“Arizona lawmakers gave final approval on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 to a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to customers when such work would violate their religious beliefs, in a move critics describe as a license to discriminate against gays and others,” according to Reuters. First of all, I would never try to give my money to someone who…
Congressional Budget Office and the Minimum Wage
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a report regarding the possible impact of raising the minimum wage on employment. In its report, the CBO also concluded that job losses “could be higher or lower” than the 500,000 number cited in the headline. The keyword in the headline and sprinkled throughout the CBO report is “could.” Tomorrow 10 million people…
Congressional Inaction and Low Poll Ratings
With polls indicating that Congressional approval ratings were in the single digits in early December 2013, it would likely help Speaker Boehner to understand that preventing development of regulation and blocking the President’s agenda, which the majority of Americans support, are not accomplishments. Preventing things from happening is not action, it’s inaction. And inaction is not what the American people…
Congressional Inaction
With polls indicating that Congressional approval ratings are in the single digits, it would help Speaker Boehner to understand that preventing development of regulation and blocking the President’s agenda, which the majority of Americans support, are not accomplishments. Preventing things from happening is not action, it’s inaction. And inaction is not what the American people pay him and his colleagues…
“As Hospital Prices Soar, a Stitch Tops $500”
This New York Times article, part of a series, helps illustrate, in my humble opinion, why people need insurance, why the United States needs the ACA, and why people who insist, “We should repeal the ACA and not do anything differently in the United States healthcare industry because everything is great” are simply wrong.
A Republican Ransom Note
The New York Times, on Thursday, September 26, wrote an excellent editorial on the ridiculous Republican demands.
Unnecessary Anti-Abortion Law in Texas
It is too bad that the Texas legislature is implementing laws regulating abortion providers that are not necessary: “Rep. Jody Laubenberg, insisted the bill is intended “to protect the health and safety of every woman who undergoes an abortion.” Under questioning from Rep. Jessica Farrar, she refused to answer whether the state had data to show that women need the…
Relaxation TV in Norway?
Although some might call this a new form of "reality television,"maybe it is actually a new way for people to relax. Not unlike watching a fire in a fireplace, perhaps? From the Wall Street Journal: "A Different Take on Reality TV: 18 Hours of Swimming Salmon"
Intelligence and Humanity
I like this quote on human intelligence and our humanity, from Adam Gopnik. “Yet human intelligence has another force, too: the sense of urgency that gives human smarts their drive. Perhaps our intelligence is not just ended by our mortality; to a great degree, it is our mortality.” ― Adam Gopnik
The Keystone XL Pipeline — “Great Idea!”
There are several hurdles that oil companies in Canada have to overcome in order to build pipelines from the source of tar sands oil in Alberta, Canada, to either Canada’s eastern or western coast, where it could be refined, sold and exported to Asia, Europe and elsewhere around the world. From a New York Times article, “Indigenous groups must be…