Oh, this makes me happy.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, September 07, 2009
Thoughts on the Current Healthcare Debacle
So I'm super annoyed by the current total failure that is Obama's healthcare reform. And I say it's a failure because it's unclear what he specifically wants, and because he's let the Repubs control the conversation with idiocy like death panels and other BS. The country is losing faith in Obama, and is moving towards rejecting reform. Which is bat-shit crazy because our system is broken and costs are ballooning out of control. Of course, Repubs have no solution; they just want to make Obama look bad. For me, healthcare is one of those topics that can't be fucked around with (like the environment) because of the potential consequences to our way of life here in the good ol' US of A. Ballooning costs make our industry non-competive, and more and more people die or suffer needlessly because their healthcare is rationed (nah, you don't REALLY need that MRI, even though your doctor says you do!) or sub-par.
On this topic, Repubs are totally off the deep end. I dunno how you fight that kind of crazy, either. There's something about being on tv that lends them some level of legitimacy... why would they be allowed to say these things (death panels, Obama is a commie/socialist/nazi/etc) if they weren't true? But of course, there's nothing stopping them. It's so maddening. In my mind, the only thing that can stop them is a well-loved and charismatic leader calling them out. But Obama doesn't do that, and so he's weakened over time by the barrage of lies and the crazy machine continues.
Industry should be 100% behind reform. We're the only industrialized nation that makes our businesses cover their employees' health. Which is awful, because a company like Google whose workforce is young and fit will have low costs, while a company like GM whose workforce is older and less fit, will have huuuuge costs. And so GM is non-competitive with its foreign counterparts (for other reasons beyond healthcare obviously, but healthcare's a big part of it) because it has to bake so many more costs into its pricing. And in the US, there's a ton of overhead in administering insurance plans through employers, which makes hiring and firing people even harder to do, and thus makes us less nimble in response to economic trends. So industry would be WAY better off on the whole if the gov't took the burden of healthcare away from them. Industry would be more competitive, more nimble, and workers would be much more mobile and able to switch jobs without fear of losing coverage. It's win-win here... why isn't industry backing reform whole hog?
I've had friends argue that they don't want to pay for other peoples' healthcare through a public option; it already costs us too much. But the problem is that we *already* pay for people without healthcare. Emergency rooms are essentially publicly funded, and are used as primary healthcare by 10s of millions of Americans. And they don't go there until the tumor is so big they can't walk straight. And of course by then it costs 10-100x more to treat them than if we'd caught it right away. This is the argument that Obama needs to make: mandatory socialized medicine is CHEAPER for everyone than our current system. It's the fiscally conservative approach! And amazingly it's also the socially just one. It's win-win, again!
And there are all these idiotic arguments out there about how inefficient and costly a gov't option would be. (Note that those arguments are made by the same people that say that private insurers would be unable to compete against a gov't plan. Ummm, which is it? Is the gov't a bureaucratic mess? Or is it a killer competitor? It can't be both, assholes!) Except that the overhead on gov't-run healthcare (Medicare) is like 4%. The overhead on private insurance is like 30%. Medicare is literally some 7x more efficient than private insurance (something like that; I sense a mathfail on my part there). All that extra overhead that we pay private insurers just lines their pockets with gold. So you're wasting a ton of money now on unnecessary salaries and bonuses that in a gov't system DO NOT exist. And we know they don't exist because there is ALREADY a huge gov't-run public option!! Except, you know, get your god-damn gov't hands off my Medicare. O.o
I actually don't understand why Obama doesn't just make his healthcare proposal this: we're expanding Medicare to cover anyone who wants it. There, done. Then the discussion becomes one of cost and implementation, rather than whether Medicare is good or not. Because Repubs can't touch Medicare or they'll alienate half of their allies. Medicare is popular, successful, and cheap. So Obama, just expand it to any American who wants it, and mandate that every American be covered, and let's move the fuck on.
On this topic, Repubs are totally off the deep end. I dunno how you fight that kind of crazy, either. There's something about being on tv that lends them some level of legitimacy... why would they be allowed to say these things (death panels, Obama is a commie/socialist/nazi/etc) if they weren't true? But of course, there's nothing stopping them. It's so maddening. In my mind, the only thing that can stop them is a well-loved and charismatic leader calling them out. But Obama doesn't do that, and so he's weakened over time by the barrage of lies and the crazy machine continues.
Industry should be 100% behind reform. We're the only industrialized nation that makes our businesses cover their employees' health. Which is awful, because a company like Google whose workforce is young and fit will have low costs, while a company like GM whose workforce is older and less fit, will have huuuuge costs. And so GM is non-competitive with its foreign counterparts (for other reasons beyond healthcare obviously, but healthcare's a big part of it) because it has to bake so many more costs into its pricing. And in the US, there's a ton of overhead in administering insurance plans through employers, which makes hiring and firing people even harder to do, and thus makes us less nimble in response to economic trends. So industry would be WAY better off on the whole if the gov't took the burden of healthcare away from them. Industry would be more competitive, more nimble, and workers would be much more mobile and able to switch jobs without fear of losing coverage. It's win-win here... why isn't industry backing reform whole hog?
I've had friends argue that they don't want to pay for other peoples' healthcare through a public option; it already costs us too much. But the problem is that we *already* pay for people without healthcare. Emergency rooms are essentially publicly funded, and are used as primary healthcare by 10s of millions of Americans. And they don't go there until the tumor is so big they can't walk straight. And of course by then it costs 10-100x more to treat them than if we'd caught it right away. This is the argument that Obama needs to make: mandatory socialized medicine is CHEAPER for everyone than our current system. It's the fiscally conservative approach! And amazingly it's also the socially just one. It's win-win, again!
And there are all these idiotic arguments out there about how inefficient and costly a gov't option would be. (Note that those arguments are made by the same people that say that private insurers would be unable to compete against a gov't plan. Ummm, which is it? Is the gov't a bureaucratic mess? Or is it a killer competitor? It can't be both, assholes!) Except that the overhead on gov't-run healthcare (Medicare) is like 4%. The overhead on private insurance is like 30%. Medicare is literally some 7x more efficient than private insurance (something like that; I sense a mathfail on my part there). All that extra overhead that we pay private insurers just lines their pockets with gold. So you're wasting a ton of money now on unnecessary salaries and bonuses that in a gov't system DO NOT exist. And we know they don't exist because there is ALREADY a huge gov't-run public option!! Except, you know, get your god-damn gov't hands off my Medicare. O.o
I actually don't understand why Obama doesn't just make his healthcare proposal this: we're expanding Medicare to cover anyone who wants it. There, done. Then the discussion becomes one of cost and implementation, rather than whether Medicare is good or not. Because Repubs can't touch Medicare or they'll alienate half of their allies. Medicare is popular, successful, and cheap. So Obama, just expand it to any American who wants it, and mandate that every American be covered, and let's move the fuck on.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Little hamster falling asleep
Holy shit! Check out the size of its balls!!! It uses them as a pillow!!!!
My dogs reaction to a fart
omg, i'm hysterical with laughter.... the dog looks so disgusted...... just minding its own business when all of a sudden BAM...
Study Says Marijuana's not a Gateway Drug
OK, so this is old news, but still, seriously. Could we please revise our national drug policy to pull marijuana from its classification as a Schedule I drug (along with meth, and higher than morphine and opium)? It might free up some space in California's 3x overcrowded prisons, and save the nation some money on idiotic incarcerations (both the cost of prison and the social cost of lost labor and fucked-up lives).
Marijuana's Not a Gateway Drug
Marijuana's Not a Gateway Drug
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Animaniacs - The Great Wakkorotti - The Master and His Music
omg, I love the Animaniacs. i need to find more clips from the show....
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Zero Punctuation: Halo 3 Review on The Escapist
omg, totally. Halo 3's gameplay is inconsistent and the storyline is incomprehensible. Contrast with Mass Effect which has consistent and relatively challenging play, and an absolutely beautiful storyline, incredibly detailed game world, and fantastic voice acting.
The Darkness Demo (Fullyramblomatic review)
I do believe this was the first Zero Punctuation review created. Ever since, Ben Yahtzee has been cranking these out weekly at the online magazine The Escapist. Absolutely hilarious eviscerations - er, reviews - of popular video games. =D
Storm Large 8 MILES WIDE music video
Oh my vagina is 8 miles wide. Absolutely everyone can come inside...! Vigantic!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Easy registration with overseas embassies!
Wow, this is hot. You know how you're supposed to register with the US Embassy at your overseas destination when you travel abroad? Except you never do because who knows how to do that, and besides you're only there for a few weeks anyways and what could possible go wrong?
Well. As it turns out, the US State Dept has a super easy way to register online! You actually create an account with a profile, and then update it with your trip info! It's super easy... I just did the whole thing for my time here in Spain in like 5 minutes (did I mention I'm in Spain for the summer? no? well, more on that later then... maybe). Totally easy, and next time I travel I can set up all the info in advance and be confident that the embassy knows where I am in case for some reason it needs to extract me. =P
http://travelregistration.state.gov
Enjoy!!
Well. As it turns out, the US State Dept has a super easy way to register online! You actually create an account with a profile, and then update it with your trip info! It's super easy... I just did the whole thing for my time here in Spain in like 5 minutes (did I mention I'm in Spain for the summer? no? well, more on that later then... maybe). Totally easy, and next time I travel I can set up all the info in advance and be confident that the embassy knows where I am in case for some reason it needs to extract me. =P
http://travelregistration.state.gov
Enjoy!!
Friday, July 10, 2009
CHELSEA LATELY 10-3-08 ROUNDTABLE Part1
I really like Chelsea Handler... I read her book "Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea", and it was pretty hilarious. Her show's great, too...
And I'd be remiss if I didn't say how hot (and hilarious) Josh Wolf is. >.>
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