Memorial Day was a big deal in the village in which I grew up, Liberty, NY. And thinking about the difference between the Memorial Day celebrations of my youth, and the non-celebration of this holiday today, makes me not so much nostalgic for the past but concerned about our future. Continue reading
@fivethirtyeight make sure fan is going on when laptop heats up in reply to fivethirtyeight # @fivethirtyeight check vents and gently blow them out if blocked in reply to fivethirtyeight # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
I’ve never been a fan of Charlton Heston. He was never a very good actor. And his macho gun-toting politics represents all that is worst inAmerica. But I do have a funny story about him. The Welles film, Touch of Evil, is one of my favorite films. I taught it for a number of years in my Politics and Film class at UNC Charlotte. Heston gave one of his best performances as Miguel “Mike” Sanchez, the presumed hero of the film. Sanchez, it turns, is a far more morally ambiguous character than one recognizes at first. Indeed, the one of the charms of the film is that one’ judgments of both Heston’s character and and the one played by Welles himself as well as one’s view of ethnic conflict itself are called into question in the film, One year, one of my best and favorite students in the class was… Continue reading
@hannahsassaman learning how to hug and kick at the same time is 90% of parenting in reply to hannahsassaman # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
In the interstices of a movie, spent 3 hours uninstalling Office by hand to fix it. How do tech-phobic people deal with computers? # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
Health Care Reform and Job Creation in Pennsylvania, 2010-2019 Marc Stier, Ph.D.[1] President Barack Obama has said that “health care reform is our jobs program.”[2] But while economists largely agree with the President that health care reform will, in a number of different ways, lead to job growth, there have been only a few attempts to quantify the job creating benefits of health care reform. This paper draws on that research to quantify the number of jobs likely to be created in Pennsylvania in the ten years between 2010 and 2019. Our conclusion is that over this period, between 150,000 and 225,000 new jobs will be added to the Pennsylvania economy as a result of health care reform. Health care accounts for one-seventh of the national economy and health care reform will make dramatic changes in our health care system. It would be incredible if these changes did not have… Continue reading
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is now law but the Republicans in Washington and the states are not ready to accept it. In Pennsylvania, Republican Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett has joined his colleagues from other states in filing a suit to have the whole law overturned by the courts. And he’s done so, in part, on the grounds that the the ACA will kill jobs in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The Republican Party has fought every effort by President Obama and Governor Rendell to create jobs. So it’s ironic to see them attacking the ACA on these grounds. And more importantly, their argument is totally backwards. For two reasons, the ACA will create jobs all over the country and especially in Pennsylvania. First, health care reform will slow the growth in health care costs and that will lead to new jobs. Employer-paid health insurance premiums are, like wages… Continue reading
I went to a 194th state representative district candidate event last week at Roxborough Memorial Hospital. It made clear to me why, when we decide which candidate to support, we progressives have to get out of the habit of looking at the elaborate questionnaires candidates produce and focus on what their history tells us about where their heart is. Sometime in the next two years, the person who wins this election is going to have to make a decision about a new piece of legislation before him or her. It might be late at night and there won’t be time to call some advisor to find out what is the right thing to do. There won’t be time to determine whether the legislation violates a core ideal of Democrats or progressives. The next representative for the 194th district is just going to have to use his or her judgment and… Continue reading
Is there any evidence that Obama's post-partisan schtick helped in 2009 vs the implicit promise to create a new progressive era? # Breaking: Cigna admits secret payments to US Chamber of Commerce! # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading
Company Makes Admission in Response to Activists at Shareholder Meeting Philadelphia – Representatives of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the 1,000-member coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, confronted CIGNA Corp.'s CEO and board members at the company's annual shareholder meeting today, and company officials admitted for the first time that they secretly contributed funding for duplicitous anti-reform TV ads. The company made the comments in response to questions from HCAN members who attended the event while activists outside rallied around a golden parachute symbolizing former CIGNA CEO Ed Hanway's recently disclosed $111-million retirement package. Continue reading