The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:
Nobody knows you like your family.
Still, they're sometimes less than willing to give credit where it's due for all the growing up you've done lately.
Don't throw a temper tantrum -- that just confirms their worst suspicions.
Take a deep breath (or a few more) and give yourself the praise you know you deserve for the distance you've covered and how much you've grown.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Richmond, Queensland, Australia

Paris, Ile-De-France, France

Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Norwich, England, United Kingdom

Karlskrona, Blekinge Lan, Sweden

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia

Colchester, England, United Kingdom

Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea

Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Bielefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

NewCastle, New South Wales, Australia

as well as Poland, Scotland, and the United States in such cities as San Luis Obispo, Wichita, Heath, Omaha, Jasper and more

Today is Saturday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2010.

There are 202 days left in the year.

Today In History June 12

Today's unusual holidays or celebrations are:

Loving Day

Raggedy Ann and Andy Day

Ride The Wind Day, Ride For Wind Day or World Wind Day

and

The Wicket World of Croquet Day

President Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Weekly Address
Washington, DC

More than a decade ago, Congress set up a formula that governs how  doctors get paid by the Medicare program.  The intent was to slow the  growth of Medicare costs, but the result was a formula that has proposed  cutting payments for America’s doctors year after year after year.   These are cuts that would not only jeopardize our physicians’ pay, but  our seniors’ health care.
Since 2003, Congress has acted to prevent these pay cuts from going  into effect.  These votes were largely bipartisan, and they succeeded  when Democrats ran Congress and when Republicans ran Congress – which  was most of the time.
This year, a majority of Congress is willing to prevent a pay cut of  21% -- a pay cut that would undoubtedly force some doctors to stop  seeing Medicare patients altogether.  But this time, some Senate  Republicans may even block a vote on this issue.  After years of voting  to defer these cuts, the other party is now willing to walk away from  the needs of our doctors and our seniors.
Now, I realize that simply kicking these cuts down the road another  year is not a long-term solution to this problem.  For years, I have  said that a system where doctors are left to wonder if they’ll get  fairly reimbursed makes absolutely no sense.  And I am committed to  permanently reforming this Medicare formula in a way that balances  fiscal responsibility with the responsibility we have to doctors and  seniors.  In addition, we’re already taking significant steps to slow  the growth of Medicare costs through health insurance reform – not by  targeting doctors and seniors, but by eliminating 50% of the waste,  fraud, and abuse in the system by 2012.  This not only strengthens  Medicare, it saves taxpayer dollars.
I’m absolutely willing to take the difficult steps necessary to lower  the cost of Medicare and put our budget on a more fiscally sustainable  path.  But I’m not willing to do that by punishing hard-working  physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare.  That’s  just wrong.  And that’s why in the short-term, Congress must act to  prevent this pay cut to doctors.
If they don’t act, doctors will see a 21% cut in their Medicare  payments this week.  This week, doctors will start receiving these lower  reimbursements from the Medicare program.  That could lead them to stop  participating in the Medicare program.  And that could lead seniors to  lose their doctors.
We cannot allow this to happen.  We have to fix this problem so that  our doctors can get paid for the life-saving services they provide and  keep their doors open.  We have to fix this problem to keep the promise  of Medicare for our seniors so that they get the health care they  deserve.  So I urge Republicans in the Senate to at least allow a  majority of Senators and Congressmen to stop this pay cut.  I urge them  to stand with America’s seniors and America’s doctors.
Thanks.

World Cup Soccer

U.S. player that may make England nervous

Robbie Findley isn't as famous as his cousins, but his speed could make him a household name.  

5 things to watch 

Also: 

• His famous relatives
• Players talk U.S.-England
• Mobile jail patrols streets

Top Chefs Help Michelle Obama in the Garden, Pierce Brosnan Speaks Out for Whales, and More

Photo via The Telegraph

Michelle Obama enlisted the help of chefs from around the country -- including Rachael Ray, Tom Colicchio, and Cat Cora -- for the next phase of her Let's Move! campaign, which is aimed at decreasing childhood obesity rates. The chefs showed up get their hands dirty in the White House Garden, harvesting vegetables from the White House garden and then showing schoolchildren how to wash them.

Article continues: Top Chefs Help Michelle Obama in the Garden, Pierce Brosnan Speaks Out for Whales, and More

Gee, why are so many people so angry with incumbents this year?

Jim Yeager posted this over at Skippy:

It's a real friggin' mystery:

Congress headed home Thursday for a four-day break, after failing again to extend jobless benefits for an estimated 325,000 people, fund summer jobs for at-risk youths or help newly laid-off people pay for health care.

"these are really pressing things, and we want congress to stay, but it falls on deaf ears," said Judy Conti of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group...

Of course, it's far more complicated than this -- it's never just one thing that sets people off.
But didn't we just have a three-day weekend (at least officially), with the Fourth of July coming up as well?
These m%+#@&f*$k@!s are already going to get nearly all of August off, and they want even more than that to boot?
With unemployment hovering around ten percent (again, at least officially)?

Good luck in November ...

The Spilling Fields

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Spilling Fields - BP Ad Campaign
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Flash Floods

How destructive flash floods happen

The damaging waters that struck an Arkansas campground are a reminder of how deadly floods can be.

Causes 

Also: 

• 'We huddled together'
• Photos of the destruction
• Caddo Gap flash floods

National Get Outdoors Day

photo: J. Novak

I've never been one for making up holidays, especially when they're just made up so that greeting card companies can make a buck and kill some trees as a result. But I can get behind National Get Outdoors Day because, well, we need to get outdoors. Today is National Get Outdoors Day so why not celebrate by heading outdoors? And who better to advertise this verde holiday than the greeniest guy in showbiz, Shrek?

Article continues: Happy National Get Outdoors Day Featuring Shrek

In Matters Of Health

In Matters Of Health

Neither Side Budging After Nurses' Strike

The Twin Cities nurses' strike is over but the day after it has not been business as usual for hospitals and nurses.

Smarty Pants!  Scientists Underwear Invention Comes True

Scientist underwear invention can aid in health crisis, as it has the ability to read your heart rate and other vital signs, reports product-reviews.net.

America's coolest beach homes

America's coolest beach homes

One perfect summer spot has remote-controlled windows, an oceanfront pool, and an elevator.

What it costs 

Also: 

• Unspoiled island escapes
• Vacations kids will love
• Best beaches 2010

In A Big Country

Big Country (live)

A turn of a phrase

Get off your high horse

Meaning: A request to someone to stop behaving in a haughty and self-righteous manner.

Origin: 'High' has long been a synonym for 'powerful'; 'remote from the common people'. This usage isn't limited to being on one's 'high horse' but has also persisted in terms like 'high and mighty', 'high-handed' and 'high finance' and in job titles like 'high commissioner'.

When we now say that people are on their high horse we are implying a criticism of their haughtiness. The first riders of high horses didn't see it that way; they were very ready to assume a proud and commanding position, indeed that was the very reason they had mounted the said horse in the first place. The first references to high horses were literal ones; 'high' horses were large or, as they were often known in mediaeval England, 'great' horses. John Wyclif wrote of them in English Works, circa 1380:

Ye emperour... made hym & his cardenals ride in reed on hye ors.

Mediaeval soldiers and political leaders bolstered their claims to supremacy by appearing in public in the full regalia of power and mounted on large and expensive horses and, in sculptural form at least, presented themselves as larger than life.

The combination of the imagery of being high off the ground when mounted on a great war charger, looking down one's nose at the common herd, and also being a holder of high office made it intuitive for the term 'on one's high horse' to come to mean 'superior and untouchable'.

By the 18th century, the use of such visual aids was diminishing and the expression 'mounting one's high horse' migrated from a literal to a figurative usage. In 1782, Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley recorded his Private Sea Journals. These have ultimately failed to live up to their name as, in 1931, they were published by his great, great great grandson:

"Whether Sir George will mount his high Horse or be over-civil to Admiral Pigot seems even to be a doubt with himself".

Deference to people in positions of power has diminished over the years and we tend nowadays to mock high and mighty people as being 'on their high horse' when they affect a superior and disdainful manner - the term is now rarely used for people who actually are powerful and remote.

What would you pay to lunch with Warren Buffett?

Bidder pays $2.6 mil for lunch with Buffett

The highest bid in the 11th annual auction topped the previous record of $2.1 million in 2008. 

Sold on eBay 

Also: 

• More on Warren Buffett
• Glide Memorial  
• Consumers' slow spending

Police chief arrested in drug bust

Oopsie ...
The police chief of a small Texas town near the Mexican border faces federal charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of marijuana, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

Full story

Americans being arrested for credit card debt

In another giant leap backward.

Nobody is excusing reckless behavior with credit but if anyone should be arrested, fingerprinted and sent to jail it ought to be the bankers that created this system and the politicians that went along with it as well.

It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.

The Whoopee Party

Mickey and his pals throw a wild party - so wild that roast chickens and lamps come to life and join in the chaos. The police come to put down the racket, but end up joining in themselves.

Released September 17, 1932

Uninsured woman shoots self to get treatment for pre-existing condition

A Berrien County woman, out of  work, and unable to afford health insurance, says she shot herself so  that she'd finally get medical treatment for a shoulder injury. It  happened on Thursday afternoon at her home in Niles. Kathy Myers, 41,  says she hurt her shoulder about a month ago while playing with her dogs  in her backyard.

And while she has been treated with pain  medication, she says the pain has become unbearable, but she can't see a  specialist to fix the problem because she can't afford health  insurance. "They said it would have to be life-threatening or imminent  danger for them to do anything, so I was making it be imminent danger  that something had to be done," she said. The bullet missed anything  major and she was released from the hospital a few hours later.

"I really didn't  accomplish what I hoped it would accomplish. I was really hoping it  would hit an artery or bone so they would do the surgery and fix me,"  she said. "I have no suicide wish. My life sucks right now but I want to  live. I've got lots to live for and there's more good than bad in  everything in my life, so that's not what it was about at all... I just  want to take the pain away." She’s now searching for a specialist that  will accept some sort of payment plan she can afford.

"I would  hope that most people would understand this is the extreme and that they  would not attempt something like this," said Niles Police Captain James  Millin. "When a bullet enters your body, there's no telling where it's  going to go." Myers says she wouldn't do it again. The case has been  forwarded to the prosecutor's office to decide whether she will face  criminal charges for shooting a weapon within city limits.

Bad Cops

Bad Cops

Video claims to depict fatal beating of immigrant by border patrol

Ohio cop gets three years in prison for stealing $29,903 from sheriff’s office storage area

LAPD officer arrested after allegedly selling $4,200 worth of meth to federal informant

Un-named New Jersey cop caught as customer in prostitution sting

California cop charged with selling fake cocaine

Uganda convent marijuana plantation

More criminal 'christians':

Uganda police are investigating after a marijuana plantation was uncovered in the garden of a convent.

A regional police chief said that plants covering one acre had been found and uprooted in the southern Masaka district. Two nuns and two porters have been questioned.

One of the nuns has been quoted by local media as saying the marijuana was used to treat farm animals, such as pigs. Southern regional commander Emmanuel Muhuirwe said that only the porters had been arrested - not the nuns.

He said the nuns had been questioned because the garden was part of the convent. But he said no-one had been charged yet and the porters have been released on bail.

Cannibal sliced off parts of grandmother and ate them while she was still alive

Yep, you guessed it ... he's a 'devout christian'

A man has been arrested for slicing off and eating parts of his gran - while she was still alive. The 26-year-old Ukranian, named only as Vlad, used a shard of broken mirror to slash the face of the woman who had raised him.

Police sources said he then gouged out her eyeballs and ate them. One insider said: "All this time, the old woman was conscious and tried to escape, screaming. He responded by slicing off her tongue - and eating this as well."

The killer's dad broke in to the flat, in Simferopol, and found his mother dead, her skull smashed. Her ears and lips were also apparently eaten. The alleged killer, described by neighbors as a religious fanatic, was in his underpants, holding a cross and conducting a perverse funeral service.

His grandad reportedly removed all knives from the flat earlier in the day, fearing he'd use them. Local police chief Olga Kondrashova said: "A man aged 26 was arrested on suspicion of murder. It was committed with particular cruelty."

Shoe

Love Hurts

Nazareth

Role of 'best man' was once dangerous

Role of 'best man' was once dangerous

Centuries ago, the groom's friend was asked to do more than hold the ring and give a toast.  

Surprising details 

Also: 

• Best man's duties
• Ideas for his toast
• What grooms should know

Darth Vader's Mental Disorder

Darth Vader's psychiatric 'diagnosis'

Experts say the Dark Lord of "Star Wars" has a classic case of borderline personality disorder.

Telltale signs 

Also: 

• 'Star Wars' characters
• Megan Fox missed on set
• Cher on 'Burlesque' film

Chinese Man Pulls Plane With His Eyelids

In an unbelievably weird and phenomenal performance, a Chinese martial arts expert has defied the laws of gravity and actually pulled an airplane for five meters by a rope hooked onto his eyelids! Certainly seeming like an act from a festival conducted by the likes of Ripley's Believe It or Not, Dong Changsheng, aged 50, performed the stunt.

Chinese Man Pulls Plane With His Eyelids