May 08, 2008
Internet News
Congressman Ron Wyden is awesome. Comcast is not.
Posted by alice at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
Rules are not for the guys who write the rules!
State Rep. Joe McCord (R-Maryville) may get to write the laws, but he's also exempt from them, right?
Posted by alice at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
Health Care
A committee of the Senate is meeting today to discuss health care in America. Elizabeth Edwards, who is living with cancer, is speaking before that group right now. I'm not sure what the point of the hearing is, since the Republicans have made it clear that no major changes to the US health care policy will take place under their watch, but I'd like to share a few links here -- a little food for thought.
The current American approach to heath care policy can be summed up with this: don't get sick! Many people -- even educated, employed, comfortably middle class people -- don't find out until they get sick that they are underinsured.
Further, many people in the United States are slaves to their health insurance. I have a friend whose every career decision has been influenced by her Type I diabetes -- the jobs she has taken weren't always her top choices, but rather the ones with the good health coverage. And if you stop to think about it for even a moment, our system of dispensing health coverage through employers is incredibly bizarre. The quality of your health insurance depends on the ability of some middle management suit you've never even met to negotiate with the insurance companies? And since the insurance company is a for-profit business and that middle management suit has to answer to his cost-conscious superiors, what do you think are the chances that your insurance package will be as good as the deal the guys in Congress are getting? It's a system that just doesn't make any sense.
And finally, if you think that we don't have socialized medicine here in the United States, think again. What we do have is the most expensive, inefficient and stupid system of socialized medicine imaginable, but ultimately, the people do eventually pick up the tab when the uninsured, underinsured -- or even insured -- need help.
In the third day of county budget hearings, Erlanger CEO Jim Brexler asked the commission for $500,000 more than the $3 million the hospital has received each of the last three years. [...] Erlanger will pay around $10 million more this year for uncompensated care than it did last year.
Check out this recent story from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, about a young man who had an accident while he was covered by health insurance.
T.J. is covered by his mother’s insurance policy, United Healthcare...
Unfortunately for T.J. and his family, having health insurance quite often is not enough.
He speaks slowly and in fragments, and he has relearned how to eat and hold his head up. But his progress toward walking again has stalled: He’s waiting to find out whether his insurance will cover more physical therapy.
(By the way, do you think Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of United Health, will ever have to face these kinds of problems?)
Bankrupted by their share of $700,000 worth of medical bills, the Johnsons were forced to sell their home in Soddy-Daisy when they couldn’t make the payments to avoid foreclosure.
And even with all that, they're still needing help from the public.
Siskin is not in the network, so it received less reimbursement for T.J.’s therapy, said Siskin spokeswoman Teresa Dinger. At this point, Siskin has absorbed about $30,000 in costs for T.J.’s services and can’t afford to absorb more, she said.
Amy Denton, a caseworker at Home Health Care of East Tennessee, said she has some leads on other options for the family and is working with a TennCare caseworker to figure out what the state’s managed Medicaid program should cover for T.J., who qualifies for TennCare as secondary insurance. Ms. Denton said TennCare will cover services at an in-network rehab hospital if United denies the visits.
In the meantime, T.J. goes to school at Central High School for an hour a day and has speech therapy there twice a week. TennCare is paying for a certified nursing assistant to stay with T.J. eight hours a day, five days a week.
They’re still waiting for van modifications that would accommodate the power wheelchair provided by TennCare, but that’s unavailable until T.J.’s vocational rehabilitation coverage kicks in, which won’t happen until he graduates and figures out what kind of work to do, said Tennessee Department of Human Services spokeswoman Michelle Mowery Johnson.
Think about that. Do you have any idea how well insured you are? You maybe have insurance, but how much will that cover if you have an accident or a major medical problem? Are you ready to trade your house for medical care? What will you do for insurance if you lose your job? What if you become disabled and can't work?
There is a health care crisis in this country, and it's not just about providing care for the poor. This county spends, per capita, more money on health care than any other nation on earth, and yet the quality of our health care is not even close to making the top of any list. Compared to the people in many European countries, we don't live as long, more of our babies die in infancy, and we're continuing to lose ground. We're fat, hyperglycemic, an accident waiting to happen -- and unless we're named McCain, Cheney or Clinton, we don't necessarily have access to decent health care.
It's something to ponder over -- especially as November approaches. And in the meantime, whatever you do, don't get sick!
Posted by alice at 10:00 AM | Comments (3)
May 07, 2008
Blu-ray has arrived!
Blu-ray may have won the format war when it knocked HD-DVD off the market earlier this year, but it was still just boring tech news until this week when Neil Young made it cool.
Posted by alice at 02:57 PM | Comments (3)
More best of...
Nerve.com has compiled a list -- with accompanying video clips -- of the 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies. There's some great stuff on this list, which is, rightfully, dominated by the efforts of the SNL cast over the years.
Posted by alice at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
Wordless Wednesday
Posted by alice at 09:20 AM | Comments (6)
May 06, 2008
NC, IN
Oh, please, let this be the night that puts us all out of our misery.
UPDATE: Clinton has cancelled all public events for tomorrow (except for a fundraiser tomorrow night). The results from Lake County look like they might be enough for Obama to take the lead from her in Indiana. It's almost 1 am and we're still waiting...
UPDATE: AT 1:09am, MSNBC declared Clinton the winner in an Indiana squeaker.
UPDATE: good summary coverage from towleroad.
| Democrat (%, #votes, delegates) | Republican (%, #votes, delegates) | ||||||||||
| Tuesday May 6 |
North Carolina | ||||||||||
 |
Obama | 56% | 890,695 | (58) |  |
McCain | 73% | 381,138 | (0) | ||
| Clinton | 42% | 657,920 | (42) | Huckabee | 12% | 62,917 | (0) | ||||
| (margin | 232,775) | Paul | 8% | 40,275 | (0) | ||||||
| Indiana | |||||||||||
 |
Clinton | 51% | 638,274 | (37) | |
McCain | 77% | 317,837 | (0) | ||
| Obama | 49% | 615,862 | (33) | Huckabee | 10% | 40,018 | (0) | ||||
| (margin | 22,412) | Paul | 8% | 31,481 | (0) | ||||||
| 99% reporting | |||||||||||
Upcoming:
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana
Posted by alice at 07:01 PM | Comments (4)
Good speakers are few and far between
John McCain is speaking at Wake Forest this morning. I understand the point of his speech is reassure conservatives that he believes the Supreme Court isn't conservative enough. I didn't stick around to hear it, though. I turned it off. And now I think it's time for America to make an admission. We all know it's true:
John McCain is a horrible public speaker.
It's not just the droning monotone or the "my friends" verbal tic. The big question I have about McCain as a speaker is this: my friends, how the heck is he ever going to engage his audience when he sounds like he is hopelessly bored with whatever it is he is saying?
Next time you find yourself listening to John McCain, check it out for yourself... does he sound like he has any interest in his own words? Or does he sound like a little boy who was forced to the front of the classroom to read a passage from his Social Studies text book?
Posted by alice at 10:33 AM | Comments (3)
May 05, 2008
Quote of the Day
And when the history is written, it'll be said that we lived in a safer country, and a more hopeful world, because George Bush was President of these United States.
-- Darth Dick Cheney, May 2, 2008, in Tulsa Oklahoma
And the people still can't stop laughing:
Posted by alice at 06:04 PM | Comments (1)
Día Feliz!
Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!
Posted by alice at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2008
Summer Movie Fun
The trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie is out (thanks to OW for the headsup!). Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens worldwide on May 22nd. The cast features the return of Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood, along with Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, and a very busy John Hurt. You can watch the trailer here (I recommend opting for one of superior, higher resolution versions linked at the bottom of the post).
Posted by alice at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)
Of oil and tax holidays
Everywhere I've gone for the past few days, everyone has been talking about how Hillary (and McCain, for that matter) wants to have a gas tax holiday. No one I've met who has an opinion about it thinks her idea is a good one. I'd like to suggest an alternative.
Hillary likes to frame her position from a people-vs.-the-big-bad-oil-companies perspective, which is a pretty smart approach to the situation. They are big and they are bad. Some of them are downright disgusting, if you ask me (I'd rather push my car than buy gas at Exxon/Mobil).
But, the problem with Hillary's tax holiday is that it offers nothing that would change the behavior of Big Oil. In fact, it would be doing them a terrific favor because gas prices would drop, which would in turn raise demand. They could sell more oil without lowering their prices! It's almost like Hillary has worked out a deal with these guys.
But here's another idea.
[Let me note here that this proposal does not offer any sort of long-term solution to our energy problems (neither does Hillary or McCain's for that matter). It just buys us a bit of time, which I would hope we could use to take drastic and dramatic steps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.]
So, there's the idea. At this moment, we have 700 million barrels of oil in the US Stretegic Oil Reserve. What would happen if we suddenly unleashed just a million of those barrels on the market? Well, I'm guessing prices would drop precipitously, which would help out the consumer quite a bit. And, there would be the special bonus benefit of screwing over the oil companies, too, because they'd be forced to drop their prices in response to the sudden increase in supply. Ha! Teach them to screw over their customers for the sake of record-breaking profits and hundred-million-dollar golden parachutes.
Then I would go one step further. I would pull our troops out of Iraq. If the oil companies want Iraq's oil, let them use those all record profits to fight their own freakin' oil wars (hell, send Lee Raymond over there to fight), but leave us out of it. We've already spent over half a trillion dollars (and counting) trying to secure their oil supply. Now it's time for them to do their own damn dirty work.
And there you have it. That's my proposal.
Posted by alice at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)
Guam
Yeah, there was a primary on Saturday, and it was quite the nail-biter. Check out this photo finish:
| Democrat (%, #votes, delegates) | ||||||
| Saturday May 3 |
Guam | |||||
|
Obama | 50% | 2,264 | (2) | ||
| Clinton | 50% | 2,257 | (2) | |||
| 100% reporting | ||||||
Next up:
May 6: North Carolina and Indiana
May 13: West Virginia
May 20: Kentucky and Oregon
June 1: Puerto Rico
June 3: South Dakota and Montana
(And still, our long national nightmare continues...)
Posted by alice at 01:19 AM | Comments (1)
May 03, 2008
Not At All Funny
Via Joe. My. God., from Married to the Sea
Posted by alice at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2008
Catching Up...
I've got some links lying around in my rss reader. Some of them are a little dated (going back a week or so), but they're all worth sharing.
- Looking for a way to beat higher grocery prices? Ever considered Community-Supported Agriculture? There are quite a few CSA Farms in Tennessee. Surely, we've all had enough of the failed global food system.
- Here's a great interview with Rachel Maddow, #50 on the Telegraph's 50 most influential US political pundits list (and, of course, my favorite pundit).
- And once again -- and I can't believe there is anyone left who is still willing to peddle this crap (but unfortunately, the group includes the idiots and misogynists currently running the show in DC) -- the evidence continues to show that abstinence-only education DOESN'T WORK:
Programs teaching U.S. schoolchildren to abstain from sex have not cut teen pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases or delayed the age at which sex begins. [...] Vast sums of federal monies continue to be directed toward these programs. And, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.
Posted by alice at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
Friday Creature
There's been a battle going on this spring in this one spot under my neighbor's eaves. Apparently, the squirrel beat out the bird, and he loves to hang out and stare down anyone who might get any ideas about hanging out in his digs. He even gave me the evil eye while I was taking his picture.
Sorry about the late posting today -- I've been playing with my new MacBook! Have a great weekend, folks, and as always, remember to check in with the Ark!
Posted by alice at 06:30 PM | Comments (4)
May 01, 2008
Happy May Day!
Today is Labour Day, or International Workers' Day in places around the world. In Israel, it's Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), it's Beltane for the Celts, and National Love Day in the Czech Republic. Here in the US, not only is it May Day (which brings its own bizarre spectacle to Chattanooga), but it's also Loyalty Day and Law Day!
Whew! Better take the day off!
UPDATE #1: it's also National Day of Prayer (thanks, Bob!) and National Day of Reason, which both fall on the first Thursday of May.
UPDATE #2: AND it's Mission Accomplished Day (thanks, Buck!).
Seriously, take the day off. With all this maypole dancing, praying, thinking and -- well, trying to figure out how to get our country out from under its misguided and incompetent leadership -- it's going to be a very busy day!
UPDATE #3: well, it turns out that this year, May 1st falls 40 days after Easter, so it's also (thanks again, Bob) Ascension Day (which jumps around on our calendar pretty wildly, since it follows Easter -- last year it fell on my mother's birthday).
And for the record, it's also a bunch of other stuff today, too. But, fun as all this is, I think I'll quit with the updates.
Posted by alice at 10:47 AM | Comments (4)
April 30, 2008
She's baaa-ack!
June Griffin is running for Congress again!
"I will add one more determination and resolve if I could be elected. I will move against the IRS to install a section of the IRS Code to include the following provision:
"In the case of all married couples, the amount of money the husband would pay in federal taxes will go directly to the wife. Those filling out their 1040s will merely include a receipt where he paid his wife the amount of taxes that would go to Washington. This will end 50% of the divorces.
"Where the wife is the sole support, the reverse will be true. Why should we support others' wives?
"Elected officials have abandoned their sworn oath before God to uphold the Constitution as interpreted by the ordinances the forefathers instituted. This I will do, so help me, God."
Who is June Griffin? Here are a few links with more info:
- June Griffin for Congress
- My previous posts: Wamp gets restraining order, June on the Daily Show, June gets arrested.
- June Griffin: in her own words.
Posted by alice at 08:50 PM | Comments (3)