It's the most frightening time of year--that heart pounding moment when you spot your open enrollment information lurking in your inbox, rip it open with trembling hands, and scream in horror as your annual premium increase leaps from the envelop and mercilessly feasts upon the insides of your wallet, gnashing and shredding in orgiastic ecstasy until there's nothing left but a handful of pennies and a contemptuously belched up KFC coupon.

Expired, of course.

This terrifying scene will be repeated all across America in the next few weeks.

My own horror show arrived in the mail today. I'll spare you the gory details. Here's the short version: A 25% increase in premiums for the same health coverage I carried last year. For someone on a family plan, that translates into a $1,200 yearly increase.

So congratulations. If you make somewhere around $50,000 a year, then more than your entire after tax annual raise just went to pay for Obamacare. Doesn't that feel FANTASTIC? You're bringing home less this year than you did last year.

And you're one of the lucky ones. See, you have a job. And you got a raise. You're one of life's lottery winners. A one percenter.

Oh, but whoops. They also tacked on an extra $600 per year penalty for tobacco users. Well, that's okay. You're a horrible person for smoking anyway. You should probably just kill yourself and make room for someone less of a burden on the system. Like an illegal and all his extended family.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:08 PM | Comments (240)
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The balls. The balls.

“We did not have the luxury of that with a law that said it’s go time on October 1st and frankly a political atmosphere where the majority party at least in the House was determined to stop this any way they possibly could including shutting down the United States government. So it was not an ideal atmosphere,” she said.

Posted by: JohnE. at 08:47 AM | Comments (208)
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It’s a weekend day in late-October which can only mean one thing – working in the garden!

I know we have a lot of resident garden experts amongst the Moron Nation. I am not one of them, but I am trying to learn. This thread is a place to share that expertise.

So what should you be doing in your garden right now? HereÂ’s a handy resource of gardening to do lists by month: courtesy of pallensmith.com.

Much of what youÂ’ll be doing this weekend depends on which hardiness zone youÂ’re in. You can find that our here courtesy of the USDA: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. (IÂ’m in Zone 7a.)

For those of us at altitude, understanding hardiness zones can be a little complicated. HereÂ’s an explanation of how they work courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:05 AM | Comments (139)
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For all your football needs.

Let's take a look at the current BCS standings. There are five BCS games this season:

Rank Team Record
1 Alabama 7-0
2 Florida State 6-0
3 Oregon 7-0
4 Ohio State 7-0
5 Missouri 7-0
6 Stanford 6-1
7 Miami (FL) 6-0
8 Baylor 6-0
9 Clemson 6-1
10 Texas Tech 7-0
11 Auburn 6-1
12 UCLA 5-1
13 LSU 6-2
14 Virginia Tech 6-1
15 Oklahoma 6-1
16 Texas A&M 5-2
17 Fresno State 6-0
18 Northern Illinois 7-0
19 Oklahoma State 5-1
20 Louisville 6-1

So there you go.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:17 AM | Comments (90)
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There's nothing "novel" here; why it would be granted is a mystery

A system includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units.

Computers have been on boats forever. Water cooling of electronics? Old. Anchored generators? Old.

What is here that wasn't done by Soviet fishing "trawlers" 40 years ago during the cold war? Yea, because we're The Google, so SHUT UP, that's why.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:11 AM | Comments (183)
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The Republican Party's Hidden Advantages. Oh I'm sure they'll figure out a way to screw that up too. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:54 PM | Comments (440)
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Quick! Someone go down and inflate the autopilot.

Posted by: andy at 04:04 AM | Comments (290)
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In the President's statement Monday he reminded people that, while the website was broken, people could sign up "the old-fashioned way – offline." But Politico reports that effort isn't going so well:

POLITICO reporters who got recorded announcements earlier in the week — sometimes directing them to try HealthCare.gov — can now get through to the call center. Once they connect, staffers like “Justin” try to get people’s information into the online system.

But “Justin” doesn’t have a fast track. Asked if the website works better for him than the general public, he responded: “No.”

“The site does not work for us either,” he said.

It's not just that the phone center isn't really working at the moment, it's that it was never intended to do what the President is asking it to do.

“The telephone call center is not a realistic alternative to the website,” said Adam Linker, a health policy analyst for the North Carolina Justice Center, a consumer advocacy group. “The marketplace was billed as a place to easily shop and compare plans, but on the phone there is no real way to do that.”

Others agree that the call centersÂ’ representatives can provide only limited help to those who want to shop for coverage. ThatÂ’s because some states have dozens of plans to choose from, a process that could take hours to sort through on the telephone.

So the phone number is a short term and long term fail but fear not, there's always the good old paper application. What could possibly go wrong with paper? Back to Politico:

“Our challenges have included coping with the performance of the portal as that is our means of entering data just as it is for the consumer,” Lau said, referring to HealthCare.gov. “With the relatively low volumes of applications we have received thus far, this has not been a problem for us.”

But Serco will be flooded with paper applications if the website glitches persist, predicted John Gorman, founder of the Gorman Health Group, which has advised some of the insurance exchanges. “Serco is going to be swimming in paper within the next two to three weeks,” he said.

What all of this points to is something that the President and many of his allies have been trying to deny for most of the week. Obamacare does not work without a functioning website.

Notice I'm not saying Obamacare does work with a functioning website. There are layers of failure here, most of which we've yet to explore. But the website is necessary for this to even have a hope of working. Here's Ezra Klein on that point:

The federal website is the crucial link between the government, consumers and insurance companies -- and the administration, at least back in June, believed its success would drive everything from public perceptions of the law to the Medicaid expansion...HealthCare.gov isnÂ’t just a website. ItÂ’s essential to ObamacareÂ’s success.

There's more to Klein's argument about why that is so but the bottom line is that the website is mission critical. There really is no workable alternative.

Posted by: Guest Blogger at 02:42 PM | Comments (303)
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It's Friday! Time to boogie down. Time to get your twerk on.

In that spirit, a post full of news guaranteed to lighten your mood and, with that in mind, I'm saving the best for last. So, no skipping ahead!

Sporting news:

You know that feeling, when your team is losing.... again... and you find it hard to support them. You don't WANT to be a fair-weather fan, but HEY! they made you do it. They left you no choice, right? Tell it to this bloke --> Skip ahead to the 40 sec mark.

In Parenting news:

There's this guy. Tell me, now. How will that little girl ever find a man who measures up to dear, old dad? (HT to BCochran for the link)

Trivial Pursuit-type news:

Moar about kows.

In Pop Culture news:

The Maltese Falcon can now be yours, but it won't come cheap.

For the moronettes: This fella has held up well over the years.

In news that's bound to break a few hearts. Miranda Kerr will no longer model for Victoria's Secret. VS cites Kerr as being "difficult" and failing to sell as much as the other models. Uh huh. I'm detecting sour grapes. Remember how nasty they were about Kate Upton, saying "She is too obvious. She's like a Page 3 girl. She's like a footballer's wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy. We would never use [Kate]". That was, if you remember, just before they published old photos of her in their catalog.

And, in breaking news, Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom announce plans to divorce. Really, who can blame him? Who wants an unemployed wife just lounging about all day?

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. Be sure to consume responsibly and, while you're at it....
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:57 PM | Comments (282)
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Thank God it's Friday!

A lot of death spirals in the news lately. Add this one to your list. More welfare recipients than workers in the U.S. more...

Posted by: CDR M at 06:05 PM | Comments (564)
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