One Track Mind

Last night while I slept, a suspicious package was retrieved from a cargo plane.  I know this because I watch the news from time to time.  In fact, given that I was not at work today, I watched the news on several occasions and even flicked from CNN, to MSNBC and even Fox.  On each and every channel, at the times I tuned in, there was nothing but blanket coverage of this event.

All because someone in Yemen decided to send something a bit weird in the mail, the media goes into panic mode and instantly ignores all the actual newsworthy events of the world to focus on this.

Focus really may be a bit of an overstatement of what was going on.  What really happened is the news stations merely repeated the same story over and over again, and then tried to add their own twist to the story by wheeling out one 'expert' after another and then simply presented one 'theory' after another, which really included no end of unsubstantiated drivel from the presenters trying to fill the time.

I have to say, this is something I've always had quite an issue with in America.  Having been raised on a diet of BBC news, the American cable offerings fall a bit flat by comparison.  It's all driven by greed, money, and ratings.  There's no desire to educate and inform the American public, if it bleeds it leads, as the old saying goes.

The scary thing is that this isn't even a story.  This package could have been sent by anyone, and nothing actually happened.  And while there is a legitimacy to reporting on the story, does the coverage really have to be absolute?

I watched an old Penn & Teller Bullshit tonight about Ground Zero.  Nine years after 9/11 we still can't get our shit together and rebuild the tower(s).  And when some retard in the Middle East sends us an unusual package in the mail we shit ourselves and talk about it endlessly for days.

I really wish I could turn on the news, and see some actual journalism.  I really wish we'd stop panicking every time someone said the word 'Muslim.'  There will always be crazy terrorists out there, and while we continue our meddling in International affairs with our military we will always have enemies.  But when one silly package sends the media into a frenzy, we are playing right into the hands of the 'evildoers' who want to hurt us.

More Dead Babies

With all the problems of the economy of late, and the election of Barack Obama, a story seems to have slipped though the cracks, and I've yet to see it reported.

The CIA World Fact Book have released the 2008 estimates for our infant mortality rate here in the USA. They don't make for happy reading, since we now sit behind 41 other nations; a significant drop from the last time new numbers were released.

In fact your baby is less likely to die in the first year if it is born and raised in any of these countries:

1. Singapore
2. Sweden
3. Japan
4. Hong Kong
5. Iceland
6. France
7. Finland
8. Anguilla
9. Norway
10. Malta
11. Czech Republic
12. Andorra
13. Germany
14. Switzerland
15. Spain
16. Israel
17. Macau
18. Slovenia
19. Denmark
20. Austria
21. Belgium
22. Australia
23. Liechtenstein
24. Guernsey
25. Luxembourg
    
26. Netherlands
27. Portugal
28. Gibraltar
    
29. United Kingdom
30. New Zealand
31. Jersey
32. Canada
33. Republic of Ireland
34. Monaco
35. Greece
36. San Marino
37. Taiwan
38. Italy
39. Isle of Man
40. Cuba
41. South Korea
42. United States
    

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, our health care system here in America sucks. It is the most expensive in the world per capita. Yet it leaves millions of American adults and children excluded from receiving quality health care. And the result is dead babies.

What is so very odd about America is that the religious right continues to bang on about abortion issues, the fact that evil Obama is allowing charities to mention the word abortion once again without fear of sanctions, and the evils of socialized medicine. Yet our figures continue to slip, year in, year out. Our system is broken, and it is literally killing babies. But still, all the protesters want to do is whine about the evils of abortion.

Seriously though, why do you want to force women to have babies, if you are going to stand by and let them die in their first year?

This infant mortality rate issue is a national scandal, and one we continue to ignore while health insurance companies and other medical corporations continue to rake in their profits. The answer is a RADICAL re-think of our health care system and an acceptance that our current system is not working. As long as we blindly ignore what is going on and campaign against socialized medicine and abortion this problem will continue to get worse.

Update: I also noticed that the United Nation figures for life expectancy of a child to the age of five places America 36th in the world. Meaning, of course that in 35 other nations a child is more likely to live to the age of five than here in the US. No doubt also as a result of poverty and exclusionary health care issues.

Dead Baby Update

Just over two years ago, I posted an article on this blog about the infant mortality rate in the United States.

It came back into my mind because of the election and because of a new report out this month.

Every time we have an election, the Republican party trot out the issue of abortion specifically to rouse their base, and the talk turns to killing babies. Extremists even talk about how Obama wants to 'kill babies' because of his pro-choice stance. Or some intellectually dishonest argument about votes he's made as a politician.

Then you have the likes of Sarah Palin who believe that abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape and incest. A woman who went on record the other day as stating that people who bomb abortion clinics are not 'technically' terrorists.

But what I'd like to know is why Americas are ignoring the real issue: infant mortality.

In the recent CDC report it was discovered that America, the richest and most powerful nation on the planet, is 29th in the world for infant mortality figures!

28,000 babies die each year in America before their first birthday.

That's about 7 in 1000. And if you are African American, sorry, but that figure is more than double, at a staggering 13.63 per 1,000. Which is up from the last time I reported on this issue.

We are currently in the company of such countries as, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungry. We are getting beaten by Cuba, New Zealand, Israel and Canada.

And we are being blown out of the water by top countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, Britain and Italy.

It's time that as a nation we woke up to the fact that our health care system is broken. 47,000,000 Americans are without proper coverage. Millions more are simply unable to afford health care costs even with with insurance.

And the trends are scary too. By 2012 if things continue the way they are going the per capita cost of health care will reach $10,000 in America. More than any other country in the world. Yet by then an estimated 54 million people will be uninsured. Businesses costs will rise by 55%.

The issue of broken health care and infant mortality rates is one of the most important issues facing America today.

If we can fix the health care system it is good for everyone. And the only candidate in this election who is trying to do that is Barack Obama. He wants to take steps to stop insurance companies ripping people off. He wants to make health care less of a luxury and more of a right. I don't think his ideas go far enough, but in America we have to take it slow.

Oddly, despite our horrible infant mortality figures, our bad longevity, and our preventable death statistics, many Americans still don't get it. They have seemingly been brainwashed into distrusting any intervention to fix the current broken health care system. And I think this brainwashing has been a clever con trick perpetrated the corporations that make billions from the sick and suffering each year. They love the way things are: Lots of money and very little regulation.

Perhaps once President Obama begins to reform the health care system, to make health care a right and not a privilege of the rich, Americans will finally begin to accept that the 28 countries in the world who are kicking our ass in health care do it cheaper than we do, and save more lives.

So for all the talk about 'pro-life' issues in this election; the reality is very clear. Barack Obama is the pro-life candidate here. He is trying to reach out to ordinary Americans and protect their lives and the lives of their babies.

Let's keep that in mind on election day.