November 15, 2009
— Open Blog Good evening all Moron-types. It's Sunday so get those last few licks of fun in while you still can.
If You Haven't Been to Hoover Dam recently, It Looks Different These Days
The Hoover Dam Bypass is now under construction. The bridge will be called the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge and is expected to be finished in late 2010. I was there this past August on a weekday and didn't see any work going on at all so take the 2010 date with a grain of salt.
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— Uncle Jimbo I wish I was kidding, he really did. But as usual it's just another example of him sucking up to tyrants and now terrorists.
Manila - US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to the leader of the main Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, a guerrilla official said Saturday.
The letter to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ibrahim
was delivered to rebel peace negotiators by Deputy Assistant State Secretary Scot Marciel, according to Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the MILF secretariat.
You go Barry, heck while you are at it you should drop bin Laden a line and invite him as your guest to the Khalid "Sheik Sheik Sheik" Mohammed show you are putting on for al Qaeda.
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November 17, 2009
— DrewM Bumped: DrewM. pointed out a devastating WaPo article on Sunday, a little-read day of the week. I'm bumping this whole post and adding additional quotes from that article. As he said to me, it needs greater coverage. Bear in mind, this report was prepared by the government office charged with keeping the books on Medicaid and Medicare, and "scoring" proposed changes in the law as concern these programs -- sort of Medicare's and Medicaid's CBO. So this is as authoritative as it comes.
Original post follows. Update at end.
Another one of those 'faux' studies funded by the eviiiiillll health insurance companies? Nope. This one is from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services...the agency that runs those programs for the government.
Democrats have promised that health reform would reduce health care costs, but legislation the House passed last week would increase costs over the next decade by $289 billion. By 2019, health costs would rise to 21.1 percent of GDP compared to 20.8 under current law, according to an actuarial report prepared by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.“With the exception of the proposed reductions in Medicare payment updates for institutional providers, the provisions of H.R. 3962 would not have a significant impact on future health care cost growth rates. In addition, the longer-term viability of the Medicare update reductions is doubtful,” the report said.
In other words, outside of Medicare payment cuts to hospitals, the bill doesnÂ’t curb increasing health care costs. And even the Medicare payment cuts will be difficult to sustain.
That 500 BILLION Dollars in Medicare Cuts that Obama says won't impact services? According to this report it will impact them but don't worry, it'll never happen. Without those "cuts" this plan does nothing more than explode costs and the deficit.
Other highlights of the report include...the idea of saving money through "wellness" and "prevention" isn't going to work and the "public plan" would cost more to run than current private ones.
Most damning politically for Pelosi/Reid/Obama...
By 2014, Medicare Advantage enrollment would drop 64 percent from 13.2 million to 4.7 million because of less generous benefit packages.
In other words....Hey old folks, they are coming for your health care. In fact, as of this posting the top story on the Washington Post website is "Report: Bill would reduce senior care" Ouch.
That rumbling noise you hear? That's a lot of freshman and sophomore House Democrats running like hell from this bill on final passage (if it ever gets there). Right behind them are Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln.
Two other sounds you hear...Joe Lieberman laughing and Harry Reid crying.
The truth is now out on this bill, it's an inter-generational and income group money and health care grab. Take from the rich and middle class and give it to those who don't have either.
It's also a freedom grab by the statists.
What's not to love?
Added note: I beat up on the House GOP for their tactics on the Stupak amendment but kudos to them for requesting this study. Not sure why it wasn't available last week, when it might have killed the bill there but it has just blown a huge hole in the Senate's efforts. Well done.
With a little luck, November 15th, 2009 might be the day we look back on as the day health care reform died.
More [ace]: Below. more...
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November 14, 2009
— Purple Avenger Interesting piece here in the WSJ from a couple of days ago. It kind of supports what I've been saying for a while now about America's direction in the 21st century -- we're not quite as "stick a fork in our ass and turn us over done" and washed up as some (*cough* democrats *cough*) would have people believe.
There seems to be a new interest afoot in tinkering and coming up with creative new "stuff" that exists in the physical world rather than as a bunch of electrons floating around in a CPU and some memory
...There were 27% more undergraduates who earned mechanical-engineering degrees in 2008 than in 2003, according to the American Association of Engineering Societies. Over the same period, the number of computer-engineering graduates slipped by 31%...The tinkering bug has always been one of America's greatest assets in the past. We got to where we are today because a lot of people in the 1800's and early 1900's fiddled around with a lot of shit. They failed a lot, but quite a few stumbled onto things that defined whole industries.
Traditionally, Americans haven't been terribly risk averse as a people - we're not afraid to grab for the brass ring and maybe fail. In some other cultures, failure is a black mark, a personal stain that persists for a very long time. In the USA, a failure (ex. Microsoft "Bob") is forgotten the moment you produce the next winner. People crack jokes about "Bob", but Bob's past failure doesn't represent an ongoing liability for Microsoft today.
Engineering schools across the country report students are showing an enthusiasm for hands-on work that hasn't been seen in years. Workshops for people to share tools and ideas -- called "hackerspaces" -- are popping up all over the country; there are 124 hackerspaces in the U.S., according to a member-run group that keeps track, up from a handful at the start of last year.The WSJ piece seems to focus mainly on (electro)mechanical/robotic type efforts, but there are other R&D areas that also lend themselves to "small" efforts thanks to the declining price of equipment and a lot of used gear hitting the surplus markets due to the recession and business closings. The crew I'm with is very small, just a few guys operating self funded so far, but we've come up with some pretty exciting manufacturing techniques and scientific discoveries. We're still making "machines" of a sort, they just operate at the molecular and atomic level. Our "gear" would easily fit in an ordinary living room or two car garage with room to spare (if you had 3-phase power for the laser's power supply).
Its not too hard to see a day in the not too distant future when an "experimenter" will have gear available for under $100K that sits on a desktop that can do what you need a multi-billion dollar semiconductor fab to do today.
Basically, what I'm trying to say, is I believe we're on the brink of a new "Permian Explosion" of creative R&D that simply wasn't possible say 40 years ago due to the cost and size of equipment.
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— Open Blog Welcome to Caturday all. So grab a drink and unleash your wit.
5 Things You Didn't Know About Pat Sajak
He also quietly gives a lot of money to charities, and he's a Republican who's contributed to many candidates.
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— Ace Compare and contrast.
Thanks to Andrew.
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— Gabriel Malor I will be seeing this on opening night. Unless I can find a way to an advance screening. Or murder someone else with a way to an advance screening. Rly.
I know, I know, the plot is very WYSIWYG. Don't care. It's got Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. And Giovanni Ribisi. And Zoe Saldana (as an alien). more...
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— Gabriel Malor In its cover story this week, "How do you solve a problem like Sarah?", the ailing opinion mag Newsweek tries to convince its three readers that Sarah Palin is "bad news for the GOP—and for everyone else."
The editors' attempt at a witty headline is the subject of this weekend's short, but must-read post, which I will now translate into language you guys are more familiar with:
Dear Newsweek,Maria was the hero of that musical. And she proved the scrunts who called her a "problem" way, way wrong.
Fuckwits.
Hating you,
-Gabe
Click over and read David Kopel's more polite and thorough response.
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— Uncle Jimbo Our President seems incapable of accepting that America was a great country before he stepped in to save the day. I'm a little sick of his apologizing for all our heinous acts before Jan. 20, 2009. His handlers ought to remind him that most of us have been proud of America all of our adult lives.
I just got a new toy and shot a video with it on this topic that is below the fold. This little beauty shoots 720p HD video and you can see how tiny it is. The sound is not brilliant, but c'mon the picture is pretty amazing. There are pictures of my three HD cams over at BLACKFIVE showing just how much this technology has kicked it up.
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— Ace One he's supposed to do. One he's not supposed to do.
Seems he's not just attempting to respect everyone's cultural sensitivities, eh? more...
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