It will catch up to me

Summer is here finally. Last quarter the prediction that my brother has been repeating for many years finally came true. If I don't study, it will catch up to me.

Patients vs. Customers

One of the problems with US healthcare is that we see ourselves as consumers of healthcare and not patients. This works to our advantage when the object is to minimize paternalistic/maternalistic explanations of choices. Not spending time explaining option is not the solution. On the other hand, a lot of expensive, unnecessary treatment happens because the healthcare system is unwilling to pushback against a customer.

Dennis Loves Me

My naval-gazing apparently has a fan who is, appropriately enough, an accountant. Anyway, an actual accounting was accomplished today as my taxed finally got filed. I've had them done for over 5 weeks, but was hoping that, before I filed, I could clear up the bureaucratic snafu that will likely have California deducting a parking fine and penalty from a ticket I already paid.

Awkward Moments

We're dog sitting our neighbor's corgie who has an amazing ability to poop 5-6 times a day. Unfortunately he will only do it while on a walk. Unfortunately, he gets up at 6:00 am. Unfortunately, I forgot a bag this morning. Unfortunately, the gentleman's whose lawn said corgie was using at the time came out to throw something away (it's trash day). Unfortunately, all I could do was stand there without a bag in my hand. It felt like I was standing there with my pants down taking a crap on his lawn.

Flip a Coin

I posed a theoretical bet to a friend of mine. Which did he think would happen first? Citi nationalization or GM bankruptcy. He leaned towards Citi getting Sweded while I voterd for GM in chapter 11.

Sign of the Times

From a blog I read pretty regularly, Balloon Juice:

Update: Please put a space between “c” and “ialis” in your comments so as not to trigger the spam filter.

He was trying to talk about soc ialism.

Litmus Tests for Stupid - Part 1

1. Denial of the need to do anything about global warming. Even if you fall on the not sure it's all man-made, the risks of doing nothing far outweigh the doubts given the level of consensus and evidence.

2. Creationism.

3. People who believe the US healthcare system is fine and dandy.

4. People who believe George Bush was anything other than a terrible president.

5. People who believe waterboarding is not torture.

6. Readers of the WSJ editorial page for any other purpose than looking for false arguments to debunk.

7. People who believe that the present financial crisis was caused by the CRA.

8. People who think the New Deal made the Great Depression last longer.


Anybody who falls into the above categories is just not worth my time.