–Fred Edwords, the national director of the United Coalition of Reason, speaking to the New York Times about running “Good without God” messages around the country. Must resist urge to sign over checking account to this guy.
Merry X-mas to all!
Jonathan Gruber sums up the wages of partial repeal (be it legislative or judicial) of the Affordable Care Act:
Removing the Affordable Care Act’s mandate would eviscerate the law’s coverage gains and greatly raise premiums. And going further by only keeping the market reforms and the small business tax credit would virtually wipe out those coverage gains and cause an enormous premium spike.
Oh, and it would totally destroy the existing insurance company-based system of coverage within a very few years. They’d be the first ones screaming for some replacement for the mandate; they’d have to be, because without it, and in the continued presence of the rest of the reforms, they’d be out of business.
But, by all means, GOP: herald in the era of single payer, finally a true government takeover of healthcare funding in this country by launching relentless attack on the less popular but absolutely critical parts of the package. Said it before, will likely say it again: bad policy is absolute catnip to the GOP and their Tea Klan enablers. They cannot resist it. Forget testing proposed legislation; just see if the GOP/Tea Klan is for it. If so: it is at best a singularly bad and more likely an utterly catastrophic policy.
With that useful razor in hand, it’s easy to see that with a policy outcome as catastrophic (to the insurers) as removing the mandate and but also leaving the popular stuff like the community rating, no lifetime limits, and etc… in there, the GOP and Tea Klan are and will forever be like moths to the flame until such time as they see their particular foolishness accomplished. And before we know it, President Palin will be signing the new American Homeland Patriotic Healthfulness Imbuement and Embiggening Flag Act of 2013, handed to her by a slothful yet resolutely responsive GOP rubber-stamp of a Congress.
Cannot wait.
Not least among the reasons for the bafflement of the industry (and fellow writers) is the amateurishness of the books – something, curiously, that Larsson has in common with Brown. Readers, publishers and writers alike can agree that John Grisham, Robert Harris, Tom Clancy or Danielle Steel build up their massive readerships by knowing precisely what they are doing; they are master practitioners of their highly skilled craft. Conversely, Brown and Larsson – in their different ways – are mesmerisingly bad.
I tend to agree, but good Christ is this article also a fine example of exactly why “literary” fiction is dying:
…in order to effectively conjure my cup of lactescent silt into existence, the barrista in question would have to put down his… Stieg Larsson.
I’d aver this gentleman has been, puis-je se permettre de dire le, duly hoisted upon his own petard.
Are Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown a match for literary fiction?
Incoming Speaker John Boehner: We have to govern. That’s what we were elected to do.
Leslie Stahl: But governing means compromising.
Boehner: It means working together.
Stahl: It also means compromising.
Boehner: It means finding common ground.
Stahl: Okay, is that compromising?
Boehner: I made it clear I am not gonna compromise on my principles, nor am I gonna compromise…
Stahl: What are you saying?
Boehner: …the will of the American people.
Stahl: You’re saying, “I want common ground, but I’m not gonna compromise.” I don’t understand that. I really don’t.
Boehner: When you say the word “compromise,” a lot of Americans look up and go, “Uh-oh, they’re gonna sell me out.” And so finding common ground, I think, makes more sense. […]
Stahl: Why won’t you say you’re afraid of the word [compromise]?
Boehner: I reject the word.
Lemkin: I’ll give the Obama team 45 minutes to dig up the old Rhythm Corps song “Common Ground” and get Clinton out to the lectern to run a few bars for us.
Devastating secondary punchline.
bernie sanders filibuster” 2nd on Google trends hot search only to “miley cirus bong
Leaked emails tell us what we’ve known all along:
Fox executives regularly defend the network by claiming that the right-wing propaganda on Hannity and its other opinion shows is entirely separate from its news programming, which they insist is objective. But Sammon’s email gives credence to allegations that news from Fox’s Washington bureau is being deliberately distorted to benefit conservatives and the Republican Party.
I’m sure that the ABC, NBC, CNN, and CBS news operations will now reassure us that this is “old news” that’s well known and just the way things ought to work in America. Anything else would threaten the sanctity of the fourth estate, after all. And if one party holds and actively uses the most watched news network in the US for its own benefit, well, that must be what the people want and more power to them. After all, where else are you going to see the slate of GOP Presidential candidates every hour on the hour?
By far the clearest, most comprehensive explanation of the nature and extent of the charges currently filed against Julian Assange. Please read before posting your next whinge about whether or not Assange is some form of sub-human monster or merely a lesser incubus.
In 1966, Howard Dully became one of the youngest recipients of an “icepick” lobotomy at the age of 12. The psychiatrist who administered the procedure, Dr. Walter Freeman, believed that mental illness was tied to overactive emotions, and that this procedure of cutting the brain dulled the errant feelings, and “cured” the patient. Howard Dully was brought in for the procedure because his stepmother described him as “unbelievably defiant,” saying among other things: “He objects to going to bed but then sleeps well. He does a good deal of daydreaming and when asked about it he says ‘I don’t know.’ He turns the room’s lights on when there is broad sunlight outside.” After Howard’s stepmother visited with Dr. Freeman, he suggested that “the family should consider the possibility of changing Howard’s personality by means of transorbital lobotomy.” Dr. Freeman’s transorbital lobotomy procedure was literally an ice pick hammered through the back of each eye socket into the brain then wiggled in a stirring motion, often taking just a few minutes under local anesthesia.
Wow. Even more information in the original NPR story.
Lemkin 