kpete
kpete's Journal“Contrary to common opinion in the USA, war is not inevitable" - “What’s more, war is obsolete"
Ann Jones’ new book, They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars — The Untold Story, is devastating, and almost incomprehensibly so when one considers that virtually all of the death and destruction in U.S. wars is on the other side. Statistically, what happens to U.S. troops is almost nothing. In human terms, it’s overwhelming.
“Contrary to common opinion in the United States, war is not inevitable. Nor has it always been with us. War is a human invention — an organized, deliberate action of an anti-social kind — and in the long span of human life on Earth, a fairly recent one. For more than 99 percent of the time that humans have lived on this planet, most of them have never made war. Many languages don’t even have a word for it. Turn off CNN and read anthropology. You’ll see.
“What’s more, war is obsolete. Most nations don’t make war anymore, except when coerced by the United States to join some spurious ‘coalition.’ The earth is so small, and our time here so short. No other nation on the planet makes war as often, as long, as forcefully, as expensively, as destructively, as wastefully, as senselessly, or as unsuccessfully as the United States. No other nation makes war its business.”
the rest:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/got-his-gun-lost-his-legs-arms-penis.html
RIP: Lou Reed
Lou Reed, Velvet Underground Leader and Rock Pioneer, Dead at 71
New York legend, who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, underwent a liver transplant in May
By JON DOLAN
October 27, 2013 12:38 PM ET
Lou Reed, a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music, died today. The cause of his death has not yet been released, but Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.
With the Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry. As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. "One chord is fine," he once said, alluding to his bare-bones guitar style. "Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed was born in Brooklyn, in 1942. A fan of doo-wop and early rock & roll (he movingly inducted Dion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989), Reed also took formative inspiration during his studies at Syracuse University with the poet Delmore Schwartz. After college, he worked a staff songwriter for the novelty label Pickwick Records (where he had a minor hit in 1964 with a dance-song parody called "The Ostrich"
. In the mid-Sixties, Reed befriended Welsh musician John Cale, a classically trained violist who had performed with groundbreaking minimalist composer La Monte Young. Reed and Cale formed a band called the Primitives, then changed their name to the Warlocks. After meeting guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, they became the Velvet Underground. With a stark sound and ominous look, the band caught the attention of Andy Warhol, who incorporated the Velvets into his Exploding Plastic Inevitable. "Andy would show his movies on us," Reed said. "We wore black so you could see the movie. But we were all wearing black anyway."
Look back at Lou Reed's remarkable career in photos:
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lou-reed-velvet-underground-leader-and-rock-pioneer-dead-at-71-20131027#ixzz2iwcje4q9
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
I, for one, am going to listen to The Velvet Underground
ALL DAY LONE!!!
kp
Sebelius: 4.2 Million+ Have Initiated ACA Accounts --- Game over, Goposaurs.
Game over, Goposaurs - your sado-nihilist B.S. has failed catastrophically. The ACA only needs 7 million people to sign up in the first six months for it to be financially viable, and in less than a month, more than half that number have already started the process.Sebelius: 4.2 Million+ Have Initiated ACA Accounts
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius posted a blog on Saturday with updated Obamacare sign-up stats and a description of a part of the ACA computer infrastructure that is in fact running quite smoothly - the Data Services Hub. Apparently it's pinging like a mofo. From Secretary Sebelius' post on HHS.gov :
The Social Security Administration has reported 4.2 million transactions involving individuals or households who have elected to establish an account. The current overall verification rate for Social Security numbers is 96%. With respect to those we’re unable to verify, consumers are notified online with instructions for resolving their verification issues. The highest numbers of transactions continues to involve individuals and households in the following states: Pennsylvania (323,000), New York (310,000), California (290,000), West Virginia (240,000), and Washington (135,000).
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has received and responded to more than 1.3 million requests for historical household income and family size tax data from the hub. The number of requests received does not reflect the number of people about whom the requests were made (i.e., a single request can involve everyone in a household). Thus, the number of individuals about whom the requests were made could be higher than 1.3 million. The IRS has provided data responses electronically via the hub in “near-real” time (average actual response time is 0.37 seconds).
The IRS also offers an advance premium tax credit computation service, which is optional for state Marketplaces. If a Marketplace chooses to use the IRS service, it sends a few data points, without identifying the applicant, and the IRS provides a math result in response. More than 330,000 requests have been received for the computation service with an average actual response time of 0.21 seconds.
States are reporting that they are satisfied with the hub’s performance. The technology program manager for Kentucky’s Marketplace said recently that 92% of applicants have been successfully verified through the hub: “We’re overjoyed with that 92 percent. I don’t know that we thought it would be that high of a success rate.” Connecticut has also reported few problems with the hub.
Bottom Line:
The Hub is a 21st century way to assess eligibility for coverage and premium assistance, and it’s working for residents of all 50 states and DC. We’ll continue to monitor and optimize its performance. And we won’t stop working 24/7 until the doors of HealthCare.gov are wide open. If you need health coverage, it’s our mission to be sure these tools are here for you, running smoothly. The Hub is on the job, and so are we.
http://www.hhs.gov/digitalstrategy/blog/2013/10/marketplace-data-services-hub.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/27/1250980/-Sebelius-4-2-Million-Have-Initiated-ACA-Accounts
Sarah Palin Claims Global Warming Will ‘Bring Back the Dinosaurs’
Sarah Palin said today that concern over global warming is overblown because returning the climate to its state millions of years ago will allow dinosaurs to make a comeback.
In an interview with Fox News, the former Alaska governor admitted that climate change will hurt some plants and animals but argued that it will also provide an opportunity for ancient, warm-weather species to thrive.
"I've been hearing all this hootin' and hollarin' from the liberals about how CO2 is going up to levels we haven't seen in 5 million years," Palin told Fox and Friends' host Gretchen Carlson. "But the truth is, life was pretty good millions of years ago.
"There were plenty of plants and animals back then, and they did just fine in the heat. And as Earth starts to warm up, all our old friends will start coming back. The polar bears might die off, but think of all the dinosaurs we're gonna get!
...........................
http://dailycurrant.com/2013/06/26/sarah-palin-claims-global-warming-will-bring-back-the-dinosaurs/?fb_action_ids=10201664391645134&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B612468325441196%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
apparently: SATIRE - i was fooled again...kp
I would carry the Congresscritters & President who got us these solutions across a river of acid...
PhoenixRising says:
October 27, 2013 at 10:48 am
If you’ll post it, I’ll make the time to write it:
I have melanoma, the cancer that lurks. I’m now on a followup schedule that continues until I die of something else or the lurking semi-solid cells that are statistically likely to be somewhere in my body hit a switch and start to multiply again.
Our business has never been big enough to offer insurance–we knew from 1994 that plans to cover fewer than 50 people wouldn’t pay out or would take the premiums and run if we ever made a claim, so we didn’t bother to offer our people the option to make Blue Cross richer in order to feel better before they were sick.
Two critical points:
-In the past 4 weeks, I have received 5 resumes from exactly the kind of people we would like to hire more of. All say they’ll be available around the 1st of the year. Demographically they’re very different from the resumes I’ve seen over 15 years in this business. They’re younger and looking for fewer hours doing something they already know is hard in ways they enjoy. They can afford to leave Big Ugly Death Star Corp. because they can buy health insurance.
-I was diagnosed in Sept. 2011. Because my state had already implemented the part of the ACA that requires insurance companies to continue policies at similar rates EVEN IF the individuals on them make claims–not something we expected after our earlier experience–I’m still insured. We’re going to buy an exchange plan that puts our family on one deductible and OOP max, for the first time ever, next week.
The technical issue we discovered with the web site was after applying: whoever coded the citizenship for adopted people section of the eligibility database chose the wrong field type for the only way our government has to verify my kid’s here legally. So we have to talk to a manager with superpowers before we can choose among the 57 (!) options to get our family covered.
As a parent, a spouse and a small business owner, I would carry the Congresscritters and President who got us these solutions across a river of acid on my back to keep them.
Must be nice to be so rich and healthy that you just don’t get how minor the bugs in the app are.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/27/perspective-2/#comment-4686037
Because Mere Blackface Wasn't Offensive Enough For These Partiers
Today's REALLY? Halloween costume comes to us from a tipster by way of Quincy, MA where some brainiacs decided to slap on some blackface and dress up as George Zimmerman shooting a bloody Trayvon Martin.
The pictures are just starting to circulate online, and the girl who posted the photo has already deactivated her Facebook account and deleted her Instagram photos. The men in the photograph, on the other hand, are still active on social media. Until this morning, the man dressed as George Zimmerman had set it as his profile photo; he changed it and locked his photos sometime overnight.
None of the three pictured have made a public comment about the photo yet.
It's not clear if the woman's costume was intended to be part of the joke; but her costume is sold online as "Robyn da Hood".
MORE:
http://gawker.com/mere-blackface-wasnt-offensive-enough-for-these-partie-1452924995
Perspective from 2009
Perspective
Posted by Kay at 10:26 am
Oct
27
2013
This is from 2009:
They came for new teeth mostly, but also for blood pressure checks, mammograms, immunizations and acupuncture for pain. Neighboring South Los Angeles is a place where health care is scarce, and so when it was offered nearby, word got around.
For the second day in a row, thousands of people lined up on Wednesday — starting after midnight and snaking into the early hours — for free dental, medical and vision services, courtesy of a nonprofit group that more typically provides mobile health care for the rural poor.
Like a giant MASH unit, the floor of the Forum, the arena where Madonna once played four sold-out shows, housed aisle upon aisle of dental chairs, where drilling, cleaning and extracting took place in the open. A few cushions were duct-taped to a folding table in a coat closet, an examining room where Dr. Eugene Taw, a volunteer, saw patients.
When Remote Area Medical, the Tennessee-based organization running the event, decided to try its hand at large urban medical services, its principals thought Los Angeles would be a good place to start. But they were far from prepared for the outpouring of need. Set up for eight days of care, the group was already overwhelmed on the first day after allowing 1,500 people through the door, nearly 500 of whom had still not been served by day’s end and had to return in the wee hours Wednesday morning.
The enormous response to the free care was a stark corollary to the hundreds of Americans who have filled town-hall-style meetings throughout the country, angrily expressing their fear of the Obama administration’s proposed changes to the nation’s health care system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/13clinic.html?_r=0
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/27/perspective-2/
Dear Republicans: If You Want To Help The Economy-Support Immigration Reform NOT Government Shutdown
Dear Republicans: it’s pretty simple. If you want to help the economy, you will support immigration reform and not shutting down the government. Get it?
http://feministing.com/2013/10/25/daily-feminist-cheat-sheet-199/
Krugman asks: So does this mean that liberals should have insisted on single-payer or nothing?
So does this mean that liberals should have insisted on single-payer or nothing? No. Single-payer wasn’t going to happen — partly because of the insurance lobby’s power, partly because voters wouldn’t have gone for a system that took away their existing coverage and replaced it with the unknown. Yes, Obamacare is a somewhat awkward kludge, but if that’s what it took to cover the uninsured, so be it.
And although the botched rollout is infuriating — count me among those who believe that liberals best serve their own cause by admitting that, not trying to cover for the botch — the odds remain high that this will work, and make America a much better place.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/why-is-obamacare-complicated/?_r=0&gwh=9092E8A04713043928C2B440E95585A9
OMG TECH PROBLEMS CAN NEVER BE FIXED WE ARE DOOOOOOOMED.
Oh Jesus Fucking Christ
Posted by John Cole at 11:47 pm
I get it. The website for 40 million previously uninsured people who are now, because of the ACA, going to get healthcare coverage, sucked.
I just watched the SNL opening skit mocking Sebelius and ACA, and the only thing I could think was thank fucking ALLAH that Social Security and Medicaid were rolled out in the pre-internet days.
Think about it, you fucking jackasses at the Wonkblog and you other alleged liberals. All the programs you claim to love, like SS, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. At this point in the rollout for these programs 50, 60, and 70 years ago, the mail would just be reaching the respective offices. Problems people are experiencing today would not even be noticed for four months in those days, yet people still participated, just as people are right now.
Ask someone who has actually struggled to get healthcare and now can, and wasn’t really put off by a couple hour wait to finally get coverage:
There are a few glaring omissions in the coverage of Obamacare’s shaky rollout. For the most part, those covering the problems are insured themselves and consequently greatly underestimate the patience of a chronically uninsured person who has been counting down the days until Obamacare began so they could have a little peace of mind that if they got sick they wouldn’t be staring down bankruptcy.
***
The website problems are being fixed–the New York exchange that I am using to compare plans is working just fine as of this morning–and the Obama administration has promised to work on the glitches to ensure that Americans who will likely wait until the last minute to sign up will have a working website. Enrollment lasts until February 15th and the coverage begins January 1st. While the early website issues are frustrating, they by no means indicate that the program as a whole has failed.
And unless you are a journalist who has been chronically uninsured, your feigned frustration about website issues reeks of privilege. To me, a few website glitches are a lot less frustrating than having to use the same inhaler for over a year because I can’t afford to go the doctor. Perspective is everything.
That’s Zerlina Maxwell, one of the nicest people I have ever met, who has spent the last week being insulted by people for refusing to fall over into the vapors over the new website and actually explaining how important this new legislation was for her.
MORE:
http://feministing.com/2013/10/24/dear-journalists-your-privilege-is-clouding-your-perspective-on-obamacare-website-glitches/
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/26/oh-jesus-fucking-christ-2/
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