last week was a sad week for new hampshire. mt washington's claim on the highest recorded wind speed record was taken over. and the fact that it was only 7 years ago that the famous man in the mountain fell makes it a little sadder.
back in may 2003, the man in the mountain was lost. here's a before and after shot:
mt washington had held the record for highest recorded wind speed - of 231 mph - since 1934. but now the world meterological society has analyzed some data of a typhoon in australia from april 1996 and found that wind speeds reached 253.5 mph during the storm, eclipsing the mt washington record and staking it's claim on the top spot.
given the nasty weather that blows past mt washington's peak, i don't think it will be long before it hosts the record once again.
my only thoughts on the state of the union address is to the amount of attention and response being given to supreme court justice samuel alito's apparent mouthing of "not true" to president obama's comments on the recent citizens united vs fec ruling.
in case you missed alito, here it is:
firstly, the only reason this is even getting any play is due to the infamous shout of "you lie!" from rep. joe wilson when obama was addressing congress regarding the health care bill.
now my overall opinion is that the office of the presidency should be shown the utmost respect and we can not have individuals shouting out comments during addresses to congress and the american people. but the question is, why are people feeling compelled to do so?
joe wilson during the president's address to congress he denied that health care would be provided to illegal immigrants, prompting joe wilson's outburst of "you lie!"
while, technically, the bill did not state that healthcare would be provided for illegal immigrants, it also did not allow for any checks of citizenship. the federation for american immigration reform (fair) argues that illegal immigrants can not be denied health care specifically because there isn't anything in the bill to check for citizenship. several days after the presidents address, the white house had to strengthen its position stating that illegal immigrants would be barred from purchasing health care coverage through the exchange stating that "verification requirements are something we would work out with congress."
justice alito during the state of the union, president obama stated, "the supreme court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. well, I don't think american elections should be bankrolled by america's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities."
however, "under current law, election spending by non-U.S. persons and entities is prohibited, and that prohibition is unaffected by the ruling in citizens united. thus, the existing restriction on expenditures by foreign corporations remains in place not because they are corporations but because they are foreign."
so, what's more egregious -- an individual objecting to a statement (even if it's in the hallowed halls of congress) or congress and the american people being presented with information that is not completely factual?
other than the obvious questions of why is someone being fired over a single slice of cheese, what else stands out in this article to you?
McDonald's 'wrong' to fire worker over cheese slice
"The dismissal was too severe a measure," the district court in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands, said in a written judgment.
"It is just a slice of cheese."
A written warning would have been a more appropriate punishment, said the court, which ordered the fast-food chain to pay the worker the salary for the remaining five months of her contract - a total of 4,265.47 euros (£3,660).
The company was also ordered to pay court costs.
The worker was fired at a McDonald's branch in the northern town of Lemmer in March last year for giving a colleague on a break a more expensive cheese burger instead of the hamburger she had paid for.
McDonald's claimed she had broken the rules, which prohibit any free gifts to family, friends or colleagues.
to me it was this line: "...the court... ordered the fast-food chain to pay the worker the salary for the remaining five months of her contract..."
you mean to tell me that european mcdonalds workers are hired by contract? and ones that are at least 5 months in length? wow.
i have reservations about the recent supreme court decision that declares the mccain-feingold campaign finance reform bill unconstitutional, thus allowing corporations and unions to make unlimited donations to campaigning politicians.
the case hinged on whether the 1st amendment of the corporations/unions was being infringed upon. but does a corporation/union as an entity, not the collection of citizens, have this protection? to me it seems that the ability to pour an unchecked number of dollars into campaign coffers leads down a path of corruption and the drowning out of the individual voices.
i doubt these contributions will be made to the upstart challenger looking to unseat the well known, national party backed incumbent. so i guess we'll just to wait and see what happens during the next campaign cycle but i fear that any and all contributions will be going to the large party, establishment candidates.
which essentially means that elections can be bought.
im not even going to try to delve into every issue about health care reform and the existing bills, just a few thoughts.
firstly, i do believe that some reform needs to happen as there are too many people either being denied coverage/care or being forced into bankruptcy due to their medical bills. i just dont understand why the entire system needs to be overhauled in order to accomplish some of these goals.
i am against a single payer government plan. there is no way to say that it would compete "fairly" against private industry when the government is not only adminstering the plan but is also writing the rules. private industry requires a company to prosper or the company fails and goes out of business. a government run plan will never fail, it will simply raise more taxes to make sure the program continues. also, why would a company choose to pay for medical coverage for their employees when it may be cheaper to pay the fine for not covering them and have them go onto the government plan, aka the taxpayers dime?
some sort of tort reform is necessary. i freely admit that if there was some sort of catastropic malpractice error that injured my family or myself that i would want someone to pay for that error. but you have physicians that can not afford malpractice insurance in some states because it is so high. and you have the current situation where law suits are taken up in those states without some sort of cap on penalties, ex: pennsylvania. in some cases this results in physicians deciding to move to another state or to stop practicing medicine altogether.
there need to be cost controls in place. MA has been held up as a great example of universal health care coverage. MA requires all its citizens to have health care coverage or you pay a penalty. because of this, 96%-98% of MA residents have some form of coverage. the first year this program went into effect, it cost the state approximately $100 million. within 2 years, the cost to the state was approximately $600 million. the estimated cost for 2009 is $1.3 BILLION!. now imagine that program being administered on the national level with 300 million people and trillions of dollars at stake. has the government ever reined in a bloated program? my gut feeling is no. it simply delves into the bottomless taxpayer trough.
one way that may help control some costs is to allow insurance to be sold between states. currently you can only buy a plan from within the state that you live. more competition means the price comes down.
the reform bill in its somewhat current state doesnt make sense to me. how will we add 30 million people getting coverage, make cuts to medicare and expect BETTER coverage at a LOWER cost? that just doesnt make sense. there are places such as the mayo clinic that have already stated that they will no longer accept medicare patients due to the low reimbursement rates.
couldnt simple laws be enacted by congress to forbid actions such as denial of coverage due to a pre-existing condition without overhauling the entire system. little incremental steps could work and they would be less scary to the general populace.
i know polls are just polls but if only 40% (if its even that high) of americans agree with the plan, does it make sense to make shady deals with fence sitting senators in order for them to agree to passing the bill?
as i stated previously, my hope is that without the democrats supermajority, there will need to be bipartisan action to get something accomplished. which also means that the republicans need to step up and offer ideas, not just be content with obstructing passage of anything.
though i made an effort to rally support for scott brown, deep down i thought it would go to martha coakley in a tight race. i just wasnt sure that the statewide support was there for a republican in the bluest of blue states that hasnt voted in a republican senator since 1972.
my hope is that this actually leads to some bipartisan action in washington. the behind closed door deals to ram through legislation is not what the american people need or want. president obama and the congressional leadership should take this as a serious sign that americans want their legislators to work together, not to battle in their mini turf wars.
january 19th will be historical. go vote for scott brown!! its time that someone in washington actually represented so many of us in massachusetts. im tired of being walked on.
martha coakley says that there arent any terrorists left in afghanistan...
...and dont dare ask her about it, as she will simply as for the next question and have one of her thugs push to the ground...
...as her campaign pays union members $50 to wave her signs...
...plus her campaign cant even spell our states name correctly (psst, martha. theres no 'e' at the end.)
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