Universal Healthcare

I think there is a gulf of misunderstanding between 'liberals' and 'conservatives' or as I like to call them, people that want, want, WANT, gimme, gimme, GIMME party and the people that read the Constitution, government stay-out-of-my-business party. From my conversations with advocates of universal healthcare, I hear the points,
-Everyone deserves and needs access to quality medical care. Think of the children
-The cost of healthcare is too high for an individual or family to pay directly.
-People without insurance usually don't pay anyway, so that drives up the cost of healthcare and insurance for those that pay
-Government is the only entity big enough to run an universal healthcare program.
The truth
-Right now, everyone in this country can get quality healthcare
-The concept of insurance is rediculous, a person getting insurance bets that he will get sick, the insurance company bets that the person won't get sick. They then charge person a fee that is higher than the break even point of the equation. That is why the insurance company only pays for certain procedures. It is simple math. (Medical Cost x likelihood + profit)/(group of insured people) = Cost to individual Therefore, healthy people that pay for unused insurance that subsidizes sick people.
-People that receive a service from a healthcare provider should pay for the service. Healthcare is a service INDUSTRY sure doctors love to help people, but they also want to get paid for their work just as a carpenter gets paid for work. There are many places to go and receive healthcare free of charge.
-The truth is that conservatives want everyone to have healthcare, they just don't want the government to run it. It goes completely against the US Constitution. There needs to be multiple insurance providers, otherwise, the quality of healthcare becomes narrowly focused on particular procedures that are paid for and totally rejects the procedures that are newer or more risky. The government will have the ability to bully doctors into whatever suits the government. Basically, the government will be able to decide who lives and who dies.

Sleep

This morning you might have eaten breakfast, you might have exercised, you might even have gone to a full service spa. This afternoon you may have eaten lunch, maybe you had to work, or even gone to the zoo. This evening you maybe had dinner with your family, pulled weeds in your lawn or worked on your hobby. All of these things may or may not have been important, but the thing that you did without realizing it that is the most important thing you did today was to wake up. I could write about the deep-rooted philosophical nature of the fact that you woke up, but I am not feeling very deep today.

Instead, I want to write about the importance of sleep mostly from observation. The first distinction I will make is quality sleep versus quantity sleep. I have heard that some people have sleep apnea sleep or fall asleep all the time and never feel rested. I can't really comment on these medical cases. So leaving aside any medically related sleep problems, I will comment on my observation of normal people sleep. Sleep increases your ability to remember, I don't care what you've read about ginseng, sleep will help you remember everything clearly as long as you get it in your head in the first place (but that is a different topic.) Sleep increases your energy, instead of relying on caffeine or other harmful drugs, try using the natural chemicals created in your body for providing that extra boost. Sleep increases your awareness/ your ability to focus. I have seen hundreds of people that are sleep deprived that just make mistakes, simple mistakes like walking, like talking, like calculus. (Despite what you may think, real world calculus cannot be done by anyone in their sleep.) The same thing goes for people that are overtired. Construction worker are the worst on this, they work all day and they are "almost done" with a job for six hours. They fall asleep in their truck late and wake up to find a crappy job that they have to redo. Sleep reduces irritability. When you have had a good night's rest, you will find that you are far more patient, more understanding and appreciative. You are also less aggressive, less annoyed, and less condescending. Sleep increases coordination, as evidenced by my daughter. I have observed on many occasions that as she gets more tired, she tends to fall down more, this typically ends in injury, Motrin, and sleep.

I am sure that there are other benefits to sleep, however, I am far too lazy to list them all. I am unmotivated to think critically because I am lacking sleep. Probably you also lack the ability to think clearly, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog. So do me a favor and get some sleep.