Amy Goodman can read the minds of Canadian immigrations officers

29 novembro 2009, 12.20

See http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/11/26/bc-amy-goodman-border-incident.html

I’ve had that kind of grilling at the Canadian border, and my impression is that this hostile ‘incredulity’ is how they are trained to interrogate.

The man who said "all" again and again

28 novembro 2009, 02.41

I was listening to Friday’s vacation-break Randi Rhodes retread episode, and my wife was in the room at her computer. The broadcast was the recent interview of Dennis Kucinich, on the topic of the banking bailout. I said to Kristy, ‘Notice how often he says "just" and "nothing but"’. She nodded and and had the visage of someone with a new insight.

Every few sentences, there was another ‘just’ or ‘nothing but’, and every time he used either expression the qualifier made the sentence incorrect, no matter whether the sentence without the qualifier would have been correct. The way Kucinich speaks is a very bad habit and is part of the reason he usually seems perturbed, overworked, and as if he just sucked a lemon.

(I’m not done with this killjoy who ruined my musical interlude. Oh, and there also was an interview with Steny Hoyer.)

Confirmation of my hypothesis

27 novembro 2009, 19.26

Confirmation of my hypothesis that the contentless rhetorical happy-button-pushing was uncomfortable for Obama: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/top-10-things-you-didnt-know-before-reading-plouffes-audacity-to-win.php

He seems too acute for it. He notices and uses fine details when left to his own devices, including in his rhetoric.

The horror of redundant inspection

27 novembro 2009, 19.03

It sounds as if the White House party-crashing is a classic case of redundant inspection increasing the failure rate.

That’s how those nuclear bombs got shipped across the country by mistake, too.

A TV segment about my favorite pen repair guy

27 novembro 2009, 02.51

See http://www.richardspens.com/?page=info/about.htm

Also I buy pens from this guy and his reground Pelikan nibs. For a broken nib or fancy customization I’d likely go to John Mottishaw, though: http://nibs.com/
A pen I had him customize years ago is the one with which I do my best-looking handwriting (though unfortunately I can barely do any handwriting with anything, on account of hand pain).

The "Dumping Ground"

27 novembro 2009, 00.00

You will hear some of my fellow lefties expressing concern that the ‘public option’ will become a ‘dumping ground’ for people the insurance companies do not want to insure.

What those lefties call a ‘dumping ground’ I call a lot of otherwise uninsurable people getting insurance. The ‘dumping ground’ argument might carry some weight if it were not the case that uninsurable people already exist in vast numbers – but they do exist. If we do not make insurance available to them now, because we think we might get a less expensive deal sometime soon after deep-sixing the current effort, then we are sacrificing these people’s insurability for the ‘principle’ that they shouldn’t have to pay so much (and also we have bats in the belfry).

Insure people, make insurance an institution, and then, when it costs too much, it will be easier than now to regulate price, and harder than now to let people go uninsured. Consider the Medicare Part D Donut Hole (which I am in, of course): which is more likely to happen, that the hole will be filled or that Part D will be rescinded? And who is the liberal that would pinch pennies rather than insure people? What has happened to our hearts since we failed the uninsured in 1993? Will we fail them again, for our ‘principles’ of penny-pinching? (Dennis Kucinich, who probably saves wrapping paper, might say yes.)

Look at Robert Reich: the man is like a quivering (though small :) ) mass of Jell-o. On the one hand, he says now is no time for the government to pinch pennies, but on the other hand he fears the ‘dumping ground’ and that healthcare reform will be too expensive, and that then the dreadful ‘Republicans’ will say it was a bad deal and a failure. Quit quivering, and stand erect, my fellow liberal: We do not fear what ‘Republicans’ might say. And I’ll tell you this now, Mr. Former Labor Secretary with Soiled Armor: the ‘Republicans’ will say the reform was a failure.

Say what you might about Alan Grayson and his rhetoric (TPM for instance is not amused) – he has an appeal, and the main appeal is that he doesn’t give a damn what the Republicans say. He’s right in their face and they can’t do a thing about it. And he has an extra appeal for me, in that he knows, I think, that this reform effort should be primarily about getting the uninsurable insured – that healthcare should be a person’s right – with fear of the costs of medicine making our success much likelier now than it was in 1993.

The ‘debate’ has gotten to the point where I am preparing myself to view timid liberals as part of the opposition, who are afraid of the future much as the Republicans are terrified of it. ‘Strength’ now is not determined by truth to one’s word – Dennis Kucinich may vote no as promised, but because he is a mouselike penny-pincher borrowed from Dickens, and Bernie Sanders may vote no because he knows his vote isn’t needed, due to the bill being sufficiently ‘weakened’ to get other votes – no, ‘strength’ now is determined by the courage to go through with this thing.

Cheers!

25 novembro 2009, 00.20

It is the 18th anniversary of the day my wife and I were shackled together by order of a Hennepin County judge. :)

I want Herb the board operator's job so I can get paid for ROTFL

24 novembro 2009, 22.04

Air America’s Richard Greene, the self-proclaimed communications expert who a day or two ago lambasted the Democrats for using ‘jargon’ such as ‘public option’ – supposedly a violation of Communications 101 – has written a children’s book entitled ‘E=mc^2 and the New Definition of God’.

(I could get a free copy for review, and then tell him my opinion, but this guy is too ignorant and foolish to be curtailed.)

Brent Budowsky just said ...

24 novembro 2009, 18.34

... on the Ron Reagan show, with Nicole Sandler subbing, that Max Baucus has been acting true to what he believes. It’s like I’ve suggested for a while: Baucus is doing his job. It’s just a stupid job. :)

People who say they voted for Democrats not to do what Baucus has been doing are, in all but a few cases, people who did not vote for Max Baucus. That’s not how our system works. Instead, we have Max Baucus powerfully representing a tiny minority of Americans. It sucks, but that’s how we are set up – and it is better for us than are most alternatives.

And people ought to keep in mind that the Senate’s self-proclaimed ‘democratic socialist’, Bernie Sanders, represents an even smaller number of people. It sucks; Bernie Sanders is too powerful. But that’s what we have to work with.

Insert the word "CHANGE" a lot and this could be a lot of Obama supporters

24 novembro 2009, 16.48

See http://airamerica.com/liveinwashingtonwithjackrice/blog/11-24-2009/palin-supporters-crackpots-or-charisma-seekers-vi/

Adrenaline junkies

24 novembro 2009, 14.55

I’m starting to think there is such a thing as an adrenaline junkie. Last night I heard a fast-talking cable-TV demagogue instantly convince someone of the virtues of a regulated private healthcare industry, when I have been talking about the same thing for some time – but without also supplying an adrenaline rush. Indeed, there must be endless examples of people who were happy with Obama before the election for the same things they are now unhappy with about him, now that he no longer also supplies an adrenaline rush. Half-ass healthcare reform – it was great before the election, but now it sucks. Escalation of military activity in southwestern Asia? It used to mean ‘Getting out of Iraq!’, but now it comes without an adrenaline rush. ‘Where is the change?’ we hear; it more accurately means ‘Where is the adrenaline?’

Obama definitely and dramatically has stopped giving lots of people the pleasurable adrenaline he used to give them. For me, this is an improvement. The question becomes how to achieve liberal change while also dealing with the problem of political adrenaline addiction. A traditional approach has been to harness the adrenaline and rally a mob – the memory of Paul Wellstone has become like the memory of Che Guevarra, for this approach – but, seriously, we cannot keep on doing things this way. History will endlessly repeat itself, while the climate melts down and destroys our civilization.

Annals of living disabled

24 novembro 2009, 00.37

Now I am getting invitations to open house at senior assisted living facilities.

Bojic Observation #3.1415926532 (subtitled: "The hypocrisy among us")

23 novembro 2009, 21.23

How many times have you heard someone complain (a) that the Democrats can’t seem to get together, and (b) we need a third party?

Communications expert Richard Greene

23 novembro 2009, 20.15

Self-described communications expert Richard Greene – Air America’s specialist in incomprehensible (because it is meaningless) ‘New Age’ jargon, just scolded the Democrats for using such ‘jargon’ as ‘public option’.

More on medical screening

23 novembro 2009, 16.55

Randi Rhodes and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are discussing breast cancer screening, and explicitly accusing Bush appointees on the task force of ‘politicizing breast cancer’.

Interestingly, Representative Schultz explicitly gave the downside, in entire, as ‘an unnecessary biopsy’. No mention of the radiation. No mention of complications of biopsy; no one ever gets infected, or has a complication of anesthesia, or has fibromyalgia triggered. No mention of the occasional needless mutilation such as Montel Williams had when he was a young man. Only the rosy scenarios.

(Yes, men get breast cancer, and, no Williams didn’t have it, but, yes, he did have a double mastectomy. He shouldn’t have, but so what? It happened and happens. Discounting the possibility is self-delusion.)