Answer to NYTimes question: What do you most want to hear Mr. Obama say about health care in that speech?
I'm sorry, this has all been a big misunderstanding. I just picked up a dictionary and a basic economics book over the holiday. I looked up the word "option" and it doesn't mean forcing all Americans to pay for each others health costs. I also read about the law of supply and demand. Yeah apparently, when you increase the demand of a product the cost goes up. So I guess my plan actually limits choice and will increase costs! Wow, I mean you really don't think of these things when you run for President. My bad everybody.
NYTimes link:
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/what-should-obama-tell-you-about-health-care/ |
I tried getting my thoughts out on Twitter, but this issue is too complicated for 140 character posts (not that I didn't try - Twitter Gadget is down so that finally convinced me to change forums). My comments are in reference to the NY Time's article on the "False 'Death Panels' Rumors". This is another example of the NYT posting an Op-ed posing as journalism. As with every NYT health care Op-Ed in the last few weeks, the authors continue the "Republicans are being mean again" refrain.
In the article, they "report" that "There is nothing in any of the legislative proposals that would call for the creation of death panels or any other governmental body that would cut off care for the critically ill as a cost-cutting measure."
This is fundamentally misguided. This is another attempt by socialization advocates to hide from any implications of health-care "reform". For example, Obama keeps claiming (disregarding his contradictory comments during the primary) that the legislation does not imply a "single-payer". As many commentators have pointed out, any government run insurance implies that the government will set the terms for every other insurer and will eventually become a monopoly. Don't believe me? Just try competing with the USPS on first-class letter delivery - it can't be done because the gov't has effectively infinite resources to "compete", which means that it can always increase taxes and allocate more to its delivery "business".
Similarly, the death panels issue, while not specifically in the legislative proposals, is in a way implied by the legislation. The more intellectually honest proponents of socialization (e.g. Peter Singer) have pointed out that rationing is inevitable. Since socialization would effectively do away with any sort of "price-rationing" (Singer's awkward term for individual cost-benefit analysis), health care must be rationed or else the cost goes to infinity (what rational person wouldn't attempt to take more than his "fair share" from the health care garden?). Under socialized care, if a senior is facing the choice between an inordinately expensive operation to extend his life a month and death, suddenly that senior's death is in my self-interest as a payer into the system (it would both lessen my costs and increase my access to the health care garden). How to mitigate such conflicts of self-interest? Death panels are really not that far off. |
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Food
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Mar. 21st, 2009 @ 02:14 pm
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Made some pretty good food this week:
Tuesday
Tequila Lime Chicken. I made this using the "original" recipe (see below), not my modified lower-fat version. It calls for 1.5 c of heavy cream! When you make it this way, it is quite rich and decadent.
Wednesday
BLT at Junior's. Nothing special, but I was so hungry I couldn't resist the diner-like smell of rendered fat.
Thursday
Made an inauthentic yet delicious version of Beef Rydberg. I first had this at Aqua Vit. It came with roasted potatoes and a mustard creme fresh sauce, which made it sing. For my impromptu version, I seared the cubed tenderloin and made a white wine sauce from the brown bits. I poured that over the beef and the potatoes, mixed the beef with an egg yolk (the traditional topping) and mixed heavy cream with a spicy brown mustard 1:1. Included a side of sauted kale. Overall, really tasty Swedish comfort food.
Friday
Was craving a cesar salad for some reason. Followed Alton Brown's recipe for toasted croutons. Shaved some parmesan over romaine lettuce and made a oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Not quite cesar, but it satisfied my craving. For the rest of the main course, I broiled some shrimp after brining in salt and sugar. Added the roasted tomato and garlic leftovers to the remaining Mac and Cheese that Stella made. Very tasty.
Saturday
Made a very nice brunch for Stella and me. I blanched then pan fried cubed potatoes. They didn't quite brown correctly, but because I added thyme to the blanching water and to the frying pan they were seasoned very nicely. Made my usual slow cooked eggs, but added prosciutto from Milano Market. Served the remaining broiled shrimp with lemon and cracked pepper. Of course, I made espresso roast coffee in my French press. I wish I could eat it again.
Tequila Lime Chicken
I found this on the Internet years ago, but I don't see it any more when I type it in to Google. I usually make this with only 1/2 c of cream, but if you really like a rich creamy sauce then the full recipe is the way to go.
Tequilla Lime Chicken
1 pound fettucine - cooked
1/3 cup fresh cilantro - chopped
2 tablespoons garlic - minced
2 tablespoons jalapeno - minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons tequila
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/4 pounds chicken breast - sliced 1/2" thick
1/2 red onion - sliced
1 large bell pepper - thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add cilantro, garlic, and jalapeno. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, tequila, and lime juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until reduced to a pastelike consistency; set aside.
Pour soy sauce over sliced chicken breast. set aside for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan, melt remaining butter over medium-high heat. Cook onion and pepper until tender. Add chicken and soy sauce. When chicken is cooked (about 7 minutes), add tequila paste and cream. Bring the sauce to a boil; boil gently until sauce has slightly thickened. Toss with cooked fettucine. garnish with cilantro.Current Mood: accomplished |
I watched John Stewart "attack" on CNBC last night. Unlike when he makes fun of Obama (it has happened a couple of times), he was neither funny nor informative. At least part of the problem is that liberals (and Stewart is extremely liberal) are very funny when they make fun of liberal politicians because they are very aware of their foibles. It becomes less funny when they try to make fun of business leaders because liberal comedians are suddenly out of their element and their satirical rage just becomes self-righteous rage.
Apparently Stewart was miffed by Santelli canceling his interview. Stewart decided to strike back with all the venom of a stood up prom date. He played about three seconds of Santelli's mortgage rant where he describes people who can't pay their mortgages as "losers". From here Stewart launches an extended recitation of CNBC's bad predictions concerning the stock market.
Leaving aside the fact that you could say virtually the same thing about 90% of analysts that have to gave their opinion of the market (just look at the hedge fund indices), Stewart is attacking a straw man. His implied argument is that Santelli is wrong to criticize people for over-leveraging themselves and buying things they couldn't actually afford because CNBC wasn't able to predict the stock market crash. These two things are not the same. Santelli is criticizing people with shaky credit histories who took loans they couldn't afford and then demanded the government (i.e tax payers who did not take risky loans) bail them out. Stewart is trying to equate this with failing to predict the stock market crash. Nothing is better than criticizing someone's prognostication abilities by showing off your own ignorance. Not so funny. |
I don't understand why some columnists have jobs. I just read my first Joe Nocera article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/28nocera.html?ref=business
This guy doesn't even understand his own field. Basically, the whole article can be summed up "AIG is really naughty." When he actually attempts to describe why they are really naughty, the article falls apart (like a house of cards??) After doing some cutting edge research, he posits:
The word “arbitrage” usually means taking advantage of a price differential between two securities — a bond and stock of the same company, for instance — that are related in some way.
This is about the worst explanation of arbitrage (aside from hedge fund marketing pieces) I have read. Notice he is attempting to describe convertible arbitrage. But that only works if the bond converts into stock, not just any stock and bond of a random company. What's the point of explaining the concept with an example, if you clearly don't even understand the definition?
This bizarre definition is supposed to serve as a framework for the naughty things that AIG did:
When you start asking around about how A.I.G. made money during the housing bubble, you hear the same two phrases again and again: “regulatory arbitrage” and “ratings arbitrage.”
later he describes the details of this regulatory "arbitrage":
And because A.I.G. had that AAA rating, when it sprinkled its holy water over those mortgage-backed securities, suddenly they had AAA ratings too.
Despite all the buzzwords and weasel-words, this is nothing new in finance. A large and storied company is guaranteeing a bond and charging a fee. The problem is that investors bought it and more importantly, the ratings agencies, who are essentially government enforced monopolies, never batted an eye. |
| » Interesting |
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An article in the NY times that derides Che Gueverra supporters as dangerously naive? You saw it here:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/che-or-a-statue-of-an-actor-playing-che/?hp
Dec. 3rd, 2008 @ 08:31 am
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| » Great Quote |
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Winston Churchill - "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Nov. 7th, 2008 @ 10:28 am
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| » Trivial Question |
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When was the last time the New York Times endorsed a Republican for President?
( Read more... )
It's quite entertaining to read their history of endorsements:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/23/opinion/20081024-endorse.html?ex=1240459200&en=737feef49933a58c&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=OP-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M067-ROS-1108-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click
the Goldwater versus Johnson is especially entertaining for its daisy-esque level of hysteria:
A Goldwater administration "would be tempted to follow an all-or-nothing, black-or-white, win-or-lose approach that would surely destroy America's alliances and might ultimately destroy the world's civilization."
Nov. 3rd, 2008 @ 10:12 am
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| » Just made the best lunch |
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Used the cherry preserve/balsamic vinegar sauce from Sunday's lamb chops and poured them over prime rib roast from Milano market and a hard roll. Threw that in the broiler for a few minutes and sprinkled pecorino romano cheese over it. Red potatoes and roasted red peppers as a side and some fresh ground french-pressed coffee. Incredible.
Here's the lamb recipe:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1634751
I followed the recipe except added another T of garlic. Deglazed the pan with red wine and scraped up some of the brown bits. Also, cooked the the sauce down about twice as long to make it much thicker and much more potent.
Oct. 25th, 2008 @ 01:06 pm
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| » Goldwater |
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I have to say that I love the webclips feature of GMail. Now that I use gmail, I see how google makes so much more money per ad than the other search sites. On gmail, I actually see ads for products I might actually want (because google, of course, reads my e-mail). The real genius of gmail's webclips is that it trains you to click in the same place as the text ads in order to read news stories, etc.
Anyway, I loved this quote of the day I saw in the webclips today:
"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."
-Barry Goldwater
Oct. 17th, 2008 @ 06:04 pm
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| » CapMag |
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Here is a letter by John Allison, President & CEO of BB&T, that was sent to every member of Congress.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5293
Oct. 3rd, 2008 @ 01:27 pm
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| » Smoot-Hawley!? |
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There have been a lot of dumb things said about the $700B bailout package that failed yesterday. What's astounding is how much intellectual trash has become accepted wisdom. Listen to this gem from the nytimes' Brooks (the one who is supposed to be the token conservative at the times):
"Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century."
The Smoot-Hawley act instituted a tariff, which cooled an already weak economy. Notice this is unnecessary government intrusion. How exactly is this the same as rejecting a hastily drafted bill? It's much easier to explain why they are exact opposites.
Sep. 30th, 2008 @ 08:27 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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so I got an iphone, finally. I have wanted one for a while. The only thing keeping me from geting one was the cost and the fact that I already has a phone. Since my verizon phone finally expired I was fee at last. I took a while to get over the expense mentally, but it is one of the few indulgences I have allowed. Anyway, I was only posting so I could practice typing on the iPhone.
Sep. 15th, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
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| » Something intelligent from NYT!?? |
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This is the single best op-ed I've seen from the NYT in at least 4 years (or since Safire retired):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/opinion/11kristol.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Aug. 11th, 2008 @ 08:40 am
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| » PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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What makes it so sweet is not the "professional accomplishment", but the fact that I have six months of my life back!!
Jul. 29th, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
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| » Lebanese Coffee |
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Tried Lebanese coffee yesterday. Can't say I'm nuts about it. It's like Turkish coffee (which I love after a heavy lamb dish), but slightly weaker and with cardamom. I guess my mouth just gets confused with the cardamom. You'd expect to see that in tea, not coffee.
Jul. 25th, 2008 @ 08:57 am
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| » Lamb Intestines ....., mmmmmmm |
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Finally tracked down a place that served pajata - lamb or beef intestines with its mother's milk curdled inside. It may sound gross, but it's supposed to be a popular Roman favorite and I came here to eat something I can't get in any Upper East Side trattoria. We went to matricianella near the spanish steps. The waiter was a bit confused by our ordering three pastas (one to start and one each for the entree), but we got our rigatoni con abacchio pajata, fettucine romana, and spaghetti cacio e pepe. I am not sure what I expcted, but the abacchio pajata was tender and flavorful. They tasted like tiny meatballs with a mild cheese inside. Very tasty. We followed that with polette fritta - fried ground octopus. I've become a raving fan of octopus since I had it at Franny's (perfectly grilled with lemon, salt and pepper - delicious). Although quite tasty, the fried octopus didn't have a whole lot of flavor. I think we may have let our desire to be adventurous override our quest for more flavorful food - e.g. the fried cod, which sounded delightful.
Fettuccini romana is chicken liver in tomato sauce with Roman (I believe it was pecorino) cheese. Quite tasty. I haven't had much liver, but I'd definitely try it again after tonight's dish.
Stella had spaghetti cacio e pepe. As she joked, this is close as you can come, in Rome, to macaroni and cheese (which a kid sitting behind us requested). A simple dish - but full of flavor. The cheese had a nice pungent bite to it and wasn't too heavy.
Great restaurant. So sad we had no room or endurance for dessert or even coffee.
Jun. 28th, 2008 @ 04:32 pm
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| » Whoops. |
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I saw an interesting article in NYTimes today:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/travel/20rome.html?em&ex=1208923200&en=ff22ef2e83fcb6e0&ei=5087%0A
However, it does contains this doozy:
"floodlit columns of the Octavian Gate, which stood there a century and a half before Christ was born."
Octavian was the name for Augustus, Rome's first Caesar. He died shortly after Christ was born. Either he lived to be over 150 years old, or the times is a bit off in their date.
This BBC article clarifies:
"...the Octavian Gate, built by Augustus about 25 years before Christ was born."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1186394.stm
Update:
NY Times has posted two corrections to this article, yet they still haven't noticed this one.
Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 01:23 pm
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| » Schlag! Schlag! |
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Finally made it to Peter Luger's. Stella has been talking about pretty much since I met her. For those of you not dating a foodie, Peter Luger's has a reputation for being the best steak house in New York. Some restaurateurs, including Morimoto, claim that it is the best restaurant in the city. It's known for great steak, but also for a certain amount of stubbornness. It's in Williamsburg, which is not the easiest place to get to for Manhattanites (actually for pretty much everyone except Williamsburgers). It doesn't accept credit cards, except for the very practical Peter Luger's card, which I am told is so old-fashioned that it doesn't even sport a magnetic strip. The menu is really one item with a few role players. There is a rumor that one can order the lamb chops, but the staff reserves the right to openly mock you.
Despite these eccentricities and the difficulty in obtaining a reservation, I was surprised to find out that Luger's is not at all snooty. It's really an throwback German enclave complete with four foot steins adorning the tudor decor. Also, despite the fact that one must reserve a table exactly thirty days ahead of time, the service is fast and casually attentive. Once you are seated, you can order and have appetizers on the table in minutes. The menu is short, even when the sides are included. The waiters have the menus memorized and only ask if you want a menu as an afterthought.
Getting to the food, the potatoes were decent, the tomatoes and onions appetizers was a testament to the ingredients. Really, none of the sides are much without the steak sauce, which appears in a gravy yacht. All these are just opening acts for the star; the porterhouse steak for two (we ordered four). It really is an amazing steak and a notch above even the best steaks I've had in the city. The center reminded me of a rare slice of ahi tuna. Something about that steak turned me into a steam shovel. I'm not sure how many pieces of 1" x 1" x 3" steak the others. Stella did say she had gorged four, which makes my nine strip take seem truly glutinous. As everyone else panted and claimed they were about to die, I started peaking around for the last remaining prize cuts.
As if 96 oz of red meat weren't enough to bring out the barbarian, the desserts certainly complete the transformation. The waiters bring out a tub of whipped cream before you've even officially ordered dessert (isn't that just a little cocky?). The key lime pie is Steve's Famous, which is sold out of the back of a truck during the Atlantic Antic. It was even more delicious with real whipped cream, which we were informed is called schlag in Germany. The waiter suggested we add some schlag to our kaffes. At first we timidly dropped bits of whipped cream into our coffee. However, with our senses of moderation dwindling to nothing, we quickly began scooping mounds off schlag into our coffees until they looked like ice cream servings. Lou capped the evening by flinging a fist-size ball into his coffee and muttering "more schlag!" in true caveman style.
Dec. 3rd, 2007 @ 11:59 pm
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| » Disgusting |
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MNF was just awful. That last touchdown by the Pats was a gift from the zebras. Since when did the NFL become junior high girl's flag football? That pass interference call was a phantom hold. Brady is a good QB, but I bet any third stringer could score if he's given thirty chances at the end zone with that creative officiating. Part of the fault goes on the Ravens who made too many mental mistakes (you get an INT and run 30 yards, maybe try hanging on to it at the end??). Now we have another week of hearing how great Tom Brady is when a second stringer named Boller outplayed him by a substantial margin.
Dec. 3rd, 2007 @ 11:49 pm
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