Just some links from this week that I wanted to discuss:
A Guide to the Birther movement and hot to attempt to refute it.
I find this whole 'Birther' movement to be so completely ridiculous. The only group that I can think is worse is Holocaust Deniers. (Unfortunately it is likely that if you drew a Venn Diagram of the Birthers and Holocaust Deniers the intersecting space would be larger than you would think, or hope). And the best point in this article is that conspiracy theorists rarely listen to reason, that even if you debunk each of their points one by one, they will often still cling to their theory like a shipwreck victim surrounded by hungry sharks clings to their life raft.
Last night was National Night out, hope you met and talked to at least 1 neighbor.
We always enjoy this night. Our neighbors are the neighborhood watch captains and host this event every year. And it's usually a fun night. As the kids get older it is fun to give them a chance to see each other and really race around. For example there are 2 girls the same age as Daniel and Emily just across the street and we rarely see them. Hopefully last night's visit will encourage more interaction with them. And as always the food was excellent, there are some really good cooks in our neighborhood (including my mothers peanut butter cookies of course). Part of the Free Range credo as it were is to encourage kids to meet the neighbors, not just the kids. Fostering that sense of community that welcomes kids running around the neighborhood playing instead of hiding in their homes and private back yards.
This link about sums up the brilliant thinking of those who oppose Health Care Reform
I am still in despair of any real reform, I think the only way to guarantee reform would be to mandate that no one currently in Congress can run for re-election, thereby nullifying the effect of the Health Care lobbyists. That being said this clip where Arthur Laffer, the man behind the Laffer curve, godfather of supply side economics states:
If you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they're run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.
is an example of the many arguments being made to oppose reform. Of course the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are government programs apparently doesn't mean much to people like this. And I think Paul Krugman said it best regarding the DMV and Post office:
I don’t find the Post Office a terrible experience — no worse than Fedex or UPS. (Full disclosure: I worked as a temp mailman when in college.) And nobody likes going to the DMV, but the one on Rt. 1 I go to always seems fairly well managed.
And in general: is dealing with these government agencies any worse than, say, dealing with the cable company?
The prejudice against government seems to have become free-floating, unattached to any actual experience.
I for one would much rather have to deal with the DMV or Post Office than try and get something changed by a credit card company at this point, or a bank, or the cable company (and I worked for the cable industry for 4 years).
Yet another example of 'responsible' gun ownership
A clearly deranged man is able to legally purchase 3 handguns, then after making it clear what he intends to do in an online diary, goes out and kills 4 defenseless people. How many more times does crap like this have to happen before our country wakes up and realizes that handguns are not what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Second Amendment?
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