Barbara O'Brien
- Location
- New York, USA
- Birthday
- October 01
- Bio
- Barbara O'Brien blogs at Mahablog, Buddhism.About.com and the Mesothelioma and Asbestos Awareness Center.
MY RECENT POSTS
- From Birthers to Wimpers
May 04, 2011 12:27PM - RedState Video Shows Mob
Chasing Lauren Valle
October 27, 2010 06:42PM - On Health Care, Progressives
Are Fighting the Wrong Fight
December 17, 2009 03:49PM - The System Is Broken
December 15, 2009 09:07AM - Knowledge vs. Ignorance (and
Ignorance Is Winning)
December 09, 2009 02:07PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Chelle
James,
"I, happen to
be, a "right of center"
conservative. I…”
May 04, 2011 08:20PM - “Although I'm no
fashionista I generally enjoy
Project Runway
for the
creativity t…”
October 29, 2010 04:08PM - “"Just because it's
legal, doesn't make it a great
idea. At
this point in
tim…”
August 31, 2010 11:00PM - “"I do not believe there
is any way around the
cementing of
such a name at
th…”
August 31, 2010 10:35PM - “"As soon as they build
the Christian church back that
was
destroyed by
parts…”
August 31, 2010 10:27PM
Barbara O'Brien's Links
An editorial in the New York Times, “The Myth of Obama’s Weakness,” says the "audacious decision to attack the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan has demolished the notion that he cannot make tough decisions or cares primarily about the nation’s image abroad."
Ah,
… Read full post »The Story
When I meet someone who says he was in lower Manhattan on September 11, I apply a little test. Yes, I was watching from an office building on West 17th Street, I say. A high-rise. We had a clear view. Where were you, exactly?
If the answer is
… Read full post »The AMA’s slow and begrudged support to the contrary, many physicians seem ambivalent about health care reform. They are holding out for federal tort reform, which they believe is key to lowering their malpractice insurance costs.
The doctors’ perspective was expressed this weekend in th
… Read full post »First, you should know that the FreedomWorks special ops unit
that kidnapped invited me to an undisclosed
location for discussion has treated me very well. I must say, that
sodium pentathol stuff does clear your mind! And now that
I’ve agreed to tell the truth about Obamacare, my hosts
have
Here’s a video of the riot outside last night’s Tampa town hall meeting. If you listen, at one point you can hear someone by the doors who appears to be a police officer trying to explain that the hall was filled to capacity and that allowing more people in would be a… Read full post »
Sometime this week, the last scraps of asbestos and other toxic substances will be removed from the Deutsche Bank building on 130 Liberty Street, lower Manhattan, according to officials. And by early 2010, the ruined building will be entirely demolished, they say.
Yeah, right.
We were also told the
… Read full post »According to today's New York Times, the health care bill is being held up by six "centrist" senators who meet daily to put together a bill that would have "broad bipartisan agreement"; as opposed to a bill that would, you know, reform health care.
Also according to the Times, this wrecking/… Read full post »
Since Bobby Jindal has about as much hope of being POTUS as I have of being Pope, I hope the insurance industry gave him a good tip for the pack of lies Jindal published in the Wall Street Journal today. He writes,
… Read full post »The left in Washington has concluded that honesty
I’ve used the phrase “default norm” a number of times, so it was nice to see Michael Tomasky (or at least, the headline writer at Comment Is Free) pick it up. Tomasky’s headline is “Because ‘white male’ equal default human ‘normal,’ see?”&n
… Read full post »Is the Roberts Supreme Court hostile to the environment? Court watchers say that since Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court in 2005, the Court has taken a sharp anti-environmental turn. And the term just ending was a particular disaster for environmental cases. The “greens” were s
… Read full post »There are a number of treatments for early-stage, slow-growth prostate cancer. These treatments range from “watchful waiting” — not treating the cancer at all, but just keeping an eye on it — to surgical removal of the prostate gland, to high-tech proton radiation therapy usin… Read full post »
I wasn’t going to write about Sarah Palin again today. Really, I wasn’t. I was all set to slog into something informative and useful about health care.
Well, maybe later. This is too juicy. ABC News has an absolutely hysterical interview with Palin the Petulant. For example,
… Read full post »Palin
For most of us, everything we see around us is a projection of our inner reality — our beliefs, biases, thoughts, fears, desires, etc. I’m not saying that’s what actually is all around us, mind you, just that that’s what we see. An ability to see things as-they-are is rare
… Read full post »The Drama Queen of the Klondike and future former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin is threatening to sue "liberal bloggers" and media for "defamation." Heh.
An attorney representing Palin the Petulant complained specifically about a rumor that P the P had received kickbacks as mayor of Wasill… Read full post »
This Associated Press story leads off with Gov. Mark Sanford saying he'd "crossed lines" with lots of other women but never had sex with any of them until he met his Argentine mistress, Maria Belen Chapur. But to me the really interesting nugget is a bit further down:
During an emotional… Read full post »
So Gov. Sanford admits to having an affair. Gov. Sanford, I note, was born in 1960, which would make him 50 next year.
I bring up his age because recently we’ve seen the usual drivel from some troglodytes objecting to the nomination of a woman to the Supreme Court because
… Read full post »The must-read new story today is by Lisa Girion of the Los Angeles Times. In “Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage,” we find the clearest case yet why the private health care industry will never, ever, not in a million years, come even close to solving the health care… Read full post »
Last week the American Medical Association came out against the most important part of President Obama’s health care reform proposal — public health insurance that would compete with private insurance plans. Now there are reports that President Obama is considering “reducing malpra
… Read full post »This is an update to my last post, "Where Does Sotomayor Stand on Tort?" At Bloomberg.com, Greg Stohr has an analysis of the voting record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor that should be heartening to supporters of the 7th Amendment right to sue for damages.
There is
… Read full post »Sotomayor on Tort: Whose Side Is She On?
For years, “tort reform” has been a crusade of the Right. I have argued elsewhere that “tort reform” amounts to a well-funded campaign to manipulate public opinion and fool people into giving up their 7th Amendment rights to/… Read full post »
During the eight long years of the Bush Administration, Washington bureaucracies were filled with political hires more interested in serving an agenda than in serving the people. The change in administration didn’t make these ideological worker bees disappear, and the results continue to vex u
… Read full post »Corporate and financial institutions that once seemed as solid as Mount Everest have turned out to be sand castles. Are we seeing the Twilight of the God-Tycoons? Or just a temporary eclipse?
Either way, are the shifting fortunes of corporate America an opportunity for unions to make a comeback? And… Read full post »
This week Republicans in Congress stood up for the right of incompetent Wall Street executives to be overpaid and undertaxed. You might GOP legislators were just making fools of themselves and can be ignored. But out of the AIG limelight the GOP was moving on other fronts with faux populist
… Read full post »
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