Things that make you go hmmm
Our taxes are done and not surprisingly, we paid more in taxes than GE in 2010. Now if only our income matched theirs...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Saturday, April 09, 2011
LotD II
Analysis: Is the US ready for the GOP's Medicare cuts?
... as time goes on, the demand for the government to provide—or assist in the provision of—social insurance will grow, not decline. Historically, companies shouldered the load of funding workers' health care and retirement savings. But 401(K)s are replacing pensions. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, the percentage of employees participating in defined benefit plans was 33 percent in 2007 compared with 63 percent in 1988. Public-sector pensions are likely to be trimmed. That means tomorrow's retirees will need more old-age income insurance, not less. In addition, jobs increasingly don't come with health care benefits. According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of people in 2009 covered by employment-based health insurance fell to 55.8 percent in 2009, the lowest "since 1987, the first year that comparable health insurance data were collected." With each passing year, more people need help buying insurance, not fewer.
Analysis: Is the US ready for the GOP's Medicare cuts?
... as time goes on, the demand for the government to provide—or assist in the provision of—social insurance will grow, not decline. Historically, companies shouldered the load of funding workers' health care and retirement savings. But 401(K)s are replacing pensions. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, the percentage of employees participating in defined benefit plans was 33 percent in 2007 compared with 63 percent in 1988. Public-sector pensions are likely to be trimmed. That means tomorrow's retirees will need more old-age income insurance, not less. In addition, jobs increasingly don't come with health care benefits. According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of people in 2009 covered by employment-based health insurance fell to 55.8 percent in 2009, the lowest "since 1987, the first year that comparable health insurance data were collected." With each passing year, more people need help buying insurance, not fewer.
LotD
I thought Andrea Grime's quest to find an alternative to Planned Parenthood for a pap smear was quite interesting, especially in light of the fact she lives in Dallas. DALLAS! A major metropolitan area and she still could not find an appointment within two months. A sobering reality for the poor and uninsured; I just find it ironic since arguments people make against Obamacare is they want to be able to get an appointment with a doctor on the same day and 'socialized medicine' won't allow them to do that.
I thought Andrea Grime's quest to find an alternative to Planned Parenthood for a pap smear was quite interesting, especially in light of the fact she lives in Dallas. DALLAS! A major metropolitan area and she still could not find an appointment within two months. A sobering reality for the poor and uninsured; I just find it ironic since arguments people make against Obamacare is they want to be able to get an appointment with a doctor on the same day and 'socialized medicine' won't allow them to do that.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Video of the month
So much for such and such of the day! I have a fandom related post coming up, but I need to gather my thoughts since it's still relatively fresh and I'm so far away from fannish things. I just want to be coherent, y'know, and just not possible at this moment.
In the meantime, here is my Bollywood song of the day.
So much for such and such of the day! I have a fandom related post coming up, but I need to gather my thoughts since it's still relatively fresh and I'm so far away from fannish things. I just want to be coherent, y'know, and just not possible at this moment.
In the meantime, here is my Bollywood song of the day.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
LotD
Uninsured with a pre-existing condition? Apparently there are some 'bridge' plans out there provided either at the federal or state level -- a temporary fix until all insurers must cover pre-existing conditions in 2014. There are some requirements, which seem kind of onerous depending on your situation, but worth checking out if you qualify. The article explaining all is here and the federal government site to apply is here.
Uninsured with a pre-existing condition? Apparently there are some 'bridge' plans out there provided either at the federal or state level -- a temporary fix until all insurers must cover pre-existing conditions in 2014. There are some requirements, which seem kind of onerous depending on your situation, but worth checking out if you qualify. The article explaining all is here and the federal government site to apply is here.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Movie-licious
Finally watched Food Inc tonight; I'd been avoiding it despite rave reviews and an Oscar nomination because truth be told, sometimes you just don't want to know where your food comes from. It's an intriguing film and I definitely recommend it, but do warn there are a couple of graphic slaughter-house scenes in it (though nowhere as bad as I'd heard). It's definitely thought provoking and filled with "you gotta be kidding me" moments (corn really makes it into nearly everything we eat?). Also, new big corporate villain is introduced -- Monsanto -- and you'll be seriously creeped out by some of their activities. Unfortunately it's food and we have to eat, but at least now I'm a little more educated on what it takes to produce the food I eat; that backyard garden looks more and more attractive now.
Finally watched Food Inc tonight; I'd been avoiding it despite rave reviews and an Oscar nomination because truth be told, sometimes you just don't want to know where your food comes from. It's an intriguing film and I definitely recommend it, but do warn there are a couple of graphic slaughter-house scenes in it (though nowhere as bad as I'd heard). It's definitely thought provoking and filled with "you gotta be kidding me" moments (corn really makes it into nearly everything we eat?). Also, new big corporate villain is introduced -- Monsanto -- and you'll be seriously creeped out by some of their activities. Unfortunately it's food and we have to eat, but at least now I'm a little more educated on what it takes to produce the food I eat; that backyard garden looks more and more attractive now.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Baby's got an out of this world name
Just in case you were looking for names for your little bouncing bundle of joy, may I suggest Trek baby names? I especially like the suggestion of 'Borg'. With the middle name of Hirogen, it rolls right off the tongue.
Just in case you were looking for names for your little bouncing bundle of joy, may I suggest Trek baby names? I especially like the suggestion of 'Borg'. With the middle name of Hirogen, it rolls right off the tongue.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
LotD
The War Against Women. And we haven't even covered the Georgia congressman who introduced a bill making miscarriages a felony if the mother can't disprove "human involvement". BTW, the previous link comes from Fox News...
The War Against Women. And we haven't even covered the Georgia congressman who introduced a bill making miscarriages a felony if the mother can't disprove "human involvement". BTW, the previous link comes from Fox News...
Friday, February 25, 2011
LotD
How to make oatmeal... wrong. I never thought of McDonald's as the place to go for anything particularly helpful, but seven ingredients in cream? Really? Another seven in oatmeal, including 'natural flavor'? And wait until you read aout the sugar and calorie count in this one. Thanks, but no thanks.
How to make oatmeal... wrong. I never thought of McDonald's as the place to go for anything particularly helpful, but seven ingredients in cream? Really? Another seven in oatmeal, including 'natural flavor'? And wait until you read aout the sugar and calorie count in this one. Thanks, but no thanks.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
I stand with Planned Parenthood
Did you hear? The House voted to bar Planned Parenthood from federal funding. They cut funding for HIV tests, cancer screenings, birth control, and more, putting millions of women and families at risk. We can't let it go unanswered. It's time for you and me to stand with Planned Parenthood. Sign the open letter to the reps who voted for this bill — and to the senators who still have a chance to stop it. You can find the letter here:
http://www.ppaction.org/IStandWithPP
Pass it on.
Did you hear? The House voted to bar Planned Parenthood from federal funding. They cut funding for HIV tests, cancer screenings, birth control, and more, putting millions of women and families at risk. We can't let it go unanswered. It's time for you and me to stand with Planned Parenthood. Sign the open letter to the reps who voted for this bill — and to the senators who still have a chance to stop it. You can find the letter here:
http://www.ppaction.org/IStandWithPP
Pass it on.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
LotD
Search's Dirty Little Secrets. Interesting article on how a certain retailer was trying to gain position on google's search engine. Click on the NYTimes article above to find out who it is (hint: I bet most of you have shopped there in the last 12 months).
Search's Dirty Little Secrets. Interesting article on how a certain retailer was trying to gain position on google's search engine. Click on the NYTimes article above to find out who it is (hint: I bet most of you have shopped there in the last 12 months).
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Two more
Add Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen to the list of people I wish news organizations would ignore. The former hasn't been relevant in a while and the latter is just... disgusting. Neither adds much to society. They both need help, seem willfully inclined to disregard any help that is offered, and neither shows any motivation to improve themselves (and yes, I know addiction is a disease). It's just irritating when their troubles seem to trounce what's happening in Egypt and other places around the world.
Add Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen to the list of people I wish news organizations would ignore. The former hasn't been relevant in a while and the latter is just... disgusting. Neither adds much to society. They both need help, seem willfully inclined to disregard any help that is offered, and neither shows any motivation to improve themselves (and yes, I know addiction is a disease). It's just irritating when their troubles seem to trounce what's happening in Egypt and other places around the world.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Lotd III
My friend, Tamar Carroll, wrote an op/ed on Glenn Beck and his 'special' view of history here.
Beck has repeatedly and erroneously tarred as un-American the efforts of those who have sought to increase low-income voter registration, labor union membership, interracial cooperation, peaceful resolution of foreign conflict, and the meeting of poor people’s needs within and by their own communities.
My friend, Tamar Carroll, wrote an op/ed on Glenn Beck and his 'special' view of history here.
Beck has repeatedly and erroneously tarred as un-American the efforts of those who have sought to increase low-income voter registration, labor union membership, interracial cooperation, peaceful resolution of foreign conflict, and the meeting of poor people’s needs within and by their own communities.
LoTD II
Defend Planned Parenthood here. I don't usually sign up for things like this but I feel the GOP is continually doing everything they can to erode women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies. In this particular case, they're also taking away a key source for health services -- 97% of which are services not abortion (ex: pap smears, breast cancer screenings) -- for low income women and men. It just boggles the mind. Again, I want to know what the GOP is doing to address that particular gap? Oh, that's right, as the party of no, they don't have to do anything at all.
Defend Planned Parenthood here. I don't usually sign up for things like this but I feel the GOP is continually doing everything they can to erode women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies. In this particular case, they're also taking away a key source for health services -- 97% of which are services not abortion (ex: pap smears, breast cancer screenings) -- for low income women and men. It just boggles the mind. Again, I want to know what the GOP is doing to address that particular gap? Oh, that's right, as the party of no, they don't have to do anything at all.
LotD
It's actually a "laugh of the day" versus "link of the day," but no matter. Today's hilarity is brought to you by Glenn Beck. It'd be funnier if so many people didn't take him so seriously and take his 'geography lessons' to heart (and we wonder why we're falling behind educationally-wise?).
"One, a Muslim caliphate that controls the Mideast and parts of Europe. Two, China, that will control Asia, the southern half of Africa, part of the Middle East, Australia, maybe New Zealand, and God only knows what else. And Russia, which will control all of the old former Soviet Union bloc, plus maybe the Netherlands. I'm not really sure. But their strong arm is coming. That leaves us and South America. What happens to us?"
My favorite is Russia taking over the Netherlands? WTF? Wouldn't Russia rather have the Baltics with which it shares a land border (and continues to squabble with, especially over matters of natural gas)? What about the Scandanavian countries with which it has a common waterway? Why would Russia want the Netherlands, a relatively small European country, when Germany and Poland are much bigger priczs. I have no idea what Beck is talking about, unless when he refers to the old Soviet bloc, he's including Poland and East Germany. Clearly, Russia has got enough states to harass and occupy before they get to the Netherlands.
BTW, this post earns a new tag: conspiracy theories. I guess I should start filing any X-Files related stuff under this tag as well.
It's actually a "laugh of the day" versus "link of the day," but no matter. Today's hilarity is brought to you by Glenn Beck. It'd be funnier if so many people didn't take him so seriously and take his 'geography lessons' to heart (and we wonder why we're falling behind educationally-wise?).
"One, a Muslim caliphate that controls the Mideast and parts of Europe. Two, China, that will control Asia, the southern half of Africa, part of the Middle East, Australia, maybe New Zealand, and God only knows what else. And Russia, which will control all of the old former Soviet Union bloc, plus maybe the Netherlands. I'm not really sure. But their strong arm is coming. That leaves us and South America. What happens to us?"
My favorite is Russia taking over the Netherlands? WTF? Wouldn't Russia rather have the Baltics with which it shares a land border (and continues to squabble with, especially over matters of natural gas)? What about the Scandanavian countries with which it has a common waterway? Why would Russia want the Netherlands, a relatively small European country, when Germany and Poland are much bigger priczs. I have no idea what Beck is talking about, unless when he refers to the old Soviet bloc, he's including Poland and East Germany. Clearly, Russia has got enough states to harass and occupy before they get to the Netherlands.
BTW, this post earns a new tag: conspiracy theories. I guess I should start filing any X-Files related stuff under this tag as well.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
LotD
I've been wanting to address the efforts in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and the separate bill that changes the definition of rape (until recently, it had to be a 'forcible' rape, as if there is any other kind), but Gail Collins in the NYT sums up my position beautifully so go there to read. I'd take the Republicans more seriously on health care repeal efforts if a) I thought they had a workable plan to replace Obamacare and b) if I thought they actually cared about people who make less than $250,000 a year and c) if their position wasn't so hypocritical: get government out of my healthcare, but by the way, ladies, we the government want to make it difficult for you to make decisions about your own bodies and whether you can have birth control covered under Obamacare. Notice we don't have these same conversations about Viagra.
The best way, mho, to put abortion providers out of business is to reduce the need. That includes providing education, contraception, and the care and support women need to raise the children (or pay the bills required to deliver and then give the child up for adoption). My greatest fear is that abortions will become so hard to get legally that women will find unscrupulous individuals to get their abortions or attempt it themselves with dire results (the WHO reports that in Europe, up to 30% of maternal deaths are due to illegal abortions). In fact, a study shows that the rates of abortions -- legal or not -- remain the same.
PP performed 340,000 abortions last year; that's a lot hearts and minds of women to change and I would argue that we can't judge those women without knowing the why of their decisions (in fact, we shouldn't judge anyway -- it's a personal and private decision). A woman's ability to make her own decisions about her personal health care is constantly being eroded by the GOP. This isn't the time to sit back and let it happen. We need to do everything we can to make abortion legal and safe but more importantly, rare. But more importantly, we need to reclaim our right to make our own decisions about our body; no bureaucrat in DC should have that power.
I've been wanting to address the efforts in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and the separate bill that changes the definition of rape (until recently, it had to be a 'forcible' rape, as if there is any other kind), but Gail Collins in the NYT sums up my position beautifully so go there to read. I'd take the Republicans more seriously on health care repeal efforts if a) I thought they had a workable plan to replace Obamacare and b) if I thought they actually cared about people who make less than $250,000 a year and c) if their position wasn't so hypocritical: get government out of my healthcare, but by the way, ladies, we the government want to make it difficult for you to make decisions about your own bodies and whether you can have birth control covered under Obamacare. Notice we don't have these same conversations about Viagra.
The best way, mho, to put abortion providers out of business is to reduce the need. That includes providing education, contraception, and the care and support women need to raise the children (or pay the bills required to deliver and then give the child up for adoption). My greatest fear is that abortions will become so hard to get legally that women will find unscrupulous individuals to get their abortions or attempt it themselves with dire results (the WHO reports that in Europe, up to 30% of maternal deaths are due to illegal abortions). In fact, a study shows that the rates of abortions -- legal or not -- remain the same.
PP performed 340,000 abortions last year; that's a lot hearts and minds of women to change and I would argue that we can't judge those women without knowing the why of their decisions (in fact, we shouldn't judge anyway -- it's a personal and private decision). A woman's ability to make her own decisions about her personal health care is constantly being eroded by the GOP. This isn't the time to sit back and let it happen. We need to do everything we can to make abortion legal and safe but more importantly, rare. But more importantly, we need to reclaim our right to make our own decisions about our body; no bureaucrat in DC should have that power.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
LotD
The entire country is in a deep freeze and something seems to be going on Cairo, but for the moment, forget all that and venture with me to the weirdly awkward world of maternity photography. And don't click if you're at work; some of these pictures are decidedly Not!Safe. Enjoy!
The entire country is in a deep freeze and something seems to be going on Cairo, but for the moment, forget all that and venture with me to the weirdly awkward world of maternity photography. And don't click if you're at work; some of these pictures are decidedly Not!Safe. Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
LotD
A politics-free post! On an entirely different note, I've been reading some of the stories on PicFic, a website devoted to "I Want to Believe" (X-Files) era fanfic, nicely divided up into before/during/after the movie. There are some really good ones here, and I'm not going to recommend any one story because pretty much all of them are wonderful. Since I don't follow fandom anywhere, it was nice to find out about this site and have all these wonderful stories by various authors all in one place. So much to read, so little time.
A politics-free post! On an entirely different note, I've been reading some of the stories on PicFic, a website devoted to "I Want to Believe" (X-Files) era fanfic, nicely divided up into before/during/after the movie. There are some really good ones here, and I'm not going to recommend any one story because pretty much all of them are wonderful. Since I don't follow fandom anywhere, it was nice to find out about this site and have all these wonderful stories by various authors all in one place. So much to read, so little time.
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