The Kmareka Blog -- News From a Different Perspective

September 15, 2005

Medicaid Fraud: Why Isn't the Government Doing More About It?

This article from The New York Times was a shocker for me. I knew Medicaid Fraud went on, but I had no idea how little policing of the problem there was. From dentists in Brooklyn billing for 7 million dollars, to school departments billing for thousands of special education students to get speech therapy which they never get, to companies set up to bus supposed non-ambulatory people who can walk just fine, Medicaid in New York State is being overrun with crooks. In my next career, maybe I'll become a Medicaid fraud investigator. Given that The New York Times could figure it out with some simple investigating and computer software, clearly these crimes are not very hard to discover.

February 11, 2005

Arthur Miller died today. He lived a long, productive life. Recently I read one of his short stories, Bulldog, and was amazed at the strange, complicated story line, in which the protagonist, a young boy living in Brooklyn in the earlier half of last century, discovers sexuality, personal and familial alienation, and artistic expression. Even with all the heavy themes, this story is also quite funny. You can hear Eli Wallach reading the story in a wonderfully expressive performance on The Connection, from WBUR Boston and NPR. The reading of the story is followed by an interview with Arthur Miller, in which he laments the lack of support for live theater, describes the differences between creating short stories and creating plays, and discusses why the boy in the story, Bulldog, has no name. He also talks about being politically involved as an artist and the peculiarly American hostility toward political ideas being expressed in the aesthetic realm.

February 7, 2005

We wrote about the need for less dependence on foreign oil in our Fuel Cell article in July 2002, and blogged about the war in Iraq being fueled (quite literally) by the American need for oil. Now it appears that some neoconservatives are finally making the connections between green energy, US economic development, and US foreign policy. This article in Slate, As Green as a Neocon, describes the conversion of some major Washington conservatives to a belief in the need for more green energy and less dependence on foreign oil. Indeed, neoconservative Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, is calling it "a foreign policy imperative."

It's always exciting when people who are usually alienated from one another come together. Let's hope the Bush administration can work with the green energy movement and put forward some good legislation to help grow green energy enterprises and reduce American dependence on foreign oil.

February 3, 2005

The Roads of Home by John Updike is this week's short story in the New Yorker. There are no car chase scenes, no scantily clad women (although memories of scantily clad teenagers are featured) but this is what I consider really good fiction -- unlike much of what passes for "story" nowadays, Updike remains true to the simple experiences of his character. In doing so, he deftly conveys not only the bright flourishes and strange shadows of a life, but also shows us the landscape of America, now becoming so irrevocably redefined by consumer culture and technological innovation. Bravo to one of our finest writers, and bravo to the New Yorker for still being able to recognize truly great fiction.

February 1, 2005

If you haven't heard about the controversy over the Sugartime! episode of Postcards from Buster being pulled off the air by PBS, now is your chance. The New York Times gives a thorough description of the offending show, in which Buster (Arthur the Aardvark's best friend, who travels around the country on his spin-off episodes from the Arthur Series) visits a farm in Vermont where children live and are parented by two mommies.

The decision to criticize PBS for this show was one of the first moves of Bush's newly appointed Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. It's sad to see that this is what we have come to as a government: censoring Postcards from Buster. As a result of this criticism, PBS is pulling the show. Meanwhile, in the real world of American education, huge issues loom: unfunded mandates, the inability of districts to pay the increasing costs of their education contracts, the increased medicating of children in schools, or how about the recent surge in the diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders. It would seem that these would be the issues that any competent Secretary of Education would be concerned about, not whether an animated bunny visits a family with two mommies. Even if you don't agree with the lifestyle of the two mommies, the show is about life, and helping kids learn about the different ways people live. Isn't this what education is about? Under the Bush government, are we going to forbid teaching about diversity as it relates to sexual orientation?

November 17, 2004

Search engines are all the rage, and although Google has great name recognition, newer products to the market are showing a competitive edge. There are two recent additions to the market which bear notice: MSN's search engine, which is still in Beta testing, and A9.com, Amazon's attempt to join the search competition. I recommend that people who use online search for their personal and professional researching consider adding these search engines to your "favorites" since they both offer distinctive helpful features and a different range of search results.

August 28, 2004

The Providence Athenaeum finally won its lawsuit against some members who did not want them to sell the Audubon Folio. Here is the full decision handed down by the judge.

May 25, 2004

Governor Rowland of Connecticut Resigns. This is an important victory for citizen activists who are demanding increased accountability from government officials.

Oregon is going through a crisis in funding for education, as detailed in Class Dismissed. The results of this crisis are jam-packed classrooms and a school year that ended after only 159 days. This story has a companion piece by Dave Eggers about how most teachers work part-time jobs or second jobs. In addition, strictly on the local level in terms of good information about the cost and quality of RI education, visit Information Works! 2004 to learn where your community stacks up.

April 12, 2004

Injecting Mercury and The Toxic Tipping Point -- Two recent publications on the possibility of Thimerosal, a preservative used in childhood vaccines, contributing to our current epidemic of Autism and developmental problems for children. Injecting Mercury is from Emagazine.com and Toxic Tipping Point is from Mother Jones.