Obamacare And The Intellect Of Man

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2014, was awarded jointly

to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura

for the invention of efficient

blue light-emitting diodes

which enables bright, energy-saving white light sources

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According to a PBS News report:

The second round of enrollment under the nation’s Affordable Care Act promises to be tougher than the first. Many of those eager to get covered already did, including those with health conditions that had prevented them from getting insurance in the past.

About 30 million to 40 million people remain uninsured in the United States, according to various surveys.

Read more . . .

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Did You Know . . .?

The U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

Read more . . .


HISTORICAL EVENT

On this night in 1871, fire broke out in a barn behind the Chicago cottage of Patrick O'Leary. Winds blowing off the prairie fed the flames, and the fire spread rapidly, eventually consuming a four-mile-long and two-third-mile-wide swath of Chicago. When the Great Fire was finally over two days later, nearly 300 people were dead, one hundred thousand were homeless, and Chicago's booming downtown was in ashes. Although the fire destroyed Chicago's downtown, it left most of the city's essential industrial infrastructure in place. The grain elevators and vast stockyards continued to collect the growing output of the West, process it into pork sausages or two-by-fours, and send it onward to the insatiable markets of the East.

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WORD FOR TODAY

LED [ell-ee-dee]
noun
An LED (light-emitting diode) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a basic pn-junction diode, which emits light when activated.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon

(born October 8, 1970)

Matt Damon is an American actor, voice actor. His career was launched with the success of his and Ben Affleck's award-winning screenplay, Good Will Hunting (1997)

Sigourney Weaver

(born October 8, 1949)

Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is known especially for the lead role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. She is also well known for her roles in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, and Avatar.

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase

(born October 8, 1943)

Chevy Chase is an American film and television actor. He was a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live. Chase is well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon's Vacation films, and for his roles in comedies including Foul Play, Caddyshack, Seems Like Old Times, Fletch, Spies Like Us, and ¡Three Amigos!

Stephanie Zimbalist

(born October 8, 1956)

Stephanie Zimbalist is an American actress best known for her role as Laura Holt in the NBC detective series Remington Steele.

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"Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon."
--William Zusser

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Land Of The Free

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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It is widely recognized that the gap between rich and poor is bigger in the United States than in any other advanced country in the world.

People in Europe tend to complain about how the economic pie is divided, while Americans want, not to redistribute the wealth, but instead  to become one of the rich.

Even the poorest still believe in The American Dream, the illusion that anyone, with hard work and perseverance, can become unimaginably wealthy. And with luck (winning the lottery, etc.) one doesn't even have to work to get rich.

After all, this is America... the land of the FREE.

From analysis of all I've heard from Tucson's local poor folks, they are still waiting for Obamacare to kick in and they can get the free health care that was promised to them. They speak of how the Republicans are racists and that they are holding up the works.

When I remind them it was not free health care that was promised but the availability of affordable health insurance. And when I mention that all people will be required to buy health insurance or pay a fine, they laugh and say I don't know what I'm talking about.

Both ignorance and downright stupidity abound throughout the land.

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TRIVIA

In March 2000 Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar purchased a copy of  J. J. Audubon’s The Birds of America, published in 1840, is the most valuable book in the world. In March 2000 Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar purchased a first edition for $8,802,500 -- the highest price ever paid for a book.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1881, President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, succumbed to wounds inflicted by an assassin 80 days earlier, on July 2.

Garfield's assassin was an attorney and unsuccessful political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Guiteau stepped behind the president at a railway station and fired two shots. The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm; the second lodged below his pancreas.

Doctors made several unsuccessful attempts to remove the bullet while Garfield lay in his White House bedroom, awake and in pain. Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of Garfield's physicians, tried to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet, but failed.

Guiteau was deemed sane by a jury, convicted of murder and hanged on June 30, 1882.

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WORD FOR TODAY

extravagant
adjective
1. Given to lavish or imprudent expenditure.
2. Exceeding reasonable bounds: extravagant demands.
3. Extremely abundant; profuse: extravagant vegetation.
4. Unreasonably high; exorbitant: extravagant fees.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Adam West
(born September 19, 1928)

Adam West is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series on the ABC TV network and the 1966 Batman feature film. He is currently known for portraying eccentric or psychotically delusional characters, as well as his voice work on animated series such as The Fairly OddParents and Family Guy, in both of which he voices a fictional version of himself.

 

Joan Lunden
(born September 19, 1950)

Joan Lunden is an American journalist, author and television host. She was the co-host of ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) from 1980 through 1997 and is the author of 8 books. Lunden has appeared on the Biography program and Biography Channel.

James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon
(born September 19, 1974)

Jimmy Fallon is an American comedian, actor, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs on NBC. Prior to that he appeared in several films, and was best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2004. On April 3, 2013, NBC announced that Fallon would replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show at the conclusion of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Cass Elliot
(Sept 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974)

Mama Cass was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. In 1998, Elliot, John Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Michelle Phillips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their work as The Mamas & the Papas.

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The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
--Plato

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

Info From The Web

Tucson Weather Today

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Grammarphobia points out that good writers ought to be aware that an adjective should not be used before a series of nouns unless it applies to them all. A phrase like “her late father and mother” will be understood as meaning that both parents are dead, but if only one is deceased, the order should be reversed: “her mother and late father.”

I'm not sure that I was ever aware of that grammar rule, but it makes sense and I intend to remember it.

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There is a website named American Doctors 4 Truth that presented a Youtube video that is supposed to be funny.

It ain't.

(Well, not much, anyway)

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A Help Wanted Ad at Prostitution Research might be helpful if you are in need of more income.

But probably not.

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WORDS FOR TODAY

antidisestablishmentarianism
the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment

disestablishment
the separation of church and state

I did not know that . . . did you?

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BORN THIS DAY IN HISTORY

David Letterman

Born April 12, 1947

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Mr. President, the buzz saw that your healthcare bill ran into wasn't lobbyists and special interests it was tens of millions of Americans who were saying, 'Stop!'
--John Boehner

A Word About Politics . . . Ugh!

Tucson Weather Today

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George Will's Obamacare constitutionality column in Sunday Washington Post exposes some points that the Supreme Court just might take into consideration... or then again, it might not. It seems to me that these points are valid, and should not be ignored.

But that's just my opinion.


Bob Schieffer announced that starting next Sunday Face The Nation expands to a full hour.

'Ugh!'

And that's my last word on the subject of politics.

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Word For Today

maar
n. volcanic crater without a cone, usually filled by a lake.

The maar at Birkat Ram, the Golan Heights

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Sarah Jessica Parker

Born March 25, 1965

On May 19, 1997, she married actor Matthew Broderick
(May 19 is my birthday.)

Sarah Jessica Parker and spouse Matthew Broderick

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"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
--Flannery O'Connor
Note:
I found the above quotation at The Writer's Almanac