Sunday morning open thread

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Sunday morning open thread

Bookworm on Jan 15 2012 at 12:19 pm | Filed under: Open Threads

An inert Saturday, followed by a blank-brained Sunday morning. I’ll try to do better this afternoon. Until then, help yourself to this open thread.

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8 Responses to “Sunday morning open thread”

on 15 Jan 2012 at 2:36 pm 1SADIE

I’ve learned over the past several years that Romneycare has been in the red. How red … well I’d say embarrassing red. Whether or not the facts in this article reach the eyes and ears of voters is anyone’s guess and I’ll leave it to the mathematicians in this room to ponder what the cost ‘overruns’ for the other 49 states if SCOTUS does not strike Obamacare down. I was particularly struck by the fact that it took 5-6 years for the rulling to come down. So…does this knock Mitt back a few notches or not?

RomneyCare Just Got $150 Million More Expensive
By Michael F. Cannon
1/15/2012

One of the ways Massachusetts officials have tried to temper RomneyCare’s cost overruns was by denying participation to legal immigrants. Last week, the Commonwealth’s highest court ruled that restriction violates the Massachusetts Constitution:

Massachusetts cannot bar legal immigrants from a state health care program, according to a ruling issued Thursday by the state’s highest court…

The ruling said that a 2009 state budget that dropped about 29,000 legal immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than five years from Commonwealth Care, a subsidized health insurance program central to this state’s 2006 health care overhaul, violated the State Constitution.

“This appropriation discriminated on the basis of alienage and national origin,” wrote Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Supreme Judicial Court, ruling that the action “violates their rights to equal protection under the Massachusetts Constitution.”…

State officials say they will abide by the decision, although they are not yet sure how to pay for the change.

“This decision has significant fiscal impacts for the commonwealth, adding somewhere in the range of $150 million in annual costs to what is already a very challenging budget,” said Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance.

No doubt their “pay for” will involve another unpopular minority.

Former Romney/Obama advisor Jonathan Gruber has written that RomneyCare was already costing the state $50 billion more than projected by 2009. Of course, supporters have been hiding RomneyCare’s costs (and exaggerating its benefits) all along.
on 15 Jan 2012 at 5:36 pm 2JKB

I’ve been reading older books on rhetoric and studying. One textbook for Freshmen Rhetoric is quite well laid out in the specifics of how to prepare a composition, outlines and process a book. I seem to remember a few of these bits from 10th grade but rather than a book, I believe we had part of one class in instruction.

The Freshman Rhetoric references another book, How to Study and Teaching How to Study by F. M. McMurry, 1909. This book is quite laid out on how to study by more than memorization. Oddly, I did a google search for “Art of Study,” it was quite disillusioning to not find one link, school, college or otherwise, that was as involved as this text from 1909.

One paragraph was quite saddening given current lamentations about the state of education and student studying skills

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to collect proofs that young people do not learn how to study, because teachers admit the fact very generally. Indeed, it is one of the common subjects of complaint among teachers in the elementary school, in the high school, and in the college. All along the line teachers condole with one another over this evil, college professors placing blame on the instructors in the high school, and the latter passing it down to teachers in the elementary school. Parents who supervise their children’s studies, or who otherwise know about their habits of work, observe the same fact with sorrow. It is at least refreshing to find one matter, in the much-disputed field of education, on which teachers and parents are well agreed. (emphasis mine)

Over 100 years, billions of dollars, thousands of Ph.Ds and we’ve made no progress in education apparently.
on 15 Jan 2012 at 6:27 pm 3Michael Adams

The USPS has a similar lack of improvement. Actually, they have regresses, since, a hundred years ago, there were two daily deliveries in town. Now, there’s only one. Now they are proposing to introduce governmental efficiency to health care, two. Imagine, if they’d succeeded in 1912, when they first tried to socialize medicine.

Don Quixote complains of chest pain. Mrs. Quixote drives him in a shiny new automobile to the hospital, zoned AC, GPS, the works. He bought it himself, with his own money. He’s met at the door by a white-clad orderly, who pushes him up the five ramps to the fifth floor (Remember, no elevators in most hospitals in 1912.)Sister Santa Gertrudis bathes him and gives him an enema, because, “As me old mither always said, back in County Cork, if clean sheets and clean bowels won’t cure ya, you’re sure to need a Better Doctor. Which reminds me, Sister Ignacius, would ye pop down to the chapel and see whether Father Bart has finished sayin’ Mass? Ask him to come up and see this patient.” From beyond the head of the bed, where poor Quixote can’t see, she strokes the sides of her habit, where the priest’s stole would be, so Father will know to bring what he’ll need to give the patient the Last Rites. That, after all, is all to be done for a heart attack in 1912.

So, education, a government monopoly with a bureaucracy in charge, the USPS, the less said the better for everyone’s blood pressure, both of them performing and advancing at Government Speed, inspire someone in power to try these management techniques out on health care. Please, really, don’t go to so much trouble on my account.
on 15 Jan 2012 at 10:00 pm 4Earl

I just don’t know how anyone in the Bay Area can say “inert Saturday” when the S.F. 49ers beat the heavily favored New Orleans Saints at Candlestick Park!!
on 15 Jan 2012 at 10:50 pm 5Mike Devx

Earl, The 49ers had earned my respect prior to this game. I always *liked* Jim Harbaugh (the coach). And I knew the team was playing well.

But in watching most of that game, my respect kept climbing. Then came that incredible last four minutes, both teams counterpunching and fighting for the win with all abandon.

Then, when Vernon Davis scored that touchdown, and went running to the sideline – and directly to his coach! – weeping with pure joy, my respect changed into something else. Something much deeper, and much more lasting. An NFL player, weeping with joy, overcome with honest, intense deep emotion. Of a type you NEVER see anymore.

And Alex Smith had endured seven offensive coordinators in just that many years, and had nearly been hounded out of the NFL as a brat, crybaby child of no use to any teammate anywhere in the entire world. Now, he’d already taken leadership of his team through the year (with the guidance of a brilliant coach). Now, the quarterback given up as worthless and poisonous was emerging on top, as a star. As a genuine leader of men.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the most wonderful group of 49ers ever to play the game. THIS is America’s Team. This is as good as it gets. Yes, Joe Montana was great. But this TEAM, this entire group, has won my respect and my heart – I am a true, 100% fan now. I never thought I’d ever say that about any NFL team, but I’m saying it now.

After seeing how unprepared the Packers were today after their two week layoff, it emphasizes to me just how much the 49ers were ready to play, honed to a competitive edge. They’ll be ready against the Giants, too.

Go 49ers! All the way!
on 16 Jan 2012 at 5:45 am 6Ron19

Obama-Biden, or even Obama-Clinton, have already done their tme in Presidential debates. Why would they agree to debate Gingrich-whoever if everyone agrees that they’ll be made to look like fools?

If The TOTUS-Team thought that the debates were going to be that important the MSM would have been attacking Romney and Paul instead of Bachman and Perry.

If several of the candidates are “electable” then we don’t need to nominate the most electable. We should be nominating the candidate that will be the best for the United States and its citizens.
on 16 Jan 2012 at 9:06 am 7Ymarsakar

Progress has been made. Teachers, students, and parents have been programmed with the iron rod of propaganda to obey the Unions and to attack the enemies the Unions determine exists.
on 17 Jan 2012 at 11:36 am 8Earl

Hey, Mike: Seeing Vernon Davis with the tears pouring down his face choked me up!!

These guys have been through so much — not just Alex Smith, either….the entire team was vilified and so many people wanted to “back up the truck” and start over.

My son pointed out to me that the Sports Illustrated before this last weekend of divisional playoffs gave a page and photos to every team EXCEPT the ‘Niners….their year has been basically ignored. I think it’s because the pundits had decided that Alex and his team were c**p, and were not interested in anything that contradicted that judgment.

It really does highlight the importance of coaching, doesn’t it? This team is almost entirely the SAME group of guys who went 6-10 last year….the difference is the coach, who designed his offense around Alex Smith’s strengths rather than try to force him into a “system”, and also instilled a sense of “all for one” and purpose in his players.

Perhaps you can tell I’m a fan!! Only since the late ’50s, is all.

I’m having FUN!!