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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Road Apples, #61

Dunmore Has a Mayor...After remaining quite stealthy during budget and Methadone clinic debates, Dunmore's mayor has decided to be a mayor. Evidence HERE. As smarter people than I have noted (although I have noted it as well) Dunmore can not support a paid fire department on its own. Politicians can talk around this one all they want, but in the end you have "X" coming in via tax revenue but "X+Y" going out in borough expenses. For his next trick, perhaps "Nibs" will inform us that the tulips are beginning to bloom.

Wilkes-Barre Gets It Right...Yes, I said it: Wilkes-Barre got one right, well make that "is likely to get one right". A pending ordinance would take the common sense step of banning the use of cell phones while driving, except when using a hands-free device. Unlike other communities with similar bans, the police in Wilkes-Barre would be able to stop drivers just for this offense. This is a great idea. Countless times I've been cut-off, nearly hit, or otherwise had to dodge some moron who was paying more attention to holding a phone to their ear than they were holding on to the steering wheel of their vehicle. In my experience this is particularly a problem among younger drivers.

Chief Tea-Bagger Compares Auto & Health Insurance...I heard bits and pieces of an interview with a head muckity-muck from the Philadelphia tea-party coven. In the bit I heard he talks about how you can't compare car insurance to health insurance because driving is an optional activity. He's right, at least on the surface. His logic though is flawed in one key respect: in this country even if you don't have health insurance you still get medical care...it's just that the rest of us end up paying for it. When last I checked, doctors and hospitals and drug companies still kinda want to get paid, even when the individual being treated doesn't have insurance. I know, why how very "capitalist" of them. Taking this one step further, Chief Tea-Bagger could argue that they should then just sue to get paid, but then doesn't that very act itself simply increase the cost of health insurance for the rest of us? Suing involves lawyers and courts, both of which want to get paid as well. Lastly, there is the fact that there is a time value associated with money, so not getting paid today means that the parties involved lose the opportunity to invest/otherwise use that money owed tomorrow.

AG Corbett Contemplates Suing Over Health Care Reform...Story link HERE. Coincidence that AG Corbett is also running for governor? I think not. I have no problem with people using the court system to seek redress, but let's hope that the AG doesn't start pretending that he speaks for all Pennsylvanians, because he does not.

Happy Birthday...to Ron "Jaws" Jaworski, who has a name tailor-made for a football & is by all accounts a really decent guy.

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