(no subject)

Just a quick post to apologize profusely for not keeping up better on LJ recently. I usually only get one chance to read per day (if I'm lucky) and I'm doing my damnedest to comment as often as possible but I know I'm falling behind. I have no real excuse just now save that we're moving our offices again and things are a bit crazed at work. Also I've been delegated official fire putter-outter and so a lot is falling into my lap that might not otherwise. Which means by the time I get home at night generally the last thing I want to do is touch a computer.

Also I've had pretty bad sinus pain/nausea for about 3 weeks now and staring at a computer seems to make the headaches it causes worse rather than better. Feeling crappy tends to send me into hermit mode, which also doesn't help.

Gods I need a vacation...

(no subject)

Free market, bitches:

For employees at Clarian Health, feeling the burn of trying to lose weight will take on new meaning.

In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index [BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat] is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they’ll be charged $5 for each standard they don’t meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they’ll be charged another $5 in each check.

Clarian has been making headlines for its aggressive and unusual approach to covering escalating health-care costs. Rather than taking the more common step of giving employees incentives for merely participating in its wellness programs, such as joining a smoking cessation group or using a health coach, Clarian is actually measuring outcomes. And unlike most employers, it is penalizing workers for poor health instead of rewarding them for taking healthy steps.

I seem to recall one of the arguments against socialized medicine having something to do with the "nanny state" taking away your free choice, but perhaps I'm mistaken...

Socialized medicine? Yes, please.

(no subject)

Just lovely:

According to sources, Mohammed said that, while in C.I.A. custody, he was placed in his own cell, where he remained naked for several days. He was questioned by an unusual number of female handlers, perhaps as an additional humiliation. He has alleged that he was attached to a dog leash, and yanked in such a way that he was propelled into the walls of his cell. Sources say that he also claimed to have been suspended from the ceiling by his arms, his toes barely touching the ground. The pressure on his wrists evidently became exceedingly painful...

Mohammed is said to have described being chained naked to a metal ring in his cell wall for prolonged periods in a painful crouch. (Several other detainees who say that they were confined in the Dark Prison have described identical treatment.) He also claimed that he was kept alternately in suffocating heat and in a painfully cold room, where he was doused with ice water. The practice, which can cause hypothermia, violates the Geneva Conventions, and President Bush’s new executive order arguably bans it...

The inquiry source said that most of the Poland detainees were waterboarded, including Mohammed. According to the sources familiar with the Red Cross report, Mohammed claimed to have been waterboarded five times. Two former C.I.A. officers who are friends with one of Mohammed’s interrogators called this bravado, insisting that he was waterboarded only once. According to one of the officers, Mohammed needed only to be shown the drowning equipment again before he “broke.”

I think Doghouse Riley's comment on this sums up my own response as well:

Let's drop the pretense that torture is about anything other than allowing the stateside commandos and fightin' eunuchs to experience the spiritual de-pissing of underpants and the metaphorical reattachment of gonads. Let's put the damn things on teevee, where they belong. American Idol would make the perfect lead-in.

(no subject)

Ok I promise to stop after this one, but seriously, how could I pass up linking to this:

State Rep. Bob Allen told police he was just playing along when a undercover officer suggested in a public restroom that the legislator give him oral sex and $20 because he was intimidated, according to a taped statement and other documents released Thursday.

…”This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,” Allen, who is white, told police in a taped statement after his arrest. Allen said he feared he “was about to be a statistic” and would have said anything just to get away. Allen, who couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday, has repeatedly declared his innocence, his intention to fight the charges and his desire to stay in office.

Crazy defense for offering a police officer a blow job in a public restroom, or craziest? It also spawned one of the funniest comment I've read in weeks:

Nick:

Maybe it’s just that “blow a black cop” would be his answer if he felt the country threatened in any way.

“Terrorists have bombed the Mall of America!”

“Get me 50 black police officers, a bottle of Gatorade, and a bucket!”

I have to admit, I’d probably vote for that guy. Nobody messes with President Crazy.