My new piece is up at Pajamas Media: “Obama and His Enemies.”
American History 101, by Rahm Emanuel
Did you know that these are “the toughest times any president has ever faced”?
Rahm Emanuel knows. And he’s saying goodbye to all that.
I don’t know what’s more frightening: that this is what the president’s Chief of Staff for the last one and a half years actually thinks, that this may be what President Obama actually thinks, or that either or both of them thinks the public will actually buy it.
[Hat tip: Drew M. at Ace.]
Byron York: Sean Bielat has a chance
Byron York talks about Bielat’s candidacy and Barney Frank’s possible vulnerability. I hope this gets a lot more publicity—and money!
McDonald’s meets Obamacare
This is one of those fabulous unintended consequences of Obamacare:
While many restaurants don’t offer health coverage, McDonald’s provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.
Last week, a senior McDonald’s official informed the Department of Health and Human Services that the restaurant chain’s insurer won’t meet a 2011 requirement to spend at least 80% to 85% of its premium revenue on medical care.
The mini-med plans are a way for a fast-food business, which employs many young, low-earning, high-turnover employees, to offer them at least something in the way of health insurance. What the present administration and Congress seem to neither know nor care is that decisions about such things are not generally arbitrary; they are based on financial considerations and real limitations.
Businesses—unlike government—have to make a profit or they will go out of business. Likewise, insurance companies, which are a type of business. Most business people are not evildoers out to screw their employees, although such types certainly do exist. But to merely declare a rule should be implemented is not the same as to make it possible for a business to implement it without losing a significant amount of money. And businesses are not in the business of committing suicide.
Aetna, the company that writes the policies for McDonald’s and many other large corporations (such as Home Depot and Staples) that offer similar deals, has declined to comment. But this guy has something to say:
“There is not any issuer of limited benefit coverage that could meet the enhanced MLR standards,” said Neil Trautwein, a vice president at the National Retail Federation, using the abbreviation for medical loss ratio.
Ah, but Obamacare will take up the slack, right? Wait; not so fast. Because of the delayed-action effect of the HCR bill, designed to allow the CBO to score it so that it could pass muster, the provisions that might do so (and that we all will pay for) won’t kick in till 2014. Till then, “workers on mini-med plans would have few affordable alternatives for coverage.”
Good going, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and company. Of course, it’s possible that McDonald’s and Aetna will get a waiver. But don’t sit on a hot stove till they do:
Federal officials say there’s no guarantee they can grant mini-med carriers a waiver. They say the answer may not come by November, when many employers require employees to sign up for the coming year’s benefits.
The government is waiting for the association of state insurance commissioners to draft recommendations. The head of the association’s health-insurance committee, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, said she doesn’t think these types of mini-med plans deserve an exemption.
[NOTE: For those who do the math and find the premiums for these mini-med plans very high compared to the benefits, that is correct. But the policies are voluntary, as far as I know. No one is holding a gun to their heads and forcing employees to take them. And for a worker who believes he/she will incur medical bills that are higher than the premiums will be, they represent a savings.]
RIP Tony Curtis
He wasn’t considered the greatest of actors, although his role in “The Defiant Ones” was highly praised in its time. He had a lot of tragedy in his life. Hungarian was his only language until the age of six. He was married six times. And in recent years, it sometimes seems as though he’s been most well-known for being the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
Now Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85. His most lasting legacy will probably be his brilliant comic turn as the cross-dressing saxophone player who romances Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder’s 1959 masterpiece “Some Like It Hot.”
I loved it when I first saw it as a child in the movie theater, and I have loved it every time I’ve seen it since then—which is many. And I am hardly alone.
Co-star Jack Lemmon may be more flamboyant and wildly manic in his obvious delight in his role. Marilyn Monroe is—well, Marilyn Monroe. But Curtis’s more understated genius is equally important, and equally wonderful. Watch him in his maiden scene, as he goes back and forth between his masculine self and his new feminine persona:
His Wiki bio says that Curtis was inspired to join the Navy in WWII after watching Cary Grant in “Destination Tokyo.” But that wasn’t the only inspiration he drew from Grant:
Spambot of the day
Helpful spambot:
spam blockers are necessity these days with constant spam coming from the internet~’,
Preach it, brother, preach it!
Political mixed marriages
The NY Times interviews some couples who find themselves in mixed marriages of the political variety.
Note that, in the marriages described in the article, it’s the woman who’s the liberal and the man who’s the conservative. This ties in with statistics showing that, ever since a transition time somewhere during the 70s or early 80s, women consistently have been more likely to vote Democrat and men Republican.
Note also how polite and tactful the conservative men in the Times article are toward their liberal spouses, and the unwarranted condescension of most of the liberal wives towards their own conservative husbands. Here are some examples of what I mean [each quote is from a different liberal woman married to a different conservative man; emphasis mine]:
“It’s his character, his emotions, his appreciation of me that are important. And he is coherent in his own way. He has legitimate reasons for all the repellent ideas he holds.” [the article regards this as humor, and perhaps it is meant to be—but it doesn’t sound all that funny to me.]
“My friends might act dogmatic or superior or try to pick a fight,” [another liberal wife] said. “And it’s frustrating because he does know a lot. I know I’m right, but he is more articulate. And he’s kind, so how can he have these political beliefs ”” he doesn’t think that global warming is man-made ”” or appreciate people that I think are dangerous?”
“I had a history of dating Republicans. I found them interesting but misguided.”
“…[H]e’s not a pocketbook Republican.”
I’ve personally known a number of marriages of the mixed political variety. Almost all of them have conformed to this Democrat-woman Republican-man pattern. Almost all of them seem to be working out pretty well.
In the olden days, the couples I knew used to laugh that they shouldn’t bother to vote because their votes always canceled each other out. Now, however, there’s a lot less laughter.
[NOTE: This post ties into my previous one.]
The liberal religion and the devils on the right
This piece by Dennis Prager is one of the best summaries of the left’s attitude towards the right, and why it is so recalcitrant to change.
It also explains why the ostracism and demonization faced by liberal to conservative “changers” such as myself from their liberal or leftist friends and family is so commonplace, and no accident.
The Pueblo killing fields
Those noble savages: maybe not so noble after all.
Victor Davis Hanson…
…is brilliant, as usual.
Sure, Nancy. Sure you will.
“I will still be Speaker in five weeks,” [Pelosi] said. “I have big confidence in my candidates. They’re excellent; they’re battle-tested. They know what they believe, and they’re doing just fine in their districts.”
This is one of those uncomfortable moments when you’re speaking to a crazy-person and they’re getting all agitated and insistent and they say, “I will be Speaker of the House. You believe me, don’t you?”
And you resort to that thing you know is just going to make them come at you with scissors, but what else can you say? “I believe that you believe that, Nancy.”
Take a fashion(?) break
Every now and then, when the world is too much with me, I hie myself to the blog Go Fug Yourself for some light distraction. There I usually find an embarrassment of riches, and today is no exception.
In fact, there are so many abominable fashion choices of the rich and semi-famous there that I’m hard-pressed to choose the worst. But, if forced, I think I’d go with this frightfully fugly frou frou from Nicole Richie:
