Sunday, October 24, 2004
Get fat, save money
I was looking over the FSA rules for medical expenses that can be reimbursed, and I came across the gem below. If it's not case in point of what's wrong with the American medical system, I don't know what is.
HEALTH CLUB DUES:
Health club dues incurred solely for medical care can be reimbursed even though such expenses are still not deductible. Adequate substantiation includes a medical practitioner's recommendation that the individual join a health club in order to treat a disease, such as obesity. The participant must certify that the expense would not have been incurred "but for" the disease. If the participant belonged to the health club before being diagnosed, then the dues would not be reimbursable. Once an individual no longer is in need of treatment, such health club dues would cease to qualify.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Ambush!
Months ago, the Daily Show showed clips of Michael Moore with Hannah Storm, asking the question, "did he just ambush her on her own show?" Jon Stewart himself went one better on Crossfire last week, and this clip simply must be seen to be believed.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Fixin' to screw up the electoral college
So here's how you fix the electoral college. We know it's screwed up because as long as it stays this way there will only ever be two parties. You shouldn't have to choose the lesser of two evils every election.
Only two things have to change:
Assign electoral votes proportionally to the popular vote in each state.
Allow candiates to pool their electors to form a coalition government.
The first won't happen unless each state chooses to do it independently, and so far only Maine and Nebraska (sort-of) do it that way. There is a measure on the ballot in Colorado that would split their electoral votes proportionally. But states generally don't want to do it because they feel it dilutes their impact on an election, and I think they're right. If California did it, they'd be handing the Republicans 20-25 electoral votes for nothing. So, Demos in California would never ratify that.
My solution is to pass a measure in each state that says it will divide the votes proportionally, but that it only takes effect after 70% of the states have passed a similar provision. Or 75%, or 80%, or 100%, whatever. The point is that it would be there, waiting to kick in as soon as it wouldn't mean a state has to be sticking its neck out.
I came up with a system* for splitting the electoral votes in 2000, and if you'd applied it to the 2000 election results, you would have had Bush / Gore each with 261 electoral votes, Nader with 15, and Buchanan 0. Nader could have wielded considerable influence in bargaining with either candidate to put them over the 269 mark in a coalition government.
This would encourage more, smaller parties to field candidates, and you could then vote for the person that best represented your views without having to worry that you were helping to elect your least favorite.
(Yes, Instant Runoff would be another way to achieve this.)
*The System:
1: Divide the total votes by the number of electoral votes for the state to get A.
2: Divide each candidate's votes received by A and drop the remainder (but save it for step 3).
3: Of the remainders from step 2, whichever candidate has the largest remainder gets the next electoral vote. Repeat until there are no more electoral votes to assign.
Only two things have to change:
The first won't happen unless each state chooses to do it independently, and so far only Maine and Nebraska (sort-of) do it that way. There is a measure on the ballot in Colorado that would split their electoral votes proportionally. But states generally don't want to do it because they feel it dilutes their impact on an election, and I think they're right. If California did it, they'd be handing the Republicans 20-25 electoral votes for nothing. So, Demos in California would never ratify that.
My solution is to pass a measure in each state that says it will divide the votes proportionally, but that it only takes effect after 70% of the states have passed a similar provision. Or 75%, or 80%, or 100%, whatever. The point is that it would be there, waiting to kick in as soon as it wouldn't mean a state has to be sticking its neck out.
I came up with a system* for splitting the electoral votes in 2000, and if you'd applied it to the 2000 election results, you would have had Bush / Gore each with 261 electoral votes, Nader with 15, and Buchanan 0. Nader could have wielded considerable influence in bargaining with either candidate to put them over the 269 mark in a coalition government.
This would encourage more, smaller parties to field candidates, and you could then vote for the person that best represented your views without having to worry that you were helping to elect your least favorite.
(Yes, Instant Runoff would be another way to achieve this.)
*The System:
1: Divide the total votes by the number of electoral votes for the state to get A.
2: Divide each candidate's votes received by A and drop the remainder (but save it for step 3).
3: Of the remainders from step 2, whichever candidate has the largest remainder gets the next electoral vote. Repeat until there are no more electoral votes to assign.
Idlin'
So the other day, I was driving and I had my hands on the wheel crossed, right at 11 o'clock, left at 1, and I thought, "hey, I wonder if Jenna Jameson drives like this..."
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Alive?
Yes, here I am. I have been too swamped and unmotivated to do any blogging for a month or so. But I guess I can give it another shot.
I have spent the last month wrapping up my bike race season, hurting my knee playing hockey and missing 3-4 games, following the presidential race, and working hard on my grad work and my work work.
My Doc thinks I have a partial tear of the medial meniscus, and the chiropractor diagnosed a strain of the MCL. I think it's both, and if the insurance approves the MRI then I will be proved correct. (Note to Bri: I know I said PCL-- but I meant MCL. PCL was the first time I hurt it years ago!) (Knee Diagram)
Other stuff:
I'm supposed to play paintball this weekend. Not how I thought I'd be celebrating my birthday. It makes me feel weird to be playing at war when (A) people are getting killed in a real war, and (B) I'd probably be too chicken shit to do anything but snivel in a bunker in a real war.
This morning, our sample ballot arrived, and it had a big bloody insect (or arachnid) carcass attached to it. The thing offed some poor exoskeletal bugger. I don't know why, but I thought that was pretty funny.
Naomi and I went out for a occasionless fancy date last weekend, to Emile's Restaurant in San Jose. The food was great, but the atmosphere left something to be desired. The lowlights for me were the number of people dressed down (jeans, t-shirt, sneakers), and the two kids with a portable dvd player at the next table. one of the really cool things was that they let you order half plates of most of their entrees, so you can try stuff out. The downside of this is that they serve them on separate, full-sized plates, which made me feel a little self-conscious.
That's all for now. More stuff as I think of it.
I have spent the last month wrapping up my bike race season, hurting my knee playing hockey and missing 3-4 games, following the presidential race, and working hard on my grad work and my work work.
My Doc thinks I have a partial tear of the medial meniscus, and the chiropractor diagnosed a strain of the MCL. I think it's both, and if the insurance approves the MRI then I will be proved correct. (Note to Bri: I know I said PCL-- but I meant MCL. PCL was the first time I hurt it years ago!) (Knee Diagram)
Other stuff:
I'm supposed to play paintball this weekend. Not how I thought I'd be celebrating my birthday. It makes me feel weird to be playing at war when (A) people are getting killed in a real war, and (B) I'd probably be too chicken shit to do anything but snivel in a bunker in a real war.
This morning, our sample ballot arrived, and it had a big bloody insect (or arachnid) carcass attached to it. The thing offed some poor exoskeletal bugger. I don't know why, but I thought that was pretty funny.
Naomi and I went out for a occasionless fancy date last weekend, to Emile's Restaurant in San Jose. The food was great, but the atmosphere left something to be desired. The lowlights for me were the number of people dressed down (jeans, t-shirt, sneakers), and the two kids with a portable dvd player at the next table. one of the really cool things was that they let you order half plates of most of their entrees, so you can try stuff out. The downside of this is that they serve them on separate, full-sized plates, which made me feel a little self-conscious.
That's all for now. More stuff as I think of it.
