Did you unnecessarily remove anyone’s tonsils today?

Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill – including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects – the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.

In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented. Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever – a change in Medicare payment policy – to help drive necessary improvements in American health care. Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.

Recently, President Obama was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC and had the following to say about the Mayo Clinic:

SAWYER: …patients. It is time for Americans to recognize they’re going to get fewer scans, fewer procedures, fewer tests, because the vicious cycle has to stop?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think what’s important is to say to the American People that you should get the best possible care to make you well. And that the measure of the quality of care is not quantity, but whether or not it is making you better. Now, what we’ve seen is that there’s some communities and some health systems that do this very well. Mayo Clinic, a classic example. In Rochester, Minnesota. People go there. They…spend about 20-30 percent less than some other parts of the country, and yet have better outcomes. And in other cases, you’ve got more spending, worse outcome. So, what we’ve said is let’s put out the research. Let’s study and figure out what works and what doesn’t. And let’s encourage doctors and patients to get what works. Let’s discourage what doesn’t. Let’s make sure that our payment incentives allow doctors to do the right thing. Because sometimes our payment incentives don’t allow them to do the right things. And if we do that, then I’m confident that we can drive down costs significantly.

1. Humanities
2. Communication
3. Christian Thought & Worldview
4. Bible Study & Discipleship of the Heart

Within each category I have determined subcategories, and these subcategories produce my reading lists.

In this, the first post of hopefully many to come, I will lay out my first “Currently Reading” list.  By doing this it will hopefully give you encouragement to formulate your own plan, and also help myself to become accountable!  I have entitled my plan: The Wisdom and Eloquence Campaign.  Keep in mind that the foundation and anchor of this list is my daily Bible reading.  Perhaps later I will describe in more detail how I have come up with my plan.  In the mean time check out this post from Justin Taylor entitled, On Disciplined Reading.

Christian Thought & Worldview

• Wisdom And Eloquence: A Christian Paradigm For Classical Learning by Littlejohn and Evans
• The Consequences of Ideas by R.C. Sproul
• No Place For Truth by David Wells
• How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Fall of Western Culture by Francis Schaeffer
• Spurgeon: A New Biography by Dallimore
• How To Read A Book by Adler

Bible Study and Discipleship of the Heart

• An Introduction to the New Testament by D.A. Carson and Douglas Moo
• The Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept by Mark Dever
• Unlocking The Bible Omnibus: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible by David Pawson
• The Glory of Christ by John Owen (Puritan Paperback Version)
• Knowing God by J.I. Packer
• Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions by Arthur Bennett

Humanites

• Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin
• The New Medicine: Life and Death After Hippocrates by Nigel Cameron
• Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics
• Atlas of Pediatric Physical Diagnosis
• Comprehensive Pediatric Hospital Medicine
• Practical Strategies in Pediatric Diagnosis and Therapy
• The Harriet Lane Handbook
• The Philadelphia Guide: Inpatient Pediatrics
• Neonatology: Management, Procedures, On Call Problems, Diseases, Drugs
• www.uptodate.com

Communication

• This will expand at a later date

For FY 2008 the US balance sheet showed 1.974 Trillion in Assets.  We also had 12.178 Trillion in Liabilities.  This alone is frightening but lets focus a little more on what makes up the liabilities.  $5.8 Trillion is really the part that matters because this is public debt.  To put this one way for every 1 dollar of public debt we have a little over 30 cents of assets to cover it.  Granted the US government can’t liquidate and sell off everything but the point is we have some issues.  The State of Virginia has about $2 dollars of assets for every $1 in liabilities.  Canada has $1.5 worth of assets for every $1 of liabilities.  Those are just two examples to show how extreme the US currently is.

Now I understand that some might read this and say this isn’t the best measurement of the financial position of a country but it does give you a rough idea that something is not right and brings me to my main point.

China owns about $740 Billion of our debt or almost 40% of our total federal assets.  Japan owns $635 billion of our debt or almost 35% of our total federal assets.  China and Japan basically own our country without acting on it.

Hopefully people will read this and understand that we can’t live like this forever.  The day will come when the bill comes due and if we don’t take action soon the current economy will seem like a boom time in comparison.

The easiest way to enjoy a mostly ad-free web browsing experience is to use a web browser that can effectively eliminate advertisements. Web browsers are the programs that one uses to access the internet. Web browsers ship with most personal computers by default. For example, Windows users are likely familiar with Internet Explorer, the web browser that ships with the Windows operating system. Programs that come with your computer by default are not necessarily the best programs available, and such is the case with Internet Explorer. We at Matters of Truth use and recommend another web browser: Mozilla Firefox.

Firefox is a very popular and free open source web browser, and one of its many features allows users to add to its default functions by installing extensions or add-ons. Enough people appear to be fed up with the overabundance of annoying web advertising that someone created a Firefox extension that will block most advertisements. Below is a step-by-step tutorial that should get you on your way to an ad-free web browsing experience.

An Example:

By visiting Matters of Truth’s facebook page, we will show you what you will be able to do with Firefox.

First, a look at what that page looks like normally:

Next, a look at what the same page looks like using the ad-blocking method described below:

As you may notice, the advertisement bar that appears to the right in the first image is missing in the second.  The result: a pleasant, ad-free browsing experience.

What You Will Need:

1. An installed copy of the Firefox web browser.  Head on over to Mozilla, download Firefox, and install it.

The Steps:

Step 1:

Once you have installed Firefox, the next thing you need to do is open it by clicking on the Firefox shortcut. This shortcut will most likely be located on your desktop, as shown below:

Step 2:

Once you open Firefox, navigate to the add-ons link by clicking “Tools” in the top menu, as shown below:

This brings up the add-ons menu.  Make sure “Get-Add-ons” is selected.

Step 3:

The add-ons menu includes a search bar that says “Search All add-ons.”  Enter the term “Adblock Plus” and press enter.  You may get several results, but the one we want is simply called “Adblock Plus,” and will probably be the first result on the list.  Select it, and click “Add to Firefox,” as shown below:

Step 4:

Once you click on “Add to Firefox,” an installation window will open, and a countdown will begin.  Double check that you are installing the Adblock Plus extension, and once the countdown reaches zero, click on “Install Now.”

Step 5:

Firefox will install Adblock Plus.  When it finishes, it will ask you to “Restart Firefox to complete your changes.”  Do you really want ad-free browsing?  Then, by all means, restart your browser.  You can quickly do so by simply clicking the “Restart Firefox” button.

Step 6:

Upon restart, Firefox will inform you that you have successfully added an add-on.  How about that.  A web browser that pats you on the back whenever you do something right.  What could be better?  At some point, you will see the Adblock Plus filter subscription menu.  It is important that you select a filter and click “Subscribe.”  The one I use is “EasyList (USA),” and it works wonderfully.

Closing Comments:

Congratulations!  You will now be able to browse the internet in a mostly ad-free environment.  I say “mostly” because, though the default settings in Adblock Plus are very effective at removing most advertisements, some ads manage to slip through.  Additionally, sometimes Adblock Plus is overzealous and blocks something it should not.  Perhaps we will do another tutorial explaining some of the tricks one can use to squash those few advertisements that get through Adblock, as well as one explaining how to tell it to stop blocking something.

Did you like this tutorial?  Let us know in the comments.  Are you having problems with the tutorial?  You can also tell us those in the comments as well.

As time goes by, we will be adding to and tweaking our site. For now, we’ll jump into the blogoshpere and see what happens.

I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?”

To which I respond:

The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky
Puts camels through a needle’s eye.
And if his wisdom see it mete,
He will put worlds inside a tweet.

Follow him over at johnpiper.

Click Here to Read Article

Click here to view the embedded video.

The following is some background information from Christianity Today:

Douglas Wilson is author of Letter from a Christian Citizen, senior fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews College, and minister at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. He is also the editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine and has written (among other things) Reforming Marriageand A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking. His Blog and Mablog site inevitably makes for provocative reading.

Christopher Hitchens wrote, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve Books). Hitchens is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a visiting professor of liberal studies at the New School. He is the author of numerous books, Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man,” Letters To a Young Contrarian, and Why Orwell Matters. He was named, to his own amusement, number five on a list of the “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Britain’s Prospect.

The following is a preview.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HT: Justin Taylor