REMEMBERING PATRICK SWAYZE. Unaccountably, though, they slight his most memorable role.
Archive for 2009
September 15, 2009
PETER SUDERMAN: Yes, Those Inflated Uninsured Numbers Really Are Inflated.
GOVT. HEALTHCARE: Medicare facing cancer, cardiac care cuts: Reimbursements for oncologists and cardiologists are on the federal government’s chopping block in the next six weeks. “These cuts will force cardiologists and oncologists to limit care to their Medicare patients, withdraw from treating Medicare patients altogether or require their patients to pay more out of pocket to make up the difference in the cost of these services.”
UPDATE: Reader Bruce Goldston writes: “Remember when the media used to call these ‘draconian cuts’?”
PROTECTIONISM: Like Hoover, Obama is abdicating U.S. trade leadership.
UPDATE: A hedge-fund reader emails: “Obama has systematically repeated every mistake made by both Hoover and FDR in prolonging the economic downturn. Is it a surprise he wants to reprise the Smoot-Hawley debacle? The pattern of known policy errors – from hyper- regulatory zeal to intimidation of investors to
currency debasement – is so clear and obvious, it can’t possibly be accidental.” I’ve been hearing this sort of thing a fair bit lately, but I think that’s giving ’em too much credit . . . .
Plus this: “Senate Republicans are fools if they think they can safely get away with sprinkling some ‘bipartisan compromise’ pixie dust on any government-run health care bill. Among the August recess lessons is that people, unlike most members of Congress, are reading the bills as never before and they aren’t going to be fooled by flowery rhetoric.”
DAN RIEHL: Why The Right’s New Energy Needs A Positive Approach. Flies, honey, vinegar, etc.
SHANNON LOVE ON THE ACORN SCANDALS:
This rule of thumb evolved after observing the failures of millions of computers. We learned that three separate computers would only suffer the same failure if the failure arose from a common source in the computers themselves. Just three machines out of millions told us we most likely had a systemic problem.
This brings me to the Acorn child prostitution scandal.
* One report from an Acorn office was a fluke. Any large organization, public or private of any creed can be infected by amoral individuals who will try to use the organization to commit illegal or unethical acts. No organization larger than a few dozen people can police the actions of every member, all the time.
* Two reports from two separate Acorn offices was just a disturbing coincidence. The same reasoning as above applies, because in a large organizations, just as in a large installed base of computers, it’s possible for two separate bad eggs carrying out the same acts to show up in the same organization.
* Three identical reports of the same failure from three separate offices indicates the criminality arises from the organization itself. It is highly unlikely that, out of the hundreds of Acorn offices around the nation, the journalist just happened to wander into the three offices whose managers wouldn’t blink an eye at helping to set up a brothel using children.
This degree of organizational systemic rot has to come from the head. I think that much is obvious. Something in Acorn’s organizational culture made these people feel that it was okay and expected for them to give the criminal advice that they did. Certainly, if Acorn had been a private for-profit company, three separate and wholly unrelated incidents would have been enough for leftists to demand the heads of the corporate officers.
And it’s not just three. . . .
GLOOM: Economist warns of double-dip recession.
UPDATE: On the other hand, consumer spending is up.
CHANGE: Boeing Co. employees vote to disband union.
UPDATE: Reader John Endean writes: “Note that the Boeing workers voted to disband the union. While organized labor presses through card check legislation to eliminate the secret ballot for organizing unions, it still insists on a ballot before a union can be disbanded.” Hmm. Seems that if we’re going card-check it should work both ways . . . .
GLOOM: US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession. Bah. The President has assured us that prosperity is just around the corner.
MORE ON THE LATEST Human Rights Watch scandal.
OLD SPIN: Nobody’s Talking About Killing Granny!
New Spin: What’s Wrong With Killing Granny?
Plus, Old Spin: Nobody’s Talking about Health Care for Illegals!
New Spin: What’s Wrong With Health Care for Illegals?
UPDATE: Reader Richard Gelb writes:
As a loyal reader, and an interventional cardiologist, I need to make the following point:
Health care cannot be denied to illegal aliens, as long as they are in the country. Sure, nobody would argue that they should be given free Viagra, or scooter chairs, or whatever, but what about dialysis, or emergency heart attack care? (The last three heart attacks I have treated were all illegal aliens–migrant workers.) How does it work? Do I refuse to treat them, which is a violation of my oath as a doctor, or do I just continue to eat the cost, as I do now? What about their followup care? Am I on the hook for that too?
The only practical solution, short of sealing the border completely, is some kind of reimbursement for the care of illegals. My idea is a tax credit to offset my costs. For that matter, giving doctors tax credits for treating the uninsured would solve a lot of problems at much less cost. Since we are mostly in high tax brackets, we would actively compete for these patients. Give the same credits to hospitals and diagnostic centers, and the problem of followup care and ancillary services are mostly solved too.
Simply not insuring illegal aliens, or any other unfavored group, unfairly passes the cost of their care onto me, my colleagues and struggling hospitals, which is the current status quo–not fair!
Fair point.
MY EARLIER POST ABOUT “KAELIAN SURPRISE” regarding the Van Jones debacle led reader Glenn Kenny to email that the Pauline Kael story isn’t really true. He sends this link:
She never said it, and she was irked by the fact that it was so often attributed to her. Apparently a reporter, or somebody, asked her to comment on Nixon’s election, and she replied that she couldn’t because she didn’t even know anyone who had voted for Nixon. And the story got garbled.
Of course, the post in question also criticizes “Repugs,” so make of that what you will. Kenny adds: “I think one reason the story has the legs it does is because, contra Rubio, ‘Don’t look at me; nobody I know voted for Nixon’ or some such sounds like something Kael WOULD say, in her most imperious, shoot-from-the-hip mode of discourse (as when she famously told Otto Preminger to his face that ‘Hurry Sundown’ was a ‘piece of shit’). But as there really is NO official record of her saying that—the much-referred-to Wall Street Journal article has never surfaced,—she really ought not be tarred with it. There are many, I suppose, who would argue that her quote about Nixon voters being ‘outside her ken’ amounts to the same thing, but I really do not think it does.”
Okay, but I’m still proud of “Kaelian Surprise,” even if — heck, who am I kidding, because — it sounds like the title to a Star Trek episode.
September 14, 2009
A GOVERNMENT THAT FEARS ITS PEOPLE: SONIC WEAPONS USED IN IRAQ POSITIONED AT CONGRESSIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY.
ADVICE ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS from Popular Mechanics.
Unaccountably, however, they’ve omitted the zombie threat.
STEPHEN GREEN’S HAIR OF THE DOG: The MSM Ignores the 9/12 Rallies and Rep. Joe Wilson Wins His War.
TEA PARTY UPDATE: Okay, I was busy this weekend in Quincy and didn’t have time to cover all the tea parties going on outside of Washington, DC and, of course, Quincy. But there were a lot. Here’s a picture from El Cajon, California, sent by reader Josh Swanson:
Reader Thom Stratton writes from Boise, Idaho: “I decided at the last minute today to take my kids to the Tea Party rally here in Boise. We were a little late, but joined the crowd marching down Capital Blvd. toward the park across from the capital bldg. I’m not good with guesses, but I’d estimate at least 1-2,000 people there. My kids, aged 4, 6, and 8 thought the “parade” was great fun, but got bored quickly when the speeches started. Still, it got my 8-year-old daughter interested in what’s going on, so I was able to explain some things to her. I’ve never been to any type of political rally or demonstration before. I’m going to make sure it’s not my last. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so I could send you some pics. I’d planned to, but getting three young kids ready and into the car is a trick in itself. Still, between myself and the camera, I’d say it was better that I got myself there.”
And luckily, reader Jim Verdolini was there and sent this pic:
And here’s a blog report from Lakeland, Florida. I’m sure there are more — please send me links to anything that deserves attention.
Meanwhile, here’s some video from L.A.
I AGREE WITH THE PRESIDENT: Obama Calls Kanye West a “Jackass.”
BILL TO DEFUND ACORN passes Senate 83-7.
UPDATE: So how will the NYT, and other big-media outfits that have ignored the ACORN scandals so far, explain this to their readers? The same way they explained Van Jones’ resignation, I guess . . . .
PJTV: The March On Washington.
READER JODY GREEN WRITES: “We went to the protest in Washington and we walked up and down Pennsylvania Avenue during the march. We saw thousands of signs and 99% were hand made and unique. The one person we saw handing out signs was handing out the pre-printed ‘Bury Obama Care with Kennedy’ sign. He had hundreds of them in packages and was handing them to everyone that passed by. I did not take one because I thought it not a very effective sign and would probably only cause negative coverage. Well that is what it has caused. There have been numerous stories from some big names saying how this was offensive. Rush had a montage today of reporters talking about this sign. I even heard it on a local radio station as top of the hour straight news. Just curious if any of your other readers saw what I saw and maybe learned where this guy came from. I guess I smell a rat.”
Anybody else know anything about this?
UPDATE: Reader Luis Hess writes:
The American Life League is responsible for the “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy” sign: http://americanlifeleague.stores.yahoo.net/index.html
What’s strange is that this sign stands far apart from all their other Pro-Life memorabilia. The Pro-Life movement has nothing to do with Obama or Kennedy insofar as it comes to universal health care (outside of the abortion issue). According to the BBB (http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/toc/american-life-league-in-stafford-va-2294), the organization has only existed since July 2009. Something smells strange about the entire set-up.
Hmm.
MORE: Hiawatha Bray writes: ‘It’s a real pro-life organization that’s been around since 1979. And Brian Gates writes: “I’m not sure where Mr Hess is getting his information, but here is a 4th Circuit record of a case the American Life League was involved in in 1995.”
MARKDOWNS on cookware.