This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments.
This is Women’s Suffrage Day. In 1850, on this date, the first call for women’s rights occurred. In 1915, women marched on Fifth Avenue on this very same date for equal rights. Finally, in 1920, women gained the right to vote in federal elections with the approval of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
I was too young to understand his show when I was a kid, but I loved it anyway. He always had so much fun in front of the camera, how could you not laugh?
Thanks for all the laughs, Soupy.
Consider this vote a gift to any future political opponents for these guys:
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID) — There’s one of my Senators, hello!
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID) — There’s the other one — new guy! *waving one finger*
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Dudes, would you care to TRY to explain this vote to your constituents, especially the females (and maybe your wives and daughters)? I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d love to hear it.
(Source)
On this day in 1968 WaltTheSon was born. He observed the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon the following July. For reasons unknown, he does not remember the event. His mother and I often wonder why we exposed him and his siblings to the aura of craftsmanship, history, science and nature.
What they learned eludes us, but each of them is successful in what they do.
President Obama reminds us of the first nine months and all that was accomplished in that time. We need to keep our sleeves rolled up because our work is not done. (Obama’s remarks begin about 9 minutes into this video).
This was our President’s speech to Organizing for America.
Are you fired up and ready to go?
There have been two stories in the Swiss newspaper “Tagesanzeiger” lately, which get my goat. I do not deny the benefits of modern pharmaceuticals. Compared to my childhood days, modern medicines are way more efficient and ailments, that constituted a death sentence then, can now be cured or at least made more bearable. But I refuse to think of the pharma industry as a big benefactor of humankind. Here’s why.
Medicines are there to cure you.
Wrong. Medicines are there to treat your chronic condition for as long as possible for a prize as high as possible. Thousands suffer from neurodermatitis here in Switzerland and millions more, of course, elsewhere. The affliction goes from mild to almost unbearable. From small ulcers if you eat the wrong stuff to inflamed excema that cover most of a patient’s body. I have a very mild form, which can easily be controlled by good skin treatment products and avoiding food such as shellfish or nuts. I’ve seen other cases much worse.
There is a cure. Two students Karsten Klingelhöller and Thomas Hein have developed a skin cream made from Avocado oil and vitamin B12. A pink coloured ointment, which has no side effects and was successfully tested in clinical tests. The product has been patented and even given a brand name “Regividerm” the patent’s worth is estimated at 936 Mio US Dollars.
Those two have made it! Helped the suffering!
Not.
Not a single parmaceutical company contacted was interested in taking the cream into their product portfolio. The thing is: You don’t earn money by healing the chronically ill at a low price.
If you want to put health reform under the microscope, why not use Europe. We all have a public health care scheme, but to different degrees. And the differences show. Take today’s headline on one of Switzerlands most popular newspapers the “Tagesanzeiger”: “The Swiss pay thirty times the price for generic medicine as the people in the Netherlands do.”
So why would that be?
Switzerland’s public health system mandates insurance for everybody, but is run through private insurance companies. There is no public option, however and the control of drug prices is not in the hands of the insurers.
The Netherlands’ system is not so very different today, but they have reformed it only three years ago from a public option system.
What is the difference now?
Switzerland is the home of pharmaceutical industry giants Novartis and Roche. The fact that Switzerland is a small country makes two giants like that huge contributors to the GDP.
The Health Ministry is in charge of drug prices and asks for prices of generic medicines to be 40% – 50% lower than the listed prices of the originals. But: The listed prices are a phantom. No insurance company in the Netherlands, nor in Germany or in Denmark, nor France or England accepts those prices, they have long since negotiated much lower ones with the drug industry. They either get a rebate on the originals or mandate the use of generics, unless the doctor prescribes the original. They got there (The Netherlands, too in the recent past) by using the power of a public option. Which affects, of course the price of healthcare.
The Swiss authorities refuse to change their method of determining prices and we are paying the higher insurance premiums.
The thing is: No public option, you pay the price!
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments.
On this date in 2003 images of the dwarf planet “Eris” were taken which was the first major object added to th solar system since 1930 when Clyde Tombaugh added Pluto to the catalog of planets in our solar system. In all 8 major trans Neptune objects have been identified.
: : : : : : : : : :
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any topic.
On this date in 1803 The United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase. The price came to about 3 cents per acre. Because the territories encompassing west of the purchase were not claimed, the expeditions of Lewis and Clark ultimately extended the extent of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Here is a portrait of our national expansion:
: : : : : : : : : :
Federal drug agents won’t pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.
After years of “compasionate conservatism” which refused to decriminalize medical marijuana on the federal level, this is a welcome change. Not only does this provide a great relief to those who need marijuana for medical purposes, but it makes great economic sense as well.
If marijuana can be sold legally, it can be taxed. And by far and large, our prisons are bursting with non-violent drug-related “criminals.” We can save a bundle by not incarcerating those who use pot for medicinal purposes, as well as those who operate the dispenseries.
One caveat: if you’re running a dispensery as a cover for a wider drug operation, the DEA will still go after you.
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any subject.
On this date in 1864 an army patrol representing the Confederacy temporarily took over the town of Saint Albans, Vermont and escaped to Canada from whence they had entered the United States.
Continue reading
A new Oklahoma law that forces women who have had abortions to post details of the procedure online is being sharply criticized
by women’s rights groups, and is now being challenged in court by two Oklahoma women.
As of November 1, doctors in Oklahoma will be compelled — under penalty of criminal prosecution — to post the details of each abortion they perform online. Among the details to be posted for every abortion is the patient’s age, marital status and race; her financial condition; her education; and the total number of her previous pregnancies.
In all, 37 personal questions will have to be asked and answered, and posted publicly for the world to see, under the new law.
“A friend said it best: It’s like undressing women in public, exposing their most personal issues on the Internet,” Lora Joyce Davis, one of the plaintiffs suing to prevent the law from coming into effect, told ABC News.
Hey, if protesting on a street corner against a legal medical procedure doesn’t stop enough abortions, then pull out the big guns and pass laws that will terrorize women into giving birth. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
The law has come under extreme criticism from social activists. The Feminists for Choice blog declares the law invalid under the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
“A major goal of the Privacy Rule is to assure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high quality health care and to protect the public’s health and well being,” blogger Reyna writes. “This law does quite the opposite. Instead of protecting patients, this law puts these [women] in danger.”
But since they had dirty, dirty sex and then tried to cover it up by having an abortion, danger is what they deserve, right?
It’s all about the blastocyst with these people. Living, breathing women are second class citizens to “potential life.” Incubators, if you will.
“Why don’t we just tattoo a Scarlett “A” on their foreheads?” blogger Mike the Mad Biologist asks at ScienceBlogs.
Don’t give ‘em any ideas, Mike…
When ever you meet someone that argues against the public option or single payer as part of health care reform, ask them this simple question, “If you lost your family’s health coverage from work, what would you do?” And then wait for their answer.
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any subject.
This week, Giles and Sue go back to Britain’s Victorian era. The time of the British Raj in India, boiled animals heads for dinner (brains, yum), Charles Darwin’s Glutton Club, super-tight corsets, curry, tinned meats (hello, Spam!), candied maggots, colorful jellies, and the newest celebration — Christmas.
Part 1 of 6 (each about 10 minutes long)
Part 2
BYOB, swim suits optional!
Rick Perry In Terrible Trouble Over Possible Execution Cover-up
Fire investigator accuses Rick Perry of ‘unethical’ behavior
They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people.
HT: ThinkProgress
Some new applications for the IPhone….
(h/t to NicolasC at DailyKos for the link)
A long, long time ago, in a college far, far away, I awkwardly sat in on one of my first dorm parties. The stereo was playing “Roundabout” by Yes. I didn’t know much about rock and roll, having grown up with parents who preferred country and western. The old country and western, with the twangy voices and such. Not today’s rock and roll-style country that the younger folks, and even some of the older folks, enjoy today. I knew I liked the song and said so to the guy next to me. He looked at me and said, “You’re normal.” Little did he know…
If I do say so myself, I prefer this version of the song to the original, because my lyrics make more sense. You can actually tell what the hell my song’s about. It’s about Fox News Channel, of course. I hope you enjoy it. (I apologize. I could not find a satisfactory video for this, but I think you all know how it goes. That would make you normal. 
)
Around To Shout
Original words and music “Roundabout” by Jon Anderson, Steve Howe
Additional lyrics by Wayne A. Schneider
They’ll be around to shout
The words will make you have your doubt
They spend the day this way
Continue reading
