Allow me to rant here for a moment.
I read a story just a few minutes ago which infuriates me to a level like only political dumbassery could.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090813/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_end_of_life_2
Blumenauer said the controversy [over the healthcare bill's "death panels"] was helping Democrats in a “perverse way.”
By continuing to spread a widely refuted claim, Republican critics are undercutting their own credibility, he said. The controversy has drawn more attention to the original proposal, which passed largely unnoticed when a health overhaul was approved by three House committees.
Blumenauer, if I may address you personally, I appreciate you and your views on political discourse. Some of my best friends are intelligent conservatives and I enjoy debating with them immensely. I believe that proper debate is the only way to arrive at the most equitable solution in almost any given situation.
However, republican critics are not interested in their own credibility. They’re not worried about the credibility of their statements; they’re not worried about the credibility of their political party; they’re not worried about the state of political discourse in this country. The only thing these conservative commentators (and by “these conservative commentators” I mean the legions of conservatives who march around bearing a banner for Fox News) are interested in is riling up the largest number of people they can possibly rile up.
Look at the place in the bill that has caused all this controversy. The following paragraphs describe the “advanced planning consultation” which the bill says it will cover every 5 years for citizens who qualify. Remember, these meetings are completely voluntary. Let’s see what these consultations will cover.
(A) An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to.
(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.
(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.
(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning, including the national toll-free hotline, the advance care planning clearinghouses, and State legal service organizations (including those funded through the Older Americans Act of 1965).
(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.
It seems as though the entire section on advanced care planning describes nothing but informational medical sessions for older citizens.
This has been pointed out time and time again. I would like to give conservatives credit enough to assume that the ones railing against the bill have actually read it. I can only then assume that the only reason Palin and her ilk are spreading such misinformation is malicious intent.
The reason I get so riled up about these things is because it completely floors me that organizations such as Fox News and Freedomworks have goals that involve nothing but whipping large numbers of blissfully ignorant Americans into a frenzy that tears our country further apart among party lines.
I’m disgusted.
Welp, I actually managed to get a decent amount of stuff done today.
I upgraded the linux install on my laptop to the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 9.04, and so far it’s working out really well. I’ve been playing with the keyboard layouts, and I’m enjoying the international layout quite a bit. For example, I didn’t know there was a need for a character ś. Or ḿ. Or ĺ (that’s an L with an accent, for those of you playing the home game). If someone forced me to guess which language used consonants with accents over the letters, I’d probably say Vietnamese. Maybe I should look it up.
Just did. Turns out it’s Polish. Among others. I fail hardcore.
I’m bored. Updating my blog when I have nothing of value to say makes me feel like this guy. Maybe I should just call it a night.
So, I’ve mentioned this to a few people over the past few weeks, but for those of you to whom I have not, I’ve been dealing with some depression-like symptoms.
I’m not saying I suffer from depression. Much of what I’m feeling right now, I’m sure, has to do with the fact that I’m stuck here at home, away from school and friends, with nothing to do and no car. I’m sure that contributes more than anything else, really.
I don’t really have anything of value to write, but I really feel like writing. So write I shall, even if it’s about something that I’m utterly sick of talking about!
I just needed a reason to use the word “schism.”
I created another blog. I’m not going to be using it yet, and for all my current blogging needs (which… you know, don’t exist), this blog will be the target of my verbose rants. However, that blog is specifically targetted at my aims of international travel. As time draws nearer and nearer to the outset of my adventure into the Orient, I’m gonna be using that blog more and more until it becomes my new main blog.
However, I’m gonna try to keep depressing shit out of that one, so I’ll keep this one in the event that I need to rant about something that people don’t want to freaking hear about.
So if you are one of the poor souls who actually reads this blog, might want to keep your eye on that one too. I’ll be updating it with my progress of applying to the JET Programme over the coming school year.
In unrelated news, I’m considering doing NaNoWriMo again this year. But this year, you know.. actually finishing it.
I think I’m gonna go to bed.
…is awesome.
Seriously. A few weeks ago, we performed with a Mr. Kurt Elling, a jazz vocalist, philosopher, poet, and all-around incredible guy. It was one of the best performance experiences I’ve ever had. And then just today, we performed for a bunch of high schoolers in the big auditorium with none other than Michael Philip Mossman. You may not know who he is, but within the jazz community, he’s an icon. I’m sure everyone in any sort of big band has played at least one of his arrangements or compositions.
Everyone ready to get wild and crazy for spring break?
Yeah, me neither.
I can’t talk for long. I’m in bed and it’s totally lights out. I just haven’t written in a while and I felt it was my duty to write a small entry to let all zero of you know that I am indeed still alive.
So, I haven’t been writing very often in this blog. And it’s not really like anyone cares, so I don’t feel too badly about it, but I miss having something to update every once in a while. So I’ll just write a bunch in this entry and hope I cover everything.
It may be a little early for an official State of the Summer, but I had no idea what else to call this entry because really it’s just going to be one of my patented rambling entries wherein I say nothing even remotely interesting. I think I need to start naming the entries after I write them, but when I do that I tend to forget to name entries. Oh well.
