Weekend Open Thread

Welcome to your weekend open thread. Right now I’m just lounging around my house trying to find out what’s going on in Egypt. What are your plans for the weekend?

People have had a lot of fun making hay with Dennis Kucinich’s lawsuit against the Capitol Hill cafeteria service. Like most cases that are held up as “tort abuse” the story is not so simple. Kucinich settled the case and issued a press release. Here’s the part detailing his injury:

When I bit into the olive pit, (unbeknown to me at the time), upon impact the tooth split in half,  vertically through the crown and the tooth, below the level of the bone.  Externally there was no evidence of a break.  This was not about aesthetics.  The internal structure of the tooth was rendered nonrestorable.  Although the pain was excruciating, I shook it off and  I went right back to work.   

This tooth is a key tooth which anchored my upper bridgework .  The injured tooth and the bone above it became infected.   I took a course of antibiotics for the infection, had an adverse reaction to the antibiotics which caused me to have an intestinal obstruction and emergency medical intervention.

Later, my dentist referred me to a specialist who informed me that the damaged tooth had to be removed.  A third dentist removed the tooth and I was fitted for a temporary partial.  I waited for the bone to heal. An implant was placed, but it failed. Many months later still a second implant succeeded.   My bridgework had to be completely reconfigured, a new partial was designed,  so this injury did not affect only one tooth, but rather involved six (6) replacement teeth as well.     A new crown with a new precision attachment was engineered and put in place.  To clarify, no dental expenses  were covered by any health plan, nor did I have dental insurance that covered the injury,  which, until it was resolved, affected my ability to chew food properly. 

I hope people understand, sometimes your insurance company pursues cases like this to recoup their own losses.

Ohio’s new governor, John Kasich, is really starting off on the right foot. He has the first all-white cabinet in almost 50 years and then he did this:

A week later, Kasich refused to attend the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Gala — despite being in town — and his office issued a statement on Martin Luther King Day celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

This week, Kasich made matters just a little worse.

[Thursday], the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus held a press conference to express their waning patience with his dismissive attitude and “implore[] Kasich to make better strides to diversify his Cabinet.” But according to State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH), this time Kasich’s response was a bit more blunt. According to Turner, when the caucus offered him help in finding qualified minority applicants, Kasich told Turner, “I don’t need your people.”

Now, I can appreciate the need for caution on a line like this. “I don’t need your people” is what Turner said Kasich said, and second-hand quotes can be tricky.

But Kasich’s spokesperson confirmed that the governor said exactly that. “What he meant was, ‘Your people are Democrats, we don’t need them on our cabinet,'” the spokesperson said yesterday.

Rpeublicans say “you people” when they mean “Democrats” all the time. I just can’t understand why anyone would question Kasich’s racial sensitivity. [/sarcasm]