I will start an open thread for mid-week as well, per requests, to include such topics as are not covered otherwise or can be expanded in ways not done in main posts.
Open thread Sept. 11, 2009 (no GW)
Supreme Court and campaign financing
rdan Hat tip to juan for the link to the Wednesday SCOTUS blog for this: If supporters of federal curbs on political campaign spending by corporations were counting on Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to hesitate to strike down such restrictions, they could take no comfort from the […]
Trade deficit
rdan Calculated Risk reminds us: …U.S. trade deficit, with and without petroleum, through July. The blue line is the total deficit, and the black line is the petroleum deficit, and the red line is the trade deficit ex-petroleum products. Import oil prices increased to $62.48 in July – up about 50% from the prices in […]
Reader patience
rdan Echo engineers for js-kit, our comments company, and I have revised our link to transfer Haloscan comments to Echo, and re-designed our link to Echo directly, so I can then manipulate the html to produce a comment section to our satisfaction. This includes re-writing parts of the template. The trouble with the comments in […]
President Obama’s speech last night
rdan Here is a link to an MSNBC President Obama and healthcare video plus a CBS full transcript.
Keeping it simpler…at what cost for what services for what security for health care?
rdan My Cobra payment comes to $1,654.44 per month for a premium health insurance plan that includes medication benefits and somewhat low deductibles ($25 Dr. visit and $75 emergency room visit). This is for a consortium of towns and is not for tiny business groups which MA also has, so it is not an individual […]
Kids speech by the President
rdanHere is the text and some pictures of President O’bama’s speech to kids yesterday. Update: Link corrected.
Laying people off gets us ?…another lesson from cactus.
by cactus A friend of mine – I’m gonna call him Gilbert – was telling me about some happenings at his office that might sound familiar, as I’ve heard quite a few variations on this theme recently. Gilbert is a middle manager at a Fortune 500 multinational, which, like many companies large and small, had […]
This is your Brain on Rose-Coloured Glasses
by Noni Mausa “Rose coloured glasses” has long been used to imply an optimistic view of the world makes people stupidly cheerful. Turns out, the real case may be exactly the opposite. Good mood produces better attention and better problem solving. From the CBC science program “Quirks and Quarks:” This is your Brain on Rose-Coloured […]