Saturday, June 30, 2012
What conclusions is the world to come to about Islamists?
Breaking news yesterday:
Mali: Islamists destroy Timbuktu heritage sites
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Islamist fighters with ties to al-Qaida have destroyed tombs classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, a resident and U.N. officials said Saturday.
Here's the question:
There are Islamists and Muslims who strap bombs to themselves, time and again, repeatedly and all over the Middle East, at least, to blow up other, innocent citizens of their own nation, then there are things like this and we--the world--are not supposed to come to a conclusion that they're not psychotic?
It's tough, at least.
They don't do themselves any favors.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/mali-islamists-destroy-timbuktu-heritage-sites-163915427.html
Mali: Islamists destroy Timbuktu heritage sites
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Islamist fighters with ties to al-Qaida have destroyed tombs classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, a resident and U.N. officials said Saturday.
Here's the question:
There are Islamists and Muslims who strap bombs to themselves, time and again, repeatedly and all over the Middle East, at least, to blow up other, innocent citizens of their own nation, then there are things like this and we--the world--are not supposed to come to a conclusion that they're not psychotic?
It's tough, at least.
They don't do themselves any favors.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/mali-islamists-destroy-timbuktu-heritage-sites-163915427.html
Quote of the day
Friday, June 29, 2012
Benefits, Myths and Facts of "Obamacare"--from the Catholic Health Association
How the ACA Helps People Across America
The Affordable Care Act is already working for millions of children, families, young adults, seniors and small business owners.
o More than 2.5 million young adults (up to age 26) have obtained health insurance in the last year because of a provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ health plans.
o Insurance companies are already prohibited from rejecting a child for coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition; in 2014, the same will be true for adults.
o At least 2.5 million seniors have received help paying for medication when they fall into the Medicare “doughnut hole,” a gap in coverage of prescription drugs. The average per-person savings so far is $569 per year. In addition, half of Medicare seniors—24 million people—have received free preventive screenings and physicals.
o Many small businesses are receiving tax credits to provide affordable health insurance to employees.
o Thanks to the ACA, people no longer face life-time limits on health coverage or have their policy cancelled when they get sick.
The ACA helps protect and strengthen the middle class.
o For the first time in recent history, more than 15% of people in the U.S. live in poverty. For many low-income families, health care is often out of reach.
o With health care costs a major source of worry and financial strain for middle-class families, the ACA provides subsidies that help guarantee sustainable, affordable coverage—even when an employer does not offer it.
o ACA makes health care coverage more secure and predictable, especially during an economic downturn when millions of people have lost jobs.
The ACA protects human dignity.
o Health care is critical to human flourishing. The inability to obtain needed medical care—or take a sick child to the doctor—is an affront to human dignity. Enhancing Americans’ ability to get care is in our collective best interest.
o Our health care system is currently structured in a way that can build obstacles to achieving the American dream. The ACA helps by ensuring that health status, economic situation and insurance coverage are not impediments to success and prosperity.
The ACA will foster better care coordination and already helps prevent illnesses in the first place, leading to healthier people and U.S. communities.
o The law will test methods of paying for quality instead of quantity; facilitate the sharing of clinical best practices; and improve care coordination and broader, more effective use of information technology.
o Patients are already receiving preventive benefits (e.g., cancer and diabetes screenings) with no out-of-pocket cost. This helps to identify medical problems when they can be most effectively and least expensively treated.
o The law requires not-for-profit hospitals to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment and develop a plan to help address unmet needs.
The ACA takes major steps forward toward building a stronger, more equitable and more compassionate health care system.
o Our health care system is expensive, unfair and unsustainable. The ACA takes steps to expand coverage, improve access, lower cost and enhance quality.
o Fundamental to the U.S. value system is that our government exists to protect its citizens—including their health—and to enable equal opportunity. Public health and equal opportunity suffer greatly when huge numbers of people cannot afford to stay healthy or obtain care when they are sick.
o This law is not perfect, just as Medicare was not perfect at first but has been improved and fortified over the years and is now one of the most important—and popular—government programs. The same will be true of the ACA.
Most Americans support the provisions and goals of the ACA.
o Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they support subsidies to help low-and moderate-income people afford health insurance coverage and for seniors to afford prescription drugs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
o More than 80% of Americans favor the tax credits that help small businesses afford coverage for their workers; more than 70% support the policy preventing insurance companies from rejecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
o Continual misinformation about the law has led to inaccurate perceptions but the vast majority of Americans support the ACA’s policies when they learn about how they work.
The ACA creates job opportunities and helps train new caregivers.
o HHS has awarded nearly $1 billion to expand the primary care workforce and meet the health care needs of communities across the country.
o Thanks to these important investments in our nation’s health care workforce, there are nearly three times the number of National Health Service Corps clinicians working in communities across America than there were three years ago—increasing access to health care and supporting local jobs.
o The law makes significant, direct investments in medical research, information technology and public health, which will modernize medicine, improve quality and create new job opportunities in the health sector.
o The law allows people to change jobs or start a new business without losing their health coverage.
Both political parties have supported the essential provisions of ACA.
o Health insurance exchanges, which support private market competition, have been embraced by leaders in both parties.
o The law’s requirement that everyone have health insurance coverage dates back to the early 1990s, when several Republicans introduced legislation calling for a similar idea.
o High-risk pools that provide coverage for those with a pre-existing condition were favored by both parties during the reform debate.
MYTHS & FACTS
Myth: A government board is now making health care decisions for 300 million Americans.
Fact: Under ACA, the Independent Payment Advisory Board will closely monitor Medicare trends and make recommendations to Congress about how to slow growth in spending. The Board cannot cut benefits and it will never be involved in granting or denying care to anyone.
Myth: Most people who will benefit from health reform are unemployed.
Fact: Most uninsured people, roughly 80%, are in a family where at least one person works. For low-income families, the cost of insurance can be an obstacle, especially if the employer does not offer or subsidize the coverage.
Myth: The ACA harms Medicare.
Fact: The ACA improves Medicare by closing the ‘doughnut hole,’ a gap in prescription drug coverage and by adding preventive benefits not previously available. The law also extends the life of the Medicare trust fund by at least eight years.
Myth: Undocumented immigrants can receive benefits through ACA.
Fact: Undocumented immigrants cannot receive benefits from ACA including Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and they cannot participate in the state-based insurance marketplaces, or “exchanges.”
Myth: The ACA amounts to socialized medicine, or a government-run system.
Fact: There is no ‘public option,’ or government-run health plan under ACA, and most people who obtain new coverage under the law will get it from a private health insurance company, as they do now.
Myth: Most people want ACA to be repealed.
Fact: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation opinion polls, 52% of Americans want the ACA to stay in effect or be expanded. Among those who disapprove of the law, some don’t think it went far enough; others change their views when presented with factual information about what the law does and how it works.
Link: www.chausa.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID...
The Affordable Care Act is already working for millions of children, families, young adults, seniors and small business owners.
o More than 2.5 million young adults (up to age 26) have obtained health insurance in the last year because of a provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ health plans.
o Insurance companies are already prohibited from rejecting a child for coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition; in 2014, the same will be true for adults.
o At least 2.5 million seniors have received help paying for medication when they fall into the Medicare “doughnut hole,” a gap in coverage of prescription drugs. The average per-person savings so far is $569 per year. In addition, half of Medicare seniors—24 million people—have received free preventive screenings and physicals.
o Many small businesses are receiving tax credits to provide affordable health insurance to employees.
o Thanks to the ACA, people no longer face life-time limits on health coverage or have their policy cancelled when they get sick.
The ACA helps protect and strengthen the middle class.
o For the first time in recent history, more than 15% of people in the U.S. live in poverty. For many low-income families, health care is often out of reach.
o With health care costs a major source of worry and financial strain for middle-class families, the ACA provides subsidies that help guarantee sustainable, affordable coverage—even when an employer does not offer it.
o ACA makes health care coverage more secure and predictable, especially during an economic downturn when millions of people have lost jobs.
The ACA protects human dignity.
o Health care is critical to human flourishing. The inability to obtain needed medical care—or take a sick child to the doctor—is an affront to human dignity. Enhancing Americans’ ability to get care is in our collective best interest.
o Our health care system is currently structured in a way that can build obstacles to achieving the American dream. The ACA helps by ensuring that health status, economic situation and insurance coverage are not impediments to success and prosperity.
The ACA will foster better care coordination and already helps prevent illnesses in the first place, leading to healthier people and U.S. communities.
o The law will test methods of paying for quality instead of quantity; facilitate the sharing of clinical best practices; and improve care coordination and broader, more effective use of information technology.
o Patients are already receiving preventive benefits (e.g., cancer and diabetes screenings) with no out-of-pocket cost. This helps to identify medical problems when they can be most effectively and least expensively treated.
o The law requires not-for-profit hospitals to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment and develop a plan to help address unmet needs.
The ACA takes major steps forward toward building a stronger, more equitable and more compassionate health care system.
o Our health care system is expensive, unfair and unsustainable. The ACA takes steps to expand coverage, improve access, lower cost and enhance quality.
o Fundamental to the U.S. value system is that our government exists to protect its citizens—including their health—and to enable equal opportunity. Public health and equal opportunity suffer greatly when huge numbers of people cannot afford to stay healthy or obtain care when they are sick.
o This law is not perfect, just as Medicare was not perfect at first but has been improved and fortified over the years and is now one of the most important—and popular—government programs. The same will be true of the ACA.
Most Americans support the provisions and goals of the ACA.
o Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they support subsidies to help low-and moderate-income people afford health insurance coverage and for seniors to afford prescription drugs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
o More than 80% of Americans favor the tax credits that help small businesses afford coverage for their workers; more than 70% support the policy preventing insurance companies from rejecting coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
o Continual misinformation about the law has led to inaccurate perceptions but the vast majority of Americans support the ACA’s policies when they learn about how they work.
The ACA creates job opportunities and helps train new caregivers.
o HHS has awarded nearly $1 billion to expand the primary care workforce and meet the health care needs of communities across the country.
o Thanks to these important investments in our nation’s health care workforce, there are nearly three times the number of National Health Service Corps clinicians working in communities across America than there were three years ago—increasing access to health care and supporting local jobs.
o The law makes significant, direct investments in medical research, information technology and public health, which will modernize medicine, improve quality and create new job opportunities in the health sector.
o The law allows people to change jobs or start a new business without losing their health coverage.
Both political parties have supported the essential provisions of ACA.
o Health insurance exchanges, which support private market competition, have been embraced by leaders in both parties.
o The law’s requirement that everyone have health insurance coverage dates back to the early 1990s, when several Republicans introduced legislation calling for a similar idea.
o High-risk pools that provide coverage for those with a pre-existing condition were favored by both parties during the reform debate.
MYTHS & FACTS
Myth: A government board is now making health care decisions for 300 million Americans.
Fact: Under ACA, the Independent Payment Advisory Board will closely monitor Medicare trends and make recommendations to Congress about how to slow growth in spending. The Board cannot cut benefits and it will never be involved in granting or denying care to anyone.
Myth: Most people who will benefit from health reform are unemployed.
Fact: Most uninsured people, roughly 80%, are in a family where at least one person works. For low-income families, the cost of insurance can be an obstacle, especially if the employer does not offer or subsidize the coverage.
Myth: The ACA harms Medicare.
Fact: The ACA improves Medicare by closing the ‘doughnut hole,’ a gap in prescription drug coverage and by adding preventive benefits not previously available. The law also extends the life of the Medicare trust fund by at least eight years.
Myth: Undocumented immigrants can receive benefits through ACA.
Fact: Undocumented immigrants cannot receive benefits from ACA including Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and they cannot participate in the state-based insurance marketplaces, or “exchanges.”
Myth: The ACA amounts to socialized medicine, or a government-run system.
Fact: There is no ‘public option,’ or government-run health plan under ACA, and most people who obtain new coverage under the law will get it from a private health insurance company, as they do now.
Myth: Most people want ACA to be repealed.
Fact: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation opinion polls, 52% of Americans want the ACA to stay in effect or be expanded. Among those who disapprove of the law, some don’t think it went far enough; others change their views when presented with factual information about what the law does and how it works.
Link: www.chausa.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID...
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback vs. Kansans and the US Constitution
"In addition to throwing away a $31.5 million grant that would have helped Kansans, Brownback and his minions in the Legislature passed a law in 2011 that said Kansans do not have to pay any fines, etc. for not obeying the ACA (Affordable Care Act). That law is unconstitutional (remember the Supremacy Clause from high school civics class?) and will just cost the state money to defend it in court." --Curtis Barnhill, friend of a friend.
Missouri and Kansas Republicans won't act on the insurance exchanges so their constituents can possibly, hopefully access lower insurance rates for health care. They're protecting the insurance companies instead of the people. It's disgusting.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/curtis.barnhill.5?ref=ts
Missouri and Kansas Republicans won't act on the insurance exchanges so their constituents can possibly, hopefully access lower insurance rates for health care. They're protecting the insurance companies instead of the people. It's disgusting.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/curtis.barnhill.5?ref=ts
On health care reform in America
From the friend of a friend, written about the Affordable Care Act (otherwise referred to as "Obamacare"). This is from the father of a child with a medical condition:
"The health care thing is really getting to me. I feel like a worry has been lifted off my shoulders. Although we have good health insurance right now, for years we did not, and I have been carrying the worry around about what would happen with Jackson when he gets older. The ACA is not perfect, but it is much better than the old methods of rescission and denials for pre-existing conditions or not being able to get insurance at all. It saddens me that there are so many people who have an 'I got mine' attitude and oppose something as pro-family and simply humane as this."
This, ladies and gentlemen, shows, very simply, why we needed health care reform, this health care reform in the United States.
We needed this and actually even more.
But this will do--it has to--for now.
"The health care thing is really getting to me. I feel like a worry has been lifted off my shoulders. Although we have good health insurance right now, for years we did not, and I have been carrying the worry around about what would happen with Jackson when he gets older. The ACA is not perfect, but it is much better than the old methods of rescission and denials for pre-existing conditions or not being able to get insurance at all. It saddens me that there are so many people who have an 'I got mine' attitude and oppose something as pro-family and simply humane as this."
This, ladies and gentlemen, shows, very simply, why we needed health care reform, this health care reform in the United States.
We needed this and actually even more.
But this will do--it has to--for now.
Quote of the day
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” ―-John Lennon
Three notes on the SCOTUS ruling on our health care
First, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is right about this ruling on support for the Affordable Care Act. Today, he's quoted as saying: “Those who opposed any change in the law and dismissed the constitutionality of this measure were rejected by the actions of Congress and the opinion of the Chief Justice.” He went on to rightly point out that the Republicans need to stop getting in the way of this bill and the improvements for Americans that it is.
Naturally, he's right, period, but it's also an important point to make. It likely won't help, they're still going to fight this--and us--but it still needed to be said.
Second, our own Senator Roy Blunt's very-Republican response to the Supreme Court's ruling on this Affordable Care Act is silly, sad and frustrating because he attacks it like the rest of his political party yet they can't possibly can't truly come up with any real ways to fix the very broken American health care system.
Not only are Republicans blocks to progress in American society, they're tedious.
Third and finally, as this effects Missourians, our representatives in Jefferson City need to now get together, do their job and start setting up the insurance exchange for our state so people can get more competition from health insurance agencies and we can lower our costs.
To date, Republicans in Jefferson City have been dragging their feet, not wanting to creat these more competitive exchanges.
According to an article published today in Bloomberg News, the Missouri GOP is split on these exchanges (see link below).
Missouri and Kansas Republicans won't act on the insurance exchanges so their constituents can possibly, hopefully access lower insurance rates for health care. They're protecting the insurance companies instead of the people. It's disgusting.
If anyone, anyone, doesn't understand that we--Americans, Missourians, Kansans, all--need lower health insurance premiums and costs, I don't know what they would understand.
Let's do our best to get through to them, whaddya' say?
Links: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/06/28/155915124/health-care-law-upheld-now-what
http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=878b5d83-8e8a-4fde-b0d8-5fab1c9e4635
Naturally, he's right, period, but it's also an important point to make. It likely won't help, they're still going to fight this--and us--but it still needed to be said.
Second, our own Senator Roy Blunt's very-Republican response to the Supreme Court's ruling on this Affordable Care Act is silly, sad and frustrating because he attacks it like the rest of his political party yet they can't possibly can't truly come up with any real ways to fix the very broken American health care system.
Not only are Republicans blocks to progress in American society, they're tedious.
Third and finally, as this effects Missourians, our representatives in Jefferson City need to now get together, do their job and start setting up the insurance exchange for our state so people can get more competition from health insurance agencies and we can lower our costs.
To date, Republicans in Jefferson City have been dragging their feet, not wanting to creat these more competitive exchanges.
According to an article published today in Bloomberg News, the Missouri GOP is split on these exchanges (see link below).
Missouri and Kansas Republicans won't act on the insurance exchanges so their constituents can possibly, hopefully access lower insurance rates for health care. They're protecting the insurance companies instead of the people. It's disgusting.
If anyone, anyone, doesn't understand that we--Americans, Missourians, Kansans, all--need lower health insurance premiums and costs, I don't know what they would understand.
Let's do our best to get through to them, whaddya' say?
Links: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/06/28/155915124/health-care-law-upheld-now-what
http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=878b5d83-8e8a-4fde-b0d8-5fab1c9e4635
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Quote of the day
“The American people are angry. They are angry that the middle class is collapsing because of the Wall Street-caused recession... Meanwhile, the wealthy & the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well & now billionaires & their congressional friends want to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick & the poor.” --Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont)
And they'll get away with it unless we stand up and demand different and better.
And they'll get away with it unless we stand up and demand different and better.
Notes on driving around the city last evening
Three notes:
--First, it seems clear--very clear--that the state of Missouri got a whole lot of things done on I-435 and I-70 in order to spruce it up prior to Major League Basevall's All Star Game that's coming up shortly. It's wider, smoother, painted and nearly completely ready to go. Kudos to all involved.
--Second, I cannot begin to understand who thought up the new interchange at I-435 and Front Street.
Wow. Just wow.
A "roundabout" like they have in Europe and that we've imitated now, here in the States, has nothing on the zig-zag that this intersection has going on. When you're driving it, you're not quite sure where it's going and you're following all the signs you can, just to make sure you're in the right place.
--Finally, I can't be certain but I believe the least expensive gas in town right now is $3.29 per gallon at the Flying J truck stop at said same I-435 and Front Street exit.
Just good luck to you navigating that thing.
Yikes.
Now, keep cool out there today.
--First, it seems clear--very clear--that the state of Missouri got a whole lot of things done on I-435 and I-70 in order to spruce it up prior to Major League Basevall's All Star Game that's coming up shortly. It's wider, smoother, painted and nearly completely ready to go. Kudos to all involved.
--Second, I cannot begin to understand who thought up the new interchange at I-435 and Front Street.
Wow. Just wow.
A "roundabout" like they have in Europe and that we've imitated now, here in the States, has nothing on the zig-zag that this intersection has going on. When you're driving it, you're not quite sure where it's going and you're following all the signs you can, just to make sure you're in the right place.
--Finally, I can't be certain but I believe the least expensive gas in town right now is $3.29 per gallon at the Flying J truck stop at said same I-435 and Front Street exit.
Just good luck to you navigating that thing.
Yikes.
Now, keep cool out there today.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Entertainment overnight
When the movie opened and they panned in on lower Manhattan, I thought it really engaging. Here's the best copy of the intro I could find:
The song and soundtrack song for the movie "Working Girl" (1988) with Melanie Griffith, Joan Cusack, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin and even Kevin Spacey, for pity's sake.
Much as I love and enjoy it, it's now touched with more than a bit of sadness since it still shows the then-standing Twin Towers.
The song and soundtrack song for the movie "Working Girl" (1988) with Melanie Griffith, Joan Cusack, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin and even Kevin Spacey, for pity's sake.
Much as I love and enjoy it, it's now touched with more than a bit of sadness since it still shows the then-standing Twin Towers.
Two best introductions to New York via film intros
It occurred to me yesterday what the two best movie introductions are that are wonderful homages to New York City.
Here's the first--Mike Nichols' "Working Girl":
The second, though I show it second, is, likely, the best movie intro that is a paean and tribute to New York City, ever. Here, then, is Woody Allen's "Manhattan":
Aaaahhhhh....
Why?
Just because.
Here's the first--Mike Nichols' "Working Girl":
The second, though I show it second, is, likely, the best movie intro that is a paean and tribute to New York City, ever. Here, then, is Woody Allen's "Manhattan":
Aaaahhhhh....
Why?
Just because.
Kansas, people are laughing at you (again, some more)
Laughing at you, Kansas, or shaking their head in disbelief:
Kansas Board of Health Revokes License of Doctor for Not Forcing Ten-Year-Olds to Give Birth
In a continuing effort to both curb access to abortion and reiterate their own opinion that there is never any situation where abortion could be necessary for a patient's well-being, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has decided in favor of revoking Dr. Ann Neuhaus's medical license. Neuhaus, a colleague of Dr. George Tiller, assisted him by providing second opinions for mental health exceptions for late abortions.
According to the Associated Press, Neuhaus was hoping to have her full medical license restored after spending years only allowed to provide limited medical care for charity work. Instead, an ongoing investigation into 11 patient cases obtained by Operation Rescue became the center of a movement to have her license stripped all together.
The cases all involved girls who sought abortions due to mental health issues from depression to suicide, with an age range from 17 years old to as young as 10. The board alleged that Neuhaus's exams were not thorough enough based on the available records provided, and that her follow up care was inadequate, as she did not recommend counseling or hospitalization afterwards.
I found this link on Facebook so it's clear people are, in fact, laughing at you or incredulous, given your callousness and/or ignorance.
Kansas: One sad state.
Link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/10003-kansas-board-of-health-revokes-license-of-doctor-for-not-forcing-10-year-olds-to-give-birth
Kansas Board of Health Revokes License of Doctor for Not Forcing Ten-Year-Olds to Give Birth
In a continuing effort to both curb access to abortion and reiterate their own opinion that there is never any situation where abortion could be necessary for a patient's well-being, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has decided in favor of revoking Dr. Ann Neuhaus's medical license. Neuhaus, a colleague of Dr. George Tiller, assisted him by providing second opinions for mental health exceptions for late abortions.
According to the Associated Press, Neuhaus was hoping to have her full medical license restored after spending years only allowed to provide limited medical care for charity work. Instead, an ongoing investigation into 11 patient cases obtained by Operation Rescue became the center of a movement to have her license stripped all together.
The cases all involved girls who sought abortions due to mental health issues from depression to suicide, with an age range from 17 years old to as young as 10. The board alleged that Neuhaus's exams were not thorough enough based on the available records provided, and that her follow up care was inadequate, as she did not recommend counseling or hospitalization afterwards.
I found this link on Facebook so it's clear people are, in fact, laughing at you or incredulous, given your callousness and/or ignorance.
Kansas: One sad state.
Link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/10003-kansas-board-of-health-revokes-license-of-doctor-for-not-forcing-10-year-olds-to-give-birth
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Rest in peace Nora Ephron, 1941-2012
Having just read that writer, director, producer Nora Ephron passed today, I have to say, if you haven't seen her movie "Heartburn" (1986), you owe it to yourself to check it out.
I think it was a bit of a sleeper but quite good, like so much of her work.
It was an autobiographical look at the breakup of her marriage to Carl "All the President's Men" Bernstein. Based on her book, the best-selling novel. It is a wonderful, funny, insightful, pithy film.
Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nora-ephron-prolific-author-and-screenwriter-dies-at-age-71/2012/06/26/gJQAMOtN5V_story.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001188/
I think it was a bit of a sleeper but quite good, like so much of her work.
It was an autobiographical look at the breakup of her marriage to Carl "All the President's Men" Bernstein. Based on her book, the best-selling novel. It is a wonderful, funny, insightful, pithy film.
Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nora-ephron-prolific-author-and-screenwriter-dies-at-age-71/2012/06/26/gJQAMOtN5V_story.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001188/
Three movies I'm grateful--very--I don't need to see
First up, Mark Wahlberg in "Ted":
Second, "The Dark Night Rises":
And finally, this:
Stupid and/or pointlessness just doesn't appeal to me.
Just saying.
Second, "The Dark Night Rises":
And finally, this:
Stupid and/or pointlessness just doesn't appeal to me.
Just saying.
The American public is being bought and sold, no exaggeration
We're being sold you and I--the citizens of the US--by our representatives in Washington DC and our own state houses, to corporations and no doubt in lots and lots of different ways. This is just one of the latest:
Monsanto Crop Bans by Courts Would Be Reversed in Bill
"A House of Representatives committee voted to let farmers grow genetically modified crops developed by Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and its competitors during legal appeals of the approval process.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture would be required to permit modified crops to be planted and sold into the food supply after the agency’s approvals have been invalidated by a court, under a provision in the fiscal 2013 agriculture spending bill approved by the House Appropriations committee today."
So rather than protect the American people, the public, you and I, our representatives in Washington, in the House of Representatives, in this case, are, instead, protecting Monsanto because, you know, there's all that money Monsanto can give our representatives for their "campaigns."
Nice, huh?
The Justice Department, the courts, nearly protected us but then the House of Representatives jumped in so they could protect corporate Monsanto, instead.
How does it feel to be bought and sold, America?
When are we all going to get really mad and see to it we kill campaign contributions?
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-19/house-bill-would-override-court-bans-on-planting-monsanto-crops
Monsanto Crop Bans by Courts Would Be Reversed in Bill
"A House of Representatives committee voted to let farmers grow genetically modified crops developed by Monsanto Co. (MON) (MON) and its competitors during legal appeals of the approval process.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture would be required to permit modified crops to be planted and sold into the food supply after the agency’s approvals have been invalidated by a court, under a provision in the fiscal 2013 agriculture spending bill approved by the House Appropriations committee today."
So rather than protect the American people, the public, you and I, our representatives in Washington, in the House of Representatives, in this case, are, instead, protecting Monsanto because, you know, there's all that money Monsanto can give our representatives for their "campaigns."
Nice, huh?
The Justice Department, the courts, nearly protected us but then the House of Representatives jumped in so they could protect corporate Monsanto, instead.
How does it feel to be bought and sold, America?
When are we all going to get really mad and see to it we kill campaign contributions?
Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-19/house-bill-would-override-court-bans-on-planting-monsanto-crops
Missouri Senators: shills for corporations
Once again, our government voted against you and me--against the people--and voted, instead, to protect the corporations in the country.
The Senate just voted last week to keep you and I from knowing what's in our food.
Again.
Companies don't have to label genetically-modified foods (GMO's) to show that they're in what we eat. Basically, they're protecting the corporations--St. Louis' own Monsanto, among others, I'm sure--instead of protecting the people.
Forget that we otherwise are supposed to know what's in our foods.
Forget that all over Europe they don't even let GMO's into their food chain, let alone not label them.
This provision, added to the farm bill, "would permit states to 'require that any food, beverage, or other edible product offered for sale have a label on indicating that the food, beverage, or other edible product contains a genetically engineered ingredient.'"
What's particularly and especially galling about this is that our own Senators Roy Blunt (Republican) and Senator Clair McCaskill (Democrat) both voted to protect the corporations--Monsanto--instead of us.
It's not surprising--not surprising at all--since Senator Blunt regularly, typically and repeatedly votes to protect corporations and "Big Oil" and Monsanto instead of voting with and for the people--you and me.
As for Senator McCaskill, it's an election year and she no doubt needs and wants the Right Wing and corporate support and money.
It's disgusting.
It's this same Senator Roy Blunt who is, right now, also trying to get the Canadian company's Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline to cut through the good old US of A, from the Northern border all the way to Texas, just short of the Southern border, all so a Canadian company--Transcanada--can get their oil to world markets and make yet more money for themselves.
Forget that oil spills inevitably happen with these things. Forget that we'd have to then clean it up. Forget the environmental damage it would, without question, inflict, permanently.
Senator Blunt HAS to stand up for his corporations and get all that money in his pockets.
And Senator McCaskill has to fight to be re-elected.
Truly disgusting.
Links: http://www.americablog.com/2012/06/senate-votes-7326-to-deny-states-right.html
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/06/genetically-modified-america.html
The Senate just voted last week to keep you and I from knowing what's in our food.
Again.
Companies don't have to label genetically-modified foods (GMO's) to show that they're in what we eat. Basically, they're protecting the corporations--St. Louis' own Monsanto, among others, I'm sure--instead of protecting the people.
Forget that we otherwise are supposed to know what's in our foods.
Forget that all over Europe they don't even let GMO's into their food chain, let alone not label them.
This provision, added to the farm bill, "would permit states to 'require that any food, beverage, or other edible product offered for sale have a label on indicating that the food, beverage, or other edible product contains a genetically engineered ingredient.'"
What's particularly and especially galling about this is that our own Senators Roy Blunt (Republican) and Senator Clair McCaskill (Democrat) both voted to protect the corporations--Monsanto--instead of us.
It's not surprising--not surprising at all--since Senator Blunt regularly, typically and repeatedly votes to protect corporations and "Big Oil" and Monsanto instead of voting with and for the people--you and me.
As for Senator McCaskill, it's an election year and she no doubt needs and wants the Right Wing and corporate support and money.
It's disgusting.
It's this same Senator Roy Blunt who is, right now, also trying to get the Canadian company's Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline to cut through the good old US of A, from the Northern border all the way to Texas, just short of the Southern border, all so a Canadian company--Transcanada--can get their oil to world markets and make yet more money for themselves.
Forget that oil spills inevitably happen with these things. Forget that we'd have to then clean it up. Forget the environmental damage it would, without question, inflict, permanently.
Senator Blunt HAS to stand up for his corporations and get all that money in his pockets.
And Senator McCaskill has to fight to be re-elected.
Truly disgusting.
Links: http://www.americablog.com/2012/06/senate-votes-7326-to-deny-states-right.html
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/06/genetically-modified-america.html
Let's put into place the Robin Hood tax
To repeat, the Robin Hood Tax campaign is calling for a tax of less than one-half of 1% on Wall Street transactions that could generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
This tax on Wall Street could provide funding to kickstart the economy and get America back on its feet by creating jobs and strengthening public services like health care, education and infrastructure at home while tackling AIDS, global health, poverty and climate challenges around the world.
It's an idea whose time has long-since come.
Please support the Robin Hood Tax. Let your representatives in Washington, DC know you're for it.
This tax on Wall Street could provide funding to kickstart the economy and get America back on its feet by creating jobs and strengthening public services like health care, education and infrastructure at home while tackling AIDS, global health, poverty and climate challenges around the world.
It's an idea whose time has long-since come.
Please support the Robin Hood Tax. Let your representatives in Washington, DC know you're for it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Senator Roy Blunt!
I'm stunned.
I saw this, last evening:
Republican senator says time for compromise
(Reuters) - A top Republican lawmaker said Monday it was time for Washington to learn how to compromise again so the country can solve its deepening problems.
"I'm bothered by our politics generally that suggest that if you don't get exactly what you want, that's somehow a failure," said Senator Roy Blunt, a member of his chamber's Republican leadership and the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.
Blunt, who is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's liaison to the Senate, spoke at the Reuters Washington Summit, where political leaders are discussing the pressing issues currently confronting U.S. politicians.
Wow.
That is refreshing.
A Republican--our own Senator, no less--calling for true compromise in Washington.
You apparently can teach these old ones new tricks.
More seriously, thank you, Senator. Please keep this up, if you would and legislate for all of us and not the corporations, instead.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-washington-summit-blunt-idUSBRE85O18I20120625
I saw this, last evening:
Republican senator says time for compromise
(Reuters) - A top Republican lawmaker said Monday it was time for Washington to learn how to compromise again so the country can solve its deepening problems.
"I'm bothered by our politics generally that suggest that if you don't get exactly what you want, that's somehow a failure," said Senator Roy Blunt, a member of his chamber's Republican leadership and the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.
Blunt, who is Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's liaison to the Senate, spoke at the Reuters Washington Summit, where political leaders are discussing the pressing issues currently confronting U.S. politicians.
Wow.
That is refreshing.
A Republican--our own Senator, no less--calling for true compromise in Washington.
You apparently can teach these old ones new tricks.
More seriously, thank you, Senator. Please keep this up, if you would and legislate for all of us and not the corporations, instead.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-washington-summit-blunt-idUSBRE85O18I20120625
Monday, June 25, 2012
Thank goodness for the All Star Game
...because right now the Royals have the worst home game record in Major League Baseball.
Quote of the day, Monday edition
"It's hard to demand new jobs when it is apparent businesses are doing better than ever with fewer employees (who are receiving less and less pay)." --Tom Palmer, Facebook.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
What Americans don't know about their own economy
Bill Moyers, Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith discuss what the banks do and have done and why it's all so very criminal.
Things Americans aren't paying attention to and, it seems like, won't pay attention to, either.
Things Americans aren't paying attention to and, it seems like, won't pay attention to, either.
Quote of the day
"All people of all countries want peace, only their government wants war." --Former President and military General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
A second great court case outcome in the same day
First, we got news that Roman Catholic Monsignor Lynn was found guilty in trying to protect Catholic priests in the Philadelphia diocese in their child/student sex abuse case.
Now, we find Jerry Sandusky is found guilty in 45 of 48 charges of sexual abuse in the Penn State case.
It's a great day for justice in America.
And coincidentally, both from Pennsylvania. Go figure.
Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msgr-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/justice/pennsylvania-sandusky-trial/index.html
Now, we find Jerry Sandusky is found guilty in 45 of 48 charges of sexual abuse in the Penn State case.
It's a great day for justice in America.
And coincidentally, both from Pennsylvania. Go figure.
Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msgr-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/22/justice/pennsylvania-sandusky-trial/index.html
KC International: We're screwed
Well, that's it, folks.
We've all been sold down the river.
Regarding our beloved, well-designed, convenient Kansas City International Airport with its 3 terminals that is so easy to access, it's apparently over the masses' collective heads and that, combined with the expense for the airlines for security, means they're going to tear the whole thing down, throw it away like so much 8-1/2" x 11" paper and build a brand new, bright, shiny terminal nearby.
We lose.
We lost.
Forget convenience.
Forget the monumental waste of bulldozing and throwing away at least 3 large buildings which will then go into a dump--a "landfill"--we don't have any say on this.
The Kansas City Airport Authority has made up its mind, the business community agrees and now, even Barb Shelley, columnist for the Star sides with them.
We're getting a new airport, however much it was decided without our input.
Your opinion means nothing.
Only in America do we throw away whole buildings.
If they simply don't entertain us enough (see Ms. Shelley's column in The Star), they must be bulldozed and replaced. The problem is not us--it's the building.
We are the only people I know on the planet who does this, too.
Then we wonder why we don't have any history or enough great architecture but we do things like this.
So to Barb Shelley I say you and I usually agree on things civic, social and political but on this we don't agree. You're wrong.
But you win.
This stinks.
Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/21/3670104/delayed-conclusion-get-working.html
We've all been sold down the river.
Regarding our beloved, well-designed, convenient Kansas City International Airport with its 3 terminals that is so easy to access, it's apparently over the masses' collective heads and that, combined with the expense for the airlines for security, means they're going to tear the whole thing down, throw it away like so much 8-1/2" x 11" paper and build a brand new, bright, shiny terminal nearby.
We lose.
We lost.
Forget convenience.
Forget the monumental waste of bulldozing and throwing away at least 3 large buildings which will then go into a dump--a "landfill"--we don't have any say on this.
The Kansas City Airport Authority has made up its mind, the business community agrees and now, even Barb Shelley, columnist for the Star sides with them.
We're getting a new airport, however much it was decided without our input.
Your opinion means nothing.
Only in America do we throw away whole buildings.
If they simply don't entertain us enough (see Ms. Shelley's column in The Star), they must be bulldozed and replaced. The problem is not us--it's the building.
We are the only people I know on the planet who does this, too.
Then we wonder why we don't have any history or enough great architecture but we do things like this.
So to Barb Shelley I say you and I usually agree on things civic, social and political but on this we don't agree. You're wrong.
But you win.
This stinks.
Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/21/3670104/delayed-conclusion-get-working.html
I only have two questions
1) If the President says his administration did nothing illegal in the "fast and furious" weapons case down South, why won't they release the information?
2) If Julian Assange is innocent, as he says, of any sexual abuse of any kind in Europe, why doesn't he face the charges?
Links: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-denies-fast-furious-cover-obama-full-212027627.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9349556/Julian-Assange-WikiLeaks-founder-could-be-holed-up-in-Ecuadorian-embassy-for-years.html
2) If Julian Assange is innocent, as he says, of any sexual abuse of any kind in Europe, why doesn't he face the charges?
Links: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-denies-fast-furious-cover-obama-full-212027627.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9349556/Julian-Assange-WikiLeaks-founder-could-be-holed-up-in-Ecuadorian-embassy-for-years.html
Great news on the Catholic front!
Breaking news from The New York Times:
Archbishop’s Aide Guilty of Endangerment in Abuse Case
Here's why it's big news:
PHILADELPHIA – In the first criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official in the United States for covering up sexual abuses, Msgr. William J. Lynn was found guilty Friday of endangering children by allowing a known pedophile priest to continue ministering to youths, resulting in an assault on a 10-year-old boy.
The first time in the US that a criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official is upheld for covering up sexual abuse. As an aside, the current situation of former priest Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn is mentioned, too, briefly, at the end of the article, not surprisingly.
And I only "celebrate" it if, in fact, he was guilty, as it seems he was. I am not taking any pleasure in his guilt, to be clear. I am only glad justice is being served if an injustice was done.
I hope this isn't a case of having "thrown the 'little guy' under the bus", however.
Anyway, the thing is, as I have said here before several times and as SNAP repeats, too--we must stop child and student abuse--sexual, physical, emotional or otherwise--wherever it is and it has been prevalent in Catholic institutions for decades and centuries, across the world, unfortunately and sadly. It must stop.
What must stop, too, is the Catholic Church's attempts, repeatedly, to protect their male hierarchy and leaders, at the expense of their members and students and children. That's disgusting.
Now, hopefully this case will serve as a sort of precedent for Bishop Finn's case, here in our area.
If Bishop Finn is, in fact, guilty, as, I and so many of us think and believe the hard evidence shows, may he, too, be brought to justice.
Frankly, from the information on the case against both Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn, the case here in Kansas City seems far more clear-cut, simple and uncomplicated and possibly damning against both of them, than this case in Philadelphia.
Again, let me be clear, I say this not for anyone to extract any revenge or retribution but so the abuse of children or, in fact, anyone in the Catholic Church or any organization, stops. It must be clear that all of us--our society--does not allow this to happen in hopes that it will at least decrease, if not stop altogether and as soon as possible.
Here's hoping.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msg-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share
Archbishop’s Aide Guilty of Endangerment in Abuse Case
Here's why it's big news:
PHILADELPHIA – In the first criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official in the United States for covering up sexual abuses, Msgr. William J. Lynn was found guilty Friday of endangering children by allowing a known pedophile priest to continue ministering to youths, resulting in an assault on a 10-year-old boy.
The first time in the US that a criminal conviction of a Roman Catholic Church official is upheld for covering up sexual abuse. As an aside, the current situation of former priest Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn is mentioned, too, briefly, at the end of the article, not surprisingly.
And I only "celebrate" it if, in fact, he was guilty, as it seems he was. I am not taking any pleasure in his guilt, to be clear. I am only glad justice is being served if an injustice was done.
I hope this isn't a case of having "thrown the 'little guy' under the bus", however.
Anyway, the thing is, as I have said here before several times and as SNAP repeats, too--we must stop child and student abuse--sexual, physical, emotional or otherwise--wherever it is and it has been prevalent in Catholic institutions for decades and centuries, across the world, unfortunately and sadly. It must stop.
What must stop, too, is the Catholic Church's attempts, repeatedly, to protect their male hierarchy and leaders, at the expense of their members and students and children. That's disgusting.
Now, hopefully this case will serve as a sort of precedent for Bishop Finn's case, here in our area.
If Bishop Finn is, in fact, guilty, as, I and so many of us think and believe the hard evidence shows, may he, too, be brought to justice.
Frankly, from the information on the case against both Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Finn, the case here in Kansas City seems far more clear-cut, simple and uncomplicated and possibly damning against both of them, than this case in Philadelphia.
Again, let me be clear, I say this not for anyone to extract any revenge or retribution but so the abuse of children or, in fact, anyone in the Catholic Church or any organization, stops. It must be clear that all of us--our society--does not allow this to happen in hopes that it will at least decrease, if not stop altogether and as soon as possible.
Here's hoping.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us/philadelphias-msg-william-j-lynn-is-convicted-of-allowing-abuse.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share
On the whole "Win an iPad!" thing
If one more organization promises me that I "...could win an Apple iPad" if I simply take their survey, I'm going to choke somebody.
On Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue
I'll be happy--very happy--when the newness of Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue is over.
I'd like to get back to more people liking more than one barbecue joint in town.
This week, they're being covered yet again. This time by The Pitch Magazine. (link below).
I mean, come on, Joe's is good, sure, but this whole trendy, citywide zeitgeist that they're the best right now is far too lemming-like, for me, anyway.
As I've said here before, I hate trends and trendiness, period, but I especially dislike food trends. They're the worst.
Can we not think and act as individuals?
Are we not capable of that? Of independent thought?
Between its newness and the fact that Anthony Bourdain likes them and put them on his TV show ("No Reservations") and a local food blogger came out and said they were "best" on Mr. Bourdain's same show, it makes it "their time." And it's cool, too. I love the idea that it's in a gas station. So sure, I get all that. Fine.
I'll just be glad when all the new wears off and the hoopla is over.
The only thing is, it will all be replaced with some other new, "next" trend.
And it will start all over again.
In the meantime, you can find me at Arthur Bryant's.
Link: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/oklahoma-joes-jeff-stehney/Content?oid=2914103
I'd like to get back to more people liking more than one barbecue joint in town.
This week, they're being covered yet again. This time by The Pitch Magazine. (link below).
I mean, come on, Joe's is good, sure, but this whole trendy, citywide zeitgeist that they're the best right now is far too lemming-like, for me, anyway.
As I've said here before, I hate trends and trendiness, period, but I especially dislike food trends. They're the worst.
Can we not think and act as individuals?
Are we not capable of that? Of independent thought?
Between its newness and the fact that Anthony Bourdain likes them and put them on his TV show ("No Reservations") and a local food blogger came out and said they were "best" on Mr. Bourdain's same show, it makes it "their time." And it's cool, too. I love the idea that it's in a gas station. So sure, I get all that. Fine.
I'll just be glad when all the new wears off and the hoopla is over.
The only thing is, it will all be replaced with some other new, "next" trend.
And it will start all over again.
In the meantime, you can find me at Arthur Bryant's.
Link: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/oklahoma-joes-jeff-stehney/Content?oid=2914103
Entertainment overnight
Someone needs to tell everyone who puts these out that we want to see the dancers and choreography.
And not the audience.
This applies to the TV reality shows, too, of course.
Heads up, networks: we don't want or need to see the audiences, sitting there, watching.
And not the audience.
This applies to the TV reality shows, too, of course.
Heads up, networks: we don't want or need to see the audiences, sitting there, watching.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Remember this guy?
It seems Matt was born to wealthy parents or something as his life is now consumed with traveling the world for these videos.
The lucky duck.
The lucky duck.
Another reason America is fat
Pringles.
Yep.
No, not just the fact that we have them but, for one, the fact that we have this one more snack---among a long, long list of snacks--that we also happen to eat between our too-large, fat-laden meals.
Here's what I found last evening on these things.
Pringles at Wal-Mart--the regular ones--are $1.50 per can.
No big deal, right?
Far less expensive than regular potato chip bags, I have to point out.
But the low-fat Pringles?
They're a whopping $2.58 per can.
And get this.
The can is smaller, to boot.
I ask you, who's going to buy those?
Who's going to purchase the low-fat can of Pringles, in an effort to either lose weight or keep it off?
It just doesn't make sense.
Yep.
No, not just the fact that we have them but, for one, the fact that we have this one more snack---among a long, long list of snacks--that we also happen to eat between our too-large, fat-laden meals.
Here's what I found last evening on these things.
Pringles at Wal-Mart--the regular ones--are $1.50 per can.
No big deal, right?
Far less expensive than regular potato chip bags, I have to point out.
But the low-fat Pringles?
They're a whopping $2.58 per can.
And get this.
The can is smaller, to boot.
I ask you, who's going to buy those?
Who's going to purchase the low-fat can of Pringles, in an effort to either lose weight or keep it off?
It just doesn't make sense.
The world can no longer afford the "luxury" of war
Think about it.
There have been wars.
"And rumors of war" as the saying goes, down through time.
Virtually every nation and every race in the world had their war or wars.
All centuries, at one time or another.
Lots of decades.
Kings and leaders of the world could, would and did just send their soldiers into the world to fight one another.
But now, we've got pollution, far too many people, far too few resources, not enough food and an array of problems we must address, instead. Additionally, we have natural disasters of all types, all around the world. Last year there were huge fires across Russia and Texas, this year they were in Colorado and New Mexico, along with at least 4 other spots here in the States. There are repeated, recurring floods, of course. Right now, Duluth, Minnesota just got hit hard but places like India and Bangladesh have been drenched far worse and far more times, I believe.
And that's even if you do ignore climate change (or global warming), let alone if you include it.
With the numbers of people in the world, it surely must be included that we--humankind, humanity--can no longer afford the luxury, if I may call it that, that is or was war.
Far too many people are dying already.
Disease, starvation, malnutrition, lack of medical care, lack of water--there are any number of things that are taking far too many people in the world.
The fact is, this world and humanity can no longer afford to spend our financial savings on war and weapons of war.
The answers to people's problems are in front of us.
If only we'll put our resources there, to take care of one another.
We humans must be more important than business and businesses.
Right now, in too much of the world, we put businesses first and that is a recipe for extinction.
Some internationally-known leader of the world today needs to stand up and say as much, too.
And the sooner, the better.
The way too much of the world is living now is just not sustainable.
There have been wars.
"And rumors of war" as the saying goes, down through time.
Virtually every nation and every race in the world had their war or wars.
All centuries, at one time or another.
Lots of decades.
Kings and leaders of the world could, would and did just send their soldiers into the world to fight one another.
But now, we've got pollution, far too many people, far too few resources, not enough food and an array of problems we must address, instead. Additionally, we have natural disasters of all types, all around the world. Last year there were huge fires across Russia and Texas, this year they were in Colorado and New Mexico, along with at least 4 other spots here in the States. There are repeated, recurring floods, of course. Right now, Duluth, Minnesota just got hit hard but places like India and Bangladesh have been drenched far worse and far more times, I believe.
And that's even if you do ignore climate change (or global warming), let alone if you include it.
With the numbers of people in the world, it surely must be included that we--humankind, humanity--can no longer afford the luxury, if I may call it that, that is or was war.
Far too many people are dying already.
Disease, starvation, malnutrition, lack of medical care, lack of water--there are any number of things that are taking far too many people in the world.
The fact is, this world and humanity can no longer afford to spend our financial savings on war and weapons of war.
The answers to people's problems are in front of us.
If only we'll put our resources there, to take care of one another.
We humans must be more important than business and businesses.
Right now, in too much of the world, we put businesses first and that is a recipe for extinction.
Some internationally-known leader of the world today needs to stand up and say as much, too.
And the sooner, the better.
The way too much of the world is living now is just not sustainable.
The things you learn on T-shirts
It seems we can be so profound on t-shirts, can't we, as a society?
People want to be either funny or profound or both and there it is, right on the front of their collarless, short-sleeved, 100% cotton shirt.
I saw one the other day that I agree was true. It said, boldly:
"Success is a choice"
And I think they're correct, whoever "they" were (the one wearing it).
But the flip side of that?
I contend that failure is not always even remotely a choice. Not at all.
I also think that to assume that is to assume ugliness on those who didn't "make it", who didn't "succeed."
Things go wrong for people It happens all the time.
Wrong choices, wrong turns, wrong assumptions. You can never know.
It could be the right thing but at the wrong time and there you are--a failure.
This is what's wrong in giving too much credit to people who have "succeeded", first of all. It's dangerous to give too much credit to the successful, for fear of building up one huge ego.
The danger of assuming bad things about the failed is that it dooms them to moral ugliness and that's grossly unfair.
Finally, it's important that "success" is absolutely not defined as having lots of money and/or things, objects, property and properties.
We either know this or should--that success isn't just about money--but it all too frequently gets lost or forgotten, especially here in materialistic heaven America.
People want to be either funny or profound or both and there it is, right on the front of their collarless, short-sleeved, 100% cotton shirt.
I saw one the other day that I agree was true. It said, boldly:
"Success is a choice"
And I think they're correct, whoever "they" were (the one wearing it).
But the flip side of that?
I contend that failure is not always even remotely a choice. Not at all.
I also think that to assume that is to assume ugliness on those who didn't "make it", who didn't "succeed."
Things go wrong for people It happens all the time.
Wrong choices, wrong turns, wrong assumptions. You can never know.
It could be the right thing but at the wrong time and there you are--a failure.
This is what's wrong in giving too much credit to people who have "succeeded", first of all. It's dangerous to give too much credit to the successful, for fear of building up one huge ego.
The danger of assuming bad things about the failed is that it dooms them to moral ugliness and that's grossly unfair.
Finally, it's important that "success" is absolutely not defined as having lots of money and/or things, objects, property and properties.
We either know this or should--that success isn't just about money--but it all too frequently gets lost or forgotten, especially here in materialistic heaven America.
Entertainment overnight
In honor of the Summer Solstice:
"Here comes the sun, there goes the sun..."
"Here comes the sun, there goes the sun..."
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Quote of the day
"I spent 33 years & four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street & the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico... safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti & Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys... I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House.... I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests... I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies... In China... I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." --US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler. Author of "War Is A Racket." At the time of his death, the most-decorated Marine in US history.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
About this health care reform Republicans hate...
Facts:
"The Republicans have made the individual mandate the element most likely to undo the President’s health-care law. The irony is that the Democrats adopted it in the first place because they thought that it would help them secure conservative support. It had, after all, been at the heart of Republican health-care reforms for two decades.
The mandate made its political début in a 1989 Heritage Foundation brief titled “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” as a counterpoint to the single-payer system and the employer mandate, which were favored in Democratic circles. In the brief, Stuart Butler, the foundation’s health-care expert, argued, “Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seat-belts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.” The mandate made its first legislative appearance in 1993, in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act—the Republicans’ alternative to President Clinton’s health-reform bill—which was sponsored by John Chafee, of Rhode Island, and co-sponsored by eighteen Republicans, including Bob Dole, who was then the Senate Minority Leader.
Link to original story: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/25/120625fa_fact_klein#ixzz1yDVrKXKX
"The Republicans have made the individual mandate the element most likely to undo the President’s health-care law. The irony is that the Democrats adopted it in the first place because they thought that it would help them secure conservative support. It had, after all, been at the heart of Republican health-care reforms for two decades.
The mandate made its political début in a 1989 Heritage Foundation brief titled “Assuring Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” as a counterpoint to the single-payer system and the employer mandate, which were favored in Democratic circles. In the brief, Stuart Butler, the foundation’s health-care expert, argued, “Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seat-belts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.” The mandate made its first legislative appearance in 1993, in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act—the Republicans’ alternative to President Clinton’s health-reform bill—which was sponsored by John Chafee, of Rhode Island, and co-sponsored by eighteen Republicans, including Bob Dole, who was then the Senate Minority Leader.
Link to original story: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/06/25/120625fa_fact_klein#ixzz1yDVrKXKX
Monday, June 18, 2012
KCMO and KS not on "Cities with Worst Tap Water"
No, neither Kansas City is on this list but Omaha, Nebraska is--and comes in at number 7 (see link below).
What they had to say about it:
Forty-two chemicals were found, with 20 exceeding health guidelines and 4 exceeding health standards. This included agricultural pollutants like nitrate and nitrite, industrial pollutants like arsenic, water treatment and distribution byproducts and more.
Apparently, Smithville (MO) is too small a town to include on their research because if it were big enough, it would surely be there.
Oh, yeah.
Link: http://www.losethebackpain.com/blog/2012/06/08/worst-tap-water/
What they had to say about it:
Forty-two chemicals were found, with 20 exceeding health guidelines and 4 exceeding health standards. This included agricultural pollutants like nitrate and nitrite, industrial pollutants like arsenic, water treatment and distribution byproducts and more.
Apparently, Smithville (MO) is too small a town to include on their research because if it were big enough, it would surely be there.
Oh, yeah.
Link: http://www.losethebackpain.com/blog/2012/06/08/worst-tap-water/
June 15: Apparently the official start of the big "Gas Price Increase for Independence Day"
Did you notice that?
It was exactly, I believe, June 15 when gas prices jumped at least 10 cents per gallon.
Just in time for the Independence Day holiday.
I swear it happens annually.
The lowest price I was aware of was $3.19 per gallon (in Lee's Summit, with ethanol) and now it's $3.39/gallon.
It's disgusting.
There oughta' be a law.
(Said only half seriously).
But still, part serious, too.
It was exactly, I believe, June 15 when gas prices jumped at least 10 cents per gallon.
Just in time for the Independence Day holiday.
I swear it happens annually.
The lowest price I was aware of was $3.19 per gallon (in Lee's Summit, with ethanol) and now it's $3.39/gallon.
It's disgusting.
There oughta' be a law.
(Said only half seriously).
But still, part serious, too.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Cutting taxes? Again? More?
Fareed Zakaria just pointed out on his CNN news program GPS that the George W. Bush tax cuts during his administration, besides being for the wealthy, were the deepest cuts in the history of the nation and the growth during that period was the worst economic growth since the Great Depression.
To politicians--as he said--would you stop, stop pandering to the American public now, with the promises of yet more tax cuts? Could you, would you, please, be statesman/statespeople for the the nation's good, for the love of pete? We're desperate out here.
Please?
Link: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/
To politicians--as he said--would you stop, stop pandering to the American public now, with the promises of yet more tax cuts? Could you, would you, please, be statesman/statespeople for the the nation's good, for the love of pete? We're desperate out here.
Please?
Link: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/
Quote of the day
"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness." --Dalai Lama
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Most Americans have no clue this weekend figures big in their lives
I imagine if most Americans--coast to coast--were interviewed this weekend, they would have no idea an election is going on in Greece this weekend.
Asked, too, if they thought it could or would have much impact on them or their lives in any way, I'd think most would give a resounding "no."
Quite the opposite is true.
Greece is voting Sunday (imagine that--voting on a weekend) on their leaders. The outcome will likely be huge for Greece, of course, but for all of Europe and European Union... and even for the US.
One government would have them stick with austerity so they can get the money they need from Germany, Angela Merkel and the rest of the EU.
The other would have them do away with what they see as the crushing austerity, walk away from the money and likely walk away from the EU itself.
Let there be no mistake, this weekend is huge for what takes place internationally for the next several months, if not years.
The thing is, though, too, no one can really predict the outcome of the vote, for sure, but of whatever happens, either. No one can really say, with any real authority, what "best path" there is for Greece, let alone the EU and the world.
It's been said--by more than once source, too--that if this doesn't go well, it will make the 2008 financial collapse pale by comparison.
Once again, Margo Channing's quote from "All About Eve" becomes all too relevant:
"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/sunday-greece-elections-prove-lehman-brothers-moment-maybe-172918499.html
Asked, too, if they thought it could or would have much impact on them or their lives in any way, I'd think most would give a resounding "no."
Quite the opposite is true.
Greece is voting Sunday (imagine that--voting on a weekend) on their leaders. The outcome will likely be huge for Greece, of course, but for all of Europe and European Union... and even for the US.
One government would have them stick with austerity so they can get the money they need from Germany, Angela Merkel and the rest of the EU.
The other would have them do away with what they see as the crushing austerity, walk away from the money and likely walk away from the EU itself.
Let there be no mistake, this weekend is huge for what takes place internationally for the next several months, if not years.
The thing is, though, too, no one can really predict the outcome of the vote, for sure, but of whatever happens, either. No one can really say, with any real authority, what "best path" there is for Greece, let alone the EU and the world.
It's been said--by more than once source, too--that if this doesn't go well, it will make the 2008 financial collapse pale by comparison.
Once again, Margo Channing's quote from "All About Eve" becomes all too relevant:
"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!
Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/sunday-greece-elections-prove-lehman-brothers-moment-maybe-172918499.html
Poem for the day
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
--"Dreams", Langston Hughes
Friday, June 15, 2012
Note to KCI Airport Authority: WE DON'T WANT A DIFFERENT, NEW AIRPORT!!!
I'll say this until I'm blue in the face:
KANSAS CITIANS--AND PEOPLE FROM THIS REGION--DON'T WANT OR NEED A NEW, DIFFERENT, AIRPORT
The latest on our airport (from The Star):
New plan calls for different site for new terminal at KCI
How did this happen, anyway?
The people of Kansas City were never--never--asked if we wanted a new, different airport for any reason, yet the powers that be in town have already decided it's happening and taking place.
You know why this is happening, too, right?
The airlines are paying what they see as too much for airport security so they want a new, more traditional airport where we'll all go through the same security checkpoint.
That's the real issue here, folks, don't kid yourselves.
It isn't as they have claimed that the old building needs replacing and that it's too expensive to redo.
That's nonsense.
It's a bold-faced lie.
It's about the airlines and their costs, period.
We need to raise heck about this. We want our airport left alone.
Let's start now.
Write to your city councilman now and tell them---
WE DON' NEED NO STEENKENG NEW AIRPORT.
We don't want it.
Heck, the way this city has spent money, we likely can't even afford it.
Link to original post: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/14/3658322/a-different-site-for-new-airport.html
KANSAS CITIANS--AND PEOPLE FROM THIS REGION--DON'T WANT OR NEED A NEW, DIFFERENT, AIRPORT
The latest on our airport (from The Star):
New plan calls for different site for new terminal at KCI
How did this happen, anyway?
The people of Kansas City were never--never--asked if we wanted a new, different airport for any reason, yet the powers that be in town have already decided it's happening and taking place.
You know why this is happening, too, right?
The airlines are paying what they see as too much for airport security so they want a new, more traditional airport where we'll all go through the same security checkpoint.
That's the real issue here, folks, don't kid yourselves.
It isn't as they have claimed that the old building needs replacing and that it's too expensive to redo.
That's nonsense.
It's a bold-faced lie.
It's about the airlines and their costs, period.
We need to raise heck about this. We want our airport left alone.
Let's start now.
Write to your city councilman now and tell them---
WE DON' NEED NO STEENKENG NEW AIRPORT.
We don't want it.
Heck, the way this city has spent money, we likely can't even afford it.
Link to original post: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/14/3658322/a-different-site-for-new-airport.html
Know how to anger a Kansas Citian?
Drive the speed limit on I-435 on the South part of the city.
Or maybe just drive the speed limit.
The chutzpah of the Catholic hierarchy
The further these situations go on for and with the Catholic Church, the more stunningly stupid they seem to be.
Did you see this, latest one? It's a beauty:
Catholic Church Lobbies Against Allowing More Sex Abuse Suits
"Reports this week that decades-old sexual abuse allegations at the Horace Mann School probably can't be prosecuted because of New York's statute of limitations raised new questions about why the state only gives victims up to five years after their 18th birthday to report childhood abuse. While lawmakers in Albany have tried many times to relax laws on filing abuse complaints, the Roman Catholic Church has been quietly fighting efforts to change the statute of limitations in New York and throughout the country. They say it's a matter of principle, but it could also have something to do with the ensuing lawsuits potentially costing the church billions.
More than 30 states have already managed to ease laws on reporting child abuse, but the New York Times reports today that religious officials are pushing against similar efforts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The church has even hired lobbying and public relations firms to help their cause in New York and Colorado. In the latter, parishes have actually handed out postcards to parishioners and asked them to contact their representatives on the church's behalf.
The church argues that the statutes of limitations exist to prevent unfair cases in which many of the witnesses are dead and evidence is hard to come by. Religious leaders are pushing hardest against "window" laws, in which victims are given a year or two to file suits no matter how long ago the alleged crime occurred. It's likely they're afraid of a repeat of what happened when California passed such a law in 2003. In just one year, 550 sexual abuse lawsuits were filed."
It's just shameful.
Once again, here's a case of the Catholic Church hierarchy--men--trying their best to protect that same hierarchy instead of putting the children and their protection and best interests--their safety--first.
It's just disgusting.
Once again, I call on Catholics, for what it's worth, to stand up against this effort by their church to protect the leaders instead of the students and children.
Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/church-lobbies-against-allowing-more-abuse-suits.html?mid=382834&rid=422702124
I'm so old...
"Ooh, ooh! Francis! I smell donuts! Let's frisk him!"
I know what this show was, I know who these people are (were) and I know how this would have sounded, coming from the actor.
THAT old.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Congratulations, Kansas City!!
You're not on the FBI's "Most Dangerous Cities in America." (But St. Louis, is. See links, below).
So... what, if anything, do these "top ten" cities have in common?
Anything?
Bueller?
(Side note: We have also, it's been decided and declared, been listed as the nation's 20th "Most Manly City." Wth? See link below for this, too).
Links: http://realestate.yahoo.com/news/most-dangerous-cities-in-america.html
http://247wallst.com/2012/06/11/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-america-2/
http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2012/06/13/kansas-city-is-americas-20th-manliest-city
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oklahoma-city-claims-title-of-americas-manliest-city-158474215.html
So... what, if anything, do these "top ten" cities have in common?
Anything?
Bueller?
(Side note: We have also, it's been decided and declared, been listed as the nation's 20th "Most Manly City." Wth? See link below for this, too).
Links: http://realestate.yahoo.com/news/most-dangerous-cities-in-america.html
http://247wallst.com/2012/06/11/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-america-2/
http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2012/06/13/kansas-city-is-americas-20th-manliest-city
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oklahoma-city-claims-title-of-americas-manliest-city-158474215.html
An ugly tidalwave, hopefully not headed here
But I--a lot of us, actually--fear otherwise.
Headlines from the news in the last 24 hours:
Times-Picayune cutting half of newsroom staff (New Orleans)
Advance cuts 400 employees statewide, more than 100 from Birmingham News
Not only is this not good for the newspaper staff, of course, but it's not good for these cities and it's absolutely not good for the citizens.
The shape of things to come, I fear.
Here's hoping people all over the world will continue to read what our government representatives, our government and the corporations and wealthy of the world are doing to us so we know what to do to fight for the working man and woman of the world.
This isn't headed in a good direction, that's for sure.
It's as writer/author/historian David McCollough said, "An Uninformed Citizenry Will Be Fatal to Democracy."
Links: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505244_162-57451699/times-picayune-cutting-half-of-newsroom-staff/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/87519--3-alabama-newspapers-cutting-about-400-jobs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576395730493447372.html
Headlines from the news in the last 24 hours:
Times-Picayune cutting half of newsroom staff (New Orleans)
Advance cuts 400 employees statewide, more than 100 from Birmingham News
Not only is this not good for the newspaper staff, of course, but it's not good for these cities and it's absolutely not good for the citizens.
The shape of things to come, I fear.
Here's hoping people all over the world will continue to read what our government representatives, our government and the corporations and wealthy of the world are doing to us so we know what to do to fight for the working man and woman of the world.
This isn't headed in a good direction, that's for sure.
It's as writer/author/historian David McCollough said, "An Uninformed Citizenry Will Be Fatal to Democracy."
Links: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505244_162-57451699/times-picayune-cutting-half-of-newsroom-staff/
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/87519--3-alabama-newspapers-cutting-about-400-jobs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576395730493447372.html
Quote of the day
A sad state of affairs, I think.
What have we become?
Let's change it.
For the better.
Starting today.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Entertainment overnight
This is a case where I think a good song, overall, is obscured by a really lame video.
But that's my opinion.
But that's my opinion.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Mitt Romney, Candidate for President of Caucasiastan
No surprise. Jon Stewart hits it out of the ballpark yet again.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Our presidential contenders
The guy in the White House now gets negative marks for appointing people as he said he wouldn't but good marks for transparency in his funding sources.
The other guy--Mittens--doesn't tell where his money is coming from.
Nice, huh?
Makes you want to go vote, doesn't it?
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/obama-isn-t-telling-us-101948668.html
The other guy--Mittens--doesn't tell where his money is coming from.
Nice, huh?
Makes you want to go vote, doesn't it?
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/obama-isn-t-telling-us-101948668.html
Sociological work that needs to be done
There seems to me to be a great deal of people in the nation--whites, mostly, if not exclusively--who have come to the conclusion that black Americans are violent, culturally, rather intrinsically, and that there is really nothing anyone can do about it.
I see and read it all the time.
Sure, it's by people who aren't sociologists or doctors or professionals in any way but it's not only a deeply held belief but it's a widespread one, too.
I see it online, written in comments sections, I see it over in the comments on Tony's Kansas City blog, I see it on Facebook. It seems to be a fairly ubiquitous opionion.
And every time some new article or news story comes out about black on black crime, the opinion gets made stronger.
This is only the latest such article:
Two former Auburn players killed, one player injured in shooting
"The Auburn community is mourning after former Auburn football players Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips were shot and killed during an off-campus party Saturday night. Offensive lineman Eric Mack also was injured in the shooting, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening. A third person, who was not a football player, also died in the shooting."
The people with these opinions point to cities like Detroit, St. Louis, now Chicago and--yes--Kansas City, sadly.
So I think it's important that someone, somewhere do some in-depth research on this topic so we can put this idea and assumption to rest. And the sooner, the better.
Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/two-former-auburn-players-killed-one-player-injured-211745842--ncaaf.html
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12166475-chicagos-bloody-weekend-8-dead-40-plus-wounded?lite?ocid=twitter
I see and read it all the time.
Sure, it's by people who aren't sociologists or doctors or professionals in any way but it's not only a deeply held belief but it's a widespread one, too.
I see it online, written in comments sections, I see it over in the comments on Tony's Kansas City blog, I see it on Facebook. It seems to be a fairly ubiquitous opionion.
And every time some new article or news story comes out about black on black crime, the opinion gets made stronger.
This is only the latest such article:
Two former Auburn players killed, one player injured in shooting
"The Auburn community is mourning after former Auburn football players Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips were shot and killed during an off-campus party Saturday night. Offensive lineman Eric Mack also was injured in the shooting, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening. A third person, who was not a football player, also died in the shooting."
The people with these opinions point to cities like Detroit, St. Louis, now Chicago and--yes--Kansas City, sadly.
So I think it's important that someone, somewhere do some in-depth research on this topic so we can put this idea and assumption to rest. And the sooner, the better.
Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/two-former-auburn-players-killed-one-player-injured-211745842--ncaaf.html
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12166475-chicagos-bloody-weekend-8-dead-40-plus-wounded?lite?ocid=twitter
Missouri State Legislature doesn't want you to have lower health insurance costs
Here we go again.
Yet another example of legislators--this time in Jefferson City--wasting their time and our money on issues they shouldn't be. There are all kinds of things they should be working on--like fixing I-70 all across the state, as I've said before but what do they work on instead? Blocking health care reform:
Coming To A Missouri Ballot This Fall: Another Health Care Referendum
"This fall, voters in Missouri will face a number of decisions: picking state and congressional representatives, the President. But also on the ballot will be a measure that like two years ago, has to do with the federal health law.
It follows months of political tension over a key component.
The federal health law envisions that by 2014, each state will have an online marketplace where individuals and small businesses can buy health insurance plans – plans that meet certain criteria and are more easily comparable. These marketplaces are also known as health insurance exchanges, and they can be run by either the state or the federal government. As it stands, an exchange does not exist in Missouri. Yet. And if it’s up to Missouri’s House majority leader Tim Jones, never will."
Sure, our health care system is broken--badly broken, at that. More than 50 million Americans have no health insurance coverage, we have the most expensive health care system in the world yet we are ranked 37th, at least, internationally in mortality rates (meaning you're more likely to die sooner, here in the US than 36 other nations) but the wise guys in Jefferson City want to block health care reform.
What gets me about this move, described here, is that what they're in effect doing is blocking lower health insurance premiums for you and me.
Yes, that's right.
This, in effect, protects health insurance companies from any further competition which should lower insurance rates.
Isn't that lovely?
Under the auspices of protecting Misourians from this President and his health care reform, they are, instead, protecting the very-wealthy-thank-you-very-much insurance companies.
And we're letting this happen.
We just don't seem to be that bright, do we?
Link: http://kcur.org/post/coming-missouri-ballot-fall-another-health-care-referendum
Yet another example of legislators--this time in Jefferson City--wasting their time and our money on issues they shouldn't be. There are all kinds of things they should be working on--like fixing I-70 all across the state, as I've said before but what do they work on instead? Blocking health care reform:
Coming To A Missouri Ballot This Fall: Another Health Care Referendum
"This fall, voters in Missouri will face a number of decisions: picking state and congressional representatives, the President. But also on the ballot will be a measure that like two years ago, has to do with the federal health law.
It follows months of political tension over a key component.
The federal health law envisions that by 2014, each state will have an online marketplace where individuals and small businesses can buy health insurance plans – plans that meet certain criteria and are more easily comparable. These marketplaces are also known as health insurance exchanges, and they can be run by either the state or the federal government. As it stands, an exchange does not exist in Missouri. Yet. And if it’s up to Missouri’s House majority leader Tim Jones, never will."
Sure, our health care system is broken--badly broken, at that. More than 50 million Americans have no health insurance coverage, we have the most expensive health care system in the world yet we are ranked 37th, at least, internationally in mortality rates (meaning you're more likely to die sooner, here in the US than 36 other nations) but the wise guys in Jefferson City want to block health care reform.
What gets me about this move, described here, is that what they're in effect doing is blocking lower health insurance premiums for you and me.
Yes, that's right.
This, in effect, protects health insurance companies from any further competition which should lower insurance rates.
Isn't that lovely?
Under the auspices of protecting Misourians from this President and his health care reform, they are, instead, protecting the very-wealthy-thank-you-very-much insurance companies.
And we're letting this happen.
We just don't seem to be that bright, do we?
Link: http://kcur.org/post/coming-missouri-ballot-fall-another-health-care-referendum
One more stereotype, shot to heck
Here's your "lazy Mexicans", according to reasearch from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD):
Quoting: "Mexicans...top international studies by working nearly 10 hours a day on the job and in the home."
So much for that stereotype, huh?
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/who-knew/work-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html#crsl=%252Fwho-knew%252Fwork-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html
Quoting: "Mexicans...top international studies by working nearly 10 hours a day on the job and in the home."
So much for that stereotype, huh?
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/who-knew/work-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html#crsl=%252Fwho-knew%252Fwork-hours-which-nation-spends-the-least-amount-of-time-on-the-job-29600877.html
Republicans and Libertarians: You really want to do away with the EPA?
For any Republican or Libertarian or anyone else in America who think it is or would be a great idea to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency--the EPA--or who think there's too much "red tape" from the EPA, I just have to ask if they want us to be like China.
The above situation, announced today and going on now in China, is just one more example of what a nation and an economy is like and would be like if we don't have protections from corporations, especially, so we have and keep cleaner water, air and soil.
A little from the article (link at bottom):
"Young and old residents of the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan were advised to stay indoors on Monday after a thick haze blanketed the city of nine million people, official media said.
Described by residents as opaque with yellowish and greenish tinges, the fug descended suddenly in the morning, prompting people to rush to put on face masks, witnesses told AFP."
"The official Xinhua news agency quoted the environmental protection department of Hubei province saying in a statement: "Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory diseases are advised to stay indoors."
Xinhua said straw burning was the cause and denied there had been any industrial accidents in or near Wuhan, after Internet rumours suggested there had been an explosion at a chemical complex northeast of the city."
In this case, the Chinese not only have this huge problem with their air quality, they don't even know what it is or what it's from.
And that's the kind of world we want to live in?
No, no thank you, very much. I'd like to keep an effective EPA, thank you.
It reminds me of the Native American quote: "When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money."
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-wuhan-city-covered-mysterious-haze-145340073.html
KC Royals in the news: for monumental screw-ups Saturday night
The good news?
The Royals are in the news.
The bad news?
It's for monumentally screwing up a play--in two different ways (from Yahoo! Sports):
Mike Moustakas misses first base, settles for very long, very strange single
On Friday, Oakland A's outfielder Seth Smith turned in a defensive gem that could receive consideration for Play of the Year in Major League Baseball.
On Saturday night, the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates were involved in what very well could be the exact opposite of the Play of the Year. And no, this has nothing to do with the insensitive gesture made by Humberto Quintero in the dugout during Bruce Chen's interview. Though that certainly qualifies as the poorest use of judgment we've seen recently.
This actually took place on the field, where Kansas City's Mike Moustakas and Pittsburgh's All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen teamed up to botch a routine base hit in every possible way.
Royals?
It's "Our time"?
Our time for what, exactly?
At least, bad as that was, it wasn't as out-and-out stupid as this:
Nice move, there, Rocket Scientist.
Links: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/mike-moustakas-misses-first-settles-very-long-very-165707854--mlb.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/bruce-chen-interview-interrupted-teammate-humberto-quintero-making-153142438--mlb.html
The Royals are in the news.
The bad news?
It's for monumentally screwing up a play--in two different ways (from Yahoo! Sports):
Mike Moustakas misses first base, settles for very long, very strange single
On Friday, Oakland A's outfielder Seth Smith turned in a defensive gem that could receive consideration for Play of the Year in Major League Baseball.
On Saturday night, the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates were involved in what very well could be the exact opposite of the Play of the Year. And no, this has nothing to do with the insensitive gesture made by Humberto Quintero in the dugout during Bruce Chen's interview. Though that certainly qualifies as the poorest use of judgment we've seen recently.
This actually took place on the field, where Kansas City's Mike Moustakas and Pittsburgh's All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen teamed up to botch a routine base hit in every possible way.
Royals?
It's "Our time"?
Our time for what, exactly?
At least, bad as that was, it wasn't as out-and-out stupid as this:
Nice move, there, Rocket Scientist.
Links: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/mike-moustakas-misses-first-settles-very-long-very-165707854--mlb.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/bruce-chen-interview-interrupted-teammate-humberto-quintero-making-153142438--mlb.html
Think about it
An adult male in San Francisco, of all places, who dresses up like an elderly nanny, so he can be close to his kids?
An education on America today
Renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz says
--America is no longer the land of opportunity
--our American inequality is worse than you think and
--the "American Dream" is a myth
It's not a pretty picture.
Links: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/american-dream-myth-joseph-stiglitz-price-inequality-124338674.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/u-economy-rx-fix-unemployment-healthcare-first-says-160409951.html
http://www.amazon.com/The-Price-Inequality-Endangers-ebook/dp/B007MKCQ30
--America is no longer the land of opportunity
--our American inequality is worse than you think and
--the "American Dream" is a myth
It's not a pretty picture.
Links: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/american-dream-myth-joseph-stiglitz-price-inequality-124338674.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/u-economy-rx-fix-unemployment-healthcare-first-says-160409951.html
http://www.amazon.com/The-Price-Inequality-Endangers-ebook/dp/B007MKCQ30
Kansans being played for chumps by Topeka
What other conclusion can you come to but that you're being played for a chump when your state legislators in Topeka are blowing more than one-half billion dollars on unnecessary legal maneuvers that mix church and state?:
Kansas AG pays $644K to defend state abortion laws
TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Kansas attorney general's office paid outside lawyers more than $644,000 to defend anti-abortion laws enacted last year.
The office says it paid more than $328,000 as of Friday to Foulston Siefken, a Wichita firm helping defend a budget provision denying federal dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has filed a federal lawsuit against the measure.
Forget that abortion is legal in the United states and has been since 1973.
Forget that no one--no one--even thinks about, let alone goes through an abortion procedure without a great deal of thought and emotional upset.
Forget that there are plenty--too many--laws on the books in Kansas on abortions, abortion rights (or the lack of them) and abortion procedures.
Forget, finally, that the state of Kansas doesn't have a big budget, period, for most any services and that they need to make whatever funds they have go as far as possible.
Forget all that.
Just keep focusing on one single issue that you can mix your Christian faith with government on and blow $644 million on totally unnecessary legal machinations in the courts.
Brilliant.
Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/11/3652327/kansas-ag-pays-644k-to-defend.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy
Kansas AG pays $644K to defend state abortion laws
TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Kansas attorney general's office paid outside lawyers more than $644,000 to defend anti-abortion laws enacted last year.
The office says it paid more than $328,000 as of Friday to Foulston Siefken, a Wichita firm helping defend a budget provision denying federal dollars for non-abortion services to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has filed a federal lawsuit against the measure.
Forget that abortion is legal in the United states and has been since 1973.
Forget that no one--no one--even thinks about, let alone goes through an abortion procedure without a great deal of thought and emotional upset.
Forget that there are plenty--too many--laws on the books in Kansas on abortions, abortion rights (or the lack of them) and abortion procedures.
Forget, finally, that the state of Kansas doesn't have a big budget, period, for most any services and that they need to make whatever funds they have go as far as possible.
Forget all that.
Just keep focusing on one single issue that you can mix your Christian faith with government on and blow $644 million on totally unnecessary legal machinations in the courts.
Brilliant.
Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/11/3652327/kansas-ag-pays-644k-to-defend.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy
Quote of the day
"These times are so uncertain
There’s a yearning undefined
And the people filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?"
--Don Henley, The Eagles, "The Heart of the Matter"
There’s a yearning undefined
And the people filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?"
--Don Henley, The Eagles, "The Heart of the Matter"
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Quote of the day
“Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.” -- John Wesley (1703-1791)
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Quote of the day
"Only a crisis—actual or perceived––produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. . . . Our basic function is to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable." --Milton Friedman, 1962
To Gov. Nixon and Sen. Blunt: Here's your Keystonoe XL Pipeline across Missouri
As I said in the title above, this note is to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Roy Blunt, to show them exactly why we Missourians and a lot of Americans, nationwide, don't want Canada's Keystone XL pipeline running across our state and nation.
See the above? It's yet another oil spill up in Canada. This one, this time, is in Alberta.
That is what we would have to look forward to, inevitably, with this TransCanada pipeline. Sure, we'd get--we are told--one billion dollars in our Treasury and some short-term contruction jobs out of it, sure we would.
But is it worth oil spills?
A lot of us out here submit that it absolutely is not worth it.
For a precautionary tale of what this pipeline in Missouri would be like, read just this little bit of this article from Canada yesterday:
Cleanup of latest Alberta oil spill could take all summer
Gord Johnston’s tranquil life along the Red Deer River in central Alberta was shattered Thursday night as the nauseating scent of crude oil hung in the air and a coffee-coloured liquid lapped the banks near his home.
He reported the oil leak and, within two hours, a helicopter dispatched by a local oil company landed on his 57-acre property near Sundre, Alta., to fly him over the devastating scene. Mr. Johnston, who works in the oil patch, could see oil “boiling up” in the river at the site of a pipeline crossing. By Friday morning, the situation had worsened. Oil clotted one of the province’s most crucial waterways and soaked nearby wetlands. He found a dead fish coated with oil and brought a tar-covered baby beaver to a wildlife refuge.
“My place is destroyed,” Mr. Johnston said, as he prepared to abandon his home and later head for a hospital to be treated for exposure to the fumes. “My whole life’s work is gone. I’ve pretty well lost it all here.”
For anyone still for this pipeline crossing Missouri, is this what you want? Is this what any of us want to see happen here?
I think it's obvious the answer is no.
Realize, too, that, once the pipeline is in place, it is intended to remain indefinitely, if not permanently, of course, so spills are virtually guaranteed. We can count on it.
So don't do it, Governor Nixon and Senator Blunt. Don't support this fiasco. Withdraw your support for the Transcanada Keystone XL pipeline. We don't want it here.
Let it "trans" somewhere else.
Like Canada, for instance.
Link to original post: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-hit-with-another-oil-spill/article4241238/
Friday, June 8, 2012
Senator McCaskill reportedly undecided on extension of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy)
This is disheartening.
I just saw this link on Facebook from the Think Progress site:
"Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D), both of whom are facing re-election fights this fall, refused to take a position on ending the cuts when asked Thursday, The Hill reports:
'If you want to do something in the spirit of compromise, you don’t start out by saying, ‘I refuse to do this’ or ‘I refuse to do that,’ ” said McCaskill. “\'It’s not my preference to extend tax cuts to multimillionaires — that’s not my preference — but I want to keep every option open in the spirit of compromise.'”
Compromise my ear.
She has to take this namby-pamby position becaus it's an election year and so many Missourians have gone Right Wing daffy.
The Right Wingers, Republicans and Tea Party members don't focus on compromise, now do they? Hell no they don't. They haven't in years. Every time Speaker of the House John Boehner wants to compromise, they slap him down.
Here we have deficits out the wazoo, the wealthy are just that, wealthy and we'd be asking them to take about a 4% tax increase, in order to bridge the gap. It would also be to help keep America strong, let's be clear. And the fact is, these tax cuts nearly exclusively for the wealthy should never have been passed in the first place. They're obscene. They're immoral. It puts much more of the welfare of the nation on the backs of the middle and lower classes who are just scraping by.
Then we have Democrats who can't stand up and say and do the right thing, what's best and right for the country, in at least two or three or more different ways.
This is disgusting.
We need statesmen (statespersons, I guess) in this nation and all we have, instead, is weak-spined people who have to shill the wealthy and corporations for "campaign contributions" so they can get elected and re-elected.
Pitiful.
Don't get me wrong, either. It's important--crucial, in fact--that Claire McCaskill be returned to the Senate so we don't get some other, additional wack-job Republican or, worse, Tea Party member in there. I just wish she could and would show some spine on this and all issues. I also wish my fellow, middle- and lower-class Missourians would vote in their own best, self-interests, too, and not for the Republican Party.
I wish Senator McCaskill--and all government representatives, of course--would remember and act on former President Harry Truman's words: "I shall continue to do what I think is right, whether anybody likes it or not."
We need more statespersons in our government.
And less campaign contributions. But that's another matter.
Here's hoping the right thing happens come November.
Side note to Sen. McCaskill: Do the right thing, Senator, and next time I'll use a far more flattering picture of you to go with the story. Just saying.
Link: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/08/496546/democrats-refuse-bush-tax-cuts/
The world's oceans: humankind's largest waste dump
A new docuemtary is coming out, telling of what we humans are doing to the oceans, the planet and ultimately, ourselves, by dumping as we do, into the oceans or the world. It seems at once, fascinating but scary and rather stupid, all, on our part.
Link: www.plasticparadisemovie.com
Link: www.plasticparadisemovie.com
Annual OP Greek Festival starts today at 5 pm!
Friday, June 8th - 5:00pm to 10:00pm
Saturday, June 9th - 11:00am to 10:00pm
Sunday, June 10th - 11:00am to 8:00pm
DANCE PERFORMANCES:
Friday 6:00pm, 8:00pm
Saturday 11:30am, 2:00pm, 4:30pm, 6:30pm, 8:00pm
Sunday 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 5:30pm
For more information, check out their festival website at http://www.stdionysios.org/festival/index.php
Opa!
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Quote of the day
"Let us know peace. For as long as the moon shall rise, For as long as the rivers shall flow, For as long as the sun will shine, For as long as the grass shall grow, Let us know peace." ~Cheyenne
Breaking news: Kansas' Bramlage family killed in plane crash
From Yahoo! News and the Associated Press (AP) just now:
Kansas family killed in plane crash in Floride swamp
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas businessman, his wife and their four children were killed Thursday when their small plane crashed into a swampy area of central Florida, and word quickly spread to their hometown where the family was known for their charitable work and always having a house full of neighborhood kids.
The single-turboprop, fixed-wing plane was heading home to Junction City from the Bahamas when it broke apart and went down about 12:30 p.m. in the Tiger Creek Preserve, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
...the basketball arena is named for..." the father's "...grandfather."
Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-family-killed-plane-crash-fla-swamp-015401997.html
Not being a "wise guy" or sarcastic here at all but, seriously, doesn't it seem, to an extent, as though the "good die young"? Read about this family to see to what I'm referring.
Additional link: http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/6-Members-of-Bramlage-family-killed-in-Florida-plane-crash/-/11664182/14738618/-/wep401z/-/index.html
Kansas family killed in plane crash in Floride swamp
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas businessman, his wife and their four children were killed Thursday when their small plane crashed into a swampy area of central Florida, and word quickly spread to their hometown where the family was known for their charitable work and always having a house full of neighborhood kids.
The single-turboprop, fixed-wing plane was heading home to Junction City from the Bahamas when it broke apart and went down about 12:30 p.m. in the Tiger Creek Preserve, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
...the basketball arena is named for..." the father's "...grandfather."
Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-family-killed-plane-crash-fla-swamp-015401997.html
Not being a "wise guy" or sarcastic here at all but, seriously, doesn't it seem, to an extent, as though the "good die young"? Read about this family to see to what I'm referring.
Additional link: http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/6-Members-of-Bramlage-family-killed-in-Florida-plane-crash/-/11664182/14738618/-/wep401z/-/index.html
Thursday, June 7, 2012
And so it begins...
The big push, from Summer, 2012, all the way to the first Tuesday in November--election day:
Romney bests Obama in May fundraising, raising nearly $77 million
It starts in earnest now but from now to that fateful election day, the big money--the really big money--from the wealthy and corporations of this country is going to pour out for Mitt "Mittens" Romney so they can get that corporate shill in the White House.
Mr. "I'll Say Anything, Just So You'll Elect Me President" is gunning for the presidency, as we know, and all those corporations and the rich people want him in there.
And they'll do anything and everything to get it, too, including shelling out all that big money and stealing your vote in the ballot box, let there be no dougt.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-bests-obama-may-fundraising-raising-nearly-77-152825223.html
Romney bests Obama in May fundraising, raising nearly $77 million
It starts in earnest now but from now to that fateful election day, the big money--the really big money--from the wealthy and corporations of this country is going to pour out for Mitt "Mittens" Romney so they can get that corporate shill in the White House.
Mr. "I'll Say Anything, Just So You'll Elect Me President" is gunning for the presidency, as we know, and all those corporations and the rich people want him in there.
And they'll do anything and everything to get it, too, including shelling out all that big money and stealing your vote in the ballot box, let there be no dougt.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-bests-obama-may-fundraising-raising-nearly-77-152825223.html
In response, an online petition to KEEP the statue in Overland Park
Go here: http://www.change.org/petitions/do-not-remove-the-sculpture-at-the-overland-park-arboretum
And thank you, in advance.
Sheesh, some people...
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, corporate pimp
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is understandably--I guess--but shamelessly shilling for a Canadian oil company, TransCanada, to have their oil pipeline go through the state.
This makes it official. Governor Nixon is now officially and publicly, clearly a corporate pimp.
He's out there, pushing for this TransCanada XL pipeline to transport Canadian oil through the US just so it can get to Texas and out to world oil markets for TransCanada and he's doing it for money.
Sure, he's doing it for money for Missouri's state treasury but hey, selling others--in this case, a state--for money, it doesn't matter where the money goes, just that you're out there selling people.
As if that weren't bad enough, what makes it really, additionally disgusting for and to me is that the prostitute he's selling is you and me. He's selling the state of Missouri--us.
The pipeline is to go from Illinois, through our state and then down to Texas. The Canadians are smart enough to know that in order to get their multi-billion dollar boondoggle, they need to line up all the people and states they can in order to get this thing.
It's beyond disgusting.
Why on Earth should any people or state in the US allow what is a Canadian pipeline, with its inevitable leaks and oil spills and environmental damage, go through their state and area and farm, whatever, just so a Canadian oil company can get richer?
And that's what this is all about, at its core--selling the American people on a pipeline through the country, just so a Canadian oil company can make millions and millions of dollars--more money--at our expense.
So Governor Nixon is trying to sell us all on the idea--and to sell us in the marketplace--so we can get a few temporary jobs and some more money in our state treasury.
This is obscene.
Missourians should no way stand for this.
Links (and further proof): http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/state/missouri/new-pipeline-project-through-missouri-is-praised-for-creating-jobs
http://kcur.org/post/oil-pipeline-mapped-beyond-kansas-city-outskirts
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097886/-Florida-voter-purge-official-linked-to-Koch-funded-efforts-to-defeat-Obama
This makes it official. Governor Nixon is now officially and publicly, clearly a corporate pimp.
He's out there, pushing for this TransCanada XL pipeline to transport Canadian oil through the US just so it can get to Texas and out to world oil markets for TransCanada and he's doing it for money.
Sure, he's doing it for money for Missouri's state treasury but hey, selling others--in this case, a state--for money, it doesn't matter where the money goes, just that you're out there selling people.
As if that weren't bad enough, what makes it really, additionally disgusting for and to me is that the prostitute he's selling is you and me. He's selling the state of Missouri--us.
The pipeline is to go from Illinois, through our state and then down to Texas. The Canadians are smart enough to know that in order to get their multi-billion dollar boondoggle, they need to line up all the people and states they can in order to get this thing.
It's beyond disgusting.
Why on Earth should any people or state in the US allow what is a Canadian pipeline, with its inevitable leaks and oil spills and environmental damage, go through their state and area and farm, whatever, just so a Canadian oil company can get richer?
And that's what this is all about, at its core--selling the American people on a pipeline through the country, just so a Canadian oil company can make millions and millions of dollars--more money--at our expense.
So Governor Nixon is trying to sell us all on the idea--and to sell us in the marketplace--so we can get a few temporary jobs and some more money in our state treasury.
This is obscene.
Missourians should no way stand for this.
Links (and further proof): http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/state/missouri/new-pipeline-project-through-missouri-is-praised-for-creating-jobs
http://kcur.org/post/oil-pipeline-mapped-beyond-kansas-city-outskirts
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097886/-Florida-voter-purge-official-linked-to-Koch-funded-efforts-to-defeat-Obama
Jason Kander's first campaign video
As shown and suggested above, this is current Missouri State Representative Jason Kander's first YouTube video for his run to become Missouri's Secretary of State. Clearly, he's running heavily on his military career, as well as his government service otherwise.
Hopefully he--and we--can get some better, stronger ethics down in Jefferson City.
Hopefully we will get campaign contribution limits put back in place for government representatives, candidates and elections.
At least that.
If you can contribute to his campaign, go here: https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.aspx?X=Kombg46fJQZ2cwe54v5kxSB/7Dc9YpoWUJcamvGTZmM%3D
Hopefully he--and we--can get some better, stronger ethics down in Jefferson City.
Hopefully we will get campaign contribution limits put back in place for government representatives, candidates and elections.
At least that.
If you can contribute to his campaign, go here: https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.aspx?X=Kombg46fJQZ2cwe54v5kxSB/7Dc9YpoWUJcamvGTZmM%3D
Dorothy Parker, August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967
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