22 April 2011 afternoon

Workout notes I got a break in the action to take a short but fun walk (5K; not time but a 13-14 mpm effort). Nothing hurt.

Posts

No, taxing the rich won’t solve ALL of our problems right away, but it will close the gap. What is wrong with Ronald Reagan tax rates?

Of course, the conservatives won’t hear of it. They respond with “that’s unfair!” and “some people pay nothing”. Paul Krugman sets the record straight:

The claim that only rich people pay taxes is a zombie lie — something that keeps coming back no matter how many times it’s killed by evidence.

So, let’s try another shot to the head.

Yes, high-income people pay the bulk of the federal income tax. But that’s not the only tax! And while the income tax is quite progressive, the payroll tax — the other major federal tax — isn’t; and state and local taxes are strongly regressive.

Citizens for Tax Justice (pdf) has the goods: combining all taxes, federal, state, and local, we get this:

He also points out that the Progressive Caucus came up with a reasonable plan, not that it will get the light of day. Here is a brief snippet if you want to google past the New York Times paywall:

I’ve been remiss in not calling attention to the budget proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It’s not going to happen — but then neither is the Ryan plan. And unlike the Ryan plan, it actually makes sense.

The CPC plan essentially balances the budget through higher taxes and defense cuts, plus some tougher bargaining by Medicare (and a public option to reduce the costs of the Affordable Care Act). The proposed tax hikes would fall mainly on higher incomes, although not just on the top 2%: super-brackets for very high incomes, elimination of deductions, taxation of capital income as ordinary income, and — the part that would be most controversial — raising the cap on payroll taxes.

None of this is economically outlandish. Marginal tax rates on high incomes would rise substantially — enough to make even liberal economists slightly uncomfortable — but the historical evidence suggests that the incentive effects wouldn’t be too severe. Overall taxes as a share of GDP aren’t given, but they would clearly remain well below European levels.

Oh yes, as you can tell, I am a New York Times subscriber; I love the weekend edition.

Evolution and the “homosexual agenda”:
No, I am not making this up:

The Creation Studies Institute is warning members that, like the Nazis, gay-rights activists are using public schools to indoctrinate students. While many Religious Right groups have alleged that safe-school and anti-bullying programs lead to “homosexual indoctrination,” the Creationist Studies Institute claims that the “gay agenda” has taken over schools because schools have “fully embraced Darwinian Evolution.”

“Indeed, the rampant teaching of evolution in our schools that is effectively undermining belief in God and absolute moral standards is not only creating an atmosphere of ‘tolerance’ for homosexuality, but for just about anything,” writes Tom DeRosa, the organization’s founder and executive director, who adds: “Of course, in a purely evolutionary world, homosexuals would naturally be bred out of existence.” DeRosa goes on to compare homosexuality with polygamy and pedophilia, and asks members to purchase Focus on the Family’s Secure Daughters, Confident Sons booklet:

Those who hold godless ideologies have long understood that the best way to transform societies and change the way people traditionally think is by indoctrinating children from the earliest stages of education. In the last century, this methodology was effectively employed by those who held the atheistic ideologies of Nazism in Germany and Communism in countries such as the Soviet Union, where the state assumed total control of the educational system—even to the extent of turning children against parents. Of course, both of these worldviews fully embraced Darwinian evolution as a way to justify their actions and nullify the beliefs of their largely Christian populations. While U.S. federal government does not have that kind of authority in our school system (not yet, anyway), is it any wonder that those who lack a biblical worldview in our country, including those with a gay agenda, have seized upon our primary schools as the main vehicle of transforming our nation more to their liking?

In America, the adoption of evolution in our schools has paved the way for the introduction of the gay agenda. Those pushing it understand that nothing will more thoroughly and quickly undermine the traditional biblical foundations of our country than the normalization of homosexuality among our nation’s school children, regardless of their parents’ beliefs. Currently, under the banner of “tolerance” or “equal rights,” states like Massachusetts, New York, California, Wisconsin and Minnesota are actively implementing a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) curriculum in their public schools. But those behind the effort to legitimize LGBT lifestyles won’t be content until this kind of curricula is taught in all of our nation’s schools. So what is being taught, you might ask, that should concern those of us in the creationist community?

Gee, teach science “advances the “gay agenda”"???

And yes, sadly, some of the biggest anti-gay bigots vote Democratic: re: proposition 8 in California which passed on the strength of the African American vote…70 percent of blacks voted for it!. Then there was Maine which repealed a gay marriage law and Maine both voted Democratic in 2008 and is almost all white.

Spandex butts
Lynn said that she wouldn’t read my post without a spandex butt shot so here you go:

Now I will admit that I did some cropping in the above photo since the original had a guy’s butt right in the center and I am not interested in that. But you can see it by clicking on the thumbnail.

But this person’s photo spread contains more than just bike shots; it also contains some political photos like this:

(click the thumbnail to see the larger version at the source)

Well done!
I attended our health care rally but our Representative is a right wing Republican (Aaron Schock, IL-18) and it was of little use.

22 April 2011

No workout this morning; I’ll REST and perhaps stretch sometime today.

Weather Thunderstorms…it was 31 F yesterday prior to that. But my perception of what April has been like has been off; statewide (but perhaps not in Peoria?) rain is actually down a bit….and temperatures are actually up and rain is slightly down. I suppose what has happened is that we’ve had a unusually warm day here or there which set me in the “all right! We are now in our warm phase” when in fact, it is still April.

Perceptions can be wrong.

News of the weird
We had that thunderstorm which is continuing. Perhaps Gov. Rick Perry’s god made a mistake? (there was a proclamation to pray for rain for Texas, and perhaps his deity missed?).

Killing cats…for costumes?

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Politics
the national mood (perhaps, driven in part by gas prices?) is low; neither the President nor Congress is especially popular:

Amid rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone.

Capturing what appears to be an abrupt change in attitude, the survey shows that the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse has jumped 13 percentage points in just one month. Though there have been encouraging signs of renewed growth since last fall, many economists are having second thoughts, warning that the pace of expansion might not be fast enough to create significant numbers of new jobs.

The dour public mood is dragging down ratings for both parties in Congress and for President Obama, the poll found.

After the first 100 days of divided government, and a new Republican leadership controlling the House of Representatives, 75 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job.

Disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy has never been broader — at 57 percent of Americans — a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012. And a similar percentage disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the federal budget deficit, though more disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are.

Still, for all the talk from Congressional Republicans and Mr. Obama of cutting the deficit as a way to improve the economy, only 29 percent of respondents said it would create more jobs. Twenty-seven percent said it would have no effect on the employment outlook, and 29 percent said it would cost jobs. [...]

Most Americans think neither Mr. Obama nor the Congressional Republicans share their priorities for the country. Mr. Obama’s job approval remains below a majority, with 46 percent saying they approve of his performance in office, while 45 percent do not. And support for his handling of the military campaign in Libya has fallen since last month: 39 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove. In a CBS poll in March, 50 percent approved and 29 percent disapproved.

Republicans have their own challenges. More than half of poll respondents, 56 percent, said they did not have a favorable view of the party, as opposed to 37 percent who said they did. (The Democratic Party fared somewhat better: 49 percent did not have favorable views of it and 44 percent did.)

As the House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, becomes the face of his party in Congress, more disapprove of his job performance (41 percent) than approve of it (32 percent); 27 percent said they did not have an opinion of him.

Speaking of approval, note that the a President’s approval is often linked to stuff like gas prices, as Bonddad Blog points out.. Here is a graph showing the Bush approval ratings with gas prices and surf to the blog to see a comparison between Obama approval ratings and gas prices:

Prof. Pollkatz notoriously kept a record during the eight years of Bush’s presidency of a graph he called “Bush Approval: In Fact It’s a Gas”:

Barack Obama should be thanking his lucky stars that it is 2011 and not 2012. And he’d better hope that Oil’s choke hold on the economy loosens by then.

The President can also take solace that the Republicans aren’t exactly thrilled with their current field.

Science This is fascinating:

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have for the first time observed the activity of a single gene in living cells. In an unprecedented study, published in the April 22 online edition of Science, Einstein scientists were able to follow, in real time, the process of gene transcription, which occurs when a gene converts its DNA information into molecules of messenger RNA (mRNA) that go on to make the protein coded by the gene.

21 April 2011: “serious” posts :-)

Science
People can be divided into blood type. Well, now, they can be subdivided into what kind of microbes they have in their gut:

Just as there are a few major blood types that divide up the world, so too, a study has found, there are just three types of gut-microbe populations. The result could help to pinpoint the causes of obesity and inflammatory bowel disease, and to personalize medicine.

“This is important. Say you want to compare ill people and healthy people; you better match them properly [by gut type],” Dusko Ehrlich told Nature at a human microbiome conference in Vancouver, Canada, in March. Ehrlich, a senior researcher on the paper published in Nature today1, is director of the Microbial Genetics Research Unit at the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Jouy-en-Josas, France, and part of a European consortium aiming to unpick links between gut microbes and disease.

The finding of just three types of gut-microbe population was an unexpected result that fell out of the team’s early analysis. The types aren’t related to age, gender, nationality or diet. “What causes it? We don’t know,” says Ehrlich. [...]

A person’s gut type might help to determine whether people can eat all they like and stay slim, whether they will experience more gut pain than others when sick and how well they can metabolize a certain drug.

It’s unclear whether a person’s gut type might change over time, either naturally or in response to something such as a steady diet of probiotic yoghurt.

Climate NASA: 2010 was tied for the warmest year on record:

NASA Research Finds 2010 Tied For Warmest Year On Record

WASHINGTON — Global surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest on record, according to an analysis released Wednesday by researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

The two years differed by less than 0.018 degrees Fahrenheit. The difference is smaller than the uncertainty in comparing the temperatures of recent years, putting them into a statistical tie. In the new analysis, the next warmest years are 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2009, which are statistically tied for third warmest year. The GISS records begin in 1880.

The analysis found 2010 approximately 1.34 F warmer than the average global surface temperature from 1951 to 1980. To measure climate change, scientists look at long-term trends. The temperature trend, including data from 2010, shows the climate has warmed by approximately 0.36 F per decade since the late 1970s.

“If the warming trend continues, as is expected, if greenhouse gases continue to increase, the 2010 record will not stand for long,” said James Hansen, the director of GISS.

Technology:
Here is a Nature Video Channel rundown on the Fukushima nuclear accident:

Science and religion Jerry Coyne has a series on “scientists that are believers”. Color him unimpressed:

Here’s an interesting answer to the New Statesman‘s recent query about why public figures and scientists believe in god. This answer comes from Nick Brewin, a molecular biologist at Britain’s John Innis Centre (my emphasis):

Humankind has become Godlike, in the sense that it has acquired the power to store and manipulate information. Language, books, computers and DNA genomics provide just a few illustrations of the amazing range of technologies at our fingertips. Was this all merely chance? Or should we try to make sense of the signs and wonders that are embedded in a “revealed religion”?

Perhaps by returning to the “faith” position of children or disabled adults, scientists can extend their own appreciation of the value and purpose of individual human existence. Science and religion are mutually complementary.

In other words, to grasp the truth of religion, you need to have an infantile or poorly functioning brain.

Ouch.

Coyne has other posts in this series.

Education Hey, you know that school consolidation will save us tons of money right? Well one such study that “proved” that was a fraud. No, this isn’t a political issue in the sense that it was a Democratic governor (Michigan) that used this study…and school consolidation is a hot topic in Illinois. Sure, it might prove to be worth doing, but we shouldn’t be so blinded by what we want to see that we stoop to backing up our ideas with shoddy research.

Economics
Paul Krugman doesn’t suffer fools well:

Brad DeLong and Noah Smith have some fun with a bizarre post by Steve Landsburg — even more bizarrely endorsed by Alex Tabarrok — in which Landsburg asserts that you can’t tax a man if you can’t persuade him to reduce his consumption.

There are multiple things wrong with this claim, but the most fundamental, I think, is that it represents a remarkable misunderstanding of the reasons why we have taxes in the first place. They don’t primarily exist as a way to induce lower private consumption, although they may sometimes have that effect; they are there to ensure government solvency.

Consider first the taxes raised by, say, the state of New Jersey. Chris Christie doesn’t tax me because he wants to reduce my consumption; he taxes me because NJ needs money to pay its bills. [...]

And may I say that now is an especially peculiar time to think that taxes matter only if they reduce consumption. We have lots of excess capacity in the economy; the government can easily buy more goods and services without requiring that the private sector buy less. The only reason to raise taxes now, or promise future rises, is to address solvency concerns.

Discussions like this really disturb me; they indicate that there are a lot of people with Ph.D.s in economics who can throw around a lot of jargon, but when push comes to shove, have no coherent picture whatsoever of how the pieces fit together.

Budget deals and middle ground
Suppose I want to go out to dinner with a friend. I am open to most types of food, but she thinks that tire rubber and arsenic would make a great meal. Guess what: there really isn’t any middle ground here. The same can be said with the current budget negotiations: the Republicans want a Hoover like tax rate on the rich and a new Gilded age; the Democrats want to preserve the New Deal:

According to the most recent Washington Post-ABC poll, 78 percent of Americans oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to reduce the debt, and 72 percent support raising taxes on the rich – including 68 percent of Independents and 54 percent of Republicans.

In other words, the center of America isn’t near halfway between the two sides. It’s overwhelmingly on the side of the President and the Democrats.

I’d wager if Americans also knew two-thirds of Ryan’s budget cuts come from programs serving lower and moderate-income Americans and over 70 percent of the savings fund tax cuts for the rich – meaning it’s really just a giant transfer from the less advantaged to the super advantaged without much deficit reduction at all – far more would be against it.

And if people knew that the Ryan plan would channel hundreds of billions of their Medicare dollars into the pockets of private for-profit heath insurers, almost everyone would be against it.

The Republican plan shouldn’t be considered one side of a great debate. It shouldn’t be considered at all. Americans don’t want it.

Now, I’ll differ with Robert Reich here: I’d be careful about pegging your position on what Americans want. I’ll tell you what Americans want: they want great highways, a strong defense, secure Social Security and solvent Medicare….but they don’t want rationing and they don’t want to pay taxes. In short: Americans, on the whole, are idiots.

Effective government services means high taxes, and low taxes means almost no government services. That might be ok when you are young and healthy but what happens when you get to the age when it doesn’t make good business sense to insure you for anything resembling an affordable rate?

The Tea Party base

Enjoy:

21 April 2011: athletic navel staring

This post will contain no politics and no spandex butts.

Workout notes AM: kind of weird workout. I planned on running a bit given that I am racing and won’t be able to get in a longish run. But I forgot that I had a good (for me) run on Saturday and again on Tuesday; I wasn’t recovered enough to run well.

So when I started at a 10:30′ish pace or so I more or less gave up .6 miles into it and ran/walked a bit. I then walked/jogged to my usual 2 mile mark (at the bottom of a hill than ran up it reasonably hard. That felt good, so that is what I did for the remainder of the workout: I ran up a hill, jogged down, walked the flats and repeated; 8 uphills in all (I visited 4 different uphill segments, 2 times each). I then walked it in to get in about 10K.

Over lunch; lifting:
Squats: 10 x 135, 10 x 135, 10 x 155 (free; no Smith machine; decent depth)
barbell curls: 3 sets of 10 with the EZ bar plus 30 pounds (52 pounds?)
dumbbell curls: 1 set of 10 with 25
incline bench press: 10 x 115, 8 x 130, 5 x 135, 4 x 135
light rotator cuff
pull downs: 10 x 120, 10 x 140, 10 x 140 (shoulder friendly grip)
rows: 10 x 180 (wide grip), 10 x 200 (wide grip), 8 x 220 (narrow grip)
Sit ups (100)

Pings and Dings: shoulder was getting better and is now sore; also I had some whining from my left piriformis muscle.

What I am finding:

1. I can’t run more than three times a week at anything resembling a pace that feels like running. For example, check out my easy run paces (based on a 26 minute 5K, which…well, I was running 24 minutes in 2009 and I am slower now: (via the Team Oregon Pace Wizard)

Note: using 24:10 (my 2009 time), one gets 10:28-11:10 for the short easy run pace.
I can’t stand “running” at that pace; it just feels crappy! I’d much rather walk at 13-14 minutes a mile. So for the time being, I’ll have to discipline myself to 3 runs per week with faster walking on Sunday (long) and a combination of faster walking and social walking on the other days. I think that the hill workout is a keeper.

2. I am enjoying the longish walks (14-17 mile) again.

3. Weights: I have to mind my shoulder; it got a bit sore today. But these are going ok.

4. Yoga: I skipped today’s class: that was a mistake. I am finding that the flexibility that I get is essential, even if my teacher is ADD.

Events: I am running the Wild Life Trail 4 miles on Saturday and a university 5K the following Saturday and probably the Race for the Cure the next one. Hence I need to get in a longish midweek run (8 miles?) on Tuesday (after yoga class?)

Knowing myself, I’ll try a “not trained for it” 24 hour; I haven’t decided on the local trail 24 hour (20-21 May) or the FANS (first weekend in June). If I do the latter, I could do the 8 hour trail ultra instead of the 24. I’ll know more after this week’s longer walks.

Keith Olbermann on why some vote Republican

This goes hand in hand with this classic:

20 April 2011 pm

Workout notes Ok, I gave into it. Yesterday’s run on the treadmill went well…but today, I just didn’t want to go outside and face chilly winds. So….I stayed indoors on the track.

I tried to run a bit and gave up after 2 miles in 20:15; I wasn’t recovered from yesterday’s 6 miles. But then I walked 4 more miles (actually a bit more since I was in lane 3) in 54:35 and then did 100 sit ups.

So I got a workout, but it wasn’t the “damn it anyway I am going outside” of old.

Posts

Solution: more tax cuts for the rich. But wait..he is seeeerious.

Medicare
Paul Krugman is right on target again:

Arguably the most important thing we can do to limit the growth in health care costs is learning to say no; we cannot afford a system in which Medicare in particular will pay for anything, especially when that’s combined with an industry structure that gives providers a strong financial incentive to engage in excessive care.

So naturally, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is the first step toward making rational choices, is under attack.

Mainly the attack is coming from Republicans, who want to dismantle Medicare, not save it — their proposal is that instead of having Medicare make choices based on expert advice, we should give seniors inadequate vouchers and let insurance company executives make those choices instead.

But there are some Democrats in opposition too.

Yes, I know the stated argument: Congress doesn’t want to relinquish control. But the bottom line: we can’t just “pay everything” and “letting insurance companies do it” isn’t the answer either.

Evolution
Though Professor Moran is talking about a text book, his points on evolution should be understood by everyone:

There’s no mention of the standard definition of evolution as a change in the heritable characteristics of a population over time [What Is Evolution?]. This is important because a fundamental part of the core concept is the understanding that any mechanism of change counts as evolution—not just natural selection. Another fundamental part of evolution is understanding that it is populations that evolve and not individuals. The population genetics definition of evolution was developed in the 1930s and became a key part of the Modern Synthesis in the 1940s. The definition is almost 70 years old. Why don’t the authors of the report know this?

There’s no mention of random genetic drift. The assessment questions are all about natural selection. In fact, the key topic concept is called “Evolution and Natural Selection.” How are students supposed to understand phylogenetic trees based on sequences if they don’t understand the basic stochastic process that generates these trees? How are they supposed to understand genetic variation if they’ve never heard of neutral mutations and how they can be fixed by random genetic drift?

There’s nothing about mutation. Don’t students need to understand mutation in order to understand variation? Of course they do.

There’s nothing about speciation. Understanding how new species arise is an important part of evolution.

News of the Weird (19 April 2011)

Randazza directs us to this strange story:

For seven years, Roger Huang, a pastor who runs a rescue mission in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, has been trying to shut down the sex shops there. This week he may have seen a sign that his efforts are working.

On Wednesday, a man burst into flames while inside one of those porn shops, police said.

Could this bizarre incident be attributed to a higher power?

“I believe so. I definitely believe so,” Huang told AOL News, adding that he hopes the unidentified man is recovering from the burns.
[...]
Witnesses reportedly saw the burning man running out of the Golden Gate Adult Superstore in the city’s South of Market neighborhood at about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. The man ran past stunned onlookers and collapsed at the corner of Mission and Sixth streets, police said.

How anyone takes clowns like this pastor seriously is beyond me.

Homeless payed to be punching bags

Really….I find this to be sort of sick:

“They strapped me up like this in ropes,” says David Brezger, raising his hands over his head. “Put me up in a tree and whipped me with a whip…they kicked the crap out of me.”

Pictures: Website sued for paid homeless “beatdowns”

That’s how Brezger describes his “beatdown.” He is among an unknown number of homeless people in St. Petersburg, Fla. who say they were recruited for videotaped beatings by attractive women for the website Shefights.net.

Homeless advocate G.W. Rolle told CBS affiliate WTSP he discovered what was going on after repeatedly seeing homeless men in Williams Park with injuries. “Broken ribs, fractured skulls…I think that’s wrong and I think someone’s going to die if they don’t stop this,” says Rolle, who took photographs of some of the injuries.

Two homeless men, George Grayson and Kyle Shaw, with the help of Southern Legal Counsel, are now suing Jeffrey Williams and others associated with Shefights.net. They’re seeking damages for emotional distress and money for medical bills. Lawyers for the two homeless men said the website sells videos starting at $2.99 for a two-minute “sparring session” clip and increasing in price to $33.99 for a 33 minute clip of two women beating a man.

The lawsuit, which was filed April 1 in a Florida court, contends the beatings violate a state hate crimes law that specifically protects the homeless and that the producers are exploiting the poverty of transients for whom any cash is hard to come by. “What type of society would allow this to happen?” said Neil Chonin, the lawyer for the homeless men. “This company preyed on people who are desperate.”

msnbc video: Michigan revokes towns local representation

msnbc video: Michigan revokes towns local repre…, posted with vodpod

Just watch and note the real reason they are doing this. I am so grateful that Quinn won the Illinois election; these people are amoral thugs.

19 April 2011

Workout notes Yoga with Ms. Vickie. Then I ran on the treadmill next to Lynn, who alternately took turns making catty remarks on the news and cheated (let the treadmill run while she got off to do this or that. I started slowly and kept the incline at .5 miles; I was 10:15 at mile 1, 20:10 at mile 2, 29:50 at mile 3 and ended up at 56:55 at mile 6 when I started walking; 59:50 for 10K total.

The treadmill is easy in that it is bouncy and easy on the knees; there is no wind, rain, potholes nor cars. But it is no substitute for running on the road, especially in windy Illinois.

Note: the vertigo is still there, but much reduced. In fact, I frequently forget that I have it and I didn’t notice it at all during yesterday’s weight workout, until I did sit ups.

Politics
The Republicans lie though their teeth.

You’ve seen the jobs graphs.

Bottom line: where we are nowhere where we need to be, we lost jobs like crazy under all of those big tax cuts. Tax cuts for the wealthy don’t create jobs.

Oh yes, back to Mr. Paul Ryan’s Medicare destruction plan: sure, Medicare recipients will get vouchers for insurance, just like members of Congress! Really….well, maybe not:

What brings this to mind is the now standard claim that Ryancare would be exactly the same as what members of Congress receive. Ryan:

What we are proposing is a personalized Medicare, a Medicare system that works exactly like the health care I have as a member of Congress and federal employees have.

As Uwe Reinhart points out, while it’s true that both systems would involve having the government provide a voucher that helps pay for private insurance, it kind of matters how big the voucher is. The federal employees benefit plan rises in value in step with private insurance premiums; Ryan wants Medicare vouchers to grow only at the rate of inflation.

Here is what I don’t get: why would “market forces” help with this? It doesn’t make good business sense to sell medical insurance to someone who is likely to need tons of care.

Now, before you think that I am being too one sided, too many rank and file Democrats somehow think that we can afford what we have by merely raising taxes on the rich. Sure, we have to do that, but we’ll:
1. Have to raise taxes to some extent on everyone and

2. RATION; we simply can’t afford to spend 200,000 a person to keep people alive for a month or two in the ICU just prior to their death. The money just isn’t there; if it is going to be on the tax-payer dime, we have to talk about say, a humane hospice and focus our tax payer funded care on those who have a realistic chance of getting better.

3. Yes, the wealthy will always be able to afford more. So what? I am fine with “adequate and humane for all” and if others want to die on silk sheets on their own dime, well, so what?

Of course, the minute you mention RATIONING….well, I don’t have to worry about getting elected.

Science
Yes, some sea creatures have primitive “rock eyes” (calcium light sensors). Fascinating, no?

18 April 2011 noon

Workout notes I made a mistake; I tried to run and “easy 3 miles” this morning. No, I didn’t get hurt, but oh my goodness, this had to be one of the worst “runs” I ever had. Still, loosening up isn’t a completely bad idea and if I want to do it outside, the recovery days (Monday and Friday) might be good for gentle walking or some easy walk-jog warm up caliber movements.

The noon lifting session went ok; I took it easy on the squats and did everything else:
Squats: 10 x 45, 10 x 135, 10 x 155, 10 x 155 (free, no Smith machine); so-so depth.
curls: 2 sets of 15 x 20 lb. dumbbells, 1 set of 10 with 25 lb. dumbbells.
incline press: 10 x 115, 8 x 130, 8 x 125.
rows: 12 x 180 wide grip, 2 sets of 10 x 220 narrow grip.
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 120
sit ups: 4 x 25 (incline)
rotator cuff stuff; I did this this morning and at noon.

Shoulder: still some “often there” low-grade ache.

Posts
Paul Krugman: he really gets to the debate: we have one side saying “almost no government help at all, but we’ll cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans AGAIN and let “market forces” do it. We have the other side that wants to keep the New Deal programs and make them viable.

So the House budget proposal revealed a yawning gap between the two parties’ priorities. And it revealed a deep difference in views about how the world works.

When the proposal was released, it was praised as a “wonk-approved” plan that had been run by the experts. But the “experts” in question, it turned out, were at the Heritage Foundation, and few people outside the hard right found their conclusions credible. In the words of the consulting firm Macroeconomic Advisers — which makes its living telling businesses what they need to know, not telling politicians what they want to hear — the Heritage analysis was “both flawed and contrived.” Basically, Heritage went all in on the much-refuted claim that cutting taxes on the wealthy produces miraculous economic results, including a surge in revenue that actually reduces the deficit.

By the way, Heritage is always like this. Whenever there’s something the G.O.P. doesn’t like — say, environmental protection — Heritage can be counted on to produce a report, based on no economic model anyone else recognizes, claiming that this policy would cause huge job losses. Correspondingly, whenever there’s something Republicans want, like tax cuts for the wealthy or for corporations, Heritage can be counted on to claim that this policy would yield immense economic benefits.

The point is that the two parties don’t just live in different moral universes, they also live in different intellectual universes, with Republicans in particular having a stable of supposed experts who reliably endorse whatever they propose.

So when pundits call on the parties to sit down together and talk, the obvious question is, what are they supposed to talk about? Where’s the common ground?

But what really bothers me is how the Republicans “reason”: they judge the value of a policy as to how well it confirms to what they already “know”; empirical evidence has zero persuasive power with them. They are very much like creationists or flat earthers; no amount of evidence or data will change their minds.

Fun
We have rabbits in our yard but none this big:

Sexy women: it is no secret that physically I am a bit of a klutz; I can trip over anything or knock over anything. So, I’ve found the woman for me:

(from: Fail blog)