June, 2015 archive
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
The right likes to fulminate about market forces and health care costs, as if someone whose doctor has admitting privileges at only one hospital, who is experiencing sudden chest pains, or who just fell of a ladder is in a position to stroll through the “health care marketplace” inspecting the wares.
Furthermore, comparison shopping for health care may indeed be contraindicated.
Double Reverse 0
If you think reverse mortgages sound too good to be true, you’re probably right.
Afterthought:
It is probably wise to be skeptical of deals hawked by retired ex-Law & Order stars who have run for the Republican Presidential nomination. That Republican Presidential nomination thing is a dead giveaway.
The Drool of Law 0
Putting a check on those balances.
The measure, at the end of a lengthy bill that allocated money for the judiciary this year, stipulates that if a state court strikes down a 2014 law that removed some powers from the State Supreme Court, the judiciary will lose its funding.
Via PoliticalProf.
War Porn 0
It’s apparently a very lucrative thing.
A Case of Selfie-Incrimination? 0
Bruce Schneir thinks it’s quite possible.
It Can’t Happen Here (and Other Myths) 0
A Chilean describes what it was like to live under a regime of massive state spying on its citizens. A snippet:
That toxic atmosphere is one of the reasons Angelica and I no longer live in Chile, despite many efforts to return before and after the restoration of democracy. We could no longer recognize a homeland where the persistence of duplicity and dread stifled trust and creativity.
. . . But there is nothing that compares with the sweeping and unchecked powers of surveillance authorities exercise today.
Just read it.
Business as Usual 0
That is, underhanded and below-board.
Bill Dulin says the same buyer told him he planned to use land he bought from him for hunting or catfish farming.
So both were surprised when Martin Marietta Materials, the Raleigh-based mining company, last year confirmed it was looking to operate a granite quarry on their former property and nearby parcels in the Bowling Green community north of Clover.
Instead of keeping the land himself, the buyer, a Clover man named Kenneth Smith, had instead sold the land to Martin Marietta. Quarry opponents suspect the company worked with Smith to buy the land so sellers and neighbors would not be alerted to plans for the property.
(This caught my eye because my mother grew up in Clover.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness sometimes requires adjustments.
As the victim altered the placement of his belt, he accidentally squeezed the trigger causing one round to exit the gun and enter into his leg,” police wrote in a press release.
When stupid meets gunnuttery, the results are seldom pretty, but always predictable. At least reports did not imply that this gun fired itself.
I grew up with guns. I have handled guns since my youth. No gun fires itself.
News stories that say, “the gun fired” or “the gun discharged,” as if a gun fired all on its ownsome, embody intellectual dishonesty of the highest order. Those who pen such stories know not shame.
The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0
Dan Simpson finds a common thread in some recent topics in the news. A snippet.
What is at the core of these three chronicles? The answer is money.
These are all rich people — Sepp Blatter and the FIFA gang of thieves, Dennis Hastert and the people he lobbied for, and Petra Nemcova and the three-headed Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. They also think they can do whatever they like because they have all that money
Stray Thought, Sunday Supplement Dept. 0
Many years ago, when Parade Magazine first replaced This Week Magazine in the Sunday edition of my local rag, I thought that Parade was a big nothing.
Times have changed. Parade has shrunk.
It’s now a little nothing.
Poison Pills 0
My friend was in a local drug store the other day and, even though she was well behind the HIPPA “the line starts here” sign, heard the pharmacist telling a customer, there to pick up pills for her daughter, that her insurance company didn’t cover the medicine. When asked how much the medicine would cost, the pharmacist replied, “$1,000.”
The customer replied, stunned, “For four pills?”
Freedom To Choose 0
The Roanoke Times calls out Republican gerrymandering in Virginia. Here’s a bit from their editorial (emphasis added):
This November, all 140 seats in the General Assembly will be on the ballot.
But that does not mean we will have 140 spirited campaigns, or even 140 listless and unspirited ones.
Most of those will be Soviet-style elections, with just one candidate on the ballot.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family affair.
She reported that her husband had armed himself with a gun and went into the kitchen to investigate, and shot somebody whom he thought was an intruder.
He then recognized the 17-year-old victim as his brother.
The kid didn’t make it.
. . . and another day in NRA Paradise.