Conservative Case For Health Care Reform

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Hard to focus on our health care squabbles, what with Haiti’s health crisis looming so large, but for those unafraid of graphs and not intimidated by number-based facts, this chart tells me everything I need to know. The most salient fact for me, though, is that in our neighbor to the south, the annual per capita cost for health care is just over $800. Per year. Their life expectancy is not much less than their neighbor to the north – the good ol’ USA – but our cost per capita is nearly ten times that.

The rest of the chart lays out the overwhelming reality that we COULD, if we had the will, get pretty much the same life expectancy outcome for less than half the dough.

It is part of a case – an austere, conservative case – that ought to be made with clarity by health care reformers. And if we, collectively, kill reform, then it is because we’ve been convinced by propagandists hired by the insurance industry to vote against our own interests in favor of theirs.

“Reportage”

Premiering next Tuesday Jan 19, 9 p.m. on Western Reserve Public Media – Doris O’Donnell’s Cleveland episode #110: “Reportage” – Four veteran reporters from Cleveland’s golden age of print kick it old skool.

Featured players are Don Bean, Wally Gunther, Robert Finn and Russ Musarra, all journalists that reported on Cleveland back when three newspapers met multiple daily deadlines and the ‘scoop’ was currency of the realm. Bob Finn was a critic, if anyone cares to quibble – but all fine practitioners of the scribe’s craft.

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“Complications”

There is no way to tell this tale without appearing melodramatic or cliché. But tell I must.

My wife, Amy, went into surgery on January 7 for the routine removal of a branchial cleft cyst under the surface of the skin, on the right side of her throat.  In by seven, a tiny incision, out by eleven, they estimated.  I was able to tend to the kids and work at home, a phone call away from picking her up, getting a pain prescription filled and trundling her off to home and bed, according to Plan A.

Knowing how doctors and hospitals take their own sweet time about things – which I do not mind, quite like the ground mechanics that take whatever time they need to fix my plane before takeoff – it wasn’t until two o’clock that afternoon that I began to wonder whaddup.  Minutes later Amy called, sounding groggy, saying they needed to keep her for a bit longer, that there were “complications.”

‘K.

Arriving just after four, and shuttled into the recovery room, Amy appeared as expected:  pale, drawn and nauseous from the morphine.  While they prepared and dressed her, the recovery nurse, when asked about the “complications,” said the doctor will go over that tomorrow at Amy’s follow up appointment.  So far, so good.  Got her home and tucked in with Lord of the Rings playing softly as she drifted back to sleep, safe and sound at home.

End of scene? Hardly.  Let me introduce Plan B at this point.

As I drove to the pharmacy for the 50-pack of Vicodin, my mobile rang – it was the doctor who performed the surgery, asking how Amy was.  Fine, I said, considering that someone had recently gone after her with a sharp blade. [crickets].  Ignoring my nervous one-liner, he spoke of complications, that the cyst tissue had been intertwined with that of the surface of the jugular vein.  And that as he proceeded with excising the cyst, the jugular gave way.  Massive loss of blood, a huge challenge, lots of excitement in the OR.  Almost lost her on the table.

I’m not always so quick to process information.  I was in shock, and could hear the strain in the doctor’s voice.  An Ears, Nose & Throat physician and surgeon, he knew that vascular catastrophe was not his specialty.  He also happened to know that, as luck would have it, there was a vascular specialist in locus at Lakewood Hospital.

Not seeing how much damage occurred – was it a split, a tear, a hole? – he opened the incision a couple more inches, suctioned all the blood away, clamped the vein and rushed the specialist into the OR, who sutured what turned out to be a hole a few millimeters wide – rather enough, in this highly pressurized vein, to create a bloodbath for those standing nearby.

Surely a tale of heroic measures taken to save my beloved wife, the mother of our two children.  But the potential for an accidental and grievous loss in our family is still sinking into both of us. The ”event,” as the doctor called it, eschewing the term “complications,” has left me filled with love, with a refreshed sense of priorities, a growing mystical appreciation for prayer – both spoken by me and offered up by others on Amy’s behalf – and as an even bigger fan than I already was of the study and practice of medical science that granted these two men the skill sets that saved Amy’s exceedingly precious life.

…’Cause Jam Don’t Shake Like That

No small wonder that it took so long for them to evolve into more sophisticated Jell-o consumers.

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They Report, You Decide… To Mock Them

MSNBC reports, via AP, that Rick Warren’s offering plate is a little light this Christmas:

“the bottom dropped out” when Christmas donations dropped. “On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive — leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year,”

according to a letter the church sent out.

The AP/MSNBC reporters flail about for an explanation: the recession? Sure; that was a toughie. Sun will rise in the east tomorrow, too.

The story mentions Warren’s comments around CA Prop 8 last year, which excluded gays from the same rights heterosexuals have. Warren for that, in case you wondered. But the story did not suggest that Warren’s stance hurt giving – you’d think gay hate amongst fundies would drive up donations.

The story also points out that Warren has been into African humanitarian efforts, which may well be laudable, were it not for fundies, including Warren, fostering the “Kill the Gay” laws oozing up through Uganda. “Liberal” MSNBC fails to mention a word of that.

Not sure why this support for these laws would affect giving adversely, because Jesus wants us to hate The Gay, right?So draconian are they that even Warren is backing away, but these Ugandan laws are monsters that belong to the American fundamentalist Right Wing. We can thank The Family for that. Own it, you rank hypocrites, the blood will be on your hands.

Sho Shad

See – libruls were warned and we did nothing to stop it: just the desire for gay marriage alone, not the act itself, is destroying wonderful ‘straight’ marriage in a wide and depressing swath across the nation.

The latest sad tale involves Karl Rove and his second traditional marriage. The man fought the good fight, did everything right, and still, his forbidden love for Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert that dare not speak its name has finally won out.

Declaring  their time together during many, many White House sleepovers as a big rainbow of a mistake, Karl contented himself with stroking his beard, so to speak, and preaching to the masses about threats to marriage in general.

Turns out that, in a vehwee shad development, Karl was talking about his own marriage in particular, with, no doubt, more gay-driven divorces to follow for him and others.

Jimmy Jeff: be afraid no longer. Karl needs to hear from you. Heaven is just a phone call away!

The Kiss Of Near-Death

The Underpants Bomber, it seems, was directed to scorch his genitals by two al Qaeda leaders who used to reside at Guantanamo prison. ABC reports:

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

So – it must be President Obama’s fault. Typical liberal – give ‘em art, that’ll solve everything…

…what? The Bush administration released these guys in 2007? To the Saudis? Oh, the Saudis, with whom W likes to suck face? Saudis, who made up fifteen of the ninteen 9/11 hijackers? Those Saudis?

Okay, then it’s alright, never mind.

But My Car’s Protected!

How, I ask, is universal health care different from no-fault automobile insurance?

Used to be the courts were clogged with crash cases until “Society” (the Minnesota legislature) said we must mandate that every driver – under penalty of law – purchase car insurance. Coverage extended to both the body of the car and… OH, NO!!! the bodies of the driver and passengers. So they can go to the hospital without worry about being covered. And get better. And not lose their homes. Or afford raised insurance rates. Or get dropped from their health insurance.

I did not see anybody (read: Republicans) complaining to any degree whatsoever about this policy then, or now.

Perhaps the difference resides in the concept of time. A traffic accident happens in an instant, while people get sick, generally, over a period of time. I don’t know, I’m reaching, probably. Just can’t get into the authoritarian mind.

But what is the danged difference!?

We pay our car premiums, and can rest assured in our coverage. We pay taxes and are ensured that we’ll be covered by police officers and fire fighters.

But if our body goes up in flames, Republicans think we should have wholly inadequate coverage, believing as they do that things, like houses and cars, are more important than people. ‘K then!

Off With Her Head!!!

Someone is wandering way, way off the reservation. Commence résumé brushing:

I am one of the people who believe that health care is a right and not a privilege. I believe that the only way Americans can compete on the world market is to offer what other Westernized countries offer; free and accessible health care.

This from a Fox News Contributor; if her checks don’t dry up, does that signal that sanity is about to become tolerated by the Fair & Balanced™ set? Or will there be a purity purge?

Smart money’s on purge.

Life Before Google

Here’s something about nothing:

I started my own production company in the steam-powered video machine days, c.1983.  Called it Omni Video Productions, so-named, brothers & sisters, because I would do any video project Central Minnesota could hand me.

No, never that kind of video. Meh.

But right away I heard from a then-newfangled video rental store in Minneapolis that perhaps I was stepping a bit on their name – Omni Video – and would I kindly stop using it, and if not, how about some court action? Always up for a little action in those days, I responded to their offer, and managed to convince them that my business venture was different enough, under Minnesota statute, from video rentals to not constitute infringement. A distracting hassle, but resolved.

So where am I going with this? Two directions at once:

First, the mere existence of Google at the time would’ve saved me all the hassle, and told me the various flavors and combos omni, video and productions would come in, in a DBA sense, across the entire world, let alone Minnesota. I wasn’t aware of any other OVP companies back then, but Google and YouTube reveal multiple companies both past and present with the OVP name.

Second, because I folded the company shortly after I moved to Cleveland in 1996, when a web site was whah? huh?, any sort of reference to my OVP does not exist, and if it does not exist on a Google search… did it ever really?

Time to build a web shrine to it.

Huge Republican Fail

It looks a little funky, and we will serve it up no matter what the anti-health people say.

And I’m not talking green bean casserole.

While I am pleased that we’ve cleared another mountain ridge in this climb toward universal healthcare – yes, we must now prove conclusively that private insurance companies cannot deliver health care efficaciously – my first reaction is not an extreme one of irrational joy or jaded tea bag cynicism.

It’s:  about time, putzes, that you pass legislation that finally catches  us up with the rest of the modern world.

You Say You Want An Evolution

Even though a strong conservative case can be made in favor of universal healthcare – conserves health, less time off sick, unburdens employers from the cost of healthcare, Jesus would approve, etc.  - I won’t bother enumerating all of them for the disloyal opposition, hopelessly lost as they are in the throes of an elixir called NOBAMA.

But I will address my fellow traveller – the frustrated Progressive who is throwing Democrats under the bus because he didn’t get his Magical Unicorn. (Talkin’ ’bout you, Thom Hartmann!)

Let me remind Mr & Mrs Progressive, True Believers to be sure, that within the broad sweep of history, sustainable progressive movements, in the USA at least, are not born of revolution. Beloved programs like Social Security and Medicare evolved into full blown success from their weak-tea origins.

The same will happen should healthcare reform make it out of conference.

Smaller & Smaller

What with the Huckster comparing Sen. Ben Nelson to Judas, may I – pretty please – then compare Ol’ Huck to the very small object in Matthew 7:1-5?

I’m not calling The Huckster a hypocrite, oh dear no – that would be judgmental. He barely qualifies as a mote.

It’s All In A Name

Alrighty, then! A pleasant break, all the better to wade into the fever swamp of the teabagger set, and their sundry cohorts and fellow travellers.

Right Wing Watch pulls up the first inklings of people on the Right in the midst of  a diaspora, running like the dickens from their own one-time self descriptions:

[S]everal politically conservative evangelicals said in interviews that they do not want to be identified with the “Religious Right,” “Christian Right,” “Moral Majority,” or other phrases still thrown around in journalism and academia.

“There is an ongoing battle for the vocabulary of our debate,” said Gary Bauer, president of American Values. “It amazes me how often in public discourse really pejorative phrases are used, like the ‘American Taliban,’ ‘fundamentalists,’ ‘Christian fascists,’ and ‘extreme Religious Right.’ “

…

Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations for Focus on the Family, said that when writers include terms like “Religious Right” and “fundamentalist,” they can create negative impressions.

“Terms like ‘Religious Right’ have been traditionally used in a pejorative way to suggest extremism,” Schneeberger said. “The phrase ‘socially conservative evangelicals’ is not very exciting, but that’s certainly the way to do it.”

…

[M]any groups would rather distance themselves from the Religious Right, even though they may agree on several political issues. Richard Land said he corrects numerous reporters who call him a leader of the Religious Right, explaining that he represents a group of Southern Baptists who would probably consider themselves conservative evangelicals.

“When the so-called ‘Religious Right’ agrees with us, we applaud their good taste and good judgment,” said Land, who is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention. Some phrases need to be eliminated from journalists’ vocabulary entirely, he said. “Until Tony Perkins or Jim Dobson puts a pistol on the table and threatens to kill someone, they shouldn’t be called ayatollah of the Right or the Jihadists of the Right.”

…

Organizational leaders like Tony Perkins of Family Research Council want a term that includes other religious groups like Catholics, Jews, and Mormons so that they can see themselves as fighting for the same cause.

“It’s not accurate to say that the Christian Right or the Religious Right is simply a narrow slice of evangelicals,” Perkins said. “Will everyone identify themselves as part of the Religious Right? No, but they do share a portion of values.”

This is crackin’ good fun – the whiny pleadings are hilarious, particularly because so many Righties clung to the word ‘right,” in all its forms, to imply they were correct about everything, that God is  a Republican.

Maybe He is. But Jesus is a librul.

Hooked On Numerics

Guess it’s not just me:

…the network reported that a vast majority of Americans — 94 percent — believe that climate scientists have falsified research into global warming (see picture below). The only problem is, according to Fox’s poll graphic, the total number of participants in the poll adds up to 120 percent.

reports Raw Story.

Fox reveals not only its bought-and-paid-for stances on climate catastrophe – duh, doesn’t exist – it also reveals its apparent lack of confidence in math basics. Because math is hard, I suppose.

We Got That B-Roll!

On the surface, this is pretty funny. But for someone like myself in the biz, and by ‘the biz’ I mean ‘the industry,’ this is fall-on-the-floor funny.

Thanks Facebook chum Michael!

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Chickenpox for Christmas

This kid is not to be misunderestimated

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Cry Me A River

From Politico:

…Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.

Ticked, they are, at the schmucks my homeboy Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) made out of 30 Republicans who voted, basically, in favor of rape.

The Young Turk delivers a smackdown to the Republican Old Guard and they cry “foul.” Foul, as in feeling violated, feeling abused, hurt and taken advantage of.

Which is what I thought they were in favor of.

Quit your whining; just be glad Sen. Franken didn’t lock you  in a storage container, too.

What About Priests Who Got Teh Gay?

“Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the kingdom of heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul,” the cardinal said, in comments reported by the Ansa news agency.

Thus sayeth Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, quoting the ultimate authority of Minneapolis’ twin city, apparently – and in the process condemning a whole bunch of priests.

What did Christ say about homosexuality? Zip, zero, nada, nunca. You’d think He might’ve mentioned it if it were so important. He had a few words, however, about judgmental hypocrites awash in cash and the love of money. Look it up yourself, if you managed to forget.

Hey – cardinal, father, minister, whatever, here’s the deal: I don’t listen to you. I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t need you to interpret Christ. I listen to Christ and Christ only. I am a Christian, not a Barraganian, or a Fallwellian, a Robertsonite or a Warrenite, false prophets corrupted by money, one & all.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Mohandas Gandhi