Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Twitter and other Links -- October 22

The Web is like the weather. Some days are clear and others are stormy. Today seems to have a swirl of interesting links.  I'm starting with my own. This is a long read.  Make a mental note to come back and check it out before you leave. 

In Obamacare news not remotely related to HealthCare.gov, an Ohio board has voted to accept $2.5 billion in federal funds to expand its Medicaid program.

That means around 275,000 or 330,000 low-income Ohioans (depending on whose numbers you use) will now qualify to participate in the program come Jan. 1.
It's Borowitz so don't get punked.

This one's no joke, especially for the insurance industry. 
Wall Street is beginning to figure out that under Obamacare, for-profit insurers are not going to make out like bandits.

In principle I agree. But in reality I have watch one or two. They are truly horrible. Just remember you can't unring a bill or unsee an image. The sound of the bell may fade. But the impact of the image can have the effect of PTSD. 

There is an odd connection between this link and the first one above, in which I reflect on the question of "What does the Core Curriculum teach about getting laid?"
American cities are awash with packs of fetid, feral men, loosened from all good morals, estranged from all family and social structure, fighting a growing recession, deflated, confounded by the pre-screening demands of eHarmony.com, afloat surging tides of Molly and illegally-downloaded celeb sex videos, frightened by the twerking young Miley Cyruses of the cities, with their glistening pink tongues and cut-up clothes and casual independence — and not able to respond to any of it in a safe, civilized manner. This is the world of women under siege, a real-life Walking Dead if you will, where salivating, zombie-like American males target all women, everywhere. For women, at least, winter has come and gone.


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What does Core Curriculum teach about Getting Laid?

Question: Does Core Curriculum have a position about getting laid? Just asking. One of this morning's Facebook links and my reflections is what prompted the question. Here's the link.

Son, It’s Okay If You Don’t Get Laid Tonight
Hey kid. You’re at an age where I’m pretty sure you’re about to have sex soon, or actually, you might even already be having it and you’re just *that* good at keeping it from me. I don’t really fret over that because I trust you. And because I trust myself and the job I’ve done as your parent all these years. Talking or joking about sex was never an uncomfortable, taboo topic in our house, and we’ve talked about protection, about your responsibility for it, about teen pregnancy, about abortion, about sexually transmitted diseases, about the role masturbation plays in keeping one from entering less-than-ideal relationships. We’ve talked about the girls you like, and I’ve always made sure to ask what it is about her personality that does it for you (is she smart? is she hilarious? confident? do you read the same kind of books or does she have different tastes? is she a gamer, too?) and her looks have never been the thing we focus on. 
We’ve also talked about rape and about rape culture. I’ve tried to show you how this pervasive attitude exists toward women as objects, or at best, supporting characters in a man’s adventure. And that even though that isn’t your fault and you didn’t make the world that way, allowing yourself to be a passive beneficiary of that dynamic is unacceptable. That you must be one of the many people to challenge that, to keep pushing on the outer membrane of this limited paradigm we live in until you’ve either moved us all somewhere else or you’ve broken through it. You must trust that if you are doing so in your little area, someone else is doing it in theirs, and another in theirs, and so on. Other mothers and fathers are teaching this to their sons and daughters somewhere. 
And yet, the reality is that even with everything I’ve taught you, you are still capable of committing rape. Not because you’re some kind of testosterone-driven monster on the inside, but because you’re at the center of swirling variables and messages.
You are friends with boys whose parents may or may not have taught their sons to respect women in the way you’ve learned. If those guys don’t respect women, I want you to be their thought leader. Show them a better way. Don’t laugh when they make a disrespectful joke or cat call. Lead by example. If you witness one of them objectifying a woman, make it clear (especially in front of that woman, if you can) that you think it’s utter bullshit. Females need to see that, even if it’s only a little at a time, guys are evolving. 
You receive messaging that suggests the guys you want to emulate are the ones who are getting laid. But the pressure to be “that guy” is what leads to so many bad judgment calls, judgment calls that end up with a girl raped or otherwise violated. Daisy Coleman in Missouri was lured, along with her friend, to a school mate’s basement, loaded up with alcohol, raped, and then dumped unconscious to freeze to death in her yard. So was her friend. They were 13 and 14. That’s just slightly older than your little sister. 
I’d like to get inside the minds of those boys in that basement. They were hanging out together, probably for the umpteenth time, bored, and thought, “there are no girls here, this sucks.” It DOES suck when there are no girls around and it’s a total sausage fest. NOT because then there’s no one to use for release of physiological needs, but because women can be awesome and funny and smart and bring something to a party or situation that is missing if it’s only dudes. Women are valuable people for reasons other than owning boobs and a vagina. But that wasn’t what those boys had in mind. They actually called this girl and planned to get her so messed up that they could use her as entertainment. And not one of the boys there had the courage to push back against whatever fucked up thing in their head made them interested in this (maybe because they wanted to see if real sex measured up to what they see in porn?). They didn’t have the courage to push back against that in themselves, and they certainly didn’t have the courage to make their friends stop. 
I’d like to think that would never, could never be you. I think better of you and better of your friends to think it would. But the reality is that all human beings are susceptible to momentary lapses of character and judgment, and in groups, it’s even more likely. More than anything, I want you to internalize this truth: it’s okay if you don’t get laid tonight. Or tomorrow night. It’s okay if you DO get laid and it’s with a girl who truly enjoyed herself, too, but then it’s okay if she doesn’t sleep with you again. It’s okay if it’s another year or more before you have sex with anyone again. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. What’s way more important than getting laid is pretty much everything. But specifically, you have core values that will always trump getting laid. Like protecting people. Like looking at every situation and determining what your best role is in it. Like rooting for the underdog and not siding with the people who have power in a given scenario. 
Those parts of you are why I think you will always be better than any pressure you experience to “get laid.” 
But because not enough kids get a roadmap, I’m going to give you one. 
Here’s how you can rule out sleeping with someone:
1. She’s hammered.
2. She seems unsure if she wants to (you should never have to talk anyone into it).
3. She’s passed out.
4. It seems like there’s any other reason she might regret it in the morning. (Even if it’s not rape, do you really want to be someone’s morning-after regret, when instead they can remember you as a total gentleman?) 
Here’s how you can be sure it’s okay to proceed with sex:
1. She is in control of her faculties.
2. She is enthusiastically willing.
3. Check in with her! “Do you want to be doing this?” is a great thing to ask when things are going to another sexual level. The worst thing that will happen is she’ll rethink it and say, no, she’s actually not ready. It’s important at that point to pivot to doing something else together, and not make her feel guilty for changing her mind. While that may feel like a bummer to you in the moment, what you’ve just achieved there is fucking badass. You’ve just put someone else’s feelings ahead of your physiological needs. You’ve just treated somebody the way you hope another guy would treat your sister. 
All of this is to say, I actually think you’ve got this. You’re going to do great things in the world as you fully inhabit your manhood, and I think the integrity you’re made of is going to come through in all kinds of situations. I really wish you a great, fulfilling sex life where you each mutually benefit and you each come away from it feeling fortified and better for it; not damaged, confused, or disappointed in yourself. 
So, if I really think you’ve got this and I really trust you, why did I write this? I wrote all of this out for you because that’s my job. To give you a chance in hell at navigating your way through this crazy, messed up world we live in and maybe even have a little fun while you’re doing it. Sexual power is one of the kinds of power. With great power, comes great responsibility. On the flip side, with no power comes no responsibility (h/t Kickass). And that’s why it’s totally okay if you don’t get laid tonight. 
Love and hugs and rainbows and all that,

Mom


This tumblr post is not what I expected. It's excellent advice, presumably from a Mom to her son, but worthwhile reading for any young person old enough to read the language. As I read this -- and this is slightly off-topic, but perhaps not -- something I came across yesterday kept drumming in the background of my mind.

An educational concept called the Core Curriculum is being rolled out across the country and is getting almost as much resistance and opposition as the Affordable Care Act. Opponents are objecting to a variety of aspects of the program and picking apart the materials being disseminated. They are still a mathematical minority, but opponents are getting organized, very much like the Tea Party people. Something tells me that many of the same people are also Tea Party people and I'm forming a sneaky suspicion that the anti-vax crowd shares many of the same fears -- mostly about the threats of Big Government and "other people" trying to tell us what's best for us and for our kids.

To that end there is now a Facebook group called "inappropriate Core Curriculum" something or other which has over two and a half thousand members. A web search returns hundreds of similar results, many organized by state, which appears to be a cottage industry of opposition. A quick survey of headlines, taglines and bullet points reveals the same anti-Obama, anti-health care reform, anti-Liberal, anti-Welfare, anti-public schools themes that typify the extreme, even reactionary Conservative thinking that has spread for the last ten years like ants and flies at a picnic.

What specifically reminded me of these groups as I read this "letter" were two items I saw at a couple of the sites I checked. The first, headlined something like "Core Curriculum teaches my child to use profanity," was prompted by a reading list of books that could be found in any good library, which of course included a few that have bad language and reference to unsavory social themes. And the parents, many of whom cited children as old as middle school age, were railing in the comments about how their kids didn't need to be "exposed to " this kind of trash. As I read I had flashbacks of movie scenes of book-burning, or hyper-ventilating, flag-waving extremists in Tea Party videos. These people were not engaged in any kind of reasonable discussion (though there was, I must say, a sprinkling of reasoned arguments trying to balance what was plainly an over-the-top blind hatred of anything associated with Core Curriculum.)

The other was a copy of a reading comprehension exercise in the form of a short paragraph followed by several questions about the content intended to prompt the readers to think about the unsaid, unspoken implications of the paragraph. This was clearly aimed at teaching more than testing, forming a springboard for discussion for any student who's responses indicated he or she didn't catch the drift of what was being read. The paragraph depicted a scene in a home in which a woman, obviously a mother, was cleaning up a bedroom and came across a hair barrette with a few strands of hair of the wrong color, indicating her husband was having an affair. I think she may have been having a conversation with one of her children but I don't remember the details.

But that's not important. What's important is that the parent who was objecting to this reading assignment was indignant that it was part of the Core Curriculum to which her eight grader was "being exposed" and she found it to be inappropriate for this kind of stuff to be discussed in a public school. Never mind that TV, movies and everyday life overflows with such issues.

The more I look at this opposition to Core Curriculum the more I realize it is mostly another angle to the misguided, arch-conservative drift in public opinion responsible for the recent government partial shutdown and confrontation over the debt ceiling. I don't think it is a stretch to suggest that this letter, this truly excellent and sensitive message to boys and men in general, would be anathema to the groups I have been describing. I so want to be wrong about this. But something dark inside tells me this is not magical thinking on my part.
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Monday, October 21, 2013

Carl Rove -- "Obama Tricked Us"


Do take time to read what Jonathan Chait sez.
Rove: Obama Tricked Us Into Shutting Down Government
Karl Rove may have presided over one of the more disastrous presidencies in American history, and then directed a shadow campaign for Mitt Romney that, at minimum, failed to deliver its objectives, but he turns out to be a surprisingly entertaining newspaper columnist. Granted, the entertainment is unintentional, but you have to take your Rove successes where you can find them. 
Today’s effort is mostly devoted to repeating the familiar and correct point that Republicans blundered by shutting down the government. That argument, which consumes the bulk of the verbiage, is not the interesting part. The interesting piece is Rove’s preface that of course President Obama deserves most of the fault for this debacle.
More at the links. 
I had to share this on Facebook. Here is my reflection. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra points to Carl Rove for pointing to Barack Obama's worst quality, his lack of leadership, that "leading from behind" trope that follows him wherever he goes.

Actually, he tricked everybody. Because he was half Negro he knew that any time he opened his mouth anything he said would be questioned more closely, held up to scrutiny much more than had he been white. Long before he was elected he understood the power of the kiss of death better than anyone who ever darkened the door of the White House. (After all, it's not called the WHITE House for nothing.)

Knowing this he used most of his first term validating the truth of this power. The kiss of death is one of the most important tools in the political toolbox, so politicians of all stripes and colors know how to use it as effectively as a doctor using a scalpel. In the hands of a novice, it's a potentially dangerous weapon. You don't need to be a member of the NRA to know how easily one can misuse a gun. Without proper training it can kill the owner as fast as it can kill the perpetrator of a crime.
You win this round, Obama, but next
time we won't fall for your "trick
us into shutting down the government
by asking us not to" plan.

He had to be certain before he pulled out this weapon, this kiss of death, on his political opponents. He started almost from Day One, by appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State and John Huntsman and several other Republicans to positions of prominence in his administration. And it worked. As if by magic he was able to convert adversaries into allies almost overnight.

But that was child's play. It's easy to do that one-on-one. He knew that from playing basketball. But opposing an assembly of opponents, like both houses of the US Congress or the Supreme Court -- now that is a different matter. He knew this weapon was not as effective outside the US. He could go to Europe, where peace prizes are passed out like Halloween candy, or Africa, where people of color are a dime a dozen, and his kiss of death was no more effective than a peck on grandmother's cheek. But here at home, where even white people have been using it for years to brand educated, articulate people of color as "uppity" to other white men, or "Oreos" and "Uncle Toms" to people in their own communities -- here he had to be doubly careful how he used this powerful weapon.

By the end of his first term he was certain. He knew from having even the most harmless of political appointments locked up indefinitely in the Senate, by watching how quickly his Republican opponents in the House reacted negatively to anything he said or did, by an overnight announcement on talk radio that all his opponents really wanted was his administration to fail, that he had his opponents exactly where he wanted them. After that, the rest of easy. He was certain that all he had to do was pretend to be disinterested that his opponents would have a knee-jerk reaction and immediately get interested in whatever the issue happened to be.

He wanted to end the war in Iraq right away, but no, he first had to furnish a "surge" (or I should say yet another surge) to show presidential resolve. He wanted to grant amnesty to all those undocumented immigrants, but first he had to tighten up border security, buttress the ICE people, deport more of them than any previous president and demonstrate his "leadership" in ways that no previous president has ever been expected to do. And still, slicker than Slick Willie himself, he had to be quick on his feet and stay close to the teleprompter to keep the Republican opposition on the defensive. But he knew the game as well as he did basketball. He knew how to use his skin color as effectively in politics as he took advantage of his height and athletic prowess on the basketball court. This man is better than good. He's tricky. Trickier than Tricky Dick Nixon.

So thanks, Mr. Rove, for pointing out what others seem to have missed. This president is tricky. Hillary said it well -- if he walks on water his opponents will say it is because he can't swim. Or as one Web commenter said, if he says air is good for you, the whole Congress stops breathing. So when it came to these most recent crises, all he had to do was announce well ahead of time that the debt ceiling was not to be negotiable. Period. But his opponents didn't believe him. By the time it was nearly over, most of them understood, but he tricked even them. All he had to do was exactly what he announced well in advance he was gonna do -- and in the end, he tricked them into running blindly into a box canyon where they could be brought under control, like a herd of wild horses or lost cattle. Just like in the movies. This guy is good.

Thanks, Mr. Rove. Thanks for your insight.
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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Sunday Links -- October 20

I just started this morning's surfing, but something tells me this morning will be yielding a good catch. It's like fishing. Sometimes you just get a feeling that it's gonna be a good day. It started already with the post I just finished, from a link so highly recommended I made it into a separate post. 
The WHO checklist was read out by the anaesthetic nurse. The surgeon was listening, but was scrubbing up in a side room. The left (wrong) leg was exposed as the stocking was on the right leg. The nurse in charge was on the phone, the second scrub nurse was upstairs getting equipment. The anaesthetist was busy getting the patient settled on the ventilator. The scrub nurse - unfamiliar with the kit for this operation - was concentrating on laying out the equipment. She assumed the anaesthetic nurse had checked which leg was on the consent form.
The surgeon came through and operated on the wrong leg.

At the end of the operation he requested an X ray, and the radiographer pointed out that the request had been made for the right leg, not the left.
Police arrested them in June.

After their arrest, the couple admitted selling three of their newborn babies in recent years for a total of $13,000, the ministry said. They sold the first baby in 2008, the second in 2011 and the third -- the girl -- this year, the ministry said.

Authorities recovered the girl and are now looking for the other two children, the ministry said.

Neighbors told police the couple live with two of their children, ages 6 and 9. The neighbors also said the wife appeared pregnant in each instance, but the newborns were gone shortly after being delivered, the Ministry of Public Security said.
Important column by Milbank. Short and sweet, but shallow. 
Hounshell is exactly right. Milbank doesn't get it.  
Better late than never. 
When Friedman finally catches on to what nearly everyone already knows, I guess that's a good sign.  
Quick, light, whimsical and sad, with a short slide collection at the end. 

The day is coming when someone invents a watch which monitors your physical condition close enough to sound an alarm with a message "You have exactly five minutes to get to a hospital emergency room before you lose consciousness, exactly sixteen minutes before you become clinically dead." 



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Saturday, October 19, 2013

Tweets -- Obamacare Website Glitches


Benjamin L. Kelley ‏@benjaminkelley14h  @robdelaney it's no #Benghazi

Steven Knight ‏@steveyknight14h  @robdelaney @FoxNews  I wonder how many stories Fox has run on how to use the ACA site to sign up when all issues are fixed?

Rick Shelton ‏@anticybr14h  @robdelaney @FoxNews   It's true. My wife was unable to log in for a day, and that was totally worse than an $80,000 bill for kidney surgery!
Bart ‏@bart_smith14h  @robdelaney @FoxNews That's not funny. My mother was diagnosed with a glitch, and the hospital refuses to treat her.
Nappy Chillmore ‏@KeenePOV14h  @steveyknight @robdelaney @FoxNews you know better than that. LOL

Jennifer Shultz ‏@11Shultz14h  @robdelaney @WeepingCheeto Yes, because bankruptcy caused by medical bills is NO BIG DEAL, isn't that what Fox News says????

Jennifer Shultz ‏@11Shultz14h  @benjaminkelley @robdelaney it's no #Benghazi YES, of course!!
Nappy Chillmore ‏@KeenePOV14h  @anticybr @robdelaney @FoxNews hey. Cost of doing business in the free market. Or something. Because Benghazi.

Jamie Noah ‏@JamieNoah14h  @robdelaney @FoxNews Apparently Ron, your political tweets didn't end with the end of government shutdown, like I hoped it would.

Michael Upton ‏@WingTipMikey14h  @robdelaney @FoxNews if only they hadn't defunded and closed all those women's health clinics, you might have enough money for insurance!

Craig Frost ‏@craigfrost_14h  @robdelaney pls delete this. I know your of ur depression issues and my cousin killed himself over an ACA glitch. Sometimes gotta be srs

Melissa Travis ‏@DrSnit14h  @robdelaney I will always love you for using humor to speak what needs to be said. And I only love my 400 cats.

Buckwalter-Poza ‏@rpbp8h  Amen RT @robdelaney: .@FoxNews I’m hearing glitches on ACA websites are much, much worse than going bankrupt from cervical cancer treatment.

Inez Russell Gomez ‏@inezrussell8h  @rpbp @robdelaney @FoxNews Or dying because you can't afford to see the doctor at all.

Atlanta Mike ‏@MErb19627h  @robdelaney @joanwalsh @FoxNews Hannity had 6 people on to bitch about the website. Someone checked, they never went to the website.

Gern Blanston ‏@GernBlanston67h  @11Shultz @robdelaney @WeepingCheeto yup, that's why the GOP gods created emergency rooms. The best health care money can buy!!

Isobel Carr ‏@IsobelCarr7h  @robdelaney It shld also be noted they're mostly a red state problem, as the state-run exchanges are running smoothly @LOLGOP @FoxNews

mdsbarry ‏@mdsbarry7h  @robdelaney @LOLGOP @FoxNews   FL's new unemployment website of Gov Rick Scott (R) is in worse shape than ACA site. Silence in T'hassee

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