This Is Why I Don’t Go See Groups I Rocked To When I Was Young

Not because they aren’t still worth listening to.  Because they mostly are.  Steely Dan, a group I partied to many a night, still sounds good after all these years (even if his voice is weak – but then again they were mainly a studio band so it probably always was weak and I just didn’t know), so it’s not them that makes me not want to go.

No, what keeps me from going is the knowledge that I would look as foolish trying to rock it out at my age as these old-timers do in this video.

Dignity. If you don’t have any at least fake it in public.

Hat-tip to Land of Punt, which is a quite good blog by the way.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

This is a true story* told to loving wife by her BFF this evening.  The BFF being a second grade teacher who also happens to be a brunette.

A second grade teacher had recently discovered that the mothers of three children in her class were pregnant so she decided to ask the kids when they were going to be born.

The teacher asked the first little girl, Sally, and she replied, “My baby brother is coming in seven days.”   The teacher said, ” Oh, that’s wonderful Sally” and she clapped along with everyone in the class

Then the teacher asked the second girl when her new baby was arriving and the girl said, “My baby sister is coming next month.”  The teacher replied, “That’s fantastic, Cindy”  and all the class clapped again.

Finally, the teacher turned to the last child, a boy named Billy, and asked him when his baby was coming.  “My baby brother is coming in June,”  he said with a big smile on his face, “but we won’t know if he is  the chat-room man’s baby or my Daddy’s baby until then.”

Names are made up and I added some stuff, but the punchline is really what the kid said. And, yeah I know it seems like there should be something else past the “chat-room man’s baby” but who do you think I am, Bob Hope?

The Government DMV Repair Center

Commenter Raford Hoxworth was downright prophetic when he said, “If you like the DMV you’re going to LOVE national health care” on my post about, well, national health care.

Well, here’s the DMV Repair Center for your GM or Chrysler automobile.

Good times.

Ahh, I Remember The Days Before Computers

When I played World of Warcraft outdoors.  The big swords, the half-naked horny women, the black leather pants.

Good times.

Moving Towards Socialism #4

Just change Hillarycare to Barrycare.

Let’s have some government health care shall we?

Pres. Barack Obama has promised, repeatedly, that Americans who are satisfied with the health insurance they have today can keep it, even if Congress passes the sweeping reform program he favors.

But is it true?

In May 2007, then-candidate Obama issued a plan to change the way working age Americans get their health insurance. He claimed his approach would “build on” the employer-based system, but a more careful examination reveals it would actually be the demise of job-based coverage.

Under the Obama plan, employers would have a “pay or play” choice. They could either provide coverage directly to their workers (“play”), or they could pay a tax to the federal government to partially finance the coverage offered through a new “national exchange.” Workers getting insurance through the exchange would also have a choice. They could either select a private insurance offering — or enroll in a new government-run plan.

But the new, government-run insurance plan wouldn’t be just another offering. No, it would be a “game changer” in every sense. Why? Because the government can present the fees it will pay for medical services on a take or leave it basis — and doctors and hospitals have little choice but to take it, lest they get shut out of the market completely. Private insurers, on the other hand, must negotiate contracts with their networks of service suppliers. Consequently, government-run insurance almost always charges artificially low premiums based on price and other cost controls that are rightly not part of a truly private-sector marketplace.

The implications of all this certainly hasn’t been lost on single-payer advocates. They see the government-run option as a way to achieve their long-standing goal — through the backdoor.

So as bad as you think your current health care is – Blue Cross/Blue Shield or Aetna or whatever – it could change to government health care in the blink of an eye and you wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it.

Feeling all hopey-changey as I am?  How about you guys and gals who voted for him because he promised that he you could keep the health care coverage you have now?  Hows the bottom of that bus looking?   Crowded I bet what with all those people who were promised the following and yet have seen those promises tossed under that bus along with their expectations.

– End Dont’ Ask,  Dont Tell.

– Legalize pot.  (Granted, I don’t think he actually promised this, but they were so stoned they thought he did.)

– Bring home the troops.

– Close Gitmo right away.

– Get rid of the Patriot Act and all those horrible tools that evil Bush thought up and which have protected us for eight years.

– Throw lobbyists out of government.

– A middle-class tax cut.

– An ethical Administration.

And don’t worry, there are more to come.