AMA avoids firm stance on health insurance option

Interesting. Story here.

Jun 17th, 2009 | CHICAGO -- The American Medical Association has declined to take a firm position on President Barack Obama's proposal to create a public health insurance program.

The AMA delegates meeting in Chicago agreed Wednesday to support health care reform alternatives that are "consistent with AMA principles," which include freedom to choose health insurance and universal access for patients. But they didn't specifically support a plan for public health insurance. . . .

Wednesday evening

Back from the gastroenterologist. He said I have "Barrett's" and I asked what's that? (For the full answer, see here.) In my case (as I understand it), it's a result of having had acid reflux disease. The bottom of the esophagus,where it joins the stomach, becomes lined with acid-resistant cells which do carry a risk of developing into cancer. He said to keep taking the Prilosec and have another gastroscopy in three years. I also had one precancerous polyp and will undergo another colonoscopy also in three years (the two procedures will be done together, as they were recently).

As the doctor explained, one out of 10 people with acid reflux develop Barrett's.

Well, the Home Depot plumber is coming here tomorrow between noon and 3:00 to fix the water line to the fridge. I won't be here. I talked with the building manager today and she said she'll be available to let the plumber in and out of my apartment. Today she had to cast doubt once again on Home Depot's installation of the water line last fall. I played dumb, saying I wouldn't know anything since I wasn't a plumber (and neither is she, by the way). I'm glad I'll be out of the picture tomorrow--she and the plumber can hash things out between themselves. Tonight I'm going to do some cleaning and tidying up in the kitchen, so no gym.

In Firefox, when you open a new window, Firefox automatically creates a tab for it on the tab bar. A good feature which I'm getting used to.

Bateman: John McCain vs. Healthcare

Tuesday night

Having fun working with Foxfire. I don't think I ever said that about Internet Explorer. I never disliked IE, but it was never something I chose. Since Firefox's main claim to fame is its security, I look forward to not having to worry about malicious software creeping into my computer. Lately it's been a nightmare. Plus it works with Blogger. And it's very fast and nimble. (I think my first browser was Netscape Navigator, after I left AOL.)

Snoozed on the bus home. Didn't sleep all that well last night (maybe too much for dinner) and then this morning I was awakened by what I thought was my door knocker. The noise didn't persist, however, and I went back to sleep. I'm maybe a little traumatized from people letting themselves into my apartment while I'm asleep, to check on my plumbing.

Speaking of which, when I got home I had a message on the Magic Jack from the plumbing contractor. I'll call them tomorrow from work and see what they're up to. I haven't had an ice maker for weeks now. Fortunately there's a convenience store not five minutes away that I can walk to for ice.

Tonight I was at the drugstore and then swung by Burger King for a bacon double cheeseburger. Hadn't had one of those in a while. It was tasty.

There's supposed to be a new "Stagers" on tonight. We'll see about that.

Tomorrow I have the appointment with the gastroenterologist at the end of the day.

[Later] "The Stagers" was new and it was a good one.

The Magic Jack loads a lot faster with Firefox. But also I have to consider that a lot of malicious software has been eliminated from the computer, which was slowing things down. (But Internet Explorer had let that through.)

Donate here too

Act Blue

Nothing is more important to the American people than passing health care reform that reduces costs and provides security and coverage for everyone. The economy and the nation's competitiveness will not recover if this isn't done and this may be our last chance to get it done for another generation. Since single payer was taken off the table before the debate even started, the only way to reduce costs and increase coverage is to create a quality public plan choice that will keep the insurance companies relatively honest.

There are several Senators who are resisting this necessary reform and either backing toothless substitutes that will do nothing to rein in the medical industry's unnecessary waste and outrageous profits or looking for excuses to do so. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who sits on the finance committee and is running for office in 2010 is one. She has so far equivocated, saying that she's concerned that "if all Congress comes up with is a government-backed plan, then there will be very little incentive for the private industry to be able to be competitive perhaps in the plans they will be offering and the individuals they will be offering.” That's just nonsense. The only incentive these insurance companies will have to stop gouging their patients and hobbling the entire economy is to be forced to compete with a health plan that puts patients over profits. . . .

Cutié Weds Longtime Girlfriend

Story here.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Former Catholic priest Alberto Cutié married his longtime girlfriend Tuesday following the scandal that preceded his leaving the Catholic Church.

According to the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts, Cutié and Ruhama Canellis picked up their marriage license Tuesday in Coral Gables and immediately exchanged vows in front of a judge.

Cutié's relationship rocked the Catholic Church when pictures of the couple in questionable poses were published in a Mexican magazine back in May. As a Catholic priest, Cutie swore to celibacy. He later confessed to having a sexual relationship with Canellis and admitted it was his only relationship in the 22 years with the church. . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Group: Gay bias killings in US highest since 1999

AP story here.

Jun 16th, 2009 | NEW YORK -- A national advocacy group says the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released its report Tuesday. It says last year's 29 killings is the highest it has recorded since 1999. It documented the same number of slayings then. . . .

Obama kills fly during White House interview

From tonight's NBC Nightly News:

Castro's Son Duped Into Online Affair

From The Advocate here.

A Cuban activist from Miami reportedly duped Fidel Castro's son into a six-month online romance by posing as a woman.

Luis Dominguez, 46, posed as "Claudia Valencia," a 20-something Colombian woman flirting with Antonio "Tony" Castro Soto del Valle, according to ABC News. . . .

Dominguez, who is an advocate for human rights concerns in Cuba, posed as a woman to obtain information about the elder Castro's declining health. He said he got the idea when he saw Tony Castro at a baseball game in Cartagena, Colombia. After the game, there were "hundreds of girls taking pictures" with Castro, who was giving out his e-mail addresses and phone number, and inviting women out to nightclubs.

Dominguez says that Castro has been living a lavish life compared to his fellow countrymen who make, on average, $20 a month. While Castro has regular access to a BlackBerry device, a computer, and the Internet, most Cubans do not have such access. According to ABC News, only about one in eight homes have a phone.

Health care email from Obama - DONATE!

[moi]--

Last year, millions of Americans came together for a great purpose.

Folks like you assembled a grassroots movement that shocked the political establishment and changed the course of our nation. When Washington insiders counted us out, we put it all on the line and changed our democracy from the bottom up. But that's not why we did it.

The pundits told us it was impossible -- that the donations working people could afford and the hours volunteers could give would never loosen the vise grip of big money and powerful special interests. We proved them wrong. But as important as that was, that's not why we did it.

Today, spiraling health care costs are pushing our families and businesses to the brink of ruin, while millions of Americans go without the care they desperately need. Fixing this broken system will be enormously difficult. But we can succeed. The chance to make fundamental change like this in people's daily lives -- that is why we did it.

The campaign to pass real health care reform in 2009 is the biggest test of our movement since the election. Once again, victory is far from certain. Our opposition will be fierce, and they have been down this road before. To prevail, we must once more build a coast-to-coast operation ready to knock on doors, deploy volunteers, get out the facts, and show the world how real change happens in America.

And just like before, I cannot do it without your support.

So I'm asking you to remember all that you gave over the last two years to get us here -- all the time, resources, and faith you invested as a down payment to earn us our place at this crossroads in history. All that you've done has led up to this -- and whether or not our country takes the next crucial step depends on what you do right now.

Will you donate whatever you can afford to support the campaign for real health care reform in 2009? [Click here]

It doesn't matter how much you can give, as long as you give what you can. Millions of families on the brink are counting on us to do just that. I know we can deliver.

Thank you, so much, for getting us this far. And thank you for standing up once again to take us the rest of the way.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

PC Magazine review: Internet Explorer 8

See complete review here. (Emphasis added below.)

Bottom Line

The latest version of first the world's leading browser delivers category-leading security and adds some pretty slick browsing aids, such as WebSlices and Accelerators. It defaults to a more standards-compliant mode, but still offers a backward compatibility button. A predictive address bar brings it closer to Firefox, but the lack of a download manager and robust extension ecosystem hold the browser back.

Pros

Address bar offers Autocomplete. Tabs have color-coded groupings, crash isolation. InPrivate browsing. Flexible search. Easy access to Web content. IE7-compatible view. Better security, performance. Crash recovery. Fast startup.

Cons

JavaScript not as snappy as with some other browsers. Uses more memory than Firefox. No download manager. Windows-only.

Apparently Firefox is now the standard. Who knew?!

More about Firefox

From the Firefox website:

Anti-Malware

Firefox 3 protects you from viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. If you accidentally access an attack site, you’ll receive a full-sized browser message as a warning. A continuously updated list of attack-sites tells us when to stop you from browsing, so there’s nothing for you to update or maintain.

Anti-Virus Software

Firefox 3 integrates elegantly with your antivirus software. When you download a file, your computer’s antivirus program automatically checks it to protect you against viruses and other malware, which could otherwise attack your computer. [available in Windows only]

Anti-Phishing

Shop and do business safely on the Internet. Firefox gets a fresh update of web forgery sites 48 times in a day, so if you try to visit a fraudulent site that’s pretending to be a site you trust (like your bank), a browser message—big as life—will stop you.

(And not long ago, I had a phishing incident vis–à–vis my bank.)

Download Firefox here. (It's free!)

More on the paste issue with Internet Explorer 8

"Question: I've just upgraded to Internet Explorer 8 and don't seem to be able to paste information onto my blog any more."

"IE V8 came with additional tweaks in the Internet Options - Security and Privacy tabs. Some settings interfere with Blogger scripts, such as the post editor."

See Google's Blogger Help here.

Obama’s Stunning Health Care Reform Speech to the AMA

See Oxdown Gazette here (includes video of Obama's speech).

I can't predict whether Obama's health care reform speech to the AMA will substantially improve the chances for genuine reforms.

But I don't think we should underestimate the powerful message the President of the United States just delivered to the people who, if you read the speech carefully, Obama unmistakably identified as having utterly failed the nation's health care needs -- and it wasn't just the AMA.

The MSNBC video runs about 55 minutes. Select excerpts below. . . .

Monday night

Slept most of the day and then walked down to Flanigan's for dinner. Had three appetizers: Steak House Soup, dolphin fingers and mozzarella sticks (took some home). And a large lemonade. The dolphin fingers were the best ever.

B. usually has Mondays off and often I see the BF's vehicle parked in the handicapped space at Flanigan's as I'm coming home from work on the bus. (So they party there on Monday nights.) They weren't there tonight, however, which was probably just as well. I only went for the food, and I was hungry. Dolphin (mahi-mahi) is their specialty.

I still find it bizarre that you can't cut and paste with Internet Explorer 8. There must be a way around it but it was easier just to download Firefox. Read a recent review of Firefox here.

I just downloaded the logo from the Internet, and Firefox (quickly) scanned it first for any security threats. Also, I love Firefox's built-in spellchecker.

I have to say: My computer is running great now. And faster than ever.

Later

Watching "Renovation Realities" on HGTV, one of my favorites.

My brain is fried from dealing with the computer today. A new wrinkle--I'm having trouble copying stuff from other sources into my blog. I'm looking into this. I even pasted text into the word processor (as unformatted text) and was unable to paste the unformatted text into the blog post. I'll get to the bottom of it.

Let me try to paste the previous paragraph into a new blog post. (Wasn't able to do it.) I can't even paste something I created in the word processor into a blog post. Doing some research. It appears the new Internet Explorer is the culprit, and I'm not the only one having this problem. See here and search for "paste". (I can paste links but not text, otherwise I would have pasted the text.) I can't even paste this paragraph into this post. This sucks! I can't even paste "This sucks!" into this sentence. This is no good.

[Much later, after I got Firefox]. This is the tidbit referenced in the last paragraph, which I am now able to paste:

Friday, May 15, 2009 10:21 AM by Jeanne

I hate, hate, hate IE8!!!! Now I can't copy/paste on my blog anymore. AND I can't "go back" to the version I had before.

IE SUCKS!

[Later] Restored the system back to Saturday and will re-run Malwarebytes software.

Did that and still couldn't paste. Running Malwarebytes again now.

Restored back to June 3. Let's see if I can paste the previous paragraph. Can't do it. This is totally messed up. What a disaster. Can't paste "What a disaster." here. This sucks!

Maybe it's Blogger.

[Later] No, it wasn't Blogger. It was Internet Explorer 8. So I switched to Firefox.

{Later, after I changed to Firefox it pasted:} [Later] No, it wasn't Blogger. It was Internet Explorer 8. So I switched to Firefox. [I can copy and paste again. Yippee!]

Much better. Internet Explorer 8 sucks big time! Switch to Firefox.

18-year old charged in Florida cat mutilations

It's about time they caught him. AP story here.

In the past month, residents in the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods have reported finding the bodies of more than two dozen cats. Police said some were likely killed by dogs. Some were missing fur -- neighbors said some had been skinned -- and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument, police said. . . .

Happy ending for these Uighurs

AN OCEAN IDYLL Salahidin Abdulahat, left, and Khaleel Mamut, Uighur Muslims recently freed from Guantánamo Bay, swam in Bermuda on Sunday. Mr. Abdulahat said his first-ever ocean swim was "the happiest day of my life." [NYT]

See NY Times story here.

Sunday night already

That was a Windows XP Service Pack 3 update (937 MB) that took hours. I thought it would never end. I just now got back online. No more yellow shield.

Meanwhile I made the big pot of chicken gumbo with Andouille sausage. Came out excellent. I used small chunks of boneless chicken breast (on sale) and didn't overcook it. (I added it at the end. There was already the chicken stock in the mix.) That was dinner and will also be lunch for the next few days.

[A bit later] Actually there was one more update--a security update--which took no time. I just had to reboot.

The computer hasn't behaved so well since I can remember--fast, responsive.

The yellow shield is gone (I hope for the rest of the night). Watching a new show on Africa on the History Channel.

Sunday afternoon

Computer was acting up again today (not the same thing as last time). I ran a Windows Defender scan and it found 1 infection. I ran a Malwarebytes scan and it found 40 infections! (I'll buy that if I have to.)

[Later] I'd been suspicious of a yellow shield-shaped icon at the bottom of the screen, which says I have updates to install. I did a little research and found out this could install something malicious. That's why I ran the malware software before installing any updates. So I let it begin to install Internet Explorer 8 and then went for coffee. (One of the first things it does is search for malicious software. Good, I thought.)

When I got back from Starbucks, I had a message saying that F-Prot (my anti-virus software) had found and removed a virus. Hmmmm.

Anyway, the new Explorer is up and running. I had to download something from Hewlett-Packard, however, to make my printer compatible with it.

I see that the yellow shield is back...