Month: March 2013

Just about six more months. Until I'm eligible for Medicare. The part of the United States health care system that works the most efficiently and effectively. Because prices are regulated. I can hardly wait. Today Ezra Klein shared "21 graphs that show America's health care prices are ludicrous." For sure. It's bizarre that Congressional Republicans like Paul Ryan want to make our absurdly expensive health care system even more centered on the largely unregulated  private insurance system that is bankrupting our country. Compared to other industrialized countries we're paying way more for health care, and getting less health benefits. Conservatives…

As officials in Washington and Colorado proceed with plans to sell state-regulated marijuana, they're nervously looking over their shoulders at Attorney General Eric Holder, wondering how the Justice Department is going to handle a seeming conflict between federal law (pot is illegal) and their state laws (pot is legal). An op-ed in the Los Angeles Times does a good job of explaining why there really isn't much of a conflict between the states and the feds here. The authors should know what they're talking about. Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. Allen Hopper is criminal justice and drug…

Uh, oh. Prediction guru Nate Silver doesn't give the Oregon basketball team much of a chance at beating top seed Louisville in their Sweet 16 matchup. Odds of winning the 2013 NCAA championship are much less, .06% (in boldface). Oregon (up to 0.06 percent from 0.01 percent) Those who complained that Oregon was underseeded have plenty of evidence in the form of wins against No. 5-seeded Oklahoma State and No. 4-seeded St. Louis. However, the Ducks’ punishment from the bracket makers is not over, as they’ll have to travel across the country to face the No. 1 overall seed, Louisville; the…

I'm a cranky Democrat today. This headline in the Los Angeles Times deeply irks me: "Obama court pick withdraws, thwarted by Republicans in Senate." As does the quote from Obama I'll include in the story excerpt. Former New York state attorney Caitlin Halligan, President Obama’s choice for the U.S. Court of Appeals here, withdrew her name Friday, defeated by the Republican minority in the Senate. Halligan’s withdrawal is the latest example of how the GOP has employed the filibuster rule not only to block major legislation, but routine presidential appointments as well. The D.C. Circuit decides significant challenges to federal regulations,…

Good news: the Tea Party-inspired phobia against extending light rail to Clackamas County got some pushback from a judge who, unlike the county's newly elected right-wing commissioners, understands what "contract" means. Hopefully those commissioners now won't be so eager to spew crazy talk about voters being able to ignore legally binding agreements. Judge Deanne Darling slapped them down in a recent ruling. Clackamas County circuit Judge Deanne L. Darling ruled this week that the ballot title on an advisory light-rail measure the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners placed on the May 21 ballot is “insufficient and unfair.” Attorney and Oak…

I've got to give the Republicans credit.  Now, having written that warm-and-fuzzy sounding first line, I'm faced with figuring out what I should give them credit for. Hmmmm... I'm stumped. Is it the late night hour? Lack of caffeine?  Perhaps. But much more likely is the fact that the only recent accomplishment of the not-so-Grand Old Party is its undying commitment to unreality.  Republicans are really good at not comprehending what is real. Faced with a clear consensus about human caused global warming among 97% of the world's leading climare scientists and obvious planetary effects... Republicans say, "not happening." Faced…

False equivalency is the refuge of those who fail to understand the difference between 0 and 1. Meaning, there's a lot of different differentness between having nothing of something, and having a totality of something.  One-tenth, for example, is a lot closer to zero than nine-tenths is. Yet this is just about how I see the anti-science biases of liberals and conservatives in the United States.  Sure, liberals have some wacky notions. Many think vaccines cause disease and that genetically modified foods are poison from Monsanto. (There may be some truth in both propositions, but not much.) However, when we…

Well, a majority of Clackamas County voters decided they wanted a no-nothing Tea Party type, John Ludlow, to head up the Board of Commissioners. They're getting what they deserve: a guy who doesn't understand the meaning of "contract" -- a simple word that most people grasp.  An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.  An agreement enforceable by law. That's what Clackamas County and Tri Met have in regards to an extension of light rail to Milwaukie. But Ludlow has set the County on a collison course with a court case he is…

I accept your apologies, gun advocates. In quite a few posts on this blog, I've been stating the obvious: controlling the availability of guns produces fewer gun deaths. After all, guns kill people. People don't kill people.  (The number of bare-handed murders is hugely less than the number of murders by a gun.) But I've gotten quite a few comments from defenders of unfettered gun availability who ignore research proving my point. Hopefully a new study will come closer to convincing them that while they're free to believe what they want to, they aren't free to make up their own…