Not much...

Nothing terribly exciting personally speaking. Things have been quiet since the Chris Isaak concert really.

JP and I did go see District 9 and I can't recommend it high enough. The cast is amazing especially considering that the majority of the lines are improvised. Yeah it's not just an alien movie, it shows how horrible people can be to "the other" whatever that might be.

JP is off to possibly the last Austin golf weekend. The social dynamic has been changing for a couple of years now, but the last full year especially. It's not just people moving to other countries for their careers, but I think the loss of Ian from his fight with cancer sent some of the more... less emotionally strong/grown up/developed individuals down an A-hole spiral of Me-me-ness. Sad.

I also came across this link this morning. I don't have an opinion about Frank one way or the other, but it was nice to see an elected offical stand up to this. I wasn't the best student in high school, I tended not to pay attention and skate by but I'm pretty sure these people throwing around the word "nazi" to describe in a blanket statement a complicated policy is being used wrong. Obvs they paid less attention in history class than me, and they don't know where "nazi/facsim" falls on that political spectrum chart we had to learn back in the day or what their policies/ideaologies really stood for.

And don't get me started on the whole "Death Panel" scare tactic... if you ever have the difficult task of putting an elderly relative into a nursing home or any kind of assisted living facility, one of the many many forms the director throws at you during this very difficult and emotional time are DNR forms and the like. It's about counciling people, it's about knowing your options so what YOUR LOVED ONE wants is done. I have had several co-workers go through this over the years and it's not easy and they feel adrift because their elderly relative typically hasn't been all there to fully discuss their wishes. I'm lucky enough to have a very precise Father who many years ago drew up his own living will, which is 100% opposite from my Mother's so I know what they want and how they want it done.

I'm not saying that what's being proposed is the direction we should head in. I don't claim to be that smart to know all the possible fall outs. But I know enough that the system is failing to many people these days. The cost is growing faster than the average person can keep up with. But to leave it as is... that won't work either. When a child dies because his Mother can't afford to see a freakin' dentist there is something wrong... when 1/3 of bankrupcies come from catstrophic illness or accidents cleaning out a family there is some thing wrong (well that might be less after the housing collapse... d'oh). I think it's a multi-pronged problem that's going to require lots of changes and many of those might have to be us taking on more of a responsibility for ourselves not just the government, the insurance companies or "big pharma" we all have our changes to make... but to be a supposed wealthy idustrialized nation and to be so ignorant about the need for change is just scary.

And don't get me stared on the morons with the signs that say, "Keep the Government out of my Medicare" or the really scary people showing up with guns to Town Hall meetings... Yeah I get it that it's perfectly legal where they're doing it, but the message they are conveying is FRIGHTENING.

sheepels, please.

...if you've read this and think I'm some far left-liberal and you're gonna school me... don't bother. I'm not and you're not so just move along. I just think we should do right by each other. Agree to disagree and do so civilly without name calling or trying to scare people or throw out hate speech coming from knee-jerk reactions to fear of change, fear of something different, fear of whatever the heck it is they're so friggin' wigged out about.