What’s interesting out there today?

Open thread, as always.

If sometime today you think things are rough, take heart. It could be worse. Much worse. 😯

From ABCNews

“It was exactly midnight when Caroline Burns eerily opened her eyes and looked at the operating lights above her, shocking doctors who believed she was dead and were about to remove her organs and donate them to patients on the transplant waiting list.

The Syracuse Post-Standard unearthed a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that chronicled the series of errors that led to the near-organ removal on a living patient at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y., in 2009.”

😯 See? 🙂

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This next one won’t be ending as well as the first story. We’ll call this one “Why am I not shocked?”

From FoxNews

“The cost of subsidies for those seeking government aid through ObamaCare has  increased dramatically, critics say – even before a single dollar has been  collected.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah wrote a letter to the administration  asking why the president is already requesting 107 percent more than three years  ago to pay for subsidies.

“They low-balled everything, and they knew they were not asking for enough  money to actually do this,” John Goodman of the National Center for Policy  Analysis said. “And so now they are coming along saying: ‘Oh, we’ve just  discovered we don’t have enough money’.  They should’ve known that from day  one.””

Oh they knew. They just didn’t care. It’s also why they were in such a hurry to pass it before anyone else could figure that out.

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This next one, while I appreciate the principle behind it, ain’t goin’ nowhere. But it may have it’s uses in campaign materials for 2014.

From TheWeeklyStandard

“The House of Representatives will take up a bill that would stop the Department of the Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Services, from implementing and enforcing the provisions of Obamacare. The bill, authored by Georgia Republican Tom Price and co-sponsored by 114 other House members, is just two pages long and claims its purpose is to “prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from enforcing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.”

Section 3 of the bill simply states that the Treasury Secretary, or any delegate thereof, “shall not implement or enforce any provisions” of the 2010 health care law.”

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Meanwhile, the White House says “FORWARD!” over the cliff.

From TheHill

“White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday angrily dismissed demands  from GOP leaders for more information on the decision to delay ObamaCare’s  employer mandate, declaring that “implementation is moving forward” on the  healthcare law.

Carney said Republicans who argue the Affordable Care Act is unwieldy and unworkable had no realistic alternative to propose, and that support for the  president’s legislation would be buoyed once Americans began benefiting from the  law.”

You can keep sayin’ that Jay, but it doesn’t make it true. The majority of public opinion is still against it. They already see what you refuse to admit. And the Republican’s offered alternatives, yet Democrats shut them out and didn’t consider other plans. You guys own it buddy. 😉

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And next, the PC Police are at it again. 🙄

From TheWashingtonTimes

“The president of an NAACP branch in Florida has  petitioned members of the Lee County  Commission to take down a painting of Gen. Robert E. Lee, calling the former Confederate leader a historic symbol of racism.

Lee County was named after the general in 1887 — 22 years after the Civil War wrapped, the Fort Myers News-Press said.

But James Muwakkil, of the Lee County chapter of the NAACP, said the painting,  which has hung in the county commission’s meeting room for years, divides the community.

“That painting is a symbol of racism. It’s a symbol of divisiveness, and it  doesn’t unify Lee County. It divides Lee County,” Mr. Muwakkil said in a letter, the News-Press reported.”

This northerner says 🙄

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These next 2 are without comment, since I have nothing nice to say.

From CNSNews

” Unborn babies who have reached at least 20 weeks of age in utero are  aborted at a rate of about 30 per day in the United States, according to  the Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO has also concluded that aborting babies at 20 weeks or later  in pregnancy saves money for the government-run federal-state Medicaid  system.

The CBO made these determinations when doing its official “Cost  Estimate” of a federal bill that would prohibit abortions at 20 weeks or  later into pregnancy (except in cases of reported rape, incest against a  minor or to save the life of the mother).”

And this piece asks several very good questions about this.

From TownHall

“The Congressional Budget Office is tasked with “scoring” pending legislation based on the (sometimes cherry-picked) data they’re provided.  I understand that.  Nevertheless, producing an analysis of what amounts to an anti-infanticide bill based on the icy calculation of how much infanticide “saves” taxpayers is downright ghoulish.  The objective of the law is to end a form of inhumane killing, not to clean up our balance sheets.”

“(1) Are abortion advocates going to fleetingly morph into budget hawks over $17 million per year?  After all, hospital births are expensive.

(2) Since they’ve reduced the debate over the protection of innocent life to callous, green-eyeshade facts and figures, will CBO also score the effects of aborting hundreds of thousands of future taxpayers — especially when it comes to annual cash-flow deficits in programs like Social Security?”

“CBO recently determined that granting legal status to illegal immigrants would significantly reduce deficits — but not aborting would-be US citizens would increase them?  I think the reason for this apparent disconnect is related to the “scoring windows.”  CBO concluded that adult illegal immigrants would be able to work and pay taxes immediately (thus affecting the ten-year window), whereas newborns are more of a long-term investment.  Therefore, pre-born infants’ deaths would cost less than their births in the short term.  This entire discussion is surreal.”

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