It’s long overdue

<p><em>In a move intended to cut Medicare costs, improve billing accuracy, and prompt hospitals to improve the quality of patient care, payments for &quot;secondary&quot; diagnoses will end in October 2008. The new rule will cover eight hospital-caused conditions.&nbsp;<br />
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Perhaps this is long overdue: making the medical industry pay for its own mistakes.&nbsp; Medical error is the #1 cause of preventable deaths in America, as tax payers we should not be asked to foot the bill for their preventable errors.</p>

Focus on Canada Part II

<p>The unfortunate Canadian nation is continuing its march of repression, oppression, total control and fundamental moral inversion. Here are the latest examples – and warnings to other countries. Part 2 of 3.</p>

Add Tobacco Products

<p>When the Ft. Greely troops were surveyed in 2005, our troops reported to those asking what was good, bad, or missing from their Meals Ready to Eat (MRE).&nbsp; &quot;Add Tobacco Products&quot; was ranked #16 in the responses, with 16 pages of responses.</p>

Focus on Canada Part I

<p>The unfortunate Canadian nation is continuing its march towards repression, oppression, total control and fundamental moral inversion. Here are the latest examples – and warnings to other countries. Part 1 of 3.</p>

Gas Taxes Misspent—not for Bridge Repair

<p>When vehicles plunged into the Mississippi River three weeks ago as a bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, focus turned to the nation’s bridges.&nbsp; When two years ago the levees crumbled in New Orleans the focus turned to the state of the nation’s flood control system.&nbsp; Bottom line:&nbsp; What is the state of America’s infrastructure?</p>

Smoke ’em – right in their faces

<p>In spite of every effort by mass-media,&nbsp; pushing, as always, the antismoking fraud, it is clear that the Rolling Stones intended to smoke on stage during their last concert in London. The effort of making it look as if what Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood did was some sort of &ldquo;oversight&rdquo; that &ldquo;unfortunately&rdquo; a cameramen picked up and threw on the big screens (was he fired?) is quite clear in this article &ndash; as is the intellectual paucity of those who have to kiss ass for a living. Why is it &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo; to show a celebrity smoking?</p>

Another hit to junk science and fanaticism

<p>In a monograph recently released by the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF), social science and public policy analyst <a href="https://www.forces.org/Forces_Articles/columnist.php?columnist=John%20Luik">Dr. John C. Luik</a> injects a compellingly researched and argued dose of reality into the debate over whether food and other products are addictive.&nbsp; As Dr. Luik argues, the term &ldquo;addiction&rdquo; reflects a specific pharmacological condition with specific symptoms.&nbsp; However, over the past several decades, activist-minded academics, government regulators, and private attorneys have manipulated the term to support their policy and litigation goals, to the detriment of sound science and public health.</p>