An good article on RVU's, the deeply flawed method used to set the prices Medicare pays for services. While in theory I support single payer, I really don't support Medicare for All, unless Medicare gets fixed first: and between the political and financial clout of the doctors' associations and the AARP, I don't see how that can happen.
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(1)
01:01:29 PM,
Wednesday 2 September 2009
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Robert Pinsky's idea of a good sentence is diametrically opposed to mine. "Grammar, "Church Monuments" makes me think, is the soul of poetry." How revolting. But it does give me some insight into why he plagues me with his twisted, leaden lumps of words. Language shouldn't be a puzzle. People who like doing crosswords should stick to them.
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(4)
12:04:33 PM,
Wednesday 2 September 2009
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Amusing names from the Decline and Fall: Pityus, Posthumus, Ingenuus. And that's just from one page. I can totally see where Asterix came from.
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(1)
10:44:31 AM,
Wednesday 2 September 2009
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Perverse incentives continued: Medical divorce. (also, NYT? I'm there for the text. Mug shots of the writer staring back at me are disconcerting and creepy. At least tell Mr. Kristof to sit up straight.)
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09:50:34 AM,
Tuesday 1 September 2009
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Andrew Sullivan on his readers' revenge fantasies. The enlightenment wasn't a one-way ratchet. The belief in universal, unalienable human rights isn't an obvious thought. If people believe in demons, in monsters in human form, then universal human rights become morally bankrupt complicity in evil. This is a profound ideological divide, and all my hopes and dreams for the world, for peace, for a global civilization, become impossible if people keep believing in demons. So stories about demons, whether religious or secular, historical or fictional, they are a primary obstacle to progress of the most important kind.
It's probably best to think of this as a religious belief for me: that evil is done by ordinary people, that people are never evil, only actions, and that not being evil is difficult, that virtue is active, not passive. That everyone can justify themselves to themselves. That great crimes were and are commited by people just like me, who got out of alignment with reality, whe ended up with a twisted idea of right. So stories that twist morality, that create frameworks that let people justify evil, they aren't harmless, they aren't beside the point. They're the center of the problem.
This isn't easy for me to talk about. Hypocrisy lurks everywhere. It can turn into demonizing demonization if I'm not very careful, but that's not the intent. The whole point is that people mean well, and it doesn't always help.
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12:19:18 PM,
Monday 31 August 2009
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I feel like I might nearly be on top of things if I can just keep it up a bit longer. We'll see.
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12:15:42 PM,
Monday 31 August 2009
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09:10:24 PM, Sunday 30 August 2009
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08:53:20 PM, Sunday 30 August 2009
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I don't like Julia Child's recipes. She's one of the main culprits in the superstitious reverence for complexity in cooking. By making cooking fussy, she made it intimidating. Even the title annoys me: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her followers turn food into fetish objects, complexity as a status good. A recipe should be an idea, not a procedure. Now if someone made a James Beard movie, that I'd watch. Take this random Beard recipe. To someone looking to be told exactly what to do, it's a nightmare. Heat for how long? How much grated onion, or is it bell pepper? Or maybe both? Rectify the seasoning? He forces you to relax, to experiment.
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10:03:54 AM,
Saturday 29 August 2009
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Listening to the speeches at the wake last night gave me new insight into how the old boys' club works. Also: Orrin Hatch is a splendidly odd man.
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09:43:36 AM,
Saturday 29 August 2009
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Joyce Carol Oates on Edward Kennedy.
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10:31:49 PM,
Thursday 27 August 2009
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10:14:16 PM, Thursday 27 August 2009
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site & script courtesy of Moss
