Saturday, November 2. 2013
 Photo of one of the Maggie's Farm fact checkers via Theo. We only hire cheerful checkers.
A reader recommends this movie: Possession (2002)
Splitting stone in Maine
'The Daily Show' Sent A 'Gay' Couple To Alabama And Mississippi, And The Results Might Surprise You
Northeastern elites love to feel superior to Southerners
Surprise: People like free stuff
Scientists decipher dog-tail wags
Defining Deviancy Out of Existence
Pentagon: White males have unfair advantages
Politico: GOP Runs Segregationist Playbook to Sabotage ObamaCare
Obamacare is for black people?
This is harsh
So is this: Dial 911! EBT benefits cut!
Call 911! EBT benefits get cut
The blissfully unaware hecklers at Brown
Survey: Only 23% NY Doctors Say They'll Accept ObamaCare Patients
New book examines Poles who killed Jews during WWII
Japan’s
New (Defensive) Attack Force
A “Painful and Toilsome Tour”: Revisiting Dorothea Dix’s Advocacy for the Mad
The case against Daylight Savings Time
Navy SEALs ordered to remove ‘don’t tread on me’ Navy Jack from uniforms
Kudlow: Liberal entitlement-state dream is crumbling
Some people are just too hung-up on this quaint "American freedom" thing.
Not Enough Taxes in the World to Save Providence
“Pentagon
training manual: white males have unfair advantages” - See more at:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51790#sthash.rotoKTa0.dpuf
“Pentagon
training manual: white males have unfair advantages” - See more at:
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=51790#sthash.rotoKTa0.dpuf
Friday, November 1. 2013
Via Mead.
Fracking has been done for decades, without any problems. What would be the problem?
Thursday, October 31. 2013
Liberals get tons of money from Wall St. In fact, Wall St. is a Democrat stronghold. Typical: Hillary Clinton’s Lucrative Goldman Sachs Speaking Gigs.
Those on the inside know that, when Dems talk class warfare, they are always winking at the bankers and at the ultra-wealthy, and hoodwinking naive populist voters. (I have nothing against the bankers. They are necessary for almost everything, but it would be fine with me if their politics were more balanced.)
 Mead: Immigration: A Bigger Problem Than You Think
15 outrageously NSFW Halloween pumpkin carvings
Unfortunately, being beautiful imposes real, ugly burdens...
David Warren on his Mom's death
NYC politics: When Class Trumps Identity
Is Mike Lee The Better Liar I've Been Waiting For?
The Ten US Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand
David Coleman: Architect of the Common Core and, soon, the SAT
Keynesian Economics, Government Shutdowns, and Economic Growth
Sultan: Liberal Greed is Good
Obama's 'Transformed' America Is Worse In Every Respect
Scarborough: Obama a ‘deliberate,’ ‘flagrant’ liar
The Passionate Chris Matthews Rant on Benghazi That Will Probably Leave You Speechless
HHS Predicted Much Employer-Backed Health Coverage Wouldn't Survive Obamacare, Either
Steele, What's Wrong with Obamacare:
I think many citizen supporters of the ACA are well-intentioned -- they believe that this program will increase insurance coverage, reduce prices, and make Americans better off. After all, that's what they've been repeatedly told by their leaders. I don't believe that advocates of ACA among the political class are well-intentioned at all, nor do they believe what they've said about it. That's why Congress specifically insisted on exemptions for themselves and their staffs. That's why union leaders and some big businesses have been crying for exemptions. That's why Obama himself is exempt. They know it is a bad plan and also know the implementation is being bungled badly. But their goals never were to fix problems in health care and to make Americans better off. Their goals have always been power and wealth, to be had at the expense of the America people.
Obama tells insurance companies to shut up, if they know what’s good for them
Obamacare will cause people to freeze in geographic location. Insurance companies cannot compete across state lines, so your policy is only portable within your state.
Wednesday, October 30. 2013
Blame the insurance companies: Obama blames ‘bad apple insurers’ for canceled insurance plans
Excuse me, but they are trying to follow your law, Mr. President. This is like blaming the banks for giving the high-risk mortgages that the government forced them to offer.
And yet, from another member of the administration, A canceled health plan is a good thing
I think I would term this the "baffle them with bullshit" defense as here: Obamacare team offers multiple self-contradictory explanations for coverage cancellations
In my case, I do not want the government standard insurance. I want my cheap, old-fashioned major medical with a high deductible. It makes sense to me, and I like to pay my doctors.
But so are many or most of the 500,000 gay guys in New York City, of every skin color. A lot of it is about stylin' and profilin'. There is some mileage in that.
"Obama is an ineffectual, disinterested executive. Oh, and the last pile-on points out that he’s an evil pathological liar."
Tuesday, October 29. 2013
 Italy Breaks Your Heart
Amazon never makes money: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Is Like King Midas in Reverse
Arthur C. Danto, Philosopher of Art, Is Dead at 89
The Kids Aren't All Right - Younger Americans are being suffocated by spending, subsidies, and debt
Sultan: Government is Magic
Obamacare Website Company Had Ties to Obama Fundraising, Michelle Obama
The Unbearable Lightness of Obama - The president didn't know the NSA was spying on world leaders, but he's found time for at least 146 rounds of golf.
Valerie Jarrett: Obamacare doesn’t force you off your plan; your insurance company does, by complying with Obamacare!
Big government project, big failure: The Obamacare website fiasco shows that big government can't deliver on extensive endeavors.
Monday, October 28. 2013
Article here.
Too many lies.
What's the point of lying when you know everybody will find out? Oh, OK, because it will be too late.
Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance
Sunday, October 27. 2013
The government offers me a $40,000 check to go on electronic medical records. I won't do it. Who would open up to me if I did?
For the same reason, I keep minimal notes anyway and just enough to refresh my memory. From The
Electronic-Medical-Records Wreck -Doctors have their own Obamacare nightmare to deal with:
As I’ve mentioned previously, my own primary-care physician in Colorado Springs quit her regular practice and converted to “concierge care” because of the EMR imposition. Dr. Henry Smith, a Pennsylvania pulmonary doctor, also walked away. “Faced with the implementation costs and skyrocketing overhead in general,” he told me, “I finally threw in the towel and closed my practice.” He said, “As EMRs proliferate, and increased Medicare scrutiny looms, medical documentation is evolving from its original goal of recording what actually was going on with a patient, and what the provider was actually thinking, to sterile boilerplate documents designed to justify the highest billing codes.”
Many docs today are spending more time on computer screens than they are with patients.
“Men who act like belligerent assholes probably do get laid a lot more
than men who show up with a dozen long stem roses on the first date.”
What do women want? All sorts of things. Women are all different. I think we only tend to hear about the angry women. Guys shy away from them. Most guys are drawn to females with sweet, affectionate temperaments. NB: I am not a belligerent asshole, but I am no metrosexual asshole either. Like all guys, I can be a stupid, annoying and selfish jerk at times.
Saturday, October 26. 2013
Friday, October 25. 2013
The good idea behind Obamacare was the idea of a national marketplace for medical insurance. Of course, an insurance consortium could have done it too, but the complication in that is that insurance is controlled and regulated state by state.
A deregulated, nationwide marketplace for every kind and flavor of medical insurance with wide competition for coverage format, would have been a good thing for everybody - and put a lot of brokers out of business. Probably most people would opt for cheap high-deductible insurance (Major Medical, aka Catastrophic) as protection against bankruptcy. Brokers have easy access to all available deals within a given state, but it's not national and not available to consumers, and now the ACA has strictly limited peoples' choices.
Instead, we have an illusory marketplace selling government-designed product at government-determined prices, and they'll fine you if you don't buy it. Doesn't sound like America to me.
Requiring marketplace insurance companies to cover the highest-risk patients is a challenge with many possible solutions. Coverage for kids to age 26 is insane and infantilizing. Adulthood is 21, at the latest. However, "adulthood" keeps creeping upwards, doesn't it?
The other useful reform would have entailed tort reform. I have read varying estimates about how many medical costs are lawsuit-avoidance, but it is substantial.
Wimpy boys and wimpy girls. If safety is your biggest concern in life, you will never live. I thought it was all about fear of lawsuits, but I am beginning to think it reflects some form of psycho-ideology. We are raising a generation of wimps.
Obama wants Marines to wear ‘girly’hats
'Offensive' Halloween costumes banned by US university
Keystone Should Be an Easy Choice, So What’s Taking Obama So Long?
Buying Stocks On Margin At The Top - They Never Learn
Hedge Fund Manager Spitznagel: Stocks May Plunge 40 Percent
Once Again, Pain Patients Must Suffer to Save Addicts From Themselves
Charles Krauthammer squares off against Jon Stewart on the merits of conservatism
Douthat: Could Obamacare Discredit Neoliberalism?
US meets Kyoto targets!
Dan Mitchell on taxation:
Gimmicks are bad, of course, but politicians also respond to fiscal squeezes by raising taxes.
And that can be even worse as the prospect of more revenue leads to a ratchet effect, with periodic tax hikes used to maintain or expand the gravy train of spending. The fiscal mess in Europe is an obvious case study, but if you want a painful example from America, just look at data from Connecticut. The state did quite well without an income tax from the 1600s until 1991.
But then an income tax was imposed, in part to deal with the fiscal shortfall caused by an economic downturn. And, as critics warned, that new tax has produced dismal results. The top rate has jumped from 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent and inflation-adjusted per-capita state government spending has doubled. And there have been zero net private-sector jobs created since the income tax was implemented.
Setting the Record Straight About the White Working Class
“Obamacare, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Ken Cucchinelli: Lessons in Political Communications
In defense of bigoted speech
Thursday, October 24. 2013
I assume everybody is sick of reading about Obamacare, but this piece is good: NYT: Obamacare Disproportionately Hurts Poor, Rural Americans
One quote:
Obamacare wasn’t intended to increase competition. Never. It was intended to force millions of Americans and all insurance companies to behave according to Barack Obama and the far left’s notion of “fairness.” Obamacare was built to limit the number of plans available and force insurance companies to act against their own economic interests, in the name of “fairness.” It was built to force millions of healthy young Americans at the dawn of their careers to subsidize older, less healthy Americans.
As somebody commented, Obamacare was designed to convert insurance companies into government-serving utilities, selling government-designed one-size-fits-all products at government-determined prices. Now watch the insurance companies get blamed for doing what the government forced them into.
Property rights are a foundation stone of a free society, but government relentlessly chips away at them regardless of the nature of the property.
Here's a rebel: Virginia Farmer Starts Property Rights Legal Revolution
Wednesday, October 23. 2013
 Shaidle on The Hate That the Hatred of Hate Speech Produced/:
Bureaucrats like those at the European Union, which is entertaining a proposal to set up “surveillance units” within the Ministry of Justice to “monitor citizens…suspected of ‘intolerance.’”
I hope the European Muslims are aware.
"..As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don’t hate nothing at all
Except hatred."
Astonishing full lyrics to It's Alright, Ma here.
Tuesday, October 22. 2013
Via Schneiderman:
In a city like New York, 0.5% of the people pay fully 50% of the taxes. Has New York become more equal? Not at all, it has become more unequal.
It’s not very difficult to understand. Relying on government programs to solve problems disempowers individuals. It tells lower and middle class citizens that they are victims and that their grievances can only be redressed by the intervention of powerful outside forces, like the government. This implies that they are not responsible for their condition and that they themselves cannot do anything to solve the problem.
|
American progressivism is 
How Americans 
Surfing NYC - The city’s s