[We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Thread Directly Below This One, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic.

-- Sincerely, the Fascist MGMT]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge. Whether you have a question about a scope, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly journey through space and time. All early bird eyes were on this morning's eclipse (a partial for observers on the East Coast), so I'd love to hear how it looked from your locale, but first, let's dive into the Celestial Sea this week, exploring the constellations Cetus, the Sea Monster:

Posted by: CAC at 03:16 PM | Comments (67)
Post contains 891 words, total size 7 kb.

With the astronomy post going up, here's an open thread to crack wise. more...

Posted by: CAC at 03:03 PM | Comments (295)
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

Anecdotal I'm sure. An isolated case. Nothing to be concerned about.

Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he'd be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.

But the 64-year-old recently received a letter notifying him the plan was being canceled because it didn't cover certain benefits required under the law...

...The Griffins are among millions of people nationwide who buy individual insurance policies and are receiving notices...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 10:54 AM | Comments (179)
Post contains 130 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: JohnE. at 08:46 AM | Comments (440)
Post contains 54 words, total size 1 kb.

Ongoing Federal "stimulus" spending per year = $700B+

$700B+ / ~320,000,000 people = ~$2,200/yr/person.

$2,200 / 12 months = $180/mo/person. (that includes illegals, uninsured, transient tourists, etc. i.e. every "warm body")

$180/mo could pay for basic catastrophic and (genuine) emergency treatment for every warm body in the US, and NOT require huge bureaucracy or expensive non-functional web sites to accomplish. Canadians pay less than half that per-person for their lame CannuckCare coverage.

I'm explicitly NOT endorsing any sort of socialized medicine schemes, I'm only drawing a dollar equivalence to show how insane and wildly inefficient the path we're heading down is. If you're going to get less, you should be paying less for it, not paying more and getting less. A similar equivalence would be to say the govt could have distributed a bare bones new car to every man woman and child in the country every four year for the cost of "stimulus" spending. Again, for the really dense, I'm NOT advocating this. To reiterate for the terminally stupid and reading comprehension challenged, I am NOT advocating this.

What I am saying is that simple math "back of the envelope" calculations can often reveal more truth about comparative value than stacks of reports and analysis. $2,200/yr/person is a bunch'o money. I'm asking if we're getting good value for it.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:36 AM | Comments (91)
Post contains 254 words, total size 2 kb.

If you like your open thread, you can keep your open thread. Period.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:19 AM | Comments (31)
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

Sebelius showed up in Tennessee to head up an Obamacare education and outreach event lie campaign and got served a steaming hot plate of public humiliation by state senator, Brian Kelsey, who managed to shove a copy of Websites for Dummies into her witch-claws during the event.

The photo of her reaction?

Priceless.

Note to the GOP: This is the way you play the game. Don't give them any room to get their message out. Keep them off balance and make every public event fraught with potential danger.

Pressure them constantly, mock and humiliate them, and keep them on the defensive.

Stunts like this work. No one will remember a single thing Sebelius said on this day, but that picture will live forever.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:20 AM | Comments (131)
Post contains 147 words, total size 1 kb.

Seriously. Check out how nice it is around here.

Posted by: JohnE. at 05:11 AM | Comments (116)
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

If at first you don't succeed

Gird your loins, folks

Newtown might not be planning any town wide events to mark the shooting tragedy last December 14th. but the Obama administration and gun control groups are still planning enough

Being rebuffed in the Senate and getting a couple of Colorado senators recalled wasn't enough to stop the left's gun control push, because they simply never give up. Neither can we.

Speaking of Newtown reactions

Another gun manufacturer flees New York. This time headed for South Carolina.

American Tactical Imports is leaving Rochester for South Carolina, blaming the move in part on the stateÂ’s gun-control law passed in January.

“As one of the gun industry’s top importers and manufacturers of firearms and firearm-related accessories, ATI’s decision to relocate is two-fold,” the company said in a news release. “ATI believes it is imperative that a firearms importer and manufacturer do business within a state that is friendly to the Second Amendment rights of the people.

Gun Of The Week

(answer below)
more...

Posted by: andy at 06:08 AM | Comments (105)
Post contains 283 words, total size 3 kb.

Walter Durranty emails to say, "This is pretty shameless propaganda from the NY Times".

Congressional Republicans have stoked consumer fears and confusion with charges that the health care reform law is causing insurers to cancel existing policies and will force many people to pay substantially higher premiums next year for coverage they donÂ’t want. That, they say, violates President ObamaÂ’s pledge that if you like the insurance you have, you can keep it.

Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that. By law, insurers cannot continue to sell policies that donÂ’t provide the minimum benefits and consumer protections required as of next year. So theyÂ’ve sent cancellation notices to hundreds of thousands of people who hold these substandard policies. (At issue here are not the 149 million people covered by employer plans, but the 10 million to 12 million people who buy policies directly on the individual market.)

Remember when the NY Times ran an editorial saying, "Cut George W. Bush a little slack. He simply misspoke when he said Iraq had WMD."?

The editorial also ignore Obama's repeated promise that families would see their premiums go down $2,500 (even liberal spin machine PolitiFact called BS on that awhile back). I guess that one is just down the memory hole entirely.

Also, not the talking point embedded within the editorial...every policy that was sold on the individual market was just crap and the government is saving people from their own inability to pick from their choice of heavily regulated policies until Mr. Misspoke came along.

Be sure to read this Washington Post piece outlining how the implementation of of this abomination was a disaster from the get-go. It was in trouble looooong before the evil GOP took control of Congress. There's even a memo to prove it.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:50 AM | Comments (71)
Post contains 333 words, total size 3 kb.