If it’s not Obama wanting to set the parameters of your earnings —
It’s Dr. Death Panels wanting to set the parameters of your life
By the time I reach 75, I will have lived a complete life. I will have loved and been loved. My children will be grown and in the midst of their own rich lives. I will have seen my grandchildren born and beginning their lives. I will have pursued my life’s projects and made whatever contributions, important or not, I am going to make. And hopefully, I will not have too many mental and physical limitations. Dying at 75 will not be a tragedy. Indeed, I plan to have my memorial service before I die. And I don’t want any crying or wailing, but a warm gathering filled with fun reminiscences, stories of my awkwardness, and celebrations of a good life. After I die, my survivors can have their own memorial service if they want—that is not my business.
Carousel!!
Am I being flip? I don’t think so …
Nor am I talking about waking up one morning 18 years from now and ending my life through euthanasia or suicide. Since the 1990s, I have actively opposed legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. People who want to die in one of these ways tend to suffer not from unremitting pain but from depression, hopelessness, and fear of losing their dignity and control. The people they leave behind inevitably feel they have somehow failed. The answer to these symptoms is not ending a life but getting help. I have long argued that we should focus on giving all terminally ill people a good, compassionate death—not euthanasia or assisted suicide for a tiny minority.
Now, if that seems contradictory, it is not. It is part and parcel of Emanuel’s support of State-run medical care using a rationing system based on “Complete Lives System” (see page 6 at PDF)
[note: I recall writing an analysis of Emanuel’s Lancet article sometime in 2010, but those posts were never recovered]
Emanuel’s current “Death begins at 76” soliloquy is more of the same that only the subset of the population who are healthy, productive and between ages of 15-55, deserve actual medical care, the rest will have to muddle through with some palliative care.
His bigotry against the elderly is pretty stark. First off, is his idea that old farts just are of little use to society
Even if we aren’t demented, our mental functioning deteriorates as we grow older. Age-associated declines in mental-processing speed, working and long-term memory, and problem-solving are well established. Conversely, distractibility increases. We cannot focus and stay with a project as well as we could when we were young. As we move slower with age, we also think slower.
It is not just mental slowing. We literally lose our creativity. […]
[T]he fact is that by 75, creativity, originality, and productivity are pretty much gone for the vast, vast majority of us. Einstein famously said, “A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.” He was extreme in his assessment. And wrong. Dean Keith Simonton, at the University of California at Davis, a luminary among researchers on age and creativity, synthesized numerous studies to demonstrate a typical age-creativity curve: creativity rises rapidly as a career commences, peaks about 20 years into the career, at about age 40 or 45, and then enters a slow, age-related decline. There are some, but not huge, variations among disciplines. Currently, the average age at which Nobel Prize–winning physicists make their discovery—not get the prize—is 48. Theoretical chemists and physicists make their major contribution slightly earlier than empirical researchers do. Similarly, poets tend to peak earlier than novelists do. Simonton’s own study of classical composers shows that the typical composer writes his first major work at age 26, peaks at about age 40 with both his best work and maximum output, and then declines, writing his last significant musical composition at 52.
Are you now to argue that even if at 76 you’ve suddenly lost your ability to meaningfully contribute to The Hive, you are still a valued member of your own family?
Perish the thought:
Living parents also occupy the role of head of the family. They make it hard for grown children to become the patriarch or matriarch. When parents routinely live to 95, children must caretake into their own retirement. That doesn’t leave them much time on their own—and it is all old age. When parents live to 75, children have had the joys of a rich relationship with their parents, but also have enough time for their own lives, out of their parents’ shadows.
It is your duty to die at 75 — Do it for your children.
I’d advise Emanuel’s parents to hire a food taster if they holiday at Ezekiel’s home.
I reserve the right to decide for myself when my life is complete. Bring that under contention and you will risk your own.
My ancestors found it easy: they moved, thus becoming heads of their own families in Kentucky, then Indiana, then Iowa, then California…
Of course, I have little doubt the Goduncle would love to put a stop to all this moving around, too.
Greetings:
My father used to have a witticism that he would use when one of my associates went beyond his pale. “Next time you see your parents,” he would say, “tell them I said they still have some work to do.”
There was once this piece back in 2009 “The Banality of Evil – The Health Care debate takes a dangerous turn” which now seems to only exist on the Wayback Machine.
The bean-counters are what’s wrong with our health care system. Replacing corporate ones with government ones solves nothing.
Replacing corporate ones with government ones solves nothing.
– Well it does avoid the sticky problem of ever getting anything right which sets a dangerous precedent in governmental circles.
– A really slow day in the newsroom over at Breitbarts: 200 protesters? Really?
– So one of his resident liar lap dogs finds yet another way to not answer any questions, but really it’s just more proof he’s leading as usual from behind since the just yesterday the Saudi’s had to counsel him on not tipping his hand as to future war plans. He probably reacted angrily but someone in his cabinet told him to clam up, and of course it won’t quiet the Left side lunatics but no news leaves them in limbo which is better than nothing for him right now since him and the WH are in full damage control mode and have been for months.
– This election cycle will be most interesting.
The bean-counters are what’s wrong with our health care system. Replacing corporate ones with government ones solves nothing.
Wait a minute. I’ve been a bean-counter in the health care field for 25 years, and this article sickens me to my core.
The problem isn’t bean-counters, as much as people who don’t value life. Like Zeke Emanuel. These people are megalomaniacs, no different than certain 20th century dictators.
I gladly Godwinned this thread, because it fits.
The bean-counters are what’s wrong with our health care system.
nah over regulation, bureaucracy. with increased computer power and advancing medical technology, there should be a lowering of costs.
IC, in your job are you empowered to essentially make medical decisions based on financial algorithms?
Those are the bean-counters I’m reviling. Clearly they’re not pervasive in the private sector, but the more the government gets involved the more inevitable they become.
And under single-payer they have more authority over medical decisionmaking than the doctors.
And I wrote my 6:22 without having seen newrouter’s, with which I agree. The more the government is involved in financing health care, the more the government gets to control it.
As for Zeke, I have to wonder how poisonous the parents must have been to bring forth such poisonous sons as him, Rahm and Ari.
via ace
How our botched understanding of ‘science’ ruins everything
If ‘Zeke really believes this drivel, he should consider doing us all a solid and ending it all now. You know, for his children…
Because I’m thinking that, contra his stated position, as that age draws near he’ll suddenly see the value in an elder generation sticking around…
Well, that is, if they’re his kind of people.
My regards to all
– Unfortunately science is the absolute best “tool” for the scam artists on the Left, since you can pass things off so easily as being presented by “experts” and get it by non-scientific people with ease. What the bastards will never do is admit they’re fucking agenda whores, hell bent on control.
– All amnesty should begin by dropping a couple dozen illegals off at each and every Progressive/Democrats house, maybe 50 or 100 if the person is wealthy, especially assholes like Bill Gates.
>Capital-S Science is the pursuit of capital-T Truth. And science is something that cannot possibly be understood by mere mortals.<
nah: "that cannot possibly be understood by mere mortals."; that 1/8" in 12 inches slope will direct rainfall away from the patio i'm building. it is clowns like mikey mann and "global warming peeps who destroy "science". because that slope is the TRUTH.
for the happyfeet
It featured three men and three unveiled women singing and dancing along to the four minute song in the street and rooftops of Tehran, mimicking the style of Pharrell’s official video.
link
Pharrell Williams – Happy (Official Music Video)
>The first time I heard the phrase, “Politics is downstream from culture”, I had no idea what it meant. After figuring it out, and explaining it to a few Conservatives, they dismissed the concept. The truth, however, is that it may be one of the most important phrases of the New Media Age, and it’s vital that people understand it. <
link
“Weird” Al Yankovic –Tacky
That piece, nr linked at 9:21pm, is in the same vein as comments I dropped, here and the longer version, here.
great. another fight over the definition of culture.
OT: Did you know that Attila the Hun not only laid more pipe than the Wabasha street dept., but he laid more pipe than Ghengis Khan?
– Wow, I had no idea Attila was that much of a womanizer.
I’ll believe him when he turns 75 and goes without a fight.
Damn redheaded milk-drinking-mutants and all their abandoned stepchildren.
Womanizer? And here I thought they were just great agriculturalists early on the irrigation bandwagon.
Before he sacked Rome he cased the joint, and he and his homeys were all, “Yo, Hun, whazzup?”
The ladies of Rome misunderstood…
– You can call me IS, and you can call me ISIL, and you can call me ISIS, and you can call me Daesh, but you doesn’t have to call me late for beheading’s.
NPR takes the whip to Bill Cosby today
that’ll learn him
Oh yes, the whip. It’s the negro punishment regiment, subsidized by goverment dollah.
I would volunteer to see Dr. Death does not live one day beyond 75 years old. If I have my way, it might take a while for the deed to take place.
Ha! I totally missed this earlier.
By the way, here’s a nice graph of previous kultur wars.
When I first saw this episode of Star Trek: TNG, I had hopes that they would overcome their whole “we mustn’t impose our values on other cultures and other races” schtick. Nope. Yet more proof that, although Patrick Steward can act circles around The Shat (PBUH), the Next Generation was a shallow reflection of the original.
Oh, and Zeke? Bite me.
I’ve heard that spoken to young miscreants as “You go find your Daddy and tell him you need your ass whipped”. I guess nowadays that just raises eyebrows… “Daddy? What’s that?”.
Trespassers
I remember that episode — and was pretty disgusted with it. I really stopped watching anything Star Trek other than the occasional original. in TNG the Borg won by default.
Besides, any episode that featured Troi’s mother (she of the unpronounceable first name) is damn near unwatchable anyway.
I thought Majel Barrett was hot as Nurse Chapel. She was just annoying in TNG.
Nice graph indeed, bh.
I’ve said it frequently: USA’s best days became rear-view-mirrorized right about the time Neal Armstrong kicked up a bit of dust. That fell straight down, down, down, with nary a swirl to show it ever even stirred.
That’s a pretty killer chart as well, serr8d.
Here’s another.
here is another chart what can’t but concern you
Here we can see how “principles” decay along with “constitution” but “values” rise along with “culture”.
ninjas have never really had their day
which means the day of the ninja has not yet come
That rise in “mutant” usage is fascinating.
rise in “mutant” usage is never good
we have to find leigh FAST
so find leigh fast, eschew Talcott Parsons faster.
How long has she been gone?
I’m not sure
awhile
it’s worrisome
Talcott Parsons has like the biggest wikipedia entry EVER
we can leverage this
One of the main longings one gets as a blog person is best expressed in the Blues Brothers movie. We want to get the band back together.
But it never works out. The band keeps taking small airplanes and heroin.
(Okay, it’s a stretch but it’s also sorta true.)
but she wouldn’t just leave something’s happened
something nefarious
Nah. I reckon she’s just reading a book or something.
(I don’t have her email address. I can get in touch with about a third of the people around here and she’s not on that list.)
Someone else might have her on that list though and there’s no reason they shouldn’t send a quick note seeing if she’s cool.
In fact, why not? People like getting emails from friendly peoples.
Parsons is knocking around my brain for some reason, btw. There are some footnotes somewhere there in the ol’ gray matter but I’m not putting my finger on it.
It was a 101 level thing. Not Weber but Veblen.
Damn it. It’s there on the tip of my brain.
i will check back
Nah, I don’t have it anymore. Recognition is easier than recall.
i been investigating the Chicago
here is a pdf
is a castle in a wee small village about an hour outside the city by train-machine
is beautiful in its way
it’s probably ok to investigate right up to the point it starts to investigate you back – attsa time to leave off.
i’m excited though
i never lived on that side of the mississippi my whole life
there will be many adventures
Sdferr, do you remember Parsons giving Veblen a poor reading in a decently published venue? I can swear it’s along that line but it might have just been a minor academic paper.
Do you have any recollection of this?
nope, I haven’t any recollection of Parsons on Veblen. I have read that Parsons was a crappy translator of Weber though.
Thanks. Ehhh, not that big a deal.
Think he was also a part of the tortured finessing of Veblen into their school but my poor recollection isn’t worth repeating unless it would be better remembered.
Hey!!!!!
Now looking back three years ago by email I do see Strauss criticizing Parsons over his translation of Weber!
So, yes! Let us also consider his reading of Veblen suspect in the paper that I can’t quite put my finger on.
7/3/11, sdferr.
Here‘s leigh’s most recent comment, apparently.
see something’s just awry
“Go to the mirror, boy.”
[…] Emanuel “I do think at a certain point you’ve lived long enough.” – See more at: https://proteinwisdom.com/?p=55115#sthash.kIOpsfEx.dpuf Yeah the doctor thinks you shouldn’t live longer than 75. You’ll notice he hasn’t […]