The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Health Care Deformed: Winners and Losers...' Edition
The House of Representatives has passed a Health Care 'Reform' Bill... 'The Man' will sign it and it'll be a done deal... So be it... Now then, Poll-fans, I ask...
What will the President's proposal mean for you? An interactive guide.
Who do you see as the long term Winners and Losers in this imbroglio?
A.) The People
B.) The Democrats
C.) The Republicans
D.) The Insurance companies | Big Pharma | Wall Street vultures
E.) Everybody wins
F.) Everybody loses
G.) How in the hell should I know?
Pick and Choose! Mix and Match! Name names! Point fingers! Rant and Rave!
Praise or excoriate! Let it all out! Have some fun, it'll be therapeutic!
(We're all about fun and wellness here, dontcha know!)
Only seven responses this week, more's the pity, so let's get to it...
Rob goes with D.) as the winners...
The healthcare industries come in first and not until we reform this campaign financing orgy will any legislation be truly for the people. (I'm assuming, Rob, that you see the Losers as everybody else. Fair nuf..)
Adam in NoHo does too...
D Clearly wins, despite all their pissing and moaning. When Obama cut his deal with the private hospitals to make sure a Public Option never made it to is desk, it was clear he was not willing to make sure that the general public came out ahead. Treating this like Car Insurance (which is not equivalent, here) is a losing proposition for A. (Yup)
bebo, usually succinct, gets on a roll...
winners
a&b. people & democrats
losers
c. republicans - I will explain. the only interest the republicans had in the health care bill was to defeat it. By defeating it they figured the Obama presidency would be so weaken, they might have a chance of regaining the White House in 2014. They put all their chips on red & it came up black (no pun intended) & lost. And trust me, I know what losing is. My 2 US senators are Jon Kyl & insane McCain. my congressman is Trent" I know nothing " Franks (R). the governor is Jan Brewer (R), who just kicked 310,000 off Medicaid & did away with the KidsCare program which provided health care to 47,000 children.You would think I would catch a break every now & then but no, there's more. the county sheriff is Joe "nickel bag" Arpaio who is trying to arrest every Hispanic in the state & operates his own gulag called " tent city ". He has written a book & according to his last appearance before the grand jury said he never read it. (?) strange as it seems, since I grew up in the Mississippi delta, except for the dogs & fire hoses, I feel right at home.
(Wanna trade Arizona fer Michigan? Hmmmm? I didn't think so, haha... Watch out fer that Joe, though...)
maw sees the donkey get a spine...
B. Hopefully, this will show the Dems that having a backbone is not the end of the world.
(One can always hope...Although, I'm not sure of the specific results here of that recent growth...)
Roly chooses...
I have to take door "D". To force people to pay for health insurance is plain wrong. Don't get me wrong I am all for single payer health care (I am on it now ;>} ) but when the insurance companies stock shoot up with the passage of the bill you know something is wrong.
(Yup, again)
SallyP 'sees all and knows all' about it...
This week's poll is about healthcare (what will the proposal mean to me specifically) and my reply would be between: E.) Everybody wins, and G.) How in the hell should I know? Indeed, I have been reading a lot about the bill, and listening to NPR shows about it (the regular media cannot be believed), so I think I am more educated about the pros and cons of said bill than most.
(Oh, really? I'm so glad that you responded then! Surely, we never coulda figured it out on our own, haha...) That being said, from my perspective, I hear only good things about it for me, personally. Of course, I am not a, 'doctor, Rx, etc.,' person, and only carry a Medicare card (Mostly because the card is used for 'senior' bus fares here in NY and Jersey). But, I'll admit that it is nice to know I have a back up, 'in case.' But, do we really know what the Repugs will do to this measure in the future, or if the funding for the bill will carry it? No, only time will actually tell in the end. In fact, I really didn't care what was in the bill, I just wanted Obama to stuff it down the big mouths of the hateful Repugs until they choked on their own vomit - but that's another whole subject, isn't it? Hahaha! And that's all she wrote.
(Ah, Sally, every heard of the concept of a 'Pyrrhic Victory'? I think that's what we have here...)
Paul of Seattle (Who says he's "being optimistic", haha...) unequivocally states...
A) The losers will be the American People since they usually lose and the bill in final form will be FUBAR.
D) Winners will be corporate America and international corporations.They control 99% of congress and they are "TOO BIG" to fail.
(Cynical, now, are ya, Paul? Join the club!)
Well, then, Poll-fans... I believe that I have sufficiently stated my position and choices with my responses to yer replies... But, as I always say, "Hope fer the best, expect the worst"... and, of course, Yer the Best!
Thanks to all!
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Question
The 'Ten Little Questions' Edition
It's Census time again! (What? Already? Didn't we just do this 10 years ago?)
so, just fer fun, I'll add four of my own...
1.) Did you fill out your census form and send it back yet?
2.) If not, will you?
3.) Did you answer all the questions?
4.) If not, what questions didn't you answer and why?
(Warning! Big Brother says we have to fill it out and return it otherwise we'll get a knock on the door from the friendly Census Police politely asking us to do so...
Go easy on the poor bastards, eh? They're mostly unemployed people trying to make a few bucks and probably are scared to death that they're gonna get slammed. It's not their fault, OK?... P.S. you answers here are entirely confidential and will not be shared with ANYBODY, especially You-Know-Who...)
BadtotheboneBigBrother...er, Bob
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Punks and Plutocrats (nytimes.com)
Opponents of financial reform may say they're fighting bank bailouts, but what they are really trying to block is bank regulation.
Kenneth Harvey: Rachel Maddow Fires Back Against Scott Brown (advocate.com)
Rachel Maddow ran a full-page ad in Friday's issue of The Boston Globe, featuring a letter in which she dismisses Sen. Scott Brown's claims the political pundit will run against him in 2012, .... Maddow also suggests Brown thinks twice before he tries to smear a constituent to raise money out of state.
Connie Schultz: Turn Off the Lights To Save the Birds (creators.com)
The solution here and across the country is simple: Turn off exterior and interior lights after 11 p.m. during spring and fall migration seasons.
Susan Estrich: Catholic Wars (creators.com)
Whether or not you support this president and this bill, you have to admire the guts and determination of this president and this speaker. The president showed guts. In my book, he deserves the glory.
"The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W. G. Sebald" by Lynne Sharon Schwartz: A review by Evelyn Toynton
In the five years between the first appearance of W. G. Sebald's books in English and the car crash that killed him at the age of fifty-seven, his work was often described in terms we might have thought had vanished from the critical lexicon altogether. The word "sublime" kept recurring -- "mysteriously sublime," in James Wood's formulation -- not as a mere adjective of extravagant praise but in precise reference to the tenor of his writing.
Edmund White: The Strange Charms of John Cheever (nybooks.com)
Stendhal once said that writing should not be a full-time job, and John Cheever's unhappy life seems to lend substance to his remark. He had too much free time, too much creative energy, too many hours to feel lonely or to drink or to get up to sexual mischief that he immediately regretted.
Ari Karpel: "Sean Hayes: I Am Who I Am" (advocate.com)
Step back, Jack: The man who played TV's iconic and over-the-top sidekick steps out of the shadow of his famous character to speak for the first time about living openly, his contribution to the gay movement, and his much-anticipated Broadway debut.
Drew Barrymore: Don't mention the c-word (guardian.co.uk)
Actor, producer and now director, Drew Barrymore has spent her whole life in the public eye. But call her a celebrity at your peril, warns Emma Brockes.
Will Lawrence: Drew Barrymore: still young at heart (timesonline.co.uk)
The actress made it through a teen nightmare and claims to have found maturity with her first film as a director.
Robert Butler: 'An Evening with Kevin Smith' is likely to cover a lot of funny ground (McClatchy Newspapers)
You don't expect piety from a potty-mouthed guy who made a movie called "Dogma" that savaged the religion of his childhood.
RICHARD ROEPER: Stern's remarks on Sidibe crude, but accurate (suntimes.com)
Weight is an undeniable issue, for health as well as Hollywood
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (athensnews.com)
For a while, the young daughter of John Conwell did not want the different kinds of foods she ate to touch. Therefore, at meals she would often have three or four plates: a plate for meat, a plate for vegetable number one, a plate for vegetable number two, and a plate for dessert. She would eat all the food off the first plate, then all the food off the second plate, and so on. Mr. and Mrs. Conwell decided to try to break her of this habit, so they took her to a nice restaurant. Their daughter ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich - "on three plates, please." Fortunately, eventually she grew out of this habit.
David Bruce: William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream": A Discussion Guide (lulu.com)
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
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G'day Y'all,
You know sometimes you stumble upon a story that's too good to keep to yourself. So here you are. Enjoy.
Cheers,
Stephen
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but a bit cooler.
Keeping Track Online
Late Night
In only a couple of years and after much soul-searching by network executives, the Internet has transformed the late-night television experience. Staying up past midnight and switching channels trying to stay awake during the commercials? That's your dad's way to watch.
With a few mouse clicks one morning last week, it was possible to watch Jay Leno's monologue from the night before, along with David Letterman's Top 10 list, Tina Fey telling Tracy Morgan stories, Jimmy Fallon using the words of angry conservative talk show hosts in an audience karaoke contest and Kimmel interviewing actress Gabrielle Union.
Making the comic material available online was a tough decision for the networks. They want their stars to have buzz, and you can't do that offline. Yet if you make it to easy for people to see either a full episode or cull the best bits, viewership could plummet and so could the rates paid by advertisers, networks' chief source of revenue.
Testing is ongoing, but so far the conclusion is that online release of video clips or the full programs doesn't cut into viewership for the programs themselves.
Late Night
Outs Self
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin is no longer denying the rumors: He's gay.
In a statement posted via Twitter in both Spanish and English, Martin said: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."
For many, Monday's announcement will come as no surprise; the "Livin' La Vida Loca" singer's sexuality has been speculated about for years. But the Puerto Rican star, who got his start as a child in the teen group Menudo, never directly addressed it and was usually seen at events with beautiful women on his arm.
Martin, 38, who is the father of two boys born via surrogate in 2008, said he couldn't continue to hide his sexuality now that he is a father: "Enough is enough. This has to change."
Ricky Martin
Filed Petition
Chaz Bono
Chaz Bono is asking a judge to formally change his name and gender.
The 41-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star, was born a girl to Sonny Bono and Cher. He filed a petition to change his name and gender last week.
Bono's doctor filed a declaration with the court indicating he performed a gender-change operation last year.
A hearing on the petition is scheduled for May 6 in Santa Monica, Calif.
Chaz Bono
Comic Sets Record
Superman
The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again.
A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books.
The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday. That number was bested just days later when a 1939 comic book featuring Batman's debut sold for $75,000 more at an auction in Dallas.
There are about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful in good condition. The issue that sold Monday was rated slightly higher than the one that sold in February; it had been tucked inside an old movie magazine for years before being discovered.
Superman
Guest Judge On `Project Runway'
Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba is bringing her celebrity fashion sense to "Project Runway."
Lifetime spokeswoman Kannie Yu LaPack says Alba will serve as a guest judge on Thursday's episode of the popular clothing-design competition show.
The 28-year-old actress will help judge a challenge in which the remaining six contestants must create an outfit for an "opinionated celebrity," who they will later discover is show host Heidi Klum.
Other guest judges this season have included Nicole Richie, Molly Sims and Lauren Hutton.
Jessica Alba
Comic Book Headed To AMC
'Walking Dead'
AMC network says it's bringing the popular "Walking Dead" comic book to TV as a live-action series set to debut in October.
Created by Robert Kirkman, "The Walking Dead" explores the aftermath of a world overrun by zombies. It follows a group of human survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, who journey in search of a safe home.
AMC announced Monday that the series will begin filming in Atlanta in June. It was initially scheduled for six episodes.
Only Jon Bernthal has been announced for the cast. Among those behind the camera is executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, whose feature credits include "The Terminator," "Aliens" and "Armageddon."
'Walking Dead'
Items To Be Auctioned
Diana, Princess of Wales
Rare antiques from the ancestral home of Diana, Princess of Wales - including a 12 million pound ($18 million) Rubens portrait from the 17th Century - will be offered for sale this summer, an auction house said Monday.
Christie's auction house said it will sell about 20 million pounds ($30 million) worth of artifacts from Althorp House, in Northamptonshire, central England.
Althorp - Diana's childhood home and the site of her burial following her 1997 death - is now occupied by Diana's brother Earl Charles Spencer. He recently announced his engagement to Lady Bianca Eliot, who will become his third wife.
The auction house said the Spencer family hoped to sell off a variety of valuables to invest the funds raised and protect the long-term future of the stately home.
Diana, Princess of Wales
THIS STINKS!
Albert Snyder
Lawyers for the father of a Marine who died in Iraq say a court has ordered him to pay legal costs for the anti-gay protesters who picketed his son's funeral.
The protesters are led by Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. Albert Snyder of York, Pa., had won a $5 million verdict against Phelps, but it was thrown out on appeal.
On Friday, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Maryland ordered Snyder to pay the costs of Phelps' appeal.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to consider whether the protesters' provocative messages, which include phrases like "Thank God for dead soldiers," are protected by the First Amendment.
Lawyers say Snyder already is struggling to come up with the fees associated with filing the brief with the high court.
Albert Snyder
Conservative Family Values
RNC
The Republican National Committee spent $1,946 last month at a sex-themed Hollywood club that features topless dancers and bondage outfits. Now the GOP wants its money back.
Listed in a monthly financial report, the amount is itemized as expenses for meals at Voyeur West Hollywood.
RNC spokesman Doug Heye said Monday the committee doesn't know the details of how the money was spent, all who may have attended or the nature of the outing, except to say it was an unauthorized event and that the expenditure was inappropriate.
The RNC will be reimbursed by Erik Brown of Orange, Calif., the donor-vendor who billed the committee for the club visit, Heye said.
RNC
Miracle Under Scrutiny
JP II
The Vatican this week marks the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death amid some doubts that the miracle needed for his saint-making cause will stand up to scrutiny and questions about his record combatting pedophile priests.
The inexplicable cure of a young French nun from Parkinson's disease had initially seemed like the perfect case for a miracle as the Vatican fast-tracked John Paul's beatification. The nun, who suffered from the same disease that ravaged John Paul for years, had prayed to him for relief and one morning two months after John Paul died, woke up completely, inexplicably cured.
But from the beginning, Simon-Pierre's mysterious cure seemed difficult for the Vatican to certify as a miracle. According to the Vatican's own rules, the medically inexplicable cure must be instantaneous, complete, and lasting.
New questions were raised in recent weeks, after a Polish newspaper reported that doubts had been cast about whether Simon-Pierre had Parkinson's to begin with. The Rzeczpospolita daily, one of Poland's most respected and widely read newspapers, suggested that Simon-Pierre instead may have suffered from another neurological disease which has smilier symptoms as Parkinson's but which can be cured.
JP II
Judge Strikes Down Patent
Cancer Genes
In a ruling with potentially far-reaching implications for the patenting of human genes, a judge on Monday struck down a company's patents on two genes linked to an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet challenging whether anyone can hold patents on human genes was expected to have broad implications for the biotechnology industry and genetics-based medical research.
Sweet said he invalidated the patents because DNA's existence in an isolated form does not alter the fundamental quality of DNA as it exists in the body nor the information it encodes.
He rejected arguments that it was acceptable to grant patents on DNA sequences as long as they are claimed in the form of "isolated DNA."
Cancer Genes
Another Round Of Corpse Shtupping
Farrah Fawcett
A producer being sued by Farrah Fawcett's estate has fired back in a court filing by claiming the late actress' money is being mishandled.
The trustee of Fawcett's estate has withheld money from some of the actress' beneficiaries, including her father, according to a filing by producer Craig Nevius. The document filed last week in Santa Monica is in response to a lawsuit filed by a Fawcett's estate against him in January.
Nevius, a one-time Fawcett confidante, also claims the lawsuit against him filed by trustee Richard B. Francis is a misuse of the actress' money.
The filing takes numerous swipes at Fawcett's longtime companion, actor Ryan O'Neal, and friend Alana Stewart. Both were constant figures in Fawcett's final months and worked on the documentary "Farrah's Story," which aired on NBC.
Farrah Fawcett
Court Battle With Ex-Employee
Heather Mills
The former nanny to Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills described her Monday as a bitter and dishonest employer who forced her to work overtime without pay and demanded her staff say positive things about her to a documentary film posted to the Internet.
Sara Trumble, 26, is suing Mills on the grounds of sex discrimination and unfair dismissal, saying the former model effectively stripped her of a nanny role when she gave birth to her own baby girl.
Trumble, who was hired by the ex-model to look after her daughter with McCartney in 2004, told an employment tribunal in southern England that she often worked without pay as the couple stayed out late at various engagements. When Mills split from the former Beatle two years later, Trumble said she provided Mills with a shoulder to cry on.
Trumble said Mills gave her gifts - including a convertible and a 1,000 pound ($1,500) check when her daughter was born - but she said Mills also demanded that she return to work when she was still out on maternity leave. Trumble said she was horrified when Mills told a meeting of her staff that a new nanny would be looking after Beatrice and that Trumble would instead be a full-time cleaner.
Heather Mills
May Reject Award
Grigory Perelman
Who doesn't want to be a millionaire? Maybe a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor who lives with his elderly mother in Russia - and who won $1 million for solving a problem that has stumped mathematicians for a century.
Grigory Perelman can't decide if he wants the money.
"He said he would need to think about it," said James Carlson, who telephoned Perelman with the news he had won the Millennium Prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Mass.
Perelman was honored for proving the Poincare (pwan-kah-RAY) conjecture, which deals with shapes that exist in four or more dimensions, rather than the familiar three dimensions. The conjecture proposes a test for determining whether a shape in such space, no matter how distorted, is a three-dimensional sphere.
Grigory Perelman
Largest On Record
Whale Die-Off
Mass death among baby right whales has experts scrambling to figure out the puzzle behind the largest great whale die-off on record.
Observers have found 308 dead whales in the waters around Peninsula Valdes along Argentina's Patagonian Coast since 2005. Almost 90 percent of those deaths represent whale calves less than 3 months old, and the calf deaths make up almost a third of all right whale calf sightings in the last five years.
"This is the single largest die-off event in terms of numbers and in relation to population size and geographic range," said Marcela Uhart, a medical veterinarian with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). She represents an associate director in Latin America for the WCS Global Health Program.
Only a few clues have emerged so far regarding the cause of death, such as unusually thin layers of blubber on some dead calves. Whale calves typically have lower chances of survival during their first year of life, but the high rate of death at Peninsula Valdes is unique.
Whale Die-Off
Door To Afterlife Found
Egyptian Tomb
Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities authority said Monday.
These recessed niches found in nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs were meant to take the spirits of the dead to and from the afterworld. The nearly six-foot- tall (1.75 meters) slab of pink granite was covered with religious texts.
The door came from the tomb of User, the chief minister of Queen Hatshepsut, a powerful, long ruling 15th century B.C. queen from the New Kingdom with a famous mortuary temple near Luxor in southern Egypt.
User held the position of vizier for 20 years, also acquiring the titles of prince and mayor of the city, according to the inscriptions. He may have inherited his position from his father.
Egyptian Tomb
Thousands Watch Hatching
Owlets
A barn owl couple in California has given birth to a family and a fan club.
Two years ago, Carlos and Donna Royal made an owl box, put it on top of a 15-foot pole in their northern San Diego County back yard and hooked up a video camera. Barn owls Molly and McGee moved into the box in January and started a family.
Since ustream.tv/theowlbox debuted, it's had more than 3 million hits. More than 17,000 people watched as the first owlet hatched on March 21. A fourth baby owl hatched Sunday, with one egg remaining.
The Royals have named the babies Max, Pattison, Austin and Wesley.
Owlets
In Memory
June Havoc
Actress and writer
June Havoc, whose childhood in vaudeville as Baby June was immortalized in the musical "Gypsy," has died in Connecticut at age 97, her publicist said Monday.
Havoc, the younger sister of famed stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, died Sunday of natural causes at her home in Stamford. Her death was confirmed by Shirley Herz, her publicist and friend.
While she never reached the fame of her sister, Havoc had a varied, successful theater career that stretched from 1918 into the next century.
Havoc was born June Hovick on Nov. 8, 1912, in Seattle. (Some sources give other years, but Havoc herself specified that date in 2006.)
Her mother, who had an unhappy marriage, plotted an escape. Her second daughter, June, was cute and outgoing, and at 18 months she was dancing in vaudeville and appearing in movie comedy shorts.
Mama Rose kept June in vaudeville until she was far beyond her baby cuteness. Frustrated and weary of constant travel, June escaped at 13 by marrying a boy in the act. She gave birth to a daughter, April Hyde Kent, and later divorced. Another marriage to advertising man Donald S. Gibbs ended in divorce. She was married to radio and TV director William Spier from 1947 until his death in 1973.
The early 1930s were a grim period for Havoc, the spelling she adopted from her birth name. Vaudeville was dead and she had entered the "awkward stage" between child actress and ingenue. She competed in seven dance marathons, a Depression spectacle in which couples danced around the clock until they collapsed; the last pair standing won a cash prize.
In 1963, Havoc wrote and directed a Broadway play about her experience, "Marathon '33," garnering a Tony nomination as best director. Julie Harris, starring as a young vaudevillian named June, also picked up a Tony nomination.
She played feature roles in 26 films including "My Sister Eileen," "Gentleman's Agreement," "Red, Hot and Blue" and "Chicago Deadline." (Her sister also appeared in some films in the 1930s billed as Louise Hovick.)
But Havoc's major work was on the stage. She appeared in more than a dozen productions on Broadway, including Cole Porter's "Mexican Hayride" (1944) and "Sadie Thompson" (also 1944), a musical based on a W. Somerset Maugham short story. Her last Broadway appearance was in the early 1980s, one of the many replacements as the evil Miss Hannigan in "Annie."
June Havoc
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