"Millions of people with respiratory diseases have relied on oxygen equipment, delivered to their homes, to help them breathe. A basic setup, including three years of deliveries of small oxygen tanks, can be bought from pharmacies and other retailers for as little as $3,500, or about $100 a month.

Unless, that is, the buyer is Medicare, the government health care program for older Americans.

Despite enormous buying power, Medicare pays far more. Rather than buy oxygen equipment outright, Medicare rents it for 36 months before patients take ownership, and pays for a variety of services that critics say are often unnecessary.

The total cost to taxpayers and patients is as much as $8,280, or more than double what somebody might spend at a drugstore.

...

Medicare spends billions of dollars each year on products and services that are available at far lower prices from retail pharmacies and online stores, according to an analysis of federal data by The New York Times. The government agency has paid above-market costs for dozens of items, a comparison of Medicare figures with retail catalogs finds."

Howdy. John here, making my first contribution to the OS blog in a few years. Glad to be back. Trying to get back into the blogging mindset.

I've found the Hugo Chávez saga in Venezuela to be at times pretty interesting, but often sad, and really, kind of predictable. Not that long ago it seems I was running into people who liked him, maybe just because he's a head of state who called Bush a "devil," maybe because I was in art school in SF where everyone's far left... but now it's good to see evidence of resistance gaining strength, just before he attempts to become president for life. NY Times had a long article in the magazine written by someone a lot more friendly to the idea of nationalized industries than me and you can see how it was basically impossible for the author to frame Chávez's petrocracy in positive light.
He's ruining that country.

No holiday shopping season would be complete without a visit from Reverend Billy.

Celebrities really *are* funny. Aside from their wealth (well, that is if they can hold on to it), you really have to feel sorry for them. It's so sad what they become over time--I can't imagine most of them having their own persona any longer once a certain level of fame is achieved. They really make an enormous sacrifice--their soul--all for our viewing pleasure.

Ah, Oprah. She's such an easy target. I almost can't say anything any more because I feel so bad for her. You'll have to excuse me for a moment, I'm feeling nauseous.

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal..."

'This is the key document on climate change, and from now on you can forget any others you may have read or seen or heard about. This is the one that matters. It is the tightly distilled, peer-reviewed research of several thousand scientists, fully endorsed, without qualification, by all the world's major governments.'

Direct PDF download here.

"...for a decade and more, Fox has got away with an amazing thing: it can call itself a "straight" news channel even while everyone knows it's not. It's a great little racket. Every so often, a Toto comes along and tugs at the curtain - earlier this year, for instance, the Democratic presidential aspirants agreed that they would not participate in any debates hosted by Fox because there was no point in getting up there and being asked questions merely for the purpose of providing footage that the eventual Republican nominee could use against them. But these moments have been rare."

Army desertion rate highest since 1980.

I'm not surprised to hear of military desertion, but why the apparently arbitrary choice of comparison to 1980? What was going on in 1980 that makes it so worthy of scrutiny? Well, let's see...

"Soon, though, the hour comes to corrode all your power, pleasure and faith with the damp dread that it daily assigns you. How you evade it defines you."

From "The Hour" by Michael Lind (via The Writer's Almanac).

"Though initially excited about making universal health care a reality and putting an end to the Iraq war, the American people appeared visibly worn down after only three months of campaigning. According to Beltway observers, idealism among Americans began to fade after the first series of major televised debates in August, during which every citizen in every state realized they would have to compromise their core values in order to remain in the race."

Americans announce they're dropping out of the presidential race.

A recent report released by the Pew Charitable Trusts: 'Whereas children of white middle-income parents tend to exceed their parents in income, a majority of black children of middle-income parents fall below their parents in income and economic status.' (Washington Post story about it here.)

"Fox News shows more sexualized violence and humiliation than probably any other network -- all in the name of condemning it -- while under-showing violence in Iraq, all in the name of supporting it. After this video, smart viewers and advertisers will boycott Fox." -Gloria Steinem (via Digg)

Direct link to Quicktime video here.

This morning at the train station I crossed paths with a member of Team Jesus:

In this article, Sinking Currency, Sinking Country, Pat Buchanan attempts to explain the current devaluation of the dollar by placing most of the blame on the trade deficit (i.e., our propensity for foreign goods and services). His argument is not completely without merit, but he does not present a full picture of what is going on. Perhaps he is trying to distract people from, say, the United States' massive military budget. Although there is debate about the direction of causality, economists generally agree that there is a positive relationship between the federal budget deficit (caused in part by military spending) and the trade deficit.

Ok, so let me get this straight: Musharraf is curbing extremism by...

• Imposing martial law, and
• Suspending the constitution.

Sure, I get it. No ethical inconsistencies there...

American flag pins are for idiots.

Immortal living cells.

What Does a Non-Christian Look Like? (Previously: What to do if you find an atheist.)

Everybody’s talking about the “The Mom With $135,000 In Credit Card Debt Who Spends $400 A Month On Starbucks,” and they’re saying what a horrible, selfish person she is, and how irresponsible and gullible her husband is.

Fine, whatever, maybe it’s all true.

But why doesn’t everyone realize that the real asshole in the room is Oprah, who serves us this trashy voyeuristic schadenfreude?

A public crucifixion wasn’t necessary to help these people, neither was involving the world’s second most annoying person, Suze Orman.

Grumble, grumble, grumble (10/25/07).

Opensewer is sleeping (4/27/06).

"SOMETIMES PEOPLE in law enforcement will hear it whispered that I'm a former cop who favors decriminalization of marijuana laws, and they'll approach me the way they might a traitor or snitch. So let me set the record straight.
Yes, I was a cop for 34 years, the last six of which I spent as chief of Seattle's police department.
But no, I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and LSD." From LATimes.

"Poetry is difficult.... The idea that all it takes is to be encouraged - that, I'm afraid, is a barefaced lie. It takes talent and criticism and judgement to create great poetry, just as Keats knew when he first looked into Chapman's Homer."

Fom the Washington Post:

Early last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director."
"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

Energy cops, and really, all kinds of cops, it seems, abound in England. Nobody's Business has a list of crazy laws across the pond that make me scratch my head in wonder... though maybe I only wonder how long it will take before we have such tyranny of pettiness in the US...
Go ahead and share your "favorite" petty laws in the comments section, so we know you're out there.

I have been into the Frekonomics blog lately, and I dig their self-experimenting guest blogger of late, Seth Roberts.

Patrick Doherty on rebuilding New Orleans: Instead of reinforcing our failing 50-year experiment with the low-density suburb, the reconstruction of metropolitan New Orleans should be seen as an opportunity to correct the problems that not only caused the human poverty and physical vulnerability of this city, but to lead the way forward for all American metropolitan areas. ... This will entail integrating three concepts into a metropolitan redevelopment plan negotiated with the residents of New Orleans. The first is smart growth. The second is transit-oriented development. The third is distributed power generation.

"It is customary for followers of a cult not to know the real life story of their hero, the historical truth ... It is not surprising that Guevara’s contemporary followers, his new post-communist admirers, also delude themselves by clinging to a myth—except the young Argentines who have come up with an expression that rhymes perfectly in Spanish: 'Tengo una remera del Che y no sé por qué,' or 'I have a Che T-shirt and I don’t know why.'

From Meet the Press, Jefferson Parish President Andre Broussard blaming FEMA, the federal agency in charge of disaster relief:

[State and local officials like me were told] every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

(thanks to Hit&Run)

Leon Wynter's commentary yesterday on All Things Considered was one of the most insightful takes I've yet heard on the Katrina disaster (and by disaster I mean the socio-economic-racial disaster, not just the physical one).

Two chilling posts on the federal gov't's war on doctors. One here, and the second here. More links thru the links.