“We  uphold the ethical and moral teachings
      of the Catholic Church in all policies and
      practices.”
                    Holy Cross, Sisters of Mercy Mission Statement   
                   
        Healthcare  - Jesus Style
                Medicare Charges  
            Heart Failure & Shock 
                 (MS-DRG 293-292-291)

                  Holy Cross              Cleveland Clinic      Shands
                 Fort Lauderdale    Weston                     U of Florida    
                  $37,065                   $20,247                    $23,535         
                  SOURCE: www.ahd.com

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoCPuhhE6dw

   Medical Ethics.
   Here in America, that’s a grotesque contradiction in terms.
   Sort of like Military Intelligence.
   Or Free Elections.
   Anyhow…
   Next month I will be 74 years old.
   Or, more properly, “74 years of age” – “old” having become a politically incorrect pejorative in modern America’s death phobic culture.
   Now…
   With more than three score and ten-plus years under my belt, odds are my bio-machinery could Go South any day.
    Or, to be more specific, let’s say my cardio plumbing gets clogged to the point where I’d need quadruple by-pass surgery – which carries an average retail sticker price of $50,000-plus.
   Not that hospitals and surgeons will get anywhere near that if you have insurance.
  Which I do – thanks to Medicare and a private supplement.
  But suppose I’m a 38-year-old Fort Lauderdale bartender facing an early death due to his terminally clogged cardio-plumbing.
   What’s more, being like a lot of South Florida folks in their 30’s, suppose I have no health care insurance. Plus I have two young kids at home. And a house worth way, way less than its mortgage.
   All of which brings us to today’s puzzler regarding Medical Ethics as a flaming oxymoron:

  Like who will undergo life-saving quadruple by-pass surgery first?
  This 74 year-old geezer blessed with a healthy combination of government-financed and private health care insurance?
   Or the uninsured, 38-year-old Fort Lauderdale bartender with two kids?

   Pose that sad scenario to your head-up-their-ass elected official the next time they ask for your vote.

Amount Wagered 2009-2011 
      Florida Racino* Slot Machines

                          2009              2010                2011
July - Bet         $200,134,701  $393,335,130  $464,225,804     134%
$ for State      $7,749,488      $9,495,989      $11,007,328        42%
Total Slots       3,733               5,627               5,403                  
Bet per Slot     $53,612           $69,901           $85,920               60%
Bet per Racino $50,003,675   $78,667,026   $92,845,160         86%
August - Bet   $191,904,666  $358,693,998  $413,881,698      116%
$ for State      $7,423,991      $8,526,546      $9,702,463          31%
Total Slots       3,697               5,518               5,403                   
Bet per Slot     $51,908           $65,004           $76,602               48%  
Bet per Racino$47,976,166   $71,738,800    $82,776,340        35%
Sept.  - Bet     $186,078,787  $336,500,472  $417,546,838      124%
$ for State      $6,867,617      $8,425,204      $9,979,216          45%
Total Slots       3,678               5,392               5,384                  
Bet per Slot     $50,592           $62,407           $77,553               53%
Bet per Racino  $46,519,697   $67,300,094    $83,509,368       80%
Oct. - Bet        $255,365,185  $365,477,793  $437,037,425      71%
$ for State      $9,345,413      $9,522,603      $10,545,725        13%
Total Slots       4,055               5,380               5,391
Bet Per Slot      $62,975           $67,933          $81,068               29%
Bet per Racino $63,841,296   $73,095,559    $87,407,485       37%
Nov. - Bet       $268,809,433  $371,462,207  $457,671,034     70%
$ for State      $10,375,154    $9,616,259      $10,896,689       5%
Total Slots       4,372               5,365               5,390                 
Bet per Slot     $61,484            $69,238          $84,911               38%
Bet per Racino $67,202,358   $74,292,441   $91,534,207         36%
Dec. - Bet        $284,769,093  $382,224,152  $374,266,761      31%
$ for State      $10,905,446    $9,787,343      $9,117,482         (16%)           
Total Slots       4,346               5,365               5,354
Bet per Slot     $65,524           $71,244           $69,904                 7%           
Bet per Racino $71,192,273   $76,444,830    $74,853,352          5%
*Racinos:         Gulfstream    Gulfstream     Gulfstream
                           Mardi Gras  Mardi Gras     Mardi Gras
                           Pompano     Pompano        Pompano
                           Flagler**      Flagler             Flagler
                                                Calder                    Calder
                           **Flagler open October, November, December
SOURCE: Florida Dept. of Business and Professional Regulation
                 Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering

     The best thing about being genuinely stupid is you’ll never be embarrassed by your ignorance.
    This timeless truth was reaffirmed once again at during a panel discussion on the pros and cons of mega resort casinos at a Tower Club Forum in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
    Sponsored by the Sun-Sentinel, the debate boiled down to:
    Pro - Las Vegas- style mega resort casinos might attract more tourists.
    Con– Even two or three mega -casinos might damage Florida’s hotel and restaurant industry as well as the state’s current gambling facilities.
    As in the case of most public policy debates these days, the operative word “might” infected both sides of the mega-casino issue.
     Thus, after nearly an hour of general questions and even more general answers, the 140-plus members of the Tower Club audience remained just as ignorant and opinionated as they were before (which serves as powerful metaphor of the Sun-Sentinel as South Florida's self-proclaimed "most valued information provider.")
    So it goes.
    However, given how state-authorized gambling is nothing more than a slimy way for government  to score easy money off the denial and ignorance that drives the gambling industry…

Florida State-Sanctioned Gambling -2010                                                            
                                               Wagered      State Revenue
                                                  (Fees and Taxes)
Pari-mutuel
Greyhound                         $291,794,434                      $5,206,187                          1.8%
Jai Alai                                $43,164,790                        $458,466                            1.0%
Thoroughbred                   $566,897,630                       $7,513,694                         1.3%
Harness                              $55,082,215                        $937,271                            1.7%
Quarter Horse                    $1,598,326                          $48,690                              3.0%
TOTAL                     $958,537,395      $14,164,308       1.5%
Card Rooms
Greyhound                           $68,459,215                        $7,824,299                         11.4%
Jai Alai                                 $10,510,689                        $1,299,062                         12.4%
Thoroughbred                     $9,079,107                          $1,107,178                         12.2%
Harness                                $9,188,845                          $1,068,406                        11.6%
TOTAL                      $97,237,856        $11,228,945       11.5%
Slots
TOTAL                     $3,840,468,455   $138,125,105      3.6%

TOTAL BET             $4,896,243,706   $163,518,358      3.3%

FLORIDA
LOTTERY*           $3,899,000,000   $1,247,000,000  14.2%

TOTAL
WAGERED           $8.8 billion        $1.4 billion      16.0%
*Includes scratch-offs, etc.

Source: Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Waging
              Florida Lottery
              
    

       
          Bedsheets Moving
          Northwern Lights?
   Appointed by Governor Rick Scott nearly a year ago, the Florida Commission on Tax Funded Hospitals Monday released a report filled with a host radical proposals to improve acute health care in the Sunshine State. (click below to review report)
   Meanwhile, the Arabs and the Jews continue to exchange more hot air concerning peace in the Middle East.
   While in Canada, a Manitoba farmer says he's able to manipulate the Northern Lights by waving bedsheets in his backyard.  

http://ahca.myflorida.com/mchq/FCTFH/pdf/122911Meeting/FinalReportRF2.pdf

    Never mind that Fort Lauderdale is a national epicenter of income inequality due to its ever-widening gap between the city’s stinking rich and its hopeless poor.
    Because as far as the area’s community leaders are concerned, we live in a best-of-all-possible world’s worthy of Candide’s Dr. Pangloss.
    But then fun-in-the-sun has always trumped reality when it comes to the Gold Coast’s denial based gestalt.
    For example:
    Regarding income inequality, Miami and Fort Lauderdale rank among the highest dismal dozen in the United States, according to the latest data from the U. Census Bureau.
    Not that this stark truth will be headlined by the area’s news media.
    Irony of ironies, it took a columnist from the Kansas City Star to properly nail the dark side of South Florida’s emerging Third World economy.
   “2011 will be remembered as the year (some) Americans woke up to the harm that growing disparities in wealth and income have done to our society and our economy,” writes Mary Sanchez from her middle American newsroom. (My irony-laden parenthisis) 
   “The very richest Americans have accumulated wealth and income at staggering rates in recent decades, as the fortunes of the middle and lower class have dropped.
   “The cleavage between the rich and the rest of us hasn’t been greater since before the Great Depression.”
   Anyhow…
   For those tragic few South Floridians not willing to let their less fortunate neighbors “eat cake ” -- or ease their guilt with a few bucks donated to the Sun-Sentinel’s annual Holiday charity drive….

Large Places with Highest Measured
     Household Income Inequality
                                                 Gini Index
                                               (Income Gap)
Atlanta city, Ga.                         57.1
New Orleans city, La.                 54.6
Washington city, DC                  54.0
Miami city, Fl.                            54.0
Gainesville city, Fl.                    53.7
Athens-Clark County, Ga.         53.7
New York city, NY                      53.6
Fort Lauderdale city, Fl.            53.4
Dallas city, Texas                       53.2
Baton Rouge city, La.                 53.0
US average                                 45.0
Israel                                          39.2
Japan                                         37.6
New Zealand                             36.2
United Kingdom                        34.0
Canada                                      32.1

Sources: US Census Bureau
CIA Factbook