A brief post before I leave for the surgical center

This morning I got an email asking me to sign a petition that would be forwarded to the White House. It claimed that last week the Senate passed legislation giving Social Security to illegal aliens. Of course, I know that's not true because I actually pay attention to what the Senate does, checking the website, watching C-SPAN, etc. I was able to prove it to be false by going to Snopes.

But what really amazed me is how far it went.

That petition had 858 names on it.

It went through 858 people before someone (me) bothered to take something that made no logical sense and run it through a bullshit detector. In the words of Julius Caesar, "Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true."

Movie Review: Public Enemies

Before starting this review I want to give a shout out to the guy sitting behind us. It was really nice of you to take your mother to a movie, but I'm sure she already considers you to be a clever boy even if you don't comment throughout the movie about how you know more about the history than the scriptwriter. You reminded me of that idiot on Cheers who would make things up to conceal his lack of any actual knowledge. Next time you go to a movie stop at the concession stand and treat yourself to a tall glass of shut-the-fuck-up. Maybe if you weren't such an asshole someone other than your mother would be seen in public with you.

Now on to Public Enemies. The movie seemed a little choppy to me, there were times when it went from one scene to the next and I felt like I missed something. I am guessing this had something to do with the movie being two-and-a-half hours long. I suspect there were a lot of scenes cut, and one day there will be a DVD released that will include all those scenes, somewhat like The Abyss. When that happens a good movie will get much better.

Johnny Depp did a good job as John Dillinger, but it wasn't his best performance. Same for Christian Bale. The hubby thought they really caught the feel of the early 1930's, I thought it was good but not great. Pretty much all aspects of the movie were good but not great.

(Now Playing: Love and Marriage by Frank Sinatra)

Out of Many, Two

As I mentioned, for over a month my television didn't work. It's back again thanks to a power outage (no, I don't know exactly how it fixed the TV) but in the meantime I did a lot of reading. Rather than review a lot of books, I figured I'd only do the ones worth mentioning. That leaves two.

The first is Thomas Paine and the Promise of America by Harvey J. Kaye. I started reading this one a long time ago, but by the time I was at the half-way point I purposely slowed down. It reads very easily and is one of the most informative books about my favorite founding father, and probably the most liberal. It goes beyond the impact of his pamphlet Common Sense and delves deep into his lesser known writings. One of the fascinating aspects of the book is that less than half-way through the book he gets to Paine's death. The rest of it is on his influence on American history all the way up to present day. His definition of small government was in government not interfering in the way people live their life, especially in the realm of religion, but not in allowing corporations to amass unchecked power. He championed government helping people (he was the first to suggest a program to help the old and infirm, what today we call Social Security, as well as assistance for the poor) and government opposing tyranny that comes from corporate power and inherited wealth. In going beyond Age of Reason and Common Sense the author takes the reader into the compassionate mind of Paine. For those interested in reading Paine's own words, one of the best online sources is The Thomas Paine National Historical Association. I've spent entire days there.

The other book that I read that is worth telling you about is The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez. I read a positive review of this one some time ago on Crooks and Liars and have been meaning to read it ever since. I'm glad I finally got around to it. It is about a wealthy lawyer being assigned by a judge to defend a heroin addicted prostitute accused of killing the son of a senator. It is totally unrealistic, but the transformation from materialistic lawyer with a social climbing wife into a modern-day Atticus Finch just made my heart feel good.

The rest of the books, and there were a lot of them, were just time fillers and not really worth mentioning, neither to recommend nor warn against. But if you like lawyer novels or early American history these are two winners.

(Now Playing: Digging in the Dirt by Peter Gabriel)

Je parle un puh de francais

Is there anything more international than an Italian-American learning to speak French from a Scottish teacher?

I've been learning to speak French through both Rosetta Stone and a website called Coffee Break French, which offers free audio lessons. Rosetta Stone doesn't recommend using non-immersion methods while using their program, and while I understand the reasoning the audio lessons have helped me understand why some things are the way they are. Coffee Break French is part of a larger learning site, Radio Lingua Network, with free lessons for a lot of languages, some more comprehensive and some just an introduction.

I've found some interesting things about learning another language. It really makes you think about your own language and consider why you say something in a certain way, and how many different ways there are to say the same thing. I also find it interesting that I have heard so many times that English is one of the hardest European languages to learn.

But there are a lot of things to be considered in French that we don't worry about in English. For one thing, everything has a gender and you have to know it. A car is feminine, so you would say une voiture. But a truck is masculine, so you would say un camion. You can know what something is called, but if you don't know if it is male or female you don't know whether to say un or une, la or le, ma or mon. Also, a lot of words are pronounced one way if you are male and another if you are female. The word 'ready' is pret, but if you are male you don't pronounce the T.

Then there is the issue of formality. In English, if you are in a formal situation you refer to the person as ma'am, or sir. I'm pretty sure that is the only difference. In French, you is tu or toi if informal, vous if formal. And some questions are worded differently or pronounced differently depending on the formality. Between masculine/feminine/formal/informal, there is a lot of learning to say very little. It also makes you wonder about that French line in Lady Marmalade that said in the formal form, it seems like the type of question you wouldn't ask someone if you weren't being fairly informal with them. Kind of like in The Tudors, where it sounds strange to hear someone say, "Thank you for banging me, Your Majesty."

I suppose in the long run English might be harder to learn just because the vocabulary is more extensive than most languages, at least that's what I've heard. If that's true, it would certainly be harder to translate into English. And the differences between different versions of English would be a little tricky, if you get sick in England you are 'in hospital' but in the US are are 'in the hospital'.

But now for my plug for Radio Lingua Network. They have free lessons for every language, but if you want printed material to go with the lessons or review lessons or video lessons you can choose different membership levels, which are very inexpensive. They have one-minute languages in 17 different languages, ten mp3 files that teach you just a few things a day to learn just the basics. I actually used some of the Norweigian in a chat room last week. There are two in-depth language programs, French and Spanish (this is Spain-Spanish, not Latin-American, there is a difference). In between the two are Italian and German lessons, 100 lessons that are about five minutes long with the recommendation that you do one lesson per day so that you learn quite a bit in a little over three months. So if you are just wanting to test the water and aren't sure of how committed you are to learning a language, Radio Lingua is a good way to dip your toe in for free. And if you are committed, it is a good way to see if the program is for you. I'm not required to post this, I just want to give them a plug because I am very impressed with this little company. The lessons are fun and it's great to be able to review my lessons while I'm walking around in the grocery store.

(Now Playing: The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight by REM)

Movie Review: Surveillance

I saw a pre-theatrical rental of this movie, it is scheduled for release on June 26. IMDB has a couple of trailers up for it.

The surprise ending was predictable and therefore not really a surprise at all. Above all, it is supremely annoying. I hated nearly every character, the kid wasn't too bad but she was the only one. Imagine spending an hour and a half with people you really hate who are sadistic, moronic, and immature. It's kind of like that.

I'd rather watch The Jerky Boys than see this movie again. Or any of the Die Hard movies. Or James Bond. Or that Rodgers and Hammerstein musical where Shirley Jones declares that if you love someone enough it feels like a kiss when he hits you.

I try really hard not to say a movie is bad, I know that there are movies that a lot of people like that just aren't my taste. I don't even like Gone With the Wind but I couldn't call it a bad movie. However, this is going to be one of my rare exceptions. This movie is bad.

(Now Playing: Toccata by Emerson Lake and Palmer)

P.S.: I just checked the Tomatotometer and the reviews on Amazon. We seem to have a difference of opinion. Amazon's average rating is 1 star out of 5. The Tomatotometer gives it 73% favorable reviews from the critics. Which leads me to comment that if you are going to smoke that much dope before watching a movie, you should watch Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Just To Have Something To Post

I haven't seen a movie this week, and with the TV being out for the last month I have been reading a lot of novels but little to write home about.

So in the meantime, enjoy these mugshots:

Proof that the US has the best healthcare system in the world

Just say no to handling hair bleach while high

Imagine this one with sad clown makeup

The advantages of having a cellmate who does tattoos

So what? Daddy's gonna get his lawyer and then you'll be sorry

Arrested for stealing from the nurse's locker room?

(Now Playing: Limelight by Rush)

Movie Review: Up

There's not a lot you can say about animated movies. The only things you can talk about are the story and the voices. There was a time when you could talk about art, but today's animation not so much.

So I'll just say I thought it was fun. Judging from the LPM (laughs per minute) from the hubby, he liked it more than I did. The weird guy who looked like Kirk Douglas kind of creeped me out.

In the weird news of the day: Texas cop uses a taser on a 72 year old great grandmother when she refuses to sign a speeding ticket. Claims he was justified because she used bad words.

(Now Playing: Colorado by Stephen Stills)

I Predict The Darwin Awards Will Soon Be Hiring

Not to be one-upped by Congress legalizing firearms in national parks, Tennessee state lawmakers passed a law to make it legal to have guns in a bar.

Imagine the confusion when someone yells out, "Hey, barkeep! What do I have to do to get a couple of shots here?" When the police arrived, the bartender, who had just been called 'barkeep' one time too many, could simply claim that he was giving the customer what he asked for.

This is a good thing, if you are looking at it from the standpoint of someone who thinks the herd needs to be culled a bit. Or maybe if you think that when a heat-packing mass-murderer turns up in a room full of drunks that they are likely to do anything other than soil themselves. Seems I saw a special recently where students with guns (that they didn't know weren't holding live ammo) were sent into a lecture hall where someone came in and opened fire. If I remember correctly, there were six of them and the only one that got the gun out of the holster shot an innocent bystander. And they were cold sober.

Of course, the law specifies that you can only carry a gun into a bar if you don't drink. That makes sense. I can't count the number of times I've said to myself, "What to do tonight, I really don't want to drink. Maybe I should go to the bar." 'Cause whenever drinking is the last thing I want to do, I head straight to the nearest bar.

In other alcohol-related news, Westminster police investigated reports of a couple having sex in the median at 88th and Sheridan. He says she has a cyst, and he was checking it for her. What a lucky gal.

(Now Playing: Uranus, The Magician by Holst and the London Symphony Orchestra)

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

From the moment I head Christian Bale was going to be playing John Connor I didn't have high hopes for this movie, but I had to see it because I am a fan of the prior movies and the television series. After seeing it, I am convinced that they should have done whatever it took to get Nick Stahl back.

I don't have anything against Christian Bale, most of the movies I've seen him in were outstanding. I just think Terminator is one of those that does better with performers that are not well known. I didn't think he would turn in a bad performance, I just didn't think he was right for the part. Because of that I kept running self-checks so see if I didn't like him because of that pre-conceived notion, or if it really was as disappointing as it seemed. I've asked myself the same thing several times since I saw the movie yesterday, and I'm convinced it really was as bad as I think it was.

The most annoying part was that he kept using his Batman voice. Or that he displayed less emotion than your average Terminator. Or that there was so much focus on being a war movie that the humanity of John Connor finally meeting his father fell by the side. Maybe part of it was the script, which had time travel problems that they didn't even try to work out.

That's enough about what was wrong, there were two bright spots. One was Sam Worthington, who played Marcus Wright, and Anton Yelchin, who played Kyle Reese. You may recognize Yelchin from his role as Chekov in the new Star Trek movie. Without them the movie would have been a total loss.

So even though I think it was the weakest of the four movies, as well as the loudest, if you are a fan of the series you still have to go see it.

(Now Playing: Grudges by Reign of Frogs) <-- No, really. It was just the luck of the shuffle on WMP.

The Riverdale Proposal

It's official, Archie Andrews will be proposing marriage and it was recently revealed that he has chosen Veronica over Betty.

Personally, I'm not sure how I would have wanted this to come out. Betty is my personal favorite, she is smart, she can cook, she can fix your car, and she is a genuinely happy person. I also think she would be a little minx in bed, whereas Veronica would be concerned the whole time that you were messing up her hair.

So with Betty being my favorite of the two by far, why am I waffling on who I think Archie should propose to? Because it would be better for Archie to propose to Betty, but better for Betty for him to propose to Veronica. Let's face it, Archie doesn't deserve Betty. He's always taking advantage of Betty's talents and good nature to keep her busy while he dates Veronica.

Here's how I think it will turn out:

Archie proposes to Veronica, and Veronica says yes. Mr. Lodge tells them that if Veronica married Archie they will be on their own and will not receive dollar one from him. Veronica decides she doesn't like Archie that much, after all, what kind of job can he be expected to find considering Betty has been doing him homework for him all these years? Veronica breaks off the engagement, prompting Archie to turn to Betty as he is too self-absorbed to understand how insulting he is being in asking Betty to play second-fiddle. Betty, who finally sees Archie for the womanizing-opportunist he really is, tells him to go pound sand. At last, Betty realizes she can do better than Archie.

So Betty gets what she deserves (a guy who appreciates her and treats her right), Veronica gets what she deserves (Reggie Mantle), and Archie gets what he deserves (no girlfriend). He'll probably end up with a mail order bride, and we will learn that it is true that most guys with mail order brides shouldn't be married in the first place.

(Now Playing: Operator by Jim Croce)

Movie Review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

This, like it's predecessor, is a movie to see if you just want to laugh and have fun.

I waited to get the DVD from the library on the first movie because I generally don't spend money on movies with Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson, and NATM had both. But sometimes excluding movies based on cast can be a mistake. Not only was Owen Wilson great in both movies, I can't imagine anyone else playing Jedediah.

The second is just as fun as the first. It's advantage over the first was having Hank Azaria (in three different roles), it's disadvantage was that it didn't have as much Robin Williams.

If you didn't see the first one, rent it before you go see the second. The movie does assume you know what happened in the first one.

(Off to check The Tomatometer...)

Oh, lord. 44%, once again lower than it deserved. One reviewer criticized the movie for being unrealistic. You think??? But the review that stood out in the realm of the asinine was Anton Bitel's. He complained that it wasn't educational enough. Hello?!?! It has Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in it! And you were expecting a documentary? Here's a quote: it "has few actual insights to offer into the complexities of the past." No shit?! Maybe that's why (Deity of your choice) made The History Channel! (And for the record, I did learn something. Although I am a subscriber to Smithsonian Magazine, I was not aware that The Smithsonian is actually a collection of 19 museums.)

Anyway, ignore the reviewers and go see it. Just don't bother taking notes.

(Now Playing: Colorado by The Flying Burrito Brothers)

At What Point Did This Seem Like A Good Idea?

If the definition of insanity is doing something over and over and expecting different results, what can you say about these guys?

How many people from the media need to be waterboarded so that they can see for themselves whether it is torture before it is settled? There was Mike Guy of Playboy.com who paid $800 for the experience, Christopher Hitchens for Vanity Fair who titled his article "Believe me, it's torture" and claims to still have nightmares from the experience, Kaj Larsen for a Current TV video, and most recently Conservative talk-radio host Eric "Mancow" Muller who didn't take the word of the others, my guess is because Current TV and Playboy are considered liberal and Christopher Hitchens is a Godless-atheist-heathen. How could having some water poured on your face be any different than taking a shower or going swimming?

He found out how much worse it could be. Mancow figured he could hold out for 30-60 seconds, he made it six seconds. He reluctantly admitted that it was torture. Take into account that he went into it knowing he would be safe, that EMT's were present just in case, that it would only happen once, he could go home when it was over, and he had a toy cow that he could drop at any point to make it stop. He had it pretty easy compared to the detainees.

In a way, I have to hand it to him for having more cojones than Sean Hannity, who said he would be waterboarded for charity if people would put up money for every second he could hold out. When people got out their checkbooks, Hannity clammed up.

I suppose that if some pretty smart people could be convinced that it's okay to experiment with torture, you can't blame a handful of journalists. The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters thought it would be interesting to put Chinese Water Torture to the test. Was anyone surprised when it was confirmed? First bad idea was trying something where the third word of the description is "torture." Second bad idea was waiting until after they did it to talk to someone who knows something about it, who did not hesitate to tell them they shouldn't do that. Another show, I don't recall the name but I think it was on the History Channel, tried it as well and everyone reached the conclusion that it is torture and it could potentially drive a person insane.

So the moral of the story is: If it has a history of being used as a means of torture for centuries, you probably should just accept that it is torture and not play around with it. If it is a tactic that was used by the Spanish Inquisition it wasn't because they wanted to go easy on someone that day. Just say no to subjecting yourself to torture.

(Now Playing: Genius of Love by The Tom Tom Club)

Movie Review: Angels and Demons

I'm finally caught up on movies I want to see. Night at the Museum just came out yesterday, but I don't like to see movies on Fridays. There are too many people on Fridays and parking spaces are better on other days, maybe I'll see it on Tuesday. Yes, I know it's not likely to be an intellectual challenge but the first one was a lot of fun.

There was a weird little thing they did with Angels && Demons. The book was the first one in the Robert Langdon series, but since they filmed DaVinci first they made a few references to make it seem like the events in DaVinci had already happened. Strangely, I was one of the few people who read Angels before reading DaVinci, most people read them backwards.

I like the whole religion v. science aspect of the movie. While reading the book I learned more about the process of selecting a new pope than I did growing up Catholic, and the movie covers the same material. The irony that while fighting against enemy-science the church had to call in an academic was not lost. And, the point was made that religion and science don't have to be enemies.

Book-wise, I liked Angels better but as far as the movies go I liked DaVinci better. I didn't think they filled in enough of the detail that the book gave us, despite the movie being 2 hours 20 minutes. Long movie, yes, but to it's credit it didn't seem like long. It moved fast, but to really do the book justice I think it would have needed to be closer to 3 hours. (Unfortunately, the slow-moving three-hour-long Benjamin Button may have put me off three hour movies for a long time. I kept getting bored and shutting it off and going back the next day.) So similarly to DaVinci, you'll probably enjoy the movie more if you read the book first.

When I got home I wanted to look up one of the cardinals to see where I had seen him before, and I was surprised to see that the Camerlengo was played by Ewan McGregor. I had no idea. I'm not sure if that says more about the direction, the acting, or my ability to recognize faces.

I can't speak to the historical accuracy of some of the things in the movie as my area of study in history only occasionally brushed up against the history of the Catholic church, and was nowhere near art history.

I just checked The Tomatometer, and once again I think the percentage is undeservedly low. 37%? Come on, fellas. The silliest review of all criticized the movie for being unrealistic, then complained that Tom Hanks's character was not being enough like Indiana Jones. Because an academic having the agility and strength of a triathlete is realistic? At any rate, I like characters who are apologetically intelligent and don't need anything else to prop them up. The more reviews I read the more I like the scene in Lady in the Water when the critic gets eaten by a monster.

So the summary is I liked the movie, and I think it was a fun, fast-paced thriller. I would recommend it, but it definitely improves if you have read the book first. Your position in the pro-science/pro-religion/pro-can't-we-all-just-get-along debate may have an influence on your enjoyment of the movie, it certainly did for Bill Donohue of the Catholic League who thinks that everyone is defaming the Catholic church and hasn't forgiven Dan Brown for The Davinci Code. (For more on Bill Donohue, watch the Fantastic Easter Special episode of South Park.)

(Now Playing: Actually, I turned off the music and started up the South Park episode mentioned above.)

Science Fiction Double Feature

It's true that I saw these five days ago, and that I've seen another one since. I get a little behind these days. Partly because I started watching Sleeper Cell, a Showtime series from a few years ago that I never got around to, and I couldn't stop. I hadn't watched it before because I assumed it was another attempt to make money off people's fears of Muslim people and stoke those fears even more. I was wrong, it is a great show. In fact, if you are clinging to the irrational belief that all of the world's one billion Muslims have it out for you personally it just might piss you off.

But on to the movies. I saw Star Trek and Wolverine.

I don't normally check The Tomatometer before seeing a movie, but for Wolverine I did. Of the critics included in the tomatometer results, only 36% gave it a favorable review. That was completely unfair. I didn't think it was as good as the previous X-Men movies, but it wasn't that bad. Sometimes I think there are a lot of critics who are bullies that can't get an erection if they don't trash the work of people whose talents far exceed theirs.

After seeing Watchmen and now Wolverine, I have declared 2009 The Year of the Naked Dude. Even without the fully-nude (from a distance) scene, there were many chances to view Hugh Jackman's physique. Yes, he is a handsome guy with a nice body, and now he needs to button his shirt. After a while it got kind of silly.

But it was a fun action movie with a good story. And it was about time we saw Gambit, he and Beast are my favorites. I think it's worth seeing for people who like the X-Men movies. I'm looking forward to more.

The second movie we saw on Sunday was Star Trek. This is going to sound silly, but one of the things that really impressed me is that the uniforms weren't all that upgraded from the different color T-shirts that they wore in the original series.

I was concerned that considering the cast, it would be hard to see them as the crew of the Enterprise. But when I saw Zachary Quinto I didn't see Sylar, and when I saw John Cho I didn't see Harold Lee. Good performances all around. Good action scenes. Good story.

Skip the next paragraph if a minor spoiler will make you send me email containing language that would make a sailor blush.

One thing that I didn't like was Leonard Nimoy. His performance was fine, but his presence was quite a stretch. Kirk gets ejected onto a random place on a random planet and happens to run into Old Spock? That goes beyond 'wasn't that convenient.'

I actually liked Wolverine better, but that's probably because I like X-Men better than Star Trek. They were both a lot of fun, and I would recommend seeing both of them. Do a science fiction double feature.

And just so that I don't write about three movies in one day, I will post my review of Angels and Demons over the weekend.

(Now Playing: Heroes by David Bowie)

There Will Be Movies

Right now the plan is to see Angels and Demons Friday, and Wolverine and Star Trek on Sunday so I will have many reviews soon.

Until then, try to watch this video without thinking of RNC chair Michael Steele:

Movie Review: Knowing

I wasn't sure exactly what this movie was about when I went to see it, but the previews made it look interesting. Turns out, it's one of those movies that you can't say much about it without giving away the whole thing.

For that reason I won't say much about the plot itself. Nicholas Cage plays a single father and MIT professor whose son it given a paper removed from a time capsule. The paper has nothing on it but numbers, and after finding what he believes to be a pattern he obsessively tracks down their meaning. The numbers predict accidents, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks by their date, number dead, and location. By the time he finds the paper there are only a few dates left.

Half an hour before the movie started I still hadn't made up my mind whether to leave work 15 minutes early to see it or to wait for it to come to DVD. A co-worker encouraged me to go to the theater, and she was right. There were scenes that would have lost much on a small screen.

I'm not a big fan of Nicholas Cage as an actor most times, and this performance was about average. None of the acting performances were outstanding, but the script was strong enough to carry the movie. The special effects were excellent, I'll probably watch it again on DVD just for that. It has some definite Biblical references, the final one being a bit predictable.

Overall I'd give it a B, although I dislike giving letter grades or numbers of stars to movies. Eventually you always look at something and wonder why you gave one movie a higher grade than another, and realize that it is purely subjective.

(Now Playing: No music, I'm trying to watch Doubt although that is proving to be a bit difficult. The DVD keeps skipping back and forth through the movie.)

Movie Review: State of Play

I went to see this one with the hubby today. He hated it, I loved it. I suspected it might have been a difference of political affiliation, so I checked through the summary of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and I believe that was a correct assessment. Those who worked for newspapers/websites with a clear Republican bias disliked it, those with a clear liberal bias liked it, and the rest seemed to go about 4 out of 5 liking the movie.

The movie is about investigative reporters trying to uncover the truth about the death of a congressman's lover and connections to a privatized military force that is very obviously based on Blackwater. It touches on the billions of dollars granted to private contractors, their use as a domestic military force, the influence corporate ownership has on what a newspaper prints, all things that liberals wish more people were paying attention to.

All the performances were outstanding, including Ben Affleck who I don't always like. Helen Mirren was the best of the lot, of course. She usually is. It was well-written and moved quickly. I wish I could tell you how it compared to the BBC series, but when I got it from the library and noticed it was about six hours long and I couldn't renew it I didn't even start watching it. Maybe when demand for the DVD goes down to the point where I can keep it for two weeks I will try again.

So obviously, the recommendation on this is that if you are a liberal you will probably like it, if you are a conservative you probably won't, and everyone else has a high likelihood of enjoying it.

(Now Playing: Because We're Too White - parody of Because I Got High)

My South Park Image

Creativity day on South Park Studios:
Hair, glasses, beer; body is a little different.

It's True, Reality Has A Liberal Bias

This morning I found that my previous doctor, Dr Judy Paley, has a blog where she writes about interesting medical issues. I miss having her as a doctor, and I never wanted to switch doctors. I started seeing her when I was 19, but had to switch doctors because of my insurance company. They started paying her so little for office visits that she had to hire a nurse to see patients with my insurance company. I heard second hand that they were pressuring doctors into ordering less screening exams. They started dictating which medications she was allowed to prescribe. Eventually they started paying so little for office visits that in order to remain in business she had to drop all patients with my insurance company and after fifteen years I had to go find a new doc. He's a good doc, but I still miss Dr. Paley.

You know who can see any doctor he pleases? My pal in Toronto. He picked a clinic that had a doc he liked, and that's all there is to it.

So you understand why I find it ludicrous when talk radio hosts go on about how if we make changes to our health care system in America to make medical care available to all that people won't be able to choose their own doctors and that the decisions about their treatment will be made by a bureaucrat instead of their doctor. The problem already exists here, and it is the insurance companies that are causing it! They are also the reason that we have a higher infant mortality rate than 35 other countries. A baby born in Cuba has a better chance of actually growing up than one born in the US. It used to be worse, a couple of years ago it was 41 countries. We finally pulled ahead of Croatia! And for this, we pay 35-40% of our health insurance premiums in overhead (this does not apply to people on Medicare, if you have government run insurance it is 4%). That helps to explain why more than half of bankruptcies are due to medical bills, and why most of those bills were racked up by people who had insurance.

As long as the focus on the health care industry is to make stockholders rich instead of making sick people well it will never change. Health insurnace companies make money by refusing medical care, not by paying it. And as long as politicians need corporate money for their campaigns insurance companies will keep buying the politicians and we will continue to have a plutocracy making sure we lose everything trying to stay alive.

(Now Playing: She's A Lady by Tom Jones)

No New Ideas

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) claims to have a list of people in the House of Representatives who are Socialists.

Didn't we see this movie back in the 50's? Replace 'communist' with 'socialist', replace McCarthy with Bachus, and replace Murrow with Olbermann, toss in Michele Bachmann calling for loyalty hearings for members of Congress and all that's left is to replace urinal cakes with copies of the Bill of Rights.

(Now Playing: Wonderous Stories by Yes)

Book Review: The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

The quote is supposed to come at the end, but I heard a quote today that is so good I am going to start with it: Two novels can change a fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to being emotionally stunted and unable to deal with the real world. The other involves orcs.

The Worst Hard Time is about economic and environmental collapse resulting from greed. It tells the story of the dust bowl through the lives of people who lived through it.

The dust bowl never interested me much until recently. I heard about it in school, I read The Grapes of Wrath, but somehow I hadn't realized how fascinating it was until I watched a show about it on the History Channel. It was more than just dust storms and poverty. One dust storm was so severe that several inches of fertile plains soil blew all the way across the US, left a thick layer of dirt over New England, and into the Atlantic Ocean. The dirt created a condition similar to black lung disease that killed many people, killed cattle when their stomachs filled with so much dirt that they starved to death, and blinded people. Some storms were so severe that people couldn't see their hand in front of their face.

Egan does an outstanding job of bringing the reader into the story and creating the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty and loss. His description of Black Sunday was amazing.

This book gets high recommendations. Even if you aren't usually interested in history or don't think it is an interesting part of history, you should give it a try. If nothing else, the social parallels between today and the period before the Great Depression are startling.

(Now Playing: You're All I Got Tonight by The Cars)

DIA = Displaying Insipid Art

DIA has a history of displaying art that get people's panties in a twist.

First there was the mural that was described as a graphic representation of nazism and baby slaughter. I finally saw the mural, and found that the descriptions were blown grossly out of proportion. (Of course, when faced with infant-eating space aliens taking up residence below the airport and underground tunnels to Cheyenne, the mural pales in comparison.)

Now, there is a controversy about a sculpture of a blue mustang. People are organizing to get it removed, there is even a facebook page dedicated to the abolishment of the statue from the airport. I even got a questionnaire from my state representative asking for my opinion on it. I haven't seen it with the exception of a small photo, but it amazes me that there are people with so little to do with their time that they are turning this into a campaign. There is even the implication that the statue itself is evil because the sculptor died in a freak accident when he was struck by a piece of the statue when it came loose from a hoist.

So make an estimation of the time it takes to put up a facebook page, write letters to local officials, giving interviews to reporters, and generally trying to get the word out to Colorado residents to get support for the removal of a blue horse. Then decide what you would do with that much time.

(Now Playing: Non Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf)

Goodbye, Kitty

After checking to see what people have been viewing on my site, I was surprised to see that in the last week there have been no visits to Zombie Love, the post that attracted Hello Kitty picture seekers from all corners of the globe. Here a kittie, there a kittie, everywhere a hello kittie.

I checked google images, and Zombie Love is no longer coming up on the first page of images when one searches for "hello kitty zombie". How often does that search get made? You would be surprised.

And so I must now say...

The Gospel According To Ayn

Somehow I managed to make it through life until today never having heard the term Randroids, even though I have read all of Ayn Rand's novels and a few of her philosophy books. Not that I am a true believer, I have plenty of criticisms of her philosophy but manage to still find merit in a few of her writings.

You really should click on the link in the previous paragraph. It is one of the funniest things I've ever read, and frequently very accurate. It pokes fun at people who treat Ayn Rand as God and her writings as divinely inspired gospel truth.

Interesting thing about Rand and her followers is that her point is that people should think for themselves and then come to the exact same conclusions she does, and the true believers tout themselves as the ultimate logical thinkers when they never had an original thought of their own. They replace thinking with believing her every utterance and don't see how they have rejected religion and replaced it with religion. The Randroids page captures that so beautifully that it is almost art.

One religion is just like another. Most of the followers are grasping for something to make them feel important.

(Now Playing: Rush's 2112, based on Anthem by Ayn Rand)

Book Review: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

I first heard about this book on the radio, that it was about a mountain climber who was nursed back to health by a family in a small Pakistani village and he promised in return to build them a school. He didn't stop there, he built over 50 schools, as well as bridges and women's centers and helped people get clean water and medical care.

Obviously it sounded interesting enough for me to read, but I was under some false perceptions from the description. I assumed that the author was wealthy and that the biggest contribution he made was in putting up the money. Was I ever wrong. The author was a nurse, who spent time living in his car trying to come up with the money for the first school. He got personally involved in each project and got to know the people he was serving.

Most of the schools he builds are for girls. By empowering the girls, who are more likely to stay in their villages and help their people, he improves the quality of life in the entire village. Some of the girls who otherwise would have faced illiteracy instead became doctors. The areas in Afghanistan that he helped stood up to the religious extremists who tried to control them, to paraphrase the author, when you give people something to live for they don't want to die for religion.

This book is the most inspiring thing I've read in a very long time. I can't even start to describe how it made me feel at timesI think everyone should read this book.

(Now Playing: Ave Maria)