health insurance – Page 6

Don’t Make This Hard

Just about everybody thinks that Elizabeth Warren would be the absolute best qualified and most knowledgeable person to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Everybody except Timmy Geithner and the big financial institutions that got us into our current mess and stand to be regulated by the bureau, of course. After all, she might do things that are better for the hundreds of millions of us who do business with financial institutions, instead of the institutions themselves.

So it boils down to this — and by this we will know where President Obama stands. Does he nominate the best person for the job and ask the Senate to confirm Elizabeth Warren? Or does he nominate some crony who will do whatever the banksters want? And is he brave enough to commit one way or the other before November 2?

In closing: Sharron Angle is at it again; bank profits are worse than they look, which may explain why we’ve had over 100 bank failures so far this year; a real public option could save the Feds $68,000,000,000 in the next 10 years (how can they rationalize not doing it?); insurers push plans that even further limit our choices (and may put an end to all but the biggest medical practices); just a few words about Social Security; if the economy is getting better, where are the jobs and why is the White House predicting no appreciable change in unemployment until 2012?; on education reform; on cocoa (and why is this legal?); “VitaminWater” is not healthy; roughly 1 in 5 Americans suffered a significant economic loss last year, part of rising economic insecurity; but investors demand revenue growth or else!; we’re cutting back on little things; rape is just fine with 92 House Republicans, as long as it’s not white women; the middle class is vanishing, and an oligarchy is in charge; and a little science fiction.

Am I Late? To the Discussion on Sex and Health Insurance, that is

It seems that certain loonies have realized that the recently passed health insurance reform bill actually might benefit women.

To wit, people — who happen to be women by the way — who manage to get coverage in the various state pools for those who can’t get traditional insurance due to pre-existing and/or chronic conditions might — might! — have abortions that are covered by that insurance. Now the President says something to the effect of “Oh no, no that’s not right. The Feds ain’t payin for no abortions. Don’t you worry your pretty little heads, religious zealots!” Actually, says a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, yes they will be covered but if and only if it’s rape, incest, or the woman’s life are in danger (not health, but life). Now remember that the entire purpose of this pool is that the insured has health problems bad enough to keep her from getting insurance elsewhere.

Yeah, because society is really better off when we make cancer survivors and the like pay for their own damn abortions. Dirty sluts!

Elsewhere, we have rumblings that certain conservatives (who must have been out of contact with reality for the last few decades) are upset that insurance coverage for The Pill — and for that matter the screening test you need before the almighty Gynecologist will allow you access to a twelve month supply, and not a single pill more — might become standard. Or, as Amanda Marcotte helpfully simplifies it, “Conservative Groups Demand High Abortion, Teen Pregnancy Rates.”

I would like to address one particular statement from Chuck Donovan at the Heritage Foundation:

People who are insured don’t want to pay for services they don’t need or to which they have moral objections. Parents want to have a say over what’s covered and what’s not for their children.

Let’s take this to it’s logical conclusion, shall we? They want you to think that they have a moral objection to birth control (and abortion, which is prevented by birth control). The second sentence makes it clear that they object to sexually active teens having access to birth control. So he does make clear what those of us who have kept track of anti-abortion rhetoric for a while have long known: they are really against sex. Well, more accurately, any sex they aren’t having. If they are against their kids preventing pregnancy and support women people “living with the consequences of sex” as most so-called pro-life people claim they are, they must surely also be against curing any sexually transmitted diseases they may contract. After all, that syphilis or gonorrhea is a consequence of sex!

And so why should insurance pay for this? Why should it be insured when Joe Average fools around and accidentally gives Jane Average a disease she’d rather not talk about in polite company? I don’t support people cheating on their spouses! Do you?

And with that, I stumble on why research has developed no vaccine against AIDS, let alone any hope of a cure.

Well guess what? The overwhelming majority of Americans think it’s a good idea to let other Americans plan the size of their families. The overwhelming majority of Americans think that although abortion is often a tragedy, it is most often the best possible end of an even bigger tragedy. And yes, have no fear, almost everybody agrees that it is a good idea to cure people with sexually transmitted diseases.

As “reform” is implemented, let’s not allow our elected officials to forget that while the squeaky wheel may need greasing, that alone won’t get you where you need to be.

In closing: ghost ship at ground zero; Wall Street “Reform” will soon be law; notice what happens after 2001; and pictures of Kyoto. Next time, hopefully, something on the economy.

Why Your Medical Bills Go Up Next Year

And, Why Your Doctor Won’t Get a Penny of That Money

Maybe some of you recall my posting a picture taken from the 3rd floor of the Clark County Courthouse. Perhaps you wondered why I was there. I had been called to jury duty. Now that the trial that I was in the jury pool for is over — except for appeals, of course — I think I can safely comment on the case.

There were 150 of us asked to fill out a 30+ page juror questionnaire, and when I saw it I immediately thought “Oh no, they do not want me on that jury!” When I got out and called my partner to let him know I was on the way home, he asked me about what had happened. I said “I can’t comment on the case, but I think I can safely say there’s a doctor who’s a witness, it involves propofol, and it doesn’t involve Michael Jackson.” He replied “Oh no, they do not want you on that jury!”

Sure enough I was called by the court and asked not to return.

Here are the facts of the story. Dipak Desai was a doctor who came to Vegas and built an “empire” on quickie colonoscopies. It all came tumbling down a couple of years ago when a cluster of Hepatitis cases was traced to his clinic. While hepatitis is a known possible complication of colonoscopy, this was an unusual number of cases. Six cases rapidly expanded to 114 cases (and counting), with tens of thousands of people needlessly exposed to disease while getting a screening exam in the name of staying healthy. Desai himself eventually declared bankruptcy, but not before a stroke, trying to flee the country (thwarted by the local Mercedes dealership!), and much handwringing over Nevada’s malpractice insurance “reform” and the fact that he only carried the $1,000,000 per incident and $3,000,000 per year coverage required by law. A small number of cases have been settled, but there are many more cases and not enough money to go around.

Now make no mistake: there are a lot of people who are very sick because of the actions of Dr. Desai, his colleagues, and his staff. But sometimes it is just not possible to make things right. So since you can’t get blood form a turnip, some very sick people and their lawyers started looking for the deepest available pockets.

The media has made much of the fact that the clinics used “single use vials” of medication more than once and may have re-used some syringes. If that’s how the Hepatitis was transmitted, then USA Today and the CDC are right that it’s the tip of the iceberg. Except that’s not how it happened; if it were, there would be clusters of blood-borne disease around every surgical center, vaccine clinic, and med-spa in the nation.

Enter the sad but true case of Henry Chanin, who at the time he was infected worked for the Mayor’s wife at the posh Meadows School. It’s the kind of place with multi-million dollar facilities, a waiting list as long as your arm, and a near 100% college admissions rate. His lawyers alleged that it was the fault of the drug companies that made the medication in the single use vials that was to blame for his hepatitis. And, since the drug companies were specifically not allowed to blame the doctors for “misusing” the product, the jury I narrowly missed being on found in Mr. Chanin’s favor and awarded him and his wife over $5,000,000.

Here’s the problem; it wasn’t the meds. My partner put it very well back in 2008 when this was a new story:

Consider that if a clinic’s management is so cheap and careless as to cut corners over a $.05 syringe which is essentially the accusation leveled at this clinic, how much risk are they willing to put patients at? Endoscopes require cleaning and disinfection. That takes time. In a busy center, there have to be enough scopes to do the procedures and still have the downtime for the devices to allow them to be properly cleaned and disinfected.

The scopes cost thousands of dollars which is a very likely place to cut corners if it’s all about the bottom line and patient care never really enters the equation. Couple that with a high volume clinic and violations of the cleaning guidelines for the endoscopes are certain to happen.

It was very likely the endoscope, not contaminated propofol.

Using “single use vials” multiple times is almost standard for many medications, and research has been done to clear a number of drugs for use in this manner. You could clog journals with thousands of studies like this and that. Re-using the syringe is not a good idea, but the drug companies didn’t tell clinic staff to do that. I think the one biggest thing in my questionnaire that got me off that jury was the fact that Allergan send representatives to my office to teach me how to sell Botox from vials that should theoretically have been single use. Well guess what, for what those vials cost, nobody is only using them only once. And strangely enough, not a single case of hepatitis or AIDS has ever been traced to a Botox party. Disclaimer: my partner used to work for the guy who filed this suit, who also happens to be quoted extensively in the link on Dipak Desai above. Yeah, sometimes it feels like the medical community in Vegas traces back to a very small number of people who all know each other.

While nobody can give Mr. Chanin his health back, blaming a drug company for a clinic that didn’t follow the instructions and according to many sources didn’t even properly clean the apparatus they put up people’s butts will only drive up everybody’s costs: drugmaker’s costs, malpractice insurance costs, liability insurance costs, doctor’s costs for drugs and insurance both. Your insurance company? They will raise your premiums. And your doctor? His costs will go up but he won’t make an extra dime.

In Closing: Natazia?; the tax revenue case for marijuana legalization; no more French Foreign Legion for American Boys if Senator LIEberman gets his blatantly unconstitutional citizenship forfeiture bill passed but you’re still clear to join Israel’s army; corporate America passing the expensive part of health insurance reform on to you (and I said something similar when??); educators can’t count; letting states protect citizens from banks must be part of financial reform along with “too big to fail = too big to exist“; on Social Security; deregulation disaster; all just a little bit of history repeating; 30 photos that that changed the world; employment is increasing, just not nearly enough; on terrorist attacks; Yoko Ono; and Happy I Suck Less Than Yesterday Day.

Oklahoma Shitbowl

I do try to avoid unnecessary profanity, but what Oklahoma is doing is profane.

Maybe by now you have heard that any woman unfortunate enough to be pregnant in Oklahoma will find great obstacles to her care. For one thing, her doctor is allowed to lie to her about whether he has reason to believe there are fetal anomalies that will become birth defects. After all, she may decide that carrying a baby who will die soon after birth or require expensive, time monopolizing care is not something she wants to do. To some people, that makes her a “selfish slut,” but to most people that makes her “normal.”

Moreover, any woman seeking an abortion in Oklahoma will have to get an ultrasound, look at the pictures, and listen to a description of the embryo or fetus. And fill out a privacy-invading questionnaire. No exceptions for victims of rape, incest, or women who already know there is something seriously wrong with the embryo/fetus.

The ever brilliant (and very sarcastic) Digby points out how this bill will fail:

Sure the dumb bitches can’t be allowed to make their own decisions about taking on a lifetime of care or consider implications for their own health and well being. What the silly little twits don’t know won’t hurt them, right? But you’d think that the important members of society like insurance companies and employers would have a stake in something like this.

Here’s the thing. Failing to note fetal abnormalities on the ultrasound and still billing the insurance company is called fraud. Fraud, unlike medical malpractice, is a criminal offense. Do that to a patient whose care is paid for under a Federal program and it’s a federal crime with federal time. Fine, Doc can’t be sued for malpractice; he can go to prison instead.

Doc is also subject to ethics rules, and those would include telling patients the truth. Doc can lose his license if someone makes an ethics complaint with the state board of medical examiners.

If enough big employers lose enough Edna Employees to the care of severely disabled babies, they will find a way to sue doctors who hid those conditions. After all, big employers often have an entire legal department. And that would fall under general liability rather than med-mal.

So believe it or not, I think the insurance companies will provide the work-around for this. Remember that under the health insurance reform that was just passed, they can’t exclude children with pre-existing conditions. They have a vested interest in preventing severely disabled babies from being in their pool of insureds. What they will do is insist that ultrasounds be done in an independent imaging facility — not the doctor’s office or an affiliated facility — and insist that a full copy of the report be provided both to them and the mother-to-be. This will outrage obstetricians because they make good money on ultrasounds and the equipment is not cheap.

Oh well, maybe they should have objected to this bill before it became law.

In Closing Arizona Update: the smartest thing you are likely to read about illegal immigration this week; let the lawsuits begin; polls, demographics, and the future; boycotts are already underway; even some prominent Republicans think Arizona has gone too far; gee, who could have seen harassment of day laborers coming??; Hispanics vow to fight this law.

In Closing For Real This Time: Tell us what you really think about Goldman Sachs, Barry! (And why doesn’t your blog read like this? Maybe you should dictate your posts); high school graduates going to college rather than competing in the dismal job market, but does anybody really believe that 70% of the jobs that will be available in 4 years needs a college degree?; a security expert from one of the most secure airports in the world calls full-body scanners a waste of money; The Vaccine War; America doesn’t rule the world and shouldn’t be allowed to say what other nation’s product labels can include; reduce the deficit by expanding Medicare; get rid of “too big to fail”; and finally, if you are in a position to do something nice for J.P., please do.

Paging Dr. Dynasaur!

For the benefit of younger readers: Back in the old days before cell phones, there were pagers. And before that, there was the overhead paging system. Not that many years ago, it was normal to hear things like “Dr. Jones to 4B nursing station, please” on the hospital public address system.

Ok. It’s law now. It looks like the health insurance reform bill that got passed and signed into law was neither as bad as it could be nor as good as it should be. There’s some benefits, and some stuff that’s absolutely odious. However, it is only a first step. At least two crucial things are missing.

First and probably most important is a non-profit health insurance option. The law, as it stands, requires us to all buy health insurance by 2014, which forces us to do business with the very same companies that got us into this mess. The best answer to this problem by far is Alan Grayson’s Medicare-For-Anybody bill, which has 80 co-sponsors so far (click here to sign the petition to demand a vote!). Howard Dean has even endorsed Rep. Grayson at least partly as a result. You remember Howard? The doctor who became a Governor and managed to get health insurance for almost every kid in his state despite the fact that they don’t vote? This bill is revenue neutral for the Government — it won’t raise the deficit a cent because it says the premiums will be set at what it costs to provide the insurance. Bringing this thing to a vote puts the opposition in a tough spot: if Medicare is good enough for Grandma, why isn’t it good enough for me?

The other thing it needs is a program I like to call MediKids. Regular readers have heard me beat this drum before, but we have a system where most health insurance is purchased by employers. And most kids don’t have employers. The existence of an automatic enrollment health insurance program for kids under 18 (and in my ideal dream world, any full time student under 25) would help almost every family in America. It would of course have a disproportionate effect on low income families that are likely to have inadequate insurance for themselves and their kids, if they have insurance at all. Moreover, by keeping our kids healthy, it would improve schools and the quality of our future workforce. Even if there were a modest premium associated with the program like there is for Vermont’s Dr. Dynasaur program, it would be worthwhile.

In Closing: Why aren’t you in school, you lazy bastards?; stupid banker tricks; three times more Chapter 7 than Chapter 13 bankruptcies; air worship is like air guitar for shrine visits (maybe the Catholics could try this? Then it doesn’t matter if the priest is a pedophile); as fast as financial reform made it through committee, I must wonder what political favors are embedded in it; and let Mr. Otis get you high. I mean, like to the 20th floor.

Shorties Row

Follow Up on Sexting Case: Remember a while back we learned about a Pennsylvania prosecutor who decided to prosecute girls whose pictures had been taken unless they submitted to a re-education class on what it means to be a girl? A judge has ruled that the parents have the right to block the prosecution. No ruling on the fundamental Constitutional issue of not letting anybody see the evidence.

Stick a fork in the airlines, they’re done: TSA official has gone on the record that full body scans will very likely become mandatory for airline passengers, despite the fact that the scanners don’t really do half of what they would like us to think they do towards deterring — let alone preventing — terrorism. That’s over and above the health and privacy issues. Heck, if they want to strip search everybody, just be honest about it.

In Memoriam: There will be a memorial garden in honor of the pets killed by tainted food. Scroll down for information and links on how to donate.

Why do we need Health Insurance Reform to stop this crap?: Fortis (and probably other insurers that just haven’t been caught yet) has been actively trying to find ways to cancel the policies of HIV positive customers. Stopping recission and punitive cancellation should be a simple, 3-5 page bill that should have unanimous support in both houses of Congress (or else), but no! They want to pass a monster-behemoth bill that nobody has read that’s loaded with oodles of political favors.

Hey Mister, Wanna Buy a Factory?: Factory utilization is near an all time low. This means we have lots of currently unused capacity. Pair that with the current unemployment rate and it sounds like an opportunity to make some stuff and get the economy going again. Maybe you could even get a piece of that new $38,000,000,000 jobs bill to do it.

Modest, by Billionaire Standards: Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, makes do in a 5000 square foot home.

Oh, you knew I couldn’t resist giving you some obligatory Health Insurance Reform items: Susie Madrak got to interview Michael Moore, and here’s part of what he had to say. Ok, the bill is supposed to cost roughly $940,000,000,000, but it’s supposed to save $1,300,000,000,000. Did the progressives win anything here? Enh, a little. This is why buying your abortion coverage separately is a terrible idea for every woman. Well, actually it’s only one of several reasons. And thankfully, Grayson’s Medicare-for-Anybody bill is up to 75 co-sponsors. I love the fact that it’s short, and politically difficult to stand against. It gives me hope that some things can be fixed with this turd in the punchbowl of a bill after it gets passed.

Where Health Care Meets the Scandal of the Day: Senator John Ensign’s office “organized a telephone call Wednesday night to thousands of Southern Nevadans represented by Rep. Dina Titus, where he spoke out against the pending health care reform bill and urged his audience to call her about it.” A local political scientist called the move “clumsy”. Rep. Titus, if you hadn’t guessed, is a Democrat, newly elected in 2008. Now, the interesting thing about this is that today, Senator Ensign got subpoenaed by the Department of Justice. Oh, and his wife. His Chief of Staff. His political advisor. A few local businesses. Probably the local power company. And a veritable “who’s who” of local political rainmakers. And they don’t just want stacks of documents, they want people to appear before the Grand Jury at the end of the month.

No Child Left Behind: What the heck went wrong? I mean, other than “better” as a standard, and rules designed to make even good schools fail.

You mean they want the banks to pay up? Crazy Talk!: It so happens that 82 of the roughly 700 banks that got TARP funds aren’t paying the dividends they owe the Feds.

And now, a moment of Spring: how to tell if last year’s seeds are still good.

And Now We Know

It’s official. The Obama plan for health insurance reform has been released. Anybody care to take a guess what’s not in it? The public option.

And what is in it? Mandatory insurance and an excise tax on plans that cost more than $27,5oo annually. “The plan includes a provision that allows low-income people who cannot afford health insurance to receive a waiver from the mandate,” as opposed to some way to help pay for insurance, so basically it’s little better than what we have right now from the standpoint of covering the uninsured. Particularly in a recession, where states are cutting Medicaid because they have to balance the budget somehow.

Wow, Mr. President. Three strikes. As far as I am concerned, it’s outa there!

Now, to the plan’s credit, it does protect against insurance companies declining people with pre-existing conditions, but if it doesn’t regulate how much extra those people pay, say hello to the excise tax. It does regulate how much insurance companies can jack up the rates, and it does have an insurance exchange. I am unclear on how this “exchange” will be any better than websites like eHealthInsurance. It does close the Medicare prescription “donut hole”. Update: here’s a handy comparison chart; the President’s plan does prohibit rescission, which is an improvement over both House and Senate plans.

However, there is a very good likelihood that this bill will place limits on abortions. Since it’s very hard to know when an abortion will be a medical necessity, this is very shortsighted. Unless you want to be the dad who loses his wife to complications of pregnancy or the parents of a child doomed to die by his 4th birthday, this is a no-go.

In closing: secrets of the ER; credit card rules change today; on the job loss numbers; it’s not terrorism when a white guy does it, only brown people can be terrorists; even terrorists deserve a fair trial and even John Ashcroft says so; already up to 20 bank failures for 2010; and an update on the school that decided to spy on its students in their homes. They had better hope there are no outraged dads who decide that the courts are too slow for justice.

Public Option: Resurected or Zombie?

Let’s put the pieces together and see if we have something functional, or some kind of Frankenstein’s Health Insurance Reform. Americans are rightly disgusted by the thing that Congress has brought forth, mostly because it includes such odious things as mandatory coverage and taxing of “decent” health insurance plans. There is still a big health care reform “summit” next week, which is looking more and more like a circus the closer it gets. Health insurance premiums are continuing to rise steeply, and health insurance company profits are rising too, even though they managed to increase “political giving” — that’s legal bribes — 14% in 2009. Add the fact that more Americans are depending on Medicaid, while there is less money for the states to cover them.

Gee, no wonder Americans are disgusted by the idea of mandatory coverage and taxing plans that the tax code decrees too expensive.

Amid this backdrop, the President has finally announced that he will throw an official, Presidential seal of approval health insurance reform bill into the mix, and is planning on stapling it to a budget bill so it can’t be filibustered. He’s even indicated that he’s willing to back a public option — but only if Senator Reid will jump with him. Harry’s in a tough re-election race this fall, and could really use something to bring his polling numbers up. Ah, the real reason for his Nevada visit is out — it’s certainly not because the President feels he owes the Mayor a martini.

Perhaps the feds should start by killing two birds with one stone. If they fully fund Medicaid, the states will have an easier time making their budgets balance and all those extra people on the rolls (see above) will be proof that a public option can work!

But what about this new public option that might be under consideration? We don’t have any real details, so it’s hard to support it. Is it going to be a decent plan? Is it going to be cost competitive with the for-profit insurance companies or will it be a higher priced insurer of last resort? Is it going to have gutted provisions for women’s health so as not to offend the far religious right? Is it going to be available to all Americans, or only to a small percentage of us? Is it going to be saddled with triggers and means tests and all sorts of other crap that will cripple it?

In short, is it some variant of Medicare For All, or is it just another favor for insurance companies?

If this is the real deal — a resurrected public option — I will preach the gospel for it. But beware, if it is a zombie, I will be ready with my blogging boomstick to blow its head off.

In Closing: Getting ahead at the office and getting head at the office are mutually exclusive (I love the story of what was found in a certain executive’s office); a great t-shirt; there has to be some balance between what the community thinks education should be and what the educators think education should be; Japan has overtaken China as America’s biggest creditor; more people trying to ditch “too big to fail” institutions; Dude, where’s my stimulus funds?; class, race, and the War on (some) Drugs; TrueMajority; “Rich people create jobs, all we have to do is cut their taxes enough”? Might just as well wait for Santa to put one in your stocking; if this is true, the dumbest school administrators in the nation thought it would be a good idea to spy on students in their homes using the webcams in their school issued notebook computers; Catholic Charities has decided that politics is more important than that “helping the poor and the sick” crap that Jesus was on about (one more reason my charitable giving is secular whenever possible); and why people pirate DVDs.

The Water Bottle Saga

Last summer, we made some changes in our exercise routine, such that for the first time it made sense to actually consume some sort of “recovery drink.” A simple glass of water — or refilling one of those water bottles you get at the convenience store — was no longer going to cut it. My requirements for such a bottle included the following:

BPA free.
Dishwasher safe!
No stupid gasket that really should be removed for cleaning or it will get gross, but won’t really fit back in correctly should you manage to pry it out of there.
Mouth of bottle must be big enough to fit ice cubes, preferably from the door dispenser on the freezer rather than having to shove them through individually.
Must be easy to drink from quickly.
Must hold roughly a quart or liter of fluid (I won’t quibble over the small difference between the two sizes)
Must not be prone to leaking.
Must be translucent.

Why translucent, you may ask? We mix our own recovery formula so we can not only control the number of calories involved (here’s the nutrition panel for Gatorade dust; I can choose to make a “weaker” version). We can add a small quantity of glutamine to the mix, something even Gatorade’s scientists admit may be helpful [Update: here’s what we do and why]. If you can’t see through the bottle, you can’t know if it’s shaken enough. For that matter if you can’t see the insides, how the heck do you know it’s really clean?

So this seems to me like a reasonable enough list. I think most people would agree that these are good things to have out of a water bottle for sport/exercise use. Things like “using recycled materials” and other buzzwords are nice, but not if the product can’t do the basic job.

So then consider this list of “best” reusable bottles from HuffPo. What I see here are a lot of bottles you can’t see through, many of which have teeny necks that you have to manually force an ice cube through, and a lot of bottles that you have to completely remove the lid to have a drink. When you only have a 30 second break for hydration, that just won’t cut it. I actually went to REI (why do I bother, they never have what I need) to look at their selection. It was almost exclusively Nalgene and Camelbak products, and not a darn thing that met all my criteria. For what those products cost, I will not settle for “almost.”

As a stopgap — the bottle I had been using had developed a leak around the base of the drinking spout — I found a Rubbermaid bottle that was clear, dishwasher safe, and best of all cheap. However, it was prone to tipping and did have a gasket in the lid. Moreover, that opening looks pretty wide, but it’s a couple millimeters too narrow to avoid spraying ice cubes all over the kitchen. That’s just something you can’t tell in the store.

Yesterday I happened to be in a supplement store when I stumbled across something called the Blender Bottle. While this thing was really designed for some of the heavier protein mixers and such, it fit what I needed perfectly. The little spring thingy is really kind of optional when we’re talking about something as light as Gatorade. The mouth is wide, the spout generous and easily operated, no gaskets, dishwasher safe, even heat safe. So far so good on this thing.

In closing: on the national debt; here‘s obligatory health insurance reform links; the next incarnation of the iconic 747 flies; more reason to like Alan Grayson; the real filibuster-proof majority; the Social Security “reform” idea that just wouldn’t die; and two items on the changing face of employment. What a shame that someone doesn’t get that women are holding their jobs specifically because they often get paid less for the same work!

I can’t believe he said that.

By now I think everyone knows that Haiti had a truly horrible earthquake. Perhaps you have also heard that Pat Robertson said it’s their own damn fault.

How’s that? Did they have substandard building codes that led to needless deaths? Perhaps they didn’t heed some geologist’s warning? Perhaps corruption prevented people from reaching assistance?

No, they “deserved” this earthquake, this unimaginable destruction, because they allegedly made a pact with the Devil in 1804 to obtain their liberation from France.

Now, just so there is no confusion here, I do not want anything to do with a deity who kills innocent children because of something their forebears allegedly did 205 years ago! Maybe such a wild tale would be credible if this earthquake happened in 1805, maybe even 1810. But we are talking about divine retribution for rumored events of over 2 centuries ago. It seems to me an omnipotent God could have arranged a more timely comeuppance. After all, He destroyed Sodom within hours of confirming that the natives would rather gang-rape a couple of visiting men than a pair of underage virgins.

But here is my question. Where is the outrage from Christians?

Back in 2001, moderate Islam figures were encouraged to denounce the kind of extremist thoughts and behaviors that led to 9/11. Why aren’t we demanding that moderate Christian leaders denounce Pat Robertson as the lunatic he is? Can’t the United Methodists make a statement more official than a blog post? Can the Southern Baptist Conference do more than ask for money? Where is the outrage from the Episcopals? Whither the Church of England? Has the Greek Orthodox Church nothing to say? Christian Scientitsts? The Mormons? The Lutherans? How can the Pope remain silent about this inflammatory and theologically dubious rambling?

While I see much talk of help for the people of Haiti — which is both very Christian and very much needed — there is near silence of the issue of Mr. Robertson.

At least the Ambassador from Haiti has his head screwed on straight.

In closing: paid to be stupid; Americans are stupid part 2, many of us think airport security should involve profiling (I guess nobody remembers that Tim McVeigh was a white guy); conservatives and trade policy; real unemployment needs real solutions; with the money they spent on negative ads, the insurance companies could have provided health insurance to 3000 families; Junk Insurance Tax; a picture worth a thousand words on checked baggage fees (between the airlines and the TSA are they actively trying to get me to avoid flying??).