An Asheville Run

I hadn't been to Asheville in a long time. For some reason I kind of felt like it today.

The road out there is nice, anyway.

Devil's Courthouse, which you probably are familiar with by now.

This one is called the Pounding Mill Overlook. That's Looking Glass Rock in the left foreground. 

Same shot with a filter to alter the sky color, so you can zoom in and see how far the rippling mountains extend.

They must have known I was coming! This was happily located right across from my favorite pizza joint, The Mellow Mushroom.

Some window glare in this shot, but it's a skeleton riding a motorcycle shop in an outfitting store featuring knives and other wilderness goods.

A common sign. The small print warms my heart. I wish I believed they really meant it: nothing is more authentic to these mountains than resistance to Federal agents, whether moonshine agents or otherwise. I fear they'd be the first ones to hand you in to a Democratic administration. Maybe not though!

It was a very pleasant afternoon with only a short visit downtown, and a long ride in the countryside each way. One of the things I don't hate about Asheville is how small it is: it's a real city for a few square miles, and then you're in the country again right away. It's crazy in town, but it's only a few miles back to freedom when you're done taking the sights. 

Death is Cheap

As I occasionally mention, if unborn Americans count as Americans then abortion is the leading cause of death of all Americans. In Canada, it's getting to be "suicide," which in this case is really the government killing its own citizens. So far, they've sort-of been getting permission -- albeit often extorted by a refusal to provide other treatment for painful conditions for very long periods of time, so that if you won't take the 'suicide' you will be left to suffer for many months or years. 

Sounds like they've come around to the idea that there's still more money to be saved.

We noted that, “From a government bean counter’s perspective, the more suicides the better.” (See “Canada Shows The Gruesome Side Of Socialized Healthcare.”)

This week, we came across a study published in the OMEGA — Journal of Death and Dying that “explores the potential economic savings from expanding medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada.”

What would the country save, the authors ask, if the program were expanded “to include vulnerable groups that cost the government more than they contribute in taxes”?

These include “individuals with severe mental health issues, the homeless, drug users, retired elderly, and indigenous communities.” The researchers looked at “both voluntary and non-voluntary scenarios.”

Emphasis added. It's just a theoretical study, of course. Nothing to worry about.

Hey, wasn't some female politician ruthlessly mocked -- some lady from Alaska -- for warning about "death panels" empowered to make decisions about when you cost too much to deserve treatment? Something about how government-run health care might lead to that? Palin, maybe her name was. Sarah.

Well, that's ancient history I guess. This is the exciting new world:

Lo and behold, the savings are significant — up to nearly $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years if Canada went the “non-voluntary” route.

“For example,” the authors note, “for the retired elderly population, the savings could be $54.2 billion in the voluntary scenario or as high as $1.2 trillion in a non-voluntary scenario.” There’s even more money to be saved if the state dropped the requirement that doctors administer the drugs and let the work be outsourced.

Sure, that makes sense. No reason you'd need to be a doctor to kill somebody. Anybody can do that. I've seen it done.