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Friday Morning Open Thread

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Blog Related
Posted on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 08:54:24 AM EST
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Another busy day ahead.

This is an Open Thread.

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    Friday Morning Open Thread | 43 comments (43 topical)

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    So close to the holidays.... (none / 0) (#1)
    by Inspector Gadget on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:41:45 AM EST
    Driving into work this morning was actually fun. It was still dark, which made it obvious that Bellevue Square is well on its way to decorating for Magic Season. The huge drums line the sidewalks, the big flakes are on the poles and fences, and the trees are covered in lights. I know where I'm going to be a week from today at 7:00 PM :)

    dont mess with Woody (none / 0) (#2)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:43:14 AM EST
    one gutsy little woodpecker

    Don't mess with any woodpecker. (none / 0) (#8)
    by Fabian on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:24:11 AM EST
    I once picked up a fledgling to save from our barn cats and it only took one peck for me to drop it.  

    Imagine The Birds with a woodpecker clinging to someone's head, hammering away.  

    Parent

    amazing (none / 0) (#3)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:53:02 AM EST
    microphotography

    Olympus BioScapes 2009 Winners Gallery

    Neat stuff. (none / 0) (#5)
    by coast on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 10:14:43 AM EST
    The third place finisher is a video titled Se*ual Attraction of Spirogyra.  I guess my computer doesn't filter chemical por#.  Cool pics though.

    Parent
    dont scare the inspector (2.66 / 3) (#6)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 10:18:45 AM EST
    yeah, I liked that one too.  
    [yeah! yeah! thas what Im talkin about!]
    heh

    Parent
    You're the one who posts links to pornography (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by Inspector Gadget on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:51:03 AM EST
    on this site. Don't try to make me look like the one who's wrong.

    Parent
    wow (none / 0) (#17)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 01:54:27 PM EST
    amazing

    Parent
    Cherishing another non-busy... (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:54:37 AM EST
    day off, chill-axin' waiting for the Ray Davies show tonight, getting amped with some fine tunes...after getting my clock cleaned in AC Wed. I know all about Low Budget this week. Chicken today, feathers tomorrow...as the gamblers say:)

    All you busy at work cats...mind that nervous tension, it's no good for the National Health.

    Maybe its just me but I find the themes on that record so very poignant today, 20 years later.  

    In a Space allocated to me by the human race. Inhabiting this area until I die this space is occupied...yeah! yeah! yeah!
    Watching the Senate, Stabenow re: Maternity Care (none / 0) (#9)
    by vicndabx on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:28:57 AM EST
    The vast majority of group health plans provide coverage for maternity care, including prenatal care. This is due in large part to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA), an amendment to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, that prohibits discrimination based on gender, pregnancy, childbirth, or pregnancy-related conditions. The PDA requires health plans sponsored by employers with 15 or more employees to cover pregnancy, childbirth, and pregnancy-related conditions in the same way as other temporarily disabling conditions. Though the PDA is not a mandated benefit law, per se, it has the effect of promoting maternity coverage under most employer sponsored health plans. Enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) effectively broadened the reach of the PDA. HIPAA requires all health insurance policies for small employer groups (defined as firms with 2 to 50 employees) to be sold on a guaranteed issue basis. This means small employers not subject to the PDA nonetheless have the opportunity to buy policies with maternity benefits sold to larger employers.

    Link

    Interesting concert last night. Shanghai (none / 0) (#11)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 12:06:57 PM EST
    Symphony Orchestra and pianist Yuja Wang, who is a very pretty, slim female, who moved alone from China to Calgary when she was 14 and subsequently trained at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.  She is now a 22-year old.  Admires Vladimir Horowitz.

    She played the Rachmaninoff second piano concerto (see Shine).  And three solo encores, all displays of her prodigious technique.

    There was an overhead screen so those of us on the right side of the hall could see her as she played.

    Is this the wave of the future (a first, in my experience)?  Or does her contract require this?  Lang Lang is coming later in the season.  Must I watch him as he plays and gesticulates?  

    AP re HCR/Senate/Catholic Bishops (none / 0) (#12)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 12:17:15 PM EST
    and abortion/choice/right to life. link

    Ask Senator Feingold to speak up (none / 0) (#15)
    by Cream City on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 12:37:55 PM EST
    now.  Oculus, I owed you this comment on what the Senator said last week.  Following a speech that included a strong statement for the public option, he was asked in the Q and A whether the public option was worth the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.

    Feingold made the requisite demurral that he had yet to see the Senate bill, etc., etc., and that this was not the time to fight the Hyde Amendment, etc., etc. -- but then came out with another strong statement for reproductive rights and against any further incursions in any health care bill that would further erode Roe v. Wade.

    He also had said, in another context, that his office hardly ever gets more than 10 letters, emails, calls, etc., on any issue!

    So:  Ask Senator Feingold to speak up if there are any attempts, as look to be coming again per your link, to insert something like the House's Stupak-Pitts Amendment in the Senate bill.  He is, after all, the champion of individual privacy rights -- the basis (much as I may wish it had not been) of the Roe v. Wade ruling.  He was the lone vote against the Patriot Act on that basis.  

    So tell him that this is women's Patriot Act, as it were.  Get those cards and letters going. :-)

    Parent

    Thanks. And thanks to Sen. Feingold. (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 01:17:19 PM EST
    Still awaiting a reply to my e mail to my GOP rep. in the House.

    Parent
    Pontiac Silverdome... (none / 0) (#14)
    by desertswine on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 12:37:42 PM EST
    sells for a paltry half a mil. Yikes.

    Shudda got more than that just for the acreage.

    wow (none / 0) (#20)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:48:04 PM EST
    a decent three bedroom sells for that.

    that dome would make quite the livingroom.


    Parent

    It amazes me (none / 0) (#22)
    by Steve M on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:56:25 PM EST
    that three people made bids that were even lower.  Sad.  They just sold my high school graduation!!

    Parent
    My high school, which was built at a (none / 0) (#24)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:00:57 PM EST
    cost of $250,000, was listed on e bay for a minimum bid of $500,000.  No takers.  And SE Iowa isn't as depressed as Detroit area.  

    Parent
    Hm (none / 0) (#27)
    by Steve M on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:25:44 PM EST
    I went through Ottumwa once back in the day.  Is Pella considered SE Iowa?

    Parent
    I recall Pella being sort of south central with (none / 0) (#29)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:29:49 PM EST
    lots of tulips and wooden shoes.  

    Parent
    Pretty good. Wiki: (none / 0) (#31)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:42:28 PM EST
    map

    Parent
    Gahd, even the map looks boring. (none / 0) (#34)
    by desertswine on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:03:50 PM EST
    All those...  squares.

    Parent
    Nice town (none / 0) (#36)
    by Steve M on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:06:45 PM EST
    I attended a lovely Lutheran wedding there once upon a time.

    Parent
    Did you (none / 0) (#35)
    by CoralGables on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:06:20 PM EST
    bump into Radar?

    Parent
    Polanski's French attorney says (none / 0) (#18)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:31:03 PM EST
    Polanski has been punished enough and will not agree to extradition.  Unclear on the concept?  Is Polanski getting inept legal advice?  

    LAT

    I will be surprised (none / 0) (#19)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:44:51 PM EST
    if they extradite him.

    but I have been surprised before.

    Parent

    Who? The Swiss courts (as in not (none / 0) (#25)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:02:11 PM EST
    permitting extradition) or LA County DA's office (as in dropping the extradition request)?  

    Parent
    swiss courts (none / 0) (#30)
    by Capt Howdy on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:40:58 PM EST


    Parent
    Leave Roman Alone!!! n/t (none / 0) (#21)
    by Steve M on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:55:14 PM EST


    Parent
    Isn't that what's happening now? (none / 0) (#23)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 02:58:48 PM EST


    Parent
    One can only imagine... (none / 0) (#26)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:18:25 PM EST
    ...the fixation if this were "good looking" Tim Tebow.

    Parent
    Ha. I see my googling of "Polanski" (5.00 / 1) (#28)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:28:47 PM EST
    and news as a public service.  Can't let the poor fellow languish unattended, can we?

    Parent
    Ah... (none / 0) (#32)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:45:37 PM EST
    ...all in the service of your fellow (wo)man is it?  Carry on citizen!

    I can't wait to retire so that I can provide such valuable service as well!

    Parent

    Yes, I need a new hobby. Preferably (none / 0) (#33)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:49:57 PM EST
    involving the outdoors.

    Parent
    Maybe take your laptop (none / 0) (#37)
    by Cream City on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:21:47 PM EST
    to the porch? :-)

    Parent
    Can't make the wireless work at home (none / 0) (#38)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:24:06 PM EST
    anymore (post spill); although it works everywhere else.

    Parent
    A whopping... (none / 0) (#39)
    by desertswine on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:48:54 PM EST
    32% undergraduate tuition increase in California.
    Holy Moley. Biggest increase I've ever heard of.

    To put it in some perspective, though (none / 0) (#41)
    by Cream City on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 05:18:56 PM EST
    it's because Californians have subsidized their state universities way beyond what most states do.

    Bless 'em for that.  I wish that all states would.  Even with this exorbitant increase, for example, University of California system tuition finally would match tuition in the most of the University of Wisconsin system.

    But UC system tuition has been well below the national norms for public campuses -- plus 30% of UC system students fly for free, entirely.

    Parent

    True the tuition is much lower.. (none / 0) (#43)
    by Raskolnikov on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 07:24:39 PM EST
    ..but the cost of living is pretty high compared to a school like Wisconsin, or my former school, University of Iowa.  I graduated HS in California, but ended up moving back to Iowa after I did for various reasons, finances being one of them.  At Berkeley housing on campus was $14K a year, versus around $6000 at Iowa.  Also, while tuition was "free" at the time, so-called "student fees" were $3500-4000 if I remember correctly (which didn't include the small things that add up like health clinic fee, IT services, etc), which is what Iowa's in-state tuition was at the time, making it about $8K a year cheaper to go to U of I when all was said and done.  That said, you're right that there's a large amount of aid offered to students with good test scores, and guaranteed admission to some of the UC schools as well.

    Parent
    You must have no idea (none / 0) (#44)
    by Cream City on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 07:34:25 PM EST
    of the cost of living in Madison -- one of the highest in the country. . . .

    And you're also not factoring the comparative income averages.  

    The tables that do so show that California has been one of the states most variating from the norm for years.  It has caught up with California now.  

    But it was known for years, and the regents and legislature did not act responsibly by bringing it in line before.

    Parent

    For the love of... (none / 0) (#42)
    by lentinel on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 05:25:41 PM EST
    This is a very sweet link.

    CATcerto

    Is it a good idea for Congress to investigate (none / 0) (#47)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 08:30:04 PM EST
    situation involving a pending criminal prosecution?  Doesn't seem like it to me. See AP side bar.  

    And you're surprised? (none / 0) (#48)
    by gyrfalcon on Sat Nov 21, 2009 at 12:12:34 AM EST
    The guy gets more isolated and full of self-love every day.

    Friday Morning Open Thread | 43 comments (43 topical)

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