Insurance is like a casino game. The insured bets that the insurance company will pay off in the event of a loss or claim, and the insurer bets that it won’t. Even when the “house” loses, it can still cut its losses by arbitrarily and unilaterally adjusting the amount of its “bet” downward. Sometimes, it simply re

“I think Barack Obama is a one-term President.” —former Vice President Dick Cheney Well, I think Dick Cheney is an asshole—but he’s probably right. President Obama runs a serious risk of being a one-term President because he’s largely failed to deliver on his campaign promises (the ones he made to the voters

CBS refused to run a paid 15-second NORML ad on its 42nd Street digital billboard, so I’m letting the ad run here, for free: Take that, CBS! Q >>>

Corporate dominance of the political process was foretold by the recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, in which corporations got the go ahead to spend unlimited amounts of money to back the candidates of their choice or to influence legislative outcomes. With that monumental error of lapsed judgment, the SC

Do televised news reports often leave you baffled? This video shows the probable reasons why. When TV news seems pointless, vague, confusing, irrelevant and incomplete, and it often leaves you scratching your head and wondering what that was all about, now you know why; there’s an app a formula for that. If you want f

In response to my previous post, Suzan (Welcome to Pottersville 2) asked what the first step is in dealing with the corrupting influences powerful corporations have on government. Having pondered that question for a few days, I’ve come to realize that I probably have a better understanding of what needs to be done than I

There will never, ever be any positive changes to anything that matters to individual citizens until corporations are reined in and brought under strict government control. Despite the recent Supreme Court Ruling that gives corporations (including foreign corporations) the right to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money

If you haven’t seen this video yet, you owe it to yourself to watch it at least once. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Olbermann’s comments are true but, at best, they paint only an incomplete picture. What might Future America look like after a generation of absolute co

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States did a stupid thing; it gave away the people’s democracy, made a gift of it to corporations. The United States of America have officially become the Corporate States of America. Sign Public Citizen’s petition to Congress! Are you as outraged as I am? You sho

A news report, by Kohr Harlan, a few nights ago on Local 6 News featured a couple of Portland pizza restaurant owners, one who supports ballot Measures 66 and 67 and one who adamantly opposes them. Obviously, one of them comes out on the right side of the issues and the other one doesn’t. But how do we decide which is whi

The following is a reproduction of the text written on a comment card and handed to a flight attendant by Joe Johnson, a passenger (and alleged terrorist) aboard Hawaiian Air Flight 39: “I thought I was going to die, we were so high up, I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet, landing in the o

From the novel, Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino: “In the farming villages of China there are over two hundred and seventy million people, more than the arable land can feed. The farms produce only enough to support a hundred million, fewer than half. Of the remaining hundred and seventy million people, about ninety millio

“The Portland Air National Guard confirms that two F-15 fighter jets "scrambled" the Hawaiian Airlines flight in mid-flight. This means that they met it and escorted it back to PDX. The contact took place at about 1 pm.” —from a report filed by Joel Iwanaga, KOIN-TV Local 6 News Okay, I can almost unders

On Tuesday, December 29th, I posted a couple of videos under the heading Jane Hamsher is Right. Badtux the Snarky Penguin posted a comment about it on Wednesday, and thus began a running healthcare debate with ‘Tux that concluded on his blog on New Year’s Day. While I don’t always agree with ‘Tux in regards to

Today is more than the beginning of a new year. It’s the beginning of a new decade—the second decade of the 21st century—and a time for making new resolutions (or renewing old ones) and for renewing hope and optimism for better prospects with which to shape better tomorrows. 28 years ago to the day, I resolved to

Forcing taxpayers to send trillions to private insurers for junk insurance is just plain wrong. Anyone who thinks that mandating payments to insurance companies is healthcare reform should get a mandate to do a stint in reform school. This non-partisan message is right, too: If the current he

Once again, ‘tis the season in which I celebrate not celebrating Christmas. It’s a personal tradition, begun 20 years ago, that’s only gotten easier over time. Distancing myself from Christmas wasn’t something that happened all at once, it happened in increments as I abandoned one destructive Christmas ritual a

December 21st: The winter solstice, shortest day of the year. This is also my shortest post of the year. Serendipity? Or synchronicity?Q >>>

One of the drawbacks of lower tax revenues is that education is always among the first of public services to take the hit. As tax revenues decline, the quality of education goes down. School districts, deprived of essential operating funds, react by gutting curricula, laying off teachers, shortening the school year, expandi

An excerpt from the novel, Pipeline, by Peter Schechter: “. . .. The Americans are shortsighted; they won’t see that a long-term dependency on Russia is a strategic trap. They can’t get beyond their big cars. Their crazy use of water. Of electricity. Spend, spend. Consume, consume. The United States is incapable o

Many thanks to mahakal, at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, for posting this video. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t duplicate someone else’s efforts, but these are trying circumstances and perilous times, and the message contained therein is one that’s worth repeating, again and again, until the small-minded weasels w

For every 100 Americans saying, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it, anymore,” there’s an arrogant, filthy-rich motherfucker saying, “I’m glad as hell, and I’m going to take as much as I can get.”Q >>>

This is the cure that the government, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical establishment don’t want you to know about. Certainly these groups are doing everything in their power to deny people access to the medicine that can cure them. Watch the video Run from the Cure. In just under an hour, you can learn som

Too many people assume (wrongly, in my opinion) that laws are put in place to protect them. In practice and in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. Laws do nothing to protect you from the actions of anyone who willfully or ignorantly violates the law. Laws against murder do not prevent people from being mu

Ferraris, maybe. Certainly not humans, despite what legions of believers on the religious fringe believe. Any organism that requires more maintenance than a Formula One Ferrari for its day to day existence and continued survival cannot be logically argued to be a product of intelligent design. Nor can any organism spor

The whole damned system is broken. International bankers and financiers broke it. Corporate capitalism broke it. Bought-and-paid-for politicians broke it. Cronyism, insatiable greed, lust for power, willful ignorance and more than a little insanity broke it. But let’s not forget that mindless consumerism and devotion to c

If you think that the U.S. President is the most powerful person in the world, you’re in for a surprise. If you think that President Obama runs the country, you’re in for another surprise. Yeah, I know this series of nine videos probably comes close to information overload, and that at roughly 10 minutes running time ea

A case of sanity broke out in the Obama Administration, today. Let’s hope it leads to an epidemic.Q >>>

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." —Thomas Jefferson "Make the most of the hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!" —George Washington As intelligent men living in a world where oil was yet to be discovered, our founding fathers knew and understood the vital

Having written reviews of a couple of Timothy Hallinan’s books (A Nail Through the Heart, Breathing Water), and having corresponded with Tim—either by e-mail or by virtue of blog comments—on several occasions, I eagerly awaited his arrival (Wednesday night, September 30th) at Murder by the Book, in southeast Portland,