Recent Comments

1. about 22 hours ago on Scott Stantis

   — agreed completely. Triage is NOT the same thing as rationing.

   Rationing is a systemic policy-based limiting of resources based on values. Triage is an on-the-spot, emergency prioritization based on immediate situational realities.

   In the case of Italy or New York, there may be patients who have NOT had care rationed — they have full coverage and are qualified to receive benefits — but because of an immediate crunch, all at once, because “someone” didn’t respond to warnings they had months earlier (because the “numbers” would look bad), and couldn’t respond anyway because “someone” dismantled the Pandemic Response Unit, the medical demand curve is too steep for the medical supply curve so triage (emergency outcome-based prioritization) becomes necessary. The way to have avoided it would be to flatten the curve so that the medical demand curve stays below the supply curve and everyone gets coverage.

   Rationing would be a POLICY saying if you have enough money to buy insurance from for-profit corporations or work for a company that will provide it for you, you can see a doctor (REGARDLESS OF MEDICAL SUPPLY) and if you don’t have money or the right employer or pre-existing coverage, our POLICY is that YOU WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS (regardless of supply).

   Those who support a policy of the latter have a lot of nerve criticizing the former.

2. 1 day ago on Mike Luckovich

   We need more GOOD women in politics, and there are many more who are not now politically active who would contribute greatly and enrich our civil discourse if they got involved. However, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, prove that just having female plumbing does not ensure one is the right person to be involved.

   And while I would agree that Phyllis Schlafly was tough-as-nails, smart and shrewd, her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, women’s medical choice and even women running for office (which she herself never did; and noted that she never had a public role until after her children were raised and out of the nest, which is what she proclaimed the rightful role of women to be), I would consider Schlafly to be on the list with Palin, Bachmann and Blackburn, not the other great women leaders. And while many principled conservative opposed Trump early in the 2016 primary cycle, Schlafly was one of the first to jump on board with Trump.

   Note on the ERA — it was sailing through statehouse after statehouse with virtually no opposition, on its way to easy ratification, when just short of the 3/4 requirement, Schlafly jumped in and single-handedly brought a halt to it. No doubt she was effective, but she was evil.

3. 1 day ago on Mike Luckovich

   Kelly Loeffler’s husband has a fat wallet. The size of his, uhm, “hands,” as you say, doesn’t matter.

4. 1 day ago on Mike Luckovich

   Loeffler herself is unelected, and was appointed to office a little over two months ago by a governor who was also not legitimately elected. She was appointed to fill the seat of Johnny Isakson, who retired mid-term at the end of 2019 for reasons of health.

   Loeffler took office just this last January when appointed by Brian Kemp, who stole the governorship away from Stacey Abrams. At the time he was running for governor against Abrams, Kemp was also secretary of state and the top elections officer. It is customary for secretaries of state running for higher office to recuse themselves from election matters. Kemp did not.

   Kemp ran one of the most aggressive campaigns of voter suppression and disqualifying voters, including defying a U.S. Supreme Court order (saying it had been issued for a previous election and no longer applicable to the current one). The result was that he succeeded in purging 700,000 voters from the rolls, mostly African Americans and students who tend to vote Democratic. Kemp “won” a very narrow election by a margin of only 55,000 votes, a tiny fraction of the number he disqualified.

   Sell her soul? Loeffler would more likely have to pay the devil to take it.

   Loeffler, a former financial services CEO married to the chairman of the New York Stock exchange, should be prosecuted for insider trading, just like Republican Chris Collins of New York, convicted last year of very similar actions.

   She can occupy Martha Stewart’s old cell.

5. 1 day ago on Mike Luckovich

   Kelly Loeffler’s soul would bring a pretty low price. Not worth much.

   Loeffler is particularly insidious. This brand new senator, can hardly blame naïveté. Before being recently appointed senator, she was the CEO of a financial services company and she is currently married to Jeffrey Sprecher, the CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE.

   Insider trading is a felony and all involved should be prosecuted. Just ask Republican Chris Collins of New York, who is currently serving his term after being convicted last year of very similar actions.

6. 2 days ago on Shoe

   Nah, if you actually know the legend, it isn’t William Tell who would be interviewed by Child Protective Services. Albrecht Gessler was a tyrannical despot who Tell despised. When Gessler passed by the townsfolk were required to bow. Tell, while in town with his son, refused to bow, so Gessler, intrigued by Tell’s reputation as a marksman with the crossbow, ordered Tell and his son to both be executed. However, they would be spared if Tell could shoot an apple off his son’s head in a single attempt.

   Of course, Tell did so successfully, then whirled, loaded another arrow, shot and killed the despotic tyrant and was immediately hailed by the now-liberated townsfolk.

   Oh yeah, Gessler couldn’t be interviewed. He’s dead.

7. 3 days ago on Scott Stantis

   — but as I responded to @realexander, Betsy McCaughey was not even making a prediction about the future or future outcomes. She was describing what was in the Obamacare proposed legislation. Only what she said was in the bill not only was not there, the bill specifically prohibited what she said was in it.

   And as a medical legal analyst, McCaughey absolutely knew what she was doing.

   It was a lie about a present fact, she knew it, and it was intentional.

   It’s what conservatives do.

8. 3 days ago on Scott Stantis

   — Obamacare is clearly inadequate. But it was absolutely a giant leap forward (in the right direction) over the status quo ante, and has saved thousands of lives.

   When Ohio Congressman (and one-time presidential candidate) Dennis Kucinich threatened to vote against Obamacare because it didn’t go far enough, Ted Kennedy told him this on a flight back to his district in Ohio, that got him on board:

   In the late 1970’s, then president Jimmy Carter proposed a national health care plan that was similar to Obamacare, but on steroids, and with a robust public option. If Democrats held together, he had the votes to get it. But Kennedy — whose life-long passion was health care — opposed it because he wanted to hold out for a true single payer system. As a result, neither option had the votes and neither option got enacted.

   Kennedy told Kucinich that it was the greatest mistake of his career and one that had haunted him ever since. Kennedy told Kucinich that, “If I had just gone with Carter’s bill as a first step, we would have single payer today” and Kucinich voted for it.

9. 3 days ago on Signe Wilkinson

   — I did not rebel against my family or upbringing. I embraced it fully and planned to devote my life to it. It was very shocking to me to encounter facts and evidence that just did not add up. But it was not because I had a bad experience at all, or was rebelling. In fact, reversing course was difficult and traumatic, but it was based strictly on facts, evidence and reality that I could not ignore.

   And because I was exposed to it in the course of a conservative Christian education, I could not reject it as biased or propaganda, as I might have done if I had started out at the “godless state university” in the first place.

   My family and close friends had a difficult time with the change in my views (especially the initial shock), but they knew I had struggled and wrestled with it and had come to it through honest study and evaluation, not because I wanted to party and go wild or “off the deep end.” They knew that it was a sincere change and they treated me respectfully; they also saw that I put my money and time commitments where my mouth was.

   For the rest of their lives, though, they kept trying to bring me back “into the fold.”

10. 3 days ago on Signe Wilkinson

    — yeah, I was too smart to continue being a religious conservative. I was born and raised in a politically and religiously conservative family and I bought the whole line. Active in Young Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom (YAF, not sure if that’s even a thing any more), campaigned for Barry Goldwater (and met then-actor Ronald Reagan who was campaigning for him) … also active in religious youth ministries, the whole nine yards. I bought it all.

    So I went off to college (on a scholarship) to a conservative religious university, eager to become the next political aide to a right wing conservative, with a major in political science.

    But as I studied original source texts and documents (as is required of majors) I encountered inconsistencies and stuff that didn’t add up. At first I assumed I was missing something, but when I asked questions, people that should have the answers became more defensive and accusatory. Eventually I concluded that I was wrong, and after a lengthy and traumatic period of wrestling with the truth, I changed course.

    After three semesters, I transferred to the “godless state university” in my home state to finish my political science degree and, when I turned 21 (the age to vote in those days), I registered as a Democrat. So I consider myself a converted conservative because of my teenage activities AND a life-long Democrat because I have never been registered as anything else.

    And I have often wondered, if I had started at the “godless state university” in the first place, would I have been as open to self-examination? Or would I have been too much on the defensive from the “godless liberals,” who it turns out were right?