Kingly proclamations

Representative King proclaimed loudly on the House floor that all Americans have health care.

On other occasions, various speakers have proclaimed that Americans have the best health care in the world.

I'd like to put those two together into a single statement: "All Americans have the best health care in the world".  A statement that is blatantly, obviously, and demonstrably false.

For too many Americans, health care consists of dying.  Or waiting until they are sick enough that the emergency room will treat them before asking if they have insurance.  Or not buying some other necessity to pay an exorbitant health care bill, a bill with a bottom line 50%, 100% or 200% more expensive than the corresponding bottom line to an insured person.  Or, even if insured, facing "co-pays" in the hundreds, thousands, tens or occasionally even hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Yes, there are Americans with access to world class health care, just as there are individuals in most other developed nations with similar access.  The difference here, it seems to me, is that those with true, affordable access are in the upper echelon, those with some access, somewhat affordable gets us to about 80%, and then there's a huge segment of the "just don't get sick" population.

Civilized countries do not do this.  Let's become a civilized country!

Yours, unsatisfied with the compromise, but thinking it better than the status quo,
N.

Finally

Finally, it appears that the children have started to recover.  Which means that they were both bouncing off the walls today!

Yours, relieved to have a light at the end of that particular tunnel,
N.

Origami at the school

This evening I spent a while at the kids' school: it was "parent power" night (i.e. the evening the school tries to get parents and kids to come to the school in the hopes of getting the mums and dads more involved in their children's education: a good thing, by and large) and the art teacher had asked me if I would help out.  Even though Boo and Skibo couldn't make it (nor, being at home looking after them, could LOML) I said I was happy to help out.

I was expecting ten or fifteen people per session, four fifteen minute sessions, and was nervous: I had been asked to teach some origami, and I didn't know what the skill set would be, how engaged the students (or their parents) would be, whether I could teach that many, etc.

The first session, there were about twenty people: it went quite well, and everyone successfully folded a simple house, then converted it to a piano (which I always call a bench now, since it looks more like that to everyone to whom I teach it).  The next session, three children, plus parents showed up, and I decided the initial rush was over.  Again success.

Boy, was I wrong about the initial rush!  The third session packed out: standing room only, probably between fifty and a hundred people in the room, and yet, amazingly, everyone was able to fold successfully: some on tables, some on laps, some standing up!

The final session was less crowded, but still twenty or more people.  And still successful.

Yours, glad about how the session went,
N.

ACTA

I'm very distressed by this.  And not least because it appears to be being negotiated in secret, is a draconian, authoritarian solution to a problem which is much less serious than the proposed solution, and smacks of something the Bush administration would have done.
Oh.  It is something the Bush administration did.  Exactly why is the Obama administration following on with this policy?

Yours, distressed,
N.

Christmas???

I just saw my first Christmas commercial of the year.  It's November 3rd.  This is just ridiculous!

Yours, driving a humbuggy,
N.

Still two down

Two sick children still.  Boo's seeming on the mend, Skibo's relapsed: LOML took them both to see the doctor, and came back with ten days of antibiotics for Skibo --- he has a raging ear infection --- and reassured that Boo seems to be getting better.

LOML and I are still not showing symptoms, yet.

And today is election day, so I'm poring over returns on races from Maine, New Jersey and New York.

Yours, worried parent, electoral junkie,
N.

Midnight apprehension

In the middle of the night, Boo, sleeping with me while LOML was sleeping with Skibo, woke to hear Skibo's awful coughing: she sagely informed me
I'm apprehensive about Skibo's coughing.
Pause.
Apprehensive means I'm nervous.  I learned that from the Upside Down show. 
After another pause, she proceeded to tell me that she was apprehensive that LOML would get Skibo's cough. And then a pause.
I'm apprehensive that you'll get Skibo's cough.
Another pause.
I'm apprehensive that I'll get Skibo's cough.


I don't know which thrills me more: how wonderfully her sense of the language is developing, or how sensitive she is to others.

Yours, parentally proud,
N.

Another day, two sick children

We thought that Skibo was better this morning: he was up and bouncy and alert and not coughing as I left for work.  Boo was still asleep, and we were expecting the worst.
For much of the day it held true, though Boo's fever dropped quite a bit by the end of the day: but then Skibo's cough came back, and stayed back.  So now we're snatching early sleep, in case one or other of us (probably LOML) ends up lying down next to Skibo to calm his cough.  Boo's in bed with us, which makes it not a bit easier to sleep.  But such is parenthood:-)

Yours, cursing the flying pigs,
N.

Two sick little bundles of misery

Skibo is sick.  Feverish, coughing up his little lungs, and miserable.  Boo is not as badly off, but this, I suspect is just indicative of her being a day or two behind him.  And of course, LOML and I are likely to fall victim too, I assume.
I'm hoping that it will be short, and that we will all recover quickly.

Yours, feeling sorry for the little ones,
N.

Health care

I'm guessing that some version of expanded health care is going to pass this year: things look pretty good for it.  But I'm also suspecting that the insurance industry is -- right now -- playing Brer Rabbit: "Please don't set up a public option that nobody can buy into unless they don't have coverage!"  
What better way is there for them to divest themselves of the contracts to provide coverage to those who might actually need it: they can now jack up the prices on the expensive, so that they can't afford private coverage (or their employers can't) at which point they move from the bottom line of the WellpointBCBS folks to the insured by the grace of semi-decent legislation.

I want to see the next round of this legislation.  I want to see the insurance companies forced to get rid of exclusionary practices: I want to see them forced to compete, not to increase fees at rates that look like credit card companies...

I'd better stop --- or I'll be forced to write a post about credit card companies too.

Yours, seriously pissed at the industry, the legislation, etc.
N.

Fever

Baking bread was made easier to schedule through the day --- but unfortunately it was because I didn't really go anywhere.  Skibo woke up with a fever: he'd been coughing yesterday, and today it was worse.  We're hoping that it is not the flu: the fever was high briefly, but dropped enough that we are only worried and concerned, for now.



I assume that if it is flu, swine or otherwise, the rest of us will come down with it. 

Yours, not looking forward to that,
N.

What happens?

What happens if, in the next few weeks, there is no agreement on healthcare in the senate and the house?  If the filibuster holds?  Of more interest to me: if the bill is watered down enough, will the left in the house (or the senate) vote against the bill?  With almost every republican opposed, progressives could make it die.
Could we then bring up a new health bill next term, with single payer, or a medicare+5 solution?  Could it pass?  Could it be implemented even sooner than the five+ year plans currently on the table?

I'm beginning to think that if Lieberduck makes too much of a fuss about this bill we should just cut him off at the debate, switch to a new bill, write it for reconciliation, and be done with him.

Yours, Lieberdogged out,
N.

Allsorts of Humbugs

After a week of baking inaction, as opposed to "in action", I finally pulled the starter from the fridge this morning.  And this afternoon I fed it --- it's recovering nicely, and tomorrow I can make bread.

I will, of course, have to fit it around going to Skibo's class Hallowe'en party in the morning, coming back here through football traffic (you haven't experienced football traffic until you've lived in a town which quadruples its population when the stadium is half full: and I mean that literally) and then going to a Hallowe'en birthday party for M, one of Boo and Skibo's best friends: then braving outgoing football traffic on the way back so that Boo and Skibo can trick or treat in the neighbourhood.

Even though it's the wrong season, I'm channelling Scrooge!

Yours, kneading to say "Bah! Humbug!"
N.

Time is going too fast

I remember when I was a child, my mother and father would tell me how much faster time passes when you are older. I believed them, of course (don't all children believe what they are told by by their parents?) but at the same time, I didn't understand.

Now I understand. And even though I'm counting down the days until this semester is over, the grades are all in, and we can fly, I know that it will be here in a blink of an eye --- and there is much to be done in between.

Next semester, I hope, is going to be a rather quieter time. Until it happens, and I over-commit again.

Yours, remembering back to the endless summers,
N.