#1
I try to minimize my exposure to teevee, and Atlanta stations even less. Last week a 'Wheel of Fortune' contestant was blown a kiss by his husband in the audience.
Atlanta stations are replete with adverts offering legal services for auto injury litigation. "This is my wreck - this is my check" is a favorite jingle." Fulton County must surely be the center of the entitlement universe.
It's getting weird about 4 hours down the road here in SC. The local ambulance chasers have started a "I'll-get-you-more" war on local TV. Not sure whether or not to laugh or gag.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/18/2015 7:11 Comments ||
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#6
One of the justifications of Obamacare was the famously rising cost of medical care. The great unsung here is the role played by the ambulance chasers in driving it all up.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/18/2015 13:15 Comments ||
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#7
I've researched this as part of my dissertation on the connection between tort reform and health care costs.
The propaganda is that medical malpractice tort is driving up health care costs via rising malpractice insurance premiums.
The truth is that med mal insurance is going up because the insurance companies have lost their butts in the money market, stock market and housing market and have to make money somewhere. A comparison of med mal insurance claims to premium increases indicates some of the periodic increases occur when the number of claims are lower.
While there are some nasty and egregious examples of ambulance chasers, the truth is the medical profession is driving this narrative to prevent people from suing for medical malpractice. Approximately 100,000 people die each year from medical malpractice and a further 2.5 million are injured. Less than 4% of all people injured by med mal sue for damages.
The cost of bringing a case to trial and the extensive proof required to validate the case plus dueling expert witnesses make the frivolous claim very expensive. Most of the problem is the med mal insurance companies will settle out of course for most anything without regard for the substance of the case...and often for absolutely laughable claims. When an insurance company settles out of court, approximately 75% of those claims contain no proof of a causal relationship between the "injury" or "condition" and the treatment or lack thereof.
The insurance companies created most of this mess with poor business decisions and a knee jerk settle out of court response to a claim when a willingness to go to court would filter out all but the most valid cases.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/18/2015 14:00 Comments ||
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#8
I've researched this as part of my dissertation on the connection between tort reform and health care costs.
Only at Rantburg!
Now to go back and actually read Mr. Clinton's comment. :-)
[FOXNEWS] A teenager has revealed in an interview that she plans to marry her father and have children after dating for two years.
Ick. Just ick.
The unnamed 18-year-old revealed in an interview with New York Magazine her romantic relationship of almost two years with her biological father after being estranged from him for 12 years. In the interview, the girl also said the two also plan on having children.
The teenager said her father reached out to her on Facebook when she was in high school and soon after, she went to stay with him for a week. After the week together, the 18-year-old said they had sex and were dating soon after.
"Everyone on my moms side of the family sees us as father and daughter," she told the magazine. "Those who know that hes my dad, and that we are engaged, include my fathers parents (they can see we are happy together and they cant wait for us to have babies they treat us just like any other couple), the woman we live with, and my best friend."
After the wedding, the woman says they plan to move to New Jersey where adult incest is legal.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[LATIMES] The measles outbreak centered in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, is rapidly expanding, with officials now confirming 51 cases of the illness -- nearly double the number reported Tuesday -- and warning that more people will probably fall sick with the highly contagious virus.
If anybody can remember that far back, children used to routinely come down with measles, mumps, and chickenpox. They were mostly one-shot diseases: once you'd had them you didn't get them again. The mortality rate, I believe, was eentsy, so the 51 kids in California won't die, probably. If any of them do, I hope we're not treated to the sight of their parents blubbering on national television. And I equally hope the stars of stage, screen, and terriblevision don't decide that polio vaccine is bad for everyone else's children.
It wasn't the small chance of death that was -- and still ought to be -- what concerned our parents. It was the less-than-death outcomes: blindness, deafness, sterility, disfigurement to a greater or lesser extent, mental retardation, partial or complete paralysis including all those kids in iron lungs. The probability of such outcomes was/is considerably higher.
That the death rate is low doesn't mean it's zero. We in medicine like to prevent the deaths of children, and one child dying of measles is one too many. There's the other moral issue here in that these idiot parents, by allowing their own kids to be at risk by not vaccinating them, put other innocent kids at risk.
Officials said there was now evidence that the measles outbreak had spread beyond people who visited Disneyland between Dec. 17 and 20 and begun infecting people in the broader community.
It is the beginning of a scenario experts have feared. Health officials generally hope a measles outbreak can be contained within a manageable group of people and eventually extinguished by keeping the ill at home or in a hospital room until they recover, with the outbreak eventually being stopped by the broader community of vaccinated people.
But kindergarten measles vaccination rates have been falling almost every year since 2002 in California, and the virus now appears to be spreading.
Hardest hit has been Orange County, home to Disneyland. On Friday night, county health officials said there were six new cases of measles diagnosed among people who did not visit Disneyland before Christmas. State officials said there were two more such cases in Ventura County, and one in Alameda County.
In a statement, Orange County health officials said the identification of six measles cases with acquisition from unknown community contacts indicates exposure to measles is more widespread throughout the county.
They added: The Health Care Agency expects that the measles outbreak will continue to spread.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Meh my mother always made sure I was exposed to my sisters childhood diseases, a 2 for one deal in Doctor visits and company during sick days. Although I did prefer a solo sickness thighs I might dictate TeeVee watching and lunch menus.
#2
Not to mention complication that pop up later in life, like shingles (which is mild compared to other 'gifts' disease leave).
And I equally hope the stars of stage, screen, and terriblevision don't decide that polio vaccine is bad for everyone else's children.
It's part of the urban bubble effect of being in a unique point in history that most people have no comprehension of just how dependent they are upon very fragile interwoven technical and social institutions that allow one to live outside the status of the third world.
[Yahoo] A woman from Myanmar who was beheaded in a Saudi street this week for killing her husband's young daughter is seen screaming her innocence in a video posted on the internet. Local newspaper websites said Saudi authorities have arrested someone for filming the incident.
The official Saudi Press Agency said on Monday that Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim was executed in Mecca for killing her husband's six-year-old daughter. The SPA quoted the interior ministry as saying, "Investigations led to her trial which proved she was guilty."
The child, also "Burmese," died from being beaten and raped with a broomstick, it said.
In the video, the woman, covered in black, cries, "I did not kill. There is no God but God. I did not kill. Haram. Haram. Haram. Haram. I did not kill ... I do not forgive you ... This is an injustice."
The executioner forces her to lie down on the ground, near a pedestrian crossing.
"I did not," she continues before a final scream as the executioner's curved sword severs her head, in a traditional execution for the kingdom, which carries out death sentences in public. A voice then reads out her crime.
[BUSINESSWEEK] Ukraines military repelled a wave of rebel assaults on Donetsk Airport yesterday, rushing in new troops and ammunition to the battle zone as the government prepares for a visit by neighboring Polands prime minister.
Pro-Russian separatists created an epicenter of tension as they used artillery, mortars and rifle fire in a bid to pry government troops from their tenuous hold on the strategically important site, authorities in the capital Kiev. Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 18 were maimed in the first 24 hours of the weekend, military front man Andriy Lysenko said yesterday in Kiev.
The confrontation is ongoing at Donetsk airport, Lysenko said. Militants attacked Ukrainian positions near the new terminal and weather tower. Ukrainian soldiers are repelling the attacks by the terrorists.
The week-long effort by separatists to take the regional airport rekindles the prospects of all-out war in the former Soviet republic. More than 4,800 people have died in the nine-month conflict, which has poisoned Russias ties with its former Cold War foes. Russia rejects accusations by Ukraine, the U.S., the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that its meddling in the conflict by sending troops and weapons.
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz will land in Kiev tomorrow to meet with her Ukrainian counterpart Arseniy Yatsenyuk, according to the Ukrainian governments website. Poland has been the most vocal European Union supporter of the Ukrainian government that emerged from last years street protests that led to the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
...The Poles have a dog in this fight, and it's a very mean one: they will never again allow Russians to be in a place where they can hurt Poland. Keep in mind that even Soviet-era Russians, when faced with the Solidarity rebellions, weren't sure they could take the Polish Army. I would not be at all surprised if the Poles were quietly providing assistance to Ukraine at this point.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/18/2015 7:22 Comments ||
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[RFE/RL] Kyrgyzstan's State Border Guard Service has reported one of its guards was killed and two injured in an attack on a border post near the border with Tajikistan.
Guard spokesperson Gulmira Borunbaeva said the Aykol border post in Batken Province was attacked during the late evening of January 16. The person killed was the post's commander.
Overnight the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the state energy giant Gazprom to cut supplies to and through Ukraine by around three-fifths amid accusations its neighbour has been siphoning off and stealing Russian gas.
Ukraine says the Russian move has been prompted by payment and price disputes, a row between the two that has become almost annual.
The effects of the dispute on the rest of Europe however is stark, said Ukraine's main gas supplier.
Around 80 per cent of the gas European Union countries receive from Russia comes through Ukraine.
While Germany and France are much more exposed, it is reckoned in some estimates that 15 per cent of Britain's supplies come from Russia through pipelines into the UK's east coast. Mark Twain: History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
#1
The EU knew about this Achilles' Heel in its natural gas supply with Russian gas from Putin coming through the Ukraine, and they have not done anything about it, except put sanctions on Russia. Smart, real smart.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/18/2015 0:23 Comments ||
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With America leading from behind, those with mutual interests and similar outlooks are forming coalitions of their own.
[AnNahar]. Japan's foreign minister used a visit to India Saturday to push for tighter maritime security ties between the two nations, as Tokyo seeks to shore up its relationships in Asia to counter an increasingly powerful China.
Fumio Kishida, who met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, is on his first overseas visit since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe secured a landmark victory in national elections last month.
"Japan and India have been increasing cooperation in the field of maritime security... It is important to further strengthen our cooperation," Kishida said in a speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi on Saturday.
Both India and Japan have signaled a keenness to beef up their defense ties in recent months to counter an increasingly assertive China.
The two governments are expected to discuss the possible manufacturing of U.S.-2 amphibian aircraft in India and Japan's continued participation in India-U.S. maritime exercises.
The issue of China's growing might is also likely to figure when Kishida meets his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj for the eighth strategic dialogue later on Saturday, India's foreign ministry confirmed.
Kishida also urged closer economic collaboration with India, a subject close to both Modi and Abe, who have been compared for their economic reform zeal.
"Under Abenomics the government of Japan supports the overseas advancement of Japanese enterprises, while India has been strengthening its manufacturing industry by attracting investment under Modinomics," the Japanese foreign minister said.
Prime Minister Modi, who chose Tokyo for his first bilateral visit outside South Asia in August-September, was on that trip offered public and private investment worth $35 billion over next five years by his Japanese counterpart.
A Japanese foreign ministry official said the country appreciated steps taken by India's Modi government to boost the business climate after taking power in May 2014.
"India continues to be the top-choice investment destination, the new government has taken some steps (but) investment climate has to be improved further," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
The official added that taxation environment in India and other issues related to promoting Japanese investments were likely to figure in discussions between Kishida and Swaraj.
Both governments will also assess the progress in ongoing bilateral negotiations over nuclear energy and India's plans to introduce high speed rail networks in the country.
h/t Instapundit
It appears the Australias first libertarian senator has some harsh words for anti discrimination leftists who wish to crack down on free speech.
When money was growing on trees even for junk-rated companies, and when Wall Street still performed miracles for a fee, thanks to the greatest credit bubble in US history, oil and gas drillers grabbed this money channeled to them from investors and refilled the ever deeper holes fracking was drilling into their balance sheets.
But the prices for crude oil, US natural gas, and natural gas liquids have all plunged. Revenues from unhedged production are down 40% or 50%, or more from just seven months ago. And when the hedges expire, the problem will get worse. The industry has been through this before. It knows what to do.
Layoffs are cascading through the oil and gas sector. On Tuesday, the Dallas Fed projected that in Texas alone, 140,000 jobs could be eliminated. Halliburton said that it was axing an undisclosed number of people in Houston. Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil producer, will dump 1,000 workers in its tar-sands projects. Helmerich & Payne is idling rigs and cutting jobs. Smaller companies are slashing projects and jobs at an even faster pace. And now Slumberger, the world’s biggest oilfield-services company, will cut 9,000 jobs.
It had had an earnings debacle. It announced that Q4 EPS grew by 11% year-over-year to $1.50, “excluding charges and credits.” In reality, its net income plunged 81% to $302 million, after $1.8 billion in write-offs that included its production assets in Texas.
To prop up its shares, it announced that it would increase its dividend by 25%. And yes, it blew $1.1 billion in the quarter and $4.7 billion in the year, on share buybacks, a program that would continue, it said. Financial engineering works. On Thursday, its shares were down 35% since June. But on Friday, after the announcement, they jumped 6%.
All these companies had gone on hiring binges over the last few years. Those binges are now being unwound. “We want to live within our means,” is how Suncor CFO Alister Cowan explained the phenomenon.
Because now, they have to.
Larger drillers outspent their cash flows from production by 112% and smaller to midsize drillers by a breathtaking 157%, Barclays estimated. But no problem. Wall Street was eager to supply the remaining juice, and the piles of debt on these companies’ balance sheets ballooned. Oil-field services companies, suppliers, steel companies, accommodation providers… they all benefited. More at the link...
#1
Thanks Badanov. Not that we needed further evidence that the recent price reductions at the pump are temporary.
SUNCOR (SU) has increased it's annual dividend 8 of the last ten years. Their quarterly dividend now sits at .28 cents per share. Not intended as an endorsement, but certainly a good sign.
#4
The oil industry, and the prices thereof will recover some, but I do not think we will see $4 gas for some time, maybe ten years or more.
The individuals and companies which accrued so much debt will suffer, and maybe even get bought out or go bankrupt, but many companies will survive and morph as they find new opportunities to make money.
I have every faith in American capitalism to grow from this price break.
#6
I have every faith in American capitalism to grow from this price break.
Not if the Beltway Party of Tax, Tax, Tax can help it. More money to steal. Why do you rob banks? That's where the money is. Why do you keep taxing? That's where the money is. How many poor indigent congresscritters leave the farm?
#7
All that was needed was some leadership and a tariff. But Obama's good with this outcome. Instead of a vigorous oil industry that's keeping its products onshore and a blooming advanced energy R&D sector, we have layoffs and contraction.
#9
Rewind to the 1970s. When the domestic energy sector stops producing, expect the Saudis to twist the knife.
Production cuts to not just swing the price of oil back up but to cause fuel shortages in every neighbor hood, long lines at the pump, gas rationing.
If we had leadership that would prepare the US for this, the reserves would be restored and tariffs implemented to keep our energy sector somewhat active.
#11
I have no doubt gas will go back up; that's why I put aside the same amount from each paycheck for gas how as I did when it was nearly $4/gal.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/18/2015 17:22 Comments ||
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#12
Rewind to the 1970s.
Looks more like the late 80s to me. With the exception that then OPEC was sitting on spare capacity equivalent to around 25% of global demand.
Today? Closer to 2%, if the spare capacity exists at all. Plus seasonal variation is nearly equivalent to present oversupply. Plus natural annual decline from existing wells dwarfs the present oversupply. Etc.
Volatility will be the norm for a while but no one will have to cut production voluntarily to make it happen.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd responded defiantly to a reporter on Friday when he was asked if he "regrets" saying that his officers were prepared for a "gunfight" with a group of dangerous murder suspects.
#1
Electro-mechanical tech with a little wireless thrown in to sweeten the pot. What could go wrong? When seconds count, Radio Shack and fresh batteries are only minutes away.
First format you weapons hard drive,
Do that again when it fails.
Fail again? Run setup and flash your weapons BIOS.
Obtain a USB cable of the correct type.
Obtain another weapon exactly as the one yo be updated.
Locate a male female adapter for your USB cable
Co locate the pistols attached by USB cable. Make sure the one with the updated BIOS is on the right, the BIOS target on the left.
Squeeze the trigger.
Of the weapon left.
If you squeezed the trigger of the weapon on the right you have left the BIOS in the same un-updated status as your left pistol.
Remove the USB cable from the right weapon.
Obtain a weapon identical to the two that need BIOS updates.
You will need to purchase and upgrade to DOS IV fr.gnz in order to accomplish this task.
#4
Congratulations! You are now ready to practice with your weapon at any of 12 DOS indoor shooting ranges.
WARNING: To use your weapon anywhere but a DOS approved range requires a License. There are three (3) types of Licenses:
License to Kill
License to Maim
License to Makeout
If perchance you fire at a sentiment being (including MACs) without a license you will be able to fire 3 (three) rounds only at 150 feet per second. On attempting to to fire a fourth time the Blue Flag Of Death will emerge from the barrel of your weapon with details on ordering licenses and a full hex dump of weapon status. At this point the gun will need to be reset, obtain a USB cable and a USB to Serial adapter,
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[FOXNEWS] A teenager has revealed in an interview that she plans to marry her father and have children after dating for two years.
[LATIMES] The measles outbreak centered in 
