I’m writing for tomorrow, and feeling the need to confirm that I still exist. The training went well. I didn’t learn much, but more than anything, I’m making what I do official, although I’ve been doing it as a “guest” for years. The next step is an institution-specific orientation, that will be sometime in the next two months. A couple weeks after that, I get my access card. The trip to and fro went much quicker. I listened to an audio book (Shogun) on my Kindle. I stayed at a Super 8, which was far better than the horrid experience I had at Motel 6 that last time down. The only problem was a runaway alarm clock that woke me at 5:30 AM and told me it was 7:00 AM. Even the continental breakfast was quite good. However, on a scale of 1 to ten, I’m still quite pooped.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:26). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Tuesday’s announcement by President Obama that 7.1 million people have signed up for Obamacare set off a firestorm of controversy among opponents of math in the U.S. Congress.
Representative Michele Bachmann, a leading member of the anti-math caucus, told reporters, “Throughout the debate on Obamacare, there has been a tacit agreement to leave math out of it. Today, President Obama broke that agreement.”
Senator John Barrasso, an anti-math Republican from Wyoming, agreed. “It’s very disappointing to see the President use arithmetic for political purposes,” he said.
I have a few of Andy’s pieces in reserve now. Andy’s humor aside, we know Republicans are anti-math, because of their policy of minority-rule, while they are in the minority.
From NY Times: A push to give legal status to young undocumented immigrants who serve in the military is roiling the immigration debate in the House, dividing Republicans and reviving some movement toward substantive immigration legislation this year.
Republican advocates of loosening immigration laws are moving to attach the measure to the annual defense policy bill. It would offer a path to permanent residency for undocumented immigrants who came to the country before the age of 15 and enlist in the military. But they are running into vociferous opposition from anti-immigration hard-liners.
This may result in more conflict between Republicans trying to hide their racism and Republicans bragging about theirs.
From Crooks and Liars: Confession: If I could have reached through the monitor and slapped Rand Paul, I would have. Since I couldn’t do it in real life, I’m going to do it virtually.
All day long, Fox News has been slamming the enrollment numbers announced by the Obama administration. Rand Paul’s appearance was just icing on the ignorance cake. [Idiot size BARF BAG ALERT!!]
Everything Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot said was based on lies. The article goes on to debunk them. Click Through.
Cartoon:
21 Responses to “Open thread–4/6/2014”
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What? Tom Bodett forget to leave the light on for ya? When I was long-haul trucking in the '70s and '80s, both Super 8 and Motel 6 captured some of my expense money, but Best Western (of one stripe or another) got most of it. Nothing, though, compared with the nightly rate at the Peterbilt Hotel, where one could sleep (or not) for free during times when amenities weren't important.
Today, best Western costs $20 – $30 more.
Well done for completing the course TC, I can't imagine they had anything new to teach you – but at least they now know that you know – if you see what I mean!
As someone from over the Pond – is the NY Times piece genuine – are undocumented people really allowed to serve in the military? Really?? If someone is willing to fight and die for a country, I'd have thought the least the country could do is to call them a citizen!
Sorry – couldn't face the Idiot son of Idiot clip – too ill!
The Bush Reich deportes some undocumented veterans and threatened undocumented troops withdeportation, unless they reinlisted. They had been promised citizenship fpr service.
3:14 You might still be pooped. But, I can't beat you. This ferry left me behind.
3:15 BC Ferries cost more and are not as fast as US west coast ferries!
2:49 I use to ride a car ferry every weekend. It looks like that experience is paying off.
CAT is where it's AT! 🙂
Did I miss something? Critter was 4 seconds faster! We were all Critter crunched!
Ahhh! The story of my life — always being overlooked in favor of a pretty kitty.
Glad to hear your trip was better this time. Must be Super 8 is rated higher than Motel 6. It stands to reason. On a scale of 1 to 10, 8 is higher than 6.
New Yorker ~ We know they don't trust Math any more than they trust Science. And this week they voted yet again to repeal "ObamaCare". Woo-Hoo!
NY Times ~ There is just one dilemma after another in that Goofy Old Party. However will they save thimselves from this one?
Crooks & Liars ~ I agree, as stated in the article: "He truly does believe that poor people should die, because then there would be more for everyone else." He is a true TeaBircher.
Cartoon ~ And then they stopped when the RepublicanTs took over the majority a few years ago.
3:00 – That was not an easy one.
Love Andy –
This is an except from the non-partisan Fact Check.org:
The Senate Republican Policy Committee touted the Kaiser survey results on its website and added: “In other words, Obamacare isn’t lowering premiums – in fact, premium increases have accelerated since Obamacare passed last year.” The Republican National Committee, too, said that “the costs of family coverage increased a ‘whopping’ 9 percent for families” under a headline that claimed “Obama’s Past Promises Are Not Adding Up for American Families.” The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, said that “Obama care … makes matters worse. The survey released today reveals family premiums have increased by 9 percent.”
But experts we spoke with weren’t too surprised by this year’s findings. They point out that the 3 percent growth from 2009 to 2010 was unusually low. While it’s tough to discern a clear, long-term trend in the growth rates, the annual increase was holding steady at around 5 percent or 5.5 percent from 2007 to 2009. The growth rates had been at 10 percent and higher from 2000 to 2004. (See our chart below, which uses Kaiser’s employer survey numbers.) So, the 3 percent growth rate was “abnormally low,” says John Sheils, senior vice president of The Lewin Group, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that operates independently of the health care company. He says it “would stand to reason that we’d get a boost” this year, possibly due to recovering losses or catching up on the cost of new equipment. A health policy analyst with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners agreed, saying that it was “not surprising to see it rebound like that.”
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/10/factchecking-health-insurance-premiums/
****
As long as we have for profit insurance companies between the patient and the provider of medicine; I think there will be some rate hikes.
Medicare/Medicaid operate at 3 to 6% cost basis. For profit insurance even under the new law operate at no less than a 43% cost basis. Therefore, with a slight increase in taxation, less than 5% the US could cover all US citizens, even those with catastrophic diseases. Obama care has many needed benefits, not the least of which are removing all caps on pay out and by eliminating pre-existing conditions. Though to meet the needs of for profit insurance, rate hikes will grow. Not in the exaggerated clairvoyance of the republican premonitions of immediate damage to the American public.
Congratulations TC on completion of your training and getting your new official status. Your good works are, I have no doubt making changes to one life at a time.
Kudos!!
Well, welcome home! I can't do the puzzle today due to computer issues, but will try to catch up by tomorrow. Congratulations on completing the training,not that it is any surprise.
New Yorker – I can't add anything to what Lona said – she really covered it.
NY Times – I've known for some time that non-citizens were serving in the military, and that it was a path to citizenship for many, but I thought they needed a green card to get in. I am all for allowing the undocumented to serve. And, if they are willing to do so, they damned well deserve a path to citizenship as a result.
Crooks and Liars – Didn't Fox win some kind of lawsuit that established their right to lie in reporting news? I thought I read that somewhere.
Click here.
6:40 Without the ferry I would have drowned.
Thank you so much for the link! I am bookmarking it. I knew it was someone and thought it was Fox but didn't realize it was that long ago.
Glad you had a decent hotel this time, also glad y ou are back.
New Yorker: Of course they are anti math, if their constituents understand math, they might not be re elected.
Crooks and Liars: I did't watch the video, it is too late to be subjected to Rand's idiot voice. I clicked through the article, though, and agree with it. Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Darrell Issa, all three vicious liars that I wish would immigrate to anywhere else.
Cartoon: That was probably a bad thing considering how well their sessions work now.
Thanks everyone.
To carify, I graduated that training, but will not have advanced acecess until about two weeks after I complete an institution specific training session.
4:22 – Puzzle 😆
Rand Paul is a corn cobb crunch nugget….