Jindal: No need to expand Medicaid since Obamacare will be effective

There you have it, folks.  Gov. Jindal finally gives a legitimate reason for why he won't expand Medicaid eligibility.  You see, contrary to all of his previous arguments against healthcare reform, the Governor argues that Obamacare WILL be effective in reducing the number of uninsured Americans.  See Argument #4 in this article:

Without expanding Medicaid, and once eligible people are enrolled into healthcare exchanges set up by the federal government, there will be less than six percent of Louisianians without health insurance. That's why the state is focused on implementing public-private partnerships with charity hospitals across the state to expand access.

http://www.businessreport.com/article/20130422/BUSINESSREPORT02/130429997#ixzz2RpBwwhJF

Santorum, Risky Parenting, Heresy, and the Quran

Rick Santorum thinks President Obama is a snob for wanting Americans to go to college.



Santorum wants to create jobs so that people can remake their children in their own image.  While you do want your children to adopt your positive characteristics, everyone knows that trying to make your children grow up to fit some ideal persona that you have in mind for them can be disastrous.  For all of Santorum's questioning of the President's theology, what he just said is heresy.  Our children are made in God's image, not our own.


As for the violence over the military's destruction of the Quran, were these rare collectors' special edition Qurans or something? We apologized.  They do have more copies left, right?  I'm going to need the Afghans to simmer. 

"Unlikely" How?

This quote from an Associated Press article about Obama's European trip got me to thinking.

"His address came midway through a four-country European tour during which he's connected with his unlikely Irish roots..."

The author either meant "unlikely"as in objectionable or unlike: "Wow, Obama doesn't come across as a descendent of these common folks" (as they are portrayed in this NPR article); or "unlikely" as in highly improbable: "Black people don't have Irish ancestors, you silly goose!"

If the author intended the former, it's hard to see how that deserves mention in an article that's not about his ancestry or his personal American Dream narrative of working himself up from hardscrabble roots to greatness. If the author meant the latter, I think it shows our collective hesitation to see even a non-white-looking person who we KNOW is half white as truly American. I mean, how uncommon and unlikely is it really for an American of any race to have Irish ancestors?

Tracy Morgan Has Obama's Birth Certificate

See minute 1:00 of the clip.

The Daily Show - Tracy Morgan
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

AND GO SEE THAT BOY, DONALD!

Would a Real Leader Please Report to the Principal's Office?

At this point, if we could just manage to smuggle a real leader into Louisiana, I'd be satisfied.

First, we've had nearly all of our state and Congressional politicians who themselves make their living off of "big government," say nothing to point out to the paranoid mobs trying to kill healthcare reform that the big scary "socialist" government is entirely run by fellow Americans and is not some strange other-worldly evil force trying to take away our rights. (When you get down to it, the government is run by the same people exerting their democratic right to bad mouth their democratic government. Otherwise, there would be no town hall meetings because what would be the point of trying to influence government policy if we had no control over it?)

Now we have school officials wasting their time -- and our money and our children's education -- trying to figure out how to accommodate parents who don't want the President to tell their children to stay in school and work hard. These are the very same parents, mind you, who send their children to school precisely so they can get an education and in doing so hopefully learn the value of hard work.

My 17-year-old son shared with me Thursday a letter distributed in school from Gayle Sloan, superintendent of St. Tammany Parish Schools. The letter explains that President Barack Obama will address schoolchildren nationwide next week, and that "he will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning."

The letter also adds the following: "If you prefer for your child not to participate, please contact the school principal so that an alternate assignment can be provided outside the classroom." (Times Picayune Letter to the Editor, 9-4-2009)

From Sen. Mary Landrieu, seemingly the last "Democrat" remaining in public office, to St. Tammany Parish Schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan, it seems like no one we've put in charge of looking after our best interests has the leadership ability to do so. They'd rather take the easy way out and kowtow to the ignorant screams of those hellbent on screwing themselves out of what is in their and in their children's own best interests.

When did REAL leadership stop including the very basic role of taking an unpopular stand every now and then? If our public officials aren't willing to point out foolishness, or at the very least, the holes in their constituents' logic, then there is no reason to believe that they possess the desire or even moral conviction to lead us in the right direction at all on any issue. These are not even hard stances to take. Saying there already are people (i.e., the insurances companies) standing between us and our doctors and that Republican presidents have given similar back-to-school addresses have nothing to do with whether you support the Democrats' and the President's policy agenda.

If our leaders cannot, or worse, are unwilling to bring reason and calm to chaos, why do we need them at all?

Who Said Hope Isn't A Solution?

Actually, I've said it and quite often. Don't get me wrong. It's necessary to get anything of significance done; it's just not a plan of action. Or maybe it is:

One intriguing hint of what researchers led by Ray Friedman of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management calls the “Obama Effect” suggests that maybe, just maybe, Obama will do more for the scholastic achievement of African-Americans than anything since Brown v. Board of Education.

Apparently, a mere four days into Obama's term, the recalcitrant Black-White test score gap may have all but disappeared:

The results varied according to when the students took the test. Before the convention and in early October, the performance gap was as wide as ever: white students got a median score of 12.1 compared to blacks’ 8.8 before the convention; the scores were 12.9 and 8.4, respectively, in early October. But just after Obama’s convention speech, and just after election day, “when Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention,” as the researchers put it, there was a remarkable effect. Among students who watched Obama’s speech, blacks’ and whites’ scores were statistically equal (10.3 vs. 12.1) after the acceptance speech and 9.8 vs. 11.1 after election day. The difference is considered statistically insignificant--that is, likely due to chance.

If I didn't know any better, I'd immediately write off this study as containing a fatal flaw. But I do know better. I know that there is an extensive body of research experiments that supports the theory that a significant portion of the Black-White test score gap has to do with stereotype threat, as explained in this article.

As a scientist, I'm still not ready to gleefully embrace the results of this study. In fact, I can't wait to read it so I can pore over it for flaws and limitations (as we are brainwashed to do in grad school).

But dammit, living in this city and through this current turd of an economy, I'm takin' a li'l Hope wherevers I can find it.

I am now done with my Christmas shopping, shattering all of my personal previous records! Here is your gift.