September 17, 2014

Why are Medicare Advantage premiums going up almost 300% in NC?

I have a fairly liberal co-worker who is on Medicare and just got notice that his Medicare Advantage premiums are skyrocketing in 2015, along with his "out-of-pocket" costs, his deductibles and co-pays. He received an email from AHIP claiming this is all the result of the ACA, and that these premiums will continue their dizzying upward ascent in the years to come.

Now I know AHIP is skeezy group, but what is the deal with these increases? They are WAY out of line from what I would expect, but I am not an expert on Medicare and its various programs. This particular plan is sold by Blue Cross of NC, and the increases are:

Monthly Premium: $18.90 increasing to $64.40
Out of Pocket: $3,400 increasing to $4,500
Doctor's Visits: $10.00 increasing to $20.00
Specialists: $35.00 increasing to $40.00
In-Patient Stays: $170 increasing to $250

What is going on here? Is the ACA causing these hikes or is there another explanation?

August 30, 2014

Was this photo of Feinstein with a gun photoshopped?

Today I learned that Adam Baldwin is a rightwing loon and and it really has now ruined one of my favorite shows (Firefly). Baldwin rants about Obama, gays, and other Hollywood "liberals" so I am perplexed as to how people like Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion could work with him without comment.

Also, he is in the middle of an attack on a woman game designer helping stir up the stalkers to abuse her for having the nerve to criticize the portrayal of women in video games.

I then saw this photo posted on his Twitter account and it looks "wrong". Any Photoshop experts out there who can tell me if this is yet another Soviet-style fabrication.

August 20, 2014

How to make presidential debates draw 100+ million viewers

Presidential debates are boring and other than political junkies, few pay attention to them until they are cut up into "gotcha" sound bites for political ads.

I think it is time to make debates "must see TV". I propose a series of debates with the following people as panelists moderators:

Stephen Colbert - Moderator
Jon Stewart - Panelist
John Oliver - Panelist
Lewis Black - Panelist

Tina Fey - Moderator
Whoopi Goldberg - Panelist
Liz Winstead - Panelist
Margaret Cho - Panelist

Dave Chappell - Moderator
Chris Rock - Panelist
Aasif Mandvi - Panelist
Larry Wilmore - Panelist

George Takei - Moderator
Wanda Sykes - Panelist
Dan Savage - Panelist
Rachel Maddow - Panelist

These are four debates I can guarantee would not only have record-smashing viewership, but would have a worldwide audience as well. Hell, you could sell tickets to the live event for a $100 a pop (for charity) and sell out any venue.

And finally, my absolute fantasy panel that, sadly, can never happen:

George Carlin - Moderator
Sam Kinison - Panelist
Robin Williams - Panelist
Bobcat Goldthwait - Panelist

August 14, 2014

Why Obama’s statement on reporters’ arrests in Ferguson is hypocritical

And how many here will defend this hypocrisy?

http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/obama.php

In a news conference Thursday addressing the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and resulting unrest in Ferguson, MO, President Barack Obama criticized the arrests of two reporters there on Wednesday night.

“Here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs,” Obama said in a news conference televised from Martha’s Vineyard, where he’s vacationing. On Wednesday, Washington Post Reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were arrested when working out of a McDonald’s in Ferguson. After being taken to the Ferguson Police Department, both were quickly released.

Just minutes after the president finished his remarks, a coalition of journalism organizations at the National Press Club in Washington began a news conference condemning the Obama administration’s attempt to compel James Risen, a New York Times reporter, to identify a confidential source. The menagerie of groups this morning presented a petition, signed by more than 125,000 people, calling on the Justice Department to end its six-year effort to force Risen to testify against his source.

In June, the US Supreme Court turned down a last-ditch appeal from Risen, removing the final legal barrier for federal prosecutors who want him to take the stand.

The coincidental timing puts a spotlight on a White House that has repeatedly defended its claim as the most transparent administration in history. In the past five years, however, the Obama administration has been decried repeatedly for both its secrecy and its aggression toward the press. What’s more, it has pursued more criminal leak investigations than every previous White House combined.

August 13, 2014

This is what a police state looks like folks

I wish I had the time to run down every person over the last ten years who told me I was being an "alarmist" for saying that the U.S. was a de facto police state so I could show them this picture.

More here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/13/ferguson-photos_n_5674573.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

July 12, 2014

What's the deal with this shirt West Virginia?

I saw this on a Wal-Mart dweller in NC:



Is this a brag on not being a slave state or are you simply pissed of about being confused with Virginia (and how often does THAT happen?)

June 20, 2014

The CORRECT rules for dating my daughter

https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/qbrnc9L2AffVfgfn4.KK0Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/

June 18, 2014

Riddle me this NRA...

I am sitting peacefully in the Waffle Shack, enjoying my morning coffee with my Spam Waffle ala Crisco Supreme™. I feel safe and secure, with .50 caliber firearm the size of a toaster holstered under my jacket, legally, since I have a concealed weapons permit. Also informing my sense of safety and well being, are my states "Stand Your Ground" laws which says that if anyone makes me feel my life is threatened, I may shoot that person deader than the Bill of Rights since the Patriot Act.

Coming in the door is a "suspicious" looking fellow carrying .50 caliber sniper rifle, which is his "god given" right under my states "open carry" law. I think he is here to rob the place, and draw my .50 Proctor Silex Automatic. The guy with the Corpse Maker 50 sees me and also decides I am about to rob the place..

We both fear for our lives.

His shot goes a bit wide blowing a hole the size of a basketball in the waitress, the waffle boy, and the toddler in a car seat, in a car, in the McDonalds a block away. Taking my time to take better aim, I cause the other Patriotic Gunamerican's head to do a reenactment of Scanners, but also manage to do an encore performance with the head of the policeman just getting out of his cruiser with visions of Deep Fried Cheese Cake Waffles™ dancing in his head, which are interrupted by the arrival of a small piece of lead at around 1400 feet per second.

Now, for some reason, people are upset. The police arrest me and want to charge me with murdering people. The families of waitresses, waffle boys and toddlers what to sue the estate of the guy with the rifle and want me charged with some form of murder.

We were both right. We were both obeying the law and I demand the NRA come in and protect all our rights against these people who wish to snatch our guns and imprison me for defending myself.

What do you do, NRA? What do you do?

June 6, 2014

The Catholic Church is now associated with four "mass graves" in Ireland

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/05/319100479/amid-horror-at-mass-graves-of-children-calls-in-ireland-for-an-inquiry

(BTW NPR, way to bury the lede...)

At what point do we stop talking about memorials for the "wee ones" and start declaring these sites crime scenes?

At what point do we prosecute the Vatican for crimes against humanity?

Imagine if a foreign government, say Iran, was found to have operated homes for unwed mothers in this country, and four "mass graves" were discovered with corpses of abused/neglected infants and children. How long before those sites would be crawling with the FBI? How long before the FBI descended on every single religious school run by Iran with picks and shovels? How long would churches. under the direct control of Tehran and operating in the U.S., be allowed to remain open?

(And before anyone casts aspersions, I am an ex-Irish Catholic from nuns, to altar boy, to Confirmation, et al)

June 3, 2014

Worker records ‘racist’ supervisor in cotton warehouse

Source: WREG Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There are shocking allegations of racial discrimination in a Memphis cotton warehouse.

Two men filed charges against the Atkinson Cotton Warehouse.

They’re accusing their former supervisor of calling them “monkeys” and telling them the water fountain and microwave were for white people only.

He said after months of racist comments and feeling powerless, he decided to use his phone as a weapon to fight back.

He recorded his attempt to drink water from a water fountain in the warehouse office.

“Hey!” says the supervisor in the recording.

“What?” asked Harris.

“I need to put a sign here that says `white people only.”

Harris also recorded his attempt to use the microwave.

“I am going to use the microwave,” said Harris in the recording.

“Hell no!” said the supervisor.

“Why can’t I use the microwave, man?”

“Because you are not white.”

“Put your sign on the wall then, because I am feeling to drink it,” said Harris. “What would they do when they catch me drinking your water?”

“That`s when we hang you,” said the supervisor.

Read more: http://wreg.com/2014/06/02/worker-records-racist-supervisor-in-cotton-gin/

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And here is the company's response:



How can you have "no comment"? What, just because you outsource the management you have nothing to say about naked racism?

No comment = Approval.

"Post racial" society my ass.