Sad but predictable

Four times, my Senators, Richard Shelby and Luther Strange, chose politics over the people of Alabama. You sided with Trump and McConnell over me, your constituent.

In the first, my Senators sided against at least 22 million people who would lose insurance by voting for the Cruz/Portman bill. In the second, they sided against 32 million people would lose insurance, and against women's choice in general, by voting for the Paul bill. In the third, they aired their partisanship for voting against a Democratic-sponsored bill to return any healthcare bills to committee where they could be debated. And in the fourth, they sided against 16 million people who would lose insurance, and against me, by voting for a "skinny" bill that would increase premiums by 20%.

I am profoundly, deeply disappointed, but hardly surprised by these actions, Senators.

The Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land despite their best effort to destroy the lives, welfare, and health of millions throughout the country, and several hundred thousand in your own state. To improve the ACA, I encourage my Senators to present a Medicare for all plan, that addresses the reason for the outrageous cost of healthcare in this country.

Another look

Sometimes misinterpretation or misrepresentation is self-evident. A recent letter in this column reported that a scientific paper March 15 in the online European journal Climate of the Past states that “the Southern Ocean has been cooling in recent decades.”

In fact it does no such thing, as shown by the title of the article in reference (not mentioned in the letter): “Tropical forcing of increased Southern Ocean variability revealed by 140-year subarctic temperature reconstruction.” Note the word “tropical.” The article states that warmer air and water entering the subarctic climate is making the temperatures less stable. I did not find any statements in the 17-page (very technical) article to support the statement in the letter that the Southern Ocean is cooling. In recent years many gigantic icebergs have been shed from the Antarctic ice shelves, which locally cool water, but this is obviously a product of generally warmer climate. Nothing in the quoted journal article corresponds with the letter’s statement that the Southern Ocean is cooling.

Also self-evident, the same letter went on to claim this same article “… shows that there has been no net warming in the Northern Hemisphere.” First, no such statement appears in the article, and, second, the topic of the article is the Southern Ocean, so any statement about the Northern Hemisphere would be tangential at best. In real science papers, we do not drop unsupported facts as, do, say, politicians and pundits. More to the point, this statement is completely and obviously false. The ice cover around the Arctic is the smallest in recorded history, and ice typically melts when it is warm.

Disagreements about the interpretation of statements are rational, but disagreements about actual statements are not. I would hope those reporting on scientific papers would have actually read and understood those papers.

Imbalance

I am greatly concerned with how local schools are performing on standardized tests. My issue is with the teachers at the high achieving schools (non-Title I) in Columbus. They make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) every year, and their test scores are significantly improved over Title I schools. Since these teachers are excellent and dedicate their lives to education, I wanted to know if they are transferring to teach at the Title I schools?

Surely they can help improve student performance and achievement in a Title I school, since their test scores are better. Could it be that these teachers are complacent in their schools and do not want to get their hands dirty with the struggles of a Title I school?

Title I schools struggle with poverty, discipline and unstable home lives. Every year, testing scores are posted and Title I schools always fall short. I am not saying teachers who teach at Title I schools are not good teachers. I believe they are excellent teachers who need some assistance with the struggles of a Title I school. Teachers who teach at better performing schools, where are you?

Follow the money

A few years ago a local TV show called “Rise-N-Shine” aired five days a week with Calvin Floyd as the host. There was a regular caller and occasionally guest named Burt. One day he called and said he thinks he might have too much insurance. His reason was the number of seemingly unnecessary tests the doctor was performing on his chronically ill wife. So he asked the doctor: If he didn’t have the insurance to cover these expensive tests would he still perform them? The doctor’s answer was a big fat NO!

So when I hear the “conservative” Republicans trying to make a case for Tort Reform to stop all of these frivolous lawsuits so the doctors wouldn’t have to perform all these unnecessary tests just to “C.Y.A.” to prevent all those frivolous lawsuits … “Baloney.”

So now y’all know the real reasons why all of those unnecessary tests are being performed … to get paid, bottom line. It’s all about the Benjamins. Covering their assets? Hmmm. Wake-up, conservatives, and Rise-n-Shine

This story was originally published August 1, 2017 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Sad but predictable."