Last night I watched the presidential debate. One of the questions was (paraphrasing): do you see healthcare as a right, a responsibility or something else I’ve forgotten. McCain said responsibility (of the government to make sure affordable healthcare exists) and Obama said it was a right for people to have healthcare. I see it differently. [...]
Class
If you want to understand the Treasury’s proposal that we give them $700 billion without oversight, accounting or court review and then they um something something with the money, Peter Orszag is your best bet. I’m no financial expert, but I watched his testimony today and was blown away with how easy he is to [...]
I was talking to some friends the other day when one asked me if I’d ever been to Las Vegas. I told them no, that it wasn’t really my kind of place. They were amazed; how could anyone not love Vegas? It’s not just for gambling – it has fabulous restaurants and amazing hotels, too! [...]
The new cable channel PlanetGreen keeps reminding me I’m not a person. It goes like this: an expert on one of their shows says, “If everyone in America would do this, we’d save eleventy billion tons of resources/pollution” and then they do something that only one who owns her dwelling is empowered to do. Those [...]
I just got notice that my landlord is raising my rent by $500 (after a $130 increase just this February, and an increase every year since my lease expired and he refused to renew it). Interestingly, this is above market value for what the building offers. This is an increase well in excess of 25%. [...]
You go to a doctor, and she or he treats you like you’re a disgusting waste of time because you should’ve known that rash you have that looks exactly like eczema was actually some obscure parasite from the Bolivian jungle (where you’ve never been). Your car’s broken into, and even though you locked it and [...]
What happens in your mind when you’re a small child and you notice that Santa brought the rich kids much nicer stuff than he brought the poor kids? I’ve always wondered about this. (I don’t know because I was never taught to believe in Santa.) It seems to me there’s a potential for the whole [...]
One of the most annoying privilege memes I’ve ever dealt with is “Anyone can get rich in this great country; if they don’t, it means they’re just not working hard enough.” I encountered this meme almost daily as a kid growing up in a highly conservative “red state” in the US, but I imagine there [...]
