Macy's Christmas tree lights
Columbus Circle, Dec. 31, 2009
Columbus Circle. Dec. 31, 2009
Happy New Year 2010!
"The Undies Bomber"
Not to condone the Daily News' style (well, maybe a bit in this instance), but just to say that I agree with the substance:
I'd also ad to the list of incompetents the State Department employee who issued Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's visa.
WASHINGTON - The system worked, in the cover-your-backside world of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Baloney.
The system worked, if you don't count the parts that deal with airport security and screening, and the $50 billion intelligence apparatus that is supposed to keep track of terrorists and terror wanna-bes.
No, Janet, none of that stuff had anything to do with the happy ending for Flight 253. What worked was sheer luck, combined with the incompetence of the undies bomber and the true grit of the passengers and flight attendants.
I'd also ad to the list of incompetents the State Department employee who issued Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's visa.
Extremely Drug-Resistant (XXDR) TB
The AP has a very interesting article on the the first U.S. case of extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB--Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting student, who spent a year and a half living and being treated at the nation's last-standing TB sanitarium--and the global challenge of drug resistance.
A Question About the Northwest Airlines Plane Terrorist Attack
How does a man whose name is in a database indicating "a significant terrorist connection manage to board a plane with a fairly sophisticated explosive device on his person?
ETA: Corrected the airline's name and added a link.
ETA: Corrected the airline's name and added a link.
The New York Times Forgets to Report Most of the Story
Is The New York Times' new motto Some of the news that's fit to print?
Here's the NYT article about a woman who stabbed a man to death in a Queens subway stations yesterday night.
And here's what actually happened.
Big, huge difference between "man stabbed to death by female attacker who flees and is still at large" and "group of men attack, try to kidnap woman; she stabs one of her attackers to death, flees and is still at large", no?
ETA: NYT has a follow-up article (H/T Annapolitan)
Here's the NYT article about a woman who stabbed a man to death in a Queens subway stations yesterday night.
And here's what actually happened.
Big, huge difference between "man stabbed to death by female attacker who flees and is still at large" and "group of men attack, try to kidnap woman; she stabs one of her attackers to death, flees and is still at large", no?
ETA: NYT has a follow-up article (H/T Annapolitan)
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my readers!
I almost bought a new camera
yesterday which means the pics to follow could have been so much better...
A glimpse of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
Christmas Ornaments
More Christmas Building Ornaments
Goldman Sachs, The Nation's Consummate Social Worker
If consummate social workers were in the habit of betting serious money that the services they provide their clients are toxic, that is.
Sen. Ben Nelson, Your Uterine Overlord
Photo via
Now that Sen. Ben Nelson, Uterine Overlord, and his Democrat colleagues Sen. Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have finally decided on a mutually agreeable horse-trade value of some of your internal organs, I thought it useful if we try to figure out what's just about to hit us in more ways than one.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that a secret huddle by our politicians and a most gentlemanly hand shake don't fill me with a frisson of abject gratitude and don't inspire the utmost confidence that Senate passage of this bill is imperative for the glory of the Vaterland. [Hmm, maybe I shouldn't hold back and use some hyperbole in my writing, right?]
It's just that when our beloved leaders name a bill the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act my default assumption is that the bill will neither protect patients nor offer affordable care. That's a brazen assumption and I better have some facts to support it.
So let's look at the abortion amendment and see if the facts support my assumption. TPM has posted the full text of the abortion amendment and so far I've deciphered subparagraph (A) (translation in bold):
subparagraph (A)
(A) A qualified health plan is not required to provide coverage for abortions for which public funding is prohibited or for which public funding is allowed. Health plans determine whether or not to cover abortions for which public funding is prohibited or allowed. States can void the determination made by health plans by enacting laws to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans in the Exchange.
So states can ban insurance companies from offering any and all coverage for a safe and effective legal procedure. So far, so good for State, God, and country, but not so much for patients. Not that it matters since this isn't about patients or their health.
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If you want to check my translation, here's how I did it:
(A) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this title (or any amendment made by this title)-- (i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualified health plan to provide coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) [(i) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS PROHIBITED.--The services described in this clause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is not permitted, based on the law as in effect as of the date that is 6 months before the beginning of the plan year involved.] or (B)(ii) [(ii) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS ALLOWED.--The services described in this clause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is permitted, based on the law as in effect as of the date that is 6 months before the beginning of the plan year involved.] as part of its essential health benefits for any plan year; and ''(ii) subject to subsection (a) [(a) STATE OPT-OUT OF ABORTION COVERAGE.-- ''(1) IN GENERAL.--A State may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition. (2) TERMINATION OF OPT OUT.-- A State may repeal a law described in paragraph (1) and provide for the offering of such services through the Exchange.], the issuer of a qualified health plan shall determine whether or not the plan provides coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of such benefits for the plan year.
Which leads us to:
(A) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this title (or any amendment made by this title)-- (i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualified health plan to provide coverage of abortions for which public funding is prohibited ((B)(i)) or abortions for which public funding is allowed ((B)(ii) as part of its essential health benefits for any plan year; and ''(ii) subject to a State's right to enact legislation to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange ( subsection (a)), the issuer of a qualified health plan shall determine whether or not the plan provides coverage of abortions for which public funding is prohibited (B)(i) or abortions for which public funding is allowed (B)(ii) as part of such benefits for the plan year.
City Pics
Just because I haven't yet managed to buy that new camera I so desperately need* does not mean I cannot inflict a few pics on you:
*Because when your aim is to photograph the Statute of Liberty and the one thing not appearing in the picture is the Statue of Liberty it's got to be the equipment, am I right?
DON'T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE sign on 6th Avenue
HBO logo
Carnegie Hall Tower on 57th Street
*Because when your aim is to photograph the Statute of Liberty and the one thing not appearing in the picture is the Statue of Liberty it's got to be the equipment, am I right?
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