Day: October 19, 2013

Hostage Taking Postponed to ML King Day

The government is open for business again.  How nice.  Too bad it wasn’t open before we, as a nation, made fools of ourselves in front of every other nation in the world.  Or before several people lost money because of not being able to pay for student loans, which kicked their payment percentage all the way up ton 19%, or before billions of dollars of other costs incurred from loses due to programming and research that had to be done time, but was cut short, or ended, because of no funding for the scientists involved.  I even read that some people mortgages were foreclosed on during that short period of time.

I’m sure those farmers who had thousands of cattle freeze to death during the ice storm in South Dakota and who couldn’t call anyone to help with their costs through their federal insurance when their whole economic futures crashed are happy.  They would have been more happy if the Republicans in the House had done their jobs. No one knows what is happening with them now.

We at least know that there will be money until Martin Luther King Day.  On that day they will begin to hold us all hostage again.  Perhaps they will try to get us to stop celebrating Martin Luther King Day.  That would be something that is important.  Think of all of the money spent allowing us a weekend off where we can spend time with our families and loved ones.
We will see what our government will do then, but I have lost total confidence in them.  Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Conservative, or Liberal, or Libertarian, or a Socialist, I am sure you know a nut when you see one.  It seems, unfortunately, that we have many, many nuts running the government now and woe are we.  The congress is full of people who are more incapable than the least among us.  When that happens in a country it is on the way to the bottom like a sinking ship.

Corbett Extends Children’s Insurance Through 2015

Governor Tom Corbett signed into law this week a bill to extend the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2015. The new law also eliminates the current six-month waiting period before a child can enroll in the program, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

CHIP provides quality, comprehensive health insurance coverage for routine doctor visits, prescriptions, dental, eye care and much more to uninsured children and teens who are not eligible for or enrolled in Medical Assistance. More than 188,000 children are currently enrolled in CHIP across the Commonwealth. Federal funds pay for approximately two-thirds of the total cost of CHIP.

The program, established in 1992, was set to expire Dec. 31. For information on CHIP, click here.

No Doubt I’ll Fit Right In

I’ve been absent from my blog lately because of my focus on the paper I’ll be presenting at an Oxford University Roundtable October 22-23. The task was even more demanding than I had originally imagined. I leave for England this weekend.

The roundtable consists of 13 presenters, 12 of whom (guess who 13 is) are college professors. The topic we’re addressing is “For-Profit Education” and the challenge it presents to contemporary higher education.

For the past nine months I’ve been preoccupied with researching and writing about a topic I had scant knowledge of this time last year. The university wanted an “outside” opinion, and hence my invitation to attend. So I’ll be standing among Oxford Ph. Ds armed with my diplomas (I may take them with me) from LaSalle and Rider colleges.

Hopefully, I’ll be seated close enough to King Arthur at the roundtable to ask him some questions that have obsessed me since my youth:

Excerpted from Good Writers Block