Earlier today, my wife and I saw a TV ad that amazed both of us. We never thought the word moderate would come to mean socialist.

Provided to you courtesy of David Dew-Hurt Texas

Update (May 18, 2012):

Now, the Texas Conservative Funds claims that Dewhurst's oppenent, Ted Cruz,… Read full post »

Who would have thought that staunch Republicans and conservatives, unbeknownst to them, finally realized the benefits of the “single-payer” system? Interestingly, Texas A&M University announced yesterday that, in order to save $1.7 million in health care costs every y… Read full post »

In my two previous posts (here and here) on Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, I discussed the results of various (and relatively simple) before-after analyses I did using observational data. These data included the number of justifiable homicides, the total number of homicides and the number/… Read full post »

In my previous post, I examined the effects of the "Stand Your Ground" law on the number of justifiable homicides in the State of Florida. For this, I conducted a simple before-after analysis using data reported in the Tampa Bay Times. Despite the limitations associated with these data, the re/… Read full post »

Florida Statute 776.013 (3):

"A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force,… Read full post »

I'll make sure to pay this bill so that I don't end up you-know-where. I'm happy to report that this is not a medical bill.

To continue on the topic of this very short post:

  Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast

(a seminal album I own since 1982)

 Here's… Read full post »

$10,000 is a very popular amount right now. It's a nice round number: it can buy most people a more than decent vacation; it makes a nifty down payment on a house and hey, what else are you going to keep in your $5,000 purse?

$10,000, of course, was also… Read full post »

With health care reform (or repeal depending on your point of view) in full swing, there has been a lot of talk about expanding Medicare to everyone. "Medicare for all," they say.

I've noticed among various discussions on blog posts and in the media that several people were referring to… Read full post »

If you want further proof of the intellectual decline of the American Empire, look no further than this flyer we received Friday advertizing a community charity event for the St. Jude's Research Hospital.

Please let me say immediately, however, that this post is not criticizing the adver… Read full post »

In a recent post by Rutherford Lawson, a fellow OS member, and hardcore "libertarian" who goes by the pen name UncleChri, has argued in several comments that Medicare is the main contributing factor that drove the U.S. health care expenditure to unprecedented levels. To put it more b/… Read full post »

Ever since the economy almost entirely tanked three years ago, we've often heard about how increasing tax rates for individuals or families will kill the economic recovery. According to many, increasing the rates for those located in the upper bracket will be even more devastating to our count… Read full post »

Segments most liked by viewers: gel torso used for  testing a weapon

Source: SpikeTV 

Spike TV's The Deadliest Warrior, now in its 3rd season, is a television program that creates hypothetical battles between famed historical or current fighters (or 'warriors', as… Read full post »

Here are two screen shots of the OS front page taken at 10:40 pm CT on July 21^st:

If you look closely at the screen shots, there is no spam post anywhere in the feed and new posts. I also checked the 'most recent' posts tab with the… Read full post »

Source: Wikikepdia/Sage Skidmore

It has recently been reported that the current governor of Texas, Mr. 'Goodhair' Rick Perry, is seriously considering taking a shot at the U.S. presidency. When he's not raising the anti-American position that Texas should secede or setting… Read full post »

Since I joined Open Salon about two years ago, I've written a few controversial posts on topics like health care reform, global warming and the tea party movement. I've read a lot of controversial posts as well, enough by now to have noticed a definite--if not disturbing--trend among the peopl… Read full post »

I saw this very interesting segment on last night’s edition of the PBS Newshour. This segment discusses how the Pakistani Government has recently implemented a public health insurance system (or plan) for low-income families making less than 20,000 rupees per month (~$235 US), unins… Read full post »

President Obama decided today that the pictures showing Osama bin Laden shot to death will not be released in order not to infuriate people who may be offended (and increase hostilities toward the U.S.). The responses so far appear to be mixed (see Jonathan Wolfman's latest post on this topic… Read full post »

Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future” fiscal Plan has been creating a lot of controversy (see Steve Klingaman’s piece for example) with its proposal to significantly cut (gut?) government spending by more than $62 trillion over the next 10 years (while still… Read full post »

Note (April 7): Open Salon has been having significant problems recently, which may make this webpage difficult to be accessed. This is unfortunately beyond my control. I hope these will be resolved soon.

After spending the day reviewing research reports and papers, my head was about to explod… Read full post »

  Darkness slowly taking over the U.S.
(Picture showing an interesting cloud formation
near Houston taken on Jan. 23rd by the author's wife)

The east coast has been pounded by several snow storms as of late.  Some people may believe that these discredit the effects o… Read full post »

The enormous tragedy that happened on January 8 in Tucson, AZ has once again thrown an entire nation into grief and anger. The latest information shows that the primary suspect, 22-year old Jared Lee Loughner (who may have had an accomplice), gunned down 20 people, killing 6 and injuring 14… Read full post »

Important Notice: If you're one of those people who believe that women enjoy being raped or sexually assaulted, stop reading right now and go somewhere else. This is not what this post is about.

Every week, I get an e-mail that summarizes the latest papers published on injury prevention,… Read full post »

Well, come to Calvert, Texas and find out. The entire police force, which consists of two full-time officers and a police chief, just resigned. The city is in effect without any police enforcement at this time. I'm not sure how long this deal will last, but you can now drive… Read full post »

As a lot of people are now aware, China's political and economic power has been gaining strength over the last few years. In fact, China is expected to surpass the US economy within the next ten years to become the largest and most powerful economy in the world (some say… Read full post »

_{Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/militaryhealth/3380011988/}

Health care reform (and its potential repeal) is back on the front page. The most recent, and unfortunate, news about health care shows that there are now 50,000,000 people in America who don't have any medical insu… Read full post »