Blakely and Dick Clark are home

New granddaughter Blakely is back home, a home where my daughter readily admits she's been demoted to the second most beautiful female.  I dunno, it's still a toss-up to me.  She really is a pretty little girl.  Except for a small bruise on her head which will disappear soon, she's perfect.  Not that I'm prejudiced or anything.  ;)  

Here she seemed quite content in grandpa's care. Now my challenge is to teach her dad "the stare".  He'll be using that on all the boys who will come calling for her in about 16 years.

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While most younger people may only remember Dick Clark from his Rockin' New Year's Eve shows and as a game show host, those of us with a few more candles on the cake remember him from the original American Bandstand show broadcast from Philadelphia every week.  For me, the closest I could come to being on AmBand was being on one of the many local knock-offs, such as Sump'n Else on WFAA in Dallas.

All us kids who could score tickets would hustle home after school, get dressed, pick up our dates, and get to the TV studio.  All the girls tried to copy the do's of the show's dancers, and all the guys dreamed of messing up those dancer's do's.  Needless to say it was an impossible dream.  If you'll look carefully at the set (top photo) you'll see they have a cut-out of my alter ego, Alfred E. Neuman.  I always wondered why they would want that when they could have ME!

While there were many American Bandstand wannabe's, there was only one Dick Clark.  He's back home now, too.  May he RIP.

Have a good weekend everyone. 

S

How NOT to run a welfare system....

Here's what's wrong with our current welfare system:  A local TV station has done an investigative study and found that several local dental groups are recruiting new, young patients at food stamp distribution centers around Dallas.  Paid recruiters are promising parents cash kickbacks and even iPod's if they'll bring in their small children for exams and treatment.  (NOTE:  The report pointed out that state law prohibits paying recruiters for soliciting new patients, but it happens.  They have it on video.)  It seems if a licensed dentist declares a poor child needs treatment it will be paid for through state Medicaid funds, no questions asked.  


There is no follow-up to see if the treatments are actually needed, so the dental centers have been giving little 2 and 3 year old kids root canals and steel caps on their baby teeth, etc, which dental school experts later reviewed at the request of the TV station and agreed were unnecessary.  Just one dental group billed the State of Texas over $6M last year, more than all state funds spent on kids Medicaid dental care in the entire state of Florida.  (Statewide the Texas total was $145M.)  Despite this, there is no ongoing state investigation.  The state just officially looks the other direction.  (Official collusion?)  You can watch the entire report here for yourself.


Abuse is rampant.  If there's this much fraud in just one area in one city covering just this one medical treatment, can you imagine how much there is nationwide?  Our country is so big, so populous, and the numbers of $$ involved are so large, it's easy to slip tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars through unnoticed.  


We're a compassionate people, and of course we want to provide dental care for poor children.  But this goes way beyond that.  The taxpayers are getting screwed again.  This is one example of why the conservative movement has gained such a strong and growing following.  This abuse, like all government waste, needs to be addressed, and when that happens liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, can sit down together and effectively govern.  Right now we're too polarized to do much of anything except fight amongst ourselves.


S