Despicable ad calling Judge Sotomayor a terrori$t.

Found this at The Daily Dish 'The Terrorist Plot Thickens!' Sphere: Related Content

Can you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and perform a lobotomy on yourself?

The only part Thomas Szasz gets right in his WSJ essay, Universal Health Care Isn't Worth Our Freedom, is that we can all make better choices to improve our health. I vow to not eat a rare cheeseburger for lunch.

Mr. Szasz sets off with an unfortunate analogy between a car and the human body. He writes, “People who seek the services of auto mechanics want car repair, not "auto care." Similarly, most people who seek the services of medical doctors want body repair, not "health care."”

Okay fine, he has a problem with the rhetorical devices that are framing this debate but he continues,

“We own our cars, are responsible for the cost of maintaining them, and decide what needs fixing based partly on balancing the seriousness of the problem against the expense of repairing it. Our health-care system rests on the principle that, although we own our bodies, the community or state ought to be responsible for paying the cost of repairing them.”

This is where Mr. Szasz has become a ghoul. The decisions to get a new carburetor and necessary medical attention are not analogous in the current context of the rising cost of health care or most other contexts. I have not read the stories of the tens of thousands of people that have landed in bankruptcy because the engine rebuild for their 1984 Buick Regal (my first car) cost too much. All too often, unforeseen medical problems have not only landed people in bankruptcy they crash.

I was wrong, Mr. Szasz was also correct that the “rich and educated people not only receive better goods and services in all areas of life than do poor and uneducated people, they also tend to take better care of themselves and their possessions, which in turn leads to better health.” Any education of the, “poor and uneducated people” in the area of healthy choices is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, in the time that elapses in the "national health class", people will continue to become bankrupt. Perhaps we can teach the wretched and also let them see a doctor.

The rich always have a great percentage of their income or wealth available to purchase goods and service and they still will if poor people can see doctor. The rich will see any doctor they want because they can afford it.

Mr. Szasz has a problem with the current debate. The options are not going to be perfect but we need to do more than educate.

Perhaps while you donate your old car to Habitat for Humanity they can take your sick bankrupt aunt as well. Here is the link to donate your car. Sphere: Related Content

Update on UPS extra labor II

Larry's Blog at www.newyorkparkingticket.com writes, "It costs UPS about $1M per month in NYC parking ticket fines."

San Fransisco Chronicle writer Rachel Gordon 1997 said, "Neither UPS, based in Atlanta, nor FedEx, based in Memphis, keeps a tally of how much it spends nationally on parking fines, according to their spokesmen. But the tab is big: In New York City alone, UPS paid $18.7 million and FedEx paid $8.2 million during the 2005-06 fiscal year."

Previous posts:

Update on UPS extra labor

Why do some UPS trucks have two people making deliveries?

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Jeff Sessions seems confused II

Does Judge Sotomayor speak in sentences too complicated for Senator Sessions?

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Interesting thoughts on Supreme Court Diversity

From The Daily Dish What's the Point of Diversity on the Supreme Court?, Ctd

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Conor Clarke at The Daily Dish is "sickened" by Sarah Palin's essay

Read Conor Clarke's reaction to the Sarah Palin essay. Sphere: Related Content

Jeff Sessions seems confused

Senator Sessions is confused by Sanio Sotomayor use language? Sphere: Related Content

Sarah Palin is trying to confuse me.

Sarah Palin is the author of an essay in today’s Wash Post. I am skeptical of the authorship. Nothing in the past 11 months points to her being able to sustain a theme for the length of this essay. But it does have here “style” if you read it out loud.

Governor Palin may be correct that cap and trade is not the optimal solution to an energy policy. She writes that it will “inflict permanent damage” on the US economy. Unfortunately she does not prescribe a better solution beyond what is essentially her unsustainable trope “drill baby drill”.

It is a safe assumption that this essay was someone else’s idea. But instead of focusing on the topic it does address the Governor’s narcissism:

“Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind”.

Her initial evidence in support of her claim against cap and trade is wrong. “American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy.” Innovation and creativity are the factors that propel the US economy. Innovation comes from education, thoughtfulness and the persistence. Cheap energy is valuable to controlling cost but it is not the primary factor to American prosperity. If that were true we would be in real trouble.

Warren Buffet (spelled incorrectly in the essay) did say that, "poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity." Governor Palin should not imply that Mr. Buffet rejects cap and trade for this reason. You can read the transcript of the interview by CNBC with Mr. Buffet here.

The Governor may be correct that that cap and trade is wrong but she needs to be serious and give real alternatives. Why is drilling a better option than straight carbon tax. A carbon tax will still pass cost to consumers but it has less cost due to less regulatory structure. We need to address our energy externalities. We can’t just ignore the impact of our prosperity.

Governor Palin also avoids the need for investment in alternative sustainable energy goals.

I like that the Governor made this step but leaders need to have thoughtful robust ideas if we are to take them serious.

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Excellent piece breaking down the first day of SCOTUS hearings

In the Washington Independent Daphne Eviatar give excellent account of the first day in her comment Sotomayor Hearing Pits ‘Bias’ Against ‘Empathy’.

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Update on UPS extra labor

A follow up on a previous post. I hope to ask the UPS drivers on my block the next time I see them but meanwhile I came across a San Diego Union Tribune article.

The article states:

"UPS pays about $2,000 a month in parking fines for its San Diego drivers, said company spokeswoman Ronna Branch.

That's relatively low, considering UPS drivers in New York City have collected about 15,000 tickets - close to $10 million in fines – in a recent year."

Wow! Sphere: Related Content

Reactions to Liz Cheney's Essay

Commentary Magazine

Real Clear World

Kaj Leers

Zandar Versus The Stupid Sphere: Related Content

Liz Cheney has a monopoly on truth. So be careful!!

Liz Cheney asserts in the Wall Street Journal today that President Obama lied during his speech to the New Economic School (NES) in Russia. But really Ms. Cheney is wrong and deceitful.

If you don’t say what Liz Cheney believes is the truth you are a liar and a borderline traitor.

Ms. Cheney as usual either removes context from Pres. Obama speech to graduates of the NES. Perhaps she is genetically incapable of understanding context. If so I apologize for judging her to harshly. She quotes the President’s speech and implies that he frames the cold war as a competition for achievements in science and sports and ignores the brutal totalitarianism of the Soviet government.

The speech was an address to graduating students. Therefore it was an optimistic speech about change and people.

Using the jingoistic trope that “America was an unmatched force for good in the world” Ms. Cheney implies that it was America alone that lead to the fall of the Soviet communism. It is surprising that the name Ronald Reagan was not written once in her essay.

Her deception continues as she quotes Desirée Glapion Rogers, White House Social Secretary, from a Wall Street Journal interview, “We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand,’ Rogers says. ‘Our possibilities are endless.” Ms. Cheney uses this line as an insight into the administrations foreign policy approach. Ms. Cheney tries to expose this quote from Ms. Rogers as the President being misguided by “Obama exceptionalism” at the expense of America. Is it necessary to remind the President of the United States that he is the President of the United States.

Ms. Cheney’s zero sum mentality is evident in her distaste for President Obama’s response to the inquiry if he believes in American Expectionalism. "I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." She translates this reasonable answer as, “in other words, not so much.”

Asking that President Obama claim America’s exceptionalism is to ignore the past actions of the United States whether successful or mistakes. To ignore our mistakes while the rest of the world knows those mistakes is asking us to believe that the rest of the world is dumb while we wear Ms. Cheney’s dunce cap. Thinking about the threats we face with open mindedness and humility is exceptional. Perhaps a strong thoughtful humble approach to the world will create exceptional American international relations.

From the Urban Dictionary:

Cheneyism:
a figure of speech expressing a fantasy, generally used to manipulate (ie. "My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." --March 16, 2003, or "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." -- June 20, 2005)

Nuts don't fall far from the tree. Sphere: Related Content

Mommy Nanny relations show progress

I am watching the Sonia Sotomayor hearing today but during certain Senator's statement I walk away and do other tasks. During Sen. Feinstein's statement I took the dog out for pee. Walking past the playground across the street I witnessed something I have never seen before. A nanny pushing her ward on the swing talking with a mommy pushing her child on the swing. This is an amazing breakthrough for the groups that don't interact much on the playground.

Perhaps this happened only because there was few people in the playground.

Why don't the mommies and the nannies talk more? Sphere: Related Content

Sonia Sotomayor hearings

The judge looks very uncomfortable. The wife thinks she looks she may cry. Sphere: Related Content

Sonia Sotomayor hearings

Three republicans into the hearings and we can see the line being drawn on empathy. Sphere: Related Content

Sonia Sotomayor hearings

Is empathy by definition bias? Sen. Sessions just said it was. Sphere: Related Content

A great way to get the news

If you haven't seen Auto Tune the News. Go there right now.

Here is a sample:




Here is another link to an Auto Tune I found on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. Pretty funny. Sphere: Related Content

Do we need to stop being slapped around by the Invisible Hand?

Economist Robert Frank of Cornell University thinks that we need to temper the dogmatic faith in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. Mr. Frank believes the our unrelenting faith in this metaphor "has undermined regulatory conflicts between the individual and the collective interests" of our society. He wants to fuse Mr. Smith's idea with Charles Darwin.

Where individual and society needs meet sometimes society loses.

It is an interesting essay with Mr. Franks usual easy and entertaining style.

Take a look here. Sphere: Related Content

I thought John McCain would have learned something about Sarah Palin.

John McCain is supporting Sarah Palin. Touting her qualifications on Meet the Press. It is not mavericky. Can all of the stories of her failures be wrong.

Daily Dish - The Rise and Fall Of A Delusional celebrity.

The inexplicable rise of mediocrity II

Peggy Noonan

Todd Purnham

This is just a sample.

I just don't get it. Sphere: Related Content

What is the Southwest equivalent of a Redneck?

Is it still a redneck. Here is a video of a gorilla at the Albuquerque, NM zoo. It is fun to watch the gorillaness of the animal but it is funnier to listen to the "redneck" strongly claim that "I didn't not evolve from that. I don't care what they say I did not evolve from that." He says it at about 25 seconds into the video. I looked at this guy and he may be almost right. He has not evolved very much from this gorilla. His redneckness was scary and as fun as the gorilla.
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