Here's a question for you. I went to a provider, was given a bill on leaving, and paid by check - $130. No problem. I then submitted a claim to the insurance company. I didn't expect any reimbursement, but I wanted the amount to be directed to my deductible. I had to send the form to the provider to complete, and they submitted it to the insurance company. I just got the insurance company's statement, which shows the amount charged to be $270, with an allowed amount of $125, that is, the a...

Got work to do, so I call on more industrious DUers to do a little Googling to find photos of Republican, tea bag, and other such pols posing proudly with the Qadhafi. It will mean nothing, of course, to the slathering sycophants, as we saw in connection with the photos of a young Rumsfeld heaping praise on Saddam Hussein (remember him?). But it might make us all feel a little better continuing to heap contempt and disdain on the hypocrites on the right. (Of course, there are likely to be pho...

Received this today from New Hampshire tea party senator. Who knew it would be possible to elect someone to the right of Judd Gregg? RW Granite staters managed it. A quick run-through shows some glaring errors, the conflation of the debt ceiling with budget issues, and good old TP fear-mongering. To paraphrase FDR, All we have to fear is. . . everything! Or Monty Python: "Run away. . . " Have fun with it. Thank you for contacting me regarding our grave fiscal crisis. I appreciate heari...

A thought or two on pledges. IMHO, any politician who takes a "pledge" regarding marriage or taxes is committing nothing less than treason. As elected representatives, their only pledge is to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. Claiming that those who oppose you are domestic enemies is BS. The military academies, or at least the Naval Academy, have a term for that - quibbling - and you be expelled for that. Regarding the pledge of allegiance - stop it....

Why are tea partiers allowed to run under the umbrella of the republican party and not as members of their own party - the Tea Party - a la Greens, Socialists, Communists, etc.? There's no question it's not a grass roots effort. There's no question that its members are not serving the interests of American citizens but rather their (the tea party's) corporate sponsors. There is increasing question whether the republicans really want them in their tent. And while I'm at it, when are tax-exe...

Take a look at this: (Link). The NYT wants readers to submit photos of "relics" they retained from 9/11. I sent an e-mail to the paper expressing my disgust. You may feel this way or think it's a great idea. Me? I want to know if it's ever going to end?

Much has been written about the Borders bankruptcy. Some are gleeful, some saddened. They treated workers well; they were virulently anti-union. I've always marveled at how bookstores, any bookstores, stay in business, so I suppose it's no wonder that the prevailing wisdom is that Borders didn't respond quickly enough to market forces, etc., etc. Who knows? I'm sure that books will be written, and those books will almost certainly be promoted by the Indies and sold primarily on Amazon. B...

Okay, the time has come. I need Adirondack chairs. I don't merely want them. I need them. Anyone here have advice? Cedar? Fir? Pine? Recycled plastic? (Latter's not really an option - too expensive.) Any brands preferable? Websites to buy from? Quality? You get the idea. Advice welcome.

I just got a push poll call from the NRA. Played a clip from the NRA president telling me we are on the wrong track and that NRA's 4 million gun owners might have something to say about that. Hmmm. Sounds very much like those 2nd amendment remedies we've heard so much about. In any event, after listening to this clip I was asked if I trusted President Obama to protect Americans' rights to own guns. I said yes, and they hung up. This is not a poll. My guess is that it's a fund raiser. What...

I was just over at salon.com. Not that it matters, but I was reading a piece on the Manning/Wikileaks issue. I guess I would consider salon.com to be a liberal site. And, yet, many of the ocmments were from very obviously RW extremists (what others might call conservatives or republicans). They weren't trolls, per se. They weren't riding the line between right and left and being cautious in their posts. They were clearly conservatives expressing conservative viewpoints. You see the same t...

A couple of nights ago my spouse happened upon a ridiculously impressive display of Christmas lights, a la Disney. So last night I'm cajoled an browbeaten into having a look-see. (I'm not particularly enamored of the Christmas holiday, and it's hard to get excited about X-mas lights without little kids around to ooh and aah.) In any case, here I am driving through this impressive display on probably 10 acres of land (this is in New England, by the way) enjoying the lights (yeah, I caved on th...

I'm on the do not call list - have been since the beginning. But I think telemarketing is on the increase, and there's no way to make them stop. Nothing much more to say. We all hate telemarketing for all the same reasons, and I maintain that it's getting worse. When I had Verizon for my phone service, you block up to 20 numbers or so using their iobi service. When Verizon sold to a two-bit telephone company, that service was lost, and so I can't block numbers. I have server based spam fil...

Am I the only one? When I call someone, whether on a cell or at home, the answer is a slight pause, followed by Hello with a question mark. Caveat. Most of my calls are business-related, and my name - not my company's name - shows up in the caller id; I don't block my number. And despite the fact that most customers know our names, the answer is still: Pause. Hello? Has telemarketing become so common that when we answer the phone we expect it to be telemarketing and are suspicious of almo...

Any small business owners here with information about National Federation of Independent Business? Worth the money? My guess is probably not, but I'd appreciate input.

Our newest addition, a domestic short hair (how come mutt cats are called dsh, but mutt dogs are just called mutts?) about five months old, is very personable. Plays well with his mentor cat as well as with the dogs, who outnumber the cats 2-1. So, here's this dsh who loves to climb up on my desk and keep me company. Why, given the fact that there are tons of things to lay on - paper, binders, stapler, hole punch, and other odds and ends, does he choose to step on and lie on the keyboard. Hi...

I know why I'm not shopping at Target. That's easy. And I certainly know why I don't watch Fox News. (Is it okay if I watch tv shows on Fox?) But a little while back I stopped my advertising on Google and decided I would advertise on Bing. But I can't remember why I'm not advertising on Google. Same thing with certain foods. Eggs are easy. Local is best. Meat and poultry? Again, easy. Local, pasture fed, humanely slaughtered (and, no, I'm not trying to pick a fight with vegetarians). ...

I came across that phrase in a post today on some other website, a post from an obvious rightwinger. Two observations. First - Maybe it's my imagination, but there are increasing numbers of RW extremists spending time on liberal or neutral sites simply to spew their hate and demonstrate their stupidity. I know that we - on the right and left - are supposed to communicate with those on the other side rather than spend time only in our own universe and therefore have our own views confirmed...

Looking at the news here and on HP today, that's the only conclusion I can draw. Let's see: Oil well still leaking Tarballs exploding Intelligence community out of control Fund unemployment benefits, but give tax breaks to the wealthy with total disregard of the budget Unemployment growing, skilled people taking jobs at fast food wages - if they're available Republican insanity passing for political discourse Who here is optimistic?

4:00 on Monday afternoon (end of July 4th weekend). Small town in New England, state highway, town cop - my town. I'm heading west, cop facing east. Road not busy in either direction, but there is some traffic. As I pass the cop, he turns his lights on and does a U-turn but does not speed up or close the distance with me. I don't know whether he's after me or has been called out for something. It dawns on me that he wants me to stop and I slow down after a bit and wait for there to be a li...

Reading the posts on various sites, one might expect that Arizona was overrun with crime. Mexican gangs, mostly. But a dangerous place in dangerous times that called for extreme measures. Thank goodness the good legislators of AZ had the foresight and courage to pass this anti-immigrant bill. Good for them. Okay, I don't live in AZ, and I certainly don't mean to diminish the impact of gangs and crime in any community. Crime is serious business, and we do need to address the issue of illega...

There has been an awful lot of comment here and other forums about this most recent incident of the attack on the border patrol officer. Moving up to the view at 30,000 feet, what are Arizona's statistics on arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of illegal immigrants, of any nationality, for violent crimes over the past, say, 10 years. In other words, for the literacy-impaired RW, do those pesky little things called facts support your endless repetitive claims of a street war by illegal immi...

Articles in this morning's NYT addressing a poll about the teabaggers and what they want, who they are, etc. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I don't give a damn what they want. Sure, it's a free country and all that, but they lost their right to bitch and moan when they let 8 years of the Bush administration bring this country to near ruin. They let their good 'ol boy, W, declare war for no good reason on two sovereign nations. Granted, nations that you wouldn't want to invite over fo...

True story: I knew a guy once who worked for a European oil and gas company doing exploratory drilling in Pakistan's tribal areas. His company received Pakistan Government approval and headed out to drill. "Hold on just one sec, pardner," cried the local tribal chief. "Get off my land." "But, but. . .," sputtered the oil company guys. "We have government approval." Cutting to the chase, the tribal chief asked (read, demanded) that the oil company build a road and a school for his communit...

I need to go to Thousand Oaks (I'm in New England). Is it best to fly into Burbank or LAX? On the flight side, I can fly non-stop to LAX, which is a plus. Does that plus outweigh driving from LAX to Thousand Oaks, or is the drive more or less the same in terms of LA traffic? Thanks.

Just checked nytimes.com. Link at bottom of page to article, Psychologists Explain Iraq Airstrike Video. Glad they explained it. Clears everything up. Thanks. Nothing on editorial page. Maybe tomorrow? Doubt it. Move along. War may be hell, but unless the NYT and other MSM report on that hell, it isn't really hell, it isn't really happening, or it doesn't really matter. Glad that's cleared up as well.

One of my children, graduating from college in June, attended a job fair at his school today - DC area. No companies were hiring. None. Only offers were for unpaid internships, available only to enrolled students. Not a good sign.

I'm not a pharmacist but I heard this the other day. Pharmacy students with long-term, part-time employment with Walgreen's were offered full-time employment on completion of their degree. If they accepted, then all was well. Some didn't, for any number of reasons. Some wanted to continue to work part-time (for whatever reason). Others wanted to take a year to do a residency to enhance their qualifications. If they didn't accept the offer or didn't respond to the offer (thinking that the s...

I decided to splurge and buy 1 oz of expensive Chinese green tea and 1 oz of a more moderately priced green tea. Bought from a US website but tea shipped directly from China. I receive the tea and decide to try the more expensive tea first - actually, it's the only one I've opened so far. The tea looks pretty good. Well, it looks like tea. It's green. That's about the extent of my expertise. I take a pinch of the tea and put it in a mug. Pour hot water (yeah, I know, not boiling, etc.) ...

Received recorded survey call today from Arcola, VA - 703-348-7839 - conducting "scientific" survey. What the heck. First question, gender. I passed. Second question, are you R or D? Guess I passed that, too. Do you support Obama's performance or not? Failed that one. Survey stopped. No further questions. Doesn't strike me as particularly scientific, unless it's the R playbook on science, in which ch 1 puts the age of the planet at something like 150 years old. Don't bother answering ...