Tony Benn RIP

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Friday March 14, 2014 · 6:13 AM PDT

2014/03/14 · 06:13

Tony Benn who died yesterday was a Labour MP in the UK for many years, before that he was a hereditary peer who insisted on relinquishing his peerage so he could stay in the House of Commons. For people who want to know what an actual Socialist looks like, this was the genuine article.

He never achieved significant power but by his consistency and unrelenting advocacy for the less well-off, he achieved much by the power of the spotlight he brought to bear on injustice and in the Thatcher era, he was perhaps the greatest voice setting out the compassionate alternative.

He kept a diary for most of his active life in politics which is fascinating and his passing marks the end of an era for a lot of folks on the left in the UK

sprogga

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Friday September 28, 2012 · 4:35 PM PDT

2012/09/28 · 16:35

This is not so much a diary as a pointer to a great song encouraging women (and others!) to register and vote. Maybe all y'all have already seen it in which case many apologies but its a belter of a song and it should be shared as widely as possible.

Let One Voice Emerge

I hope no one dings me on "this is not a proper diary" grounds. Guilty as charged. It is a very proper song though. Have a great day.

Poll

14 votes Show Results

Is this a great song?

14 votes Vote Now!

Is this a great song?

Yes

13 votes

1 vote

NY Met Opera Occupied

sprogga

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Saturday December 03, 2011 · 9:39 PM PST

2011/12/03 · 21:39

I went to see "Faust" at the NY Met tonight. After the first interval moments before the third act was supposed to begin, a protester started shouting "Occupy Wall Street" at the top of his voice. Thats not really the done thing at the Met. But to my surprise, people started to applaud. Not one or two people but at least 50% of the audience. The applause continued until he was presumably dragged out. I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to shout "Bravo!" during his protest. This really is a diary as its an account of my evening at the Met. There's really not much to add than that. I think its an interesting datapoint that a protest during a performance at the Met Opera would get a relatively warm and enthusisatic reception. If you'd ever heard what happens when someone's cellphone goes off mid-aria you'd know that can be a mean crowd. In any event, I was even more convinced of the breadth and depth of support for the Occupy movement by this incident so I thought I'd share it. The opera was sublime and wonderful too.

Liberals are smarter- Science proves it!

sprogga

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Saturday February 27, 2010 · 3:40 AM PST

2010/02/27 · 03:40

This study http://www.sciencedaily.com/... says that on average, smarter people are more likely to be athiests and liberal. Smarter men are also more likely to be monogamous apparently.

This information is not causal. It could be that smarter people feel like they need to be liberal as a signal to other smart people of how smart they are. On the other hand of course, it could be that these really are just the smart choices.

Poll

101 votes Show Results

Liberal Atheists are that way because

101 votes Vote Now!

Liberal Atheists are that way because

We iz smart

63 votes

We are elitist

10 votes

Dropped on head when babies

13 votes

Pie

15 votes

Poll tax for the poor

sprogga

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Thursday December 17, 2009 · 3:45 AM PST

2009/12/17 · 03:45

Margaret Thatcher was finally undone in the UK by her insistence on attempting to finance local government expenditure with a poll tax. This proposal led to civil disobedience and mayhem because a poll tax is a deeply regressive tax: Everyone pays the same amount regardless of income.

In the US, the termPoll tax is according to Wikipedia more associated with taxes on voting but I'd like to suggest its actually very applicable to the mandates + fine with no PO construction thats apparently in the senate HCR bill.

The subsidies for those on lower incomes are not really large enough as they stand. But in the absence of meaningful restrictions on the insurance companies to raise rates, the profit maximizing act for insurance companies will be to raise the premiums on those policies/make them crappier in order to extract most of the subsidies themselves.

So, put simply, the choice people will have in this situation is:

Buy Junk Insurance or Pay the Poll Tax.

sprogga

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Tuesday December 15, 2009 · 8:49 PM PST

2009/12/15 · 20:49

Does size matter when it comes to Public Options? Yes and no.

Its not the size its what you do with it when it comes to Public Options. Even a relatively modest program could have large impacts on pricing decisions across the health insurance industry.

It doesn't follow therefore that because the PO's we've been offered were marginal in terms of numbers of people covered, that the impact of removing this option on costs will be likewise marginal.

If this is true, then people like me for whom the demise of the PO ( or an extension of Medicare) have switched us into the Kill the Bill camp may be many things, but we're not being irrational as this aspect of HCR was a key component in cost control for everyone, let alone its actual impact on those who would have benefitted from it directly.

RSS

Tony Benn RIP

L.O.V.E (Let One Voice Emerge)

NY Met Opera Occupied

Liberals are smarter- Science proves it!

Poll tax for the poor

Public Option: its not the size, its what you do with it