Saturday, November 2, 2013
Nations fail to agree on Antarctic marine reserve
An inflatable boat carries tourists past an iceberg along the Antarctic Peninsula, where negotiators were hoping to create a massive wildlife reserve.
For the third time, nations that make decisions about Antarctic fishing failed Friday to agree on a plan that would create the world's largest marine sanctuary.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The nations that make decisions about Antarctic fishing failed Friday for a third time to agree on a plan that would create the world's largest marine sanctuary.
The U.S. and New Zealand had proposed creating a reserve in the pristine Ross Sea. At 517,000 square miles, the sanctuary would have been twice the size of Texas.
The proposal, a decade in the making, had been scaled back from earlier plans. Many countries hoped that would be enough to entice previous objectors Russia and Ukraine to agree. Those countries are among several that have fishing interests in the region.
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Author: By Nick Perry Nations fail to agree on Antarctic marine reserveof Associated Press
Fox's John Stossel upset that under Obamacare women will not have to pay higher insurance costs than men, because they go to the doctor more and "maybe they're hypochondriacs."
Courtesy of Raw Story:
During an appearance on Fox & Friends, Stossel asserted to host Steve Doocy that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law “just kills the market” by mandating that women can no longer be charged more than men for insurance.
“The competition of the market is the only thing that makes things better,” he explained. “Yesterday, President Obama stood in front of a bunch of women in Massachusetts and said, ‘No longer will those evil insurance companies be able to charge you women more.’”
“Women go to the doctor much more often than men! Maybe they’re smarter or maybe they’re hypochondriacs,” Stossel continued. “They live longer. Who knows? But if it’s insurance, you ought to be able to charge people who use the services more, more.”
“But, John, you’re not paying attention,” Doocy said sarcastically. “This administration, this president wants to make everything fair. It’s not fair if you pay less than she does… And as a number of Republicans have made the argument, why should I pay for — I’m in my 60s, why should I pay for your maternity coverage?”
“Or why should women pay for men’s Viagra?” Stossel asked. “This mandating all this stuff it has to cover just takes away consumer choice.”
The idea is that everybody''s insurance will be fairly determined and that no longer will being a woman be considered a preexisting condition that could be used to hike their insurance premiums.
Damn WHO marries these idiots?
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The God Graveyard.
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Hey, remember all of those health insurance scares the Republicans have been promoting all week? Well here is a story that will provide a much needed counter balance.
While most of the country haggles and laments over the busted government website for health care, Gail Roach simply picked up the phone and asked a specialist to walk her through her options.
Roach, 57, said she found plenty, and suddenly she realized she would have the opportunity to walk away from her retirement health care package that required her to pay $509 a month for her premium.
Roach has Type 2 diabetes, which drove up her costs. However, through the Affordable Care Act, she found a policy offering a monthly premium at only $70.
After cashing in on a tax credit and taking advantage of a feature called the Cost Sharing Benefit, Roach saw her premium drop to a measly $1.11 a month.
"I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. But it was within my budget," Roach said.
Yeah, I am going to have to imagine that a buck eleven is within just about EVERYBODY'S budget.
Now this woman lives in Pittsburgh, and the Republican Governor, Tom Corbett, is fairly dedicated to making sure his constituents have health insurance. So this woman's experience is not exactly comparable to the experiences that others will have. However it IS an indication of just how well the new law can work when people in your state are not trying to actively sabotage it.
You know, like my state.
(H/T to Politicususa.)
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Nothing beats listening to Sarah Palin struggle to read from one of her ghostwritten books in her own screechy voice. You know, besides listening to two cats fornicate that is.
To be honest you simply cannot get the true experience of having the screechy stupidity wash over you and steal away your will to live unless you listen to Snowdrift Snooki read it herself, which you can do here:
However I will provide this transcript, because I am a nice guy and it IS Halloween and this was the first thing to really make my hair stand on end the entire day.
It starts right in the middle of some sentence about walking in the woods I believe:
"Occasionally startling a moose, passing caribou further north, and hoping the kids in the back keep up.
As Governor I was able to see even more jaw dropping vistas throughout Alaska. But the most beautiful scenes were the ones I've taken in through the lenses of my snowmachine goggles. (Alaska Snowmachine reference to show you are outdoorsy, check.)
When we arrived at the homes of our friends and families, we frequently played Eskimo Bingo. (By the way using the term "Eskimo" in Alaska these days is considered somewhat culturally insensitive. Something you would think a woman married to a Yupik would know.) A gift swapping game, and the only time we'd enthusiastically encourage the kids to be greedy. (I don't really think the Palin kids required muhc encouragement.)
Everyone brings a wrapped gift for exchange and places it on the floor. With a timer ticking, we roll dice in a pie tin, and hope to get doubles so the gift grabbing can begin. Each person gets to steal present from the center of our circle. Even ones already nabbed.
This might sound like a fun parlor game, but but gets intense. (Hair pulling and eye gouging is allowed I'm sure.)
When someone unwraps something good and places it on the floor, even for a moment, it's fair game.
One year, a highly coveted box of homemade chocolates, from a bakery in Indiana, caused us to play well into the night. (Okay is it just me or is the idea of "home made chocolates" coming from a bakery kind of inconsistent?) I ended up with that one because I'm the mom, and I refused to let the game end until it ended well. (Okay, is this really the side of her that she wants the people buying this book to know?)
Some years I've ended up with one of the gag gifts. A singing fish wall plaque. A dusty old fossil from dad's shelf. A warped tin sign that reads, "Give me beer, the in-laws are here."
But Todd makes sure my real Christmas gifts are AMAZING.
He's always given good gifts .
When we were seventeen, and my friends had already received polo sweaters, the newest go go's, vinyl record, or Gloria Vanderbilt jeans from their boyfriends, Todd surprised me with a traditional Eskimo grass woven basket, and Alaskan gold nugget earrings, from a native village near his home town. (A seventeen year old was happy with a grass woven basket?)
In that tradition he has since given me a beautiful red manual ice auger, for ice fishing on the lake, a 30-06 rifle, a pair of hockey skates, snowshoes for hardcore winter workouts, and cords of winter spruce for my fireplace. I so appreciate that one, as I have an affinity for chopping, and stacking my own wood. (Okay my bullshit detector just burst into flames.)
As the old saying goes, "Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice."
Wow and just when you thought Palin might be running a little low on mooseshit.
I have been around habitual liars before but this idiot takes the cake.
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Democratic darling Wendy Davis takes on Tea Party terrorist Ted Cruz.
State Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, criticized Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday for his role in the recent federal government shutdown, saying he harmed average citizens just to score political points.
"I think he demonstrated that being the loudest person in the room isn’t necessarily equivalent to being a leader,” Davis said. "I was disappointed to see that he was willing to put so many thousands of Texas families in harm’s way for purposes of making a political statement.”
Davis’ remarks, made outside an early voting location for the constitutional amendment election, amounted to her harshest assessment yet of the Tea Party-backed Republican. During her appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival last month, before the shutdown and debt ceiling brinkmanship roiled Washington, Davis noted that she and Cruz "agree on some things” and said politicians shouldn’t be afraid to say that.
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier fired back, saying the senator's efforts to stop the Affordable Care Act were justified. She also favorably compared what Cruz did with Davis' summer filibuster of a restrictive abortion bill. The legislation, which eventually passed, includes a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
"I think most Texans would agree that fighting to give them relief from a law that’s killing their health plans and hiking their insurance rates is a statement worth fighting for, as opposed to platforms centered on killing unborn babies after 20 weeks,” Frazier said.
Davis rejected comparisons between her actions and those of Cruz and other Republicans who tried to gain concessions on Obamacare by withholding funding for the government and opposing an extension of the nation’s debt limit.
"I was attempting to block a bill that would have harmed thousands of women across the state of Texas,” she said. "Never once, of course, did I threaten to literally shut down the state government for that purpose, and I certainly would never use the budget in the state of Texas for purposes of making a political statement.”
In the shutdown fight, Davis said thousands of Texans were harmed, and she called for a more bipartisan approach in budgetary negotiations.
"The concern is that we literally got to the brink of financial disaster. Political gamemanship overtook common sense,” she said.
You know my all time favorite fantasy for a debate between to individuals would be Rachel Maddow VS Sarah Palin, which would be akin to a bug hitting a car windshield at 60 mph, however I have to admit that the idea of a Wendy Davis using her pink sneakers to kick the crap out of Ted Cruz is also pretty tantalizing.
I don't think that Cruz would stand much of a chance, and I also think that every time Davis takes him on she demonstrates her integrity and will attract more support from those infamous hard to motivate liberal voters in Texas.
My hope is that she will continue to goad him into these little back and forths, and use them to get national media attention, while also showing the people of Texas that they don't have to keep electing under-evolved Neanderthals, like Rick Perry, to lead their state.
By the way Harry Reid actually, kind of, endorsed the idea of Ted Cruz as the GOP nominee in 2016:
“If I didn’t care so much about our country, I would hope he would get the Republican nomination for president, because that would mean the end of the Republican Party.”
Maybe if we keep our fingers crossed, this will be the reality.
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