Krugman 30 October Health Care Reform Post

Just read the whole thing. Ok, here is a tiny bit of it:

For conservatives, of course, it’s an easy decision: They don’t want Americans to have universal coverage, and they don’t want President Obama to succeed.

For progressives, it’s a slightly more difficult decision: They want universal care, and they want the president to succeed — but the proposed legislation falls far short of their ideal. There are still some reform advocates who won’t accept anything short of a full transition to Medicare for all as opposed to a hybrid, compromise system that relies heavily on private insurers. And even those who have reconciled themselves to the political realities are disappointed that the bill doesn’t include a “strong” public option, with payment rates linked to those set by Medicare.

But the bill does include a “medium-strength” public option, in which the public plan would negotiate payment rates — defying the predictions of pundits who have repeatedly declared any kind of public-option plan dead. It also includes more generous subsidies than expected, making it easier for lower-income families to afford coverage. And according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, almost everyone — 96 percent of legal residents too young to receive Medicare — would get health insurance.

So should progressives get behind this plan? Yes. And they probably will.

Now for the people in the “center”: who are you with?

30 October 09 (noonish)

Workout notes 2200 yard swim; 500 in just under 9, 10 x (25 drill, 25 free) (fins), then 10 x 100 on the 2 (25 fly, 75 free). Times: first 6, 1:42 (one 1:43), next 2 were 1:41 and the last two were 1:39. Then off-strokes to cool down.

Interestingly enough, when I got home after my swim, I had calf twinges. Was it from kicking with fins or from the butterfly kicks?

News of the moronic

Just read:

The word “holiday” means “holy day.” But there is nothing holy about Halloween. The root word of Halloween is “hallow,” which means “holy, consecrated and set apart for service.” If this holiday is hallowed, whose service is it set apart for? The answer to that question is very easy—Lucifer’s!

Lucifer is a part of the demonic godhead. Remember, everything God has, the devil has a counterfeit. Halloween is a counterfeit holy day that is dedicated to celebrating the demonic trinity of : the Luciferian Spirit (the false father); the Antichrist Spirit (the false holy spirit); and the Spirit of Belial (the false son).

The key word in discussing Halloween is “dedicated.” It is dedicated to darkness and is an accursed season. During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure.

No, this isn’t a “poe” post; there are people out there running around unsupervised who actually take stuff like this seriously.

I have to remember that when I get angry that some students are incapable of learning elementary calculus.

Stewart annihilates Fox News’ purported opinion-news division: “It’s a perpetual revulsion machine” | Media Matters for America

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30 October 09: Soggy Peoria

Rain all night long and it is still coming down in buckets. Fortunately it should clear off by this afternoon.

Health care reform You can read about the new House bill here.

Here is a side by side comparison between the first House bill and the current one.

Do you think that this bill (or a Senate Bill) deserves an “up or down vote”? If so, surf here and sign the petition. No one is telling a Democratic Senator how to vote on the bill itself; we are merely asking that these idiots NOT FILIBUSTER their party’s own bill.

29 October 2009(end of the day)

Local: it isn’t just my imagination; it has been very rainy here (in Peoria, IL)

Science: surf here to see a spectacular collection of photos of our solar system, including ground level photos of Mars and Venus.

Politics: NOOOOO!!! Paul Krugman says:

we wouldn’t reach anything that feels like full employment until well into the second Palin administration.

Ok, this post is really about the 3.5 percent growth in GDP is better than what we had, but not enough to make a dent in unemployment.

Science again: couldn’t we just use Republicans instead of monkeys here?

Jon Stewart Takes On Media, Lieberman Over Public Option (VIDEO)

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Republicans like Republican Congresses More than Democrats like Democratic Congresses

Nate Silver investigates why.

Here is my reason: Republicans run by hating liberals. Democrats run, in part, by hating liberals!

Here are the Presidential candidates (I know that there is more variance among members of Congress) as measured by Political Compass:

And here are where liberals lie on this grid:

Notice something? Republican politicians are closer to their base than Democratic politicians are.

29 October 09 (am)

Workout notes 25 minutes on the AMT (2 miles) then 21 minutes on the stairmaster (2.5 miles) Then stretching; the injury didn’t hurt at all.

Science, Evolution and Books: Here is a nice review of 3 books on evolution; I’ve read Jerry Coyne’s and am midway through Richard Dawkins’ book. Now I’ll suppose I’ll have to read the third over winter break.

Right Wingers Harriet feels their pain over here.

We have the “conservative version” of the Bible:

(“all the idiots that buy Glenn Beck’s book”… )

E-bay won’t allow people to raise money to defend the killer of a doctor.

Senator Jim Inhofe is feeling a bit isolated in his opposition to the reality of climate change:

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a compromise bill — the traitor! And as Inhofe listened, fellow Republicans on the committee — turncoats! — made it clear that they no longer share, if they ever did, Inhofe’s view that man-made global warming is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

“Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming,” admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I’d buy some fire insurance.”

Poor Harriet.

Astronomers Detect Distant, Ancient Star Explosion : NPR

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28 October 2009 noon-ish

Colbert explains why some people are born to be opposed to gay marriage.

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(the controversy: people signed a petition to put overturning this law to a public vote, and technically speaking, these signatures are PUBLIC).

Politics
Why I am proud to be a liberal: when liberals cross a line (as we sometimes do), another liberal will call us out on it.

Science and Religion Francis Collins was President Obama’s pick to head the NIH. I approved of this pick. But he is interesting in that he has some rather conservative religious beliefs which, as Mano Singham argues, are inconsistent with the type of thinking that made him a great scientist.

My take: people are package deals; there are some excellent mathematicians who honestly believe that dome deity gave their “prophet” some golden tablets with an abysmally written book on it that the prophet decoded with magic seer stones. Go figure.

Still, if these guys came up for a NSF post I’d approve since they ARE excellent mathematicians.

Social Yes, males can be raped, even outside of prison. Here is one person’s tale. It is ugly and stark; don’t read it if you have a weak stomach or if you want something uplifting.

Note: this has nothing to do with minimizing the problems that women face. Yes, women are raped and otherwise sexually assaulted way more often then men are, and yes it really sucks that a woman has to be more careful about, say, going for a solo run or hike than a male has to be. That really infuriates me.

But I thought I’d post this link because you simply don’t hear about males being sexually assaulted very much.