Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

I’ve decided to start a new campaign to ensure universal health care insurance in the US. As with anything that includes the word “universal”, this will require the efforts of a large number of people. I’ve already written my Congressman, the Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz, to let him know how I think he should look at this. He wrote back to tell me he stands behind me 100%:

Thank you for contacting me regarding important issues that we are facing in the 108th Congress. As always, it is a pleasure to hear from you.

It is always valuable to hear from the citizens whom I represent in the 27th District of Texas. Your opinions are always welcome and instrumental in gauging the pulse of my constituents on significant matters that come before the Congress for consideration. Please be assured that when the full House of Representatives debates these issues in the 108th Congress, I will keep your views clearly in mind.

Once again, thank you for contacting me about these issues. Please feel free to contact me whenever you have an interest in an issue at the federal level.

Now, who can argue with that? Is the man sincere, or what? He is all over those issues, as is obvious from his letter.

Back to universal health care! Every state requires people who own a vehicle to have insurance on that vehicle. We can now solve the problem of health insurance in exactly the same way. Only this time, we’ll do it right. I think the Congress needs to get off its collective butt and write a new law requiring everyone in the United States to purchase health insurance.

Problem solved, and solved in a way that will satisfy everyone, just as mandatory car insurance has solved the problems of uninsured motorists and the rising cost of car repair.

Write your Congressman today!

Whatever happened to the Separation of Church and State?

To me, the Sierra Club has always been a group of wealthy people who want to keep wilderness areas to themselves. There are many common folk who have joined the organization because they believe in the purported mission. But all the activists seem to be they type who can take off when they want to and be transported by helicopter to some remote area for a weekend with nature.

Most of us don’t have that luxury, and that’s just the way they like it.

I remember a special on television about a remote area in Idaho or Washington which is owned by one of the local tribes. It is beautiful, a forested Eden next to a crystal river. The tribe wants to develop the area. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and his friends at the Sierra Club don’t want to see that happen. Right now, the only access is by helicopter or a hike through the mountains for a day or two. So, most of us will never have the chance to visit this place, but Junior can take his private jet and charter a helicopter to get there any time he wants.

Thomas Sowell writes of a similar issue at Yosemite.

Groups like the Sierra Club and other environmental zealots have for years been trying to reduce the number of people visiting our national parks. They seem to think that our national parks are their own private property, and that it would be best if the unwashed masses are kept out as much as possible, leaving the backpackers to enjoy these parks in seclusion.

I haven’t been there myself since the mid 60s, but think it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I understand, though, that it was overrun not long after I visited by flower children from Frisco wanting to get back to nature. They trashed it. It has since regained its status as a place for all Americans, but the Sierra Club and other environmental groups continue to try to limit visitors by getting laws enacted to restrict vehicular traffic–the only way to get there unless you can canoe up the Merced river.

Teddy Roosevelt’s vision was to have nature retained in its glory for all Americans to enjoy. Maybe the Feds should make helicopters available to us all.