Hypocrites

Monday 13 January 2014 - Filed under Constitution + Dumbassery + Government + POTUS + SCOTUS

Fucking hypocrites all.

Canning highlights the willingness with which many on either side change principles based on their preferred outcome. The whole practice of gaveling the Senate to order to prevent recess appointments was a Democratic innovation used expressly to screw over George W. Bush. Back then, Senate Republicans trotted out what came to be known as the “nuclear option,” or the waiving of Senate filibuster rules so presidential appointments could quickly proceed to a simple up-or-down, majority vote. The Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this was worse than an abomination, of course. Right up until the moment last year when he did precisely that. And of course, Republicans who were for the waiving of Senate protocol when it helped their side were predictably disgusted by the Caesarism of Sen. Reid in 2013.

Burn it down.

Comments Off on Hypocrites  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2014-01-13  ::  madlibertarianguy

That Eeeeeeeeeeevul Walmart

Tuesday 7 January 2014 - Filed under Government + health care + Obamacare

How dare Walmart offer more comprehensive insurance plans at a lower price than Obamacare! Richard Pollock at the Washington Examiner:

New Obamacare health insurance enrollees may feel a pang of envy when they eye the coverage plans offered by Walmart to its employees.

For many years, the giant discount retailer has been the target of unions and liberal activists who have harshly criticized the company’s health care plans, calling them “notorious for failing to provide health benefits” and “substandard.”

But a Washington Examiner comparison of the two health insurance programs found that Walmart’s plan is more affordable and provides significantly better access to high-quality medical care than Obamacare.

Independent insurance agents affiliated with the National Association of Health Underwriters and health policy experts compared the two at the request of the Examiner.

It’s unpossible that one of those heartless corporations, the worst of all some might say, offers better insurance for cheaper than El Jefe does through Obamacare. How much cheaper?

For a monthly premium as low as roughly $40, an individual who is a Walmart HRA plan enrollee can obtain full-service coverage through a Blue Cross Blue Shield preferred provider organization. A family can get coverage for about $160 per month.

Unlike Obamacare, there are no income eligibility requirements. Age and gender do not alter premium rates. The company plan is the same for all of Walmart’s 1.1 million enrolled employees and their dependents, from its cashiers to its CEO.

A Journal of the American Medical Association analysis from September showed that unsubsidized Obamacare enrollees will face monthly premiums that are five to nine times higher than Walmart premiums.

JAMA found the unsubsidized premium for a nonsmoking couple age 60 can cost $1,365 per month versus the Walmart cost of about $134 for the same couple.

The medical journal reported a 30-year-old smoker would pay up to $428 per month, in contrast to roughly $70 each month for a Walmart employee.

A family of four could pay a $962 premium, but the same Walmart family member would pay about $160.

But those must be one of those substandard plans that offer bare bones coverage. What says the analysis?

Low premiums are not the only distinguishing feature of the Walmart plan. The retailer’s employees can use eight of the country’s most prestigious medical facilities, including the Mayo Clinic, Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic.

At these institutions, which Walmart calls “Centers of Excellence,” Walmart employees and their dependents can get free heart or spinal surgery. They can also get free knee and hip replacements at four hospitals nationwide.

Many top-rated Walmart hospitals — such as the Mayo and Cleveland clinics — are left out of most Obamacare exchange plans.

Well, okay, so Walmart employees can get care from some of the most prestigious medical institutions on the planet, many of them for free. That’s probably just a fringe benefit that Walmart’s evil corporate masters have worked out with those high end institutions funded by the rich. What about everyday care at local hospitals and local doctors?

But the real difference between Obamacare and Walmart can be seen in the levels of day-to-day access to doctors and hospitals.

Robert Slayton, a practicing Chicago independent insurance agent for 11 years and the former president of the Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters, described to the Examiner the differences between Walmart and Obamacare provider networks.

Slayton said the BlueChoice exchange network for President Obama’s hometown has very limited hospital participation. “In downtown Chicago, the key is the number of hospitals: 28,” he said.

“Now we’re going to the national network — this is what the Walmart network would most likely be — and you have 54 hospitals. That’s a big difference,” he said.

[. . .]

Slayton said the gap between doctor availability in Chicago under the Obamacare and Walmart plans is dramatic.

“You will notice there are 9,837 doctors [under Obamacare]. But the larger network is 24,904 doctors. Huge, huge difference,” he said.

Academic hospitals have also largely opted out of accepting Obamacare plans, taking the doctors that practice at some of these hospitals with them.

In Arkansas, Walmart’s home state, the difference between Obamacare plans and the Walmart plan is even more dramatic. Premiums for Walmart employees are much lower than Obamacare plans, and so are the deductibles. Even a reasonably young person who is fully subsidized under an Obamacare plan would have to pay a substantially higher deductible (which would amount to more than the premium and the deductible paid under the Walmart plan) in the event he actually needed to use his insurance.

Comments Off on That Eeeeeeeeeeevul Walmart  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2014-01-07  ::  madlibertarianguy

Student Loans: A Bad Deal

Monday 6 January 2014 - Filed under Dumbassery + Economy + Education

More evidence of the obvious: that pumping in billions of free and cheap money in to higher education is directly responsible for both the massive collective student debt of over $1T, as well as for the constant rise in tuition rates that are far above inflation.

As combined student loan debts balloon to over $1 trillion, one economist believes enough is enough — the “tremendously explosive” student loan programs offered by the federal government need to go.

Ohio University economist and chair of Center for College Affordability and Productive Richard Vedder recommends that President Barack Obama and Congress work together to dismantle or greatly shrink the student loan programs that let young Americans rack up debt.

“I would go so far as to say that I think the federal government is more the problem rather than the solution,” Vedder told the Carolina Journal Radio during a Friday interview. “A lot of our problems… come from these tremendously explosive student loan programs and grant programs that the federal government provides.”

Giving 18-year-olds fresh from high school with no financial skills free reign to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars may not be the best course forward, Vedder said. Colleges flush with easy money spend it on administrative pay and luxury fitness centers, increasing tuition all the while.

“The government is providing fuel for an academics arms race that is going on all over the country by allowing kids to borrow huge amounts of money at very, very low interest rates, and many of these students are really not knowledgeable about finance and so forth,” he continued. “They go out; they borrow a lot of money. The colleges raise their fees more than they otherwise would. This provides extra income for the colleges, which goes for a ton of different things — luxury facilities, more administrators, higher pay for people, and the like — and makes college less affordable.”

This is economics 101, and yet it’s ignored completely. Rather than question the economic viability of getting an English degree or an Art History degree, politicians and the economically ignorant (who tend to be those who have gotten said degrees) blame the rich and a lack of funding. The problem with universities is not that they have a lack of funding, but that they have been funded lavishly over the last 4 decades via exploding tuition enabled by ever growing influxes of free federal cash.

Comments Off on Student Loans: A Bad Deal  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2014-01-06  ::  madlibertarianguy

Settled?

Thursday 12 December 2013 - Filed under Environment + Science + Teh Science!

The science is settled? Apparently not as a group of German scientists have found that virtually all of the temperature change associated with “climate change” is caused by natural variations called the de Vries cycle, and that the globe is now on a cooling trend that will last until about 2100:

“Due to the de Vries cycle, the global temperature will drop until 2100 to a value corresponding to the ‘little ice age’ of 1870,” write German scientists Horst-Joachim Luedecke and Carl-Otto Weiss of the European Institute for Climate and Energy.

Researchers used historical temperature data and data from cave stalagmites to show a 200-year solar cycle, called the de Vries cycle.

They also factored into their work a well-established 65-year Atlantic and Pacific Ocean oscillation cycle. Global warming that has occurred since 1870 can be attributed almost entirely to both these factors, the scientists argue.

According to the scientists, the oft-cited “stagnation” in rising global temperatures over the last 15 years is due to the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean oscillation cycle, which lasts about 65 years. Ocean oscillation is past its “maximum,” leading to small decreases in global temperature.

The de Vries solar cycle is currently at its “maximum,” explaining why temperatures have risen since 1870, but leveled off after 1998. However, this means that as solar activity starts to decrease, global temperatures will follow.

“Through [the de Vries solar cycle’s] influence the temperature will decrease until 2100 to a value like the one of the last ‘Little Ice Age’ 1870,” the scientists wrote.

I wonder how long until the warmists start attacking these scientists as deniers, demanding that they pay their due penance to The Concensus™.

Comments Off on Settled?  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-12-12  ::  madlibertarianguy

Nonsense

Friday 29 November 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Fucking nonsense:

They started by shaking hands. We said “Salaam aleikum” — peace be upon you — then the first pebbles flew past my face. A small boy tried to grab my bag. Then another. Then someone punched me in the back. Then young men broke my glasses, began smashing stones into my face and head. I couldn’t see for the blood pouring down my forehead and swamping my eyes. And even then, I understood. I couldn’t blame them for what they were doing. In fact, if I were the Afghan refugees of Kila Abdullah, close to the Afghan-Pakistan border, I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find.

I’m no fan of the war in Afghanistan, or any other war for that matter. But isn’t this exactly the kind bullshit that leads to some Americans justifying these horrible wars? Muslims did attack us, after all. If Afghans are blameless for wanting to hurt “any Westerner [they] could find” because western forces have killed Afghans, does that not justify westerners wanting to hurt any Muslim they find because Muslims have killed westerners? (Some) Muslims have declared war on the west. I would assume that Mr. Fisk has not personally dropped any of the bombs on the Afghan people; why should he take the punishment for it?

The answer is that he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t any more than western forces ought kill Afghans indiscriminately who had nothing to do with killing Americans. It’s this kind of thinking that represents collectivism at its worst.

Comments Off on Nonsense  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-11-29  ::  madlibertarianguy

Everything You Need to Know

Thursday 14 November 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Right here is everything you need to know about the government and science. Trib.com:

Grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem have a varied diet and are minimally affected by the decline in the number of whitebark pine trees, federal research found.

The findings were presented Thursday in Bozeman at a meeting of the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. The subcommittee voted 10-4 to accept the research findings. It also gave preliminary approval to a motion that recommends the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service remove federal protections for the bears, currently listed as “threatened.”

Remember that science the government claimed was either too awesome to ignore, or too weak to accept? It likely wasn’t scientists who made that decision, but a committee of bureaucrats and politicians who voted based on political expediency.

Since when the fuck are scientific findings deemed valid or not by government suits? None of it should be trusted.

Comments Off on Everything You Need to Know  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-11-14  ::  madlibertarianguy

A Pile of Lies

Friday 8 November 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Compounding lies on top of other lies is rarely a good idea, yet it seems to be the strategy that Hopey McChangey is bent on taking. Peter Wehner at Commentary Magazine:

It was, I think, the most brazenly mendacious claim an American president has told since Bill Clinton’s finger-wagging insistence that “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

I have in mind Barack Obama’s statement, made earlier this week, in which he said this: “Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.” (Emphasis added.)

That is not, in fact, what the president said. Not by a country mile.

What Mr. Obama actually said, dozens of times, is a variation of what he said during a speech to the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009: “That means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

But Mr. Obama is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill fabulist. It appears as if he’s in the process of becoming an inveterate one. He was, after all, building one untruth upon another. I say that because by now it’s obvious to nearly everyone, including liberals, that the president and his aides knew that when he made his initial claim that under the Affordable Care Act you will be able to keep your health-care plan “no matter what”–that you would keep it “period”–he knew the assertion was false. Yet he repeated it over and over again.

He’s a liar, plain and simple. And a liar can’t help but pile even more lies when they’ve been caught in lies. It’s their way.

Comments Off on A Pile of Lies  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-11-08  ::  madlibertarianguy

Our Heroes in Blue

Tuesday 5 November 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Hail to our heroes in blue:

The Missouri State Fire Marshal continues its investigation into an early morning Thursday fire that took the life of a 3-year-old Louisiana, Mo. boy.

The fire killed Riley Miller who was pronounced dead at Pike County Memorial Hospital.

The original 911 call came in at 12:58 a.m. at 405 S. Main St. Firefighters arrived at the scene at 1:03 a.m.

A city police officer stunned Riley’s stepfather Ryan Miller with a Taser gun three times as he tried to enter the burning house.

[. . .]

The house was destroyed.

Lori Miller, Riley’s grandmother, said police stunned Ryan Miller as he tried to get back in the house.

“He tried to get back in the house to get the baby,” Lori Miller said. “They took my son to jail because he tried to save his son.”

Ryan Miller’s sister-in-law doesn’t think the police handled the situation correctly.

“It’s just heartless. How could they be so heartless? And while they all just stood around and waited for the fire department, what kind of police officer wouldn’t try and save a three year old burning in a house?” said Emily Miller. “We’ve been going through pictures and he’s just smiling in every picture. He was just a happy, go-lucky kid.”

[. . .]

Ryan Miller tried to enter the home to get his stepson. Police restrained him and the officer stunned him with a Taser, according to Jenne.

State Fire Marshal Investigator Scott Stoneberger said that a firefighter in full gear attempted to enter the home but the flames were too hot. Firefighters discovered Riley near the doorway to the bedroom from the front living room.

A cop used a taser on a man trying to enter his burning home on order to save his toddler son. Were it me, I would kill that cop. No questions asked. Who the fuck does he think he is to physically restrain a man from trying to save his son? And in rare circumstances such as this I fucking hope that hell is real so that this cop can fucking burn.

Comments Off on Our Heroes in Blue  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-11-05  ::  madlibertarianguy

Nothing

Friday 1 November 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Nothing says success like having to exert pressure to keep from having the warts of your signature policy exposed to the public. Katie McHugh at the Daily Caller:

The White House is pressuring insurance companies not to speak publicly about Obama administration policies that could eliminate the existing health insurance plans of millions of Americans.

The administration made “clarifications” to the 2010 Affordable Care Act after it was passed that have already wiped out hundreds of thousands of existing health plans.

“Basically, if you speak out, if you’re quoted, you’re going to get a call from the White House, pressure to be quiet,” said CNN investigative reporter Drew Griffin on Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday night. Insurance companies executives, Griffin said, ask heads of consulting firms not to criticize the Obamacare rollout debacle publicly.

“They feel defenseless before the White House P.R. team,” Griffin said. “The sources said they fear White House retribution.”

Prior to the Obamacare rollout, insurance companies issued warnings to the White House about the possibility of mass cancellations, which the administration ignored.

Although the mass cancelations are an embarrassment to insurance companies, they are more concerned about losing their biggest customer — the federal government.

That’s a nice insurance plan you have there; it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.

Comments Off on Nothing  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-11-01  ::  madlibertarianguy

Pants on Fire

Wednesday 30 October 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Liar liar, pants on fire:

CBS News has learned more than two million Americans have been told they cannot renew their current insurance policies — more than triple the number of people said to be buying insurance under the new Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

There have been estimates about hundreds of thousands of people losing coverage, CBS News’ Jan Crawford reported on “CBS This Morning.” CBS News has reached out to insurance companies across the country to determine some of the real numbers — and this is just the tip of the iceberg, Crawford said. The people who are opening the letters are shocked to learn they can’t keep their insurance policies despite President Obama’s assurances to the contrary.

The White House is on the defensive trying to explain it, after Mr. Obama repeatedly said, “If you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage.”

It’s an unexpected reality of Obamacare being told through anecdotes in local papers and on social media. But the hard numbers reveal the evidence is far more than anecdotal. CBS News has confirmed with insurance companies across the country that more than two million people are getting notices they no longer can keep their existing plans. In California, there are 279,000; in Michigan, 140,000; Florida, 300,000; and in New Jersey, 800,000. And those numbers are certain to go even higher. Some companies who tell CBS News they’ve sent letters won’t say how many.

Industry experts like Larry Levitt, of the Kaiser Family Foundation, say the insurance companies have no choice. “What we’re seeing now is reality coming into play,” he said. (Emphasis added)

So much for “if you like it, you can keep it.”

Comments Off on Pants on Fire  ::  Share or discuss  ::  2013-10-30  ::  madlibertarianguy