A Good Question!

Those Pesky Facts

I'm in a hurry to run out and take some pictures before the sun rises too high on the horizon, but this post from Paul Krugman's blog is important.

The takeaway quote:

... we don’t have a Medicare problem, we have a health care cost problem. And Medicare actually does a better job of controlling costs than private insurers — not remotely good enough, but better.

If you look at Medicare in isolation, the cost rise looks terrible, because it is:


Source.

But it looks a bit different if you look at private insurance, too:



If Medicare costs had risen as fast as private insurance premiums, it would cost around 40 percent more than it does. If private insurers had done as well as Medicare at controlling costs, insurance would be a lot cheaper.

It’s a mystery why anyone claims that shifting more people into private insurance is a good idea.

Worth 5 Minutes

I understand there are reasons why asphalt is usually the preferred surfacing material for roadways. It provides good traction. Snow and ice melt faster than with concrete.

But there's a big problem with it: it's black, so it absorbs energy and heat from the sun. It's a big contributor to Global Warming.

Is there another approach we can take to roadways? This little video raises interesting possibilities. I recommend it. It suggests how newer technologies could be applied to the problem.

Well Said

Amanda Marcotte, writing on Slate.com, summarizes the Tea Party approach to history (see prior post):

... I think it helps to understand that, for right-wing populists, this thing we call "history" is less about real people who did real things in the real world, and more like just the Bible Part II. It's a myth that can be manipulated to suit their purpose, which is usually to establish themselves as the only Real Americans. When Palin says she got it right, I believe she believes that, because her story wasn't really about Paul Revere. Her story was a thinly veiled allegory of the Tea Party worldview, and in it, Tea Partiers are Paul Revere and the British stand in for Obama, the foreign usurper who is out to take their guns. (That Obama is a gun-snatcher is also a lie worth noting, and of course there's a bit of Birtherism going on here, too.) In a sense, Palin's mangling of history is minor compared with some of the major whoppers that have percolated through Tea Party lore, with the big ones being that the main demand of the revolutionaries was an end to taxation (in fact, the main concern was lack of representation in the government, and frankly a larger desire for independence), and that the Founding Fathers were interested in establishing a government based on Christian principles, instead of those pesky secular ones they accidentally wrote into the Constitution.

There's a Good Novel in This

My readers being the smartest people on the face of the earth, you're all familiar with George Orwell's novel, 1984. In an ironic move (you will see why in a minute) let me quote from the Wikipedia article on the book:

In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct ....

Okay, keep that thought in mind.

Now let's look at Sarah Palin's recent, addled ramblings on Paul Revere's ride:



If this was the first time you've seen that, I should apologize. Please resist the urge to bang your head against a brick wall. It's okay. She's never going to be President.

Okay, now let's move the story up to yesterday, when she was asked about this on, of all places, Faux News. Remember, she had had several days to think of how she was going to answer the question about this ... um ... unique understanding of Paul Revere's ride.

Here's what she said:

You know what, I didn't mess up about Paul Revere. Here's what Paul Revere did:

He warned the Americans that the British were coming, the British were coming and they are going to try to take our arms so we have to make sure that we were protecting ourselves and shoring up all of our ammunitions and our firearms, so that they couldn't take them. But remember that the British had already been there, many soldiers, for seven years in that area. And part of Paul Revere's ride, and it wasn't just one ride -- he was a courier, he was a messenger -- part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there that, "hey, you are not going succeed, you are not going to take American arms. You are not going beat our own well-armed persons, individual private militia that we have." He did warn the British, and in a shout-out gotcha type of question that was asked of me I answered candidly. And I know my American history.

Let's just sit here a minute with blank looks on our faces, and then say, "Uh-HUH!"

But the story doesn't stop there. Talking Points Memo reports that "Palin's supporters have apparently taken to Wikipedia, and are editing the entry on Paul Revere to better fit the former Alaska governor's account."

So we've come a long way since 1984. In the novel, history is revised to suit the centralized, collectivist state.

In the real world, it turns out, things are a little different.

It's About Time

Of the many hypocrisies that are the Republican Party today, one of the most puzzling has been the ability of the Ayn Rand cultists to coexist with the rapture-believing crazies. Rand did, after all, take Judeo-Christian morality and stand it on its head. Might makes right. Financial success makes right. It's wrong to help those less fortunate than you. It's a wonderful moral system for billionaires (read: Koch Brothers) who think they should rule the world.

Paul Ryan, author of the GOP budget, is a high priest in the cult. He reportedly requires his staff to read all of Rand's novels, and he's gathering the other True Believers around him.

I am delighted that somebody is finally going after him:



And here:



"No disrespect, sir."

Do I believe atheists are immoral? Of course not! Do I believe you need to believe the Bible is the Word of God to run for public office? To me, that is a preposterous idea.

But I sure am glad somebody is finally going after these Ayn Rand jokers. Maybe, just maybe, the right wingers who really do take their religion seriously will, like Colonel Nicholson, wake up to see what kind of bridge they've been building.



Addendum: Here's more.

How Low Can We Go?

Ed Schultz, who is what passes for a liberal commentator on cable television, called Laura Ingraham, who is what passes for a conservative commentator on cable television, a "right wing slut."

For this he will be suspended for one week.

Laura Ingraham is a despicable human being.* But Ed Schultz should have been fired before he had finished his sentence.

* Just for example, Wikipedia: As a Dartmouth undergraduate, she was a staff member of the independent conservative newspaper, The Dartmouth Review. In her senior year, she was the newspaper's editor-in-chief,[3] its first female editor.[2] She wrote a few controversial articles during her tenure, such as a piece characterizing a campus gay rights group as "cheerleaders for latent campus Sodomites". She also secretly tape recorded the organization's meetings, and sent copies to the participants' parents.[4][5] Jeffrey Hart, the faculty adviser for The Dartmouth Review, described Ingraham as having "the most extreme antihomosexual views imaginable," and noted that "she went so far as to avoid a local eatery where she feared the waiters were homosexual and might touch her silverware or spit on her food, exposing her to AIDS."[6] In 1997, Ingraham wrote an essay in the Washington Post in which she stated that she changed her views after witnessing "the dignity, fidelity and courage" with which her gay brother Curtis and his late companion coped with AIDS.[7]

Straight Out of Hollywood

Huguette Clark died on Tuesday at the age of 104. If you have no idea who she was, that would apparently have suited her just fine.

Her father was a copper barron, born before the Mexican-American War, who actually bought himself a U.S. Senate seat. Huguette was raised in a 121-room mansion on Fifth Avenue – Fifth Avenue!

121 rooms!

If you can get the NY Times, make sure you read her obituary here.

According to the obituary, "although her three palatial homes — a 42-room apartment on Fifth Avenue; an oceanfront estate in Santa Barbara, Calif.; and a country manor in New Canaan, Conn. — are fastidiously maintained, she had not been seen in any of them for decades." [My emphasis.]

Then follow the link to the "country manor" in New Canaan, which is finally for sale. It has its own web address. Take a look.

The description says,

The story of this magnificent estate is almost as striking as the mansion itself. Constructed in 1937 by a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who spared no expenses in its construction, it was sold in 1951 to an owner who never moved into the estate. It has stood unoccuppied for decades, maintained by caretakers who live on the property’s two brick gatekeeper cottages. [Again, my emphasis.]

It has stood unoccuppied for decades.

For decades.

Figure it Out for Yourself

Solving the Middle East Problem

Was Obama's recent speech, declaring that negotiations between Israel and a future Palestinian state should be based on "1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps," "the basic idea for at least 12 years" or "throwing Israel under a bus?"

It appears to depend on who you ask. I found this article interesting.

Will Michele Bachmann Wimp Out?

Or, as a City Pages Minneapolis blog puts it, is Michele Bachmann smarter than a high school sophomore?

Amy Myers, a high school sophomore in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, has challenged Michele Bachmann to a debate:

Dear Representative Bachmann,

My name is Amy Myers. I am a Cherry Hill, New Jersey sophomore attending Cherry Hill High School East. As a typical high school student, I have found quite a few of your statements regarding The Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted. The frequency and scope of these comments prompted me to write this letter.

Though I am not in your home district, or even your home state, you are a United States Representative of some prominence who is subject to national media coverage. News outlets and websites across this country profile your causes and viewpoints on a regular basis. As one of a handful of women in Congress, you hold a distinct privilege and responsibility to better represent your gender nationally. The statements you make help to serve an injustice to not only the position of Congresswoman, but women everywhere. Though politically expedient, incorrect comments cast a shadow on your person and by unfortunate proxy, both your supporters and detractors alike often generalize this shadow to women as a whole.

Rep. Bachmann, the frequent inability you have shown to accurately and factually present even the most basic information about the United States led me to submit the follow challenge, pitting my public education against your advanced legal education:

I, Amy Myers, do hereby challenge Representative Michele Bachmann to a Public Forum Debate and/or Fact Test on The Constitution of the United States, United States History and United States Civics.

Hopefully, we will be able to meet for such an event, as it would prove to be enlightening.

Sincerely yours,
Amy Myers

God bless the yutes of America. We need to make sure Michele rises to the challenge. She can do some cramming with Mike Huckabee's Learn Our History course. Cartoons.

Is It Possible Fox News Doesn't Realize How Racist It Is?

No.

As Jon Stewart says in the second of the two following segments, it took longer to play examples of their hypocrisy than it did to find them.

A must-see:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Ridiculous and the Sublime

Thanks to Kevin Drum for pointing me to this, from The Guardian.

A couple appearing on a quiz show in England guessed that Roger Bannister, the great English runner who was the first human being to run a mile in less than 4 minutes (when they still ran mile races), was actually "the first man ever to put the toilet seat down."

Of course, I suppose there's no reason he couldn't have done both. He was that good.

Andrew and Vanessa, the quiz show contestants who made this stab in the dark, seem to be potential candidates for the Darwin Award. They should definitely take out lots of insurance.

The Guardian columnist who reported this has been keeping a file of great quiz show answers:

This may have cost them their shot at wealth, but Andrew and Vanessa shouldn't get downhearted. They've entered the immortal ranks of the all-time most stupid quiz show answers ever. Their appearance now sits alongside the time a contestant on Beg, Borrow or Steal announced that Cambridge University was in Leicester, the time someone on Wogan's Perfect Recall was asked "which Duke resides at Woburn Abbey?" and answered "Hazzard", and the time a lottery quiz contestant finished Eamonn Holmes's question of "there are three states of matter: solid, liquid and . . ." with the word: "jelly".

However, The Million Pound Drop has a long way to go before it catches up with the two biggest idiot magnets around: The Weakest Link and Family Fortunes. At least contestants on the former have an excuse for answering "what is the name of the insect which makes honey?" with "honey fly" or "what 'Z' is used to describe a human who has returned from the dead?" with "unicorn"; they are being glared at by a terrifying dominatrix.

Family Fortunes contestants – who have answered "name a Paris landmark" with "Hawaii", "name an animal with horns" with "a bee" and "name something that flies without an engine" with "a bicycle with wings" – don't exactly have that luxury.

At the other end of the stupidometer, here's a video for my friend, Ethan, who Friday night succeeded in clearly explaining why, when you have chosen Curtain One, and Monty Hall shows you what's behind Curtain Two, and offers you the chance to pick Curtain Three, you should take him up on it. Do not let your mother see this video, Ethan. I'll never get another free meal if you do.

Correspondents' Dinner Videos

I've promised several folks to give the links. Great stuff.

First, Obama's speech:



Seth Meyers' routine:

Why I Love the Tea Party (#1)

Via Gail Collins' quiz in this morning's NY Times, I learned this tidbit. A Tea Party favorite in the Texas state House has introduced a bill which makes it illegal, punishable by a fine of $10,000 and two years in jail, to hire an undocumented immigrant.

Exception: your maid and the guy who cuts your lawn.

Details here.

Geronimo!

As soon as I heard it, I flinched. The code name for the mission to get bin Laden (or maybe for bin Laden himself) was "Geronimo." What were they thinking?

I don't want it to take anything away from the great and brave job the Navy Seals' Seal Team Six did. But really. This was predictable.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

From The Writer's Almanac:

Today is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but is, in a more general way, a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture in the United States.

After a series of wars in the mid-19th-century, Mexico was reeling. President Benito Juarez announced that payment of foreign debts would be temporarily suspended in 1861, and the French navy showed up to demand repayment. As long as they were there anyway, Napoleon III thought it would be a good idea to replace the current government with one more favorable to French interests -- and France could also establish a base of operations to aid the Confederacy in the American Civil War.

In a David-and-Goliath battle, the 8,000-strong, well-armed French army was routed by 4,000 ill-equipped Mexican soldiers, and though it wasn't a decisive battle in the course of the war, it became a symbol of Mexican pride. It also kept Napoleon from aiding the cause of the Confederacy.

Cinco de Mayo isn't widely celebrated in Mexico outside the state of Puebla, but it has been adopted by many Americans regardless of their heritage, much like St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest. It's been celebrated in California since 1863, and grew in prominence in the rest of the country along with the Chicano movement of the 1940s. It wasn't until beer advertisers decided to promote the holiday heavily in the 1980s that American celebration of Cinco de Mayo became widespread.

What They Said

Via Talking Points Memo:

Donald Trump is Very Proud of Himself!

Make sure you listen to the whole thing.

More audio at MyNorthwest.com

And I liked this reply to Trump's "concern" about Obama's grades, from the remarks section of a pathetic Jake Tapper post:

I was president of my law school's law review. At most places, the president doesn't usually publish anything himself.

And all the carping about his grades? He graduated magna cum laude from HLS, where all the exams are read with the identity of the student removed. He got those marks on merit.

Just go ahead and say you think black people aren't capable of being head of the law review and he only got there because of affirmative action. It's what you really mean, right?

Update: I loved this, from Gail Collins,

Donald Trump immediately took credit. “Today I am very proud of myself,” he said. This is in contrast to normal days, when Trump is continually walking around in an existential funk, asking himself why he was ever born.

Beyond the Fringe

Via Paul Krugman, Beyond the Fringe: