tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32353263013137159242011-12-25T14:29:11.105-05:00Always to speak the truth, and only to be thought madElisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comBlogger3761100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34138070995657650002011-12-25T14:27:00.001-05:002011-12-25T14:28:33.594-05:00

I'll have very little access to a computer until around mid-February.Comments are closed. I can be emailed:elise dot fb at verizon dot net

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-38751869105861113262011-10-20T19:48:00.002-04:002011-10-20T19:58:15.870-04:00

'Occupy' memo could discourage victims from reporting assaults(Via Contentions) (emphasis mine):Efforts by the Occupy Baltimore protest group to evolve into a self-contained, self-governing community have erupted into controversy with the distribution of a pamphlet that victim advocates and health workers fear discourages victims of sexual assaults from contacting police.The pamphlet says that

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-58957856407091007652011-10-17T14:08:00.002-04:002011-10-17T14:11:49.035-04:00

[This is the sixth of a series of posts on polygamy. The first - simply an intro - is here. The series is collected under the category “Grim Polygamy”.]When I began thinking about how the fight over legalizing gay marriage would affect the fight over legalizing polygamy, I had a persistent sense that opposing gay marriage on logical grounds had been the wrong tactic for those who did not want to

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-56911899569590828542011-10-17T10:55:00.002-04:002011-10-17T11:03:49.154-04:00

[This is the fifth of a series of posts on polygamy. The first - simply an intro - is here. The series is collected under the category “Grim Polygamy”.]There are a couple of posts up at Grim’s Hall on polygamy:Politics and Principles - Posted October 8, 2011Aquinas on Polygamy - Posted October 13, 2011These have been up for a while - I’m late getting links up.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-17811847551060528362011-10-13T13:44:00.002-04:002011-10-13T13:47:20.491-04:00

I have to say that in general I think the Occupy Wall Street group is as dumb as a whole yard of grass (although I do think they’re right about bringing back Glass-Steagall). However, the juxtaposition of two posts at Contentions brought into focus the fact that it’s dangerous for the Right to simply dismiss the whole shebang.In the first post, entitled “The Stupid Party”, Peter Wehner considers

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-36986260489715387332011-10-11T12:46:00.000-04:002011-10-11T12:47:18.908-04:00

... and human beings are pretty amazing:The Good, The Bad, and The UglyYouTube link, has sound, starts right up.(For those of you who’d like to try this at home: sheet music.)

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-70380864163240261092011-10-06T17:48:00.002-04:002011-10-06T17:58:25.131-04:00

[This is the fourth of a series of posts on polygamy. The first - simply an intro - is here. The series is collected under the category “Grim Polygamy”.]Grim started off by proposing that if a woman wanted to marry a man who was already married, why shouldn’t she? His argument seems to be that it’s better for a woman to be one of many wives of an alpha male rather than the only wife of a beta or

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-55204913313522596442011-10-04T11:22:00.003-04:002011-10-04T11:40:37.362-04:00

[This is the third of a series of posts on polygamy. The first - simply an intro - is here. The series is collected under the category “Grim Polygamy”.]A post in which I start out convinced legalizing polygamy is inevitable and end up convinced it’s impossible.Cassandra has advanced ten reasons to prefer monogamy to polygamy. Her post lays them out in detail, with supporting links. Cassandra is

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-70319634229042309692011-10-03T14:03:00.003-04:002011-10-03T14:07:04.835-04:00

[This is the second of a series of posts on polygamy. The first - simply an intro - is here. The series is collected under the category “Grim Polygamy”.]Marriage is whatever society says it is. Since it looks like gay marriage is on its way to being legalized everywhere, we’ve pretty much decided that marriage is no longer the union of one man and one woman; it now includes the union of any two

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-24362210186514674952011-10-01T11:50:00.001-04:002011-10-01T11:52:26.023-04:00

I started writing about the relationship between legalizing gay marriage and legalizing polygamy as a comment to a post over at TigerHawk. My comment got way too long to actually be a comment so I posted something shorter - and crankier - over there and spent some time trying to turn that comment into a blog post. I could never find quite the right frame for it so I set it aside.A few days ago

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-28600701442724215032011-09-30T16:49:00.004-04:002011-09-30T17:04:11.770-04:00

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office. - George Bernard ShawThere are some articles popping up that claim Chris Christie’s weight makes him obviously unfit (heh) to be President. Elspeth Reeve’s has ably identified the goal of these articles and the tiresome,

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-83201884603388284202011-09-09T14:07:00.001-04:002011-09-09T14:08:43.905-04:00

To think about September 11, read Memorializing September 11th by Wilfred M. McClay in National Affairs:And the greatest good is often done, as William Blake put it, in "minute particulars," in small but focused ways that individual citizens can manage on their own initiative. To remember September 11, read the poem “For the Children of the World Trade Center Victims” by BJ Ward, available online

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-75926768769274279872011-09-08T18:16:00.001-04:002011-09-08T18:16:46.374-04:00

Neoneocon is writing about a Russ Smith post which contains the following quote:There are usual caveats: Of course Obama isn’t illiterate or Bush-dumb because as Jesse Louis Jackson once said, “God doesn’t make junk,” and the intelligence-challenged just aren’t allowed near Harvard, much less become editor of that university’s Law Review.Neo is focusing on the fact that Bush also graduated from

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-10605415229893393912011-08-25T11:35:00.001-04:002011-08-25T11:42:09.168-04:00

The Anchoress (via NRO) has up a rant about first responders and clergy being excluded from the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It speaks for itself and I have nothing to add to that aspect of it. I was, however, taken aback by this statement from one of the articles she links: During the 2001 "Prayer for America" service at Yankee Stadium, leaders from the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-58348946572596447942011-08-21T18:14:00.002-04:002011-08-21T18:22:54.810-04:00

I gather there are some concerns, particularly among conservatives, about the implementation of sharia law* in the United States. I don’t know how reasonable those concerns are, although as a woman I tend to feel that any possibility of such a thing happening should be viewed with great alarm. There is, however, a simple way to make sure sharia law is not implemented in this country: pass the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-19560301636675582792011-08-21T17:46:00.001-04:002011-08-21T17:47:47.215-04:00

If I were the “bipartisan, bicameral committee on deficit reduction”, I would simply have my staff retype the Simpson-Bowles plan on committee letterhead. It would save a lot of time and a lot of money and produce an outcome at least as good as anything the committee will come up with in the next three months.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-60161232386262069872011-07-18T15:17:00.004-04:002011-07-18T15:28:27.418-04:00

Andrew Cohen at The Atlantic is writing about an HBO documentary called Hot Coffee. The documentary looks at four lawsuits; in his review, Cohen discusses two of these: the case of Stella Liebeck (the McDonald’s coffee suit) and the case of Colin Gourley, who “has ‘severe brain damage’ as a result of medical malpractice at his birth.” About the McDonald’s case, Cohen says:... a jury of her peers

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-84041938207697903552011-07-18T13:58:00.001-04:002011-07-18T14:00:22.008-04:00

Yesterday the panel at Fox News Sunday included Liz Cheney and John Podesta. In one of their exchanges, Podesta said something that just didn’t sound right. Here’s the exchange; I’ve bolded the part I couldn’t believe:CHENEY: [snip]Finally, the president at the end of the press conference, says he wants to increase taxes and get through this initial crisis so that he can spend more on

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-60170094476668534692011-07-18T10:49:00.001-04:002011-07-18T10:51:24.411-04:00

A couple of links discussing courses of action I’ve written about previously:Via The Corner, Spengler advising that the McConnell plan is the best route for Tea Party Republicans. Specifically, Spengler wants - as do I - to take a debt ceiling crisis off the table until after the 2012 elections. He believes that if Republicans can avoid a default and “put the onus [for raising the debt ceiling]

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-37070167053927660282011-07-16T13:54:00.002-04:002011-07-16T14:07:10.302-04:00

A few posts on the debt ceiling, cutting spending, and “revenue increases” (which I believe used to be called “tax increases”) that caught my eye.Mark Steyn: No bargaining with Barack Obluffer (via TigerHawk):In the real world, negotiations on an increase in one's debt limit are conducted between the borrower and the lender. Only in Washington is a debt increase negotiated between two groups of

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-26395623024320246012011-07-13T18:29:00.001-04:002011-07-13T18:31:57.486-04:00

Via Megan McArdle, there’s an opinion piece up at MSNBC arguing that the Harvard researchers who want some obese children removed from their parents are wrong. I haven’t thought through the Harvard idea enough to have an opinion on it but I was struck by two statements in the MSNBC piece. First (emphasis mine):The only basis for compelling medical treatment against a parent’s wishes are if a

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-71116615458883057912011-07-12T16:31:00.003-04:002011-07-12T16:43:15.173-04:00

Dan Savage, a gay sex-advice columnist, had never really registered with me until he and Megan McArdle got into it - and I have to say I found him awfully unpleasant in that exchange. I’ve now read a New York Times Magazine piece on him (via Althouse) and his It Gets Better project sounds like a wonderful thing. My adolescence was stormy for reasons that had nothing to do with sexual orientation;

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-65244641342163206722011-07-12T11:24:00.000-04:002011-07-12T11:26:01.281-04:00

Reihan Salam writes about a recent study on the incomes of two-parent families. Interesting post. Here’s a sample:Imagine that the world in 1975 was quite a bit different from the world in 2009. In this alternate reality 1975, large numbers of educated men were primarily engaged in household production, due to a combination of the strenuousness of completing essential household work, powerful

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-56782852062525542012011-07-10T16:38:00.003-04:002011-07-10T17:16:36.929-04:00

Robert Herbold (formerly of Microsoft) has written an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, entitled “China vs. America: Which Is the Developing Country?” One thing Mr. Herbold particularly likes about China is that country’s five-year plans:In every meeting we attended, with four different customers of our company as well as representatives from four different arms of the Chinese government

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-67095091821355242512011-07-09T13:50:00.002-04:002011-07-09T13:55:52.929-04:00

On Wednesday night, a Rutgers professor, Susan Feinberg, and her husband had dinner at a restaurant. At a nearby table sat Representative Paul Ryan and two companions. The Ryan table ordered wine. Feinberg consulted the restaurant’s wine list and found that the wine for the Ryan table cost $350 per bottle. Feinberg then took some pictures of the Ryan table. A second bottle of the same wine was

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-52389696606162751302011-07-05T20:16:00.002-04:002011-07-05T20:20:51.116-04:00

As I said in an earlier post, I’m reading David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture and I found his denigration of the Baby Boomers to be the usual incurious indictment that drives me mad (emphasis in original):As my generation did not live through the Depression, World War II, and the agony of the immigrants who are our grandparents or great-grandparents; as we

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-2450474374442031532011-06-27T13:04:00.002-04:002011-06-27T13:15:45.121-04:00

I In response to a recent post, Grim made the following comment:Hannah Arendt has an interesting account of just this distinction in The Human Condition, where she calls the distinction (roughly) labor v. work. The laborer is doing tasks that must be endlessly repeated; the worker is crafting lasting features of the world that enrich and improve our life for the long term.The problem she

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34846171332380255482011-06-25T20:02:00.004-04:002011-06-25T20:42:21.350-04:00

[Language warning for some quoted material]Susannah Breslin writes about her female ghetto (via Deafening Silence):I’ve grown to sort of cringe at the idea of this blog being lumped in with ForbesWoman. Working the woman angle is a double-edged sword. Would I have been hired to blog for Forbes.com if I weren’t a woman? I don’t know. Does being put in a female ghetto make my skin crawl?

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-46393179521671695702011-06-23T15:20:00.002-04:002011-06-23T15:26:19.862-04:00

[This is an unsourced essay. That is, it is not based on research or larded with links. Rather it is written based on my (perhaps rather odd) view of what has happened in my lifetime. Not my usual style but not, I would argue, an approach wholly without merit.]As I said in my previous post, I’m reading David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture and I have a serious

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34928291160882929162011-06-22T16:07:00.003-04:002011-06-22T16:21:14.742-04:00

I’m reading David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. I’m only up to page 49 and have been seized with an overwhelming desire to write about the book. The Secret Knowledge is very dense; a lot of the sentences are too long; and there are way, way too many commas.* It’s also quite possibly a brilliant book.Perhaps the reason I appreciate the book so much is that

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-28758882911034368572011-06-22T16:06:00.000-04:002011-06-22T16:07:30.397-04:00

I’m blogging again - I have no idea for how long or how frequently. I’ve enabled comments. My comment policy is here. Please read it before commenting.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-89856220277151363382011-05-14T10:32:00.002-04:002011-05-14T10:34:46.696-04:00

Mitt Romney on health care, paragraph seven, emphasis mine:The reforms that I propose, which are based on the same philosophical tenets as the reforms I offered during my last presidential campaign in 2008, return power to the states, improve access by slowing health care cost increases, and make health insurance portable and flexible for today's economy.Mitt Romney on health care, paragraph ten,

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-1497250028265725092011-04-19T16:34:00.001-04:002011-04-19T16:38:01.546-04:00

Through a process I can no longer re-create, I found myself at this LifeHacker post about how we learn better when we write than when we type. Since this confirms my gut-level convictions, I appreciated it a great deal. The real payoff, though, came in its link to a Wall Street Journal article (“How Handwriting Boosts The Brain”) which in turn led to the Website of Educational Fontware, Inc.The

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-27646348061291664882011-03-03T12:10:00.002-05:002011-03-03T12:26:37.394-05:00

[Another post written a while ago, although it’s not really ancient - it was originally written within the last few months.]Math is hardA letter from MoveOn.org to its members says in part:Imagine if someone told you in 2008 that Barack Obama was actually thinking about signing legislation to extend the Bush tax giveaways for the rich. I wouldn’t have believed it.Now more than ever, we need the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-88545680810660162122011-03-03T11:08:00.002-05:002011-03-03T11:12:38.701-05:00

[I wrote this in March of 2010. I was going to junk it - I’m cleaning up my computer files - but part of it still resonates so here it is with a nice new footnote.]Movin’ Meat has up a post in which he cites the case of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield paying claims late and says:Actually, that's pretty much SOP for most insurers: deny and delay at will, and dare providers/consumers/regulators to

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-42590759723450532202011-03-03T10:43:00.001-05:002011-03-03T10:45:48.887-05:00

[I wrote this post quite some time ago but never put it up.]Grim has up a post with some thoughts about Elisabeth Badinter. Grim is objecting to the use of the word “forcing” in the title and sub-title of the Telegraph’s article on Badinter’s views:French feminist warns green movement forcing women to stay at homeElisabeth Badinter, a leading French feminist, has warned the green movement is

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-12954761066736363112011-03-03T10:36:00.001-05:002011-03-03T10:40:32.116-05:00

Kathleen Parker is writing about “hard-core” women:The feminist woman of the left, who burned her bra and insisted that all hear her roar, is today a taupe-ish figure who wonders where things went wrong. The daughter she begat may well be a Republican - a gun-toting, breast-feeding supermom of several who condemns government for being a "nanny" and tells men to man up.So far, so good. Looks like

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-41634630283294155622011-02-21T13:25:00.003-05:002011-02-21T13:33:38.116-05:00

[February 21, 2011: As you’ll see from my preface dated August 3, 2009, this has been written for a long time. I got as far as writing this; putting together what I knew about some of the Palin stories; and putting some of my existing posts about Palin into the “Palin Jeopardy” category; but I never really closed the deal. Life intervened; polishing up the posts seemed like a lot of work;

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-10650192918772687102011-02-18T16:09:00.001-05:002011-02-18T16:11:22.496-05:00

I was amused to read two rather contradictory analyses of Obama’s acumen on the same day. According to Lexington Green at Chicago Boyz (via TigerHawk):Obama has sent a budget to Congress. Obama’s budget makes no effort whatsoever to cut spending.Obama is not “failing to lead” as some people are claiming. That is all wrong.All suggestions to that effect are all wrong. Obama knows exactly what he

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-80743556265001120492011-02-18T15:03:00.001-05:002011-02-18T15:05:45.562-05:00

Cardinalpark is pushing for Medicare and Medicaid to become defined contribution plans rather than defined benefit plans, citing the success his company has had in doing that with its own health insurance. This is a sort of variation on the types of plans I discuss here and, obviously, I think it’s a great idea.However, what really caught my attention was this idea from one of the commenters:I

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-31692826367275350422011-01-09T23:15:00.004-05:002011-01-09T23:19:22.282-05:00

Metaphorically speaking again.I haven't blogged in about six weeks and won't be doing so any time soon. If you want to check back, give it at least a month. I'll definitely check in no later than April 30 although I don't know if I'll be blogging again.Comments are closed. I can be emailed:elise dot fb at verizon dot net

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-59894522739732786222010-11-18T16:48:00.000-05:002010-11-18T16:49:00.136-05:00

I chuckled a little at this in a recent Politico piece about why the House Democrats retained Nancy Pelosi as their leader:Many House Democrats view the last two years as a permanent gain for progressive values, particularly when it comes to a health care law that ensures nearly every American will be insured. They believe it would discredit these achievements to humiliate the House leader most

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-39881515782831340222010-11-18T16:19:00.001-05:002010-11-18T16:21:20.931-05:00

Not a very tony post title, I know, but it was my first reaction when I read this letter in the New York Times (via TigerHawk):Perhaps President Obama could benefit from becoming familiar with the recommendations for raising children and adolescents successfully. Neither authoritarian nor democratic and permissive styles of parenting are optimal ways to raise children. Rather, a third way,

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-62139281571534569642010-11-10T10:20:00.001-05:002010-11-10T10:22:03.402-05:00

The Valour-IT friendly inter-service competition for this year is underway. (Actually, I think it’s almost over.) This is a most worthy cause, purchasing technology to help wounded servicemembers.If you haven’t made a donation yet, please do so. You can donate via credit card or you can make a commitment to donate by mail. If you don’t have an attachment to particular service branch, consider

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-13403805101848469382010-11-03T16:29:00.000-04:002010-11-03T16:30:33.424-04:00

Writing about where we go from here, Marc Ambinder said:Eric Cantor, who won't escape the casual racism of being referred to as the "first Jewish majority leader," will appear as the voice of policy and conciliation.Let’s leave aside the quibble that religion and race are two different things. As far as I know, “first Jewish majority leader” will be a truthful descriptive phrase, like “first

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-62780427965912063812010-11-03T16:04:00.002-04:002010-11-03T17:31:14.228-04:00

There’s some chatter this morning about Republican pickups at the State level and how this is a Very Good Thing because we’ve got redistricting for House of Representative seats coming up next year. The assumption seems to be that the Republicans can thus gerrymander the redistricting to make as may seats as possible Safe For Republicans - which would presumably leave the remaining seats Safe For

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-18515535122776621842010-11-03T16:03:00.000-04:002010-11-03T16:04:16.659-04:00

It did not, in fact, rain in Poughkeepsie yesterday.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-28927232388190698032010-11-01T16:00:00.001-04:002010-11-01T16:08:43.474-04:00

[Strong language warning.]On the talk shows yesterday I heard various talking heads opining about how many seats the Republicans would take in the House and Senate. The same opining is going on across the blogosphere. In general, those who lean Right - both officials and pundits - are predicting big Republican gains; actual Democratic officials are predicting smaller Republican gains (what else

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-70385420956346269972010-11-01T14:48:00.003-04:002010-11-01T15:09:00.422-04:00

From Grim’s, I got to this article about Europe’s sense of being helpless in the face of the forces that control our destiny. Among other things - it’s well worth reading the entire article - the author says:One of the most important ways in which today’s sense of diminished subjectivity is experienced is through the feeling that individuals are being manipulated and influenced by hidden powerful

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34940720500018885602010-10-25T20:07:00.001-04:002010-10-25T20:10:36.519-04:00

[Just for the record: I object strongly to using the word “suck” as an epithet. But you play the hand you’re dealt.]I read Reclusive Leftist for the first time in a while and found a new post, the first since September 30 and the first substantive one since September 7. Entitled “I hate the world”, it begins:When you’re off in a vortex of writing, totally disconnected from the real world, it’s

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-85426519831636247122010-10-25T18:21:00.002-04:002010-10-25T18:23:30.202-04:00

Comments are open. Some recent posts may not allow comments because comments weren't allowed when they were written. I attempted to reconfigure those but may have missed some.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-76433310824151540482010-10-25T17:54:00.006-04:002010-10-25T18:20:19.373-04:00

It’s an oft-repeated belief on the Left that white* working-class voters who support Republicans are voting against their own economic interests. After all, Democrats will take money away from the fat cats and spread it around to everyone who isn’t a fat cat. Therefore, white working-class Republicans must be ill-informed or led astray by conservative rhetoric (or conservative lies) or stupid or

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-80919831634471742832010-10-13T15:08:00.001-04:002010-10-25T18:25:02.223-04:00

I said I wasn’t going to be blogging. Apparently, however, all it takes to start me writing again is deciding not to blog. Maybe I should just announce every week or so that I’m not blogging any longer.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-28509181560458099142010-10-13T15:03:00.003-04:002010-10-25T18:24:41.573-04:00

Anglachel is writing again, about the Jerry Brown campaign’s consideration of the word “whore” to refer to Meg Whitman. Her initial post is here; follow-up here.As always, I find her writing extremely interesting, on point, and well thought out within her coherent world view. Since I do not entirely share that world view (although I also do not entirely dismiss it), I don’t necessarily find her

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-58233426430529255752010-10-12T08:33:00.003-04:002010-10-25T18:23:56.911-04:00

I saw a car yesterday with two bumper stickers:Celebrate DiversityGo VeganSo not all forms of diversity, then.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-76651645710962337882010-10-08T17:09:00.001-04:002010-10-08T17:15:34.358-04:00

I’m going dark - well, darker - for a while. I’ve started a number of posts lately and can’t “close” any of them so I’m going to stop trying. Comments are disabled although you can always reach me via my email address in my profile - look to the right-hand column and down.I’ll check back on November 3 and let you know if it rained in Poughkeepsie on the 2nd.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-88920693106587404062010-09-09T15:11:00.001-04:002010-09-09T15:13:12.014-04:00

Quite some time ago I was involved in a comments discussion at Reclusive Leftist which shook one of my long-held beliefs about “the Left”. It occurred in the context of a discussion on health care policy but veered into the issue of the United States’ superpower status. RL is replying to an earlier comment on health policy when she says:... international comparisons don’t matter to most Americans

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-51376834010419115812010-09-02T15:16:00.002-04:002010-09-02T15:20:11.287-04:00

Blogger is sorting some comments into the Spam bucket which is fine. It’s sorting some non-spam comments into the Spam bucket which is understandable. However, when it emails me about comments it is not warning me when a comment is sorted into the Spam bucket and that's neither fine nor understandable. This means I’ve been assuming the comments I’m emailed about have been showing up and so I

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-73085561971898338612010-09-02T15:07:00.002-04:002010-09-02T15:10:03.584-04:00

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. - Anatole FranceAnd to drive gas guzzlers. Jeff Jacoby has written a critique of last year’s Cash For Clunkers program. There were a number of problems with this program but the one that stands out for me is the one caused by the environmental aspect of Cash

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-23849104323204916062010-08-28T16:45:00.002-04:002010-08-28T16:49:57.286-04:00

Grim is hosting a discussion on “reasonably talk[ing] through the idea of limiting the franchise.” I won’t be participating - I explain why below - but I want to address a couple of points he made about my writing.First, I was apparently unclear on principles and pragmatism. To me, a principle is something you stand by regardless of whether it benefits you or your “side”. If you truly believe

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-43756258991997782162010-08-28T10:12:00.000-04:002010-08-28T10:13:16.128-04:00

One of my recent posts regarding women’s suffrage received a comment from Kevin D. Williamson regarding the post of his that got me started on all this. I had planned to begin this apology post with, “Assuming this comment is truly from the Kevin D. Williamson who wrote the NRO article I referenced”. Once I thought about it, however, I realized I owed Mr. Williamson an apology whether he was the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-75068692661441136412010-08-27T13:07:00.001-04:002010-08-27T13:09:25.975-04:00

Douglas Schoen is advising Barack Obama on how to “secure his political future”. His advice basically amounts to “do what Bill Clinton did - at my urging - after the 1994 mid-term elections”. One specific piece of Schoen advice caught my eye:Beyond that, the administration must emphasize that it understands the electorate's concern about fiscal prudence, the deficit, the debt and the need to

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-82763736266834584702010-08-26T20:59:00.004-04:002010-08-26T21:09:10.348-04:00

In the aftermath of ”Unprincipled”, ”Six”, and ”Once more, with feeling”, there are two posts and one comment I believe are well worth reading.The comment is by Cassandra at Villainous Company. It is one of the best descriptions of what it means to be “the Other” that I have ever read. Perhaps it is the very fact that Cassandra does not consider victimization to be either an art form or a

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-33523927642355100842010-08-25T23:06:00.003-04:002010-08-25T23:19:32.280-04:00

Back in June of 2006 2009, I wrote about how sad the House's passage of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill made me:Still, this is just one piece of legislation so it took me a while to figure out why I felt so sad about it. It’s because this bill, more than any other passed or contemplated, makes me think that before too long - 25 years, 50, maybe 100 - the United States is going to look

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-73435614399141971582010-08-25T19:19:00.004-04:002010-08-28T10:18:35.920-04:00

[Update: Please see this post for my apology to Kevin Williamson.]Cassandra at Villainous Company is writing again about (sort of) the unprincipled Kevin Williamson National Review Online post regarding women’s suffrage. I started to comment over there and realized I was writing way too much for a comment so here’s a post.First - and a point I also made in the comments at Grim’s - let’s stop

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-8019054350361756502010-08-23T15:45:00.001-04:002010-08-23T15:47:23.668-04:00

I’m not going to get into the Ground Zero Mosque/Park51 controversy directly. Everyone else has pretty much said everything that can be said. But I did like the second point in this Daniel Drezner post (via JustOneMinute):2) I'm getting really sick of "the terrorists will win" line of criticism being levied against those wishing to prevent construction of the mosque. Over the past few days,

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-69198619384022671762010-08-20T11:54:00.001-04:002010-08-20T11:56:55.622-04:00

My original version of yesterday’s “Unprincipled” post on denying women the right to vote was longer than the one I actually put up. In that longer version, I went on to discuss what I believed was the larger issue:The fact that some on the Right can entertain the notion of depriving women of the vote - even as a provocation, even only half-seriously - tells me that they don’t understand

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-47227924741594671472010-08-19T14:55:00.005-04:002010-08-28T10:18:04.114-04:00

[Update: Please see this post for my apology to Kevin Williamson.]Happy Women’s Suffrage (one day late). Kevin D. Williamson at The Corner celebrated with a brief post entitled “ Some Things Do Not Get Better with Time”: If I am not mistaken, today marks the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. A video tribute. (Also a tribute to the glories of American education.)The link in

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-92095872448476970782010-08-17T17:01:00.001-04:002010-08-17T17:02:56.214-04:00

I’ve seen some amazing selective quoting in the blogosphere. It’s not unheard of for bloggers to take phrases, sentences, whole paragraphs out of context and misrepresent what the original writer actually meant. Usually this is done to paint a writer the blogger doesn’t like as a rotten person or to make a writer with greater name recognition appear to agree with the blogger. That’s why my rule

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34828340519307872042010-08-05T21:29:00.002-04:002010-08-05T21:33:46.113-04:00

I watched the first ABC News “This Week” show with Christiane Amanpour as the anchor. I have to admit I didn’t watch the interviews with Nancy Pelosi and Robert Gates. There’s nothing unusual in that: I rarely watch the interview segments on This Week preferring instead to watch the round table discussion and what follows.I didn’t care for Amanpour. She seemed jerky and unfocused in the round

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-71653446399718906992010-08-02T15:36:00.002-04:002010-08-02T15:59:05.017-04:00

[I originally wrote this piece on June 10 of this year, hence the words “almost exactly” in the last paragraph.]I have a very dear friend who is on the verge of a trip to Turkey as part of an interfaith group - which includes Jews. This means that despite my current reluctance to pay any attention to local, State, national, or world political situations, I have been drawn to some articles about

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-58900493564179130672010-07-28T22:41:00.000-04:002010-07-28T22:42:21.951-04:00

I read through the pages of Jornolist posts about the rumor that Trig Palin is actually Bristol Palin’s child rather than Sarah Palin’s. I may have more to say about this later but on first reading there was one post that made me laugh (emphasis mine):John BlevinsSept 1, 2008, 8:35amI don’t think anyone here is talking about running with it. We’re privately airing out curiosities.I think Mark S

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-57952358854179044522010-07-26T15:54:00.001-04:002010-07-26T15:56:40.718-04:00

Once the Obamacare Exchanges get going in 2014, everyone not in Medicare or Medicaid is going to have to either buy acceptable private health insurance as defined by the Federal government (with some exemptions for various things) or pay a penalty. The penalty is going to start at 1% of a person’s income in 2014 and rise to 2.5% of a person’s income by 2016.Let’s take a best case scenario (also

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-19741245274807520902010-07-26T15:53:00.001-04:002010-07-26T15:53:50.652-04:00

I’m back. Comment moderation is disabled. Which sounds sort of backwards so: Comments are now allowed with no interference from me.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-60333047402447177332010-06-11T09:38:00.001-04:002010-06-11T09:38:54.727-04:00

I’ll be off the grid until around July 14. Comments are disabled.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-42834112392624765552010-04-08T13:34:00.001-04:002010-04-08T13:41:07.518-04:00

I watched the Sunday talk shows not this past Sunday but the week before. On one of them - maybe “Meet The Press” - the roundtable discussion basically came down to:ObamaCare Supporter: The American people will love the Democrats’ health care reform.ObamaCare Opponent: No they won’t.Supporter: Yes they will.Opponent: No they won’t.Supporter: Yes they will.Opponent: No they won’t.Supporter: Yes

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-82328666103711860132010-03-31T13:29:00.001-04:002010-03-31T13:32:35.370-04:00

There’s a lot of chatter about how people who oppose the new health care bills are doing terrible things. In response, there’s a growing amount of chatter about how people who support the new health care bills are doing terrible things. The Gormogons have a nice little round-up of just the reported window breaking incidents in which they label each incident as “True”, “Hoax”, or “Not what it

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-33747929624008773492010-03-22T09:29:00.002-04:002010-03-22T09:35:13.166-04:00

The House passed the Senate’s Christmas Eve health care reform bill. Here are three afterwords I recommend: FDL because it’s a interesting (although lopsided) summary; McArdle because I share her fear (and - in my case and I think hers - anger) about process; and Douthat because he’s writing about possible outcomes. As terrifying as this bill and the process used to pass it are, it’s not everyone

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-91269564025282956432010-03-20T15:33:00.002-04:002010-03-20T15:35:19.000-04:00

Just in case anyone is thinking that health care reform can be repealed after the 2010 elections if the Republicans are successful enough:The Republicans currently have 41 votes in the Senate.The Democrats currently have 57 votes in the Senate.There are 2 Independents in the Senate who caucus with the Democrats.There are 10 Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.There are 21 Democratic

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-79852484027339971782010-03-19T19:52:00.001-04:002010-03-19T19:53:09.420-04:00

This is why I don’t really have anything else to say about the Democrat’s health reform bill. Movin’ Meat is complaining about his company’s insurance company imposing a $500 fee on emergency room use by two of their insureds. I am perfectly willing to stipulate that the trips to the emergency room were reasonable and should have been covered without question and that the insurance company is

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-82297750934879091312010-03-19T12:20:00.001-04:002010-03-19T12:22:05.799-04:00

David Brooks is writing about Phillip Blond. I’d never heard of Blond but his ideas sound interesting since I have recently been discussing with an efriend the loss of the social web that holds society together. Since I’m not really blogging, I’m not going to do an extended analysis of Blond’s points but I do have a few thoughts on his piece in Prospect Magazine:In the United States, one route to

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-34859023436264244382010-03-14T17:26:00.001-04:002010-03-14T17:29:06.778-04:00

Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t be blogging but I couldn’t resist saying something about this; the post saying it is quick and easy to write; and I’m feeling quite snippy today so this is a good outlet.Today on Meet The Press, Tom Friedman said:Well, this is what worries me, that, you know, I've been saying for awhile, Tom [Brokaw], there's only one thing worse than a one-party autocracy, the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-21287340436166757742010-03-10T11:20:00.000-05:002010-03-10T11:21:52.437-05:00

You may have noticed that blogging has been light and it’s going to get lighter. I’ve got three non-bloggy undertakings underway and a fourth I should have underway and if I’m going to do them right there simply isn’t time for me to blog - or even to read what I usually read in order to blog. And honestly, if I were passionate about anything I’m writing about right now I’d find the time somehow

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-50510912658637191242010-03-04T19:15:00.002-05:002010-03-04T19:25:29.556-05:00

I wrote earlier about the process by which Congress could relatively simply pass a version of Obamacare. First, the House passes the Senate’s already passed health care bill as is. The House and Senate then pass a second bill (the sidecar bill) which amends the first bill as desired by the House. To get this through the Senate, the reconciliation process is used. This means the second bill only

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-39760571849303740752010-03-02T09:43:00.001-05:002010-03-02T09:48:03.418-05:00

Movin’ Meat has up a post in which he cites the case of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield paying claims late and says:Actually, that's pretty much SOP for most insurers: deny and delay at will, and dare providers/consumers/regulators to punish them. Fines (when there are any) just go back to the insureds as increased premiums, and any time the providers/consumers are fatigued out of demanding the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-39959306726158030822010-03-01T19:16:00.002-05:002010-03-01T19:22:30.000-05:00

My understanding of the current state of the heath care reform bills was that the House had passed one and the Senate had passed a different one. That is, both bodies had already passed a version of Obamacare. With the election of Scott Brown, it is almost impossible to imagine the Senate being able to pass another health care reform bill since the Democrats no longer have the 60 votes necessary

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-44286268019201810952010-03-01T12:58:00.001-05:002010-03-01T13:00:31.001-05:00

Some references for discussion of health care reform:H.R. 3962 - This is the version of health care reform passed by the House on November 7, 2009. This bill is 2016 pages long. Cite this bill as ‘‘Affordable Health Care for America Act’’. From the link, you can download a pdf of the bill or read a hyperlinked version on THOMAS. H.R. 3590 - Despite the HR designation, this is the version of

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-68167326041401315632010-03-01T11:08:00.001-05:002010-03-01T11:11:11.619-05:00

I read Megan McArdle’s blog at the Atlantic website daily. That’s “read” as in present tense. But I’m feeing annoyed enough that I may soon either be saying “read” as in past tense or changing “daily” to “when I can stomach it”. The Atlantic changed the format for her blog. Actually, they apparently changed the format for all the blogs. So what’s the problem with the new layout, you ask? Let me

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-63354301040721635742010-02-28T17:15:00.002-05:002010-02-28T17:20:33.501-05:00

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. - AesopToday on This Week, host Elizabeth Vargas and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the following exchange about passing health care reform:VARGAS: ... What do you say to your members, when it does come to the House to vote on this, who are in real fear of losing their seats in November if they support you now?PELOSI: Well first of all our members --

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-72143439236505104722010-02-26T02:02:00.002-05:002010-02-26T02:05:13.559-05:00

I only saw bits and pieces of the health care summit but it bothered me that President Obama was calling everyone by his or her first name. After all, no one was calling him “Barack”. Maybe this is the way things worked in earlier presidencies and I just missed it but it sounded weird to me.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-51389836677859174522010-02-26T01:30:00.002-05:002010-02-26T01:39:11.615-05:00

From JustOneMinute, quoting the Wall Street Journal (emphasis mine):President Barack Obama will use a bipartisan summit Thursday to push for sweeping health-care legislation, but if that fails to generate enough support the White House has prepared the outlines of a more modest plan.His leading alternate approach would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-51883138402973580332010-02-22T18:11:00.002-05:002010-02-22T18:20:14.675-05:00

In a good explanation of the health insurance premium rate review provision in President Obama’s proposed health care bill, Wonk Room says:Since conservatives will surely claim that rate review is some kind of government take over of private industry or a burdensome new federal requirement for insurers, it’s important to note that states that have instituted rate review house profitable insurance

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-2688861923329880712010-02-22T15:31:00.001-05:002010-02-22T15:31:59.410-05:00

I’ve caught up on responding to comments that have come in while I was out of commission:Yes Great minds This sounds familiarAnd I deleted a comment on a very old post. I’m so proud: the Spambots have found me.If I wasn’t such a coward I’d try installing the widget that shows recent comments. Maybe someday...

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-25763172301433074412010-02-22T14:41:00.001-05:002010-02-22T14:44:00.436-05:00

[I’m struck speechless by reading that President Obama’s “new” health care proposal apparently includes (via Neo-neocon) price controls on health insurance premiums. I haven’t looked at the White House posting myself yet and hope that it will turn out to be not really as described. Failing that, I hope voters will be smart enough to realize that this way lies disaster. For now, though, I need to

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-87159097984870073762010-02-19T14:24:00.000-05:002010-02-19T14:25:16.734-05:00

I had shoulder surgery on Monday which was pretty minor and went very well. I got a nerve block for pain which meant my left hand was insubordinate for a couple of days (and still occasionally seems to harbor rebellious impulses). Further, the dregs of the general anesthetic and whatever the opposite of dregs is of the pain meds are resulting in spectacularly brilliant thoughts that I suspect

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-49373793834918274692010-02-15T02:58:00.001-05:002010-02-15T03:00:28.712-05:00

A few days ago, I said I wanted climate change scientists to provide the world with:Raw temperatures for all land measurements for as long as we have them broken out into individual measurement stations. ... The next column in the spreadsheet should contain the adjusted temperatures. The next column in the spreadsheet should explain how the adjustment was calculated.Prompted by a Times (UK)

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-41104262471347505232010-02-14T14:07:00.001-05:002010-02-14T14:09:49.801-05:00

I snarl about Reclusive Leftist quite often but today she’s hit one out of the park. She’s discussing feminism, Sarah Palin, liberalism, and polar bears. Go, read “The Unresolvable Paradox”.

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-88450695112265391462010-02-14T13:42:00.002-05:002010-02-14T13:48:12.726-05:00

During the campaign, John McCain proposed an across the board spending freeze on all Federal programs except the Department of Defense, veterans programs, and entitlements. Barack Obama responded that McCain’s proposal amount to "using a hatchet where you need a scalpel." Now President Obama is proposing a spending freeze. His Administration argues it is still a scalpel because the freezes will

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-22818283885675792002010-02-13T15:45:00.001-05:002010-02-14T13:48:41.171-05:00

Let’s consider the case of Peggy Robertson, a resident of the Great State of Colorado. Ms. Robertson had given birth by Caesarean section. Because having one child by Caesarean section means a woman is more likely to have later children by Caesarean section, many insurers consider that a pre-existing condition. This means that when a woman who has had a Caesarean section applies for an individual

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3235326301313715924.post-36301190281696508752010-02-11T10:28:00.001-05:002010-02-11T10:31:17.442-05:00

We survived the snowpocalypse without so much as a flicker of the lights. Today it’s spectacularly beautiful out there: blue, blue skies and blinding sunshine. The snow is heavy and just wet enough so that it stuck where it was blown, coating even the vertical trunks of bare trees and the downward slope of deck railings like icing laid on by a sugar-addicted pastry chef.It’s easy for me to admire

Elisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06594477709835944165noreply@blogger.com0