Saturday, July 18, 2009

Comedy and Tragedy


Which one is satire?

This?

Television watching became even more convenient this week with Sony's introduction of a new remote-controlled remote control.

The new device, which can be controlled via remote control through the use of a second remote control unit, will replace older models that needed to be held in the hand to be operable.

"Constantly leaning forward to pick up the remote control from the coffee table is a tiresome, cumbersome chore that will soon be a thing of the past," Sony director of product development Dan Ninomiya said. "These new remotes, should they be left on the coffee table or in some other barely-hard-to-reach place, will not need to be picked up and actually pointed at the screen in order to work."
Or this?
The [Cato Institute] plan is to eliminate employee health benefit insurance and all government health care support, and throw everyone into the private insurance market. Insurance companies would be allowed to risk-rate premiums, so that as people got older and/or sicker their premiums would go up.

However, Cato says, this doesn’t have to be a problem. The solution is … wait for it … insurance insurance. They call it “health status insurance,” but essentially it’s insurance insurance. It’s a separate policy you take that will insure you against catastrophic increases in your health insurance.
(Photo by ophelia immortal.)

7 comments:

Jazzbumpa said...

A very short post for you, but, hey, YOU'RE BACK!!! Hope you were having fun.

The remote has to be the satire. Not only is it appropriately absurd, but the Cato story sounds to bad to be false, and in a particularly Cato-ish way.

Must get to bed. Very tired, and a BIG day tomorrow.

WV: birda, as in paradise.

Anonymous said...

Can I get a bundling rate if I buy insurance insurance insurance insurance insurance from a single provider, and can I have my paycheck directly deposited into that insurance company's account?

--monica_nyc

Phila said...

Hope you were having fun.

God, no! Strictly drudgery for yours truly.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the stupidity of the idea won't keep it off of the Diane Rhem show in a week or so.

You know, I don't think I've ever read a report from the Cato Institute which reached results that couldn't have been predicted twenty years ago. I'm beginning to doubt their commitment to free inquiry.

Anthony McCarthy who hasn't gotten around to updating my google account info.

Good to see you back.

Tacitus Voltaire said...

insurance insurance

insurance companies for many centuries have been getting reinsurance, which is a policy taken out against having to pay out so much for a group of policies that the company finances might be in danger. in this case, insurance insurance is in effect insurance against going broke, which i wish i could get...

reinsurance companies take out more reinsurance in turn, from brokers called retrocessionaires. these reinsurance reinsurers also take out yet another round of reinsurance themselves, but at this point it becomes too silly to give it another name

and so the financial wizards that lost all of our money with their superior knowledge and centuries of experience have devised a way of amortizing their own mistakes, while the rest of us supply the primary commodity without the benefit of a safety net

charley said...

that's not funny.

pictures dude, it's all about the pictures.

at least that's what i used to tell the magazine chick, with her stupid articles.

Anonymous said...

So where can I get one of these remotes ?


- mena