The Milwaukee Post

8 • Milwaukee Post • September 20, 2013 OPINION BloodCenter issues emergency appeal for donations MILWAUKEE – The BloodCenter of Wisconsin has issued an emergency appeal for blood donations after having significantly fewer donations than normal in recent weeks. BloodCenter Medical Director Dr. Jerry Gotschall said there is no specific reason or incident that caused the critical need for blood, and an appeal for donations is something the center experiences about every five years. "We try to keep three to five days of inventory on all blood types," Gotschall said. "In the past couple of months, we have been below what we expected." An additional 1,000 donors are needed, so the BloodCenter has extended hours at several donation centers. With donated blood having a useable span of 42 days, the center is constantly replenishing its inventory and Gotschall said that "all donors are needed for all blood types." The summer can be difficult for donation, with many normal donors going on vacation or being out of town for other reasons. For a few of the blood types, including O negative, the center is down to only one day of inventory left. Community members can schedule an appointment for giving blood, which takes about an hour, by calling 1-877-BE-A-HERO or by visiting www.bcw.edu/appt. Walk-ins are also welcome. Windsor named to American Heart Association board MILWAUKEE – Thomas Pina Windsor has been appointed to the board of directors of the American Heart Association, Midwest Affiliate for a two-year term, according to a company statement. Windsor, executive vice president of Brookfield-based SysLogic Inc., is a heart disease survivor and a volunteer for the metro Milwaukee office of the American Heart Association. He has served on the Midwest AHA board of directors for two years and is also a member of the Health Equity Council, which looks to close health disparities between populations by lifting up the underserved. "Despite a busy professional and personal life, Thomas can always be counted on to make time for the American Heart Association. His passion for our mission is contagious," said Kevin Harker, executive vice president for the Midwest Affiliate of the American Heart Association. As a member of the board of directors, Windsor will help oversee the American Heart Association's efforts in an 11-state region, comprised of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Obama's Razor When stupidity will suffice By OWEN ROBINSON There is an old principle of logic called Ockham's Razor that says that when multiple theories reach the same conclusion, then the simplest one is probably the correct one. In the political realm, this usually means that one should not try to explain things with a conspiracy when stupidity will suffice. One example that has been unfolding for several years is the disaster we call Obamacare. We are two weeks away from Obamacare's mandate that the federal and state health care exchanges be operational and everyone is still scrambling to make them work. The task is made more difficult because Obamacare's parameters are ambiguous and the federal Department of Health and Human Services has failed to clarify many of them. Meanwhile, the Obama administration unilaterally, and some would argue unconstitutionally, delayed the employer mandate while leaving the employee mandate in place. The administration also has been Robinson arbitrarily exempting some businesses and not others. The result is a complete mess. Insurance premiums are rising even faster in many places than they were before the law was passed. Nobody really knows how the exchanges will work. Businesses and individuals are scrambling to understand how Obamacare will affect them and nobody seems to have solid answers. Some folks have attributed the obvious failures of Obamacare to a conspiracy on the part of President Barack Obama and other liberal elected officials to intentionally design Obamacare to be a mess so that the American people will demand that the government do something, namely, implement federally controlled socialized health care. But the alternative theory is that Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid and their liberal cohorts simply had no idea what they were doing or how Obamacare would work in the real world. An application of Ockham's Razor would indicate the latter theory is the correct one. Similarly, the recent diplomatic fiasco regarding Syria is an example of this logical principle in action. After Obama issued his careless "red line" threat to Syria regarding the use of chemical weapons, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called his bluff by gassing his own citizens. From there, Obama threatened to attack Syria; then dithered; then, realizing that there was no support for an attack by the American people, the United Nations or international community, Obama deferred to Congress while still asserting that he had unilateral authority to launch an attack if he wants to; then Secretary of State John Kerry blunder into an idea of avoiding an attack if Syria divests itself of chemical weapons. At this point, the United States has agreed to not attack if the Russians promise to disarm Syria of chemical weapons. Russia is Syria's ally and protector and the plan is a fig leaf "Nobody really knows how the exchanges will work. Businesses and individuals are scrambling to understand how Obamacare will affect them and nobody seems to have solid answers." for covering Obama's exposed bungle, but Obama is heralding the agreement as the end result of his deft diplomacy. Incidentally, Syria is cheering the proposed treaty, too, if that tells you anything about who won this diplomatic clash. While Obama and Kerry may try to convince the world that their series of redirections and gaffes were all part of a master plan to reach a weapons of mass destruction disarmament treaty with Syria, the more likely theory is that it happened exactly the way everyone observed it. Obama clumsily lurched through a series of missteps before landing on a solution that bails him out politically while doing nothing to actually effect change in Syria. Closer to home there is yet another example. The liberals are continuing to wail corruption regarding a state grant to United Sportsmen. The $500,000 grant was given to the group to promote hunting and fishing in Wisconsin. It was later found that the group did not yet have tax-exempt status as its application with the IRS was pending. Given the new information, the grant was rescinded. Since the parent organization of United Sportsmen had supported Gov. Scott Walker in his campaign for governor, the liberals in the state are claiming that Walker conspired to funnel state money to a group that supports him even though the grant has already been rescinded. Once again, the more likely theory for what happened is some state Department of Natural Resources official who was supposed to verify the eligibility of the group to receive the grant failed to do the proper due diligence. While such a stupid failure does not reflect well on the DNR, it is certainly more likely the cause of the fiasco than a grand conspiracy from the governor's office. While one would hope that Americans do not elect stupid people to elected office, the evidence is clear that we occasionally do. Then there are the smart people who just make stupid decisions from time to time. While conspiracies do occasionally exist, more often than not, bad things happen as the result of a series of stupid decisions. (Owen Robinson is a West Bend resident. His column runs occasionally in the Post.)

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