You've got to be GD kidding me...

I'm no paragon, but I can assure you my shoes don't sneeze cocaine. Seriously, can't cops do something about this? I get pulled over for rolling stop signs and this chick uses cocaine smokescreens like ninjas to evade the paparazzi when she leaves the clubs. It would seem hard to believe that someone so broke and exiled from the Hollywood inner circle would have the money to feed such a habit, so the only other option would be Gold Bond Medicated Powder. But that doesn't seem so likely either because if any medication is likely to be dripping off or following her like a cloud, it would be have to be Aldara, Valtrex, or HIV cocktails. It's sad to think about, but I wonder if Vegas has odds on the over/under for her overdose.

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Ricky Martin Surprises Everyone No One

In the most obvious non-news story of the year, Ricky Martin comes out of the closet he wasn't hiding in. I don't know much about being gay, but if I were gay and were looking for someone else that's gay, I would immediately look for dudes doing Yoga with other dudes on the beach in Speedos.

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"We leave fingerprints on everyone we touch."

Amidst a profusion of careless movie productions and 9th grade screenplays, Remember Me hit me like a breath of fresh, gloomy grieving air. Either it's me that's out-of-touch with good movies, or it's the miserable movie critics writing for self-absorbed newspapers around the country. Granted, not many people will see this movie and that's too bad. I'm a little sad to say this, but Pattinson can act. I don't mean he can whisper mysteriously because we've all seen Twilight. Anyone can do that. He's no Brando, but he's good, even when I don't want to like him. Despite being unfairly criticized for an overwrought screenplay, this movie accomplishes something that few do these days. It seems crazy to think that a movie would actually take the time to develop dynamic and damaged characters. It's not without flaws, sure, but the effortless connection and intimacy between Pattinson and de Ravin is undeniable. For once a filmmaker gets it right. The film's director takes the time to strip down human emotion, specifically grief and forgiveness, to expose characters and their pain. Brosnan is as predictable as ever, playing the rich, powerful, untouchable, elitist prick, but no one plays it better. The father son and family conflicts feel genuine and lifelike. Chris Cooper is brilliant as a lonely NYC cop-father that's pushing away the only thing he's got left in the world, his daughter. I loved it. This is a movie that will sadden you and give you hope in the same scene. It reveals a raw sexual desire between two capable, suffering and believable young characters. It will capture your emotion till the last scene. Without offering spoilers, specific scenes like ones in Remember Me will become a grim reminder of a painful reality for our generation.

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On Sunday, Washington said, "F U."

Leftist Lawmakers ignored America and forced a gigantic Health Care Reform Bill through the House that will strangle and burden our country until it ultimately cripples it completely. This bill is irresponsible. This bill will bankrupt our healthcare system, force doctors into retirement, force them to refuse Medicare patients (until that's made illegal), stifle medical school enrollment, ration care, burden tax payers, and create more class warfare. Those are just the fiscal problems with the bill. This bill is more about plundering our freedom. It's about the government robbing us of our decision making because we're incapable of making them ourselves.

Here are 20 ways your freedom is being robbed by this healthcare law:

1. You are young and don’t want health insurance? You are starting up a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance? Tough. You have to pay $750 annually for the “privilege.” (Section 1501)

2. You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? Tough. You’ll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drink a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor. That’s because insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person’s health status. (Section 2701).

3. You would like to pay less in premiums by buying insurance with lifetime or annual limits on coverage? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer such policies, even if that is what customers prefer. (Section 2711).

4. Think you’d like a policy that is cheaper because it doesn’t cover preventive care or requires cost-sharing for such care? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer policies that do not cover preventive services or offer them with cost-sharing, even if that’s what the customer wants. (Section 2712).

5. You are an employer and you would like to offer coverage that doesn’t allow your employers’ slacker children to stay on the policy until age 26? Tough. (Section 2714).

6. You must buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
You’re a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You’re a woman who can’t have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You’re a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302).

7. Do you want a plan with lots of cost-sharing and low premiums? Well, the best you can do is a “Bronze plan,” which has benefits that provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 60% of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the plan. Anything lower than that, tough. (Section 1302 (d) (1) (A))

8. You are an employer in the small-group insurance market and you’d like to offer policies with deductibles higher than $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families? Tough. (Section 1302 (c) (2) (A).

9. If you are a large employer (defined as at least 101 employees) and you do not want to provide health insurance to your employee, then you will pay a $750 fine per employee (It could be $2,000 to $3,000 under the reconciliation changes). Think you know how to better spend that money? Tough. (Section 1513).

10. You are an employer who offers health flexible spending arrangements and your employees want to deduct more than $2,500 from their salaries for it? Sorry, can’t do that. (Section 9005 (i)).

11. If you are a physician and you don’t want the government looking over your shoulder? Tough. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to use your claims data to issue you reports that measure the resources you use, provide information on the quality of care you provide, and compare the resources you use to those used by other physicians. Of course, this will all be just for informational purposes. It’s not like the government will ever use it to intervene in your practice and patients’ care. Of course not. (Section 3003 (i))

12. If you are a physician and you want to own your own hospital, you must be an owner and have a “Medicare provider agreement” by Feb. 1, 2010. (Dec. 31, 2010 in the reconciliation changes.) If you didn’t have those by then, you are out of luck. (Section 6001 (i) (1) (A))

13. If you are a physician owner and you want to expand your hospital? Well, you can’t (Section 6001 (i) (1) (B). Unless, it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the state (Section 6601 (i) (3) ( E)). And then you cannot increase your capacity by more than 200% (Section 6001 (i) (3) (C)).

14. You are a health insurer and you want to raise premiums to meet costs? Well, if that increase is deemed “unreasonable” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services it will be subject to review and can be denied. (Section 1003)

15. The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry. If you are a pharmaceutical company what you will pay depends on the ratio of the number of brand-name drugs you sell to the total number of brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the brand-name drugs in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2.3 billion, or $230,000,000. (Under reconciliation, it starts at $2.55 billion, jumps to $3 billion in 2012, then to $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018, before settling at $2.8 billion in 2019 (Section 1404)). Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 9008 (b)).

16. The government will extract a fee of $2 billion annually from medical device makers. If you are a medical device maker what you will pay depends on your share of medical device sales in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the medical devices in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2 billion, or $200,000,000. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for R&D? Tough. (Section 9009 (b)).
The reconciliation package turns that into a 2.9% excise tax for medical device makers. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 1405).

17. The government will extract a fee of $6.7 billion annually from insurance companies. If you are an insurer, what you will pay depends on your share of net premiums plus 200% of your administrative costs. So, if your net premiums and administrative costs are equal to 10% of the total, you will pay 10% of $6.7 billion, or $670,000,000. In the reconciliation bill, the fee will start at $8 billion in 2014, $11.3 billion in 2015, $1.9 billion in 2017, and $14.3 billion in 2018 (Section 1406).Think you, as an insurance executive, know how to better spend that money? Tough.(Section 9010 (b) (1) (A and B).)

18. If an insurance company board or its stockholders think the CEO is worth more than $500,000 in deferred compensation? Tough.(Section 9014).

19. You will have to pay an additional 0.5% payroll tax on any dollar you make over $250,000 if you file a joint return and $200,000 if you file an individual return. What? You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9015).

That amount will rise to a 3.8% tax if reconciliation passes. It will also apply to investment income, estates, and trusts. You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Like you need to ask. (Section 1402).

20. If you go for cosmetic surgery, you will pay an additional 5% tax on the cost of the procedure. Think you know how to spend that money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9017).

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Healthcare for dummies.

If you find yourself saying, "I don't get this healthcare bill thingy," this video is for you. Also, you should read more because you're dumb and part of the problem.

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jacksonville's single greatest accomplishment...

Sadly, I have seen both installments of Twilight. I couldn't follow the plot, mainly because I was the only person in the theater over 14 and not giggling and texting, but also because of my heavy laborious breathing every time they showed Ashley Greene's face. This girl is so pretty it's not even fair. I loathe Starbucks' 9.00 coffees more than anyone, but if that was the way into Ashley Greene's pants, I would become a master barista. I'm embarrassed to say, but I'm actually super duper excited to see the third Twilight movie. If Ashley Greene was promised to appear naked, I would camp out for days like those girls did in the 80's for New Kids Tickets. I can't think of anything I wouldn't do to be her boyfriend. It may seem like a stretch, but I think I would even sleep with that giant obese girl from Precious if that got me one step closer to Ashley Greene's underpants.

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Bring on the taxes...

If you've been wondering, I've actually been too sad to respond the last few days. Nothing since the Revolutionary War has been a bigger invasion on our liberty than this health care reform. Never has our Congress used back room bribes and Slaughter rules for something as influential as this bill. Don't blame the Democrats, though. While the Republican Party has been losing their compass of principles, not fulfilling the wishes of their constituents, and patting themselves on the back for insignificant things like Tax Cuts, Democrats have achieved, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and now, Gov't Health Care. Democrats are a team of starters while Republicans are a team of scrubs. In comparison, Nothing the Republican Party has accomplished in the last 20 years resulted in a shrinking government role or an increase in personal liberties. If you sit at night watching the news and you find yourself angry, you've got no one to blame but yourself. Foxnews and talk radio hosts are more popular than ever, yet our votes elect the same inept politicians term after term that allow our country to move further and further to the left without a fight. If you're wondering why this bill is so bad for this country, the proof is listed below. If you kill the spirit of the producers, the result is economic peril. Here are some of the fiscal liabilities included in the bill to expand the number of individuals dependent on handouts while stealing from the hands and pockets of the only people feeding this monster:

Boortz.com

- A new 3.6% tax on all investment income including capital gains. That means that the capital gains tax rate (including California state tax) will rise to 33.9%. The tax on dividend income will rise from 15% today to 53.7% including California tax.

- Additional Medicare tax on self employment income and wages. This removes the current cap on wages subject to this tax and it will effectively move the top income tax rate from 35% to 43.4% within a couple of years. Add in the California tax again and would then be close to a 54% marginal tax rate. I believe that this is the highest of any major industrialized country. But because spending is so high we would still have $1 trillion dollar annual deficits even after this tax.

- There is a 2.9% tax on all medical “devices”, which basically means everything used in a doctor’s office or hospital. Including gowns, syringes, and the like. This will increase health care costs for everyone who does not get free government insurance.

- The deduction for Medical expenses is currently limited to those expenses that exceed 7.5% or your income. This will be raised to a threshold of 10% of your income. This means that fewer people will get any tax relief from medical expenses they pay for themselves.

- There are various taxes on anything a person might do to pay for their own medical expenses. Things like Health Savings Accounts, Cafeteria Plans, and Flexible Savings Accounts are ways for people to save their OWN money for their OWN medical care on a pre-tax basis will be limited and taxed. This is all part of the way that President Obama gets to government run health care by making it illegal or costly to pay for your own care so you have to go to the government.

- A 10% tax on tanning services. I call this the “Jersey Shore tax”. This one has to be really upsetting to ‘The Situation’, Snookie, and Pauly D.

- A tax on self-insured health plans. This is another penalty on those who try to pay for their own health care.

- A new tax on pharmaceutical manufacturers. This will raise the price of drugs for everyone who does not get them from the government for free.

- A new tax on “Cadillac” health plans. This is an up to 55% tax on any health insurance that costs over about $800 per month including employee and employer contributions. This tax does not apply if you are a union member or your plan is from AARP or Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. These are major Democratic constituencies and they exempted them. For everyone else, this discourages comprehensive health coverage. Isn’t that what the President says he is trying to achieve? Like most of what the President says, his actions are not even close to his words.

- There is a new tax on all 'for-profit' health insurance companies (except for a few favored ones). This will also raise the costs of premiums for everyone not getting free care from the government.

- If you don’t buy health insurance (as dictated acceptable by a new federal czar), you will be fined up to 2.5% of your income even if you pay all of your medical expenses yourself. If your company does not provide said health insurance to all employees, the company will be fined up to $2,000 per employee.
All of this will cause growth and jobs to decline, medical costs to go up, deficits and debt to increase, and quality doctors and providers to leave the business. It will cause fewer people to pay for their own care, and more to seek government care. And that is exactly what the authors want.
In spite of all of these taxes, this bill will create deficits of at least half a trillion dollars MORE than what we already have at the federal and state levels over the next 10 years, and a great deal more after that. So, lots more taxes, lots more spending, and lots more deficits. The time at which the Treasury will not be able to sell debt any more, except at a huge rate, is approaching fast. America, in my opinion with this bill, is much more likely to collapse under the weight of our own fiscal excess than to be seriously threatened by any external force.

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