Blood for Oil

Now more than ever.

How Cool is Alton Brown?

Pretty darn cool.
Gizmodo intereviewed him on the hacks he does in the kitchen. Gawd, I wish I was a science nerd.

I do like to have liquid nitrogen around, for when we suddenly come into large amounts of fruit. I have a source at a medical supply company. I can instantly make ice cream—just crank up the stand mixer, puree some fruit, pour in a liter of liquid nitrogen and in 30 seconds you have some ice cream. Depending on the sugar level, sometimes it takes up to a minute.

When I get a really ripe watermelon, I sometimes puncture the skin with a drill bit and drain the juice. I will stick that into a mixer for 30 seconds with liquid nitrogen for instant sorbet. But nitrogen displaces oxygen in air, and the human body is not programmed to send messages to the brain when it's getting too much nitrogen. So I do this in a relatively ventilated place.

Sometimes I smash up some dry ice with a hammer, throw it in a cooler with some blueberries, and shake the cooler around until the berries sound like marbles. Open the spigot outside to let the sublimated CO2 run out. It quick-freezes the berries for storage. The faster they freeze, the smaller the ice crystals that form, the less mushy they are when they thaw. I love blueberries in the winter, but I'm not going to buy them shipped in from Chile. I buy a lot in the summer and freeze them, but I don't freeze them in regular temperatures because it takes too long.

Just When I Thought He Couldn't Be More of a D.B.

"And he'd ask people, 'Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?"

If you go to the 30 minute mark of this audio from NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, Newsweek’s Ed Klein recounts what a "good" sense of humor Ted Kennedy had since he loved telling and hearing Chappaquiddick jokes.

Update: From This Can't Waite

While the left acknowledges Kennedy’s “personal shortcomings” they claim he atoned for them through his ”life of service”. That phrase really burns me up. Whether it’s applied to the Kennedys or the Clintons, life of service is malarky. Political elites of both parties lead lives of self-service, and google has the photo-ops to prove it. In my opinion, all the Kennedy male moral shortcomings can be traced back Joe Kennedy’s twisted form of parenting. Those boys were all bred to propel a farce called Camelot through whatever means necessary. While I’ll admit his goals for civil rights and health care for may have come from a genuine place, they could never atone for his biggest sin. His pride.

The left (and many on the right) is crying for Kennedy’s foes to hold our tongues this week, to set politics aside. What they don’t get is that the reason most of us whole-heartedly detest Teddy Kennedy has nothing to do with politics. Call it petty. Call us stuck in the past. But we just can’t let the fact that he never took responsibility for Mary Jo Kopechne’s death go. I used to think, “Well, maybe he’s privately guilt ridden over it. I know I would be.” Apparently, not so much. Turns out Teddy LOVED him some Chappaquidick jokes

.

"Oh for Pete's Sake!"

I love finding out the etymology of words or how a famous quotation came into play. The Freakoconomics blog has been doing a feature where people email their queries about a specific quotation and Fred Shapiro tries to uncover how they came about. This one should have been obvious but somehow wasn't.

Beth Lavadia asked:

My mother used to say in exasperation to my sisters and I, “For Pete’s sake!” Who is this Pete fellow and why is his name used in such an expression?

This is usually thought to refer to St. Peter, chosen as a less offensive swear reference than Jesus or God. But in the etymology business, the proper answer is often “etymology unknown,” and no one knows for sure who this Pete fellow is.

Craiglist Profile

A maddening profile of craiglist founder, Craig Newmark and his company. Specifically it looks at the companies philosophy and refusal to change and become a place like Ebay or even twitter. I kind of admire the stubbornness of Newmark, even if I think his philosophy is slightly wacky.

The truth is that a lot of people complain about craigslist. Buckmaster is correct that few of them complain about the design. They complain about spam, they complain about fraud, they complain about the posting rules, they complain about the search, they complain about uploading images. They complain about every way a classified transaction can go wrong. They seldom complain about amazing new features they imagine they might possibly want to use, because they are too busy complaining about the simple features they depend on that don't work as well as they'd like. By eliminating marketing, sales, and business development, craigslist's programmers have cut out all the cushioning layers that separate them from the users they serve, and any right they have to teach lessons in public service comes from the odd situation of running a company that is directly subservient only to the public. Here's the lesson: The public is a motherfucker.

Craig Newmark says that craigslist works because people are good, and he has stuck to this point of view without wavering. Whether you accept it as true will depend on your standard of goodness.

Sometimes entire categories of craigslist are rendered nearly unusable by spam. Con artists prowl the listings, paying sellers with fake cashier's checks and luring buyers to share their credit card numbers. Other evils are more subtle. Business owners whose judgment is distorted by self-interest fail to understand the rules and put the same item in multiple categories or repost it many times a day to insure it stays prominent, crowding out other sellers. A woman listing a car forgets to tell buyers about problems with the title until they've made a long trip out to see it. In all transactions there is a possibility of misunderstanding as well as abuse, and at 99.99 percent perfection there would still be thousands of angry people every month.

For Ikea Lovers

Ikea Catalog from 1965. Although it's the last place I would like to go to, I do like looking at their pretty catalog. Those lounge chairs look sleek and comfy. I want one.

"Some are for you, some are for me, but more are for me. Remember that. More. Me."

@shitmydadsays Is hilarious, I saw it yesterday in someone's twitter feed it a big pile of awesome!

"Love this Mrs. Dash. The bitch can make spices... Jesus, Joni (my mom) it's a joke. I was making a joke! Mrs. Dash isn't even real dammit!"

More of awesome:

"The dog is not bored, it's a fucking dog. It's not like he's waiting for me to give him a fucking rubix cube. He's a god damned dog."

Not So Random Thought About Cars

Mini-vans should be given more respect as cooler cars. They are the only cars that have the cool futuristic sliding doors. Those are the coolest. Why yes I am easily impressed and amused.

Legacy of America's Royalty

In my inbox: "The legacy of the Kennedy family is one of nepotism, thuggery, murder, and arrogance. No wonder people gush about them being America's version of royalty."

It's bad to talk about badly about people who have died (since they can't respond)so I won't offer too many thoughts on Ted Kennedy, in fact I won't read any of the eulogies, I don't have time for lavish compliments that will be hurled with great gusto at one of the biggest egotistical hypocrites this side of Washington. RIP Ted Kennedy.

Update: "If they are going to bring up Camelot, I am going to bring up the Lady in the Lake." Against my better judgment I read some more about Kennedy's "legacy." He waited NINE hours before contacting the police. How did he not go to jail? Or right I forgot he is a Kennedy, above the law but willing to tell others how to live their lives.

Another Example Why A (Liberal Arts) College Education Is A Joke

Only a college course (from Occidental College) can sound so ludicrous while purporting to be educational and high minded:

180. STUPIDITY. Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny. Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine. This course in Critical Psychology follows the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and most recently, Avital Ronell, in a philosophical examination of those operations and technologies that we conduct in order to render ourselves uncomprehending. Stupidity, which has been evicted from the philosophical premises and dumbed down by psychometric psychology, has returned in the postmodern discourse against Nation, Self, and Truth and makes itself felt in political life ranging from the presidency to Beevis and Butthead. This course examines stupidity.

Exit question which is worse: the name or the description?

Also: Ken Wheaton links to this GQ: America's 25 Douchiest Colleges, hilarious and lets you laugh at the colleges that turned you down, until you get to your own. Enjoy!
Brown
Affectations: A belief that grades, majors, and course requirements are just another form of cultural hegemony; using the word hegemony.
In ten years, will be: Living with your family in an old house that you quit your job to refurbish yourself (by overseeing a contractor) with painstaking historical accuracy in a formerly decaying section of the city that's recently been reclaimed by a small population of white guys in hand-painted T-shirts who are helping you put together a health care fund-raiser for MoveOn.org.

The writers seem to really hate Duke. Like a lot.

Greed At The Heart Of The Healthcare Debate

Jessica has done an excellent job highlighting a point I failed to make clear for the longest time about health care and the reason some people want universal care.

The beauty of the free market is that the reason companies do not charge whatever they want and screw customers over at whatever cost is because the market holds these companies accountable. That's what competition is all about. We, as consumers, are holding companies accountable by not doing business with them. That is, given that we have the choice to do so.

The important thing to note here is that we do not by any means have a free market health care system which is why insurance companies aren't exactly pleasing the consumers. It is not a free market because individuals are disconnected from the costs they incur.....

I maintain that people do not want these changes because they want free access to healthcare so they do not have to worry about any costs incurred, how this will affect future generations, and how this will affect long term medical innovation. I think that these are the 'greedy' people we have to worry about.

Read the whole thing as they say.

Not So Beautiful Hair

Hey, I have the same haircut right now as Leonard Cohen in this photo. Which makes my hair an Epic Fail. Ugh. I never thought I would say this, but I want my straight hair back. I'm not loving the short hair curls. So while I would like to emulate L. Cohen in many things, this haircut is not one them.

Russell Chatham

Watching "No Reservations - Montana" last night I was introduced to the work (and the painter himself)of Russell Chatham. Some of the paintings (especially the ones featured in the episode) had incredible light about them, they almost seemed to burn. Poking around the internet I only found one that stuck me as the others on the screen:


Russell Chatham “The Seasons: August” (1993)

What can I say, I'm a sucker for golden, brownish hues. It's a weakness, which I am happy to embrace.

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" Flow Chart

Flow charts amuse me and I was sad to learn they took down the literal version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (isn't parody protected under copyright? This important, call all the lawyers you know.) Thus I am linking to Huffpo, an atypical move in these tough times. Enjoy.

Gone Fishing August 2009 Edition

I just wanted to write a quick note saying I know this blog has be the suckage for the last month or two. I just haven't had the need to write something of substance and from the heart (as corny as it sounds). Actually, I have had the need just no time or energy to actually do it.
I have a few important projects to complete before I will able to even MOVE ON with my real life you know moving to the SAME city as the guy I love, finding a career/job/path that doesn't suck out my soul everyday and brings me some financial security/stability. Those things would be nice.
Hey and if you know something I would be perfect for comment away. I need a fucking clue and a job in the tri-state area.
I'm going to still link and post songs. But I don't know when I will actually get to writing something I'm excited about and (somewhat) happy with. Something that I know I will want to read in a few years and remind myself - this is what I was thinking/feeling/doing in August 2009.

Some "Optmisitc" Thoughts About The Future

Gerald Celente, an economist predicts an economic collapse for the US in the next few years.

Happy Weekend!

via Hot Air

Life Moments

via Radiolab

I Knew I Liked Him For A Reason

Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems like one cool cucumber.

“No more fucking commercials in front of the movies. If I pay 10 dollars to see a movie, I do not want to see a commercial before hand. CUT THAT SHIT OUT." Amen.
Also he likes taking his dates to movies, too cute.

Comment of the Month

Yaron at Clarefied:

What’s up, Dawn,

I got here through a Google search on “summer mascara tips”. You make me laugh. I like your style – so fresh and slammin’. Unfortunately, your views on health care reform are a real dealbreaker for me – I just think it’s obvious that the poor should fend for themselves.

Best,
Zac Efron

FYI Dawn has a slightly pedophile crush on Zac Efron. #truestory

Obama's ABC To Success

Remind me again why college education is necessary for everyone? I love the irony of the advice.

According to a breathless press release emailed to me today, President Obama is set to appear in a Viacom-produced documentary Get Schooled: You Have the Right, along with Kelly Clarkson and LeBron James, which highlights ”education challenges, life choices and breakthroughs.” The 30-minute film quotes the President as saying “education is the key to living out your dreams.”

So as this new school year begins, I urge you to set goals for your own education: to study hard and get involved in your school; to try new things and find something you’re passionate about. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and ask for help when you need it. That’s how you learn. That’s how you get ahead. And that’s how our nation will get ahead — by ensuring that every American gets a world class education, from preschool to college to a career. So get schooled. Your future — and our nation’s future — depend on it.”

But not Clarkson’s future. Or LeBron’s. Neither went to college.

Hat tip: Peter

Song of the Day

Been stuck in my head for days. Check out the early 90's outfits. Crazy.
Dedicated to my boyfriend who has to hear me sing the three words I know from this song and then ask him to repeat it.

The State Needs Money Thus We Can Disregard The Constitution

This is a local issue that's kind of close to my heart. I use the Turnpike a lot, while rarely do I use the Big Dig tunnels. Over the years, the tolls for the Turnpike have gone up and significantly. Most people who use the Turnpike come from Western neighborhoods, basically more affluent towns than their East & South neighbors, who don't pay a toll at all (or significantly small toll like 35 cents). Why don't they charge people using the big dig tunnels? Anyhoo, it's annoying that the argument the Judge goes with is that it's not in public's best interest. Last time I checked I was the public and it was in my interest to lower the tolls. Oh vell.

"We believe there is a fundamental constitutional principle involved that must be vindicated: The government cannot constitutionally charge some drivers to use a road system in order for most of the drivers to use it for free. We will immediately petition the Appeals Court to right this wrong and uphold the basic constitutional principle that governmental fees must be fair and equitable," Schlichtmann said in a statement.

Before 1997, the Turnpike Authority collected tolls only for the maintenance and operation of the Turnpike. But after legislation enacted that year, the Turnpike has been using tolls collected on the Turnpike and harbor tunnels to pay for the Big Dig, which includes roadways where drivers are not required to pay a toll, the judge said.

The plaintiffs say their tolls should not be used to pay for the Big Dig, which, in addition to building a new harbor tunnel, put Interstate 93 underground through the downtown area. There is no toll on Interstate 93.

For the Drunks

I while back I started reading an article about the resurgence of cocktails and found so boring I had to put it down after two pages. How ever I still want a good cocktail and since Mad Men has been on my mind recently here is much more fun diagram to essential classic cocktails from AMC.

How To Be a Cool Girfriend

as shown by Sloane from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Be confident Look, one of the reasons Ferris loved her was because she was cool and classy lady, she didn’t stress. She uttered the words and believed “He’s gonna marry me.” She probably knows if her boyfriend was running through a backyard and saw 2 girls tanning he probably would stop and say hello, but she also knows that he would spend hours of stress and risk his neck to get her out of school to just see her. Relax. You have him. He’s not going anywhere, and if he talks to other girls who the fuck cares YOU are the one he wants to marry.

I don't know if I buy that any woman can really have no stress about this kind of thing. Nothing in life is a 100 percent - people change, in fact I doubt Sloane actually married Ferris. Women are crazy and they have a right to their craziness. But yeah, chilling the fuck out sometimes can be good idea.

The Brilliant Mark Steyn on "Unplugging Grandma"

This is the most important reason out the many that I don't want healthcare to be changed by government. Our healthcare does need revamping, there are so many things that cab be done to cut costs and make it affordable for more people, but the solution should never be the government.

The problem with government health systems is not that they pull the plug on Grandma. It's that Grandma has a hell of a time getting plugged in in the first place. The only way to "control costs" is to restrict access to treatment, and the easiest people to deny treatment to are the oldsters. Don't worry, it's all very scientific. In Britain, they use a "Quality-Adjusted Life Year" formula to decide that you don't really need that new knee because you're gonna die in a year or two, maybe a decade-and-a-half tops. So it's in the national interest for you to go around hobbling in pain rather than divert "finite resources" away from productive members of society to a useless old geezer like you. And you'd be surprised how quickly geezerdom kicks in: A couple of years back, some Quebec facilities were attributing death from hospital-contracted infection of anyone over 55 to "old age." Well, he had a good innings. He was 57.

This ought to be of particular concern to Americans. As is often pointed out, U.S. life expectancy (78.06 years) lags behind other developed nations with government health care (United Kingdom 78.7, Germany 78.95, Sweden 80.63). So proponents of Obamacare are all but offering an extra "full year" of Euro-Canadian geriatric leisure as a signing bonus.

As they say read the whole thing.

As a side note, this whole discussion about government run healthcare reminds me of on of my favorite films: The Barbarian Invasion. It's a nuanced look at a dying professor and his estranged son. I actually think it argues eloquently for the breakdown of socialized health care. The only way for the father to get a private room is for the son to pay off union hacks. In fact the son is pure capitalist, while the father is the poster child for socialist aging academic. The film isn't dogmatic, it doesn't pound you over the head with which philosophy is better, hence the nuance I was speaking of before. The movie is actually incredibly witty and moving, really worth seeing.
Here's Ebert & Roeper reviewing it, you can get a (small)sense of the film.

What's A Fruit

You think you know, but you don't. Be prepared to get your mind blown: strawbery is a false fruit, in fact it's not even a true berry. I know, I was shocked too.

A fruit — a ‘true fruit’ — is one where all tissues are derived from the plant ovary and this alone. This includes peas. Whereas strawberries, for example, also include some of the flesh from the peg that holds the ovary, disqualifying them from fruit status. The apple gets its carpels involved as well as the ovary, leading to a kinky pome. ‘True berries’ are also ‘true fruits’, but not the other way round. Grapes, currants (red and black), elder- and gooseberries are all proper upstanding berries which will not deceive you or smuggle themselves into your house in pies before stealing your silver while you sleep.

In fact, the only ‘true’ fruit I can find that’s not a berry but is, kind of, a fruit (more so than peas anyway) is the tomato again. Maybe those cereal box authors did know what they were on about after all.

Song of the Day

I love this song, it's old fashioned and so romantic.

Conversation of the Day

Me(after getting a facial): My face is as smooth as a baby's bottom!
Peter: Since when has the ass of baby become the gold standard of softness?
Me: I don't know, but have you felt a baby's bottom?
Peter: Well that's the other thing, who actually feels a baby's bottom?
Me: Mothers and perverts? Anyway, it's soft and you will love to touch it!

Comedy of Errors

Many times I have watched sitcoms or comedies where a simple misunderstanding leads to disastrous, yet funny results. Usually, these comic routines leave me cold, how could no one say the full sentence to get the point across!? Often it's a character who is about to reveal some troubling news, when the other character says something banal like "I know" and they all sigh with relief - until half hour later they realize they were referring to two completely different things. Being a talker, I just could not comprehend this ever happening in my life, every time I would see this plot unfold I would roll my eyes and skip the channel. Finding it unbelievable, but also a bit too painful too watch since the misunderstanding tended to cause pain or humiliation or other rather unfortunate emotions that people found funny, while I found it cringe worthy. I would yell out the complete sentence and then turn off the tv.

Well it turns out I was wrong. You can have this exact situation happen in real life. Especially when you are dealing with my boss and his dim witted daughter. One idiot didn't specify which class he was thinking about the other idiot didn't think to confirm about said class. Thus I spent the whole fucking morning embarrassing myself with clients, only to have to eat my words when I realized by questioning one of the guilty parties how this whole mess came about. I thought it couldn't happen in real life, yet there I was well past the time I should have left for home, shaking my head at the idiots I have to work with everyday and the messes I get to clean because G-d decided to give me half a brain. So yes, I'm here to testify: this does happen in real life and it's not funny but sad, humiliating, and annoying - I'm hoping time will give me the opportunity to laugh at it.

Hate

If I didn't dislike Zooey Deschanel before, I hate her now. I caught her on Bravo's Top Chef where she specified that she was a vegetarian who does not eat meat, fish, eggs, or dairy AND on top of it she is gluten intolerant. I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt but I refuse to see 500 Days of Summer because of Deschanel. She strikes me as one of those too precious personalities that likes the fugly flower print on the couch you inherited from your grandmother because it's so different and unique, or for the ironic affect, yet you have it because you can't afford anything else. Just hearing her obnoxious requests to the chefs made want choke her.

Very Short Story

"Reshelving books, Walter found pics of Jilly, the librarian, laying nude on a huge pile of books. She'd do anything to promote reading"

I've started following @veryshortstory on tweeter and find a lot of the stories crack me up. This one specifically spoke to me as a former librarian.

Palin Responds to Obama "Let me be specific" Talk With Actual Specific Information

Sarah Palin writes:

The President said:

“Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we’ve decided that we don’t, it’s too expensive to let her live anymore....It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, etc. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything.” [1]

The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” [2] With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context.

Section 1233 authorizes advanced care planning consultations for senior citizens on Medicare every five years, and more often “if there is a significant change in the health condition of the individual ... or upon admission to a skilled nursing facility, a long-term care facility... or a hospice program." [3] During those consultations, practitioners must explain “the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice,” and the government benefits available to pay for such services. [4]

Now put this in context. These consultations are authorized whenever a Medicare recipient’s health changes significantly or when they enter a nursing home, and they are part of a bill whose stated purpose is “to reduce the growth in health care spending.” [5] Is it any wonder that senior citizens might view such consultations as attempts to convince them to help reduce health care costs by accepting minimal end-of-life care? As Charles Lane notes in the Washington Post, Section 1233 “addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones.... If it’s all about alleviating suffering, emotional or physical, what’s it doing in a measure to “bend the curve” on health-care costs?”

Obama has been nothing but vague about the health care, there is a lot we need to do that and it will do this, but the how of the plan and the details never emerge. For a very smart guy he still doesn't seem to know what the bill holds, on top of that it seems he is being disingenuous when he talking about end of life medical procedures and cutting costs.

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.

On a sidenote, I kind of hate how we have resolved to using facebook for public discourse. #yesimasnob

Barbara Bush & Ferris

Edward McNallym, friend of John Hughes and rumored to be the inspiration for Ferris Bueller writes about inspiration and influence of his friend's films.

Ferris's lessons have bailed me out again and again over the years. When his high school class of 1986 finished college in 1990, Barbara Bush was confronted with what proved to be the most controversial address of her career. A graduation speech at Wellesley College. Some had objected to her status as merely a wife and mother.

She won the crowd with her powerful message about mermaids and CEOs, about diversity and choice. A presidential speechwriter at the time, I owed my minor contribution to Ferris. The speech needed humor, and maybe a touch of hip relevance. In urging young Americans to be a friend first, a sister or a brother first, a daughter or a son first, Mrs. Bush invoked Ferris: "Life moves pretty fast. If ya don't stop and look around once in a while, ya gonna miss it!"

The crowd roared. And Mrs. Bush ad-libbed, perfectly: "I'm not gonna tell [the president] you clapped more for Ferris than you did for George."

Barbara Bush (sort of) a badass.

The last anecdote he recalls is pretty funny too. I have a strong suspicion he leans to the right side of the aisle.

10 Mysterious Human Behaviors

Only 10? Some of them are kind of cool like what kind of purpose does blushing serve or why do humans believe in superstition. The whole article is from an evolutionary point of view, why do humans do something when in evolutionary terms it doesn't help them. Not to sound cheesy but I think the art, the kissing, and even the dreams have something to do with the soul. The pubic hair is just hygienic.

An Alternative To Obamacare

Great suggestions by the CEO of Whole Food's John Mackey:

• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.
• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.

• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.

• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.

• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

I actually talked to liberal girl who tried to convince that by making this drastic change we will start making little changes. Basically, in order for small reform you need to act big. Well her argument doesn't sit well with me, since those "little changes" are actually humongous and will effect me directly - not only money out my paycheck but lower standard of care. A lot of people don't want to pay for health care, they want some fairy godmother to come and take the financial burden away. Except there is not fairy godmother, instead it's the government "paying for it" with other people's taxes.

Sidenote, I love Camille Paglia even if she is still in love with Obama, at least she can recognize what a mess this is.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities.

You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you're happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing.

I just don't get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy.

As with the massive boondoggle of the stimulus package, which Obama foolishly let Congress turn into a pork rut, too much has been attempted all at once; focused, targeted initiatives would, instead, have won wide public support. How is it possible that Democrats, through their own clumsiness and arrogance, have sabotaged healthcare reform yet again? Blaming obstructionist Republicans is nonsensical because Democrats control all three branches of government. It isn't conservative rumors or lies that are stopping healthcare legislation; it's the justifiable alarm of an electorate that has been cut out of the loop and is watching its representatives construct a tangled labyrinth for others but not for themselves. No, the airheads of Congress will keep their own plush healthcare plan -- it's the rest of us guinea pigs who will be thrown to the wolves.

Sushi & The Breakfast Club

One of my favorite scenes, probably the first time I heard about sushi:

John Bender: [pointing to Claire's lunch] What's that?
Claire Standish: Sushi.
John Bender: Sushi?
Claire Standish: Rice, raw fish, and seaweed.
John Bender: You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth, and you're going to eat that?
Claire Standish: Can I eat?
John Bender: I don't know. Give it a try.

I especially love Bender's last line, it might be in the delivery, but I always cracked up at it. Sometimes I quote in random conversations but I don't think any really gets that I'm quoting Bender.

A Comparison: What They Say & The Reality

Bryan Riley does an excellent job tearing down the lies & misinformation in the Washington Post op-ed piece by Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Here are 2 of my favorite points, but the rest are just as interesting and illuminating.

Whopper Number 2: Americans can't get coverage for preexisting conditions.

SEBELIUS: The current health-care system gives insurance companies all the power. They get to pick and choose who gets a policy. They can deny coverage because of a preexisting condition.


FACT: That's not true for the 177 million Americans who have group health insurance, where it's illegal to deny coverage to someone who has a preexisting condition. It's true that someone who waits until after they're sick to apply for an individual policy can be denied coverage or charged a higher premium, but once they're approved their coverage can never be dropped or their premium increased due to a change in their health.

And this one:

Whopper Number 5: Americans shouldn't waste their time trying to understand the details of Obama's proposal.

SEBELIUS: [W]e can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring. Nor should we let ourselves be distracted by attacks that try to use the complexity of health reform to freeze Americans in inaction.


FACT: An insurance agent who advised his clients to ignore the fine print in a proposed policy could wind up in jail. Anyone who says "don't worry about the details, this is too complex for you to understand anyway," probably has something to hide.

To Love San Fransico

Bourdain kind of nails my feelings about San Fransisco, and while I don't love it as much as he, it has grown on me over the last three years. Bonus: Bourdain likes Brian Jonestown Massacre!

Let me come right out and say it. I love San Francisco. I am helpless and unwavering in my affection--in spite of every effort over the years to find fault, to dismiss, to sneer. And there's surely lots to sneer at, San Francisco and the Bay being pretty much the epicenter of so many of my most cherished aversions: political correctness, veganism, rich hippies, sanctimoniousness about food, food fetishism, animal rights terrorists, gastro-dogma, and loud locavores who actually get their produce flown in from Chino Farms in San Diego.
But at this point, I bore even myself railing against the above. Hell, I'm not even bitter about San Francisco taking the lead in banning smoking anymore. They won that battle long ago. Game over.
I guess it's like any love that's true--sooner or later you learn to accept the good, bad and silly all together. It's all part of the package when you know, without any question, that you want the package. It doesn't even matter if one's love is returned.

I want to get to know the San Francisco Bourdain is writing about even more.

On My To Do List

Sand In My Shoes

I don't mind the sand in my right shoe this morning since it reminds me of the weekend. Especially of the way the sun felt on my skin and the way the light from the lighthouse swept over the waves as I was surrounded by total love.

Influential Speak of Geek

New York Times Magazine looks at the origins of fail! Fail has become of of my favorite interjections in life, in fact sometimes it feels like this one word said somewhat enthusiastically describes by life as a whole. Printer jammed - Fail!, trying to get to work on time, yet stuck in traffic - Fail!, the list goes on and on. #truestory In fact I look at my recent blogging as an epic fail, I haven't been able to write anything of substance in a long time, I blame twitter for this. It sucks all my attention, in fact this is where I found the article, from Jake Tapper's twitter.

Time was, fail was simply a verb that denoted being unsuccessful or falling short of expectations. It made occasional forays into nounhood, in fixed expressions like without fail and no-fail. That all started to change in certain online subcultures about six years ago. In July 2003, a contributor to Urbandictionary.com noted that fail could be used as an interjection “when one disapproves of something,” giving the example: “You actually bought that? FAIL.” This punchy stand-alone fail most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late-’90s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.

In a few years’ time, the use of fail as an interjection caught on to such an extent that particularly egregious objects of ridicule required an even stronger barb: major fail, überfail, massive fail or, most popular of all, epic fail. The intensifying adjectives hinted that fail was becoming a new kind of noun: not simply a synonym for failure but, rather, a derisive label to slap on a miscue that is eminently mockable in its stupidity or wrongheadedness.

I feel for a misanthrope such as me, it has become shorthand for life's shortcomings. It's geeky and kind inside baseball kind of talk, but honestly it makes the failure a bit easier to swallow.

Global Warning Skeptics

This Is A Brilliant Idea

Celebrity Paycut is for those hypocrite celebrities who own multiple mansions and think that somehow owning a Prius offsets their "carbon footprint" and that preaching to the rest of us about our evil ways will solve the planet.
I mean it's not going to work and the MSM won't cover it, but it's a nice fantasy anyway.
#it'snicetoberich

"Oh That Madge!"

70's commercial for Palmolive which made Neil think washing dishes was sexy. I love the wisecracking manicurist Madge, I think because I can relate as a daughter of a manicurist. Still it's cute.

Still excited to go see this movie in the theater

I can't wait to see Glorious Basterds. Interviews like this one make me ever more excited. I guess Tarantino wanted all the soldiers to have a back story (the unit is comprised of all Jews, except the commander played by Brad Pitt). Here's BJ Novak (Ryan from The Office) about his part:

"He probably came from a family that was trying to assimilate into the Waspy mainstream by naming their kid Smithson, and the war was his chance to reclaim being Jewish. I don't know if you'll see that onscreen, but that's where I'm coming from when I'm paying really close attention to Brad Pitt."
Jews kicking ass with guns. I'm so excited.

Although I have a feeling a lot of the times I will be looking through my fingers, since all the actors in the interview bragged how well they learned to scalp people.

Apples & Oranges

Email response to an Insty post about Democrats accusing anti-Obamacare protesters of astroturfing.

President Obama is asking all of his supporters via email to support his healthcare bill and respond to attacks upon it, an example of the dreaded phenomenon of “Astroturfing?” Doesn’t this mean that all support for Obamacare is now the product of a top-down mandate for activism? And doesn’t that delegitimize any support for health care “reform?”

Or, instead, is it legitimate, nay inspiring, when Democratic bigwigs organize support for liberal policy objectives, but illegitimate, even sickening, when Republican bigwigs organize opposition to such objectives?

Also, my brilliant and funny boyfriend (gagging yet?), has written a bunch of hilarious emails to the White House reporting on the "fishy" activity. Good thing he sent it from the library, under a fake account, otherwise he would be on the list. I did inform him that he is dating someone already on the list, Dawn has made sure of it.

Reason Reporting One Person At A Time

I'm glad people on Reason are taking the White House message to hear and reporting on others not down with the healthcare message.

Gibbs: Conservatives are mean, but I can't explain how their efforts are different from ours.

Tapper asked the White House Press Secretary, Gibbs how the backlash Congressmen and the President have been experiencing is different from their own "grassroots" type efforts. To which Gibbs had no answer, except to say they are really CEO out there.

TAPPER: A couple questions. One, is it your contention -- is it the White House contention that the anger that some members of Congress are experiencing at town hall meetings, especially over health care reform, is manufactured?

GIBBS: I think some of it is, yes. In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients Rights, that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger.

TAPPER: How is their organizing and getting people to come to town hall meetings and express their feelings any different from a liberal group doing the same thing?

GIBBS: Well, I think what you've seen is they have -- they have bragged about -- about manufacturing, to some degree, that anger. I think you've got somebody who's very involved, a leader of that group that's very involved in -- in the status quo, a CEO that used to run a health care company that was fined by the federal government $1.7 billion for fraud. I think that's a lot of what you need to know about the motives of that group.

Tapper is so my favorite journalist right now.

Fashion Critique

Just like Sarah Brown, I don't think I need a "fashion sense" to tell you look like a big colorful tent of mumu in your maxi dress.

The thing about the maxi dress is that it does not highlight the part of your body you think it does. Sure, the top part of a maxi dress looks good if you have a great rack, but the first rule of having and displaying a great rack is don’t wear a giant loose tent beneath it, because then you look pregnant. Don’t kid yourself: you’re wearing a muumuu with spaghetti straps. Basically the maxi dress highlights a delicate clavicle, which is a lovely and admirable thing to have, but there are plenty of other ways to show that off that don’t make the rest of your body look like pregnant Quasimodo. If you have a belly or legs you’d prefer to cover, I understand that, that’s fine, who doesn’t, but the maxi dress makes it look like you’re trying to hide these flaws under a giant sign that says DON’T LOOK NOTHING TO SEE HERE JUST ACRES OF FABRIC. Are you hugely pregnant at the height of summer? You poor thing. You should wear a maxi dress. Everyone else needs to find a higher hemline.

In fact, I kind of want to get the "lesbian gardening sandals" - yet still feel perfectly fine looking on your ugly hipster mess of what you pass of as clothes.