Trump's Muslim Proposal May be Necessary

Critics of Donald Trump's proposal to prohibit Muslims from entering the United States need to keep in mind that the United States is involved in a war with a group that is attempting to get all Muslims to join its unholy crusade.  War sometimes forces national leaders to take actions to defend the nation that they would not otherwise consider.   During World War II President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the bombing of German cities even though he knew innocent children would likely be killed.

I believe that the vast majority of Muslims oppose what the terrorists who call themselves Muslims are doing.   However, even if less than one in 100,000  support terrorism, that is enough to pose a threat to our safety.  Ten men brought down the World Trade Towers.  Tim McVey wasn't a Muslim but he destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla., with a truck loaded with fertilizer and diesel fuel.

The situation with Muslims reminds me of Vietnam.   We weren't completely sure which Vietnamese were friendly and which were not.  We sometimes wondered if the Vietnamese barbers who cut our hair in the afternoon would try to slip in and cut our throats at night. 

The terrorists are in a win-win situation on this issue.   If we allow foreign Muslims into the country they will probably be able to occasionally  slip in a terrorist like the woman involved in the San Bernardino shooting or the man who planted a car bomb in Times Square.  If we keep them out the terrorists can use the policy to convince Muslims we hate them.

Those who criticize Trump are ignoring the fact that he is more familiar with what terrorists can do than the rest of us.  His hometown New York City has been successfully attacked twice and nearly was the victim of a third attack.  

Trump is aware of the fact that American intelligence about the Middle East has been weak for decades.  The CIA failed to warn of the attack on the American embassy in Iran in the seventies and the 9/11 attack in 2001.  

Many of the people in the Middle East hate the United States because of European and American meddling in their affairs during the 20th Century.  European nations took over much of the region after World War I and imposed artificial political boundaries.   Later the United States helped the tyrant known as the Shah of Iran take control of that country and Saddam Hussein rule Iraq.  

Efforts by Westerners to ridicule the Muslim religion also generate anti-Western hatred.  These bigots call their efforts satire, but making fun of others is only satire if they of equal or higher status.   Making fun of those with lower status is ridicule.  Making fun of those who are down adds insult to injury.

In the coming election we will need to decide whether we want to risk allowing Muslim terrorists to enter the country legally or make it harder for the terrorists by restricting the innocent majority as well as the terrorist minority.  

Houston Methodist Hospital Wants Chris Dunn Dead for Christmas

The thing Houston Methodist Hospital officials want most for Christmas is the death of patient Chris Dunn.   While most of us are preparing to celebrate the birth of  Jesus Christ who healed the sick, Houston Methodist Hospital grinches are plotting to kill a patient.    The former EMT who once worked to save lives now has to plea for his life with hospital administrators who have less compassion than Ebenezer Scrooge.  

Religious organizations like the Methodist Episcopal Church established hospitals like the one in Houston(1919) to provide medical care regardless of ability to pay.. Now nearly a century later the people who run  Houston Methodist Hospital share Ebenezer Scrooge's philosophy that those like Chris Dunn who cannot pay"should die and  reduce the surplus populous." 

Dunn's case sounds like a dream case for a malpractice attorney.   

While waiting for a subsidized insurance card so he could get a diagnosis for a mass in his pancreas, Dunn began vomiting blood. On October 12 he was taken to a small hospital in Pasadena, Texas.  The hospital stabilized him but  for unexplained reasons placed him on a ventilator before transferring him to Houston Methodist Hospital. He remains on a ventilator even though his lungs were not a problem.  Doctors there told the family that he was in systematic organ failure and would die within two or three weeks ago.  That was two months ago.  Doctors think  he is dying of  cancer but have not consulted an oncologist.  Blood tests haven't show any positive markers for cancer.

Recently the hospital handed Dunn's mother, Evelyn Kelly, a notice invoking the 1999 Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA) which allows a hospital to arbitrarily ignore the patient's desires and take actions that can result in the patient's death.  She contacted Texas Right to Life which is helping her to fight for her son's life.

 Someone has set up an  account for Chris Dunn so  people can donate money to help pay his medical bills. According to Texas Right to Life the family plans to challenge the constitutionality of the law which the Texas Office of Attorney General has indicated it won't defend.   Someone should tell hospital that if they succeed in killing Dunn and the law is subsequently found unconstitutional, a politically ambitious prosecutor could charge them with premeditated murder. 
When I read Dunn's story, my first thought was that if I saw this "plot" in a old movie or tv series episode I would expect the story would indicate someone was wanting to kill the patient because he thought the patient had witnessed an illegal act.  In a newer movie, the hospital would probably want the patient's organs for a transplant.  Although I now suspect the hospital just wants to get rid of a non-paying patient I wish law enforcement would investigate to make sure there is no criminal activity involved.

One thing I'm certain of is that I wouldn't want to be a patient there because they don't seem to take medicine seriously.  They appear to be motivated by making money.  Healing the sick isn't a high priority.  I also wouldn't want anyone I care about to take a chance on being a patient there.