10 Thoughts for March 5, 2014

1. I'd been on a mini binge buying spree of can biscuits.  As I was popping some in the oven, I recalled a childhood memory of making cheap malasadas with these can biscuits.  Deep fried, shaken in a paper bag full of sugar.  So I made some.  Still can't beat real malasadas, though.
2. One part of the ACA included a rule that required drug companies to publicly detail payments to doctors for representations, speaker fees, etc.  Pro Publica reported that many of those drug companies have suddenly slashed their spending on doctors.  When you shine the light, the roaches scramble, right?  
3. Is Microsoft considering a slimmed down Windows OS with Bing front and center, to compete with Chromebooks?  If true, it merely shows how much BS Microsoft is willing to dish out, only to co-opt their own message by following the same playbook.
4. This won't surprise you, but Paul Ryan's been caught -- yet again -- citing research incompletely, this time to justify his war on Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty.  It should speak volumes that someone is this deceitful.
5. Ironic: Armed men in Crimea detaining a UN representative, then forcing him out of Crimea.  Well then, I guess Putin only cares about ensuring that Ukrainians in Crimea don't restrict what Russians can do in Crimea.
6. By the way, Putin was against the Feb 21st pact before he was for it.  Surely this is enough to show that Putin has zero credibility, but yesterday's statement from Putin that there were no Russian soldiers in Crimea was a jaw dropper.  All in all, everyone -- outside of Russia -- can now see bare, the Emperor has no clothes on.
7. I was curious if my posts were turning off Russian readers -- see Nationalism.  Apparently not.  Still getting a lot of traffic...still the second-highest, next to US.  What happened, Canadians?  ;)
8. About Nationalism: The first step of countering it, is to be cognizant of it, then diversify your reading sources; it's the same issue surrounding confirmation bias.  I can't explain it to others without seemingly insulting their intelligence -- no one wants to be told that what they believe in, is a lie.  Hopefully I have some cred, because you know, I am willing to praise people I generally detest, when they do something praiseworthy.  See: Rand Paul on NSA spying.
9. I noticed some interesting language creeping into the criticism of Obama: Nudge.  At some point, the media and politicians realized that Obama was trying to nudge people in his direction -- something I mentioned long ago when Secretary Kerry let it "slip" that Syria's only means of avoiding intervention was dismantling their chemical weapons.  Nowadays, Obama critics find this nudging insufficient.  The way I see it, the real problem is that people hate it when your actions are too subtle to interpret at face value.
10. About Ukraine and NATO.  Back in 2009, Brits and other Europeans suggested that the US leave NATO, because Bush had backed a plan to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO.  The fear back then, was that NATO and Russia would be on the path towards a military confrontation.  Further, back then a majority of Ukrainians were against it.  Here we are in 2014 and now a majority of Ukrainians want in, meanwhile former Soviet bloc republics now inside of NATO want a forceful, meaningful push to hold Putin within his borders.  Interesting how a threat of Soviet Russian intervention can suddenly change things, don't you think?  Former bloc members can still feel the breath of the KGB and the USSR on their necks, and it scares the hell out of them.  Do Russians understand this?  Can they understand this?  Nationalism, people.