“Nunan, 85, died Sunday at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. She had been stricken Wednesday while visiting her daughter’s home in Norwich, Vt.”

WATCHDOG: This is a fitting tribute to an individual who devoted herself to civic improvements and the arts, epitomizing the best in the Steinman tradition.  The city and county had no greater friend and benefactor.  Hers was an example of selfless philanthropy.

In social gatherings, she would rush over to other community benefactors and  praise their efforts.  To her wealth was a responsibility to  improve the lot of others, not for  self aggrandizement.

As was recently demonstrated in the circumstances of a momentarilly ostracized artist couple,  once a friend, always a friend.  She made it a point to host them in public!

“May her memory be for a blessing.”

“County residents could receive the same services from the state Human Relations Commission, supporters of cutting the local HRC have said, and closing it would save almost $470,000 annually out of a current county budget of $150 million.”

WATCHDOG: The same $470,000 directed towards the library system would make a huge difference in the quality of life of the approximately 2500 people who utilize county libraries over the course of each day.   The question therefore is not whether having a county as well as a state human relations commission has some merit, but rather what are the alternative use of the funds.

WATCHDOG:   In other words, Moody’s Investors Services and Standard & Poor don’t want to have any skin in the game.  They simply want to collect fat fees without responsibilities.   That is one of the reasons we got into this mess in the first place!   The Watchdog suggests they be held responsible for up to two million dollars in liabilities for each report.  That will add some discipline to the system.

Saying he hoped to set an example for other wealthy Chinese, Mr. Yu called a press conference in April to announce he was donating his last 3.2 billion yuan (about $500-million) to a foundation he established five years earlier to aid his pet causes – student scholarships, reconstruction after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and paying for operations for those like him who suffer from cataracts.

“This will be my last donation,” he announced. “I have nothing more to give away.”

“If my children are competent, they don’t need my money,” Mr. Yu explained. “If they’re not, leaving them a lot of money is only doing them harm.”…

Click here to read the full article.

WATCHDOG: Mr. Yu expresses the same sentiment that many wealthy Americans have embraced.

Capitalist give generously to charities.   Unlike Lancaster, were local charity General Hospital gives to capitalists!

A wag of the tail.

“The economic formulation of high personal importance to the Marvins held that when no taxes are levied, no revenue accrues to the government.  An undoubted truth.  And if taxes are so high that they absorb all income, nothing can be collected from the distraught, starving  and otherwise nonfunctional citizenry.  Also almost certainly true.  Between those two points a freehand curve, engagingly unsupported by evidence, showed the point where higher taxes would mean less revenue.  According to accepted legend, the original curve had been drawn on a paper napkins, possibly toilet paper, and some critics of deficient imagination held that the paper could have been better put to its intended use.”

WATCHDOG: Another wag of the tail.

“The carte vitale – the ‘vital card,’ or the “card of life ” – contains the patient’s entire medical record, back to 1998.  Embedded in the gold metallic square just left of center is a digital record of every doctor visit, referral, injection, operation, X-ray, diagnostic test, prescription, warning, etc. together with a report on how much the doctors billed for reach visit and how much was paid, by the insurance funds and by the patient.”… “That’s why French doctors and hospitals don’t need to maintain file cabinets full of records.  It’s all digitized.  It’s all on  the card.”

“If you find a lot card, you’re supposed to drop it in any mailbox, and it will be forwarded to the national Centre des Cartes Vitale Perdues…The Center says about 80pecent of lost cards eventually get back to the owner.”

WATCHDOG: The French health system’s administrations cost come to about half those of the united states, 10% of total as compared to 20%.  But of course, we Americans have nothing to learn from foreigners!

Three wags of the tail for the French health care system… the best in the world, compared to the USA being 37th.

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail for both.  They deserve a careful read and consideration.  As for the cartoon “How not to approach a momma Grizzly”, perhaps someone will write in to explain it.

WATCHDOG: The U. S. Department of Justice report “Crime in the United States” indicates that in 2007, the most recent year statistics are available, there were seventeen states with a higher Violent Crime rate than Arizona, including  Maryland and Delaware.  Furthermore, the rate per 100,000 for Arizona of 483 is not that much above Pennsylvania at 439.

Indeed, the Violent Crime rate dropped between 2006 and 2007 from 501 to 483, about 4%.

Otherwise, a wag of the tail for her conclusion “As a nation, we welcome legal immigrants.”  NewsLanc will soon turn to this subject at some length.

WATCHDOG: Lest there be implicit ‘American Particularism’ , we point out that 8,806,453 Soviet Union soldiers died or were missing versus 416,800 American soldiers.   The Soviets also suffered 13,684,692 civilian deaths, while the USA had very few.

Stalin accused Roosevelt of a policy of “fighting to the last Russian.” American concessions made at the Malta conference were to obtain Stalin’s agreement to launch a military invasion of Japanese territory.

Stalin was a bad guy.  But, during the Second World War, he was our bad guy.  The Brits and American soldiers bravely  helped and our supply line across the North Atlantic was essential, but Stalin and Russian soldiers were key to beating the Germans.

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail.   But talking about “distinction without a difference”, why didn’t the New Era make the same point about Millersville University over paid many millions on a bail out of local interests to acquire the Pennsylvania Academy of Music  at a time when it is cutting staff and raising tuitions?  The college claimed the money was from a capital fund.    Yet it  too came from the tax payers!