New day...same as any other...

So I am officially one year older today, and I thought, "What would be better then posting about health care?".

"Nothing!", was my answer. So here you go. A nice infographic that illustrates what is wrong with our health care system.

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

-Cheers

A wrong set of priorities.

This is just disturbing.

A teenage girl who was dropped from her high school's cheerleading squad after refusing to chant the name of a basketball player who had sexually assaulted her must pay compensation of $45,000 (£27,300) after losing a legal challenge against the decision.

The United States Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a review of the case brought by the woman, who is known only as HS. Lower courts had ruled that she was speaking for the school, rather than for herself, when serving on a cheerleading squad – meaning that she had no right to stay silent when coaches told her to applaud.

I am sure what to even say about this, honestly. The dripping misogyny is disturbing.

She was 16 when she said she had been raped at a house party attended by dozens of fellow students from Silsbee High School, in south-east Texas. One of her alleged assailants, a student athlete called Rakheem Bolton, was arrested, with two other young men.

In court, Bolton pleaded guilty to the misdemeanour assault of HS. He received two years of probation, community service, a fine and was required to take anger-management classes. The charge of rape was dropped, leaving him free to return to school and take up his place on the basketball team.

Four months later, in January 2009, HS travelled to one of Silsbee High School's basketball games in Huntsville. She joined in with the business of leading cheers throughout the match. But when Bolton was about to take a free throw, the girl decided to stand silently with her arms folded.

"I didn't want to have to say his name and I didn't want to cheer for him," she later told reporters. "I just didn't want to encourage anything he was doing."

Richard Bain, the school superintendent in the sport-obsessed small town, saw things differently. He told HS to leave the gymnasium. Outside, he told her she was required to cheer for Bolton. When the girl said she was unwilling to endorse a man who had sexually assaulted her, she was expelled from the cheerleading squad.

This is one of those stories that makes me feel ashamed. The sort of "sports mentality" that made the superintendent think this was the best way to handle this situation is one reason, that I have very little love for organized sports.

I guess the thought is, it is her fault for being a victim. Further cementing my view of Texas as the shit hole of the universe.

This ruling lacks even basic humanity.

-Cheer

Why go after Unions?

Two graphs that illustrate why we see the republican movement against unions.




Lets repeat together. It is not about balancing budgets.

Between that and the attempts to pass numerous "anti-voter fraud" laws, you might think they were just trying to starve their opposition of resources.

-Cheers

News of the day

It is hard to judge or measure the effect of these events, and I am sure I could write reams on various issues with regard to the death of Osama bin Laden.

Evidenced by the numerous writing battles I have engaged in on Facebook. But I think here, in this space I will instead just be relieved that someone so heinous is no longer walking the earth.

And well this:


-Cheers