I’m not suggesting that our leaders don’t know what they are doing. Just that they don’t know that unintended consequences follow their actions.

1950, Dayak people of Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization (WHO) sprayed DDT to kill the mosquitoes and Malaria declined. Then thatch roofs started collapsing. A wasp that had controlled the caterpillars that ate thatch was killed by the DDT. In fact, the DDT killed insects were eaten by geckos who were eaten by cats. Now the cats started to die. Yet, the rats ran rampant causing outbreaks of typhus and plague. The WHO parachuted 14,000 live cats into Borneo.

This is too obvious. From the New York Times.

Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs,… which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment…. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors’ purchase price.

Full Speed Ahead

A torpedo was constructed to detonate if it turned 180 degrees. The ship fired it and it stuck in the tube. When the ship attempted to return to its port city, the torpedo detonated.

Got A Dog In This Race?

Why do more states pass higher on their state tests than the Federal No Child Left Behind test (NCLB). Because the Federal government allows the states to write their own tests for compliance wit NCLB. Sanction fall to those state don’t have students pass.

States don’t want to lose money so easy tests are written. The Federal government likes to show itself as promoting public education. It gets to claim states are improving.

Business would love competent employees. Test writing companies love the revenue from writing for all states. Unions want easier tests to prevent failing schools from closing. Liberals want no national test period. Conservatives want no intrusion into State control of schools and curriculum.

So NCLB law is gamed and funds wasted.

They Were Our Friends?

1. Colonel Manuel Noriega


2. Saddam Hussein


3. Mujaheddin in Afghanistan


• Osama bin Laden


• Taliban


4. Allied support of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh against the Japanese in WWII.

Maybe He Didn’t Know?

Obama stated over and over the law would bring competition to health care, which would in turn lower the price of health insurance. Principal Financial Group in Des Moines had just announced that it was exiting the health insurance business. Some 800,000 will lose insurance. The reason is that the company doesn’t want to make further investment to meet a government mandate. Which was that an insurance company needed to spend 80% of premiums on medical expenses. The cost of doing business and making a profit is only 20% in the government’s eyes.

The law has no impact on insurance companies or non-profit or government sponsored firms.