I’ve got a lot of bad things to say about the bill, but there are some good ones. I thought I’d toss in a few.
Starting in 2010 (or when the bill is passed whichever is last):
1) Hospitals have to publicly list all charges for their services and products. Anyone who has been through a hospital journey and received an itemized bill can understand how fun THAT is going to be;
2) Insurance companies can only use 20% of group insurance premiums and 25% of individual premiums for anything besides covering claims. Any of the remainder that isn’t paying claims gets paid back to the insurance holders. Oh, a public report is required to verify this.
Now there are other things that take anywhere from 6 months to 4 years to go into effect. There are also a few other things that kick off immediately. And as I said there’s a lot that leaves me dissatisfied. But I have to admit those two elements have good potential to bodycheck rising costs.
I’d like to share a couple of recipes which are basically the same thing, just from slightly different cultures.
Take a piece of dough. Add some meat, maybe some veggies and/or cheese. Close up the dough and seal the gaps. Cook.
Dumplings. Pierogis. Piroka. Bierocks. The list goes on and on.
I’ve two of this group I like a lot. The first thing they’ve got in common is they use yeast-bread dough. The second is that they’re not very well known outside their cultures, but are VERY popular there.
The first is from central Europe and you’ll find it in Kansas and Nebraska. It’s got several names depending on where exactly in central Europe you’re coming from, but interestingly again they almost all seem to have landed in our breadbasket regions. I learned them as bierocks, but found a fast food chain that uses the Volga Russian name of Runzas. Make bread dough that would normally make two loaves of bread. After the first punch-down, pinch of balls a bit larger than a golf ball and roll them out to about 5-inch circles (squarish is better, but trickier.) Put about two tablespoons of filling (I’ll get there shorter) in the middle, pull the dough around and seal the seams to form balls, and put them on a baking sheet (seams down, trust me) about an inch apart. Let them rise for 15-30 minutes, then bake in a medium oven for 20-25 minutes.
The filling is a pound of ground beef or pork and a head of cabbage that’s been finely shredded, plus a large onion that you’ve chopped. Brown the meat and onion, add the cabbage and stir in till the cabbage has collapsed and is tender. Now you’re going to add salt and pepper – if you’re like me you’re going to want a couple of tablespoons of pepper (no that is not a typo) and a tablespoon of salt – you want FLAVOR here.
The other version is found in West Virginia, and it’s a variation of a type of Welsh (and Cornish, and a touch of Scottish) pasty. Take your same bread dough but this time you want a couple of sticks of pepperoni (thin sticks, a bit larger than a pencil) and a length of cheese (use mozzarella the first time of about the same thickness on each pocket. Roll them up as you would a cinnamon roll, seal up the seam and the ends, let rise for 15-30 minutes, and bake in a medium oven for a bit less than half an hour.
There are a LOT of variations of both. And once tried they tend to be, well, they don’t tend to be left on the table to go to waste.
A couple of less obvious elements to both need noted. First, they freeze well, both pre- and post-cooking. That means even if you’re single or just a couple you can crank out a batch and not have to worry about wasting them. Just pull some from the freezer, let them thaw, and bake or re-heat as appropriate.
Second, PROVIDED the seams didn’t separate, they’re excellent travelers food. By that I mean they’re food that can sit at room temperature for pretty much all day and not have a risk of salmonella or botulism. That needs a touch of explaining. See, neither bug is that fond of bread. They do, however, like meat and cheese and such. However, sustained high temperatures – such as those found in a medium oven – kill them. So you’ve got this substance the bugs like which is free of bugs, and it’s entirely surrounded by a substance the bugs do NOT like. For our purpose (but not literally) it’s a sterile wrapping.
So you’ve got a food you can pack and carry on trips or to work or to a picnic – or to work in the field or mine all day – and not have to worry about visiting the emergency room in the near future.
The hard part – and it takes some practice – is learning how much filling you can get away with adding. Everyone I know always starts with too much, so don’t plan to make travelers pockets your first attempt. Pick a meat and seasoning you like – or just a cooked veggie (or fruit) mix you’re wild about – and give it a try. I think you’ll find you like it.
I’m not going piece by piece in this thing for you, sorry. I’m going to say there’s a lot in this bill that bothers me, and I’ll probably get several posts out of that. This, in fact, is one.
There is one section that makes me want to scream. It’s sections 7001 and 7002, and by the title you think it’s to control the prices of and enhance competition in production of “biologics”. No.
First, “biologics” are what most of us call “drugs”. This portion is devoted to the drug development industry. On first and second and third read (it’s dense and I’ll say I still might be wrong) it appears to be setting up a… a protection racket for the drug developers. A new drug that’s pretty much the same drug gets to skip most of the tests AND YET gets all the patent and exclusivity protections started fresh. With flourishes and curlicues, no less. Every time I read it I find some other benefit given to the pharma companies.
And I have yet to find a “stop” element – a place that tells the company they can’t go further. Everything is an extension of what is already in place, not a curtailment of it.
Yeah, I’m not liking this section. If I were comfortable that the senate bill would cover a LOT of people presently uncovered AND bring prices under control I’d swallow it. Thing is, I’m not comfortable either of those is in place. I’m specifically looking for those two items and at present am having difficulty finding them. This makes the pharma handout worse.
More later, as I find it.
I don’t have a single “comfort food” – I have too many recipes I like, and I may or may not have something in the pantry when I feel in the mood. Also, time is always a factor.
All that noted, I’ve got a meal I’ll do when I don’t have tons of time but want, well, want something to take with me as I shelter from the blue kind of day I’m experiencing. It’s a soup and a sandwich. mutter, it’s one of two sandwiches.
Let’s start with the sandwiches, and I’m going to talk about one of the ways I use my Foreman Grill. Yes, I have one, and I use it, but… I use it to make cuban or panini type sandwiches. Now in this case I’m not talking about the sandwich itself, I’m talking of the way it’s cooked.
Properly both cubans and paninis are cooked in sandwich presses. Or if you don’t have one, you put it in a cast iron skillet and press it with another hot skillet that also holds some weight. I fail at both: I don’t have a sandwich press and have a bad habit of getting my cast iron too hot when doing the other technique – burned sandwiches do NOT taste good. BUT… I put the sandwich on the Foreman, put a hot pad on the lid to provide a non-slip surface, and I can put a couple of cast iron skillets on top with no problem.
So, why? Why go to this extra effort when you could just grill, flip, and finish grilling?
Firstly, it compresses the bread so even though you started with a very wide bite it’s now, well, easier to eat. Second… I’m not certain why, but the texture is different. It gets toastier. Thirdly, EVERYTHING gets hot. It’s a combination of a roasting and steaming (from the heated fillings) caused by two hot surfaces working from opposite directions.
I don’t usually have rolls around, so I just use sliced bread. Works fine, thank you very much. As I said, I go with one of two sandwiches depending on mood.
Sandwich one is a basic grilled sandwich. Bread, cheese (cheddar by preference), slice of onion, bread. Wait, slice of onion? Yeah, I like the bite. The intense heat tends to mellow it a bit, but, well, what can I say. It’s a comfort.
Sandwich two is a simplified cuban. Again I’ve got sliced bread. Between the slices is some prepared (ie “Yellow”) mustard, some meat (ham by preference, but I’ve used turkey breast and roast beef if that’s what’s on hand), a sliced dill pickle, and some cheese (this time it’s swiss by preference).
In both cases make a sandwich or two, put them between the plates, press for about two minutes. The effort is very close to nonexistent.
But I said soup, too. And my favorite lazy soup is cream of potato.
I cut two or three potatoes (depending on size and if I’m sharing) up to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch dice. Half an onion also gets chopped as well. This all goes into a small pot and I barely cover with chicken broth – less than two cups, most of the time. I also put in a slice of bacon that I’ve chopped up OR a teaspoon of reserved bacon grease. Bring to a boil, take it back down to a simmer, and let it go for 12-15 minutes, or till the potatoes are soft. Now I mash up some of the potatoes to thicken it, and add a cup of milk. I’d add half and half or cream, but I rarely have it in the kitchen. Anyway, I let this heat till it starts to simmer, pull it off the fire, add salt and pepper (I’m a pepper fiend) and eat.
The soup takes the most time. five minutes to clean and cut up the potatos and onion, and 30 seconds to throw everything into the pot. Onto the fire for 12-15 minutes, and I start prepping the sandwiches and warming the Foreman and smell… smell… get a glass of milk and smell… Potatoes are done, a few seconds to mash and add the milk, put the sandwiches on the grill, wait (twiddle thumbs, wipe drool, wonder why the second hand is moving SO SLOW…) pull out sandwiches, ladle soup into bowl, go get back in chair with blanket and book or computer as the urge is riding me. 20 to 25 minutes, most of which is NOT working, just smelling.
I have other comfort foods and will probably write them up as well, but that’s my ‘quick’ one. Soup and sandwiches, quick, easy, painless.
Patient Protection Affordable Care Act has been released, and the more formal political games toward getting it passed have begun. As I noted earlier, it takes the house AHCAA, strips all language, and inserts the Senate language. That’s standard formal process so that reconciliation – whether due to this bill passing the senate or setting up the ‘back door’ – can work.
It is 2047 pages. As I learned from starting the AHCAA, if I try to hit major points and post it for you, I’ll still be typing long after it’s actually passed. So what I’m planning to do is put the table of contents here and then start reading. If I find things I think are interesting, good or bad, I’ll mention them in a post.
One of the major objections to the idea of trying KSM here in the US is that it could allow intel to fall into the hands of the terrorists – intel to which they would not already have access. And the biggest example of this that is used is “200 names.”
200 names of unindicted co-conspirators, a list of which was provided by Andrew McCarthy, then prosecutor of the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman. Within ten days it made its way to (among others) Osama bin Laden. And much is made of the fact the letter was part of the evidence used in the trial of the man accused (and convicted) of bombing the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
OK, deep breath time. Fact one. McCarthy makes note of this as part of his example, and fails to note the rest of the story. For example, everything that was requested by discovery was SUPPOSED TO BE reviewed by both FBI and CIA (as this had international intel elements), and possibly other agencies. The review was to determine if this information was classified. Now, McCarthy says he wrote the list and turned them over, implying it wasn’t vetted. This may or may not be true. EITHER he screwed up and acted without running things through appropriate channels, in which case that list is his personal fault, OR it was vetted and determined not to be classified.
Fact two. EVERYTHING is potentially useful for intel analysis. I’m presently unemployed, and it’s been over a decade since I’ve seen anything officially classified above For Official Use Only (FOUO). Even so, I have pieced together things I _KNOW_ were classified secret or higher from open source information. Most intel analysts know this. In WWII there were entire departments who did nothing but read and analyze the newspapers and public announcements of the enemy just to glean critical information — and a lot could be found that way. (A surge in marriages meant more soldiers were there, for example. Human nature being what it is, the surges tended to happen either when they were about to leave or when they were on leave. Just one little piece. On the other hand… Patton spent a period of time twiddling his thumbs doing nothing while D-Day prepped because of how he was being tracked via newspapers – misinformation exists as well.)
What the list told Al Qaeda was that something had happened to make these people suspects – they’d tripped a trigger. It said some of their people were now suspected of being their people. It told them that others hadn’t made THAT list – though there might be other lists. It told them people who were associated who were not their members, and gave them possible recruits. That’s a lot, seen written like that.
And I guarantee you that if it passed across the desks of FBI and CIA reviewers before approval those things were considered. See, there’s this game in intel that comes across as a joke in many movies. “I know that you know that I know that you know…” So, for a short period every one of those names was watched, and they were flagged for review and notice for much longer. I suspect – not know, but suspect – that this is one reason Ghailani was picked up. He left the US rapidly soon after the list was handed over.
Theoretically, if we held the trials in absolute secrecy we could control all the intel. But if we did that… what happens if we discover an innocent man? What is to stop adding innocent but problematic people to these trials? The answer – from a long history of human experience – is nothing.
200 names – that we KNOW they know, and which were released after considering that – is more than worth keeping true to the principles of our nation. That ALL MEN are entitled to the benefits of our noble experiment; that all men have the right to fair and open trial that allows them to face their accusers. We are not the bad guys. We should not allow them to win by becoming just like them. In the end 200 names isn’t that big a deal.
No, I don’t speak latin, but it leads into this so well. “Remove yourselves from my gardens, miscreant children.” ahem. “Get off my lawn, you damn kids.”
I was idly contemplating complaints of the elderly in regard to the youths of today, how they are so terrible and spoiled and we’re all doomed and… well, and noting how it seems things never change. What actually triggered the post was the discovery that the satirical complaint of politicians giving into giving the mobs bread and circuses was written in 100 AD.
In other words, it was written about 150 years after Julius Caesar, the first defacto emperor, was assassinated. It’s also about 300 years (give or take half a century) before the Great Divide when (defacto or dejure) the empire became the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
Yeah, “We’re falling apart.”
The funny thing is that the same sentiment has been issued in the midst of other strong empires and states’ existence.
It parallels the fact that people have been complaining of others corrupting youths – and youths being pikers compared to ‘what we went through’ – since, well, since before Plato wrote Socrates Apology. (Recall Socrates was accused of corrupting youths to lead a life of sloth and waste, not in accordance with both the state’s principles and the way things were in their parents’ days. familiar?)
I think we like to believe we made our children’s lives better, and have a little bit of envy about that fact. We also fear that our childen, having it better, will waste what we have given them. The reality is that some will, some won’t, and in general our children will complain of their children forever more.
Each generation tends to try to improve their lot, which incidentally makes it better for the next. It’s (shudder) the circle of life.
And while we’re at it, Abite hortibus meis. Unless you brought the lawnmower.
I’ve expressed confidence that the economy is recovering and that we’ll do well over the next couple of years; all with it being obvious by June of next year. I think I’d like to point out my concern with my own projections – the most likely reason I am wrong.
It boils down to the fact this was a credit driven as opposed to inventory driven collapse. Basically, the money supply froze – critical money movers suddenly felt nearly naked and weren’t willing to further expose themselves. Yes, housing started the unraveling, but it was symptomatic of the whole industry.
The problem is that these naked movers haven’t covered themselves. Oh, they’re moving a bit, again, but it’s with great caution – and they’re still naked (though not quite as much as they were a couple of years ago.)
Now I happen to believe the reason things are moving and the recovery is happening is that these movers are more comfortable with the status quo. Things didn’t get better, the companies and their decision makers got more comfortable with where things were. That works, short term.
It still leaves us vulnerable to another credit freeze.
I think we have between two and five years to get the problem covered. There are tentative moves in that regard already in progress, and a lot of resistance from those who stand to make money from the over-extensions. But sooner or later we’re going to have some sort of bubble pop or appear to pop, and when it happens everyone is again going to notice how… naked the lenders are. That is, UNLESS we get it fixed.
There are some pieces of legislation in progress. In addition the Fed is trying to demonstrate it can do the job it sort of had responsibility to do but didn’t do before. These may, between them be enough — IF they are concluded instead of being dropped, and if they’re not rendered toothless. My confidence in that happening is … it looks like we’re going to get something but I can’t decide yet whether it’s going to be enough.
Still, the fact that there are actions in progress right now contribute to may comfort in thinking this won’t be a problem for the upcoming year. A credit freeze won’t happen – or at worst it won’t be severe enough to stop the recovery stillborn.
It’s a worry, but not an immediate worry.
A long time ago, one of my uncles gave me what I still consider the clearest explanation of the duties and expectations of officers and NCOs (Non-commissioned officers).
The job of the NCO is “now”. The job of the officer is “next”.
Now, good officers and NCO’s can do the other half’s job on need. Problems happen when the ones who can do it on need do it when it isn’t needed — and this is far too often an error on the part of the officer, not the NCO. It tends to show up as ‘micromanaging’ – something that is needed occasionally either because the subordinates are incompetents, or (more desirably) when particular conditions are desired to make “next” work best. But it’s done too often, and what it means is that the micromanager is concentrating too much on the job of others and not on his or her own job. Which in turn, and especially for failure of preparation for “next”, means everyone is constantly in overdrive trying to cope with too much “now”.
(Six “P’s”, and since it’s my blog I can write without the niceties. Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. If prior planning didn’t happen it’s your officer’s error.)
The more you have to focus on now, the less time you have for next. Good armies train that intermediate level – the NCO – to a degree that they can be trusted to free the ‘next’ thinkers to do their jobs.
So, I titled this “by any other name…” After this long interval of looking for work and spending a lot of time also looking at things from outside, I’ve come to realize a lot of businesses don’t get it. There are a lot of businesses that haven’t figured out you need NCOs and Officers and that while there is a bit of overlap doing both is both exhausting and inefficient. I see a lot of companies in trouble because, basically, their officers have to be NCOs. Um, let me phrase that more accurately. They’re in trouble because their officers are BEING NCOs. In some cases they’re forced into the position due to cuts in “middle management” (in the name of efficiency). In others it’s because the officers either don’t or are unwilling to trust the people who do “now”.
There’s a corollary. See, there are people who have trouble when fit into the wrong slot. There are people who can’t handle “next” and there are people who have trouble with “now”. They’re not terrible when fit within their slots, but they can be far less than useful when fit into the wrong slots.
I’m looking for work and will take just about anything that’ll pay the bills. I know, however, that I’ll do better as a “next” worker than as a “now” worker. I know how to supervise, I know how to evaluate, I know how to do much of the actual work I’d be supervising and evaluating. But I find myself considering what we’ll need tomorrow or next week or next month a lot, and trying to ensure we get so wrapped in today that we can’t manage tomorrow. Yes, even in this very long period of unemployment. In this particular focus I’m not a good NCO, I’m a good officer.
I think it worth taking time to note where your people fall on this divide.
Oh, almost forgot. There are also the “enlisteds”. These are the ones who do the work, and may do it well, but who can’t or won’t ensure the work fits in with what others are doing now or next. They may be outstanding at a task once they’ve received it, but they won’t look to see what task needs done, much less balance tasks and resources (for now or next). You need them too. Forcing officers and NCOs to be enlisted is painful for them, and eventually they will leave. And yes, the Os and NCOs should spend some time as enlisted to learn that side – it’s just when there appears to be no chance they’ll be anything BUT enlisted that the problems begin. You need them all. If you’re personnel, you should be working on identifying what you have and what you need. (hmmm, now and next. There it is again.)
SPOILERS. I’m going to spoil significant parts of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. If you don’t care or already know, continue reading.
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