heart in a cage

"[If] women are being charged more for health insurance premiums, it isn’t because they are women...."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:42:07 -0600

“[If] women are being charged more for health insurance premiums, it isn’t because they are women. It’s because the fact of being a woman carries with it different health risks than the fact of being a man. This isn’t sexism afoot … it’s a matter of statistics.

When I go to the barber, the sign on the way says that a man’s haircut is $17, while a woman’s is $25. Again, this isn’t because the barbers hate women (indeed, many of them are women). It’s because the average woman’s hairstyle requires more work than the average man’s.

When we talk about protected classes, we talk in terms of basic equality of treatment … like “equal pay for equal work.” We don’t talk about equal pay for unequal work. This is a huge point. A barber can charge women more because it’s more costly to service a woman; similarly, an insurer can charge women more where it’s more costly to insure a woman. Our commitment to equality does not require that we provide services to certain classes as some kind of loss leader.”

- Jeff Miller

ptbruiser: via davereed: sciencefun.wordpress.com

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:10:14 -0600

ptbruiser:

via davereed: sciencefun.wordpress.com

Intentions and Results

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:07:23 -0600

Intentions and Results:

hilker:

“Here’s a letter that I sent on Friday to the New York Times:

Writing about health-care, Paul Krugman asserts that “conservatives … don’t want Americans to have universal coverage” (”The Defining Moment,” Oct. 30).

Among the earliest lessons that I teach my freshman economics students are (1) intentions are not results, and (2) to oppose a government program is not necessarily to object to the intentions stated by that program’s advocates.

Paul Krugman obviously teaches his students differently, for he clearly believes that (1) if government intends for Americans to have universal health coverage, then the result will be that Americans actually get universal health coverage, and (2) anyone who opposes a government program promising universal health coverage is a person who objects to Americans actually getting universal health coverage.

Mr. Krugman’s reasoning is evidence that he’s forgotten some of the most foundational lessons of economics. Pity his students.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux”

succinctly & accurately said.

[h/t devin]

"If we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs now, how can we afford to..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:03:28 -0600

“

If we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs now, how can we afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs, in addition to a new federal bureaucracy to administer a government-run medical system?

Nothing is easier for politicians than to rail against the profits of pharmaceutical companies, the pay of doctors and other things that have very little to do with the total cost of medical care, but which can arouse emotions to the point where facts don’t matter. As former Congressman Dick Armey put it, “Demagoguery beats data” in politics.

Economics and politics confront the same fundamental problem: What everyone wants adds up to more than there is. Market economies deal with this problem by confronting individuals with the costs of producing what they want, and letting those individuals make their own trade-offs when presented with prices that convey those costs. That leads to self-rationing, in the light of each individual’s own circumstances and preferences.

Politics deals with the same problem by making promises that cannot be kept, or which can be kept only by creating other problems that cannot be acknowledged when the promises are made.

”

- Thomas Sowell : The “Costs” of Medical Care: Part III - Townhall.com

[via carpe diem h/t devin]

(via hilker)

Tumblr Feature Request

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:59:50 -0600

The ability to “like” or reblog a post from the main URL without having to be on the post permalink.

Photo

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:24:09 -0600

hilker: Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light [via...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0600

hilker:

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light

[via digg]

Gorgeous.

The Way We Live Now - Going Offline in Search of Freedom - NYTimes.com

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0600

The Way We Live Now - Going Offline in Search of Freedom - NYTimes.com:

(via bellatoris)

The concluding paragraph:

I’m not wishing the Internet away. It has become so integral to my work — to my life — that I honestly can’t recall what I did without it. But it has allowed us to reflexively indulge every passing interest, to expect answers to every fleeting question, to believe that if we search long enough, surf a little further, we can hit the dry land of knowing “everything that happens” and that such knowledge is both possible and desirable. In the end, though, there is just more sea, and as alluring as we can find the perpetual pursuit of little thoughts, the net result may only be to prevent us from forming the big ones.

Yes, yes, three times yes. That, among other reasons, is why I’ve been gone for a while.

"Now, jail isn’t a certainty; depending on the infraction, fines are also an option. And, looked at..."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:39:34 -0600

“Now, jail isn’t a certainty; depending on the infraction, fines are also an option. And, looked at another way, all this really means is that the government continues to retain the authority to lock up those who don’t pay their taxes. But still, this is a stark reminder that when liberals talk about “health care as a right,” what they really mean is “health insurance as a requirement.””

- No Health Insurance? Go Directly to Jail. - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

It’s the last sentence that is astonishingly right. This debate began as a discussion of health care as a right. But the legislation winding its way through the system isn’t about that—it’s about health care as a requirement. As a mandate. As an obligation. It’s not a right to health insurance; it’s the loss of the right not to buy insurance from insurance companies.

I hate the idea of government-provided health care, but in many ways that seems preferable to the product we’re getting. Once again, the Democrats sold out their principles and managed to find something worse than what they originally promised.

(via jeffmiller)

(via bellatoris)

An entry in a contest to design a “Where the Wild Things...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:53:18 -0600

An entry in a contest to design a “Where the Wild Things Are” fort. The hi-res is worth checking out. (via theendlessroadtrip)

Memo to my local soft rock station

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:57:07 -0600

Since you so insist on broadcasting sickening, wall-to-wall Christmas music starting November 1, you have been unceremoniously deleted from the saved stations on my radio and replaced with hard rock. See you (maybe) in two months.

Word of the Day

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:07:35 -0500

Word of the Day

Content Delivery

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:09:34 -0500

I already get certain RSS feeds delivered to my email (via FeedMyInbox.com), but I have no way to have either 1) the full-content of truncated feeds or 2) random sites delivered via email, on-demand. Had I the programming chops, I would write a program that allows me to submit a URL or RSS Feed via email, the app would gather the full content of the page and deliver it back to me via email. Does anybody know how to do this? If so, please email me at sds [dot] tumblr [at] gmail [dot] com.

Photo

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:31:51 -0500

I Expect a Nobel Prize at Any Time

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:22:43 -0500

Me: My dad and I ripped out the old carpet in the basement over the last week and installed new carpet, so that room is now available for toys and playtime, etc. My wife is really, really happy about it, so that’s good. Bellatoris: That is good. Me: We also tore up the wood deck in the back, and got supplies to dig a french drain along the back of the house. Bellatoris: Yeah, draining it should probably help a lot. Do you think you’ll be able to do that before winter? Me: And then I made cookies for my grumpy neighbors, and we’re great friends now. Me: I expect a Nobel prize at any time.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-4)

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:57:08 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-10-4):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Letdown

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:12:32 -0500

Is there a worse letdown in life than thinking you are listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama, only to realize that it’s Kid Rock’s horrific ~~rip-off~~ cover?

Useless Tool

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0500

The entire purpose of the “Don’t Deliver Until ___” feature in MS Outlook is to make an email appear that it was sent at a later time. Except that Outlook doesn’t actually modify the timestamp of the email to reflect the sent time; it keeps it at the original message composition. There are many legitimate reasons why one would want to mask actual sender time, But unless the recipient assumes the mail servers prevented timely delivery, this tool doesn’t fool anybody. No thanks, Microsoft.

My son loves music and dancing, and he loves to...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0500

My son loves music and dancing, and he loves to “play” the piano. My family cracks up at this video.

Local Property Taxes, Do Thy Job!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:56:35 -0500

I dropped some DVDs in the mail at 4pm on Saturday, and Netflix sent me email confirmation of their receipt—timestamped 7:52 am Monday. Yet the public library occasionally keeps books on my card for up to two business days after I return them because apparently they are unable to scan in materials in a timely manner, which often results in unnecessary fines. All it takes is a high school kid standing with a scanner over the box of returned books to get them processed same-day. If shelving time takes longer, so be it. But if I get a book returned on the due date, I should not be charged.