Overnight Open Thread (8-20-2012)

Dreams From My Father, Blocked Calls From My Brother

Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in February:

"Living by the principle that we are our brother's keeper. Caring for the poor and those in need," Obama said before an audience of about 3,000 at the Washington Hilton. These values, he said, "They're the ones that have defined my own faith journey."

But apparently this principle only applies in the abstract. When it comes to actual brothers - not so much.

Because Barack's real-life brother, George Obama, the youngest of Barack Obama Sr's eight children lives in a shanty in the Huruma slum in Nairobi, Kenya. And when George's son needed $1000 to pay for medical treatment for a chest condition, instead of turning to his President brother who's not really into the whole keeping thing, he was forced to ask for money from...Dinesh D'Souza?

Okay this sounded completely bizarre to me but apparently it's true:

A few days ago I received a call from a man I recently met named George.  He was a bit flustered, and soon informed me that his young son was sick with a chest condition.  He pleaded with me to send him $1,000 to cover the medical bills.  Since George was at the hospital I asked him to let me speak to a nurse, and she confirmed that George's son was indeed ill.  So I agreed to send George the money through Western Union.  He was profusely grateful.  But before I hung up I asked George, "Why are you coming to me?"  He said, "I have no one else to ask."  Then he said something that astounded me, "Dinesh, you are like a brother to me."

Actually, George has a real life brother who just happens to be the president of the United States.  (George Obama is the youngest of eight children sired by Barack Obama Sr.)  George's brother is a multimillionaire and the most powerful man in the world.  Moreover, George's brother has framed his re-election campaign around the "fair share" theme that we owe obligations to those who are less fortunate.

Now I'm cynical enough to strongly suspect some kind of scam going on here and George Obama would probably make Billy Carter look good in comparison but then George *does* live in a dirty shack in Kenya and the rest of the Obama clan is not living a whole lot better.

If I were a president worth millions, I think I could at least get my African extended family out of shanties, some basic medical care, a TV and possibly a basic cable package. Hell my family does that already with my deadbeat cousins and they're just pathetic losers.

Who's the Real Racist Party?

Well according to the narrative it's supposed to be the Republicans, but surveys of attitudes and behavior don't back this up and in fact point to the Democrats as the slightly stronger bastion of residual racism.

MA Imposes De Facto Doctor Price Controls

Eventually there will be no independent medical care - there will only be Zool ObamaCare.

Under the new law, all Massachusetts doctors, hospitals, and other providers must register with a new state bureaucracy as a condition of licensure. Yes, if you are any kind of health care provider in Massachusetts, you now belong to the state- that is, if you want to actually earn a living in your field. The new "state bureaucracy," not unlike the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) in ObamaCare, will have a lot to say about what providers do each day as it tracks and reports their financial performance, price and cost patterns, state-sanctioned quality measures, market share, and other statistics.

...According to the new law, no registered provider is permitted to make "any material change to its operations or governance structure," without the commission's approval. In addition, the commission has the authority to rewrite the terms of provider contracts with insurers as well as payment levels and methods if they are "deemed to be excessive," to police providers who exceed benchmarks, and demand "performance improvement plans" of those providers found to be spending too much money on patient care.

Best Car Ad Ever?

Viva la revolution.

Predictions of 2012 According to SciFi Writers in 1987

Some got it pretty close:

ROGER ZELAZNY

It is good to see that a cashless, checkless society has just about come to pass, that automation has transformed offices and robotics manufacturing in mainly beneficial ways, including telecommuting, that defense spending has finally slowed for a few of the right reasons, that population growth has also slowed and that biotechnology has transformed medicine, agriculture and industry-all of this resulting in an older, slightly conservative, but longer-lived and healthier society possessed of more leisure and a wider range of educational and recreational options in which to enjoy it-and it is very good at last to see this much industry located off-planet, this many permanent space residents and increased exploration of the solar system. I would also like to take this opportunity to plug my new book, to be published in both computerized and printed versions in time for 2012 Christmas sales-but I've not yet decided on its proper title. Grandchildren of Amber sounds at this point a little clumsy, but may have to serve.

And others not so much - I'm looking at you Asimov and Orson Scott Card.

Maid Cosplay + .50 Rifle = Weird Kind of Awesome

Apparently from a Japanese girl's gun tour of Guam.

Also Bookworm has some thoughts on the difference between Japanese and Americans and Canadians:

Americans, traditionally, have appeared more like surly herded cats than enthusiastic lemmings.  For every stain on American history (slavery, the treatment of the Indians, the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans, Jim Crow), there have been countervailing forces, vigorously protesting these injustices.  Yes, the injustices happened, but they were never the product of a unanimous society mindlessly going along.  Instead, they were the result of societal tension and were destroyed by that same societal tension.

The Yahoo AoSHQ group. Bla bla bla.

And my twitter thang.

Tonight's post brought to you by Ghost Bustin':

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posted by Maetenloch at 10:31 PM

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