A few weeks ago I pointed out that high smoking rates appear to be concentrated in republican states.
Now I see this map from the NY times, which shows that the highest concentration of uninsured children are in republican controlled states.
I'm not sure what to make of this. I guess it means the republicans have become the party of the poor (because of the high rates of uninsured) and stupid (because of the high smoking rates). But is it possible republican policies are somehow responsible for these negative outcomes? The fit seems too exact to be a coincidence, but the direction of causality isn't clear.
Edit: In any case, it's pretty clear that republican states are among those that would benefit the most from health care reform in general and specifically from a public options. Republicans seem to sacrificing the interests of their constituents on the altar of political ideology.
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For some reason the background in the O'reilly picture made me think of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) evwhore.
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In the first column, percentage of adult smokers, ranked from highest (Kentucky) to lowest. In the second column, percent voting for McCain in 2008. States won by McCain are coded red.
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Since I called the market bottom on March 12, my motley collection of individual stocks have done well:
I'm thinking this might be a good time to take some money off the table, esp. on Dow and GGWPQ.
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The three candidates for the Heisman this year are Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen. Tebow is the front runner in the ESPN experts' poll, but Clausen has gone from "not on the map" in the preseason polls to third place now. He has a lot of momentum.
However, I would like to suggest a dark horse candidate. Barack Obama. True, he isn't actually a player and hasn't completed a pass all year, but his obvious athletic ability and his potential to make an impact should make him a clear choice for the award.
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"In January 2006, when Newsweek wrote up the indictments of Jack Abramoff, the GOP kingpin lobbyist, the magazine's headline read: 'A Washington Tidal Wave: Members of Congress rushed to give back money,' suggesting the influence peddling scandal was a bipartisan 'Washington' problem. The Newsweek article stressed the public would likely 'remain appropriately skeptical of both parties.' Time used the same kid glove approach: 'Jack Abramoff built a power network using the rich and naive. Washington may pay the price.' The Washington Post falsely reported Abramoff had 'made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties,' and NBC's Katie Couric insisted, 'Democrats took money ... from Jack Abramoff, too.' All four MSM organizations dutifully mouthed GOP spin about a bipartisan scandal and ignored the plain fact that not one Democrat had accepted tainted contributions from Abramoff, not one Democrat had been indicted, and not one Democrat was under investigation for accepting Abramoff money."
--Eric Boehlert
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Now if I can just get everyone in China to buy a copy, I should be set for life.
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Last week schmengie and I had a discussion about whether the right was more likely to precipitate violence than the left: I said yes, he said both side have nuts capable of violence.
In the last few days, some evidence in favor of my point of view:
Man shows up at health-care protest with assault rifle.
Protester at town hall with 9mm pistol.
True, just being armed doesn't mean they are ready to open fire. But violence is more likely than if they weren't armed.
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I'm not buying all the noise about Michael Vick "paying his debt to society" and "deserving a second chance." To me, a second chance is for when you have too much to drink and do something stupid. Or lose your temper and do something stupid. That is, for a momentary lapse of some kind.
Vick was involved in a criminal enterprise over several years of his own free will. His conduct was vile almost beyond measure. It is clear to me he is a bad person, not a good person who just made a mistake. I don't believe he deserves a second chance at all.
Apparently he's going to get one anyway. We'll see what he does with it.
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Anyone know of a good way to transfer money form Full Tilt to Pokerstars?
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I think we've reached the point where we can't live together. By "we" I mean the conservative minority and the rest of us. There is no common ground for rational discussion, and there is the increasing likelihood of violent confrontation. My solution? Let's carve out a group of states, covering most of the midwest and most of the deep south, and designate it as "conservative America." The rest of the country would be "rational America." Conservative minorities from the rational states could all move to conservative America, where they could elect their own president and outlaw abortion, sex education, contraception, homosexuality, affirmative action, non-christian religion, taxation, welfare, medicare, medicaid and MSNBC. Non-conservatives in those states could move to "rational America" if they didn't approve of the conservative society.
I'm joking of course, because this could never happen. But it sure seems like there are such wide political divisions in our country and such little rational dialog that we might all be better off if it did.
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Since everyone else seems to be doing it (and following my own suggestion to BARGErs to lose some damn weight), I’m starting my program today.
Current Statistics:
- Weight=240.0
- BMI=31.7
- Body Fat% (Tanita scale) = 36.5%
Goals (by May 31, 2010): - Weight=190
- BMI=25.0
- Body Fat%=20%
That comes out to 1.2 pounds per week, which seems doable. In the past, I’ve run into a plateau around 215-220 lbs. After being stuck for a month or so, I get frustrated and give up. I need to figure out a way to deal with that. I’ve been thinking about galunga_galunga’s suggestion to pick a future activity and commit to participating in it. The El Tour De Tucson, a 109 mile charity bike ride, is November 21. I’m not sure if I’ll be ready for 109 miles by then (my past riding has been a max of about 35 miles), but the ride also has options for 80, 67 or 35 miles. The 67 might be a reasonable goal. I took the “before” picture this morning. I’m not going to post it because it might cause you to rip your eyes out like Ray Milland in “X:The Man with X-ray Eyes,” but I may post it at the end when I have a good “after” picture to put next to it. Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention what my program is. Pretty simple: Oatmeal or high-fiber cereal plus fruit for breakfast, salad plus fruit for lunch, slightly reduced portions of normal dinners. No alcohol or other liquid calories. Aiming for about 1600-1800 calories per day. Tracking intake with Fit-day software. Exercise: walking 45 min every day. Bike ride 3-4 x per week. Weight training at least 2x per week.
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1. The median age of BARGErs must be getting close to 50. Lots of balding, graying heads.
2. A record number of BARGErs now have serious weight problems. Many of us need to take a lesson from Goldie, Jester, Asya and Jaeger, who have made some impressive progress.
3. 1 & 2 above taken together probably indicate an unpleasant impending trend in BARGEr mortality rates, already at a depressing level.
4. The average quality of poker in the tournaments...is not increasing. This might be obvious, but take any random group of poker players and subtract Melissa Hayden, Paul Phillips, Greg Raymer, Andy Bloch, Jerrod Ankenman, Bill Chen, Steve Brecher, Gavin Smith, Russ Rosenblum and Andrew Prock, and the average skill level is going to drop. Having said that, I note that for the second year in a row I failed to even sniff the money in any of the tournaments.
5. This was my 11th BARGE. For the past few years, and especially this year, the proceedings have taken on a kind of "Groundhog Day" quality for me. Need to think about whether BARGE may have run its course for me.
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Timecrimes - 3.5/4 stars. I saw this last night. One of the most entertaining films I've seen in quite a while. In Spanish, with subtitles. Only four obscure actors in this low budget film, but very well acted and engaging, I don't want to give away the plot, but it's very complicated yet easy to follow. If you have netflix, this is available for streaming as well as on CD.
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These hand heatmaps from pokertableratings.com are interesting. One of these is for Phil Ivey, one is for Unassigned (we know who that is), one is for Tom Dwan, and one is for Hoss_TBF.
( Heatmaps behind the cut )
Unfortunately, these hands only show results from showdowns, not for mucked hands or hands decided before the flop. I conclude from these that player B has a high variance style and shows down a lot of low cards. Players A and C are much more solid. Player D seems weaker than the others and is especially prone to overplaying AK. Is this a valid or useful comparison? I don't know.
( Who's who behind the cut )
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Just signed up for BARGE 2009, my 11th BARGE. I will be showing up Wednesday and playing the Lowbah, Stud, ToC and NL. Skipping the Team CHORSE; I've only played it once and found it unpleasant.
I was entry #115 in the NL. Seems like we might be headed for a lower turnout than usual. Maybe the economy?
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