The Crazy Guy has a Different Idea of What Needs to be Equalized

   When you teach everyone the benefits of guns, you should be mindful that that means everyone. The crazy guy who might up and shoot up a school hears you, just as quick as the guy who would only use it in self defense.
   What you teach one, you teach all. If you teach them to live and die by the gun, to trust in it for when you will need it, the crazy guy, as quick as the sane, is going to come to think he can keep things squared away by using the gun. What is an equalizer to one, is an equalizer to all. It's just that the crazy guy has a different idea of what needs to be equalized.

Costs Should not be So High We are Tempted not to Keep People Alive

   Tonight, I wondered whether the cost of our medical care sometimes prompts us to consider whether it is worth it all. Say, a person is in such terrible condition that it appears he (or she) might well die within months. Are we, then, sometimes inclined to wonder whether the expense is worth it?
   Say, we take life-saving measures, and the person lives but another four months. Was it worth it? I say, often it is. If the person's life is not overly painful, then it is worth it.
   But, the same, I think of how the dilemma we face underscores how hospital expenses have reached unacceptable levels. I believe health care costs could be much, much less. And, that we are changing so much that we consider forgoing some of our efforts because people are going to die within months anyway. Well, that is a big argument for bringing health care and hospital costs down.
   They should not be so expensive that we are tempted not to keep people alive.

Let Rocky Vista University Open, and Fill it with Students

   Word is, there's an effort to open a new medical school in Utah, down near St. George. Why should this be big news? Well, the government limits how many schools there are in each state. It puts a cap on them. And, there is only one in Utah, it being at the University of Utah.
   More to the point, one of the real reasons medical bills are so high in America, is that we restrict competition. We do this in many ways. We license extensively, thus limiting who can practice. We limit the insurance choices at the workplace. We require doctors to be part of our network before we can see them. We have patent rights that limit who can produce drugs and medical devices.
   Some of those things might have value. I'm not sure we want to run them all off the board. But, putting a cap on how many medical schools there are? I guess I wonder why.
   So, when I spotted a Facebook post by Sen. Steve Urquhart about the new medical school, I lifted my eyebrows. Sen. Urquhart has issues with the proposed school. He calls the firm bringing in the school predatory and suggests that St. George and Cedar City are fortunate that the new school, Rocky Vista University, is locating in Ivins, instead of in their cities.
   Urquhart's Facebook friends jump on the bandwagon, castigating Rocky Vista. I am not yet persuaded the school is a bad thing, though. I wonder at all the opposition to it. I wonder why and perhaps if I lived down there and was a little more tuned in to the issue, I'd understand.
   To me, it seems not harmful, at all. Having a medical school, it seems, should be a good thing. I only wish there wasn't a limit on them and wonder why when a second one does comes along, we fight it. I wish there were, say, a half dozen medical schools, producing enough doctors and medical personnel to help drop the price of medicine. I believe in supply and demand, and I believe if more people were doctors, and we didn't find ways to keep them from practicing, it could drop our medical bills at least a little.
   So, please, open Rocky Vista University. And, fill it with as many students as can be found.

 

Item after Item, Bill after Bill, Until the Budget is Under Control

   I opened my Facebook page to see a post about how private contractors in Iraq have made a handsome profit off the war, doing everything from charging exorbitant prices for washing clothes to charging high prices for connecting soldiers to the Internet.
   Then, I opened a story about the Salt Lake City Police Department receiving $1.9 million from the U.S. Department of Justice. With the federal government being $18-plus trillion in debt, why, I wondered, is it doling out money to every state and to perhaps most every city? Why? It doesn't  make sense.
   And, I think back maybe a week, to when a couple other such spending matters prompted me to write my senator, objecting.
   No less than three times this evening, my Facebooking happened upon stories of government waste. As I finished writing this piece, I opened my Facebook page and what did I find? A  post on how Tony Horton has toured military bases around the world giving training to our soldiers.
   And, I asked, at whose expense? I'm doubting he paid his own way. And I returned to this blog to insert this paragraph.
  What do I want in a congress member? How about someone who will file a bill every time such unwarranted spending is spotted, even if it means filing such legislation weekly. That would be wonderful, really.
   Defund Planned Parenthood? Yes, but don't stop there.
   Micromanage the budget. I would for a Congress that would pick at the national deficit, item after item, correcting each misspending as it comes to light. Yes, I, too, worry about what will happen to the economy if we take all this money out of it. I can only say, if private enterprise is spending the money, instead of the federal government, then the money remains in the economy.
   But, please, we must do something about the $18 trillion debt. I would for a Congress that saw the vision. I don't hear much -- make that anything -- about Congress slashing away, item after item. Why not? With all the conservative people we've elected -- they are a majority -- why is this not happening?
   Item after item, bill after bill, week after week, until the budget is under control.
(Note: Blog slightly reworded 10/10/15.)

The Good are Half Bad, and Bad Half Good, so Why Kill all the Bad?

   The radio announcers noted that while some Utahns shun movies with too much sexual content, they think nothing of violence on the screen. And, one of the announcers suggested that despite this acceptance of gore and violence, it hasn't translated into a high violence rate for Utah.
   But, I see one attitude on violence that is transferring from our TVs and movie screens to what happens in Utah. In the movies, the good guy gets his guy, kills him dead and that is quite all right. And, so it is in real life, when the bad guy does something wrong and gets killed in the process, we are quite comfortable with it. Say, some one breaks into a home and gets killed by the homeowner, we are fine with that. He got what he deserved.
   It is a standard most all people accept. Perhaps some reading this think, "Well, duh, of course it's okay." Killing the bad guy is a standard treated us in the movie houses and on television time and time and time again. The bad guy gets killed and we cheer.
   And, true to our influences, when it happens in real life, we say, "Well, he got what he had coming."
   I wonder, though.  I wonder if the influence of the media blurs the lines on when it is okay for a person to be killed, and when it is okay to cheer about it. I wonder if the bad-guys-are-bad-guys portrayals leads us to forget that most people have both good and bad in them, and it would be good if many of them remained alive, where they have a chance to correct their flaws. I wonder if all the good-guy-gets-his-man-and-the-audience-cheers-about-it depictions we see on TV lead us to feel more comfortable about the death of some people. I wonder if it contributes to our cheering for death somewhat too much.
   I do wonder if the he-got-what-he-deserved attitude runs a little too deep here in Utah, same as everywhere else. I think of a scripture from the Mormon faith, of how the God-fearing people were forced to take up arms against their bad-guy brethren and they lamented sending so many to them out of this world unprepared to meet their God.
    I wish we had more of that attitude.
   Unfortunately, I don't see much of this remorse for the loss of  criminals' lives here in Utah, or anywhere else. I repeat, the bad are part good, often, and there are people with good in them who are going to their deaths. That is one of the reasons not to feel okay about their deaths. Unfortunately, the movie screens teach us that rather than sorrowing for their loss of their lives, we should cheer, for the death of a bad guy is a laudable thing.
(Note: This blog slightly reworded 5/5/15.)

Would Ben Franklin Approve of Metal Detectors?

   Perhaps Benjamin Franklin wouldn't like my suggestion, then, that we bring to the schools some of the security measures we have in place in our airports.
   I thought about it today, wondering how best it would be done. Probably the best, would be to fence off the entire school yard, so the students would only have to pass through the metal detectors once each day.
   Now, just what is it Franklin said? "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
   Ben's not around these days, that I can call him out and argue with him. In fairness to him, though, were he alive, he might not think his quote at odds with metal detectors in the airports. He may have been thinking more along the lines of giving up freedom of speech or some such other liberty just to keep a king from getting mad and coming after you.
   I don't know. I only know it wise to take the measures to protect yourself. I think of the violence in Honduras, and have heard stories of how some people there keep themselves somewhat in their homes to protect themselves from the criminals.
   Freedoms can be lost because of the criminal element. It is wise to protect ourselves, the same.
   Back in the day, someone might have leaned over to the knight on his steed, and whispered in his ear, "Don't you realize what a lose of liberty it is, to have to wear that heavy and restrictive armor and to carry that heavy shield? In the name of liberty, shed yourself of these things!"
   And, the knight would look back at him like he was a lunatic.

Ideas that aren't Getting Much Thought in Controlling Mass Murders

   We have a well-established way of going about fighting crime. It is, that we hire a town marshal, so to speak. We put an officer (of some type, even if it is just a private security officer) at the place of danger. It works. I've noticed there hasn't been much talk of whether the number of security officers is increasing, so it must be that it is not significantly up. Why not? It should be. Are we not even considering this well-proven line of defense?
  Another option is metal detectors. Notice how no one is hijacking planes these days? Nor do we have mass shooting in the sky, nor any gun violence at all. That's because the model of self defense the airlines are using is working. Instead of telling all their passengers to bring their own guns to defend themselves, they went the route of making sure no one at all has a gun. If something works, maybe we should do it. It is sad that it has come to this, and it will be a big inconvenience, but perhaps we should have security at our schools that almost equals that at our airports. Maybe. Someone would have to tell me why not, and I would consider it, but right now I'm thinking we should do it. 
   So, there are the two ideas on dealing with mass murders that are being overlooked, that aren't even in the discussion. Strangely, to me, they seem the best ideas of all. 
  These two ideas don't really fit into the two boxes, meaning gun control on the one side and tossing everyone a gun on the other. But, I suggest they'd work, just the same.