Bitchy Virgin is now closed, and a darn nesting Peregrine Falcon plus rockfalls have closed off some of my weekend climbing warm-ups in the Gunks. I do not do serious technical climbing, but I like to know how to handle gnarly rocks. I am headed for Banff (photo above) this week to catch some mountain air, then down to Maine 'til Labor Day. Will post when and if I have time on a machine, and will pre-post a few time-insensitive items if I have the chance. NYC is wonderful in the summertime - especially during this cool summer - but I need to hit the road and put some adventure under my belt while I have the chance, while I am still single and free. One of these days some adorable sexy little cutie is going to catch me in her web. I know my weaknesses, and I know I will play along with it if she is from a nice family, because having a partner is a good thing. Not having one is pretty good, too.
Here are a few important links:
Some gay guys' ideas of what Harvard students wear. I thought it was satire at first.
The O's obese Surgeon General nominee advises Burger King for $. On nutrition! Haha. The Dems crack me up. Burger King isn't the worst of the burger chains, though.
Goldberg: Healthcare is the key to controlling everything. That why this is war!
Forbes: Public Spending's Day Of Reckoning
GOP thinks Victory in 2010. My only concern is that it will be too late.
Note to Editor: Pls put Fabius Maximus on our Mostly Political blogroll.
Shootout in Harlem. Speedy justice.
Ugly dirt on Rahm Emanuel. Sheesh. The Dems crack me up. Their greed for money and power knows no bounds. Every Lefty I know is either filthy rich, or a born whiner with a serious case of ingratitude and/or entitlement.
Is Hillary back to being First Lady again? Althouse
"Bye bye ACORN. Don't come back. Get a job." Gateway
Sippican went to the doctor's.
Via Lucianne: Obama's Forfeited Credibility Sabotaging Obamacare
Rush: The left's fragile mask of sanity is peeling... Video with good song borrowed from Randy Newman
Did the Prez realise what he was saying when he said “I mean, if you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are. It’s the post office that’s always having problems.”
It's a disease. Climate changist:
Schelling was quoted in The Atlantic as wishing for natural disasters: "I sometimes wish we could have over the next five or 10 years a lot of horrid things happening, you know, like tornados in the Mid west and so forth. That would get people concerned about climate change."
Morano called characterized such statement as insane.
Indeed. Freakin' nuts. Keep it up, Mr. Morano.
Wish I had written about the Genie. From Am Thinker, which begins:
He's not happy, this Genie. In normal times, he sits there quietly inside the bottle. Sometimes watching. Mostly not. He finds politics boring, if not disgusting.
He sat and watched in silence as the TARP bill passed. Told the sky was falling, he looked up and saw it wasn't. But he shrugged, trusting the bipartisan nature of the effort. Then, as TARP rolled out, he stood up. The bailouts plowed a furrow across his forehead; his eyebrows lowered; his gaze intensified. But he stayed inside the bottle.
"Obama has lost control of the debate, and when that happens, it's over," said health care consultant Robert Laszewski. "The well's been poisoned."
Let's hope so. There are plenty of good reforms which do not involve government power grabs.
Too many fun posts at Moonbattery for me to link separately.
Pharmaquiddick. Drug deal gone bad. Is secret collusion between government and industry legal?
Jammie on New York pols:
It's not only the fact people are very suspicious of government taking over an entire industry that's dooming this scheme, but it's the smug arrogance, the imperious pomposity of the Weiners of the world that will relegate this to the dustbin. Here you have a man whose entire career is based on focus group talking points and tired liberal cliches whining that someone is using talking points, as if a constituent who's speaking his or her mind is carefully coached on what to say in public like Weiner is.
Very comforting - Obama: We'll Ship Patients Anywhere. How about to a private clinic in Switzerland or Mexico?Quoted by Betsy:
Robert Wright notes that "we already ration health care; we just let the market do the rationing." This is a true point made by the proponents of health care reform. But I'm not sure why it's supposed to be so interesting. You could make this statement about any good:
"We already ration food; we just let the market do the rationing."
"We already ration gasoline; we just let the market do the rationing."
"We already ration cigarettes; we just let the market do the rationing."
And indeed, this was an argument that was made in favor of socialism. (No, okay, I'm not calling you socialists!) And yet, most of us realize that there are huge differences between price rationing and government rationing, and that the latter is usually much worse for everyone. This is one of the things that most puzzles me about the health care debate: statements that would strike almost anyone as stupid in the context of any other good suddenly become dazzling insights when they're applied to hip replacements and otitis media.
Quoted at Rick Moran:
It’s not like there aren’t free market ideas out there to reform health care - despite what our president and the Democrats want you to believe. They are attempting to ram this health care reform package through the Congress while saying that their opponents have no new ideas to solve the same problems.
But covering the uninsured by making insurance affordable for all, covering those with pre-existing conditions, bringing down the cost of health care, and assuring that the patient, in consultation with his doctor, has the most control over his own treatment are goals that can be achieved more cheaply, and by using a mostly free market approach to reform.
Unfortunately, a completely market oriented solution is not politically viable or realistic at this time. More than six dollars in every ten we spend on health care in America is spent by government. Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans benefits, Indian health care, active duty military care, and the children’s insurance program S-CHIP are just a few of the programs that have skewed the market in health insurance and health care so that a purely free market solution is not in the cards. And doing away with these government programs - even if it were possible - would not be the answer.
But believe me, we can do better than what the president and the Democrats are proposing.
Right. Fine with me, as long as politicians do not control my medical choices.
