Link Dump: Lemmings leaping off the cliff edition

First, let us observe the Congressional health care lemmings a-leaping:
How Many Americans Will Choose to be Uninsured Even if Insurance is Mandatory?[*1]
The illusion of design[*2] –on the folly of believing that anything coming from Congress could possibly be a “carefully designed system.”
The Health Care Fight Has Just Begun.[*3]
When liberal dreams collide with public opinion[*4] by the ever-insightful Michael Barone.
Will people comply with health-insurance mandate?[*5]
Washington Post: Obamacare “Unsustainable”[*6]
Left Now Admitting Obamacare Full of Budget Gimmicks.[*7]
Impermissible Ratemaking in Health-Insurance Reform: Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional[*8] –WARNING: serious Constitutional law scholarship here.
Who’s responsible for the Senate’s middle-of-the-night vote?[*9]
Who’s Meaner, Insurance Bureaucrats or Government Bureaucrats?[*10] And the answer . . .
Shocker: Medicare Has A Higher Claim Denial Rate Than Private Sector Employers.[*11]
What Happened To The Mandates?[*12]
Senate: This Is About Life & Death … and Pork.[*13]
Cry Havoc, And Let Slip The Dogs Of Unintended Consequences![*14]
Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries [*15] –hark! I hear the oinking of pigs at the trough! Too bad they’re feasting on US!

Now, let us meditate upon the cliff which the lemmings screeched to a halt in front of just before leaping off:
Guardian Headline – Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure.[*16]
Climategate: The Perils of Global Warming Models.[*17]
Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri.[*18]

General political/public interest/miscellaneous links:
Balance Blocks News Info[*19] –why the vain quest for journalistic “fairness” is really a bad idea.
Code TEA: Tea Parties, Go Home! All Politics Is Local.[*20]
Voter angst: Nation might see third party rising.[*21]
Who is more respected: Sarah Palin or Al Gore?
There’ll be nowhere to run from the new world government[*22] –from the Telegraph in the UK, who have already been down the road that we in the U.S. are in the process of joining arm in arm with the rest of the world’s governments. They have seen our future and it does not work.
Study Shows Partisan Influence On Stimulus Spending[*23] –yeah, I know, knock you over with a feather.
The Problem is Spending, not Deficits[*24] –hey, here’s a plan! Spend less money to balance the budget. Hmm. A crazy plan, but it just–might–work!

Brown Fat Revelations May Lead to New Weight Loss Drugs[*25] –health news that doesn’t involve Congress. What a relief.

And, finally, something of a public service announcement as we enter the heart of the holiday season:
Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers[*26]

UPDATE: 3:58 p.m. minor editing for clarification and spelling. 4:01 p.m.–Fix broken html.

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 36

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-six

December 16 (Wednesday, Day 49, Cruising the Atlantic Ocean) –

Snookums woke up and worked out and when she came back to the cabin Filbert was ready for breakfast. We emerged from the cabin to find the lower decks decorated for Christmas. The crew only had time to do part of the ship during the night.

Atrium holiday trim
Deck 4 Christmas tree
Observation Lounge Christmas tree

We ate on the outside of LaVeranda with our backs to the ocean (and therefore the sun. Filbert decided that nothing is better than drinking hot tea on a hot, sunny day while sitting in the sun! Snookums couldn’t find a chocolate donut so she tried one with the light brown glaze. Because she knows that cruise ships often make food that isn’t quite “right”, she had a little taste of the light brown glaze before taking a bite of the donut. She figured it would be maple. It was a good thing she did a taste test first since it was peanut butter! She likes peanut butter but not on donuts. The donut with the white glaze had a drizzle of light brown glaze on it and sure enough, that was peanut butter, too. Christiaan, the waiter, saw what was going on and was bound and determined to find her a good donut since he thought a peanut butter donut was disgusting, too. He ended up bringing her two jelly-filled donuts that someone else had special ordered. Snookums doesn’t like jelly-filled donuts but really appreciated Christiaan’s initiative.

After breakfast Snookums and Filbert went shopping and Filbert bought a short sleeve dress shirt. We’ll end up owing $4.99 at the end of our cruise for our purchases since our shipboard credit doesn’t quite cover our bill.

We attended the Captain’s Farewell reception which was immediately followed by the Crew Show. The crew did some of the national dances of the Philippines and Indonesia along with two hip-hop numbers. It was better than some crew shows we’ve seen and not as good as some. As Filbert said, “It didn’t suck.”

Line into the Captain’s Farewell Reception

Crew Show:

Philippine hip-hop?
Philippine Michael Jackson?
Philippine stick-dance
We liked the “Housekeeping Dept” basketball jersey
The crew comes together

We met Pat for dinner at 7 and ended up talking until 10:30 while the waiters started setting up Compass Rose for breakfast. Pat is a widow from Ottawa, Canada and she is in most of the workout classes with Snookums. She snorkeled with us and we’ve met a good friend in her.

Formal night:

Entrée menu
Pasta
Chateaubriand
Snookums, Pat, Filbert at formal night/i>

Next: Doughnuts and candy!

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

When we have to choose between higher wages for nurses or doctors and more extensive services for the sick, more milk for children and better wages for agricultural workers, or between employment for the unemployed or better wages for those already employed, nothing short of a complete system of values in which every want of every person or group has a definite place is necessary to provide an answer.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 35

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-five

December 14 (Monday, Day 47, St. John’s, Antigua – amended to be a day at sea) –

Antigua–as close as we were going to get

Snookums woke up and went to Muscle Mix. While doing crunches the Captain made an announcement saying that since one of our four engines is broken we will not be stopping in Antigua today and will head directly for San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were originally scheduled to get to Puerto Rico at noon on Tuesday but now will arrive at 7 AM. We were not thrilled by this news since we haven’t been to Antigua before and have been to San Juan several times, but things like this happen on cruise ships. There won’t be any zip lining in Antigua for us today!

Snookums returned to the cabin and got Filbert for breakfast. Afterwards, Snookums took a nap while Filbert surfed the Internet. Filbert showered and got ready to hang out in the Observation Lounge and Snookums decided to get up (again) and shower and get ready for the day. She left the room at noon and decided to get some sun.

We met back in the room around 3 PM and did our own things (Snookums read and journaled and Filbert surfed). Snookums also perused the boutique to figure out how to spend our $89 in shipboard credit. Regent boutiques never have anything and she ended up with a Regent polo shirt. Several people were shopping in order to spend their leftover shipboard credit and no one was happy about the choices.

We had dinner with Monica, Joel, Elsa (social hostess), FayeMarie and Jules. Around 10:15 we adjourned to the Observation Lounge to have an after dinner drink while listening to the pianist, Vlado. Snookums had a virgin pina colada and Filbert enjoyed a couple of Manhattans. Around 11:30 Snookums turned into a pumpkin so we left.

December 15 (Tuesday, Day 48, San Juan, Puerto Rico) –

We woke up when Cruise Director Lorraine piped into our room saying that at 8:45 AM everyone would need to clear U.S. Immigration. We showered and got ready for our day in Puerto Rico. After we walked through the immigration line, we weighed ourselves and went to breakfast. Snookums lost 2.5 pounds from the first time she weighed herself on the ship in Mumbai and Filbert gained 3.5 pounds. Not too bad at all for 48 days of cruising!

Around 10 we got off the ship and walked around Old San Juan. We’ve been to San Juan before and have seen the forts so we didn’t have a destination in mind. We decided to walk to the dome in the distance and it turned out to be the Capitol of Puerto Rico. It was built in the 1920s and was gorgeous on the inside with marble pillars and beautiful mosaics on the inside of the dome. The 3-story building was decorated with lots of Christmas trees and garlands and also had a life-size nativity scene in the foyer and Christmas music was playing. There is obviously no separation of church and state in Puerto Rico! On the way back to the ship we saw a dead bright green parrot on the ground. We weren’t lucky enough to see a live one, but we did see a dead one.

After a quick lunch we met for our tour of riding horses in the foothills of El Yunque Rainforest. 38 people from the ship were on this tour and the average age was probably 65. The group was divided into experienced and novice riders and then the horses were distributed. We were with the novice group. Snookums was the very last person to get a horse. She had never been picked last for anything in her life and now she got the last horse. The group rode for about 45 minutes. Along the way Snookums saw 4 iguanas. Two of them were 3-feet long and were orange and green in color. Filbert didn’t see them. We rode to a river and then we had a break. Some people waded in the cool, clear river but we didn’t. Filbert did buy a beer, though. Then it was back on the horses for another 45-minute ride to the stables. Filbert’s horse was named Pepita and Snookums’s was Frankie. Pepita liked to amble along towards the rear while Frankie liked being towards the front of the group and hugged the left side of the trail which meant that Snookums was frequently riding through bushes and her left pants leg got lots of burrs on it. At one point Frankie nudged a horse in front of him and that horse kicked its leg back and kicked Snookums’s stirrup. Snookums was very glad it didn’t kick her shin since that could have broken it. Everyone made it back on the bus in one piece. Snookums’s socks, shoes and pants were splattered with lots of mud but Filbert’s weren’t too dirty.

The horse ride:

Pepita says hi. Or, she’s maybe trying to bite my foot.
Hitting the not-so-dusty trail
”I’m having fun–really!”
Trying to look like he’s done this before (he hasn’t)
He calls himself Joel, from out Mahopac way
All smiles at the riverside
The horses contemplate the return trip
There’s that winning smile!

We took quick showers and enjoyed a nice dinner in Compass Rose while our dirty clothes were in the washing machines. Filbert stayed awake to see us leave Puerto Rico and also listened to the SDSU men’s basketball 73-66 loss to a Cal Poly team that isn’t very good. He’s not happy.

Next: Christmas decorations on the Voyager.

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

. . . when (management) and labor in an industry agree on some policy of restriction and thus exploit the consumers, there is usually no difficulty about the division of the spoils in proportion to former earnings or on some similar principle. The loss which is divided between thousands or millions (of consumers) is either simply disregarded or quite inadequately considered.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

Cthulhu Congress

A prophet once called them by their true name (“Government is not the solutiion–government is the problem!”)

We once thought they were banished. (“The era of big government is over.”)

And yet, again, They come. Their hunger is stronger than ever. Indeed, their hunger can never fully be sated. They devour all before them. They demand obedience. They require worship. They brook no dissent.

Cthulhu Across America

Image via Ace of Spades HQ[*1] which got it from one of Ace’s readers via Moonbattery[*2] from whence The Corner[*3] picked it up.

It turns out that Cthulhu was never running for President (“why vote for the lesser evil?”)[*4] . He/She/It was running for Congress. And He/She/It won. We Were Warned.[*5]

The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre, whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way down towards the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs of huge fore-paws which clasped the croucher’s elevated knees. The aspect of the whole was abnormally lifelike, and the more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown. Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet not one link did it show with any known type of art belonging to civilization’s youth—or indeed to any other time.

. . . Only poetry or madness could do justice to the noises heard by Legrasse’s men as they ploughed on through the black morass towards the red glare and the muffled tom-toms. There are vocal qualities peculiar to men, and vocal qualities peculiar to beasts; and it is terrible to hear the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury and orgiastic licence here whipped themselves to demoniac heights by howls and squawking ecstasies that tore and reverberated through those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs of hell. Now and then the less organized ululations would cease, and from what seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would rise in singsong chant that hideous phrase or ritual:

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”

Then the men, having reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came suddenly in sight of the spectacle itself. Four of them reeled, one fainted, and two were shaken into a frantic cry which the mad cacophony of the orgy fortunately deadened. Legrasse dashed swamp water on the face of the fainting man, and all stood trembling and nearly hypnotized with horror.

From that swamp on the Potomac arose a tentacled, clawed, winged beast, horrible to behold, “with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy . . . bloated corpulence . . . and the more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown.

It’s name is Congress. It has come to devour you and all you hold dear. You have very little time left.

Very little time indeed.

Want to get yelled at by Gordon Ramsey?

It seems that Gordon Ramsey (yes, that bleeding f#@%mouth Gordon Ramsey[*1] ) has a new “inspirational” cooking show called MasterChef[*2] , imported from the UK.

They’re casting amateur chefs[*3] –right here in Kansas City! At the Culinary Center of Kansas City[*4] , where Snookums and I have taken a cooking course or two.

Do you think either of us should try out? (Rhetorical question . . . I’m not going to, and I think it would cut too deeply into our busy, busy travel and basketball schedule . . .)

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 34

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-four

December 12 (Saturday, Day 45, Cruising the Atlantic Ocean) –

Dr. Gay Culverhouse, former President of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Snookums woke up and started getting ready to work out and then diarrhea hit. She stayed in the room most of the day and ventured outside for lunch where she ate the two cinnamon rolls that Filbert brought her in the morning for breakfast. Filbert, on the other hand, had a full day and attended the enrichment lecture on Puerto Rico and the PBS Frontline screening of “Sick Around the World”. Later in the afternoon he went to a lecture that was given by a passenger. Dr. Gay Culverhouse is sailing on the Voyager and a few days before she boarded the ship in Mumbai, she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on “Legal issues relating to football head injuries”. She is the former president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Filbert said that her lecture said that if you get a concussion, you should sit in a dark room for 1 week (i.e. don’t let your brain do any work) and that will help prevent the early onset of dementia that is being seen in some athletes that have had multiple concussions.

More after the jump . . . Filbert ate dinner in Signatures, the Cordon Bleu restaurant. Snookums still wasn’t up to leaving the room, so he had room service deliver cream of mushroom soup, coconut macaroons and a chocolate tart for her from Signatures so she was very happy and ate it all.Snookums fell asleep around 10 while Filbert logged on to the free Internet to listen to the SDSU men lose to Nevada, 92-72.

December 13 (Sunday, Day 46, Bridgetown, Barbados) –

Bridgetown

Snookums woke up feeling better but took a dose of Imodium just to be sure. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while docking at 9:30. We got off the ship for a quick walk around town before our noon snorkel trip. Most stores were closed since it was Sunday and that included all of the restaurant roadside stands that we saw. The grocery store was open due to the holiday season and we were shocked by the prices. A 10-pound frozen turkey was selling for $57. 1 grapefruit cost $1.75. 1 pound of bananas was $1. 1 small head of iceberg lettuce was $3.75. A 2-liter bottle of soda was $3.75. YIKES!!! This was by far the most expensive port we’ve seen on this cruise. It didn’t look like a very wealthy island although it does have the hotel that held Tiger Woods’ wedding. We also saw an 80,000 sq. foot “mansion” that is really 8 condominiums that sell for $20 million each. And Paul Allen’s private yacht, one of the five largest private yachts in the world, was docked across from our ship. So, there is some wealth on this island, but the locals probably don’t see much of it.

After our 2-hour walk we ate a quick lunch before leaving for our snorkel with the turtles trip. We got on the catamaran and after a 40-minute sail it dropped anchor very near the 80,000 square foot condo building. Pat and Erin, two workout buddies of Snookums’, were also on the catamaran. Everyone got in the water and then we saw huge sea turtles. Some of their shells were probably 4 feet long. There were 8 or 10 that kept swimming around us, enticed by the food that the crew was throwing to them. We also saw a few sting rays on the ocean floor and right as we started swimming back to the catamaran, we saw a 2-foot long puffer fish that kept swimming back and forth about 6 feet below us. The catamaran then sailed to a beach and dropped anchor and we “frolicked” in the ocean for another hour. Okay, our version of frolicking means that we stood in the ocean up to our shoulders. The waves were almost non-existent but we still had a good time talking to our fellow cruisers. We got back on the catamaran and Filbert enjoyed a few glasses of rum punch and Barbados’ Banks beer and Janet enjoyed lying on the catamaran’s net. We got back to the ship right before it was scheduled to set sail. We were both pretty wiped out from the morning walk and the afternoon of water fun. Snookums had enough energy to go to the gym to weigh herself and was happy to see that she was 4.5 pounds less than when she boarded the ship. Most of that weight loss was probably due to her gastrointestinal problems of yesterday, though.

Off to snorkel with the turtles-Erin, Pat, Snookums, Filbert

The turtle snorkel and catamaran:

We had a great dinner in Compass Rose while our laundry was being washed. Filbert left during one of the courses and put it in the dryer. After dinner we stopped by the laundry room and got it out and ended up in bed by 9:45. It was a full, and very satisfying, day for us.

Next: Engine problems!