Traveling internationally or just near the border? Learn how recent federal court decisions have made fair game of the data on all your gadgets, from your iPod to your laptop, without a warrant.
An attack on freedom of speech or another attack on Christianity? You decide.
CitizenLink: NCAA Bans Messages on Eye Black.The National Collegiate Athletic Association is banning personal messages on eye-black patches.
Last year, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made news by writing a different Scripture verse on his eye black for each game.
Known now as the "Tebow Rule," the regulations ban all "words, logos, numbers or other symbols," beginning with the 2010 season.
Tebow told News-Press.com he thought the ban would take away from freedom of speech.
"It's unfortunate," he said, "that it got to the point where they had to say you can't wear anything under your eyes."
Tebow said he just wanted to share an important part of his life.
"That's just me," he said. "I hope that people can see it affects my life and how I am so passionate about it."
Americans are united in the belief that the economy is in bad shape (92% give it a negative rating), and for many the repercussions are hitting close to home. Fully 70% of Americans say they have faced one or more job or financial-related problems in the past year, up from 59% in February 2009. Jobs have become difficult to find in local communities for 85% of Americans. A majority now says that someone in their household has been without a job or looking for work (54%); just 39% said this in February 2009. Only a quarter reports receiving a pay raise or a better job in the past year (24%), while almost an equal number say they have been laid off or lost a job (21%).Daily Number: Economic Woes - Pew Research Center.
I remember a while back someone commenting about a room in their house stinking. I remember thinking:
I have two teenagers and a two year old. There's always a stench in my house. There's nothing like the smell of b.o. and dirty diapers.
Having said that, you never know what you're going to find around here. Little Bit has decided to start potty training from time to time. She's not had her second birthday yet, so I'm not ready to push the potty training. However, she has shown some interest; so I did get her a potty chair at the last sale I went to.
One day I heard Little Bit exclaim, "Baby poo poo, baby poo poo," and walked into the room to find this:
via BBC News - Microsoft founders lead tributes to 'father of the PC'.The "father of the personal computer" who kick-started the careers of Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen has died at the age of 68.
via FOXNews.com - Polish President, Wife Among Dozens Killed in Russia Plane Crash.Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
I have a feeling that this isn't the only teacher practicing this technique:
One of the duties of the Texas SBOE is to "designate and mandate instruction in the knowledge and skills that are essential to a well-balanced curriculum" and to deter such actions like the one exemplified by Schafly below:
For years, liberals have imposed their revisionist history on our nation's public school students, expunging important facts and historic figures while loading the textbooks with liberal propaganda, distortions and cliches.But how can the SBOE, or school for that matter, intercede when a teacher hands out teaching documents that do not comply with pre-approved teaching guidelines and doesn't allow the papers to leave the classroom?
Roosevelt High School (NEISD) teacher Barbara Geerdes did just that when she passed out the handout, "Philosophical Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives," (shown below) to her AP U.S. Government class.
A student in Barbara Geerdes' AP Government class grew concerned over the teacher's repeated politicization of the classroom and managed to get one of the documents out and brought it home, where he could show it to his parents. Geerdes' handout made it to the State Republican Executive Committee's quarterly meeting Saturday, March 28th, where it was discussed. According to a source that has recently followed up with the father of the student:
The Dean of Students responded that the teacher admitted that she has been distributing handouts all year without required pre-approval from the head of the social studies department. She has been giving these out to all of her classes, not just the AP class. She has always collected the handouts at the end of the class period and has never allowed the handouts to be taken home.
Click the link below to read the full article and view a copy of the handout.
School Propaganda: A Warped Discussion Of Liberals vs Conservatives in High School Government Class | Texas GOP Vote.Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder announced that he will file a lawsuit in federal court by the end of this month opposing ObamaCare. He plans to do this with private funds.
He has set up a blog here where you can track his progress. You can also follow him on Twitter here and here.
Kinder was on Greta Van Susteren's On the Record earlier this week. You can go here to view his interview. It is short and well worth watching.
Massachusetts has had universal health care since 2006 and was used as a model in writing the ObamaCare bill. Massachusetts insurance companies are now reporting losses. Governor Patrick has instituted price caps so that the insurance companies cannot raise their premiums. These are non-profit companies, not greedy, money-hungry companies as Obama would like you to believe.
For now, the companies have stopped issuing new policies. If they cannot raise their premiums, they will continue to have losses and not be able to pay their claims. This is where rationing health care comes in.
The Massachusetts Insurance Blackout - WSJ.com.This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you.
The Massachusetts small-group market that serves about 800,000 residents shut down after Mr. Patrick kicked off his re-election campaign by presumptively rejecting about 90% of the premium increases the state's insurers had asked regulators to approve. Health costs have run off the rails since former GOP Governor Mitt Romney and Beacon Hill passed universal coverage in 2006, and Mr. Patrick now claims price controls are the sensible response to this ostensibly industry greed.
Yet all of the major Massachusetts insurers are nonprofits. Three of largest four—Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health—posted operating losses in 2009. In an emergency suit heard in Boston superior court yesterday, they argued that the arbitrary rate cap will result in another $100 million in collective losses this year and make it impossible to pay the anticipated cost of claims. It may even threaten the near-term solvency of some companies. So until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies.
A court decision is expected by Monday, but state officials have demanded that the insurers—under the threat of fines and other regulatory punishments—resume offering quotes by today and to revert to year-old base premiums. Let that one sink in: Mr. Patrick has made the health insurance business so painful the government actually has to order private companies to sell their products (albeit at sub-market costs).
One irony is that Mr. Patrick's own Attorney General and his insurance regulators have concluded—to their apparent surprise—that the reason Massachusetts premiums are the highest in the nation is the underlying cost of health care, not the supposed industry abuses that Mr. Patrick and his political mentor President Obama like to cite.
On top of that, like ObamaCare, integral to the Massachusetts overhaul are mandates that require insurers to cover anyone who applies regardless of health status or pre-existing conditions and to charge everyone about the same rates. This allows people to wait until they're about to incur major medical expenses before buying insurance and transfer the costs to everyone else. This week Blue Cross Blue Shield reported a big uptick in short-term customers who ran up costs more than four times the average, only to drop the coverage within three months.
Last July, Charlie Baker detailed similar gaming at Harvard Pilgrim, the health plan he used to run. Between April 2008 and March 2009, about 40% of its new enrollees stayed with it for fewer than five months and on average incurred costs about 600% higher than the company would have otherwise expected.
Mr. Baker is almost certain to be Mr. Patrick's GOP opponent in the fall election. The Governor's lurch toward price controls is obviously part of a bid to tar the former CEO as an industry villain. David Plouffe, the architect of Mr. Obama's Presidential campaign, has signed on as a Patrick 2010 consultant. These kinds of collisions between politics and health care are going to occur constantly across the country as ObamaCare kicks in.
Just a few days after Obama signed ObamaCare into law, DH had a doctor's appointment with a specialist. He is looking at having some things done on down the line, so I asked them when the new law would effect them, and in turn effect us. The answer we got was that it was already effecting them--that the Medicare cuts had already "come down." In turn, the insurance companies will follow Medicare's example; and eventually no one will take Medicare.
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.
Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.
"They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.
McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage.
Shock and awe; it's not free!!
"We tell them it's not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014," McLean said.
Adults with pre-existing conditions are frustrated to learn that insurers won't have to cover them until 2014 (though those under 18 will be protected in late September); then they become both hopeful and confused upon learning that a federal high-risk pool for them will be established in the next few months. "Health insurance is so confusing. You add this on top of it and it makes it even more confusing," McLean said.
ObamaCare is so confusing, that Obama is kicking off a year-long campaign to educate the public:
Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public | McClatchy.The Obama administration is embarking on a years-long public education campaign about the overhaul, including a Web component. However, much of the guidance will depend on Department of Health and Human Services regulations that are still being developed.
Parents of young adults, including those who are preparing to graduate from college this spring, have heard that the overhaul will let them keep their children on their insurance plans until they reach age 26. That starts in September, however; they have to determine how to cover them until then.
A new wave of inquiries could come next month as federal COBRA subsidies for laid-off workers dry up.
A Canadian's first-hand account (lots of photos) of fulfilling her dream of driving across the U.S.
Border to Border USA on Route 66 (Includes first-hand account).
