Post what you like, when you like, about what you like, with whatever links (including self-links) you like, for whatever purpose you like, wearing whatever underwear you like, eating whatever food you like, and liking what you like because you like it. Like, wow.
* * *
The first two minutes of this piece are stunning. After that, it turns into a well-done cover of Toto’s “Africa,” which is one of these songs I like for the sound but the lyrics are annoying because they scream exoticization of Africa. And the earworm factor is not to be believed.
- Wal-Mart Bans Gay Couple For Not Shoplifting
- The Stupak Amendment might, in effect, make sure that insurance that covers abortion is unavailable to most women – regardless of if they use the public option, or the government exchange, at all. I really hope this shit never becomes law.
- List of Democrats who voted for Stupak Amendment. They’re not all in very conservative districts, either. Let’s hope for some primary challenges.
- Whose Health Care Victory Is It? Not Women’s. More on Stupak, from Ann Friedman.
- GLAAD should lighten up about South Park using the word “fag.”
- You know, every single chronic pain patient I’ve known in my life has had horrible experiences like this. Is it that way in other countries, or is it just another example of how much the US sucks? It seems to me that we could be doing so much better, be so much more humane.
- “It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.” Click through to see who said it.
- This expectation that “good people” won’t be bigots is rather amazing.
- It turns out DVR is good for television networks, after all.
- Very impressive face paintings.
- Diary of an Anxious Black Women discusses Rhianna, “Precious,” Toni Morrison, the quest for authenticity, and the representation of black women’s pain in media. Really good post.
- Do Smart, Hard-Working People Really Deserve To Make More Money?
- Cat and Girl: The Trap. Sometimes I love Cat and Girl.
- Sex after mastectomy; Why aren’t doctors preparing women? Note: Reading this article will leaved you pissed off more than you might expect. (Via.)
- On the White Anti-Racist Spokesperson
- The Obama Administration is secretly pushing an incredibly awful international copyright treaty.
- Study: The Government is Discriminating Against Asian Business Owners.
- What if we spent just one year spending as much on internal infrastructure as we do on the Defense Department?
- Spending $47,000 on dinner for five. Two points. One, that’s the right table to have been serving, as far as the tip goes. Two, couldn’t a restaurant that charges this month spring for a receipt-printer that was designed this century?
- Why US health care is so expensive: Like the restaurant in the above link, It all comes down to prices. We simply pay more, for everything.
- Pantshead asks Shoshana Johnson if she’s ever been to Iraq. No, really. Also, the country isn’t 93% white and 63-82% male, so why are MSNBC’s guests? (Via.)
I like the video. You’ll probably like Camille http://www.camille-music.com/?ectrans=1 She is wonderful!!
Don’t think of the internet as the Great Big Hope. Cause it aint — it divides us even more into haves and have nots.
Your words have value and you should use it to everyone’s advantage. Don’t listen to the haters — I encountered one of them in the comments thread…
and 3rd World countries aint no more. Hans Rosling is beyond awesome and he is passionate about information. Ever heard of Stewart Brand’s mantra of “information wants to be free?”Well, Rosling wants information to be more accessible at the very least. That’s the only way that stereotypes about ‘developing countries’ will be laid to rest.
Hard-working people deserve greater reward, once basic needs are met. But that means lazy people who inherited fortunes should have to give all their money to industrious poor people.
But not until spring,please, I’d freeze to death.
Seriously, I’d look at libertarianism in a whole new light if there were some connection between hard work and money without taking luck and circumstances and background into account.
Smart is a different matter, if we’re talking about either innate ability or things people haven’t hat the chance to learn. The willfully ignorant are responsible for the outcome of that ignorance (if any), but beyond that I don’t think so.
So will more people use the “f word” to refer to the Harley bikers?
@ 3:
I live in IL-3, Rep. Daniel Lipinski’s district. In the last two primaries he faced challenges from Democrats that touted their support for abortion as one of the reasons for vote for them instead of him. They have lost, about 55% to 45%. The Congressional districts in NE Illinois are configured to contain both urban (Chicago) and suburban precincts; the former ensure Democratic control of the district. In Lipinski’s case the suburban districts are pretty conservative. In order for him to keep enough of those precincts voting for him he’s going to have to strike a balance to satisfy people like me who fax him and say “I’ve voted for you in the last 3 elections, but if you don’t vote for this I won’t.” A new face that runs against him on a pro-abortion platform will probably just lose again. If they win, they risk flipping the district to a Republican.
Hm. But I thought I’d been told time and time again that this bill would NOT restrict my options. So which is it? It will, or it won’t?
Ron, can you quote someone saying this since the Stupak Amendment was added to the legislation?
That Stupak is there is the fault of conservatives. The reason the bill might restrict options (not YOUR options, of course; you’re male) is because a minority of right-wing Democrats colluded with nearly every Republican in the House to make sure it restricted women’s rights.
Until a few days ago, it was certainly true that people’s options would not be restricted by this bill, in comparison to the restrictions of the status quo. The reason it is not still true is because Republicans — plus some blue dogs — can’t stand the idea of a government that isn’t seeking to control women’s sexuality. (And queers, of course.)
I am still hopeful that Stupak won’t be in the final legislation. This isn’t over yet.
It doesn’t restrict women’s rights – women can still get abortions under the same conditions as before. Not one word of any existing abortion laws will be changed. What it restricts is women being entitled to have it paid for by someone else. Just like my right to free speech, religious worship and gun ownership, having the right has nothing to do with my ability to pay for it personally or to be able to raid the public purse to get the taxpayers to pay for it. I have a right to own a lot of things I can’t afford. That doesn’t mean that my right to own them is restricted – only my ability.
I am still hopeful that Stupak won’t be in the final legislation. This isn’t over yet.
Quite right. This could be either eliminated or eviscerated in conference. At that point Rep. Lipinski and others like him will be on the hot seat not to vote for what gets reported out of conference.
RonF,
Read #2 in the OP again.
To the general case, though – if I understand it correctly, this amendment says that the public option or any insurance plan that is subsidized by the government cannot pay for abortions. What about other conditions that the plans won’t cover – either by law or by bureaucratic fiat? Does this mean I won’t be able to get insurance for them elsewhere either?
Actually, RonF, I understand that it restricts women’s ability to use their insurance money (the same kind of insurance money you get, and from a program which is federal in nature) to buy their own choice of insurance.
From @2:
According to the respected National Women’s Law Center, the five states that require a separate rider for abortion coverage, there is no evidence that plans offer these riders.
Why? If those states require that abortion coverage be included in a separate rider but does not forbid the sale of that rider,what then is the reason that the rider is not being offered for sale?
It seems rather ironic that with this amendment we have an illustration of exactly what a number of conservatives were warning about; that one of the dangers of this bill was that it would give government control of the kind of healthcare you would receive. Of course, the ox being gored here is not the one that conservatives anticipated. But a sword will cut any way the holder cares it to – and Democrats or liberals will not always control the U.S. government.
It’s ironic that exactly what a number of conservatives were warning about was put into the bill by conservatives.
Well – nothing like a concrete example, eh?
Interesting that you phrase it like that, too. If voting for that amendment means that you are a conservative, then conservatives are a majority. Either that, or being anti-abortion/pro-life is not just a conservative issue.
@ 19 – the food on the bill was quite pricey but the three > $10,000 line items are all wine. Dang.
Now, the question I have is this – was this meal privately funded, or was this expensed as a “cost of doing business” on some company’s budget? Because if it was the latter, they then merrily deducted it as a corporate sales expense from their corporate tax return.
I like baseball. I can only afford to buy my own ticket once a year or so. But I go to maybe 3 or 4 games a year, and the odd NBA game, because of corporations trying to sell me something putting me up in their suites. It’s fun. But they get to deduct that on their taxes. I wonder why you and I should have to subsidize people (like me on occasion, I admit) going to the ball game in the most expensive seats in the house.
I think conservatives should fund a marriage equality bill, and then add an amendment to it that all heterosexual marriages should be dissolved. That would prove that passing marriage equality is a threat to heterosexual marriage, just like they said.
Just to be clear, the alternative to the Stupak Amendment wasn’t the taxpayers paying for abortion.
Under the prior deal, the federal government subsidized insurance purchases for people who can’t afford insurance on their own. It is the people themselves — not the government — who would be doing the purchasing. And the law would have required insurance without abortion coverage (as well as insurance with abortion coverage) to be included, so no one would be forced to pay money for an insurance plan with abortion coverage, if they oppose that.
There was an alternative plan in which non of the government subsidies would be used for the abortion part of insurance plans; instead, it was set up so that insurance companies would keep a separate fund for paying for abortions, and that fund would not have had any government funding at all.
The government paying for abortions was not the alternative to the Stupak Amendment. The purpose of Stupak is to keep poor women from being able to make their own medical choices; if there had been no Stupak, the government still wouldn’t have been paying for abortions.
And this is relevant to the point because… what?
I’ve been writing on the police union’s election and politics which took some research and work not to mention interviews as it’s traditionally been a closed door process. I couldn’t use names b/c if anyone gets caught providing information for my blog, it’s a one-day suspension.
I also did this installment of my series on female officers.
#21, A fucking men! Tired of the over-educated white boys club.
#14 Pissed off? I’d like to kick the shit outta that mofo boyfriend of hers. Whose boobs are they, anyway? Oh, right, HIS.
#6:
Whenever I hear anyone talk about the supposed problem of all those evil opioid-pushing doctors claimed to be running amok, I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming. No Relief In Sight, written in 1997, is the best damned essay I’ve ever read on the problem of opiophobia. And part of the horror of it is: since that essay was written, over a decade ago now, things have not really much improved. Pain management advocates work like dogs, and there have been small steps of progress…but then every time there’s another one of those highly publicized celebrity drug deaths, it all gets swept away by the inevitable wave of public hysteria.
Really, while I hate to use the word “lucky” to refer to anything having to do with chronic pain, I do think I was pretty damned fortunate to be living in Portland when I developed cp problems. If you have to deal with chronic pain, this is one of the better places in the country for it.
Please everyone go to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/217/petition-for-lorraine-tipton-and-michaela and sign this petition for Lorraine and Michaela. The links available about this mother and daughter are so numerous online for you to see. The child is still refusing to go to her abuser father’s house even with mom in jail. This is nothing more than threat therapy.
Please review this, sign it, and spread the word far and wide!!!
I’ll be blogging on the trial of a local officer charged with sexual assault under the color of authority charges. And oh, my county’s first major corruption scandal as the mayor and majority of the city council in one city get indicted.
And in direct contrast to the meal referenced at the start of this thread…
Walmart says you can have Thanksgiving for 8 for $20.
The reliance on processed foods in their offering says something really sad about our food economy.