Nine years later, JibJab still has it.
(via all that glitters)
Tag Archive for 'george bush'
Yesterday, the House and the Senate voted to override Bush’s veto of a bill that would cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians. Cuts in reimbursements are correlated to the decrease of physicians who see patients on Medicare, leaving the elderly less access to health care. The funds to support this bill will come out of the budget for private Medicare plans—which seems to upset Human and Health Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. But the government pays more for private plans that result in additional financial burden on the elderly, and there is no evidence that private plans are necessarily better. (Not to mention the profit-seeking and ethically questionable behavior of private insurers and their agents.)
This, by no means, is a long-term fix for Medicare spending and coverage. But it is a necessary move. Leaving people unable to get health care while you fix the system is not the way to go.
If you’re one of those strange people who care for legalese (like me), you can read the proposal of and the revisions to the bill that was passed yesterday.
- I’m Voting Republican. Learn the real reasons why people vote Republican.
- Gay unions shed light on gender in marriage. Gender roles don’t really exist. In gay relationships, there is no one who is the “woman” or the “man”. Gender roles are not biological; they are a cultural construct. (Duh.)
- JK Rowling’s commencement speech to Harvard. A bit long but every bit insightful. Excerpt: “So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. [...] Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.”
- Parasite that induces love in its host. Insect mind control. Never looking at a wasp in the same way again.
- China and Taiwan agree to open permanent offices on the other’s soil. This is not-news news. China and Taiwan relations have been better ever since Ma Ying-jeou took the Taiwan presidency. His predecessor was very pro-independence and antagonised China repeatedly.
- Got a picky eater? The solution is Chinese food. Chinese people will eat anything. (Not kidding.) After you’ve had cow intestine (and it’s really good), not much else seem unappetizing.
- Bush regrets his legacy as a man who wanted war. Bush reflects on the past eight years and says that he shouldn’t have used as harsh, divisive language.
