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Every member of Congress is a member of a federal healthcare program that is provides what appears to be the best health care in the United States. It runs them just $503/year. Preexisting conditions? No such thing. A doctor's visit is $20. A prescription is $10. Coverage is unlimited. They have a special pharmacy, get white-glove treatment at federal medical facilities, and have a staff of doctors and nurses on-site. But extend the same coverage to us mortals? Never! Oh, and it's not quite true that *every* member of Congress is taking advantage of this great socialized medicine. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) is the lone member of Congress to do without. He says it's a protest—he won't accept the benefits until they're available to all Americans.
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Today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lost Nike as a member of the board of directors because of the Chamber's long-standing position that global climate change is a myth. On Monday they lost Exelon—the nation's largest utility—as a member for the same reason, along with PG&E and PNM, also good-sized utilities.
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The small Danish island has become completely energy independent, using only small-scale renewable energy.
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The NFL's own study has found that pro players are nineteen times more likely to have Alzheimer's or a similar disease between the ages of 30-49 than the general population. Six percent of players aged 50 or older have dementia. I wouldn't let my child play football or box. The rate of life-destroying injury and disease is just too high.
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Man, this is creepy. It looks like an adult woman's head has been grafted onto the torso of a 16-year-old girl and the body of an 11-year-old girl. She's left with an apparent stump for a left hand and a pelvis girdle large enough to bear a single kitten. I don't imagine she can weigh much over 80 pounds. Where *ever* do women get these unhealthy concepts about how much they should weigh?
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How to make a BLT from scratch. He didn't raise the pig or the chicken, nor did he grow the wheat for the bread. But he made the sugar, made the salt, the bacon, the mustard, the mayo, and the bread, and he foraged for the spices, so that's not bad.
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Re: the Ralph Lauren ad:
I don’t really see this one as a huge problem for one reason. It’s obviously fake. It’s obviously, badly, horriby done. There are some girls out there who may use it as thinspiration. But the majority aren’t.
The majority of women with eating disorders of any sort are influenced mostly by photos just outside the line of acceptable re-touching (and yes, there is such a thing.)
When the unethical re-touching is subtly done, it a, is more effective at making women feel badly because it’s almost realistic rather than absurdly not realistic, and b, encourages envelope pushing over time in the industry (she’s thin now, but Calvin Klein, for example, had to see how far he could take it back in the late 90s. And then everyone copied.).
Recent example: a stylist walked out of a show in Milan because the designer wanted to show his clothes on American sizes 8 and 10 models (plus size is generally a 6 or an 8 on the runway, a straight-sized runway model is either a 00 or a 0, but in the 90s, a straight size was a 4 or a 6, and a 0 couldn’t work.)
Then you’ve got jerks like Karl Lagerfeld who don’t understand why 00 models are a problem, when the majority of the country is overweight (he also had a huge hissy fit and threatened to withdraw his gimmick line from H&M, because at Chanel, apparantly, they don’t make clothes bigger than a 6, and H&M wanted to stock his line in plus sizes. The horror!).
It really is a wretched fake.
People keep mentioning Exelon’s departure from the Chamber as all about climate change. But Exelon also had a row with them over the Chamber’s opposition to competitive electric markets. Exelon is interested in Exelon’s best interests. Exelon operates the largest nuclear fleet in the country. They have a vested interest in the ACES bill. Whenever big business (and a big, fat utility like Exelon being a prime example) becomes a big booster of a particular piece of legislation, you have to view it with skepticism.
PG&E’s generation is mostly nuclear and hydro. Not to mention they are in a state that heavily favors legislation on this topic. It would be detrimental to the business of a regulated utility to act in manner in opposition to the sentiments of their customers as well as their regulators. PNM’s is mostly natural gas and nuclear. Duke is the real outlier with all those coal plants, but not near as many as AEP.
And utilities in general falling down on the side of this legislation is no surprise either. The vast majority of free credits go to them under the cap and trade provisions in the House Bill. Action on this is seen by industry as inevitable at this point. We are now seeing a fight over who is going to foot the bill. Since oil producers and refiners are going to bear the overwhelming share of the cost under the House bill, it’s no surprise where they fall in this debate.
Pardon me from interrupting the intelligent discourse, but… mustard on a BLT?
Rob B,
I have no idea what you’re talking about. That is not an interruption from intelligent discourse, that’s pointing out a goddamn abomination.
And for what it’s worth, I really do love mustard, just not on a BLT.
“Ron B” not “Rob B”, sorry. :)
No worries. My question was in reference to Waldo’s last link, Project BLT:
“But he made the sugar, made the salt, the bacon, the mustard, the mayo, and the bread, and he foraged for the spices, so that’s not bad.”
I love mustard too, just nowhere near my BLT.
Also re:the small Danish Island
Completely energy independent is not accurate. Further in the article, they explain that they still need to import oil and gas for a quarter of their heating needs. The article also doesn’t mention how they fuel their transportation sector.
In evaluating this, I also think it is important to know what “generous amounts of aid” means. On a 44 square mile island that has only around 4,000 people, how much did the Danish spend per person to accomplish this? Is the same thing feasible for Copenhagen that has 17 times the population density of Samso?
Huh—that seems like a point important enough to have raised a bit earlier in the article. :)
This just in!! Members of Congress get nice perks!
And in other news, the Pope is Catholic.