Sorry for the lack of posting. Ive been out of commission due to shoulder surgery on Tuesday. All went well but typing left handed is not y idea of fun.
I have watched a lot of TV, which unfortunately didn’t improve my outlook! I expect it will be a few days until posting picks up.
Chris
Mayor of London: It’s snowing, and it really feels like the start of a mini ice age
No one way tickets to Boulder for London Mayor Boris Johnson.
via Christian Science Monitor (and other outlets such as Forbes and ESPN)…
Phil Mickelson:
“If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate’s 62, 63 percent,”
IMHO, Michael Collins is an ass. Reading comments on the ESPN site, I see Obama has done a great job with the class warfare propaganda.
Phil, I got your back.
ESPN
Novel idea: GOP demands Senate pass budget before ‘long-term’ debt deal
What a novel and common sense idea.
“Since taking the majority, House Republicans have done their job,” Ryan said in the statement. “We’ve passed a budget that promotes economic growth and gets spending under control. But for nearly four years, Senate Democrats have refused to pass a budget. Today’s agreement will hold the Senate accountable for this legal and moral failure. Just as April 15 is tax day for American families, it is budget day for Congress. Unless the Senate acts, there will be no consideration of a long-term debt-ceiling increase. I look forward to working with my colleagues—in both houses and in both parties—on this vital issue.” (emphasis added)
Hmmm, my money is on the Senate filing an extension.
WSJ: ObamaCare’s Health-Insurance Sticker Shock
The reason: The congressional Democrats who crafted the legislation ignored virtually every actuarial principle governing rational insurance pricing. Premiums will soon reflect that disregard—indeed, premiums are already reflecting it. (emphasis added)
Wow, who would have thunk it. Here are the actuarial principles violated…
Increases you can expect?
Many actuaries, such as those in the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman, are now predicting an average increase of roughly 50% in premiums for some in the individual market for the same coverage. But that is an average. Large employer groups will be less affected, at least initially, because the law grandfathers in employers that self-insure. Small employers will likely see a significant increase, though not as large as the individual market, which will be the hardest hit.
And the increase in the individual market will vary from state to state. States that have fewer mandates and have abided by actuarial principles will have the largest increases. Here in Colorado, since the State already has numerous mandates will show a lessor but I’m sure still substantial increase.
Didn’t Obama promise lower premiums”? In fact, yes he did. Let me refresh your memory…
Although President Obama repeatedly claimed that health-insurance premiums for a family would be $2,500 lower by the end of his first term, they are actually about $3,000 higher—a spread of about $5,500 per family.
How about that! Of course, the saving grace is the government subsidy in the form of a tax credit. Worst case (almost), if you purchase an exchange plan you should pay no more than 9.5% of your income towards health coverage premiums. Keep in mind this is based on the “Silver” plan available in the exchange, so if you elect to purchase a Gold or Platinum plan you may pay a higher percentage.
Boulder may be stoopid but California and Governor Moonbeam Jerry Brown are stoopider.
Observations from John Hinderaker…
The Wall Street Journal headline tells the story succinctly: “California Budget Hit By Facebook’s IPO.” Wait a moment: how exactly is a budget “hit” by the creation of massive new liquid wealth? It seems the state had counted upon getting $1.9 billion in capital gains taxes from Facebook’s debut as a publicly traded company, but since California has unfriended the entire business community it is not surprising that the take will only be about $1.3 billion.
Beware Boulderites, this is headed your way soon…
Meanwhile, rumors are flying around Sacramento that Gov. Jerry Brown is about to go full Moonbeam on us again, and may call in his upcoming State of the State address for California to raise its current “renewable portfolio standard” for electricity from the current ridiculous target of 33 percent by the year 2020 to 40 percent. More: he might even call for banning any future construction of gas-fired power plants in the state. I guess Jerry thinks we can power the state on his recycled speeches. There’s certainly a lot of hot air in them.
No Federal Government bailouts of individual states.
Glenn Reynolds: Nothing says good credit risk like a commitment to unlimited increases in debt!
Commons sense escapes our politicians.
Ann Althouse: The use of children in politics – if you find it pursuasive, you’d better sharpen up
Commenting on photos of politicians with children on Drudge (here we’re talkin Hitler and Stalin…) Ann declares…
It’s ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, but Obama is using a form of propaganda that should be considered not merely ridiculous but repulsive.
Indeed.
She continues…
Who falls for that? No one should! The implicit argument the political leader makes, in all 3 of these pictures, is: I’m making the country good for the sake of the children. The child can’t vouch for the policies. The child hasn’t competently requested anything. The child is merely a prop representing goodness, innocence, and the future.
Doug Short: Inflation: A Five-Month X-Ray View
This graph about says it all. The increase in College Tuition & Fees is TWICE that of Medical Care. Who would have guessed? Where IS the legacy media’s outcry for the government to address the cost of higher education? Are student loans and various grants enough? Certainly the government can do more? There’s not EVIL corporation so the legacy media ignores the topic?
What incentive did the colleges receive to inflate the cost of education so drastically? It’s insanity pure and simple.
Government priorities: Only 28% of Americans Consider Gun Control a Top Priority, Despite MSNBC, CNN, and CBS Reporting Otherwise
Poll results:
Examining the results of a new Washington Post poll, the Post’s Chris Cilizza in his The Fix blog noted today that Americans believe the national debt and the federal government’s chronic deficit spending are greater issues than gun regulation. In fact, only 28 percent of Americans, including a paltry 41 percent of Democrats, feel the gun control issue requires urgent attention:
If Americans really believe that the national debt and the federal governments chronic deficit spending are such big issues, why in the world did they vote for Obama?
Have the attitudes towards gun control of the “common citizen” changed since the Sandy Hook massacre?
In other words, parents of young children are not significantly more pro-gun control or anti-gun control after Newtown as their fellow Americans without kids. The way the media are spinning things, you’d think the political climate has shifted such that parents of small children are most of all clamoring for more stringent gun regulation.
It’s all too clear that the major media outlets in the U.S. are clamoring for gun control, buoyed by President Obama’s reelection and ghoulishly capitalizing from day one on the horrendous atrocity wrought by a disturbed young man who killed his own mother to acquire the weapons he used to kill innocent children and their teachers. (emphasis added – Ed)
Yes, it is, and no surpise either.
Moody’s now has negative outlook for all U.S. universities
The agency said one critical factor in the expansion of that negative outlook was that students’ price sensitivity is keeping tuition payments low.
Hope the taxpayers are ready for the bill as they will be asked for $$$’s long before the Universities consider significant change to their business model.
Reason Magazine: Without Borrowing, the Government Can Only Pay 60 Percent of Its Bills
As Glenn Reynolds likes to say…
Things that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debt that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.
Repeatedly the editorial staff of the Daily Camera warns us of obesity, climate change and the cost of healthcare. However, they are strangely silent about the worst inflation of all, the cost of higher education.
One really has to wonder why they are so quiet on this issue. This inflation has the following fairly obvious detrimental effects:
Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s because the government has already tried to solve the problem with student loans. How else could the cost of attending college increase so dramatically unless the government was guaranteeing the loans, which provided the fuel for the inflationary spiral?
We’re talking the goal of the NRA to increase their membership from 4 million to 5 million: NRA: Membership Has Grown by 250,000 in One Month
A quarter of a million people have signed up for new NRA memberships ahead of the White House Task Force’s findings
Boise Gun Show: “These guns and amo are going out the door in arm loads. Some people can hardly walk they’ve got so much stuff,” said organizer Paul Snider.
Armed vigilante groups policing 2 Mexican towns
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Several hundred civilians have taken up arms in two towns in a southwestern Mexico state and are arresting people suspected of crimes and imposing a curfew, leading authorities to promise to reinforce security forces in the area.
Imagine, it’s easy if you try.
and perhaps a journalist or two as well.
Reason Magazine: The Promised Land of Fracking
Environmental activists, who once hailed natural gas as the bridge fuel to the renewable energy future, have turned with a vengeance against it. Originally, activists who worried about man-made global warming produced by burning fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide favored fracking because burning natural gas produces about half the carbon dioxide emitted by coal. However, local and national environmental groups have turned decisively against shale gas based on both not-in-my-backyard concerns and the fear that cheap natural gas undermines the economic case for solar and wind power. (emphasis added – Ed)
Emphasis added as it’s a “So Boulder” moment. The article is also seems to be a fairly good synopsis of what’s going with fracking pro and con.
