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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Doomsday predicitions don't always come to pass

Here you go Jon - just when you were talking about me complaining about sensationalism..

"Critics storm that health care reform is 'a cruel hoax and a delusion.' Ads in 100 newspapers thunder that reform would mean 'the beginning of socialized medicine.'

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page predicts that the legislation will lead to 'deteriorating service.' Business groups warn that Washington bureaucrats will invade 'the privacy of the examination room,' that we are on the road to rationed care and that patients will lose the 'freedom to choose their own doctor.'”


Do we know whether these things will really happen?  Well, yes, we do - because all of these statements were made in the early '60s, when legislators were battling over MediCare.


"The American Medical Association was vehement, with Dr. Donovan Ward, the head of the A.M.A. in 1965, declaring that 'a deterioration in the quality of care is inescapable.' The president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons went further and suggested that for doctors to cooperate with Medicare would be 'complicity in evil.'

The Wall Street Journal warned darkly in editorials in 1965 that Medicare amounted to 'politicking with a nation’s health.' It quoted a British surgeon as saying that in Britain, government health care was 'crumbling to utter ruin' and suggested that the United States might be heading in the same direction."




(One amazing sidenote in that article is the incredible difference between how Republicans have approached Medicare for the last 50 years and the things they're saying now to scare seniors into not supporting health care reform.  This piece delves into those differences with a lot of references.  One of the most amazing parts is a Newt Gingrich quote from 1995 when Republicans were attacking Democrats for trying to protect Medicare:

""Think about a party whose last stand is to frighten 85-year-olds, and you'll understand how totally morally bankrupt the modern Democratic Party is.")



p.s. - I've been trying to research a large range of issues related to health care reform.  Since I ended up doing 100+ hours of research on this and haven't even really told anybody most of my results yet, feel free to ask me any questions you have.


Thursday, November 19, 2009

27% of Republicans Believe Obama Actually Won the Election

No, I am not making this up.

Among Republicans… only 27% say Obama actually won the race, with 52% — an outright majority — saying that ACORN stole it, and 21% are undecided. Among McCain voters, the breakdown is 31%-49%-20%. By comparison, independents weigh in at 72%-18%-10%, and Democrats are 86%-9%-4%.


Honestly, the fact that anything gets done at all in the current political climate is more amazing every day.


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

And the award from the most ignorant guy of the day

Goes to this man.

"Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.

That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.

What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.

Police say Bruce offered several reasons to explain his actions:

The man tried to rob him.

The man grabbed Bruce's crotch and made an overt sexual advance in perfect English.

The man yelled "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," the same words some witnesses said the Fort Hood shooting suspect uttered last week.

"That's what they tell you right before they blow you up," police say Bruce told them.

Bruce ended up in jail, accused of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He was released Tuesday on $7,500 bail. Marakis ended up at the hospital with stitches. He told the police he didn't want to press charges, espousing biblical forgiveness.

But Tuesday, Bruce wasn't saying sorry."


The entire article is fascinating.  This guy really needs to removed from any position that gives him a weapon or the slightest bit of authority.


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Moments in U.S. history that happened on my birthday

I just thought this was an interesting list:

Abraham Lincoln was born
Utah became the first state to give women the right to vote
The NAACP was founded
San Francisco became the first U.S. city to issue marriage licenses to gay couples

(making it a slightly more random list, it was also the day that Charles Darwin was born*, the day that the Viet Cong first released U.S. prisoners of war, and the day Clinton was acquitted in his impeachment trial)

Just thought I'd share.


* Yes, I know he's not American, but I still think he has been very significant in American history.


Friday, October 30, 2009

I've been telling people for years that Baby Einstein makes kids dumber

Now we finally have the company owning up to it.

The great Baby Einstein scam

"The New York Times reported Thursday that Disney is offering a refund to buyers of its ubiquitous "Baby Einstein" videos, which did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds. Apparently, all those puppets, bright colors, and songs were what we had feared all along—a mind-numbing way to occupy infants."


And, as I've said many times, the biggest issue with the show is the fact that kids that little should not be watching any television at all.  They need real interactions, with real people who react back to them.

"According to the article, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old stay away from watching screens. In the letter threatening Disney with a class-action lawsuit for "deceptive advertising," public health lawyers hired by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood cited a study which found a link between early television exposure and later problems with attention span."


Don't forget - studies show (although they weren't quoted directly here) that kids who watch Baby Einstein end up dumber than kids who don't.  You have to spend that time actually being a parent.



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