Progress: Verb
Scientific progress, the idea that science increases its problem solving ability through the application of some scientific method.
Social progress, the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their social, political, and economic structures.
Progress trap, the condition societies find themselves in when human ingenuity, in pursuing progress, inadvertently introduces problems that it does not have the resources to solve, preventing further progress or inciting social collapse.
Last evening I passed my KS Life & Health Insurance Producer licensing exam.
One of the things I noted while studying was that while women’s pre- and post-natal care is not required in KS health insurance programs and is, in fact, rarely ever included in group or individual health policies (except at exorbitant cost), infants are covered under well-baby provisions included in individual, family and group policies from the moment they are birthed.
In addition, contraception and birth control options are given minimal coverage under prescription and health plans. Women are allowed to purchase just one month of birth control at a time. Generic birth control is usually about $30 per month and name brand birth control is typically $50 per month at a minimum with a prescription plan.
So while the statutes regarding birth control make such prescriptions more difficult and expensive to obtain, women’s maternal wellness during pregnancy, birthing and post-birth are not covered by insurance. Infants born to these women, however, are covered from the moment they emerge from the woman’s body.
What this says to me is, the state doesn’t want women to prevent pregnancy but while the women are pregnant they are on their own and the financial burden of maternal care and birthing is on the mother. The baby itself, though, is completely covered by insurance provisions.
Kansas women (myself included), to the state you are nothing but a baby-maker. Of course, it’s up to you to procure and pay for standard and necessary care while pregnant and giving birth, but that baby of yours, once it pops out, is totally covered. Women of Kansas, your baby is more important than you.
![thedailywhat:
The Bitter Taste Of One’s Own Medicine of the Day: The Tennessee state senator who sponsored the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which aims to prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in the classroom — was refused service at a Knoxville restaurant because of his anti-gay views.
“I hope that [Stacey] Campfield now knows what it feels like to be unfairly [discriminated] against,” The Bistro at the Bijou wrote on their Facebook page.
Reached for comment, Sen. Campfield, who just days ago defended his assertion that it is “virtually impossible” to contract AIDS “through heterosexual sex,” confirmed he was kicked out, saying “I went in there and the lady started calling me names and wouldn’t serve me.”
According to Campfield, the hostess called him a homophobe and accused him of hating homosexuals. “In my business I do rental properties and I’ve rented to homosexuals, mixed-race couples, black couples,” countered Campfield.
He believes the restaurant treated him unfairly. “If you don’t think the way certain people think, then they think you don’t have a right to be served,” he told Buzzfeed.
People denying other people rights simply because they have a different worldview? I agree, Senator. That’s unacceptable.
[buzzfeed / facebook / photo: ap via comapp.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lymt14HbX91qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
The Bitter Taste Of One’s Own Medicine of the Day: The Tennessee state senator who sponsored the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which aims to prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in the classroom — was refused service at a Knoxville restaurant because of his anti-gay views.
“I hope that [Stacey] Campfield now knows what it feels like to be unfairly [discriminated] against,” The Bistro at the Bijou wrote on their Facebook page.
Reached for comment, Sen. Campfield, who just days ago defended his assertion that it is “virtually impossible” to contract AIDS “through heterosexual sex,” confirmed he was kicked out, saying “I went in there and the lady started calling me names and wouldn’t serve me.”
According to Campfield, the hostess called him a homophobe and accused him of hating homosexuals. “In my business I do rental properties and I’ve rented to homosexuals, mixed-race couples, black couples,” countered Campfield.
He believes the restaurant treated him unfairly. “If you don’t think the way certain people think, then they think you don’t have a right to be served,” he told Buzzfeed.
People denying other people rights simply because they have a different worldview? I agree, Senator. That’s unacceptable.
[buzzfeed / facebook / photo: ap via comapp.]
As speculation about the iPhone 5 kicks into gear, The New York Times looks into the often brutal factory conditions that make such rapid improvement possible. Apple’s own audits found that hundreds of its supply factories in China require employees—some as young as 15—to work more than 60 hours a week, or more than 6 days a week, sometimes in deadly conditions. Yet fewer than 15 suppliers have been terminated for transgressions since 2007, according to former Apple executives. “You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards,” a current Apple executive told the Times. “And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”
Despicable. No piece of disposable technology is worth the suffering of others.
Excellent rebuttal by B. Swenson of WolfPAC:
Yeah, Mitt, our concerns about income inequality and vast wealth gaps in America are purely about envy and jealousy. Asshat. And I certainly understand why you think we should be talking about the fact that the global economy is rigged to funnel 40% of it’s wealth to the top 1% of all people “in quiet rooms” … It’s about FAIRNESS, it’s about admitting that YOU are not THAT much more valuable to society than any other average American. It’s about admitting that the idea that the uber rich are “job creators,” as if no one else is capable of doing what you do, and thus you DESERVE to make 243 times more than the average American, is FALSE. It’s just not true. You got the chance to run Bain Capital because you were the son of a rich auto industry tycoon and state governor and you had connections, not because you were destined or even uniquely qualified to do so. There are probably millions of smart Americans who could have run Bain, it’s not rocket science, afterall, but I bet you couldn’t build a rocket, Mitt, or wouldn’t teach Kindergarten, or spend 12 hours a day caring for the elderly. It’s not about OUR envy and jealousy, we’re not jealous of you, trust me, it’s about YOUR hubris and hypocrisy. It’s about the fact that you and your ilk seem to truly believe that you are better than everyone else and that you have done this great service to the country by being a mythical corporate-titan-job-creator and thus deserve the great wealth you have amassed. That idea is so exactly wrong and needs to be put to an end in this country. And that’s why you will, and should, lose. This campaign is going to boil down to electing someone like you who will perpetuate this old, tired and harmful Capitalist myth of the deserving corporate Titan and someone who will (hopefully) start to institutionalize the idea that the economic value of individual Americans does not come down to birthright or to the ability and willingness to generate profits for a small number people (shareholders), but it comes down to the HUMBLE recognition that we are all in this together, that we all benefit from the work and effort of countless others in our country and, indeed, all over the world. Do you think you could have made so much money at Bain without being able to sell off the assets and wealth of smaller American corporations produced over decades by tens of thousands of hard working Americans? That wealth came from hard work, not from your ability (again, from birthright and connections) to sell off all their hard work to the highest bidder. And did that action make our society better, our economy more efficient or did it really just benefit a few people at the expense of making the society better and the economy more efficient and productive? We’re tired of your ilk pulling the wool over our eyes, we’re waking up to your lies and myths and we’re going to make this world a fairer and better place despite and without you.
In most American counties, some indigent criminal defendants are represented by a public defender, and others by a private court-appointed lawyer. A new RAND study focusing on Philadelphia exposes a vast difference in how clients fare depending on the kind of lawyer they are assigned.
The startling findings show that merely providing an indigent defendant a lawyer, as the Constitution requires in felony cases, is not enough to secure justice. If that lawyer is not screened for quality, trained to handle the client’s type of case or paid enough to cover the time required, the client is unlikely to get fair treatment — whether in the Philadelphia system or anywhere else.
Philadelphia’s public defenders, who are randomly assigned to represent one out of every five indigent defendants accused of murder, are paid decent salaries, have money to hire expert witnesses and work in experienced teams. Court-appointed lawyers, representing the rest, are poorly paid, tend to take on more cases than they can handle and generally practice without feedback from other lawyers. As a result, the study concludes, defendants with court-appointed lawyers often get inadequate counsel, in violation of the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment, and are vulnerable to greater punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
House Republicans vow to vote down the payroll tax cut extension which benefits working Americans, yet refuse to increase taxes or close tax loops holes for the wealthiest Americans.
For whom is the House working? Probably not you and definitely not me.
Chief executive pay has roared back after two years of stagnation and decline. America’s top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US CEO pay. The dramatic bounceback comes as the latest government figures show wages for the majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation.
America’s highest paid executive took home more than $145.2m, and as stock prices recovered across the board, the median value of bosses’ profits on stock options rose 70% in 2010, from $950,400 to $1.3m. The news comes against the backdrop of an Occupy Wall Street movement that has focused Washington’s attention on the pay packages of America’s highest paid.
*head scratch*
Deep poverty — that is, the share of the population with incomes below half the poverty line — rose by a statistically significant amount in 40 states (including the District of Columbia) from 2007 to 2010 and fell in none, Census Bureau data released today show. (via Deep Poverty on the Rise)
Income below half of the poverty line is Really Fucking Poor.
George Carlin was a wise man.
