tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post4479004223165300500..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Going for Gold at the Austerity OlympicsKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-68819917022234959112012-08-01T11:28:36.386-04:002012-08-01T11:28:36.386-04:00"A penpal relationship is often used to pract...<i> "A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships." </i> --<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/<br />wiki/Pen_palZeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-82871596620506491942012-08-01T08:44:44.554-04:002012-08-01T08:44:44.554-04:00http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_palhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_palJay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-24265097654474075612012-07-31T23:11:19.013-04:002012-07-31T23:11:19.013-04:00@Zee,
I never divulge the email addresses or real/...@Zee,<br />I never divulge the email addresses or real/last names of my correspondents on this blog.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-55961425417708402262012-07-31T23:07:02.218-04:002012-07-31T23:07:02.218-04:00@Karen--
You have kindly provided an e-mail addre...@Karen--<br /><br />You have kindly provided an e-mail address with which to contact you directly, and I am interested in discussing a number of topics with you off-line--mostly for comment length considerations--as possible topics for general discussion on Sardonicky.<br /><br />I do not have an anonymous e-mail address, nor do I wish to hide behind one. But if I contact you directly via e-mail, it will not take you long to parse out who I am as both I and Mrs. Zee have a very unusual names, which are part and parcel of our gmail address. <br /><br />I don't care if YOU choose to identify me via Google or Pipl.com or any other means. You seem like a responsible person, even if we disagree on many issues.<br /><br />But I would still like to preserve my anonymity and e-mail address beyond you. The internet can be a strange place sometimes.<br /><br />Assuming that I don't abuse my e-mail contact privileges with you--and I won't--would you be willing to preserve my anonymity amongst the rest of the participants in Sardonicky and on the greater web?<br /><br />And if I do abuse my e-mail privileges, well, you are free to turn me in to the FBI and FCC & <i> etc., </i> because it won't take long to track me down. <br /><br />As I have stated before to others, I think that @Valerie and @The Dok can testify that I am not an e-mail pest.Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-22392572746825559492012-07-31T16:11:39.607-04:002012-07-31T16:11:39.607-04:00@Pat in Minnesota--
Allow me to echo @Neil's ...@Pat in Minnesota--<br /><br />Allow me to echo @Neil's "thank you" for your long service in one of America's oldest and finest institutions.<br /><br />Also, please do not take this as "pity," but allow me to offer you my sympathy regarding your shabby treatment by both our government--I am shocked at the diminuitive size of your pension after 27 years of service--and your cad of a husband.<br /><br />Living in a mostly rural state (New Mexico) that often lacks cell phone or internet coverage, I KNOW that the U.S. Postal Service is the only means by which rural folk can pay bills, send/receive holiday/birthday cards and gifts, <i> etc. </i> <br /><br />The USPS is their lifeline in such remote regions, and it is a crime to reduce the size of the USPS under these circumstances.Zeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-88481852498935843482012-07-31T15:18:42.165-04:002012-07-31T15:18:42.165-04:00Going for the Gold…
In the spirit of the profit-d...Going for the Gold…<br /><br />In the spirit of the profit-driven, free-market gospel, hospital ERs as hunting grounds for collectors of medical debt:<br /><br />The NY Times reports, “Accretive Health, one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debt, has agreed to pay $2.5 million to the Minnesota state attorney general’s office to settle accusations that it violated a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care, even if patients cannot afford to pay.”<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/business/medical-debt-collector-to-pay-2-5-million-settlement.html?_r=1<br /><br />Bob Lawless @ Credit Slips asks, “How does an organization get itself to the place where it collectively comes to think such strong-arm collection tactics on hospital patients are a good idea, let alone morally defensible?”<br /><br />http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2012/07/a-question-answered.html<br /><br />Excerpt from the profile in Crain's Chicago Business of Accretive's CEO, Mary Tolan: "My objective is just to be a happy, confident capitalist," says the devotee of Ayn Rand's and Milton Friedman's free-market gospel, which she applies with a combative, survival-of-the fittest management style.<br /><br />http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20080301/ISSUE01/100029349<br /><br />One ER patient, as she was hemorrhaging in the ER, was informed she owed $300. <br /><br />Capitalism!Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-53448896189511023172012-07-31T14:37:37.623-04:002012-07-31T14:37:37.623-04:00@Pat,
How horrible! My condolences. Keep us update...@Pat,<br />How horrible! My condolences. Keep us updated.Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-61501434428496801232012-07-31T09:40:04.392-04:002012-07-31T09:40:04.392-04:00Great Piece Karen, made me Laugh Out Loud!
Than...Great Piece Karen, made me Laugh Out Loud!<br /><br /> Thank you.<br /><br /> More Later,<br /><br /> The Doktor<br /><br /> P.S. my solution to everything is almost updated....The Doktornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-38982473843054992042012-07-31T07:55:18.810-04:002012-07-31T07:55:18.810-04:00@Pat,
Thanks for your many years of service in th...@Pat,<br /><br />Thanks for your many years of service in the post office. <br /><br />Ralph Nader posted online a letter April 26, 2012, "Letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe – It Is Time to Resign" <br /><br />http://nader.org/2012/04/26/letter-to-postmaster-general-patrick-donahoe-it-is-time-to-resign/<br /><br />"Dear Mr. Donahoe, You are actively presiding over the demise of one of our country’s greatest founding institutions..."<br /><br />Nader has some good ideas to revitalize the post office, such as offering a notary service, cashing most checks, reviving the U.S. postal savings system, the need for Congress to free the Postal Service to enter the digital world, and requesting Congressional authority to establish a Post Office Consumer Action Group (POCAG).<br /><br />Last week I wrote to Sen. Bill Nelson about problems with a local CPU - contract post office. Yesterday I got a courtesy reply card promising someone will respond later. <br /><br />One good website is Save The Post Office.com. Their story "Contract post offices, closing faster than they open" gives a lot of information about private CPUs<br /><br />http://www.savethepostoffice.com/contract-post-offices-closing-faster-they-open<br /><br />And there was a postal hunger strike supporting the post office in June. <br /><br />http://cpwunited.com/press-release<br /><br />http://cpwunited.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Hunger-Strike-Back-Event.pdf<br /><br />http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2012-06-04/postal-workers-going-hungry/<br /><br />http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/postal-workers-to-stage-hunger-strike-in-appeal-to-congress-251170.html<br /><br />Hunger strikes are underused in my view. They can get people’s attention.Neil Gillespiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12580744990628852454noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-26564418768520429002012-07-31T07:13:57.315-04:002012-07-31T07:13:57.315-04:00@Pat,
It's terrible how this rotten economy an...@Pat,<br />It's terrible how this rotten economy and the malfeasance of our elected officials are actually contributing to the dissolution of marriages. I am so sorry for your troubles, Pat. If you wish to write to me privately, please do so. kmgarcia2000@yahoo.com.<br /><br />(this is course applies to other readers wishing to contact me as well.)<br /><br />I will be writing more about the post office soon. Meanwhile, for those of you who don't access the NYT, here is my response to Joe Nocera's excellent column: <br /><br />The U.S. Postal Service is prime fodder for the rapacious maw of capitalism. Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night has stood in the way of mail delivery since Benjamin Franklin created the agency in 1775 by decree of the Continental Congress. But that was then.<br /><br />Now, more than 200 years later, possibly the worst Congress ever is determined to destroy the post office and with it, more than half a million jobs. As is usual in cases of privatization, the poor will suffer the most. Poor people depend on the post office for delivery of their paper Social Security checks and other snail mail, because they often lack both computers and internet connections. According to a report by Reuters, fully 80% of post offices on the chopping block are in impoverished rural areas.<br /><br />The postal service also happens to have the largest union in the world, and is one of the few employers left in our banana republic which actually still pays a living wage. No wonder the right wingers feel compelled to manufacture a phony crisis right out of Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine." Peter Orszag, former director of management and budget in the Obama administration, is the most recent public proponent of privatization in the phony cause of fiscal responsibility, so beloved of the centrist cult of Beltway austerity.<br /><br />Of course, he is now a vice president at Citigroup, sure to be among the big corporate bidders in the ongoing game of Post Office, slash and burn edition.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-74552350353624481682012-07-31T07:12:44.706-04:002012-07-31T07:12:44.706-04:00"a fair chance of actually getting shot"..."a fair chance of actually getting shot" was right on the money. Unfortunately, the austerity hysteria continues. What gives me pause is that no one is looking back ( I think the President actually said we can't do that, about Shrub) to 1930's Germany. What came out of that austerity? So much frustration on the part of the German people that Hitler seemed like a good idea. That's what is really scary.Patriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17885426575922045330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-39336760975822919032012-07-31T06:21:55.246-04:002012-07-31T06:21:55.246-04:00Off topic here, but I must commend you Karen for y...Off topic here, but I must commend you Karen for your wonderful comment to Joe Nocera's column about the Post Office in today's NYT. Gloom and doom reign in the many processing plants and post offices across the country. With 27 years in the PO I can't believe what this once fine institution has come to. The processing facility where I work is scheduled to close next February, and no one has any idea what will become of 100+ employees here. No word on early outs, transfers, layoffs, nothing. My hope was to take an early retirement and supplement my whopping $400 a month pension by getting whatever job I could find out there. Alas my plans have changed though; 3 weeks ago my husband left me a note (coward) stating he had filed for divorce. Seems I've been a cash cow to him the last 7 years and since I will no longer be contributing 50+k to the household, it's time for me to find my own place. Not looking for pity here, but it serves as a reminder that life can turn on a dime. Literally.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-75199771283321861472012-07-30T23:45:38.706-04:002012-07-30T23:45:38.706-04:00And now l6 year old female swimmer Ye Shewin has b...And now l6 year old female swimmer Ye Shewin has been suspected of using drugs to win competitions that beat the record of the fastest male swimmer! This is where the affects of competition have negative results but we will have to await further information on this situation. Chinese athletes in the past have been involved with doping scandals which does not lead to better international relations. Stay tuned.Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-8363495043502836792012-07-30T15:58:36.357-04:002012-07-30T15:58:36.357-04:00Thanks, Denis, for mentioning Bill Keller so I did...Thanks, Denis, for mentioning Bill Keller so I didn't have to. And thanks for the link to the Third Way, which I lazily didn't explain in my post. We are slowly but surely being hynotized into believing that Entitlement Reform is big, bold and brave. The austerity craze is alive and well in the small elite circle of national punditry, and nowhere else.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-46999900350489010382012-07-30T15:48:58.944-04:002012-07-30T15:48:58.944-04:00Does anyone believe that our elites are inclined t...Does anyone believe that our elites are inclined to act in the national interest?<br /><br />Bill Keller, the son of a former chairman and chief executive of the Chevron Corporation, is the latest. “If you were born before 1946 or after 1964, you are free to go. Kindly close the door on your way out. I need a private moment with my fellow baby boomers…FELLOW boomers, we have done more than our share to make this mess. It’s not our fault that there are a lot of us, but we have resisted any move to fix the system. We should make a sensible reform of entitlements our generation’s cause.”<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/keller-the-entitled-generation.html?_r=1<br /><br />Keller refers to “a soon-to-be released study by the incorrigible pragmatists at Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank. The study takes a familiar refrain and presents it with a graphic wallop. Though it was intended as a wake-up call, not an indictment of a generation, it can be read as both…Centrists like those at Third Way and the bipartisan authors of the Simpson-Bowles report endorse a menu of incremental cuts and reforms that would bring down costs without hitting the needy or snatching away the security blanket from those nearing retirement.”<br /><br />Atrios, “The Boomers took all the money, and therefore they are morally obligated to cut retirement benefits for subsequent generations.” <br /><br />Flawless logic!<br /><br />Who are the Third Way? http://thirdway.org/about_us<br /><br />What does the Third Way say? http://thirdway.org/publications/564:<br /><br />“Why Democrats Must Back Entitlement Reform…Public investments and entitlements are on a collision course...And as the cost of entitlement [sic] programs like Medicare and Social Security has skyrocketed, we’ve spent less and less of our budget educating kids, building roads, and curing disease. In this report, we argue that the only way for Democrats to save progressive priorities like NASA, highway funding, and clean energy research is to reform entitlements. The lame duck offers Congress a “Now or Never” chance to set the terms of a budget deal that saves money on entitlements, raises revenue, and protects investments. And the heart of the Democratic brand is depending on it.”<br /><br />The heart of the Democratic brand is NASA and highway funding?<br /><br />Where better to turn for fiscal prudence and our future than our elites? What could possibly go wrong?Denis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-69191447297116296832012-07-30T15:41:40.800-04:002012-07-30T15:41:40.800-04:00It is interesting that a report about a comparativ...It is interesting that a report about a comparatively small number of<br />protesters to the Olympics were removed to a "safe place" where they would not disturb traffic or people's sensibilities. They objected to the huge amounts of money invested in London for special facilities while ignoring the needs of residents in neglected areas plus the involvement of royalty,corporate money, etc. There also was an article questioning whether or not the money invested in Olympics are financially covered when the events are over.<br /><br />Watching the spectacle of the opening ceremonies my own feelings were<br />centered on wondering how much it cost as it seemed to me to be overkill<br />regardless of the messages being delivered which were not clear in all the hubbub. There were also numerous articles (by the right wing press) about the presence of Michelle Obama in very expensive outfits at a time when the U.S. is in such financial difficulties but unfortunately the criticism was very hateful and ugly personally with racial components. Nevertheless Michelle's prominence there and at Buckingham palace made for much media copy when her husband is running for the presidency.<br /><br />I personally feel that the purpose of the Olympics is not clear when so much<br />corporate advertising of products used such as drink, foods, clothes are<br />involved. The fierce competitiveness involved is not my idea of celebrating<br />athletic achievement as it is an elitist nationality divided event which very few young people have the opportunity to pursue. One athlete was<br />extolling the virtues of the democratic basis for contenders in that only hard work is the criteria for success without the use of connections or favoritism. But there are many athletically gifted young people who never get a<br />chance to shine because of their personal circumstances as money, time and family attention is usually needed to train potential Olympians.<br /><br />I know my critical questions about the fierceness of competitiveness where hundredths of a second decide an athlete's future may not be popular. I can't help thinking how wonderful it would be if such intensity of purpose internationally could represent peace, or the general health and well being of young and old, or concern about the faltering environment instead of lionizing individuals who win in events.<br /><br />Regular sports such as baseball, basketball, football have become a financial bonanza for players and owners with the cost of tickets eliminating many viewers and resulting in drug and other scandals because of the emphasis on the financial aspects. (Penn State comes to mind).<br /><br />I am all for people watching and being involved in sports, but without the intrusion of the money making aspects which corrupt the whole process and spoils some of the enjoyment of watching the Olympics.<br /><br />Pearl, the Grinch, who still enjoys swimming.Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-69735296000144048112012-07-30T15:29:15.987-04:002012-07-30T15:29:15.987-04:00Thanks, Will. That was some glitzy, fear-fomenting...Thanks, Will. That was some glitzy, fear-fomenting video. The Hollywood-DHS connection is certainly helping solve the jobless crisis. How much do you want to bet that they got their extras from the Houston unemployment line and the "set" is some foreclosed office building in the greater Houston area? They obviously took real cops and service members from their real duties for this acting gig, though. Keep fear alive and above all, never suggest stricter gun control laws to keep us safe. It's Texas, a whole 'nother country, after all. I guess we should be grateful they did not suggest bringing your gun to work. But that's probably being saved for the sequel.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-78108496375248238082012-07-30T14:59:29.508-04:002012-07-30T14:59:29.508-04:00@Karen,
Good news on the "fair chance of act...@Karen,<br /><br />Good news on the "fair chance of actually getting shot" front. Our odds of survival have just gotten better. Thanks to a grant from the fine folks at DHS, the mayor's office in Houston produced this video showing us exactly what to do the next time a James Holmes-type starts shooting up the joint. (Or in this particular scenario, a Vin Diesel look-alike.)<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0<br /><br />Only in America.Willnoreply@blogger.com