The following was posted on an email list I belong to. In my other life I do some non-profit work in health care reform and patient rights advocacy, and as a result I have developed a particular disdain for insurance companies and the government regulators who fail to regulate them. I have a hunch [...]
Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush staunchly refuses to meet with Cindy Sheehan to explain why he sent her son, Casey, to Iraq to die. Come on, Shrubby, you can do it. [...]
Ruth O'Connor Fisher
Ruth Fisher was born in Pasadena in 1946 and died at Good Samaritan Hospital of Glendale on Wednesday. She graduated from Pasadena High School in 1963 and stayed home to raise three children before opening the Four Paws Pet Retreat in Topanga Canyon twenty years ago.
She is survived by her loving companion George [...]
Good morning, class. Today we're going to learn about Hawaiian Pidgin, that uniquely colorful hybrid language of the Islands that Rob Schneider massacred in 50 First Dates. Don't get me wrong, most everyone in Hawaii loved 50 First Dates, and Rob did an OK job for one funny kine mainland haole. But [...]
The American system of moral values at work, from News of the Weird:
In July, after word got out that the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" could be fitted with an online update to make some of its scenes explicitly sexual, an 85-year-old grandmother in New York sued the company, Rockstar Games, for having [...]
I'm still not sure how it happened. I was looking for something else and I stumbled onto an ezboard called Perfect Pro-Ana. I pride myself on being difficult to shock, yet here I sit with my mouth hanging open. I spend more time on the Internet than most people I know [...]
Consumer advocates said today that California should set a national example by regulating health insurance overhead costs as insurance company profits continue to see double digit increases. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) cited data released today showing that HMO profits increased 10.7 percent in 2004 after an 80 percent increase in 2003, [...]
For several days I have been wondering if I'll ever be able to top the Lori Scheirer story on this blog. Talk about starting things off with a bang! I live a pretty boring life, and now I'm faced with providing something interesting for people to read or risk losing all of my new [...]
Dear Ms. Sheffer,
I am the person who alerted Kelle Gabriel about the false obituary Lori Scheirer submitted to the Marion Star. Because Lori has indicated to Ms. Gabriel that she intends to lie at your meeting about why she filed the fake obituary, I wanted to contact you with some background regarding the events [...]