Craig's List, Kayne, Baucus...and why none of them matter at all.

As a brief aside, thanks to my four readers (we're gaining!!!) for their reminders about my promise to write more, then getting distracted and posting less. To make up for this, expect this one to be more than a one-trip-to-the-restroom type of read.

This will not be a diatribe about thew downfall of humanity, nor will it be an unadulterated rant at technology and how it makes us all dumber. This will, however, be a succinct interpretation of why three of this week's newsmakers do not matter to anything, ever.

Kayne West pulled an idiotic stunt, ripping the mic out of Taylor Swift's hands to pump his collaborator's wife (Beyonce) for her work and punk the award winner for hers. Bush league. Even moreso after Beyonce won the bigger award for the same work later in the award show. After that, then Kayne felt bad and apologized to Swift and her family.

If you're a fan of Kayne's performances or recordings, good for you. This has nothing to do with that. His idiocy was grand enough to have someone Twitter on about President Obama's reaction to it, calling West a 'jackass'. So, the natural question this brings to mind, you ask? Riddle me this, Kayne:

Does Barack Obama hate black people, too?

No sane person can defend West's behavior. After he stunned Mike Myers and the American viewing audience by telling everyone that George Bush hates black people in response to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, most thought him to be rash, but passionate. Agree or disagree with his viewpoint then, that kind of outburst can only be attributed to emotion. This can be a forgivable thing at times...but after an equally irrational bout of verbal diarrhea over an MTV Video Music Award, he now can only be called stupid. Kayne, you are stupid. It does not matter that you rap. It matters even less what skin color you are, what your heritage is, what you ate for dinner...you are stupid. That, of course, will not stop you from making money producing albums, so you have that.

Rule 1: Stupid people do not matter.

Craigslist is full of delightful people hiring nude models, selling junk that should be given away or recycled and folks seeking to meet other folks for 'discreet FWB NSA action with a BBW', whatever on Earth that might be. Job listings on the site tend towards either difficult jobs to hire for, copies of listings on more established job search sites and contract work for smaller industries. Unless one is in the hunt for a marginally legal job, illicit sex or used lawn clippers, there is little of use in most instances people on the current incarnation of that site.

Rule 2: Deviants and hucksters do not matter.

Senator Max Baucus of Montana has introduced a health-care reform bill that taps the country's rather dry coffers for a mere $856 billion over the next ten years. This promises to reduce the number of uninsured by 29 million people (out of 54 million est. uninsured folks), and possibly return money to the Treasury after the first ten years goes by. Part of the money will come from cuts in Medicare, the current device that pays for uninsured people to get urgent health care. People who do not have coverage that 'can afford it' after that can be subject to fines, as well as having to pay retail for their care.

Let me repeat that: To insure 29 million people, we will spend $3,000 per person per year for ten years out of our taxes, and we may get a minute fraction of that back. After ten years. And they can fine people for not being covered.

Ignore inflation and real value of money for a moment and consider the raw numbers. A quick Google search tells me I can get Aetna coverage for a 43-year old single man with no pre-existing conditions for $123 per month, Anthem Blue Cross for $100 and Kaiser Permanente for $130 per month. Over ten years, when the man in question will still be sub-64, the total cost of the most expensive of those plans is $15,600. Let's round up to $20k, for humor's sake (and potential inflation).

The plan the Congressman plaecs in front of us makes for $30k per person over the life of the plan, PLUS there will be people fined for not playing along, making this plan illogical. This makes Rule 1 apply.

The author of the bill has intimated as much, suggesting that this is "a first step in the process".

In an effort to appease Congressional Republicans, Baucus worked in the concept of medical co-operatives to make for competition with private insurance companies, plus denying coverage (but not denying Medicare access) to illegal immigrants. It also should be noted that the three Reupblicans that were working with Baucus on a plan (Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Olympia Snowe of Maine) declined to be a part of this bill.

Hmmm...more expensive? Check. Government oversight? Check. Only solves fifty percent of the problem? Check. If it smells like Socialism, and drains resources like Socialism...

Rule 2 applies here.

Pres. Obama did not get anything he wants in this option, other tham cost controls. The Dems did not get what they want because it doesn't cover illegal immigrants or the indigent with no questions asked. The Republicans like nothing at all about this bill. As an adult, it is hard to find a productive conversational point in this proposal. It also goes to prove the rules I set out earlier in the column, so that is a bonus.

With the number of conversations that need to take place in America at this moment in time, the health care discussion may not be Priority One, unless you are a Baby Boomer about to retire on the promises of FDR. If you are one of them, congratulate yourself on learning how to turn on that newfangled computer thingy to find this to read. If not, pay attention. Our future earnings are being spent before our eyes. This leave us only one alternative, the one that worked to perfection for our post-war generation. Reproduce rapidly and frequently, then taxc the bejesus out of them to pay for us when we're old.

Wow. That just made me sound like a medival cult leader.

Hopefully, our administration learns from the previous Democratic president and shelves this agenda until there is an idea worth its salt to bring forward.

Then again, I'd hope no one would ever be crass and ignorant like Kayne West, nor would they be able to gather and exchange goods and services like they do on Craigslist. The old saying goes something like this:

"You can wish in one hand and (defecate) in the other, and see which one fills up first."

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I do have an idea for solving the world's problems as they are most important. It is simple, it is historically effective and more fulfilling than government mandate and taxation. Ready?

Volunteer.

Even a few hours a month. Make a choice of a cause that has import to you, and dedicate some time. Give a little bit out of a bonus check. Recycle your bottles and cans, and give the money to the Cub Scout troop in your neighborhood. There are simply too many ways to make life better for yourself and what is around you to wait for a bigger group or Higher Being to make the choice for you.

Just do it already. Sheesh.