health care..!

It's been quite a while since I last posted, and I'm back with a rant.

It seems like the nation is stuck in a rut. Congress can't settle on a healthcare bill that gives everyone (read: the insurance co.'s) what they want. Citizens are crying about "socialism" and "death panels" and other such red herrings.

And what do I think about it all? Well, I'm leaning past the left towards anarchy or revolution as the only solution to this madness.

I for one have never understood what the big deal about socialism is. I think that really, it's a combination of greed and ignorance that drives the fear. Because we already have several forms of "socialism" in place, and nobody bitches about public parks or fire trucks or busses or much needed (albeit inconvenient) highway maintenance. OR MEDICARE. Who pays for that? The government? And where do they get their money (this is the $1M question, folks)? TAXES! SOCIALISM! Sure, some bad things have been done in the name of communism over in China and USSR, but PEOPLE-- it's FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!

And the main reason people are opposed to it is either that they think that it will cost too much or that there will be some immaculate panel that determines who is fit to be a part of functioning society. Both of these assumptions are the result of misinformation spread by (presumably) the insurance companies (who are making a killing) and their lackeys. But furthermore it shows how little trust the american people have left in our government.

Seriously, these are BIG, legit fears. I mean hell, I don't want the government taking more of my money to fund some half-baked plan of theirs to "bail out" Wall Street. So by the same vein I can understand healthy non-smoking people not wanting the government taking their money to "bail out" someone with emphysema. And for sure, almost all of us have an elderly relative in assisted living or permanent healthcare etc., and we'd all sure hate to loose Nana or PepPep because the government's own Simon Cowell said so. And no doubt, all the smokers and alcoholics are shaking in their boots for fear they get a collapsed lung or something and are turned away because their own bad habits brought them to the ER.

But where can we draw the line? How can we make our government (and ourselves) accountable? To me, the obvious solution is a "fat tax" funding the new health care system. A higher (way high) sales tax on fatty and sugary foods, alcohol and tobacco. (And then, since we're on a roll, why don't we legalize the cultivation of cannabis, legalize and tax marijuana and use the revenue to fund our new GREEN *cough cough* hemp energy economy!) (And on that note, I'll bet if medical marijuana WERE to be legal, and we could all freely self medicate, the sleeping, anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant pill manufacturers would go out of business! (along with those for glaucoma, seizures and everything else it's legally prescribable for)).

The life expectancy in America is 78.11 years, which doesn't seem too shabby, but we're #50 when all the countries are compared. (Canada is #8 at 81.23 years. Even with grizzly bears, moose, and lumberjacks felling trees. Hmmm.) Check out this page for some stats on just how bad America's health is (survey is a little outdated: 1992. But the point still stands)

oh, PUH-LEEZE!

Our dearly beloved (former) governor Blago wants to go on a reality TV show instead of prison. The TV show is a sort of celebrity "Survivor" where famous people live in the jungle and complete challenges to raise money for charity. He's already got a contract with the network (NBC) and is just waiting for the court to OK it.

Not that you care, but...

The Hubble Space Telescope has been around a long time, taking pictures of the visible universe. One advantage of this is that when something happens, such as a supernova, scientists can go back through archival data and study the star before it exploded. Recently, such an event has happened, and as it turns out, astronomers may have to completely revise their theories of stellar evolution.
Stuff like this makes me somewhat giddy, because it reminds us that theories are often imperfect, and that there's SO SO SO MUCH we still dont know =)

The supernova occurred in a distant galaxy, but there is a similar star in our own Milky Way, called Eta Carinae which could explode in a hypernova.. a million, a thousand, a hundred.. years down the road. At this point it's pretty hard to tell. It would seem that this star is too far away to affect us should it explode, but we would DEFINITELY see it from earth (in the 1800's it was the 2nd brightest star in the sky after Sirius).

Apocalypse now

Wes and I discuss current events from time to time. One concern I've voiced recently is the possible government takeover of credit. Given the current situation, it's not at all unlikely, and if it does happen, it is the Mark of the Beast.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the book of Revelation in the Bible, one HUGE sign of the apocalypse is this mark of the beast thingy. Basically "the devil" takes over and assigns everyone a number, and without this number you cannot travel or trade. Some people were calling the "national ID card" the mark, but your purchasing power is not limited by the ID card. It would be by a government credit card.

Now I know some of you are saying "Oh man, she's gone Christian on us!" But that's not anymore true than saying that I've gone Mayan and started sacrificing people. I do still view the bible as largely fairy tales and parables. After all, Revelation is presented as a dream, full of imagery and metaphors.
And even as Wes and I talk with certainty about the coming end times, we remain calm, almost observant. This whole sequence of events seems very alien, barely reaching our lives. I mentioned to a coworker that aside from my sliding "college savings account" I don't even notice a recession. Shit, have you seen gas prices? They're freakin awesome.

Edit:
Actually, I just remembered how we got on this topic. I was thinking about how the government is printing way too much money and it's leading to inflation. So I proposed we burn massive amounts of cash to increase the value of the dollar. However I soon realized the possible worst-case-scenario of civil war over cash supply, at which point the government would step in and nationalize credit, leading to (BUM BUM BUMMMM..) the mark of the beast.

YouTube conspiracy theorists... sigh..

YouTube has both its merits and its drawbacks. In line with the wonders of the internet, anyone can post anything they want! This is obviously two sided...

anyway, kids on youtube are claiming you can see Nibiru or our sister star or w/e if you take pictures of the sun. SOME are mildly convincing.. But then I had a thought... Venus. Venus is near the sun this time of year. Fucking Venus.

Anyway, I took some pictures for myself this morning.. turned up nothing but the sun. Maybe a UFO but that very well could have been a speck of dirt on my windsheild (I was driving. Taking pictures of the sun while driving! Yes!)

So I guess I'll just do that till the sensor in my camera is fried. lol. Anyway, I won't post ANY pictures unless It is beyond a reasonable doubt that I have two suns or a UFO.


BUT here's the thing.. Previous Nibiru vids said we'd be able to see it in the southern hemisphere in 2009. And now.. January 1st all of the sudden people are like "OMG NIBIRU THE PROPHESY IS TRUUUUUU" Well if you knew anything about astronomy you'd realise it's probably Venus. Seriously "Mystery planet"? Barf. (err scratch my "venus" theory. You can't see it in the morning for another month or so-ish. But they'll be filming it when they can!)