We Are So Fucked

News outa California has Well Point ready to raise their rates by as much as 39%. They say the cost of healthcare is jumping up big - it takes a lot to keep somebody in a hospital bed; younger people choose to spend their paychecks on something other than health insurance; people who get laid off can't afford insurance; so the pool of insured people shrinks, and on average, gets older and sicker and cost the insurer more (duh).

So what do we need to do? Let's raise taxes on the middle class. That's what's happening, guys. Say it any way you wanna say it, but the system of mostly private; under-regulated mini-monopolies behaves like any unelected bureaucracy behaves when it's not really accountable to anybody. The Executive Committee takes a look at the marketing numbers, and they decide you've got a few extra bucks that you're currently spending on movies or weekend hobbies or whatever; and they decide you'll prob'ly sit still for an increase in your premiums of about x%. They're taxing you, plain and simple, and you've got nothin' to say about it.

And let's not kid ourselves about how the virtues of the free market will balance things out for us because if one company goes overboard, another will rise to challenge it. Bullshit. Markets in this country are anything but free. They've long since been captured by a few very giant conglomerates. And since SCOTUS decided companies are the same as people, the path is clear for them now to finish the job of taking us back to the good old days of aristocracy and noble entitlement - everything and everywhere is owned by some private entity, with a ruling class making all the laws and all the decisions; and handing down the power and the wealth to their semi-literate offspring.

Welcome back to the 18th century.

Celebrating Religious Differences

Taoism: Shit happens

Hinduism: This shit happened before.

Islam: If shit happens, take a hostage.

Buddhism: When shit happens, is it really shit?

7th Day Adventist: Shit happens on Saturday.

Protestantism: Shit won't happen if I just work harder.

Catholicism: If shit happens, I deserve it.

Jehovah's Witness: Knock, knock,  "Shit happens".

Judaism: Why does this shit happen to me?

Hare Krishna: Shit happens, Rama Rama Ding Dong - here, have a flower.

Atheism: No shit.

Televangelism: Send more shit.

Rastafarian: We should smoke this shit.

Dodge Charger Commercial & Response

If the Opposition Party in Congress could make their SOTU responses like this, we might have a chance to get somewhere.
First the ad that ran during Super Bowl, then the response:

A Quickie

Off the top of my head.  Looking at some polling numbers that have Repub Voters ranking their "Leaders" for 2012 (Romney-14%, Palin-11%, McCain-7%, Brown-4%), and wondering if it means anything.  Here's what I came up with:

The first thing that popped into my brain was, how the hell did Scott Brown get in there!?!  But then, I remembered the narrative built up around their successes in special elections - Governors in VA & NJ, and then the race for Teddy's Senate seat.  The repubs were all running around trying to convince us that they were "sweeping towards a Republican resurgence of epic proportion!".  Remember that?  Now, kinda outa the blue, we get Repub Voters tagging Scott Brown as a major force?  I'm thinking the whole 'resurgence' is hollow.  There's a feeling of wishful thinking about it - like they really don't have anything but the rhetoric to hold onto - hoping against hope that somebody will ride in and rescue them from the evil clutches of the Democrats.

The danger - if I'm right - is that the Dems will actually wake up, find their balls, and start acting like a ruling party instead of the public servants they're supposed to be.  But then, that's usually how it works, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

The Big Storm III

Some of my posts about this last round of snow storms have been out of order.  Here's one that's no exception to that.

The big storm started fairly early Thursday Feb 4, and continued thru about midnite Friday Feb 5.  On Saturday the 6th, a plow had managed to make one pass on our road, so we dug out the Durango, thinking we'd do a little sightseeing and bop into town for something to eat.

Fifty yards from our driveway:

Using a couple of bow saws, we hacked thru this one and two others blocking the road.

We did make it into town, but the only places open were a 7-11 and a McDonalds.  More than happy to score a couple of cheese burgers at the time.

What Are Your 10 Commandments?

Mike’s 10 Commandments

1) Think and speak of God in your own way and allow others to do the same.

2) Be true to the ideal, not the symbol.

3) Never ask a favor of anyone who will hold you indebted to him for it.

4) Spend part of every day thinking about nothing in particular.

5) Honor those who love you unconditionally; and try to make yourself worthy of it.

6) Never kill indiscriminately; and always with respect.

7) Breaking your promise hurts you more than the one you made the promise to.

8) Know the difference between want and need; and always earn what you get.

9) Lying creates a false representation of reality that can’t be sustained.

10) Make your own decisions about who you are and how you live.

Econometrics

It's hard for me to figure out which numbers (or groups of numbers) I should be watching for indications of what's really happening in the economy.  I'd like to come up with some kind of Metrics Basket to look at.  Any suggestions?

Here're a few from Calculated Risk today:
1) Unemployment Claims ticked down a tiny bit.
2) Home Foreclosures were down some in January, but still 15% above Jan09.
3) A brand new one out of UCLA's Anderson Sch of Mgmt (tracking diesel fuel consumption) shows a scary dip in their numbers.

I dunno.

The Big Storm III

No school again today.  Albemarle Cnty Schools have been closed for 9 out of the last 10 days.  The tentative plan is that the year has been extended to June 17; and there's a possibility that seniors will have to be in class for a few days after they actually graduate June 5.

It seems a little silly until you figure the school system can't afford not to collect the bucks they get for having as many kids in class as possible for the full 180-day calendar.

When In Doubt...

...just make some shit up.
Military Tribunals (and access to them in some circumstances) have existed in the US for a couple of centuries. And what makes Crowley think BushCo would've hesitated to send Reid to Gitmo if they tho't it would help them get a conviction?

Or you can smear by innuendo "is Abdulmuhtallab cooperating because he got a plea bargain?"

These people have no soul and no honor.

the Big Storm III

Winter 2009-10 #3 from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

The Big Storm III

I've also figured out how to embed the video from Vimeo (it's really easy).

Winter 2009-10 #2 from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

Video Link

Blogspot has a really crappy video utility, so I've started putting the movies up on Vimeo.

Here's the link: Vimeo Link

eg:

Winter 2009-10 #1 from Mike Roberts on Vimeo.

The Big Storm III

The latest Big Storm didn't quite measure up.  Looks like we got 2-3 inches over night, tho' there was some pretty good wind, which is supposed to continue thru today and tomorrow.  So the probability of losing power again is still high.

Green Solutions

The greener you make it, the happier the economy gets.

The Big Storm III

The destruction of the forest:

The Big Storm III

The view from the Master Bath window.

The Big Storm III

Got power back at about 530 yesterday evening.  Of course, this was less than 10 hours after I scored one of the last 3 generators at Lowe's - they got a short shipment of a couple dozen in at 7, opened the store at 730 and were sold out by 10.  But I don't care.  I'm so fucking tired of this Post-Apocalypse bullshit I could spit bricks thru a car door.

The phones came back maybe 15 minutes ago, so I needed to grab some webtime and post some of this before the next storm starts in earnest.  The phone issue has been very annoying.  Losing the land line is bad enough, but the power outage also took out our local cell tower, so communications has been difficult as well.

It's already been flurrying a bit off and on all morning.  Forecasters are saying we'll get 4-8 more inches tonite.  Given the sorry state of the grid to begin with, and the simple fact that lots of trees are bent and damaged and ready to go, it shouldn't take much to put us back to where we were 3 days ago.

But at least I've got enough juice now to run the Reefer, 2 space heaters and various lights and appliances.  I also scored 2 more Jerry cans, so I can run for 30 hours if we're a little careful.

The main thing is figuring out how best to heat the joint.  If I didn't hafta run the space heaters, I could stretch the gas out to several days.  Nick and Luke have been scavenging from the woods, but trudging thru 2 feet of snow across the open ground before you get to the woods is a real chore. Plus, you gotta load up the little sled and drag it all back to the house.  Once back at the house, we can use the electric chainsaw, I've resisted buying the gas-powered version, thinking I'll convert a couple of the fireplaces to some other fuel once this is all over.

The other thing I'll be working on is figuring out a way to take the whole subdivision off the grid.  We have a gas main that runs pretty close, and we've been approached once before to see if enough of us wanted to convert from propane to natural.  The attempt failed, but it might be a really good time to ask again.  I'm thinking we could do a mid-sized fuel cell generator and stop worrying about the power going out every stinkin' time more than 11 snow flakes get together.  Distributed Power Generation is something that'll probably have to happen at some time anyway because the traditional grid system is aging badly and becoming ridiculously expensive to maintain.  It's stupid to go on pouring billions into a system that won't be able to keep up with us.

Schools have been closed 6 out of the last 7 days.

Challenges remain, but we're working the problems one at a time, hoping to turn a couple of them into opportunities.

The Big Storm II

As of about 1:30 pm Saturday Feb 6:
It's been snowing since yesterday at about daybreak. 
Lost power at 6:30 last night.
Probably close to 20 inches on the ground so far, expecting another 3 or 4 through tonight at about 10.

I bought a second power inverter last week, so this time we can run the WiFi and one laptop, the phones and the TV and satellite receiver.

If the official total snowfall is over 18 inches, it sets the record for most snow in a season.

All for now.

Into The Lions' Den Again

I posted earlier about Obama going to the Repub Retreat and suggested at the time that if Obama beat up on people at The Prayer Breakfast, we might get an idea of how the administration intends to navigate the various minefields left over from the last 30 years of partisan warfare.

I've seen some of the video (if you go looking for it, don't forget to include Hillary's remarks - as often as I find her grating and unpleasant, I think she's doing a really good job for us at State).  Anyway, The Big O had some pretty sharp and direct criticism for the Goddies, but he said it in a nice way.  It didn't sound a lot different than any sermon you might hear in any given church on any given Sunday.

So I'm left to believe he got thru to at least some of 'em.  Or maybe he's doing a kind of surgery - like he sees an unhealthy element in these groups of people who are otherwise decent folk, and he's trying to talk to the 'moderates' in a way that says "I can help you regain power inside your own organizations if you'll help me push the nutballs back into the bleachers".

Watch the last 20 minutes of the first episode of The West Wing for a fair illustration of the idea.

Seat Belts

Because I just think it's a really good ad.