We know that less than half of all Americans favor Congress passing a new healthcare reform bill at this point in history. This conclusion is based on every recent poll that I am aware of. That includes a couple (see here and here) just released this week.
We have senators working into the night and on Christmas Eve in order to pass what the majority of that body no doubt perceive as highly positive, historic legislation. We have President Obama postponing the start of his vacation in order to stick around for the final Senate vote on what he perceives to be — potentially — one of the signature victories of his first year in office. We have the public not at all convinced that the new legislation is a good thing for the country.
When pollsters start pondering why legislators insist upon acting of their own accord instead of that of their constituents, the situation is obviously in dire straits.
In the post-dawn hours on Thursday the Senate passed ObamaCare 60 to 39, in the first vote on Christmas Eve since 1895 and after the longest consecutive session in Congress since World War I. We are thus heading toward the first U.S. entitlement program dragged across the finish line on a straight partisan majority, a bill that even its most fervent supporters admit is “flawed” but better than nothing.
It is far worse than nothing. The bill itself is an unprecedented arrogation of federal power over one-seventh of the economy, and even its closest antecedents, Medicare and Medicaid, passed in 1965 with the support of both parties. Reflecting the political consensus that has always inspired durable social reform in America, those entitlements cleared the Senate with more than half of the GOP caucus voting in favor.
The Democrats own it. And thus history will duly record their self-aggrandizing actions. And therein, the demise of health care in America.
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
Attention to detail. The discerning eye will be able to pick up on the subtle changes that have been made to each image with Photoshop techniques. Clever thinking on the part of each artist.
Worth 1000 Subtle Changes has many more images here. Better than “Where’s Waldo?”
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
Michael Binyon, Times of LondonClaim your free 2010 double sided wall chartJenni RussellWhere am I? When does an uprising become a revolution? Throughout history, demonstrations, strikes and riots have brought crowds out on to the streets and threatened governments. In most countries a swift crackdown coupled with political concessions have usually contained […]
Christina Romer, San Francisco ChronicleThese proposals are an important steppingstone in our efforts to fix the economy - but they are only a part of our strategy. There is no single piece of legislation that will solve our problems. Our nation faces double-digit unemployment. Far too many Americans still are struggling to make ends meet. But to understand […]
Jennifer Loven, Assoc. PressThe Obama administration claim that "the system worked" after a failed aircraft bombing wasn't quite as jolting as President George W. Bush's "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" when New Orleans was sinking under deadly Hurricane Katrina. But both raised disturbing questions about presidential […]