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Here we go. Someday I'll get this blogging youtube stuff down. Thanks for the pictures mom!

Reforming Health Insurance and Death Panels

This is embarrassing. Sarah Palin believes and teaches that the Health Insurance Reform Bill pushed by the Obama Administration sponsors "death panels" that threaten the elderly and her down-syndrome baby, absurdly suggesting euthanasia. Rush Limbaugh compares the logo for the Reform Bill with a logo from the Nazi regime and expounds upon their similarities, suggesting the unimaginable. Honestly, I'm stunned by this commentary and the many people who are picking up these messages, hints, stunts, shenanigans, whatever you want to call them, and comparing Obama to Hitler and the Insurance Reform Bill to the Final Solution. It's astonishing!

The Health Insurance Reform Bill, if it is passed with the public option, will not be perfect and will certainly have moments of botched execution like most government programs. (See Social Security, but also see Medicare, which has been a money saver for many.). There are many issues surrounding the Bill that are worth thinking about, including How are we going to pay for it . . . our children?; If we do nothing about the rising costs of health care, how expensive will they be to our children?; What about the many people who are uninsured and file bankruptcy because they can't cover the steep balances on their medical bills? Do we want government bureaucrats making our medical decisions or do we want health care insurance bureaucrats making them?

For the purposes of this blog, I'll spare the analysis on each of those questions. Suffice it to say, I choose changing the status quo. I want health insurance reform and the public option. Among the many other more important benefits, I would like to see the health insurance industry get kicked a little bit. I voted for change with Barak Obama and I'm pleased with how he's trying to plow through this very controversial piece of legislation.

The Heavens Wept Over Him

Spirituality is elusive. It's like this connection or communication with God, a higher power, or something deep within one's self, that provides some clarity to life, morality, and value. No particular creed, religion, culture, belief, or people have exclusive licensing rights, nor does any one person. Spirituality comes and goes depending on how much effort is expended.  At least this is how I understand it. I made a connection with spirituality when putting together a speech about the War in Heaven. If you would like to read it, just copy and paste the URL to your browser:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15962377/Winning-the-War

Crazy Courage

On the neuro highway, regulating mood and brooding;
Transmitters runnin' low, the cursed three witness,
Sweet me--ragin' for pleasure, signal despond.

At the dark exit, gettin' off, hazards off, out of sight;

Patrolman, highwayman . . . whatever they call you--

find and bust me if you must, good luck and God bless.

Swallow me some pills. Smoke me some cigs;

Prozac it is and no tickets for smokin.'

Roadin' for courage, courage to master.

Priceless

I wish I could remember where I read it. It was just a short blurb in the middle of a larger article. Here is the part that crosses my mind often: a POW in Vietnam was allowed by his captors to send a letter to his family with a limited number of words.  Some of those words were spent on the importance of getting a family picture at least every year. This took me aback and made an impression.  Here's me with my 3 kids.