“What we
know,” said President Obama to a business group a few days ago, “is
that our—our fiscal problems are not short-term deficits. Our
discretionary budget, that portion of the federal budget that isn’t
defense or Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, the entitlement
programs, is at its smallest level in my lifetime, probably since
Dwight Eisenhower. We are not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of
social programs out there.” A. Barton Hinkle says you could call
this Obama’s version of the old joke: “Aside from that, Mrs.
Lincoln, how did you like the play?” And his minimization of
reality isn’t limited to fiscal matters.
How Football Fleeces Taxpayers: Gregg Easterbrook on The
King of Sports is the latest video from ReasonTV. Watch
above or click on the link below for video, full text, supporting
links, downloadable versions, and more Reason TV clips.
Today is Cyber Monday, the day where all lovers of Internet
commerce look for online holiday deals in the follow up to the
Black Friday post-Thanksgiving (barely post-Thanksgiving nowadays)
specials. Amazon is offering up all sorts of
deals.
For Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, now seemed like a good time to
unveil their latest attempts to improve the online shopping
experience: Drones. In an
interview with 60 minutes Sunday, Bezos introduced
Charlie Rose to their “octocopters,” drones they are hoping to use
to deliver purchases to customers within 30 minutes of them
pressing the “buy” button online.
The service will be called Amazon Prime Air. They’ve already put
up a
page for it with a video demonstration and short FAQ:
Bezos notes in the interview that the main barrier to offering
the service right is that the Federal Aviation Administration does
not yet permit private commercial drone use until it hammers out
all the regulations. It may be years before the FAA gets guidelines
in place, but Amazon says they’ll be ready to go once they do.
In the 60 minutes interview, Bezos says the drone
deliveries will originate directly from their “fulfillment centers”
(distribution centers) and probably will range about 10 miles at
the start. That would be useful for anybody living near their
nearly 100 warehouses, but it will still leave lots of folks out.
To me it seems like the people in rural, out-of-the-way places
would benefit more from drone deliveries than those in urban
centers, because of how costly and inefficient it is to send trucks
out there. But I suppose you have to learn to drone-deliver copies
of Fifty Shades of Grey to your neighbors without dropping
them on anybody’s heads before stretching those propellers.
Presumably, if they’re able to work out the drones with the FAA,
Reason fans will be able to shop online at Amazon, have their
purchases delivered by octocopters, and support us all at the same time.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/02/amazon-turns-to-drones-as-latest-market
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The image above represents serious improvement. For the first
time since early October, when I created an account at
Healthcare.gov, I’ve actually been able to get back into my
account. On a weekly basis, I had tried and failed, and could never
get the system to successfully send me a reset password email.
Today, I got that email, logged in, and got the message above. Two
times after following logging out and waiting.
So we’re getting there, with there being the
moment in time when I can actually scroll through the site.
Peter Suderman suggests that for all the hoopla surrounding the
“tech surge” on Healthcare.gov and Obama admin claimes that 90
percent of users are now able to access the site successfully, it’s
going to a long while before even the front-end of the site is
working the way it should. And then stuff gets really dicey, since
30 percent to 40 percent of the site has yet to be built.
Including the ability to “make payments to issuers in
January,” when plans kick in.
That quote is courtesy of congressional testimony by deputy
hoo-had at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Something tells me my wait – and yours – is going to be longer
than 30 minutes.
The image above represents serious improvement. For the first
time since early October, when I created an account at
Healthcare.gov, I’ve actually been able to get back into my
account. On a weekly basis, I had tried and failed, and could never
get the system to successfully send me a reset password email.
Today, I got that email, logged in, and got the message above. Two
times after following logging out and waiting.
So we’re getting there, with there being the
moment in time when I can actually scroll through the site.
Peter Suderman suggests that for all the hoopla surrounding the
“tech surge” on Healthcare.gov and Obama admin claimes that 90
percent of users are now able to access the site successfully, it’s
going to a long while before even the front-end of the site is
working the way it should. And then stuff gets really dicey, since
30 percent to 40 percent of the site has yet to be built.
Including the ability to “make payments to issuers in
January,” when plans kick in.
That quote is courtesy of congressional testimony by deputy
hoo-had at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Something tells me my wait – and yours – is going to be longer
than 30 minutes.
As Peter Suderman
noted earlier, the Obama Administration’s declaration of
victory over Healthcare.gov’s technical issues may be a little
premature. For the hell of it, this morning I tried signing in to
the federal Obamacare exchange Website to set up an account. I used
Mozilla Firefox 25.0.1. I picked Arizona as my state. Everything
went swimmingly…until I actually tapped the “Get Started” button.
I saw code salad, as the screenshot below demonstrates.
So I started over and tried again. And again. The third try was
the charm.
To be fair, I opened Google Chrome and was able to get in and
set up an account using that browser on the first try. My email
notification of “Marketplace account created” arrived soon after.
Just a thought, but maybe the tech wizzes working on Obamacare’s
woes might need a little more time to slap duct tape on the
website’s boo boos.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/02/maybe-healthcaregov-isnt-so-fixed
via IFTTT
As Peter Suderman
noted earlier, the Obama Administration’s declaration of
victory over Healthcare.gov’s technical issues may be a little
premature. For the hell of it, this morning I tried signing in to
the federal Obamacare exchange Website to set up an account. I used
Mozilla Firefox 25.0.1. I picked Arizona as my state. Everything
went swimmingly…until I actually tapped the “Get Started” button.
I saw code salad, as the screenshot below demonstrates.
So I started over and tried again. And again. The third try was
the charm.
To be fair, I opened Google Chrome and was able to get in and
set up an account using that browser on the first try. My email
notification of “Marketplace account created” arrived soon after.
Just a thought, but maybe the tech wizzes working on Obamacare’s
woes might need a little more time to slap duct tape on the
website’s boo boos.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/02/maybe-healthcaregov-isnt-so-fixed
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According to Guns & Ammo magazine, the ad
above, for gun-seller Daniel Defense, was submitted to the NFL for
consideration to run during the Super Bowl. It was shot down:
The NFL’s Advertising Policy addresses several Prohibited
Advertising Categories, including guidelines for ads featuring
alcohol, video games, movies, prescription drugs, and, of course,
firearms.
The firearms portion of the NFL’s Prohibited Advertising
Categories states:
“5. Firearms, ammunition or other weapons are prohibited;
however, stores that sell firearms and ammunitions (e.g., outdoor
stores and camping stores) will be permitted, provided they sell
other products and the ads do not mention firearms, ammunition or
other weapons.”
According to these guidelines, Daniel Defense’s Super Bowl
commercial does not violate NFL policy for two reasons:
Daniel Defense has a brick-and-mortar store, where they sell
products other than firearms such as apparel.
The commercial itself does not mention firearms, ammunition or
weaponry.
While Daniel Defense’s commercial does not mention firearms, it
does include a logo of their DDM4 rifle at the very end.
When the NFL denied the ad, Daniel Defense immediately offered
to replace the DDM4 logo with an American flag and/or the words
“Shall not be infringed.”
The NFL replied with another non-negotiable denial.
And so an industry
that is built on guys slamming into each other and inflicting
damage – and that runs ads for all sorts of violent action movies,
video games, and whatnot – pulls the plug on a gun ad that doesn’t
mention guns.
I support the NFL being allowed to choose to run whatever they
want (or not) during their games, assuming that such
decision-making is part of its contracts with the network airing
the game. I also support the right of Daniel Defense to create an
ad that they almost certainly knew would be banned, thus generating
an enormous amount of publicity (the point of advertising) while
also saving huge amounts of money (last year,
30 seconds reportedly cost $4 million). And I certainly support
the move toward liberalized gun-ownership laws, which is both
constitutional and has correlated
with declines in gun-violence rates.
According to Guns & Ammo magazine, the ad
above, for gun-seller Daniel Defense, was submitted to the NFL for
consideration to run during the Super Bowl. It was shot down:
The NFL’s Advertising Policy addresses several Prohibited
Advertising Categories, including guidelines for ads featuring
alcohol, video games, movies, prescription drugs, and, of course,
firearms.
The firearms portion of the NFL’s Prohibited Advertising
Categories states:
“5. Firearms, ammunition or other weapons are prohibited;
however, stores that sell firearms and ammunitions (e.g., outdoor
stores and camping stores) will be permitted, provided they sell
other products and the ads do not mention firearms, ammunition or
other weapons.”
According to these guidelines, Daniel Defense’s Super Bowl
commercial does not violate NFL policy for two reasons:
Daniel Defense has a brick-and-mortar store, where they sell
products other than firearms such as apparel.
The commercial itself does not mention firearms, ammunition or
weaponry.
While Daniel Defense’s commercial does not mention firearms, it
does include a logo of their DDM4 rifle at the very end.
When the NFL denied the ad, Daniel Defense immediately offered
to replace the DDM4 logo with an American flag and/or the words
“Shall not be infringed.”
The NFL replied with another non-negotiable denial.
And so an industry
that is built on guys slamming into each other and inflicting
damage – and that runs ads for all sorts of violent action movies,
video games, and whatnot – pulls the plug on a gun ad that doesn’t
mention guns.
I support the NFL being allowed to choose to run whatever they
want (or not) during their games, assuming that such
decision-making is part of its contracts with the network airing
the game. I also support the right of Daniel Defense to create an
ad that they almost certainly knew would be banned, thus generating
an enormous amount of publicity (the point of advertising) while
also saving huge amounts of money (last year,
30 seconds reportedly cost $4 million). And I certainly support
the move toward liberalized gun-ownership laws, which is both
constitutional and has correlated
with declines in gun-violence rates.
Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden says
Edward Snowden’s disclosures about US spying practices have been
“catastrophic”
to the intelligence community.
White House staff are the latest people Democrats have
turned to to blame for Obamacare’s disastrous rollout.
Hillary Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential run may be
causing President Obama to arrive at lame duck status sooner
than he otherwise would have.
The Syrian National Council
plans on attending international peace talks in Geneva in
January, but the rebel government may not hold much
sway among opponents of the Syrian regime. The Free Syrian
Army, a rebel outfit,
meanwhile, will not be attending the Geneva talks. Israel says
its troops
fired into Syria after Syrian forces shot at them in the Golan
Heights.
A 280,000-year-old stone-tipped javelin was
discovered in Ethiopia, predating fossils from modern
humans.
Amazon is
testing the use of drones to make faster deliveries.
“What we
According to Guns & Ammo magazine, the ad
And so an industry
Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden says