The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Shared Sacrifice' Edition
The New York Times, in an article Sunday, Administration Is Open to Taxing Health Benefits - NYTimes.com , reports that the Obama Administration is open to the idea of taxing certain employer provided health benefits as a way to help finance health care for the uninsured. Would you support such an approach?
lbradway agrees (I think)...
No reason not to tax health benefits. Someone at $10/hr doesn't have tax free money for food and shelter or their doctor's bills. The plan will never pass, though. But I don't accept the whole "employer-based" healthcare idea. What sort of paternalistic/feudal lord holdover is that, anyway? Just a bad idea for everyone. If a good person starts a small business, they're a bad employer if they can't afford to offer insurance. Employees who have the most money get healthcare, employees with the least income get screwed.
If our government can't guarantee at least a basic level of medical care, then everyone should buy their own insurance or pay cash. Leave employers out of it.
(I'm kinda confused over your answer. It's the employers that provide the benefit, so if you leave them out, there'd be nothing to tax. But, hey, I can be easily confused these days, dontcha know!)
Marilyn from Bellaire a newcomer (thanks!) says...
If I am going to be taxed for health care benefits, it better be because there is a universal program in place for all Americans. I do not mind paying taxes on something to benefit everybody but not just a certain demographic. After all, right now we are all paying for the fact that there is no health insurance for these people and we are picking up the tab thru our own insurance program whose premiums keep going up.
(Taxing certain demographics to support others is common. Witness the Universal Access Fee on your phone bill that is used to fund rural area's telephone and Internet services. Also, tobacco taxes used to fund
child health care programs. Etc, etc...)
DanD unusually succinct wrote...
Oh yeah, all that shared sacrifice...
Okay, so let's also tax all those abusively opulent health benefits of the federally elected ... in spades.
(Amen, Dude! I got yer back on that!)
Adam the cine-sound Pro asks...
Are other benefits like this taxed? Then, No. I think the only benefits that currently get taxed is any accrued sick and vacation time you cash out in cash. Subsidized meals aren't taxed, and I'm sure use of the Co. Jet isn't taxed, so unless all of these more tangible perks are also taxed, then No.
Obligatorily, I'll add that we should all be paying into a single fund to pay for health care. Everything that gets paid to insurance co's now would probably pay for everyone as it is (with more efficient admin and no profit motive), then we still can add in everyone who wants insurance but has been denied.
(Yes, a single payer system is the way to go, IMHO, in order to provide Universal Health Care)
SallyP(al) responds...
A situation such as this is exactly why I believe in socialism! Anyway you get around it, employee-paid health care (even partially paid) IS worth money to the employee. The employee does NOT have to take the insurance, and doing so, he in turn saves a substantial amount of money. Why should this NOT be taxed as is salary? As far as I am concerned, people should be paying a flat tax - forgetting all these "Loop-holds" such as matching 401K contributions, "bonuses," gym memberships, and paid health insurance. Employers should pay decent flat salaries to all - and while I'm at it: What the Hell does someone do to "earn" millions of dollars in salary anyway? I mean, he/she is only ONE person, and as such, can only attend so many meetings, oversee so much him/herself, etc. As far as I am concerned, people earning enormous sums of money do it by scalping concert/sports tickets, or covering up (usually) White-collar crime! Yes, I say tax the working and get with healthcare for all - as has been done all over the civilized world for eons!! Go Barack!!
(I'm cheerleading fer 'The Man' right beside ya, too, ya Ol' Radical!)
Well, Poll-fans, there it is Sorry for the delay. (Sally, please don't hurt me, haha)...
I believe that Universal Health Care is the #1 social issue that we face. I also think that the fact we do not have it now is scandalous beyond measure. Shame on ALL of our elected officials, past and present!
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, this issue does not affect me personally as I am fully covered by the VA for all my health care needs. I get it ALL. Despite any negativity that you may heard, the VA has taken care of me exceeding well. The doctors I see at The Ann Arbor VA hospital are also on the staff of the University of Michigan Medical Center which is just down the street. Not long ago, the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the VA (who is also an associate professor at the university medical school) performed an aortic root aneurysm repair on me. The VA is set up for 'routine' heart procedures such as by-passes and valve replacements which they do daily. But, not this. This was truly a 'big deal'. So the VA paid the 'U' 100K$ (I know, cuz I saw the bill) to have him do it at the 'U'. It's his specialty there. Things like this do not make the media which is only interested in VA horror stories. That's why I'm telling you... As in many things, all is not as it may be told or seem...
So, thanks to all! As I always say, Yer the Best!
The next Poll will be April 7th as I'm going 'out state' on a vacation. Wish me fun!
BadToTheBoneBob
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Beware the vegans! (sfgate.com)
The evil gay agenda is nearly complete. Who poses the next horrible, godless threat?
Esther Freud: Tales from an inner-city chicken run (guardian.co.uk)
A couple of years ago we moved to a house with an overgrown garden, and nostalgic for my country childhood, I decided it might be nice to get some chickens.
Stinson Carter: Living on Eggshells (huffingtonpost.com)
We've always heard that rich and happy aren't the same thing, but it's been a while since we've been forced to prove it.
George Orwell's son speaks out about his father (timesonline.co.uk)
Richard Blair tells John Carey about his childhood on Jura.
Cary Darling: Dutch DJ collective Kraak & Smaak doesn't just keep its beats in the club (McClatchy Newspapers)
The Dutch DJ collective known as Kraak & Smaak, which played two dates at South by Southwest in Austin last week, skillfully walks the line between competing, often polar-opposite, musical worlds: beat-heavy club grooves, atmospheric chill-out and soulful, melodic pop.
Jonathan Cunningham: "Branford Marsalis: King of Kings" (seattleweekly.com)
Life with Leno, Sting, and a decade-old quartet.
Jon Bream: Kooky, colorful singer rises to the top with button-pushing bubble-gum pop and a fruity fixation (Star Tribune)
Uh-oh! Katy Perry's born-again minister parents were in the house. How would pop's new poster child for sexual experimentation deal with it?
20 QUESTIONS: John Wesley Harding (popmatters.com)
Q: The fictional character most like you?
A: My wife says I'm like Willy Wonka. I think that's a bit scary; she thinks it's a big compliment because he's a creative genius and a wiseacre with kids. So, that's very kind of her. But I just think of a kind of crazily dressed psychopathic child murderer with a very sweet tooth.
Rick Bentley: 'Mentalist' co-star says the mind games could go on for years to come (McClatchy Newspapers)
Everyone connected with the CBS series "The Mentalist" can now relax. The Tuesday night drama is one of the biggest hits of this television season.
John Anderson: Actress Emily Blunt: A star who's about to be born (Newsday)
Despite indelible performances as Anne Hathaway's tormentor in "The Devil Wears Prada" and as Tom Hanks' seductress/underwear model in "Charlie Wilson's War," Emily Blunt remains a household-name-in-the-making probably because she's such a chameleon.
DARRELL HARTMAN: Matt Tyrnauer's Tale of Empire (interviewmagazine.com)
In "Valentino: The Last Emperor," director Matt Tyrnauer sketches an intimate portrait of a high-living designer who gave the world Valentino Red but has rarely shown it his true colors: an explosive temperament, an obsession with details, a weakness for pugs. Interview talked to Tyrnauer about capturing the legendary couturier, and his disappearing world, on film.
Cary Darling: Q&A with Paul Rudd and John Hamburg of 'I Love You, Man' (McClatchy Newspapers)
Paul Rudd and John Hamburg, star and writer/director respectively of the man-crush comedy "I Love You, Man," are joshing around near the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
Caféen? Domino (youtube.com)
Which organization was the archenemy of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'?
Mae West appeared on only 2 TV shows - one was 'Red Skelton'. What was the other?
wrote:
Reader Warning
april 1 virus
pass the word -
april 1 virus
gary in pa
Thanks, Gary!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
Journalists Still Held In NKorea
Current TV
Two American journalists being held by North Korea may have been led across the border from China by a guide promising them exclusive footage of human trafficking or drug deals, an activist who helped organize their trip said Wednesday.
The Rev. Chun Ki-won says he repeatedly warned Laura Ling and Euna Lee by phone not to stray into North Korean territory in the days before their March 17 detention.
Chun, who said he helped arrange their trip to China to report on North Korean refugees living in border towns, said the reporters kept in close contact, calling him twice daily. They followed his advice to the word, and never mentioned wanting to sneak into North Korea, he said.
The guide and a third American, cameraman Mitch Koss, reportedly escaped arrest last week but were detained by Chinese border guards. Koss has left the country, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. His whereabouts Wednesday were unclear.
The three journalists work for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV.
Current TV
Moves To March Next Year
Academy Awards
The Oscars will be presented a little later in 2010.
Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, says the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air live March 7 on ABC television from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.
This year's telecast aired Feb. 22. The sleeper hit "Slumdog Millionaire" won best picture, Sean Penn won best actor and Kate Winslet scored the trophy for best actress.
Academy Awards
'Psycho' Score Fails To Sell
Bernard Herrmann
A British auction house says it was unable to sell the score to Alfred Hitchcock's bloodcurdling movie "Psycho."
Bonhams says the 20-page work was withdrawn from a sale Tuesday after failing to make its minimum price. Minimums are typically set at or just below the auctioneer's low estimate - in this case, 30,000 pounds ($44,000).
The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann to accompany Hitchcock's 1960 thriller. The manuscript carries the notes to the slashing, shrieking violin sounds that play when a knife-wielding killer bursts in on actress Janet Leigh as she showers in the Bates Motel.
Bonhams said Wednesday the score would be returned to Herrmann's third wife, Norma.
Bernard Herrmann
Remembering The Women's Orchestra of Birkenau
'Music in Desperate Times'
When Gustav Mahler's niece greeted new arrivals at a Nazi death camp, she knew that any woman who stepped off the train with a musical instrument had a chance to live.
Women in Alma Rose's orchestra were forced to entertain SS officers at the Birkenau concentration camp.
All the women survived - except Rose.
Now, an American ensemble is paying tribute to those musicians with concerts in the U.S. and Germany titled "Music in Desperate Times: Remembering The Women's Orchestra of Birkenau."
During the 18 months the Birkenau orchestra existed, its musicians played pieces the German officers loved - Beethoven symphonies, Puccini arias, Chopin and Strauss waltzes. The women also had to play marches for emaciated, often sick prisoners as they struggled to walk to their forced labor jobs.
'Music in Desperate Times'
Child Star Turned Driver
Shafiq Syed
Once he was as famous as the child stars from "Slumdog Millionaire," but Shafiq Syed's own rags-to-riches story has ended and he now earns $3 a day driving a motor rickshaw.
Having basked in the limelight for his portrayal of a street kid in the 1988 Oscar-nominated film "Salaam Bombay," Syed struggles to feed a family of five at his home in southern India.
Watching the child stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" in Los Angeles as the film swept the Oscars in February reminded Syed of his own childhood and short-lived fame.
Like the "Slumdog Millionaire" actors, Syed was also plucked from Mumbai's teeming slums and catapulted to global stardom.
Shafiq Syed
Wedding News
McKellar - Verta
The actress who played Winnie Cooper on "The Wonder Years" has gotten married.
Danica McKellar married composer Mike Verta in a ceremony Sunday in the California seaside town La Jolla.
The 34-year-old actress and the 36-year-old Verta began dating in 2001 and were engaged last summer.
McKellar last starred in the 2008 Sci-Fi Channel movie "Heatstroke," for which Verta composed the score. After studying mathematics at UCLA, McKellar wrote two books, "Math Doesn't Suck" and "Kiss My Math."
McKellar - Verta
Spider Bite Cures Paralyzed Man
Bad Reporting
It sounds like something out of the pages of The Weekly World News, right next to an alien abduction story: Paralyzed California man bit by brown recluse spider walks again. Only it was reported for real last week on CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS.
Yes, a miracle - a miracle this could make the evening news, for this was a phenomenally poorly reported story bereft of the simplest of fact-checking. Of the three basic facts reported by these apparently professional journalists - paralyzed man, brown recluse spider, and walking - two are surely false.
Yet more than just another example of lousy broadcast journalism, such stories bring false hopes and even danger to those desperate enough to experiment with venom to cure their paralysis.
Here's the full story as sort-of reported: A man named David Blancarte of either Modesto or Manteca, Calif. (reports vary), who was either paralyzed or confined to a wheelchair (reports vary) after a motorcycle accident either 20 or 21 years ago (reports vary), was bitten by a brown recluse spider two years ago and sought treatment in a hospital. An unnamed nurse there noticed muscle spasms; concluded his nerves were just "asleep"; ordered tests; got him to rehab; and got him walking again.
Bad Reporting
Arbitration Hearings Set
Jeremy Piven
The dispute between the Broadway producers of "Speed-the-Plow" and Jeremy Piven is officially on to its next act - arbitration.
In a statement, the show's producers said Wednesday the case will be heard June 8-9 in New York by George Nicolau, a professional arbiter. It follows a grievance hearing held last month at Actors' Equity Association in which a committee composed of five Equity members and five members of The Broadway League, which represents the producers, did not resolve the dispute.
Piven abruptly left the revival of the David Mamet play in December after his doctor said he was suffering for mercury poisoning after eating too much fish over a lengthy period of time.
The producers said in a statement that they were preparing their case, and "in connection with that, have requested a wide range of relevant information from Mr. Piven relating to his claims that an alleged illness required him to leave the show."
Jeremy Piven
'The Producers' - In Real Life
Livent
Two co-founders of a Broadway theater company that produced hit shows such as "Ragtime" and "Show Boat" were convicted Wednesday of accounting fraud for overstating their business' finances by millions of dollars for several years.
Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb, co-founders of Livent, a major Broadway theater company in the 1990s, were convicted of two counts of fraud and one count of forgery. They each face a maximum of 14 years in prison.
In the 85-page ruling, the judge said the Tony award-winning producers knowingly submitted financial statements to investors misrepresenting their company's circumstances from 1994 to 1998.
The Toronto-based company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1998 after the fraud was revealed when former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz invested in Livent.
Livent
Flyover Pop-Ups
Elvis Crespo
Merengue star Elvis Crespo is being investigated after a woman said she saw him performing a sex act on an airplane en route from Houston to Miami, according to Miami-Dade County police.
The Grammy winner was masturbating in view of other passengers Thursday, prompting the plane's captain to radio the Miami International Airport's air traffic control tower, the police report said.
Officers interviewed Crespo upon his arrival but did not arrest him. No charges have been filed.
Crespo was scheduled to fly to New York on Thursday to participate in the city's Puerto Rican Day parade.
Elvis Crespo
Legal Problems
Isaiah Washington
Isaiah Washington's landlord has started an eviction procedure against the former "Grey's Anatomy" star, claiming he owes $100,000 in rent.
Documents filed in Santa Monica, Calif., on Tuesday claim that Washington and his wife have fallen behind on their $20,000 a month payments on a home in the Venice area of Los Angeles.
The complaint filed by Sandalwood Properties states the Washingtons have not paid rent since November.
The 45-year-old actor lost his role on "Grey's Anatomy" in 2007 after using an anti-gay slur at the Golden Globe Awards. He has since appeared in a handful of episodes in other TV series.
Isaiah Washington
'Misappropriated' $8 Million
Florida Priests
Two disgraced Roman Catholic priests have been sentenced to prison for misappropriating more than $8 million (5.5 million pounds) from their church, a theft one judge called a case of "greed unmasked."
John Skehan and Francis Guinan were accused in 2006 of skimming money from collection plates and bequests at their church in Delray Beach, Florida, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends.
Skehan, 81, was sentenced on Tuesday to 14 months in prison and seven years probation after pleading guilty in January to a charge of grand theft of over $100,000.
Guinan, 66, was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison after taking the case to trial and being found guilty of a lesser charge of theft under $100,000.
Florida Priests
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of March 16-22. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.61 million homes, 5.35 million viewers.
2. Movie: "Northern Lights" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), Lifetime, 3.53 million homes, 4.53 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.5 million homes, 5.2 million viewers.
4. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.26 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.
5. "NCIS" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.2 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
6. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.185 million homes, 4.53 million viewers.
6. "NCIS" (Monday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.185 million homes, 4.23 million viewers.
8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 5:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.11 million homes, 4.27 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.08 million homes, 3.87 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3 million homes, 3.99 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 5 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.99 million homes, 4.14 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Wednesday, 6 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.96 million homes, 4.2 million viewers.
13. "NCIS" (Saturday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.95 million homes, 3.9 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Thursday, 5:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.929 million homes, 4 million viewers.
15. "NCIS" (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), USA, 2.927 million homes, 3.73 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Uriel Jones
Uriel Jones, a drummer whose versatile, passionate beat fueled classic Motown hits by the Temptations, Four Tops and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, has died following complications from a heart attack. He was 74.
Jones - who died Tuesday, according to sister-in-law Leslie Coleman - was part of the Funk Brothers, the house band on Motown recordings.
Paul Riser, a Motown arranger-musician, said Jones had a distinctive, driving sound that drew inspiration from his days as a boxer. Yet, Riser said, Jones also could play with restraint when the song called for it.
Riser said Jones often played with surviving Funk Brothers, who were the focus of an acclaimed 2002 documentary film called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." That film brought the players belated recognition in the wider world that largely escaped them in Motown's 1960s heyday.
Jones was one of many Motown musicians who went to the former studio in the Motown Historical Museum on Jan. 12 to help kick off a year of festivities marking the label's 50th anniversary.
Coleman described her brother-in-law - who's survived by his wife, June, and three children - as a man of humor and humility.
Uriel Jones
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
