1. To the person searching for “can you love a man like a poem,” the answer is no. Okay, maybe. Sigh. It depends on the man. It depends on the poem.
2. I’m glad to see this, but does it really take physically forcing people to talk to ordinary people for them to get that blowing the top off a mountain might be problematic?
3. There are only three less healthy states to live in than Tennessee. I eagerly await word from the new State government about what they’re going to do to combat this. Clearly, by looking at the chart, you can see that all our problems are caused by gays and abortions.
So, I ask you today, Tennessee, to stop eating gay people and smoking aborted fetuses. I pledge to stop smoking aborted fetuses, but I’m not sure i have the will-power to stop putting gay people in my mouth.
Tiny Cat Pants 
#3 — I didn’t even have to look to know MS was one of them
*shakes head*
I get it.
It’s the state government’s fault that so many people in TN are smoking.
Wow!
And last I checked, the Republicans are poised to take control of the legislative branch of state government. Bredesen and his appointees still control all the departments and day-to-day operations.
You do know that Bredesen is a registered Democrat, right?
[gdr]
Perusing the chart a little deeper (interesting site, btw) there is also this juicy tidbit:
The Democrats have controlled the government of TN for (at least) the last 18 years. During that time period, TN’s health ranking has fallen from 37th to 47th.
But of course, it MUST be the evil Republicans’ fault, musn’t it?
Just like a Democrat, screw things up bad enough that the voters toss them out and vote in the Republicans and then blame the Republicans for the entire mess.
Rob, reread what was posted. B expects the Republicans to make a CHANGE on the current policy (which any sane person can infer is a disaster). Right now, however, it appears that the TNGOP are concentrating their efforts on rekindling the culture wars (with their whopping majority of one) rather than proposing a new policy direction to improve the actual crisis that exist in the state. That, if you aren’t intelligence impaired, would suggest that the TNGOP is not serving the best interests of their constituents since neither of their banner issues have a thing to do with improving the conditions that are killing off the citizens of Tennesee.
Wow!
The new legislators will be sworn in about 30 days from now (first Tuesday in January), but already “the TNGOP are concentrating their efforts on rekindling the culture wars.”
Can you tell me exactly steps the TNGOP have taken since the election towards rekindling the culture wars?
So far, all they’ve done is hold a caucus meeting, elect officers, and announce their procedures for selecting the new constitutional officers.
Pretty radical stuff.
Oh, Rob, if we’re going to traffic in fundamental dishonesty, like that the TNGOP has not made it clear what their agenda for the coming session is, then I’m afraid we cannot have a discussion.
But, if you want to continue to rant, please, go ahead.
I respectfully suggest that the answer to Tennessee’s problem (and my own state of Oklahoma #43) is an infusion of “Teh Gay”. Massachusetts and Connecticut have more gays (and marriage equality) and much better health scores.
Further, while it’s certainly true that “Democrats” have held power and bear large responsibility for the crises we have in this state, few people will ever accuse the vast majority of them of being liberal. A corrupt good ol’ boy conservative is a corrupt good ol’ boy conservative regardless of what letter they put beside their name on the ballot, and the fact that TN is a few decades behind the rest of the south in seeing such people finally change partisan affiliation makes for a rather trivial distinction.
I’m still not clear on why we expect the government–the same government which brings you any number of timewaste nonsenses like underground ballrooms and filibusters and lobbyist junkets–to do anything about our personal wellbeing.
Seeing as how our well-being has declined since the inception of TennCare one could almost make the argument that relying on the government to take care of you is a glaring mistake. Oh, they’ll take care of you. They’ll get you hooked on Vicodin* and then just let you die.
*Last time I looked, we had the highest rate of Vicodin perscriptions in the country. A study I read awhile back that I’m trying to google on another tab said that most of those scrips were written by TennCare doctors. The assumption is that it is cheaper to send sick folks home with Vicodin than to do more advanced treatment. Anecdotally I know at least three other people with diseases similar to mine who are TennCare patients. I, on BCBST private health insurance, get top of the line care and medications which require constant monitoring. The Tenncare people get cheap generic Vicodin (hydrocodone) for their pain and nothing else to treat the disease.
Of course that’s anecdotal. But there it is.
I just don’t see how folks can claim to want to make everything rest o the government’s doorstep.
Oops. As of this year we’re down from top to second place. Nevertheless, the number one drug TennCare pays for is hydrocodone.
That says to me that they aren’t as interested in treating the disease at greater expense as they are in “treating and streeting”–taking care of the symptoms cheaply while ignoring the underlying cause.
Well, there’s a difference between things being run by a gov’t that thinks that gov’t and the people who work for it are there to make a significant, positive difference and things being run by a gov’t that accepts the idea that gov’t is the problem. I’ve experienced both, and I can agree that the latter is a recipe for disaster. Of course, my experience is that in TN, there is a consensus that gov’t can’t do anything; so, naturally, it doesn’t.
And that’s without pointing out that turning these responsibilities over to private, for-profit corporations like BCBST is no solution; that’s my insurance, too, and the only affordable (as in less-than-my-mortgage-payment-for-premiums-alone) option they’ve offered me means that I can’t afford to see a physician who would offer me care and prescriptions. Is that better than TennCare, or worse?
Typical Republican logic: “We know Govt can’t work. To prove that to you, we are going to stop funding it.”
The thing is, it’s more insidious than that. Gov’t can do an immense amount without an immense amount of funding, but it has to have people directing programs who know how things work, what consequences basic actions are likely to have, and stuff like that, and it has to treat its employees well enough (a question of humanity, not money) that they are eager to do their best for the people they’re supposed to help. Staffing responsible positions with cronies and hacks who don’t expect their program to matter or to function properly, and hiring people who resent their employers and their constituents, isn’t the way to go.
[sigh] One of the premises to your initial post is that Mumpower & Ramsey must make an either/or decision over which parts of the GOP platform to pursue. With 132 legislators, and numerous committees in both houses, I think it’s quite likely that they will find it possible to place a number of bills before the full legislature for votes – bills which would have passed years ago, had they not been killed by Naifeh&Co.
And remember, the executive branch of the state of Tennessee is still under Democratic control. ALL of the state agencies have been headed by Democratic appointees for the past six years and will continue to be for the next two. So be comforted. And remember who’s really responsible for the current state of TN (in both senses).
rob: They’ve made it clear what their focus is going to be. While you’re right that they can introduce and work on multiple bills, the truth of the matter is that they are going to focus on their big ticket items to force them through.
Oh, and if you look back through the entries, you’ll notice AuntB’s not exactly been a fan of how the democrats have been conducting themselves or the affairs of the state either.