Cab Thoughts 4/14/12

Social Darwinism? Really? I love the logical extension, which is social eugenics.

Game of Thrones has been signed up for a third year. Including repeats and On Demand ratings, last season’s Game Of Thrones episodes averaged more than 8 million viewers apiece – and that’s in the US alone.

Nails from crucifixion victims were popularly worn as charms, around the neck, by both Jews and gentiles to ward off illness, so the later Christian fetish for crucifix relics was actually part of a long tradition.

One of the problems with appointing yourself as a "fairness czar" is that it becomes your filter. So you better be fair everywhere. This, of course, is an impossible demand to make on government.

"Fairness" has been translated divergently by the Left and the Right. Justice On The Basis of Needs, from the Left implies people in the economic system who have basic needs they can not meet should have those needs met by others; Justice On The Basis of Contribution, from the Right implies people who contribute more to the economic system should gain more independent of the demands of others. The problem is, of course, how does one bell the cat?

Speaking of cats, "pet therapy" has emerged as a regular in-hospital option. Perhaps it will be mandated in the outpatient setting. Then prophylacticly. "You look a bit depressed. Here's a script for a chimpanzee."

MedPAC recommends that the Congress repeal the SGR system and replace it with a 10-year schedule of specified updates for the physician fee schedule.” In the first 3 years, “Medicare fees for non-primary care services would be reduced by 5.9 percent each year.” Since medicare leads the pay schedule nationally this would result in across the board decline in physician fees by about 6% of gross income a year. Since net income to physicians is usually about 55% of gross and if the overhead stays stable (unlikely), then that 6% results in about an 11% net income loss a year for physicians. Repeated for three years that is about 33%. Name another industry that would tolerate a 33% decline in earnings.

the Sunlight Foundation recently found that since July 2009, at least 377 former House of Representative staffers have left the Hill to become registered lobbyists. 377.

LUX released a report titled "Grid Storage under the Microscope: Using Local Knowledge to Forecast Global Demand" and predicts that annual global demand for grid-scale energy storage will reach an astounding 185.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) by 2017 and represent a $113.5 billion incremental revenue opportunity for an industry that currently generates sales of $50 to $60 billion a year. But they say that it will be "supply constrained" i.e. shortages will emerge. This means that battery supply will be bid for and someone will lose.

The Zimmermqn-Martin murder shows a very bad perspective in the nation, the idea that horrible things can be weighted. So a brutal, stupid murder can be shaded as "hate crime" and presumably made more brutal and stupid. Some may not be "hate" based and, presumably, less bad. This is a typical legal parsing, teasing the subjective into more and less. It is also insane. The crime is against the life of the victim, his loss of life. The perpetrator may be more or less guilty by his intent--accident, careless accident, accident while committing a felony, and so on but not one's affiliation with a meme. Murder One should not be manipulated to be Murder One-and-a half because it devalues Murder One. It won't be long before we get Murder One-minus-half: Maybe honor killings.