Politics

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Did I Watch the 2016 State of the Union?

Yes.  Yes I did.

And the irony is that I would not consider myself politically obsessed.  I have friends that are.  Friends that are married to people that are.  Friends that have no idea I have voted for a Democrat, or they’d disown me.  Friends that have no idea members of my family have been elected to office to hold a Republican seat, or they’d never speak to me again.

Case in point:  My first thought watching the preamble mumbo jumbo tonight was that they had yet to show a man wearing something other than a red tie.  So then of course I became obsessed in trying to find one.

And then of course the President himself appears and was not, and the red tie obsession came to an end.

So here are my thoughts as they came to me watching the SotU: Continue reading →

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When health care gets personal

Two things have happened in the last week that make me wonder how we got here.  I’m sitting here, typing away, and retyping every few keystrokes as my persistent, hacking cough overwhelms me and causes me to type on the wrong keys while I quickly try and cover my mouth.  Sounds attractive, right? Yet I can’t go to the doctor.  I am unemployed, and while I have health insurance it’s not the greatest plan in the world.  I only get to go to the doctor three times a year before I start paying out the wazoo for my visits.  I’ve already been to the dentist, have to have an annual checkup later in the year, which leaves me exactly one doctor’s visit to use at my discretion–in the next 48 weeks.

So is my hacking cough bad enough to go to the doctor now?  What if I get appendicitis? What if I break my wrist?  Then I’m up a creek later in the year because I don’t have the finances to cover a visit.  Sure, I could go to someplace like the Fan Free Clinic, which is a cause I support financially when I am able.  Or I could go to a Doc-in-a-Box where they are required to give you a prescription regardless of condition when you walk in, thereby incurring additional costs that I can’t cover.  It’s a vicious circle.

How did we get here?  Continue reading →

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President Obama’s Schoolkids speech, part two

This from a post in USAToday entitled What if President Obama comes over like Mr. Rogers.  (It’s the last few lines that I am quoting here.):

What if Obama, no matter how innocuous his text, conveys Rogers'”Be my friend” aura?

What if he delivers a vaguely positive empowerment message like mega-church pastor Rev. Joel “never-say-sin” Osteen?

WHAT IF … your kids just like their president?

And that, my friends, is the real problem.  Heaven help you if you are one of them.

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I don’t understand what the uproar was about

President Obama and Secretary Duncan talk with 9th graders at Wakefield High School. White House Photo, Pete Souza, 9/8/09

President Obama and Secretary Duncan talk with 9th graders at Wakefield High School. White House Photo, Pete Souza, 9/8/09

For weeks people have been going nuts about President Obama’s speech to all schoolchildren on September 8.  For many, they had been in school for a few weeks.  Where I live, it was the first day.  I don’t understand the uproar.  Carter did it, Clinton did it, Reagan did it . . . now Obama is doing it.  Big deal.  When I was a kid if the President came on the TV, you listened.  The teachers were annoyed that they had to stop teaching and interrupt their curriculum, but they did so because it was the President of the United States.  You respect the President of the United States, and gosh darn it you would shut up and pay attention in class and listen to what he says.  Those sadistic teachers would even give you a quiz on it at the end of the week.

The county in which I live chose not to air the speech on Tuesday but instead aired it today, Friday.  Still the first week of school.  The President made the text of his speech available ahead of time because of the parental uproar, which personally I think is absurd but hey it actually changed the mind of a few people in favor of letting their children watch the speech.  I love this quote from Steve Benen, a journalist for the Washington Monthly.  He said, quoting Michelle Cottle, “Obama is the leader of this entire nation. It doesn’t matter if you voted for him — or even if your head threatens to explode every time you think about him. He is the president, and, as such, it’s a big deal that he’s speaking directly to students about the importance of education.”  That, in a nutshell, cracked me up.  So appropriate to the truth of what is going on.

When the speech aired on Tuesday, my local stations only carried the first few minutes of it.  During those first few minutes I was impressed.  The president talked about his schooling, how he didn’t like it much either and his mom made him get up early for extra lessons because the education where he lived was sub-par.  Encouraged people to stay in school because they might discover they have a talent for writing or for science which could lead to a Pulitzer Prize or a cure for AIDS.

Honestly, people, what is the problem with such a statement??? Continue reading →