CDC: U.S. Life Expectancy Up to 77.9 Years
— Dave in Texas

Doesn't this healthcare system know it's broken?

"The 2007 increase in life expectancy, up from 77.7 in 2006, represents a continuation of a trend," the CDC said in a statement. "Over a decade, life expectancy has increased 1.4 years from 76.5 years in 1997 to 77.9 in 2007."

Mortality rates lower for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, cancer and AIDS (declined 10% from 2006).

Doesn't affect me really. I still plan to die at 87, at four in the morning, on the golf course. Shot to death by a 38 year old jealous husband.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:17 PM | Add Comment
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Overnight Open Thread (Mætenloch)
— Open Blog

Good morning ONT! We're now into Day 2 of the kitten-free zone. Genghis is on vacation and is responding well at the Ludovico spa and soon he'll be a model moronic citizen. So tonight in his honor let's make this a happy-fun place once again.

And here are a few items that you may enjoy:

Item #1: Here's Your Gosh Darned Flying Car
I think it was a few nights ago that one of you was lamenting that you never got the flying car future that you were promised back when you were a kid. Well I think the Mizar back in the 70's might have been it. It was economical, practical, and actually worked. However it had at least two fatal flaws: one is immediately apparent from the photo (especially if you read last night's ONT) - the other you have to read the article to find out about.

So why didn't it catch on? Well let's just say that the inventors suffered the same fate as the Illinois Nazis in the Blues Brothers. As an engineer-type allow me to point out that it's never been a best practice to put your entire engineering team in the prototype. Well at least not if you ever want to go into production.

Item #2: The 30 Weirdest Shoes in the World
Okay this is for the moronettes. Most of these are horrendous, but a few might qualify as stompy boots. And is it seriously wrong if you think the hoof heels are a little hawt? If so just forget that I asked...for uh, a friend. Yeah, 'cause I do things like that for my friends.
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:55 PM | Add Comment
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McKinnon: Santorum May be "Dangerous," But you are Vile
Updated and Bumped
— Slublog

Hot Air linked this article a week ago, but I just stumbled across it again and after reading it a second time, I'm struck anew by how truly nasty it is. After a string of anonymous anecdotes and ad hominem attacks, Mark McKinnon sets a new low in the annals of political discourse while communicating his disdain for former senator Rick Santorum:

I’m a pretty tolerant guy, but beyond his ideology, some of Santorum’s behavior is just a little bizarre. For example, Santorum has six children. In 1996, he had son born prematurely who lived for only two hours. He and wife brought the child home and introduced the dead infant to the rest of their children as “your brother Gabriel” and slept with the body overnight.

As readers of my blog know, I have two beautiful daughters. Thankfully, both of them were born alive and healthy and I love them both. My affection, though, began not when I first held them, but when I first knew they existed - from the moment I saw a heartbeat on the first sonogram. At that moment, I could not wait to hold them. It's a hard feeling to describe, but 'intense anticipation' comes closest to describing it. Had I lost either of them before realizing that initial hope, it would have been devastating, and I cannot imagine what Santorum and his family experienced. If their mourning ritual brought them peace, who is Mark McKinnon to snidely judge it? Does he really believe his political differences with Santorum justifies such a malicious assault upon the former senator's painful experience?

George W. Bush and John McCain hired this man to help them win elections. After reading McKinnon's hateful screed, I think less of both men for having done so, and cannot in the future support any GOP candidate who chooses to have such a dishonorable man on his or her staff. Criticisms based on policy and ideology are fair and within bounds. Attacking a man for how he chose to mourn the death of a child, however, is beyond the pale. It is a paragraph McKinnon should apologize for writing and publishing, and one that should force McKinnon's former clients - Bush and McCain - to disavow the man who wrote it.

Politics may not be beanbag, but there should be some limits to what is fair game. McKinnon seems incapable of respecting those limits, and for that reason should earn nothing less than disdain from those who value civil debate.

Update - Here's the thing about blogging. You never know who is going to read what you've written. Earlier this evening, I received an email from Mark McKinnon. He's given me permission to quote the correspondence:

Thanks for the slap in the face. I deserved it.

I thought because Karen Santorum wrote a book about their son’s death and because it had been written about in a New York Times profile that I had license to bring it up. Whether I had license may be a debatable point but under any circumstance it was in very poor taste. It was unnecessary, mean spirited and it distracted from the main thesis of my column (which questioned Santorum for asking McCain to appear at fundraiser for him to raise money then turning on him and calling him “dangerous”).

I allowed my anger at Santorum to color my judgment and I regret it. IÂ’ve tried very hard to promote comity in politics and I obviously failed miserably in this instance to practice what I preach. Thanks for helping me realize just how far I crossed the line. IÂ’ve extended an apology to Senator Santorum.

Frankly, the fact that a man who's advised presidents and candidates would take the time to write this to a lowly blogger from Maine shows that I was wrong about his sense of honor. Good for him.

Also, I should say that I do feel somewhat guilty for calling McKinnon "vile" in the headline, and not just because he emailed me. I should have been more specific in my language - I was referring to his words, not him personally. Maybe that makes me a softy - blame my daughters.

Posted by: Slublog at 05:21 PM | Add Comment
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Oh, My: MSNBC Carefully Crops Shot of Black Man Carrying AR-15 at Healt Care Rally to Avoid Skin Color, So They Can Then Rant and Rave About "White People" Showing Up With Guns When a "Person of Color" is President
— Ace

Oh no they di'n't.

Oh yes they did.

Allah is outraged, as is the Newsbusters which found this (or rather their partner/parent MRC).

Heads should roll for this.

These bastards are screaming about racial tensions and they're deliberately falsifying video in order to create more racial tension for partisan gain and ratings?

Here's the video before the careful cropping. Which, you know, would have taken less care and effort to run. Cropping and repeating that one almost-still image took more time and effort than just running the real news.

So why did they take extra time? Well, falsifying news ia harder than reporting it, so I guess they must have their reasons.

By the way, the guy who posted that clip on YouTube wrote this:

This is gonna send Chris Mathews and the rest at MSNBC over the edge. They can't claim racism this time. What will they do? They'll say it's a white guy with face paint?

They can't claim racism this time. And yes, they did claim it was a white guy, albeit no mention of face paint.

How naive you are, sport.

Chris Matthews 1, You 0.

They can't be allowed to get away with this.

As I have noted with footnotes and authoritative citations previously, Contessa Brewer is a dirty, lying, pus-mouthed whore.

A cheap, sore-riddled nasty bit of gutterscrunge who'll rent you her mouth for the change in your pocket.

A tawdry wallow-trollop oozing with syphilitic fester who raises her filthy skirts at the scent of crack-smoke.

A disease-dripping pincushion, the media's vile mattress of last resort, a pathogen in garish vinyl high heels, a loose-toothed croup-breathed nightcrawler reeking of bathtub gin, fungicide, and the genetic stink of human desperation.

A skanky bit of mung-trash sloughing off diseased skin like a leprous snake. (A leprous snake who whores out her verminous cloaca for two bits a pop, I mean.)

This sad clown of a whore, oozing with foul custard and slack and sloppy as an over-used trash bag, is too stupid to know how to lie judiciously, and so lies promiscuously and wantonly, demonstrating all the discretion she once showed in junior high when her nickname was "Automatic" Brewer.

By the way: No, I don't think Contessa Brewer really "did" this. She's too stupid. She doesn't have that kind of responsibility. Her job is to wear a wonderbra, eat rice pudding with a "safety spoon," blow the line producer, and read the phonetically-spelled questions someone else writes for her.

Some pale fat loser in the producer chair did it. But I don't know that porky nobody's name, and Contessa Brewer knew what was being done here, so the hell with Typhoid Brewer.

Contact: Ask NBC if it plans on running a dramatization of The Turner Diaries on the air, or if it will just stick to falsifying the news in attempting to provoke a race war. more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:51 PM | Comments (44)
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Look at All These Liberals, Obama Supporters, and Obama Chiefs-of-Staff Being Quoted Out of Context
— Ace

They all seem in agreement that the plan is for the government option to "evolve" into single payer. Rahm Emmanuel is caught saying this, too -- stating the important thing is the "objective (single payer) not the means (government option)."

Paul Krugman, who would never admit it now that the president doesn't want him to admit, proclaims that it we can't convince people to "completely" give up their insurance, but we could get them to agree to something that "evolves into" something like that.

Ezra Klein, kind of a nobody but part of that JournoList mind-meld, proudly proclaims this a "sneaky strategy" to get to single payer.

They all agreed this was a pathway to single payer when selling it to liberals.

Why is it they all claim it's nothing of the sort now that they're selling it to moderates?

Verum Serum yet again, via Charlie Foxtrot.

Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Add Comment
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VA Pamphlet...Hey, Have You Considered Killing Yourself?
— DrewM

Gee, why would anyone ever imagine the government would advocate death over expensive health care? I mean, they are just asking questions and helping you plan, right?

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

...When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?

One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.

I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update "Your Life, Your Choices" between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as "Compassion and Choices").

I don't think anyone is arguing against end of life planning. The problem is when one of the parties has a finical incentive in the matter that maybe in conflict with your desires.

The government that is big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it all away.

Added to be clear...my biggest complaint is listing the rebranded Hemlock society as the only resources listed. That's insane. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 11:44 AM | Comments (1)
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Pre-Murder Russian Opposition Journalist: Hijacked Russian Ship Was Carrying "carrying some sort of anti-aircraft or nuclear contraption intended for a nice, peaceful country like Syria, and they were caught with it"
— Ace

Speculation, yes, but the soon-to-be-the-victim-of-an-accidental-strangulation journalist is right that this is all very odd.

And caught by whom? The hijackers were "citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Russia who on July 24 boarded the ship, forced the crew to change route and turned off its navigation equipment." I don't think the US has the either the agents nor the presidential nerve for this. So... sleeper agents of Israel, maybe?

Of course every time there's a pirating these odd questions seem to surface. But I don't know why pirates would be especially interested in timber. You never hear of bandits breaking into a sugar refinery and stealing sixty metric tons of sugar. Yeah, you can sell it, but... if you had that sort of business organization and equipment and transport and distribution networks already up and running you probably wouldn't need to steal your product.

Strange.

Thanks to circa.

Posted by: Ace at 10:38 AM | Add Comment
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Gibbs Scolds Media: Government Option Debate "contrived almost entirely by you guys"
— Ace

The media's causing all this trouble for Obama.

Really, dude?

Really.

Yes, Obama is actually blaming fellatiophilic* media for his woes.

The media is obviously in the tank for Obama. Gibbs is really playing this bias card ludicrously. There is no bias against Obama, of course. Quite the opposite. He is actually asking them on the sly to unite as liberals on this, because this is the last best chance for socialism they'll ever see.

This is a coded dog-whistle. No one could possibly imagine the media has been ungenerous to our Boy King. But Gibbs is trying to shame them into doing still more for the team, just tossing out any sort of professionalism whatsoever until, at least, Obama's agenda has been passed and it's safer for liberals in the media to start pretending to be nonpartisan again.

* This actually passed the blog's spell-check function without notice. It is either a real word, or the spell-check just decided it shrug it off and think "it's a big word, he must know what he's doing."

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 10:10 AM | Add Comment
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Brokebarack Mountain
— Ace

There are some conspiracy-minded folks who might begin to sense a pattern here:

More at Charlie Foxtrot.

Posted by: Ace at 10:01 AM | Add Comment
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Democrats: No, No, We Want A Bipartisan Health Care Bill. Really, We Do. Please!
— DrewM

Contra the NY Times story I blogged about earlier, Gibbsy and a leading congressional Democrat are going to great pains to say how much they really, really want to work with Republicans on health care.

The White House...

Health care dominated the morning briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who denied reports that the White House and Democrats are giving up on a bipartisan reform bill.

“Absolutely not,” Gibbs said. “We continue to be hopeful that we can get bipartisan support and will continue to work with those that are interested in doing that.”

“Our goal is to get this done in a bipartisan way,” he said. “There are several more weeks to go in potential negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. I don’t know why we would short circuit any of that now.”

Montana Senator Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

Bipartisan progress continues. The Finance Committee is on track to reach a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive health care reform that can pass the Senate. Our group will be meeting tomorrow and our staffs continue to meet as well. I am confident we will continue our steady progress toward health care reform that will lower costs and provide quality, affordable coverage to all Americans.

Democrats (as opposed to the Nutroots) want Republicans on board because they really mean what they say about a new era in politics want political cover DON'T HAVE THE VOTES for a Democrat only plan.

This will set the Olbermanns and Maddows of the world off again tonight which is always fun.

At some point the Repbulicans should say, "We're out. You guys have the votes, knock yourselves out!" and then watch what happens.

Once again...being President is hard. Especially when you are a leftist trying to remake the country.

In the meantime...more popcorn!

BTW- Popcorn is good for you, so enjoy.

More Gibbs...There's no debate in the country, it's all made up by the media. Is he that stupid or simply an evil genius?

Posted by: DrewM at 09:54 AM | Add Comment
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