Obama: Obamacare “Is Working”

By William Teach December 4, 2013 – 6:53 am

No, really

(The Hill) President Obama declared Tuesday that ObamaCare “is working” and that “we’re not going back,” as the White House looked to reboot its efforts to sell Americans on the president’s signature healthcare law.

If he means that 5.5 million were supposed to lose their health insurance, that the bulk of people attempting to sign up would be moved to Medicaid, that premiums and deductibles would skyrocket while networks would be limited, and that tens of millions are looking at seeing their employer based insurance drastically changed and made more expensive or having it cancelled, then, yeah, it’s working. If he means lying about the law again and again and again, yeah, that’s working.

Unshockingly, he attacked Republicans for wanting to do away with this terrible law, as I predicted yesterday (though, with Obama, predicting he will attack Republicans is like saying the Sun will rise)

Earlier Tuesday, McConnell said the president’s “campaign-style event wouldn’t solve the myriad problems facing consumers under ObamaCare.”

“The American people have been learning about the impact ObamaCare will have on individuals and families in the form of higher premiums, disrupted insurance, and lost jobs — more broken promises from the administration. And they’re becoming increasingly aware of the fact ObamaCare is broken beyond repair,” McConnell said.

Hopefully, Obama will continue his partisan push on Obamacare, tanking his ratings further, and, better yet, cratering the chance for the Dems to hold on to the Senate.

Crossed at Right Wing News

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Warmist Dresses As Father Christmas To Spread Awareness

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 3:22 pm

Over to England

(Daily Mail) Downton Abbey’s beloved Carson has swapped his butler’s uniform for a Father Christmas costume in a bid to raise awareness of global warming.

Actor Jim Carter donned a fluffy beard and red robes to appear in a special Greenpeace film titled An Urgent Message From Santa.

The 65-year-old urges viewers that Christmas could be cancelled unless world leaders take more action to protect the melting Arctic. (snip)

‘I want to do my part to help raise the profile of the threats posed to the Arctic by oil drilling and climate change.

‘So I was pleased to have this opportunity to support Greenpeace and their amazing Christmas campaign.’

The film ends with Carter in character as Santa asking for help to save his home in the North Pole, otherwise children worldwide will be left with empty stockings.

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Posted in AGW Idiocy, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Android Today: Music Players

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 2:31 pm

While I rely mostly on my 5 year old Creative Zen as my primary MP3 player in the car, I do use my phone quite a bit to play music out and about. I probably have around 2/3 to 3/4 of my songs on my Droid. So, like you, I need a good player.

There are 5 things I look for:

  1. Ease of use
  2. Great sound
  3. Ability to shuffle tracks (love the old style mix)
  4. Equalizer
  5. Have a lettering system

The last one is partly from having an iPhone previously, and my Creative Zen (16Gb, built in radio, awesome sound quality) has it. Makes scrolling through 700 plus songs easy (and I keep adding more). Finding that is a last consideration. Have yet to find a player that’s free with it plus the other 4.

My favorite is Rocket Player. Has the top 4 needs. I find it faster to scroll through than some others because the line space between listings (songs, groups, albums, etc) is tiny (unlike, say, doubleTwist). Sound is excellent. Shuffle works quite fast. And it is very user friendly.

The equalizer works very well, including with the Beats Audio on my HTC One S. There are also different themes. I’m using the red one (as in NJ Devils red). Numerous settings, including whether one wants to let Bluetooth headsets control (I do).

Rocket it my #1 recommendation.

DoubleTwist is also an excellent player. Sound, shuffle, ease of use. Equalizer costs $$, though. I tend use it more for playing movies on my phone and tablet. I also use it on those few occasions when I use the tablet to play music. I supposed I should download Rocket, but, eh, it’s rare. Still an excellent choice, and you can purchase air twist for over the air features.

There’s also Play Music, the Google app. It’s popular, but then it also probably comes with most Android devices. It’s basic, kinda “meh”.

I’ve tried Poweramp free, wasn’t that impressed, it did not have shuffle when I did try it. Same with Winamp.

Fusion Music player is also an excellent player, I’d same just as good as Rocket Player. Was playing with both at same time, just preferred Rocket a bit more.  More on that in a moment

I also use mconnect free. It does have shuffle, though no equalizer. It’s also not quite as easy, but I use it simply to stream to my Bluray player via DNLA, which goes to TV which has audio output (obviously) to the stereo. I do not use it otherwise.

A great addition is Cover Art Downloader. It obviously downloads ….. cover art. It’s not perfect, some you will have to manually download via the app. One reason I settled on Rocket over Fusion was that I wasn’t thrilled with the way the covers displayed on Fusion. However, the covers never show up on DoubleTwist nor Play Music, you have to use their own built in programs.

Read: Android Today: Music Players »

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a flooded drought world, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on slaves of the progressive cause.

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Bob Dylan Charged With “Public Insult” And “Inciting Hate”

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 11:27 am

One of the big wigs of the hippie movement, which morphed into today’s Progressives, learns exactly how much tolerance Progressives have

(Fox News) Legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan has been charged with “public insult and inciting hate” in France following a complaint by a Croatian group based in that country over remarks made in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Dylan, 72, was notified that he was under judicial investigation last month, when he was in Paris to receive the prestigious Legion d’Honneur award from the French government.  Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told the Associated Press Tuesday that the charges were filed in mid-November.

The interview in question was published by Rolling Stone in September 2012. At one point, Dylan said that racism was holding America back, saying “Blacks know that some whites didn’t want to give up slavery – that if they had their way, they would still be under the yoke, and they can’t pretend they don’t know that. If you got a slave master or (a Ku Klux) Klan (member) in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood.”

It was a pretty stupid statement, but, hey, people are allowed to say stupid things….except in Liberal World, where the Progressives do not allow any unapproved speech. The Council Of Croats In France were Offended, so they filed a complaint. They aren’t interested in money, they just want an apology, so, the use the far far left appendages of the Government of France to attempt to force said apology, because, you know, their feewings were hurt. Really, this is all about the tolerance of the Left.

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Bummer: “Climate Change” Is Aiding Al Qaeda

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 7:16 am

This isn’t exactly a brand spanking new meme, Warmists have Blamed “climate change” for years for terrorism, even though the rise of Islamic terrorism received a big boost during the years when scientists and media types were concerned about a coming ice age. But it does show he utter derangement of Warmists

(Daily Caller) Has global warming helped al-Qaida’s recruiting? At least one expert says that Islamic fundamentalist groups feed upon people’s frustrations and fears in a warmer climate to turn them against the West.

The GlobalPost asked climate experts how rising global temperatures would affect Africa’s Sahel region, which includes countries like Sudan and Chad, where conflicts have been raging for years.

“[C]limate change makes people feel small and helpless, and Islamic fundamentalists have been very good at turning helplessness and despair into anger and action,” Drew Sloan of energy efficiency company Opower told the GlobalPost. “If you give someone who feels small a gun, they stop feeling small.”

Let’s be clear, don’t blame The Daily Caller, they’re simply covering the Global Post article, which notes when asking three “experts”

Their short answer? It’s complicated, but climate change is making things harder for those who live in a politically unstable and economically challenged region.

Weather is always going to be pesky, whether it is getting warmer, getting cooler, or simply being “statistically insignificant”, known as a 17 year pause in warming. During the cool periods, such as the Little Ice Age and Dark Ages, conflict was higher then during the warm periods. But it still existed during the warm periods, such as the Roman expansion during the Roman Warm Period.

Two of the three “experts” said to be really cautious about creating links

Busby, a climate change expert, is also cautious about “causal paths” linking climate change and conflict. “The science is just not there yet,” he says.

But

But those who live in the region see a direct — and very personal — link, as this GlobalPost video from Gao, Mali, illustrates:

So, ask the experts but do not listen.

“The climate situation is almost surely getting worse,” says Burke. “We know that temperatures are going up, and that soon they will be on average much warmer than anything the region has experienced and this is likely to increase the incidence of conflict.”

Except, the world is still in pause, and was much warmer during previous warm periods. Of course, the “experts” solutions are to build barely working “alternative” energy, like wind and solar. Nothing like providing poor people with really expensive energy they can’t afford. And give them money (redistribution).

The Daily Caller article notes that many other things, like poverty and government oppression rank much higher. And the fact that Islamists of all stripes are nuts who take advantage of people. Many of the 9/11 hijackers were well educated. But, Warmists just can’t help themselves with the blame game.

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Obama To Pitch Don’t Call It Obamacare At Campaign Style Rally

By William Teach December 3, 2013 – 6:50 am

I wonder if he’ll mention the huge increases in premiums and deductibles, and that millions have lost their plans and doctors, with tens of millions scheduled to have the same happen to them?

(The Hill) President Obama will hold an event Tuesday touting the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, as the White House looks to reset public perception of the embattled healthcare law following two months of repairs to the glitchy ObamaCare website.

The president’s event at 2:30 p.m. (so, around 3:15 or so) will look to refocus attention on areas where the law has succeeded, while selling the public on signing up for coverage despite headlines dominated by the technical glitches and messaging errors that have defined the launch of the president’s signature policy initiative.

According to a White House official, the president will look to “focus attention back on the core principles of reform that have been lost in the attention on the website, and invoke the successes that are already flowing from the law and what it means for the millions of Americans who are already directly benefiting.”

Shouldn’t be a very long speech, then. Those few “successes” could easily have been included without all the things that make this law so utterly terrible. The rest of the speech will surely be spent demagoguing and deriding those who oppose the law. Which is the majority of Americans.

On Monday, Politico reported the president’s event would launch a three-week drive designed to focus attention on the law’s benefits ahead of the Dec. 23 enrollment deadline. Individuals hoping to purchase coverage by Jan. 1 must complete their application for health coverage by that date.

According to the report, the White House will tout a different benefit of the law each day until the enrollment deadline, with Democratic lawmakers, campaign committees, and advocacy organizations looking to echo that sales pitch.

The president will highlight lower-cost preventive care on Wednesday, protections for those with preexisting conditions on Thursday, and the slowed growth of health care costs on Friday.

Oh, good, the Neverending Campaign will be in full force. I wonder if he will mention how the contraception rule surely violates the 1st Amendment? Or perhaps how zero people have signed up in Oregon? How so many are being moved onto Medicaid rather than regular insurance?  How Team Obama’s mid-line prognostication is that 90 million will ultimately lose their “plan they like”? How the health care networks are small and do not include the best medical facilities? Perhaps he can explain how no security was built into the Exchange, putting people’s personal information at risk?

*I’m not sure who created the graphic.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Android App Of The Day: Gingerbread Keyboard

By William Teach December 2, 2013 – 8:09 pm

Starting a new thing, since I’m definitely a tech geek. Listing some of my favorite apps. Today’s is Gingerbread Keyboard, also known and Keyboard From 2.3. Can’t provide a proper link while using my Droid to write this.

Obviously, it is based on the Gingerbread keyboard. I find it extremely easy, it was one of the first apps I obtained when I purchased my tablet, as I was not impressed with Android stock spellcheck. I did try a framework others, but I like the ease, size of the keyboard, spellcheck, integration of speech to text. I find it closer to Apple’s keyboard, and have installed it on my Droid phones, mom’s droids, girlfriend’s, and others. My One S is on 4.1, still like this one better.

You can change things like key height, text size, and more.

Anyone know a better one? I’m not in to the swype types, but others might be.

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Healthcare.fail Isn’t Really The Issue For Dems Come 2014

By William Teach December 2, 2013 – 5:43 pm

The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen echoes something I’ve been saying for weeks (though he gets paid to say it): it’s not the website Dems have to worry about

Democrats are praying that this weekend’s relaunch of the Obamacare Web site will save them from an electoral bloodbath in 2014. Their hopes are misplaced. Here are five numbers that suggest that public anger over Obamacare will only grow as Election Day 2014 approaches:

50 million.That is how many Americans will be surprised to find their employer-based health plans dropped or substantially changed next year because of Obamacare. Some will see their plans canceled; others will lose their doctors and see premiums or deductibles rise dramatically. If Democrats think the public is mad about 5.5 million cancellations in the individual market today, imagine the outrage when tens of millions lose their plans in October 2014, right before Election Day.

The administration’s own midline estimate is 91 million overall. The question for those with employer based covereage is whether the new plans, some of which are being changed during the 2013 December signup period (like mine and those of a few folks I know at other companies), will be similarly priced, or skyrocket. I pay around $200 a month with a $400 deductible. The cheapest plan on the Exchange for Wake County, NC, is $231 with a $6600 deductible. Affordable, eh?

As a sidebar, I checked the plans in 20 NC counties, 10 Obama winning and 10 Romney. Premiums are around $40 lower in Obama counties, deductibles much lower in Romney counties. It’s not regionalism, as some Obama counties are in the sticks. Not sure who’s getting boned more.

Anyhow, the other question is whether companies decide to simply drop their health insurance offerings pre-midterms.

Check out the article for Thiessen’s four other deadly numbers.

PS: a question in my mind: how will the GOP, especially the squishies and Establishment folks screw it up?

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Bummer: Yet Another Low Hurricane Season Puzzles Climatologists

By William Teach December 2, 2013 – 2:54 pm

Yet another year with tepid Atlantic and Eastern Pacific hurricane activity

(Daytona Beach News Journal) Saturday was the end of hurricane season, and it appears as if meteorologists and climate theorists will be left scratching their heads.

The year 2013 is going to go down as the year with the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982. No one is going to complain, especially since it was not supposed to be so calm in Florida. To say the hurricane forecasters missed the mark is an understatement.

Before the hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted between 13 to 20 named storms, and between seven and 11 hurricanes. Of those, between two and six were supposed to be major hurricanes.

Thirteen named storms have formed this season. But only two hurricanes were named. Two is well below the annual average. And neither of those hurricanes was considered major.

And none made landfall in the continental United States. We are fast approaching 3,000 days since the last major (cat 3 or higher) hurricane made landfall. There has only been one hurricane strike since 2008, and it can be argued that Isaac was actually just below hurricane strength (Sandy was not at hurricane strength at time of landfall).

This piece by the paper’s editorial board even takes note of the Warmist talking points that the 2005 season would be the “new normal”, that we were doomed because of “climate change”, and then, since 2005, barely a peep.

Whatever the reason, perhaps it’s time for believers in “climate change” to cool their rhetoric about warming producing supercharged storms. Few people advocate emitting carbon into the atmosphere with no limits, but to achieve policy goals of carbon regulation, some climate-change believers have amped up their rhetoric to the extreme.

Yeah, but they won’t. They’re already coming up with excuses that Blame Mankind for the lack of tropical storm activity.

That’s at least debatable, but the rhetoric is getting so intense that dissent is sometimes forbidden. Look at the Los Angeles Times: An opinion-page editor declared earlier this year that writers who deny evidence of man-made climate change will not be published.

That’s just wrong. And it’s not in the spirit of rational inquiry and debate — it’s a kind of religious absolutism.

Warmists are primarily Leftists, ie, Progressives, who practice what Jonah Goldberg called “nice fascism”. Dissent is not allowed and must be squelched.

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Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 2 Comments | Trackback URL
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