Obamacare problems. "Pink slime" rises from the dead.

I didn't see much to comment on yesterday--just the next two items.  And the second really doesn't need any comment from me.  Let's see what I find today.

Undernews has this interesting bit on the Obamacare disaster.  There is a saying I am rather fond of: to err is human; to really f*#k up use a computer.  The Canadian system was set up in a law consisting of 13 pages.  The Affordable Care Act is set out in a 900 page tome.  When Medicare started they signed up 20 million people in six months using index cards.  In this case I think the government did what bureaucracy normally does--took something simple and complicated it.  The difference, I believe, is that medicare was implemented to help people who needed it while the ACA was really a corporate welfare program.

Truer words were never written.

Well, at least Cargill is going to label the crap.  "Pink slime," or "lean finely textured beef" as the industry would rather call it (sounds so innocuous, doesn't it?) is something I wish would simply go away.  I deeply resent the notion that we should be willing to pay beef prices for processed crap.

This is absolutely mind boggling.  When that mess finally hits the west coast we will need a major clean up.  But, interesting thought--has this amazing amount of garbage in any way related to the disappearance of the sardines off the coast?  I noted some time ago reports (the accuracy of which I can't guarantee) that the fishing fleet went back to port with no catch at all.

Maybe the Chinese (and by extension, the world at large and the U.S. especially) need a new definition of success.  The current one is certainly not working.

The constant whine from world leaders that "friends don't spy on friends" amuses me.  What makes them think any country is really a friend of another country?  "Ally" is not synonymous with "friend."

As I read this piece from Jesse's Cafe Americain I felt my cynicism vindicated.  As a society we have no ethics or morals.  All we have is the all-mighty dollar and, if you have enough of them, anything goes.  As for "law," those boys have written the law so everybody else is screwed.