January, 2010 archive
Ideology and Wishful Thinking 0
After selling the US economy to the highest bidder, eroding the middle class, pursuing a bubble machine that would have made Lawrence Welk jealous, the Republican prescription for improving things: More of the same.
Their messages varied, but all carried the same theme – less government interference.
This is politics from the “To hell with facts and experience; if I believe it, therefore it must be true” brigade.
If these folks were in charge of education, we’d still be attributing fire to phlogistan.
Oh, wait.
Pyrobowling 0
Great balls of fire:
Investigators yesterday confirmed Loyle’s suspicions about the Jan. 11 blaze and shocked the community with news that a business rival, the owner of the only other bowling alley in Cumberland County, had been charged with arson.
Haiti, Geologically Speaking 0
A geologists explains the Haiti Quake at Scientific Blogging.
Sauce for the Gander 0
Sauce for the goose.
Long Waits for the Doctor 0
Not just in Canada. (In fact, hardly in Canada except for certain elective or non-emergency surgery.)
“It’s a big victory for California consumers. These are groundbreaking consumer protections for them to get the care they need when they need it,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California.
Under the new rules, HMO physicians must see a patient who requests an appointment within 10 days. Specialists have 15 days. Urgent-care patients must be seen within 48 hours.
(snip)
Today, the average wait to see a general practitioner for a physical is 20 days in some of the state’s large cities, according to a report last year by the market research firm Merritt Hawkins and Associates. In Los Angeles, the usual wait was 59 days.
QOTD 0
George Burns, via the Quotemaster:
When I was young I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then and I’m labeled senile.
Twits on Twitter 2
This really is overreacting to a twit.
Swampwater 1
This should be interesting:
It will seek compensation for a number of such cases, the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
Incidents include the 2007 killing of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square.
News from Haiti, Grain of Salt Dept. 0
The rumors of lawlessness in New Orleans following Katrina were lies (and, yes, I fell for them, too).
Just sayin’.
Much of a Muchness 0
The CairnGorm Mountain ski centre in the (Scots–ed.) Highlands will be closed for the day – because of too much snow.
After a two-day blizzard, the operators have had to bring in huge caterpillar vehicles and snow blowers to try to clear the approach road and the slopes.
Climate change deniers, don’t get your hopes up. Extreme weather is a predicted result of global warming as changing temperatures disrupt established weather patterns.
Stray Thought, Mindless Hatred Dept. 0
Remember that Martin Luther King, Jr., was hated, reviled, investigated by the guvmint, called “Communist” (and worse), and murdered because he spoke against the established way of doing things.
Over Over 55 0
Curmudgeonly as I can be, I have never felt a desire to live surrounded only by other old curmudgeons. I want there to be some young curmudgeons also.
So I have never understood the market for “over 55” developments.
Apparently, not many other persons did also.
“It’s dead,” said Gary Werner, a Chesapeake developer who built one age-restricted project. “It’s like something just turned the spigot off completely. It’s not even a drip.”
As a result, developers are returning to planning boards and city councils for permission to scrap age restrictions on approved projects. Hundreds of approved units in Chesapeake and Suffolk have been converted to regular projects, and more requests are likely on the way.
So who did like the idea? From the same story (emphasis added):
Planning boards loved the quasi-retirement communities aimed at baby boomers for their promise of increasing the tax base without adding kids to burgeoning schools and cars to crowded roads.
Many large projects were looked on favorably – and approved – if they included some units restricted to people 55 and over. Images of silver-haired “active adults” riding bikes and hugging grandchildren in front of tidy homes were common in real-estate marketing material.
Coop d’Etat 2
In Berlin, Md.,
(snip)
The decision to allow pet poultry within town limits comes after the Board of Zoning Appeals ruled in October that an Ann Drive woman could not keep her two chickens and three ducks. The board upheld the decision of town staff, who believed she was in violation of town codes that prohibited “the business of keeping poultry” in a residential district.
No roosters?
Aside: This is in chicken country, where the “business of keeping pountry” is big business involving thousands of chickens and lots of their–er–by-products.
We Need Single Payer 0
From the Philadelphia Shrinquirer:
“The biggest part is the burden on doctors and hospitals, because they have to deal with literally dozens of health-care plans,” each with its own system, Kahn said.
If only half of that can be saved, that’s $200,000,000,000 that could be spent on actual delivery of care or on other stuff, like food and shelter and research.
And the odds are that much more than that could be saved with a rational system not involving executive country club memberships.
On Not Becoming Just Like Them 0
Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar in the Philadelphia Shrinquirer. Read the whole thing.
The struggle against terrorism will take years. We need to set aside partisan scare tactics and think strategically about weakening the terrorists without weakening ourselves by resorting to lawlessness, cruelty, and revenge – which have short-term political appeal but are ultimately self-defeating.
Particularly self-defeating is the assertion that the U.S. justice system isn’t up to handling terrorists, and that ad hoc military commissions in Guantanamo Bay are better for the job. In fact, the reverse is true.
Dustbiters 0
While East Coaster slept it, banks decrepit.
The defrocked:
