2009 archive
Warning Sign 0
Received via email.
A Personal Note on the Poison of Republican Lies 0
My father had a Living Will and an Advance Directive. So do I.
He and we were glad he did. The jury’s still out on me.
I sat at my father’s side as he died. I do not have words to express my disgust a the Republican Party’s choosing to twist this type of planning into “euthanasia.”
Nothing they have done since the Terry Schiavo carnival so exposes the venality and hypocrisy of the Republican Party.
I Get Email 0
Civilized discourse:
My co-worker, Mike Ditto, went to Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s Town Hall meeting on Saturday to listen to him talk to constituents about health insurance reform. While he was there, his car was badly vandalized.
The side mirrors were smashed off. Big dent on his hood. And scratches and dents on every door and nearly every other panel of his car. All because he had an SEIU Healthcare Rally flier in his car.
Brendan Gets a Phone Call 0
Details here.
And what he said about Miley Cyrus, spot on.
In fact, I wouldn’t pay to see her old man in concert either. His music is no more country than Wonder Bread is bread.
Lies and the Lying Liars 0
Zachary Roth over at TPM runs down the sources of the latest lie, that the proposed health care bill will allow the Federal Government electronic access to private bank accounts (since I’m scheduling this to publish tomorrow, there may be a new latest lie by the time anyone reads this):
What’s the truth? The section of the legislation on which this claim is based states that the bill will “enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice.”
As Politifact points out, the bill’s legislative summary makes clear that the intent of this section is to “adopt standards for typical transactions” between insurance companies and health-care providers, and continues: “The legislation generically describes typical electronic banking transactions and does not outline any special access privileges.”
Read the Politicfact analysis of the email here.
Rationing Health Care 0
It’s what insurance companies do. Richard Blair explains the dangers of allowing persons with a fiducuiary interest in (that means who will make money from) denying care to be making decisions about care:
(snip)
To Cigna, the cost of Nataline’s transplant was like buying a Nintendo Wii. When you buy a Wii, it’s not so much the initial investment in the game machine, but the ongoing followup costs in purchasing games and other hardware add-ons. The risk managers at Cigna who made the decisions in Nataline’s case weren’t so much looking at the cost of the initial transplantation procedure, but the annual cost of followup care and medication.
Nataline was 17 years old. The average lifespan of a woman in America is 79.1 years.
(snip)
The (possible projected–ed.) cost of her followup care for the next (projected) 62 years: $1,302,000.
Light Bloggery 0
I’m taking the day off.
Gog Rations 2
The Booman wrote about Gog and Magog last week.
Now comes Andrew Brown in the Guardian. After quoting the relevant passage, a relativerly minor one in Ezekiel, Brown explicates it:
Ezekiel was prophesying to his countrymen, not ours, 2500 or so years ago.
Anyone who calls himself a Christian, as I do, must accept that Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophesies and that, from that point on, it has been a whole new ballgame.
Playing semantic games with the scriptures–any scriptures, not just Christian scriptures–for contemporary terrestial political gain is the worst kind of pandering.
Afterthought: There is no halfway point for BIblical literalism. If one chooses to be a literalist, one must, at the next wedding one attends, demand to see the proofs of virginity following the consummation of the marriage.
Good luck on that.
Brendan Writes a Column 0
Medicinal marijuana, the DIY way; a dealer talks about a delivery (“Barry,” of course, is a nom de noone):
But Did He Issue the Ticket? 0
Speeding to the hospital:
Trooper Peter Burghart was patrolling the area Saturday when he saw an SUV speeding down the highway. The vehicle initially failed to stop but eventually pulled over near the airport exit.
Greater Wingnuttery XXXVII 0
The truly sad part is that some are so bigotted or stupid or afraid or some combination thereof as to believe the lies. DougJ reports from the field and explains why this should not surprise us.
Twits on Twitter 2
Melissa Dribben twits no more. Read the whole thing:
But if e-mail is the exasperating, all-knowing secretary you would love to fire but can’t live without, Twitter is the lightning-fast tattooed bike messenger who never brings a package worth opening.
Come into My Parlor . . . 3
. . . said the spider to the fly.
Nature Red in Tooth and Claw 3
Puddytat 1, Tweety 0.
Frankly, I could do without the little presents.