The Healthcare Mash

From ReasonTV via HotAir, here's a bit of Halloween humor, The Healthcare Mash:

Tuesday Links

Some stories from today's news:

From Newsbusters, Ronan Farrow of MSNBC says that the public "craves" the "style of honesty" represented by the Clintons.  I guess that lying to a Grand Jury under oath is OK with Mr. Farrow.  Oh well, what difference does it make?  (via Breitbart's Big Hollywood)

From CBS News, Bob Schieffer, the host of Face the Nation, has won the Walter Cronkite Award.

From Life News, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has struck down a law limiting the use of a "dangerous" abortion drug.

From the Catholic News Agency, Mother Antonia Brenner, known as the "prison angel" for her decades-long prison ministry in Tijuana, Mexico, died earlier this month at age 86.

From Techspot, William C. Lowe, who led the project to create the first IBM PC, died earlier this month at age 72.

From the Mail Online, the man accused of killing the son of NFL player Adrian Petersen is free on bond.

From Politico, Senator Dick Durban (D-IL) calls for "stand your ground" laws to be "carefully reconsidered", in his opening remarks before a hearing about such laws.  Testifying at the hearing was Trayvon Martin's mother, even though Martin's death and George Zimmerman's trial defense did not involve any "stand your ground" laws.  (via Breitbart's Big Government)

From Gallup World, the Portuguese have become more disapproving of their leaders.

From Israel National News, a joint project between Hebrew University's center for Computational Geography, and the Center for Educational Technology has resulted in the first ever Hebrew language digital atlas.

Also from Israel National News, Muslim Brotherhood protesters have attempted to use "puppy bombs" at a demonstration in Tahrir Square.  (via Atlas Shrugs)

From The Telegraph, Great Britain will become the first non-Muslim country to have a sharia bond.

From Yahoo News, millions are losing their health plans because of Obamacare.  They actually ask, "Did president mislead?"

For that matter, The Daily Caller calls Obamacare "a lie from day one."

And from the past debates on Obamacare, a 2009 Republican Weekly Address by Congressman Tom Price (R-GA), which appears to include a few prescient remarks.  Brought to the attention of the Twitterverse by Leslie Carbone.  Go here if the video doesn't play.

A Bit Of History On "Citizens Of The World"

Every once in a while, we hear someone talk about being a "citizen of the world", including a certain recent presidential candidate.  I had thought that this term was a relatively recent creation, perhaps a by-product of the establishment of various international organizations, such as NATO or the UN.  However, while studying James Madison's notes on the Convention of 1787, a.k.a. the Constitutional Convention, I read this particular note, recorded by Madison on August 9th, referring to some statements made by delegate Gouverneur Morris from Pennsylvania about "citizens of the world", where he felt uncomfortable about letting them into the federal government.  If nothing else, this would show that the term has been around for a while. In this note, the pronoun "he" refers to Mr. Morris.

As to those philosophical gentlemen, those Citizens of the World as they call themselves, He owned he did not wish to see any of them in our public Councils. He would not trust them. The men who can shake off their attachments to their own Country can never love any other. These attachments are the wholesome prejudices which uphold all Governments, Admit a Frenchman into your Senate, and he will study to increase the commerce of France: an Englishman, [FN26] he will feel an equal biass in favor of that of England. It has been said that The Legislatures will not chuse foreigners, at least improper ones. There was no knowing what Legislatures would do. Some appointments made by them, proved that every thing ought to be apprehended from the cabals practised on such occasions. He mentioned the case of a foreigner who left this State in disgrace, and worked himself into an appointment from another to Congress.

According to FN26 (footnote 26), the word "and" was inserted into the transcript.

Somali Pirates Repelled By....Britney Spears?

Well, not literally Britney in person, but recordings of her music.  According to merchant navy Second Officer Rachel Owens, who regularly guides tankers through the waters off eastern Africa, "As soon as the pirates get a blast of Britney, they move on as quickly as they can."  Because music is illegal in some parts of the world, and because the pirates hate Western culture, the effectiveness of this tactic is not surprising.  But as Steven Jones, of the Security Association for the Maritime Industry surmises,  "I’d imagine using Justin Bieber would be against the Geneva Convention."  Perhaps Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus might also be useful.

Read the story at Metro News.

PC Hits Halloween

Two items, the first of which comes via Reading The Score:

At various American universities, college students have been told to avoid certain types of costumes for this coming Halloween, such as "cowboys", "Indians", "anything involving a sombrero", "white trash", "geisha", "squaw", "ghetto" or "hillbilly", for the reason that these and others might (gasp!) offend somebody.  When I was a college student, some of my male friends dressed up in female garb, and vice versa.  The whole cross-dressed bunch of them then ate dinner together at campus dining hall.  I guess that such a stunt today would be banned for fear of offending transvestites.  Meanwhile, I dressed up as a punk rocker, with the help of a gal who gave me paper clip for my ear.  This, of course, was much less painful than using a safety pin, as real punk rockers used to do back then.  In any event, read the story at The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, dancer and singer Julianne Hough caused an internet "uproar" and later apologized for her choice of Halloween costume.  She and a bunch of friends attended a party dressed as characters from the TV show Orange Is The New Black, with herself as Crazy Eyes, who is played by a black actress.  (Oops, did I just offend someone by using the suffix "-ess"?)  In doing so, Hough darkened her face and tied her hair in knots, just like the character.  In my opinion, she didn't look like a black woman, but like a white woman who has spent too much time in the tanning booth.  The one time I darkened my skin for Halloween was part of a coal miner costume.  The dark makeup was intended to imitate coal dust, not melanin.  But now, perhaps even a coal-faced miner might offend somebody.  Read the story at the New York Daily News and judge for yourself.

How Badly Will Obamacare [Bleep] You?

What are we in for with Obamacare?  The Market Ticker decided to find out the facts and figures, and they're not pretty.  For example:

First, if you're "27", the average premium is $266.20/month or $3,194.40 per year.  How many 27 year olds have an extra $3,200 to spend on this?  Remember, this is the price that virtually every uninsured 27 year old must be willing -- and able -- to cough up in order to prevent the model this system is predicated on from collapsing.

If those 27 year olds don't show up, and they won't, then the system collapses instantly.  If they do show up because the government threatens them with fines the economy collapses as $3,200 a year exceeds the average 27 year old's disposable personal income after mandatory expenses (e.g. food, shelter, etc.) Remember, there are always exceptions but these premiums are averages and over large pools of people the statistical averages are what matters -- not the ends of the barbell.

All emphases in the above quote are in the original.  Read the entire story.

Gov't Beneficiaries Outnumber Full-Time Workers

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people receiving at least one means-tested government benefit has exceeded the number of people working full-time.  In the fourth quarter of 2011, there were 108,592,000 government beneficiaries and 101,716,000 year-round full-time workers.  The latter number would exclude seasonal jobholders, regardless of their work schedules, as well as part-time workers.  Considering that this was in 2011, the numbers today are bound to be even worse - unless you think that more recipients than full-timers is a good thing.

Read the story at CNS News.

Wojtek The Soldier Bear

This is a bit of World War II history that I ran across earlier today.  At the onset of the war, the Soviet Union was allied to Nazi Germany, and in concert therewith, invaded Poland.  In doing so, the Soviets captured Polish soldiers and shipped them off to POW camps in areas such as Siberia.  After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, the latter's leadership had a change of heart and allowed the Poles to fight against the former.  The Polish soldiers were sent to Iran, where they organized themselves into the Polish Second Army Corps, with the intention of meeting the British in Mandatory Palestine, and then assisting them in the invasion of Italy.

While travelling through Iran, one unit of the Polish troops encountered a young boy who was carrying a small malnourished bear cub, bought the cub from the boy, nursed it back to health, and named it Wojtek.  Eventually, Wojtek (pronounced "VOY-tek") became the unit's unofficial mascot, learned how to smoke and drink beer, and stayed with the Polish army throughout the rest of the war, first in Palestine and then in Italy.  Afterwards, with Poland under Soviet occupation and on its way to becoming a satellite of the USSR, Wojtek and some of his human comrades were reassigned to Scotland, where he lived out his years in the Edinburgh Zoo.

The above is the abridged version.  Read the full story at Badass Of The Week.  The life of Wojtek is also recounted in this YouTube video:

Capitol Dome To Get Repairs

If you've been to Washington, D.C. during the past two years, you might have noticed that the Washington Monument was covered by scaffolding, needed to support workers repairing the damage that resulted from the 2011 earthquake.  Starting next month, on the other end of the Mall, another prominent structure will start undergoing repairs and will eventually receive a scaffold covering.  The dome of the U.S. Capitol, which is made mostly of cast iron, and has been experiencing a significant amount of deterioration, will undergo a "multi-year project" of repair work, initially estimated to cost about $59 million.

Read the story at the Washington Post.

Monday News & Links

Once again, back to the old routine.  Here's a bit of what's been going on for the last day or so:

From the Los Angeles Times, a student at Sparks (Nevada) Middle School fatally shot a teacher and wounded two other students, before apparently killing himself.

From The Sleuth Journal, a mugger in DC chooses the wrong victim, one of a select group of people who are allowed to be armed within the city.

From The Daily Caller, two armed crooks try to rob a pizza place, unaware of the policeman who just happens to be nearby.   (Warning: Graphic video footage)

From Forbes, Nokia's stock price tops $7.

From the Mail Online, something that even a critic of President Obama such as myself can applaud him for.

From Life News, a man fights to save his baby from an abortion after seeing pro-lifers at a clinic.

From the New York Times, contractors trying to fix the Obamacare website see "weeks of work" ahead of them.  (via Breitbart's The Conversation)  The Onion, however, reports that a new version is available on floppy disks.

The Blaze points out a bunch of things more popular than Obamacare (which isn't saying much).

From CNET, the number of laser pointer attacks on airplanes has increased 11-fold since 2005.

In World Net Daily, Phyllis Schlafly writes about how Common Core is affecting school curricula.

From Page Six, singer and model Rihanna tried to have an impromptu photo shoot in a mosque, and was kicked out.

From the New York Post, the FBI investigated PETA during the 1990s for a suspected plot to carry out an anthrax attack.

From Newsmax, the Tea Party movement gets some good vibes from a prominent Republican - one that you don't want to go hunting with.

And from Weird Asia News, engineers in Japan have replicated a human vocal cord.