George Washington, Iran and the National Health Service

A few articles that I found fascinating.

I love history. I love when you can actually see the actual signatures on paper - it's so easy to learn history, hear the stories - but when you see the physical artifacts, it makes it all real.

Washington penned the letter to Gen. John Armstrong on April 25, 1788. Sent from Mount Vernon, the seven-page missive urged the adoption of the US Constitution and was written at the height of a national debate over ratification.

Letter penned by George Washington pulls in $1.2 million at auction

And two articles from Melanie Phillips. Two different topics, but both very important.

In this piece Ms. Phillips explains that Iran is bent on bringing the 'end of days', bringing their "messiah" by destroying Israel and the United States - and how Britain (and I'd add everyone else) is not taking this threat seriously. I think that we misunderstand the Iranian threat as well - we do not imagine that they have an apocalyptic vision in mind - but they do, and are willing to use that nuclear weapon to bring it about.

A former Iranian diplomat who defected to Norway in 2010 warned: 

‘ “If Iran is given more time, it will acquire the knowledge necessary to build a nuclear bomb within a year.” Asked whether it would use the bomb against Israel, he said: “If Iran gets to the point where it has an atomic bomb, it will certainly use it, against Israel or any other [enemy] country.”  

‘...“They are busying themselves with ideological preparations for the arrival of the hidden Imam and are preparing the ground for that in a practical way; for this purpose, they are willing to spill much blood and destroy many countries.”’

Scary stuff.

How ignorant Britain sneers and sniggers at the threat from Iran

A national catastrophe. National health care. So many have the attitude that if the government is in charge of something - it must be doing it correctly. This thought must be corrected - if the government is in charge of something it is certainly being done incorrectly. Oversight, transparency, competition, accountability - go out the window when a monopoly is in charge. How is it that we have laws against private company monopolies but not against a government monopoly? The same damage is done by any monopoly. The only difference between a private monopoly and a government monopoly is that a private monopoly cannot fine you or send you to jail for not playing by their rules.

The real cover-up at the heart of the National Health Service