Reality Check On Health Care Reform

I got an email this morning asking me to either upload a video of myself saying what I think about healthcare reform OR take a “quiz” to see how the healthcare reform package would benefit me directly based on my current situation.

I took the quiz.  Here are the answers that I got:

Here’s What You Will Get Out of Health Insurance Reform

1. Reform will bring down costs generally and make insurance more affordable and accessible, ensuring more choices for quality coverage
2. Reform will allow you to keep the coverage you have if you want to
3. Reform will establish an insurance exchange that will provide easy one-stop shopping to compare rates and services and promote competition
4. Reform will streamline and simplify paperwork and cut the bureaucracy for you and your doctor
5. Reform will be accompanied by an agreement to end the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D, dramatically reducing both the costs and anxieties associated with purchasing prescription drugs
6. Reform will end discrimination based on gender – a healthy 22 year old female can be charged premiums 150% higher than a healthy 22 year old male under the status quo
7. Reform puts a cap on what insurance companies can force you to pay in out of pocket expenses, co-pays and deductibles
8. Reform will prohibit insurance companies from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for you or your family members if you become seriously ill
9. Reform will prevent insurance companies from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive

Then I clicked on this link for more.  You should too.  My premiums go up 10% every year — and I’m healthy!

song du jour: She’s A Lady

Well she’s all you’d ever want
She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner
Well she always knows her place
She’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner.

She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, she’s a Lady
Talkin’ about that little Lady, and the Lady is mine.

Well she’s never in the way
Something always nice to say, Oh what a blessing.
I can leave her on her own
Knowing she’s okay alone, and there’s no messing.

She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, she’s a Lady
Talkin’ about that little Lady, and the Lady is mine.

Well she never asks for very much and I don’t refuse her
Always treat her with respect, I never would abuse her.
What she’s got is hard to find, and I don’t want to lose her.
Help me build a mansion from my little pile of clay. Hey, hey, hey

Well she knows what I’m about,
She can take what I dish out, and that’s not easy.
Well she knows me through and through,
She knows just what to do, and how to please me.

She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, she’s a Lady
Talkin’ about that little Lady, and the Lady is mine.

Yeah yeah yeah, She’s a Lady
Listen to me baby, She’s a Lady
Whoa whoa whoa, She’s a Lady
And the Lady is mine

Yeah yeah yeah, She’s a Lady
Talkin’ about this little Lady
Whoa whoa whoa whoa
And the Lady is mine

Yeah yeah, She’s a Lady
And the Lady is mine

If You Text While Driving, You Are A Menace To Society

I think that texting in and of itself is stupid.  How in touch do you need to be?  If you text while driving, you are not only a moron but you are dangerous.

h/t The Litterbox

Listen To Ted Kennedy:

“This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver–to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, “that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege.” For four decades I have carried this cause–from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me–and more urgency–than ever before. But it’s always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.”

Food For Thought:

 

A must-read over at Mudflats today.

 

 

More on William Kostric, the armed wingnut at the Obama Healthcare Town Hall Meeting

Here is a story about him on MSNBC.

This is supposedly his myspace page.

Here’s an article about him on Salon.com.

Then there’s this:  http://www.williamkostric.com/

Here’s his LinkedIn page.  (I kid you not)

The Democratic Underground notes that he is wearing an ear piece while armed at the town hall meeting.

And then, there is this video was shot after the Chris Matthews interview:

 

And, to complete the picture, check out this story on Crooks and Liars.

Why Did You Bring A Loaded Gun To A Presidential Event?

What are you doing to help this debate?  What are you advocating?

“I’m advocating an informed society, and armed society, a polite society…. that’s all there is to it.”

“More guns, less crime.”

…

So you’re saying that if a thousand people today that were all armed it would be a safer crowd?

“Absolutely”

If everybody had a gun?

“Absolutely”

…

Uhhhh…  WTF?

Are we all going to start riding horses, carrying ropes and flask of whiskey?  No more bathing unless you happen upon a river?

I don’t get it.

Is anyone else scratching their head?

GO BARNEY!!!

Take that, you wingnut!

h/t Grumpy Lion

quote du jour: “Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater…”

‘Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.

If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby.

If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home.

If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal.

If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart.

She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.’

Wanna See Something Gross?

I was walking down the stairs this morning and saw what appears to be a lizard that stopped, literally, dead in his tracks and is now being eaten by ants and yellow jackets.

Check it out.