It’s good that she doesn’t have to look at it...

As some readers may recall, I don't like tattoos. There is almost no subject that cannot be reduced to tackiness or crude vulgarity with a tattoo. Except for typography, of course.

Update: Heraldo sends this disgusting, but strangely compelling link.

Put down that knife...

Here's a new item at WinCo.

You can call me names, but I don't make this stuff up.

Update: Olmanribber sends a link to canned goods that even WinCo refuses to carry.

Latest: Boy missing in Eureka

Guess: which states this lethal cuisine comes from

The comment thread laugh track...

It's unfortunate that "LOL" so often appears at the end of comments, as it could serve as a red flag if it were at the beginning. A good-natured Talking Tech post this week got me to thinking about dull-witted e-abbreviations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these people who complains reflexively about the decline of English because young folks harmlessly and economically write "r u" in place of "are you," and "B4N" for "bye for now," and I think that we'd all favor "OMFG" over its unabbreviated progenitor. No, I've narrowed my complaint down to LOL, LMAO, ROTFL, and especially ROTFLMAO. These poor, but inflated initialisms beg for laughs, but poverty is no substitute for wit.

Chain mail...

I too got the support-a-Trader-Joe's-in-Fortuna chain letter from a friend who is otherwise admirably committed to buying local.

I've mentioned that Trader Joe's only carries a couple of items that might lure me off the highway, so I probably wouldn't be driving down to Fortuna; but I know people who would.

Implants throw wet towel on real McCoys...

As southern Humboldt County braces itself for a weekend of wholesome fun, a demand at the Redwood Run website for a "reality check" at the wet t-shirt contest shows thoughtful concern from one of the noisy merrymakers:

To the Board:

Look, this is getting very serious! I continuously hear allot of the ladies complaining about the ones with fake boobs getting in the wet t-shirt contest, and they always WIN!  This has caused allot of the ladies that have won in the past with their natural boobs to stop joining your wet t-shirt contest. We are missing out on a LARGER and better contest by not having more ladies in this show.  The ladies are getting very upset because they want to get up there, put on a show, and show themselves off to the men.Last year, I thought about this issue very hard, but I didn't have someone to talk to or to place an email.  I would like to see TWO wet t-shirt contests.  One for the plastic boobs, and call it; "The First Annual Redwood Run Custom Wet T-shirt Contest"; and the ones with the natural boobs, call it; "The First Annual Redwood Run Stock Wet T-shirt Contest".  This will give you TWO fund raisers by having TWO men bidding on the water pitcher in place of just the one. This would be a great advertising first and would draw allot more ladies and men that would come as a first timer, or come back to the run.  However, if you do accept this idea, I would like to host the first Stock contest by being the first water pitcher pourer for the first Stock Redwood Run Wet T-shirt Contest.  I have talked to many ladies and I told them that I will bring this up and see if I can't get the boards attention, and get these great ladies back onto that stage and put on another great show. 

Thanks,

"Jokester" Matt Callan

Well, Mr. Callan, I have just one word for you: plastics.

NCJ Publisher asks Obama, “where’s the change?”...

Judy Hodgson, publisher of the North Coast Journal, wrote an eloquent rebuke to President Obama this week about how our insurance-based health care system affects small businesses like the NCJ.

"...I got a bill for my employees' medical insurance that was 25 percent higher than the previous year's. We couldn't absorb that much of a hike, so my employees agreed to accept an insurance policy with even fewer benefits. We now officially have the crummiest major medical policy offered by our local insurance company. We pay thousands of dollars a month for almost no coverage."

Small businesses are at a disadvantage to large businesses, because larger businesses can better negotiate health coverage with insurance companies and have HR departments to administer plans. Ours is increasingly a nation of small businesses. Involuntary entrepreneurs crop up when large businesses fail. These small businesses have to spend time every year searching for health insurance they can afford to offer employees, and administering these inadequate plans.

The US Chamber of Commerce reports, "more than 174 million people ... receive health insurance through their employers. Between 2000 and 2003, the percentage of Americans with workplace health coverage decreased from 67.1% to 63%." They add further that, "About 60.4% of uninsured people live in a family in which the head of the family works full time ... but is either not offered health insurance or cannot afford to pay the premiums to participate." This trend continues unabated.

The Chamber "supports strengthening and expanding the current employer-based system..." but why? What is it about the current system that appeals to businesses, and why is it incumbent upon businesses to provide health care for employees in the first place? My guess is that the vast majority of American businesses would be happy to be relieved of the burden.

Previous posts on health insurance: Single Payer: not a prayer, and Live free and die

Little green football under-inflated...

In the comment thread on Eric Kirk's recent breezy post on the assassination of the courageous Dr. George Tiller, Rose weighs in on the right-wing squabble over at Little Green Footballs, a pro-war blog. Apparently, the anti-Muslim site with the ads for Ann Coulter-branded products is not loony enough to be considered "conservative" any more. Oh well, Green Footballs is in good company: Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, William F. Buckley— none would pass muster with today's Fox/Limbaugh, know-nothing, Baptist Republicans.

Single payer? Not a prayer...

Two recent local posts about single payer health care and the ensuing comment threads got me to thinking about our crappy, insurance-based medical system again.

Advocates of reform often note that tens of millions of Americans are uninsured, but what about the insured? I know someone who broke her ankle in an accident a few years ago. She worked for a company that provided an expensive, first-rate insurance plan with a low deductible. She later received a confusing mess of bills for over eight thousand dollars from the hospital and all of their "independent contractors" for services that the insurance company had refused to cover.

I could go on and on, and on, and likely you could too.

Given that President Obama seems to believe that change is synonymous with maintaining the status quo, Senator Max Baucus is a tool of the insurance companies, and our lame, blue dog Representative in the Congress advocates only cosmetic tinkering, it looks as though our medical care will remain in the cold and incapable hands of the insurance industry for the foreseeable future.

Update: Greg says, "don't shoot the messenger," (see comments)