Last weekend I attended a charity gala hosted by our local university. Held every year, the gala is a chance for the university to celebrate donors to scholarship funds and to highlight the achievements of the students those gifts supported. Despite the unpleasantness I endured by my semi-annual donning of pantyhose, I left the event feeling less glum about the world around me and more tolerant of my fellow Americans. It got me thinking about the culture of philanthropy in the United States and why we give.

It’s no secret that Americans are very generous. The culture of philanthropy in this country is very strong, so much so that people travel from all over the world to learn how to adapt it to their own cultures. In a recent assessment of global giving by Charities Aid Foundation the U.S. was ranked 5th. (Personally, I think this is an underestimate owing to the inclusion of “soft numbers” like volunteer time and helping strangers, but let’s not quibble.) According to the National Philanthropic Trust’s most recent report, some 88% of U.S. households give to charity, averaging $2,213 per household each year. In 2010, the total charitable giving in the U.S. was roughly 2% of the GDP. The lion’s share of these gifts came from individuals or their estates (over 80%) with gifts from private foundations (14%) and corporations (5%) trailing significantly behind.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:22 AM | Comments (167)
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From NewsBusters, via Ben's headline dump, the unbiased professional Martha Raddatz fawns over Hillary.

On the October 20 edition of the program, ABC’s Martha Raddatz declared that Hillary Clinton was “on fire” while campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Saturday.

Co-anchor Dan Harris kicked off the Hillary watch by pretending that Mrs. Clinton was making a comeback: “[A] lot of people talking this morning about the return of Hillary Clinton, attending her first political rally in four years on Saturday.”

. . .

Harris then brought Raddatz into the discussion, and the senior foreign affairs correspondent cheered Mrs. Clinton’s campaign appearance: “This was the first explicitly political event for Hillary Clinton in four years, and she was on fire campaigning for the Virginia gubernatorial candidate, her old friend Terry McAuliffe. She was a big draw, lots of applause and lots of fire bombs aimed at the Republicans.”

What, these "firebombs" don't make her into a divisive partisan extremist ideologue whose negative tone is causing the public to hate politics and politicians even more?

Pure boosterism from someone who would never say the same about a conservative.

Posted by: rdbrewer at 02:07 PM | Comments (121)
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• Jay Carney Claims The Obamacare Website Isn't Failing
  
• Taranto: Vaporcare
  
• Again, This Woman Moderated A Debate In 2012
  
• Russia's Demographic Revolution
  
• Man Spends 4.5 Hours On Obamacare Hotline And Still Can't Sign Up
  
• Healthcare.gov Is Walking Dead
  
• Another Journalist Joins The Obama Administration
  
• Obamacare Website Failed Just Days Before Launch
  
• Race Hustling Results
  
• Police Officer Fired After Shooting And Pepper Spraying Squirrel
  
• What If They Gave A Shutdown And No One Care?
  
• Even Some Lefty Journalist Are Openly Talking About The Obamacare Failure
  
• Rand Paul Pushes Constitutional Amendment For Congress
  
• Unions Vs. Obamacare
  
• Only 148,000 Jobs Added Last Month
  
• Small RI Town Seeks Recall Of Town Council Over Obstruction Of Concealed Carry Permits
  
• Dad Gets Emotional Over His Son's Grades
  
• Jay Leno Riffing On Obamacare
  
• Waiting As Long As He Can, Jon Stewart Finally Has To Address The Obamacare Failure
  
• Man Buys Ticket To Game 1 Of World Series For Six Dollars
  

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Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:38 AM | Comments (151)
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Happy Tuesday.

Remember, the Obama Administration's first excuse for why the Obamacare rollout was failing was "high volume" of users of the website. WaPo reports that this was a known bug with the website, which had locked up in a simulation prior to the debut date. "About a month before the exchange opened, this testing group urged agency officials not to launch it nationwide because it was still riddled with problems, according to an insurance IT executive who was close to the rollout."

Politico goes through five basic questions that Sec. Sebelius won't answer about the failure of Obamacare exchanges.

Ben Domenech observed on Twitter last night that Terry McAuliffe is about to win in Virginia as an anti-gun candidate. The NRA is bringing $500k to Ken Cuccinelli's defense.

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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:51 AM | Comments (275)
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Earlier this month, the Associated Press erroneously reported that Virginia Democratic nominee for Governor Terry McAuliffe was under investigation for lying to federal investigators. The story was retracted less than two hours later when it turned out it was a different Terry McAuliffe.

Now the AP has fired two employees over the error.

According to sources, [Reporter Bob] Lewis has since been fired. He could not be reached for comment.

The AP has also fired Dena Potter, a Richmond-based news editor for Virginia and West Virginia. When reached by phone, Potter directed inquiries to Paul Colford, the APÂ’s Director of Media Relations. Colford declined to comment on personnel matters.

Another editor is expected to be reprimanded over the incident, sources say.

These aren't some flunky stringers. Lewis is described as "the dean" of the Richmond, VA press corps.

I'm glad that reporters are being held to account for mistakes but would this have happened if the victim of the incorrect report was a Republican? Think of all the false stories Sarah Palin, George W. Bush and the rest have been subjected to over the years. How many reporters have been reprimanded let alone fired for all the garbage Republicans have been subjected to?

But a Democrat gets a little taste of what the GOP puts up with on a near daily basis and people are kicked to the curb?

Must be nice to be part of the protected class.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:49 PM | Comments (170)
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Hello Horde! IÂ’m tsrblke (thatÂ’s Lke not ike).

I’ll be your host for today’s edition of “ACA, unintended consequences and you.” Today’s edition is called “NYT buries the lede.” The NYT recently ran a story that is quite tragic about a family that took their little girl in for work on her heart. Sadly, although they had insurance, they apparently got socked with tons of “out of network charges.”

Now people will likely want to hash blame all over the place here. ItÂ’ll be said the parents should have asked more questions (although do you ask who the assisting surgeon is going to be for your operation?) Or the hospital should have ensured everyone was a participating provider (that assumes a level of coordination I have yet to see at any hospital.)

So let’s pass on the blame for a moment and ask “How is Obamacare going to mes this up?”

Conveniently, the NYT sorta tells us: more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:23 AM | Comments (253)
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Soup reaches its highest culinary expression only when it is homemade. Canned simply does not cut it. And do not think that you can get away with using canned or boxed chicken stock. Remember the spatchcocked chicken recipe? Well, that back you cut out of the chicken should have gone into the freezer so that you can make fresh chicken stock and lord it over your pompous 2nd cousin with the ugly shoes when she brings a "homemade" pie to Thanksgiving dinner. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:19 PM | Comments (107)
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One of the refrains we heard ad nausium during the shutdown battle was that "all Republicans hate ObamaCare, it's just a fight over tactics". That might be true in Congress (though I have my doubts about how committed some are to fighting to repeal it) but there's a very different story going on in some of the states with Republican governors.

Just today, Ohio Governor John Kasich was able to ram through an expansion of Medicaid over the objection of the state's GOP legislature.

Senate President Keith Faber of Celina said, "I have repeatedly stated my opposition to the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio, but the governor made this decision without legislative approval...The governor has decided to take this action because he believes it's in the best interest of the state. While I respectfully disagree, this is not the end of the discussion.”

Faber said the Senate still plans to cap spending growth and increase accountability for Medicaid spending.

He also said the Senate will also take immediate steps to recover approximately $400 million state tax dollars allocated to the health-care industry in the most recently enacted budget and give it to Ohioans for a tax cut. The Senate will be introducing legislation “to rein in the Controlling Board's ability to make such sweeping adjustments in budget items that are better considered by the legislature as a whole."

Kasich isn't the only GOP Governor taking the ObamaCare "fee money" (the feds pay 100% of the cost of expanding the program for 3 years and eventually drop down to 90%).

Other Republican Governors taking the Medicaid money are Jan Brewer of Arizona, Rick Scott of Florida (he wants to but his legislature won't let him), Terry Branstad of Iowa, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota,

Four Republican Governors are actually running state based exchanges, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Butch Otter of Idaho, and Brian Sandoval of Nevada.

Some will say that taking ObamaCare Medicaid money isn't really supporting ObamaCare but the way it's working out tells a very different story.

In 2014, nine million Americans gaining insurance through the health care law are expected to do so through Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office, compared to seven million projected to get coverage through the exchanges.

The CBO estimates that Medicaid expansion alone will cost the federal government $710 billion over the next decade. If every state were to follow Kasich's lead and participate in the Medicaid expansion, that number would be closer to $1 trillion.

Defenders of these GOP governors no doubt will claim that their obligation as governors is different than what it would be if they were in Congress or heaven forbid, the White House.

Well, if you can't rouse yourself to oppose ObamaCare on principle, even if it means getting a few extra bucks for your state from the states next door, how can you claim to be a principled Republican, let alone conservative?

If "we all hate ObamaCare equally" and just differ on the tactics of getting rid of it, it's time for the GOP 'establishment" to make it clear that cooperating in the working of ObamaCare is beyond the pale and you shouldn't expect any support from the party.

Of course they won't do that. In fact the reality is likely to be just the opposite. As I've said before Chris Christie will be the 2016 nominee. Really, the only question is, will Susana Martinez or John Kasich be his running-mate?

Posted by: DrewM at 02:13 PM | Comments (205)
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Well today I was essentially incommunicado with a cell phone that wouldnÂ’t roam and quite possibly the worldÂ’s shittiest and most frustrating internet connection.

I havenÂ’t been this cut off for a long time and I did not like the feelings it brought back. All day long I saw other, happier people googling away, Candy Crushing, and jabbering on their cell phones while I had...nothing. Now I know how the other half feel.

And so of course you must suffer too with this husk of an ONT.

Don't Know Much About History

Meet the products of the modern American University system. Never in history has ignorance been this expensive.

Questioner: What was the Holocaust?

American College Student: UmÂ…IÂ’m on the spot.

Questioner: Which country was Adolf Hitler the leader of?

American College Student: I think itÂ’s Amsterdam?

Questioner: What was Auschwitz?

American College Student: I donÂ’t know.

Questioner: What were the Nuremburg Trials?

American College Student: I donÂ’t know.

Why Did the Nazis Brutally Beat and Kill This 14 Year Old Girl in Auschwitz?

Because she was Polish, Catholic, and they could. And that was enough. Her name was Czesława Kwoka.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:02 PM | Comments (727)
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It's that time of year again...

The leaves are beginning to turn, there's a slight chill in the air, and off in the distance, smoke billows from the chimney of a home where someone just can't wait until Winter to light that first fire.

The air is drier now and that means static electricity returns to zap us when we least expect it. Kids all around the world will put on their footy-pajamas and shuffle their little feet across the carpet, sneaking up behind some unsuspecting victim and ZAP!

Cries of DAMN IT! will fill the air.

You can threaten to toss the little jammie-wearing bug zappers into the oven but, they just won't be deterred. Why? Because it is just so much fun!

Face it. You like doing it too. However, there are times when static electricity becomes deadly serious, and this is the season to be most cautious about it.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:48 PM | Comments (303)
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