RIP Michael Jackson

When I was a pre-teen, Michael Jackson was my hero. I loved the Thriller album and would play the record over and over. Our stereo was in the living room, so I'd lay on the floor with my headset on listening to it. Back in those days, it was a big clunky headset. I collected the Michael Jackson dolls with the glove and everything.

His life is a tragedy. It started by being abused by his father and his whole life was dampened by that. It must be so much easier to medicate your emotional and physical pain rather than dealing with it head on. He was never able to just be a kid and enjoy the normal things that kids do.

Such a talented man. If he had been able to lay off the drugs, who knows what he could have accomplished. Such a short, strange life. But his music will live on. He was someone that was able to bring all sorts of people together with his music.

He was devoted father by all accounts. What will his children do now? He is all that they have known. He was a brother and son that will be missed by his family and various friends. I hope that he is able to have some peace now and be free from all the pain.

My thoughts on political infidelity

I could really care less if a politician is unfaithful. I said this very thing about Clinton. If he gets a blow job in the oval office, I could care less. I didn't get riled up when the Republican politicians did either.

What does dance on my last nerve is when a politican has an affair....after having criticized and chastised others for having an affair.... called for said politician to resign.... and yet has no intention of resigning themselves.

This has been the case with Ensign and Sanford. They were very vocal of both Republicans and Democrats who have been caught in an affair and called for the resignation of them (Bill Clinton and Larry Craig in particular.).. and now they expect to keep their jobs and be forgiven. Ensign and Sanford have some questionable things as far as using money that wasn't theirs to either perpetuate the affair or cover it up.

Cheaper is not always better....

When you get a bid on getting your roof replaced (for an example) and you get 3 different bids. Do you pick the cheapest one out there?

When you go grocery shopping, do you fore go name brands and always buy the cheapest thing there is?

When you buy a new car do you forget personal preference/need or performance ratings and buy the cheapest thing on the lot?

I'm going to venture a guess and say no, you do not always buy what's cheapest....

So why do the Republicans feel that we need to always settle for what's cheap? They have a new health care proposal that they are touting as cheaper than the President's plan. So, what? That doesn't make it the plan that will suit the needs of the American people. Consumers are willing to pay for quality. So, why can't we get a quality health care plan that meets our needs, even if we have to pay a little more for it? I think any individual would be willing to pay higher taxes for quality. And I shouldn't just say "higher taxes" because that sounds overwhelming. The thing is that most times, it doesn't really amount to all that much more when it comes down to it.

Let's be clear about rationing of healthcare...

Ooooooh, that scary word... "rationing". The fear that the anti health reform groups are trying to make us all feel.

I think most individuals that look at papers from the insurance company realize that rationing already takes place.

1. Insurance companies deny covered procedures, tests, surgeries all the time. They make the decision on what is covered. It might be something that you read is covered, but if the insurance company decides that it isn't... you get to foot the entire bill.

2. You hear about how Medicare/Medicaid reimburse for procedures at under the market cost. So do insurance companies. Most times, they pay only 40-50% of what the doctor bills them. That either leads to the doctors needing to see more patients to make up the costs, or billing artificially high amounts to get what they deserve.

Insurance companies set the rules right now. We need a public health care option that gives them some competition. The consumer gets the choice. They can go with the public plan, or pick a private insurance company. The gov't isn't going to force you into anything either way.

We need to allow people to have regular checkups. Preventive medicine needs to be in the forefront. There is no better cost savings than prevention. We need for people to be able to get affordable health insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. It's not fair for someone to have had bad luck and then not be able to get insurance. Pregnancy is a pre-existing condition as well.

Don't fall for it people. They are counting on the fact that you may not know much about how the health care system works. As someone who works in it, I can tell you that we NEED this public plan. Please call your Senators and tell them that we need it.

You can't have it both ways.

The other night I heard Sarah Palin say on an interview that she is concerned about the government getting into businesses and taking them over and controlling the people. She has made many comments about her own freedom of speech being stifled.

So... Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing when you are doing the talking. When you have to do the listening and hear some not so pleasant things about your family... Well, then... that person shouldn't have the same rights. David Letterman shouldn't have a show to say these awful, horrible things, etc.

While, I don't think his top 10 list was very funny.... (I would prefer that Palin just Go away)... He is a comedian, a late night talk show host... He has the same freedoms of speech as Palin does.

But let's really get to the heart of this. Freedom of Speech. I think there is a difference between Speech and Hate Speech. There is a lot of sneakiness going on out there these days to incite hatred towards certain groups of people. And while, the average, sane person won't respond violently to it... there are people that will. And perhaps those with a public mic should really think about the things they are saying before they say it. It might benefit them for a couple of minutes, but can cause some real, long term damage to others.

We need to start embracing what makes us different, rather than using it as cheap, talking points.

R.I.P to a hero to the Pro-choice movement

I've had to take a day to figure out what I wanted to say about this.

First of all, this man knew the risks everyday to his life to be an abortion provider, yet he felt that it was something that he needed to do. Abortion is after all legal in this country, despite how some people feel about this. It is a medical necessity in some cases. Most of the controversial late-term abortions are done when there is risk of harm to the mother, or the fetus is having serious trouble. If there are fewer doctors to provide these LEGAL services, then there could be more deaths for mothers, whose hearts ache at the thought of proceeding with it.

And forgive me if I sound insensitive to religion here. I take all kinds of crap for being an atheist.. but what kind of Christian... goes into this man's church.... where he is serving God... and guns him down in front of the segregation??? Please someone explain this to me.

I wrote a post about Pro-life that you can read here... and I still stand by my thoughts. How can you be so worried about lives that haven't been born, but not about the ones that are living like abortion providers and mothers whose lives are at risk? It is completely hypocritical sounding to me.