We'll Score This As "Not A Like"

With the calm and civility we have learned to expect when the object of their affection is questioned, the "Booman" denounces a NY Times contributer who complained about her insurance premium hikes under Obamacare as "either misinformed or the worst kind of liar".

Yeah, yeah. Ms Gottlieb is writing as a single (well-paid) mom in California with at least one child who complained that her new replacement plan would cost $5,400 more than the plan being cancelled. I can't compare precisely, but here in My Blue Heaven of Connecticut, my wife's personal Anthem plan was also cancelled as non-compliant. To replace it with a new Anthem plan with the same deductibles and copays (i.e., a Gold plan) would have cost an additional $600/month, or $7,200 per year.

Or, to replace it with a plan at a slightly lower premium than we currently pay we could have increased our deductible by $9,600 and an annual out-of-pocket max by $6,600. For various reasons hitting the deductible is a bit of a sure thing, so when I engage in cocktail party chit-chat and tell people that my wife's insurance cost under Obamacare rose by $6,000 or $7,000 dollars I am neither lying nor misinformed.

As to Ms. Gottlieb, her story is consistent with my experience, but how can I be sure? However, as to the choice between (a) she's lying, and (b) the Booman is suffering from an ObamaCare induced anal-cranial impaction which we hope is covered by his insurance, well, I have to go with (b). Also based on experience.

It is interesting to observe the rage and denial displayed by the reality-based community when introduced to reality. Prof. Althouse has more on that.

AND SPEAKING OF ESCAPE FROM REALITY... Garance Franke-Ruta, writing in Tha Atlantic, offers five ideas that might be even better than an apology from Obama for fixing health care. I love this exhortation:

2. Enroll "Young Invincibles": The second most urgent problem is getting enough young healthy people into the exchanges to keep rates low in 2014. Between Healthcare.gov's technical troubles, the complexity of signing up through the exchange sites, and the fact that many of the uninsured are not the most civically engaged people in America, it's no surprise that most of the uninsured haven't even visited a single exchange website. It is going to take a lot to get them insured. 

To get the young people whom the system needs to succeed into the exchanges will require more than just "navigators" and microtargeting key populations. Fortunately, if the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012 were good at anything, it was turning out and engaging young people, and that knowledge ought to be deployed in the campaign to sign people up for insurance, too. The campaigns made electing Obama a community project and a community conversation that involved meeting people where they were to talk about politics and voting. It involved barbershops and hair salons, coffee shops, laundromats, community organizations. Getting the insurance equivalent of low-information, unlikely-turnout voters to sign up for insurance—something much more complicated than going to the polls—will require tremendous work.

More "complicated" than going to the polls? It's also an awful lot more expensive!  Getting callow youth to think Obama was cooler than Hillary, McCain or Mitt - easy. Getting them to translate that sense of shared cool purpose into a willingness tio stand in line for an hour and vote (twice!) - not so hard. Getting them to translate that into a willingness to spend hundreds of dollars a month on insurance they don't need in order to subsidize the old and sick? Good luck. They may be dumb enough to have voted for Obama, but they aren't that dumb.

Comments

[anonamom]

Clarice, going gluten free and not having celiac disease is infinitely safer than following the government's food pyramid ever was, or listening to the forty plus year's counsel of cardiologists to avoid saturated fat, or being a diabetic and following the ADA diet, which is still what most nutritionists advocate.

Real food for real people, and if eliminating grains helps you avoid turning into a blimp, go for it. There's absolutely not anything we need in grain that's not in berries, vegetables, nuts and animals.

Reading Gary Taube's Good Calories, Bad Calories was one of the most enlightening uses of my time in regards to health as well as the nature of humans, even those "in science," ever.

Busy people can go to NYT and read his 2002 article What If It's All A Big Fat Lie to get the jist of the nutrition part.

OL, I've never paid AOL--but I'm holding on my email account because it's got to be the newest hipster thing sometime soon, right?

[Neo]

The question is, should the GOP try and do this at the risk of either "saving" ObamaCare or being seen as equally culpable in its failures. To date, the GOP has stayed mostly on the sidelines, keeping their fingerprints off the debacle (they helped pass a minor tweak in the original 1099 reporting requirements in the bill)?

I understand the problem with Republicans getting their hands dirty with ObamaCare, but just the other day Bill Clinton, out stumping for Hiliary even if he doesn't say so, was blaming the Republicans for doing nothing .. "hoping America would fail."

Dr. Peter Venkman: This man has no dick.

It's pretty bad when they claim a Democrat failure is an American failure, but there are millions of aggrieved voters out there.

Dr. Peter Venkman: If I'm wrong, nothing happens! We go to jail - peacefully, quietly. We'll enjoy it! But if I'm *right*, and we *can* stop this thing... Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.

[clarice]

Looks like the young are willing to handicap themselves for Pelosi-Reid-and Obama's phony egalitarianism. Better yet, the article names an alternativefor those cut off from insurance and unwilling to buy Obamacare:http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesevilla/generation-opportunity-throws-anti-obamacare-tailgate-party

[clarice]

I think Taubes did excellent research, but he said to cut down on simple carbs not to substitute xanthan gum and the other stuff for grains. Some grains in your diet are okay for almost everyone. I think it's a mistake to confuse the two.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Hey, they found the 404Care girl, and guess what? She doesn't want it.

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamacare-girl-has-no-plans-to-sign-up-for-obamacare/

[Jack is Back!]

Frederick now owns my iPad Uno and Mrs. JiB's iPad Dos.

One is for games the other is education. IPad Cinqo is terrific according to Mrs. JiB who is the Chief Technology Officer in our household. She highly recommends it.

Home from mass and late breakfast. I went to Sammy J's "Best Boston Breakfast" in Flagler Beach and I figure I don't have to eat another meal for at least a week. Heard on the radio that they are holding hearings on the technical aspects and troubles with Healthcare.gov. Its on C-Span3 right now and getting pretty contentious. You'd think the Democrats would have figured out by now that this thing is a political albatross and would be showing their anger to prop themselves up with their constituents. But no - they continue to be apologists and supporters of the most intelligent administration ever

How dare Issa and the republicans make these damning and negative charges against these highly dedicated bureaucrats who had to build this farce of a technology with only $700 million. If only those greedy, heartless republicans would now work with them and give them more money this system could be up and running by next year some-time so that many more people could put their personal information at risk, get super-par service, pay a little bit more, take advantage of free mental health and maternity care.

My gut and experience tell me that this is one sick puppy put together by crony-capitalism and now is ready to do even less than designed. I think it was designed to handle over 60K transactions at a time but the technical corrections will reduce it to 20 to 25K transaction at a time.

Good Job Barry!

[Stephanie]

So Stephanie, you are advocating stripping the states of all their power to regulate the insurance companies? Do you propose that as permanent or just at the whim of Congress?

I never said that. I advocated having the 50 state insurance commishes work with the insurance companies to reconstitute the plans and networks and those that choose to can reoffer their plans or not. Those folks that are left out in the cold under this move can have a one year reprieve by having a safety net pick up their coverage at the rates they used to have reimbursed by the feds. Best I can figure under the circumstances...

I was putting the state insurance offices back in the driver's seat.

Anonamom, I get that, but the insurers offer inclusion in their plans and the doctors either do or don't accept. It is most definitely a doctor's decision not the insurers, but the insurers do look at how many of each specialty they are offering and try to offer balanced localized plans.

In Georgia a balanced in network plan includes doctors from all over the state and from all hospitals not just from your zip code or region or zone or whatever Ocare is using to divvy up the doctors.

I would absolutely not cover any medicaid patients were I a doctors. The reimbursement rates are absurd. Medicare less absurd, but most medicare patients have supplemental coverage that usually offsets the feds cheapness. You know, the plans that are in many cases being outlawed under Ocare...for being 'too generous.'

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Generation O 'Tailgate'-- well I am unequaly unimpressed with the anti-ObamaCare group as the Admin propaganda. Perhaps the problem with the messaging is the target audiance. What does Daddy say as a signoff?....

[Account Deleted]

The fascists at BlueGovIns lend BOzo a hand.

After the Wall Street Journal’s report of meager enrollment numbers for the federal exchange, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a national coalition of health insurers, will no longer produce weekly reports containing the enrollment figures.

The CBO, BLS, BEA and Fed are watching closely in the hope non-reporting will become the way FORWARD.

ISTM the failure to report amounts to a failure to disclose an event having a significant adverse impact upon earnings. Now, where's my copy of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

[Danube on iPad]

Happy birthday, SBW. Take the rest of the day off.

I'm still on an iPad 1. I figure I wouldn't understand any of the newer ones.

[Jack is Back!]

Forgot to wish sbw a Happy Birthday, who Mrs. JiB, Frederick and I had the distinct pleasure to meet, have lunch and watch him put out the newspaper. To this day, Frederick talks about that experience of a few years back.

DWS says the Dems will run on the benefits and successes of 404Care and we all laughed. But if you watch this hearing, I am not seeing many Dems who aren't publically supporting it as the greatest thing since white bread and the only problem being the bread box doesn't open up all the way.

[Danube on iPad]

This "You Can Keep Your Plan Act" is an absolutely perfect example of how these nincompoops operate: if things aren't going well, you just wave a legislative wand and, because you have good intentions, everything is suddenly hunky dory.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JiB-- 25,000 transactions? will there ever be that demand? The Indie Plan holders seem to be sticking with their original insurer's ObummerCare Compliant plan rather than going into ExchangeCare. The UNinsured are NOT signing up, except for those with expensive pre-existing conditions, or as they get sick- but that's not high volume. So I guess the only demand will be when group employers drop coverage and dump employees into ExchangeCare. Will that be a positive for Obummer though?

[GMax]

Rick I had not given the Sarbanes Oxley disclosure of negative items any thought heretofore. It might be an interesting stockholder derivative suit, should some enterprising young ambulance chaser attorney chose to light them up...

I am certain however that any CEO who did for a product what Zero did for Obamacare, would be facing both civil suits and criminal charges for fraud. No way could a corporation head get away with blatantly misrepresenting something like that for that long and not go to jail...

[maryrose]

RB:
It is like the phony employment numbers. BCBS can't lie or fudge the figures ,ergo they won't report the dismal news.

[Stephanie]

I have the latest and bestest Ipad and love it. Use it for work only.

BTW Iggy or whoever upthread it was that said they still pay for AOL... they have a non pay site that my husband still uses and we both still have functioning AOL email accounts. No need to pay for email or their big site particularly if you use chrome or firefox and have wifi.

I use my aol email only for adverts and signups for coupons and such like Chili's and Outback and stuff that might be referred to as spam 'lite.' Keeps my correspondence, work and other email accounts relatively spam free.

my 2 cents.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

RickB-- nice SarBox pick up. And when the SH suits start, the Insurers will beg for Statutory Immunity-- good luck with that, the Obamaniacs want to see them out of business sooner than later.

[Threadkiller]

Non-binding Senate resolution 511 was a magic wand act.

[Stephanie]

So BlueGovIns is breaking the law at the behest of the lawmakers and expects not to reap the consequences at a later date? LOL

BTW is there a difference between dems who voted for the bill to see what's in it and are suffering at the polls and homeowners who ended up being foreclosed on who claim the mortgage companies ripped them off and who lost their homes?

[AliceH]

I swear sometimes I think Rick Ballard is my smarter, tougher brother.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Go easy on the BlueGovIns- when the Obamaniacs stab them in the back, we'll need them as allies to repeal this whole abomination.

[Extraneus]

I am not seeing many Dems who aren't publically supporting it as the greatest thing since white bread

Evidence that they're not likely to agree to anything that actually affects the law. Just delays and anything else that helps them get it implemented.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

The Dems-- 85% of the Dem HouseCritters are dyed in the wool Obamaniacs, from safe Blue seats, so of course they'll repeat whatever shite Obummer is putting out there. The other 20-25 Dems are in competitive districts. I bet they are keeping their moths shut now. They are in deep poo come 11/14.

[clarice]

Rick is my lodestar *wink*

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

...mouths...

[rse]

Some of us belong to the very small category of those who have never owned an apple product. It's not philosophical. And my smartphone is more than 3 years old.

And hubby had to walk me through by phone why cats traversing the keyboard was changing my print size.

http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/circumscribing-knowledgepart-2-of-imposing-mindsets-to-fit-a-new-political-philosophy/

For those of you who have always wondered if their was a plan to send governments on an ever expanding growth curve. Yup and it is not to a Founding Father approved destination.

[jimmyk]

greatest thing since white bread

Ha, that won't go over well with the gluten-free/grain-free/low carb crowd.

Speaking of which, this is a more sympathetic view of the gluten-free phenomenon. I know he's a bit of a missionary, but he does try to base his recommendations on science, and he rightfully ridicules pseudo-scientific claims.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/gluten-free-fad/#axzz2kY385Fm4

[Some Guy]

Clarice and anonamom,

On the "gluten free" thing, I've always suspected that the reason many self-report "feeling better" isn't from cutting out gluten per se, but to go gluten free, they inevitably reduce their overall consumption of refined grains and therefore simple carbs. It likely results in a diet significantly lower in carbs, so their insulin levels improve.

Therefore, they see correlation – no gluten/feel better, but misstate causation, which should be – lower carbs/feel better.

[Account Deleted]

NK,

Let's look at a hypothetical based upon MarkO's call for civil disobedience. What happens if a significant number of people decide to go without medical insurance in January and February to show their contempt for the commiecrats? They aren't really risking anything because March is the deadline and they cannot be denied coverage in March for conditions which became obvious in Jan/Feb.

The fascists' failure to disclose the initial foreshadowing sales reports becomes very material if 30% of those canceled deny the fascists revenue for Jan/Feb.

BTW - where are the reports on total cancellations? ISTM the cancellation of 10 million policies has a material adverse affect upon the finances of insurance companies.

[GMax]

If Cueball Carville is correct and Democrat officeholders are down 11% ( forget the generic poll nonsense ) then its more than the competitive districts that could be in play. Some fossils in very safe districts would get the @ss whupping they truly deserve, if that holds through November.

[Jeff Dobbs]

JiB:
If only those greedy, heartless republicans would now work with them and give them more money this system could be up and running by next year some

Every dollar the Dems want to spend on fixing Glitch.com is a dollar not spent on Julia Lackwitz's birth control.

The Democrats have cronies who profit from Obamacare administration - including fixing the website and navigating and big insurance execs that are getting paid handsomely -- getting rich while the poor and middle class go completely without health care.

That's phrased as if I were a lefty.

[Stephanie]

I am not seeing many Dems who aren't publically supporting it as the greatest thing since white bread

Evidence that they're not likely to agree to anything that actually affects the law. Just delays and anything else that helps them get it implemented.

Possibly, or they could still be hanging together until the reported Friday drop dead date. If it is as you say, they may still hang together for the drop dead date but it's gonna be more of a short drop and a sudden stop.

[clarice]

I think so, too, Same Guy, but I also recall that the author of Wheat belly admonishes folks not to substitute the stuff with which gluten free breads, etc are made of..that is other grains and carb based starches ,

[AliceH]

Not a Kinsley Gaffe, but a Cohenism (n):

"a gaffe in which a public figure tells what he believes to be a truth, which in fact only reveals some unpleasant truth about the speaker himself."

http://www.popehat.com/2013/11/13/lets-make-one-thing-perfectly-clear-i-am-not-a-racist-bigot-i-am-a-cultural-bigot/

[DrJ]

Some of us belong to the very small category of those who have never owned an apple product.

The last time I used an Apple product (work) it had a Motorola 68030 CPU.

[Old Lurker]

Glutten Free?

I was approached last month by a guy who wanted to rent a store from me so he could install a GF Bakery. My partner and I rejected it for several reasons: 1) It is a fad that will go the way of our old VHS tape rental stores, or 2) It will catch on then the bigs from Sara Lee to Entemans to Dunkin Donuts will get on board and kill the mom & pops.

Either way, this landlord would lose.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

RickB-- as usual you pose fascinating questions, which I have no idea how to answer. I also have no idea why Big Insurance went along with this abomination in 09-10. Did they really believe that as a card carrying crony they'd be protected by Obummer's tender mercies and immunized against financial destruction? Or did they simply panic after the '08 financial meltdown and election disaster?

[daddy]

Cranium!

Off to training---Ughh:(

Bye.

[Stephanie]

Also, for those who are hesitating on an Ipad cause it doesn't have a keyboard, my ipad cover has a built in keyboard that you can switch on and off and works just like the Surface keyboard. The cover was $79 or $99 but it was worth it.

[jimmyk]

I bit the bullet and got Apple products for the first time about a year ago. I don't notice much difference between the first four vintages of iPads, other than the retina display which doesn't matter much to me. So I got a 2 because it was slightly thinner and lighter than the 1.

[Stephanie]

Did they really believe that as a card carrying crony they'd be protected by Obummer's tender mercies and immunized against financial destruction? Or did they simply panic after the '08 financial meltdown and election disaster?

Yes and Yes.

HB SBW!!

[Old Lurker]

Hit: "Every dollar the Dems want to spend on fixing Glitch.com is a dollar not spent on Julia Lackwitz's birth control."

Hit, Hit, Hit. Have you learned nothing? To Progs, dollars are not the limiting constraint. They are unlimited, just read above!

:-)

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

AliceH-- thanks for that link. I am so glad that bastard Cohen is getting the tar knocked out of him for his attempted slander on conservatives, which in truth revealed his own bigotry.

Stephanie , heh-- hope you're feeling well.

[Stephanie]

From Ace:

On top of finding President Obama at his lowest point in his Presidency, Quinnipiac released a stunner of a poll this morning showing the Democrats' 9-point edge touted as blowback against the shutdown in October has collapsed to a 39-39 tie on congressional vote preference. With ten Democrat-held Senate seats at least somewhat competitive, that number resonates: most of these seats are in red to purple states, where that same figure almost certainly skews a few more points rightwards.

[Old Lurker]

When an iPad XXX is produced that can jump to the end of a 1000+ JOM thread, sign me up. Otherwise the Classic I is just fine.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

OL-- I think you and your partner made a good call on the GF bakery. In contrast, if this Biscuit business's Landlord has a % of the gross lease he's hit the lottery, link below. I don't think these Biscuits are GF:
http://nypost.com/2013/11/10/the-birth-of-a-biscuit-empire/

I sent the article to my daughter who returns from Scotland Christmas eve and moves into her Bronx apartment 1/2-- she's sold and will hit the Biscuits.

[Extraneus]

Democrats Paying Stiff Price for Government Shutdown

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Stephanie-- very nice poll news. I bet Obummer/Dems are counting on the Debt debate in january to raise their poll #s in purple states right quick. heh, HEH, HAHA...

[Extraneus]

Polling: Voters Poised to Punish Democrats for Government Shutdown

[Beasts of England]

Heck, they're not spending money to fix the glitch, they're investing money in it! Think of the jobs created!

[clarice]

Niscuits are easy to make and the ingredients are a lot less expensive that the stuff in gluten free bakery.

[Beasts of England]

Yet another upscale biscuit link... JiB, you're in good company!

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

well the other possbility is that BUT FOR the shutdown, the Dems poll #s would be worse, because the only DC news in October would have been the Debt and ObummerCare rollout. OK you got me -- of course that's what's hapening. As I said in October the Shutdown marginally hurt the Repubs/Conservatives, but that injury has been overwhelmed by the ObummerCare disaster.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Empire Biscuits-- the Hipster proprietors operate 0800-1700, and describe their hours as Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Drunk. They plan to expand to 24/7.

[James D.]

NK, where in the Bronx will she be?

[Some Guy]

Polling: Despite constant demonization of Rethuglicans, media cheerleading and cover-ups, Democrats poll no better than terrorists and arsonists.

[jimmyk]

Remembering that "Last Thanksgiving" cartoon, my mother, who's 86, was already highly lactose intolerant, and recently began having serious digestion problems. After she ruled out everything else anyone can think of, I suggested cutting out gluten, and sure enough the problems went away (it took about a week). Since then she's had a couple of incidents where she got sick, and found out that something she'd had that had been called gluten-free actually wasn't. So I think it's legit, and she's hardly a faddish yuppie type.

Last time we visited she'd made a pie crust out of almond flour that was quite good. Because I'm a good son, I'm going to make a GF stuffing for the turkey. Now don't get me started on all the food foibles of the rest of the extended family.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Bronx - Hughes Ave and Fordham Rd. She's a Fordham gal.

[jimmyk]

well the other possbility is that BUT FOR the shutdown, the Dems poll #s would be worse

Popularity created or saved?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

BTW-- my daughter's return to the Bronx and taking the subways make the deBlasio putsch personal for me. If she's victimized by some thug constituent of deBlasio, I won't react rationally.

[Old Lurker]

The last time my Mother came for T'Giving, she had just been told that her doctor wanted to limit her to one Markers Mark per day. So she brought her own glass which would put a Big Gulp to shame. And yes, it was sterling silver as the KY girl in her had required for her old glass.

Ah what we can learn from our mothers.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Come January, my daughter's neighb won't be the issue, the Albania Mafia keeps her street quite safe. The subways will be the issue.

[Stephanie]

Applicants attempting to register for Medicaid as non-citizens by using Healthcare.gov will have their identification checked in real-time by the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database. But if SAVE verification fails, the applicant is not prevented from enrolling in Medicaid/CHIP.

In fact, the opposite occurs: the applicant is likely enrolled in Medicaid immediately.
The applicant is then given a 90-day period to clear up the identification problem.

This “enroll first, confirm later” regulation, combined with the ACA’s easing of verification requirements, allows anyone, from a computer anywhere in the world, to successfully auto-enroll for 90 days of Medicaid by entering fraudulent information about being a certain category of legal alien living in the United States.

There is no guarantee that state governments will take action to cancel these enrollments at the end of each application’s 90-day period if identification is never provided.

The cancellation of unverified enrollments is left to each state’s available manpower and political will.

At the end of the 90-day period, if states do indeed ask the applicant to produce identification or to have the enrollment canceled, the applicant is allowed to ask for an extension of the 90-day period. The applicant can get the period extended for significantly longer.

Obamacare does not allow any information entered into Healthcare.gov to be used for legal action against illegal immigrants. Like “catch and release,” an applicant could attempt to fraudulently enroll repeatedly.

Foreign entities looking to flood the Medicaid rolls with fraudulent auto-enrollments are, of course, beyond U.S. prosecution and able to cause such chaos.

An organized effort by domestic or foreign entities to create countless numbers of these fraudulent enrollments could challenge Medicaid with an unsolvable administrative situation.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/medicaid-for-al-qaeda-obamacare-flaw-allows-anyone-on-earth-to-fraudulently-enroll-through-healthcare-gov/

We're in the very best of hands.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

It's my mother's 89th B-Day today. Who woulda thunk it.

[Danube on iPad]

No mayor in Arlington - it's a county without a city. And adjacent Alexandria is a city without a county.

If you look at Arlington on the map, you will see that it completes the square (or rectangle) that was the District of Columbia before that part got ceded back to Virginia.

[Jack is Back!]

OL,

Does your Mom smoke with her Maker's Mark?

This gal is 100 and smokes 20 cigaretttes a day and takes her whisky with a Guinness chaser:)

All discussion on gluten free would not be complete without mentioning the new book "Grain Brain".

[Jack is Back!]

Jim Jordan is like a hound-dog on a ham bone. Just a fast talking Trey Gowdy.

[Old Lurker]

NK about those subways. Youngest daughter lives at 75th & B'way and attends Col Med at 165th. That works for her since the XXX Train is a straight shot for her.

But in January she starts her Clinical Rotations (whatever those are) and for many of those days she needs to be there at 4:30AM.

Mrs. L informed me last night that I needed to increase the kid's monthly allowance by $xxx because Mrs. L had just arranged for a car service to pick her up each morning.

And THAT is how money decisions are made in my house.

[Appalled]

NK:

I also have no idea why Big Insurance went along with this abomination in 09-10.

A lot of "Big Insurance" (Kaiser, the Blues) are non-profits, with an institutional bias towards leftish solutions to healthcare. Solutions that send more business their way (via the mandate) looks awfully good.

Also, in 2009, there was energy towards "Medicare for All", which totally cuts Big Insurance out of the equation. If a healthcare bill is going to happen (and the Dems made it clear that come Hell, High Water, or Republicans, it was), better the bill that gives you some variety of guaranteed revenue.

One thing to remember -- even Ted Cruz did not forsee the implementation disaster now taking place. This unknown is changing a lot of calculations, from what they were back in 2009/10.

[Danube on iPad]

"Non-binding Senate resolution 511 was a magic wand act."

False. It was a statement of the sense of the Senate, and those who signed it did not purport to be changing any existing law.

On the other hand, there were some obsessed Birther loons who claimed that it established that Obama is not a natural born citizen. Now, those dopes really did believe in the magic wand.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

OL-- MrsL is very wise.. let her keep making the money decisions.

Appalled-- interesting take on Big Ins 09-10. Sounds right, but they've cut themselves into a financial disaster.

[Danube on iPad]

New thread.

[jimmyk]

Happy Birthday to NK's mom and to SBW.

My dad will be 92 next month--no food sensitivities but is diabetic (somehow Roz Chast left that one out of the cartoon). He's not coming to Thanksgiving, though.

[Old Lurker]

JiB, she's gone now but that was one of the running jokes in our family. She had been ordered decades back to stop smoking (probably the same doctor; perhaps she should have shopped around) but until she died she would sneak outside to smoke her unfiltered Camels. Dad used to say that by making her sneak outside, at least it cut down on the number she smoked so we all went along with it for maybe fifty years.

[jimmyk]

Hey OL, YL is just a few blocks from me. Next time you visit, a JOM get-together is in order.

[(A) nuther Bub]

Anguish and anger over individuals making the decision to forego gluten or all grains is mysterious to me. How others vote may make me indignant because it affects me and my progeny, but what foods they choose is of intellectual interest only. My appearance and health markers improved when I abandoned grains and I believe there is scientific evidence that points to the merit of that decision. If you disagree, or if it's not right for you, fine. But golly, no reason to get mad.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Sooo the polling is showing that the donks are the ones suffering from the shutdown? Seems to me there were a few people here arguing, quite strenuously in some cases, that the opposite happened. Time for consumption of a massive piece of humble pie.

[jimmyk]

But golly, no reason to get mad.

A(B) I think the only annoyance was expressed at those who impose their restrictions on others, e.g. tell their dinner hosts (unsolicited) about all their dietary restrictions. Or perhaps more generally at those who talk about it a lot.

[Old Lurker]

JiB, last story on the Lurker family but this last about Mom is right up your alley given your educational history.

Mom was married just at the outbreak of WWII so Dad went off to Europe and Mom went back to live on her parents' farm in Paris KY. She had majored in math and Classical Greek in college so the farm got boring fast.

She started commuting to your alma mater in OH and got her MS in Aeronautical Engineering then went to work for Goodyear Aerospace or whatever it was called then.

Fast forward to that last T'Giving when she came to our house in DC, and all she wanted to do was visit the Air & Space Museum at Dulles. Her part of the war effort had been to design the beefed up wheels for the Enola Gay which had to be strengthened to carry the A Bomb. She knew the plane had just been placed in the Museum and she could not have been happier than to go visit "her wheels".

[Old Lurker]

Jimmy we will do that!

[jimmyk]

Great, and I agree with NK, that is money well spent. Especially with the new mayoral regime beginning soon. If nothing else, everyone will sleep more soundly.

[AliceH]

I am available for receiving increased allowance for car service or otherwise. "Money well spent" is my mantra.

[Old Lurker]

Yep Jimmy.

BTW Jimmy, YL is the older daughter who lives in Chicago under the protection of Mel, whose name shall not be mentioned here (but whom we now call "our JOM friend in Chicago"). This daughter is the now former ballet dancer who is now going in another direction but is still in the same apartment that worked fine for dancers.

[Danube on iPad]

"Seems to me there were a few people here arguing, quite strenuously in some cases, that the opposite happened"

I argued, quite strenuously, that it would hurt the GOP in the short term but not the long, which it seems to me is pretty much what happened. In any event this rollout fiasco has pretty much swamped everything that came before.

[anonamom]

Clarice, I think we are talking past each other. Yes, most people can eat grains--even the hybrid wheat with beta gliadin--without any health consequences. So enjoy that bread and pasta!

However, if people find completely eliminating them and the rise in insulin and ultimately fat storage they cause allows them to control their tendency to adiposity without being hungry, it will not be detrimental to their health to do so, which is what many people find happens when they go "gluten free."

But that end will be defeated if rice cakes and corn chips and guar gum containing carbohydrate products replace the gluten-containing products they eliminated.

And I do agree with you about dinner parties. A friend who went vegan (in a mistaken attempt to prevent a recurrence cancer), when asked how he managed, said "I am vegan at home, vegetarian when I travel, and eat whatever my hostess sets in front of me."

That is one "well raised child!"

[JohnH]

OL, The solution to your problem of jumping to the end of 1000 comment thread in an IOS environment is called a bookmarklet. They are pieces of java code stored as a bookmark. It basically accomplishes the manual process that has been posted before of getting the thread URL and changing it to display page 999. I keep it at the top of my bookmarks named $JOM. Open a thread, open bookmarks, click on $JOM and I'm at the last page. Another bookmarklet, $EOP, takes me to the last comment on the page.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

What was the evidence in the short term that the shutdown hurt Repubs? I thought Barone put that meme to rest.

[Jeff Dobbs]

OL:
Hit, Hit, Hit. Have you learned nothing? To Progs, dollars are not the limiting constraint. They are unlimited, just read above!

I thought I had learned from Rick's treatises what running out of OPM and running headlong into Obamacare would do for Progs' view on the limitlessness of dollars.

[Annoying Old Guy]

Hit, Hit Hit - if Prog's could learn from experience, they wouldn't be Progs!

[Ignatz]

--Ignatz, where did that bit come from? Was that a Milton Berle routine? WC Fields? Phil Silvers? Because I only recognize it from cartoon homages.

Posted by: peter | November 13, 2013 at 11:09 AM --

peter,
Just made it up as I went along with a line or two from WC Fields and Foghorn Leghorn.
Don't most carny barkers all say the same thing anyway, including Carney?

[jimmyk]

What was the evidence in the short term that the shutdown hurt Repubs?

Just some fluffy polls that even Nate Silver discounted heavily. That and the fevered imagination of the DeMSM swamp.

[Jeff Dobbs]

AOG:
Hit, Hit Hit - if Prog's could learn from experience, they wouldn't be Progs!

Should that be Rick, Rick, Rick?

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday, sbw! I hope it is a lovely day enjoyed with family.

[cathyf]

"Mayo" is subpar.

Obamacare will send you to the Miracle Whip Clinic!

[Sue]

Happy birthday sbw.

[Old Lurker]

John you are a genius!

Thanks for that tip.

Wonderful.

[Typepad Technical Support Team]

"Posted by: JohnH | November 13, 2013 at 02:26 PM"

Thank you for the head's up, we are working to disable that feature now.

[Yoobao]

This text is worth everyone's attention. How can I find out
more?