…is a sea that never rose prior to fossil fueled vehicles, so you’ll take a flight, which was going that way anyhow, to demonstrate, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is House Of Eratosthenes, with a post on Sandra Fluke’s senate qualifications.
Read: If All You See… »
I know what I’d ask them: say, why do you use so much fossil fuel yourself? What have you done within your own life to reduce your own carbon footprint? Purchasing carbon offsets doesn’t count. That’s like paying speeding tickets because you refuse to obey the speed limits.
Climate change: what is your message for global leaders?
Frustrated at the lack of progress on climate change? If you had your chance, what would you ask global leaders to do?
(Gaby Disandolo delivers the first climate message of the campaign. Photograph: Holly Young)
This September, the UN will hold a Climate Summit in New York to discuss “catalysing action” on the issue of climate change.
Ahead of the event, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, has called on world leaders to bring “bold pledges” to the summit.
Didn’t get an invite? If you are a climate change campaigner, researcher, policymaker or just passionate about the issue, we want to hear what your one climate ask would be to world leaders.
To take part, simply take a selfie featuring your message and the hashtag #MyClimateAsk. Make sure you include your name, where you live and how you are engaged in the climate change cause. If you are not able to get access to a camera, please share your climate message in text.
Sorry, I won’t be taking a selfie and hashtagging it. Nope. I’m not 14. And I have self respect. And, taking a quick gander through the limited amount of selfies for this hashtag, none are mentioning what they themselves are doing in their own lives.
https://twitter.com/WilliamTeach/status/467633952094580736
https://twitter.com/WilliamTeach/status/467634214460874752
Read: Hashtag Climatology: What Would You Ask Hotcoldwetdry Leaders? »
Another Warmist let’s the cat out of the bag as to the true intentions of the “climate change” movement
(Des Moines Register) Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie says he feels a sense of relief on the heels of a report that details worsening climate change in Iowa and the nation.
The longtime environmental advocate, who will host President Barack Obama’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience today and Wednesday in Des Moines, said he senses there’s a broader understanding of the issues now.
My understanding is that they are claiming that fossil fuels are bad, yet, Cownie and these other folks will certainly take fossil fueled travel to the meetings.
“It’s no longer, ‘Maybe climate change is happening,’ ” Cownie said. “We have the science and data that prove climate change is happening. We know scientifically what the causes are. Now, we need to set about dealing with it.”
Uh huh. Sure you do. So, what are you going to do about it?
Cownie said addressing climate change will affect everything from the economy to how we power our homes and businesses to our health and how our farmers feed the world.
And there it is: “will affect everything”. Interestingly, all the solutions seem to give Government more and more control. Of course, there’s one problems
Read: Surprise: “addressing climate change will affect everything” »
I don’t think I’ve actually chimed in about #HashTag diplomacy yet. I will say, it’s not always a bad thing, if it is followed up with real world action. Alas, so much of the use of hashtags is simply to allow someone to say “hey, look at me, I Care!” And then move on.
Found at Caveman Circus, one of my favorite sites. Which probably doesn’t realize that this is making fun of liberals, including Obama, Michelle O, and all the others pushing hashtags like #BringOurGirlsBack and #StandWithUkraine, who fail to actually #DoSomething. Caveman Circus often posts pics favorable to gay marriage.
Where is the hashtag for this woman?
The woman, Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, brought her punishment of death upon herself, said Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa: “We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam.”
“I sentence you to be hanged to death.” For good measure, Judge Khalifa ordered the woman to be beaten with 100 lashes of the whip before being hung for “adultery.”
The whipping will occur right after the birth. The hanging will occur once the child is weened. It’s adultery because there can be no marriage to a Christian man (according to Sharia law, even though she is not married to anyone else). Ace makes an interesting observation
I’m not hearing anything about this story except from right-leaning sources.
We have, once again, an incredible outrage, barbaric, dehumanizing, and fascistic, but the “Villains are wrong.” The villains aren’t the villains the left prefers.
Ergo, the outrage must be tacitly permitted.
Has the State Department even taken the drastic step of issuing a vigorous #Hashtag? A search did not disclose that any #hashtag activism had been undertaken.
Checking the State Department Twitter feed, no, they still haven’t. They haven’t even mentioned this at all. The husband is a US citizen. So is his son. Who must stay in jail with the mother, because the father, again, a Christian, is not allowed under Sharia law to retain custody of the child. Allahpundit
Punishing her for her faith is as clear-cut a human-rights violation as exists. And yet, nothing on social media from State or the White House, which has been only too happy to showcase their well-meaning impotence for a good cause over the past few months.
There’s nothing about this on John Kerry’s Twitter feed, either. Fortunately, though
.@JohnKerry: US will continue to protect, promote #humanrights of #LGBT persons this day & every day. http://t.co/JDPPyjWfKo #IDAHOT
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 16, 2014
Maybe she should say she’s bisexual, and the US State Department, Team Obama, Kerry, and liberals would care. Instead, she’s going to be brutalized and murdered by Islamists. Liberals were Very Concerned over jihadis being “tortured” at Gitmo, ie, hot and cold conditions, music by Christina Aguilera. Yet, do not seem to get worked up about Muslims doing things like whippings.
Read: Say, Where’s The Hashtag For Pregnant Christian Woman Sentenced To Death In Sudan? »
Remember who Conservatives warned that Team Obama would bail out insurers if they started losing money thanks to Obamacare? And how they were told they were a bunch of crazy wingnuts? And to stop going all conspiracy-ee? Yeah, about that
(The Hill) Health insurance companies can count on funds from the government if ObamaCare’s risk corridor program does not sufficiently cover losses that are higher than expected this year.
This news was published in regulations Friday outlining how the law’s health insurance exchanges will operate in 2015.
The risk corridors are designed to stave off premium increases by transferring money from insurers that see better-than-expected results to those that see worse-than-expected results.
The Obama administration had previously said the temporary program would be implemented in a budget-neutral way, without separate government funding. But federal health officials appeared to step back Friday from that promise, which was made under heavy criticism from Republicans who call the risk corridors a “bailout” for insurance companies.
Must be nice to be an insurance company in Ocare exchanges. They join a program, offer restricted networks, increase premiums and deductibles, still lose money, and get a bailout for losses. Unlike, say, the majority of companies in the country who lose money and don’t get a handout from Los Federales.
“That said … in the unlikely event of a shortfall for the 2015 program year … [the Department of Health and Human Services] will use other sources of funding for the risk corridors payments.”
And what would those other “sources” be? Neither the article, nor the Washington Examiner one, nor the HHS document, say. And let’s not forget, the risk corridors program also takes some of the profits away from insurers who make too much profit, comrades. Don’t feel bad for the insurers, though: they voluntarily put themselves in these positions.
Fortunately, insurers have found more ways to attempt to keep premiums in check, called “reference pricing”
(AP) The Obama administration has given the go-ahead for a new cost-control strategy called “reference pricing.†It lets insurers and employers put a dollar limit on what health plans pay for some expensive procedures, such as knee and hip replacements.
Some experts worry that patients could be surprised with big medical bills they must pay themselves, undercutting financial protections in the new health care law. That would happen if patients picked a more expensive hospital — even if it’s part of the insurer’s network.
The administration’s decision affects most job-based plans as well as the new insurance exchanges.
As Ed Morrissey notes
How does “reference pricing†work? It treats anything above the flat-rate limit covered by insurers as out-of-network costs, even if a patient is seeing a provider inside the network. Before ObamaCare, insurers would negotiate in-network prices for these procedures, and providers were forced to accept them as payment in full. Now providers will have much less incentive to agree to that kind of pricing structure, and instead go after the patients for the balance.
It works like this: you have a procedure that costs $20k. But, the insurer will only cover $15k. So, you pay $5k. And, this cost does not factor into either the yearly deductible nor yearly cap. Hooray, Ocare! Hooray “Affordable” Care Act!
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: HHS Publishes Rules To Provide Insurers With Extra Funds Due To Risk Corridors »
The Government just wants to protect the vulnerable. It’s For Your Own Good
U.S. Mines Personal Health Data to Find the Vulnerable in Emergencies
The phone calls were part Big Brother, part benevolent parent. When a rare ice storm threatened New Orleans in January, some residents heard from a city official who had gained access to their private medical information. Kidney dialysis patients were advised to seek early treatment because clinics would be closing. Others who rely on breathing machines at home were told how to find help if the power went out.
Those warnings resulted from vast volumes of government data. For the first time, federal officials scoured Medicare health insurance claims to identify potentially vulnerable people and share their names with local public health authorities for outreach during emergencies and disaster drills.
The program is just one of a growing number of public and corporate efforts to take health information far beyond the doctor’s office, offering the promise of better care but also raising concerns about patient privacy.
Again, this is just The Government protecting you. So what if the data is private. They’re The Government! They’re here to help!
In some cities, text messages remind parents to get their children vaccinated. Elsewhere, emergency medical services sift records to identify — sometimes to law enforcement officials — “frequent fliers†who take repeated, costly ambulance trips. In New Orleans, a health care information exchange notifies primary care physicians when their patients are admitted to hospitals, offers insurers the ability to sift the data for “high-cost users†and permits authorized individuals to “break the glass†in emergencies — viewing records of patients who have not previously given permission and cannot speak for themselves. And a federal program allows data sharing with public health officials to monitor “mental health conditions†and other illnesses in hazardous situations, like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
“There are a lot of sensitivities involved here,†said Kristen Finne, a senior policy analyst at the Department of Health and Human Services. “When we started this idea,†she said, referring to using Medicare data for disaster assistance, “there was a lot of ‘are you crazy?’ â€
Ms. Finne noted that the program was painstakingly designed to comply with privacy laws.
Of course you’re supposed to trust them. They’re The Government! And they would never overreach, they’d never misuse your data, they aren’t really spying on you. They’d never do that!
It is not a bad idea that first responders and some government agencies know medical conditions of citizens when an emergency occurs. It should be voluntary, though. The Government should not be going out and obtaining the information on its own. I’m deathly allergic to scallops (no exaggeration), and heavily allergic to amoxicillin. If asked, I would list them in an open database for first responders. I would feel that the knowledge would be good for my well-being. Should they simply grab the data? No. Of course, I’m not in Medicare
Respecting the importance of federal and state laws that restrict the disclosure of medical data, the officials found a legal route for Medicare to transfer data on patients’ bills for medical equipment to public health authorities who have systems in place to protect patient privacy. They published a description of it in the Federal Register.
“Now every Medicare beneficiary, at least theoretically, is on notice that their information could be shared in this way,†said Kevin Horahan, a policy analyst with Dr. Lurie’s office.
In other words, these benevolent Progressives found a workaround to take the private data. For your own good. It should concern everyone that Government keeps finding ways to intrude on citizens without permission. I bet if they had run the program voluntarily, asking citizens if there was anything Government should be aware of in the case of an emergency, they would get a good response. Because there are times when Government is necessary. It should not be done simply because Government wants to “help you” and manufactures ways around privacy laws. Where does it stop?
Read: Hooray! US Mining Personal Health Data For Your Own Good »
Well, only partly, because…
(Campus Reform) Students at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota have cancelled an event to celebrate the end of the year after complaints that bringing a camel on campus could offend those of Middle Eastern cultures.
The “Hump Day†event, put on by the Residence Hall Association (RHA), was supposed to be “a petting zoo type of atmosphere†in which students could hang out and take photos with a live camel. According to Aaron Macke, the group’s advisor, the camel is owned by a local vendor and trained for special events.
But the event was subsequently cancelled after students took to Facebook to proclaim their concerns. The students said they were concerned about the money spent on bringing the camel to campus—around $500—and the implication that it would be racially insensitive to Middle Eastern cultures.
OK, so it was the camel that set these, well, let’s call them batshit crazy moonbats, off. Because camels couldn’t possibly be from areas other than the Mid-East, like, say, Mongolia and China. But, this is the way Leftists operate. Sometimes a camel is just a camel.
BTW, calling teachers sir and ma’am is now sexist.
…are horrible fossil fueled vehicles that negatively affect Native Americans, oh, and that wearing that costume is raaaaacist, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Capitalism Is Freedom, with a post on 13 reasons to carry a gun.
Read: If All You See… »
We all know that Warmists would never suppress science, right?
(UK Telegraph) A climate change researcher has claimed that scientists are confusing their role as impartial observers with green activism after his paper challenging predictions about the speed of global warming was rejected because it was seen as “less than helpful.â€
Professor Lennart Bengtsson says recent McCarthy-style pressure from fellow academics forced him to resign from his post on a climate sceptic think-tank.
The research fellow from the University of Reading believes a paper he co-authored was deliberately suppressed from publication in a leading journal because of an intolerance of dissenting views about climate change by scientists who peer-reviewed the work.
“The problem we have now in the scientific community is that some scientists are mixing up their scientific role with that of climate activist,†he told the Times.
Professor Bengtsson claims a scientist advised that the paper, which challenged findings that global temperature would increase by 4.5C if greenhouse gases were to double, should not be published in a respected journal because it was “less than helpful.â€
The unnamed scientist, who was asked to peer review Professor Bengtsson’s paper, said in his comments: “Actually it is harmful as it opens the door for oversimplified claims of ‘errors’ and worse from the climate sceptics side.â€
It true, we should not be surprised in the least. Warmists are, at their hearts, fascists, un-interested in science, but heavily invested in pushing their pseudo-religion.
Read: Warmist Journal Accused Of Suppressing “Skeptical” Research »
The Republican Party is set up quite nicely to regain control of the Senate this election cycle. And, of course, Republican pundits were wondering just how the GOP would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Well, here’s on big way
(The Hill) Senate Republicans say they’ll try to pass immigration reform legislation in the next two years if they take back the Senate in November.
The Republicans say winning back the Senate will allow them to pass a series of bills on their own terms that have a better chance of winning approval in the House.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a central member of the coalition that passed a comprehensive reform bill in the Senate last year, said he would craft a better legislative approach if Republicans control the upper chamber in 2015.
That would give his party a chance to pass immigration legislation before the presidential election, when Hispanic voters will be crucial to winning the White House.
What a super duper awesome idea! Because it’s worked so well in the past. The Republican base has zero confidence that any immigration legislation will be anything more than long on amnesty and short on enforcement. Every time this comes up, the details of the proposals fail to match that talk that this will be tough, and that there is no easy pathway to citizenship.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is poised to take over as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he will vote to pass immigration legislation in the next Congress if Republicans ascend to the majority.
“We’d start over again next year,†Grassley said, when asked about the next steps if Congress does not pass immigration reform by September.
This is the kind of talk that will keep Republican voters at home. And this election cycle will very much be about turnout. Democrats know their agenda is unpopular with the voting public. They barely want to discuss their policies and plans, instead focusing on feelings based stuff and smears like the “war on women”. They will try to crank their base up to get them to vote D simply for the sake of voting D. Republicans will have to match that enthusiasm. Promising “immigration reform” will deflate that enthusiasm.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: GOP Promise: Hey, We’ll Pass Let’s-Not-Call-It-Amnesty If We Retake The Senate »
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