Senator Franken

It's about fuckin' time.

sunday funny

Finally, a way to shut down the gay debate!

More ideas at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

America may not be dead yet, but it's succumbing to a slow poison

I guess it's just as well that Americans havent been hitting the streets en masse in protest of the various things that've been going on. I mean, I thought it ought to be happening, but it turns out that this is the kind of thinking that aligns me with the terrorists!

Oh well.

America is dead! Long live Amerika!!!

via Gerry Canavan

So you think humans are significant?

This is how it starts...

Now go and see just how puny we are.

workers of the world...

Ever wonder why there's a nursing shortage? This might be clue.

Dave's Thought For The Day

I dont think that the economy will ever get better in the U.S., regardless of how well the stock market or Donald Trump does, until you start hearing this simple phrase again:

"Two can live as cheaply as one."

sunday matinee: new rules got it in one

a thought on the health issue

Here's an addendum to the post from Thursday:

I keep seeing several points...

1. American's spend twice as much on health care as anyone else in the world, despite having an overall health rating somewhere around Cuba's.
2. Even though places such as Canada and France cover everyone, certain procedures are "rationed" and difficult to obtain. America is the place where all the "real" medical research gets done.

So, to sum up, we pay a lot more for worse health care (but also the best - if you have money/coverage) than most countries, and part of the cost is research for the rest of the world...

Wait, we have the best health care in the world, except not for everybody, which makes us better because we dont ration, except we do, because you cant get a procedure done if you dont have coverage or cash, and that's why we pay twice as much for it...

No, that doesnt sound right either...

Anyway, here's my idea: Pay the same amount of money (rather than cutting costs as some tout the new plan will do), and have less rationing! It seems so simple.

Oh, yeah, and get rid of the insurance companies. And if you're worried about the impact of eliminating such a huge part of the economic engine, I have a question for you: does anyone worry about that when discussing the War On Drugs?

theory

My wife sent me this.
I'm sure it didnt mean anything, since I dont have an audience.

checked!

Once again, the courts come down on the side of Power and Authority, rather than the Citizens. Explain to me again how denying a test, even if paid for by the defendant, furthers the course of justice? Explain to me again how the courts "check" the legislature and the executive?

looking for data

So yesterday Congress dived into the health care issue feet first, no doubt holding it's nose and dreading the splash. Here's my thought, at least for now, on the situation:

Somebody ought to figure out just what level of taxation would be required for a fully covered, government-run, medicare-like (though VA-like would be better), single payer system to be established in the U.S. I wask this because our family currently shells out about 10 or 12% of our income every year in order to get the full "benefits" of our health insurance (i.e., after deductables*), and we're "lucky" enough to using the cheaper plan available at my place of work (my wife's plan is about 60% higher). I'm wondering how this number compares to the level of taxation that would be required for us to get "socialized" medicine.

Health insurance is just legalized gambling, and just like a casino, the betting is stacked in favor of the house. Really, when you think about it, it's not really health "insurance", because with insurance you pay a bit of money in the hope (and the real possibility) that you will never need it, wereas everybody will need some form of health care.

I'd run down these numbers myself, but I am neither skilled nor ambitious enough to do so. If anyone comes across figures that would fit the bill, I'd appreciate it. Personally, I'm willing to bet that if people did the math, most of them'd find out that they'd be saving money (or at least recieving health care at all). Everybody pays, everybody gets health care. That seems fair, doesnt it?


* If we dont use the coverage, except for regular visits, and so dont spend towards the deductable, it's still around 7% of our gross.

quote for the day

"If there is an underlying metaphysical principle guiding The Elements of Style (the one with White's additional chapter) it is something like the following: language is simple, direct, and expressive… except that it's magical, dynamic, and unfettered.

White looks at Thomas Paine's famous sentence, "These are the times that try men's souls." He tries switching it around to, "Times like these try men's souls." It crashes to the ground. Why? We simply do not know. No explanation seems adequate. Try it yourself. Try to actually explain, with reasons and causes, why the one sentence sets the aforementioned soul stirring while the other practically extinguishes it.

As White says, we usually end up explaining the difference with such words as "rhythm" and "cadence." But what are we really explaining with those words? We're still just saying that one sentence simply sounds better than the other. That's not explanation — it’s obfuscation. The first sentence is better and we damn well know it. We don't know why. But we know it, as certain as the hand in front of one's face, the rain falling on the plain."

Morgan Meis, via Andrew Sullivan

quote for the day

"Last week's Archdruid post, This Side of Thunderdome, makes the expected argument against the "Mad Max" future, with one especially good point: that collapse myths assume universality, but real collapses are wildly uneven. Somewhere in the world there really will be murderous bikers chasing down fuel trucks (I always thought the second film was the best by far). There will be continue to be crime gangs, slavery, war, starvation, and disease. But there will also be prosperous small cities, governments, factories, permaculture communities, and nomadic groups that survive mostly by foraging and hunting -- though they're more likely to use battered REI products and firearms than animal skins and stone arrowheads. Given this much diversity, if you have enough mobility, adaptability, and leadership, you can pretty much choose your own apocalypse."

from Ron Prieur, May 6, 2009

beyond threes

Someone refered to the killing of the abortion doctor and the killing at the Holocaust Museum as the first two of the inevitable three. Nope, or rather, not enough. How about the shooting in Florida? Or the murder of a 9-year old girl and her father in New Mexico by a Minuteman looking for "funding". Let's hope it stops at six.

a thought

As the U.S. is to Israel, so China is to North Korea. It's not Pyong-Yang we should be "talking" to, but Beijing.

randomness

My father died of what was probably diabetes-linked kidney problems. He was also pretty out of it for the last decade of his life. And while he was never hospitalized for hypoglycemia that I am aware of, I cant help wonder after reading this article if there wasnt a connection between his blood sugar and his mind.

Here's good article on malaria and pesticide resistance from Millard Fillmore's Bathtub.

13 appalling things about your groceries that'll make you want to start a garden. Or, here's a crazy idea: buy raw food, and prepare it yourself! (props to Pryme.)

Okay, seriously, just how much does it take in this country to provoke a populist uprising? They've already got us by the balls, but they just keep coming up with new ways to squeeze yet more blood from our stones. Maybe if they fuck with our video entertainment that'll get us riled up enough? Do we really need our internet service to be run like our cell phone companies are?

You might think this is a joke, but it is not. I think about food at least as much as I think about sex, and I suspect that'll only become more true. Even when I'm 75, I'll still be able to eat 4 or 5 times a day. (by the way, this one's NSFW)

Here's how to make home-made yogurt!

Edmund Andrews was caught in the housing finance implosion even as he reported on it.

Here's a good essay on the health care issue.

Could somebody please commission a poll in Minnesota asking people, if they could vote again today, would they pick Al Franken or Norm Coleman? I'd love to see the results of that one. Anyone care to make a bet?

later on...

Here's one, but it's not quite what I was looking for. It'll do, though, it'll do.

quote for the day

"Dick Cheney just refuses to get off my TV. Apparently during the years 2001-2008, his undisclosed location was the year 2009."

Darrin Bell, from his comic "Candorville"

momento

Three years since my father died. This is a photo from before the doctors and their medications stole his mind.

Dave asks...

Are you getting tired of looking at that last post?

Yeah, me too.