...And it was a good feeling. Screw happiness. (Reposted)
http://jezebel.com/5535538/happiness-really-isnt-thathappy
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
This Happens in America
If you don't think that women are at risk of hard-nose tactics, consider this: Just two years ago Juana Villegas was arrested for a routine traffic violation in Nashville after leaving a clinic for a pre-natal visit and detained when she was unable to produce a license. Despite the fact that driving without a license is a misdemeanor in Tennessee that generally leads to a citation, Ms. Villegas was taken into custody due to suspicions about her immigration status.
Ms. Villegas was jailed for six days, during which time she gave birth to a little boy while shackled to a bed under the watchful eye of the sheriff's officer. Barred from speaking to her husband, her baby was taken from her upon birth, leading to a number of health repercussions for both mother and baby. Local police stood by their actions, calling Nashville "a friendly and open city to our new legal residents." In a chilling display of Nashville's "friendliness," local police also confiscated Villegas' breast pump.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Health Care
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/10-instant-effects-of-reform/what-now/
It addresses a bit of the problem with the employer-based health care model as a whole by encouraging small businesses to offer insurance while mitigating the cost to those businesses by offering a tax deduction, and mitigates the effect of the profit motive of large insurance companies on national health by taxing those companies whose administrative costs (read: executive compensation packages) exceed a certain percentage of their operating budget.
This is why health care goes hand in hand with financial reform and student loan reform. To avoid that latter provision about administrative costs having the unintended consequence of premiums actually rising as that tax gets passed onto consumers, executive pay needs to come down across the board so that lower compensation packages at insurance companies won't lead to a brain drain at the companies to whom we are entrusting the health of our nation. (I.e. That tax needs to be borne by the executives, not the consumers, but compensation should be competitive even if it includes a public service component.)
Student loan reform comes in as we need to mobilize our economy to pay for these reforms, given the good chance that despite OMB projections, health care reform may cause a net increase in the deficit (and almost certainly will over the short term). More students in college with less debt takes the long view of our economic health as a nation. That's assuming that the gov't can in fact make student loans better without the middle man, and I don't know what the projections are for the short term consequences to the banking sector.
Nevertheless, the economic picture for our country is not pretty over the short term no matter which way you paint it (and the banking sector has been resilient despite the creative destruction of some of its members), and this looks better than the status quo to me.
It addresses a bit of the problem with the employer-based health care model as a whole by encouraging small businesses to offer insurance while mitigating the cost to those businesses by offering a tax deduction, and mitigates the effect of the profit motive of large insurance companies on national health by taxing those companies whose administrative costs (read: executive compensation packages) exceed a certain percentage of their operating budget.
This is why health care goes hand in hand with financial reform and student loan reform. To avoid that latter provision about administrative costs having the unintended consequence of premiums actually rising as that tax gets passed onto consumers, executive pay needs to come down across the board so that lower compensation packages at insurance companies won't lead to a brain drain at the companies to whom we are entrusting the health of our nation. (I.e. That tax needs to be borne by the executives, not the consumers, but compensation should be competitive even if it includes a public service component.)
Student loan reform comes in as we need to mobilize our economy to pay for these reforms, given the good chance that despite OMB projections, health care reform may cause a net increase in the deficit (and almost certainly will over the short term). More students in college with less debt takes the long view of our economic health as a nation. That's assuming that the gov't can in fact make student loans better without the middle man, and I don't know what the projections are for the short term consequences to the banking sector.
Nevertheless, the economic picture for our country is not pretty over the short term no matter which way you paint it (and the banking sector has been resilient despite the creative destruction of some of its members), and this looks better than the status quo to me.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
A Little Note Since It's Been A While
http://jezebel.com/5461630/eating-disorders-somehow-still-occuring-in-fashion-industry?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
This article rang a little hollow to me since I read it after looking at photos of Gawker Media's NSFW party, filled with glossy thin white flat-ironed women with whom I can't relate any better than if they were supermodels. That was more damaging to my self image for the day than looking at LOVE's naked cover girls. A place like Gawker Media, to which I would actually look for role models, is apparently just as inaccessible to me as Wilhelmina.
This article rang a little hollow to me since I read it after looking at photos of Gawker Media's NSFW party, filled with glossy thin white flat-ironed women with whom I can't relate any better than if they were supermodels. That was more damaging to my self image for the day than looking at LOVE's naked cover girls. A place like Gawker Media, to which I would actually look for role models, is apparently just as inaccessible to me as Wilhelmina.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Not a Lost Cause
http://jezebel.com/5406933/matchpoint?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+(Jezebel)&utm_content=Google+Reader
This is probably the first news item I've seen on Sudan that isn't about genocide. As we question our involvement or lack thereof in Darfur, i think it's an important reminder of what is at stake.
This is probably the first news item I've seen on Sudan that isn't about genocide. As we question our involvement or lack thereof in Darfur, i think it's an important reminder of what is at stake.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Douthat Again
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/opinion/02douthatsub.html
The gist of his article: Third party candidacy is good at the local level. Among his points: Doug Hoffman did a huge favor for NY-23 by holding left-drifting Republicans accountable.
But the symbolism of Hoffman's candidacy reinforces the socially conservative far-right litmus test of Republican candidates...to be a true Repub, now you have to fall in line with Sarah Palin? NY-23 is a moderately conservative district, and in the end there was no moderately conservative candidate to choose from. Maybe the message got out that you can't be too left or too right to win a seat as a Republican candidate, but it ended up costing them reprentation in Congress.
For someone who writes about the joys of 3rd party candidacy, way to not mention VT except to reference Dean's presidential campaign. We have a 3rd party Senator and consistently have Independents running for Governor, which actually hasn't worked out too well for us imo.
The gist of his article: Third party candidacy is good at the local level. Among his points: Doug Hoffman did a huge favor for NY-23 by holding left-drifting Republicans accountable.
But the symbolism of Hoffman's candidacy reinforces the socially conservative far-right litmus test of Republican candidates...to be a true Repub, now you have to fall in line with Sarah Palin? NY-23 is a moderately conservative district, and in the end there was no moderately conservative candidate to choose from. Maybe the message got out that you can't be too left or too right to win a seat as a Republican candidate, but it ended up costing them reprentation in Congress.
For someone who writes about the joys of 3rd party candidacy, way to not mention VT except to reference Dean's presidential campaign. We have a 3rd party Senator and consistently have Independents running for Governor, which actually hasn't worked out too well for us imo.
A Response to an Article my Father Sent Me
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/03/AR2009110302625.html
I think Mr. Gerson's idea of balance is right, and I don't think that transferring some of the cost of caring for older Americans to younger Americans is a bad thing. For one, it's hard to apply a statistic to an individual. Statistically, young people cost the health care system less than old people. But you never know if you're going to be one of the young people who costs the system more. That's what insurance does--you pay just in case that person is you. The risk may be less, so maybe you pay less, but you can't say that every young person costs less than every old person and therefore all young people should pay less. Also, the health of older Americans is not just a moral issue but a public good as well. Is it a stretch to say that most young Americans have a higher quality of life because their parents live longer and have access to elder care? ;) As for us needing the system when we get older, I know some people would rather shift to a mandatory HSA system so that we are paying for our own care in old age rather than relying on medicare, but for most people the net effect is probably the same as paying into medicare, and for the people who would be responsible and save more in their HSA, in some way it's at the expense of people who simply don't have the resources to contribute to an HSA.
I think Mr. Gerson's idea of balance is right, and I don't think that transferring some of the cost of caring for older Americans to younger Americans is a bad thing. For one, it's hard to apply a statistic to an individual. Statistically, young people cost the health care system less than old people. But you never know if you're going to be one of the young people who costs the system more. That's what insurance does--you pay just in case that person is you. The risk may be less, so maybe you pay less, but you can't say that every young person costs less than every old person and therefore all young people should pay less. Also, the health of older Americans is not just a moral issue but a public good as well. Is it a stretch to say that most young Americans have a higher quality of life because their parents live longer and have access to elder care? ;) As for us needing the system when we get older, I know some people would rather shift to a mandatory HSA system so that we are paying for our own care in old age rather than relying on medicare, but for most people the net effect is probably the same as paying into medicare, and for the people who would be responsible and save more in their HSA, in some way it's at the expense of people who simply don't have the resources to contribute to an HSA.
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