More Catch-Up

she's been a real douche bag this week. It's amazing that health care reform, which is in essence an effort as a society to help people, is bringing this out of people. There's no legitimate argument against reforming the health care system. Insurance companies do not provide added value to the system. They dramatically raise costs and markedly reduce access to actual care. There's nothing in reality Megan can turn to for support, there's simply the money involved. It's about people versus money, and if the town hall disruptions are being successful at all it's by distracting from that simple fact.
Anyway, shorters.

Your Freaks Are Dumber Than My Freaks:

Clive Crook says the election of a black man as President is a scarring psychological assault on par with the terrorism of 9/11, and Megan concurs.

Your Daily Omnibus Health Care Post:

The savings involved with health care reform would in no way offset the costs involved with offering a public option. Instead, they'll steal your inheritance after killing your grandmother, and tax you more to boot.

Has Obama Jumped the Shark?:

Megan is asking whether President Obama has exhausted the original creative premise of his tv series.
I'm going to say no.

Housing Starts Rise, Again:

Strangely, the name Obama appears nowhere within this post. I guess she was still debating the quality of the plot of season 3.

Those Who Walk Away:

So I'm working on a piece on consumer borrowing, which will be out, on the Atlantic's somewhat lengthy production cycle, right around the new year.

Fact checking is haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard, especially when there are no fact checkers on staff anymore. Megan is stuck waiting for her turn with the temp.
The story is about how Megan agrees with banks that people should not be allowed to find ways out of predatory mortgages, because.

First Person Medical:

While the reader I'm quoting might be misinformed about the impact of health care reform on him personally, I'd like to respond with more misinformation, including the implication that "immigrants" *coughillegalcough* will drive costs skyyyyyyy high in the west.

An Option That Has Been Proven Difficult, and Left Untried:

Any government health care program is troubling, because it might show that the government can effectively manage the health care system. Like with Medicare or the VA.

The Price of Obesity:

People simply cannot lose weight, as this tale of a woman who lost 100 pounds shows.

Death Comes as the End:

Megan isn't stupid enough to believe in death panels, and is under great blogger clique pressure to mock the very idea, but some of her most devoted readers buy right into it, so she has to tread very carefully here. The pretzel she ends up twisting herself into is the idea that you can't quite trust doctors to be professional. Contrast this with Megan's many words in the comment thread M. called attention to down below, where she says, ahhhhh, whatever, to people carrying presumably loaded hand guns and assault rifles to outside of and into events where political leaders up to and including the President have tried to speak to the public about health care reform. Megan trusts random people with guns more than she trusts doctors. It's just a reminder to the hippies that the 'right thinkin people' have their preemptive 2x4s if the need be. And it doesn't count as gun violence if the gun owner thinks they're acting in defense of themselves, or someone else, or white power.
The point is, doctors have obvious motivations to want to kill you.

And there we are. Take Friday off, Megan, you've earned it.