inkbluesky

Teens making poor choices when it comes to riding in vehicles

In the first ever direct comparison of the differences between driver and passenger seat belt use for a nationally representative teen population, the Meharry researchers found that 59% of teens always buckled up in the driver seat but only 42% always wore seat belts as passengers. Even more sobering, only 38% of all teens reported always buckling up as both drivers and passengers.

Meharry Medical College sites an annual fatality rate among teens due to traffic accidents at 5000 ( the Center for Disease Control sites 4544 in 2005 so the stats might be rounded). That would mean that from 09-11-01 until 09-11-08 a total of 35,000 Americans have died just from accidents compared to 3,000 people that were murdered on 09-11-01 by terrorists. if this means that Iraq is safer then American highways, as similar comparisons and conclusions have been made, then why all the fuse over a little war. If Iraq is that safe we can also conculde there is little reason to be there, certainly in terms of saving the lives of U.S. citizens our resources would be better put to use in vehicle safety education and enforcment of current laws. Now we need to figure out how not to look like bizarro control freaks when we tell our passengers to buckle the hell up.

avalanche

A world record for scarecrows

HOSCHTON — This small northeastern Georgia town’s population boom is frightening. In a bid to break a world record for scarecrows and scare up some fun for the fall season, thousands of straw-stuffed newcomers are creeping across town.

The current scarecrow record is held by the Cincinnati Horticultural Society’s Cincinnati Flower and Farm Fest with 3,311. As strange as some of them look, the scarecrows, not the residents, at least they’re not making stuffed circus clowns which are really scary.

Something else that’s scary, McCain Advisor:  There are no uninsured Americans

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

“So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said.  “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

M. Goodman, George Orwell’s ghost is on the line and wants to speak to you. Hospitals generally bill patients whether they have insurance or not. Most people work out some kind of repayment plan. Since the vast majority of Americans are not as he assumes irresponsible scofflaws, that hospital bill becomes part of their financial burden and their worries. I’m sure that a master of doublespeak like Mr. Goodman could never be convinced otherwise, but waiting until you’re so ill that you can’t take it anymore, then go to an emergency room in no way constitutes health-care. Health-care is the answer to what McCain and that “think tank” would consider a riddle; how do we reduce emergency room visits and actually bring down our national health-care cost while also improving the quailty of life for millions of Americans. I’m not brillant, but even i find the phrase conservatiive think tank an oxymoron.

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