Tom Faranda's Folly

Rugby: How hard do players tackle

With the European Six Nations Championship starting tomorrow, here's a look at rugby tackling and the increased size and speed of the modern player. Of course the same thing has happened in all sports - players are bigger, faster, and stronger.

WSJ columnist: "Obama's State of Disunion His operating method has been social and political division."

Daniel Henninger's weekly Thursday column. 1,000% correct.

The pollsters at Gallup wrote last week that Mr. "Obama is on course to have the most politically polarized approval ratings of any president." Segments of the U.S. population see themselves not just in disagreement with the Obama administration, but as the target of its policies.

This includes not only the famous 1%, but also the upper-middle class, Southern states, charter schools, politically active conservatives, private businesses, the Catholic church, electric utilities, doctors driven out of ObamaCare's health networks and those famous partisans, the Little Sisters of the Poor.

All have been vilified, investigated, audited or sued by the president himself, Eric Holder's Justice Department, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and, not least, the Internal Revenue Service. Last year's most remarkable polling number from Gallup said in December that 72% of Americans regard big government as the greatest threat to the U.S. They got the message.

******

Progressives justify coerced public policy with their belief that what they are doing is good. Setting aside several hundred years of unhappy world history with this notion, a glitch always occurs in the U.S.: Because the Founding Fathers designed an arduous system for producing progress, the far left has never been able to put its most purebred ideas consistently across the legislative goal line. Too many citizens resist. One might say the same of the far right, but they're not running anything just now. In frustration—and Mr. Obama is nothing if not frustrated—the White House is defaulting, as the left does everywhere, to direct executive action. We are at the dawn of the Unilateral Presidency.

******

Barack Obama could have allowed some accommodation to decompress the discord and political tension. ... Instead, the IRS audited his opponents. Get over it? Not anytime soon.

The Atlanta storm and a life-saving, quiet rescue

Good story in the Atlanta paper yesterday.

Solomon, 47, is a manager in a software firm and not exactly skilled in medicine, but he could tell the man was almost frozen.

British newspaper: "Pete Seeger's greatest legacy? Saving NY's Hudson river

Nice, but brief, article in the Guardian (UK). And nice picture if you hit the link.

The river was a raging sewer when Seeger set out to save it in the 1960s, a liquid dump for industries that grew along its banks, full of PCBs from the electrical industry, sewage discharges, pesticides, and other contaminants. The main traffic was cement and oil barges. The public largely stayed away.

Seeger, with his late wife, Toshi, built his own 19th-century wooden sloop, the Clearwater, and as he sailed the river, he began asking commercial fishermen to work with him to bring the river back.

The boat would later turn into an environmental organisation, which remains active today.

******

And remarkably, the effort to save the Hudson worked. Under public pressure, PCBs were banned in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, the Environmental Protection Agency designated a 200-mile stretch of the Hudson as a clean-up site. In 2001, the EPA embarked on another monumental project to dredge the river for sediment contaminated by PCBs. That project is ongoing.

 

Today - January 30th - a REALLY bad day in 20th century history,

1933 - New Chancellor for Germany - Adolf Hitler

1948 - Mahatma Gandhi assassinated

1972 - "Bloody Sunday" with 14 killed/murdered in Northern Ireland by British soldiers. U2 had a famous song, released about 11 years later. Sunday, Bloody, Sunday

WSJ op ed: Ted Cruz on the Imperial Presidency of Barack Obama

Great op ed in yesterday's Journal. Hit the link for the whole thing.

Rule of law doesn't simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. That no one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."

Yet rather than honor this duty, President Obama has openly defied it by repeatedly suspending, delaying and waiving portions of the laws he is charged to enforce. When Mr. Obama disagreed with federal immigration laws, he instructed the Justice Department to cease enforcing the laws. He did the same thing with federal welfare law, drug laws and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

On many of those policy issues, reasonable minds can disagree. Mr. Obama may be right that some of those laws should be changed. But the typical way to voice that policy disagreement, for the preceding 43 presidents, has been to work with Congress to change the law. If the president cannot persuade Congress, then the next step is to take the case to the American people. As President Reagan put it: "If you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat" of electoral accountability.

President Obama has a different approach. As he said recently, describing his executive powers: "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone." Under the Constitution, that is not the way federal law is supposed to work.

******

There is no example of lawlessness more egregious than the enforcement—or nonenforcement—of the president's signature policy, the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Obama has repeatedly declared that "it's the law of the land." Yet he has repeatedly violated ObamaCare's statutory text.

The law says that businesses with 50 or more full-time employees will face the employer mandate on Jan. 1, 2014. President Obama changed that, granting a one-year waiver to employers. How did he do so? Not by going to Congress to change the text of the law, but through a blog post by an assistant secretary at Treasury announcing the change.

******

The law says that members of Congress and their staffs' health coverage must be an ObamaCare exchange plan, which would prevent them from receiving their current federal-employee health subsidies, just like millions of Americans who can't receive such benefits. At the behest of Senate Democrats, the Obama administration instead granted a special exemption (deeming "individual" plans to be "group" plans) to members of Congress and their staffs so they could keep their pre-existing health subsidies.

More if you hit the link.

 

FOX News continues to crush other cable news networks

Beats CNN, MSNBC, HLN, combined. And does well in ratings against all cable channels.

With total viewers, FNC landed in the Top-5 among all cable networks in total day, while CNN and MSNBC settled for No. 38 and No. 29, respectively, and HLN clocked in at No. 47. In prime, FNC finished January at No. 7, CNN at No. 40, MSNBC at No. 30, and HLN at No. 46.

It's good to have friends - amazing midair rescue of a skydiver

This has been all over the news - Brigid saw it tonight on BBC.

 

Kimmel: State of the Guillermo union

Probably better then the Prez's speech, which I didn't watch.

 

The WSJ on Apple's iPhone sales troubles

My opinion - Apple is a great company now, but not such a great stock. No longer a growth stock. It happens to all comapnies - will someday happen to Google.

Here's what the Journal says:

 

Wall Street Journal, touting their ... sports coverage?

Actaully their sports pages - it's only 2-3 pages on any day - is excellent. they do look at things with a different slant. 

 

Computer picks Seahawks to beat Denver, 24-21.

But I think Denver will win, and maybe by more than a touchdown.

Prediction Machine’s Predictalator ran a simulation of Sunday’s Super Bowl 50,000 times, and found that the most likely score has the Seahawks beating the Broncos, 24-21.

Pete Seeger

94. Lived much of his life in the Hudson Valley.

Pete Seeger, American troubadour and activist, dies at 94

Pete and Toshi Seeger were married July 20, 1943. The couple built their cabin in Beacon after World War II and stayed on the high spot of land by the Hudson River for the rest of their lives together. The couple raised three children. Toshi Seeger died in July at age 91.

The Hudson River was a particular concern of Seeger. He took the sloop Clearwater, built by volunteers in 1969, up and down the Hudson, singing to raise money to clean the water and fight polluters.

Kimmel: Celebrating Giuillermo's Birthday

Guillermo Díaz is the parking lot security guard for the show and has become a bit of a celebrity.

 

Pathetic editing by CBS "Face the Nation" with Ted Cruz interview

Up on Drudge.

Amazing to compare the uncut version on Cruz' youtube channel with what CBS actually aired.

They change the whole gist of the interview. "Thou shalt not criticize the President on Free Speech" I guess.

It's all here - takes less then three minutes to watch and read the comments in the article.

CBS should explain why it felt it appropriate to edit out a high profile senator accusing the President of the United States of targeting his politcal enemies.

 

 

Exercise/cross fit and pregnancy

An OK discussion on ABC (a little syrupy, as to be expected from ABC).

 

Marlboro Man dies of COPD

As in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Awfully nasty. Evidently the fourth of the Marlboro Men models to die of smoking related illness.

From the Telegraph (UK) morning email.

Eric Lawson, an actor who portrayed the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died at the age of 72 from a smoking-related disease.

He started smoking when he was 14, and is the fourth Marlboro actor to die of diseases commonly linked to heavy smoking.

Both my sons would do this

Man runs into burning home to save his Xbox

New Restaurant in Croton; will have to check out "Fino"

Thanks to my friend Maria - I've stolen this from her blog ...

I never heard of this fellow, but it seems he has a reputation.

Chef Vuli Opens Fino in Croton

 

Fr. Barron on recent anti-Catholic public statements (including Cuomo)

Great point on the evolution from the "privatized" Catholicism of Mario Cuomo to the open anti-Catholicism of his son. And "...The Andrew Cuomo outburst is particularly chilling."

 

The NY Times "Public Editor" agrees that her paper's coverage of the March for Life was poor

I mentioned here Today - January 22nd - is the annual official "Media Blindness Day" that as per usual the media ignores the ten of thousands of people at the March for Life every January 22nd (See two comments left on that posting)

As a matter of fact, the NY Times did cover it - with a photo on page A17. Since I read the NYT online, I didn't catch the "coverage."

The NY Times own Public Editor - the Ombudsman for Times readers - commented and it's an interesting column. Excerpts below, but hit the link.

Why So Little on the March for Life in Thursday’s Times?

... Was this local participation, or the event itself, worthy of a news story in the paper of record? Apparently not.

The Times, in print, published only a stand-alone photograph of the event on Page A17 with a two-line caption on Thursday. (Its website carried a wire story and The Lede blog on Wednesday had an extensive report, written in New York and mostly aggregated from other sources.)

Many readers wrote to me about the lack of coverage in Thursday’s paper....

******

Another reader made the point that The Times’s political agenda was on display, not only in the lack of coverage of the event but also in what it did choose to give a major amount of space to in the same day’s paper: a front-page article about a Catholic school in suburban Seattle where students are protesting the firing of a school official who was let go after he married his male partner.

Francis H. Hoffman wrote: “A handful of young people from Seattle who support their fired vice principal merits big coverage, but a massive pro-life march in a winter storm is all but ignored. And the motto of the New York Times is, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” I guess pro-life news is not fit to print.”

The Public Editor finishes her column:

My take: The Times should have covered this gathering with a staff reporter in Washington. The march may happen every year, and this one may have been smaller than usual, but it still is a major event, and there were fresh angles available, including the more inclusive approach, the large number of young people involved and the difficulties of participating in the storm. The lack of staff coverage unfortunately gives fuel to those who accuse The Times of being anti-Catholic, and to those who charge that the paper’s news coverage continually reflects a liberal bias. But more important, the event had significant news value. In Thursday’s paper, it deserved more than a photograph.

 

 

 

More Obamacare fallout: Moody's credit rating service downgrades health insurers

From "stable" to "negative". The investment service, evaluating the financials of the insurers. Oddly enough, more than a few people would greet this sort of thing as good news because they're idiots they simply don't understand how our financial system works and think it's great to stick it to all those evil corporations

Credit ratings firm Moody's Investors Service on Thursday lowered its outlook for health insurers to "negative" from "stable," citing "uncertainty" swirling around the rollout of President Obama's health care law.

In a new report, the agency said that the outlook for insurance companies is no longer clear because the law's insurance exchanges haven't been attracting enough younger individuals. In addition, Moody's analysts were concerned that the Obama administration has been changing regulations after insurers had already set prices for the year.

"While we've had industry risks from regulatory changes on our radar for a while, the ongoing unstable and evolving environment is a key factor for our outlook change," Stephen Zaharuk, author of the report, said in a statement. "The past few months have seen new regulations and announcements that impose operational changes well after product and pricing decisions were finalized."

 

The new Yankee pitcher will pay an extra $12 million in taxes for playing in New York

Masahiro Tanaka signed a seven year $155 million contract, so nobody will weep for him. But it is interesting that he'd have saved over $12 million if he'd signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks or Chicago Cubs.

That's real point is made below - "the real lesson to be learned here, one you won’t see in the headlines is that higher federal and state tax burdens can have a huge impact on employees and employment in a state."

Had Tanaka chosen a contract with the Diamondbacks or the Cubs, he would have saved almost $12 million over the life of his contract. Instead, Tanaka chose New York, where the state and local rates are some of the highest in the country. By choosing to sign with the Yankees, Tanaka automatically forfeited almost $12 million in taxes that would have been saved had he signed with the Cubs or Diamondbacks.

Tanaka will pay a combined marginal income tax rate of 56.1 percent - over half of his contract. For New York state and local taxes alone he will lose an estimated $2,811,257 a year. The combined marginal income tax rate Tanaka will pay is comprised of the federal, state and local tax rates, plus the Medicare payroll tax.

While Tanaka is not your average employee, the real lesson to be learned here, one you won’t see in the headlines is that higher federal and state tax burdens can have a huge impact on employees and employment in a state. The sweetness of signing a $155 million contract to play baseball for one of the leagues most renowned teams, the New York Yankees, is only made bitter by the fact Tanaka will have to settle for receiving only $68 million (less than half) of the $155 million contract due to the heavy federal and state tax burdens.

Hit the link for the whole analysis.

Woman physician: "I was indifferent until I adopted a child and now I march."

A beautiful op ed in USA Today last week. With a lovely story of adopting a Chinese girl. It's only eight paragraphs long.

I used to be one of those who felt sorry for the idiots who spent their money putting up signs along the Florida Turnpike saying things like: "Abortion stops a beating heart," accompanied by an unpleasant depiction of an embryo. And then one day I was pushed off my horse and I became one of them. I think it happens like that for many people: years of puzzled distaste and then bingo! You're out there too with your silly sign on the side of the road, cringing at rude finger gestures. There is a moment when passion becomes ignited, and you find yourself able to withstand indifference, hopelessness and hostility, even welcoming them.

... There are millions of people here in the U.S. that have empty arms and overflowing hearts who wish to adopt. This may not be a compelling reason for a woman to bring an unwanted child to term. But the fact that one person's inconvenient, unwanted child could easily become another's priceless treasure might be a timely reminder of the infinite value of every human. That realization was enough to change me forever.

CNBC interviews the CEO of Aetna Health Insurance

A different perspective from the chief of one of the biggest health insurance companies.

Eight short paragraphs.

He said that so far, Obamacare has just shifted people who were insured in the individual market to the public exchanges where they could get a better deal on a subsidy for coverage. "We see only 11 percent of the population is actually people that were firmly uninsured that are now insured. So [it] didn't really eat into the uninsured population."

By 2020, Bertolini said he sees 75 million people buying health-care insurance from exchanges. "Some portion of that will be public exchanges—probably 20 million to 25 million will be public exchanges—the rest will be private exchanges."

"We're going to have individuals buying health care with a subsidy from their government or a subsidy from their employer," he said.

Most people working in the private sector don't realize that their insurance is subsidized by their employer. In my case, my marketing group (which is not my employer since I am self-employed) pays 50% of my family health premium, which is actually on the low end of subsidization. 

Yesterday in Washington: "Pro-life marchers weather the cold"

Ahhh, makes me feel like a bit of a wuss for not travelling down this year because of the storm. But I did spend an hour at the Rally for Life in White Plains.

The video gives an idea of how young the March is every year.

 

Today - January 22nd - is the annual official "Media Blindness Day"

Because of the weather, I/we won't be at the Washington DC March for Life today (instead we will go to the Rally for Life at noon in White Plains). But tens of thousands of other mostly young people will be traipsing through the snow, to be ignored by NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NYT, etc.

The disease—to which medical professionals have not yet assigned a name—makes it almost impossible for major-media reporters to notice tens of thousands of people marching up Constitution Avenue. Because the disease also causes mental disorientation, reporters fail to notice traffic jams, sold-out hotels, crowded Metro cars, and an unusual number of young people carrying pro-life placards around Capitol Hill.

Fortunately the disease passes quickly, typically lasting only about 36 hours. Victims will recover completely by January 23, and by Friday even inexperienced journalists will be able to recognize a potential headline story immediately if a half-dozen people gather outside the Japanese embassy to protest the killing of innocent dolphins.

 

Unemployment rate 37%? Depends on how you measure it

Here's an interesting take - as well as a look at the "Misery Index."

One thing for sure - unemployment is a lot more than the "official" 6.7%.

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work. Policies that remove the barriers to employment, thus decreasing this number, are obviously beneficial,” he and colleague Megan Russell in their new investors note from their offices in Charlottesville, Va. They added that “officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work. A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental.”

 

Democrat State Senator Ruben Diaz: "Andrew Cuomo, the Intolerant Governor"

The Reverend Ruben Diaz, from the Bronx - pretty unhappy with this - Cuomo speaks: "extreme conservatives who are right-to-life ... have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are."

Here's his response -

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz
District 32 Bronx County, New York
Tel. 718-991-3161

ANDREW CUOMO, THE INTOLERANT GOVERNOR

You should know what back in Biblical times, there were two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, whose leaders were intolerant of anyone who would oppose their teachings and beliefs, to the point that the leaders would expel and commit physical violence against anyone who disagreed with them.   The leaders of Sodom and Gomorrah demanded that its’ citizens should be tolerant of their beliefs.

You should also know that New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has spent the past few years pushing for tolerance from people who disagree with him and his ilk.  However, we just got a very disturbing lesson of intolerance from our beloved Governor, Andrew Cuomo.

On Friday, January 17, 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo made an outrageous statement during a radio interview, where he categorically condemned all New Yorkers who fall under his label of “extreme conservatives."

Governor Cuomo stated: “these extreme conservatives, have no place in the State of New York.”   So we should ask, who are these “extreme conservatives”?

You should know that these condemned New Yorkers include people of faith communities, and people of no faith at all, who uphold traditional marriage and oppose the legalization of marriage between a man and a man, and a woman and a woman.  The Governor’s condemned New Yorkers also include women and men who respect the inherent dignity of human life at all stages of development and who oppose the legalization of the brutal killing of unborn children in their mothers' wombs.

I wonder if the Governor had the chance to redo his interview, if he would like to include New Yorkers who oppose late-term abortions - and New Yorkers who oppose fornication or sex outside of marriage - among those who should no longer reside in New York State.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's widespread call for the banishment of all New Yorkers who don't toe his liberal line sounds like something we might hear from the mouth of a tyrant condemning those who sit on the wrong side of his throne.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's presumptuous license to banish those who he has called "extreme conservatives" is an outright attack on millions of New Yorkers.  It's also an attack on the core principles of the Bill of Rights' First Amendment freedoms:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Someone needs to send our Governor back to a remedial course of "Civics 101 - Introduction to the US Constitution.”  And if it helps, I would be delighted to lend Governor Andrew Cuomo my copy of Nat Hentoff’s book: “Free Speech for Thee, But Not For Me.”

You should know that Governor Andrew Cuomo's radio attack against millions of New Yorkers who are “extreme conservatives” amounts to a thinly disguised act of religious discrimination against those who are practicing Catholics, Jewish, Muslims, and Evangelical Christians.  Millions of New Yorkers revere the teachings of the Torah, the Holy Bible and the Koran.

My dear reader, we need to remain vigilant, because as they say: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

I have to say, while Governor Andrew Cuomo's radio attack sounded like an excommunication decree, I find comfort in knowing that I am in good company with many of New York’s religious leaders, including my Catholic friends, such as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who shepherds New York’s Catholics with loving pro-family guidance.  This includes the belief that life is given by God, and God is the only one who should take it away.

I am also in good company with the Catholic Church’s Pope Francis who recently reminded the world of the travesty of abortion when he stated: “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary.’ For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day.”

I must ask our beloved Governor, where are all those talks about tolerance?  Is it that our intolerant Governor wants New York State to become a tyrannical state?

I am State Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.

Weekend Football plus: Charles Woodson on the 2001 "tuck rule" game. "It's still a fumble"

Amusing, plus all the links to commentary on yesterday's games. I was right on both of my predictions. My football picks this weekend

Unless Peyton Manning breaks a leg in practice, the Broncos will win the Super Bowl.

Charles Woodson: 'Tom Brady owes me his house'

 

Obamacare; woman with breast ca. loses her docs and Sloan Kettering hospital

My hospital. Sickening. "First do no harm" - unless you can expand your own power. Of course the government will blame the healthcare providers, the insurance companies - anyone but their own fatally flawed legislation.

Queen Elizabeth beginning to relinquish responsibility/"hand over the reigns" to Charles

Brigid hasn't seen this yet - she'll feel bad.

This from the Daily Mirror (UK). Excerpts below; more if you care about this stuff and hit the link.

Queen hands over the reigns to Prince Charles - historic step closer to a new king

It is being dubbed the “gentle succession” – as the Queen gradually begins to relinquish some of her traditional duties as monarch.

As she approaches her 88th birthday in April after almost 62 years on the throne, she has agreed to hand over part of her workload in a historic “job-share” arrangement with Prince Charles.

In a royal first, he will be taking on more head of state-style responsibilities as
the Palace starts to make tentative plans for his eventual succession.

Courtiers yesterday described the softly-softly move as “wise” – and “just plain common sense”.

The first sign of the partial power transfer will be the merging this week of the Queen and Charles’s press offices.

In future any announcements concerning the monarch and her 65-year-old
eldest son will now come from the same source. Palace sources insist the switch will be entirely seamless.

Great story: Seattle Seahawks legally deaf starting fullback

Another reason to root for the Seahawks later today.

 

Fooball fever: M.D. offers to barter vasectomy for playoff tickets

Very professional.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A Colorado doctor has an unusual offer for anyone with extra tickets to Sunday's AFC Championship Game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots: a free vasectomy.

"The only people who wouldn't have to pay me in tickets is Tom Brady, but I'd have to do the operation before the game," Broman said, laughing.

This isn't the first time Broman has made such an offer. He made a similar one in 2006 when the Broncos played the Pittsburgh Steelers. That year, he said, he came close to making a deal.

"I had a guy who was ready to pull the trigger, but he said he had only one ticket, so I offered to only do one side," Broman said. "He didn't think that was very funny."

ABC News: 50 Ways to celebrate Michelle Obama's 50th birthday

Her birthday was yesterday but the party is today.

50 Ways to Celebrate Michelle Obama’s Birthday

Check them all out - it's quick and easy -

I liked - 18 - 27 - 29 - 34 - 41 - 44 and 45.

My football picks this weekend

I think the two home teams will win.

The Broncos over the Patriots, and Seattle to beat the 49er's, but if I'm wrong, it's more likely about the Seattle game. 

Should be excellent games - latest news is here - ESPN NFL

Cuomo speaks: "extreme conservatives who are right-to-life ... have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are."

UPDATE: 36 second audio below -

Any disagreement with the governor and you're an extremist.

The full quote can be seen in full context here -

Cuomo has made a career of referring to anyone that opposes his agenda as “extreme” while simultaneously referring to that agenda as “common sense.” It’s code words and phrases over substance – typical liberal hackery.

Here'sthe audio -

 

Megyn Kelly brings Anthony Weiner onto her show

An amusing few opening seconds on this short vid.

 

Kimmel fun: Darth Vader on a unicycle playing bagpipes

Dennis, can you do this?

 

Another one minute wine look: Chardonnay

Not at all my favorite wine - but then "there's no accounting for taste."

an amusing one minute review - almost a cliche of wine reviews; "notes of grapefruit, a lot of lime ..."

 

Springsteen & Fallon Duet: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam"

Pretty good. Almost 2 million views in less than two days.

 

Never thought I'd see it: Gallup Obama approval goes below 40%.

Hell freezes over!?

Disapproval - 53% - approval 39%

 

Kimmel explains Obamacare problems

Funny video.

"They expect young people to buy insurance at the same time the Playstation 4 comes out?"

 

Eighth anniversary of my autologous stem cell transplant

Great health care professionals, chemotherapy, and prayer.

Here's what I posted baack on the fifth anniversary.

I could never quite figure why having your stem cells returned to you constituted a transplant, but that's what they call it.

Anyway, the idea is to re-build your immune system, after the high dose chemo has (hopefully) killed off the remaining lingering cancer cells. The side effect is that the chemo gives your immune system a drubbing, and hence the need for the stem cells - and they know what to do - isn't nature wonderful! - to rebuild.

Here's five years ago at Sloan Kettering. The precedure is very simple - like receiving a blood transfusion. I dozed off afterwards for a couple of hours, and Brigid said she enjoyed the peace and quiet ... What was she getting at?

 Transplant went well

Brigid took this picture while I was getting back my cells - at least the nurse practitioner looks good!

 

China's holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds at new record

$1.317 trillion.

China’s swelling foreign-exchange reserves, reported today to have reached a world record $3.82 trillion at the end of December, may sustain the nation’s appetite for U.S. debt. Capital inflows and intervention to limit gains in the yuan have contributed to China building up currency holdings that are a third of the global total.

And Japan is a close second, with $1.186 trillion.

 

British survey: Religion cuts crime

You'd like to hope so.

A survey from Manchester University found a direct correlation between higher visits to religious places and lower crime figures, especially in relation to shoplifting, drug use and music piracy. Researchers believe this is because religion not only teaches people about 'moral and behavioural norms', but also spending time with like-minded people makes it less likely they'll get mixed up with the 'wrong crowd'.

The researchers did not include more serious, high-level crimes because they 'were too rare for the data to be able to show a significant pattern.'

The TIME mag infograph says I'm 25% conservative, 75% liberal

Takes about 90 seconds to answer the 12 questions and get your -their - result. Fun enough to do.

Questions like do I prefer visiting Times Square or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

See how your preferences in dogs, Internet browsers, and 10 other items predict your partisan leanings.

Of course it's stupid, but so what?

The Index of Economic Freedom: U.S.A. is dropping down

No longer in the top ten -

Here's the article and I've excerpted the chart. Almost funny that Denmark - and Estonia! - rank above us. And if you hit the link you'll find whose moved up and who has moved down.

America's Dwindling Economic Freedom Regulation, taxes and debt knock the U.S. out of the world's top 10.

Interesting study: "How Being Heavy or Lean Shapes Our View of Exercise"

From the always excellent NY Times Health and Fitness section -

Overweight women’s brains respond differently to images of exercise than do the brains of leaner women, a sophisticated new neurological study finds, suggesting that our attitudes toward physical activity may be more influenced by our body size than has previously been understood.

Investment predictions from Goldman Sachs

It's always worth knowing what Goldman thinks, since they are listened to by so many people - and are influential with government movers and shakers.

No exceprts, it's not very long and if you are going to read it, hit the link and read the whole thing.

What does Goldman Sachs really think?