I think I'm the oldest person on Tumblr and possibly the only Conservative. My posts are mostly reblogs, often with reactions and rebuttals to Liberal nonsense I'm simply unable to ignore. Occasionally, I am moved to share something personal, often from my past. I'm just messing around here, is what it all boils down to. I had a blue-collar youth and a white-collar career, both in the midwest. I built, ran and sold a business, have stayed married to the same person since 1965 and have two children and one grandchild I adore. Life hasn't always been easy, but it has been very good overall. That's me, for now.
Also, I own almost none of the photographs or videos I post. If I've used one of yours and you want me to remove it, just ask.
Roses are violets,
red is blue,
I like donuts,
donuts are good.
Glazed, chocolate covered cake and jelly. My three favs. Holy food. Best glazed in the world at Bosa Donuts in Phoenix/Scottsdale. Least remarkable donuts: Dunkin (but great coffee).
29th May 2012
Reblogged From psycho-tropic
Notes: 2
Here I agree with the Liberal nitwits and my fellow Republicans who believe religion is a PRIVATE, personal matter. Walk the walk, don’t talk the talk.
(Source: eclecticbanana)
on a letter he wrote in 1635. Kind of a thrill. I’m invited. A three year term. Still trying to make sure this is a good fit. At my age you need to get careful about how you spend your time. On the other hand, you need to be especially attentive to pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. I’ve spent entirely too much time these past several years in front of my computer accomplishing nothing.
Dinner was dainty. I need some room service.
I’m willing my phone to ring.
I’m willing it to be someone on the other end that is going to say, “Here’s a million bucks!!! For you!!! For free!!!!”
Or at least someone calling to offer me a job.
I’m a month away from becoming a stripper.
I think this means many of your readers are just a month away from visiting s strip club.
- I’d like to believe that my observation of how quickly the last seven days have gone by being so quickly followed by the realization that I was confusing Five for Friday with Truthful Tuesday says more about summer vacation and less about my habits, but, eh, who am I kidding? Certainly not you.
Natalie Wood
Show cover, 1962; photo by Melvin Sokolsky
On TV. On second base at the world series. Just about anywhere, anytime.
Heather A. O’Connell finds that the higher the percentage of a county’s population who were slaves in 1860s, the worse the poverty of black residents in 2000, 140 years later (source). The reader’s first reaction is (and should be) to say that this is not about the heavy hand of anything. Rather, the kinds of places in the South that in 1860 were conducive – by reason of climate, soil condition, distance to transportation, and so on – to plantation agriculture are the same places that for similar reasons are economically disadvantaged today. But O’Connell statistically controls for all sorts of such factors. (This is a statistically hairy task; spatial auto-correlation anyone?) In the end, the extent of slavery in a county in 1860 — although it is not as important in 2000 as, say, the industrial make-up or the size of the black population — partially accounts for that county’s black-white gap in poverty today (mainly because counties with strong slavery pasts tend to have elevated rates of black poverty now).
Didn’t read beyond the excerpt here, but it seems like useless information. I think slavery is likely to stay illegal everywhere in this country, although I think it’s still legal or at least practiced elsewhere.
(Source: azspot)
Love this. The writer/director was inspired by his daily work encounters with customers of a fast food restaurant.
Young and Old in New Delhi
From this week’s Newsweek International, check out Lana Slezic’s portraits of street children in New Delhi. See the full essay here.
The street kids I photographed in Old Delhi call the place where they live “the park.” Not a strand of grass has the misfortune of growing there. The ground reeks of urine and burning rubbish. Sniffing glue is the center of this world.
There’s a way to blame America for this, specifically Bush and Cheney. I just haven’t been able to come up with it yet. I’ll send this to MSNBC or Bill Maher. They’re better at this than I am.
In other words, victim politics should re-elect President Flim Flam — four more years of lousy leadership and failure. Let’s hope the self-identified victims don’t outnumber those who have realized that the emperor has no clothes.
(Source: thesmithian)
In Defense of Chris Hayes
Conor Friedersdorf (via manicchill)
The term, “hero,” is over-used and thus debased, but this guy reminds me of the anti-war gang during Vietnam. They could barely — and frequently couldn’t — contain their disdain for the troops. With an all volunteer force, today’s anti-war gang have an even greater problem hiding their real feelings. I’m happy the lid is off the sham of Liberal “support for our men and women in uniform.” Was it Bill Clinton who let it slip that he “despised the military?” Case closed.
Here in Washington, DC, close to this historic site and countless others, but staying cool in my hotel room on this hot, muggy Memorial Day. Tomorrow I will find out why this national educational organization thinks I should join its Advisory Board. Their pitch starts at 2:30 tomorrow, beginning with a session with their Executive Committee, followed by tours of various sections of the organization and ending with a dinner with certain members of the current Board. It’s not a paid position. This ain’t JPMorgan. Quite the contrary. I’ll have to pick up all my own expenses for four meetings a year, plus make a $5000 annual donation. All of that is tax deductible, which helps a little. So, why have I been nominated, and what do they want me to help them accomplish? I’m betting its fundraising, which is just another word for marketing (non-profit marketing). A business friend who has been on the board for four years is pushing me in this, and I am one of three nominees for the spot. It could be fun, but $10,000 worth of fun? We’ll see.
I’ve never spent much time in Washington. I used to hit Marriott Headquarters in Bethesda occasionally, and I did some business with the old Bell Atlantic before (and after) they merged with NYNEX and became Verizon. But I’ve never really explored the city, which could be great fun.
Outta here Wednesday morning. To be continued…
The lowest price is usually available only if patients don’t use their health insurance. In one case, blood tests that cost an insured patient $415 would have been $95 in cash.
Remember that entry I wrote about health care costs being a result of a disruption of the price mechanism viz. government-promotion of insurance companies? Yeah, this is my point.
LTMC: This is the exact opposite of what normally happens. It is much more common for hospitals to charge patients without insurance more because insurance companies have the economic clout necessary to bargain with healthcare providers for lower rates. Individual patients have no such clout, and even if they did, would be in a poor position to use it in most cases. A person who is bleeding from a gunshot wound cannot defiantly refuse to patronize the nearest hospital because he finds their services “unreasonably priced.”
I suspect that the LA Times is failing to control for the income of the self-payers. Giving out charity care through reduced rates is not the same thing as bargaining at arm’s length. It’s an attempt to reconcile their bottom line with their responsibilities under EMTALA.
More bullshit. Here’s what happens. Hospitals and other medical providers have 2 price lists: One is full retail, that almost nobody pays. It’s the price you see on the hospital’s/provider’s bill. Then there’s the negotiated price for the insurance company, probably about 40% of full retail. If you have insurance, you’ll see that difference between the two represented on the insurance claim as a discount to the full list price plus the co-pay. If you don’t have insurance, you just have to ask for the discount. You’ll get it without much effort, although you might have to threaten not to pay in order to get down below 50%. If the hospital has to sell the bill to a collection agency, they’ll lose a huge chunk in the process, so they are very ready to go at least to the 50% level. The only people who pay the list price are the people who don’t negotiate. Check it out.
Jimmy pictured with the 703rd Squadron, in front of a B-24 Liberator. He is fourth from the left, standing up.
Sergeant Robbie Robinson remembers:
Cross and I stopped by the finance building to see why we had not received our pay. The finance officer told us that he had not had the time to get to our pay records. He said, “You’re not going anywhere. Come back next week.”
We both walked out of the building, grumbling to ourselves about not getting paid. We walked down the road, still grumbling. We ran into Jimmy Stewart. He must have noticed our expressions.
“How are you fellas doing?” Captain Stewart asked us. Cross said, “Captain Stewart, we were just at finance to see why we had not been paid and the finance officer told us to come back next week. He didn’t have time to pay us.” Stewart said, “You didn’t get paid the first of December?” “No, sir,” we chimed. “Well, now. Come on and we’ll find out why he doesn’t have time to pay you,” Stewart said. We started walking briskly, side by side. Stewart had long legs and we had to almost run to keep up.
We all walked into office together. With a clearing of his throat, Stewart said to the lieutenant behind the desk, “Why hasn’t Lieutenant Wright’s crew been paid?” The lieutenant said, “They will be paid, sir, but it will take a few days to get to it.” Captain Stewart put his hand to his chin and started rubbing it. Then he said, “Lieutenant, we just don’t have a few days. I believe we out to pay them right now. Not in a few days. I mean kinda like, right now — in the next thirty minutes.” Stewart looked at the lieutenant and then at us. He said to the lieutenant, “I will be back here in a little while, and, you know — if Lieutenant Wright’s crew isn’t paid by then, I believe that we will just have to find a new finance lieutenant for this one will be on his way out of here to the Infantry.
Stewart told us, “Stick around a few minutes. I think he is going to pay you now.” Cross and I said quietly, “Thank you, sir.” He halfway returned our sharp salute and said, “I’ll see you around fellas.” Then he walked out of the finance office.
The finance lieutenant said for us to sign a piece of paper. He gave us a month’s pay. “Tell the other members of your crew to come by here as quickly possible and get their pay,” he said. We took the money, signed the paper and got ourselves out of there.
We rushed back to the hut and told everyone to get over to finance and pick up their money. We all were beginning to this Jimmy Stewart was really an all right guy.
— Taken from Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot by Starr Smith
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