Just Who’s Getting Clipped Here?
A vet buddy out in Guam sent me this pearl:
(CNSNews.com) – The United States Agency for International Development is planning to spend $24.5 million to circumcise an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 male infants and males aged 10 to 49 in the kingdom of Swaziland by 2018.
Let me try to wrap my old Vietnam Vet brain around this: The medical system established by the United States of America back in 1930, the Veterans Administration, is so overwhelmed by demand for services by those who have worn the uniform and dutifully served this nation, that we are witnessing a daily unfolding of new scandals all across this nation where VA bureaucrats have manipulated the system to deny coverage to deserving veterans.
I’ll confess up front to never being a fan of the Veterans Administration Medical System. For a couple of decades back in in the last quarter of the 20th Century, I managed a team of regional government sales managers whose primary function was selling pharmaceuticals to the military, with VA hospitals being a secondary market. To a man, my guys hated calling on VA facilities because of the entrenched, and generally intransigent, bureaucracy. Before the VA began modernizing in the 80’s, most of the physical facilities were worn-down backwaters of medical care, a stark contrast to the vibrant, service-oriented atmosphere of most military medical facilities. I damn near had to horse whip my guys to call on the VA facilities in their regions.
You should understand that with that background, I’m not surprised in the least at the revelations coming now regarding the systemic corruption that likely permeates the entire system, not just the few locations exposed thus far. I spoke recently with another Vietnam veteran who is a nationally-known investigator of military fraud and deception. What he told me regarding rampant corruption in the VA system actually sent me into a depressed funk for a couple of days. After our talk I couldn’t help but think of the Veterans Administration health system as a huge wooden ship of state whose hull has been bored into and weakened to the point of destruction by the bureaucratic worms whose mission is job-preservation, salary and retirement.
Not patient care.
Yet, rather than authorizing a commission with a $25 million budget to investigate this broken corrupt system and provide recommendations as to how we save this worm-eaten, rotten-hulled ship and make it the institution needed to serve our veterans medical needs, we send that same amount of our taxpayer provided funds offshore to Africa to circumcise the male infants of Swaziland.
Just where is the justice in this yet another Obama folly? Just who is truly getting clipped here?
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Politics
“$24.5 million to circumcise an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 male infants and males aged 10 to 49 in the kingdom of Swaziland by 2018.”
Wow, just wow. There must be some huge foreskin problems in Swaziland. Hey I’m not, and nobody in my family back as far as the family name goes was. We are none the worse for wear the way God made us. I say let the Swazilanders do it on their own or go the way they were created. I know from whence this comes. The WHO has done their studies, years ago on the reduction of HIV transmission among men they circumcised in Africa. Just a reduction mind you. Don’t talk to them about behavior and how that can stop the transmission all together, just circumcise them.
Meanwhile back in the USA veterans, make that needy veterans, are still waiting for appointments at the overburdened an corrupt VA.
Hell, I’ve got all my parts and I turned out fine. What’s the problem, they dragging on the ground over there or something?
They haven’t got the access to sanitation, medical care, and hygiene that we do here, though. In that context, it becomes a good common sense health precaution.
I believe Obama should lead the way on this. It should be mandatory that Obama and all his administration be circumcised first…whether they need it or not.
I think you meant castrated.
jedipsycho (Certified Space Shuttle Door Gunner) That would work too…however the lack of balls currently in the administration may present a medical dilemma over at Walter Reed. Doc says, “Hey! they have no nuts to cut off! What the hell are we gonna do now. (Second doc), “just put em under, wipe em down with betadine and when they wake up tell em it’s all good now”.
But they are going to re-purpose the foreskins.
Obama and all of his staff are looking forward to getting new wallets.
You rub them a little and they turn into briefcases….
(Insert rim shot here)
E4U Love it. May I borrow that one?
Somewhere there is a Mohel who is about to get rich off a government contract.
If I recall correctly, there is a legitimate public health reason. As I recall, circumcision lowers the likelihood of HIV transmission.
The cost is also reasonable – between $120 and $170 per “whack”.
Not sure it’s the best use of US $$$, but there are plenty of worse ones out there. Like maybe ObamaPhones and paying fraudulent SNAP or VA bennies.
Aye, plus preventing urinary tract infections, other STI transmissions, and virtually eliminating the risk of penile cancer. None of those things are really a serious concern in a 1st world country if the proper precautions are taken, but if you live in a 3rd world African one, it’s a damn good idea. I’d say it’s a good use of our international aid dollars—it’s one of the things that will achieve a real and drastic health impact. I also wonder just how much good that money could really do in the VA. Has the problem ever been lack of funding, or the misappropriation of it to feed nebulous bureaucracy? If the latter, I think we could probably just leave the snipping budget intact and do what we should have done years ago; start firing unnecessary and unproductive bureaucrats and eliminating unnecessary, duplicative procedures.
Is there a reason why we can’t just spend a few Gs to give a few Rabbis a plane ticket and pay for their security for a few months. What would that be, like $200k? And they would likely do a better job if it than the “professionals” anyway.
If cost is still too much of a concern, they can find a rabbi who doesn’t charge, but only takes tips. (Rimshot)
If there is such concern for HIV transmission via uncircumcised males in Swaziland, maybe the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or some other billionaire’s charity could pick up the tab, instead of US taxpayers.
There is no safety or security concern with us paying for circumcision for foreign man-sluts. I one is so stupid that that they can’t figure out how to wash their penis I don’t want my tax dollars helping them in any way.
I suggest whoever is doing the circumcisions:
A- Remove the skin from the penis right at the base.
B- This would prevent them from being able to have PIV contact.
C- Prevent other STD’s.
D- Prevent people who are so stupid they have not mastered personal hygiene in thousands of years from reproducing more really stupid people.
I’m sure we have other things we could waste this money on like studying if fish fart when they are aboard the ISS. My vote is to not spend a dime on this. If its a problem send them a rusty butter knife and a bottle of MD 2020 to sterilize the area.
Somewhere in old Africa, the many Son’s of Obama are receiving their share of the pie that most of the rest of us have been forced into givjng up. Just saying 😎
Today’s special, Half off!
Bubblehead Ray…Cool, great one there! Plus, “half off and for twenty five cents more, we’ll actually put stitches in and hand you a lollipop on the way out. By the way, try not to get a hard on for two-three weeks. It’ll be a bitch if you do!”