What? You've Got Something to Hide?

Could be time for an audit.

Life Inside North Korea

Adam Johnson in GQ:

At a lavish Wonsan guesthouse, Fujimoto prepared sushi for a group of executives who would be arriving on a yacht. Executive is Fujimoto's euphemism for generals, party officials, or high-level bureaucrats. In other words, Kim Jong-il's personal entourage. And guesthouse is code for a series of palaces decorated with cold marble, silver-braided bedspreads, ice purple paintings of kimilsungia blossoms, and ceilings airbrushed with the cran-apple mist of sunset, as if Liberace's jet had crashed into Lenin's tomb.

At two in the morning, the boat finally docked. Fujimoto began serving sushi for men who obviously had been through a long party already. He would come to realize these parties tended to be stacked one atop another, sometimes four in a row, spreading out over days.

All the men wore military uniforms except for one imperious fellow in a casual sports tracksuit. This man was curious about the fish. He asked Fujimoto about the marbled, fleshy cuts he was preparing.
"That's toro," Fujimoto told him.

For the rest of the night, this man kept calling out, "Toro, one more!"

The next day, Fujimoto was talking to the mamasan of his hotel. She was holding a newspaper, the official Rodong Sinmun, and on the front page was a photo of the man in the tracksuit. Fujimoto told her this was the man he'd just served dinner.

"She started trembling," Fujimoto said of the moment he realized the man's true identity. "Then I started trembling..."

Interesting article.

h/t: WetDry

Whoops

via

Death Panels

From Politico:

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to allow 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan to be moved to the adult lung transplant list, giving her a better chance of receiving a potentially life-saving transplant.
The quick and unusual ruling, made after a hastily scheduled emergency hearing, follows a campaign by the family and some members of Congress to pressure the Obama administration to change a federal policy that puts children under age 12 at the bottom of the list of those who can receive donated adult lungs.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/sarah-murnaghan-lung-transplant-ruling-kathleen-sebelius-92299.html#ixzz2VQ0t8n1y

 This may be the sensible thing to do but transplant rules are complex and troubling things. No matter what you do, some people will die waiting for a transplant. And some of those people will be children. There is no way around it because there just aren't enough transplantable organs to go around. I'm happy to leave it in the hands of doctors and medical ethicists.

But Obamacare is going to go wrong not because of organ shortages, but because of money shortages. Premiums are going to go up. You can't supply breast pumps, and birth control, morning after pills, and annual check-ups to the entire population without cost going way up.  Add to that the cost of campaigns to inform everyone that such things are available, and other fitness and educational programs and you've got a financial Godzilla demanding to be fed. I said it back when this nonsense started: If you think health care is expensive now, just wait til it's free.

But Obama can't go back on the goodies he's promised in order to get votes. He, through Sebelius, will have to cut services in order to manage costs. (which will still be going up, heck, they're already going up) So because we have to supply birth control to everyone, someone won't get a pacemaker. Because every new mother will get a breast pump, someone won't get an artificial knee.

Sure, they'll say you're too old for a pacemaker or artificial knee to make financial sense. But it made financial sense under most people's old insurance.

Personally, I may one day need a heart transplant due to a congenital defect. I'm 95% sure I won't, but it's a possibility. And under my old insurance it could have been done. Under Obamacare? Well, I'm just glad it looks like I can run out the clock with the heart I've got.

And here's another thing about the inevitable financially oriented death panels. Say you're 75 and you need a pacemaker. How do you know that you're being denied because of your age and not because you donated to the Romney campaign? With these guys, you don't know.

I'll pray for little Sarah to have a good outcome.

But I Repeat Myself

Found Har

Hybrid Pets

Sure you'd worry about aerial dogfights, but think how awesome a game of fetch would be if your dog could fly.  So all of those scientists trying to devise an "Obama refrigerator" that will electrocute anyone who removes more mozzarella sticks than carrots -- they should be retasked to the flying dog project right away. 

Does Such a Thing Even Exist?

Among the Bilderberg attendees:

Balls, Edward M.    -      Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

 Oh man, if I had even known that there was such a thing, "Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer", I feel certain I would have lived my life in such a way as to one day attain that post. I mean, the business cards alone would make it all worthwhile.

"Oh, how nice, you're a brain surgeon, me? oh nothing much. I'm just the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, that's all." Yeah! In your face!

I wouldn't even mind having a name like Ed Balls.

Last Minute Decisions

found

Click the Red Button

No not this red button. Go here first: Big Red Bored Button

thanks OregonGuy, I wasted much of the last two days