Nothing Changes

The low state of their morale made even procrastination savourless.

Whiskey Galore by Compton Mac Kenzie

--ml

Signs of the Times?

The billboard copy reads:

"Optimism is Contagious"

It advertises a bank.
(beat)
(beat)
In that case pessimism must be pandemic.
--ml

Noted But Not Null

"As a scientist you are taught not to answer questions, but to question answers." — Anonymous

May we all find the wisdom to do the same.

Of late Sandy has been writing, apparently from Industry talking points, against proposed health insurance reforms. It was a double loss then to find her ignoring contrary arguments and asserting exaggerations and distortions as facts to reinforce fear and uncertainty. It is a pleasure to find her back in the science shop where the clarity of her writing about methodology and data versus abstracts and press releases is a joy and needed anodyne to the media hysteria that rules our discourse.
--ml

The Aether Asks

Surgeon General Koop looks for a new war for the Public Health warriors. Chooses Fat People. Lots of trees die. Electrons are splatted against high tech antennas near you. New twenty seven color presses are sold to Glossy Magazines. Etc. Etc. Etc. and so on ad infinitum.
So Meagan McArdle interviews Paul Campos for the Atlantic. A world of bloggers famous, infamous and nebbish wade in (even Dum Luks) with every ceivable (con and incon) position, pov, and measured incendiarical remark.
One remark that flies by is the notion that Insurance companies -- as a matter of business survival -- measure the cost of risk factors to a nicety of accuracy lest they lose money. Therefore, since they charge a high premium to fat people, it is obvious, despite the most credible scientific studies to the contrary (See the Obesity Paradox series for chapter and verse), that fat people cost a lot of health care.
Mull that one.
Consider that insurance companies, like other casinos, expect to take in more money than they pay out. So of course they would charge a high premium to someone they knew was terminally ill. But... they want to be your pal so you continue to send in your premium. So rather than be seen to turn the oldster with terminal gaffufleitis out into the cold they look around. Who is an easy mark? Somebody who everybody knows is a health risk but who statistically has less illness than other people? Why fat people! So you raise their premiums to pad the P&L, just in case your cousin's kid didn't didn't do as well on that actuarial course as claimed.

Wha... I'M being cynical?
No way. Cynical would be if I claimed they paid for the marketing that supports the war on obesity.

oh.

wait...

--ml

Another Answer for Brad

Brad DeLong notes the reaction to the Kos/Research 2000 poll about the birthers and asks:

Can we please get another, very different opposition party to the Democrats?

We already have them. They are called Democrats.
--ml
(richly deserved obligatory tip o' the tifter to D.B.)

Today's Haiku

Then I blamed it on youth.
Now my excuse is age.
As a summer night's heat fades at dawn,
Memory's detail frays
Though the image still is clear.

Sandwichman Commands ...

Tom Walker

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence AS YOUR STATUS. AND POST these instructions in a comment to this status.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST book.

July 12 at 7:32am

Jan De Hartog: "The Capitan", page 56, fifth sentence:

"It was a grey windless day with low hanging cloud: darkness would fall soon with that sky."

That sums it up.
--ml

Herd Vision

Digby concludes:

But there might be a few stragglers who have only recently become convinced of my cowardice who would be surprised at what they see.

That would assume they could see past the beam in their own eyes that prevents them seeing how very brave it is to maintain one's convictions despite the herd's roars.
--ml

Hear him! Hear him!

"Behind all the new movements of this age - nationalistic, fascistic, communistic - has been more than a suspicion of the mental attitude of a gang of small-town louts ready to throw a brick at the nearest stranger."

--J. B. Priestly

That about sums it up.
Except to add the other bully still going strong: Corporatism.
--ml

S.A.T.S.Q.* MMCXXVII

Paul Krugman asks:

The question is, what is that higher truth? What do these people really believe in?

Pharaoh.
Glad to help Paul.
--ml
*simple answers etc. ^tm Duncan Black