• Google
  • Some of their recent announcements (OS and wave) What’s hype and what’s not
  • Should anyone be concerned about privacy with Google
  • Dependence on Google as  a single source provider?
• Apple Zealots and the iPhone
  • Why does everyone think that there wasn’t a mobile platform before Apple
  • Security and Viruses
  • Why Apple is great for the industry
• Cloud Distributed Computing – Why the word cloud is so appealing is beyond me and why I avoid it.
• Just cool stuff

I’m planning on writing some longer articles over the next few weeks and a few short blurbs as well.   I want to seriously start writing again and rebuild some communication skills that I haven’t exercised as much as I should recently and see what happens.

I think I’m also going to make an investment is some video equipment to do video blogging like Mike Gannotti.  With more than an hour a day in the car, there’s no reason to waste that time.

I’ll probably highlight some of the blogs I read on a regular basis as well.

This is a a tall order and I hope I’m up for it.   Let’s see what happens

• A high quality stacked dado set
• Cyclone dust collection system like this one or this one
• Larger band saw 14″ w/a 2HP motor
• Shelves, shelves, and more shelves
• An extension table for my JoinTech SawTrain system

As we lived there we cleaned, upgraded and restored many features of the house and over time discovered that the home was significantly older than we had thought.  Although I haven’t dome complete deed and title search on the home I can tell you based on construction and details uncovered during restorations that the home dates back to at least 1816, but I am sure that the core construction is significantly older than that.  

• Nice Home Theater Receiver with upmixing to Component or HDMI.   It must have home network MP3 streaming capability.   It should have some DSP optimization tools.
• A HD display capable of 1080p and at least 56″.  Top considerations are Samsung thin DLP, Sony XSRD.
• The last item doesn’t exist yet.   I want HD Tivo for DirecTV.

Not to much