…but don’t call them death panels

Posted: December 15, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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When Sarah Palin referred to death panels she was called a liar, or ignored and is still hit for it, even as the section was pulled.

When examples from England’s NIS of brought up we were told that is had nothing to do with the US.

When the mammograms recommendations came out we were told that it isn’t an example of how Government health care would work.

We were told all these things, but there is one important thing about reality, it exists whether or not you want to acknowledge it:

New York used to screen women of all ages, but this year the budget crunch has forced them to focus on those considered at highest risk and exclude women under 50. “It’s a scary thought. It really is,” said LaBarge, who fears she’s at a higher risk because her grandmother died of breast cancer.

Well that is just one state that is on the brink, it’s not like a bunch of states are doing it…oh wait:

At least 14 states cut budgets for free cancer screenings this year: Colorado, Montana, Illinois, Alabama, Minnesota, Connecticut, South Carolina, Utah, Missouri, Washington, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Arkansas.

Via Gateway and Say anything who got to it yesterday.

This story should be a whole lot bigger than it is.

Let me tell you something, if we as a society give the power of life and death to government bureaucrats, we better not be surprised when they will use it.

I must be the only Red Sox fan that I’m aware of…

Posted: December 15, 2009 by datechguy in baseball
Tags:

…that thinks this deal is simply horrible:

Lackey is one of three pitchers in the majors – joining Carlos Zambrano and Johan Santana – with at least 162 innings and a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the past five years. His numbers (102-71, 3.81 ERA, 7.2 strikeouts and 2.6 walks per nine innings) in his career with the Angels are strikingly similar to Beckett’s (106-68, 3.79, 8.5 strikeouts and 2.7 walks per nine innings).

That may be. David Pinto echos one of my thoughts when he says:

I’m somewhat surprised the Red Sox would go five years on an older pitcher, but they must be very confident of Lackey’s health.

He likes the trade, however his fenway ERA is over 5.00.

Matt Young anyone?

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Update: I’m clearly in the minority on this one.

How bad are times around here?

Posted: December 14, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, oddities
Tags: ,

Times are so hard that when I went to the supermarket I was able to find package after package of chicken feet and claws, but not a single package of boneless chicken breasts.

With people hard up more and more of the cheaper cuts are being carried in larger and larger quantities, anything to stretch a dollar.

Of course part of it is the change in demographics, as little as 5-7 years ago it would have been almost impossible to find chicken feet and claws in this neck of the woods outside a specialty store.

Oh and if you are wondering why I just didn’t go to Romano’s, they are closed on Mondays. Ironically the breasts I wanted are going to be on special this week there.

Is it important? No but just another little oddity of life.

I don’t know how long it takes to develop a TV show…

Posted: December 14, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech
Tags: , , , ,

…but all morning MSNBC has been advertising a show called 2025.

MSNBC will premiere the third episode in its four-part environmental series, “Future Earth 2025,” on Sunday, December 20th, at 10 P.M. ET. The one-hour program will focus on the most desperate—but rarely discussed—crisis currently facing our global landscape: the severe threat to our water supply due to global warming and vast population growth.

I don’t know how much money these specials cost, I don’t know how much corporate investment there has been in terms of planned cross promotion but I’ll tell you this.

If you are wondering why at least NBC/MSNBC has absolutely no intention to giving any credence to the Climategate scandal, and did the best they could to pretend it never happened, look no further than this.

This again highlights the importance of Sarah Palin. The Palin Gore exchange forced media such as MSNBC to at least acknowledge the controversy.

But be warned oh news readers and hosts, et/al who push this stuff with grim sincerity: When this finishes blowing up and those who are trying to live the good life by scamming taxpayers worldwide with the audacity of Nigerian e-mailers fall (and they will)

…your credibility will be falling with them.

After all the story you won’t cover and the stuff you won’t read are only a few clicks away. They will happily take the traffic and your lost credibility.

When you can explain it in a 60 second clip than anyone can understand the game is up.

Meanwhile in Copenhagen…

The Copenhagen climate talks hit trouble tonight as a number of African countries indicated their leaders would refuse to take part in the final summit unless significant progress was made in the next three days.

The showdown between rich and poor countries came as ministers began arriving in Copenhagen to take over negotiations. However, negotiators failed to reach agreement in key areas such as emission cuts, long-term finance and when poor countries should start to reduce emissions.

The pie has shrunk so there is less to pay off 3rd world nations to go along. What a shame.

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