Wal-Mart Adding Clinics to Stores

As a result of slipping sales in the U.S., the retail behemoth is adding doctor visits to its plan for one-stop shopping. Already there are 400 of these supermart-clinics scattered across the country, and Wal-Mart plans on upping that to at least 2,000 in the next few years.

Why are they doing it? To keep their economic base--lower income families--from spending money on going to the emergency room. Since roughly 16% of Americans cannot afford health care, this may be one of the brightest ideas that Wal-Mart has come up with in ages. The doctors will be real doctors: Wal-Mart is simply leasing space to them cheaply. Patients can then go from there and get their prescription filled while buying soup and crackers.

Given that health care is so ridiculous in cost I am all for this. I think it is shameful that a country as rich as this one has 46 million people that cannot afford to see a doctor. My hope is that in time the convenience of going to Wal-Mart clinics will appeal to enough people to were hospitals and clinics are forced to compete more for patients. I am not advocating that the doctor down the street should be forced into bankruptcy, but I have a problem the fact that people have to choose between paying their utilities or getting help that they may desperately need. True, under federal law no emergency room can turn down a patient, but there is an insane price involved in what should be a right instead of a privilege and that is deplorable.

On a side note, I think Wal-Mart should start attaching apartments to the stores, too. That way I would always be within walking distance of a 24-hour store that sells 7 layer dip.

Libby Sentenced!

Former chief of staff to VP Cheney, "Scooter" Libby, will be expected to serve 30 months in jail and will be fined $250,000 (€184,856.03) for his role in the Valerie Plame fiasco. It is reported that President Bush has no intention of intervening with a pardon, though there is some speculation that he will do it as he is leaving office á la former President Clinton.

Terrorist Plot Foiled at JFK Airport

As the title indicates, some would-be terrorists decided to take another aim at New York City. I have not heard whether or not this quartet is connected to any particular terrorist faction, but given that this incident has taken place on American soil, I have to ask the question: if the point of the Iraqi War was to fight terrorists over seas so that they cannot fight us in the United States, then how does the Bush administration explain this incident?

Kudos to the law enforcement agencies in NYC for stopping this plan. I can only hope that the American people will not allow themselves to be duped into another failed foreign policy as a result of this incident.

Man Eats Dog to Promote Animal Rights?

That's right, Mark McGowan protested Prince Philip's hunting and killing a fox by eating a corgi, which is apparently the favorite pooch of Queen Elizabeth II. Yoko Ono joined him in dining on the canine. McGowan, apparently a well-known animal rights activist, has also been documented as eating a swan to protest the monarchy.

Someone explain to me how this makes any sense. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he waited for the dog to die of natural causes before he and Ono ate it in front of cameras with apples, onions and seasonings, but to me, this has got to be one of the dumbest forms of protests I have ever seen.

Even PETA has not done anything like this yet.