Mob Deep

Op-Ed Columnist – The Town Hall Mob – NYTimes.com:

“That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the ‘birther’ movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.
And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.
Does this sound familiar? It should: it’s a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.”

(Via NY Times.)

Yeah, it’s Southern Strategy remixed. The fact that people on Medicare don’t want “government-run healthcare” exemplifies the ignorance and plain stupidity of these people.

Why 2009 is like 1984

Daring Fireball:

“Apple censored an English dictionary.
A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.”

(Via Daring Fireball.)

This is completely shocking and disgusting from a company that I am a huge fan of.
The problem is there seems to be nothing that really can be done. Apple is in full control. Customers are oblivious to the problem. All they see is the censored dictionary. Developers have few levers on Apple. If they don’t play along, they have no alternatives. Apple control the entire game from start to finish. This is what happens when one party has too much control. It’s abused.
To be fair, this probably the product of a boneheaded approval process rather than some dystopian plot to control our minds, but still. I feel like it’s Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, pun intended.

Martin Lawrence on the Cops

YouTube – Martin Lawrence stand up 6:

““

(Via YouTub.)

If you listen from 1:00 to about 3:30, you get an apropos discussion on today’s brouhaha. Note: this is circa 1995. (WARNING: NSFW!)

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Will Cops And Black People Ever Get Along?

Will Cops And Black People Ever Get Along? « The Michael Eric Dyson Show:

“Are the perceptions that have been heard about the relationships between cops and black men really as tense as projected or  nothing more than big misinterpretations?”

(Via The Michael Eric Dyson Show.)

I would say things have been always tense. When one has to fear for his life, that’s not a calm and cool situation. That said, it was an interesting show.

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The Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest: When Race Matters – TIME

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest: When Race Matters – TIME:

“Obama, in all likelihood, has had similar experiences with the police, exchanges in which he was left with the impression that his Ivy League pedigree could take him only so far. And so it’s unfortunate that he felt unable to continue to express what he truly felt. He was forced to revise and turn what was an objectively true statement — that it’s stupid to arrest a man in his own house for being rude — into a vague ‘teachable moment’ [emphasis mine] about nothing particular…
This is deflating. If the rest of the country is too immature for some straight talk about the relationship between blacks and the police, delivered by our most accomplished and temperate diplomats, then the prospects for a broader dialogue about race are not good.”

(Via TIME Magazine.)

Exactly. With all of the defenses I’ve heard for Crowley, not one addresses the fact that they arrested a man in his own home for essentially being rude. All those small government, losing freedom folks said nothing about this. This is the central argument for black folks accurate or not: That Gates’ race made this kind of violation sanctioned in our society. Crowley’s defenders simply prove that fear right.

AppleInsider | Steve Ballmer calls Apple’s Mac growth a “rounding error”

AppleInsider | Steve Ballmer calls Apple’s Mac growth a “rounding error”:

“‘And are the ads working?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘In an independent survey, we asked 18- to 24-year-olds—or they were asked, ‘Who offers the best value, Apple or Microsoft?’ You can kind of see Apple was comfortably ahead despite the fact they — well, despite whatever the facts are. Our ads started in April of ’09. You can see kind of what the perception changes have been so far.'”

(Via AppleInsider.)

And that’s when you know Microsoft is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. Apple is beating them despite the ads. In other words, people don’t believe the hype.

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I’m with Stupid

The 10 Dumbest Arguments Against Health-Care Reform | The American Prospect:

“This is just part of the hurricane of idiocy the administration must struggle through if it is to pass health-care reform. Don’t get me wrong – there are some very good reasons to remain optimistic about the odds of reform succeeding. On the other hand, if in our national debate you always bet that the side offering the most dim-witted, disingenuous arguments will triumph, most of the time you’ll be right.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

A friend of mine observing the current debate threw up his hands and simply said that the American people were, to put it bluntly, stupid. That made me uncomfortable, because I don’t like to think people in general are in fact, stupid. But if these arguments hold sway, it’s hard to argue against that. Fear and prejudice almost certainly produce that result.
And just so those conservatives who read this try to hide behind the tired cliché of liberal smugness, please remember the definition of stupid: “lacking in intelligence and common sense.” These “arguments” employ both deficits.

Civilized Medicine

Today I had to take my son for his 15 month well visit. All day in the car as I listened to NPR, universal healthcare was the topic. Little did I know I would get a reminder of the problems with our system up close and personal today.
At the doctor’s, my son developed a strong fever. It turns out this was due to a new ear infection. Great. His shots would have to be delayed another few weeks and we’d have to give him a course of antibiotics. All of this would be handled well by my insurance. The full course, between generic substitutions in pharmacy and our family’s insurance coverage, would run me $12. No sweat. With a $15 copay my running total so far was $27.
But there was a problem.
My wife was concerned with the wheezing she still hears in my son’s breathing at night. My doctor was as well. She prescribed a 30 day supply of Pulmicort, an asthma treatment medicine. Since there are no generic substitutes, I have to pay full boat with my plan reimbursing me for 60% of the cost. And that cost? $365!
Now I don’t know about you, but how is a person with few means supposed to shelve out that kind of money on a monthly basis to treat their child? First you have to have the cash on hand or the credit to shell out what amounts to a car payment. Second, you’d have to be able to afford the 40%, or $146, you’d be responsible for if you have insurance. What happens if you are one of the 47,000,000 people who don’t? What’s wrong with this picture?
Truly, when I think of folks defending our healthcare system, esp. with regard to the pharma companies, I find it hard not to think of the phrase “full of shit.”
UPDATE: I can’t really take credit for the title, it was from a teacher and mentor who corrected me when I mentioned that the UK’s universal healthcare system was socialized medicine. She said, “No, it’s civilized medicine.”

Going Strong on the Wrong Message | The American Prospect

Going Strong on the Wrong Message | The American Prospect:

“But what every one of the 68 percent of Americans who are not both white and male saw, once again, was the deep well of outrage at discrimination that Republicans seem only to summon when it’s a white guy who got the short end of the stick.
The fact of the matter is that a party that builds its foundation on the racial grievances of white men is doomed to defeat after defeat.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

I think the GOP leaders really showed their true colors (no pun intended) on race. It makes Steele look like a straight token and nothing more. It kills any credibility in the claim that the party is not racist. They just can’t seem to help themselves.