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Shot by Dan along the Roanoke River Greenway in Salem
“I had a patient once who dreamed she kept her husband in the deep freeze except for mating. Lots of men feel that way.”
Robert Johnson
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For my fellow foodies & travelers:
http://tinyurl.com/ato3hb9
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Best breakfasts around the world
By Nikki Ekstein, Travel + Leisure
updated 10:13 AM EST, Fri March 8, 2013
(CNN) — Maple-bacon biscuits. Chocolate-dipped donuts. A lavish spread of eggs. Is there any meal more comforting than breakfast?
Whatever time zone you wake up in, the best breakfasts will brighten your mood, fortify you for the day, and give you a taste of daily life in that destination. Our short list of memorable breakfasts, part of T+L’s coverage of the Best Places to Eat Like a Local, includes a Middle Eastern-inspired London café where platters of baked breads are served with the morning newspaper and a Tokyo fish market where early risers clamor for the freshest breakfast sushi.
SNIP
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http://tinyurl.com/aj2fo3u
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It’s Ba-a-ck! The Quixotic Crusade Against Obamacare Returns
By David Hawkings Posted at 11:48 a.m. March 11
When John A. Boehner flatly declared right after the elections that “Obamacare is the law of the land,” it sounded like a clear curtain-pulling on the Republican crusade to repeal or gut the health care overhaul. Getting the law off the books, or at least neutralizing it, was still on the party’s wish list, he said. But the president’s re-election and the diminished GOP congressional ranks had clearly rendered that goal no longer worth the party’s time for pursuing.
Four months later, the speaker’s guidance is no longer operative. Republicans are going to mount attacks on the statute during both this week’s Senate debate on the appropriations package for the rest of this fiscal year, and next week’s House debate on a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year.
SNIP
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Paul Ryan’s “budget” is predicated on ACA being repealed. And people complain that Obama doesn’t spend enough time making nice with these clowns?
http://tinyurl.com/amjfmjs
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Democrats not sold on grand bargain
By KATE NOCERA | 3/10/13 11:07 PM EDT Updated: 3/11/13 8:55 AM EDT
President Barack Obama may be thinking about a “grand bargain” to address spending and the federal deficit, but there’s a key constituency he has to persuade to come along.
Democrats.
The talk of any deal with congressional Republicans — and for now, it’s just that: talk — has liberals worried the White House will give in to changes to safety net programs including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Republicans say such changes are an essential part of any big deal. And Obama previously has been open to a number of reforms that irk the liberals, such as raising the retirement age of Medicare, means-testing and adopting an inflation calculation, known as chained CPI, for Social Security.
Inevitably, if there is an agreement on a big deal, Democrats will have to get on board for it to pass. But the 2012 election brought in new Democratic members of the House and Senate who are more liberal and more outspoken, strengthening the left wing of the caucus.
SNIP
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Congress passed it, the SCOTUS upheld it and we reelected the man who conceived it and the Republicans are going to waste our money yet again, pissing into the wind…
You truly can’t fix stupid.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/10/paul-ryan-obamacare-repeal-gop-budget_n_2847843.html?ir=Politics
“Michele Bachmann earlier this year introduced a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as assumed 2016 GOP frontrunner Marco Rubio, have vowed to see its repeal as well. Efforts to get rid of the law cost Congress approximately 80 hours of work, according to Salon.”
What a bunch of worthless meatsacks.
More on one of my repetitive rants / pet peeves — “expert” testimony:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2224129
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Abstract:
This Article reviews the history of the evolution of the rules for the admissibility of expert testimony since the 1980s, the revolutionary nature of what ultimately emerged, and the consistent efforts by counter-revolutionary judges to stop or roll back the changes, even when the changes were codified into Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
SNIP
The underlying issue theme tying the history of, and present controversy over, the admissibility of evidence in toxic tort litigation is a dispute over the underlying rationale for having special rules for the admissibility of expert testimony. Judges that favor more liberal rules for admissibility believe that the rules are meant to address only the problem “junk science”—scientific testimony that not only falls outside the scientific mainstream, but does so in the face of well-accepted contrary evidence.
More restrictive judges, by contrast, are addressing the broader problem of “adversarial bias” that results from our legal system allowing the parties to choose their own experts. In short, parties to litigation have a natural inclination to choose experts whose views match their theory of the case, even if those experts are outliers or hired guns. Rule 702 tries to limit this problem by insisting that experts show an objectively verifiable basis for their testimony, so that the trier of fact is not in the position of relying on the mere ipse dixit of an expert chosen solely because his views are consistent with the partisan position of a party to litigation.
SNIP
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Re: scott whitaker | March 11, 2013 at 2:49 pm
“… we reelected the man who conceived it….”
—————
IIRC, it was conceived by the other side and primarily written by for profit insurance companies in opposition to a single payer plan.
Karzai now claiming the US is conspiring with the Taliban to foment violence as an excuse to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan? Besides keeping an eye on Pakistan, what are we still doing in this vapid hellhole?
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I couldn’t agree more:
http://tinyurl.com/akz5297
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Kentucky texting-while-driving ban nearly unenforceable, police say
Some want stronger rules for Kentucky drivers
Mar 10, 2013
Kentucky’s 2-year-old ban on texting while driving is nearly impossible to enforce, police and prosecutors say, leading to calls for a stronger law punishing distracted driving.
Jefferson County judges have dismissed nearly 40 percent of the texting charges brought under the law, which applies to sending and receiving text messages but doesn’t address drivers using their phones to browse the Internet, update social media or get directions.
For a police officer, it’s difficult to determine whether a driver is texting illegally or tweeting within the law. And proving that a driver was using a phone in violation of the law can be difficult.
“It’s a very serious problem, and we would like to see a change in the law that would create stronger penalties and fewer defenses so we can be more aggressive in the prosecution of these cases,” Julie Hardesty, first assistant for Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell, said in response to questions from The Courier-Journal about the law’s effectiveness
SNIP
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That patient’s quote from Robert Johnson at the top reminds me of the bluesman Robert Johnson’s song “Love In Vain”.
On the other hand, her husband could try this man’s advice:
“When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive… so, I took her to a gas station.”
No respect I tell ya, no respect at all.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/celeste-greig-rape_n_2853013.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cipad%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D282203
Another day in the Republican short bus Olympics.
Here’s some heart-warming and uplifting information during tax season:
Report: U.S. Companies Keeping $166 Billion In Offshore Tax Shelters
“The business newspaper said its analysis of 60 big American companies had found that they had collectively parked a total of $166 billion offshore last year.
That shielded more than 40 percent of their annual profits from US taxes, the report said.
[...]
The practice is a result of US tax rules that allow companies to not pay taxes on profits earned by overseas subsidiaries if the money is not brought back to the United States, the report pointed out.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/11/report-u-s-companies-keeping-166-billion-in-offshore-tax-shelters/
No need to close corporate tax loopholes. Thanks republicans.
Republicans just can’t seem to help themselves – they must opine on the subject of rape on a regular basis.
Here’s a compilation of what republicans have said about rape – *warning, not for the “faint of heart”:
Republican rape advisory chart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0opHoMVP2_c
Actually Hillary it’s worse than you indicated. See the link to an article from the Wall Street Journal. Their estimate is $1.7 Trillion with a T.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323301104578255663224471212.html
Ummm, thanks Ron for the information? and oh yes, thanks again republicans who will not plug the loopholes…
♪♪♪ When we we ever learn, when will we e-ver learn? ♪♪♪
Really, really sad…
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15045-one-of-the-first-iraq-veterans-to-publicly-oppose-war-will-die-for-our-sins
Run, Ashley, run!