Scoop’s Views

There are at least a handful of people arguing the U.S. government needs to “do more” to regulate online pharmacies. Sure, that may be true, but right now, face the facts: most in Congress are older people who are technologically-challenged. In fact, look at legislation about most any aspect of life and you’ll see most of it is at least 10 or more years behind the times. I won’t even touch on the health care crisis in the U.S.

In a story on CNN.com, one woman cried to the cable news channel that she found her husband on their marriage bed, dead, in a pool of vomit. He allegedly died from what the woman — the widow — declares was an accidental overdose of drugs the now-dead husband received from an online pharmacy.

Tags: American Fork, anonymous, carisoprodol, Carmen Catizone, clinics, CNN.com, dead, death, depression, drugs, Elavil, European Medicines Agency, European Union, fitness, Health, husband, Illegal Drugs, Kareem Tannous, Long Island, Mental Health, Mood Disorders, Nancy Fitzpatrick, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, online pharmacies, online pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, Prozac, Rusty Payne, Science and Technology, side effects, Soma, Sweden, Technology, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Utah, Valley Stream, Websites

While we aren’t yet using the thumbprint technology in transactions such as buying a home, grocery shopping, or, for that matter, shopping at most any store, it is used for government stuff, as well as used for computing security.

Did Simon Ramo have it all wrong back in November 1964, or was he a little too optimistic for his time? I think it’s the latter. Even in the late 1990s and early this decade, even as late as 2003 or so, I heard people I know dismiss the idea of using debit cards, as well as ATMs, even for cash advances from a credit card. Those same people, though, also were against online shopping.

Tags: 1964, ATMs, automatic money transfers, banking systems, Big Brother, business transactions, buying a home, cash, coinage, computer security, credit cards, currency, debit cards, dollars, electronic debit systems, futurists, Government, identification, identity theft, instant money transfers, monetary symbols, monetary systems, money, November 1964, November 27, online shopping, paper dollars, paper money, payment systems, shopping, Simon Ramo, thumb-prints, thumbprint technology, thumbprints, TIME, Time magazine

Congress has approved a $300 billion funding measure to help people who are at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosure, and now, it seems, almost every media outlet in the country is busy touting the ways to stake claim to your chunk of change from that bailout.

To be in foreclosure means you haven’t paid your mortgage. Wow! What a concept. Most of the people in the current mortgage crisis are people who managed to get mortgages from lenders who offered sub-prime loans. The loans were given to people with a variety of options, but many people who never would have managed to get a mortgage from traditional lenders managed to buy a home. Great. Until the taxpayer-funded bailout.

Tags: afford, approved, bills, Congress, crisis, dream homes, emergency bailout, financial woes, fiscally-responsible, foreclosure rates, foreclosure risk, foreclosures, home affordability, homeowners, in foreclosure, lenders, lending institutions, loans, mortgage bailout, mortgage crisis, mortgage lenders, political correctness, politically correct, politicians, sub-prime, sub-prime mortgages, subprime, subprime mortgages, taxpayer bailout, taxpayer money, taxpayers, traditional mortgages

While you and I are sitting at home, enjoying all the creature comforts, American fighting men and women are in distant lands, including Afghanistan and Iraq, sweating their butts off, literally, while going on patrols, doing raids, and other duties, and their performance – or responses – could be the difference between life-and-death.

As for Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate who is doing a tour of specific areas in Afghanistan and Iraq, supposedly getting a first-hand look at the situation on the ground, things are much different. His environment will be hot, sandy, dirty, but secure, for the most part. Because Obama, like McCain and others during past trips, are members of Congress, the military will provide a shroud around the “dignitaries” – ensuring, to the best of their ability, the survival of the elected officials, even at the expense of service men and women.

Tags: 2008 presidential candidates, 82nd Airborne Division, airborne, armed conflict, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama II, Barack Obama, barry o'bomber, body armor, desert fatigues, Ft. Bragg, G.I. Bill, Harvard University, heroes, infantry, infantry platoon leader, insurgents, John F. Kennedy School of Government, John McCain, LBE, load bearing equipment, McCain abortion, McCain for President, McCain issues, McCain potatoes, Obama for President, off-the-record, paratrooper, photo op, photo opportunities, publicity stunt, Purple Hearts, real heroes, rucksacks, security details, U.S. Army Rangers, United States Army, United States Military Academy at West Point, Vietnam, water, weapon and ammo, weapons qualification, West Point

MSNBC is reporting former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm is stepping down as co-chairman of Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Tags: co-chairman, former Republican senator, John McCain, McCain for President, nation of whiners, Obama for President, Phil Gramm, Phil Gramm resignation, Phil Gramm resigns, presidential campaign, resignation

As I wrote on July 10, in the post, Rev. Jesse Jackson is irrelevant in today’s society, it seems he really needs to learn to shut hit mouth, stay out of the public spotlight, give up being a public figure, and not give any interviews — to local, nation, international, or even target-market publications — ever again.

Now, for the second time in a month, he is under fire badmouthing presidential candidate Barack Obama, running as a democrat.

Tags: apologies, Barack Obama, castrate, castration, Chicago, Chicago Illinois, Christian, civil rights, commercial break, Fox and Friends, Fox News, n-bomb, n-word, Obama, open microphone, Operation PUSH, presidential candidate, protests, Rainbow Coalition, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Barack Obama, sit-ins, testicles

Fox News had an open microphone near the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and during that time, the loud-mouth did what he had done ever-so-well in the past: shoved his foot in his mouth, all the way to his knee, and then, while trying to pull it back out, makes things even worse.

This time, though, it was different: it was a news crew that was recording conversations — without advising those in the area, or those who the crew knew would be recorded — and then aired those non-disclosed recordings. On one hand, you can argue it’s a violation of ethical behavior by journalists, but this is TV news, so that argument is out the window.

Tags: apologies, Barack Obama, black males, black people, blacks, castrate, castration, Chicago, Christian behavior, cut off Barack Obama's nuts, cut off his nuts, ethical principles, Fox News, journalistic ethics, measure of a man, news crews, open microphone, Operation PUSH, Operation Rainbow, out-of-wedlock, payoffs, public events, public forums, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, responsibility, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Roland Martin, Roland S. Martin

Senate is rewarding telecommunications providers for breaking the law
York Times is reporting that the United States Senate, by a vote of 69-28, approved a bill overhauling the rules covering secret government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telecommunications companies that aided in the wiretapping of Americans without warrants. Doing Chicago-style two-stepping, Barack Obama, who originally spoke harsh words against the illegal wiretaps, voted today in favor of granting immunity to the telecommunications companies. His former presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, stayed true to her original position and voted against the immunity.

Tags: Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, David Stout, domestic spying, due process rights, eavesdropping, Eric Lichtblau, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigations, federal courts, FISA, foreign, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, illegal wiretapping, immunity, intrusions, mismanagement, National Security Agency, No Such Agency, NSA, phone subscibers, re-election, Senate, senators, telecommunications companies, telecoms, terrorist attacks, terrorists

In the Prince George County jail, Ronnie White, 19, who was being held in solitary confinement at Prince George’s County Correctional Center the died of strangulation and asphyxiation — meaning someone strangled him to death — but he also had two broken bones in his neck, according to autopsy findings. When a person is in solitary confinement, access is restricted, and only a few guards have access to the prisoners. In this case, no one knows what happened. Supposedly.

A few hundred miles north, in Brooklyn, New York — the bastion of manners and friendliness, to be sure — a woman died on the floor of the Kings County Hospital emergency room on June 19, 2008, after she keeled over and fell out out of her chair, landing face down on the floor. She thrashed about on the floor for awhile, then became still, emergency room video shows. In this case, no one, including other patients and people in the emergency room, including what appears to be another woman who was siting across from the 49-year-old deceased woman, did anything to help the woman — even after she collapsed to the floor.

In Missouri Illinois, a young guy, named Nicholas Sheley, 28, is being sought as a “person of interest” in the murders of at least several people. Police are wondering if the murders are the work of a serial killer.

Tags: abuse, asphyxiation, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Brooklyn New York, chief executive, civil rights investigation, constitutional democracy, Corporal Richard Findley, correctional center, Cpl. Richard Findley, day in court, death, died, doctors, eight-grader, emergency room, ER, FBI, Jack Johnson, jail, killing others, lawsuits, Mental Health, murdered baby, neglect, nurses, patients, people sitting nearby, Prince George County, prison, prisoners, rampages, restricted access, Ronnie White, solitary confinement, stolen, strangulation, Texas, thrills, truck, U.S. Department of Justice

It seems Sen. Joe Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut) is firing up President George W. Bush’s dusty old propaganda machine used to make Americans worry more than necessary about a potential terror attack.

In the case of Lieberman, a guy who’s unsuccessfully sought a seat in the White House in the last two presidential elections (2000 and 2004), using fear tactics in hopes of boosting support for the candidate he is supporting on the November Presidential ballot: Sen. John McCain (Republican-Arizona).

Tags: 1960s, 9-11, 9/11, Arizona, attacks, Barack Obama, Capitol Hill, Cold War, Connecticut, cronies, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, dirty bombs, double-talkm, Dubya, forked-tongues, gas masks, George W. Bush, hip waders, Illinois, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, meals-ready-to-eat, MREs, nuclear annihilation, presidential campaigns, presidential elections, press conference, propaganda, propanda machine, protective masks, re-elected, rhetoric, senators, September 11 2001, terror, terrorists, Washington DC, White House

Poor Amy Winehouse. Her daddy says she has emphysema, but her publicist, you know, the well-paid folks who are responsible for creating and maintaining the public image — a performer’s persona — says that the 24-year-old British singer does not have emphysema, but does have only 70 percent lung capacity, as well as nodules and other issues with her lungs. In essence, 30 percent of Amy Winehouse’s lungs are little more than trash.

Tags: Amy Winehouse, British singers, Brits, crack, crack cocaine, drugs, emphysema, entertainers, Entertainment, illegal drug use, illicit drugs, lung capacity, motivation, self-destruction, self-respect, self-responsibility, singers

Health insurers have been rating physicians and physician practices over the years. In some of those ratings, you find some really bland things, as well as some scores that always incite heated and passionate reaction.

It took physicians — through the American Medical Association (AMA) — quite a few years to get hip to the idea of rating the insurance industry, but the tables have now been turned. The outcome: the expected over-inflated image of health insurers saying the ratings aren’t fair, as well as brutal honesty, it seems, about the timeliness of payments made by the health insurers.

Tags: AMA, American Medical Association, claims, denials, health insurance, insurers, not medically necessary, ratings, Reviews, U&C, usual and customary