Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet
Earlier today, each and every Republican and five Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee voted against Senator Rockefeller’s amendment calling for a public option to be part of health care overhaul.
Publicly, Chairman Baucus maintains:
“My job is to put together a bill that gets to 60 votes” in the full Senate, the Montana Democrat [...]
Posted on September 29th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 6 Comments »
All within a couple of months, there’s the Governor of South Carolina flying to Argentina to be with his ’soulmate’. There’s one U.S. Senator promising to make health care reform Obama’s ‘Waterloo’ and a U.S. Representative calling the president a liar on national television during a joint session of Congress. Now this:
GREENVILLE S.C. — A [...]
Posted on September 28th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
As Democrats and Republicans layer one amendment proposal after another on top of Max Baucus’ original health care bill, one stands out of the 564 (so far). Utah’s Orrin Hatch proposed an amendment to a key provision, requesting that that provision not apply “to any state that begins with the letter ‘U’ “.
I’m not kidding. [...]
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 5 Comments »
An excellent opinion piece in the New York Times today by Pulitzer prize winner Timothy Eagen, which includes this nice summary of why I’m angry at the people trying to derail health care reform:
Where was the Tea Party movement when the tax burden was shifted from the high end to the middle? Where were the [...]
Posted on September 18th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 4 Comments »
I have so much to learn about so many things, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m particularly clueless about one in particular: growing old gracefully. I’ve recently discovered “Time Goes By” which features some really gifted writers and interesting perspectives from AARP Land. (Hey, I’m there.) For example, this brief interview with columnist [...]
Posted on September 17th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Books/Movies/Podcasts, etc. | 4 Comments »
I confess that in my younger days, when I paid a bit less attention to political nuances, I committed one of the great sins of my life: I helped elect Ronald Reagan. I did it by not voting for Jimmy Carter a second time in 1980, instead voting for John Anderson, wrongly assuming that my [...]
Posted on September 16th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 4 Comments »
A scientific survey of 6000 physicians by the New England Journal of Medicine finds that 63% support a public health care option, with only 27% opposing it.
It’s time to quit caving in. The ‘tea baggers’ are just wrong. Their parents were wrong on Medicare. Their grandparents were wrong on Social Security. They can not be [...]
Posted on September 15th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 2 Comments »
One of the representative signs from the Tea Bag event in D.C. this weekend.
Amercia?
They’re allowed to vote?
The more vitriolic stuff can be found here.
Posted on September 14th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 3 Comments »
I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by this news item, but I admit that I was. Scientists have reported that they repeatedly isolated drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from the beaches in Washington state. This is the bug frequently referred to as “MRSA” (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and has slowly been transitioning in recent years from a [...]
Posted on September 14th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Rants and Musings | 4 Comments »
Decided to take a break from work, and the world, and get started on the logs which were delivered on Monday. They needed to have been turned into firewood about two months ago.
The view when I stopped midday for an ibuprofen sandwich.
Some change in the relative size of the piles by sunset, when I quit [...]
Posted on September 11th, 2009 by jack-of-all-thumbs
Filed under: Energy | 4 Comments »