Kings And Queens

2009-01-12 - 11:03 a.m.

Friday evening, I got on the air with Tom Leykis. He was talking about companies who put their customer service departments in countries outside the US, and how some of these folks had no idea what they were doing (Leykis' example was a travel service guy who insisted that there were no hotel reservations to be had in Napa Valley but there were reservations in the cities Leykis started naming off...cities which, in fact, are in the Napa Valley region of California).

So when I got on the radio, I told the story of my tech support guy in Costa Rica. Leykis roared, and then told ME a story about a guy who felt that, because two of Leykis' computer programs were not meshing correctly, Leykis needed to reformat his hard drive and re-install Windows.

Leykis also mentioned that Dell now has a $12 surcharge if you want to talk a tech support guy who is in THIS country. When you get some of the CS people that I (and, apparently, Leykis) have gotten, is it any wonder that some folks would want that?

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Game night last night. Mostly old favorites, but I got to meet a couple new members to the group.

I did play Tile Chess, and got soundly wiped out.

I felt like crap. I had a headache and (later in the night) a mild fever. I think it was the combination of the wind kicking my allergies up and eating something bad. Four Advil and eight hours of sleep later, and I'm much better.

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Here's an article from ABC news about universal health care:

Imagine a country where the government regularly checks the waistlines of citizens over age 40. Anyone deemed too fat would be required to undergo diet counseling. Those who fail to lose sufficient weight could face further "reeducation" and their communities subject to stiff fines.

Is this some nightmarish dystopia?

No, this is contemporary Japan.

The Japanese government argues that it must regulate citizens' lifestyles because it is paying their health costs. This highlights one of the greatly underappreciated dangers of "universal healthcare." Any government that attempts to guarantee healthcare must also control its costs. The inevitable next step will be to seek to control citizens' health and their behavior. Hence, Americans should beware that if we adopt universal healthcare, we also risk creating a "nanny state on steroids" antithetical to core American principles.

Do you really want the government to decide what you need in terms of your health? To decide whether or not to treat you, because that money could be better spent elsewhere?

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Okay. I think that part of the reason why I felt so bad was because I wasn't eating right.

So I'm going to stalk and kill some (reasonably) healthy food.

Be seeing you.

Brin aka Bindyree - 2009-01-12 19:17:41 -
You have an ironclad immune system; if that had been me, I'd 've coughed up a lung or three!

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