“They should have allowed more flexibility on a state-by-state basis,” said Massachusetts state Senator Richard Moore, a Democrat and key architect of the state’s health reform law...(Congreiss) would have been better served to use the Massachusetts model as a flexible framework for states to adopt over time, rather than a blueprint for a mandatory national plan.
Note this is from the Boston Globe (NYTimes lite), not the right wing Boston Herald.
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Factoid of the day from Strategypage:
120 thousand dead, 9.3 million at risk of starving, and 2.5 million refugees who fled Syria.
They note that both sides are hurting civilians to hurt the other side...and if you are from the southern US, you will be reminded that this was General Sherman's tactic...
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The UKMail discovers that British food aid to the Visayas isn't reaching those who need it:
- Supplies have turned up on shelves of shops in the capital Manila
- Equipment bought with UK donations have been locked up in warehouses
- Rice and other food is being stockpiled and not given to needy
- Charities express concern that not all donations are reaching disaster zone
also from the UKMail: newest infertility treatment: Brussel sprouts.
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I always thought that the stories of Jesus sweating blood or mystics crying tears of blood were imaginary or exaggeration, but apparently there is indeed a medical syndrome that can cause this: a very high level of adrenalin is the cause. LINK
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Here in the Philippines, the Japanese attack that started World War II was on December 8, not December 7...because we are west of the international date line. and the Diplomad tells the story about the confusion.
in both cases, a lot of folks were in church when the raid started: because here it is a feast day of MamaMary...
and the war also ended on a feast day of Mama Mary, August 15...
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The Diplomad also has a post that echos my previous post on Mandela: That yes, he was a communist and allied with some very bad guys, but that he changed:
He seemed to have an understanding that whites and other non-blacks were essential for a peaceful and prosperous South Africa. He also, surprise, did not go full Mugabe. He won election--although the vote counting was suspicious--served his term, trying to unite blacks, whites, Asians, and others into accepting the new post-apartheid South Africa. He did not try to drive the whites out, and did not go around confiscating farms and businesses. He did not encourage revenge against whites and sought a reconciliation of the races. A practical politician, he turned a blind eye to the rampant corruption among the ANC, finding it better to let the party members expend their revolutionary fervor making money. At the end of his term, he stepped down. Yes, he stepped down. That is an amazing thing in Africa; he stepped down on completing his term of office.
