and the sun rises in the East.

Here's today's installment.

From Brad Delong quoting Kevin Drum  describing the misleading  Social Security “statistics” used by  Alan Simpson.

Drum points out that , since 1940 

 For men, life expectancy at age 65 has gone up   from 78   to 83 .. Since retirement age has gone up from 65 to 67, this means that over the past 60 years the expected payout period has increased by about three years. …….. Alan Simpson  …. has no clue about this.:

 of reading TPM was  being exposed to people who actually knew what they were talking about..

The collapse of the housing market in 2008 was much less of a surprise to any of us who had for years been reading Dean Baker’s  repeated  explanations that housing had become a bubble which would go the way of all bubbles For example , in 2006.

Raj's conviction , will change nothing, is a waste of money and effort and is completely divorced from the  sub prime / CDO financial crisis. With respect to that  I agree with Des and others who complain about the fact no legal action has been taken against anyone- despite acknowledging Gillian Tett's (FT) theory that lhe brilliant people on Wall Street particularly use their billiance to find a way to just avoid acting illegally.

here's part of what bitterlemons was debating this week.

http://www.bitterlemons.net/     

 Members of the Hamas leadership also publicly mourned and eulogized assassinated al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, in sharp contrast to statements made by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and others in the West Bank. 

                                   Capture Team Stood

                                      By for Bin Laden

...............senior officials also said that two teams of specialists were on stand by:One to bury Bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers,interrogators and translaters in case he was captured alive. That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship........

it's true even tho Juan Cole says it,kgb.

http://www.juancole.com/

http://www.juancole.com/

the United Nations Charter ......... recognizes the right of a state to defend itself from attack. Bin Laden had demonstrated that he............. would attack the United States. He was ......... having US troops ..................................................... attacked  .............. every day............ wouldn’t the US have the same right to defend itself as everyone else?

Let's review the bidding.

o Around 8 years ago torture produced some facts  which did not lead to Osama.

o Last year without torture we learned some things which did.

o We don't know the decisiveness of  those   8 year old facts.Maybe they were crucial in causing us to focus  on something we might have overlooked.  Or merely interesting :"oh, there's that guy again".

o We won't be told by the Govt. We'll learn from a leak. 

From Juan Cole today.

Over at Brad Delong's there has been some fervent expressions of opinions about this. Tar and Feathers were mentioned.

"In Australia , the RX 201 , 935 dollars"

Pause. Then a different voice

"In South Africa , the landesmeer goes to 2080 rand"

Pause. Another voice

"Germany. The fixed compressor operated XYZ. 5010 deutschmarks"

Long pause. Last voice

"United States. The hand held nut runner. 425 dollars."

Pause. "Got to get a plane."

"Safe trip"

"See you next time".

You've just attended a price fixing session.courtesy of The  Voice of Flavandia.

From Brad Delong

Pear:

Medicare Proposal Financing Differs From Federal Employee Plan: Under the federal employees’ health plan... the government pays a fixed share of premiums. So the federal contribution generally keeps pace with rising premiums, which in turn reflect rising health costs. No such guarantee exists under the Republicans’ plan to transform Medicare....

Just  so  there is  some alternative to the  Netanyahu prononcements it's worth recognizing that there are other Israeli views which are  much more balanced. As usual they can be found on bitter lemons.

The two Israeli views in the link are from a former assistant to Prime Minister Barak, and  a retired general. One of the two Palestinian views is from a former minister in an Hamas govt.

http://www.bitterlemons.net/

.

tonight who tells us which way the wind's blowing ? If need be after the poll close in BC..

Ryan wants to replace medicare with block grants with which the poor  obtain health insurance.

Can carriers charge less for health insurance than the Government?

No. the Govt doesn't have to earn a profit to provide an ROI for its shareholders.

Will carriers be able to provide health insurance at a loss because it will be offset by profit on the premiums from  the healthy young?

We can't stop illegal immigration so make it legal.

Charge every visitor $500 and welcome them . If they claim they're here as tourists give them a free ticket for the boat to the statue of liberty .

 From The Guardian

A woman accused of murdering her four-day-old baby girl by trying to kill herself with rat poison while pregnant has become a cause célèbre .............

Bei Bei Shuai, 34, a restaurant owner who moved to the US from China 10 years ago, was pregnant and planning to marry her boyfriend until she learned late last year that he was already married and he would be abandoning her.