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Sunday, January 04, 2004 |
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Economy Coming Up Roses for Bush
It will be interesting to see how Democratic hopefuls spin this: In many ways, the economy is on a more solid footing than five years ago, as many of its excesses have been wrung out. Companies have cleaned up their...
[Captain's Quarters]
8:25:34 PM 
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Rumors of rape fan anti-American flames
Nurullah Kuncak says his father, Ilyas Kuncak, was boiling about the rumored rapes just before he killed himself delivering the huge car bomb that devasted the Turkish headquarters of HSBC bank last month, killing a dozen people and wounding scores more.
"Didn't you see, the American soldiers raped Iraqi women," Nurullah said in a recent interview. "My father talked to me about it. . . . Thousands of rapes are in the records. Can you imagine how many are still secret?"
8:22:07 PM
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Mars moblog: 360-degree pano from NASA Spirit Rover.  Now *that* is a photoblog. Chronologically indexed gallery of interplanetary snapshots from this weekend's Mars landing. At left:
"This mosaic image taken by the navigation camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has been further processed, resulting in a significantly improved 360 degree panoramic view of the rover on the surface of Mars."
Link to NASA's Mars moblog, link to full-size, 360-degree composite panorama image. (Thanks, Warren)
[Boing Boing Blog]
8:10:32 PM
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Bad news?
They had the biggest tour of '03, so it appeared that they'd weathered the storm from their comments. But.....peak position at twenty-seven?...
[North Georgia Dogma]
I read somewhere just the other day that the Chicks were doing as good as ever after the flap. Doesn't look like it. In years past they would have always peaked at number 1. I think they alienated more than half their fans me being one of them. They may still be drawing the same numbers at concerts but it's probably an audience full of Bush Haters chanting 'Kill Bush'! CP
12:35:47 PM
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Wal-Mart and Health Insurance
The meme seems to be that Wal-Mart foists its worker's health coverage on the state, by offering little or none of its own. Daniel Weintraub reports this is not the case at all.
...Wal-Mart has structured its health benefits to emphasize catastrophic care. While the company has relatively high deductibles – up to $1,000 for a plan that costs an employee $13 every two weeks – it also pays 100 percent of medical charges above $1,750 a year in out-of-pocket expenses. ... Wal-Mart has no lifetime caps on its coverage...
The idea of health insurance, after all, is to prevent unexpected medical bills from bankrupting and devastating an individual. In this regard Wal-Mart’s coverage might be on the cutting edge. While it leaves individual workers responsible for routine expenses, Wal-Mart’s coverage steps in when things get serious and then covers everything, forever. Doesn’t sound so bad.
And that's not even the whole story. One thing that you never see quoted, and is always missing from those benefit tables, is the insurance company's negotiated discounts with its preferred medical partners.
Even if NONE of an expense is covered due to deductables, the patient often pays significantly less due to these standard discounts. I've seen one case where a hospital's charges were discounted from a $43,000 rack rate down to $1300, before the insurance/patient split was calculated. That's unusual of course, but routine discounts of over 50% are not uncommon.
Given these negotiated discounts, any insurance is better than no insurance.
from Bear Flag League blogger Interociter
12:27:41 PM
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The pictures
I still say this looks like a picture of my back yard, gopher holes and all. CP
10:35:23 AM
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A Giant Step For Freedom
After teetering on the brink of collapse, the loya jirga in Afghanistan has almost miraculously reached agreement on a new constitution, giving men and women equal rights and striking a balance between a strong presidency and Parliamentary oversight: Just a...
[Captain's Quarters]
10:27:46 AM
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Astronomy Picture of the Day
I'm sure the Martian environmentalist wacko's are already calling for a ban on this type of activity.
9:57:18 AM
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Thats it! I'm tired of reading about Terrorists and Mad Cows so I'm really going to bed this time. Besides - the Christmas Brandy is all gone.
Good night. CP
3:05:15 AM
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Manhunt in The Skies
AN INTENSE manhunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists is being carried out by the intelligence and law enforcement authorities on three continents, US officials said on Friday.
And three international flight routes - Heathrow to Dulles, Heathrow to Paris and Mexico City to Los Angeles - have become the focus of the probes.
In the past two weeks, each of the more than 15 flights that have been cancelled, delayed, turned around or escorted by US fighter aircraft were identified by an inexact combination of dates, flight numbers and routes obtained.
2:58:37 AM
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Get Used To Orange
More news seems to add credence to the notion that al-Qaeda's is planning a "back-breaking" strike ......
[Electric Venom]
2:50:16 AM
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Their due
I knew the salad days for military dependents and retirees were over the first time we were turned away from the base hospital and made to drive an hour to a sparse Tricare facility in the hinterland. It was all...
[t a c i t u s]
Yep .... us vets got nothing coming! Hey - it's not just Bush. It's been that way for as long as I can remember. Don't ask! CP
2:35:00 AM
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So I lied! I'm still up.
I was watching the NASA/JPL news conference and lost track of time. I was hoping the camera on the lander would spot one of the Martians and I would be the first blogger to post about it. No such luck. All they have shown so far is what looks like my back yard. Barren and rocky. I thought I spotted a SUV in the background on one of the pictures but they ignored it. Probably just the Christmas Brandy I'm finishing off tonight. CP
2:19:12 AM
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Guns Save Lives
Here's another citizen who would be dead if Michael Moore and the rest of the gun-grabbers had their way.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two home invasion suspects were in custody and another was hospitalized Friday morning following a shooting during their attempted invasion, NewsChannel 4 reported. The three robbers broke into a woman's house on North Roys Avenue, but police said the woman got a gun...
[Right-Thinking from the Left Coast]
I almost never repost reports like this because they are so common. Hardly a day goes by that I don't see reposts of local newspaper or TV reports on people defending themselves in this country. I would never hear about these stories if it were not for my connection to the blogging world. Unless it happens in your town you will probably not hear about except on the net. If I win the lotto I will start a cable channel that will deal only with stories like this.
I also want to start a 'Cheerleader Channel' that will show nothing but the cheerleaders at major league and college games! The game itself will be in one of those little windows in the lower right hand corner. I know .... the leagues will never let me do this but I can dream can't I?
ok - enough for tonight. I'm going to watch the little green Martians play with the Mars rover on NASA TV. CP
12:42:35 AM
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I'll give this one at least a week!
12:20:23 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Lopsided Poopdeck.
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