Everything You Need To Know About The FOX Nutwork

A friend of mine refers to Taco Bell as "fake Mexican food." He's quite right.

He hasn't tried Taco del Mar.

Taco Del Mar appeals to the Baja-traveling surfer (or wanna-be). The inspiration for Taco Del Mar was the funky shoreline shacks that dot the Southern California and Baja beaches, feeding big burritos and fish tacos (yes, fish tacos) to the hungry surfers and beach crowd. There is something about the food that was incredibly real, fresh, fast, flavorful and very filling.

Taco del Mar: Best. Casual Mexican Food. Anywhere. Period.

Even in Sioux City IA, CLinton UT, and Ottawa Ontario Canada - it's the best Baja-traveling surfer (or wanna-be) Casual Mexican Food.

Homegrown in Seattle, Taco Del Mar captures the best of 4 worlds: surfing, Baja-traveling, yummy Food, and Northwest Casual.

I go on Double-Punch Monday where my meal lasts 2 days, and my meal ticket gets 4 punches (because I get a Mondo Combo - that lasts me2 days - and 4 days worth of 'dessert').

"Inside each of us is a dream, an aspiration, what we like to call your "Inner Baja." Your Inner Baja may be the perfect wave, the top of a mountain, or some gloriously insane obsession, but it's yours, and Taco Del Mar is here to feed it."

Warning: don't let the strange guy in their TV ad scare you away. He's a Righteous Dude who knows good food and good waves. His board kind of sucks, though.

Tofutti On The Web

Love 'em! It makes being lactose-intolerant much more pleasant.

However, I draw the line at Tofurky. No way, José .

The grocer in my nearby town (pop. 800) has the Tofutti line, as does my most-very-bestest-favorite-store anywhere:


Trader Joe's . You don't want to know what makes up the bulk of what I buy there Let's just say that soybeans are involved.

Since we're talking about being fat & happy (OK, not too happy), Trader Joe's and my friendly neighborhood grocer (if you can call 12 miles away as part of the 'neighborhood') also both carry

No Pudge Fudge Brownies

I have a life-long love affair with books. The best place for a tryst with books (besides the local library)?

Powell's City of Books (Burnside)
1005 W Burnside
Portland, OR 97209 USA

Powell's Technical Books
33 NW Park Avenue
Portland, OR 97209 USA

http://www.powells.com

800-878-7323 toll-free
503-228-4651 (Portland, Oregon area)

For the consumer:

• Frequently the best prices on new books


• Same selection of new books as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the other big chains
  
  
• Most impressive selection of used books (anywhere!)
  


• Powell's stores have the world's greatest hunker-down-and-read-a-book nooks


• 99¢ reusable book bags
  

For the employees

• Best trained, most highly skilled staff - unionized for excellent working conditions, best pay, progressive employer.


• Alternative Transportation Subsidies
  Powell's offers its employees a discount on bus passes, available as a pre-tax deduction, encouraging all employees to use public transportation for their work commute. Those who choose to bike to work may receive an annual bicycle maintenance subsidy.
  

For the Planet:

• In March 2007, Powell's signed an agreement with Portland General Electric to purchase Clean WindSM Power, offsetting 165,000 pounds of CO2 each year.
  


• Biodiesel Fuel -Powell's uses biodiesel fuel in delivery trucks that make daily rounds to Powell's stores and warehouses.
  


• Greening The Facilities - Powell's continues to explore environmentally responsible choices in construction materials and operating supplies. For example, the newly remodeled concourse D store at Portland International Airport incorporates Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood in cabinetry and shelving, energy-efficient lighting, and sustainable finishes.
  


• Coffee Shop Composting -At the City of Books (main store), the on-site cafe - World Cup Coffee and Tea - composts materials from its daily operations.
  


• Solar Energy At Powell's - there is a 100kW solar project at Powell's Books' NW Portland warehouse. The warehouse's structure provides abundant access to unshadowed
  roofspace making it a great candidate for solar panels. This installation is one of the largest solar arrays in Oregon, with 540 photovoltaic panels supplying approximately 25% of the building's electric needs.
  


• Paper bags are made from 100% recycled materials; plastic bags are available for those who carry (walking or biking, of course) their Powell's purchases through Portland's occasional rain.
  


• Powell's is working toward becoming green certified by the City of Portland's Recycleworks program - which involves a comprehensive audit of the company's operations, everything from waste prevention to purchasing recycled products.
  

Details? See http://www.powells.com/green/

Note: other than my obsession with visiting Powell's (online AND live), I have no financial connection with that operation. I do think I should be listed on their tax returns as a dependent.

"Korea was a war that we call a 'Police Action.'
Terror is a police action that we call a 'War.'"
-- Molly Ivins

Sometimes the most aggravating things in life are the smallest, simplest ones.

One of those things is "losing" your computer mouse's cursor.

You can't figure out where it is. You swirl the mouse around on the mouse pad, hoping to find the cursor. You curse.

Some people reboot the computer, knowing that the cursor would come back after a reboot.

Relax. It's easy to fix that. Today's tip will give you a way to find out where the cursor is hiding. This works in all versions of Windows - although I haven't tried it with Windows 7

1. Assuming that you can find the mouse's cursor, left-click on the Start Button
2. On the Start Menu that appears, Left-click on "Mouse"
3. In the box that appears (see below),
   • in the row of tabs at the top, Left-click on "Pointer Options"
   • Where the screen says "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key," left-click once in the checkbox. A check mark should appear in the ox; if the check mark doesn't appear, click again.
4. Left-click OK

That's it! Tap either CTRL key. A circular "target" will flash on the screen. The target is showing you where the cursor is, um, hiding.

We're not talking about dirty money in a legal or philosophical sense - no filthy lucre here. We're talking hygiene. One strain of H1N1—very similar to the one causing swine flu—can live on paper money for up to 3 days.

Ew-w-w-w! Gross!

Here's what an expert has to say about the health dangers (physical health, not mental health) from money. Marvin M. Lipman, MD, chief medical adviser and medical editor for Consumer Reports. He's the doctor who, when asked by Barbara Walters how he treats the common cold, responded "With utter contempt."

The good doctor confirmed that money is dirty and could be a vector for many communicable diseases - including swine flu. Those of you who are really concerned about your duties as an American Patriot can send me all of that vile stuff; as a public service I will disinfect the currency before putting it back into circulation.

What could be worse than money as a disease transmission medium? According to me, based on Dr. Lipman's findings:

1. Doctors’ neck ties. If you must go to a place as unhealthy as a doctor's office or a hospital, carry scissors with you. 'Nuff said?
   
   
2. The office candy bowl. All those hands rummaging around, looking for the best treat...
   
   
3. Library books. [Shudder] Consider the hands that have touched those books. The fingers licked to enable page turning. The books set on the checkout counter just before you got there. The good news is that this problem is declining as some Americans (of the right-wing kind, if you get my drift...) gleefully retreat into their ignorance.
   
   
4. Bathroom door handles. Here's a good argument for paper towels: use a paper towel to turn the door knob as you exit. You did was your hands, right? If you didn't wash your hands, touching the door knob won't impact you one way or the other.
   
   
5. Telephone receivers of the public kind. Hands on the handset and keypad (or dial) plus germy breath onto the mouthpiece.
   
   
6. Kids. Children are walking Hot Zones. Parents tend to become immune to their children’s bugs through daily exposure. Not so for grandparents who visit Epidemic Central only occasionally. Teachers, day care providers, and school bus drivers are between those two groups, in terms of risk.
   
   
7. Crowded indoor public places: subway stations, movies, theater, concerts, town hall meetings to protest making health care more widely available - any such indoor gatherings of sweaty, touchy-feely, coughing humanity. Do you remember when the worst thing you could get in a crowd was a contact high (and maybe some anonymous sex)?
   
   
8. [Bonus] Public Transportation. Dr. Lipman missed this one: planes, trains, buses. Who knows what went on in that taxi (or limo) before you got in. And then there's the advice from comedian Wanda Sykes, who warns of the dangers of a woman going into the swimming pool on an all-men's cruise.
   

Based on a post at Consumers Reports.

"Well, hello there.
My, it's been a long, long time.
How am I doin'?
Well, I guess that I'm doin' fine."¹

The Age Gauge

¹ Willie Nelson - look it up on iTunes^®

Talk show host Don Imus got in a heap 'o trouble last year. On the air he made a reference to "Nappy-headed Ho's." By the time the dust had settled, he lost his very lucrative TV contract - and his reputation. Now we know what he actually meant:

The splash you heard was your cell phone falling into the toilet. The "Oh S$#@#$$%" you heard was you. Let's hope that it was merely an expletive - as opposed to fact, if you get my drift. Please say that you didn't just take my advice from last April.

Now what?

Step one get the battery out of the phone. Fast!

OK, step one is Fish The Phone Out Of The Toilet.

Step two is to minimize the chances of total destruction of the phone's guts: allow no more electricity to run through the phone's sensitive electronics. Get the battery out of the phone. Fast!

Step three is to start shopping for a new phone. Step three is to try to carefully dry out the phone. Worry about the smell later.

There are several ways to dry out the phone. There are also several ways to NOT dry out the phone. One of the most comprehensive articles that I've seen on the subject is at Popular Mechanics: How to Save Your Wet Cellphone

That's where the Zen part comes in. In my mind I always connect Zen and brown rice.

Swiss Army Knives.
All-In-One printer/FAX/copier.
Car-plane.
Car-boat.

Then there is this. Words fail me...

The 86,800 most frequently used English words.

Memorize them . There will be a short quiz.

The "Last Samurai / Risky Business / Top Gun / Valkyrie / Mission Impossible" star has been blasting psychiatry, and reportedly said the profession should be "outlawed."

"I think [psychiatry] is an utter waste of time," Cruise said, according to IMDB.com.

"There’s nothing scientific about it. Communication is a good thing, but I think people get more mentally out of having a good meal or going for a walk. I think psychiatry should be outlawed."

since when is there anything SCIENTIFIC about Scientology?

Funny thing: except for the outlawing part, that's how most folks think about Scientology. Most Americans still fall for that 1st Amendment stuff.

Since Scientology abuses its subjects into becoming total automatons - ones who can't manage an original or independent thought, I assume that pretty-boy is parroting an official line. Scientology Inc. should hook up an e-meter to that guy.

There is a lot to be said for the therapeutic value in "going for a walk." Unless, of course one's mental issues are caused in part (or wholly) by brain chemistry:

• schizophrenia
• bipolar depression
• most unipolar depression
• bipolar II

Note to self: look for new expert; pretty-boy might not be the best source for information.

You don't have to take my word for it. The FACTS are easily found on the Internet. Do some research (at legitimate web sites). Learn some TruthForDummies!

Start here: United States Department of The Treasury

Image gleefully stolen from Voodoo Economics: The Final Report Card On Bush’s Epic Failure

This message not approved by any Republicrit.

The short form: How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

Another short form: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

A longer form: "Special relativity"

or if you're really into Calculus: The Hogg Notes on Special Relativity

From the first incarnation of Truth For Dummies, 6 years ago http://www.wpltech.com/blather/2003_09_21_archive.html:

"It amazes me when I open the paper and read a blatant lie coming from the mouth of a government official. Especially when it's a lie that can be proved false so easily...."

Lady, what color is the sky on YOUR planet?

Next time you're out teabagging, or otherwise encountering someone who sees universal health care as evil, ask around: "tell me about YOUR health insurance."

What are the chances anyone opposed to making health care affordable to anyone and everyone is personally living without any way to pay for medical care?

I know multi-millionaires (really, I know several, well). They ALL have health insurance policies. None of them would risk losing everything (or perhaps just millions) because of medical expenses. Will they ever use that insurance? Who knows? That's why you buy insurance.

You and a large group of others join a pool of people to be able to shift some or all of your risk to an insurer. The insurer knows that the pool will be diverse. In fact, it's the diversity that makes it work. In exchange for the money you pay the insurer, the insurer assumes your risks and pays (or is supposed to pay) when those risks materialize.

If insurers 'cherry-pick' from the pool, the system breaks down. The only for way for a risk-transfer system to work is if the pool remains diverse. Notice that insurers vie to sell policies to big 'group' plans - large employers. Any large employer's pool is diverse. Yet, the insurers want the business in spite of the danger of 'acquiring' some high-risk people's potential medical expenses. Group plans cover pre-exisiting conditions (except pregnancy). So we know that insurers can - and do - profit from insuring without cherry-picking. And they like it that way.

A thought: is it ever OK to segregate high-risk insureds into a cherry-picked pool? Auto insurers have to be licensed to do business in a state (any state). Part of the licensing is an agreement to participate in insuring a high-risk pool, e.g., drivers with many tickets or 'accidents,' or with drunk-driving convictions. The premiums in that pool are subject to state regulation. In other words, if you want the 'good' business, you have to get some of the not-so-good business. That accomplishes several things. Among them

1. the 'diverse pool' system works - and the good drivers don't have to bear part of the burden inposed by the extreme risks
2. the societal goal of having all drivers (OK, most drivers) be able to pay for at least some of the damage they do

In health insurance, as in auto insurance, in ANY insurance) most people rarely - if ever - file claims with their own insurer. That's why the whole thing works for insurance providers.

The simplicity and success of universal auto insurance explains why and how universal health care can and does work (except in the USA). Remember - some companies fought viciously to prevent the high-risk pool rules. They lost the battle, but they are still profit handsomely, and they still pursue auto insurance risks.

There's one model for universal health care.

If the insurance companies won't co-operate and get back into the legitimate game - then they need more stringent rules and probably competition to force the issue. Either way, the insurance industry will be better for it.

But there's no time to wait. People are literally dying (and I literally mean literally) because of the health insurance companies' intransigence. A recent Harvard medical School study places the number at more than 120 people every day dying because they cannot afford to get the care they need and deserve. And personal bankruptcies are at record highs - and increasing every year. 60% of those are because of crushing medical expenses.

All told, we need to correct course. Either the insurance companies get on board, or we should make them compete with an effective, inexpensive public option for health care. Or they can pack up their rigged game and go somewhere else or find something else to do. trust me: they won't get out of the business, even in the face of real competition and tighter rules.

Modeled on the classic Whole Earth Catalog, the touchstone for an earlier generation, Whole Green Earth Catalog is poised to become the bible of green living for the 68 million Americans — about one-third of U.S. adults — who now take environmental and social issues into account when they make purchases.

Whole Green Earth Catalog

The problem is that schools allow so many people to major in - and graduate after studying - Gullibility and Irrationality (dual major) with a minor in Sheer Stupidity

People who believed those later advanced to believing

• Obama was born in Kenya and refuses to produce his REAL birth certificate. They also believe that
  1. An official state document (Obama's Certificate of Live Birth) is forged or otherwise invalid.
  2. That several state officials have, in effect, perjured themselves by swearing under oath that the document (The Certificate of [Obama's] Live Birth) is as represented: that the date, time, location of [Obama's] Live Birth is correct, and that the stated names of his parents are what his parents, um... stated.
  3. That a woman in Kenya who is 80+ years old - and has seen Obama only a few times in her life - and who WISHES that her grandson had been born in Kenya - is more reliable than people who
     • have taken an oath to confirm an official document
     • have risked their jobs and their reputations
     • know they could be jailed for lying
  4. That Obama's parents, while in Kenya, had the good sense to bribe 2 Honolulu newspapers into printing fake birth notices - 48 years before their newborn son would become President of the USA.
  5. That a man who is half African-American/half Caucasian is a racist who has a deep-seated hatred for white people (including his white mother and the white grandparents who raised him for several years) - and that the fool who made that claim is NOT a bigot.
• That a long-standing and universally-accepted part of Medicare becomes a plot to kill old people when it becomes part of a proposal to extend health insurance to more people.
• That the streets of France, UK, and Canada are littered with the bodies of dead people who died waiting for medical care. Those countries' health care systems are ranked #1, #18, and #30 in overall quality, while the US system ranks #37. That means those people believe that being #37 is better than being #1, #18, or #30. Those people also wind up making change for you at the McDonald's drive-up window (make sure you count it carefully).
• In addition, they believe that the streets of the USA aren't littered with the bodies of dead people who couldn't afford medical care. They're somewhat correct, because we are quick to bury the 45,000 people in the USA who - every year - DO die from inability to pay for health care.
• That Medicare, VA health care, and TriCare are not socialized medicine, but that proposals exactly like them ARE socialized medicine and are therefore would be the downfall of the republic.
• That health insurers providers have the best interests of Americans in mind.
• They believe that since 'their side' screams the loudest and gets the most air time on the FAUX Noise Network, that they are in the majority, outnumbering the 65% of Americans who want more choices in health care coverage and the 70% of front-line providers - America's doctors and nurses - who want to be able to treat, comfort, and save people who can't afford to get sick or injured.
• That non-existent proposals for facets of health care reform will become (or would become, if they actually existed) "rationing of medical care" and "getting between patient and doctor," but that insurance companies' real-life everyday denials of coverage for doctor-prescribed treatments is NOT rationing and NOT "getting between doctor and patient."
• That Obama's pre-election bailout of Wall St. is the worst thing that ever happened to this country. He somehow managed to do that even though George Bush was the President at the time, and the plan was concocted by Bush's Secretary of the Treasury,
• That Obama woke up one day and decided to destroy our armed forces by agreeing to the Penatgon's request to cancel a wasteful defense project that is decades behind schedule, 10s of billions of dollars over budget, obsolete, useless, overrated and unproven. He further destroyed the military by approving the Pentagon's request to step up production of the drone aircraft that ARE relatively inexpensive and very effective in today's warfare. What a muslim-loving, America-hating liberal COMMIE (faggot, atheist, arugula-eater)!
• That calls for the death of the President and for overthrow of the government are harmless free speech from people who are amazingly like our country's favorite home-grown terrorist: Timothy McVeigh
• That a steady stream of racist thoughts, words, and deeds are not racism.
• That one political party's process of debating and discussing and disagreeing about proposals is somehow weakness and capitulation while the other party's rigid robotic lockstep of agreeing to everything from their leaders and disagreeing with the opposition on every matter is true democracy.
• That extreme noise from a tiny group of people constitutes wide-spread approval.
• That the FOX NOISE network actually broadcasts ANYTHING that is true, valid, or useful in a free country.
  
• That smears, slander, libel, defamation, and calls for treasonous actions are the American way - and that calm, reason, discussion, and truth are the road to dictatorship.
• That hanging teabags from their hats, carrying protest signs that proudly exclaim their ignorance, and bellowing make them true patriots and defenders of The American Way.
• That they don't need tin-foil hats. Actually, it would be aluminum foil, but who's checking facts, anyway?
  

This announcement was brought to you by the wacko wing of the teabagging faction of the not-necessarily-sane branch of the 1850 Whig party: Michael Steele, Chairman; Drug-addled Hypocritical Full-of-himself Gasbag, Rasputin.

Some people will twist, distort, and lie to get you to believe their opinions. There is now circulating, an e-mail that twists, distorts, and lies on a grand scale. The writer is trying to ridicule the recent phenomenally successful "Cash For Clunkers" program.

The content of the e-mail is below.
The original text is shown in an italic typeface.
The twists, distortions, and lies are lined out.
My responses are displayed in separate blocks of text.

If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000.

However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.

The implication is that you will owe federal income taxes on some of the "Cash" part of "Cash For Clunkers." That is not true; the law authorizing the program specifically addressed that issue. I don't know if any states can or do try to tax that. In my state it's not an issue. Note: I checked into this idea first. Too bad that the blowhard who wrote this and the fools who forwarded it didn't check. But who cares about reality, facts, truth, etc.?

So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need.

He's talking out of his keister. The writer doesn't know who did and who did not "need" a new car. In my case, my old truck had 200,000 miles on it. My clunker was old enough to drink, and was having a lot of repair issues. So I "needed" a newer truck or car. I decided to keep the old truck - it has plenty of farm use in it - but not many years of commute left.

and your clunker was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.

That's more keister-talk.

• My new car costs the same to license as did my old car.
• My old car had, for quite a while, had the hidden cost of needing an ever-growing fund to provide for replacement and an ever-growing fund for repairs as the old car wears out.
• My new car might outlive me (Toyotas are known for longevity).
• My new car gets more than 3x the gas mileage (53 mpg vs. 17 mpg).
• The interest payments average $25 per month over the life of the loan; I save more than that much in fuel each week!

But wait, there is more: You also got ripped off by the dealer.

For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started.

When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).

Words wrapped in butt-breath sure do stink. Most cars have an MSRP that is higher than the dealer will settle for in a deal. My new car has a long waiting list, and there is no padded price displayed. All dealers sell for the same price because this car is so popular.

You say all of this with such authority. Should we assume that you learned all of this the hard way? Do you still do business that way?

So lets do the final tally here:

You traded in a car worth: $3500

You got a discount of: $4500

Net so far +$1000

But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500 $0

Net so far: -$350 + $1000

And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before

Net -$3350 +$1000

Your figures assume a $3500 trade-in value AND that the owner would be selling or trading-in what is already established to be a, um ..... CLUNKER!. I saw a lot of the Clunkers on dealers' lots. Many would be worth little more than scrap value; sold on the open market they would hardly fetch $1000. As for trade-ins .... trade-ins are where the dealer makes money. Trade-ins are a zero-sum game. Every penny the dealer makes is a penny lost by you. If the dealer "gives" you $3500 for your trade-in, he's making up the difference between his real cost and that $3500, somewhere else in the deal.

In other words, "CFC" helped a lot of people get rid of CLUNKERS! for which they would otherwise receive very little. The program made the difference between many people buying new cars - or not buying.

You also neglect to consider the whole point of the program: to get people into vehicles that get better gas mileage than their current , um .... CLUNKER! The last time I checked, better gas mileage means saving money on fuel.

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but let's just stop here.

Pay attention, BrainFartMan:

• I was going to buy a new car anyway.
• Any new car/truck would have had tax & title fees, and interest on the loan.
• If you don't count depreciation, my new car costs less to operate than the old clunker.
• Depreciation only matters if you sell in the first few years - which I never do.
• And this car - because of its high demand - loses very little money to depreciation.

So who actually made out on the deal? The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every some car(s) they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies.

I financed my car through the credit union and got an interest rate that is half of what the dealer wanted.

The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And the poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

More anal-blast. I'm neither poor nor not very stupid. I'm brighter than the dimwit who wrote this, and I'm smarter than the morons who believed and forwarded this. Plus, I can afford my new car.

The Obama administration convinced Joe consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" when in fact Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.

I never deluded myself into thinking that I was getting "free" money from the "government." I got an incentive to do this sooner rather than later. I'm tight with my money, but I have no regrets. That is because I went into the deal armed with knowledge and realistic expectations. And I ignored worthless babble like this e-mail spews.

The Figures Don't Lie, But Liars Figure

We already have inexpensive plans to cover medical costs.

Of course, if giving the public more choices for health insurance is socialism, what about MilitaryCare, VAcare, Medicare, Congresscare, TriCare?

Aren't they all socialized medicine?

Shouldn't we eliminate them all - or open them all to all socialists Americans?

Note: the Military and VA health care systems, while being shining examples of truly socialized medicine, do serve special purposes: it would be absurd to open those services to the general public. However, they are examples of highly successful alternatives to our nation's medical status quo.

I don't advocate what is truly socialized medicine.

But it is true that

1. The current privatized system of medical care in our country is failing to deliver as well as it could and should.
   
2. Real socialized medicine actually works well.
3. It is incorrect to claim that anything other than what we already have is socialism - but even if it were socialism, who cares? It works where the current system does not work. Socialized health is better than poor health or deaths (45,000 annually) due to lack of health coverage .
4. Canadians would be buying their medications in the USA, instead of the current opposite.
   

There are many urban legends and anecdotes about people who didn't get proper health care in "socialized" medical care systems. 99.99999% (approximately) of those tales are either exaggerated or completely false.

If our system of privately-dictated health care were the best, and socialized medicine were the worst,

1. people would be flooding across the borders for the sole purpose of getting out of their nations' medical systems and into our system
2. other countries would be scrapping their health care systems and recruiting our insurance companies to go abroad to help improve their countries' medicine
3. we would not rank #37 in the world for successful medical outcomes.

What we do see is the opposite: a growing trend is US citizens - even those with health insurance - going overseas for elective or non-emergency medical procedures. It's called Medical Tourism (that search linked to 26,200,000 web sites).

Just like my first car.

$25 and ran great!

• Straight-8
• Flathead
• Hydra-Matic
• The gear shift selector read, from right-to-left:
  D-2-1-R (weird sequence, and no "Park")
• Huge back seat (if you get my drift...)
• Note the external sun visor
• The AM-only radio was bigger than one of today's ink-jet printers, and weighed enough to reduce your gas mileage
• You could hide several bodies in the trunk. Come to think of it, we did hide several bodies in the trunk - when going to the drive-in (movie) and you paid by the head
  

If any of that made sense to you ..... damn, you are old!

Whew! I got some heat for saying "In health care in America we have a dictatorship that decides who lives and who dies a slow painful death from lack of proper medical care."

The mantra was "anyone can go to an emergency room and get free medical treatment." That's partially, technically, almost true.

Try it. Go to an emergency room. Ask them for a prostate exam or mammogram. If you can convince them that your cancer is in an advanced state, they might give you an exam. If you tell them you want preventative care .... after the laughter subsides they'll tell you to come back when your cancer is, um .... in an advanced state.

Then comes catch 22. Emergency rooms have to provide emergency care. Once they find the cancer, they'll tell you to go see your family physician.

If you have no way to pay for needed health care, you don't get needed health care - beyond emergencies.

Note that I didn't say 'had no money." If you could and do pay the premiums - and if an insurer would issue a policy - and if the insurer didn't weasel out of its obligation by saying your melanoma (which has spread to your lymph nodes and is about to go full roar throughout your body is a pre-existing condition because you had pimples as a kid - you might get the care you deserve. And you might get that care in time. or not....

Death panels? Yes. Government death panels? No. Privately run, free enterprise open market death panels? HELL YES!

What is the consumer's power?" OK, I'll go somewhere else to get treated. They might wish you well. But most likely they'll think "Good riddance. That one might have cost us some money." They won't even wish you Vaya con perro.

Dictatorship? Yes. Obama the dictator? No.

The Rethuglican "Walk It Off!" Health Care Plan:

• Don't Get Sick

If you insist, then

• Die Quickly

Thank you, Alan Grayson (D-FL) for showing Democrats that it's OK to have a spine and demonstrating that the Republicrits never pass on a opportunity to lie in order to get their way. Some people are saying that Grayson's use of 'holocaust' was a bit over the top (I'm among them). However, Alan Grayson is Jewish. The significance of Hitler's (The) Holocaust [ with a capital "H" ] is seared into his very being. He carefully chose "holocaust" [ with a lower case "h" ] because it fits. In health care in America we have a dictatorship that decides who lives and who dies a slow painful death from lack of proper medical care.

To my Repubnican friends:

This is not about government taking over anything. It's not about taking away freedom, or killing anyone with taxes, or setting up death panels, or any of the other lies that the health insurance industry is paying to dupe you. Actually, health insurance companies

• limit your freedom by tying you to a job that provides health insurance
• raises and raises and raises premiums
• have real death panels (they're called "claims department")
• can drop consumers at a whim - thereby threatening people with death or bankruptcy

This is about fixing a vital infrastructure that is broken. That vital infrastructure, health care in America, no longer functions well. The current caretakers of the system have no intention of changing the system unless the change will enrich them more - at YOUR expense.

If the health insurance companies would bring us affordable universal health care, there would be no need for regulation and real competition.

Unaccountable insurers are just like an unaccountable financial system: they can tear the country apart while sucking out all of the resources of the American People.

Drunk drivers kill more than 14,000 people each year - and drunk drivers face jail time and years of restricted freedom and years of financial difficulties. 46,000 people die each year because of inability to pay for health care. That number grows every year.

Health insurance companies are rewarded for making insurance unafordable. The more people they keep out of the system, the more money they make. Insurance company profits are up 428% in the past 6 years. In that time 25% more people have become uninsured.

We are bombarded with lies about how incompetant government is. So explain why it is that Medicare uses 97% of its revenue to pay for medical care, but private insurers use 70%-80% in revenue for paying claims. The rest goes to a bureaucracy that is rewarded for denying claims, to other overhead expenses, to unconscianienable salaries for top executives, and to exhorbitant profits.

As an aside, let's see if government is really incompetent. Call fedex or UPS. Ask them how much it costs to deliver a 1 oz letter withing 250 miles - on the 2nd Day (with a good chance of overnight). Then ask the Post Office the same question. 'Nuff said?

I can't find an image of the really great protest sign from Glenn Beck's recent trip to Seattle. Darn!

Here it what the sign about Glenn Beck said: (trying to quote accurately):

He might be a
bigoted idiot.
But he's
OUR
bigoted idiot.

My question: was this a (rare) honest Beck fan being unintentionally ironic? I entertain this as a possibility because so many people on the political right disdain intelligence and revere nitwits and nitwits' ideas.

Or was it someone with a wry sense of humor? There are a few¹ of those in the Seattle area.

¹There are quite a few in the Seattle area.

I'm not making this up.

Someone is trying to sell this tie:

In order to clarify - to the tie's designer and to people who like the tie - what the inscription means, it should come with a sign (or optional t-shirt) that reads:

Proud To Be
TOO MORONIC to actually read The Bible
TOO BIGOTED to understand real American values
TOO CLUELESS to grasp "Pro-Life"
TOO STUPID to use a spell-checker
TOO DANGEROUS to carry a gun
and
SO INSECURE that I have to YELL
"I'm Not Really A FAG"

I wasn't going to publish the link, but the shopping cart page is almost as telling: "Just a tie to agrivate librals." (I did not make that up that spelling)

"The Lion shall lay down with the lamb...." is one of the more popular Scripture misquotes. In Isaiah there are two passages that are the basis for the 'quote':

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them."

"The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.”

That prophecy's time may be getting close, and not a moment too soon.

The article to which I've linked below as a bit long, but well worth reading.

Note to the "show me the birth certificate","death panels", "Obama is just like Hitler", "Glenn Beck is NOT a nitwit" crowd: there are lots of pictures. That should bring the story closer to your ability to understand.

This true story has an important message for all humankind.

How unlikely are these?

1. You work in a pizza factory.
2. The pizza factory is in Ireland.
3. Someone sends you an e-mail that contains porn. OK, that could happen ... or so I'm told.
4. You get fired for opening the e-mail.
5. The supply of Irish pizzas is in danger of drying up.
   

A bizarre confluence of those has led to a labor strike.

Read all about it at Technically Incorrect

It is absolutely probably not true that the porn was an image of Mother Mary in a compromising position among the mozzarella, pepperoni, and olives. If it were, the pizza in question would be selling on eBay already.