Tuesday, March 2, 2010

INTRODUCING...






How often do you look at somebody of note and think: “Lucky! If I were him or her, every morning before my feet even touched the ground I’d roll out of bed onto my knees and thank God for the almighty good fortune bestowed upon me.”

We invite you to use the poll to the left to vote for the person whose success most exceeds your estimate of its merit.

Note: In all future polls, you the reader will pose the questions and the candidates, e.g.: Who has succeeded most beyond his or her limitations? What person or project triumphs because no one has anything against it?

20 comments:

  1. Sorry, but I would have to vote for Barrack Obama. The man served in the Senate for 143 days before announcing his run for President. Of course that is more than the 10 days he was in office as President before being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. To me that is some unmerited achievement.

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  2. But James, he was a noted professor of Constitutional Law (although he never published anything of academic import); and of course he was a noted community organizer ( a position a step below dog catcher); he has impressive knowledge about business and industry (although he never ran so much as a corner grocery store); and he certainly helped ACORN achieve impressive success at garnering government funds (although their best job seems to be telling young folks how to get mortgages to run houses of ill repute for underage kidnapped children from Central America). He did vote against anything and everything when he was in the Senate and then came up with that catchy phrase that the other guys were "the party of no". Well ok, so he has nothing but unmerited achievement. At least he has been the catalyst (along with Reid and Pelosi) for the single largest anti-government movement in the history of American politics. Let's at least buy he a cup of tea for that!

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  3. @Elsie: ACORN cleared of charges in Brooklyn
    http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/01/acorn-cleared-cowardly-dems-must-feel-great-for-defunding-them/
    @JPU: That's democracy. You have a better system? And speaking of unmerited reward, in honor of the Bush V. Gore Supreme Court ruling, I move that we nickname the Pickle Award the Dubya.
    - JRDegan

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  4. Elsie just does the facts. Fact: Charles Hynes DA who dropped the charges is a member of the Acorn working families party. Fact: charges still pending against Acord in Nevada, Baltimore, San Bernadino, New Jersey, etc etc.
    JR: The corrupt DA is deomcracy in action but the congressionally appointed Supreme court is not? Such blatant hippocracy is what causes realists to wonder just what the heck is wrong with progressives. Personally I suggest a 24 hour hi-colonic so the poop comes from the correct end.

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  5. Sarah Palin,
    OMG ---What if?

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  6. @Elsie: "Hippocracy"? What is that? A world run by horses? Are we in Gulliver's Travels? (Hint: Get a dictionary)
    JRD

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  7. Submitted for the Academy's consideration: Glenn Beck.

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  8. @JRD Hippocracy is a place where overweight pseudo-intellectuals are celebrated for their progressive ideas like molesting children and stealing money from the government in the form of food stamps (see almost Father Michael Moore). Hippocracy is a land where Delay is ousted for deeds and Rangel is celebrated for his. Hippocracy is a land where William Jefferson from Louisiana goes to jail for taking a 90 grand bribe but Mary Landrieu of the same state is belle of the progrssive ball for taking 300 million. I can use smaller words if this is too difficult to understand. Hippocracy, you see, is the land where Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have put their fingers in their ears, stuck their tongues out at the world and will watch in horror and total lack of understanding when that world turns red in November.

    @Jacopo: YES!!! Glen Beck, but he must share it with Keith Olberman in the same demeaning way Kate Hepburn shared an Oscar with that the shrill Barbara Streisand. Perhaps this could be known as the sour pickle award (with deference to the blog owner).

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  9. I wold have to vote for:
    Nadia Sulman
    Kate and John Gosselin OR
    The cast of The Jersey Shore

    (and isn't it sad that I know who these people are?

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  10. Dick Cheney...Talk about a pickle...how I would like to see something positive come out of his mouth....anything!!! ( and unfortunately his daughter has been trained to follow his lead)...they both look so unhappy.

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  11. It depends on which day you ask me. Yesterday, it was Paris Hilton. Today it is Sarah Palin.

    Tomorrow? Ah, tomorrow is another day, and another snarky attitude from yours truly.

    Tomorrow is just a day away, after all.

    So little time. So many worthless targets...

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  12. I would include Al Gore. Not to be insulting since he invented the internet, but his Nobel Prize for Global Warming leaves me cold.
    —LaKiDoTo, NYC

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  13. This would be too easy if she weren't so dangerous - Sarah Palin.

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  14. After reading about Sarah Palin's most recent seminar in Canada - which included a childhood story about how her family used to go across the border to take advantage of Canada's SOCIALIST universal health care - then it's a slamdunk win for her to get the Pickle Award. She's proven to be no better than any reality television star out there, since they will all say and do anything for money and fame. Patron saint of Hypocrisy, this is thy face! You betcha...

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  15. How about Nancy Pelosi for her ruination of the itsty bitsy spider. She better leave Hickory Dickory Dock alone!

    Fechez la vache!

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  17. this is like sophie's choice... who is more worthless Michelle Bachmann or Heidi Montag?

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  18. From Rik Misiura PT

    I vote the 536 representatives of the government.

    What they don’t know about healthcare:
    1) Legislators have been working on amending physician and physical therapist reimbursement & policy for the past three years. Just last month, because of the lack of timely success, they created a bill to delay a vote on the proposed bill. (which really is to continue the old temporary bill). (Confused?) This created up to a 2 month delay in payment to providers, if legislators can’t “fix” the Medicare problem, how can they tackle the entire health care system?

    The bill will not address insurance “gaming tactics”. I.e. a) the insurance companies utilize management organizations to arbitrarily and capriciously restrict a patient’s full allotment of benefits. Most patients never see their full benefit amount. (Is this reverse fraud? Or is it bait and switch? b) Patients also can not afford to pay increased co-pays of $30 - $50 up from 0-$5. Most insurance companies have decreased reimbursement to providers by 35 – 55%. Insurances have also externalized costs, such as by having providers prepare an inordinate amount of documentation.

    2) The government agencies, HHS & USDA erroneously established dietary guidelines in 1977, 1985, & 1995. These guidelines were based on sketchy scientific evidence. Since the first set of guidelines, Americans consumed less fat in their diet (as recommended by those guidelines) but became even more obese and sicker in the following thirty years. OOPS! Most of the public still believes in a low fat diet. You can check CDC, Harvard Health Letter Medical Review and many other references.

    3) Government can not amend or kill the Farm Bill. This enormous and convoluted messy legislation is partially responsible for the health care crisis. The current system emphasizes production to obtain subsidies, not market consumption to attract consumers. Subsidies and tariffs maintain artificially high prices that consumers must pay. The surplus of grains created by the farm bill is refined and processed into an appetizing diet proven to be the cause of western diseases. (not fat). Therefore, the American consumer is unknowingly financing their poor health status. Bush administration voted for the farm bill with enough votes to over ride his veto. But his veto would not have killed the bill, just slightly modified it. Obama voted for it as a governor. Neither republicans nor democrats can do the right thing. In order to become more efficient, and to benefit both farmers and consumers, U.S. agriculture must be made less dependent on government support. New Zealand successfully amended their farm bill in 1984. It’s possible. Kill the farm bill.

    I believe you can’t reform healthcare until you reform government. Then government will reform the farm bill, then the healthcare system and if lucky the regulatory system.
    The health care reform bill also scantily addresses another cause of the health care crisis – fraud. Its plan is to invest in a committee to study it. It should be studied and dealt with prior to signing the bill. But then how do politicians analyze fraud when they are busy screwing hookers, evading taxes, hiding kickbacks, taking joy rides in government transportation vehicles.

    Another thought…the health bill should include an article that all packages foods; refined and processed with additives and sweeteners should have a Surgeon General Warning. Oh, that would be a little ridiculous. What about taxing each additive?

    I think I’ll change professions from PT to farmer, and then invest in insurance companies.

    Yada yada yada…..

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  19. Rik... Good points All! Except Obama was never a Governor. He has had NO leadership experience which has been painfully evident in his first 408 days in office. He is super fluff and zero substance. I vote for a three way tie between Him, Reid and Pelosi. They have less clue than the Howard brothers and Larry Fein did (the original trio). A votre Sante!

    Elsie

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  20. Sorry, That was my braino error; Obama was a Senator. Govenors do not vote on federal legislation. Thanks for the correction

    Rik

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