According to the Chamber of Commerce, the average cost of health insurance for an individual is $7,200 per year. Baucus wants to tax what he calls “Cadillac” health insurance plans: plans over $8,000 for an individual, or $21,000 for a family, because these expensive plans are only “enjoyed” by a limitted minority of citizens.

I looked up my health benefits. I get the bare minimum plan, but if I added vision (which I need to do because I have a small astigmatism and it’s getting worse), and dental – reasonable additions I think, for people with astigmatisms and teeth, my plan would be nearly $8,000. If I were to add chiropractic and increase my coverage for PT – which I want to do because I’ve maxed out the PT benefits in years prior because my back requires nearly constant rehabilitation – I’d be over that $8,000 limit.

Folks, my net annual income is $23,000. I am not in the “wealthy minority of citizens” subset. I am barely middle class. I shouldn’t be taxed on my benefits so that I can “enjoy” having my cervical spine popped back into place so that I may be able to turn my head more than 45 degrees. IMO, the health benefits I want do not surmount to a Cadillac plan. In the minds of many Dems, however, they do. They seem to think that I would be having excessive benefits, the proverbial Cadillac, if you will, when all I need is a car. So, at my pithy income,I pay out of pocket for the luxory of chiropractic and PT. To give you an idea of what this would amount to per year, I’ve paid out of pocket expenses of about $500 for chiropractic and $1,000 for physical rehabilitation since May.

I’m so fucking sick of hearing about how inhumane I am for not having a rosy attitude towards having to pay more money to the government so that I can have my “Cadillac.”

*grumbles*

-Jimmy Carter says Rep. Wilson’s “liar” remark was racist. OMFG ENOUGH! Can this please be over now? It is not news, it is no longer interesting, nor jokeworthy (yes, I ripped on it yesterday because I reaaaaallly thought we’d seen the last of this). Please someone send me some decent journalism?

-After spending the morning performing run after run of carbon monoxide immobilization and anodic stripping experiments and seeing oddly shaped currents that didn’t look to me like the anodic stripping waves seen in the literature, and after spilling acid all over the place twice and nearly dropping Christina’s Mercury/Mercury sulfate electrode on the ground, I gave up, only to later make perfect sense of my results and realize that they’re not askew in light of the expected electrode processes at the given potential range but merely needed to be baseline corrected for background current. I’m a dumbass.

-I’ll be crunching numbers for the rest of the day….or not…

Shoothouse Barbie (at desk): *snip. snip. snip.*

Coworker across the cube (without looking up): “are you cutting the peaks out of something so that you can weigh them (and avoid having to integrate over you shit-baseline)?”

SB: “no…”

No, I am not cutting the peaks out of my voltammograms and weighing them because I don’t want to do numerical integration ok, yes, I am, but there’s not shame in that! My spreadsheet-fu is weak today.

-My Pchem tutoree came up with a fantastic dork joke when I explained the Boltzmann distribution in the context of atomic line spectra – which is the reason why when you burn various elements at extremely high temperatures, the flames turn all kinds of pretty colors, depending on the electronic structure and Boltzmann factors of the atomized element. “Oh, so is that why the arctic ice caps are bright white?” Bless their hearts. She’s a good student though; I anticipate she’ll only need about 3-4 more sessions before she’s self-sufficient and fully capable of playing the quantum mechanics game without supervision. This is the one area of my work where I fully aim to put myself out of business. I hate it when students just throw money at me and expect me to hold their hands while they do their homework.

-This is funny:

Is that a poly pyridine complex in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

- Oh! And I’m presenting research at my first conference in January!

Via MSNBC

WASHINGTON – The uproar over Rep. Joe Wilson’s shouting “you lie” at President Barack Obama returns to the House floor Tuesday for what could be a contentious and highly partisan debate over whether to formally criticize the South Carolina Republican.

The decision by Democratic leaders to bring a resolution of disapproval to the House floor was derided by Republicans, who said Wilson had already apologized for his remark during Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress last week.

But it was also met with skepticism by a senior Democrat, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who said he would vote against it. “I think it’s bad precedent to put us in charge of deciding whether people act like jerks. I don’t have time to monitor everyone’s civility.”

Wilson apologized to the White House for his outburst, and Obama said he had accepted the apology. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially said she was not inclined to take the matter further, saying it was time to move on to the more pressing matter of health care.

But other Democratic leaders, including Wilson’s fellow South Carolinian James Clyburn, said the egregious breach of decorum could not be ignored. Wilson in turn rejected suggestions that he go to the House floor on his own and apologize.

Clyburn, in an interview last week, said Wilson’s outburst was “indicative of the combativeness he displays all the time when it comes to politics.”

Clyburn, a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus, perceived it as a snub that Wilson held a town hall meeting on health care this summer at a school in Clyburn’s district — where Clyburn’s children attended — without telling Clyburn.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio sided with Wilson and said he would vote against the resolution.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele issue a statement accusing Democrats of “another stunning example of hypocrisy.” He said Democrats “are wasting taxpayers’ time and resources on a legislative measure to censure Congressman Joe Wilson so they don’t have to talk about their exceedingly unpopular health care plan.”

Ok, so basically, because Wilson, who had ISSUED A PUBLIC APOLOGY WHICH WAS ACCEPTED BY THE PRESIDENT, refused to do so again on the house floor, the house Dems feel it is pertinent to divert their energies away from the constructing and fine-tuning (which they *ought* to be focussing on in order to win support for) their proposed health care reforms and officially slap him on the bottom for being a naughty boy.

Fanfuckingtastic, really. Not only are they spending less time working on healthcare reform, but they’re going to tick off voters by beating a dead horse, and are also sure to deter the progress of the bill by virtue that more people – voters and congressmen alike – will heighten their wariness over the increasingly apparent underlying political powerplay agenda that goes with those reforms.

These Dems really ought to heed the example of Barney Frank and Pelosi, who have more or less said it is in their best interest to move on. It’s too bad for them that Obama has busied himself with jumping on the “Kanye West is a gigantic tool” bandwagon, when what he really should do (and most ricky-tick) is tell the house Dems to drop the Wilson issue before they torpedo themselves with a size 10 enema (ok, that was a low blow but I couldn’t resist. If Obama does warn the house Dems against furthering this congressional pissing contest, I’ll duly update this post). Bringing about a concressional resolution of disapproval against Wilson is such an unnecessary and poorly thought out political move on their part that I almost hope they go through with it. I could use a good chortle.

Wow, the UK keeps the hits a rollin’!

Via AR15.com

A memorabilia collector has been jailed for five years for possessing a Second World War rifle listed as a prohibited firearm. The rifle was not in a condition to fire live ammunition.

But Stafford Crown Court heard replacing the deteriorated pin would have made that possible. Phillip Peter Kent, aged 29, of Owen Walk, Highfields, Stafford, was arrested in the street by police acting on information at 7.30am on June 20 this year.

Officers asked what they would find if they searched his home and he immediately told them about the Lee-Enfield rifle.

Mr Stephen Bailey, defending, told the court yesterday Kent had not bought ammunition nor sought to make any alterations to allow live bullets to be fired.

He also said Kent, a former member of the Territorial Army, was told by the seller the weapon had been de-commissioned.

“The gun was in the state in which he received it and, although that does not make it a non-prohibited weapon, there was no ammunition, no evidence of his seeking any or of intentional or actual use.”

Kent pleaded guilty to possessing the rifle. Pleading with Judge John Maxwell to spare him the minimum five-year jail term for this category of offence on the grounds of exceptional circumstances, Mr Bailey said: “Custody would be devastating. It would deeply affect his family and he would lose his accommodation.”

But Judge Maxwell said Parliamentary guidance meant strong sentences should be given for illegal firearms possession. “I feel bound to impose the minimum sentence of five years,” he added.

RTWT

In the words of one of the commenters, apparently the spirit of compassion ended with the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Anyone want to take a go at captioning my LOLdog?

If I can remember to not leave my camara at work, I might make this a Monday regular…

Today’s picture:

…

In other news, I’m officially in doctoral candidacy now, having selected my (totally bitchin’ and frighteningly awesome ) committee (which includes the best living electrochemist in the world whose PhD research is essentially the foundation of my project and I think I might pee my pants). This isn’t a major change from the developments of the past few months. I basically had to get signatures and turn in forms so that I could register for dissertation hours. I need to be registered for dissertation credits for a minimum of two semesters, and since it is a) too late to add dissertation credit to this semester and b) I’m gonna try to finish by the end of 2010, I kinda needed to get off my ass and do that. So I did it. On a side note, I was waiting to turn in my forms in the office while Khalid (a fellow analytical chem grad student) was getting the details nailed down regarding his upcomming defense. Khalid will be the first member of my class in the analytical division to graduate. Congratulations, Khalid. Holy shit, it seemed like only yesterday we were taking courses and bitching about qualifiers. I can hardly believe my classmates are going to start graduating now. Where does time go?

I should really get a move on this weeks series of experiments…I have a problem with my motivation dropping off once I realize an experiment is going to work. I love a good challenge. Challenges keep me in lab late at night. Tying down the last few loose ends? Not so much. I’m sure this is not unique to me.

Passing thought: I miss Kelley. Kelley was my drinking/shopping buddy until she moved back to Boston. Kelley and I had a lovely routine. We would get totally based on Fridays or Saturdays after work, preferably while watching the Sox, one of us would crash on the other person’s couch, and then we’d get Burger King and go shopping and to Barton Springs whilst hungover. Kelley also had the job of yanking me out of American Apparel before I could buy two bikinis because I would inevitably be unable to decide which color I liked better.

Last but not least, I’ve found a place to hang my trapeze! In all my whining about not being able to do aerials due to the lack of a spot for my bar, or not being able to afford to rent and pay liability insurance to a gymnasium, it somehow slipped my mind that Dr. Boyfriend is an experienced rock and ice climber and knows how to safely rig a line. It’s settled: my trapeze will be rigged from a static line set between two trees in my backyard. I’m super stoked about this.

That is all. Back to work.

Bear in mind that I’ve been a dog owner for all of 4 weeks now after having spent my entire childhood wanting a dog but not being able to have one due to my dad’s allergies. I might go a bit overboard with the dog-love, but then again, I do have the cutest, sweetest, my lovingest dog in the world

See? Look at my silly girl!

done

Isn’t she a cutie???

(If you’re wondering, she’s a weimaraner, her name is Elektra Blu, she was a rescue weim, she’s about 8 years old now, and she’s absolutely worthless when it comes to hunting. She’s basically a 70 lb love sponge.)

This morning started like every other morning. I got up, made coffee, ate breakfast, showered and brushed my teeth, got dressed, and headed out to meet the day. Then I remembered that today was September 11. Like every September 11 since 2001, I have started my day in a normal fashion, not really thinking much about what day it is, until someone reminds me. Then I think back to this day in 2001. My heart rate increases, my breath becomes shallow, my throat gets tight, the anxiety creeps up, and I feel like a kid who doesn’t know what the hell just happened.  A few minutes latger, I remind myself that this has happened to me every time I think about the attacks, or everytime I see video or pictoral footage. That surreal footage. It’s like my body remembers for just a few moments what it was like…

Go back to what you experienced when you first heard about the attacks. Imagine hearing about it, but not seeing any of the media: no news reports, no video. Next, imagine that no one around you had seen or heard any news reports and video, either. What would people say to eachother? Now, imagine the location being lower manhatten, but when you look up, you don’t see smoke and ashes, you don’t see an attack zone. Imaging seeing beautiful blue skies when someone next to you says to another person, “I heard they said we’re under attack. They say there are more planes in the air, and they’re sealing off the city.”

For 7 years I did not talk much about 9/11. You literally could not force me into having a conversation about what I experienced. Technically,  my neurosis regarding the topic is a mild form of PTSD. Last year, I decided to hell with it and wrote about my experience in lower manhattan on September 11, 2001 (doing so has apparently done absolutely nothing to attenuate any of my physiological reactions to it, however.)

RTWT

I watched the President’s congressional address last night. I have nothing to say other than, man, do I wish society and economics actually worked the way he thinks they do. Still waiting for the bill itself to be written before throwing down, since it would seem a waste of time to discuss something that isn’t yet on the table. So, yeah, that’s all I have to say about the speech before congress – oh, and that Joe Biden is a funny looking gentleman.

There is something else that is really bothering me, however, and it doesn’t have to do with the issue addressed by Obama, but with the public’s “burn the heretic” response to Joe Wilson’s “you lie” comment. Wilson publically apologized for his outburst, but nonetheless, this appears to be going viral on facebook :

How much credit to give it, considering it is on facebook, is really subjective; basiclally it sure seems popular amongst college educated 20-something self-identifying “liberals”. Anyways…

Wilson called Obama a liar. The fact remains that it is still not yet known whether what Obama said in earning such a comment will prove to be true or false, so really, all he was doing was expressing dissent. The man issued a public apology for his outburst, but god forbid anyone so much as express dissent against Obamacare! Apparently, liberals are so offended by dissent against their leader that anyone who dares to dissent should be figuratively tarred, feathered, and sent packing. Why on earth do we call these guys liberals when they’re so intollerent of dissent that their actions resemble the Nazi-SS?

What bothers me is not that the fact that Liberals believe Joe Wilson’s alleged blashpemy against the President is irksome, but the fact that by seemingly taking this to the mattresses, so to speak, by calling for him to made into an example by casting him out, they’re promoting a bottom line of “dissent will not be tolerated.” Ironically, they’re using the same bullying “if you’re not with us you’re against us” that they so despised when it was used against them during the Bush years. But two wrongs don’t make a right, and discouraging dissent is plainly a very bad thing to do. Now, some liberals – the thinking ones (you know who you are) – will be able to put together an extensive , coherent, list of reasons why they believe Joe Wilson should not hold a chair in political office. But the fact is that most liberals will simply join in the chanting with the rest of the crowds without thinking about the message they’re really giving. They won’t know why they’re calling for the dissenter to be cast out, they won’t know why they don’t like the dissenting opinion, they just know that it is “bad,” and that they’re supposed to hate it. When asked to justify, the unthinking variety will say “well, it just feels wrong,” *That* is a very dangerous thing. *That* is what I’m kvetching about here. Go read “the wave”. It’s a perfect example of viral unthinking herding behaviour.

What we’re seeing here is the same exact thing. Look at the text in the above snapshot. Taken at face value, this says “Get rid of the guy because he called dear leader a liar.”  Whether or not liberals see such viral advertising as the action of discouragement of dissent (they most surely will not see it as such), the consequence, regardless of the intention, is exactly the same. It’s still a fear mongering tactic, whether they mean to or not, whether they believe hushing the naysayers is a good thing or not, whether Joe Wilson turns out to be full of shit or not, and the inevitable result of mobilizing the masses to act out against an individual’s expression of dissent (words, mind you. Words. ) is that the society will become increasingly intollerant of dissent, and dissenters will be increasingly ostracized, and that is, and has always been a very dangerous thing in society. It has never ended well.

You know what they say: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And so it would seem, as many of today’s liberals acquiesce towards an ideology of socialism to a shade which has more in common with fascism than it does with democracy. The fact that they’re not even aware of just how much their collective actions resemble pre-WWII germany and the planting ground of Hitler’s NAZI party is frightening.

I don’t know about you, but I *don’t* think bringing back Nationalist socialism is a good idea. And just to clarify: I don’t think Obamacare itself exemplifies nationist socialism; I think the attitude of “if you dissent against Obamacare, you should be burned at the stake,” is what’s fascist.

**Updated: now with 100% more recoil**

Yesterday, I got a phone call from Lissa, who told me she had just returned from the range and had fallen in love with a Sig P239. We shared squeees and range stories. Last weekend, Dr. Boyfriend and I took his WWII rifles to the range (I’ll update with pics later this evening, so please do check back tonight to see a video of me getting ROCKED by the Mosin Nagant!) We also talked grip and stance, and I utterly failed at describing my grip over the phone. Since it’s hard to disseminate a grip lesson via phone, I thought I’d post a video of the preferred practical defensive pistol grip, as taught by IPSC master Todd Jarrett. (I looked around for a good lesson on the modern isosceles stance, but couldn’t find one that I liked, so I guess I’ll have to make a video lesson at the range with my instructors and myself sometime. In the mean time, in this video, you can see Todd Jarret is seen taking this stance, and you’ll notice that his legs are not too far apart, he’s aggressively pushing the gun towards the target but his shoulders are not so far forward of his hips that he distorts his COM. He looks spry and light on his feet, not at all locked like the weaver stance.)

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Borepatch, as well as the rest of the Northeast Bloggers, for taking my girl to the range and encouraging her to shoot often. I’m wicked jealous that I have yet to shoot with Lissa and y’all have – twice now! (Funfact: Lissa and I met in highschool, on the track team, during a preseason drill in which we had to run across the gym while carrying eachother piggyback). Hope to join y’all one day.

Update:

As promised, here is me getting rocked by the Mosin Nagant. It was a nasty little – er- I mean big – bugger. And when it comes to big guns, I like a little roughness. I like a gun that requires a solid cheek and shoulder weld, one that give s my shoulder a good kick. I mean that: a good kick, not a horse kick, but I solid thrust. Like the .308 I shot, for example (seen HERE). The M1 Garand felt just like the .308 to me, in terms of the power it gave my body. It felt solid, and I absorbed the recoil nicely, much like I do with the .308. I liked it!

Me with the M1 garand

Yeah, I liked it a lot. I also liked the old-school leather arm-strap. Despite the fact that my arm went numb and the pinky nuckle on my left hand still feels a bit jarred, it was very effective and made for a comfortable best-rench accessory. Plus I felt kinda sexy with the gun firmly secured down the line by a leather strap firmly belting the barrel to my hand. I need to get me one of these – oh, wait, that’s right, I have 3 M1 garands already by association.

As for the Nagant, well, see for yourself. Here I am, trying my darndes to coax the recoil into zen oneness with cheek and shoulder weld. … but the damn thing wouldn’t have any of that:

done

Vinnie, you were pretty much spot on when you said the Nagant is more of a chiropractor. I had to have to my neck reset shortly after firing the sonofabitch (though I was already having neck issues prior to but now fixed due to the good work of Dr. Shiglay and a new isotonic pillow, but the rifle certainly added to the severity of the problem).

To go with the surplus rifle, we were shooting surplus ammo. Courtesy of the commies. Here’s what they were firing in ‘54, so it appears:

It was still kinda fun to shoot the Mosin Nagant, despite the neck pain that came later, because the rifle is taller than me (with the bayonet):

So, am I the only one out there who saw “Inglorious Basterds” and hated it?

I get what Quentin was trying to do. What would happen if these fictional characters existed? They’d end the war by blowing up Hitler.

Now, I like Brad Pitt, and I do love watchin’ someone sock it to the Nazis. But I think Dr. Boyfriend said it best as we exited the theater:

“You can’t rewrite the events of WWII to have a nicer ending.”

I think there are going to be a lot of very displeased WWII vets out there, should any of them see the film. There was just something about the humor in the film that rubbed me the wrong way. I think it was the irony in the plot line. It just didn’t belong in there. It created within me a disturbing sense of conflict. Perhaps that was also Quentin Tarantino’s intent. Now, one might say I’m taking a movie way too seriously and I should lighten up. F*** that noise. It’s WWII; you simply don’t “lighten up” WWII, for shits sake.