I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    This is an interesting article on Janet Yellen.  I only had to time to skim, and have to go back but thought I'd put it out here if anyone else might be interested.    http://act.prospect.org/page/m/1093c816/182e93d8/20137414/441126ee/400344435/VEsE/

    Hope this gets you to the article.

    Jackie

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    I keep running into interesting pieces......this is about the ACA.....and that is usually always interesting.  http://act.prospect.org/page/m/1093c816/182e93d8/20137414/441126ec/400344435/VEsC/  I hope it comes through.

    Jackie


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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    Jackie- I couldn't get to the FB link.  First, there was a "warning" about that link.  I'm not on FB, maybe it's different if someone is...

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  • RetiredLibby
    RetiredLibby Member Posts: 1,992
    edited December 2013

    Gotta love the regressives who wrap themselves in the flag and the Constitution without understanding what either means.  The First Amendment says that CONGRESS (i.e., THE GOVERNMENT) will MAKE NO LAW abridging free speech.  It doesn't say you can vomit out any old crap and there will be no consequences.  There are laws against hate speech, for example, and laws against threatening the lives of public officials.  The very same people who cheer knuckledragging regressive bosses for firing people because they voted for President Obama or have bumper stickers from Democratic candidates are the ones howling with hypocritical (and uninformed) outrage about a private employer suspending someone who said something hateful about a group of people.  These people go through their lives like toddlers - anything they want to do is OK unless someone else wants to do it and it impacts them and then "waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, they shouldn't do that!"  Disgusting.

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  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited December 2013

    Just wanted to say that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice.  The way some people think makes me crazy. 

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  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited December 2013

    He's my man!

    http://www.occupydemocrats.com/more-change-in-the-vatican-pope-francis-fires-critic-of-abortion-gay-marriage/

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  • QuinnCat
    QuinnCat Member Posts: 3,456
    edited December 2013

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-you-a-target-...

    If you used your credit cards or debit cards between Nov 27 and Dec 15th at a Target store, your account numbers could be compromised.  I shopped there on Dec 5th with a debit card (the least secure if stolen....only have 60 days to report fraud otherwise you are liable) and my bank had advised some of it's customers (not sure how Target reported which cards to law enforcement, then from LE to banks to customers) to get new account numbers.  In any case, my bank supported getting a new account and waived the express mailing of a new debit card.

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    Sunny...I tapped on it from up above and it took me right there.  It is an article from The American Prospect if that might help.  I hesitate to copy and paste because it is a long article.    If you can't find it and want to see it.....I probably could copy and paste in a pm.  Let me know.

    Blue....with you about homosexuality.  I got extremely annoyed at the person who ( a short while back and don't recall the particulars ) could/had a program to remove those "tendencies".  REALLY !!!!  That likely ranks up there with being able to expel the devil that has taken hold of someone.  REALLY 

    Jackie

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  • lassie11
    lassie11 Member Posts: 1,500
    edited December 2013

    Target came to Canada and killed off our Canadian based Zellers stores. Only in some of the stores did a Target store rise from the ashes. Reports are that it is not doing so well here. The financial shenanigans didn't happen here but the news suggested that it might add to troubles for Target stores in Canada anyway. The Zellers in our town is an empty shell now.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    jackie - it was the link about that from facebook - the one you wrote was funny - see what happens when you click on that link

    Blue - I always laugh when people talk about "being Gay is a choice."  Wonder, have you ever heard anyone say that being Straight is a choice?  what a giggle some people are...but then, I don't know anyone who would say there is any difference - all people have the right to marry the person he or she loves.  Fully stop.

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    Sunny, that opened right up for me too.....I'm going to try copy and paste on it here.

    Say Thanks to a Republican Idea Day

    Paul Waldman

    December 19, 2013

    If Democrats say they agree with one of the opposite party's health-care ideas, Republicans will probably decide it's a satanic plot. But so what?

    When John McCain ran for president in 2008, he offered up a health-reform plan. Nobody paid all that much attention to it, because it was pretty clear that health care was an issue McCain didn't care about at all, and much like the "patient's bill of rights" George W. Bush had touted when he ran for president eight years earlier, it would be forgotten as soon as he took office. Four years later, Mitt Romney had something resembling a health-care plan too, but once again, nobody paid much attention to what it contained, because any time health care came up, the only question was how Romney could square his stated position that the Affordable Care Act was a poisonous hairball of misery coughed up by the Prince of Darkness himself, while the plan it was modeled after, often referred to as "Romneycare," was a wonderful thing that everyone in the state where it was implemented seems to like.

    Both McCain's and Romney's plans were mostly an amalgam of ineffectual half-measures and truly terrible ideas, but mixed in there were a few proposals that might be beneficial. And now that we're just days away from the full implementation of the ACA, some conservatives will be offering up similar reform proposals again (here's one). The problem they face is that once millions of people have been enrolled in new insurance plans, you can no longer just propose to repeal the law, because that would mean kicking them off the insurance they have. "Repeal it!" only works as a battle cry when you can pretend no one would be harmed. So they have two choices: stop talking about health care entirely, or have some kind of plan you can claim you're proposing to put in its place. And Democrats can respond by agreeing to one or two of the Republicans' ideas. It sounds crazy, I know. But hear me out.

    I know what you're thinking: didn't Democrats try this before? They took a Republican proposal—an individual mandate combined with subsidies for those with modest incomes—and made it their own, only to see Republicans then decide it was, depending on who you ask, "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery" or worse than "the Nazis, Soviets, and terrorists combined." It's certainly possible that if Democrats began advocating for another health-care idea that Republicans currently favor, even a relatively minor one, they'll go through the same routine again. But so what? If Republicans are going to oppose anything Democrats propose, then that opposition shouldn't hinder you. You wouldn't want to delude yourself that passing any new reforms would be easy because Republicans will go along with what they've advocated in the past, but a good idea is still a good idea.

    I have one in particular in mind. Most Republican proposals would have the tax system stop treating employer-provided insurance and individual insurance differently. If you buy your own health insurance, you don't get to deduct the premiums from your income, which is just one of the ways being self-employed can be really expensive (another is the fact that you have to pay both the employer and employee portions of payroll taxes). But if you get insurance through your employer, the money is taken out before taxes. That's a benefit that can cut your tax bill by thousands of dollars every year, and the self-employed and people whose employers don't offer health coverage get screwed out of it. So there are two ways to make it fair: either let everyone deduct the cost of premiums, or take away the deduction from employer-provided plans.

    The latter would probably be politically impossible, but it's worth noting just how much money the government is in effect doling out to mostly middle-class and wealthy people with the current system. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax deduction for employer-provided health benefits cost the Treasury $248 billion in 2013 alone; over the next decade it's projected to cost $3.36 trillion. It's easily the largest tax expenditure on the books. If all that money was suddenly being paid to the government in taxes, it would be a boon to deficit reduction, but it would also be a hardship for tens of millions of people (even though the benefits do go disproportionately to those with higher incomes).

    The alternative, then, is to let everybody deduct their premiums. That would certainly cost money, but particularly with millions of formerly uninsured people moving into the individual insurance market, you could think of it as an economic stimulus, which we could certainly use more of.

    Democrats' understandable impulse at this stage is to just be defensive about the ACA. But they always knew it wouldn't be the last word in health care reform, and it isn't too early to start thinking about the next steps. There are a whole lot of ways we could improve on the changes that have already been made, and if at least one of them is something Republicans now claim they support? There's no harm in that.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    Jackie - that wasn't the "funny" one was it???  "side splitting" you posted 6 hours ago???

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    Ten Reasons Fox News Viewers think Santa is White.

    Posted by Frank Oatley on Thursday, December 19, 2013 · Leave a Comment  

    Megyn Kelly claimed as historical fact that Santa Clause was white, but she didn't need to convince her viewers

    [img width="300" height="168" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-7333" alt="fox news viewers" src="http://i2.wp.com/quietmike.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/santa_sal_outfit2.jpg?resize=300%2C168">We all know the majority of Fox News viewers are white conservative Christians. They cater to their audience any way they can, whether they need to bend the truth or just plain make things up. Sometimes the truth bending is rather subtle, sometimes it comes off as just plain stupid. 

    So was it really a surprise when Megyn Kelly defended as historical fact that Jesus and Santa Clause were white men? As Jon Stewart explained it was “another example of a Fox News segment expressing anger and victimization over the loss of absolute power and reframing that as persecution of Real America by minorities, freeloaders and socialists.”

    The fact is, Megyn Kelly didn’t need to say what she did. Here are ten reasons why Fox News viewers already know Santa is white:

    10: Santa speeds through residential neighborhoods in a bright red convertible with no driver’s license or vehicle registration; yet he never gets pulled over.

    9: By Fox News standards, a fat white man with a whip is just “expressing his cultural heritage.”

    8: Santa only works one day a year, yet Fox News has never done a story about how much he plays golf the other 364 days.

    7: Despite having a global spy network and massive database in which all people are designated “Naughty” or “Nice”; Fox News has never questioned Santa’s surveillance efforts.

    6: Fox News has never demanded Santa answer their questions about Bengazi, despite his massive information collection abilities.

    5: Fox News avoids doing stories about white men that use only non-union minorities to manufacture their products at below poverty wages.

    4: When Mrs. Clause offers kids hot chocolate and cookies, Fox News doesn’t accuse her of having a “secret agenda to take away our children’s right to eat healthy.”

    3: Fox News has never accused Santa of being a socialist despite his long record of giving to the needy.

    2: Fox News has never asked for Santa’s immigration papers or demanded he show them his long form birth certificate.

    1: Fox News anchors have never confused the name “Santa” with “Satan”. Apparently they only have this problem when people of color are named “Obama” and “Osama.”

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    We will try this one from Daily Kos at 8:08 this evening.   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/18/1263785/-Here-Comes-the-Boom-ACA-enrollments-up-to-MINIMUM-of-21K-per-day  Hope it will open.  It is major numbers not expected I guess by the reporter. 

    There was also a blurb off the side which suggested some recommended reading ( which I need to check out ) and the 'blub' said:  Insurers say cost hikes  in insurance premiums due to routine factors, not Obamacare.

    Jackie

    Should have read the piece first, but the highlight for me was the enrollment numbers

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    JACKIE - that WAS FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-))))  thanks for posting.

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  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited December 2013

    Good morning, friends -

    Just poking my nose in to say good morning and Merry Few Days Before Christmas.  

    Africa was an eye-opener, for sure.  I'll share some stories later, but for now I'll paste a photo below.  Long ago, a group of disgruntled penguins left Antarctica for the warmer shores of South Africa.  The penguins shown here are descendants of that group.  Neat story.

    Pip....so sorry for your loss.  I sent you a PM.

    image

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  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 6,059
    edited December 2013

    Welcome home Suze - hope you had a great time - we missed you!!!

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  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited December 2013

    This little guy and I share the same hairstyle!

    image

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  • Enjoyful
    Enjoyful Member Posts: 3,591
    edited December 2013

    Proof that I was there.  It was WINDY.

    image

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  • lassie11
    lassie11 Member Posts: 1,500
    edited December 2013

    Where is  the "like" button for the photos?

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    YEAH, she's b-a-a-a-c-k.  Welcome home. Rockin' your head wrap/hat.  Lovely to see The Smile.  Hope it was a fabulous experience, and even better to be home to Mr. Wonderful & your neighing friend too :)

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  • bluedahlia
    bluedahlia Member Posts: 6,944
    edited December 2013

    I wonder if one of the questions in that "Yale" study was;  "Is the earth flat or round?"  hahahahahah!

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited December 2013

    Ooops...missed it, what "yale" study????  Maybe a link I couldn't get to...but sounds like I didn't miss much ;)

    Good to see you Blue - hope you're doing well...better than yesterday..not as good as tomorrow kinda place...

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  • 208sandy
    208sandy Member Posts: 2,610
    edited December 2013

    E - welcome back - love the pictures!

    Blue - that was a "study" done by one law professor at Yale. Might be interesting to check out his background perhaps he does belong to the "flat earth society".

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  • gardengumby
    gardengumby Member Posts: 7,305
    edited December 2013

    Pip, so very sorru to hear of your loss.  Warm thoughts for you and yours.

    E - so glad to see you back.sounds like you had a wonderful penguin experience.  :)

    Jackie thanks for all the great articles

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  • crazy4carrots
    crazy4carrots Member Posts: 5,324
    edited December 2013

    Presents for the Teacher

    It was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, and the students were eagerly lined up, waiting to present their special gift for their teacher.

    The grocery store manager's daughter presented Teacher with a basket of fruit.

    The florist's son presented Teacher with a beautiful bouquet of red roses.

    The hardware store owner's twin girls presented Teacher with generous gift certificates.

    The liquor store owner's son presented teacher with a big, heavy box.

    "Oh, what could this be?" she asked.  The boy smiled and shook his head.  Teacher noticed the box was leaking, and licked a drip off her finger, asking "Is it wine?"  The boy shook his head.  Teacher took another lick and said "Is it champagne?"

    Finally, the boy couldn't help himself and burst out "It's a puppy!"

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    Chortles emanating from way deep down over Yale and puppies....lasting long enough to have Dh interested in what could cause such a raucous noise this early in the morning before my last cup of coffee does its job.

    E ---  so glad you are back and sounds like you had a most marvelous time of it.  I adore penguins and always did.  I think they have a great sociability aspect to them.....if I recall the "special" I watched some time ago about them. I bet you got a rousing welcome from Samson and your Mr. 

    Pouring rain off and on here with 50 degree temps.  It has managed to erase the few vestiges of ice that were stubbornly hanging on... still making it exciting to get out of our driveway.  We park as close to our sidewalk as possible.....and though there is lots of room -- you do have to back up, and turn, to then face the drive out to the road.......much fun with the half un-intended circles.  But all in one piece and all ice gone.  We are nervous though for night-fall here............we will see.  It may well be one of "those" winters. 

    See you all later.

    Jackie

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  • IllinoisLady
    IllinoisLady Member Posts: 29,082
    edited December 2013

    As I don't watch Duck Dynasty ( I have never been able to get into that sort of thing because I simply don't care for the "reality" type shows ) I never even knew what this man's name was......and now that I do --- nothing like letting the world in on your ignorance, and bigotry.  About the only thing I can say is the only "smarts" he used was getting into a project that made him a lot of cash, fairly fast. 

    I also have to admit that until this came up.....I never really gave the first amendment that much thought.  Probably as it was a given for me -- every place I've ever worked, whether I had an employer or in many cases where I've been my own.....there is a form and a line and you stay aware of that and act in kind.  So, whatever from start to finish, this person is responsible for it and in that way, I can't feel much sorrow for whatever dilemma he now faces. 

    Jackie

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  • RetiredLibby
    RetiredLibby Member Posts: 1,992
    edited December 2013


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  • RetiredLibby
    RetiredLibby Member Posts: 1,992
    edited December 2013


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