Reason Morning Links: Meet the Oil Fund Czar, McChrystal To Resign, BP's Broken Windows

• General McChrystal expected to offer Obama his resignation today.
• Energy Sec. Salazar will seek to reimpose drilling moratorium after federal judge struck it down.
• Nikki Haley wins runoff, GOP gubernatorial nomination in South Carolina.
• New human remains found at World Trade Center site.
• BP's internal magazine details "bright side" of oil spill, notes Gulf Coast hotels are thriving with cleanup workers.
• Meet Kenneth Feinberg, the Oil Fund Czar.
• Man builds DIY at-home nuclear reactor.

Comments

[Rich]

Gulf Coast hotels are thriving with cleanup workers

And, those workers are breaking lots of windows!

[SugarFree]

So, so close. Understanding that regulation creates distortion in one area should lead you to understand it creates distortions in one area, right? Not for the brain trust at Slate.

At least the comments show the true colors:

The problem is ensuring that, once that mass transit is built, you _follow_through_ and push people off the roads. Otherwise it will sit unused, hurting the chances of any further development.

And if they can't be pushed? What's next, tiny dictator?

[Suki]

Pay the riders for more stimulus.

[Suki]

Hire unemployed dancers to perform.

[John]

You can't just build it. You have to confiscate people's alternatives to it. The little people will never make the right choice unless you force them.

[Fluffy]

Well, no. You could also not build or spend large sums to maintain the auto-based mass transit system.

[J sub D]

I'd be quite content if gasoline taxes were raised to the level that they supported all the road maintenance and construction. But only road maintenance. Let the bicylists fund their own goddan lanes and trails, let and the subway riders pay for their preferred method of commuting.

And for sanity's sake, privatize the interstates already.

[Brett L]

What if we have to land supply planes to repel a Russkie invasion in rural Nebraska? There won't be any infrastructure! Oh noes!

[John]

which is effectively confiscating their alternatives.

[The Angry Optimist]

What? Cutting off government money is not "confiscating" anything, John.

[Fluffy]

Wow, now you sound like Tony or MNG or Dan T.

A failure of the state to build something for you constitutes a confiscation now. Wow, who knew?

The motherfucking state and federal governments confiscated my private waterpark! Damn them! And my giant stone fortress with turrets and gatling gun installations! And my Death Star! Give me back the Death Star you confiscated, damn you!

Next you'll be telling me that all the restrictions placed on private property use to make it convenient for people to use their cars actually "increase freedom".

[John]

Not failure of the state to build something. If the state didn't take any taxes and didn't build roads, you would have a point. Ah, but the state does take taxes. And what they will do is take those taxes and spend it on bullshit mass transit projects instead of roads.

It is no different than what the state does with schools. It takes your money and uses it to build shitty schools that you would never chose to go to. Yeah, you can take your own money and go to a private school, but you still have to pay your taxes. And that effectively cuts off the choice for anyone but the upper middle and upper class.

See what I mean?

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Jebbus, John. Weren't you paying attention?

$J_D$ suggested making the gasoline tax fund exactly the roads. which is to say he suggested making the road users fund the roads, and that they same principle should apply to mass transit and bike lanes.

Reading comprehension, man, it's worth the effort.

[alan]

If you have a Death Star, or even a few H-bombs, I am going to take a wild guess that the Federal government has never been and wont ever be a factor in your life. I envy you.

[R C Dean]

What about the failure of the State to maintain the roads it has already built, and owns, that effectively monopolize the market for roads?

Would that count as a de facto confiscation?

[John]

Especially when it still takes its taxes and uses it on projects that you don't want instead of roads.

[left-wing genius]

Well, we all know that corporations are greedy and evil and want to wring as much profit out of their market power as possible. So wouldn't the most effective approach to killing automobile travel be to privatize roads? No one but the rich could afford it if we let corporations run it, and there aren't enough of them to threaten the planet.

Plus, then libertards and Rethuglicans can't complain about socialism or whatever, not to mention you get money from selling off the roads that you can use to fund public transit. Damn, I'm good.

[SugarFree]

I wonder how many traffic problems are the result of transportation money being diverted to unused/underused mass transit schemes.

[JW]

Nimbler? How about 'emptier' you facsist shitstain? It never caeses to amaze me the epistemologically bankrupt, ivy league cunts that gummints hire to do their transportation planning.

"Klein acknowledged that higher parking meter rates, now $2 an hour, are designed in part to send drivers a message to change their behavior. "If everybody drives a car all the time, it's not going to be very pleasant," he said." hier

Fuck you. How about I stay in the burbs and spend my money there?

[Aresen]

And the higher parking meter rates help encourage shoppers to go to shopping malls or big box stores rather than downtown, helping to "hollow out" the cities.

(Before any idiot suggests that better public transit will bring people downtown, I will ask them if they have ever tried to manage several large packages while travelling on a bus or other public transit.)

[Jason]

I think that's a good idea... going downtown via public transit and bringing home several large items would make an excellent demonstration of the deficiencies of public transit.

How many couches will fit on a subway car?

[Suki]

General McChrystal expected to offer Obama his resignation today.

Speaking truth to power is only cool when you don't have the power.

Seriously, the general didn't say anything bad about Maobama in the story. His staff said stuff, so shouldn't he be showing up with a stack of resignations from them but not his?

[Brett L]

Its not okay for commanding generals to air their differences with presidents via the press. Maintaining that principle is far more important than the individual personalities involved.

Also, its a firing offense in any organization (except maybe pro sports) to trash your boss to the press.

[Suki]

When did he do this? Please, some quotes from him or something.

[wayne]

The general gave an extensive interview to Rolling Stone where he apparently said some disparaging things. Have only seen a few quips, but I guess RS will print the whole thing soon.

[mad libertarian guy]

Yet he would be hailed as a hero for injecting sanity in to the public conversation about these wars if he (or his staff) would have said these things about Bush aides, and not Obama aides.

[Brett L]

And then cashiered or invited to go hunting with Cheney. The generals are subordinate to the president, always.

[Atanarjuat]

What everyone will look like in Libertopia. Meet Billy the Human Billboard.

[Atanarjuat]

What everyone will look like in Libertopia. Meet Billy the Human Billboard.

[John]

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....age/58448/

Liberals want brown people to stay poor and in their natural state.

[hmm]

Fuck, I need to use better sunscreen. I go all Mexican lookin in the summer. Maybe that's why I'm poor.

[Brett L]

Didn't you read Rousseau? They are noble savages.

[John]

"Energy Sec. Salazar will seek to reimpose drilling moratorium after federal judge struck it down."

Hey, I thought the judiciary was sacred and couldn't be opposed by the political branches? That is what they said when Bush was in office.

[Jerry]

But now the right people are in charge.

[mad libertarian guy]

But Feldman is an activist judge. That is what they're saying now.

[Gray Ghost]

How is this not in contempt of the judge's TRO? I thought the correct procedural approach was to bring additional evidence and move for reconsideration of the judge's order, not just say fuck it and reissue the moratorium.

Would love to see the judge issue a warrant for Salazar for civil contempt.

[SugarFree]

So are the "fusion" reactors these guys are building a retread of cold fusion? Because I'm no scientist, but I'm fairly certain you can not create and contain the heat and pressure necessary for stellar fusion with equipment bought off of eBay.

[?]

What about Acme Nuclear Products?

[Wile E .Coyote]

"Wile E. Cpyote: Super Genius...WILE E. COYOTE...SUPER GENIUS"

KA-BOOM!

"Allow me to introduce myslef...my name is Mud! Is their a doctor in the house????"

[robc]

Stellar fusion is way too cold. The Ts in most fusion designs is way hotter (and denser) than the sun.

The sun makes it up in volume.

[SugarFree]

Ah, I see. English major, man, English major.

[robc]

Scene: Graduate Thermodynamics course, first day. Its me and a bunch of mechanical engineers. Im sitting in back of room.

Professor draws a P-T diagram (pressure-temperature) and is pointing out some places on it where certain students research is. Then he has "Rob's work is way up there", pointing WAY off the top in both pressure and T.

Class turns and stares at me. I just shrug.

[robc]

Oh yeah, meant to end that with a "cool story, bro"

[Pro Libertate]

My home is powered by an Electron Pump.

[Groovus Maximus]

Then you must live on the unicellular level, Pro'L Dib.

[Pro Libertate]

Go read The Gods Themselves.

[Groovus Maximus]

I have, Pro'L Dib, I was merely joking with you 😉

[SugarFree]

Frederik Pohl on Frank Herbert.

[Pro Libertate]

You just can't stay away from io9, can you?

I read that one yesterday. Pohl's pretty much the last man standing.

[wylie]

Arrakis was Frank Herbert code for Iraq, The Baron was Dick Cheney, Selusa Secundis was Afghanistan and so on.

huh?

[Pro Libertate]

I think he was making an analogy to today. Obviously, Dune way predated the relevance of any of those things to the U.S. reader. Or author.

[wylie]

But doesn't that make it "Pohl Code" not "Herbert Code"?

Maybe "Herbert-Derived Pohl Code"?

[T]

First, you'd be surprised what you can buy off ebay in terms of scientific equipment. You can equip a pretty nice lab for just about any area of research.

Second, these guys are all doing very small scale experiments. Nobody's trying to build a tokamak reactor in their garage. (At least I hope not) A fusion reaction is eminently doable at smaller scales, but I don't think you can get a self-sustaining reaction going.

[Suki]

I built one in my kitchen but it didn't match the fridge so I threw it out. Was in the way of making chili for beloved anyway.

[Yonemoto]

For the record, I would like to point out I was all over this.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/06.....nt_1762488

[wylie]

Bullshit article is bullshit. No mention of any breakthrough that would allow the farnsworth fusor to come anywhere NEAR "break-even". Just a lot of "LEGALLY purchased"/"LEGALLY experimenting" scare-tactic bullshit.

Oh, and the obligatory, "ZOMGZ, high voltage".

"He SAYS....He SAYS this indicates...," well, yeah, him and anyone else who knows anything about the field. The fusor is thoroughly studied, its operation well understood. So quit with the "He SAYS" bullshit.

It's a fine table-top neutron source...but it's not capable of producing more energy than it consumes.

God forbid the BBC check the wiki article on fusors before writing a retarded article (with accompanying retarded video.)

[wylie]

"And now we'll ask the the average moron on the street for their opinion!" is a nice touch too.

[wylie]

"dueterium, that he LEGALLY purchased!!!"

Why not? It's no more dangerous than hydrogen, or a bottle of propane. Well, leakage aside.

[Yonemoto]

you're a fucking idiot, wylie. The major loss in the farnsworth fusor comes from your reactants (deuterons, e.g.) colliding with the negatively charged mesh grid that generates the kinetic energy. This design (called the bussard fusor) creates a "virtual mesh" by containing electrons in a magnetic field, thus improving the farnsworth design.

[Yonemoto]

FWIW, the navy is also researching the bussard fusor. this could be a race.

[wylie]

You'll have to excuse me, i stopped reading the article long before the part where they mention Bussard.

My point stands: shitty article, not worthy of being linked to.

[Yonemoto]

Ah, well I agree that it's a shitty article =)

It's not a shitty idea, though. check out his actual webpage.

[wylie]

I did, it's pretty sparse, unless NoScript is blocking the good stuff. Also on coffee #6, so things are getting all jittery.

The polywell concept is very cool, and would've been nice if the article or video had gone into ANY detail of that aspect of the project.

[Yonemoto]

It's actually kind of exciting watching a guy go through the initial steps of something kind of amazing (even if it's already been done in secret in a corporate lab in new mexico) because it's so well documented, you almost feel like you're there. I'm going to take a trip up to new york sometime this summer, and I'm going to try to meet him while I'm in the city.

[wayne]

check out talkpolywell.org for the discussions of the most minute details.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

So are the "fusion" reactors these guys are building a retread of cold fusion?

Judging by the appearance of the kit alone I suspect they're messing around with accelerator based methods...

[wylie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....rsch_Fusor

[Yonemoto]

better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell

The guy interviewed by BBC eventually wants to make the polywell coils superconducting coils, to minimize energy input.

[wylie]

As per my and Yono's tiff above, yes, this link is more appropriate.

[Yonemoto]

apologies for the tiff. My science experiment today totally shat the bed, so I'm a bit irascible.

[Yonemoto]

apologies for the tiff. My science experiment today totally shat the bed, so I'm a bit irascible.

[Yonemoto]

(also I got up at fucking 4am to do it).

[wylie]

no link to your project? You tease!

[wayne]

Nope, not cold fusion. They use "inertial electrostatic confinement". Pretty cool idea: set up a cloud of electrons contained by magnetic forces. The electrons, in turn, set up an electrostatic field that accelerates fusible ions toward the center of the electron cloud. The ions collide with enough energy to fuse and voila, fusion.

[-]

They found "new" remains at the WTC site?

[Suki]

Be careful who you cross in Gotham.

[P Brooks]

Why do we even need a President, now that we have a Fairness Czar? The best part is, we don't need to waste a lot of time and energy on elections; he'll just know when it would be fair for him to leave, and he can appoint his successor.

What could go wrong?

[robc]

I was disappointed in the nuke reactor link. I was hoping for a fission reactor, you know, since it would actually work (fusion is staying at its constant 50 years away). I have "plans" for a garbage can fission reactor somewhere around my house. Its seriously flawed, but would work if you could get the right fuel, which you shouldnt be able to. Which is what had me interested, I was wondering how this dude pulled it off - I thought maybe he had redesigned for natural U and heavy water.

[SugarFree]

Dad's Nuke by Marc Laidlaw should be your guide.

[Mike Laursen]

Time to post the Radioactive Boy Scout story, just in case someone hasn't heard it:
http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html

[robc]

That post shouldnt be taken as anti-fusion. Just, as a plasma physics doctoral program dropout, it never occurred to me to build a garage tokamak. Well, I cant say it NEVER occurred to me, but I didnt realize there was a community of that sort of thing going on.

Now, a garage fission reactor would at least produce usable home energy before it killed you and the neighbors.

[T]

Lead is cheap, man. What, you can't invest in some shielding for your garage? People like you are why we can't have nice things. One jackass goes and irradiates the neighborhood and they pass laws so none of us can have baby nuke plants.

Actually, having done some reading on it, the failed history of portable nuke power generation from the US military and the soviets is frightening. It's amazing anybody involved survived.

[Brett L]

Lead just becomes shrapnel when the reactor goes critical.

[SugarFree]

Keeps that asshole Superman off your back 'til then, though.

[smartass sob]

I would think it would just melt from the intense heat, along with everything else in the reactor.

[R C Dean]

Lead just becomes shrapnel>/i> a big puddle when the reactor goes critical.

When reactors fail, they don't explode. They just get really, really hot.

[Brett L]

Flash-boiling water won't just melt stuff.

[wayne]

not fusion reactors, they simply quit when they fail, unless you are talking about a star.

[robc]

Dont forget the parafin too, bremsstrahlung is not your friend.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Paraffin is old school. The cool kids use borated ploy.

[wayne]

i vaguely understand bremsstrahlung, but I would be very happy if you explained it, although I am sure everybody else here would soon have glazed eyes.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Short version: bremsstrahlung created high energy photons.

High energy photons mostly interact in matter (especially electron rich matter like lead, copper, iron...) by splitting their energy with an electron and a new photon (which is still pretty high energy).

High energy electrons do a similar thing...

The result is one gamma produces a shower of many electrons and gamma, and a little shielding can be worse for you than no shielding.

Now, low electron density materials (like water and plastics and wax...) do better per unit mass at shielding that kind of radiation.

So a comprehensive shielding scheme uses layers of electron rich and proton rich materials. The boron is for neutrons which exhibit a very different behavior.

[wayne]

it's not a tokamak, it is a fusor.

[Aresen]

I have "plans" for a garbage can fission reactor somewhere around my house. Its seriously flawed, but would work....

Uh, just how "seriously flawed"?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Man builds DIY at-home nuclear reactor.

That douchebag doesn't know that when you're building a doomsday machine, you don't tell the media. If you want to brag about it, go to a libertarian blog or something because no one of importance reads libertarian blogs.

(Although they're going to wish they had once I finish my doomsday machine.)

[Warty]

Professor Farnsworth: Doomsday device? Ah, now the ball's in Farnsworth's court!
[Farnsworth presses a button, revealing an arsenal of doomsday weapons.]
Professor Farnsworth: I suppose I could part with one and still be feared?

[robc]

That episode was on the other night.

Are you funky enough to be a globetrotter?

Are you?

ARE YOU?

[robc]

Exact quote for the pedants:

Bender: "Please, please let me come with you. I can make myself taller." *clicks*
Bubblegum: "Bender, you can talk trash, you can handle the ball, but look in your heart and ask yourself: Are you funky enough to be a globetrotter? Are you?"
Bender: "Yes."
Bubblegum: "Are you?"
Bender: "I mean. With time, my funk level could?"
Bubblegum: "Are you?"
Bender: "?no?"
Bubblegum: "Deal with it."

[SugarFree]

"You're that Bubblegum Tate?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Leela: Now every galaxy is gonna be cracking wise about our mamas.

Hermes: I'm just glad my fat ugly mama is not alive to see this.

Professor: Enough about your promiscuous mother, Hermes.

[National Ray-Gun Association]

Farnsworth: First thing you know, they're taking away doomsday devices from mad scientists, then mad grad students. Where will all end?

NRA Guy: Amen, brother. (sotto) I keep a vial of mutated anthrax for... (winks) duck hunting...

[Aresen]

You are too late:

The National Geographic Doomsday Machine is already operational:

http://www.jir.com/geographic.html

[Fist of Etiquette]

A doomsday machine that relies on doctor's office waiting room subscriptions to work its doom isn't much of a threat. Not with Obamacare looming.

[J sub D]

The farther the massive spill's effects spread, the harder it will get for President Barack Obama's new compensation czar to decide who deserves to be paid.

Let the fraud begin.

The guy has two conflicting tasks, speedily providing legitimate compensation and winnowing out the inevitable fraud that occurs when someone's passing out a shitload of cash. See Iraq, Afghanistan, WTC and post Katrina New Orleans for some recent examples.

Since it's not Kenneth Feinberg's money, expect him to lean to the quick payment of claims side. Scam artists know this. Sometimes there's no easy answers in the real world.

[Aresen]

I bet this is turns out to be a reproduction of the asbestos industry litigation machine.

[hmm]

My understanding of Kenneth Feinberg model that he used to pay out for WTC was pretty good from a mathematical and economic (statistic) point of view. I'm not sure about effectiveness, but I remember reading some articles in trade magazines discussing the complexity and effectiveness.

The model ,which interests me, aside this whole thing smells like a 10 day old litter box in cat lady's house.

[The Gobbler]

I found his method appalling. The families of rich people, who likely had large life insurance policies got tons and tons of money. The families of the bus boys who worked at Windows on the World...not so much.

[hmm]

Putting a price on a life isn't easy. However, it is safe to take the stance that a 30 year old busboy is not going to make the same income over his life 30 year old attorney. I can prove that statistically.

It was a shitty job to have to do, but I haven't seen any quantitative disagreement with the model. You can argue all day that about putting a price on a life.

[The Gobbler]

"It was a shitty job to have to do"

No it wasn't. It was a job that should not have been done at all. There was no reason whatsoever for the government to pay anything to anyone.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Absolutely correct.

But how much do you think the busboy's family would have gotten if they went the tort route? I suspect that they'd have been faced with a choice between accepting a rather small settlement offer or paying a good chunk of contingency for a somewhat bigger ruling (with the attendant risk of getting nothing). Oh, some of them might strike the big money that way. But I note that given the choice between signing onto the fund and suing most took the fund.

[When We're Not Shooting Dogs..]

Police Chase Leads To Death Of Nun, 83
Several Also Injured Following Wild Pursuit In Harlem

Sister Mary Celine Graham was killed in a car accident sparked by police pursuit.

There was horror in Harlem on Tuesday when an 83-year-old nun was killed and four others were injured in police chase that turned into a mangled mess on Lenox Avenue.

It was a horrendous, near head-on collision that happened around 9:30 a.m and killed Sister Mary Celine Graham. Police, investigating an armed robbery, had stopped a blue mini-van at 141st Street and Lenox Avenue. As they questioned the driver outside the vehicle, a passenger jumped behind the wheel and took off ? and the police followed.

A mile away, at 122nd Street and Lenox.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/h.....66435.html

[highnumber]

That's a hell of a stretch to blame the police for that. You really ought to keep a sense of perspective about these things, anonymous commenter.

[J sub D]

Concur.

[Citizen Nothing]

Some police departments have regulations against high-speed "hot pursuits" that would put the public in danger.

[?]

Liberals want brown people to stay poor and in their natural state.

There's an unironic usage of "Big Food" over there. That started out as a lefty-mocking joke. It must have become a common slur. They always all say the same shit.

Next villain: Big Matter. Then, the Forms!

(I'm sure Big Metaphysical Postulate has done something to keep darkies alive.)

[Brett L]

It's dark matter that keeps our universe expanding towards heat death.

[Fluffy]

That's RACIST.

Physics is so fucking Eurocentric.

[Bob #2]

I thought the reactor was going to be about this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_boyscout.

[Abdul]

Man builds DIY at-home nuclear reactor.

In my career as an employment lawyer, I came across the case of a man who was fired from his job as a nuclear engineer for--among other reasons--not having a Master's or PHD degree. Turns out, he wrote that he had the "equivalent" of such degrees on his application, and somehow this was missed depsite HR reviews and security background checks. Anyway, there had been no complaints in his 20 or so year career about his technical skills (his problems stemmed from interpersonal relations).

I always kind of marveled at the fact that anyone wanted to fire a perfectly competent self-educated nuclear engineer on the basis that he wasn't credentialed. Doesn't the fact that he basically taught himself how to smash atoms argue more strongly in his favor than a guy who had to be taught how to smash atoms?

[robc]

As a mere NukE bachelor, I wonder if I could pull that off....

[Groovus Maximus]

Speaking of fraud, J sub Nostradamus:

-- Forbidding insurers from canceling the policies of people who get sick. Unintentional mistakes on application forms cannot be used to revoke a policy.

More on the Patient's Bill of Rights here.

More of that elimination of waste, fraud and abuse? If pre-existing conditions are no longer excluded, why would this be included now? How are such mistakes "unintentional" unless a patient already knows they have an illness or engage in behavior that can cause an illness? In my experience, patients know they already have a certain illness and "forget" these things so it will be covered under another policy (usually an employer provided policy) and one of the main sources of insurance fraud.

Closer and closer the march to Single Payer is getting (unless you are Union).

[Astrid]

Phasing out annual coverage limits. Starting this year, plans can set annual limits no lower than $750,000. Such limits rise to $2 million in 2012, and will be completely prohibited in 2014.

Anyone want to do the math on how much that's going to raise insurance premiums? I'm going to go drink my breakfast.

[Groovus Maximus]

Oh, I almost forgot the money quote:

-- Guaranteed choice of primary care doctors and pediatricians from a plan's network. No referral needed for women to see an ob-gyn specialist. No prior approval needed to seek emergency care out-of-network.

All this stuff is already presented in an insurance policy before it is issued RE: whether these things are covered or not. Why is only women's concerns addressed here, when typically women a) see the doctor more then men b) OB/GYN coverage is already spelled out in a policy (yearly PAPs and other routine care, including pregnancy care, is often already covered). Also, if a particular PCP is really good and is in high demand, why should he or she forced to accept new patients at the expense of sacrificing quality care?

What the hell is the point of contract negotiations with insurance providers if government can tell me, by proxy of a third party payer, how many patients I have to accept?

[R C Dean]

Guaranteed choice of primary care doctors and pediatricians from a plan's network.

Meaningless.

If the doctor wanted to take the patient before this law, he would have. If he doesn't want to take the patient after this law, he won't.

[true enough]

I had a doctor refuse to take on my case because he was pissed off with the insurance company. He didn't care that he was one of two specialists in my area. Contracts mean nothing.

[TrickyVic]

"""Guaranteed choice of primary care doctors and pediatricians from a plan's network."""

Guaranteed list of doctors is more like it. In NYC many doctors don't take new patients.

[#]

because we are quickly moving towards single payer and nationalized health provision. The medical field is gradually becoming inslaved to the state. I wouldnt want to be entering medicine right now. Being in another industry myself that is under the governments cross hairs, I need to find something thats too little to be noticed.

[This is how]

"The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported last summer about a Waxahachie woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer and was scheduled for a double mastectomy. But days before the surgery her insurance company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, canceled her insurance. Its reason? She did not disclose a prior medical condition ? acne ? on her insurance application."

http://www.meandmydoctor.com/Template.aspx?id=320

[AFSCME]

Closer and closer the march to Single Payer is getting (unless you are Union).

We love free markets, we just don't like to share them with you.

[Joan Wilder]

I think that General should run for President, we need people like that in politics! People who speak their mind.

Lou
http://www.internet-anonymity.at.tc

[bigbigslacker]

Joan, you wanna go out on a date some time? I'll do things to you that you won't be able to tell your children.

[Joe_D]

"There is no chance of any kind of accident with fusion," says Neil Calder
---------------------------

Welcome to nuclear fusion, where nothing could possib-lie go wrong... *possibly* go wrong. Huh, that's the first thing that's ever gone wrong.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Fusion's big advantage is that you don't have to have a fat pile of long-lived radio-isotopes sitting around the place for it to work.

Now, if you want to do it at an industrial scale you're going to have one heck of a concentration of energy, but the result of a catastrophic failure would none-the-less be localized.

Imagine what a minor story Chernobyl would'd have been if the damage was limited to the facility itself: no bijillion hectares of agricultural land contaminated, no townspeople suffering from acute radiation poisoning, no battalion of soldiers sacrificed to contain the mess.

We won't talk about why the soviets were still operating a design known to have that catastrophic failure mode, or why the chief engineer thought it would be a good idea to collect data on what the beginning of a fast run-away scenario looked like.

[wylie]

We won't talk about why the soviets were still operating a design known to have that catastrophic failure mode

In Soviet Russia, faulty reactor designs operate you?

[SugarFree]

General McChrystal expected to offer Obama his resignation today.

What is it dumbass trolls always try and call Hit & Run? Oh, that's right... echo chamber.

[Warty]

Disturbing new show portrays fatties as people

[SugarFree]

I couldn't bear to inflict that on the board. You are officially worse than me.

[Warty]

I learned it from watching you.

[SugarFree]

I admit that I can't seem to stop clicking over to that tab to catch a glimpse of her enormous gunt.

[Warty]

Speaking of worse than you, I find myself endlessly fascinated by the blog of our bitchy visitor from yesterday.

[Drunkenatheist]

Warty, how does your "fascination" with my blog disprove the claim that you need a life?

[Rich]

I saw a big billboard advertising Huge last week, and it made me smile.

More sly Feministing humor!

[P Brooks]

You bastard, Warty.

(As if I have anyone but myself to blame for clicking that link.)

[Warty]

Did you partake of the comments?

[1+] missmelancholy.myopenid.com replied to LivingOutLoud :
I agree with what you've said.
A lot of us support universal health care. I think it is a contradiction for the feminist community to OK being obese when sorry, science does prove that obesity does put people at a higher risk for a lot more health conditions. If we want universal health care, wouldn't one of the focuses be prevention? Diabetes is a huge problem because people don't eat right. A way to solve the problems that come with type 2 Diabetes is to lose weight. If you make healthy choices then chances are you will give less money to big pharmaceutical who could really care less about our well being, just profits.

[SugarFree]

I'd like to see the people who bitch about Big Pharma reject drug therapies when they get sick. And then die.

[Astrid]

Maybe they could do a healing dance like those "noble savages" they're always going on about do, and then die.

[Groovus Maximus]

To that excerpt, I submit two precepts of the Iron Law*:

Me today; You tomorrow.

You aren't free unless you are free to be wrong.

*As compiled by RC Dean, Esq.

[R C Dean]

Very good, Grasshopper. Soon, you will snatch the pebble from my hand.

[P Brooks]

I wonder if whiningselfobsessedbitch.com is available.

[SugarFree]

Sorry. It's taken.

[JW]

I was going to post some snark, but I see I no longer need to. Most excellent Mr. Brooks.

[BP six months from now]

We are not involved and know nothing about the disappearance of Mark Suppes. In fact, our investigators could find no evidence that anyone with that name ever existed. It is our belief that the story about the discovery, by someone with that name, of reliable, cheap, clean enery using nuclear fusion was a hoax.

[Mike M.]

Here's another doozy: federal government halts sand berm dredging, as Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser pleads with the President to allow work to continue.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

England is up 1-0 against Slovenia, which means the US now has to win against Algeria. That match is 0-0 right now.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

If you're not working or work for the government (but I repeat myself) here's a link to the US-Algeria match:

Link

[John]

According to ESPN they already disallowed a US goal. I guess it is fuck the Yankee day. But when isn't it in international sports?

[Mike M.]

I would rather watch the World Wrestling Federation than this freaking ridiculous sham of an event. At least the WWF is transparently a choreographed farce.

FIFA is so rotten it makes the U.S. Congress and the Olympics look clean. I don't know why we even bother dignifying it by sending a team.

[Brett L]

It's always fuck the Yank day in international soccer.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1

Holy shit! US wins in stoppage time.

[BakedPenguin]

Awesome. Just awesome. Even the refs couldn't steal this from us.

[Brett L]

+1

[robc]

Fark headline:

USA defeats FIFA, 1-0

[x,y]

Surprised they didn't call Dempsey offsides on the goal. He was, after all, sitting on the goal line.

[Pro Libertate]

We not only won, we won the group. Haven't done that since 1930.

Awesome!

[alan]

From the land that never took silly Keynesian economics seriously,

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....rowth.html

[left-wing genius]

No one takes Keynesian economics seriously -- who cuts government spending to slow down economic booms?

[bigbigslacker]

Doesn't Obama know how to use a phone? For fuck's sake, why would you have a guy and his staffers fly to Washington for a 30 minute conversation. Oh, that's right, it isn't his money being spent on travel and CO2 isn't a pollutant anyway. Or maybe BO is buying some offsets with our money.