- Cool story from shooting-sports star Vera Koo. I had no idea she was so old or that she learned to shoot only in middle age because she was terrified of guns.
- Amazing and discouraging that cops continue to get away with being highwaymen despite these tactics being repeatedly exposed. Picked the wrong victim this time, though. (H/T MJR)
- Why is there no Uber for healthcare? You already know the answer, but this article finally asks some of the obvious questions.
- Much sweat has been sweated over China’s holdings of U.S. debt. This is the first time I’ve seen anybody get exercised over what Saudi Arabia could do to us. (H/T The Shy One)
- And speaking of Saudi Arabia, while I wouldn’t take this opinion piece as gospel, we should forever keep in mind that these tyrannical thugs are not our friends.
- I wanna know who those 62 people are.
- Do not get between a mama bear — or a mama human — and her cubs.
- “The Day the Mesozoic Died.” Great account of a scientific detective story.
- Fairytales are much older than we know.
Just thee other day I was reading some stuff about Saudi Arabia. The jist of the story was that they are at the very beginning of a collapse.
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/jen-gerson-saudi-arabia-is-like-mad-max-before-the-fall-and-the-fall-may-have-arrived
Good for the mamma bear fighting the carjackers. What’s that old saw? The only way for evil to triumph is for good people do do nothing.
And Claire while you wanna know who those 62 people are, personally I would just like to be one of them.
RE: Healthcare editorial
I agree that third-party payments are the reason patients don’t think twice about the price of the procedure or drug. But that is becoming less the case as deductibles on health insurance policies have skyrocketed. People are thinking about and complaining about the high prices they have to pay for treatments to reach their deductible amount before the third-party payer starts paying.
Maybe if more doctors and surgeons had the guts to do what these surgeons did in Oklahoma City. They post the prices for various surgical procedures on their website. I have not used their services, but I will if I ever need a surgical procedure.
“ If you have a high deductible or are part of a self-insured plan at a large company, you owe it to yourself or your business to take a look at our facility and pricing which is listed on this site. If you are considering a trip to a foreign country to have your surgery, you should look here first. Finally, if you have no insurance at all, this facility will provide quality and pricing that we believe are unmatched.” See their website: Surgery Center of Oklahoma http://surgerycenterok.com/
The would-be carjackers must never have read Kipling: http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/female_of_species.html
Jung held that fairy tales are a reflection of our unconscious; the unconscious has been around much longer than recorded history, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of the tales are very, very old.
I smugly – and incorrectly – thought that the quote about what’s necessary for evil to triumph came from Edmund Burke. Reality seems somewhat more complicated: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/
The Oklahoma city surgery center seems like a smart marketing move. I would think an internet search would tell if any quality issues exist.
Tenaha, Texas was another town that made a fortune on asset forfeiture, to the level of being an ongoing criminal enterprise. They’re under the microscope at the moment, although corruption always seems to find a way to leak out. They were pretty brazen; when named in a class-action suit over her town’s racket, the District Attorney tried to use seized funds to pay for her defense.
Love the Vera Koo story…I’ve noticed the WASP male-dominated firearms industry has several standout folks of other ethnicities in it. After reading Vera’s story, I instantly thought of Gunsite’s Il Ling New…we need more ladies like ’em!
TXCOMT
The demise of Saudi Arabia has been touted often. Of course all they have to do is merely mention that they might at some point cut production and bang, they’re back in business. Seems the price of oil goes back up just at the last minute every time. Oh and, somebody should tell Mr. Konrad that the US is paying for all those arms that ISIS gets. Oops, did I say that out loud.
Adam, I can vouch for the excellent quality at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. I had surgery there on torn menisci in my knee, and I was back riding my bike hard on day 12 post-op. No surprise bills, the $3740 fee included everything. The knee feels great now. I am a family practice doctor, and I work the same way. I take no insurance, and my average fee is $55, including labs, meds, and housecalls. Concerning the high costs of medical care, and the decline in service, I just completed a book that details just what the government has done to make a hash of the system. The causes of all our problems can be found in government meddling with free markets. I make the case for removing all the tax incentives, phasing out Medicare and Medicaid, eliminating the FDA and government licensure, etc. I would like to see a truly free market in medicine, where the patient is the customer. I call the book The High Price of Socialized Medicine. Claire, I would love to send you an electronic copy to an email, so you could review it, but I do not know an email address where you would get it.
Good on Koo. One of the common stories I get from women (Because they will admit it.) is that they are scared of guns, and no longer want to be. The word they use most often when they realize they are safely and accurately firing one is “empowering.”
Incidents like Mama Bear’s story are one reason my car doors are locked while I’m filling up at the pump.
Jim Brook, I’d be delighted to read and review your book. I’m a retired APRN, and have a long standing blog. Claire can vouch for me. Send to: mamaliberty at rtconnect dot net Replace the at and dot with appropriate symbols and remove the spaces. 🙂
I’m very glad that Koo finds such value and enjoyment from competition, and that it helped her find peace in her life. I’ve just, personally, never seen any use for such intense competition. I wonder if she’d be able and willing to defend her life even now. Does she carry a simple gun the rest of the time (the rig shown would be impossible to carry routinely), and does she get any training or practice in the more mundane areas of self defense?
I encourage all my students, and especially the women, to engage in competition if they think they’d enjoy it, but I try hard to show them all that it should not replace the basics of self defense.