Universal and/or affordable healthcare is an idea I can get behind. Yet, somehow, the health insurance industry’s recent proposals just leave me feeling dirty.

Not that they’re all bad ideas, mind you:

The federal government and the states should expand Medicaid to cover all adults with annual incomes under the poverty level, including single adults who cannot now qualify. The poverty level is $16,600 for a family of three and $9,800 for an individual.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program, financed jointly by the federal government and the states, should, at a minimum, cover all children in families with incomes less than twice the poverty level.

Congress should create tax incentives for people to establish “universal health accounts.” People could take tax deductions for amounts contributed to such accounts. They could use the accounts to pay premiums for any type of health insurance. The federal government would help pay premiums for people with incomes below certain levels.

Congress should establish a tax credit for individuals and families who buy health insurance for their children. The credit would be $200 a child, up to a maximum of $500 for a family. It would be available to families with incomes up to three times the poverty level — up to $60,000 for a family of four.

Even so, there’s something a tad unseemly about an industry recommending policy changes that - while they may ultimately benefit the public good - also help to line the industry’s already bulging pocketbooks:

The industry proposed these steps, estimated to cost $300 billion over 10 years […]

The health insurance industry proposed an expansion of Medicaid and new tax breaks on Monday with the goal of guaranteeing coverage for all children in three years and for virtually all adults within 10 years. […]

The industry did not say how its proposals would be paid for; did not recommend any budget cuts or tax increases; and did not say what, if anything, it would do to slow the growth of health costs. […]

In a sense, insurers, like other industries, are recommending tax subsidies for the products they sell. More generally, they are proposing a public-private partnership to cope with a problem — the soaring cost of health care and health insurance — that affects families, employers and the nation’s ability to compete in a global economy.

Got that? A “public-private partnership”, with nary a word about the industry’s part in the problem, or their responsibility to help sacrifice towards a solution.

“We believe that every American should have access to affordable health care coverage,” said J. Grover Thomas Jr., chairman of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main lobby for the industry, which offered the proposals.

Do you really, J. Grover? Then here’s an idea: why dontcha work on bringing costs down? On pushing generics over the name brands? On allowing patents to expire when they’re due, or - better yet - on decreasing the patent lifetime to begin with?

Nah, that would all affect your bottom line. Better to lobby the government for handouts, eh? (Better still to let the citizens think that you’ve got their interests in mind while doing so.)

F’in lobbyists. It’s like listening to Teh Vatican criticize US border security policy (which I also happen to disagree with) while aiding and abetting child-raping priests. Who’s “inhuman” now, bitch?

————–

Tagged: healthcare universal+healthcare lobbyists medicare subsidies health+insurance

Yesterday was the Quarantine Wal-Mart National Day of Action, sponsored by Corporate Accountability International.

The “short version” of the event, as described on their web site:

Corporate Accountability International has partnered with Jobs With Justice and the Ruckus Society to coordinate a National Day of Action challenging Wal-Mart. On Friday, June 2, while CEO Lee Scott is convening Wal-Mart’s annual shareholders’ meeting, thousands of concerned citizens dressed in hazmat suits and armed with yellow caution tape will be putting Wal-Mart sites across the country under “quarantine.”

There’s a (now expired) action alert that accompanied the event announcement, which is how I found out about it. (I would claim to belong to 58 activist lists, but I’ve long since lost count.) I was too lazy to click through and see if a protest was planned near me - I’m not much for that kinda stuff, and besides, if I’m going to dress up in a hazmat suit and embarrass myself, it will only be for an animal-specific cause, thank you very much! - but luckily, Shane was sitting bored at work, with nary a more interesting diversion in site. We were both surprised to find that there was, in fact, a lone KC area protest - right near his friggin’ office! So off to work he went yesterday, digicam in tow.

It was generally an unimpressive protest. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loathe Wal-Mart as much as any good lib, but like most libs, I can’t afford to shop at uber-expensive organic stores every week. Add to the mix that I’m a vegan, and I could easily drop a few Benjamins a week on groceries. So I’ve got to economize via Wal-Mart and Sam’s. Sue me.

Anyway, back to that protest. It’s not that I disagree with the whole Day of Action thing. No, me likey likey. It’s just that…well, the KC protest was aimed at Bernstein-Rein, Wal-Mart’s ad agency. Which commandeers a few floors in an office building. A protest in an office building, with nary a Wal-Mart in sight, is kinda silly. Especially when Kansas City, like most other cities across the US, is littered with Wal-Mart upon fucking Wal-Mart. It’s not like they were lacking more suitable venues.

Plus, there wasn’t a very impressive turnout.
 
 

 
 
And that pic is the one in my batch that has the biggest crowd.
 
 

 
 
Another obvious disadvantage of holding such a protest in any-place-other-than-a-Wal-Mart-store is that there aren’t many onlookers to, um, onlook:
 
 

 
 
Just a few stray cars and one lonely security guard!
 
 

 
 
Shane reports that most of the peeps in the ad agency are graphic designers - young guys in their 20s and 30s. So the protesters were on the receiving end of some serious heckling. Hey, it’s something.

There were a couple other (seemingly amateur) photogs at the event in addition to the bf. In an interesting twist, some of the protesters photographed the photogs taking pics of them.

Hence, some guy in a hazmat suit spying on us!
 
 

 
 
Shane only took 15 pics of the events, and I uploaded the best ones to Flickr, so click through if you’re interested. Goddamn Flickr’s “small” size is 240 pixels wide, and the next size up, medium, is 500, which is 50 too big to fit on my blog. Thus the lame-ass, thumbnail-like picture sizes you so often see here.

So visit my Flickr account, is what I’m saying.

By way of the Raving Atheist*, I stumbled upon this post at One Smoot Short of a Bridge. A huge fan of teh snarky Amazon reviews, I knew the comments on a $225,000 (that’s $15,000 off the retail price, folks!) Cartier Ladies Tank Francaise WL4081KF Watch would not disappoint.

Normally, I’d just point you to the product listing, but Amazon isn’t a big fan of fake reviews, at least judging from their haste in deleting them. So I’ve copied my favorites below for posterity’s sake. Feel free to hop on over to Amazon to write your own review, or (better yet) post it in the comments. ‘Twould be nice to get something other than comment spam for a change!

Let the sarcasm commence!

Princess Guinevere points out the economic benefits of the $15,000 discount:

Lancelot bought me this watch as a lovers gift. After wearing it to a couple of post-Round Table parties, and getting TONS of compliments from the other ladies, I had to buy three more — one each for Mom, Sis, and my Lady-in-Waiting. With the 45K saved, I bought a year-old Lexus Hybrid SUV and sold my mare. No more hay and oats to buy, so I’ve saved even more!

Next up, Katherine R. proves that math need not be difficult for the wimmins:

Don’t let ANYONE tell you the inability to understand math is a handicap. I bought 20 of these watches, and saved enough to buy a house! Certainly, it’s modest house, but it’s home.

My friends were amazed that I could afford to buy these watches to begin with. Well, I wasn’t able to afford them, of course, so after saving $15,000 on each, I returned them, saying they didn’t fit.

Without my stunning inability to grasp even the most basic math concepts, I would never have been able to imagine this plan, let alone execute it. And let me tell you, failing high school algebra I twice was a small price to pay for my beautiful new home!

Meanwhile, one Y. Somsak complains about the exorbitant shipping fees:

I would expect they’d waived the $25 shipping charge because that’s the only thing prevents me from buying.

J. Lubbers laments,

Got the Ladies Tank Francaise for my wife the other day. They are great. However, they are not waterproof, so we had to toss it after a day on the beach.

The somewhat less bourgeoisie Comrade Accountant - who sounds strangely like Jesus’ General - tells how he “earned” his Cartier:

I broke my leg yesterday. They had to do surgery on my femur, and put me under full anesthesia. When I woke up from the gray fog in my head I saw this huge nurse’s rump moving up and down between my legs: this nurse was riding my bologna-pony!! I mumbled something, I can’t remember what, and then I faded out again. Later, when I came to again, there she was again - the same nurse; and she put this watch on my wrist. “This is a girl’s watch,” stuttered I, but she just put her finger over my mouth and told me how much she appreciated her earlier experience on top of me… Again I faded away; but then the pain in my leg woke me, as well as a funny itch between my legs: there she was again!, riding my middle toe!! “Stop it!” I yelled, and threw the girly watch at her; the watch that kept blinding my weary eyes…

It kept good time, though; that’s why I am giving it as many as three stars.

Mr. Paul Mellon seems to be a man after dear Twisty’s own cockles:

My brother sent me “Drop Dead Gorgeous” on DVD for the second Christmas in a row so I returned it to Amazon and the $5 e-credit was burning a serious hole in my cyber-pocket until I stumbled onto this beauty while looking to see if they actually sold ladies on Amazon. Much to my chagrin, human trafficking has evidently been outlawed in much of the quote end quote “free world”, hence no actual ladies on Amazon, but to my delight, this beautiful ladies watch actually made me money. I started with the $5 credit and saved $15,000 dollars on this watch, leaving me with $15,005 dollars to go on a wild shoping spree involving alot of helium tanks and diving equipment, oh and a barcalounger. If you breathe helium through a regulator you can actually converse with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin after the fog in your brain turns fushia… anyway, buy this watch, you actaully make money, you’d be stupid to turn it down.

And the tour de force, compliments of jewelphile Jeffrey Hansen:

I took this watch home (delivered to work), and I laid it down on my rose petal-covered bed and made sweet, sweet love to it. After that, curled up on it, and went to sleep. I woke up in the morning, and it had gone out to forage for food…it came back and fried up a mess of game with quail eggs, and greeted me with a tender kiss as I yawned groggily. I smiled and caressed it’s hand (the minute hand). Someone told me that money can’t buy happiness, but my watch would disagree. My watch fights most of my battles for me now, and recently went out and stabbed my ex in the neck with a novelty letter opener. I love you, $1/4Million watch.

Uh-oh, man-on-diamond love - someone better alert Santorum. The whole fabric of our society is at risk. I blame teh gays!
 
 
* “Come for the atheist ravings, stay for the unintentionally hilarious anti-choice diatribes!”
 
 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - President Bush defended the huge profits of Exxon Mobil Corp. Wednesday, saying they are simply the result of the marketplace and that consumers socked with soaring energy costs should not expect price breaks.
 
Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs, “I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that’s the way it should be.”
 
“I believe in a relatively quick period of time, within my lifetime, we’ll be able to reduce if not end dependence on Middle Eastern oil by this new technology” of converting corn, wood, grasses and other products into ethanol, he said.
 
Early this week, Exxon reported record profits of $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year — the largest of any U.S. company. While some politicians raised furious objections, Bush had a different reaction.
 
“There is a marketplace in American society,” he said.
 
“There’s also a responsibility for energy companies to continue to invest and improve the ways that the American people can get energy,” he said. “I would very much hope that Exxon would participate in the development of a pipeline out of Alaska, for example, in order to make sure there’s more natural gas available for families and small business owners so the economy will grow.”
 
Bush dismissed the idea of increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars, trucks and SUVs as a way of curbing foreign oil dependence. “My plan is to diversify away from oil. … You’re asking questions about how you deal with cars running on gasoline made from oil, I’m telling you let’s get some cars running on fuel other than oil.”
 
*****
 
I hate that man.
 
 

File this one under better late than never.
 
In a shocking “special report,” Forbes ranked the richest fifteen of the super-rich fictional characters we’ve come to know and love/loathe:
 

Collectively, we are fascinated by the super-rich. We devour their biographies. We hang on their advice. Maybe we even hope for their downfall. But in our attempts to explain the ultra-rich–and their super-inflated bank accounts–we are often guilty of reducing real people to mere caricatures. There is the monopolist. The oracle. The genius. The thief.

With the Forbes Fictional 15, we have taken the opposite approach–fiction’s caricatures are elevated to the status of real people.

 
And the pseudo-lucky fifteen are…
 

1. Santa Claus 2. Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks 3. Richie Rich 4. Lex Luthor 5. C. Montgomery Burns 6. Scrooge McDuck 7. Jed Clampett 8. Bruce Wayne 9. Thurston Howell III 10. Willy Wonka 11. Arthur Bach 12. Ebenezer Scrooge 13. Lara Croft 14. Cruella De Vil 15. Lucius Malfoy

 
Oh, Santa, you fat bastard! You’re the richest fuck in the world, and all I got this x-mas was a heavy bag? Hell, you could have at least bought me a Bowflex or two! Be honest - was it because I had one of dem Baby Jesus Burning parties?
 
I know I ruined the whole surprise and all, but do visit Forbes anyway - they’ve got some nifty features over there, including a poll, profiles, and 2002’s rankings.
 
Then hop on over to Shakespeare’s Sister, who discusses offensive slogans on t-shirts and - quite eloquently, I think - explains when offensive humor is delightfully wry and when it’s just plain offensive (hint: it’s all about the context, baby). 
 
BTW, I was going to include Prickwear as one of my December Links of the Day, but promptly removed it when I saw Jessica of Feministing’s post way back when. I Support the Environmentally Friendly Hummer is cute, guys; Stop Rape. Say Yes. is not. And no, that doesn’t make me a “fat chick.” Idiots.
 
Thanks to Lauren of Feministe for including that last one in her corral.
  
- K
 

Yes, gambling does pay, at least for some weirdoes.

Weird News: The luckiest folks in Wisconsin

The Associated Press

Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2005

MADISON, Wis. — When Jeffrey Hintz won the state lottery’s second-chance drawing five weeks in a row, some people in state government got a little suspicious.

Turns out, Hintz just got lucky, an investigation has concluded.

Hintz and his wife, Lisa, have won almost $73,000 in cash prizes from the state lottery since 1999. More than $65,000 came from drawings.

Given how many tickets they were sending in for the drawing, the odds of their winning five times in a row were 1 in 14,397, auditors said.

Of course, the couple’s feat seems a bit less impressive when you consider how it came about:

Jeffrey Hintz told auditors he spent thousands of dollars on lottery tickets every week and countless hours stamping envelopes with the lottery’s address so he could enter losing tickets in the weekly drawings. He submitted entries in his wife’s name, too.

People are allowed to enter the drawings as often as they want, but each entry must include at least $5 worth of tickets. That means Hintz was sending in at least $2,500 in tickets a week, and postage alone would have cost $185 a week.

Wonder what their gross is after you factor in the expenses? But I guess that’s too much to ask of a fluff piece, huh? Crack reporting, guys!

BTW, is it just me, or does Hintz conjure up images of Lazlo Hollyfeld, the wild-eyed, closet-dwelling genius of ‘80s classic Real Genius fame? Whatever happened to the kid who played Mitch, anyway? In that case, what’s the deal with Kilmer? He hasn’t had a decent role since Doc Holliday in ‘93’s Tombstone. For shame, for shame…

- K

Half.com sucks. And it’s all eBay’s fault.

Ever since eBay purchased Half.com in 2000, they’ve been threatening to “integrate” the two sites into one. In other words, they bought out Half.com with the sole intention of shutting it down - in essence, destroying their competition (Bill, is that you!?).

Even back in 2002, when eBay first proposed the changes, they were pissing off loyal Half.com-ers, such as myself.

From CNet News.com, 2/12/02:

At least for now, Half.com will stay whole.

eBay is backing off earlier plans to roll its popular fixed-price marketplace into eBay and rename it eBay Express Buys. While eBay will combine user registration and feedback on both sites over the next few weeks, and plans to move Half.com’s back-end systems to eBay, Half.com will remain an independent site.

“After carefully considering ways to offer more options to users of both sites, we have decided to align the two communities more closely together while maintaining the uniqueness of each,” eBay said in a note on its site.

The decision to maintain the separate sites came in response to feedback from members, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.

Of course, the victory was short-lived, as the evil that is eBay announced plans to do away with Half.com again in 2003 and then in late 2004. Most recently, October 14, 2004 was singled out as the last date of Half.com operations, after which all sellers would have to move their products over to eBay - and thus pay their hefty listing fees. After an outcry from users, they reconsidered, albeit in the 23rd hour.

Now, in their latest bid to disable Half.com, eBay has announced - and followed through on - plans to do away with the “Everything Else” and “Electronics” c