Online Medical Database, National Health Care, Privacy, and Federal Control (Dr. Eliezer Ben-Joseph and Doug Stephan guest)

One of the hot topics over the weekend was part of this disgraceful Democratic "stimulus" bill (not a "stimulus" bill at all, but a leftist wish list) that attempts to further assert Federal Government conrol over our health care system. If a good idea at all (it isn't!!!!), this should have been debated as a separate bill, and it has nothing to do with "stimulus". But that is true of almost all of the bill. I am, of course, talking about thepart of the billl that sets up a MANDATORY health care data base, with a health "czar" and board to oversee every health care decision in America, for the express purpose of providing data to the Federal Government to control our health care system.


This was blatant attempt to insert the Federal Government in every health care decision was advertised by President Barack "Wrold" Obama--in his usual lying way--as a mere attempt to go to a "paperless" medical record system ("online" medical records). According to Obama, this will eliminate the two hours at the emergency room filling out forms, and promote medical information and efficiency. Obama, of couurse, is a liar. This is merely another example. Have you been to an emergency room lately? If you think that any long delay is because of filling out forms, I have this bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell to you. Yes, a national medica record database might help prevent some medical mistakes--not a huge problem, as far as I can tell, in terms of doctors making the wrong deicision because of not knowing about a penicillin allergy or something--but the "efficiency" is entirely a matter of creating Fedderal Congrol over health care deicions. Further, it is mandatory that you give up your privacy as to your medical records, whether you want to or not.


Yes, what this part of the "stimulus" bill does is set up a MANDATORY national health care data base, where your medical records go into the database wtihout your permission. Further, there are sanctions in the bill against health care providers who fail to cooperate. The bill itself makes clear that the purpose of this is not so much to avoid medical mistakes (almost an afterthought), but to enable the Federal Government to determine "costs effectiveness" of medical care in this country--with the intent of eliminating "cost ineffective" medicine. Thus, not only will you be forced to give up the privacy of your medica records to a national database to which hundreds of thousands of people have access (how else can it be used as a resource to acccess your medical records?), but the whole intent is to restrict your health care optioons (a previews, and necessary precurser, of the disastrous, comprehensive "national health care service" to come).


That is why this was a "hot topic" this weekend. Nope. I am not talking about being "hot" with "conservative talk show hosts". Further, and you may well wonder at this, I am not talking about being a "hot topic" witht he leftists and mainstream media people who were so horrified at the invasion of privacy in eavesdropping on a few thousand international phone calls as part of the defense of this nation. As I have shown you repeatedly, these leftists, including the mainstream media, are the worst hyocrites to ever walk the Earth. Therefore, there was no general outcry from them about this outrageous Federal power grap, and mandatory invasion of privacy. Oh, I am sure a few leftists were upsset. But the dirtly little secret is that most letists do not believe in free speech, debate, democracy, "transparecy", or "privacy" (for leftists, this being a synonym for "abortion on demand", although "privacy" has no more to do with abortion laws than it does with laws against infanticide). In fact, whether you had an abortion will now evidently be part of a national database accessible by hundreds of thousands of people. Merely trying to control access to the information will probably INCREASE your emergency room wait.


If it was not only conservative talk show hosts, and not the leftists supposedly--but not really--concerned with "privacy", them who was so upset at this bill? Well, there was Dr. Eliezer Ben-Joseph. He has a local (El Paso) radio program called "Natural Solutions". He is a "natural medicine" guy, who thinks there is a conspiracy out there with the big drug companies to try to drive people like him out of business. As stated before in this blog, he is a kook, but a sincere and passionate kook who believes in what he is doing. For a time, I represented him as an attorney, and the man is very earnest and sincere, even if he is a kook ("negative ion clothing", magnets, and all of the rest--all of which is supposed to make drugs unnecessary). Dr. Ben-Joseph is not stupid, just because he is a kkok. He fully realizes that the Federal Government fully intends to "standardize" medical care in this country, and take your options away from you. He fully understands, in other words, that the government is trying to do him in, and all people like hiim (even if he corsses the line sometimes into the fantasy world of "conspiracy theories"). You are not paranoid if people are realll out to get you. Dr. Ben-Joseph fully realiszes that the people who drafted this bill are out to get him, and that his bill is designed to be a tool for the Federal Government to force a certain kind of medical care upon you.


The second person who made this sneak lurch toward Federal control of health care in this country the centerpiece of his radio program on Saturday was Doug Stephan--a Boton "liberal Repubican" kook radio host. He is a kook not only because he is a liberal, "new age", Northeast Republican, but because he regards Uri Geller (fraud) as an "expert" on the mind. Stephan further buys into the kook idea that accines are a major "cause" of autism. Yes, both of these are part of my ""Your are a kook if:" series.


Now Doug Stephan--idiot that he is--would be horrified to be classed with Rush Limbaugh. Yet, Stephan's position on this outrageous "national health care" power grab by the Federal Government is exactly the same as Rush Limbaugh. Further, we have come to this point because too many Republicans, or supposed Republicans, have supported people like John McCain, instead of conservatives fighting against the power grab of the Federal Government. I digress (not really). Doug Stephan has a regular guest, "Dr. Ken, who is co-host of the program on weekends. "Dr. Ken"--a respected cardiologist--is not as much of a kook as Stephan. Both "Dr. Ken, and Sephan, understand that the entire, stated purpose (stated in the bill, and the structure of the "system" set up by the bill) is for the Federal Government to control health care decisions in this country--to control the tratement, and treatment options, given to you by your doctor. After all, if the taxpeyer is involved in paying for it, inclulding the "online record system" itself, why should the taxpayer--that is, leftists in contro of the government--be entirled to determine how the "taxpayer dime" is spent. That is the exact problem with "national health care". It necessarily involves centralized control of our entire health care system, which means that freedom is gone. Your doctor will no longer have the freedom to practice medicine the way your doctor feels is best, and you will no longer have the freedom to seek your own type of medical care. Instead, we all have to fit into the bureaucratic, controlled world of George Orwell's "1984".


Now I call Dr. Ben-Joseph a "kook" affectionately. Oh, I believe he is a kook all right. But he still might be mainly right. If this seems contadictory to you, remember that I have labeled myself as a kook in one area: my assertiona that women should never have gotten the vote. Just because Dr. Ben Joseph is a kook (way off the beaten track--as he, himself, admits), does not mean that he may not be right. After all, I may be a kook in sayig women should not have the vote, but I am still right. In the standardized, central planning world of "1984", no kooks need apply. The government tells you what to do and what to think. That is a really bad thing, and incompatible with freedom.


It is interesting that both Dr. Ben-Joseph and Doug Stephan do not seem to understnad their own principles. (By the way, when I call Doug Stephan a "kook", I do so less affectionately. The man is an idiot.) Dr. Ben-Joseph, for example, wants the FDA to take action to ban irradiated food, and to do something about "genetically altered" products. As I said, the man is a kook (no evidence that wither of thsese things are bad). The point here is that Dr. Ben-Joseph does not really object to central planning control by the Federal Government. He just wants that control HIS WAY. Similarly, Doug Stephan (Northeast, coastal thinker all of the way--I can't believe both of my daughters moved to the East Coast) regards skepttics of "global warming" (like me) as "kooks". He appears to be all for central planning, Federal Government action to control our lives in the ane of "global warming".


That is why I really can't stand Doug Stepan. Dr. Ben-Joseph is a fanatic with a mission. That leads him astray, as all such fanatics are led astray. That still leaves open the possibility that he is right, and that we will be deprived of someting valuable if our freedoms are curtailed such that people like Dr. Ben-Joseph do not exist. I, frankly, would not mind if people like Dug Stephan did not exist. He likes to think of himself as a "reasonable", coommon sense man, when he is really a kook with no consistently applied principles. You can see why we have come to this point. Everyone wanst the Federal Government to impose their particular "solutions" to every problem on the country. Very few are opposing central planning ON PRINCIPLE. Yet, central planning is indefensible--both in theory and in practice.


That is what I mean when I say that Republicans like Doug Stepan are responsible for where we are. They reject conservative "ideology" in favor of an ad hoc lack of consistent principles that lead directly to an ever-expanding Federal Government and ever-expanding Federal control over our lives. These "Republicans" led us directly to John McCain. If you believe that a John McCain "stimulus" bill-with a Democratic Congress--would have ended up much different from the Obama "stimulus" bill, then I have another one of those bridges in Brooklyn to sell to you. The Doug Stephan, "liberal Republican", way is the way to gradual defeat--including defeat of principles that Doug Stephan purports to believe in. If you do not sell the idea of a limited Federal Government--the idea that central planning is the wrong philosophy--then you are doomed to Federal control of your life. Individual bills may fail, but the Federal control just never stops increasing. That is the true lesson here, and I have no confidence that Dough Stephan, or even Dr. Ben-Joseph (although I would have hope for him), are capable of learning that lesson.


P.S. Did you notice that President "World" Obama is not even going to sign the "simulus" bill until at least tomorrow? So much for "transparency" (see Friday's entry). Was there any reason that a vote on the bill could not have occurred today or tomorrow? Obviously, there was not that much urgency in signing the "stimulus" bill into law. The bill could have been posted online for 48 hours, as House rulses supposedly required, without even delaying the time the bill became law. Nope. As this blog stated, leftist Democrats--sanctimonious hypocrites that they are--do not believe in "transparency". What they believe in is power, and they did not want to take the chance of opposition to the outragesous provisions of this bill to build, including opposition to things like this outrageous Federal power grap in health care.