Sell Me Something You Don't Know

I met a woman today who works at a for-profit health care insurance company. She refused to tell me for whom she worked, and said only it wasn't for "Blue."
(Glad to hear she didn't have anything to do with Joni's record.)
Anyway, she's an extortionist, however unwitting.
We started talking and I mentioned that my COBRA payment was $463.00 per month (CORRECTION: $563.00 PER MONTH) and with current prescription costs, it added up to almost $700.00 per month. I then said I was once, am now, and always will be a single-payer proponent. She laughed in my face and said, "What! Like a fucking Canadian?"
Yeah. Like that.
"Try getting an MRI in Canada!"
I told her that none of my Canadian friends seemed to be--close to 50 years of knowing them, by the way--MRI-deficient.
"Socialist!"
(Oh, and she had never met an actual Canadian.)
For-profit Polly had been drinking and was in town to meet with her "customers." Seems to me they're more like marks.
She said she has a daughter and a grandkid. When I asked her if she liked one of the benefits of health care reform that directly affects her--the ability to cover her adult daughter until age 26--she looked around, looked uneasy--then said, "yes." When I told her that I had many years of insurance ineligibility due to my self-employed status because of a pre-existing condition, she argued with me. Loudly.
She mocked me, mocked reform. She told me what I said wasn't true. I was stunned--then I asked for her card. She refused to give me one. I reminded her that a pre-existing condition as a self-employed adult wasn't just my own private Idaho for years and years; self-employed adults with such conditions are still legally ineligible for coverage--even under reform--until 2014. She didn't believe a word I said. After all, I'm a socialist!
Did I mention she sells "health care insurance?"
As I was leaving, she continued to call me a socialist. Perhaps, had I asked her to tea...
Have a safe flight home, darlin'; I hope those socialist air traffic controllers guide your sorry ass safely, securely, and straight back home.

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Fifty Nifty United States: Geography, Palin-Style.

Donald Trump Needs A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows.

From Media Matters:

Both Fox News and the New York Post advanced Donald Trump's false claim that this is the "coldest winter ever." In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global land and ocean surface temperature for December 2009 was the eighth warmest on record, and January was the fourth warmest on record.

Trumped. Again...

Another Glenn Beck Snow Job.

...and Beck's fake news channel employer ramps up the stupidity--even for them:

Will They Have A Tea Party At Halftime?

(...or will it be a Klan rally?)

From the Augusta (GA) Chronicle:

A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but the team isn't receiving a warm welcome.

"Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league," the statement said.The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news release Sunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in June and hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.

Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who has publicly expressed his support for minor league teams in the past, said he would not do the same for this team.

"As a sports enthusiast, I have always supported bringing more sporting activities to Augusta," he said. "However, in this instance I could not support in good conscience bringing in a team that did not fit with the spirit of inclusiveness that I, along with many others, have worked so hard to foster in our city."

Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league's roster restrictions is not racism.

"There's nothing hatred about what we're doing," he said. "I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of "street-ball" played by "people of color." He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas' indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans' dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.

"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" he said. "That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."

The Atlanta-based league, which will operate as a single-entity owning all of its teams, is looking for local contacts to pay $10,000 to become a "licensee" in one of 12 cities throughout the Southeast. Lewis said he has already received threats from people opposed to the roster restrictions and several cities have told him to stay out of town. Lewis said he has yet to hear from any one in Augusta.

"People will come out and support a product they can identify with. I'm the spoken minority right now, but if people will give us a chance, it'll work... The white game of basketball, which is essentially a fundamental game, works."

Lewis said he wasn't sure where the team will play.

How about in an outhouse?

Willie Nelson Is Always On La Migra's Mind.

Click image to enlarge.