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Friday links! Compromise or I’ll murder us all edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links September 27, 2013 1 Comment

Would this man do something merely to aggrandize himself?

Come on, America: let’s stop all this fighting and fussing. Let’s put aside the disagreements, the system we developed to arbitrate our national will through representatives and votes, and compromise by giving me what I want. When you disagree, you have to compromise eventually. That’s what mature people do. We should definitely compromise in this case, because otherwise I’m going to destroy us all. Our factories will lie ruined atop our schools. Our children will earn pennies a day performing on the internet for the Chinese. The Koch brothers will divide our corpses between them to burn for fuel. Today is Friday, and everything is going to be fine, provided you just compromise. If you don’t, I’m going to murder everybody.

Surprise!

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized September 26, 2013 1 Comment

Combat! blog got socked in at Georgetown Lake this morning, which was not a fun euphemism like it sounds. That’s a foot of snow overnight during the last week of September. That’s Montana. You would not approve of the mountain road I drove down in my rear-wheel drive pickup to escape, but it was worth it to bring you today’s extremely half-assed post. Behold! It’s my column in the Missoula Independent, about just what message Rep. Steve Daines tried to send with two purely symbolic votes in the House last week. Hint: he does not like food stamps, and he hates trees. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links, somehow alive.

House thwarts bill to create National Science Laureate

By Dan Brooks in Epistemology September 25, 2013 0 Comment

Science

Yesterday, House Republicans stymied what was expected to be a fast-track bill to create a National Science Laureate, who would foster public understanding and encourage children to pursue careers in scientific inquiry. That would be a mistake. The future will not be determined according to hard truths; children should pursue careers in obfuscation and, when possible, money. That way they can follow their role model Larry Hart, a lobbyist for the American Conservative Union, who wrote a letter to members of the House calling the bill a “needless addition to the long list of presidential appointments” and claiming that it would allow Obama to pick a laureate “who will share his view that science should serve political ends, on such issues as climate change and regulation of greenhouse gases.”

Two more good deals from Generation Opportunity

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government September 24, 2013 8 Comments

What’s really creepy is the combination of photograph and illustration.

In the comments section of yesterday’s post about Generation Opportunity’s campaign to get young people to “opt out” of Obamacare by not buying health insurance, Myeh posted a link to this Craigslist ad for a “patriotic but weird Uncle Sam.” The ad seeks a male with “street theatre experience” to wear the Sam costume for a “conference of young activists” in Chantilly, VA. Sure enough, Generation Opportunity is based in Virginia, and they’re launching a tour of 20 college campuses later this month. Their message? The individual mandate doesn’t mean that you, individually, have to get health insurance. You’re better off getting nothing and paying the fine.

“Generation Opportunity” urges young people not to buy health insurance

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government September 23, 2013 2 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cRsfW0Jv8

The commercial above was produced by Generation Opportunity, a Koch brothers-funded political activism group that encourages young people to “opt out” of Obamacare by not buying health insurance. First of all, it’s good to see the leprechaun from Leprechaun working again. Second, the “opt out” campaign is designed to sabotage the Affordable Care Act by disrupting state insurance exchanges. For insurers to offer lower premiums, they need to enroll large numbers of relatively healthy young people, who dilute the risk pool for everyone else. If large numbers of young Americans refuse to buy health insurance, the exchanges will falter, [ill-defined step two] and, finally, Obamacare will disappear. Unintended consequences after the jump.