…is resurrected. Though, if there were viable seeds, can the species really be said to be (or have been) extinct?
Healthcare.Gov
What went wrong?
I imagine there was a dialogue last Monday afternoon that went something like this:
FRONT-END DEVELOPER: Why does the username have to have a number in it?
BACK-END DEVELOPER: It’s in the government username regulations. Didn’t you read them?
FRONT-END DEVELOPER: No, we don’t do accounts, we just hand the input to you.
BACK-END DEVELOPER: And we told you your front-end the input was no good! See the ErrEngineDown in the URL?
FRONT-END DEVELOPER: Fine, fine. Sigh. Nice to finally talk to you, by the way.
BACK-END DEVELOPER: Yeah, you too. Are you in D.C.?
FRONT-END DEVELOPER: San Francisco.
BACK-END DEVELOPER: Know any good jobs in D.C.? I hate this place and they’re furloughing me as soon as we fix this mess.
Each group got its piece “working” in isolation and prayed that when they hooked them together, things would be okay. When they didn’t, it was too late. It is entirely possible that back-end developer CGI is primarily at fault here, but no one will care because they just see that the whole thing doesn’t work. As you learn early on in software development, there is no partial credit in programming. A site that half-works is worse than one that doesn’t work at all, which is why the bad error handling is so egregious. You always handle errors.
The country’s in the very best of hands.
[Update a few minutes later]
The roll out was nothing short of disastrous:
The left likes to flatter itself as thinking in terms of reason, facts, expertise, openness to doubt, and scorn of dogma and magical thinking.
Is this anywhere close to true?
When experts told the Obama Administration it was a fact the website was not ready, did they take seriously this advisement?
Nope! They simply said there was no cause for alarm; the strange gods of the left would just sort everything out.
Oddly enough, they didn’t.
It’s almost like they’re not quite as brilliant and rational as they’re always telling us they are.
And then there’s this. That’s right, Sheila Jackson Lee, who thinks that the Apollo astronauts went to Mars, thinks that the solution to the government shutdown is martial law. Meanwhile, the good lefties over at The Atlantic are more measured. They just want to have the Speaker of the House arrested.
It’s almost like they have a will to power, or something. And of course, as always with the left, when they accuse the “right” of this sort of thing, it’s projection.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, so just what are CGI Federal’s ties to the administration? You’d be a fool to think there are none.
ObamaCare’s Broken Promises
…pile up:
To recap, then: Before, during, and after passage, Americans were promised that Obamacare was going to lower premiums for “everyone” (the goal of merely maintaining premiums being too modest); it was not going to interfere with anybody’s health care or health insurance if they already had it; and it was not going change anybody’s patient-doctor relationship. The message was unmistakable: All the government wanted to do was extend health insurance to people who didn’t have it. This wouldn’t affect you. No need to worry. Period. Move along.
In addition to the totally partisan nature of this thing, one of the other many things that distinguishes it from previous entitlements is the many grandiose lies that were told about it to sell it, going back to the president’s first campaign.
The Soul-Mate Myth
Dr. Helen has some thoughts.
I’m pretty sure that XKCD has pointed out the mathematical improbability of having a single “soul mate.” As Glenn says, they’re made, not found.
Shutdown Theater Follies
The Dems are starting to look pretty bad.
[Update a while later]
Here’s a good idea (from that link):
Wanna get to Harry Reid? Call all those hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and tell them you won’t play until Harry backs down. Tell the books you won’t bet on sporting events, especially NFL games. They can get to Harry far more quickly and effectively than anybody else. Boycott Vegas.
The problem is that there is no single target, except maybe the Chamber of Commerce.
The ObamaCare Financial Unraveling
It was both entirely predictable, and predicted.
Speaking of which, Bruce Webster has some interesting thoughts on the thermocline of truth.
SLS Is Not “Viable” Or “Sustainable”
Former Shuttle manager Wayne Hale speaks truth to people who don’t want to hear it:
“The current plan is fragile in the political and financial maelstrom that is Washington,” Hale said. “Planning to fly large rockets once every three or four years does not make a viable program. It is not sustainable.
“Continuing to develop programs in the same old ways, from my observations, will certainly lead to cancellation as government budgets are stretched thin. It is time to try new strategies.”
I’m sure a lot of folks in Madison County weren’t happy.
Captain Video, And The Ashtray Of Space
Lileks has the latest installment.
Obama’s Refusal To Negotiate
That’s what’s unprecedented:
Obama would like the public to think he can’t negotiate and that to do so would be unheard of. But in this, as in so many other things, he’s lying. What is actually going on here is that, in the past, presidents who have had to deal with divided government (as Obama is; the House is in Republican hands) have always known that in such a situation they must negotiate. Whichever party they have been affiliated with, and whether you think they were good presidents or bad ones, they have kept faith with the basic gentleman’s/woman’s agreement on which our government has always run, and that is that if the other side was duly elected to be in control of another branch of government, that group has some legitimate power and must be negotiated with.
Obama is different. He had the brilliant idea that, although Republicans are in control of the House right now, they have no power unless they agree with him, and it is okay for him to defy them because it will have no repercussions on either him or his party (which is largely aligned with him). Therefore he can Just Say No to whatever Republican demands might be, and blame them for the failure to come to any sort of agreement. And the reason he is able to get away with this is a simple one: he knows the media will not call him on it, but will instead support him and amplify his message.
It’s a toxic combination, and that’s what’s “unprecedented”—at least in this country.
He’s a pretty toxic president.
Flogging
Why it’s more humane than prison.
I think that any prison warden that tolerates prison rape should be flogged.