{"id":15656,"date":"2009-08-27T18:00:31","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/27\/unblogged-bits-for-thursday-27-august-2009.html"},"modified":"2009-08-27T18:00:31","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T00:00:31","slug":"unblogged-bits-for-thursday-27-august-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/27\/unblogged-bits-for-thursday-27-august-2009.html","title":{"rendered":"Unblogged Bits for Thursday, 27 August 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries &#8230;. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/boingboing\/iBag\/~3\/cqGsSMqlr3M\/atheists-wholl-take.html\">Atheists who&#8217;ll take in your pets after the Rapture<\/a> &#8211; Plus, if things really go south during the Tribulations, they&#8217;ll provide a ready source of nourishment!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/08\/27\/ahip-lobbying-publicoption\/\">EXCLUSIVE: Health Insurance Lobby\u2019s Stealth Astroturf Campaign Revealed: Lee Fang<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/08\/27\/rnc-sends-poll-to-constituents-suggesting-that-democratic-health-reform-will-deny-medical-treatment-to-republicans\/\">Despite Steele Saying He\u2019s Not Trying To \u2018Scare\u2019 People, RNC Poll Says  Health Bill May Deny Care To Republicans<\/a> &#8211; Yeah, these guys are just &#8230; well &#8230; I am hard-pressed not to use the word &#8220;evil.&#8221;  I would definitely not call them &#8220;inartful.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.com\/content\/bauer-its-not-torture-its-frat-party\">Bauer: It&#8217;s Not Torture, It&#8217;s a Frat Party!<\/a> &#8211; I think it&#8217;s time to get Gary queued up for the &#8220;receive some enhanced interrogation techniques&#8221; weekend camp.  Just so that he knows what he&#8217;s talking about.  Which, at this point, he clearly doesn&#8217;t.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.com\/content\/judge-removes-gods-protection-over-kentucky\">Judge Removes God&#8217;s Protection Over Kentucky<\/a> &#8211; &#8220;Riner said Wednesday that he is unhappy with the judge\u2019s ruling. The way he wrote the law, he said, it did not mandate that Kentuckians depend on God for their safety, it simply acknowledged that government without God cannot protect its citizens.&#8221; Actually, it mandated that the government proclaim God was protecting the citizenry &#8212; which, yeah, is pretty much unconstitutional, sliced two or three ways.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.com\/content\/inane-state-healthcare-debate-part-iii\">The Inane State of the Healthcare Debate &#8211; Part III<\/a> &#8211; The first story here is amazingly telling &#8230; about the prevarications of the Right on this matter.  The system doesn&#8217;t even work for the poster boys of how it &#8220;works.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/ScienceblogsCombinedFeed\/~3\/z9XIjdNcsPc\/if_only_it_were_this_easy.php\">A &#8220;Public Option&#8221; Would Be Bad [The Primate Diaries]<\/a> &#8211; Amazing how &#8220;public&#8221; has suddenly become as evil a word as &#8220;liberal.&#8221;  Aren&#8217;t the &#8220;res publica&#8221; what the Republicans are, in fact, named after?  Maybe they need to rename themselves &#8220;Reprivatans.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/08\/27\/inhofe-without-even-reading\/\">Inhofe admits he\u2019ll vote against health care bill without even reading it.<\/a> &#8211; Marvelous leadership from the GOP.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/boulderdude.com\/2009\/08\/things-you-learn-listening-to-right-wing-radio-5\/\">Things you learn listening to Right Wing Radio: admin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/opinion\/greenwald\/2009\/08\/24\/ig_report\/\">What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report &#8211; Glenn Greenwald &#8211; Salon.com<\/a> &#8211; &#8216;The fact that we are not really bothered any more by taking helpless detainees in our custody and (a) threatening to blow their brains out, torture them with drills, rape their mothers, and murder their children; (b) choking them until they pass out; (c) pouring water down their throats to drown them; (d) hanging them by their arms until their shoulders are dislocated; (e) blowing smoke in their face until they vomit; (f) putting them in diapers, dousing them with cold water, and leaving them on a concrete floor to induce hypothermia; and (g) beating them with the butt of a rifle &#8212; all things that we have always condemend as &#8220;torture&#8221; and which our laws explicitly criminalize as felonies (&#8220;torture means. . . the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering . . .&#8221;) &#8212; reveals better than all the words in the world could how degraded, barbaric and depraved a society becomes when it lifts the taboo on torturing captives.&#8217;  Truly awful stuff here, even with all the redactions..<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/boingboing\/iBag\/~3\/n37S6enWnqU\/ikea-is-owned-by-a-c.html\">Ikea is owned by a &#8220;charitable foundation,&#8221; pays only 3.5% tax<\/a> &#8211; Looks like their finances are a wee bit more complicated than their furniture, but don&#8217;t come with any diagrams to explain them.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/obsidianwings.blogs.com\/obsidian_wings\/2009\/08\/by-eric-martin---dontit-make-you-proud-dont-you-wonder-why-the-obama-administration-would-want-to-politicize-torture-by-actu.html\">A Precedent that will Reach to Himself<\/a> &#8211; &#8220;Notice the shift from the standards of the past. In the past, the US was known for being a country whose soldiers would never mistreat prisoners; now, the US wants the world to know that US custody is something to be dreaded. That&#8217;s what Cheney did to America. He&#8217;s proud of it.&#8221;  Sickening.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/kottke.org\/09\/08\/venn-diagram-of-mythical-creatures\">Venn diagram of mythical creatures<\/a> &#8211; I love Venn diagrams.  In fact, I was just doing one on quadrilaterals with Katherine last night.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/willyoumarrymekc.com\/geeky-proposals\/\">The Greatest Geeky Marriage Proposals of All Time &#8211; Will You Marry Me KC?<\/a> &#8211; There are some very clever ideas here.  Some stupid ones, too, but &#8230;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/news\/37974-1.html\">Kucinich Calls on Insurers to Testify Before Panel &#8211; Roll Call<\/a> &#8211; &#8216;\u201cI further request that the testimony put into context anecdotes of claims denials, deferrals, and policy rescissions by insurers,\u201d Kucinich wrote. \u201cYour testimony should also discuss the adequacy and availability of data on, and government oversight of, the extent and impact of these actions.\u201d&#8217; &#8230; Ooooh, that should be entertaining.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/08\/27\/jenkins-great-white-hope\/\">Rep. Lynn Jenkins says the GOP needs a \u2018great white hope\u2019 to thwart  President Obama.<\/a> &#8211; I love how they try to explain the phrase away.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2009\/08\/27\/steele-health-npr\/\">Steele Confused, Overwhelmed By NPR Interview: \u2018Now Wait A Minute. Hold up.  \u2026 You\u2019re Trying To Be Cute.\u2019<\/a> &#8211; Yeah, I was listening to this driving to the train station this morning and aside from not challenging Steele on the &#8220;nobody&#8217;s scaring anyone&#8221; lie, Inskeep did a good job of hammering him on his &#8220;I hate Medicare but we need to protect it until it&#8217;s our turn to get rid of it&#8221; schtick, as well as his unsupported \/ naive assertion that the government will be &#8220;ten times worse&#8221; than private insurers when it comes to interfering with what treatments you can get.  (At least if the government is causing me grief, I have a Congressman I can ask to help me; whom do I call if Aetna has decided I don&#8217;t deserve something?)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2009\/08\/25\/gmail-blackberry-plugin\/\">Gmail BlackBerry Support Gets an Upgrade<\/a> &#8211; It looks like this uses (and enhances) the native BB mail app, rather than using the GMail app on the BB, so it doesn&#8217;t apply to me one way or the other &#8212; and, honestly, I like the GMail app better.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.gawker.com\/~r\/gizmodo\/full\/~3\/4pDrOqVSPB4\/giz-explains-how-to-actually-make-coffee\">Giz Explains: How to Actually Make Coffee [Giz Explains]<\/a> &#8211; Some interesting info here.  Folks need to learn, though, the term &#8220;satisfice.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries &#8230;. Atheists who&#8217;ll take in your pets after the Rapture &#8211; Plus, if things really go south during the Tribulations, they&#8217;ll provide a ready source of nourishment! EXCLUSIVE: Health Insurance Lobby\u2019s Stealth Astroturf Campaign Revealed: Lee Fang Despite Steele Saying &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/27\/unblogged-bits-for-thursday-27-august-2009.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Unblogged Bits for Thursday, 27 August 2009&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/28\/the-government-and-first-class-health-care.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":0},"title":"The Government and &#8220;First-Class Health Care&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Jul-09 11:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"Courtesy of Jon Stewart, getting conservative pundit Bill Kristol to first admit the government can provide first-class care, as it does to our military ... but that the rest of the public doesn't deserve it. \u00a0 A few highlights, as cited by ThinkProgress: Why is government-run health care \u201cgood enough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics &amp; Law&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics &amp; Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48750,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/09\/to-health-in-a-handbasket.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":1},"title":"&quot;To Health in a Handbasket&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Dec-14 2:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"He should definitely keep his day job, but overall fun time with Obama on the Colbert Report. The Word - President Barack Obama - To Health in a Handbasket President Obama delivers The Word, proving that he is perfectly capable of doing Stephen's job. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32325,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/26\/how-do-we-reduce-health-care-spending.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":2},"title":"How do we reduce health care spending?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Jan-13 12:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, looking at how Canada spends less per person -- not person in the national health care system, but person in the country -- than we do. \u00a0And the reason is not because they have more \"free market reforms\" than we do. The Canadian system isn't perfect, but from talking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39429,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/31\/gop-unveils-its-own-health-care-web-site.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":3},"title":"GOP unveils its own health care web site","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Oct-13 12:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Heh. \u00a0Ah, the Borowitz Report ... G.O.P. Unveils Own Health-Care Web Site, EmergencyRoom.gov The Virginia Republican wasted no time touting the cost savings of EmergencyRoom.gov... View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131008,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/06\/because-big-health-care-needs-to-become-bigger-health-care.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":4},"title":"Because Big Health Care needs to become Bigger Health Care!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Jul-16 11:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The merger of Anthem and Cigna sounds like a positively awful thing to do -- except, perhaps, for executives and shareholders of both companies. And they're not the only large insurance company mergers under consideration. There's a Reason Someone Is Supposed to Keep an Eye on Massive Mergers Especially when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33442,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/whos-to-blame-for-high-health-care-costs-lazy-americans.html","url_meta":{"origin":15656,"position":5},"title":"Who&#39;s to blame for high health care costs? Lazy Americans!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-May-13 7:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"The author says high health care costs in the US are due to a lazy, greedy, entitled public who can't be bothered with cost comparisons and who mysteriously love to stick it to health insurance companies.But while there are a few worthwhile nuggets here (broader behavioral issues play a role\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}