All Is Vanity. 1892. Charles Alan Gilbert.
Superb artistic optical illusion. Woman admiring herself in a mirror, or human skull? Published in Life magazine in 1902.
A novel image on Halloween.
Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Allan_Gilbert.
Happy Halloween.
Image courtesy of http://www.funny-potato.com/funny-halloween-2.html.
Image courtesy of http://www.qzx.com/about/stuff/.
Image courtesy of http://meladramas.blogspot.com/2007_10_14_archive.html.
Image courtesy of http://www.hahastop.com/pictures/Halloween_Pumpkins.htm.
Image courtesy of http://www.funny-potato.com/funny-halloween-2.html.
Hmmm.
Woman swallows 78 items of cutlery. Telegraph.
A 52-year old Holland woman required surgery to extricate the cutlery she chowed down on. Lots of shiny spoons and forks. But no knives.
Good thing a stomach ache got her into the hospital before she started pithing those utensils out the other end.
Image courtesy of CEN via http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6455477/Woman-swallows-78-items-of-cutlery.html.
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White House Loses Credibility (again). The Sibyl Speaks. Salient once again.
The White House war upon Fox News has brought some reasoned insight to the table. CNN reporter Campbell Brown‘s summary is on the mark, when she discusses slanted opinion journalism.
Something Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett purposely avoids with her pressing insistence that Fox spreads distortions, but overtly avoiding MSNBC’s longtime bias.
White House officials should elevate the conversation and talk about bias on the right and on the left, because when you just target one side, you reveal your own bias. That you are only critical of those, who are are critical of you.
Toughen up critics. Truth hurts.
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“Private insurance premiums could triple under ObamaCare.”
Huh!”
The WellPoint Revelation. WSJ.
At the request of Congressional delegations worried about their constituents—call it a public service—WellPoint mined its own actuarial data to model ObamaCare in the 14 states where it runs Blue Cross plans. The study therefore takes into account market and demographic differences that other industry studies have not, such as the one from the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, which looked at aggregate national trends.
In all of the 14 states WellPoint scrutinized, ObamaCare would drive up premiums for the small businesses and individuals who are most of WellPoint’s customers. (Other big insurers, like Aetna, focus on the market among large businesses.) Young and healthy consumers will see the largest increases—their premiums would more than triple in some states—though average middle-class buyers will pay more too.
Not even two hours after Wellpoint had presented its materials on the Hill, Democrats were already trashing it—which, considering that it runs to some 238 pages and took weeks to prepare, must have required remarkable powers of digestion and analysis.
And it’s important to understand that these are merely the new costs created by ObamaCare—not including the natural increases in medical costs over time from new therapies and the like.
Democrats have been selling health care as one huge free lunch in which everyone gets better insurance while paying less. But the policy facts simply don’t add up, and Democrats are attacking WellPoint because they don’t want anyone to understand what their health-care schemes will mean in practice. Democrats know that if the public is given the facts and the time to consider them, Americans might demand that Democrats stop pushing the country off this cliff and start all over.
Private companies tend to run more realistically than government funded entities. WellPoint’s analysis should be taken seriously.
That is, if you do not like surprises in your health care insurance or your taxes.
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Tagged Alarm, Attention, Democrat, Government, Health, Hypocrisy, Politics, Republican
Affordable Health Care for America Act. Full text PDF.
Released October 29, 2009.
The House health care reform bill. In all of its 1,990 glorious pages.
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I Own The World Has an excellent post on the lunch reform initiative at a school near you.
Is this how the case for or against health care reform is finally made?
The Democrats just released their health care reform bill, but because it was so special, they did not want everyone to see it. Just people they chose. Democrats handpick audience for reform bill. Washington Times.
So now comes the real challenge. Can the details of the “lunch reform initiative” of sorts be kept under wraps long enough, for it to be passed by a supposedly knowing House, onto the unsuspecting public? The Hill.
Several factions of House Democrats are threatening to block consideration of the bill using procedural moves unless their demands are met.
Click on the image to get the enlarged version in order to read the entire text. For starters.
It’s called the Lunch reform Initiative. It is important that this be implemented as soon as possible to avert this crisis. You have no idea what it’s like to hear the stories of children who have to eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch, while others are bringing bringing kobe beef paninis to school in custom Louis Vuitton lunch pails.
TGIT- OBAMAS # 54 – You’ll Lose Your Lunch will leave you snickering at the very idea.
Image courtesy of http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=5131.
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Tagged Attitude, Conservative, Government, Health, Humor, Hypocrisy, Laughter, Liberal, Politics, Satire
Obama unhappy with criticism of his NYC date night. AP/Seattle PI.
Deal with it.
Married and unmarried couples across the world do it on a daily basis.
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Are you a bad driver? Your significant other, friends, or family cannot understand why you insist upon making left hand turns from the farthest right hand lane? Or drive so close to the car in front you can read their odometer?
Well then, their may be a physical reason behind this affliction.
Bad Driving May Have Genetic Basis, Study Finds. Science Daily.
People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it — and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant.
This gene variant limits the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor during activity. BDNF keeps memory strong by supporting communication among brain cells and keeping them functioning optimally. When a person is engaged in a particular task, BDNF is secreted in the brain area connected with that activity to help the body respond.
If only someone could package BDNF into a tidy pill or drink that could be taken before that lovable known bad driver gets behind the wheel.
December 10, 2007
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Pelosi chooses healthcare bill with public option favored by centrists. The Hill.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is set to introduce a Democratic party crafted health care reform bill with an embedded public option.
Unable to unlock herself from the public option so many are opposed to, she believes this will pass the House.
The proposal calls for the officials who run the public plan to negotiate rates individually with physicians and hospitals.
…public option that is tied to Medicare-based payment rates…
But it has become apparent in recent days that such an option doesn’t have the 218 votes she needs to pass it with no Republican support.
The negotiated rates plan is estimated to cost about $85 billion more than the Medicare-based reimbursements. To cut the number of uninsured without surpassing the $900 billion limit set by Obama, the bill will expand eligibility for the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor. The bill will also include an income surtax on the wealthy to pay much of the cost of the plan.
…a stalemate between abortion-rights supporters and opponents…
Many centrist and rural Democrats say hospitals and physicians in their districts are already underpaid by Medicare. Other centrist Democrats, along with Republicans, oppose the public option entirely, contending that it would put private insurers out of business.
There appears to be so much on the plate of negotiations for this bill the Democrats claim is so necessary. It is clear they are bent upon forcing something upon America to claim some sort of historical victory. But are the avid supporters acting clear-headed, while the pragmatic are telling them the road ahead is paved with landmines?
Many centrist and rural Democrats say hospitals and physicians in their districts are already underpaid by Medicare. Other centrist Democrats, along with Republicans, oppose the public option entirely, contending that it would put private insurers out of business.
Medicare reimbursement rates are a point of contention with many doctors and hospitals. So much so that many doctors do not accept Medicare or Medicaid patients already because they are unable to break even with the level of reimbursement.
What will people do when they suddenly have some sort of government public option, only to find doctors will not accept that coverage?
When Doctors Opt Out. Marc Siegel. WSJ. ”We already know what government-run health care looks like.”
Bottom line: None of the current plans, government or private, provide my patients with the care they need. And the care that is provided is increasingly expensive and requires a big battle for approvals. Of course, we’re promised by the Obama administration that universal health insurance will avoid all these problems. But how is that possible when you consider that the medical turnstiles will be the same as they are now, only they will be clogged with more and more patients? The doctors that remain in this expanded system will be even more overwhelmed than we are now.
The frightening reality is already here, and looks like it will worsen.
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FUNNY QUOTES OF THE DAY This Day in History
Applause! Applause!
Tricorn hats are the rage
Click Horsey for William Tell Overture
Stress Reduction Kit. Bang Head Here.
