LINDA LEVEN Model Actress Novelist Artist

1. THE INANE REPUBLICAN MANTRA OF UNCERTAINTY -- 09/10/10

I am offended and nauseated as I listen to the republicans and right wing media endlessly proclaiming that the corporations and small businesses are not hiring because of "UNCERTAINTY" -- UNCERTAINTY on all the government policies, regulations, and new or old taxes. Once this is stated, no further questions need be asked. The code word of UNCERTAINTY answers all questions regarding why corporations and small business aren't hiring. And the conservatives and republicans and business community believe that if they repeat this utter absurdity long enough and loud enough, it will be believed and accepted as the truth. WHAT DRIVEL! WHAT UTTER NONSENSE!

There is no hiring by large corporations and small business simply because there is a reduced demand for their products and services, there are fewer customers and fewer orders! Even Warren Buffet says that businesses hire when they check their order books. If my local florist on the corner has one employee, but a line of customers every day that stretches around the block, you can bet that the florist will hire many more employees to handle the business. Or wait ... will he, as the republicans claim, say to himself: " Gee ... there is just too much uncertainty with this government ... I'll just forget about all these customers, I won't hire any more clerks to serve them. Let the business go away! This uncertainty is killing me!" HOW STUPID!

The corporations have also off-shored all the good jobs; they build research and manufacturing facilities in China, India, Brazil, Mexico ... wherever labor is cheap and regulations are at a minimum. They have, in effect, gutted this country. Since business wants to operate with as few regulations as possible, and with the cheapest labor costs, they will do their best not to hire in the USA. Why should corporations hire an engineer in the U.S. when they can hire 3 in India for the same price? And then they wonder why their business in the U.S. is down! Well! No one here has money to buy the products and services of the corporations! UNCERTAINTY is just a ludicrous and spurious rationale for the real reason corporations have moved their business to other parts of the world. They go where labor is cheap and where they can operate with a minimum of regulations! It's that simple, as I see it! And when we Americans are living in poverty in a country that has fallen into the sewer, when we are willing to work for practically nothing, then the corporations will be back.

PLEASE, REFUTE LINDA'S LOGIC. TELL HER WHERE SHE IS WRONG. CLICK HERE TO COMMENT AND YOU WILL BE PUBLISHED HERE WITHIN 24 HOURS!

2. CABLE COMPANIES - WHY AREN'T THEY FORCED TO UNBUNDLE?   10/18/10

I am a prisoner held captive by Time Warner Cable, the monopoly who brings me cable TV in Manhattan. I detest this company! Time Warner continually raises my price for the networks and cable channels as they create larger and larger bundles of junk stations and force me to take them. They offer me only a few packages, all of them requiring me to take more stations than I want ... and to pay for them! I have no interest in sports channels, music channels, religion channels, cooking channels, etc. So why must I be forced to pay for them, subsidize these stations, some of which are so useless or esoteric and appeal to such narrow interests that they could never survive on their own? Why aren't the cable companies made to unbundle? Why are they not compelled to provide pricing for individual channels and allow customers to choose which stations they want to receive?

PLEASE, TELL LINDA WHETHER YOU ARE ALSO ENRAGED BY THIS MONOPOLY POWER HELD BY THE CABLE COMPANIES ... THAT NO ONE SEEMS WILLING TO CHALLENGE.

3. DO YOU LIKE ALL THE ADVERTISING BOUNCING AROUND ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TV SCREEN AS YOU WATCH?? 10/18/10

We are bombarded by advertising. Now it has invaded the TV programming, not only during the regular commercials, which seem to be running at 15 minutes out of every hour, but also now at the bottom of the screen during the programs. Things constantly bounce around the bottom of the screen ... advertising, advertising, advertising! Pretty soon the screen will be plastered over with ads as we try to catch a glimpse of the program! And, have you noticed how many infomercials there are in late night? Indeed, television is becoming a vast wasteland ... unless you love watching commercials. We ought to speak up! I have not yet figured out to whom I can complain, but that investigation will soon be set in motion as these commercials invade the few programs or movies I do watch on TV!

PLEASE, TELL LINDA WHETHER YOU ARE ALSO ENRAGED BY THIS EXCESS OF ADVERTISING ON TV.

4. WHY ARE WE IN THE UNITED STATES GRADUATING SO FEW MATH, SCIENCE, AND COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJORS?   12/31/10

I hear the best minds in the country lamenting the state of education. We need more students in math and science! The other countries are far ahead of us in the number of mathematicians and engineers and computer programmers they graduate each year. What asinine comments! It does not require much thought to understand why our kids are not taking math, science, and computer science seriously. As if our kids don't know where the jobs are or aren't! There are so few jobs today in computer software development and engineering, why study in a field where there is so little work? To maximize profits, the corporations have off-shored all these good jobs to India, China, and other countries where labor is cheap and regulations are non-existent. But it seems we do have a need for hamburger-flippers, salon nail-painters, and hotel maids! A friend of mine came out of school with a mechanical engineering degree and found nothing but temp jobs, and even a scarcity of those. And when the assignment was over, he was dismissed to start over, looking for another quick assignment with no benefits and no future. There is so little manufacturing, so little software development compared to the past, so why go into these fields? I believe that if this country had an abundance of jobs in these fields, our kids would be there studying the subjects which would guarantee them steady work and a good living.

PLEASE, TELL LINDA WHY YOU THINK OUR KIDS DON'T GO INTO MATH AND SCIENCE.

5. ONE REASON THAT DOCTORS OVER-TEST PATIENTS. 04/30/2011

Republicans claim that doctors over-test patients (thus increasing medical costs) because they fear being sued. Thus Republicans advocate for tort reform in medical malpractice. WRONG! Here, the Republican motive is simply to save insurance companies money in malpractice claims. I believe that one reason doctors may over-test their patients is simply to make more money! Many doctors buy all sorts of fancy testing and lab equipment. They can do their own exotic blood tests; they can do their own neurological studies; they can do their own carotid artery scans and coronary artery scans; they can do their own pulmonary function tests and echocardiograms. With all the expensive equipment in which they have invested, they need to keep it busy, do the tests, and bill for them. Thus every patient gets tests A, B, and C upon coming to the doctor so as to recover the cost of all the equipment he has bought and maintains, and maybe even cover costs for his hired personnel to give the tests. So, perhaps doctors and labs and testing facilities should be kept separate. Still, might not doctors get kickbacks from labs and testing facilities to which they send their patients for the various tests? Indeed, I have gone to doctors with my recent X test in my hands, and been told that, nevertheless, the new doctor must do his own test. I'm not sure what the solution is here, but I do not think that changing malpractice laws will prevent doctors from excess testing. And then, often, the test really is a necessity for diagnosis. But, in many cases, doctors simply test to make more money ... especially when they can be paid directly for doing the test!

PLEASE, TELL LINDA WHY YOU THINK OUR DOCTORS OVER-TEST AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT.

6. WHY DO SO MANY CURRENT FILMS HAVE THESE REVOLTING SCENES? 12/31/2011

I watch a lot of films. Why is it that so many movie directors today feel obligated to have in each film an outdoors pee-poo scene, a toilet scene ( someone doing it on the toilet), and a vomit scene?? I find these scenes revolting and nauseating. They add nothing to any film ... except what used to be shock value when all this first began. Now, these disgusting scenes are so common that the shock value is no longer there. Nevertheless, it still makes me nauseous, especially when I may be having dinner or a snack. We all know everyone does these bodily functions. We need not be compelled to watch! The great film directors of the past did not feel any need of such scenes. I wish current directors would simply stick to telling a good tale in an artistic, beautiful style, and forget about all these cheap, vulgar tricks to make their films seem hip and sensational. It does nothing of the kind. In fact, when I see these scenes, I want to simply stop watching and write-off the film as "crap and junk."

PLEASE, TELL LINDA HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT SUCH SCENES.

7. WHO DO YOU WANT BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR? 08/30/12

I, like many of you, have been watching the Democrats and Republicans as the 2012 elections approach. The Republicans continually ask the above question. Do you want the government dictating your health care and standing between you and your doctor? This is what the Republicans continually ask, implying that there is a better alternative in what they propose. But, what are they proposing? If not the government, then, as we already know, it will be the INSURANCE COMPANIES, being freed from all regulations by the Republicans, and free to rape and pillage, to charge whatever the traffic will bear and provide only health services that make a profit for them. And, for sure, there must be someone between me and my doctor unless I want no insurance and am willing to reach into my pocket and pull out $100,000 for the next surgery! Me? I'd rather have the government making decisions regarding my health care! Why ever would I put the insurance companies in charge? Their goal is the profit motive. They are not concerned about my health, about protecting me from crippling medical costs, but only concerned with making a PROFIT and paying all their CEO's grossly inflated salaries. That is simply the purpose of business. Above all else, they are out to make a profit! Putting them totally in charge of my health care is a frightening concept, since I know they see me as a cost, a liability, and will do all they can to minimize what they provide for me and maximize their profits!! On the other hand, the government does not have a profit motive. Theoretically, the government (we, the people) are interested in doing what is best for the citizens of the country. Therefore, I believe the government will not be guided purely by a profit motive in making decisions about my health care. For sure, I would rather have the government (we, the people) between me and my doctor than the greedy, profit maximizing insurance companies!

please. tell Linda who you want between you and your doctor?


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