Mobile
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
News McCain's in town to talk health care
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 12:08 PM
If this is the first you're hearing about it, you're not invited to attend. Sorry. But, you can follow the senator's tweets. Hooray!
I like how McCain calls the invitation-only meeting a "town hall." The only other people invited to attend are employees of Carolinas Medical Center. What, are they scared of citizens of the Q.C.? The largest and most diverse -- and largely Democratic -- population in the state?
And, really, this is less about health care than it is about North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr getting some face time with two-time presidential loser, Sen. John McCain.
Here's hoping a few brave doctors share some of their patient's insurance horror stories with the crowd.
Hospital staff and invited guests are expected to make up the crowd this morning when Republican U.S. Sens. Richard Burr, John McCain and Mitch McConnell host a health care forum at Carolinas Medical Center.The three senators will tour the Levine Children's Hospital near uptown Charlotte at 8:30a.m. and meet with employees, doctors and patients until 10. The event is nominally open but will take place in an auditorium that can seat only about 250 people.
“We have tremendous interest from our employees,” said hospital spokeswoman Gail Rosenburg. “We are such dominant players in this whole issue of reform that we're pleased to be able to have this event for our employees.”
There's a new book out: Money-Driven Medicine, by Maggie Mahar. In it she looks behind the curtain and explains to her readers that insurance isn't about them, it's about money and power -- for those who already have money and power, of course.
"We're now treating medicine as if it were an industrial product."
In related news, Obama's Organizing for America group will be in town on Thursday.
News Crazy lady of the month: Mercedes Farquharson
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 12:05 PM
What is it with people enslaving children these days? It seems a story like this breaks every few months. Guess it's time to face the facts: We're surrounded by loony toons ... and this one thinks she's a god. Sheesh. Loony.Toons.
According to the indictment, Farquharson persuaded the mother of two of the children to let them live with her by claiming to be a god. She legally adopted the third child. All three of the children are British nationals.The children were 11, 7 and 2 years old when they started living with Farquharson, the indictment says. Starting in 1992 they lived in Marbella, Spain, until Farquharson moved them to a house on Hampton Downs Road in Monroe in 2001. They lived there until 2005.
Farquharson allegedly convinced the children she was a god.
The indictment claims she forced them to work from before dawn until after midnight cooking, cleaning, weeding gardens and tending to a flock of about 100 chickens.
Film / News Pop quiz, hotshot — and a list
Posted By Brooke Edge on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 9:53 AM
While working on another movie-related blog post, I found myself just wasting time taking online quizzes and reading fairly useless compendiums of others’ opinions. Here are two I figured I’d share:
The New York Times’ Film Studies Quiz (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/26/education/edlife/20090726_Edlife_Quiz.html?ref=edlife) — This is one Internet quiz that’s actually pretty tough, and co-authored by a professor at my program. I’d like to explain away my god-awful score on the quiz by saying I never took a course with him, but that doesn’t really excuse someone who’s getting a Master’s in this stuff. Surprisingly, I did best on the Westerns section. If only there had been an homage to MGM musicals …
Empire’s Salute to Horror Through the Ages (http://www.empireonline.com/features/horror-through-the-decades/default.asp) – A fellow MA student posted this to their Facebook page. Obviously, it’s just one person’s (or one magazine’s), like, opinion, man, about the standout themes and films from the past 50 years of horror, and it’s a shame the magazine didn’t give movies pre-1950 their due, but this still provided a few minutes of good distraction and food for thought.
Arts / News Comedian Matt Davis rolls through town
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Tuesdays are almost as bad as Mondays. It's still early in the week, and that ... sucks. Oh well, you can laugh about it (or not) at Lake Norman Comedy Zone. Comedian Matt Davis will perform tonight and you can expect he'll be double-dipping in off-the-wall topics and taboos, as well as funny material from his latest CD, titled Illegal, On Time, and Aroused. Tickets are $10. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Lake Norman Comedy Zone in Galway Hooker Irish Pub is located at 17044 Kenton Dr., Cornelius.
Davis will also perform at Alive in NoDa on Fri., Sept. 4 and Sat., Sept. 5.
Watch Davis in action at a past performance in the video posted below.
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Tuesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 1, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing
• Under the Sea film at Discovery Place's IMAX
• Comedian Matt Davis at Lake Norman Comedy Zone
• Cornmeal at The Evening Muse
• Taboo Tuesday at SK Netcafe
• Touch One Tuesdays at Wine Up
-
Meghan McCain's dating woes revealed
The girl is hard up and in need of help. Volunteers?
-
5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
-
Question the Queen City: What lurks in the woods of Camp Greene? 1
The World War 1 training facility's tragic past lingers even today
