Republican Health care plan

Some feel that health care is a luxury. And certainly with the current private system it is. But, as some would argue, am I really getting what I pay for? I'm paying three times more for insurance now than I did as a Federal employee. But I'm doing pretty much the same work and making pretty much the same salary. I'm paying more because my employer is smaller and can't negotiate as good a deal as Federal employees can. So I'm not really getting what I pay for!

The Republican solution - don't get sick.



And if you get sick, die quickly.

And if you're a woman, don't get pregnant.

Friday Song

... my sister got lucky,
married a yuppie,
took him for all he was worth,
now she's a swinger,
dating a singer,
I can't decide which is worse...

The difference between National Socialists and Socialists

BadTux reminds us that the despite what the right says, Hitler wasn't a socialist.

... socialism in a democracy invariably transfers wealth from the executive and owner class to the worker class. Which is proof that Hitler was no socialist, despite all the right-wing claims that he was.

Hitler liked to throw around socialist jargon in order to ingratiate himself to the German people, but his actual actions were to impoverish the workers and enrich the ownership class.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We took our end of summer trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Typically the upper part of the park closes with the first snow sometime in September.

This shot is of the Never Summer Range, to the West of the park.

About 50% of the Aspens had started to turn.

Colorado does not have the bright crimsons found in the East, but there were plenty of nice yellows and a scattering of golds.

The Elk were out getting an end of the season meal.

These shots were at one of the camp grounds, and the Elk went to each of the camp fire rings checking for something. What I have no idea?

They stick their noses into the fire ring and stir up a cloud of black ash.

The evil cat plot

Protect Insurance Companies Profits

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Hellcare

This is an old This Modern World animation from 2000. Strange how some things never change.

The real impact of global warming

Melting Ice Caps Expose Hundreds Of Secret Arctic Lairs

ZACKENBERG RESEARCH STATION, GREENLAND—Claiming it to be one of the most dramatic and visible signs of climate change to date, researchers said Monday that receding polar ice caps have revealed nearly 200 clandestine lairs once buried deep beneath hundreds of feet of Arctic ice.
Enlarge Image Melting Ice Cap

An ice shelf off the coast of Greenland in 2006 (above) and last week (below).

"We always assumed there would be some secret lairs here and there, but the sheer number now being exposed is indeed troubling," ...
(more)

This is why we won't get any health care reform

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a Lobby - Health Care for America Now
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

This is pathetic. This guy is a joke. I thought lobbyists were like the guy in thankyou for smoking.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm speechless. Bill O'Reilly has come out officially backing a government health insurance option. The end times have truly arrived.

Nerd Venn diagram

I know, the nerd part is redundant.

Huh?

This is one of those automated passwords used to confirm you're a person signing on to a site. Anyone have a clue as to what this one says. These things are completely unreadable at times.

Bath time

As fall approaches here on the front range, and we start closing up the house, dogish smell of the little black dog is becoming noticeable. So much to her displeasure, bath time approaches. (Source Pundit Kitchen)

They know

Its funny how they know what is their food. And they get excited when you get out a new bag.

Billionaires for Wealthcare

Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, industry lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system.

We are not a political, religious or even particularly well-organized group. We're simple folk, thrilled profiteers pouring out of our corner offices to dance on the grave of "Change."

We'll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to healthcare, if we ain't broke, why fix it?

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Five-thirty-eight discusses the crowd estimates at yesterdays the tea party and how the number got so inflated.

But yesterday, someone told a real whopper. ABC News, citing the DC fire department, reported that between 60,000 and 70,000 people had attended the tea party rally at the Capitol. By the time this figure reached Michelle Malkin, however, it had been blown up to 2,000,000. There is a big difference, obviously, between 70,000 and 2,000,000. That's not a twofold or threefold exaggeration -- it's roughly a thirtyfold exaggeration.

The way this false estimate came into being is relatively simple: Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, lied, claiming that ABC News had reported numbers of between 1.0 and 1.5 million when they never did anything of the sort. A few tweets later, the numbers had been exaggerated still further to 2 million. Kibbe wasn't "in error", as Malkin gently puts it. He lied. He did the equivalent of telling people that his penis is 53 inches long.

Malkin, who to her credit later corrected the error, frets that it might be used to by liberals to "discredit the undeniably massive turnout". She's right to be worried -- it absolutely will be used that way. If you don't want to be discredited, then don't, as Kibbe did, tell a ridiculous (and easily disprovable) lie.

Footage from today's Washington tea party

There is nothing like stupid people in large numbers!

Bill (Gates) & Steve (Ballmer)

Mummm, coronary heart disease

Famous Dave's is the Outback of barbeque. Now if you look carefully at the menu, you'll notice their new speciality. Chocolate dipped bacon and bacon and chocolate ice cream. Now I love pork products as much as the next person, but chocolate and bacon!?! Only thing I can think of being worse for you is deep fried butter.

Andy

The little pest has taken over the couch in the family room. He's not quite certain if he should be up there, but makes no attempt to move.

Change that you can believe in

And sometimes its not even gradual. Taken from here.

Do we need a public pet option?

Garrison Keillor makes the argument for some repackaging in the health reform debate.

If you put a pet option in the healthcare reform scheme, Republicans would be in a bind. It's one thing to oppose big government taking over from those little mom-and-pop insurance companies, but do you favor throwing Mr. Mittens out the car window when he gets old and feeble and needs an IV because he can't chew his kibble? You'd have weepy pet parents at town hall meetings waving photographs of kittycats in need of new kidneys, and finally you'd start to see some empathy. People love their animals, and if we could just agree that everybody in America should receive the same level of care enjoyed by an elderly golden retriever, we could be done with this and get ready for the World Series.

Alex The Parrot, smartest parrot ever?

A gift from California

We got a gift from California last night. A beautiful vibrant red sunset. It seems the smoke from the California fires North of Los Angeles has made its way to the front range of Colorado. A friend who used to work for the fire department in California used to say,

if the spring is dry, the fires will be early. And if the spring is wet the fires will be later and worse.

End of summer fires are a fixed reality in Southern California. This year is no exception. And things are not helped by the drought the state is experiencing.