There was much excitement in our little village this week. I actually carried a sign at a protest. I was ready to write all about it when… after 4 years of the bullshit, I finally contracted WuFlu. So I’m down for the count today, but will save my story for tomorrow.
Birthdays today include a guy of foggy origins; a woman that Oliver Wendell Holmes approved of; the guy who started the masking craze; a guy who would have hated my students; a guy who always made you wonder wtf he was doing there; a guy who blew a mean horn; a guy who exemplified the ethics of the legal profession; a wolf I got to see close up and personal in a surprise appearance at a coffeehouse; the second best thing in homicide; the queen of crappy burgers; and proof that affirmative action doesn’t result in mediocr… oh, wait.
So here’s mediocre Links, have at ’em.
I’m a firm believer that government funding of science is one of the very worst things that ever happened to science. And the grant ecosystem has basically pushed out the alternatives, led to the proliferation of tons of questionable work, narrowed the acceptable directions of inquiry, and pretty much stifled innovation. So of course every professional organization is screaming that OMB is going to cut science funding. No, you fucking morons, he’s promising to cut government funding. Which, like his promised repeal of Obamacare and eliminating the Department of Education, isn’t going to happen. The conflation of “science advocate” with “government funding advocate” is spectacularly destructive. /rant
Only in MA is the idea of legal self defense indefensible. If I were on the jury, I’d absolutely acquit and ask to be on the jury for the civil suit against Newton.
Good policy, shit communication. As usual.
So a mixture of bullshit and increased inconvenience. No wonder I buy everything I can from Amazon.
What will the Left do without this boogeyman?
Why does this shit never happen to me?
Maybe it’s because you’re assholes?
The Old Guy says that there’s never too much Monk.
You must have been on the wrongthink side of that protest, else you would not have contracted the ‘VID. People mostly-peaceably assembled on the correct side of any controversy are magically protected from its transmission. SCIENCE!
Double check the results – it looks like that may be a home pregnancy test.
Hopefully he didn’t pull it from under the mattress in the van.
Snark mode off: I assume from your jaunty attitude and links it isn’t hitting you hard — but thoughts and prayers, OMWC…. I know our senior members are in the demographic that it is a more serious concern, so take care good sir.
I had to do it twice. The first time, I didn’t know any better and did an anal swab. Being as I haven’t lost mu sense of smell or taste, I changed swabs before doing the nasal one.
Are you calling OMWC a dog f*cker?
I was hoping the fog guy was Foghorn Winslow.
“Poppy, bake the cake.”
Happy Birthday, Mr. Bester! Yeah, he was wasted in the Shadow of the Shat…
He was terrific on B5
Happy birthday Horatio?
Happy birthday Jim Carrey?
Is jazz your favorite type of music, OMWC?
Hard to say if I have *a* favorite type. I grew up on jazz, but listen to at least as much folk, bluegrass, Americana, and prog rock, with some excursions into metal and country. A bit of classical here and there…
If you like renaissance music, I recommend the YouTube channel “Early Music in a Different Way”.
The artist is Edwardo Antonello. He plays all the instruments himself.
He even composed a Baroque-style piece on commission that’s pretty good.
I am definitely checking it out, thanks!
I finally contracted WuFlu – are there still tests for this?
Our university gives them out and actually requires them if you have any cold or flu-like symptoms.
Paid vacation which simply means catching up on shit remotely and when you get back. So no vacation.
I am wondering if the results are any more reliable than casting the bones. 50/50 was the last I heard which is the same as not having a test at all.
No, you fucking morons, he’s promising to cut government funding.
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
Dammit
It’s always good luck to post quotes from Bastiat multiple times.
– Some dead white guy
lol That’s our Trump.
Guh? That was in reaction to “shit communication” quote below.
If I thought it would go anywhere (not a snowball’s chance in a grass fire, much less Hell) — the CA voters ought to be able to class action sue the state for the multiple “Give us money and we’ll do water storage infrastructure this time! Pinkie swear!” It really ought to be criminal to raise money for bonds for a specific purpose — then never do what you earmarked the money for, especially more than once.
And if that makes politicians more wary of perpetual “bonds for FOO” crap on ballots or careful of accounting tricks… well gosh darn it, just going to have to live with that consequence…
If only in MA. You can probably add NY and you can definitely add the UK.
From the sidebar:
LOL never change, The Guardian.
“We need a REAL despot, like Kamala!”
Yup, we got hit by the ‘Ragin’ ‘Rona here at Shloss Zwak this week. I think I will finally be able to take little dog to the park today, as it has been four days and she is starting to look like she is gonna cut a bitch pretty soon.
Yeah — locking everything up may help with non-employee shrink (I don’t remember the numbers, but “insider” shrinkage is always a big problem/concern in retail too), but I strongly suspect the real point is to try to tamp down the narrative for a certain perceived as soft-on-crime party before November.
Quotes like
this from the article don’t dissuade me from that thought.
“Everything is great!”
ignore all the layoffs, and businesses closing their doors.
A) That tends to happen when you have states like California threatening retail giants with fines for reporting shoplifting, and B) a stable or declining rate of retail theft in Mayberry is probably cold comfort for people living in urban shit holes where petty theft has been, for all intents and purposes, decriminalized.
Twitchy had an article summarizing TwiX responses to this too, which I think covers a lot of the bases.
Having a lot of the urban retailers that were suffering (like in SF Union Square) just shut down and leave would also decrease the shoplifting rate, after all…
It may also be going down due to store closures. You can’t shoplift in a closed store.
That article is a classic exercise in “nothing to see here, move along.”
I love how they link to their own articles for “proof”.
“Dont believe your lying eyes” – Last argument of every socialist ever.
When you forget whether you live in a Handmaid’s Tale hellscape operated by radical Christian theocrats, or whether the fundies are in retreat, soundly defeated by godless facts and logic in the span of 2 paragraphs…
Tarrant County is the reddest big county in Texas…the only one? If there is anywhere in the US where you can play neo-con trad “libertarian” to thunderous, unpunctuated applause, it’s the Grapevine-Colleyville school district. It is the land of the unspattered 4×4 and gun-lovers who can’t shoot.
As in most of the South, Republicans virtue signal and little else; they luv love lerv confusing, intervening, all-consuming government and all the ways they can haze their opponents with their massive collective erection (viz: MY NEIGHBOR HAS PURPLE HAIR!!!!1!!)
because the really don’t care about freedom at all: their “conservatism” is centralization in sheep’s clothing.
So, since they think they should control the world, they’re obsessed with others who also want to control the world; it’s just an intellectual food fight. It’s big school districts, over-reach, and equal access wars all day. It has never occurred to any of those fucks to minimize government, educate your own kids, and then just mind your own business and enjoy the fuck out of life.
There is no bigger lie than the notion of a freedom-loving Texan. Other than our RJ, I do not recall ever meeting a single one in twenty years wandering the place.
Conservative doesn’t mean the same thing as libertarian, and suburban Christians don’t like trannies in their public libraries. Film at 10. Point is, the most likely reason the imagined theocracy didn’t materialize after Roe v. Wade was repealed is simply because it was a left wing bogeyman, and the author of the piece is too stupid to realize they’re spinning two conflicting narratives at the same time.
I swear, I think Don just posts these anti-Texas rants to wind me up.
Of course, there’s a lot to the notion that Texas as some kind of libertarian haven is a load of bullshit. Their state constitution has, I think, 200-something amendments (never a good sign), they have a full roster of business regulations and licensing requirements, their GOP was (and probably still is) rotten with “establishment” GOPers. It took them forever to allow open carry, for example.
But I don’t count the church ladies (viz: MY NEIGHBOR HAS PURPLE HAIR!!!!1!!) against them on libertarian grounds, on account of I draw a distinction between government overreach enforced with jackboots and social/civil society disapproval expressed with raised eyebrows and haughty sniffs (or at worst, with the exercise of the right of free (dis)association). As far as I know, nowhere in Texas is it illegal to dye your hair unnatural colors.
*clutches pearls*
It is a fairly lonely existence. At the least I have many good debates with conservatives.
The liberal Texans are just buckets of anger. I have only had one reasonable debate with a liberal Texan in 58 years.
When I was a young lad wrapping up high school and entering college I used to spend a fair amount of time at a blog billed as a destination for conservative intellectuals. They published a pretty broad range of articles and authors, all the way from pretty lefty, anti-war libertarians like Ivan Eland from The Independent Institute to neo-Confederates from V-Dare, to Buchanan-ites and the Bush-era neocons. One of my frequent interlocutors was a PhD from Dallas whose hobbyhorse was NAFTA, having overseen some of the negotiations before entering the private sector. I thought he was in love with the smell of his own farts, and told him so. He thought it was awesome that some smartass kid told him his credential was neither impressive, nor a substitute for an argument, and we ended up becoming friendly enough to have lunch a couple times when he was traveling to Las Vegas for business. Other than here, it’s probably the best experience I’ve had pointlessly arguing politics online. It’s sad that’s a bygone era. Nowadays, you could never get that same collection of authors and commenters together in one place; just petty social media sniping and jerkoff echo chambers on walled garden platforms.
Anyway, I’ve never had a similar discourse with anybody on the left. About the closest I got was a college professor who dragged the bibliography of a paper I wrote on immigration policy, before finally admitting that my work was competent, he just didn’t like my sources or conclusions, and essentially told me I’d grow out of my views some day when I became as enlightened as he was.
My experience in general RJ. I have one liberal friend that I have very good discussions with. But he is the only exception.
This article is a classic example of failing the political Turing test.
If I’m getting ice cream, it’s going to be Bluebell, and usually Homestyle Vanilla.
Nevertheless, I think that B&J’s “New York Super Fudge Chunk” is one of the best ice cream flavors I’ve ever eaten. Chunky Monkey is quite good, too.
Bluebell has a good flavor called “Gooey Butter Cake”, that is hard to find
Brookshire’s Goldenbrook house brand Peanut Butter Blast and Vanilla Bean are pretty good. I’ll grab one every now and then when they come on sale, since it’s the only brand that’s ever less than 5 bucks a pint.
Blue Bell Cherry Vanilla or Brigham’s Peppermint Stick. Maybe both together. Nothing else.
Keep lying about things? I mean — they keep insisting Trump is the architect of and has promised to implement Project 2025, that he’s going to do a national abortion ban, that Romney would put y’all in chains, etc….
Reality doesn’t matter, they’ll say whatever they want.
Dear Geologist Penthouse…. I never thought this would happen to me…
And the grant ecosystem has basically pushed out the alternatives, led to the proliferation of tons of questionable work, narrowed the acceptable directions of inquiry, and pretty much stifled innovation.
I get to assist with the legal agreements behind some of these grants, and to say that it promotes questionable work and stifles innovation is an understatement. “Hey, lets burn man-weeks of researchers’ time on obnoxious paperwork and legal negotiations so they can take their research in a stupid direction! Here’s $5M over 4 years.”
Trashy: I know you probably can’t make it but, just in case…
Joe’s KC BBQ, Olathe, next Saturday 5pm
Thanks Raven!
“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.”
…Dwight Eisenhower (Farewell Speech)
Morning, Glibs.
My fears have come true. As I move back east, my sleep cycle is finally catching up to the westerly time zones I’m leaving. 🙁
You’re gonna need a vacation after this.
It’s destiny. Go west, young man.
Try going to Asia… it’s unreal how awful that is.
I don’t know anybody of any age who manages it without at least one bad day. That includes sleeping on the plane.
Only time will tell if you get jet lag.
I’m a unicorn. No covid vaccine. Have not taken a covid test. I’m sure I’ve been exposed at this point but never was in a position to have to get tested.
Feel better soon OMWC.
Me too,
/pureblood
But the pets were unharmed, right?
Illegal migrant from Dominican Republic suspected of ‘horrifically’ killing New York family of four
Well, that is a totally different place than Haiti!
/Dem
I was thinking he’s from the wrong side of the island.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5jJE3rzBqM
Brown? Mediocre? Sir, you insult the mediocre.
“I’m a firm believer that government funding of science is one of the very worst things that ever happened to science.”
Cannot be said loud enough or often enough.
All gun laws aside those in the constitution are not laws. They are crimes committed by the state.
Fuck the watermelons. How about we just withhold federal funding from Ca. without conditions.
Maybe we could criminalize theft, prosecute those who commit theft and fire the pols who facilitated this insanity. Wait…prosecute and jail the pols too.
I haven’t forgotten what ‘christian conservatives’ did when they had the upper hand. They weren’t as evil as the commies but concentrations of power always draw people of low character.
Amber? Good for her.
The LV story? The little voice inside my head whispers to me that the LV staff are probably not the problem.
Serious question because I really dont know: Why are so many Jews collectivists? What is it about the culture that does that? It seems a bit paradoxical because it is always the collectivists (socialists) that end up trying to purge the jews.
Thousands of years being a minority clinging together for protection in ‘host’ cultures?
Too short answer: that’s part of it. The other part is a cultural wish to help the least of us since we identify with the downtrodden. Needless to say, this omits a lot of history and nuance.
Who knows? The “journalist” seems more interested in pushing an agenda than answering that question.
Bungie acting rationally? The artist acting rationally? WTF. We can’t have that in our 24/7 news and outrage cycle!
Bungie will compensate an artist after its Destiny 2 Nerf blaster ripped off their work
Uh… that still sounds like bullshit to me. Like a fanfic author suing the original author for using their own characters that were featured in the fanfic. My guess would be Bungie doesn’t want the bad publicity of bullying a tranny with a social media following, but failing to enforce your IP is a good way to lose it, which is why a lot of large companies sue small timers, and then everyone gets off at them for picking on the little guy. Unfortunately, the courts don’t give a shit whether it was xx__PussySlayer420__xx on TwikTogram or the creative director for Microsoft who infringed your IP: if you don’t defend it, the court starts to view your claim to it more suspiciously with each iteration.
That does look like a cool toy. Now that they are paying her, they should just use her version, which I like better than their variation.
I would like to see the original “vanilla” version as part of the comparison.
I will vote for Kamala all day if Ben and Jerry come out with an aborted fetus flavor. Shout your abortion, right?
Something with strawberry in it, right? Any other flavor suggestions?
Blood orange cookie dough?
Apricot adrenochrome?
Wasn’t someone talking about Chunky Monkey up above?
Be careful what you ask for. 😳
But the narrative that shoplifting exploded nationwide has been mostly unfounded. In reality, retail crime has not meaningfully gone up nationwide in the past few years, and it has even gone down in many places.
But if you tell them 100 million children went to school and back without being shot, they call you a heartless monster,
Where’s a good place to break $100 without having to spend most of it in the process? I’ve used up most of my small bills and don’t normally carry $100s.
I’ve never had any trouble breaking a $100 at a convenience store, provided of course that I buy something. But I’ve never had one say “you gotta spend a minimum of $X).
I don’t do it very often, and now that I think about it, only at stores in non-urban areas.
If not early morning, most place in NYC will break them with a purchase as well.
From a cashier perspective it makes counting out easier with big bills. It’s jus a matter of not having enough bills early in the day.
Hell, I had a falafel cart guy break a bill in Brooklyn.
Self checkout at any Walmart or large grocer. Buy a pack of gum. The thing will only spit out small bills as change. Sometimes the fuckers won’t even give you 20s.
Thank you, people.
Where’s a good place to break $100 without having to spend most of it in the process? I’ve used up most of my small bills and don’t normally carry $100s.
A bank? Service counter of a big grocery store? Get some twenties from an ATM until the banks open?
Ben & Jerry’s co-founders unveil Kamala Harris ‘Coconut Jubilee’ ice cream flavor
If it were a conservative-owned company, we’d be hearing endless accusatory shrieks of racism by them associating a brown person with coconuts.
Among my first thoughts too.
I mean fucking monkey pox became Mpox.
I wonder if “jubilee” was used because at one time it meant “debt forgiveness”.
Probably not; too obscure.
in England coconut is a term used by POC against other POC and associating it with Kammy is even worse imo
Simple and reasonable
Harris also reiterated that she and Walz are gun owners and believe that they can respect the second amendment while pushing for and implementing long-asked-for policies like a ban on so-called assault weapons and universal background checks on gun purchases. “We are not taking anybody’s guns away,” she said.
“I feel very strongly that it’s consistent with the second amendment to say we need an assault weapons ban. They’re literally tools of war they were literally designed to kill a lot of people quickly.”
Taking them away is a lot harder than preventing you from getting them in the first place.
The really funny part about this is that the left has been whinging for most of a century that the 2A doesn’t protect an individual right to firearms and was intended to arm the militia. You know… the, folx who are literally supposed to be literally trained to literally kill a lot of literal people quickly during literal war.
Everything she says now is the exact opposite of where she actually stands.
Will the voters notice?
When she says “my values haven’t changed”, believe her.
She still has the same values as she had when she was bailing out left-wing rioters, saying the 2A doesn’t protect individual rights, opposed the border wall and immigration controls, etc. She’s flat-out telling us that this is all just campaign positioning and bullshit, and once elected she will go right back to being anti-2A, open borders, etc.
For sure. Bernie accidentally said as much.
She’s know for being a thoughtful Constitutional scholar. If she feels it’s right, who am I to argue?
I know, no one cares, but in local news the US congress approved the sale of F35 planes to Romania.
Now this is not the main issue at had. Last week I was walking on the street minding my own business and there was a billboard advertising “f35 for Romania”with a giant plane on it. The advertisement was on behalf of Lockheed Martin. No my question is why the everloving fuck does Lockheed Martin have street advertisements in Romania? Who is that aimed at? All I can think of the wife/daughter of some politician owns that billboard and gets top dollar as a sort of lobby cash or something.
I’m so sorry that you’re paying for that boondoggle.
So nobody in your family with the $1m chunk of amber. Bummer…
Well, also figure out who local will make a buck if the F35 arrives. Things like maintenance and the like. It does seem really odd.
Voters. “Lookie! You need this designed-by-committee boondoggle, or else your military will fall behind the cool kids and you’ll probably get nuked by Russia just like those poor, brave Ukrainians. You had better vote for whichever clown is proposing legislation to blow 80% of your country’s annual defense budget on these things toot sweet.”
Do you get to keep them or do they go straight to Ukraine?
well maybe peace comes soon.
That’s the spirit!
Harris also promoted her economic plan, which she says is heavily based on her middle-class upbringing. “We have ambitions and aspirations, but not everyone necessarily has access to the resources that help them fuel the aspirations and ambitions,” she said. Harris says that if elected, she will expand the child tax credit and offer parents $6,000 for the first year of their child’s life, raise the tax break for small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 and give first-time homebuyers $25,000 in assistance.
Reach for the sky, America.
give first-time homebuyers $25,000 in assistance – is there a non retarded person out there who honestly things this is a good idea? it will just push gh price of everything up and become meaningless. No wait I forgot prices are independent of supply and demand, that is just stupid right wing talk. never mind.
Look, if you can’t manipulate the levers of power and make your subjects dance to your tune what is even the point of running for president?
I am seeing estimates ranging from 500 to 1200 bucks per month rise in cost of living depending on where in the country one lives under the Harris plan. Of course the instant 25K jump in home prices doesnt seem to be getting the attention it should get. Nor is her plan for food shortages.
Harris will be an unmitigated disaster. The commies seem to have reached the tipping point and they are going for broke now, in a manner of speaking.
Harris also paid a visit to the cafe and bookshop Classic Elements, where she told reporters: “I am feeling very good about Pennsylvania, because there are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who deserve to be seen and heard.”
Whatever that means.
It’s as coherent as any of her answers.
Weekly LOL.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/09/the-week-in-pictures-cat-astophe-edition.php
The Pigeon in a Tuscan 2 Michelin Star Restaurant with Valeria Piccini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBC-9uXqMaM
the fuckers are out of control in Bucharest and my hatred grows every day for those ho fed them
Then eat ’em. They’ve clearly been fattened up.
Silicone Saturday leads in every poll.
https://archive.is/zhNAU
Finally, some candidates I can vote for.
Traditional Pig Butchering Methods with Jack Hargreaves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juvdiEmy1w8
“I’m a firm believer that government funding of science is one of the very worst things that ever happened to science.”
Counterpoint, from Merry Olde
“Encountering disability through contemporary dance in Africa”
£87,261
“This will enable us to decolonise approaches to dance, disability and citizenship and disseminate existing good practice more extensively.”
https://x.com/CharlotteCGill/status/1834666877819183378
My university is full of shit like that.
Relevant
“Classmates would even allegedly serve as “lookouts” while the pair had sex at Laquey High School during school hours”
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/us-news/missouri-camel-toe-teacher-says-33668208
Those are true friends.
I can fix her, bros.
Whose land is it anyway? Land ownership and property rights protection in Albania
https://iea.org.uk/whose-land-is-it-anyway-land-ownership-and-property-rights-protection-in-albania/
Who did the Albanians steal it from?
+1 land acknowlegements
Charter School Chronicles – part 4
I showed my critical thinking class a video about a low-IQ couple who lost custody of their children, and another one that was a compilation of Margaret Sanger’s racist/eugenicist quotes. It sparked an interesting discussion. Here are the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDhxLsjMhbs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20mxoigI0cc
I asked them that if someone with a way below average IQ can get a high school diploma, what does that say about the difficulty of coursework in US high schools? That got a laugh.
One student asked what my IQ is. I said that I think it’s rude to boast about it, and that someone’s mental ability cannot be reduced to a single number. Then I said it’s not off the chart, but it’s on the edge. That prompted one student to claim an IQ of 150 and another to claim 165. They’re both smart kids in the gifted and talented program, however, 150 IQ is “skip two grades” smart and 165 IQ is “accepted to Harvard at 15” smart.
I also enjoyed showing the same class Andrew Klavan’s Liberal Fantasies vs Reality video, even though it’s very hard to find on YouTube for some strange reason.
Ah, here is the Klavan video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90SdmjuCAqw
It was in the online equivalent of a locked drawer of a filing cabinet stashed in the lavatory of an abandoned building with a sign on it that read “BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD”.
Sounds like a great class. I’d keep an eye out for confirmation bias (on your part).
It might be interesting as a class assignment to have the students find the best video or article they can taking a position they disagree with.
Yes, that very thought has weighed on me. I’ve told them repeatedly that I welcome alternative viewpoints, and that I’ll show any video they suggest as long as it has educational value and PG-ish language.
I gave them an assignment 2 weeks ago where they had to write about something popular they dislike/oppose or something popular they like/support. I got some interesting responses. So far, this has been the most popular video I’ve showed them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11l6PS5SCp8
165 IQ is “accepted to Harvard at 15” smart
Then why the fuck did I start at a public satellite campus at 19?
Because Jews are too stingy to pay the full price for tuition, amirite people?
Just as there’s grade inflation, there’s IQ deflation.
Because you’re not as driven as Ted Kaczynski?
***
After testing scored his IQ at 167,[14] he skipped the sixth grade. Kaczynski later described this as a pivotal event: previously he had socialized with his peers and was even seen as a leader, but after skipping ahead of them he felt he did not fit in with the older children, who bullied him.[15]
…
While still at age 15, he was accepted to Harvard and entered the university on a scholarship in 1958 at age 16.[19] A high school classmate later said Kaczynski was emotionally unprepared: “They packed him up and sent him to Harvard before he was ready … He didn’t even have a driver’s license.”
***
^from wiki
2 things I don’t know about myself and don’t care: My IQ and my blood type.
Later people. I have to go take a picture of Mount Rushmore than get to the next time zone.
Ce Ascund Drumurile Abandonate din Munți? Overlanding Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wQ4SVQOW5g
abandoned mountain roads in Romania. the youtube is in romanian though
That is some spectacular countryside.
Some of those “roads” look pretty . . . conceptual, but I’m pretty sure I saw bulldozer tracks on at least one of them.
Good health is a right
“I’ve been battling this for over 20 years,” Belk, 68, said of his medical debt. “This has been like an albatross around my neck, like an anvil I’m dragging around every day.”
Americans owe at least $220 billion in medical debt, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization. The top three states for medical debt are South Dakota, where 18% of the population is affected, followed by Mississippi at 15% and Belk’s home state of North Carolina at 13%, KFF says. The burden of medical debt has contributed to financial anxiety among voters and has become an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Medical debt is a “problem that is uniquely American,” said Berneta Haynes, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit organization, and an expert on the topic. “Even if you have insurance, if you have chronic health conditions that require you to interface more often with the health care system, you are putting yourself at greater risk for medical debt every single time you make” an appointment.
Obviously, health care should be free and unlimited.
Well one place to start would be not coupling the insurance with your workplace.
Canada has a solution for him.
*cough* Bullshit.
Well, he’s kinda right. In the rest of the civilized world he’d have waited 12 years for routine diagnostics, but by golly, he wouldn’t have any debt, other than the 70% of his income collected in tax.
I thought 0bama care fixed this?
If only dear leader knew…
I showed this video to my class as an example of a good (relatively speaking) argument in favor of government-run healthcare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jng4TnKqy6A
You aren’t paying attention and are about to hit the car in front of you. (Or he truly just doesn’t give a shit and us simply running right up to traffic before blindly changing lanes.)
Option 1. Use the shoulder.
Option 2. Blindly move into the next lane on the left
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/1fg19fj/oc_who_needs_to_shoulder_check_anyways/
Phone in hand.
The Atrium spokesman also provided a statement saying: “As the leading, nonprofit health system in the Southeast, Atrium Health works to ensure access to high-quality care for everyone in each community we’re privileged to serve. For us, there are no profits — just outcomes, in the form of improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing — for all.”
Just like the Little Sisters of the Poor, gladly sharing their last bit of gruel and crust of bread.
You aren’t paying attention and are about to hit the car in front of you. (Or he truly just doesn’t give a shit and us simply running right up to traffic before blindly changing lanes.)
Who knew a 7.000 pound dually can’t stop as hard as a Honda (or whatever that was).
The best part is the guy in front was paying attention and saw him coming and dived out onto the shoulder to give him room.
*I was taught if you have to jump on the brakes, check the mirror to see what’s coming behind you
Or a fully loaded 18 wheeler.
Almost 18% of our nation’s gross domestic product goes to health care — far more than other developed countries–with roughly one-third of those dollars spent on hospital care, according to National Health Expenditures data.
What part of that is extreme “end of life” care?
And what part of it is administrative rather than direct cost?
Pay no attention to the U.S. subsidizing healthcare R&D for the roughly 1/3rd “for profit” market here that now takes that tech and drugs and sells them to the rest of the world at a fraction of that cost.
What’s important is that none of that can be reimported to the U.S. to help reduce that bullshit.
Even when bills are accurate, prices can vary significantly for the same service in the same hospital, Fisher’s organization found. For example, last year PatientRightsAdvocate.org studied costs of five common services, including appendectomies, cesarean sections and cataract surgery, at hospitals in 10 states. The research found an appendectomy in the same hospital can cost as much as 32 times on the upper end what that facility’s lowest cost is for the service; cataract surgery can cost nine times and cesareans eight times the lowest cost at the same facility. The average variation in price across the procedures at the same hospital was almost 11 times, the research determined.
They should post a menu with prices, just like McDonalds. I wonder why they don’t.
They do! Six people a year pay those menu prices. Everybody else gets unlisted special friends and family pricing.
Darth Cheney comes into the light
The endorsements crystalized the remarkable evolution of the Republican Party’s establishment wing, which ruled Washington during the Bush years only to be sidelined once Trump wrested control of the party. These figures, once reviled by Democrats, are so alarmed by the prospect of the former president’s return to power that they are prepared to oppose their own party’s nominee for the White House.
In the process, they are giving Harris a critical opening to broaden her base of support.
“It’s easier for prominent Republicans like Cheney and Gonzales to say, ‘I support Kamala Harris’ because, in effect, their old home has been ransacked and destroyed,” said Will Marshall, the founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank. “The ties of partisanship, which are always strong in both parties, are attenuated by the fact that Trump has made today’s Republican Party absolutely unwelcome for prominent Republicans who served in previous administrations.”
That sounds so much better than, “Those guys know which side their bread is buttered on.”
That mean old bastard wouldn’t give us any new wars, federal control of education, restrictions on speech, or a major new entitlement program! We’re taking our ball over here to the party who called us Nazi baby killer fascists for 20 years!
I guess there’s still some cachet to becoming one of the cool kids in one’s mid 80s.
Even as the Harris campaign basks in the support, comedian Jon Stewart mocked Cheney’s endorsement on “The Daily Show,” addressing the ex-vice president with an expletive and shouting: “You came this close to destroying the entire world. We were this close.”
“Who in God’s name is that endorsement gonna sway?” Stewart demanded. “‘Well, I like the Democrats’ policy on child tax credits, but are they bombing enough Middle Eastern countries?’”
Bush and Cheney just weren’t trying hard enough. Let Joe and Kamala have a chance to set the world on fire.
Speaking of meaningless endorsements, does anybody seriously give a shit what Jon Stewart says?
Burned out genxers and older Millennials who’ve been voting straight D since they turned 18 while maintaining their Independent registration, who would have elevated Obama to god-king if it were possible, and stick little Ukrainian flag emojis in their Twitter profiles while still referring to Bush as a war criminal.
Bank job
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to social media platform X and satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, both companies controlled by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The move by Justice Alexandre de Moraes was aimed at collecting funds that are equivalent to the amount that X owes to the country in fines. The bank accounts of the two companies have since been unfrozen.
Totally on the up and up.