Guns vs. Healthcare

I recently saw a cartoon that contrasted the fact that Americans have a right to guns but not to healthcare.  Clever, right?  The problem is that even a cursory look at the comparison shows it to be nonsense.  No one is required to buy a gun for me whereas this right to healthcare would require someone to pay for my medical care if I was unable.

If there was an amendment for healthcare similar to the 2nd Amendment, it might say something to the effect that "the right of the people to purchase healthcare insurance shall not be infringed."  Would banning cross-state purchase of insurance be an infringement?  Would requiring that Americans buy government-approved health insurance plans be an infringement?  Or going the other way, does the 2nd Amendment require every American to own a gun or be forced to pay a fine to the IRS?  Do we need to demonstrate gun ownership on a yearly basis?  Does the gun have to have all sorts of extras that we don't need or want?

 

The Rights listed in the Constitution do not require that someone else provide them.  The Right to Free Speech doesn't require taxpayers to provide a forum in which to speak.  The Right to Practice Religion doesn't require that the government build the church.  By the same logic, a Right to Healthcare should not require the government/taxpayers to purchase it.

 

The confusion here is entitlement vs. right.  Americans have a right to bear arms but an entitlement to Social Security.  Social Security is not a right.  Nor is Medicare.  Nor is health insurance as determined by Obamacare.  These are all programs for transferring money from the person who earned it to someone who didn't.  I'm in favor of Rights - which our government was established to secure - but I'm opposed to entitlements.

No ID Required

Found this interesting article on the difficulties of voter fraud:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/367278/report-new-york-investigators-obtain-fraudulent-ballots-97-percent-time-john-fund

Here is a crime that the investigators have demonstrated is almost always successful but we shouldn't be concerned that it is happening.  Just because it's easy and virtually impossible to detect after the fact does not mean anyone is actually doing it.  Sure, there was that poll worker in Ohio who openly admitted that she had cast two ballots for President Obama but that's an isolated case; most fraudsters aren't stupid enough to admit it.

The Earth on Fire

All this cold weather is a clear sign of global warming.  Here's an interesting link:

http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/2013-one-of-the-ten-coldest-years-in-us-history-with-the-largest-drop-in-temperature/

Read the comments too.  There is a lively debate that offers counterpoints from those who still believe in "climate change."  One commenter had a question that I have asked for years: What caused the warming that ended the glacial period 10,000 years ago?  Certainly wasn't man's use of carbon fuels.  Maybe warming and cooling is a natural cycle?

More Global Warming!

Heaviest December snowfall since 1953, first snow in Cairo in a century.  Darn this global warming!

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-snow-israel-egypt-20131213,0,1691393.story#axzz2nMzV6vMp

And then there is this:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/coldest-temperature-recorded-earth-antarctica-guinness-book

Still, governments will fund studies that say governments need more taxpayer money to prevent the Earth from catching fire.

Frozen

The story opens with a band of men cutting ice from a frozen river. Among these men are young Kristoff and his pet reindeer, Sven. He is learning the trade and as they leave with a sleigh filled with ice, he follows close behind in his tiny sleigh with a single block of ice.

Meanwhile at the Arendale Castle, Princess Elsa and Princess Anna sneak off in the night to play in the ballroom. Elsa can conjure ice and snow, which delights her younger sister. At one point, Anna jumps from a snow mound as Elsa creates a taller one to catch her. However, Anna is jumping faster than Elsa can conjure. Elsa accidentally hits Anna in the head, causing a lock of her dark hair to become blonde. The King and Queen arrive and, finding Anna unresponsive, ride into the night for help. They stop in a circle of stones which soon animate to become rather friendly and harmless-looking trolls. They cure Princess Anna but also remove her memories of Elsa’s power. The trolls warn Elsa against revealing her power lest it get out of control.

Years go by and the formerly inseparable sisters hardly speak. Worse, the King and Queen die at sea. More years pass and Elsa is now of an age to become Queen. Anna can hardly wait. She has been cloistered in the castle for most of her life and is eager for the grand ball. Elsa is terrified that she will be unable to control her powers. The ball proves entertaining as Anna fall for the handsome Prince Hans within minutes of meeting him and asks her sister for a blessing to marry him. Elsa refuses, ends the party, and calls for the castle gates to be closed again. And then things go south with the newly crowned queen fleeing into the wilderness and bringing winter upon the lands.

Arendale is thrown into chaos. Anna sets out alone to bring back her sister and leaves her fiancé, Prince Hans, in charge. Unprepared for the cold, she stops at a lodge where she meets Kristoff and his reindeer Sven. Last we saw Kristoff, he was a young boy watching the King talk to the trolls about Anna. He agrees to guide her through the wilderness.

To my surprise, this is a musical. The songs are good and catchy. I particularly liked Queen Elsa singing in her frozen mountain keep. Great singing voice. Anna is a great heroine; she is naïve and determined, bouncy and daring. Olaf the snowman came out of the blue but proved to be great comic relief. Loved his song about how he wanted summer to come. Kristoff, who is the male lead, really pales in comparison to the sisters. He’s a good character but he mostly serves as a means to an end for Anna. However, his relationship with Sven is most entertaining, especially when he speaks for Sven and Sven thus serves as his conscience. Oh, and his upbraiding of Anna for getting engage to Prince Hans the day they met was hilarious.

It is hard to determine the time period of the movie. The clothing looks to be 19th century but there is not a gun to be found. The soldiers run around with swords and crossbows. There is really no explanation for why Elsa has her powers. The trolls are entirely too cute and adorable. They are more like gnomes and perhaps should have been cast as gnomes. I was a bit baffled by Prince Hans being put in charge. Shouldn’t there have been a regent who had been ruling since the king died? Wouldn’t it be logical for Anna to put that person in charge while she chased after her sister rather than a foreign prince you met earlier that evening?

All in all, a great movie and recommended.