Turns out that just because we spend lots more on health care than any other nation, it really doesn’t help us live any longer.
Might that be because we’re too busy lining the pockets of already rich people to actually worry ourselves about healing anyone with those dollars?
Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett and John Hughes died and Orly Taitz, Dick Cheney and that idiot who wrote those Twilight books didn’t.
Chez Pazienza analyzes the politics and pop culture of 2009 in a nutshell:
How can I properly categorize the various virulent strains of blatant ridiculousness we’ve been throttled by as a culture? What makes Sarah Palin more balls-out fucking stupid than Glenn Beck, or either of them more shamefully, cartoonishly insane than Michele Bachmann or the Teabagging Army?
I almost agree with everything on this list including the order they are listed.
Makes we want to rewatch the last two Batman movies. Too bad I’m at work.
Booman calls out the angry hypocrites and “poutragers” who hit Obama at every turn just like they did Bush.
Actually I’d argue more so since they feel betrayed by Obama. Frankly, the president has pretty much done what he said he would during the campaign. They must have been listening to different speeches or something. After three decades of conservative presidents, having a moderate actually *IS* an improvement. I guess these clowns were expecting a revolution or something.
Actually, between Booman, Juan Cole, and Bob Cesca, I have hope for our party. The rest of the angry progressive crowd have really turned me off with their alternating revisionist Clinton history (which was pretty conservative) with their gaggle of so-called heroes: Kucinich (perfect where he is but never gonna be president), Howard Dean (whose own health care reform was more conservative than Obama’s), and so on.
“I know that public scrutiny will simplify this matter and act as a check against anyone’s need to be overly vindictive, aggressive or malicious, not that Bristol would ever be that way, nor that I would. But her mother is powerful, politically ambitious and has a reputation for being extremely vindictive. So, I think a public case might go a long way in reducing Sarah Palin’s instinct to attack.”
– Levi Johnston, in his affidavit
God help me, but I do actually like this kid Levi. In a world full of people grasping for fame, he just kind of fell into it and is making the most of it. And now that the Palin family is trying to cut him off from his son, he’s fighting back. Not for sole custody, but for joint custody, a chance at being in his kid’s life, something Sarah “Family Values” Palin doesn’t seem to want.
Don’t get me wrong, he may be an ignorant racist from the backwoods, but if even he is turned off by Palin, the rest of the angry conservatives might want to be taking notes as to why.
Kind of the passing of a legend of sorts as Carl Kasell gave his last news report this morning.
Yeah, he’s still got a job and all, but he was one of the rotating familiar voices I listen to on NPR and I think I’ll be missing hearing him pass along the news.
Kick back and enjoy Carl. You’ve earned it.
The history of stem cell research – and science in general – has been a rocky one this decade. Here are some of the highpoints and, given the Bush years, the very, very low points of progress in this field.
Honestly, even if the Republicans were giving away a hot dog and a blow job for every vote, their stance on progress would be enough to turn away from them.
I heard this story about Sam, a kid from Elkhart, IN the other day. He’s an aspiring musician in a town broken by the recession. Already he had few options. Being the son of undocumented immigrants, he has no way of getting into college.
I remember hearing his story on Latino USA awhile back. Here are part one and part two of his story.
There’s a lot wrong in this country, from racism to poverty to “compassionate conservatism”. How we treat those trying to make their way in this country outside the narrow confines of the bigoted rules we have is one of those things.
Best of luck Sam.
Today’s Fresh Air was a pretty good one. As part of their best-of’s they do at the end of every year, today’s episode had the zany Russell Brand, Jane Lynch, and a cool interview with Dennis Brutus, who passed away last week.
Yes, we’re still reading. It may not always be books – frankly, most of my news and computer knowledge comes from a screen these days – but we are still a literate culture.
Sadly, those numbers include morons who read “Going Rogue” (and seriously, I doubt 80% of the people who bought that piece of crap actually read it) and the douchebags who read Bill O’Reilly and Mark Levin hatefests. So even for those anti-intellectual nitwits, reading is reading.
Now if we can all just actually try to learn and grow as a result of the act, that would be something.