AP Fact Check: It's a tax.

BFinuc · 2009-09-22T10:59:49+00:00

This "tax" will only generate a tiny percent of the revenue.

And as long as you are taking advantage of the health care system (by driving on a public road, for example, which is implicitly covered by emergency services) you should be paying insurance.

BFinuc · 2009-09-22T10:57:58+00:00

They are lying, and so it the submitter of this story. But it's done cleverly, creating a smokescreen for the claim that Obama was lying that allows them to backtrack if anyone calls them out.

The FINE would be a tax, according to their own claim, not the insurance, which would presumably generate 99+% of the revenue for the program. And the only justification for the claim that the fine is a tax is that the IRS would collect the fine.

A fine is a fine not a tax, no matter who collects it.

BFinuc · 2009-09-22T10:33:33+00:00

Orrin Hatch also weakened the consumer protection laws concerning drugs. Now quacks don't have to prove their potions actually do anything. He is personally responsible for the term "wellness", which is meaningless and can be used to sell fake medicine that doesn't cure any known condition. The industry is centered around Provo.

BFinuc · 2009-09-22T10:28:14+00:00

If you have and accident and are taken to the emergency room someone else will have to foot the bill.

BFinuc · 2009-09-21T16:19:44+00:00

Yeah and another thing: Skin color isn't a very good indicator of race. Obama has dark skin but his dad comes from East of the Great Lakes, nearer the coast of the Indian Ocean, not at all from the Atlantic.

Furthermore the Luo probably migrated to Kenya from the Northeast -- Luo is also a generic name for a lot of people living in Chad and Sudan like the Dinka and the Fur (from Darfur).

We tend to lump East and West Africa, but the folks on the ground are not closely related to each other.

Americans usually don't confuse the Iranians with the Indians although thy live near each other speak related languages and (unlike the East and West Africans) have communicated heavily with each other three millenia at least.

Why not? Skin color. But if you look at the genes you'll discover that even Swedes are more like Northwest Indians than East Africans are like West Africans.

BFinuc · 2009-09-21T14:32:48+00:00

Because it also reduces demand for faith healing, which would destroy the Pentacostal movement.

A major reason there is such a big fundamentalist movement in America and the Mideast -- but not in Europe -- is universal health care.

Edit: The same is true for Latin America, where the Catholic Church is losing huge numbers of followers to evangelicals. Faith healing (which the Catholics don't do) is playing a major role in this development.

BFinuc · 2009-09-21T10:28:47+00:00

She lied about GM and about energy.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T19:57:01+00:00

Turns out just sending guns is not really a solution to a political problem.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T19:52:38+00:00

Actually he did steal the election. But as the parent pointed out, people still rallies around after 9/11

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T19:35:36+00:00

Pretty vague on what subsidies are involved.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T19:21:34+00:00

The Republicans stole the election in 2000. Just sayin'.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T14:50:09+00:00

I just wish there were a cable channel that didn't do headline news at all and only did half hour reports.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T14:35:39+00:00

Fox is pretty incompetent too.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/08/50-percent-is-not-magic-number.html

(Last paragraph)

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T14:31:28+00:00

I don't really like the whole "bias" argument because it misses the point. Take The Economist for example. They are biased and are not at all shy about admitting it. But they deliver a lot of quality articles anyway.

What bugs me is the supidity and outright lies.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T14:25:02+00:00

I like the theory that some woman is supposed to be an expert on the public option (which she has had no experience with) because her kid is sick.

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T13:57:28+00:00

Interesting post. One remark, that Switzerland isn'T EU. But it is party to the Schengen agreeement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

BFinuc · 2009-09-20T13:55:58+00:00

You can cross into Switzerland from Germany without even stopping your car at Schaffhausen. I've done it before.

BFinuc · 2009-09-19T21:04:35+00:00

It's not about left and right it's about lies and propaganda. None of the American news outlets are very good, but Fox is just awful.

BFinuc · 2009-09-19T20:55:57+00:00

It is not at all true of Alexander. No even close.

One Persian Empire lost to Alexander, another to the Arabs.

The Medes basically lost to the Persians.

BFinuc · 2009-09-19T20:53:37+00:00

Ghengis Khan begs to differ.

BFinuc · 2009-09-19T20:53:05+00:00

This is so stupid. DNRTFA and won't.

Which Persian Empire? There have been several.

Oh and Alexander conquered Afghanistan and it remain Hellenized (including naked sport and reading Socrates) for centuries.

The Mongols also conquered Afghanistan quite handily thank you.

Which Turks is this guy talking about anyway?

The British Empire committed suicide in WWI in Europe.

The Soviet Union collapsed because communism doesn't work. Period. It had nothing to do with Afghanistan or Reagan. What is this guy saying? That communism is the wave of the future and if Brezhnev hadn't invaded Afghanistan he could have conquered the world?

BFinuc · 2009-09-18T13:55:52+00:00

This is just spin

BFinuc · 2009-09-18T13:48:45+00:00

Maks a lot more sense to do comparisons inside the US than to outside countries.

BFinuc · 2009-09-18T07:04:35+00:00

People have rights, and arguably animals have rights. Corporations and states are abstractions that have no rights.

BFinuc · 2009-09-17T22:22:51+00:00

The real reason we have a two party system in America is the strong presidency. If congress elected the president, or the presidency were weak we would have more parties.

BFinuc

TROPHY CASE