Latent Maniacal Tendencies

Whoops. "adjusted," eh?

2009-11-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/these-will-be-artificially-adjusted/

It's the Cookie Cutter That Really Gets You

2009-11-17T22:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1228630/How-Hitlers-Nazi-propaganda-machine-tried-Christ-Christmas.html

There's Yer Problem

2009-10-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/taxes-financial-aid-college-roughing-up-middle-class_print.html

Global . . . Something

2009-10-07T14:15:00.001-04:00

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/dr-holdrens-ice-age-tidal-wave/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/opinion/07friedman.html

Gore Vidal Continues To Amaze

2009-09-30T19:36:00.000-04:00

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6854221.ece

Outer, Inner - GKC

2009-09-21T14:26:00.001-04:00

"The outer ring of Christianity," wrote G. K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy, one hundred years ago, "is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom."
His next sentence is as chilling as the previous is warming. "But in the modern philosophy the case is the opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/septemberweb-only/135-51.0.html

Newt on Health Care

2009-09-21T12:51:00.001-04:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574425324084867640.html

Oh, great.

2009-09-16T09:59:00.001-04:00

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09091110.html

Technically , I Should Not Find This Funny

2009-09-11T15:07:00.000-04:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/12_year_old_boy_scouts_volunteer?utm_source=infocus

Climate Change & the Failure of Democracy

2009-09-09T19:59:00.001-04:00

"We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions."

http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C34504.aspx

Holmes Meets Conan Doyle (thanks to McIntyre)

2009-09-07T12:50:00.000-04:00

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Vonda-N.-McIntyre/Novellas/Novelettes/A-Sherlock-Holmes-story-by-Vonda-N.-McIntyre

Terry Goodkind's Law

2009-09-05T22:31:00.001-04:00

Wizard's First Rule:

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Sunspots 'n Earthquakes

2009-09-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDA1ODcxZmUyYjJmMjQ0YjcwYmVjYWU4NTRjNDdhY2Y=

Sunspots, etc.

2009-09-02T14:07:00.001-04:00

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmU0NDMzZTlkM2E5MDBhY2Q4N2ViYTFkNjVmNzU5NTc=

2009-08-28T14:19:00.000-04:00

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/08/06/long-debate-ended-over-cause-demise-of-ice-ages-solar-and-earth-wobble/

Health Care, at least for a day after passage

2009-08-25T13:49:00.000-04:00

http://www.donkeylicious.com/2009/08/flowchart.html

Good discussion in the comments.

Page 216

2009-08-24T18:37:00.000-04:00

http://washingtonindependent.com/56175/the-2004-cia-inspector-generals-report-on-torture

A Group To Watch

2009-08-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.thelighthousecovenant.com/

Oh, My.

2009-08-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kkYrkUROovI/SozXPGOMkjI/AAAAAAAAAPE/xcg3leQad2o/s1600-h/Central+steeple.jpg

Sarah Palin is . . . wrong, right?

2009-08-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

http://www.freep.com/article/20090819/OPINION05/90819047/1336/opinion/Truth-about-death-panels

Neither side is justified, but for balance & perspective

2009-08-20T08:21:00.000-04:00

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621

Harry Potter still waiting for a sermon

2009-08-18T09:10:00.001-04:00

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/08/16/how_the_boy_wizard_won_over_religious_critics?mode=PF

Physical and spiritual health

2009-08-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18angier.html

What Does Health Insurance Cost?

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

from http://www.gormogons.com/2009/08/with-tremendously-important-debate.html

With the tremendously important debate currently taking place regarding the perceived need for healthcare reform and the government’s alleged responsibility to provide coverage for every person in this country – which your Mandarin can guarantee will include those in the country illegally through a blanket amnesty program, but that is another topic for another time – I began to wonder how much does health insurance actually cost.

So I spent some time today on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois web site today to do some research. There were 9 different plans to choose from that ranged from all encompassing to hospitalization only. For purposes of this research I focused on two plans:

• Blue Choice Select:
o $5,000,000.00 Lifetime Benefit
o $30.00 Office Visit Co-pay
o Drug Card with $10.00 Co-pay for Generics
o $6,000.00 (Family of 4*)/$3,000 (Individual**) Out of Pocket Limit
o $756.02 (Family of 4*)/$233.29 (Individual**) Monthly Premium

• Basic Blue:
o $5,000,000.00 Lifetime Benefit
o $3,000.00 (Family of 4*)/$1,000.00 (Individual**) Out of Pocket Limit
o $558.10 (Family of 4*)/$172.21 (Individual**) Monthly Premium

So doing some basic math and making some assumptions, I choose to tackle the 47,000,000 uninsured people out there. Let’s assume that of that number, 15,000,000 are illegal immigrants and should be excluded, another 10,000,000 are children that could be covered under existing programs such as SCHIP, but their parents are too lazy to fill out the paper work, and another 10,000,000 are those 18 to 35 year olds that think they are indestructible and don’t need insurance. Having subtracted those 35,000,000 people from the equation we are left with 12,000,000 people that do not have access to health insurance either due to affordability, unemployment, or the transitioning from one job to another. Once again I feel the need to state that while they may not have health insurance, they are not excluded from receiving emergency healthcare.

Now if we take 12,000,000 and multiply that by the monthly cost of the Blue Choice Select individual monthly premium you get a cost of $2.8 Billion per month or $33.6 Billion per year. If you take that same number and multiply it by the monthly cost of the Basic Blue individual monthly premium you get a cost of $2.1 Billion per month or $24.8 Billion per year.

Walt Disney was a Congregationalist, sort of

2009-08-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

http://www.disneydreamer.com/Waltfaith.htm

http://www.mouseplanet.com/8181/The_Gospel_According_to_Walt

. . . and this excerpt is just fascinating, pages 15-21:

http://books.google.com/books?id=YGtbYTyulb4C&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=walt+disney+religion+church+faith&source=bl&ots=SqX3qjgQ88&sig=PBDiJ8GrYhbBk6QWzTr_uLbQeDw&hl=en&ei=LsuCSpG2C5eCtgfsvNnECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=walt%20disney%20religion%20church%20faith&f=false