Author: Trish
Unfortunately, We Just Happen to Have Such a Party
Only a complete moron, or a political party filled with complete morons, would allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.
— “Margie,” commenting on a story about United Healthcare’s decision to abandon its previously slow entrance into state health insurance exchanges and go from participating in only four states this year to nearly half next. Kaiser Health News estimates that if UHC been in more states in the first year of implementation of the Affordable Care Act, its premiums would be five percent lower.
Let’s Do Math! Republicans, Please Grab a Pencil
The Obama family is on vacation. That means it’s time for Republicans and tea partiers to take a break from obstructing legislation, nomination approvals, and any other work in Congress (including suing the president for taking appropriate executive action to counter their inaction) to express ginned-up outrage that the people’s business won’t be done if the president takes a few days off.
It’s also time for the rest of us to do some math, based on figures researched by Politifact’s Truthometer:
- Number of vacation days, in whole or part, enjoyed by Pres. Obama at this point in his term, which on July 20, 2014 happened to be exactly six years and seven months: 92
- Number of vacation days, in whole or part, enjoyed by Pres. George W. Bush at the same point in his term: 367
Let’s put these numbers in context.
Captured on Video: Why Rich Tea Partiers Make Such Bad Elected Officials
If this video — from a FOX affiliate! — doesn’t explain why Florida Democrats and independents are willing to embrace the previous flip-floppin’ governor (Charlie Crist) to get rid of the current one, nothing will.
Warning: Rick Scott’s countenance will haunt your sleep.
We’re Number One! But Did the Voters Cheat?
A recent pronouncement that Florida is the scariest of all 50 states leaves us conflicted. I mean, hey, we’re number one at something! But looking closely at the criteria used, you can’t help but find the competition rigged.
Realtors awarded this distinction, based on 15 things that incite fear, and placed Florida first in three categories: hurricanes, tornados, and shark attacks.
Here at the real estate search site Estately we know there are hundreds of worries when choosing where to buy a home, so to help house hunters make a more informed decision we’ve mapped out where Americans’ darkest fears are most readily found.
But do realtors know their natural disasters? If they did, they’d give Missouri the first place ranking for tornados. Joplin, anyone? Instead, Missouri was given first place in meth labs, an enterprise usually associated with Alaska, or since Breaking Bad, New Mexico.
Earthquakes didn’t make the list. If they had, Oklahoma, which thanks to fracking recently surpassed California in temblors, would excel. Mud slides, another California specialty, were also not even counted. The nearest California got to a category header was number two — for spiders. And number six for dentists.
Solar Freakin’ Roadways Can Change the World
If you’re down in the dumps and worried, feeling like we might be witnessing the end of the world as we’ve known it and there’s nothing we can really do about global warming and climate change, then you’ve got to watch this video. Seriously. Watch it now.
He Was Probably Hoping You’d Leave That Out
Before inheriting his family’s fortune, Scaife attended Yale University, but was expelled in his freshmen year when he rolled a beer keg down a flight of stairs and broke a classmate’s legs, according to a 1999 Washington Post article.
—CNN, in what is perhaps not the way you’d want your obituary notice to end, even if you weren’t conservative think tank money source billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.
The Rich Get Older and the Poor…Just Die
12.2 years
The life expectancy gap between the rich and poor in America, where the average collge-educated white man lives to 80 while high school dropout white guys are dead at 67. The gap is expected to widen as new longevity drugs push the age of death to 120 for the affluent, while it falls to closer to 60 for the poor.
It’s Amazon’s World and We Just Live in It
I wanted to buy a book a few months ago for a relative who was hospitalized in a city about 40 miles north and who wasn’t a TV watcher. I figured I’d stop off at the mall or a shopping center as I drove up and pick up some books and magazines.
Except there were no bookstores. While I had been floating along, ordering books from Amazon because they were cheap or putting them on my Amazon wish list and waiting for the prices to come down, book shops all around me were going out of business. Instead of finding some cool books and artsy, interesting magazines, I had to stop at a grocery store to buy a lame edition of O Magazine by Oprah. I believe it went unread.
Your reading choices will someday be either 50 Shades of Gray or The Hunger Games…or a copy of O Magazine
If you watch the Colbert Report, you know that the responsible thing to do right now is to boycott Amazon. The massive “Don’t Be Evil” online seller is engaged in a very evil battle with traditional publishers to control pricing and set off a dumbing down process that will likely promote self-publishing as an Amazon work-around.
Why Virginia Democrats Need to Get Out the Vote This Fall in District 7
If you thought U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor’s views on the budget and other matters were bad, take a look at the guy Virginia Republicans in House District 7 chose instead. Mother Jones provides these nuggets about Randolph-Macon College (student population: 1,300) economics professor and tea party candidate David Brat.
It’s hard to imagine Brat denouncing white celebrities as he has Jay-Z and Beyonce, except everyone knows tea partiers are NOT racist
- His negative ads criticized Cantor for entertaining the idea of immigration reform and acting to end the debt ceiling crisis
- He wants to cut Medicare and Social Security assistance to seniors by two-thirds
- Climate change is not an issue because “rich countries solve their problems”
