{"id":10381,"date":"2013-06-02T03:03:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-02T10:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10381"},"modified":"2013-06-02T03:03:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-02T10:03:34","slug":"open-thread622013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/open-thread622013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread&ndash;6\/2\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Yesterday I got some sleep, so I have another article for you today.&#160; I had to set back my quit date to the 14th, because the plan has me taking Chantix for a full week before quitting, and I still have not received my prescription.&#160; Tomorrow will definitely be a short writing day, if any at all, because I will be making my first major excursion, since leaving the hospital: my quarterly foot surgery at my podiatrist\u2019s office to remove the recurrent growth.&#160; For the next day, we\u2019ll have to wait and see how well I handle this trip.&#160; I plan no Monthly Report for May, but our top commentators were:<\/font><\/p>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Lynn Squance (76)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Patty (53)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Pat A (35)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\" color=\"#0066cc\"><a href=\"http:\/\/Critterscrap.blogspot.com\" target=\"_blank\">Jerry Critter (30)<\/a><\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Edith Belcher (26)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">SoINeedAName (23)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Lisa G. (20)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Rixar13 (16)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Lee Evans (12)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Angelica (11)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">William Lemeshevsky (6)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">jl a (3)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">John Dasef (3)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul style=\"line-height: normal; margin-top: 0in; padding-left: 0px; unicode-bidi: embed; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in\" type=\"disc\">\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\" color=\"#0066cc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/mdasefauthor\/home\" target=\"_blank\">Marva (3)<\/a><\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: middle\"><span style=\"font-family: \"><font style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Terrie (3)<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">Today\u2019s took me 4:29 (average 4:54).&#160; To do it, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigzone.com\/puzzles\/2013-06-02-CE2504A965A9\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.&#160; How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From Politicus USA: <\/font>During the George W. Bush presidency, there was a lot of talk about patriotism any time a question arose about the legitimacy of the Iraq war, and the implication was that questioning the Bush administration was unpatriotic because a real patriot is someone who feels strong support for his or her country regardless the leader\u2019s deceit in taking a nation to war based on lies. Early in President Obama\u2019s first term, the Koch brothers, neo-conservatives, and Republican Party took advantage of racial animus for the African American President and funded a so-called \u201cgrassroots\u201d movement of alleged patriots who, within months of the President\u2019s swearing in, complained they were overtaxed and suffering tyranny. The teabaggers, as they called themselves, immediately claimed they were patriots and any opposition to their agenda was tantamount to Marxism or Nazism and they demanded to take \u201ctheir country\u201d back to when a white man inhabited the Oval Office. However, there is nothing remotely resembling patriotism in teabagger ranks, and as time went on a pattern developed that linked teabaggers to the Taliban and it did not take long for them to threaten violence to impose their will.<\/p>\n<p>The concept of threatening, calling for, and inciting violence against the government has never been part of being a patriotic American, but there has been no dearth of violent threats from conservative malcontents that make up the majority of teabaggers. Recently, another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicususa.com\/tea-party-calls-senator-susan-collins-assassination.html\" target=\"_blank\">instance<\/a> of a teabagger calling for gun violence was reported over a Republican senator\u2019s vote for immigration reform, and it is becoming an all too common occurrence unique to the so-called patriot group that throughout its existence threatened violence and armed insurrection to control the direction of the government. Threatening to use force to impose their will is not limited to disaffected racists, and has been embraced by teabag leaders since the anti-American group came into existence&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">How many times do I have to say it?<strong> Thou shalt not commit TEAbuggery!!!<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/06\/02\/health\/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html\" target=\"_blank\">NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>&#8230;Whether directly from their wallets or through insurance policies, Americans pay more for almost every interaction with the medical system. They are typically prescribed more expensive procedures and tests than people in other countries, no matter if those nations operate a private or national health system. A list of drug, scan and procedure prices compiled by the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurers, found that the United States came out the most costly in all 21 categories \u2014 and often by a huge margin. <\/p>\n<p>Americans pay, on average, about four times as much for a hip replacement as patients in Switzerland or France and more than three times as much for a <a href=\"http:\/\/health.nytimes.com\/health\/guides\/surgery\/c-section\/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier\" target=\"_blank\">Caesarean section<\/a> as those in New Zealand or Britain. The average price for Nasonex, a common nasal spray for <a href=\"http:\/\/health.nytimes.com\/health\/guides\/disease\/allergies\/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier\" target=\"_blank\">allergies<\/a>, is $108 in the United States <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifhp.com\/news153.htmlIF\" target=\"_blank\">compared with $21 in Spain<\/a>. The costs of hospital stays here are about triple those in other developed countries, even though they last no longer, according to a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commonwealthfund.org\/Publications\/Issue-Briefs\/2012\/May\/High-Health-Care-Spending.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">report by the Commonwealth Fund<\/a>, a foundation that studies health policy. <\/p>\n<p>While the United States medical system is famous for drugs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and heroic care at the end of life, it turns out that a more significant factor in the nation\u2019s $2.7 trillion annual health care bill may not be the use of extraordinary services, but the high price tag of ordinary ones. \u201cThe U.S. just pays providers of health care much more for everything,\u201d said Tom Sackville, chief executive of the health plans federation and a former British health minister\u2026<\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">As always, the problem rests not, as Republicans deceitfully claim, with the need of those whom they call &quot;takers&quot;, but with the greed of the 1%.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2013\/06\/01\/can_anthony_weiner_win\/\" target=\"_blank\">Salon.com<\/a>: <\/font>When Anthony Weiner resigned from his post as congressman due to an embarrassing Twitpic scandal in 2011, the media expected that any serious political career was over. But Weiner has recently returned to politics, entering the Democratic primary as a mayoral candidate; not only is the media taking his bid seriously \u2014 but it\u2019s possible that thanks to deep pockets and a vibrant persona <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2013\/05\/28\/forget_what_youve_heard_anthony_weiner_can_win_nyc_mayor_race\/\" target=\"_blank\">he could win it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#160;<object width=\"592\" height=\"346\" id=\"msnbc58722e\" classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" target=\"_blank\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0\"><param name=\"movie\" target=\"_blank\" value=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" \/><param name=\"FlashVars\" value=\"launch=52066864^0^438172&amp;width=592&amp;height=346\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><embed name=\"msnbc58722e\" src=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32545640\" width=\"592\" height=\"346\" FlashVars=\"launch=52066864^0^438172&amp;width=592&amp;height=346\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" wmode=\"transparent\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/shockwave\/download\/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; margin-top: 5px; width: 592px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; background: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%; color: #999; font-size: 11px\">Visit NBCNews.com for <a style=\"border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\" target=\"_blank\">breaking news<\/a>, <a style=\"border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032507\" target=\"_blank\">world news<\/a>, and <a style=\"border-bottom: #999 1px dotted; height: 13px; color: #5799db !important; font-weight: normal !important; text-decoration: none !important\" href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/3032072\" target=\"_blank\">news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\">The only difference between Weiner and Republicans, who still live after scandal, such as &#8216;Trailwalker&#8217; Sanford (R-NC) and &quot;Diaper Dave&quot; Vitter (R-LA) is that Weiner never claimed to be a paragon of &quot;family values&quot; virtue, ordained by Supply-side Jesus (not the real one) to practice pseudo-Christian judgment and condemnation of others. In any case, with Batshit Bachmann leaving, a Weiner in the mayor&#8217;s office would give the comedy profession a much needed boost.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0000ff\"><strong>Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline\" title=\"2Cartoon\" alt=\"2Cartoon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/2Cartoon.jpg\" width=\"650\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I got some sleep, so I have another article for you today.&#160; I had to set back my quit date to the 14th, because the plan has me taking Chantix for a full week before quitting, and I still have not received my prescription.&#160; Tomorrow will definitely be a short writing day, if any <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/open-thread622013\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monthly-report","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-45-id","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}