Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy
My siblings are going to tire of my posting every Youtube video they send me…but I think I’ll download this one, too, and show it to my students to review hyperbole–and maybe irony, too, since the dude’s complaining about complainers.
Justice Cracks
The honorable thing to do would be shelter the old sheep, too, under the new wine skins, don’t you think?
A minor issue: We originally signed up for a two-year contract with our local internet service provider, $40/month for 256k. (Pretty slow, I know, but the alternatives weren’t as doable.) Just a couple months ago, however, I happened to look at the provider’s pricing schedule, and learned that 256k is no longer even an option; plans start at 768k for–yup, you guessed it–$40. I emailed and asked that our service be upgraded to the new plan option. They obliged, provided I extended our contract for another year.
A major issue: Crack cocaine sentencing laws have traditionally treated the chemical as many times worse than powder cocaine, a position widely denounced as unfounded and discriminatory. Sentencing guidelines changed just this past summer, but have not been made retroactive. As President Obama begins to offer presidential pardons, I hope he considers the plights of folks like Hamedah Hasan (convicts of the Scooter Libby type can just sit tight).
Just Can’t Help Myself
If only all political rhetoric was so damn refreshing.
Here’s the real NY gubernatorial candidate, and here’s the SNL version.
And then there are my aching ribs, from laughing.
Scarier Than Fiction
Susan Hasler‘s perfectly titled Intelligence: A Novel of the CIA is one word: s-c-a-r-y. It also made me laugh, buried me in the sobriety of reality, horrified me, and kept me up late just to finish it. But it is, above all else, simply frightening. In fact, it’s so scary I really don’t think it’s a novel, except for maybe the last several chapters, in which–but I won’t tell you, because I highly recommend the book and don’t want to spoil it for you.
More documentary/exposé than fiction, I think, Hasler’s work is a startling warning and, although the supposedly fictitious plot is laced with actual dates and real events, cannot be placed among the annals of historical fiction: its worries and action hearken back not to yesteryear but instead to yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The bureaucracy of and political maneuvering surrounding and within the CIA are the real culprits of this novel, and the frustration and cynicism felt by Hasler’s characters are infectious. Thankfully they (and therefore readers) find moments of relief from the stresses of their work, but the undercurrent of truth is hard to shelve: cumbersome agencies of “intelligence” are no match for destructive creativity.
Revelation of Self Righteousness
At the supper table this evening I referred to the man at the helm of the recent Koran-burning threat as an “idiot.” (I’d contemplated the more-accurate “fool,” or the watered-down “man of foolish action,” but chose to wax eloquent in the common instead.)
“Hey, I don’t like it when you say that about people,” M said.
“Well, then,” I said, “I’ll just say he has a I.D.10-T problem.”
M frowned.
“How would you describe him, then?” I asked.
She could do nothing but chuckle.
Not unrelated was the wisdom I gained today from a colleague of mine who can’t keep himself from sharing it with me whenever he gets a chance:
“I used to get mad at people who did bad stuff,” he said. “I don’t anymore, though. It’s just interesting. And besides, if we hate all the bad people, soon we’ll be hating ourselves, too.”
By the way, remember my librarian who forwarded that email about wearing blue on Fridays in honor of Jesus and the GI’s? I kept my eyes open today, from above my green shirt, and noticed that she was in white.
Inland Oil Catastrophe Spreading
As suggested in Millions Of Barrels Of Oil Safely Reach Port In Major Environmental Catastrophe, we’ve got problems. (Thanks to The Freakwenter for the heads up.)
And I confess: While I did walk across the street this morning to a lunchtime restaurant meeting, on the way back to school I gladly accepted a ride in a gasoline-powered vehicle.
And I confess more: I am the son of a man who at his church is a “creation care advocate” and who recently deviated from his normal practice of relocating live-trapped groundhogs (he usually pushes the loaded trap in a wheelbarrow a mile back a dirt road and then releases the poor critter) and instead drove the trap in his car to the release site and back. In the week after my dad told this story about himself in church–a story he prefaced by mentioning the fact that he hadn’t really ever done anything as “creation care advocate”–he learned that a woman at church later said that she “just can’t get in the car anymore without remembering that story.”
New “Star Spangled Banner” Verses (from The Onion)
Health Care: More Thoughts
I’ve already mentioned public sharing of health care costs rather than having health insurance national or private, but I’ve had one or two more thoughts about what I’d like to see in health care reform:
Malpractice insurance: Moderate–not crazy big–lawsuit payouts could help to control costs, and a government assumption of physicians’ liability could prove beneficial, especially if my customer reviews and full disclosure ideas (below) were around to help weed out the bad docs. Presumably, lower–or no–malpractice insurance costs for doctors would allow for more affordable service.
Customer reviews: I don’t buy from eBay sellers with low ratings, and if ratings were available for health care providers, I’d check them out, too. I’m talking about a beefed-up and free Angie’s List.
Full disclosure: If their complete professional credentials were readily available, I’d know which doctors are trained to meet my needs.
Controlling medical bills: Hey, insurance companies do it already, so what’s wrong with the government meddling, too?
Medical records: Finally, I wouldn’t mind being able to access all of my records online, even if it was Google managing the service (provided they don’t pull another Buzz “share all your info” stunt).
As if Days Didn’t Fly By as It Was
From The Wall Street Journal:
The earthquake that struck Chile was so powerful it shifted the planet’s axis enough to make it spin slightly faster, meaning our days will be shorter by 1.26 millionths of a second, according to preliminary calculations by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
“This is an esoteric effect that physics says has to happen,” notes David Kerridge, the British Geological Survey’s head of natural hazards, who studies earthquakes. “It’s interesting, but it has no particular consequence on anything.”