February 11, 2018

Tonight's Vinyl Selection

Tapestry

Carole King

1971

Several DUers mentioned this album lately, so it got me in the mood to hear it once again I practically played the grooves off the vinyl back in the day, I listened to this intimate set of perfection by a brilliant songwriter so many times.

"I Feel The Earth Move," "It's Too Late," "So Far Away","Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," and "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" .........

aaaahhhhh..... I feel like I'm back in high school and sitting on my bed in my room, reading the album notes, while this plays on the turntable over and over and over .....

February 11, 2018

Gunman kills four, then self in Kentucky: police

Source: Reuters



(Reuters) - Five people, including a suspected gunman who apparently took his own life, were killed in a shooting spree at two locations in northeastern Kentucky, officials said on Sunday.

Police received a 911 call about 4 p.m. on Saturday about a shooting at a rural home near Paintsville, about 160 miles (260 km) southeast of Louisville, Johnson County Sheriff Dwayne Price said in a statement on Facebook.

Officers found two people dead at the home then began searching for the shooter, Price said in the statement. A second 911 call led deputies and police to an apartment in Paintsville, where three people were found fatally shot, including the gunman, the statement said.

“This has been a horrific murder spree,” Price said. “There are no words to describe the heartbreak in seeing four lives taken due to the actions of one man. I have worked in law enforcement for 34 years. This is one of the most disturbing acts of violence I have ever seen.”

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shooting-kentucky/gunman-kills-four-then-self-in-kentucky-police-idUSKBN1FV07J

February 11, 2018

An Ironic Headline Recently Seen

"Conservative 'Clueless' actress Stacey Dash: 'I am considering a run for Congress"

*****

Well, if she's "Conservative Clueless," she ought to fit right in with the GOP.

February 11, 2018

Flu Fighter

A new medicine can rid flu suffers of their symptoms in as little as a day, but the drug will be no good to this year's epidemic because it won't be available to the United States until 2019.

Scientists in Japan said they have developed an experimental pill that kills the influenza virus in 24 hours, three times faster than what it takes Tamiflu to rid the virus in sick patients. Tamiflu is one of the most popular drugs to treat people sick with the flu.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5377309/Experimental-flu-drug-kill-virus-ONE-day.html

***** I wonder how much it will cost and will everyone be able to get it? *****

February 11, 2018

Kristof: How is this man a danger?

He orders ICE to deport law abiding citizens with families....

Yet he employs and defends violent criminals like wife beaters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/opinion/sunday/syed-jamal-ice-deportation.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

February 11, 2018

This issue really sets me off

The Kentucky "work requirements" for Medicaid

When are these arrogant Republican politicians going to get it through their thick heads that making poor, chronically ill, and in some cases, uneducated, people, jump through all these complicated hoops and keep up with complicated paperwork, isn't going to help anyone? Is it their goal to make it so complicated that these folks will just give up rather than try to navigate all the new requirements and restrictions? Don't they realize not everyone has online access, smartphones, or transportation? Cutting you off for six months if you miss your premium payment? I thought Republicans abhorred the idea of government red tape and paperwork, Oh, unless it's to punish poor people who just want to see a doctor.

You have to accrue "rewards dollars" just to get your teeth cleaned or your vision checked? This isn't healthcare, this is punishment and unnecessary bureaucratic nonsense. I wish these arrogant Republicans would come out of their towers some time, go to a low-income health care clinic, and actually see what kind of people are in need.

And, stop calling it "reshaping" Medicaid. Call it what it is ... Republican bullshit for the poor!!!!

************

From the New York Times



On a recent rainy Monday, Bill Wagner, who runs primary care clinics in poor neighborhoods here, listened tensely as a state health official explained how the state would enforce the complex and contentious new rules.

The 20 hours a week of work, job training or volunteering? Ten regional work force boards will monitor who complies, said the official, Kristi Putnam.

The monthly premiums of $1 to $15 that many will now owe? The managed care companies that contract with the state will collect them.

The “rewards dollars” that many will need to earn to get their teeth cleaned or their vision checked? They’ll be tracked through a new online platform, where Medicaid recipients will also be expected to upload their work, volunteer or training hours.

“I know it sounds a little bit complicated,” Ms. Putnam conceded as the group meeting with her, which has overseen efforts to enroll Louisville residents in health insurance in the Obamacare era, jotted notes. Someone heaved a sigh.



While the work requirement is unprecedented in the history of Medicaid, Mr. Wagner and others say they’re just as concerned about other new rules that will be confusing and hard to follow. For example, many adults who don’t pay their small premiums can be locked out of Medicaid for six months, unless they complete a financial or health literacy course. Others will lose access to dental and vision care.

For Kimberly Dandridge, who overcame breast cancer and addiction to crack cocaine earlier in her life, Medicaid is a bridge while she works toward a job that comes with benefits. Ms. Dandridge, 53, works 30 hours a week as an administrative assistant, and said she would have no trouble meeting the premium and work requirements — but could relate to those who might.

“I remember there was a time I was just down, in the gutter, so low and broken,” she said. “If people like that need medical attention, just let them get it.”

Please read the whole article!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/10/health/kentucky-medicaid-work-requirement.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

February 10, 2018

Tonight's Vinyl Selection

Brain Salad Surgery

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

1973

An ambitious, colossal, flamboyant, fusion of metal, classical, and "art rock".

Fans will remember the 20-minute-long "Karn Evil 9".

February 10, 2018

A great solution

February 10, 2018

My dog never fails

More often than not, these days, I wake up in the morning, and after that blissful five seconds of peaceful consciousness, I remember all the hate and ignorance and cruelty and arrogance coming out of Washington these days, and I feel that familiar tightness in my chest.

But when I get up and come out into the kitchen, my yellow Lab Sophie greets me the same way every day .... an enthusiastic "Good Morning!", tail wagging, and then she jumps up and puts her front legs around my waist, as if to say "Here's your morning hug, Mom!"
And she'll stay that way for a good long time while I pet her, and she'll lean into me, rest her head against my shirt, and close her eyes.

Then, all of a sudden, life is good. Amazing how dogs (and all other pets) have that quality to melt away one's anxieties.

I was wondering what other DUers' animals do that make their worries go away, at least for a short while? Does your pet have a favorite trick, action, look, that makes your cares melt away?

February 10, 2018

Gender and Your Kitchen Appliances

"As men discover kitchens, kitchens have been quietly discovering men. Take a look at any roundup of the kitchenwares every man should own—the kitchen “tools” and “gadgets,” that is, or “essentials,” a favorite man-brand euphemism for “accessories.” For one thing, you’ll notice a lot of kitchenwares now have the stark, clean, neutral-masculine palette of brushed chrome and matte black as a default. (If there’s a dudely analog to “shrink it and pink it,” it’s something like “steel it, matte-black it, and make it heavier.”) Both appliances and the kitchens they fill have evolved around the men who now inhabit them—even if appliance brands often would prefer not to talk about it."

"In 2012, Crock-Pot introduced its line of NFL-licensed team-logo Crock-Pots; a year later, models emblazoned with NCAA team logos hit the market. The landing page of Crock-Pot’s website, as of December, greeted visitors with an Omaha Steaks promotion and a guide to its four top-selling items and its four most-viewed items—all eight of which are, again, simple in design and steely silver or matte-black in color. Floral patterns and quirky prints are still available; just, you know, further back, in the deeper recesses of the website."

"Crock-Pot, of course, is far from the only kitchen-appliance brand with a history of overtly courting women. Starting around World War I, when electrical appliances began filling in for human hands on domestic chores, “they all did,” explained historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan, author of More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology From the Open Hearth to the Microwave. Westinghouse, for example, boasted in 1924 that “thousands of women are choosing Westinghouse appliances.” Sunbeam products used to tell consumers in the 1950s that “Every woman dreams of owning a Sunbeam Mixmaster,” and that “You give Mother all these advantages only if it’s a genuine Sunbeam Mixmaster.” A 1959 Toastmaster ad described its coffee maker, toaster, and electric fry pan as “marvelous for Mother.” (In January, a cute ad touting “Baking Memories With Mom!” featured prominently on Sunbeam’s website, depicting a boy playing sous chef to his mother, and Dad cooking right alongside Mom. Visit the Toastmaster website now and you’ll be greeted by a nigh-obscene close-up shot of a glistening rack of ribs, superimposed under a tantalizing description of Toastmaster’s version of the meat smoker, arguably among the cooking-enlightened man’s trendiest accessories du jour.)"

"For most of the 20th century, the only time appliance ads directly targeted men, Cowan said, was at Christmastime, “when small appliances were marketed as gifts men could give their wives.” One famous 1966 ad for Dormeyer kitchenwares instructed women—that is, “WIVES”—to circle what they wanted for Christmas from an assortment below (toasters, coffee pots, skillets, can openers, and the like), show it to their husbands, and “cry a little” if he didn’t go to the store immediately. It instructed husbands, in turn, to “Go buy it. Before she starts to cry.”

https://www.curbed.com/2018/1/31/16952460/kitchen-appliances-design-gender-men