Can Any Hospital compete with Kaiser?

Spent a little time in an emergency room today and thought about private vs. Kaiser. It looks like the Kaiser hospital will over-run and overcome the private hospital styles of operation. A simple reason is that Kaiser owns and operates the medical system and the hospital operation. They, being a non-profit, can use their own income , from the Kaiser member , to fund all of the possible needs. And this means that they do not have to depend upon the Insurance companies for funds for the operation. And as the Insurance companies have to take 20-25% of the premiums to run their operations, Kaiser has a definite income advantage when it comes to running hospitals. My wife and daughter were at Kaiser for a procedure during the time I was in the ER at the local hospital, and both of them were impressed with the efficiency and precision of the Kaiser operational procedures. It bodes ill for private hospitals to have to compete with Kaiser!

Sonoma County Counsel and the Brown Act

Amazing the tricks the attorneys use to try to explain why the Brown Act wasn't violated by the Board of Supervisors actions, isn't it. Yes they did something that should have been announced on the agenda, yes they did something that should have been disclosed after the closed session, but, hey, it still have to go through the adminstrative process to become effective. What, the County Counsel didn't understand the clarity of the Brown Act?. Ah, but you see, the County Counsel must defend the Board of Supervisiors if the Board of Supervisors is not complying with the law. and the County Counsel can not tell anyone anything that puts the Board at risk, at least in my humble opinion! This too shall pass, somehow, somewhere, a deal will be struck. As usual.

Renewable Energy?

Who ever thought of such a thing? You can have energy, use energy, but you can not have "renewable energy"! Oh, it sound so perfect , doesn't it. You just have an energy source that is inexhaustable! So that you can continue to get energy from it? Just like having an oil well in your backyard! But the strange thing is that the people espousing the concept are people who want to sell you something. Like double paned window, insulation, solar water heating, solar electricity, etc., but never seem to be able to tell you where the renewable energy comes from. The energy on the earth comes from radioactive sources, which provide the heat to generate the life and death of the earth. Yes, the sun is radioactive, the earth is radioactive, and combined they generate the energy. But, it is not endless and can not be renewed after usage. You will have to pay , one way or another for the energy you consume!

the changing faces of politicans and the second amendment

Why is it that politicans, as a whole, while running for election, spout the same philosophy of believing in Democracy and the US Constitution? And, then while seated in the political chairs of the government, immediately forget the 2nd amendment. I believe I have the answer! They believe in the 2nd amendment for people who are not a threat to the politicans! Now, most criminals do not threaten the politicans, as the criminals can get what they want with money, but the average citizen can not do that. Therefore the non-citizens present a more significant threat to politicans, and it then becomes necessary for the politicans to control the weapons held in the hands of the non-criminals. Strange, isn't it?

The magic of television in Santa Rosa, Ca.

television is such a wonderful tool for the City Council to let the public know what the City Council is doing and what the citizens think of the City Council Polices! But the City Council does not want the Citizens to be heard voicing complaints about the City Council. So in January the new City Council decided that they should move all of the comments about the City to the end of the meeting after all of the business had been transacted to delay any comments during the meeting. And after a couple of weeks of that they found that the citizens were still appearing before the City Council and making the City Council look a little foolish about some things in the Government. Ah, a solution was found! The City Council would not show the citizens speaking to the City Council ! They did that by shutting off the television cameras during the comment period. and shutting off the microphone so the comments could not be heard by the viewing public. If that was not enough a couple of weeks ago they shut off a speaker during the session causing some people to , perhaps, believe that the city council meeting was over. Ah, the honesty and dedication of politicans to the idea of listening to the public is not in question, is it? As they listen, but they don't want the public to know what they are listening to.