Inside the school gymnasium, the president said: "Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path. Medicare is slated to go into the red in about eight to 10 years."

Outside the school, the Journal's Jonathan Weisman interviewed Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H. Campbell's mother has an autoimmune disease that "is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare." Campbell's sister, the story notes, "was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled."

In a more logical world, one might expect Campbell's worldview to incorporate the reality that her family relies on a government program to provide essential health care. Campbell might have quarrels with the generosity of Medicare benefits or with how the Medicare program is run. She might legitimately worry that in extending health care to others, the government could divert resources currently available to her mother and her sister through Medicare.

But whatever critique she provided, presumably it would come from a perspective that was consciously left-of-center, because Campbell's bottom line appears to be that the government should continue to extend, or even expand, medical benefits to her family.

Now take a look at the placards that Campbell was waving (that's her in pink).

The two signs are identical, except that one contains a crucifix while the other contains a peace sign. They read: HEY AMERICA, YOU WANT CHANGE. HITLER DID TOO!! A drawing depicts Obama giving the Sieg Heil salute in front of a Nazi swastika. Lest you confuse Campbell's signs with Christian-tinged leftist agitprop, the word SOCIALISM appears under the rendering of Obama as storm trooper. "Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism—that's what's going to happen," Campbell told the Journal.

This is why I don't watch town hall meetings on TV. Nobody with at least a halfway informed opinion shows up.

-janelane

Healthcare "debate"

Moving cautiously, the government did not immediately recommend asylum for the Mexican woman, who is identified in the court papers only by her initials as L.R. But the Department of Homeland Security, in the unusual submission written by senior government lawyers, concluded in plain terms that “it is possible” that the Mexican woman “and other applicants who have experienced domestic violence could qualify for asylum.”

As recently as last year, Bush administration lawyers had argued in the same case that battered women could not meet the strict standards of American asylum law.

As if I didn't need another reason to hate Bush's presidency...

-janelane

U.S. Opens Path to Asylum for Victims of Sexual Abuse - NYTimes.com

Holy shit. Oregon Trail for the iPhone.

I knew there was a good reason to paid 200 bucks for this damn thing!

-janelane

Slate V

ADELPHI, Md. — A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver.

This is a blow to migraine sufferers like myself, but I'm sure other products will soon fill the gap left by these medicines. I just wish they had actually addressed the core problem (medicines which are a combination of acetaminophen) instead of two of the culprits.

-janelane

Ban Is Advised on 2 Top Pills for Pain Relief - NYTimes.com

When first invited by Optimus Prime to aid the Autobots in their struggle, Sam resists, saying, "This isn't my war." Eventually, of course, he's drawn into caring about the alien battle, but the audience never is. The cacophonous final showdown between Jetpack and Camshaft, or whatever the last robots standing are named, takes place in some abstract dimension of pure blockbusterdom, impervious to human identification or emotion. It isn't my war, and if it rages on into the summer of 2010, I plan on defecting to Canada.

What's shocking isn't that the new Transformers sucks, it's that the reviewer thought the first one was good.

If you are looking for a good movie, see Drag Me to Hell. Great acting, story development, and guts in just 100 minutes.

-janelane

Transformers: If Only This Sequel Could Transform Itself Into a Better Movie

Ed McMahon, who for nearly 30 years was Johnny Carson’s affable second banana on “The Tonight Show,” introducing it with his ringing trademark call, “Heeeere’s Johnny!,” died early Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 86.

So sad he wasn't able to get back on his feet.

-janelane

Ed McMahon, America’s Top Second Banana, Dies at 86 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

In today's installment of the government's continued erosion of individual rights...

WASHINGTON — Prisoners have no constitutional right to DNA testing that might prove their innocence, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a 5-to-4 decision.

The case cited could seemingly be appealed based on incompetent representation. The defendant's lawyer declined to use the testing when it was available during trial.

-janelane

Justices Reject Inmate Right to DNA Tests - NYTimes.com

In 2006, Matrixx paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who claimed that the product destroyed their sense of smell, a condition known as anosmia. Hundreds more such suits have since been filed.

Do not use a drug that is not FDA approved. Even drugs that go through the 10-year approval process can end up causing devastating side effects, much less the ones cooked up in some lab in the desert.

-janelane

F.D.A. Warns Against Use of Zicam - NYTimes.com

One explanation comes from Douglas Preston, a prominent best-selling American author who lived in the Florentine hills while researching a book about a serial killer never found, “The Monster of Florence,” co-authored by Italian journalist Mario Spezi.

After the serial murders stopped, a prosecutor decided to reopen the case. His theory was that the killer or killers were Satanists from an ancient cult that harvested body parts. That prosecutor is the same one in the Knox case – Giuliano Mignini.

“One day I’m walking down the streets of Florence when my cell phone rings,” said Preston in an interview. “They say, ‘This is the police – we’re coming to get you.’” For three hours, the author was interrogated by Mignini about possible connections to the case. His phone calls with co-author Spezi had been wiretapped, and Mignini asked him to explain things. Preston said he was told he must confess to perjury or obstruction of justice.

I love Douglas Preston's books and his co-authorships with Lincoln Child. This is an amazing story about Amanda Knox which I am sure is rife with bias from both this author and the Italian authorities. It is hard to believe the truth could ever come from such a patchwork.

-janelane

An American Abroad - Amanda Knox charged with murdering her roommate

Muse Opiang was working as a field research officer when he became seized by a passion for the long-beaked echidna, or Zaglossus bartoni, which are found only in the tropical rain forests of New Guinea and a scattering of adjacent islands. He had seen them once or twice in captivity and in photographs — plump, terrier-size creatures abristle with so many competing notes of crane, mole, pig, turtle, tribble, Babar and boot scrubber that if they didn’t exist, nobody would think to Photoshop them. He knew that the mosaic effect was no mere sight gag: as one of just three surviving types of the group of primitive egg-laying mammals called monotremes, the long-beaked echidna is a genuine living link between reptiles and birds on one branch, and more familiar placental mammals like ourselves on the next.

I love that description. Tribble...ha!

-janelane

Basics - Brainy Echidna Proves Looks Aren’t Everything - NYTimes.com