POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Please Pass the Schadenfreude. And Sex.

William Jacobson, on a union that did some heavy lifting for ObamaCo (read the whole thing):

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the SEIU Local 1199 health plan will have to drop coverage for children due in substantial part to Obamacare requirements:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements....

The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

The union fund faced a “dramatic shortfall” between what employers contributed to the fund and the premiums charged by its insurance provider, Fidelis Care, according to Mitra Behroozi, executive director of benefit and pension funds for 1199SEIU. The union fund pools contributions from several home-care agencies and then buys insurance from Fidelis.

“In addition, new federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”

Actually, I take no joy in Local 1199's problems. But I also find it hard to feel sorry for them, since it was Local 1199's efforts which caused the problems in the first place, for all of us.

They are truly the Kings of Unintended Consequences. That's because they have problems with reason.

The present Pope, however, does not, and Stacy McCain has some interesting Thanksgiving reflections on Humanae Vitae. Am I thankful for sex?

(via Fields of Elysium)

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Football Player Meets Heroes

I'm a Packers fan, as you are probably aware, and I love the franchise.

Unfortunately, the gushing about the Packers at the beginning mars this otherwise heartbreaking and inspiring article:

The tornado that ripped through the area damaged the Luxem home and property. There's debris to be cleared. Matt, a carpenter, is busy setting up jobs.

Worse, doctors said a clinical trial chemotherapy drug was not working for Ryan.

"He had blood work done, and the results showed that 100% of those cells tested were cancerous," said Winters. "Ryan is being taken off of the drug. That was his last hope at survival. He and the family were asked if they wanted to take another oral chemo drug to try and prolong his life a few more weeks or just let him go.

"Ryan wants to take the chemo, so he was sent home with the oral chemo for now. Matt and Amy are obviously very upset, and I'm told that Ryan is really down right now, as you might imagine. He's feeling more sick, as well. Ryan knows he only has a short time to live, and that is very scary for a young boy who has been trying to grasp onto hope."

What words should go here? . . . Some message of how we should all be thankful? Some lesson that every day is a gift?

Impossible.

The Luxems didn't ask for a thing. There's no push for a fund-raiser. They are just going through the worst nightmare any parent can imagine. They're so busy right now with their Ryan, their two other young children, the house, the tornado and the holiday.

In fact, the family has asked for some privacy.

Matt was busy Wednesday delivering turkeys (he prepared himself) and homemade pies to the staff at Children's out of gratitude for their care.

Amy was getting medical supplies. They have been told Ryan must be readmitted to Children's next week.

Ryan Grant got it right, and kudos, but compared with Ryan Luxem and his family . . . he's a good football player. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, and all like them. I've spent enough time at NIH with parents and their kids to know that love can make a hero of any normal human being.

There is great nobility and great decency all around us, if we would only look and acknowledge.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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NY Daily News Claims Rangel Held To Higher Ethical Standards

You know, I'm really sick of this crap.

According to this NY Daily News article, Rangel didn't personally benefit from any of his rent seeking, and therefore should . . . what? Be let off the hook? As we've seen time and again, politicians are rewarded for their "largesse" on behalf of taxpayers in many and sometimes very circuitous ways.

Tell it to Tom DeLay.

To claim that Rangel didn't benefit personally from his tax evasion or use of multiple rent-controlled apartments is absurd. Spare me.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Justice for The Prophet

Meanwhile, in Iran:

A detained pastor of a major network of Christian house churches in Iran will be executed by hanging for "apostasy", or abandoning Islam, according to translated court documents seen by Worthy News Wednesday, November 24.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Taiwanese Animators Show Right Attitude Toward Palin Fuss

I think I'm turning Taiwanese, I really think so.

Via Cubachi

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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New Way Open to Afghanistan Peace Accord?

We're wise to you, "Borat":

A high ranking official with the U.S. State Department expressed optimism this afternoon that new top-to-top diplomatic negotiations between the United States government and an elusive moderate Taliban warlord would bring a speedy end to the conflict in Afghanistan, paving the way for the Obama adminstration to withdraw American troops ahead of its 2011 plan .

The dramatic revelation was widely hailed as victory for Administration diplomatic efforts in the war-torn region, particularly after recent reports that American officials had negotiated with and provided large amounts of money to a Taliban imposter.

"This latest round of talks certainly helps re-bolster the case for a negotiated solution in Afghanistan," said Ruth Sedgewick of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "Unlike the previous Mullah this one seems to be the real deal, and moderate enough that he agreed to meet on American soil."

Previously on POWIP.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Appetizer: NPR’s Coverage of TSA “Opt Out Day” [UPDATE]

Nothing to see here. Move along.

I don't usually listen to NPR, and I don't give them money.

Yesterday was an exception. Mary's new contacts came in, so I drove her up to South Burlington. There were no Monsterlings in the car, so she asked whether we couldn't listen to NPR. I'm easy.

They kept on harping on the abject failure of "Opt Out Day." (Associated Press at NPR)

The big Opt-Out looked like a big bust Wednesday as most of the Thanksgiving travelers selected for full-body scans and pat-down searches chose to submit to them rather than create havoc on one of the busiest flying days of the year. In fact, in some parts of the U.S., bad weather was shaping up as a bigger threat to travelers' hopes of getting to their destinations on time.

For days, activists had waged a loosely organized campaign on the Internet to encourage airline passengers to refuse full-body scans and insist on a pat-down in what was dubbed National Opt-Out Day. But as of Wednesday afternoon, the cascading delays and monumental lines that many feared would result had not materialized.

Everywhere, the system was running smoothly.

Americans crammed into trains, planes and automobiles Wednesday for a wave of Thanksgiving travel, but threatened protests at airport security inspection stations didn't appear to be causing problems.

Smoothly flowing security lines and few protests were reported at some of the nation's largest airports.

For example, at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, there were wait times of 10 minutes or less Wednesday morning at the 43 security checkpoints. The airport expects 1.7 million people to move through its gates through the holiday period ending Monday.

Silly wingnuts were trying to scare people by passing out flyers that showed fliers what they look like to TSA scanner watchers.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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POWIP Declares Special John Wayne Thanksgiving

Call everyone "Pilgrim."

Pilgrim. Or Pilgrimette, if you so choose.

Below the fold, lots of decidedly un-Thanksgiving stuff.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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