Google Translate
Here is a usable translation of the Honduran Constitution. Reading this is a highly eye-opening experience for an American lawyer.
So far, not much seem to be in violation of their Constitution. I am shocked at how this chain of events in Honduran presidential politics can be constitutional, but that is why you study comparative law.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
How to Make Failing Healthcare Measurable
In passing the other morning, I saw Newt Gingrich on Fox & Friends. He said something in passing that I believe a lot more attention. Since I have not done the research on his rhetorical models right now, I will treat this as accidental rather than a pattern to allow myself some room to expound.
When he was describing the failures of certain cancer treatments in Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS), he described NHS's level of care and success as being circa 1955.
That comment hit me like a eureka moment. You can explain bad healthcare all you want, but put it in terms that represents the truth but allows an easy compare and contrast.
We need to have an objective measure of success and failure. Theirs is poor quality; ours top notch. Let's show it.
UPDATE: Here is Newt's comment that gave rise to this post:
To clarify, I am proposing creating a simple spreadsheet of ailments/treatments on one axis and country on the other. The data point for each country is the "Quality of Care stated as a year." The year represents the state of the art. The state of the art is the country with highest survival rate, lowest recuperation time, shortest time from diagnosis to completion of treatment, etc.
I postulate that the US would end up at or near the current year on most all treatments, where socialized countries would tend to be in the 1950's or so.
When he was describing the failures of certain cancer treatments in Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS), he described NHS's level of care and success as being circa 1955.
That comment hit me like a eureka moment. You can explain bad healthcare all you want, but put it in terms that represents the truth but allows an easy compare and contrast.
We need to have an objective measure of success and failure. Theirs is poor quality; ours top notch. Let's show it.
UPDATE: Here is Newt's comment that gave rise to this post:
To clarify, I am proposing creating a simple spreadsheet of ailments/treatments on one axis and country on the other. The data point for each country is the "Quality of Care stated as a year." The year represents the state of the art. The state of the art is the country with highest survival rate, lowest recuperation time, shortest time from diagnosis to completion of treatment, etc.
I postulate that the US would end up at or near the current year on most all treatments, where socialized countries would tend to be in the 1950's or so.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Understanding Islam
The New York Times actually ran an interesting op-ed today. (Surprise! Surprise!) It is most interesting because I learned something interesting that I wish to research further. (I realize some may take this as a lack of intellectual curiosity on my part. My lack of interest in researching actually stems for a lack of intellectual honesty from their content. Why bother researching a known lie or impossibility that an introductory economics student can figure out?)
The notion of "commanding right and forbidding wrong" as a central tenet of Islam is intriguing. It allows me to see more clearly why Muslim countries act as they do and are so resistant to notions of liberty. I have been impressed with Danesh D'Suza's comparison of liberty-based countries to the rest of the world. He questions the ability to be moral without free choice.
From those two points of comparison, there is a lot to be studied.
The notion of "commanding right and forbidding wrong" as a central tenet of Islam is intriguing. It allows me to see more clearly why Muslim countries act as they do and are so resistant to notions of liberty. I have been impressed with Danesh D'Suza's comparison of liberty-based countries to the rest of the world. He questions the ability to be moral without free choice.
From those two points of comparison, there is a lot to be studied.
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