Aren't we transferring the environmental consequences to something else?

Yes.

Via the Agitator

Mandate

Wondering what universal health care will look like?

Click here.

Enjoy.

Horrifying

Horrifying that a state government would allow this to go on, even after they knew it was happening.

I wonder what, if any, criminal charges will be filed. I have an idea.

None.

Remember this when you wonder why people don't trust the government. Remember this when you think criminals get too many rights. These scumbags put countless people in prison. Or worse.

Wow... just... wow.

"Would you have done that if McCain were elected?"
"No."

The Solution

I've figured out the solution to the economic "crisis". I, alone, can save 500,000,000 jobs.

End Social Security. That's all. No stimulus package needed.

Think about it. You immediately give every working person 12% more money each year to spend. It's a "progressive" tax cut, as the rich don't pay as much as a percentage (the cutoff for wages taxed is about $100k). You also give people the option to take a lump sum of what they have paid in, or leave it for when they retire. Those who are already retired and drawing Social Security payments would not be affected, as they just draw down the Trust Fund (assuming it exists. If not, I'm pretty sure the total liability of retired people isn't the $1 Trillion the 'stimulus' package will cost).

Sure, you'd have to iron out some details for people nearing retirement, but all in all, I think it would work. I'd even be willing to forgo the lump sum - they can keep what they have, so maybe have a cutoff of age 40, where if you are under 40, the government keeps what they took, if you are over 50 you have the option to stay in the program.

Think of how well that would stimulate the Economy! And give us a little freedom back.

Real Change.

SHOCKING BREAKING NEWS!!!

College kid smokes pot in his girlfriend's dorm room.

Don't we have something more important to worry about?

Donation Suggested

You can win tickets to the inauguration, plus plane tickets and free hotel by writing an essay on what the inauguration means to you!

Conveniently, you may also submit a donation at the same time.

There's no connection. We promise.

IOU

That's what California residents might get instead of income tax refunds this year.

Of course, if a taxpayer tried that, well, they'd go to jail.

There's something very much wrong with this. The state takes your money by force out of your paycheck. You discover at the end of the year they took too much. You, of course, have to prove they took too much via your tax return. And instead of returning the money with interest, you get an IOU.

I guess they deserve it, they keep electing these clowns.

It isn't all bad

Radley Balko points out there's lots of good news out there.

Nice

Cystic Fibrosis is not inclusive enough.

It isn't hard to see this behavior when Technocrats are running universal health care.

Link via Balko.

This should scare you.

We continue to move towards the government tracking your every move.

An Iowa-based research center is looking for 450 Baltimore-area motorists willing to have their every driving move tracked by satellite to test a system that could theoretically replace the federal gasoline tax with road use fees.

The federally funded study will use a global positioning system satellite to track not only the mileage driven over eight months, but also whether each road traveled is funded by the state, federal or local governments.

Participants will receive a simulated bill each month for the road use fee owed to each level of government. Volunteers who take part in the study will get $895 for their services. It's all part of a $16.5 million study in six states to test the technology as well as motorists' reactions to the concept of road use tracking and fees - an idea that has received the outspoken support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and other critics of the federal motor fuel tax.

Opponents of what is known as the gas tax say it's a dwindling source of revenue that is only crudely related to how much someone drives and where. Supporters of the road use fee argue that it would allocate money more precisely than the tax. But critics doubt that citizens would ever accept a system that gives the government specific information about their traveling habits.

They say now citizens won't stand for it. 50 years ago, they would have said the same about the Federal government telling us how much water we can flush. California will soon be telling people what temperature their thermostats can be.

The subjects will accept it. They are about to elect a Marxist.

Compare and contrast

Radley Balko at theAgitator finds an interesting comparison.

Although I'm not all that surprised to hear our President sound more like a socialist than the French.

Bailout

There's a lesson here.

Problems with wording

This is an outstanding example of why the government isn't good at lots of things. The GAO has determined that kids on medicare can not get dental care.

Nationwide, only one in three children covered by Medicaid had received any dental care in the year before the survey was carried out, the report found. 14.8 percent of Medicaid recipients said their children had not gotten necessary dental care because their dentist refused to accept Medicaid, the report said. About one in eight children reportedly never sees a dentist, while more than half of children with private health insurance had received dental care in the prior year, it adds. More than 5% (1.1 million children) of Medicaid children reported to have dental conditions like tooth fractures, oral lesions, chronic pain. The percentage is 4 times higher than the number of children with private coverage that had urgent dental conditions.

Medicaid is the joint federal and state program that provides health care coverage for low-income, blind and disabled people.

“We estimate that 724,000 children aged 2 through 18 in Medicaid could not obtain needed care,” the report added.

That's rediculous. Of course they can get care. They just didn't. Dentists are remarkably easy to find... many even have a picture of a tooth in the window. Making an appointment just takes a minute or two. So they can get care. That many don't doesn't indicate a failure of the health care system, or even a failure of Medicare. It doesn't mean dentists are greedy mean people in it just for the money (my neighbors D and R are both dentists, and both donate their time for people in need.) Not accepting Medicaid doesn't mean they don't provide care. I'm pretty sure there are dentitsts that do take Medicaid, you just have to find them.

It seems just as likely to me those kids aren't getting dental care because their parents never take them to the dentist. I bet lots of those parents have cable. Lots of them have HBO. Lots of them smoke cigarettes. But they don't have the money to get their kid to the dentist.

TV Review

Raising The Bar is terrible.

Unwatchable.

Don't worry about the potholes. People eat too much salt!

My tax dollars at work.

Baltimore has launched a citywide effort to educate the public on the dangers of high salt intake, which is associated with high blood pressure, particularly among African-Americans.

In a city that is nearly 65 percent black, the risks of hypertension, which can lead to heart attack, kidney failure and stroke, are especially high. The city Health Department is bringing together researchers and public health advocates starting in September to try to untangle the reasons for high salt consumption and offer recommendations for how city officials and food suppliers can decrease it.

The six-month-long effort was born out of a recent Health Department initiative to reduce health disparities caused by cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in Baltimore.

"The rates are much higher in Baltimore than other areas of the state," said Joshua M. Sharfstein, the city's health commissioner. "There are a lot of lives to be saved by reducing cardiovascular disease. You can connect the dots from high salt intake to excessive death rates in cardiovascular disease."

Of course, it's for your own good:

"We got criticized years ago for encouraging people not to smoke, and many people argued it was a choice," he said. "But we feel that sodium consumption and hypertension are very similar to smoking in that people need to be protected from things that can harm them."

Saunders said members of the task force will consider pushing restaurants and food industries to reduce salt in their products. And if necessary, they will work with the legislature to create sodium guidelines.

The issue is more complex than simply encouraging people to eat healthier, Sharfstein said.

"If every option you have has too much salt in it, you don't have much of a choice," he said. "I'm not saying every restaurant has this problem. But if there are not enough low-salt options, then what kind of choice is it?"

Education and awareness will be essential to the initiative, Sharfstein added.

"A lot of people don't know what's in the food they are eating," he said. "It's hard to hold them responsible if they are not getting the information to make a wise decision."

Apparently, the city thinks Black people are not smart enough to decide what they eat.

Seriously?

A number of groups are protesting a movie that mocks retarded people.

Now, I'm a supporter of the Special Olympics... but one of the things that drew my attention to them was Cartman faking retardation so he could participate. Seriously, that was really funny.



This is funny, too:

This population remains the defenseless butt of jokes all throughout media," said Special Olympics chairman Timothy Shriver, who has not yet seen the movie. "We think it's time to end."

How about instead of protesting a movie you haven't seen, do something to help someone.

Fat Chance

Don Boudreaux wants culturally appropriate healthcare.

Strange bedfellows

Barney Frank and I won't exactly agree on most issues, but I have to give him credit where it's due.

The U.S. should stop arresting responsible marijuana users, Rep. Barney Frank said Wednesday, announcing a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, almost a quarter-pound, of the substance.


Current laws targeting marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans, said Frank, flanked by legislators and representatives from advocacy groups.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

Now if he would just realise how this position is inconsistent with so many of his other positions... and stick with this one.

Unfortunately, this has about as much chance of passing as Bob Barr winning the Presidency, but we can still appreciate taking the shot.

Um, wow

Climate skepdic posts about a remarkable example of alarmists' poor science.

The problem we have, is most people in this country have no idea just how bad it really is, because they don't have a basic understanding of physics. I just hope more people get educated via posts like this.