Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Faugh A Ballagh!!

Last ones, I promise!

Ahhh, the reenactors reward!  All the lasses love a man in a smelly wool uniform!  Of course, if these young ladies had any idea at all of the reputation these lads have, they wouldn't be standing so close!

Past Blast

This cropped up on the radio on my drive home today. I love WYEP!

I Still Have A Few More Of These

Broccoli Insurance

Speaking of the NYT--Krugman:

There are at least two ways to address this reality — which is, by the way, very much an issue involving interstate commerce, and hence a valid federal concern. One is to tax everyone — healthy and sick alike — and use the money raised to provide health coverage. That’s what Medicare and Medicaid do. The other is to require that everyone buy insurance, while aiding those for whom this is a financial hardship.

Are these fundamentally different approaches? Is requiring that people pay a tax that finances health coverage O.K., while requiring that they purchase insurance is unconstitutional? It’s hard to see why — and it’s not just those of us without legal training who find the distinction strange. Here’s what Charles Fried — who was Ronald Reagan’s solicitor general — said in a recent interview with The Washington Post: “I’ve never understood why regulating by making people go buy something is somehow more intrusive than regulating by making them pay taxes and then giving it to them.”

Indeed, conservatives used to like the idea of required purchases as an alternative to taxes, which is why the idea for the mandate originally came not from liberals but from the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation. (By the way, another pet conservative project — private accounts to replace Social Security — relies on, yes, mandatory contributions from individuals.)

So has there been a real change in legal thinking here? Mr. Fried thinks that it’s just politics — and other discussions in the hearings strongly support that perception.

So, it seems that we're going to see the Supremes make a political, rather than a legal Constitutionally based ruling on health care.  And if that political decision means that the HCRA is dead, what are you going to replace it with?  Single payer, perhaps?

So I See This Today

I was checking out the NYT online today, and I see this little pop-up:

Beginning in April, visitors to NYTimes.com will have access to 10 free articles per month instead of 20.

Well, there's a sure-fire way to get even fewer people to visit your site and see any ads that are displayed.  I have to wonder if if the Times even remotely understands how the 'tubes and hyperlinking works. 

Romney Gaffes Again

Jokes about workers getting laid off.  Another ready-made campaign ad.

Even MORE St. Patrick's Day Pictures!

Something Is Not Adding Up

ABC has footage from the night Trayvon Martin was killed. The footage is from cameras at the Sanford PD station of George Zimmerman being brought in for questioning. Remember that in Zimmerman's version of events, he claimed Martin knocked him to the ground with a single punch. Zimmerman is supposed to have suffered a broken nose, lacerations to the back of his head, and the back of his clothing supposedly bore grass stains. Watch the video. See any evidence of any of those injuries? Even if first aid was rendered at the scene, broken noses tend to look broken. Bruising doesn't dissappear over a relativly short period of time. A gash to the back of the head that likely would require stitches would be evident. Clothing isn't laundered of grass stains on the way from the scene to the station.

While security camera videos don't deliver particularly good resolution, you'd expect to see at least some of the injuries Zimmerman is alleged to have suffered. The placement of ABC's EXCLUSIVE banner is particularly bad as well.

Another point. If Martin was delivering such a beating to Zimmerman that Zimmerman feared for his life, wouldn't the autopsy show fighting damage to Martin's knuckles and hands? I doubt he donned boxing gloves, but I haven't been able to find the autopsy online. If Martin was beating Zimmerman, I think the autopsy would show evidence to support that hypothosis.

UPDATE: Its not an autopsy report, but the funeral director says that other than the gunshot wound, Martin's body bore no signs of being in a fight. Frankly, I'd prefer a comprehensive forensic examination, but it looks like this is the best we have right now.

Earl Scruggs Dead At 88

Another great gone.

An Interesting Proposal

Treating political advertisment the same way we treat cigarette advertising.