Something weird is going on between my del.icio.us account and my blog. I'm getting lots of updates from del.icio.us each day when it's only supposed to update once per day. Not sure what the issue is, but sorry for the weirdness of late. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
"For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.
Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."
"It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."
Virginia Foxx just posted this on Twitter:
Will govt-run healthcare require monthly abortion premium? @GOPLeader has details: http://bit.ly/zvl8F
What's interesting to me is that when you click through to the link she references and read it there are links that would seem to be intended to prove John Boehner's assertion that a government run health plan would require all subscribers to pay "abortion premiums," but the link that should go to the reference material detailing the supposed required premium instead goes to another webpage with a quote from Boehner. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be an assertion that is very similar to the forced euthenasia crap that was being thrown around over the summer. From where I'm sitting the GOP strategy is:
Stay tuned to see if that's the case. What bugs me about this approach is that it distracts people from the "meat" of the health care debate. I have no problem with people disagreeing with each other on the fundamental issues like whether or not it is the proper role of the government to provide an alternative to private health insurance, whether or not there should be programs like Medicare and Medicaid, etc. I do, however, have a very big problem with people using deceptive tactics like these to try and defeat a bill rather than arguing about it on its merits.
BTW, convenient timing of this release, what with the Tea Party event on the Hill today wouldn't you say?
"For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.
Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."
"It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."
For some reason I've been in a great mood today despite coming across a litany of not-so-positive economic news. To wit:
And 50 percent said they anticipate a rebound in 2010, which is down from 66 percent in the survey taken in the third quarter."
The Foundation Center, a New York City organization supported by nearly 550 foundations, also predicts that foundation giving will decrease even more in 2010."
Only 40 percent believe the U.S. economy will improve by the first quarter of 2010, compared to 49 percent of financial officers across all industry sectors. The majority of bankers, about 53 percent, expect the economy to come out of the recession in the second half of 2010.
What the hell, we're all gonna die eventually anyway. As the song says, "don't worry, be happy!"
"For decades, doctors described cases of a rare neurological condition that usually occurred in patients over age 50. Neurologists noted that patients knew their identities, but couldn't retain recent memory, where they were and how they got there. They showed no other symptoms.
Sex is one of the major triggers for the baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their ability to retain immediate memory."
"It is not a positive to be an incumbent right now. And that's a good thing because the track record of our government sucks. I hope the anti incumbent mood continues to be honest. We could use a good house cleaning throughout our government."
Fec linked to the AP Economic Stress Index and he apparently heard about it from a commenter. The index is very interesting, and according to it Guilford County (12.56) is slightly more stressed than Forsyth (11.02). FYI, 100 indicates maximum stress. In October 2007 the Guilford number was 5.52 and Forsyth's was 5.64, but I don't think anyone would be shocked to learn that we're more than twice as stressed as we were two years ago.
Of course it's all relative. 12.56 is a walk in the park compared to these places:
So maybe health care reform is just a decoy:
But other issues that once consumed Congress are now sailing into law, often without much public notice. Senior White House political adviser David Axelrod said his opponents in Congress are absorbed with defeating Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul, what he calls "the shiny object that they've chased." As a result, he contends, other measures have been left to pass into law.
Earlier in the article:
Last week, Mr. Obama signed defense-policy legislation that included an unrelated measure widening federal hate-crimes laws to cover sexual orientation and gender identification — 12 years after it was first introduced. The same legislation also tightened the rules of admissible evidence for military commissions, an issue that consumed Congress in debate in 2007 but received almost no attention this go-round.
Other new measures signed into law since the administration took office, all of which kicked up controversy in past congresses, make it easier for women to sue for equal pay, set aside land in the West from development, give the government the power to regulate tobacco and raise tobacco taxes to expand health insurance for children. Congress and the White House, in the new defense-policy bill, also killed weapons programs that have survived earlier attempts at termination, among them, the F-22 fighter jet, the VH-71 presidential helicopter and the Army's Future Combat System.
I've been meaning to write about the local newspaper for the last couple of months, but I'm just now getting to it. Anyone who's read this blog over the last few years knows that in the past I've been somewhat critical of how the newspaper has approached competing the modern information era. Well I'd like to take a moment to give them kudos for two recent changes:
I also think the Journal is trying hard with their online efforts. I'm a fan of some of their blogs, Dan Collins' in particular, and they're even trying some live online chats. Unfortunately the live chat with Mayor Joines to discuss the Dell situation seemed to have attracted about four people judging by the number of people who submitted questions (I think there were two of us) and I don't sense that many of them get a lot of active engagement.
What I'm hoping is that the paper will keep plugging away and somehow find gold in the online hills, and do it ASAP, because their print circulation is looking pretty dismal. Numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulation show the number of M-F subscribers for the six months that ended 9/30/2009 to be 67,169 and the number of Sunday subscribers to be 82,959. As those print numbers continue to plummet so will the advertising revenue derived from them, and unless it's replaced with revenue from some other function I don't think the paper will be a viable business for many more years.
Unfortunately I think the Journal gave up its greatest competitive advantage years ago when it started laying off reporters. I'm not saying that the folks at the Journal did it light heartedly or without a great deal of consideration, but those very same reporters would be the people that could create the locally focused product unique to the Journal whether in print, online, or written in chalk on the road for that matter. That content could then be packaged and sold, whether to advertisers or directly to consumers, and would hold what I consider to be the best opportunity for the Journal to survive or even thrive. Unfortunately that horse is long out of the barn and it's a little late to shut the door.
My friends, the demise of the Journal would be bad for all of us because local newspapers have traditionally been the most effective watchdog of local government and without them we'll have a vacuum to fill. Sure, we could have "citizen journalists" step in and do some of it, and local TV will do whatever it can in two minute chunks, but local newspapers offer a level of expertise that will be very difficult to replace in the short term and as we've seen recently here in Winston-Salem, even the best intentioned and most respected politicians need some looking after.
Befuddled 