Game Over America: Universal Healthcare By October (Thanks Obama)

Before any of the healthcare nuts (from either side) flame the comment section, I want you to take a look at this chart from the Washington Post.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the future burden of America. Your kids, and grand kids and great grand kids are going to have to pay this massive debt back.

Despite this massive debt, it now looks like our awesomely, awesome politicians are now thinking of making Universal healthcare a reality--even if they have to enact the nuclear option to get it.

(The New Republic) It's been in the works for a while and now, according to senior Captiol Hill staffers, it's a done deal: The final budget resolution will include a "reconciliation instruction" for health care. That means the Democrats can pass health care reform with just fifty votes, instead of the sixty it takes to break a filibuster.

The deal was hatched late afternoon and last night, in a five-hour negotiating session at the office of Senate Majoriy Leader Harry Reid. A trio of White House officials were there: Rahm Emanuel, Peter Orszag, and Phil Schiliro. Also present, along with Reid, were House Budget Chairman John Spratt and Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad.

The reonciliation instruction specifies a date. That date, according to one congressional staffer, is October 15. (The original House reconciliation instruction had a late September deadline.)

The New Republic goes on how supposedly this will be funded via pay as you go, which is a great theory and all except for one thing--we are in a fraking recession folks! When everyone is currently scrounging around for cash, the last thing they need is another tax when they are already struggling to pay their utilities.

Since the pay as you go model is (probably) doomed to fail, President Obama is probably going to have to pass another "stimulus" bill in order to fund this boondoggle, which means your upcoming inheritance may have a future resembling Zimbabwe when the Chinese cash in on all those bonds we owe them.

Whether you are for healthcare or not is irrelevant by one simple fact: universal healthcare is very expensive! If this bill passes (which I fear it will) then America's future will probably look something like this:

Game over America.

(Hat Tip: AllahPundit on Hot Air, Image Credit: Unable to read artist name in photo, but its there)

Testing Windows Live Writer

This is just a demo test of Windows live writer. If this works, it could save me some serious browser hassle (as Firefox eats up too much memory, Google Chrome still has issues with tabs and IE is not fast enough for me while Opera makes the web look ugly).

Also doing an image test as well. Here is firefox…

 

Next is Internet Explorer…

Last (but not least) is Google Chrome…

Should I ad video as well? Hmm…

Selah!

Let 1,000 Urban Gardens Bloom

Wow, this is really a great idea! Perhaps I should figure out how to grow my own garden (as it might be cheaper than buying food from Wal*Mart).

Blogger Vs WordPress (And Why I Choose Both)

I hate to dissappoint the fan boys and girls on both sides of the fence, but this is not a post bashing one side or the other.

Rather it is simply my reflection of two of the most popular blogging services, Blogger (as well as it's eternal beta Blogger in Draft) and WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com, which I would not recommend using due to it's limitations, which I'll explain below).



Where WordPress Excels

What I love about WordPress can be summed up in one word: design.

You'll won't find a larger collection of beautiful themes outside of this platform, which probably explains why do many Blogger themes are imported from WordPress.

While there are plenty of free WordPress themes out there, I would recommend purchasing a premium theme (like Elegant Themes which is inexpensive).

Another thing I love about WordPress is that it is comment friendly. Instead of using CAPTCHA's or weird puzzles, WordPress users can use Askimet (spelling?) which uses geek magic to decipher between the spammers and the humans (WordPress.org users I would recommend using WP Spam Free which is better--and free!).

These anti-spam plugins keep make the WordPress commenting design much friendlier--unless of course you are a spammer. ;-)

Last but not least the ability to add pages is a plus, which allows you to create an "about me" section, making your blog much more professional.




Where Blogger Excels

Owned by Google, Blogger is the most popular blogging platform online. If I could sum up Blogger in one word, it would be this: freedom.

When it comes to posting media content (whether images, video or iframe documents) Blogger has IMHO no close rival. Users are allowed to embed content from anywhere, without the fear of it being blocked due to "security reasons" (which is why I don't use WordPress.com).

You can also embed content from Google Docs, a feature I found to be lacking in WordPress (both of them).

Over in the Blogger in Draft arena, users can easily adjust the position of the image within the post by simply dragging it, a feature that makes "dressing up" the post all the easier.

This one feature saves me a lot of time, as I don't have to muck with the code in order to find the perferct picture placement.

Users can also upload video directly into Blogger, without the need to upload it on YouTube or elsewhere, which is great way to keep the video on your blog instead of infront of the public masses.

Last but not least Blogger's widgets make it very easy to add, adjust or remove content from your blog, without the need to enter within the admin arena.

Conclusion

While I could have mentioned other items (like WordPress Plugins or specific Blogger widgets), these above pretty much sum up the major differences between the two.

Since neither WordPress or Blogger are meeting my complete needs, I've decided to use both platforms until one of them steps up their game. I already have 8 blogs (4 on Blogger, 2 on WordPress.com and 2 running WordPress.org on my own server).

Both WordPress and Blogger are excellent services, although if you are short on cash I would recommend using Blogger (as you can blog on your own domain for $10/year) although if you prefer to host you own blog on your own server, I would suggest using WordPress.org.


--Posted via iPhone