Furious Indifference.

Calif. teen's family sues Cigna over transplant LOS ANGELES – The family of a 17-year-old leukemia patient has sued health insurance giant Cigna Corp. for her death in 2007 after the company initially refused to pay for a liver transplant. The lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court by the family's attorney, Mark Geragos, alleges breach of contract, unfair business practices and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit accuses Cigna of delaying and rejecting valid claims, which resulted in the wrongful death of Nataline Sarkisyan. The Philadelphia-based insurer eventually approved the transplant after Sarkisyan's family held a rally outside Cigna's suburban Los Angeles office. Nataline, however, died hours after the approval was secured. Bastards.

No, shit? Really?

This sucks: Four recruiter suicides in single battalion spark Army probe

So, 2 1/2 tons of Pot (wow, that's so, so dangerous) was found in a abandoned Afghanistan school (must have been shitty weed). I'm sorry. I know it is a serious thing, the counter-insurgency campaign in that godforsaken country, but why is it headline news that some pot, that serves as black-market currency (that's why the world should legalize all drugs, first and foremost)? I know, because American sensibility is so fucking skewed that a small mountain of pot (2 1/2 tons is a shitload, granted) ranks above the hideous theft of the treasury, the possible impending collapse of the auto industry (without which, we'd have lost WWII), and Obama tapping a homophobic bigot to give the invocation at his inauguration.

Christmas next week... love the season for my son, otherwise... would like to just have New Year's Eve, and skip straight to the flowering of the plants in the Spring.

Protect Marriage, Protect Children, Prohibit Divorce PS Homophobia is just, like, ohmygawd, like so, gay.

Funny things, PCs. My $400 laptop runs circles around my $2300 Sony Vaio (2.8 GHz P4, 1GB RAM) because it is 5 years "younger." Amazing shit. I bought a little USB HDTV ATSC receiver and enjoy beautiful over-the-air HD broadcasts on my laptop... for shits and grins, I plugged it in to my Sony, and it was as if I'd asked it to solve Pi to 3 million decimal places! LOL! It did a decent, albeit, hitchy job of displaying standard definition channels, but HD? Nope. Ah, Moore's law continues, no longer is it clock cycles, but it will be again, and then it will be architecture change again (multiple cores for now), ad infinitum ... until we accidentally build SkyNet. I'm guessing in 10 years, a run-of-the-mill PC will have the computational power of some of the "supercomputers" of today. I know, not a stretch. I'm just trying to get my head around the software that will be inevitably written to bog down that much CPU/Memory horsepower, because those damn d

I've been on Facebook for a few months; but only recently have I used it to catch up to old friends... mostly because my best friend (who is, apparently the glue that binds our circle of friends) decided to check it out. All of a sudden I'm fielding "friend requests," from people I hadn't seen in over 20 years... so cool...

So, I was in the gym minding my own business when this little dude (shorter than I, so yeah, little) walks up to the woman working out next to me and I can't help but over hear him prattling on about how he is going to set up tables at an old folks home and get medicare to pay for his 'services.' I assume he's a massage therapist or worse, a chiropractor. I don't pay it much mind, but then he launches into a mini-diatribe toward his clearly uninterested friend about how Obama is going to ruin the health care industry in his first year in office, and blah, fucking, blah, fucking, yada , yada . I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes. He turned to me, and asked me what I thought since I obviously didn't agree. I told him that I thought if we could borrow what works from European and Canadian models I think we could seriously reduce the cost of health care (which is the highest in the world, yet we have a much higher mortality rate anyway) and provide coverage for many

House approves $14 billion rescue bill for U.S. automakers I mean seriously, this is just fucking surreal. All of a sudden, after giving Paulson and the Wall St. banks a $350 BILLION blank check (with another already signed for another cool 400 Bill), they are getting chintzy with US companies that actually make shit and employ millions of people, you know, American people? The freaking nerve, eh? I know that the big 3 ain't all that popular, but still... letting them go under during this downturn, is like telling someone who is having a heart attack that they should perhaps, go on a diet or something.

[snark] Barack Obama got his political start in Illinois. So, since the current Governor of Illinois, who is, by the way, bat-shit crazy or incredibly, incredibly stupid, but, yet, somehow cynically cunning, this then means Obama is clearly unqualified to assume office. Even though Obama's campaign scrupulously and overtly avoided the Governor at every turn. Nevertheless, President-Elect Obama is connected, closer than Kevin Bacon for sure, and should spare the United States any further embarrassment and ask Bush to stay on until 2012 at least, perhaps until 2016 even. [/snark]

Despite what Gallup is saying, I'll take the under on this Friday's Jobless Claims Report and I am afraid it is going to be uuuu-gly. After Dubya admitting he, once again , ignored dire warnings, I don't think this recession has even remotely bottomed out, even though recessions typically last about a year. This is going to be the daddy of all modern-day recessions I'm afraid. Continuing to be employed through this one will be no easy feat.

Who could have predicted that the Bush administration would continue to fuck things up until the very last minute? Um, anybody could have? You are correct sir! Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner! I just threw up in my mouth a little.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Mumbai Tragedy Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video

Apparently it means an incestuous child-molesting, fake-southern accent, dirt bag, who was willing to smear a disabled Vietnam vet to become a senator on the back of racist sentiments. Nice guy.

I was joking with a friend yesterday morning that the sun will "shovel" my snow tomorrow, and besides, shoveling snow can be dangerous, either from physical injury or heart attack. Didn't realize you could be shot too... Breaking News: Man found dead in Stetson Hills shot to death From what I've gleaned from neighbors and friends and the sketchy details from the local media and constabulary, a 46 year-old man was shot to death in front of his home Sunday morning while shoveling snow. I was taking my son to his Mom's house Sunday around noon and noticed an unusually large police presence in my neighborhood... figured they'd perhaps cleared a multi-car pileup or something earlier because of the weather; there was about 6 inches of snow on the roads. I had no idea that some poor guy was gunned down in really quiet (normally) suburban neighborhood. The fact that nobody has been arrested yet (it has been over 36 hours) is leading me to believe that perhaps if this

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Economy shrinking, home prices drop by record amount No wonder I've been having dreams about being in my old Air Force uniform... oh, and the occasional lost-in-the-mall, naked at school Apocalypse dreams too...

Wow. We atheists, agnostics, and even people, who don't buy into the theological and divisive nonsense pushed by excessive book-thumpers like the above douchebags are "teh enemy!!" These angry charlatans who obviously suffer from extreme inferiority complexes attempt to hijack Christianity for a really stupid and narrow homophobic and authoritarian cause, will ironically be the undoing of their religion.

22 US banks collapsed this year Apparently Citibank (aka Citigroup ) is next ... I'm guessing the only reason we aren't seeing literal "runs on banks," in the US, aside from the fact most Americans have no savings to worry about and are too lazy or fat to form a line these days, but that it is just taking place in the world of the infinitesimally small, the electrons and photons screaming about on the billions of miles of copper wires and fiber lines, instead of mobs in the bank's lobbies. A Quantum Quandry, no? England's Northern Rock, when it collapsed saw a "run," but it went largely unnoticed by mainstream media (don't want to panic folks) ... wonder if that will continue?

In September 2007, with Wall Street confronting a crisis caused by too many souring mortgages, Citigroup executives gathered in a wood-paneled library to assess their own well-being. There, Citigroup ’s chief executive, Charles O. Prince III , learned for the first time (emphasis added) that the bank owned about $43 billion in mortgage-related assets. He asked Thomas G. Maheras , who oversaw trading at the bank, whether everything was O.K. Mr. Maheras told his boss that no big losses were looming, according to people briefed on the meeting who would speak only on the condition that they not be named. Oh, and it just gets better and better . But seriously, this isn't really funny at all. Unless you are sitting on a pile of gold and are loaded for bear, the next couple of years look to be, um, troublesome. Citigroup is poised to make the failure of AIG and Lehman Bros look like walk in the park. Oh, and what's Emperor Nero doing? That wanker is probably watching ESPN and sc

Bye, bye Money... sniff. Now, I would love to deflect the seriousness of the economic troubles we've seen so far and what seems to be coming "down the pike," with sarcasm. Would that it'd work to stave off the jittery nervousness... Today was a bad day at the international, craps table . Even relatively calm, staid even, investors are getting a wee bit dodgy. I'm not liking the looks of this slow-motion train wreck one little bit. I had to liquidate my paltry 401(k) a few years ago, so I don't have much dough on the table. Though, I can just imagine how painful it must be for others who were contemplating retirement in the next few years... it's almost as if the timing is just too coincidental to be, well, simply coincidental . To see your portfolio value drop by double digit percentage points every quarter must be at minimum, disconcerting... There are a dozen or so "baby boomers," in my office that seriously were plotting retirement in the nex

Don't get me wrong, I sort of like George Will, but DA'AM!!, could you just throw an easier and more stupid underhanded softball across the plate of a Nobel Prize-winning economist, who along with very few economists (on both sides of the political isle) predicted the current credit market/economic meltdown? Are you intentionally throwing the game, pulling a 'black-sox,' George? I guess that would be charitable. Did you toss him that meatball because you're slipping or is there something you know, or are hearing things among the DC cocktail party set about which you aren't telling? Are you so rattled, that you prattled on with "Free-Market" talking points with your pants tightly wrapped around your ankles instead of actually engaging Dr. Krugman in a sentient conversation? I mean, I know George is one of the "kool kids," in DC, and probably hasn't been challenged seriously since I was a zygote, but jeesh, you have to wonder if their is so

Yahoo News awards senators to Toyota, BMW Cynics have long linked senators with the major companies in the states they serve -- or simply have said Washington was in the pockets of big corporations.Vice President-Elect Joe Biden , for example, was tagged with the label D- MBNA , after the credit card company, for his support for a recent bill making it harder for consumers to declare bankruptcy. Delaware is home to MBNA and other major credit card issuers. But never in recent memory have news organizations labeled senators as being representatives of those companies outright.Until today.... Yahoo News today listed two United States senators as proxies for the major auto manufacturers BMW and Toyota. The senators in question are Sen. Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).Their headline? "Toyota, BMW senators oppose auto rescue." I'm so sure these two really are simply being 'principled conservatives,' um, yeah. To object to a $25 billion loan to auto ma

I mentioned in an earlier post about getting high and watching stupid 80's movies while in college. Continuing that theme, and the reminiscences and fondness and reappearance of simpler times when deep thoughts were cheaply derived and spent. I was reminded of an album called Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield that famously incorporated what is popularly known as the "Exorcist's Theme," in a way that made getting high, and driving to the beach with life-long friends all the more surreal and super-cool! And yet, Tubular bells is so much more for me... at least. The entire album was a spectacular masterpiece of paced hypnotic, slow-motion crescendo, and back when you had to get up and flip over the vinyl and very easily damaged (i.e., scratched) disk and drop the synthetic diamond-electrode attached tip of your turntable's arm into a microscopic valley of millions of undulating bumps and smooth troughs like so many tiny luge runs, that were inversely pressed their by t

Fuck Michigan, They Don't Vote For Us Anyway h/t - Atrios I'm not especially surprised that the Republican senators oppose a Big Auto bailout, though I am a bit surprised at the harshness of the rhetoric. WASHINGTON — Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a “dinosaur” whose “day of reckoning” is coming. Their opposition raises serious doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week’s postelection session. Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler. -------------------------------------------------------------- My take is that the Republicans are half right, GM is a freaking Dinosaur alright, so are a lot of other industries around the world, but most, unlike US industries, don't have to factor in the cost of health care for employees ( until they turn 65, when Medicare kicks in. Whi

The duality of sexual ideation and the biological function of female breasts first occurred to me, in a seriously conscious way that is, over 20 years ago while I was getting stoned with a college friend (Hi Rick!) We were watching a juvenile movie ( Party Animal ) that had a scene panning left to right across a long line of breasts filmed from the neck down. I was struck profoundly by the surreal nature of it, like watching a documentary on mammary glands and breast milk production rather than the intended sexually provocative scene. That said, cleavage arouses me, as I'm a heterosexual male; but, I'm not so obtuse I fail to understand complaints that when guys objectify breasts in a way that separates them from the human they are attached to, it pisses women off. And rightly so. Salma Hayek is beautiful and sexually attractive. No kidding. She has large breasts, and apparently the larger the breasts, th e broader the license to make fun, debase, and, or sexualize the

Hmmm. I've been thinking a lot lately about the timing of the "financial market meltdown," and the subsequent dive in the over all value of the average investor's portfolio [401(k), mutual funds, Roth's, etc). No, not that it is happening at the end of the reign of the ass hats known as Republicans, though the douche bags can be largely blamed with their blind, slavish devotion to killing any and all regulation that appears to impede unbridled greed. Rather, I've been thinking of the role/blame the Fed and other quasi-governmental organizations around the world. And if this was even partially intentional, why? My only plausible theory was the financial-withdrawal galaxy-sized black hole that is the fabled retirement of the Baby Boomers. What better way to reduce liability and rob them blind to the tune of trillions than to deflate the global economies for the first 10 or 20 years of this gargantuan wave of retirements? Just a thought.

Spent my entire day knee/neck deep in multiple Sun Cluster nightmarish catch-22s and meta database corruption hell... add the innocent and well intentioned and way too frequent queries of "how's it going?" My pat reply was a mildly churlish grin with, "um, not sure yet, could be a month or more..." After the look of shock starts to spread across their faces, I reply with a juvenile, "just kidding!" It works. Finally got everything completely unscrewed just in time for me to head out of work to pick up my little buddy, who was saying good bye to a sweet daycare worker who is headed back to Louisiana after having come here to start a new life. Sadly reminded me in many ways of how I met my ex, she being from Louisiana and coming here for a new life... but here boyfriend here in Colorado turned out to be a "dirt bag," in her words, and she's going back. I told her, she probably isn't going to miss the winter that is surely waiting for u

This Day in History, November 14 th Friday 14, 2003: Planetoid 90377 Sedna is discovered. (hopefully it won't hit us "When I'm Sixty-Four). Thursday 14, 2002: The US House of Representatives votes to not create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks. Wednesday 14, 2001: Attack on Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul. Tuesday 14, 2000: Netscape Navigator version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development. Saturday 14, 1998: Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra are married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tuesday 14, 1995: A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums. Sunday 14, 1993: Michael Jackson enters a drug rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to painkillers. Thursday 14, 1991: A fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding

I'm pretty sure that short-term memory and/or amnesia has erased the fact that Iran was moving toward democratization and reform in 2000 and 2001 and even for a while after the terrorist attacks of September 11 th , 2001 and actually offered assistance against the Taliban and Al Qaeda (Iranians are Shia and Persian, not Sunni and Arab); nonetheless, since Iran has been the obsession of the neocons (see: PNAC /Shah of Iran/CIA/British Petroleum/MI6, ad nausea) for the last 50 years or more, it was no matter. Even with hours and hours of footage of average Iranian citizens offering their heartfelt condolences, and despite back channel offers of help, they were to be lumped in with the 9/11 crazy nut bag fundamentalist nihilists anyway. Which has slowly evolved into one of the greatest strategic fuck ups in human history, perhaps only short of Germany's Eastern Front or Napoleon and the same folly (funny, how warmonger's think they can do the same thing, over and over agai

I'm not posting this so much to mock it, and all of it's multiple layers of irony... if I have to spell them all out for you I'll have to spank you, you naughty thing, you! No, I'm posting it because you can't help but giggle, and like the guy. :-)

To Obama's political opponents, this picture probably appears opportunistic, yet it is undeniably powerful, they may see it as cynical, even manipulative; yet it is beautifully poignant regardless. Despite the infinite perceptions that will manifest in millions of minds that see this picture, there is one undeniable singular sobering truth. Sacrifice. On that -- left, right, up, down, the churlish, and serious can agree. On this day, the 11th day of the 11th month, the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, when it was, finally, " All Quiet on the Western Front ," we can all at least agree to honor 'sacrifice,' despite our political differences.

A Solemn Veteran's Day. My utmost Love and Respect to my fellow veterans, but especially so to those who have actually experienced combat, who have been injured, and most of all, to those who gave everything, and to their families who only have the remains of their memories to honor this day. Ninety (90) years, after the "end of major combat operations," in Europe in the "War to End All Wars" or "The Great War" or as it officially became known, WWI , after we stupid humans didn't think that one settled things and started another one. Now, generations later, we have this fucking bozo who has the goddamn nerve to say: I will miss being Commander-in-Chief !? Bush expresses regret over 'Mission Accomplished' banner (yeah, right!) Something tells me, lots of veterans, will not, miss you, President Bush, as Commander-in-Chief (CINC). MY Personal Anecdote: I still remember the memo (one of the first) from Donald Rumsfeld, Office of Secretary o

Two points, okay three. First, cable news is not the same as over-the-air broadcast news, as far as the FCC rules go (that's another discussion). Second, who gives a fuck other than hypocritical retards anyway? Last, it was a stupid slip of the tongue, and if he had actually said, "eff-you" instead of "fuck you," what sentient human being doesn't know what he meant anyway? Pretty stupid I guess. I wouldn't have bothered to post this, but I found it, in a juvenile way, funny of course, but the fact the Joe (who I like for some odd reason) is a raging queen of hypocrisy in regard to the good ole "F-Bomb." And I admit a passing crush on Mika Brzezinski . It is funny how all of the talking heads hardly, if ever, need more than a degree of separation from any given president, huh? "To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity." - Irving Wallace

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I've wondered, wondered a lot lately, do people who use their religion to spew invective against others, be they gay, Jewish, black, or what have you, ever consider the cosmic coincidence, that their God, conveniently, hates the same people that they do? I just, time to time, wonder if there is any point during their rants of hate, does something tickle some part of their brain about how weird it is that the all powerful creator of the entire universe, which, logically, yet inconveniently enough, include the very people they hate is just simply fucking with them? No, of course not. Assholes. Hypocritically perhaps, but at least honestly, I admit that I indulge in what they apparently get off on. The hate, the disgust, the feelings of superiority. Their delusion of some "God-given" right to discriminate against people gives me, ironically, the same (I'm guessing) visceral superiority complex-driven endorphin rush that they enjoy. My disgust and disagreement with bigots

Adagio For Strings is the most exquisitely sad piece of classical music in my humble opinion. (Brought grown men to tears, during the final scene of Willem Defoe's death in the movie, Platoon ).

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Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com .

From http://www.236.com/ "Tomorrow? Can't. Phonebanking." LOL! You volunteered for a politician. You. The same selfish, cynical, misanthropic son of a bitch your friends and family have been forced to tolerate for years, stayed in on weeknights dialing phone numbers in Colorado and bothering strangers during dinner about their voting locations. You'll surely go back to hating people and in sincerity eventually, but for now it's pretty weird to see.

LOL ! The Mormon Church is whining , whining, about people bitching and protesting it's role in California's Prop 8 (aptly rhymes with hate of course). One sometimes has to wonder why religions concern themselves, almost to the point of exclusion of all else, with what other human beings do with their naughty bits. You know, war and poverty and whatnot just do not rate when the "evil that must be stopped," is going on behind closed doors between consenting adults. Really, if Mormons, and members of other religions, especially the Evangelicals (Dr. Dobson , et al ) really did want to reduce the number of times homosexuals engaged in S. E. X. then they should actually be for Gay Marriage, not against it. Because, believe me, if you want to stop having so much sex with the person you are dating, marry him or her and give it a few years of seeing each other in thousands of unguarded moments, familiarity eventually does breed contempt, or at least, inhibits the libido to

His name was Bruiser , not because we wanted a fighting dog, but that was his name when we adopted him from a rescue, and he seemed to be traumatized enough without having to adjust to a new, less gladiatorial name. He was incredibly sensitive and loving, especially towards my son; and even became a doting playmate of a little white kitten, named Angel. Pit Bulls are maligned because of the jerks that mistreat them and make them dangerous, not because there is anything inherently wrong with them or the breed. As usual, it is the people, not the animal, that is at fault. Yet, the animal pays the ultimate price.

Sarah Palin is being panned for not knowing the member countries of NAFTA by the snide "gotcha" assholes in the media. The thing is, Canada, the US, and Mexico aren't the only signatories. And I'll bet my life's savings that, unaided (of course, no Googling!) none of you reading this could, actually, name all of the countries in "North America." I'm not defending Sarah Palin , the Moose-Murdering, religious- nutbag , and God knows what else crazy woman who'll be with us for some time to come... I am just pointing out, as many progressives and conservatives alike often do, laziness in the media, and the accompanying snarky condescension that turn most people who would otherwise perhaps choose public service to think twice about running for office. But honestly, if you do want to be a public servant, you should be warned that an education and intellect along with civic knowledge is pretty much a basic requirement. But, with an electorate like