Cuba as a solution to LA's healthcare woes?

The two things I hate most are ignorance and hypocrisy. This event promises to deliver both. IN SPADES.

Since when is a health system that is so short on drugs that patients must get drunk rather than have an anesthetic held up as a model of what to do in this country?

I realize that the residents of South Los Angeles are USED to substandard health care (witness emergency room closings and the state of the former King-Drew hospital), but to actively seek to model a health system that looks good on paper, but in reality provides no relief to the suffering is inexcusable.

This is a real Cuban hospital. Do we really want to look to this for answers to our healthcare problems?

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Awwwww SHITE

He's not going to make The Hobbit. Not because he doesn't want to, but because of studio business bullshit.

Fuck New Line. Fuck them up their Fucking Asses.

h/t Ith

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ah the Hypocrisy

It's a subject we haven't visited on this blog since The Breck Girl™ and Ketchup Boy lost the election, but the hypocrisy of John Edwards is back in the news again.

Of course he says it's all just a mistake made by an underling.

Wal-Mart had noted in a news release Thursday that on the same day Edwards was criticizing the company in a conference call with union-backed activists, the volunteer staff member had asked a Raleigh, N.C., electronics department manager to obtain a PS3 for the ex-senator's family.

Earlier Thursday, Edwards had said in a statement e-mailed by spokeswoman Kim Rubey: "We instructed no one to contact Wal-Mart on our behalf."

From Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., company spokesman David Tovar said the Edwards staff member left a voicemail at the Raleigh store and identified himself as an Edwards staff member.

When the manager returned the call, the staff member again identified himself as working for Edwards, and Wal-Mart said it confirmed it with Edwards' office. The retailer issued a written statement Thursday accusing Edwards of not wanting to wait his turn.

"While the rest of America's working families are waiting patiently in line, Sen. Edwards wants to cut to the front," the Wal-Mart statement said.

So much for putting America first, huh, John?

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Give 'em the Inglewood Jack....

Ever wonder what happened to Jules AFTER Pulp Fiction?

h/t The Pirate

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Good Night, Uncle Miltie

Milton Friedman, economist, Nobel Laureate, and Patriot is dead at age 94.

Friedman offered blunt advice on subjects as personal as laws against prostitution (he saw them as incursions into individual choice) and as sweeping as the international system of relatively fixed exchange rates, which he sought to overturn and which did collapse in the early 1970s.

He became the human face of the influential "Chicago school" of economics, emphasizing the role of monetary policy, which affects interest rates, and the benefits of laissez-faire or free-market approaches to the economy.

Political leaders listened, granting almost unparalleled influence to a capitalist icon whose free-market emphasis had once seemed out of step with his times. The rise of Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought Friedman fans to seats of national power.

Later, some would see the inspiration of Friedman behind moves of former Soviet governments, the People's Republic of China and other nations to stake more of their future on a private sector.

Although he his best known for his theory of Monetarism, MIlton Friedman was a true Libertarian who believed in personal choice as a social and economic force.  He was a fierce advocate of legalizing drugs and prostitution as a deterrent to crime and a staunch advocate of school choice for elementary and high school students.  His adherence to personal choice more than once put him on the wrong side of the fence with his closest political allies, including President Ronald Reagan.

More on Mr. Friedman here.

And, like he needs MORE linkage, but Insty has a nice round up with links to some writings and several interviews with Dr. Friedman. Also, Steven Leavitt (yes, that one) has some thoughts up at the Freakonomics blog.

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Son of Diet Coke and Mentos

h/t Jen

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That PhD really came in handy...

heh. Seen everywhere, stolen from Jen

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Prayers and thoughts needed

If you have a moment, please take some time to ask the deity of your choice to intervene and send peace and healing to RP's family, as his mother undergoes surgery today to remove what was originally thought to be a pre-cancerous lump in her breast, but which turned out to be stage 2 breast cancer.

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When cool things happen to awesome people

My friend Val Prieto  just got some serious validation that what he is doing at Babalu is getting the message of Cuba out there!

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Happy Birthday!

 To Richmond!

Here's hoping you have a wonderful day, and a year full of everything you could wish for, my friend!

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A Great idea for Christmas

As some of you who have participated in the Soldier's Angels online auctions know well, Holly Aho is a fabulous artist.  Well, Holly has just opened an online store featuring her art, including her paintings and handcrafted jewelery.

There are lots of beautiful things on display, and some great ideas for holiday gifts.

She's also having a referral contest to win gift certificates for the store:

Here's how it works. Use your blog (or website) to refer visitors to the SAHA Store, and win a $5 gift certificate per 250 visitors you refered.

Sound good? It gets better. Each time a visitor you refered to the store makes a purchase you get an additional $5 gift certificate.

Lastly....After 2 weeks the blog/website with the most referals will win a $50 gift certificate to the store!

I don't usually do blog ads, as you know, but I love Holly's work and she's been a tireless supporter of our troops and their families.  So a button linking to the store is up on the left sidebar.  If you'd like to link Holly's store and maybe win some gift certificates  of your own, the instructions for getting the button are here.

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Best Birthday Present yet....

USC REALLY DID beat Texas in last year's Rose Bowl National Championship game.

...although this is a DAMN close second. Oh my......

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It's the big 3-0

So of course I celebrated like an adult:

I went to the zoo and then I came home and took a nap.

Of course, I did take a lot of fabulous pictures. The best were of course of the chimps.  I take better pictures of chimps than anything else.  Here are a couple:

Happy Birthday to me!

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Do it Yourself Country

The Dixie Chicks got you down?  CMA awards hijinks too much to handle?  Why not write your own country songs???

Here's mine:

I met her outside Fresno in September;
I can still recall that little hat she wore
She was drinkin' Dr. Pepper in the twilight,
and I knew I'd have to scrape her off the floor;
She asked me if I'd stay a dwarf forever;
She said to me that Rolaids made her high;
But who'd have thought she'd wind up with a robot;
I pushed her off the bridge and waved goodbye.

Yes, you CAN sing it to the tune of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer."  Why do you ask?
h/t Pixy via JustMe

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Happy Birthday!

To one of my favorite sailors, who was a day past his 16th bithday when I arrived myself.

I found a special cake for ya, Lex. Enjoy!

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Happy Happy!

Happy Birthday to Lisa W of Lemons and Lollipops! Hats off to you!

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Reaction

It's called being a gracious loser.

Three Examples:
1) Jonah Goldberg's email correspondance
2) Jim Geraghty's response
3) President Bush's response (the first 2 minutes of the PC) (will pop up Real Player)

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:18 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I suck

I just spent the last 2+ hours cleaning my office. In the 13 months I've been here, I hadn't ever set up my filing cabinet, and the piles kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And, as I have been assigned more projects, it was getting a lot harder to keep things separate.

Yeah, I know. more than a year, but I'm one of those people who has a photographic memory for messes. I know right where everything is and when i put it there, so there was a lot of inertia on this one.

What decided me to do it today, you ask? Well, I decided that I needed to keep all of the paperwork for each of my students together in one file folder, and that just started the avalanche.

But it looks a heck of a lot better in here. And I discovered that my linoleum is wearing out where my chair rolls over it all the time. Time for an office mat. But that will have to wait until next week when my business manager gets back from a conference so I can order it....

And before you ask, no, I haven't voted yet. DH and I usually go together so that we can confuse them with two different last names :-) Also, our polling place is at a high school, so it's just not a good idea to attempt to vote before 9AM or between 2 and 4PM. We'll vote around 5 or 5:30 and then go out to eat, as we usually do.

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California Election Cheat Sheet

For Tuesday's statewide election:

First, a general rule of thumb: "desperate" career politicians get no votes from me (see below)

Governor-- Ah-nold.  I don't like him that much, but Angelides is a tool.  A rusty, John Kerry-like tool who has already declared he will raise my taxes.

Lt. Gov -- Tom McClintock.  Again, not entirely my cup of tea, but Garamendi is also a tool and is covered under the general rule of thumb above.

Sec. State -- Bruce McPherson.  Who is he, you ask?  Well he's the incumbent who stepped in and cleaned up the huge freaking mess Kevin Shelley left behind, and without a lot of press.  Go Bruce.

Attorney General -- This is a toughie.  Poochigian is a class A DICKHEAD.  A career politician that the rule of thumb applies to.  But then again, so is Jerry Brown.  And Brown was responsible for Rose Bird.  Yeah, that Rose Bird.  So I guess Poochigian it is.  I wish I could just vote NO.

Insurance Commissioner-- Steve Poizner. The rule of thumb above was WRITTEN for Cruz Bustamonte.  I mean, do you really want someone SO DESPERATE TO STAY IN OFFICE that they're willing to go from Lt. Gov to freaking INSURANCE COMMISSIONER????  Not to mention he couldn't come up with a better campaign slogan than "I lost weight, I can keep my promises."

Controller-- Tony Strickland.  He sued Gray Davis for the secret dealings that led to the rolling blackouts.  He knows corruption when he sees it.

Treasurer-- Claude Parrish.  Bill Lockyer is currently Attorney General, so he falls into the same category as our friends Cruz Bustamonte and John Garamendi:  Desperate Housewives Career Politicians who get no votes from me.

US Senate-- Dianne Feinstein.  I dislike her, I really do, but I don't think Dick Mountjoy is really the best candidate.  What I want to know is why the Republican party in this state always puts the more electable candidates up against Feinstein.  She's the conservative one.  A Republican has a hell of a lot better shot against crazy ass Barbara Boxer. If Mountjoy had a chance of winning, I'd vote for him just to switch the seat over to the Red side, but that ain't gonna happen, so I'll smile and vote for Dianne and thank God that she's not Barbara Boxer, part II.

State Ballot Measures:
1A-1E: YES.  I realize that bond measures aren't always the best way to go about funding these projects, but it increases the revenue stream in the short term to get a number of BADLY needed projects going, including freeway improvements and education programs.  For example, 1D sets aside funds to build new school buildings from elementary through college, pays for new science labs and equipment, and restores CA's badly needed vocational education programs, which have all but disappeared in the last decade.
83-- YES.  Jessica's Law: Increased restrictions and monitoring for sex offenders
84-- NO  Do we need this right now?
85-- YES Parental Notification is NOT CONSENT
86-- HELL F*CK NO.  This is a revenue direction scheme masquerading as a cigarette tax.  When several professional medical associations line up AGAINST an anti-smoking measure, it probably sucks.  This one sure does.
87-- HELL F*CK NO AGAIN.  This is that alternative energy thing Bill Clinton is shilling for.  Frankly, it will only end up raising our gas prices and taxes.  It will bankrupt the CA economy by making it too expensive to do business here.
88-- NO WAY JOSE -- Increases property taxes in attempt to circumvent Prop 13.  If it wasn't for Prop 13, my parents wouldn't be able to afford to own their home.  Would you??
89-- NO.  More regulations won't clean up corrupt politicians.  Period. Perhaps poison...
90-- YES.  This is CA's Kelo response.  Keep your hands off my body AND my property.

Or you can just do your duty as a Californian and vote NO on everything, since you didn't really even pay attention to which measure was which in the first place.....

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For Aciddude...

One of my girly pals was visiting from out of town, so we all went to get pedicures together, and as I chose the color for my toes, I couldn't help but think of Rob....

It's my favorite nail polish color, too.  Althugh I suspect he would shit on me about the flowers....

I miss you, you crusty old cracker bastard.

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