07:53 – It seems to me that there’s an easy solution to this federal government impasse. Compromise. The Republicans agree to pass a budget and approve the debt limit increase. In return, the Democrats agree to repeal ObamaCare. Surely the Democrats must realize that a majority of Americans oppose ObamaCare, so why are they being so obstinate?
Netflix just added series four of Parenthood, which Barbara and I have been watching. One of the characters is diagnosed with breast cancer, and is likely to be put on chemotherapy. I told Barbara that my gut reaction is that chemotherapy is a dead-end technology and that the real cure for cancer is probably going to be through engineered viruses that seek out and destroy only cancerous cells. For that matter, I think in the long term that antibiotics are a dead-end technology and that the future lies in engineered bacteriophage viruses. Bacteria are disturbingly good at developing resistance to antibiotics, but it’s a lot harder for prokaryotes to develop resistance to hunter/killer viruses. But where are all the future molecular biologists and virologists who are going to discover these cures going to come from? The public schools sure aren’t producing much of a crop of future scientists and engineers.
That’s the main reason we started doing science kits. If kids don’t have access to the tools they’re not going to develop the skills they need to become our future scientists and engineers. Over the coming years, we’ll sell thousands of science kits. Obviously, not every kid who uses one of our kits will decide on a career in science. But if even 1% of those kids go on to become scientists and engineers it will have been worth the effort.
Part of our front yard is a swamp. There was an article in the paper the other day about the city water department. One of their water treatment plants had been down and is being brought back on-line. That means there will be silt in the lines during the changeover, so they’re flushing the lines. Yesterday afternoon, Colin started barking to warn me that something was going on. There’s a fire hydrant in the corner of our yard, and there was a guy from the water department out there opening it up and letting water flow at a high rate into the gutter. I walked out to talk to him and he said they were going to let it run overnight to flush the lines. As of now, it’s still gushing.
What? Colin allowed that guy to steal all your water and mud?
As every Fri., I’ll be volunteering at a local elementary school. The direction flowing down from the state and federal departments of education is sheer idiocy.
There must have been 300% change in methodologies since I attended over six decades ago. With the methods then, it was impossible that I could have learned math.
I’ve been faking it for six decades.
I finally read a reasonably descriptive article about the woman shot in Washington. While the reasons for her behavior remain unclear, I do not understand why the police were shooting at her.
She’s driving a car down a road, fleeing police cars. So set up a roadblock – what’s with the wild shooting?
Her car finally gets stuck on a median. They have no particular reason to think she is armed, but they shoot and kill her. WTF?
And then this: ¨Both houses of Congress came back later in the day and offered thanks to the Capitol Police. The House gave officers a standing ovation.”
What planet are we on?
It’s open season on mere citizens, don’t you know?
And, on a related note, I see that the US military is donating MRAP armored fighting vehicles to local police departments nationwide for only the cost of transporting them. Among those police departments is the Ohio State University campus police. I didn’t realize OSU students were that rowdy.
The OSU story is at least a week old; yes, campus police with an armored vehicle. Amazing. While the cops in DC blow away a disturbed woman with a baby in the car. Us mere citizens are, as William Grigg has coined, the Mundanes. We are nothing in the eyes of our rulers and their hired thugs. For more horrors along this line and how we got here:
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Warrior-Cop-Militarization-Americas/dp/1610392116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380902599&sr=8-1&keywords=Radley+Balko
Well worth the reading.
Headlines off Drudge just now:
WIRED SHUT: BARRICADE AT WWII MEMORIAL REINFORCED…
Military keeps Camp David open; Halts NFL, baseball coverage to troops overseas…
Park Service Tries Shutting Down Private Inn…
RANGER: ‘We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting’…
What we have here is what John Hayward over at Human Events is calling “Shutdown Theater.” Make it painful and visible and punishing to people while keeping all the regular machinery running full speed ahead.
And the Repub ass-hats are already caving, of course, gutless, ball-less, yellow bastard dickwads that they are:
nline.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303722604579113143884854458.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Obama was re-elected on Obamacare, wasn’t he? If so the Republicans should let him have it, and everything else. Two reasons: if he was elected on that he should be allowed to implement it, or at least try, and secondly, it kills all the whining about not being able to implement his programme. Then the voters can punish the guilty parties at the next elections. The Tea Party have a serious brain deficit, IMHO.
Barry Soetero was elected on that hopey-changey thang, and he was seen and promulgated by the media as the messiah and prophet of Better Things To Come. Hordes of adoring and groveling fans fell to their knees by the millions, like they did with Larry Klinton and his lovely wife Bruno, the Heroine of Tripoli and Benghazi.
It is moot; the Stupid Half of the War Party is caving again, as predicted, and ObummerCARE will become active, as badly messed up as it is, and with tons of exemptions from it for the in-crowds here.
“Then the voters can punish the guilty parties at the next elections.”
This makes me ROFLMAO. Please don’t do this.
“The Tea Party have a serious brain deficit…”
These imbeciles have only one focus: MONEY. Their finances, taxes, social security, Medicare, etc., etc. They don’t give a shit about anything else; not the endless foreign wars, not the Homeland Insecurity; not the terrible education system; and certainly not the “hot-button” issues like abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia, etc. They want their fucking money and that’s all there is to it. So they put on funny tricorner hats and wave the flag around and pretend they’re conservatives. And they think people like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin are political geniuses, or the next Repub savior like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul or whomever is gonna come along and rescue us from that colored guy in the White House. Then their precious money will be safe forever.
They *can* punish the guilty parties. I did not say they will.
The Tea Party folks mean well but are a bunch of idiots. Complete babes in the woods.
Whatever Barry was elected on, he was elected. Let him govern. Then the people, hopefully, will realise what idiots they were. Especially the ones who stayed at home.
Your Postal Service at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs_9s31Je7Y#t=66
I’m surprised she didn’t chuck the packages from the truck. Why get up.
“And then this: ¨Both houses of Congress came back later in the day and offered thanks to the Capitol Police. The House gave officers a standing ovation.””
Our Glorious VP Biden also called and congratulated the cop that told WWII Vets to fuck off, everything is closed.
It would be hard to believe any Vet would vote libturd, but some do.
I have a BS/MS in Maths, but wouldn’t if I grew up in today’s publik skool system. IF I hadn’t sent all my kids to private school through 6th grade, they wouldn’t be able to +-x/ because rote learning of math tables might traumatize them. I’ve been in 6 grades where they still use tooth picks for some kids to do “math”. Counting is hard.
Surely the Democrats must realize that a majority of Americans oppose ObamaCare, so why are they being so obstinate?
Because it’s the one thing that Obama has done to promote the progressive agenda. It’s his legacy. Nothing else they wanted has passed.
Polls are not so clear – this from Fox (surely right leaning) – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/03/fox-news-poll-voters-support-delaying-obamacare-but-oppose-defunding-it/
” A 54-percent majority of voters would like to see all or part of the health care law repealed. That’s down from 58 percent who felt that way in June, and a high of 61 percent in January 2011. The current 54 percent supporting repeal of at least some of the law matches a low recorded twice before in October 2012 and October 2010.
Most people are happy with their current health care coverage (76 percent). And by a 52-36 percent margin, they say the pre-Obamacare system would be better for their family than the new law.
Yet despite a 57-percent majority saying the law “should be delayed for a year until more details are ironed out,” voters oppose defunding the law by 53-41 percent. ”
That last sentence is telling – 53-41 oppose defunding. But 54% want all or part repealed. Not quite as clear as you make it out.
Well, *I* oppose defunding it, but that certainly doesn’t mean I support it.
And a lot of people who thought they favored ObamaCare are quickly coming to realize that they don’t. It’s going to cost them a lot more money than they thought, not just monthly but in deductibles and co-pays, and it’s not going to provide nearly what they thought it would.
“…Let him govern. Then the people, hopefully, will realise what idiots they were. Especially the ones who stayed at home.”
Yeah, what an idiot I was and millions of others, who finally realized the whole thing is a fucking charade and quit rolling over for it like rubes at the carnival. And he is most certainly not “governing;” he is ruling by tyrannical diktat, in line with his heroes, Pharaoh Roosevelt II, J. Stalin and V.I. Lenin. Those who wish to go along to get along and otherwise write his depredations off are enabling a Bolshevik regime, either here or from afar.
Dave, can you send me some of whatever it is you’re snorting? 🙂
I’m of the opinion that the whole scheme was designed to fail, with malice aforethought, by the wild eyed leftists who voted for it. What they want, first and foremost, is a single payer, ‘Uncle Sugar is gonna fix your every problem’ system. If anyone says “Please give me a list of all the well run, under budget, limited in scope to the original intent government programs” you get labelled as a Fascist, Hater, ad nauseam. And of course when it *does* fail, it will be harder to kill than any of the monsters of any mythology of any culture on the planet.
I’m of the opinion that the whole scheme was designed to fail, with malice aforethought, by the wild eyed leftists who voted for it
Yup. But I am pro having catastrophic health insurance, medicare, for all the souls in the USA. Just crank that medicare tax to 8% on each side (employer and employee) and you’ve got it.
I am still trying to decide what to do about our group health insurance. I hate this with a passion, deciding what our deductibles and coverages are going to be for 13 people! But since I pay for it, I get the thankless job. I’ve got half a mind to give all my employees $6,000/year and tell them to have at it. You don’t want to know what the other half of my mind thinks.
On odd-numbered days, that’s what I think. Obuttfuckcare is so calamitously fuckheaded that there’s no way any sane adult could think it would work as designed. It must be designed to fail, and designed to fail in a way that opens the door and raises the clamor for single payer.
On even-numbered days, I figure that those tards seriously overestimate their competence and sincerely thought that not only is this a great idea but that they could put it in place in such a hurry.
“…you get labelled as a Fascist, Hater, ad nauseam.”
Or that you are insane or on drugs, and thus ridiculous and worthy of scorn and contempt. And that if you straightened up and flew right, you’d simply vote the rascals out and the good guys in and meanwhile just write letters to them and make phone calls and everything will be groovy.
As Mrs. OFD and others have said, this sort of plan only works if *everyone* is on it and subject to its structures. This is most manifestly not gonna be the case, and is thus guaranteed to fail, and fail badly, which is one of the objects of the game.
This will of course cause more businesses to struggle and fail; more unemployment or underemployment; and a rolling snowball avalanche of other shit in the next few years. Again, one of the objects of the exercise.
At least when the collapse comes, we’ll have a bit more level a playing field, finally.
Hey Bob, the FBI is watching chemical purchases by individuals:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Feds-raid-Houston-homes-over-purchase-of-chemical-4869336.php?cmpid=hpfc
“A federal law enforcement search of homes in upscale Houston neighborhoods Friday was prompted by the ordering of chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of some type of gas, according to an official.”
I’ll bet that they bought some bleach and rat poison at amazon.
As Mrs. OFD and others have said, this sort of plan only works if *everyone* is on it and subject to its structures. This is most manifestly not gonna be the case, and is thus guaranteed to fail, and fail badly, which is one of the objects of the game.
As you well know, the only way to guarantee this is to give it away for free. And when happens (and it will, perhaps sooner rather than later), we will call it “Medicare for All”. I just with that it would only cover catastrophic conditions and not everyday medical expenses like doctor visits, etc.
I don’t even understand why employers in the US are involved in health insurance. Why not just pay employees more and let them take care of it?
It’s because of that worthless fuck Roosevelt. The commie fuck put in wage controls during WWII, which worked about as well as it ever does, especially when there’s a shortage of valuable workers. In order to entice employees while not breaking the letter of the law, employers offered non-wage compensation, including medical coverage, which eventually grew into the clusterfuck we enjoy today. For a sufficiently inclusive definition of “enjoy”, you understand.
And Pharaoh Roosevelt II is Barack’s hero, as has been stated before by him and others. He probably won’t admit just yet to having Lenin and Stalin as role models for his political plans in this country.
Also the prevailing wisdom here would be that if employers paid their employees more with the idea of them using it to purchase health insurance premiums, they would be out of their minds, because said employees, most of them, most certainly will not spend it on that. More likely toyz at Walmart, shitty Murkan lager at the packy, and shitty Murkan tee-vee.
57 here in the village tonight; Mrs. OFD off to Montreal to pick up darling daughter who decides this afternoon she wants to spend the weekend here in Vermont. So mommy can just drop everything (she was working frantically in advance for the statewide craft open studio event this weekend) and schlep up there and back again, not getting home here until very late tonight and then we have to be up wicked early tomorrow for the events.
Also had a long chat with an older local denizen who lives across the street; he was a font of intel, including the fact that the local restaurant owner had been involved a few years ago with the massive dope bust across the border that put a bunch of people in the Fed slam for decades. These creeps also had/have connections with Mob assholes down in the Bagel. All the more reason to lock and load, I reckon.
Oh, and have I mentioned last week’s road rage shooting/murder? Yep. Asshole ran a red light and almost hit a woman in another car. So she stupidly follows him to berate him; he stops and they get into it on the state highway smack in the middle of the “city” and then he pulls iron and blows her away right there in broad daylight. He’d just had a fight with his wife and a history of violence and crazed motor vehicle offenses.
This is just a couple of weeks after a meth house/lab bust, involving state police, local cops, Feds, and tee-vee crews.
Hey OFD, my Mom and Dad are just a ways over from you in Nova Scotia. They are reporting 60+ mph winds and their ferry ride to Newfoundland got canceled for 20 ft waves. Sounds like you guys got a blue norther coming in.
Also the prevailing wisdom here would be that if employers paid their employees more with the idea of them using it to purchase health insurance premiums, they would be out of their minds, because said employees, most of them, most certainly will not spend it on that. More likely toyz at Walmart, Murkan lager at the packy, and Murkan tee-vee.
Yup. And, you forgot the new car or motorcycle that they could also buy with their health care money.
And I’ve got a worse one for you. I have a Simple IRA for my employees where I do a dollar for dollar match for the first 3% of their income that they put in. And the money goes into their IRA account at Fidelity with 100% vesting, no waiting. I cannot even get all my employees to do this since it is optional. I have talked until I am blue in the face that they are getting a 100% return on the first 3% of their income that they put into their IRA. I do not understand this at all.
“I figure that those tards seriously overestimate their competence and sincerely thought…”
Sadly, that’s it. Simple arrogance. They don’t know the first thing about health care, statistics, actuarial table, or anything else that they *must* know before passing legislation like this.
I run into this all the time on IT topics, since I do a fair bit of consulting nowadays. Just to take a example: A nameless pointy-haired boss had a brilliant new business idea, and wants to establish essentially a whole new department in his company to make it happen. He wrote down some numbers in Excel, put together a pretty power-point presentation to sell his idea to the board, and: GO!
This is a very IT-intensive business idea, and he doesn’t know the first thing about IT. Did he ask anyone for advice? No, he just wrote down a number for the IT budget: $6000 per year. To support an entire department that needs PCs, servers, software, IT support staff, and probably custom development work. Of course, if he *had* included realistic costs, his expected profit turns into a whopping loss. Oops…
To my mind, this is exactly what happened with Obamacare. The politicos know nothing about the subject. They want the idea to work, so all the numbers in their pretty little excel sheets support their desired conclusion. They either sought no advice from independent experts, or they ignored anything that didn’t fit with their vision. The fact that the numbers are entirely wrong? Unlike the manager I mentioned, somehow politicians are never held responsible for the actual results…
I have talked until I am blue in the face that they are getting a 100% return on the first 3% of their income that they put into their IRA. I do not understand this at all.
And is just not your employees. At my job the organization matches dollar for dollar on the first 6% of my salary. That is an automatic 100% return on my money or a 6% return on my salary, a 6% pay raise.
Yet we have one individual, who makes a lot more than I do, contribute nothing. Husband and wife, no kids. Yet he is constantly in financial trouble. Gets calls at work from companies demanding payment. He has filed for bankruptcy twice since I have worked there. Apparently you can do that every 10 years. He has borrowed against his house as much as he can, vehicles are being used as collateral, credit cards maxed out, pays the minimum.
He refused to participate in the 401K plan. Doesn’t have enough money. When he retires he will be on welfare.
None of us can figure out where he spends his money. His wife is a hermit who claims to be allergic to everything. If the power goes out he has to run home and start a couple of generators to keep the air filters running. Buys his wife a new computer every couple of years and all she does is play with Photoshop, nothing really useful as she never sells anything.
The only good thing about those two being married is that it kept them from ruining the lives of two other people.
Some people are just idiots.
“Hey OFD, my Mom and Dad are just a ways over from you in Nova Scotia.”
Vacation trip?
I haven’t checked into the weather forecasts; I guess we better do that now. Overcast so fah today and in the 50s.
He might have an addiction of some type. Gambling, women (or guys), drugs?
“He might have an addiction of some type. Gambling, women (or guys), drugs?”
Or his wife, of course.
The other thing: once you dig yourself a nice deep hole, even if you stop spending, the interest you pay on your debts will keep you buried.
Yeah, my sister is a victim of this. Her ex-husband gambled and drank away about half a million of their joint assets, then had the front to try and get more in the divorce settlement. Their house could have been debt free in about 1994, instead my sister now owes so much on it she’s going backwards and will have to sell in the next few years.
I’m not afraid of debt but I never want to go in too deep.
Vacation trip?
Yup. They love it up there this time of the year. Lots of good food, usually awesome weather. They live in south Texas and want to escape the heat for a couple of weeks.
The wild thing is that we are predicted to be 57 F Monday morning. There is awesome norther coming in. This week will be freaking awesome weather.
Should be interesting; we will cower in terror when the wind kicks up and rain starts.
MIL has a cottage on the ocean in Noveau Brunswick, about eleven hours drive north of here. The ocean has been eroding the 30-foot cliff in back of her so she may have to move it. Naturally she will be leaving it to us when she goes, which could be anytime from tomorrow to thirty years from now; the women on my wife’s side of the family routinely live into their nineties. I’ll probably check out first.
Wife also sez that the ferry up there gets cancelled or postponed routinely; heavy seas a constant.
including medical coverage, which eventually grew into the clusterfuck we enjoy today.
Indeed, it’s become so ingrained that the boss ought to buy the health insurance that those who don’t get their insurance that way are at a huge disadvantage. BC/BS here in Florida keeps insisting that the reason they won’t cover me is my crippled knees and hypertension. If I went to work for the state of Florida as an IT drone, however, they’d be glad to sell me a policy. And I don’t for accept for a second the notion that the actuaries believe that working for the state would somehow make me healthier.
BC/BS has a bad rep here in Vermont; the management, the way they treat employees, etc. Our choices for our coverage here are limited to them and MVP. Nice, huh? Can’t wait to see how it all shakes out in actual practice, if we ever get through the online enrollment process, that is.
I have no complaints with BC/BS here in the Great State of Texas. Hospitals and other entities do complain that they bargain very hard. They will not pay for one of my daughter’s tests, stating that it not part of the standard of care for Lyme disease. But the test is only $75 so I am more than willing to pay for that.
The real test of an insurance company is how they do when you have a catastrophic illness. My wife is an eight year survivor of breast cancer. We spent $350K on her treatment in 2005-2006 over a year and a half. Five surgeries, six months of chemo and a year of an experimental treatment which was worked so far. Our previous insurance company, may they rot in a dungeon somewhere, refused to pay her surgical bills for nine months. We were getting statements from the hospital each month for over $100K while our previous insurance played the claim resubmital game. For her treatment, our previous insurance company paid $200K, we paid $15K, Genentech (the clinical trial sponsor) paid $50K and the hospital wrote off $85K. I may be a little wrong on those numbers but not much.
When I had my first heart attack in 2009, the total bill was $65K. BC/BS negotiated the bill down to $12K and paid $10K. I paid $2K, my deductible. I am more than happy with them.
Thanksgiving and prayers thereof for your and your wife’s survival and continued best of health. Ditto for the safe return of your son from you-know-where.
The official gummint word now is that they apparently did zip for load-testing and are fixing that stuff even as we “speak” here this weekend. I’ll give it another try during the week and meanwhile have to get back to the VA up here with my acute bronchial or asthma issue which has not been entirely corrected.