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.
Despite the promises, you can't keep it because it doesn't pay for your birth control pills, sniffles, hangnails, chiropractor - or your aromatherapy. Here's Why So Many Americans Are Getting Letters Saying Their Health Insurance Is Canceled.
Coyote has this: So Much For Being Able to Keep My Health Insurance
We like to support entrepreneurial friends, especially those who have fled Wall St. to do their own thing. The young Math major, Div. 1 tennis player, and ex-Wall Streeter has launched Nora Gardner Apparel, day-to-night clothing for youthful professional women: Nora Gardner.
I hear that professional women are sick of wearing men's clothing (eg suits or pants) to work, and want to look good. With these, just add a little jewelry and you're ready for your evening out. Conservative, but feminine and affordable and well-made in New York. Here's her About Us.
Pics from her launch party in NYC this weekend at fashion site Guest of a Guest. Miss Gardner is center front in this one:
Painting the Green World Red: The Brothel in Shakespeare's Plays
Mead: Metropolitan Opera Season Starts Strong
Insty: WHY “ANTIBULLYING” IS A CROCK
D'Sousa: Liberalism vs. Conservatism: Political Speech
Would Democrats embrace JFK now?
Circus posters removed after complaint from woman with fear of clowns
The Political Left And The Criminalization Of Dissent
NY Times Horrified That Rent Control Leases Might Be Treated Like the Assets They So Obviously Are
Sultan:
The radicalization of the Democratic Party is slowly leading to a counterpart radicalism in the Republican Party. The process is moving far slower because of the vested interests in the way, but every time the radicals of the left displays their contempt for the consensus, they are paving the way for the rise of a Republican Party whose members are more like Ted Cruz than John McCain.
Inside the conservative brain: Tea Partyers are afraid - To understand their worldview you have to know how they see themselves
Good grief. She is trying to analyse me without meeting me.
Americans Sign Petition to Support “Nazi-Style Orwellian Police State”
Politics: Oh Dear, We’re Arguing:
It’s a big fight, at home and abroad, and calls for civility (of the sort Jeb Bush and Karl Rove keep muttering) are entirely out of place. We need a raucous, no-holds-barred debate to clarify the tough, painful and risky policies we must embrace–and be ready to change over and over again when we discover their shortcomings–if we’re going to win.
Flashback: Obama Told People They Could Keep Their Health Care Plan
Media Matters Boss David Brock Calls Benghazi a “Hoax”
Barack Obama and the Bad Ideas of Progressivism
Finally, France Has the U.S. for Which She's Longed - France has gotten exactly the type of less arrogant and more timid American leadership it wanted.
Climate change is good for the world: Scientific consensus is that warmer temperatures do more good than harm
Why the JPM - Chase settlement is a bad thing
No good deed goes unpunished
Monday, October 21. 2013
When government gets involved in things, those things become politicized. Same thing goes for medical care. The death panels are meant to be a buffer against popular clamorings, but they won't work.
When it comes to medical care, nutrition, vitamins, exercise, etc, the loudest quacks and cranks tend to prevail: The Quackish Cult of Alternative Medicine - Dr. Paul Offit's battle against charlatanism
Is there quackery in non-alternative medicine? Sure, but it is mostly unintentional quackery. Docs tend to cling to the most recent information they have read, but most of it proves, in time, to be in error: Trouble at the lab - Scientists like to think of science as self-correcting. To an alarming degree, it is no.
Best to go with a conservative physician who has a good dose of skepticism and common sense.
Dr. Ben Carson on government and medical care:
“This nation was founded on the principle that it would be a new type of nation, that was ‘for, of and by the people.’ A Constitution was put in place that would assure that the people would remain at the pinnacle of power and that the central government would never reach the point that it had control of the people. This fundamentally changes the relationship. It places the government at the pinnacle now that it is placed on a road that will give it control of everyone’s health.”
Our old blogging friend, a socialist and lover of American country music Norm Geras has died
Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For
Criagslist ad from Enid, Oklahoma
Search Escalates for Key to Why Matter Exists
Egon Schiele and The Sketch Pad Near the Deathbed
Banksy in Neverland - The curious appeal of a marginal artist
JFK Museum Updates Exhibit Following Complaints by Conservative Author - Author: JFK was ‘tax-cutting, pro-growth politician’
In Defense of Disney Princesses
Druckenmiller Blasts Obama: "Show Me When You Initiated Budget Discussions Without A Gun At Your Head"
Doctors prepare for Obamacare race to the bottom
Corbett, natural gas allies will square off against Democrats pushing to limit, tax fracking
Obama vows to veto legislation that would require him to enroll the Obama family in Obamacare
Climate Change Fascists Really Like LA Times Policy Of Restricting Debate
Now Ted Cruz is getting death threats
Feminists: Myopic, Or Corrupt?
Who is Bill de Blasio?
Walmart's (and America's) Lesson in Greed
In choosing to pivot to immigration reform, he has created a win-win
scenario for himself and the Democrats. Clever, clever.
Socialism: If You Build It, They Will Leave
CNN's Zakaria: Conservatives 'Hate America'
Chicago Teachers Union: ‘This City Belongs to Black People
Iran presented ‘no serious proposals’ at nuke talks, US officials tell Israel
“I’m used to sitting in jail cells with serial killers, did they think I would
be intimidated by some American college students?”
Sunday, October 20. 2013
Amusing, from Delicioustacos
Saturday, October 19. 2013
The change in medical care. I refuse to term it "health care," since health needs no care other than one's own reasonably-sensible and attentive but not health-obsessed life, combined with the main factor - luck. From a commenter at Allahpundit:
Perhaps the concept of ‘insurance’ isn’t the right one for health care?
I always liked the comparison that was trying to be made with car insurance…
Yet for there to be an equivalent your car insurance would have to cover:
- maintenance tune-ups, including oil and filter changes
- the cost of repairs for any reason
- a price break per gallon of gas
- an annual detailing
- the cost of tires
- a new muffler annually
- and never, ever raising the cost of your insurance no matter how many accidents you were in, how many tickets you got… anything
Imagine what car insurance would be like if we modeled that on health insurance coverage and you get an idea why health insurance coverage is so high. And why get fuel efficient vehicles if you are getting the gas subsidized? Or bother with the maintenance if you’ll get a brand new engine if you forgot about it? And the cost of such insurance would be… lower than what you have now?
The number of shades of maroon that went into trying to make this entire ‘insurance’ concept work for one’s health is plain nuts. It isn’t ‘insurance’ if you are going to use it constantly… you want something else.
Perhaps a clue.
Health insurance used to be an executive ‘perk’ because it was TOO EXPENSIVE to provide for everyone in the workforce. Businesses got a price break for it to entice people who would not normally come to work to do so during WWII. The war ended. The subsidy via the tax code did not. Strangely enough before this misbegotten idea got infested into the tax code and people’s minds, individuals did not drop over dead in the street and did work out payment schedules WITH hospitals and physicians. Amazingly that worked and there was a strong system of charitable hospitals and care givers to pick up the slack. Then government got involved and screwed it up.
Government is all about money. Government's expertise is perverse incentives. The Obama-thing, like the previous Hillary-thing, is not technically insurance. It's just pre-paid medical costs, spread across populations and subsidized, or not, by income and with bureaucrats deciding what you can get paid on it.
That's not an entirely insane idea, except that whenever government gets involved with things outside their Constitutional mandate, things turn out wrong and over-controlling by the standards of a free country. Always.
I do not believe that most Americans want every detail of their lives politicized. I think they want to be left alone, but maybe I am old-fashioned.
 Image via Eratosthenes' What's Your Excuse?
Infinity: Big and Bigger - Meet Georg Cantor, rogue mathematician and corrupter of youth.
Innocents Abroad: The Damariscotta Pumpkinfest
From the Department of Petty Controversies: Schools Cancel Halloween - Of all the conflicts to roil our educational system, this one is pretty absurd
High Marijuana Taxes Could Derail Legalization Plans
In India, Rapist's Wife Faces Harsh Judge: Tradition - In Conservative Hinterland, Women Without Husbands Face Destitution
Freaking out about NYC sea level rise is easy to do when you don’t pay attention to history
Noonan: Answering Paul Krugman
Muslims Gang Rape 12-Year-Old Norwegian Girl, Get Community Service
Is NBC Going to be the First Network to Die?
Mead: The Blue Mayor Who May Solve Our Pension Crisis
A rule of thumb among biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of
published research cannot be replicated. Even that may be optimistic.
Goldwater-Rockefeller Redux
The Great Eclipse - How Ted Cruz took the tea-party crown away from Marco Rubio.
Chris Matthews: I Wish We Could Go Back to the Days of Friendly
Politics, But the Racist Terrorist Tea Party Traitors Who Hate the
President Because He's Black Won't Let Us
Business Groups Preparing to Fight Conservatives over Immigration
Republican Civil War Erupts: Business Groups v. Tea Party
Middlebury College suspends student in 9/11 flag grabbing
Her quotes are something else
Spectator: Warming panic is over
LA Times bans letters from climate skeptics
Worried about global warming - but not for us
Lebanon
Security Forces Shoot Down Dreaded Israeli “Spy Eagle” - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/lebanon-security-forces-shoot-down-dreaded-israeli-spy-eagle/#sthash.R2Zme4Ac.dpuf
Friday, October 18. 2013
The Student Solution to Affirmative Action:
What would happen if all those white students who assert that racism is still a “major problem” and who approve of affirmative action as one remedy followed their beliefs and did not apply to selective colleges such as Williams, Wesleyan, Boulder and U.Va.? How would that alter the demographics of elite campuses?
The admissions offices at those schools would face a less-competitive white applicant pool and could boost minority acceptances. Thousands of white students with eight AP courses, a 4.0+ GPA, and 95th-percentile SAT scores would not join the mix and raise the averages.
The taxpayer-subsidized bird-shredders are beginning to be torn down. Good riddance to these insane contraptions.
Thursday, October 17. 2013
Good stuff, cheap: Sierra Trading Post
Good stuff, expensive: BestGear:
Day-To-Night dresses and interview dresses for younger professionals - with pockets - made in New York City: Nora Gardner
|
Surfing NYC - The city’s s