Life? Art?

Hi, guys! Sad news today.

I believe it was Oscar Wilde who said "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life."

The last two days have been yet another example of the truth of Wilde's observation.

Yesterday morning, at Sea World Orlando, the killer whale, Tilikum, dragged veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau to her death by playfully biting and drowning her while a horrified crowd watched, both from poolside and from the underwater observation windows.

You all know that I playfully argue that "whales are not our friends," yet here is evidence that
huge mammals, even well-trained ones, are animals first and performers second.

Today, the Sea World CEO, Jim Atchison, announced that the show must go on, and Tilikum would remain part of the cast. Sea World will open again for whale shows tomorrow.

Ms. Brancheau's funeral is scheduled for Sunday and Monday in her hometown of Chicago with a memorial service to be conducted at Sea World in the future... Yet Sea World will open again for business tomorrow.

Mr. Atchison's press conference was difficult to watch, because all of it seemed to be a huge Sea World advertisement— a celebration of the art of training animals— rather than a period of reflective mourning for the loss of Ms. Brancheau.

At the same time yesterday, several hundred miles north, President Obama hosted a "healthcare summit" at Blair House.

Some forty legislators sat for 7 1/2 hours trading thoughtful and not so thoughtful opinions on the healthcare situation in America, looking at the 2700+ page Senate bill and the eleven page Presidential surprise package released on Monday.

The Dems primary comments centered on "Look how close we are on this. We're arguing about minor details between the 49 yard lines. A minor adjustment or two and we're done!"

The GOP attendees didn't see things that way. They saw the public disapproval, the Tea Parties, the angry townhall meetings and the elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as pretty clear evidence that Americans have been paying attention to this debate and they don't like the idea of turning more of our healthcare system over to the government.

At its conclusion, President Obama made remarks he could have taken directly from Sea World CEO Atchison. The House and Senate must get this done, the 2700+ pages of the script must be used, the public polls be damned, the show must go on. A huge Obamacare commercial for the art of political sausage-making, not a period of reflection on what may be the problem with this plan.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates life. And in both in the case of the Sea World tragedy and the healthcare summit travesty, we are the losers. My condolences to the family of Ms. Brancheau and my condolences to all of you.

Global Warming Retardant

EPW HEARINGS POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER

February 9, 2010

Posted Matt Dempsey matt_dempsey@epw.senate.gov

EPW HEARINGS POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER

UPDATE: The following Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearings have been postponed due to inclement weather this week:

- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, will hold a hearing entitled, "Collaborative Solutions to Wildlife and Habitat Management."

- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, "Global Warming Impacts, Including Public Health, in the United States."

Once the hearings are rescheduled, information will be posted at www.epw.senate.gov

Hi Guys!

For some unknown reason, Blogger wishes to underline my contribution today. I believe itis due to the fact that the tectonic plate movements beneath Haiti have just been renamed after a previous President by the National Geologic Survey. Henceforth, the Haiti disaster will have been due to "The Bush Fault."

Here in the Nation's Capital, we are once again getting hammered by Global Warming Retardant.

The US Government has been closed for the third day in a row. Has anyone noticed?

I believe it was Mark Twain who once wrote:

"No man's life, liberty or property are safe

while the legislature is in session."

Given the truth of that statement, we here in snowy Virginny, under attack from the second round of Snowpocalypse 2010, stand ready to keep taking the beating if we can keep Pelosi and Reid from the next round of "drunken sailor spending."

By the way, that expression does a disservice to drunken sailors — when they run out of money, they stop spending.

Besides, I have a SNOW QUEEN to keep me warm!

We should be finished digging out by some time close to May Day. Appropriate, huh?

MAY DAY! MAY DAY! S.O.S.!

The Princess Plebe and I

Hi, guys!

I recently read Gail O'Sullivan Dwyer's book,Tough as Nails, shown above. It is her personal story of being a member of the West Point Class of 1981, the second class at the U.S. Military Academy to have women members.

It is wonderfully written and had me laughing on almost every page. I highly recommend this short paperback to those who wonder how the women who showed up up to become plebes at West Point in 1976 and 1977 ever got through to graduation.

They were clearly pioneers and fit the title of the book perfectly.

However, there is one factual error in the book. The first women to wear the uniform of the United States Corps of Cadets were not in the Class of 1980. I know this to be a fact for I was there when the first women put on the uniform and had their hair cut to the prescribed length—NO LOWER THAN THE BOTTOM OF THE COLLAR.

The first women to wear the cadet uniform were two with reasonably short hair already. They were selected as subjects whose hair would be cut by a beautician from Newburgh, New York in a training session for the barbers at West Point who had little or no experience cutting women's hair.

One of them was named Eleanor Peters, a gorgeous brunette. The other one was the girl I married, a gorgeous blonde. Yep, I married one of the first two women to ever wear the uniform at West Point.

Today, you know her as The Queen Vee. Back in 1976, she was just The Princess Plebe. Despite clear West Point regulations that Cadets may not be married nor have ever been married, she received her Plebe haircut while openly displaying an engagement ring and a wedding band... Plebes are always a work in progress.

Skeptical at all of the above? I have photographic evidence from the days before Photoshop was invented.

Tomorrow, this Princess Plebe and I will have been married for forty years. And Victoria, now The Queen, is still gorgeous. And she tells me that I am still a work in progress...

Happy Anniversary, Miss Dumb Smack!

Two Thanksgiving Letters - 36 years apart...

Hi, Guys!

In this Thanksgiving week, thought I'd share with you two letters written around Thanksgiving. The first, and its attachment, above, I sent while in command in Vietnam, November 1968. Click on them to enlarge. They were typed on a manual typewriter - yes, they actually existed in those days...

Much to my surprise, I found the file copies of them in the National Archives in 2004 while doing some research on my former unit. Note the small National Archives proofmark in the upper left corner. Hence, the second letter, below, published in November 2004 by the editors of The Pueblo Chieftain in Pueblo, Colorado.

11 November 2004

Letters to the Editor

Soldier Recall Pueblo Brownies Kindness in 1968

Dear Editors:

I am COL (USA Ret) Ken Carlson, writing from Fairfax, VA.

A few days ago, I was doing research on some battles my unit was in during my time in Vietnam, 1968-69.

At the National Archives II in College Park MD, I came across unit records that included the attached letter I wrote to the girls and leaders of Brownie Troop 198, Pueblo, Colorado.

I don't know if that troop still exists. However, if they do, I want the girls, now mothers and perhaps even grandmothers, to remember how much my men appreciated their thoughtfulness.

And also to know that their kindness and patriotism are now officially documented in the Archives of the United States, giving them a lasting place in American history.

This Thanksgiving, we still have soldiers a long way from home and under the stress of mortal combat. I hope that there are other Brownie Troop and similar organizations who have picked up the torch of support that their predecessors in Brownie Troop 198 carried so well.

Sincerely,

Kenneth G. Carlson

COL (USA Ret.)

Fairfax, VA

As you can see, friends, Soldiers never forget those who remember them while they are in harm's way.

The Queen Vee joins me in the hope that you and yours have a joyous Thanksgiving.

November 9th - Twenty Years Ago

Hi, guys! Next Monday night marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,

one of the highlights of my life.

You've read the poem I wrote about that wall as a second lieutenant in 1967, the same poem that was read in 1994 as the Berlin Brigade colors were cased by President Clinton and the Brigade deactivated. But where were we on 9 November 1989?

We were in Heidelberg where my assignment was Chief of Doctrine, Concepts and Analysis Division, a cover name for what we really did which was think tank work for the four star, Commander in Chief, US Army Europe (CINCUSAREUR).

In the fall of 1988, the Deputy CINC, Lieutenant General George Stotser, had received a surprise invitation from the Hungarian Army Chief of Staff to attend a meeting of the Warsaw Pact military chiefs to be held in Budapest. This was a big deal at the time - a NATO general asked to sit in on the Warsaw Pact meeting, presumably as a "confidence building measure" between the two opposing sets of forces in Central Europe.

LTG Stotser called for me and a few of my fellow officers to meet with him in order to plan the types of questions he might expect and some of the things we thought he should be looking for in the meeting. Armed with our ideas, he went to Budapest and returned with amazing news!

Seated to the left of the Hungarian general, with the Soviet Chief of Staff on the Hungarian's right, LTG Stotser found himself continually being nudged and whispered to by his host. Speaking near-perfect English, the Hungarian general kept telling General Stotser that they had to get the Soviets out of their country before their economy was completely destroyed by the "stupid Russians."

The fault lines between Warsaw Pact "allies" was big news, both to us and to Washington, where it was quickly reported.

On 2 May 1989, the reform-minded Hungarian Communists began, without notice, to dismantle their portion of the Iron Curtain, the fortified border with Austria. Less than two months later, more than 25,000 East Germans had decided to "vacation" in Hungary and somehow ended up in Austria. The crack in Iron Curtain quickly became a flood. USAREUR was asked by the West German government to assist in the housing and feeding of all the Eastern refugees arriving in Bavaria. The cries for all of the fences and the Berlin Wall to come down became louder.

The Czech government soon followed suit, opening its border with Austria. In the 24 hours prior to the 9 November events in Berlin, more than 20,000 East Germans had escaped across the Czech-Austrian border. On the night of 9 November, huge crowds pressed against all the checkpoints in Berlin after hearing that the East Germans were going to open the border. Confused and without official direction, the East German Border Guards (VOPO's) decided that they couldn't shoot everyone, so they opened the gates and the Wall was no more. The evening sky in Heidelberg and throughout West Germany was ablaze with fireworks usually saved for New Years Eve.

Several weeks later, the officers of USAREUR Headquarters met for a professional development session at the local Officers Club. After the CINC reviewed what our role had been in the dramatic events of the past year, he asked me to come forward to speak. He had read my poem of 1967 and asked that I read it. Following that, he asked for my poetic thoughts as to what had transpired in just the last few weeks.

Here is what I read:

A Soldier Remembers

by COL Ken Carlson

On Friedrichstrasse in '61

I watched that awful sight.

I overlooked my tank main gun

Throughout that dreadful night.

I watched them string the strands of wire;

I saw the shattered dreams.

They forced me to withhold my fire;

I still recall the screams.

I watched the Wall be built by blocks;

I watched the families part.

I saw the tears, I felt the shocks,

It simply broke my heart.

Patrolled the Wall with JFK

I was there in '63.

A Berliner he became that day

And joined the likes of me.

For I was there both day and night

No hours of nine to five;

I beamed the Wall with Freedom's Light

To keep their hopes alive.

Along the border, miles away,

My buddies did the same.

They kept their posts, through "come what may,"

While blessing Freedom's name.

The politicians came and went

As did the network news;

But cookies that my Mom had sent

Would help us cure the blues.

My friends and I have kept the trust

For twenty eight long years.

Through cold and rain, we knew we must -

For we still saw the tears.

And so today, with Wall now split

And barriers torn wide,

Forgive us if we smile a bit

And show our soldier's pride.

For we've been here at your request

Each Fred and Sue and Bob.

You sent your Army, sent your best -

We're proud we did the job.

Not a dry eye in the house, for all in the audience had lived through much of what was expressed in the poem. And all knew - Freedom isn't free.

Moline's Second Military Wedding

Hi, Guys! On this night, 77 years ago, my parents were married in the First Lutheran Church in Moline, Illinois. My Mom would later claim that this was Moline's second military wedding, an unlikely event since Moline was home to the 57th Illinois Volunteer Infantry during and after the Civil War. But May's wedding WAS a big deal.

The daughter of a prominent factory owner and president, she married a dashing young second lieutenant of Infantry, a West Point graduate from the Class of 1931.

Both had graduated from Moline High School, with Mabel Johnson one year ahead of Gunnar Carlson. Although both were standout athletes, they did not date while high school students.

Their first date was at the Shorthills Country Club in the summer of 1932, where May was impressed that Gunnar was such a gentleman that he carried a handkerchief to place between their hands while dancing, and Gunnar was impressed that May let him kiss her on the first date. From that day forward, neither ever dated anyone else.

The wedding was among the largest held in Moline until that time, partly because it was advertised in the Saturday morning paper as, "one of the most colorful weddings to be seen in Moline for some time" and "a military presence will be offered by seven fellow Army officers... with crossed sabers both in the center aisle and outside the Church." Another reason was that the paper also announced that the public would be allowed to be seated in the balcony.

The crowd quickly filled the Church, causing May's father to begin placing chairs in the aisle until my Dad warned him that there must be space left for the wedding party to walk up to the altar.

May's Uncle Sam, from Detroit, was seated by the military usher, but on the "groom's side of the aisle." When he came back to the rear to correct that, the Army lieutenant told him, "It doesn't make a bit of difference, Mr. Swanson; we're not going to cheer here tonight anyway."

Apparently there was some cheering however, since the night of October 15th 1932 also marked the opening of the new Rock Island Bridge across the Mississippi River, about a block or two from the Church. After the ribbon cutting, many of the boisterous and somewhat looped crowd (during Prohibition!) wandered over to the Church to see what all the fuss was about.

One of the spectators was a young cub sports reporter from radio station WOC in Davenport, Iowa who had been sent to cover the bridge event. Once the bridge was open, he brought his radio reporting gear to the front of the Church and began reporting on the wedding and the scene you see above. The reporter at the microphone was Ronald Wilson Reagan, later the 40th President of the United States.

50 years later, May and Gunnar celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at a party sponsored by their two sons at the Fort McNair Officers Club here in Washington. In the next room was a wedding reception and Gunnar and May were asked to come over to speak to the new bride and groom.

May and Gunnar are together again tonight in the Mansions of the Lord. I have written this posting to remind them both that we have not forgotten their love for each other and for all of us. Happy 77th Anniversary, Folks!

Six Things I Believe About Healthcare

Hi, guys! The picture lured you in to this blog post, didn't it? Ha! The real subject is healthcare and some observations of what I believe to be true.

1. Health insurance is misnamed.

Insurance is a policy written by a company which protects you from the aftermath of some accident or natural disaster. It is a bet between you and the insurance company, made possible by actuaries who can predict what the exposure of the insurance company will be to any risk over a large population. You pay premiums based on the amount of risk the insurance company accepts.

In health insurance, it is a certainty that you will visit a doctor. The insurance company thus pays everyone who owns a policy, some more than others.

To be a real insurance policy, the company should have to pay only your catastrophic health care costs if such a catastrophe befalls you. All the normal healthcare expenses should be borne by the individual or by his company should they choose to offer such a benefit. The latter would not be insurance - it would be part of your compensation package.

2. Healthcare in America should not be called a "right."

A "right" is something which everyone has just by being an American (for example, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) and the government must protect everything that is a "right." Healthcare, however, is a service, which occasionally protects life, but more often just provides temporary or permanent relief from sickness or injury.

Healthcare for you is similar to automobile maintenance or repair for your car. Some people can afford to have the very best mechanics and concierge service, some choose to spend the minimum on Jiffy Lube - and some do it themselves.

In healthcare, some spend a fortune on executive scans and checkups, see the best doctors, have multiple elective surgeries, use personal trainers in personal gyms, etc. Others may get a yearly physical and visit their doctor only on those occasions when their home remedies don't work. And there is a third group that goes to the emergency room for sniffles and coughs. Yet those who claim healthcare is a "right" would also require that everyone get the top level of healthcare which only the rich presently can afford. The cost would bankrupt the American taxpayer, already on the ropes.

Some might ask, "so would you let people die in the street?" No -- that's what emergency rooms are for and why we spend lots of money on Medicaid for those who cannot (or choose not to) buy any healthcare, relying on the rest of us to pay the bill. Yet somehow, the indigent always seem to find money for booze, smokes and even cellphones - look closely at the photos...

I read the press every day, and never read nor hear of Americans dying in the streets from lack of healthcare. The "dead in the streets" argument is a strawman, set up by liberals to demand that everyone should get equal healthcare treatment, just as they want all Americans to "spread the wealth around."

We conservatives believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes. Everyone should have access to healthcare, but the type received will vary based on the willingness/ability to pay.

3. There should be no automatic exclusion of "pre-existing conditions," but policy premiums must reflect the risk assumed by the insurance company.

If your house is on fire, no insurance company should be expected to issue a policy amid the flames. If you live near the coast in Florida, your opportunities to buy home policies from a number of competing companies have greatly diminished. If you have had cancer, like me, you must expect that any insurer will either not take you or will charge you a lot more for a policy which includes cancer coverage.

However, a health policy which covers other health catastrophes, such as a heart problem, should be made available to cancer patients. But we must recall that healthcare is a business and healthcare profits help fund innovation and progress. Only if we want health insurance providers to commit corporate suicide should we expect that everyone get equal coverage at the same price.

4. Medicare is not an example of a program of universal healthcare, as some have said.

Those who propose universal healthcare would make it a "right," as described above. Medicare, on the other hand, is a health program for those over 65 that has been developed for that group of seniors based on taxes collected from them during their working years. Unfortunately, like Social Security, it has become a "pay as you go" program, with current taxes paid by younger Americans for current older American recipients healthcare, not by money saved "in a lockbox" from their previous contributions.

We, the American people, allowed our Congress to spend Social Security and Medicare trust funds for other "priorities" rather than invest them for growth and eventual payment. Seeing all that Social Security and Medicare tax money sitting in a trust fund was just too tempting for the Congress not to grab...

5. Universal healthcare under a "single payer system" is a disaster.

I spent more than two years in England and Canada in the mid-1990's. At almost every lunch or dinner with clients and prospects, the subject of the Brit and Canadian healthcare systems was discussed. The Canadians said that one of the reasons 90% of their population lives within 100 miles of the American border is because they turn to American healthcare when their system places them on a months - long waiting list for something as routine as an MRI. My son, Thomas, reports that there are more MRI machines in Cleveland than in all of Canada.

And in England, there is a panel in the National Health Service that calculates the cost/benefit ratio of procedures based on "quality of life years" or "Qualys", as they're called. If the procedure is expensive and the expected benefit will not be used over a significant number of years, then the procedure is disapproved. Keep you alive for another two years? Not cost effective. This is not fantasy - it actually exists!

6. Any healthcare reform that does not address tort reform is pandering to the Trial Lawyers, pure and simple.

I have medical doctor classmates from West Point who report that they pay over $70,000 per year for malpractice insurance, yet they have never been sued. They must practice "defensive medicine," often requiring MRI's and other tests when the results almost never change their original diagnosis. When asked to declare someone disabled for worker's comp purposes, they do so, fearing lawsuits from patients.

They believe that every patient should have legal recourse if actually harmed by a doctor or hospital, but that the current practice is not that. Currently, the medical profession is being held hostage by the legal profession.

Adding millions more indigent patients to the public healthcare rolls will be great for trial lawyers and poor patients who need money from anywhere they can get it. Like the current TV law firm ad says, "We'll deal with the government - you have enough to worry about." It will be a disaster for the healthcare community and will reduce the number of providers.

I would be quite interested to hear your thoughts on or additions to my list of six things I believe about healthcare. With some polishing and/or better thoughts, I intend to send my list to my Congressman and Senators.

The healthcare high ground...