There’s a whole lot of stupid involved with the government shutdown, but the story that just blows me away is the Vitter Amendment and the so-called “special treatment” that Congress is supposedly getting with regards to health insurance. If you want to hear a small part of why we are in the situation we are… Continue reading How to manufacture a controversy
Bravely tilting at windmills
There’s hardly much more to be said about the all-too-likely government shutdown, or the possibility of an even more terrifying default on our debt obligations. But even so, I firmly believe it’s a good idea to repeat this as often as possible so everybody understands it: Republicans in Congress are drawing their line in the… Continue reading Bravely tilting at windmills
Minnesota Insurance Rates
MNsure and the Department of Commerce announced yesterday the rates for the insurance plans that will become available on the exchange October 1st, and it was great news: Minnesota has the lowest average rates in the country based on all the states that have made their rates public. A young non-smoker in the Twin Cities… Continue reading Minnesota Insurance Rates
Breaking Encryption
The big news today is that the NSA has “broken” much internet encryption. Details are scarce, and comments are plentiful, but it’s important to understand at a high level what it means to “break” encryption. There are essentially three ways to “break” encryption, and they all mean different things.
Where the uninsured live
Wonkblog has a great post today showing two maps: the first shows where the uninsured live who make less than 138% of the poverty level, which shows who could benefit from the expansion of Medicaid, and the second shows uninsured people who make less than 400% of the poverty level, which shows who could benefit… Continue reading Where the uninsured live
Backups and USB Flash Drive partitions
I’ve reminded people before how important it is to back up your data. Personally, I use Clonezilla for whole-disk or whole-partition backups periodically, in addition to my daily data backups. It’s pretty easy to use, and it gives you a lot of options as to how to store your data. For backing up my laptop,… Continue reading Backups and USB Flash Drive partitions
Land Value Taxes
I’m not an Econ major, but I’ve always wondered why we don’t tax land values by themselves instead of taxing land values plus the values of buildings on them. Specifically, I wonder why we have so many surface parking lots in downtown Minneapolis. For example, according to Hennepin County, the surface lot just north of… Continue reading Land Value Taxes
Healthcare Roundup
What’s going on with health care these days? Here’s a story about a Congressman who took some heat for being less than supportive when it comes to the new healthcare law. What I find very interesting is that he supports ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions, but is opposed to Obamacare. As many people have pointed… Continue reading Healthcare Roundup
Spying and corporate fallout
For good reason, a lot of discussion about recent NSA revelations has focused on the government, what they are actually doing, and what controls are in place. However, it’s important to keep in mind, however, that most of the data collection utilized the services of private companies in one of the best examples of outsourcing… Continue reading Spying and corporate fallout
Doorknocking doesn’t work
I’ve been campaigning since I was a precinct chair my senior year of high school. In that time, I’ve knocked on thousands of doors and made thousands of phone calls to undecided voters. There may be a few people in the world who appreciate being interrupted during dinner or during the Gopher football game on… Continue reading Doorknocking doesn’t work