Death Panels and Rationing? That's what we have now under "the free market" system - which isn't really free-market at all, but that's a different rant. The point is that we've evolved a 3-tier system that works well for the top 8 or 10% of us; is so-so for the next 25 or 30%; and is just fuckin' awful for everybody else.
Check out this NYT piece. It looks like more evidence that we're killing ourselves by trying to force healthcare into the Standard Business Model.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Contradiction
Watch & listen closely and you'll understand why Bill O'Reilly (et al) will ultimately fail. It's about contradiction. ie: contradiction exists, but it can't prevail.
Billo insists that we must admire the two young kids for their impulse to root out corruption - because of course, corruption is against the law - but then he turns right around and dismisses the fact that the two young kids may have broken Maryland's law against recording private conversations by saying, "Who cares about Maryland's law?".
Process matters.
Billo insists that we must admire the two young kids for their impulse to root out corruption - because of course, corruption is against the law - but then he turns right around and dismisses the fact that the two young kids may have broken Maryland's law against recording private conversations by saying, "Who cares about Maryland's law?".
Process matters.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
New Meaning
From a piece linked to by both Andrew Sullivan and Balloon Juice:
beck v. trans. beck-ing, beck-ed, to be baselessly attacked by an idiot with a megaphone, then have those accusations alter your life for the worse because it’s politically expedient for your spineless superiors to demote or fire you.
beck v. trans. beck-ing, beck-ed, to be baselessly attacked by an idiot with a megaphone, then have those accusations alter your life for the worse because it’s politically expedient for your spineless superiors to demote or fire you.
Oops
I get such a kick outa things like this post at Balloon Juice.
There's all kinds of stuff rollin' around in my head because of this ACORN kerfuffle. It seems the public is pissed off (whether you think it's genuine or manufactured, it's still there). So politicians feel the need to beat up on somebody in response to it. They look around for a convenient scapegoat; they put together some piece of shit Resolution or an actual Law; they push it thru without really thinking it thru; and then they get to believe they're all heroes for having solved some big problem - except that the action usually proves the Rule of Unintended Consequences, and almost always has a lot more to do with getting reelected than it does with anything else.
I dunno - I guess it's just that we've personalized and demystified government to the point where we think any average yahoo can do it - we've demanded mediocrity, so that's what we've got.
There's all kinds of stuff rollin' around in my head because of this ACORN kerfuffle. It seems the public is pissed off (whether you think it's genuine or manufactured, it's still there). So politicians feel the need to beat up on somebody in response to it. They look around for a convenient scapegoat; they put together some piece of shit Resolution or an actual Law; they push it thru without really thinking it thru; and then they get to believe they're all heroes for having solved some big problem - except that the action usually proves the Rule of Unintended Consequences, and almost always has a lot more to do with getting reelected than it does with anything else.
I dunno - I guess it's just that we've personalized and demystified government to the point where we think any average yahoo can do it - we've demanded mediocrity, so that's what we've got.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Uh oh ("10 years of hell")
Per the good folks at Real News: hang onto your hats - it could be a bumpy ride.
I've felt for a while now that there's a couple of Real Estate shoes yet to drop. Multi-Family Residential is one, and Commercial is another, but the really big one is that the system itself is teetering. We have a very weak safety net of the kind that's needed to keep pumping some dollars into the economy even when people are outa work. What makes unemployment so dangerous is that it smacks us twice: first, because people who aren't working a regular job aren't paying taxes; and second, they aren't buying anything but the bare necessities so there's less money circulating.
There's also the small matter of not fixing the problems that got us into this mess. One of the take-aways from the video is that the big banking interests have dramatically increased their lobbying budgets. I think we can expect long and rancorous fights over regulations - which will prob'ly shape the midterm elections next year.
We'll see if Barney Frank and Chris Dodd manage to redeem themselves (Phil Gramm didn't do it all by himself, y'know).
I've felt for a while now that there's a couple of Real Estate shoes yet to drop. Multi-Family Residential is one, and Commercial is another, but the really big one is that the system itself is teetering. We have a very weak safety net of the kind that's needed to keep pumping some dollars into the economy even when people are outa work. What makes unemployment so dangerous is that it smacks us twice: first, because people who aren't working a regular job aren't paying taxes; and second, they aren't buying anything but the bare necessities so there's less money circulating.
There's also the small matter of not fixing the problems that got us into this mess. One of the take-aways from the video is that the big banking interests have dramatically increased their lobbying budgets. I think we can expect long and rancorous fights over regulations - which will prob'ly shape the midterm elections next year.
We'll see if Barney Frank and Chris Dodd manage to redeem themselves (Phil Gramm didn't do it all by himself, y'know).
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