Second takes…

I was listening to a local radio station this morning. The host was on a tirade about the flu and hospitals. The flu is in full swing in the KC area at the moment. Elsewhere, too.

A news item said that a woman had died of the flu. However, when you read the body of the announcement, it said she died of a staph infection as a complication of the flu. The situation is not uncommon. People, weakened by disease, often fall to other conditions as a side effect of their primary contribution of their death.

Then the host went off on the hospital. It said the woman died of a ‘staff’ infection, an infection the woman had acquired from the ‘staff’ in the hospital. I think someone took him aside and explained to him the difference between ‘staff’ and ‘staph’. One is people, the other is a class of infectious bacteria, staphylococcus. A few minutes later he attempted to backtrack and then wandered off onto another topic, immunizations, repeating the myths and ‘urban knowledge’ of falsehoods about that subject. The ignorance and outright stupidity of presumed adults continues to astound me. It’s a reminder of the degradation of education over the last fifty years.

***

In 1967, Adam Clayton Powell was unseated from the US House for corruption. The House and Senate has the right to not recognize members for specific reasons. Powell subsequently sued and was reelected in 1969. Congress then passed more legislation to solidify the process and justification for refusal to seat a member. That legislation was a result of the Powell controversy. It was a pyrrhic victor for Powell. He died in 1972.

Another New York City Congressman is in a similar situation.

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm will resign from the House this week after having pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion, the New York Daily News reported Monday night. — The Washington Times.

At first reports, Grimm stated he would remain in Congress. Evidently, someone spoke to him and explained to him the realities of his situation.

Perhaps, NYC Mayor de Blasio should take a tip from Michael Grimm and resign, too. It has been said that no Mayor of a large metropolitan city can be successful without the support of the police. De Blasio has lost that support in New York City.

***

John Boehner thinks he has the Speakership in the bag. Truth is he is probably right. Not everyone, however, will rollover, unlike our local Vicky Hartzler, and rubberstamp vote for Boehner next week.

Conservative Lawmakers Plan To Vote Against Boehner For Speaker

Alex Pappas, 9:57 PM 12/29/2014

Some disaffected conservative House Republicans are planning to rebel and vote against John Boehner for speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes next week.

The official speaker’s election is set for Jan. 6., when the House will convene for a public floor vote to open the new Congress.

While the vote is usually just a formality, these conservative lawmakers are planning to vote for someone other than the Ohio Republican who has been speaker since 2011. (The column continues here.)

The Daily Caller can’t be labeled a conservative news outlet. Given that, they usually are more balanced that most of the MSM. I’m happy to see that there are still a few ‘Pubs in Washington who stand by the principles that elected them to office.

 

 

 

 

 

Cartoon of the Day: Michael Rameriz

Algore’s Globull Worming.

Bank of America: Worst business decision of the year

I’m a capitalist. I am not ashamed to say so. I think a capitalist, free market economy, is the best possible option for personal liberty. Here is an example where free market economy needs to be used to put a company in its place—preferably in receivership.

Bank of America has one of the worst reputations in the financial field. Stories of poor customer service and customer abuse are apocryphal. Now, they have gone another step in stupidity. It seems that there is a small portion of BOA credit card users who pay off their debt every month—a carrying balance of zero dollars. If there is no carry-over, there is nothing to charge interest. The result is that those card holders are making a short term loan for free as long as they pay off the charges on their next bill.

BOA can’t have that. So starting next year, they are adding additional fees to those users who consistently have no carrying balance. Check out this story from USA Today.

Latest bank fee is for paying off credit card on time every month

You floss regularly, yield to oncoming traffic and use your credit cards judiciously, dutifully paying off your balance every month.

You may believe that your exemplary behavior shields you from unexpected credit card fees. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

Starting next year, Bank of America will charge a small number of customers an annual fee, ranging from $29 to $99. The bank has characterized the fee as experimental. But card holders who have never carried a balance or paid late fees could be among those affected.

More here…

The Bank of America deserves to be run out of business. Their executives and Board of Directors needs to be publicly identified and denounced by name and they need to be tagged to insure they never hold a similar position in the financial business again. Bank of America deserves a lesson in free market economics—when you piss off enough customers, they will leave you and your company will fail.

Most likely, BOA will crawl to Obama with their hands out. Idiots.