Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer... And Obama

Health reform has become stealth reform: Obama is back to finish the job and kill off granny, but this time he will be operating on the QT:

WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.

The Times goes off message (on the day after Christmas with minimal audience) to report on the stealth plan:

Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats’ bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.

...

After learning of the administration’s decision, Mr. Blumenauer’s office celebrated “a quiet victory,” but urged supporters not to crow about it.

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”

Moreover, the e-mail said: “We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are ‘supporters’ — e-mails can too easily be forwarded.”

The e-mail continued: “Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it.”

In the interview, Mr. Blumenauer said, “Lies can go viral if people use them for political purposes.”

The decision was made in "early November" and goes into effect on Jan 1?  And we are hearing about it the day after Christmas?  Very slick.  How much more health care reform by way of stealth regulation should we expect from the most transparent Administration in history?

THE COMEDY NEVER ENDS:  The Times needs to pretend that end-of-life counseling was the only reason anyone ever mentioned 'death panels', because if they re-open the subject they will have to avoid (yet again) the fact that Obama talked about government panels recommending end-of-life treatments with one eye on efficacy and the other on expense.  Of course, later Obama pretended he never said any such thing and the Times played along, but Obama's approval rating was higher then, the deadline for closing Gitmo had not passed, and life was sunnier.

Interestingly the reporter for today's story, Robert Pear, also got this headline in the glorious Death Panel summer of 2009:

A Basis Is Seen for Some Health Plan Fears Among the Elderly

I kid you not.

DEPLORING THE PROCESS:  Bill Jacobson at Legal Insurrection is in rebellion over the stealth process.

Comments

[Ranger]

Grandma should just take her pain killer and be happy about it, instead of asking about all this life extending medical treatment.

[matt]

utterly OT, but in the spirit of US-UK friendship I must report that England are on the verge of retaining the Ashes. This gem of commentary from The Telegraph:

"Australia were sent in and bowled out for only 98 by James Anderson (four for 44), Chris Tremlett (four for 26) and Tim Bresnan, who replaced Steve Finn and bowled steady fast-medium. It was Australia’s lowest total against England since 1968 – and an astonishing capitulation after the home side had levelled the series at 1-1 in Perth.

But above all it was headless-chicken batting by Australia that gave the series away. Conditions were easier in the second half of the day when the sun came out over the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but they were not completely different. It was more a case of Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook batting with good techniques and sense.

Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey were dismissed by fine balls from England’s seamers, who were superlatively disciplined. But Australia’s other batsmen kept making the same mistake, one after the other, in a display that would have made their batting coach Justin Langer weep.

Phil Hughes, Michael Clarke, Steve Smith and Brad Haddin chased the ball, played loose offside-drives and edged catches. Even though England missed two hard chances – Paul Collingwood at third slip and Kevin Pietersen at gully – they still accepted ten chances offered behind the wicket: Santa’s reindeer wouldn’t be so generous."

Perhaps daddy can translate. Unfortunately, there were no cheerleaders for those who have been following the Bollywood League.

Happy Boxing Day to all.

[Try complaining then. Take a ticket and get in line.]

You have to pass through the veil to find out what's beyond it.
==============

[Joan of Argghh!]

Huh. That would mean that Sarah Palin was um, er, um. . . right?

That'll make the GOP howl in pain yet again.

[sbw]

This may sound strange, but there is no accounting for taste. As the rest of the family was watching "Avatar" on the tube, I had one earphone from my MacBook in my ear and found a video stream of one of the Ashes matches. So I'd laze along watching the Cricket, occasionally looking up to watch "Avatar."

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

They didn't take Valerie Jarrett to Hawaii? Is there trouble in paradise.

This heath care thing must go viral.

[Pagar]

If you take a gun and shoot someone during a robbery, that is called murder. If you take a regulation or law, you can kill any inconvenient child or (now) old person, according to the leftists that is just good management. I wonder how many of the leftists understand that after the government has the right to kill off all the inconvenient children and than the right to kill off all the inconvenient oldsters, there is only one other group that they can destroy.

I do not understand why these planners cannot be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

[squaredance]

They love death with all their minds. hearts and souls. It is their notion of power. To annihilate, to destroy, to lay to waste and ruin, this is to them the ultimate expression of power. These are their gods, Death and Power.

These are the passions and impulse of the most primitive pagan: They give themselves completely over to the abyss.

It is only a matter of time before this is used politically. Think not? Look at the drilling moratorium.

Our "leaders" are as vile as can be. They have murder in their hearts. They are driven into madness by their lusts.

[Cecil Turner]

Sarah's still kickin' their butts. With a Facebook page. Isn't that just a little embarassing?

[Thomas Collins]

If the State gets the oldsters to acquiesce in death panels, they'll be close to sewing up both ends. The abortion talking point is that it's a choice, but the State can easily turn that into a requirement for whatever population control goal it thinks is worthwhile. So the State will control the beginning and end of life, and then will start going towards the middle from both ends. All in the name of the talking point of the State will make you comfortable and take care of you.

[hit and run]

Let me be the first to wish you all a Happy Kwanzaa.

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN (via Instapundit) for a Michael Barone piece on why Obama won't be easy to unseat in 2012. In the course of this piece Barone discusses a factor that will be crucial in 2012, but won't be discussed much in polite company.

"Moreover, there will be a reluctance on the part of many voters, understandable in light of our history, to reject the first black president. I'm convinced, though I cannot prove, that Americans who feel this way far outnumber those few who cannot abide seeing a black man in the White House."

This factor could prove crucial in close swing states. It is a significant factor leading me to conclude that a Pawlenty or Daniels or Romney type would run a solid campaign, get a lot of support and yet lose a 51%-48% popular vote/60%-40% Electoral College vote to Obama in 2012, especially if Obama takes Florida (I am counting on Obama to take NY and California and the GOP candidate to take Texas).

[jimmyk]

"there will be a reluctance on the part of many voters, understandable in light of our history, to reject the first black president."

There seem to be an awful lot of people who supported Obama for this sentimental reason who seriously regret it. Add that to the lack of enthusiasm on the left and the lack of turnout among those who turned out for the first time, and I don't see as a much of a factor unless Obama really resurrects himself anyway. And even then, probably not big enough to make a difference.

[Threadkiller]

TC, if Barone is right it would explain the reluctance of many, to concede the obvious, on the "birther thread."

[Pagar]

"Get an lot of support and still lose"

Nothing has ever convinced me that if the over seas military was allowed to vote in time for it to count and the stateside voters had to provide photo ID that proved they were who they said they were, after the voter rolls had been verified; that we would have a 51-48 result. But there needs to be a lot of changes in the vote/campaign fiance laws.
The right to use Mickey Mouse and all his leftist friends to buy an election has to be taken away from the Obama Campaign. The phony motor registration law where no one ever checks the paperwork to determine the citizenship of the applicant is insane. Try doing that in Mexico and see whether you're allowed to vote from your jail cell. There are hundreds of other changes that need to be made before the 2012 campaign. Will any of them actually be put into effect?

[Clarice]

Two years is a long time. It's good not to get cocky though.

[Joan of Argghh!]

In the parlance of government, I may now view my continued existence as a tax cut.

[daddy]

I think I speak for all JOMer's when I wish Hugh Hefner (84) congratulations on his ">http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/26/playboys-hefner-gets-engaged/?test=latestnews"> engagement yesterday to Crystal Harris (24).

'Atta girl Miss December (2009)!

[Jack is Back!]

matt,

No only are they winning the Ashes but they are bringing them home. My great-grand uncle led the first tour of Australia in 1876-77 (you can google that and learn my name). He was the nephew of my great-great grandfather who was known as the nonpareil bowler of his time and he spent 10 years at Lord's with the Marylebone Cricket Club as a professional until his untimely death in 1854. In the next month there will be a short biography of his career, by Martin Wilson, coming out under the publishing imprint of Christopher Saunders, a botique cricket publising house. I have the honor or having written the foreword.

Since I have revealed this before on the JOM site, you can go to my website and learn about cricket yourself and leave daddy to his Hugh Hefner honeymoon fantasies: LUN

[Old Lurker]

Atta boy, Hugh!

Brings to mind the old joke about the guy who told his wife, upon her turning 40 "Honey I'm gonna trade you in for two 20's..." to which she responded "Dear... you are not wired for 220."

[Republicans good at Pimpimng our Priorities]

The only 'death panels' seen are those created by the Arizona Queen, Jan Brewer/

More interesting as a subject;

Brad DeLong; (2008)

"Time Not for a Bailout, But for Nationalization...: John McCain and the House Republicans have blown up the Paulson-Dodd-Frank compromise--for that's what House Republican Whip Roy Blunt says that John McCain did:

Roy Blunt: Everybody else seemed to be rushing for a deal and John McCain came back and said, ‘Wait a minute, I think the House Republicans have the taxpayers in mind and I’m with them’...

Now it's time to go back to three principles. There are three options:

* Do nothing.
* Bailout (a la Paulson)
* Nationalization (a la Sweden 1992)

Do nothing was last tried in 1929-1932. The result was called the Great Depression. Let's not do that again. Let's decide between bailout and nationalization.

[Extraneus]

This heath care thing must go viral.

You mean, maybe Romney will pick up on it?

[bgates]

a reluctance on the part of many voters, understandable in light of our history, to reject the first black president

That would have been the weakest of the rational justifications to support the hypothetical reelection of Frederick Douglass in the 1870s. Why anybody should feel a need to atone for our nation's past racism by further enriching a racist for no reason other than his skin color is an enduring mystery to me.

[Tsarist is better than marxist]

Remember the thread on legalization of pot?
There were more than a few comments about the success of the war on drugs.

Unintended consequences?

WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.
State’s Secrets

Articles in this series examine American diplomatic cables as a window on relations with the rest of the world in an age of war and terrorism.

In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be hard to tell the politicians from the traffickers, and where drug rings are themselves mini-states whose wealth and violence permit them to run roughshod over struggling governments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?_r=1&ref=world

[Tsarist is better than marxist]

Wikileaks is your friend, me hearties!

[narciso]

How did Manning get a hold of the DEA's cable traffic, that suggests more than one leanker.

[Danube of Thought]

Can we all agree that Jay Cutler is a lout and a pig?

[Clarice]

DoT, Didja notice? The Eagles Vikings game has been called off?

[Clarice]

narciso, It probably is that all these cables passed thru some unsecured point..he already had other diplomatic cables..Same source.

[Danube of Thought]

You.re kidding! Well, shut my mouth.

How's the vote tally today?

[Porchlight]

Can we all agree that Jay Cutler is a lout and a pig?

Yessir.

[Clarice]

I'm up by 34, DoT. Every elbow on the scale helps.

[Be careful how you express your racism]

Should Congress create a special DADT for closeted racists?

By MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER

The 2012 Republican presidential primary may be getting a later start than it did in 2008, but that doesn't mean that speculation and scrutiny is on hold.

One of the potential GOP candidates, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, learned that as one Weekly Standard story exploded on the Web and has the potential to frame and define his nascent campaign.

At issue are comments he made in an interview with the magazine in which he appeared to downplay the tensions of the civil rights movement in his home state. “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,” Barbour told the Weekly Standard’s Andrew Ferguson. http://abcn.ws/fTH95L

The Mississippi governor went on to credit the White Citizens’ Council, a group that has been viewed as pro-segregationist, with helping to integrate the public schools in his home town, Yazoo City, Miss., without violence. Barbour didn’t help matters with his fuzzy recall of an event he attended in the early 1960’s with civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr.

“We just sat on our cars, watching the girls, talking, doing what boys do,” Barbour told the Weekly Standard. “We paid more attention to the girls than to King.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/12/the-note-haleys-comet-could-remarks-on-civil-rights-damage-a-campaign-before-it-starts.html

[Danube of Thought]

Two questions:

(1) What, exactly, was Mr. De Long considering nationalizing?

(2) On what planet is the Smoot-Hawley tariff considered "doing nothing?"

[MarkO]

"Can we all agree that Jay Cutler is a lout and a pig?"

Judicial notice.

[Clarice]

If only half as much attention were paid to the background of the mysterious CiC as the Dems and press pay to the kindergarten activities of any potential Republican candidate, this country would be in better shape.

Be Careful, what was Obama's major in Columbia and his grades? His SAT and LSAT scores? His relation with Ayers and Dohrn?

[Be careful how you express your racism]

"Two questions:"
One question;

That bullet=nosed flashlight your Dr sticks up your lower tract; Did he have to paint your portrait on the tip before you let him proceed, and did he take it out?

sorry.

Two questions

[Danube of Thought]

Can anyone imagine that if Obama's grades, SAT or LSAT were high they would not be etched into the Preesidential Seal?

[Clarice]

I can't,DoT. In fact I imagine they'd be engraved on the cufflinks they give out and stamped on the covers of the DVDs and and M & Ms and other chatchkis the WH gives out as gifts.

[bgates]

What did Jay Cutler do?

[Frau Todesausschuss]

Drew the short straw for holiday trolling, eh?

[DGS]

Jack is Back,

I'm trying to learn enough about Cricket to watch and enjoy a game by reading Robert Eastaway's book "Cricket Explained". Given your probable knowledge of the game what do you think of the book as a source of knowledge.

I'll be watching some games of the Caribbean Twenty / 20 Tournament.

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

So they are going to pay doctors to give people death counseling. What I want to know is how the Docs get paid. DO they get paid per dead patient or do they have to prove that the dead patient needed additional care and didn't get it? Or does the patient need to sign an affidavit that the doc advised them to die - perhaps in exchange for some good pain killers?

Tell us more Bambi!

[Danube of Thought]

"Preesidential.". Has kind of a nice ring to it...

(By the way, the iPad insists on that period after the closing quotation mark. Musta been programmed by a Brit.)

The lout just threw a pick six.

[squaredance]

"Do nothing was last tried in 1929-1932. The result was called the Great Depression. Let's not do that again. Let's decide between bailout and nationalization."

Do nothing in 1929 to 1932? Hogwash.

What a ridiculous lie. Wholly at odds witht the facts.

If in fact, they would have left it alone, there would have not beena great depression.

The differences between the and now are:
1) This time around it was willfully provoked, and
2) We ran headlong into this time around, even though we should know better.

Following from what s publicly known, Bush let Paulson spook him pure and simple.

Paulson's motivations are obscure at this point.

You need to get a grasp on the real facts of both then and now, and stop regurgitating Democrat propaganda.

In any case, how is what happened on Wall St. a GOP issue? They are almost all Democrats down there.

[squaredance]

If Obama is re-elected because of some neurotic calculation about "rejecting a black man" then we deserve to have him as president.

There is no clearer manifestation of the fraud of affirmative action and the idiocy of race based politics than the Obama Presidency.

If this clown is re-elected after all the damage he has done then there are not enough sane and reasonable Americans left to form a country.

[Frau Todesausschuss]

TM's link reminded me that the Medicare law included end of life planning for the terminally ill not for those that Dr.Ezekiel Emanuel (medical ethics specialist in the WH) considers more costly and less valuable to society.
Speaking in public, Obama questioned whether a hip replacement should have been performed (wasted) on his typical white grandmother. He did not express any concern for the almost constant pain of a person of any age to live with a broken hip for any length of time.

[Clarice]

Speaking of incest--the backers of the now defunct CCX which put so much dough into Gore and Sandor's pockets:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/22/chicago-climate-club-carbon-barack-obama-opinions-contributors-larry-bell.html?feed=rss_home>CCX

[Frau Todesausschuss]

Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.

“That’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said in the April 14 interview. “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here.”

The moral issues revolve around cost.

[Pagar]

"He did not express any concern for the almost constant pain"
IMO, none of the leftists have any concern for the people their policies hurt. They just see the opportunity to destroy someone.

[Janet]

If this clown is re-elected after all the damage he has done then there are not enough sane and reasonable Americans left to form a country.

Totally agree.

[Old Lurker]

"are not enough sane and reasonable Americans left to form a country..."

Hell, we don't have a Founder among us, much less fifty of them, nor do we have a critical mass of a population capable of forming another country like this. All we are asked to do is maintain (meaning not destroy) this one until a more deserving generation comes along to make good use of the gift of our fathers.

[Danube of Thought]

The loutish pig has thrown three TD passes in the third quarter, taking full advantage of Rex Ryan's foot fetish.

[Jack is Back!]

DGS,

Go to my museum LUN link and click on the Cricket Collection page. There go down to the last sentance of the last paragraph and there is a link to "Explaining Cricket to Americ.ans". I find it the most easily understood explination to those raised on baseball instead of cricket.

Of course, you can take my simple introduction:

1. There are 11 players per side in cricket.
2. The team who wins the toss of the cricket bat starts as the batting side.
3. All 11 men on the team bat around the 1st innings. There are no 3 and out.
4. In cricket the batter dresses like the catcher in baseball. He wears large leather pads over his knees to his ankles, a batting helmet with mask and padded leather batting gloves. He is the most exposed player on the team.
5. The wicket-keeper (catcher) sits down behind the wicket and is the only defensive player to wear gloves (if you want to call them that. They look, feel and act like ancient mitts from baseballs 19th century).
6. The bowler (a pitcher in baseball) shares his duties with a number of other bowlers on the team. Some are the equivalent of hard-heat fireball pitchers, some are the equivalents of the Gregg Maddux type position piticher, sneaky fast, some are creative off-speed curve ball and slider pitchers (called leg-spinners in cricket). They rotate every 6 bowls or so. In Cricket it is called bowling (and I am presently writing a book on this) not pitching or throwing. The arm cannot bend at the elbow but the wrist can do all kinds of contortions. The ball is 99% of the time bounced into the batter and can achieve speeds of over 100 mph. An interesting gambit is pitting a superb baseball batter against a superb cricket bowler and the reverse. There is hardly a difference except for the fact that the cricket bat is swung more on a lower arc with the tip of the bat below the knee whereas a baseball bat swings from around the thigh at its lowest point.
7. A cricket pitch is more oval or round in dimension with the wicket and pitching creases in the middle of the field. The boundaries are the edges of the field. There is no foul lines to speak off or are there foul balls. For example, Sir Brian Lara of the West Indies stay in his crease for over 8 hours hitting for 502 runs before he was put out. The batting team consists of two batters at each end of the wicket. When the batter hits a ball that is not caught and is deep enough to run, both batters run with their bats to each others wickets. as the bat crosses it is a scored a run. in order to put the batter out the fielder can fire the ball directly at the wicket an knock down the bails of the stumps or the throw to the wicket keeper who will sweep his glove and ball to knock down the bails. Another way to out the batter is to bowl him out either by him hitting to a fielder who catches the ball in flight, or he edges his ball into the mitt of the wicket keeper or the bowler blows one by him and hits the stumps and the bails fall. Then there is the LBW (leg before wicket) which is the rule equivalent to icing in hockey - not everyone understands it. But basically, the batter has two responsibilities, 1) protect the wicket from falling and, 2) take on balls that result in runs. If he steps infront of the wicket with his leading leg and blocks the ball without first making contact with his bat and the umpire judges the ball within the width of the wicket he is called out. You are now in to the arcane of cricket much like called strikes in baseball.
8. A ball that is hit to field and stays on the ground and clears the boundry rope on the ground level it is called 4 runs. If the ball is hit out on the fly like a homer it is 6 runs.
9. You will see scores like 16 for 2 or 187 for 6 or 452 declared. This means they have scored 16 runs and only 2 wickets (outs), or 187 runs with only 6 outs. The other is when a team has dominated the batting and declared that is the oppositions target. They may have scored 452 runs with only 8 outs but the bottom of the order (the last 3 batters) are weak batters (probably speciaist bowlers) and there is no reason to waste their energy. Then it is up to the other team to go their innnings and beat 452 in their 11 bats.

Hope this helps. 20/20 is closer to fast baseball type cricket than test cricket. It is very exciting but it has problems with Indian and Pakistan fixing for gamblers. Do not bet money on 20/20.

If you ever get a chance you have to watch a test at Lord's in London in the summer. By the way, it is still the only major sport that breaks at around 12:30pm during every match for "tea".

[sbw]

The Narcisolator is my friend. Trolls have no other interest than to add noise to a conversation.

[macphisto]

the secular culture loves death because, having rejected God and spirit, death is as close as they can come to transcendence. eventually they make death their God, as in the French Revolution.

[larry]

Da bears. Jay played a little better after the pick.

[larry]

Bears are nowhere near as good as their record(I get to say this as a 70-year Bear fan.), so I have no illusions about how far they'll go. Lovie Smith, one of the really good guys, keeps his job.

[glasater]

Clarice's link on the CCX and my pointing out said article to my better half brought a brief moment of sadness to our household during this season of holiday cheer-- since carbon credits were our contribution to any and all SCAM efforts.

And any moneys Richard Sandor may gotten out of the CCX scam were not socked away in his mattress like any ordinary greedy capitalist but were invested in a market I am personally interested in -- Sandor and his wife have an extensive photography collection :)

[Jack is Back!]

larry,

Everyone is figuring out Sanchez. He is one dimensional without a running game. And Da'Bears did it without a sack. Plus as a Long Island native, I do not like Rex Ryan or his dad. They believe they have all the answers and everyone else is stupid - it worked for Buddy in the 80's because it took a few seasons for everyone to understand how to deal with the 3-4 but once they did - it was too common to make special in winning teams without the offense to go with it. I give you Bill Bellicheck and the New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons in this years Super Bowl.

[larry]

I go along with you, JiB. The Saints aren't going to aggregate their excrement this year. Pats overwhelming fave with that S B matchup.

[Gmax]

Dont forget to vote for Clarice. She is up by a Norm Coleman type lead at the moment, but as Hugh Hewitt says "if it aint close they cant cheat."

GayPaytriot.

[Gmax]

Probably more likely GayPatriot! LOL

[DGS]

Jack,

I knew most of what you wrote above based on some elementary cricket I learned when I was in school (many, many years ago.)

I'll check out your link.

There won't be a test match going on when I'm visiting, just the 20 / 20 and maybe a local amateur game on the field up the street from where I am staying. I would never bet on a game anyway.

Just trying to learn enough to not be totally lost and be knowledgeable enough to cheer at the right time.

[DrJ]

Gmax, I just gave Clarice another five.

[WE CAN ALSO EXPECT THAT WE WILL REVERT TO OLD TIME METHODS OF]

DANKE.

.
We can also be sure that under Obamacare we will revert to old fashioned treatments.A few years ago an elderly friend living in a French country village broke her hi. She was not moved to a big city like Avignon or Marseilles and given a hip replacement. Her hip was placed in a cast; she was totally immobilized and doped up with enough morphine to keep her under for all but breakfast time every day until the hip mended..Cheaper than replacement apparently.

[larry]

Clarice up by 48 at 4:10 CST.

[Danube of Thought]

I also loathe both Ryans and the Jets. I expect them to lose in the wildcard round.

[clarice]

WOW

[DrJ]

Clarice, we may be old, but we're crafty. Heh.

[Porchlight]

Now up by 54.

[larry]

DoT, my boys and I were reminiscing about their San Diego grandparents yesterday and wondered if their motel, on Pacific Highway across the street from the old civic center was still there. They were the initial franchisers in '60 or '61 of what was then Imperial 400 motel. Do you ever drive on that side or in that neighborhood?

[Jack is Back!]

DGS,

Which venue wiil you be watching the matches? St. Lucia, Barbados, Guyana? Can't remember them all but Barbados is my favorite. World cup final was there a few years back. Sorry, if I was too elementary. I didn't want your eyes spinning how to play short-gully when you had a left handed batsmen and a medium pace bowler on a wet wicket, and all that stuff. If the ball is hit and caught - cheer like hell if its your team or the beefy inebriated guys sittiing next to you. If its not your team, wait until the umpire raises his right arm (LBW) then get up and throw your beer in the air:)

[Pagar]

"the backers of the now defunct CCX which put so much dough into Gore and Sandor's pockets:"

I'm really hoping that today is the day that someone is going to explain the difference between CCX and RGGI.

Auction 10
12/01/2010

$48,224,220.00

Where $48,224,220.00 was sucked out of the pockets of Northeastern Consumers on 1 Dec 2010. The 10th time consumers have been taken by this group. Unbelieveable!

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I've got to interrupt to encourage you to watch this video of 5th grade kids in Quinhaga, Alaska and some of their friends. This is so cool.

Watch and enjoy!

[Porchlight]

That was great, Sara! Thanks for the link. Some of the shots were so creative - I loved it.

[Danube of Thought]

528-473 at the moment.

Larry, I don't think it's still there but I'll look next time I'm over there.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Barbour didn’t help matters with his fuzzy recall of an event he attended in the early 1960’s with civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr.

“We just sat on our cars, watching the girls, talking, doing what boys do,” Barbour told the Weekly Standard. “We paid more attention to the girls than to King.”

I think it is hard for younger people to understand the life of a teen in the early '60s.

My Mother was very active in the early Civil Rights movement. She marched at Selma/Birmingham and she was in Washington when King gave his "I have a dream" speech. I was a sophomore, junior, senior in high school at the time and didn't know a thing about what was going on. My Mother often traveled with her job so when she was gone, it was just another trip, nothing special to me. We never talked about it in school and there were no networks of communication other than the news on TV which no one of my age ever paid attention to. TV just wasn't that big a deal back then. And parents, most of whom had suffered greatly through the Depression and many who had served in WWII, went to great lengths to protect kids from the nastier sides of life. Football games, boys, dates, rocknroll music, etc what kept us busy. Well that plus a homework load that caused all of us to have back problems from having to carry so many books every day and took hours of our at home time every day to complete.

For me and my friends and peers, it was the JFK assassination that changed everything and made us far more aware. That single event changed our safe world and woke us up to the fact that life in America wasn't safe like we had been brought up to believe. I don't think those writing and opining today can really relate to how compartmentalized life was back then for young people.

[O is home]

O refused to talk to ageneral in two wars and they rose,O wanted to legalize drugs using cali and they rose(Mexico).O got 20 bil for NO and wants more cash(not the rigs).How did he get in office?

[Danube of Thought]

Larry, the address of the place was 1709 Pacific Highway. Using the Google maps street-level camera it appears it's no longer there.

[larry]

Hey thanks, DoT. Do you remember Calabrese's Restaurant 1 block South. Not famous, but fabulous.

[larry]

Not important, either, but the site of one of those family stories that continues growing fond over time.

[sbw]

From Instapundit: Fox News contributor Juan Williams said Sunday that Sarah Palin "can't stand on the intellectual stage" with President Obama.

And what credentials does Juan Williams have to judge? Why would anyone care to put Juan Williams on any stage?

[clarice]

SBW, you beat me to it..Here's that whole post--I think Richard Epstein deserves a gold medal for (rare) candor

JUAN WILLIAMS says that Sarah Palin can’t stand on the same intellectual stage as Barack Obama. He offers no evidence, however, for the proposition that Obama is particularly bright, and I can’t say I see a big difference.

Obama’s former colleague Richard Epstein says:
I like Obama but I reject the suggestion that he is an intellectual. He is an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual.

Personally, I think Richard Epstein’s a better judge of who’s intellectual than Juan Williams is. But I think most of the press — for whom the phrase “an activist merely mimicking the mannerisms of an intellectual” may also apply — is easier to fool.

Posted at 6:08 pm by Glenn Reynolds

[Drider]

All of this pulling the plug on grandma is pure bunk.
If they have their way. grandma will not get within the same area code to where the machines are to have the plug pulled.
Just take the (cyanide) pill.

[clarice]

Crafty's very good.

[PD]

So Juan is admitting that Palin is easily "57 states"'s intellectual superior?

[Jack is Back!]

Clarire,

I would pay good money to watch Sarah debate Juan, forget about Barry, we want Juan!

[Danube of Thought]

I suppose that New Yorkers will now begin hollering for Tom Coughlin's scalp, which should be very entertaining.

Stay classy, New York.

[DGS]

Jack,

I'll be in Barbados. I can catch a bus from where I am staying to the Kensington Oval. The late rounds as well as the semi-finals and finals are in Barbados this year. I'll probably go the games where Barbados isn't playing so I need to know important times to cheer since I won't be able to follow the lead of the crowd. I figure every time a 50 occurs I can cheer, but need other times.

Can't drink beer (Celiac) but make up for it with Rum.

[larry]

Thanks for the link, Sara. Wonderful. Back in the day, I was ignorant of "current events" until upperclassmen required us to have a current topic for every meal at the A F Academy. Didn't take much interest then, either, just did it because I had to. Credit my first FiL with engendering my first suspicion the government of my country could be anything less than perfect and maybe they didn't need all that money we taxpayers were having stolen from us.

[PaulL]

I think it's understandable in light of our history that we initially have a black president who serves one term only. Sometime in the future, as we as a nation continue to overcome our racist ways, then we may be enlightened enough to have a black president serve two terms.

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

When does the Diva poll end? Yesterday they let me vote twice, today not at all.

The weather outside is frightful here, the wind is whistling and everything is a rumble. I've got a flashlight handy in case I lose power. Everyone made it home safe and sound tho - which is a good thing.

[clarice]

midnight on the 31sr, Jane. That IS good news.

[Frau Todesausschuss]

What an enjoyable video, Sara, and your description of "the way it was" is accurate from my perspective.

[Pagar]

All you need to know about Juan Williams.

In an NPR piece about Alvin Greene-----
"WILLIAMS: No. Hey, I'm a big supporter."

I'm sure we still have some JOMers who remember Alvin Greene. He was the guy in South Carolina that 59% of the Democrats in the primary thought should be their South Carolina Senator. In the general election campaign he spend under the $5000 limit, which would mean he would have to file a financial report for his campaign. He still got 29% of the voters in the General election to vote for him for Senator.

Cost of each vote by his campaign, he was probably the low cost champion of the Democrats.

[squaredance]

Well those are two issues: Is he a competent intellectual and is he especially intelligent?

The answers would no and no.

He certainly is not a competent intellectual. He appears to have no substantial intellectual training at all, or even aptitude. A competent intellectual has command of formal logic, language, argumentation and rhetoric, formal knowledge of philosophy, broad general knowledge (including history) and erudition in their particular field. These demand reasonable intelligence, but not an extraordinary one. It is hard work to acquire this vantage and even harder to find something meaning to contribute. Though the value of the intellectuals is exaggerated, they still are quite useful and have their place. Bernard Lewis is an exemplar of the actual type and illustrates well their actual value.

It is pretty clear that Obama took no substantial curriculum at all. There is certainly no body of writing or intellectual accomplishment to speak of.

Native intelligence: slightly above average.

Cunning: quite high. But this is not the same thing as either intelligence or a trained and accomplished intellect.

Most certainly: A fake all round handled by lairs; An intellectual poser.

Minus the handlers, this is common with most liberals who are not open gangsters such as union types. This is why so many of them publicly buy into the myth of the "genius Obama". If is not so much that tehy are fooled, it is that they are either in on the con or are in denial about their own bizarre claims to intellectual culture and fluency. To a certain extent, this is true of even the actual "bona fide" professional intellectual liberals--witness Krugman.

Vanity, narcissism and solecism, as always, trumps mind and soul.

It is part and parcel of Marxist elitism.

Marx too was a intellectual fraud. Only the ill-educated and the weak minded are swayed by him so far as intellectual matters go.

[squaredance]

solecism=solipsism (well that too)

[Melinda Romanoff]

DGS-

Go take the Tour of the Mount Gay distillery, and buy the Mount Gay Black label to take home.

Yum.

[Jack is Back!]

DGS,

A great venue, done up for the World Cup and good fans of cricket. Just remember in 20/20 it's faster and even knowledgeable cricket crowds don't always keep up. Drink lots of Mt. Gay with coke, wear a straw hat, make sure you know what twam your for and then follow your instincts. It is not that hard a game after 3 or 4 Rum & Cokes:) Wish I was there. Don't forget to get a table at the Cliff restaurant. preferably on the pier.