Looking into the abyss and finding the dark heart of man

The primary drawback to journalism is the inevitable depression and cynicism that follow when you realize you're tilting at windmills and no matter what you write or what you do, you come to the stomach-churning revelation that the greedy and selfish will dominate. It's why I don't earn my living in journalism today.

A true believer in Darwinism understands this better than one who believes in the omnipotent. If you believe in an omnipotent being, intelligent design, there is a chance the weakest and most vulnerable in nature will survive, protected by the strong. I know that, as humans, no matter how weak we are, we are strongest when we protect those who are weaker and unable to defend themselves. For example, when we shed the blood of sons and daughters in some foreign land so that others may find the freedom we enjoy. No greater love has no man or woman than he or she lay down their life for another ... that type of thing.

But under Darwinism, it is survival of the fittest, which for humans is the richest and the most connected. Morality and compassion mean nothing. It is beyond political labels. It is all about power. It is, as the kids say, all about the Benjamins.

So it is that I have been watching as an inevitable monstrous leviathan comes to a denouement, leaving me once again with a sickening view of Dorian Gray's portrait exposing the true souls of men.

In Louisiana, under the late stripper-loving and allegedly psychotic governor Earl K. Long, a charity hospital system was organized and funded to provide care to the poorest of the state's citizens. It also serves as a classroom for the state's schools of medicine. There are several hospitals located in the poorest sections of strategic population centers around the state that are part of the Charity Hospital system. New Orleans is home to Charity Hospital and Baton Rouge is home to Earl K. Long Hospital. They are the jewels of the Long legacy and, in the opinion of many, put Louisiana head and shoulders above any other state in the country in the compassion category. It is where much of the state's oil revenues go.

"Earl K," as the Baton Rouge charity hospital is known, is old and substandard however. It doesn't meet current regulations and it has been losing accreditation by medical boards. Its morgue, for instance, is tiny by any standard and, lacking a door, would offer no way to contain any biohazard that could be present in a cadaver.

Losing certification means the state can't use the hospital to train the medical students of the state's medical schools. And it also means that the state will lose federal money. So it has to build a replacement hospital or farm all the patients out to private hospitals and pay the private hospitals' fee. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

Last year, it was estimated that the cost to build and equip a new hospital would be $300 million; this year the estimate is $400 million. That's nearly a half billion dollars the state will spend to serve the medical needs of its poor, indigent and elderly, and those without health insurance.

A hospital brings not only patients but also businesses that serve and supply the staff and patients. And it brings renewed vigor to the area. So multiply $400 million by at least three times that in neighborhood improvement within 10 years' time.

Knowing this much money is involved, do you think there is any discussion whatsoever of trying to keep "Earl K" in north Baton Rouge, where most of the city's indigent, poor and elderly are located and where the state owns land already? Not on your life.

At the very best, the new hospital will be located in mid-city, where there already is located a decent hospital for those with health insurance; Baton Rouge General Mid-City. Oh, and backers say a banker's hours out-patient clinic could be built where the most trauma cases are, north Baton Rouge.

But the odds are favoring that the hospital will be located in southeast Baton Rouge, where there already are four private hospitals -- including the area's largest and most modern, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, as well as Surgical Specialty Center, Summit Hospital and Woman's Hospital. While south Baton Rouge is a dense population center, it's where the percentage of poor and indigent is minute because of housing costs. Because it's dense, land prices are at a premium and traffic snarls lock up the roadways throughout the daylight hours, even for emergency vehicles.

So why build a charity hospital to serve Lousiana's poor and indigent where there really are no poor and indigent living? It's not just that the physicians want to practice at as many hospitals as possible and not commute to north Baton Rouge. The answer is more complex than that. As I noted, it really comes down to the Benjamins. There is no way on God's green earth that the powers-that-be are going to allow a $2 Billion payday for north Baton Rouge. The poor are poor and will remain so. They hold minimum wage retail and service sector jobs that offer no health insurance. And they are going to be shit out of luck.

The state symbol for Louisiana features the state bird, a pelican, in her nest feeding her offspring. After this, in my opinion, they should change it to a group of cigar smoking, duck hunting pelicans -- male and female pelicans -- feathering their own nests.

Currently 20 percent of the population of the U.S. has no health insurance. Without changes in the courts, the insurance industry and the medical industry, you can expect this percentage to rocket to more than 50 percent in the next 30 years as more and more private employers renege on promises of health care to employees and retirees.

Consider that General Motors has been all over the airwaves and the newsprint whining its health costs for its workers and retirees is $1,600 of each and every car it sells, making it uncompetitive. It's demanding rollbacks in healthcare and pensions and threatening to accomplish this in bankruptcy court if necessary. This is true of the airlines, and will be true of every major industry in this country as baby boomers age. As a customer of health care, you can expect only the senior managers of private companies and state, federal, county and municipal employees to have health insurance.

And so the charity system organized by former Gov. Earl K. Long to serve the poor and indigent will be called upon to serve not only the poor and indigent but also a growing number of middle-class families with medical needs who don't get health insurance from their employers. Without adequate health insurance, if they have health problems -- or even costs associated with pregnancy and well-child exams -- they will rapidly slide into the class of poor and, possibly, indigent.

The not so subtle push in the media by the federal and state governments to curtail obesity, smoking and other issues is really Uncle Sam's way of telling folk to take responsibility for their own health issues, because if you're poor or indigent or elderly, you will be at the back of a very, very long line dying to receive medical care. It's one way to solve the Social Security problem.

[Update 6/21/2005: The Washington Post reports that more middle class families are uninsured and that more and more won't be able to afford health insurance as time goes on. It writes: "As health costs have risen over the past decade, more businesses have scaled back or dropped coverage entirely. The first group hit were poor workers, but ... the trend is continuing into higher-wage groups."]

[Update 6/24/2005: A Stanford University economist believes job-based health care is "hopelessly flawed." And a Princeton University economist says the lack of affordable health insurance impedes entrepreneurship and product development because many who might start their own companies won't because they fear the loss of health insurance for their families.]

[Update 7/10/2005: There is growing support for a universal health care system, similar to Canada's. A Hillary Clinton-contrived universal health care plan that proposed a bloated bureaucracy to administer it and physician assignment system one might expect from Stalinists failed to gain support during the initial presidential term of hubby, Slick Willie. But a solution is needed. Reports the Associated Press: "Across the nation, the number of uninsured is 45 million and rising, and 16 million lack enough insurance to cover all their medical bills. Premiums for employer-sponsored health plans rose an average of 11.2 percent in 2004, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Companies are raising employee fees for health care, increasing co-payments and decreasing benefits." Expect more to join the roles of the un- and under-insured as corporations, concerned about the diminishing size of executive bonuses, wiggle out of health care and pension promises to an aging workforce.]

---

Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round the world is round