Not a Healthy Bill

The Congress is on its way to passing what everybody keeps calling health care reform. Yet in order to appease Republicans (who weren't going to vote for it no matter what), all of the truly bold items have been stripped out of it. The public option is gone. Coverage for abortions is gone. Preventative medicine is gone. All of which was done to satiate people that wouldn't approve any way.

What is left is the government mandating that we purchase a private product.

As much as I approve of the goal- doing something about the potentially catastrophic medical bills- I hate the means. If the government wanted everybody to have insurance, it should have just provided it. This is a bad, bad compromise.

Timing is everything

The recent climate change talks in Copenhagen were mired down and uninspired. No real change happened, just a promise to do something vague in the future. The media outlets barely noticed.

Could it be because they are talking about global warming in Scandinavia in winter? Whose bright idea was that?

Want to get some results? Schedule the next meeting in Egypt in the heat, or one of these island nations that is only a couple of feet above sea level. I bet they become amazingly motivated when they have to worry if each wave is getting bigger...

Hypocrisy

A local politician criticized the catholic church for opposing health care reform because of the issue of abortion. Some loudmouths have been proclaiming that they don't want their tax money spent on abortions (even though that is already prohibited).

As life-affirming catholics, why aren't they protesting that they don't want their tax dollars spent on warfare? I certainly don't want my money spent killing civilians. And since more people are killed in war than in medical procedures, and since unwanted children are often born into dire circumstances bad for child and mother, I would much rather have free, no-questions-asked for anyone abortions, than a decade-long war for nebulous reasons.

If I were cynical, I'd suggest that it is because the church feels it is okay to kill muslims.

Loyal Opposition?

The necessity of health care is one of the big topics lately.

One of the arguments the Republicans are making is that they do not want government involved in your health care decisions.

I am having trouble believing my ears. It was the Republicans that spearheaded the effort to insert the government into the health-care decisions of the Terri Schiavo family. They convened a special session of Congress. Only Republicans voted on the bill after hours, and President Bush left vacation early to sign it on Palm Sunday. At the time they said it was too important a matter to leave it up to the states.

Are they hypocrites? Do they think we have no memory? Or are they simply against anything that President Obama wants?

Years To Think It Over

In California recently, a young woman was rescued after 18 years of captivity. She was abducted off the street when she was 11, kept in a shed in the suspect's back yard, and had children by him. This is disturbing in and of itself.

But it also sounds distressingly similar to the case in Austria recently, where the girl was kept captive in the basement for years, bearing children of her captor. The thought that there could be two such depraved individuals in recent memory is alarming.

But what truly upsets me- what I'm having trouble getting my head around- is that in both cases the captor had a wife.

How could they not have known? How could they not have done something?

Is the dating scene really so bad? Is this really the best they could have done? What could ever possess a woman to stand by her man to such a degree?

Because there is no way that they couldn't have known. This isn't a case of seeing him go into your daughter's room at night, and convincing yourself that it is for an innocent reason. What happened to the maternal instinct? Hell, what happened to human decency? They had to have known that it was happening. Is the trick that it wasn't their own children, that they think they are protecting their own by directing the man to someone else? (That can't be it; the girl in Austria was the man's daughter) Do they, god forbid, approve of the situation?

How is there any way that this makes sense?

The Boy Who Cried Racist

There are a few facts that everybody seems to agree on.

The black Harvard professor forgot his keys and when he returned from a trip had to break into his own house. A concerned neighbor called the police. The officer that arrived ascertained that he lived there.

And then things get interesting. The officer claims that the professor got abusive and was arrested for being disorderly. The professor claims that he was arrested because they didn't believe a black person could live there. President Obama stated that the cops acted stupidly.

it doesn't sound as though race was a factor. I'm sure that after such a long trip, anybody would be tense. But even so, you don't harass cops. I recently had state police point their guns at me after a misunderstanding. I didn't take offense; I knew they were doing their job.

What I find curious is the people that think every bad thing that happens to them is because of racism. If the cops had taken too long to respond- or hadn't responded at all- the same charge would have been levied. Instead, the cops quickly and thoroughly arrived and did their job, only to hear the same complaints.

I'm pleased that the officer has refused to apologize. And I caution people that if they cry racism at every slight, we won't believe you when it actually happens.

Circle of Life

How appropriate that it began with an orange.

I was recently contacted by an old friend through the power of the internet (itself run by little 1s and 0s). I met him in high school when a mutual female friend tried to get my authoritative opinion. He was eating an orange as though it were an apple- taking a big bite right through the rind and all. Instead of criticizing, I shrugged. We became instant good friends.

Our circle of friends constricted a bit into a triangle with the aforementioned girl. And then it constricted again when I gave her a ring. He found his own girl and we regretfully went separate ways.

I wish I could say the ways we went were separate but equal. They were, if you consider that we both made big circles. I moved away and back home several times. I went from married to single and around again. I went from what I studied in college to a hated job that paid the bills and now am back in film.

He only needed the one ring for a woman. His Navy tours took him under the North Pole, in a big loop around the Pacific, and back again. He went through the Mediterranean, and came back. He moved from the east coast to the west coast, and now is back again.

After two decades of us traveling, moving, and changing our lives, we met up a couple of towns over from where we first met.

And, of course, he was a little more orange-shaped, which was gratifying.

Is It A Real Connection?

Something strange happened over the weekend, and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

Disney had a crash with its monorails and someone was killed. Although tragic and unusual, that isn't what is perplexing me.

I've been keeping in touch with a friend of mine from high school via a networking website. No personal pictures, limited direct messages, mostly generic comments on their status. Just enough to let them know somebody was thinking of them.

I first heard of the crash by people leaving condolence messages for her. She wasn't hurt or involved, but undoubtedly knew the operator. I wasn't the only one confused. Somebody else questioned what was going on, and I followed a link to a news story that was provided by way of explanation.

Had I heard about the crash by standard news channels, I would have been interested and concerned. Yet knowing that somebody I knew was near the crash made it more vivid and dramatic. But I keep thinking that I don't really know her. Know OF her, yes. I used to be familiar with her. Had she been the one that died, I doubt my life would change a bit. I don't even know that she actually works there; I have to take her claim at face value.

So is this a real emotional connection? It seems so, since it made the reaction stronger. But I can't get over the feeling that it is more illusion than connection.

Valuable Memorabilia

Much of the news lately has been about the death of Michael Jackson. I'm not going to either slander him or praise him.

Much has been made that he was 50 (Really? Who would have thought?), and that there were many strange incidents in his life. Most people are ending on what they they think is an ironic tone, that it is too bad that the death happened now, when he was about to embark on a large tour that would have been his return to somewhat normality. They point out that he was still popular, in that the tour consisted of fifty sold-out concerts.

His death, before they even started, is sure to make those tickets valuable pieces of memorabilia. Except for one final irony: there are fifty sold-out concerts of them! What should have been a rare, valuable thing is now only mildly interesting.

The Poison Flesh

This week a coffee shop was burned down in Maine. The police have confirmed that it was artificially started, and report that passers-by seem pleased that the shop was destroyed.

What did the shop do that was so heinous? It was topless.

It offered both men and women delivering your coffee without a shirt. Keep in mind that shlepping hot coffee around without a shirt is bold, and you have to be dextrous to avoid a nasty burn. I'm sure that these women were hard-working, and happy to have a job in this economy. Yet the place was burned.

Why is female flesh such an affront to some people? Interestingly, it is often other women that get riled up. Is it mere jealousy? Is it fear that their men are so uncontrollable that a shirt that hangs a little too low will bring out their inner troglodyte?

What happens to young girls that are told that they should be hidden away, concealed, unfit for view, an unacceptable topic in polite conversation? I can see two options. She may struggle ever harder to reach that impossible goal, driving herself into anorexia or other disorders. Or she may act provocatively in an effort to gain approval from strangers that she wasn't getting at home.

Is it a straight line between these two actions? No, probably not.

But I see nothing but good (including lower rates of abortions and teen pregnancy) if we admit that people have bodies.

As Shallow As It Gets

So, Ms Prejean, Miss California, seems to have been barred from the Miss America title because she expressed her opinion on gay marriage. Already this is a non-event, an irrelevant bit of fluff.

But where there is the hint of scandal, some will stir it up. So it came to be that some worried that Ms Prejean shouldn't be allowed to keep her Miss California title and crown.

Step in Donald Trump. He studied the issue, and decided that her opinion was worthwhile, and even called a press conference to announce his decision. And what did he base his decision on? Her "great beauty." Yes, that's right. Those were his words. He effectively stated that ugly people weren't worthy of having opinions.

Forget the specious reasoning. Forget the vapidity of the pageant. Forget Trump's good past judgment of women.

Just savor the irony.

He thinks that only attractive people should be allowed to have opinions. But by that standard, the ogreish Trump shouldn't be allowed to speak. How ironic.

Seeing a pattern

I'm actually feeling a bit sorry for the Republicans lately. All their chickens are coming back and biting them in their ass.

Bobby Jindahl scoffed that part of the budget included volcano monitoring. Within weeks, a volcano was erupting in Alaska. And, being from Louisiana, Mr Jindahl should be aware of the benefit of knowing about natural disasters.

Republicans stripped hundreds of millions of dollars that would have gone towards disease prevention from the stimulus package. Within weeks, swine flu was killing people in Mexico, and has currently been confirmed in half a dozen states.

Has the Republican name become a toxic asset in need of a bailout? It seems so. Consider Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chaffee, and now Arlen Spector. All changed their affiliation away from that big R.

They had a common complaint: they didn't leave the party, the party left them.

I wonder if they can survive.

Tea & Irony

So, there were protests on April 15th by people thinking that their taxes are too high.

This isn't new. It happens every year, usually with sporadic results. It is the sort of active public participation that the Constitution specifically protects.

So why is this year notable? Fox news sponsored and promoted the events, even calling them 'FNC Tax Protests.' Given their past positions, there is little doubt that this was orchestrated as a way to protest the stimulus package in general, and more specifically the Democratic President. This is childishly partisan.

Where were the protests when Bush bailed out the banks? That was billions of dollars for Wall street fat cats. Where were the protests over unaccounted for billions of dollars that disappeared in Iraq? That wasn't even in our own country.

Ironically, one of the reasons the budget looks so grim is that Obama included the wars in his budget. Now we have an official way to track what we are spending, and how to pay for it. It was easier for Bush to look like he had a balanced budget, because
he chose not to put large expenses in it, but Obama's approach is more mature and responsible.

If you want to protest that your taxes are being spent on things that you don't approve of, go ahead. I approve; it is your right.
But for Fox to try and portray their event as a grass-roots movement is disingenuous.

Seasonal Greetings

So today is Easter Sunday, and in honor of the occasion, there is an interesting letter in today's newspaper. The letter writer calls out- by name- a person that dared thank the newspaper for running an article about a recent survey that showed that religion was on a decline and that non-believers were now 15% of the population.

The letter writer suggested that he leave the country and find a hotter one, since he would be spending eternity there.

Now, I know that true believers come in all strengths. I know that some are well-mannered, intelligent, articulate, and merely see the expanse of the universe in a different way than I do. I have no qualm with them; it is usually intellectually invigorating to speak with them, and I think we are both stronger for it.

But to those that see the devil in the shadows...

Well, I'm sure that isn't what Jesus meant by 'Love your neighbor.'

Saving the Dinosaurs

So, Detroit is crying because they are feeling the financial pinch and want Federal bailout money.

Tough.

I sympathize. I really do. Everybody is hurting, and the lure of piles of money is tempting. But what they want the money for is so that they can continue doing things the same old way.

Back in the 1980s, Japan started coming out with extremely fuel-efficient cars. Why? Because they saw what happened in the 1970s, and decided to prevent it from happening again. Detroit put up a fuss, trying to prevent the cars from being allowed in the country. Why? Because people were buying them! Rather than adapt and improve, their instinct was to circle the wagons.

Fast forward to current days. Japan retains their reputation for safe, reliable, efficient cars. Detroit continues to bank on large, inefficient vehicles it sells by waving a flag in their commercials. Toyota got so frustrated at Detroit's slow progress, that they actually lobbied for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards.

It shouldn't have taken a collapse to show this is what the world needed, and Detroit had two decades to prepare. Part of the problem was that unions were entrenched, and it is near impossible to deal with them. When automobile leaders wanted to cut wages rather than lay off people, the unions refused, necessitating a larger bailout.

The most vivid example I have of their refusal to change is Saturn. It was touted as a new, better way to build cars, and for a while it was. It got rave reviews from analysts and consumers. Then GM brought them back into the fold, and the rave reviews stopped. Now, GM has just announced that it will stop making Saturns- the car that was supposed to save Detroit.

What do I suggest? Let them die. Let Detroit dry up and fade away into history; the environment will thank us. It will be painful, I have no illusions about that. But I think the stimulus money would be better spent starting a new company that will begin where Detroit hopes to end up. Let us put our billions into hydrogen cells, or hybrids, or vegetable oil, or solar. It will only be painful in the short run. The long-range benefits will be worth it.

And it will be a great example for the future: improve, adapt, or get out of the way.

Don't blame them; they're only human

So, Pope John Paul II excommunicated four bishops. Pope Benedict XVI reinstated them, claiming that it hadn't been done correctly. Then it was pointed out that one of the bishops was a Holocaust denier, and Benedict reversed himself, and re-excommunicated him.

So much for Papal Infallibility...

Sexual Revolution

I don't believe in homosexuality.

But then, I don't believe in heterosexuality, either.

I believe we are merely sexual. The largest organ in the human body is the skin, and it is packed with touch receptors. Anything that makes it feel good will get a strong reaction in our brain. When you scratch a dog's belly, why do you imagine its eyes roll back and its leg starts shaking? They evolved to expect claws; our soft fingers must be amazing to them.

The same happens with humans. It doesn't really matter what the stimulus is, as long as it feels good. Just as smells evoke different emotions in people, different touches will evoke a different response. For some, it will be strictly heterosexual. For some it will be homosexual. For others, it may be omnisexual, or zoosexual, or different at different times in their life. It even explains fetishes.

I think we have traumatized too many people who didn't conform to our own narrow preference. It seems such a silly thing to worry about. Who is getting hurt? How is two people making each other happy an affront to you?

The world could use a few more happy people.

Bred In The Bone

I was recently involved in a conversation over at The Plaid Sheep (http://theplaidsheep.blogspot.com/) about whether or not our essence is immutable or variable.

One person suggested that while events may layer, or reveal aspects, of ourselves, the fundamentals don't actually change.

I disagree.

This started because of one of those lists with an admonition to 'be yourself.' That isn't a bad thing, but I pointed out that it was nearly impossible. I have different public faces for different situations. I have different moods. If I am to grow, I take each experience and add it to my body of knowledge. (And the only reason for doing that is to alter my future self, presumably for the better).

As we grow, we change. I hope I'm not still the awkward, irrelevant, obsessive teenager with insecurity and pretensions (oops- I just looked at the name of my blog). While some octogenarians have the enthusiasm of youth, not many of them do.

There are also medical situations that change you. Brain trauma is a notable one (Phinneas Gage is just the most noted example). Various disease and tumors and change personalities.

It is also possible for people to have an epiphany (think Scrooge), particularly after a near-death experience.

So while it is admirable to be honest and true to yourself, don't expect that to mean the same thing every time.

Engineering A Miracle

On Jan 15th, flight 1549 went down in the waters of New York. A flurry of ferries were on hand, and everyone was rescued with minimal damage or trauma. The media took to calling it a miracle.

I think that's foolish.

Don't the material researchers that created a plane that was strong enough to land in water without breaking apart get any credit? What about the engineers that designed an airtight craft that was balanced so that the front door stayed above water, and the passengers could step out onto the wing to await the boats? What about the NTSB that insisted on redundant safety features? What about the pilot, that spent untold hours training for just such unusual circumstances?

If god really wanted to save these people, wouldn't it have been better to keep the geese out of the engines in the first place?

Memorium

It was just announced that Patrick McGoohan has died, and television is just a little bit dimmer for it.

McGoohan did many things (including the movie Silver Streak, with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor) but he will be most fondly remembered for the series The Prisoner. It was an amazing achievement at the time, and remains thought-provoking and relevant. Overall, the series deals with the rights of an individual versus the government. In the late sixties, it reflected the growing social unrest. It showed automatic doors, wireless telephones, forced medication, and constant surveillance. Once outrageous, these are becoming more common.

That he had specific parameters in mind is obvious; there are only seventeen episodes. Neither the protagonist or antagonist were ever named, and things got increasingly symbolic as the series went along. The last two episodes remain one of the densest, most mind-twisting finales ever.

Rather than drag things out to satisfy advertisers (see the X-Files), everything led to a conclusion.

Here's to making a grand exit.

Auld Lang Syne

So I recently went trudging through the moors of memory. I had a friend that I haven't heard of in over a decade, and wanted to see what the mighty search engines could pull up on him. His name was Ragnar Miller, and we were great friends in high school. Then came college, and we followed different paths. Yes, there was a woman involved. I made the wrong choice as to which one of them I should keep.

To my delight, Ragnar's name came up- but by somebody else who had a very similar story. They knew him, had heard that he went into the Navy (which I knew)- and then nothing. He married a girl name Debbie, but I don't know more than that.

Is he dead? Hiding? Undercover? Pissed at the world? A woman? Colluding with our insect overlords?

If anybody has more information, I'd love to hear from you.

Until then... he is not forgotten.