Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance
I’m a sucker for these animated explanations. And the parallels about fire-fighting insurance are pretty striking.
Esquire: Nate Silver to Republicans: Raise Taxes
For Republicans, raising a few taxes may be good policy and good politics. We are now on the verge of the longest period since the creation of the income tax without an increase in what the wealthiest taxpayers pay — fifteen years, matching the no-new-taxes interval from 1952 to 1966. Meanwhile, even the White House’s own figures project several trillion dollars in deficit spending over the next decade, which would greatly exacerbate the roughly $10.6 trillion in debt that Barack Obama inherited from the Bush administration. Deficits are once again hot news. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted in June found that 24 percent of Americans regard the federal budget deficit as the top economic priority — the highest fraction since mid-1994, when Clinton raised taxes. And even in these dire economic times, Americans seem willing to make some sacrifices to pay the debt down: 58 percent said they care more about paring the deficit than stimulating the economy, according to the same poll.
[…] In April, 51 percent of wealthy voters told Gallup their income-tax bill was about right or even too low — “one of the most positive assessments [about taxes] measured since 1956,” Gallup reported.
[…] Although raising taxes — or at least not trying to cut them — has been anathema to Republicans since the Reagan era, it hasn’t always been so. Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower both largely resisted calls to cut taxes (Eisenhower slashed the top tax bracket all the way from 92 percent to 91), choosing to focus on deficit reduction instead. Both were elected to second terms.
I’d actually consider voting for a Republican that would do this.
It’s more or less clear at this point that inflating the deficit isn’t a party thing. I actually hope Obama reneges on his promise not to raise taxes; it seems like the financially responsible thing at this point.
Debunking Health Care Lies (by Reading the Bill) — Blog — OpenCongress
At OpenCongress, we’ve had the official text of the House health care bill available online for a month for people to read and get the facts: H.R. 3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Anyone can easily permalink and comment on any individual section of the full bill text. And in this debate, the facts matter — it’s imperative that as a nation we read the actual text of the bill and actively work to counter any misinformation about it. To be sure, it’s a long bill, and not easy to understand at first read. Some of the misinformation is intentional, and some is inadvertent. But whether you support or oppose this bill, we hope you agree that the misinformation surrounding it is harmful to the public debate and the formal legislative process on health care. In other words, news coverage and blog buzz and viral emails on the health care bill should refer to specific, citable sections of what the bill actually says — they must be reality-based.
Worth the read. Illuminated some of the misinformation I’d heard.
Now can we begin to have an engaging discussion about the actual bill?
NPR: Morally Complex ‘Magicians’ Recasts Potter’s World:
When you take [the villain] away, suddenly the universe gets a whole lot more complicated. Suddenly it’s all shades of gray. And it’s not clear who belongs where. And it’s not clear what magic is for.
All together now!
Nuckin’ Futs ...
A musical life ...
This might be the biggest reason I love working from home.
Tree Style Tabs ...
Federico Mena Quintero — May 2009 Activity Log
Tabs show up hierachically, on the side by default
An interesting — if not fully integrated — extension. Too many options, messes with the default tab order (when closing tabs, etc.) but organized and uncluttered, even with twice as many tabs open.
It’s not too often I’ve seen a Firefox extension that really changes the way I (can) operate.
I don’t consider myself blindly brand-loyal to the Mac.
I know, right? Co-founder of a indie Mac software company?
I find Mac OS X to be the least frustrating of the currently available options, but the buck certainly doesn’t stop there. We have miles and miles to go in terms of making computing better. I want my socks blown off, and I don’t care whether it’s Apple, Microsoft, Google, or the open source movement that does it, as long as someone does.
I hope that making it Someone Else’s Problem will work out for you. If you put your faith in Apple/Microsoft/Google, or even in the open source movement, you can expect what you get. Since at least I can participate in the open source movement, if it doesn’t blow off socks, I can say that’s my fault.
Mud Rooms, Red Letters, and Real Priorities | 43 Folders
Making something a BIG RED TOP TOP BIG HIGHEST #1 PRIORITY changes nothing but text styling. If it were really important, it’d already be done. Period. Think about it.
Example. When my daughter falls down and screams, I don’t ask her to wait while I grab a list to determine which of seven notional levels of “priority” I should assign to her need for instantaneous care and affection. Everything stops, and she gets taken care of. Conversely — and this is really the important part — everything else in the universe can wait.
Day One Buddhism.
Because, once you see what’s really there — once you know about an idea or a thing or a person or whatever that you’d reject 10,000 other things to protect and nurture — you’ve found your priority. And, consequently, you’ve discovered a bunch of other things that aren’t allowed to be priorities any more. Even in spirit.
After reading David Allen’s book, the whole idea of prioritizing tasks makes little sense to me. I love the way Merlin Mann puts it; effective, memorable writing that sticks with me better than Allen’s.
