Health Care Reform

As long as we're passing health care and thus doing more damage than the terrorists, I'd like to suggest one change:

Stop terrorizing the English language. I'm talking about the term, "pre-existing condition." The prefix "pre" is totally unnecessary, like Republicans at a policy debate. Adding "pre"doesn't make something exist any harder just as ending a sentence with multiple question marks doesn't make it any more a question.

What if we applied the same type of grammar to other words. Would we have "post-history?" "Past-previous?"

I think we need to end the Insurance industry's abuse of the English language with such phrases as "pre-existing condition."

And I think we need to be pro-active about it. Sphere: Related Content

Dan Balz and the GOP

WaPo writer Dan Balz has a front page piece today that begins:

"One year after hitting bottom in the aftermath of President Obama's elections, Republicans have taken their first concrete steps toward recovery."

Balz's story then goes on to highlight how seriously F'd up the Republicans are, making mockery of his lede. Someone should punch his editor.

Okay, yes, the GOP won in VA and NJ, but those victories were pegged more by candidates than the party. The GOP was lucky that it ran against two lackluster Dems and the Republican candidates ran better campaigns than their opponents. It's difficult to see how you can draw Party-wide "concrete steps" from such victories. Especially when Nov. 3 also saw the loss of a House District that has been in GOP hands almost since the GOP was invented. And, as Balz himself points out:

"But New Jersey and Virginia voted against the party holding the White House in the past six gubernatorial elections and are therefore unreliable harbingers of the 2010 campaign."

Duh. Well, that inconvenient truth doesn't prevent the Washington Post and the rest of the MSM from treating those victories as "concrete steps" towards a GOP rebirth.

I think the portent most important for 2010 is the NY House race. The Republican loss there defied history, while their wins in NJ and VA were with history's tide. The GOP, by giving in to the most scurrilous of the tea baggers and birthers will push away moderating voices. And continue to lose.

Republicans are taking concrete steps alright. Concrete tied to their heels as they step cluelessly on water. Sphere: Related Content

Remembering Tchaikovsky

In honor of the 116th anniversary of Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's death, which was yesterday, here is the third movement of his last symphony. Enjoy.

BTW, I don't buy the conspiracy theory that Tchaikovsky was forced to commit suicide after being blackmailed by a rump jury of former classmates over his homosexuality. Alexander Poznansky makes a convincing case debunking that myth in "Tchaikovsky's Last Days."

And, what happened to Ozawa's trademark turtlenecks? I guess now that he's old enough to have one, he doesn't need to wear one.

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Good Commercial

Every time I make my bed, I think of that Aricept commercial.

Here's a parody:

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I'm Back

I never really went away, but I did take a break from blogging, and for personal and professional reasons took the blog down for a while. I've likely lost my 3 readers, but hear I am just the same. Sphere: Related Content

Sanctity of Marriage

Via Pam.

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Mike Castle and Obama's Birth Certificate

Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) tells his town hall that Obama is a citizen of the U.S. and gets boos and then the crowd forces a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Hilarious.


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Birther Watch

Here's an "AP" story being circulated by the Birthers. They really need to try harder if they're going to pull off a fake AP story -- I can't see the news wire actually using the phrase "looking pretty grim." And at the end of the email the sender urges his readers to "pass it along -- because the media won't" -- well, I don't think you get any more MSM than the AP. They are so deluded they lack even the bare amount of internal logic necessary to ever be credible.

AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debateover Obama's qualifications for the presidency, the group "Americans forFreedom of Information" has Released copies of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates thatObama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreignstudent from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suitbrought by the group in the Superior Court of California.

The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the FulbrightFoundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide thesmoking gun that many of Obama's detractors have been seeking. Along withthe evidence that he was first born in Kenya and there is no record of himever applying for US citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news hascreated a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama's legitimacy and qualification to serve as president. Whenreached for comment in London, where he has been in meetings with BritishPrime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but refused comment on the issue.

Britain's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned," leading some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic issues on Obama's first official visit to the U.K.

In a related matter, under growing pressure from several groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama's legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio's case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama's citizenship or qualification to serve as president.

Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama's campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder hasrefused to comment on the matter. Sphere: Related Content

"I'm Praying For You"

I guess it's nice when someone says that to you, it means they care and are thinking of you. It's nice, but not really helpful.

What would be helpful would be if they could share God's response.

Otherwise they might as just as well say "I'm thinking about you." Sphere: Related Content

DC Metro

I don't ride Metro regularly. Today I did.

I was somewhat amused and alarmed that as we were leaving the Archives station the driver announced that the next stop was Archives. And as we pulled into L'Enfant station the driver repeated his mistake by announcing that we were arriving at Archives.

If Metrorail train operators don't know where they are I doubt they're really paying attention to driving the train.

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On this Day in History

Today, in 1790, a swath of land at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers was designated as the seat of the new nation's government.

Marion Barry was arrested the next day. Sphere: Related Content

Obama Born Outside US

Right wing whack-job Alan Keyes (I know, you thought I meant Sarah Palin there for a minute) has won a small technical victory in his case declaring Barack Obama an "illegal" president, alleging he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii (via Joe).

But even if we assume for a moment that this were true, Obama would still be eligible to be president because if I read Title 8 of the US code correctly, he is still considered a "natural born citizen" because he had one parent who was a US citizen. According to Title 8, people who are "Citizens of the United States at birth" include this:

Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)

This would describe Obama's situation if he were born in Kenya as Keyes delusionally thinks. Sphere: Related Content