December 2010
18 posts
“I see the idea of “absolute” net neutrality going away at some...”
– Tim O’Reilly
“Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the...”
– The Hitch on Death
Opposition to Health Law Is Steeped in Tradition:
In truth, the law is quite moderate. It is more conservative than President Bill Clinton’s 1993 plan or President Richard Nixon’s 1974 plan (in which the federal government would have covered anyone who wasn’t insured through an employer). It’s much more conservative than expanding Medicare to cover everyone. It is clearly one of the least...
From The New York Times:
But the law depends to a significant degree on the mandate. Without it, some healthy people will wait to buy coverage until they get sick — which, of course, is not an insurance system at all. It’s free-riding.
Without the mandate, the cost of insurance in the individual market would rise, perhaps sharply, because some healthy people would not be paying their...
Senate Fails to Force Action on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
Senate Republicans blocked the attempt to move ahead with the bill that would have repealed the ban on gay troops serving openly in the military. The vote was 57-40, almost entirely along party lines, and three short of the 60 needed.
Regardless of what you may think of repealing “Don’t Ask,...
“We did find (quite by accident) that Apple may have more reasons behind not...”
– The future of notebooks: Ars reviews the 11” MacBook Air
Deal on Tax Cuts Will Aid Most, Especially Highest Earners:
The tax benefits will flow most heavily to the highest earners, just as the original cuts did when they were passed in 2001 and 2003. At least a quarter of the tax savings will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.
The tentative deal includes a two-year patch for the alternative minimum tax, a reduction in the payroll...
The Republican Party Wears the Pants in this...
Expanding a bit on a recent theme that the Republicans have a monopoly on testes in the United States government, Senator Jim DeMint (whose home state of South Carolina we all look to for national leadership when it comes to economic development), and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana are pushing for legislation to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich, eliminate the estate tax...
