Barbara O'Brien

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

Editor’s Pick
MAY 4, 2011 12:28PM

From Birthers to Wimpers

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 »
Editor’s Pick
SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 10:03AM

9/11: The Story, The Shrines, The Meaning

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 »
Editor’s Pick
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 4:24PM

Malpractice Reform for (Doctors Who Are) Dummies

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 »
Editor’s Pick
AUGUST 21, 2009 10:55AM

The Truth About Obamacare

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

Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
AUGUST 7, 2009 8:05AM

"They've Become Political Terrorists"

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 »

Comments are now closed for this post.
Editor’s Pick
AUGUST 3, 2009 3:33PM

Fire and Bones: Demolishing the Deutsche Bank Building

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 28, 2009 7:58AM

Six "Centrist" Senatorial Sellouts on Health Care Reform

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 »

Editor’s Pick
JULY 22, 2009 12:36PM

Bobby Jindal, Insurance Industry Shill

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,

The left in Washington has concluded that honesty

Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 15, 2009 9:40AM

Senate Republicans, Sonia Sotomayor, and the Default Norm

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 13, 2009 11:24AM

Roberts Supreme Court: Anti-Environment?

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 8, 2009 12:56PM

Ir-rationing Health Care

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 »

Editor’s Pick
JULY 7, 2009 11:20AM

The White House Department of Law and Other Palinisms

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,

Palin

Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 6, 2009 10:21AM

Projections, Delusions, and Sarah 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 »
Editor’s Pick
JULY 5, 2009 2:12PM

Palin Threatens to Sue

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 »

Editor’s Pick
JUNE 30, 2009 2:59PM

Sanford: Maria, Not His Wife, Is His "Soul Mate"

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 »
Comments are now closed for this post.
Editor’s Pick
JUNE 24, 2009 4:47PM

Should Middle-Aged Men Hold Public Office?

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JUNE 17, 2009 10:42AM

Life as a Preexisting Condition

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 »

Editor’s Pick
JUNE 15, 2009 11:44AM

Obama to Bargain With the AMA?

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JUNE 5, 2009 11:23AM

Update: Sotomayor on Tort

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 »
Editor’s Pick
JUNE 1, 2009 8:41AM

Where Does Sotomayor Stand on Tort?

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 »

Editor’s Pick
APRIL 7, 2009 4:17PM

OSHA: It's Still Bush's Bureaucracy

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 »
Editor’s Pick
MARCH 31, 2009 3:04PM

Unions: Still Relevant? Or Just Relics?

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 »

Editor’s Pick
MARCH 25, 2009 10:26PM

Banned in China


This is not easy to watch. Right after the Tibetan Governmet in Exile released this video, the government of China effectively blocked YouTube in China.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has released a report documenting numerous human rights violations by U.S. immigration officials. Read a… Read full post »
Editor’s Pick
MARCH 20, 2009 2:49PM

Tort Reform: How Karl Rove Isn't Done With Us Yet

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 »