State of the Onion

He's still an ass and an idiot, but that was a pretty good speech. I like the healthcare tax cut, though I doubt that the 40+ million uninsured will see a major reduction (I'd guess 10-15%, though that is still good), mostly because a lot of the people will still not be able to afford it. I think the lion's share of the uninsured are in the 0 and 10% tax bracket who may not be able to afford healthcare (or float the cost short-term until they get their deductions back in April), but if we can insure another 3-6 mill, that is still pretty good.

I wish he had mentioned sugar beets in his alternative fuel bit. We can grow sugar beets in our temperate climate, they have the sugar that can be converted easily and efficiently to ethanol with current technology, and it could get to market without the cost/R&D to get cellulose ethonal to work. Otherwise, pretty good.

Oh, and the Baby Einstein woman shoul be dragged out and shot. Her business is predicated on the idea that playing Mozart to a child will make them smarter, based on a study that said playing Mozart to college students had a slight and transitive effect. That is, fully developed brains did slightly better on exams if they listened to Mozart right before taking a test, but the effect disipated within hours. Yeah, bilking gullible parents out of money over their inscurities of having a dumb child: way to represent captalism!