Haiti and International Aid bottlenecks.

Well, it's clear the 1st world doesn't get how to operate in third world disasters. Of course there's going to be fuel shortages. Of course the big trucks, planes and ships aren't all going to be able to land, dock, get through the blocked and damaged streets.

I was very interested to see last Wednesday that Al Roker said he saw the rescue teams from Iceland unloading bicycles. Did they hop on those bikes to get through the blocked roads and get to work right away? Because the first reports I heard of rescues by non-locals involved the team from Iceland. There's a reason people in these countries use so many bicycles, motorcycles and narrow 3-wheeled vehicles. Because they use so much less fuel and can navigate congested streets.

Why does all the aid have to go out in huge trucks? Why not load it into smaller vehicles. Hire the locals with their small pickups and other small vehicles. Pickup loads and even backpack loads of anti-biotics to the various clinics would have made a huge difference. Hop on a motor cycle, head out, ask locals to point you to a clinic, makeshift or otherwise.

Couldn't small boats be used to disperse supplies and crews along the shore of the bay the city seems to wrap around? The coast guard was there first. Don't they have small boats and helicopters. A report on the coast guard operating an aid station without a doctor, improvising with materials ripped from their ship was interesting. Too bad someone couldn't find them a doctor. They seemed to be doing good work and it would have been a good use of resources to send a doctor.

And small planes need to be used to get to the smaller airports in smaller cities, some of which are also devastated but receiving little aid.

And speaking of hiring or working with locals, they could have been used to clear helicoptor landing pads to deliver food throughout the city. I heard claims about fears of riots last week, but wasn't it obvious that riots would be more and more likely the longer people go without food?

And surely these organizations include people besides medical, search and rescue or security personnel that could have done things like start planning refugee camps. Last week, I mean.

I don't know why organizations that exist to respond to such disasters don't learn much from prior disastors. After hurricane Mitch, fuel shortages were a problem in Tegucigalpa and they had the benefit of there being a U.S. Military base with an airport an hour a way. And the ports were quickly clogged by aid shipments and remained so for months. And they are big ports, unlike the one in Haiti I'm sure. The ports in Honduras bring in the goods for all of Central America. I commented on both of those last Wednesday, especially after seeing local news reports of Houstonians collecting donations of goods for shipment to Haiti. Please keep them and send them in a few months. They will be needed then.

What should be done in Afghanistan

What I would like to see happen is for us to switch to the 'Dutch' or NATO method of protecting communities and cities in the most populated areas. This would impact the most number of people with the least amount of casualties. Earn trust, work with the Afghan people and hopefully attract Taliban members to return home to their safer villages and cities. Also attract NGOs to build schools and help the economy. As the area stabilizes, expand the territory.

Meanwhile, some special forces can be used to pursue key Taliban militants.

Also, I would like the U.S. to allow the organizations that have proposed it to set Afghani people up in the industry of making morphine out of the poppies they grow. This would provide income to Afghans, morphine to poor regions in the world where they can't afford the morphine made by big pharma and it would mean the poppies can't be made into heroin and won't provide income to the Taliban. The attempts to stop them from growing opium have not worked.

Also, if marijuana grows so well there, then they can grow hemp as a cash crop. It makes a better fabric than cotton and doesn't require pesticides or as much water, and since we aren't allowed to grow it here in the U.S., there's less competition on world markets. And interest is growing in the eco-friendly fabric.

Applicable quote

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

Healthcare Reform rant #6

I certainly understand why Barnie Frank told that women there was no more point in discussing her ridiculous ideas with her than with a table. She was asking a gay Jew why he was supporting a 'nazi' policy????

Where did this Nazi stuff come from? Do you people know anything at all about the Nazis? Or socialism or the difference between a communist or socialist government? Do you know anything about Europe or the rest of the world? Most of the countries in Europe have some form of socialist system, especially compared to ours where socialism is a dirty, scary word. And guess what? They are very nice places to live, work and prosper.

The population of the European Union is roughly the same as the population in the United States. And the GDP of the European Union is roughly the same as in the United States. Which means it works just fine. It's not oppressive. And it doesn't hold back business or innovation.

Oh, and guess what? Several of those socialist countries are already coming out of the recession that the United States caused.

Healthcare Reform rant #5

In response to someone's question:

The only choice employees have is in the case of big companies that provide options for more than one plan. They get to choose between the plans the employer offers. That's all. And most of us don't have that.

And the employers can change plans for any reason they want, and the changes can include lesser coverage. It can include a plan that uses different doctors which means people do have to change doctors. And you can change jobs which means you change insurance which means you may not have a plan that lets you go to the doctor of your choice.

There's no way to fix that and keep the free market for profit insurance system in which insurance has anything to do with your job. Which is just stupid system. Especially with the way Americans change jobs so often.

Healthcare Reform rant #4

To someone else's comment of: 'the easiest remedy to it would be to just offer the same health care plan that Congress has.'

Or expand some other existing program like medicare and medicaid. Just figure out what the premiums would be and let us pay it if we choose.

However, that is only one part of the needed reform and I think it should be separated out from the rest. Just to avoid all the confusion of the ignorant masses, not to mention reduce the number of things that can be criticized by people wanting to stop anything this administration attempts to do.

Since they agree on most of the rest, they can pass it now.

This is what they should have done with the stimulus package as well. It should have been separate bills, some of which could probably have been executive orders. Like extending unemployment benefits. They could have done that quickly, and taken more time on the others.

Healthcare Reform rant #3

The trouble is, they can't really provide a good solution because that would require too much change. Look at the panic at just the suggestion that there be not for profit option be available for people to choose if they want it.