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.

Having Fun . . .

. . . is not the most important thing about playing baseball. We don't want to lose. We want to win. But the most important thing is to learn the basic rules, strategy, and fundamentals of the game of baseball. This is how I approach coaching kids. The fundamentals provide my players with the tools to make defensive plays, pitch, hit, and run the bases, feel a little sense of accomplishment. Knowing the rules and the strategy help my players truly understand defeat and to grasp what it takes to win. Tasting the bitterness of defeat is the pits, but coming back to the exhilaration of winning . . . now we're talking fun.

Torture

Bag of bones twisted, broken, rattled. A pang, a prick, a squeeze. Knives, guns, electricity, hooks, sticks, pliers, deprivation, bugs, boxed, chemicals, fire, water, boards, a whip, crown of thorns, a cross. Awfully imagining what others do to others; how it must feel! But what about the gray matter crushed by enmity? Hatred convoluting the brain, churning chemicals; Hatred ripping out the heart, hard boiled spirit; Hatred inflicting the eyes, cooked tears; Hatred wrenching the fingers, twisted twigs; Hatred gnashing the teeth, grinding bones; Hatred menacing the skin, seams splitting.

Only the Dark Night

After the Dazzle of Day

After the dazzle of day is gone,

Only the dark night shows

         to my eyes the stars;

         After the clangor of organ majestic,

                   or chorus, or perfect band,

Silent, athwart my soul, moves

       the symphony true.

                                                     --Walt Whitman

My thoughts after reading: Darkness, Silence, Search my Soul, Beautiful.  Where does "After the Dazzle of Day" take you?

"The Biggest Yes"

I thought my co-worker David Clegg was setting me up to watch another person embarrass themselves in front of the world. Given Susan Boyle's homeliness and quirkiness, I was admittedly very cynical and uncomfortable for her and maybe even against her. As she sang, I wondered, "Who is Elaine Paige? Is this performance a gag? Is she lip synching?" So instead of a gyrating rendition of "she bangs, she bangs," I was treated with a most inspiring performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. Instantly, I was transformed. She was no longer homely, but beautiful. She touched my heart. She blew a kiss to me!

Lone Wolf

Why "lonewolfcry"?  Now that I'm posting it, I'm embarrassed to say that it is a self-imposed nickname I came up with at work.  What sort of person gives himself a nickname?  Why not l-o-a-n wolf instead?  I do work for a company that makes loans.  Since when was a wolf alone?  Don't they travel in packs?  This proves that the very name "lone wolf" is ambiguous and conflicted, so it's probably, maybe, perhaps fairly safe to say that I'm ambiguous and conflicted; after all, I did give myself the nickname without thinking it through.  Are you sure you want to read my blog?!  How do you think my family feels? : )  I just threw in the "cry" part because it had a better ring than "yowl," "howl," or "yip."

Ultimate Sacrifice

Rights of United States citizens and their future generations are more important than life--my life, your life. I will not sacrifice my rights to speak freely, to worship, to be protected against illegal search and seizure, to vote, and to privacy for the purpose of avoiding another terrorist attack like September 11. I believe in Patrick Henry's revolutionary refrain: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" My life, your life are no more valuable than an American soldiers' life, but it's our liberties that are more valuable than them all. And it's the American Soldier--not me, not you--that places his life in imminent danger. A soldier protects my liberties on the front line; he is the one that makes the ultimate sacrifice, not me, not you.