South Of Someplace

Friday, November 7, 2014

The Case Against Obamacare

I'm trying to understand why it's unacceptable to provide an opportunity for more people to purchase health insurance.

Could someone please explain that in simple terms?

Such as, if we let more people buy health insurance, ISIS will take over the world.

Or, if we let more people buy health insurance, Iran will nuke Israel.

Or, if we let more people purchase health insurance, the polar ice caps will melt and much of our farm land will turn to desert.

Or, if we let more people purchase health insurance, there will suddenly be a rash of deadly school shootings across America.

Help me out here. I want to understand why the Affordable Care Act is so horrible that we need to focus more energy on repealing it than we do on any of these other issues.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

According to CNN exit polls, 8 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Congress is doing its job. Six in ten voters are either angry or dissatisfied with both the White House and the Republican Congressional Leadership.

So what did the voters do? They put more Republicans in Congress.

Keep in mind also that nationwide, Democrats have a higher approval rating than Republicans (44 vs 40 percent).

So, I'm shaking my head this morning. Apparently, voters prefer the party that for the past four years has consistently blocked legislation, blocked key presidential appointments, opposed immigration reform, opposed funding to care for veterans, shut down the government, cause the United States to default on its debt obligation for the first time in history, and worked hard state by state to keep Medicare from reaching people who need health care coverage.

Hopefully, this is just the result of the Citizens United ruling and the sudden influx of unlimited corporate money in elections. The alternative is to conclude that the electorate is absurdly irrational.

Electile Dysfunction

So much for the theory that the polls would under-represent Hispanics. So much for under-representing young people who don't have traditional land phone lines. So much for marijuana ballot initiatives making any sort of difference. The polls had actually OVERESTIMATED Democratic prospects.

The Democrats were soundly humiliated tonight. They lost every close Senate race except for New Hampshire and Virginia, and those were defensive races for Democrat incumbents. The Reps effectively won a landslide. These are the same Reps that have stalled every progressive policy for four years, forced the government into shutdown, and caused the ratings agencies to downgrade the credit worthiness of the country. Those people won tonight, and they won big.

My working theory of the moment is that Democrats like to complain more than they like to vote. Reps complain, too, but they back up their convictions at the polls. If the Dems had turned out in force in battleground states, the results would have been different. If you don't vote, don't complain.

For the next two years, no meaningful firearm safety legislation will be passed. More family planning clinics will close. The fossil fuel industries will get more tax breaks. Immigration reform will be left to rot in the fields. Environmental protection and alternative energy will be forgotten and unfunded. Net neutrality is in serious jeopardy. Banking and finance reforms will be rolled back. The Affordable Care Act probably will be crippled financially. President Obama's nominees will continue to be blocked, and the President himself has a good chance not only of being impeached, but actually removed from office by the new Senate.

The United States is moving in the wrong direction, wrong for today and wrong for history. Our country is a shell of what it could be, because progressives didn't care enough to vote in large enough numbers. That's the sad and bitter truth.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Please Vote

An article on CNN says that only about 40 percent or eligible Americans will vote in today's elections. Forty percent. It's hard to imagine that the the other sixty percent doesn't care at all. The non-voters will be impacted by the policies that the government sets, just like the voters will.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans will have their right to vote DENIED by cunning and nefarious voter suppression tactics, tactics that target youth and minority voters in particular.

The whole situation is revolting. If you claim to be an American, then be an American, and do everything in your power to vote. And complain like mad if they won't let you do it.

And here's one more thing to remember. People fought and died to keep this country free from the wills of kinds and dictators and despots. People fought and died to preserve this republic which established, and so far, protects the right of each adult citizen to vote. Honor their sacrifice and do your part. Going to a polling station for a few minutes is such a small inconvenience compared with the price that these brave men and women paid for their country. Don't let their sacrifices go in vain. Vote. Please vote. Take a few minutes out of your day, and vote. Just vote. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Marathon Morning

At 6 in the morning I woke up and thought about the marathoners. This was about the time when I caught my bus to the starting corrals on Staten Island. It takes hours to move tens of thousands of runners through the city.

When you get to the corrals, you sit around (if you can find a place to sit), occupy yourself, and try to keep warm for a few hours until they call you to line up. Luckily, I had pleasant weather when I was there. This morning, it's brutally cold with a fierce wind. I fear that some of the runners might catch pneumonia today, or at the very least, a nasty chill.

The NYC Marathon is more than just a 26-mile run. It's a full-day survival event. Best wishes to all of the runners. Please do your best to keep warm and to protect yourselves from the elements!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Trick or Treat!

Darn you, Halloween! Darn you hot looking ladies in your nurse and devil and kitty cat costumes! I thought that I was too old for trick or treat, but now I want some sweets! :-)

Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

Happy

Day of the Dead

Reformation Day

All Hallows' Evening (Halloween)

and

All Saints' Day

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Halloween Calendar

Personally, I'm fascinated by the fact that Halloween comes exactly two months before New Year's Eve. But knowing that New Year's Day and All Saints' Day are also separated by two months, for some reason that just doesn't interest me at all.

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Brief History of an Epidemic

1. A man flies to Dallas from West Africa. He feels sick, so he goes to the emergency room. They send him home. He gets really sick and returns to the hospital where he eventually dies. Two of the man's caregivers come down with the disease.

2. A doctor goes to Africa to treat people with the same disease. He flies home to New York, rides the subway, dines out and goes bowling before realizing that, oops! He's infected. A special team from the fire department transports him to an isolation ward at a specially designated hospital.

3. Governors in a handful of heavily populated states enact mandatory quarantine restrictions in order to prevent health care workers (who may be infected with Ebola) from frequenting public places (e.g. going bowling or riding the subway) during the disease's incubation period. The White House and the CDC immediately dismiss these regulations as unfair. Some worry that health care volunteers will be discouraged if the restrictions remain in effect.

4. A nurse confined by the new quarantine restriction complains to the press that she has been inconvenienced. She asks to return to her job and her family right away. Under pressure from public scrutiny, the governors cave in and permit the woman to opt out of quarantine. (Go ahead, lady! Run down to the local day care center and give all of the kids a big hug. Selfishness suits you.)

5. Who knows? But it's absolutely certain that more people will be infected with the disease. If MSF and other NGOs are unwilling to enforce quarantines on their own, and if self-centered Ebola carriers continue to roam around in public, the disease will continue to spread. If one of your relatives gets sick, don't blame Governors Christie or Cuomo for trying to do the right thing, even though it was unpopular.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

When Is Enough Going To Be Enough?

So many things went wrong today. A fifteen-year-old boy had unsupervised access to a powerful firearm. No parent ensured that the gun was locked away safely. No security detection equipment prevented him from taking the gun onto school property and into a crowded cafeteria. Some combination of influences in the boy's life led him to believe that rejection by a girl should be answered with murder.

An innocent child is dead and four more have been gravely wounded. Their families and friends are devastated. A community mourns. Because a girl said "No" to a boy, and the boy decided to shoot a bunch of people. And because no one prevented a child from gaining access to deadly force.

If you think that firearms protect people, think about those children at the cafeteria table being shot at point blank range. Think about it graphically. Think about their little bodies being pierced by heavy lead slugs speeding toward them at 1,000 miles per hour. How were they protected? What good did that gun do for them?

It's sad that schools and police departments and hospitals have to prepare for this type of tragedy, but I am thankful that they go through the trouble. But it's not enough. It doesn't prevent the angry maniac who's standing near you or sitting across the table from you from ending your life in an instant, all because they couldn't handle a bit of normal, everyday disappointment without giving in to some insane urge to end someone's life.

When is enough finally going to be enough?