The Razor

I’m in my 10th year of blogging here at The Razor so I thought I would take a moment to gaze at my navel online in celebration of the anniversary.

The Razor – The Early Years
Although I have been active online since the days when one had to dial-in to an individual computer bulletin board to share information in what would later be called “the Internet,” I did not find my online voice until after September 11. In the aftermath of that tragedy I struggled to make sense of it like many Americans. I soon found Steven Den Beste and Glenn Reynolds, and an entire word filled with people who felt the same way as me. It took weeks to write anything, and when I did I staked out TheRazor.org and posted my first blog entry written in the HTML editing software Dreamweaver 3.0. Later I discovered PHPNuke which made posting easier, and later still, WordPress.

The Razor has two types of posts: those dealing with political or social topics and those that are more personal. I founded The Razor to discuss the former topics, and the early posts deal predominantly with the war on Terror, Islam, Israel and the invasion of Iraq. The latter is  a whole set of sentimental and observational posts about dying animals, rural life, and other personal matters. That second voice has developed over the past 6 years or so and can be best illustrated in this 2005 post about a trip to a funeral home after my father-in-law passed away.

There were urns for the cremated, ranging from a grey slate pressboard box to cloisonné and marble vases. There were pieces of jewelry that held small amounts of cremains (an absolute must for Goths if you ask me, vials of blood being so cliche). There were the corners of coffins bolted to the walls to show their quality and workmanship. Prices ranged from the Sauder or O’Sullivan pressboard type for $175 to $6000 for polished steel hermetically sealed coffins that looked like you could launch them from a photon torpedo tube into space without scratching or denting them or damaging their contents. Pictures of families – all white because I suppose minorities don’t grieve for their dead or don’t die – hung next to the coffins, discussing the qualities of their construction and how they added to the memories of the deceased.

The Impact of Facebook
There are a lot more short observation posts earlier in the blog than later due to the arrival of Facebook. Facebook has changed blogs for the better. It has cleaned up the blogosphere by drawing away those who used blogs to post about what they watched last night on TV or ate this morning for breakfast, leaving bloggers to write about deeper issues that can’t be addressed in less than 140 characters. After I signed up with Facebook, I moved most of my banter over there and left the longer, heavier stuff here. Facebook posts are ephemeral, and I hope that these posts have more staying power.

The Power of Blogs
Growing up I was an avid reader of newspapers and particularly enjoyed reading columnists like Mike Royko, Art Buchwald and Bob Greene. Royko in particular had a talent for taking an important and complex political event or concept and explaining its impact on everyday people without condescending. I was impressed by the fact that these writers often advocated for the powerless against the powerful, often making enemies in the process (for example, check out this letter Frank Sinatra wrote to Royko in 1976 that made an episode of Antiques Roadshow). They did so every week and usually under 1000 words. These men epitomized what Freedom of the Press meant, and proved that the written word had power. To a bright skinny kid writing stories and poems with political themes, these men were heroes – proof that you didn’t have to be physically strong to be powerful. All you needed was passion, wit and determination to take on powerful interests like a corrupt judge or a soulless bureaucracy. That, and the ability to write in 1000 words or less to make room for the Heloise’s Hints column and the daily crossword.

Over the past 10 years I have watched blogs breaking scandals like RatherGate, the various sexting scandals of congressmen, and now Fast and Furious, the most important scandal since Watergate. Citizen journalism hasn’t killed mainstream journalism, as many bloggers including myself would have liked, but it didn’t obfuscate the truth either, as many paid journalists had hoped. Bloggers tend to be passionate about subjects they know a lot about, and many are experts in their fields. Journalists have to come up to speed on their topic and can miss clues and details that an expert eye can catch. The two are most likely going to coexist, with bloggers doing more investigative-type stories that eventually catch fire and are reported by the professional journalists. Or not. Given the failure of professional journalists to run with Fast and Furious and worse, writing hit-pieces on those investigating the scandal, perhaps bloggers will squeeze professional journalists from one side and wire stories from the other, popping the field of professional journalism like an overripe tomato in between them.

The Writing Process
Unfortunately writing doesn’t come easy to me. Looking back on my childhood I probably suffered from a form of autism. Each sentence, sometimes each word, is a challenge. Speaking is even more difficult unless I find a valley of lucidity, usually on a topic I know thoroughly, and then I can ramble on without difficulty.

What has eased this process is the comradeship I have gained as a member of the Watcher’s Council. This group of talented writers encourages me to write something worth reading every week, and has helped build a work ethic that makes writing easier and its output of higher quality. Many pieces also derive from discussions with friends, whose differing opinions often challenge my beliefs more often than not. Like most conservatives I know, my friends tend to be liberals. Perhaps it’s because as the Wife says, “Conservatives are what Liberals grow up to be,” so in another ten years they’ll all be watching Fox News and reading memoirs of Reagan. Some of my favorite essays originated as a verbal challenge across a cafeteria table or in email or Facebook exchanges.

Regrets
Looking back my biggest regret is the name of this blog, when combined with its domain name, is too obtuse. Ockham’s Razor has been an important tool in my personal philosophy, but it’s just one of many and has it’s limits as has been analyzed to death in this thread. Names are important and should not be left to whim. They should be carefully thought out for weeks and shared with others for their opinions before they are released to the public because once you select one, you are stuck with it. Unfortunately all the “good” descriptive URLs were taken 10 years ago when I dreamed up this site, so I ended up with a domain that sounds like it’s an organization for shaving fetishists. Yep, biggest regret of the past decade for sure.

Another is my failure to “make it big.” During my time here I have seen the rise of Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart/Big Government, Glenn Reynolds, Michael Totten, Michael Yon, Bill Roggio and Pajamas Media. All of these people and groups are fantastic, and I don’t begrudge them their successes for an instant. When I started this blog I had hoped that it would lead to a job as a columnist on a newspaper, or at least make me well known on the Internet. That was what my ego wanted, and it’s not what I got. I do have readers, and I’m grateful for each and every one of them. But what I write is too personal to be popular. Whenever I have tried to write for success the writing sounds tinny, fake and is complete garbage. The past 10 years have taught me that I dance to the beat of a different drum machine and it shows in my writing. I write because I need to express myself, not to please an audience. That is death to a writer’s popularity.  So that’s Regret #2.

Finally, before 9-11 I had been extremely sympathetic to Islam. I had lived and traveled in Africa and Asia and befriended many Muslims including one of the kindest and most inspirational people I have ever met. I believed that Islam was a religion of Peace.

9-11 changed that. Try as the Palestinians have to remove videos showing the celebrations in Gaza and the West Bank they cannot erase from my mind their dancing in the streets. It was the first of many incidents that lead to my informal education on Islam, and what I have learned has changed my approach to Islam and the Muslim community. Prior to 9-11 I had wondered what motivated a few to attack in Islam’s name. Since I have learned the question we should be asking is what keeps most Muslims from attacking in Allah’s name. As a writer at StrategyPage puts it, “Moslems like to describe their faith as the “religion of peace.” But in practice it is the religion of intolerance, violence and coercion.” Learning this truth is a bitter regret, but a necessary one.

No Regrets
I don’t regret backing either the Afghanistan or Iraq war. I don’t regret switching parties. I still think Donald Rumsfeld was the best Secretary of Defense since Henry Stimson was FDR’s Secretary of War and that what David Petraeus accomplished in Iraq was victory, purging the military of the last vestiges of the stench of failure in Vietnam. I don’t regret supporting President Bush in the Global War on Terror, nor do I regret opposing his efforts to make the federal government bigger by creating such monstrosities as the Department of Homeland Security and its bastard step-child, the TSA.

Most Popular Posts
For all of my ranting and raving about politics and economics, I am the King of Gerbils. As of this writing there are 777 comments in that thread mostly from kids worried about their pet rodents. Having had the critters for a few years I helped the kids as best as I could, but gave the gerbils up when I moved to North Carolina and have no intention of having them again. I appreciate the irony that for all my serious posts, all the well-thought out arguments on important topics of the day, I am most famous for rodent care.

I have been linked by Instapundit 5 times: This 2011 anniversary post (thanks Glenn!) (2011),  Carbon Footprint of UN Conference (2007), a Global Warming bumpersticker (2007), Help the South Rise Again (2005),  and his first mention of the site in 2003, Where Machiavelli meets Occam? That only makes sense because I used to write under the nom de guerre of Nic Machiavelli. Try as I might I haven’t gotten Glenn’s attention since even though the Global Warming piece is the only one I think worthy of an Instalanche. So many other posts are more deserving but the Internet, she is fickle, and so is Glenn Reynolds.

Most Overlooked Posts
The post that started it all and I haven’t seen another one like it. Americans forget the silence after that 9-11 attacks. Bin Laden and his merry crew of goat fellators didn’t claim responsibility for the attacks for several months. In that silence the Left got downright weird. I remember seeing some enviro-nut claim the attacks were about our raping the environment. The attacks presented that nut with a Rorschach Test and his response was all about him, not the attackers – and that’s the way the Left continues to view 9-11. It, along with the Paulista paleo-conservatives on the Right, ignore what jihadists like al Qaeda have been saying for decades. They simply don’t listen to them and accept that the attacks occurred because we do not believe in their god. It is an existential issue for al Qaeda and the jihadists; they cannot share the same world as us and so will either destroy us by converting or killing us or die trying. I don’t understand how Jihadists can say “convert or die”, liberals hear “we don’t understand you” and Ron Paul hears “leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone.”

Hell’s Newsstand also gets overlooked. It contains a selection of mixed media ideas based on events in the news. It also expresses my inner Jann Wenner – the magazine magnate part, not the Obama worshiping like Jesus one…

Conclusion
Birthdays are personal, but they are also public milestones. For a person a birthday celebrates not dying the previous year, for a blog it celebrates not going dark. Even though The Razor hasn’t landed me a job at a conservative think tank or a guest appearance on Fox News, it has taken me on a journey of observation tempered with a touch of self-reflection that I enjoy too much to stop. I am content here with my regular readers and the occasional new visitor who stops by. This online journal keeps me watching the world and the people in it, and without it I am afraid that I would turn my back and completely disconnect from it. Perhaps someday I will do that, but not today, and especially not when a new submission for the Watcher’s Council is due Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by. There’s some cake left in the kitchen (hope you don’t mind the gerbils)...

I don’t normally give financial advice but here’s a hot tip: short accounting stocks. H&R Block, Deloitte, McGladrey, heck, even Intuit, producer of Turbo-Tax – short them all. Why? Because the progressives believe they are under-taxed. That’s right! Progressives believe they aren’t giving enough back to the government, as Massachusetts Democrat Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren explains in a recent video that went viral on Youtube (h/t Joshuapundit).

So if progressives believe they are under-taxed, they don’t need accountants. They can simply set their W-4 to the maximum amount of withholding by claiming 0 dependents, and then when April 15th rolls around, they just have to write down the amount withheld on their 1040s as the amount of tax due. If they really believe the government spends their money well, they can even include a tip – by adding, say, 15% to the amount of taxes owed.  They don’t need to buy expensive software or hire high-priced accountants. They don’t even need to worry about deductions or other loopholes to reduce their tax burden. Simply withhold the max, add a tip, and they are done!

Of course this will mean a bump in unemployment as George Soros, Solyndra backer George Kaiser, LightSpeed investor and Obama golf buddy Philip Falcone, Warren Buffet and other wealthy progressives fire the legions of tax lawyers and accountants they use to shelter their wealth, although to be fair, they could keep a few on staff to calculate their taxes since Buffett in particular doesn’t seem very good at math. The Wizard of Omaha might think he is taxed less than his secretary, but the New York Post found that he failed to include corporate taxes on his investments, turning that 15% he thought he pays into a more Socialist-friendly 45%. Soros might even chip in a few extra percent earmarked for Israel to help salve his conscience over helping the Nazis during the Holocaust (that is, if he has one). We could even set aside a few hundred million to train those lost souls for new careers in the burgeoning field of green jobs that the Obama administration so zealously touts. They must pay well because the Washington Post reported they cost the US taxpayers $5 million each!

Since Democrats on the whole are wealthier than Republicans [(assuming Democrat=Progressive which is fair given the party’s purges in the mid-2000s)], the Treasury should expect a windfall of tens of billions of dollars next year. Progressives can even boost their taxes even more by simply following my advice now and shorting these stocks (or better yet, buying puts on them in the options market – but Progressives know all about those). If enough do, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and they end up with even more cash that the IRS can tax. Everybody wins! Well, everyone except for the poor Indian accountant that loses his job when Deloitte goes belly-up. But his carbon footprint was growing too quickly anyway, and the improved diet for his kids just meant that they’d grow up to be Little Eichmanns fat like Americans. Better for the environment that they die of treatable diseases on the farm instead. Besides, we wouldn’t want to pollute their traditional culture with ours.

As a Global War on Terror supporter, I’ll even thank the Progressives for keeping the military-industrial machine humming so that my friends in the Armed Forces can continue their roles as travel agents to Allah. Sure some of that money will end up in the pockets of a few union chiefs like Dennis Gannon who worked a single day and received $158k pensions for life. But that was a heckuva day as Gannon will no doubt tell you. Who said you can’t take it with you? Certainly not the deceased receiving half a billion dollars in benefits payments according to a recent report by the Office of Personnel Management. Thanks to your generosity no one – including the dead – will go without and you can rest assured they won’t vote Republican.

This article first appeared at American Thinker, September 30, 2011.

A recent study in the journal “Health Affairs” compared physicians in the United States with those in Europe, Australia and Canada and concluded that higher physician fees, including those by primary care physicians (PCPs), were the main reason for escalating health care costs in the US. In short the authors of the study Miriam Laugesen, an associate professor at Columbia University, and Sherry Glied, appointed in June 2010 by the Obama administration to the position of assistant health secretary for planning and evaluation, believe doctors are overpaid.

In a statement after the study was announced, Glied tried distance the Obama administration from the study, saying that the study did not reflect the administration’s views. Laugesen has targeted physicians in the past. In her 2009 paper “Siren Song” she compared Congress to Ulysses as being unable to resist the siren song of physicians groups. Glied’s work has been no less controversial, penning a study that found “substantial racial/ethnic disparities in satisfaction with care,” implying physicians were racists.

I presented the study findings to the head of a non-profit hospital. S/he believes that this study is the first shot by the Obama administration in a war against physicians to cut health care costs by cutting Medicare payments. There is currently a bill in Congress recommending a 29% decrease in Medicare physician fees, and s/he believes that the Obama administration will use this study to negotiate a “compromise” cut of 10-15%. Since private insurance increasingly use the Relative Value Unit (RVU) method to determine their own reimbursement schedules, this would have the effect of cutting payments not just for Medicare but to private insurance payers as well.

It is ironic that doctors would find themselves targeted by the Obama administration. The American Medical Association endorsed Obamacare, much to the dismay of a large portion of its members. Although the Association tried to walk back its support two years later, the AMA finds itself in the sights of the administration that got what it needed from the group, and Republicans who view the organization as providing the cover the bill needed at the critical time when it could have been killed. Suddenly doctors find themselves with few friends on either side of the aisle.

Laugesen and Glied’s study design suffers from errors of omission and faulty assumptions although it was extensively cited by the press. First, it didn’t mention the cost of malpractice insurance, which averages $12,500 per year for primary care physicians but is tiny in countries with national health systems that do not award large payouts.. Second, it called the cost of medical school in the US “negligible”. Medical school abroad is often free but American doctors graduate  $180,000 in debt that will cost each $400,000 in taxable income to pay off over 15 years after the loan is capitalized and taxes are included. Next the study compared Medicare payments with private insurance payments, but didn’t consider Medicaid which pays on average a third less than Medicare for the same treatment.

What is the average pay for a primary care physician in 2011? Statistics vary. It should be no surprise that health care personnel placement firms report higher salaries since placement firms encourage lucrative starting salaries so that they can get a bigger cut after they place a doctor. But this overstates salaries since most doctors earn these starting salaries for a fixed time and are then placed on productivity – whereby their salaries fluctuate depending on the number of patients they see and the procedures they perform in a quarter as translated into RVU’s. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median income for family and general practitioners in 2011 of $163,510.

If salaries are the main driver of escalating costs shouldn’t they escalate? A 2006 study by the Center for Studying Health System Change reported that in 1995 the average salary for a primary care physician was $135,036. By 2003 that figure had risen to $146,405, but adjusting for inflation by using 1995 dollars, the 2003 salary was $121,262, a 10.1% decrease in just 8 years. Translated into 1995 dollars, the BLS 2011 median income of $163,510 becomes $110,299. Primary care physician salaries have actually declined over the past 16 years. Even Laugesen and Glied’s fantastic average of $186,582 is the equivalent of just $125,862 in 1995 dollars, below the 1995 average of $135,036 reported in the 2006 study (see chart below).

According to the Department of Health and Human Services in 1995 the per capita national health expenditure was about $3,950. In 2009 the per capita expenditure was $8,086 – $5,744 in 1995 dollars. Health care costs are soaring – that’s a rise in 14 years of 45% beyond inflation, but Laugesen and Glied’s conclusion is wrong. How can primary care physicians be the main drivers of higher US spending on health care when their earnings have fallen not risen?

Medicine is a business, but for some reason doctors are penalized when they begin to treat it like one. As the high ranking member of the non-profit hospital states, “Relating the income to the costs born by physicians is a silly comparison….That isn’t ever done for the lawyers is it?”

Doctors aren’t to blame for the health care system mess, but they will soon find themselves held responsible by an administration that got what it needed from them two years ago and now finds them expendable.