Holiday Weekend

The Doctor's back! Yay!

Shut it down!

Rubber meets the road and all that.

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Oh Canada

Justin Bieber (for some reason) got interviewed in Rolling Stone: 

Asked if he wanted to become an American citizen, Bieber made clear his love for Canada -- and its health care system.

"You guys are evil," he told the magazine, out on February 18th. "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

BADA-BING, the kid nails it.  

And somehow, even the Huffington Post headlines the article: 

Justin Bieber On Health Care: U.S. System 'Evil'

I mean, yeah, technically he did say that, but that's not the message.  When I saw that headline, I thought oh shit, that little fucker's career is gonna tank.  And since I'm one of the 0.75 percent that reads past the headline in this country, I read it and it's a totally different sentiment about the simplicity of living in a compassionate country, versus living in a consumer/capitalist/apathetic country. 

And you know the average fuckhead is gonna glance at that and say, "No, Suzie, you can't listen to that CD because that boy said the US is evil." 

Do I care if retarded illiterate fuckheads are preventing their snotty asshole children from listening to Justin Bieber albums?  No.  But it shouldn't be because of this. 

Sergio!

Maybe I'm just crazy, but it seems like there's a side of this health care reform issue that needs attention. We're trapped in our jobs. Not just because of the economy and 10% unemployment. If those conditions were perfect, we'd still be trapped because if we leave the job, we lose our health insurance. And maybe unemployment is at 0% and the economy is booming, but there's still gonna be a window of time where you're uninsured and suddenly your appendix bursts and -- oops -- you're bankrupt. You lose your house. You're fucked.

Maybe that's just paranoia, but I think it's rampant in our culture and our mindset. Maybe this is all just coming up because I'm re-reading Douglas Coupland's Generation X and his characters are so cool in how they've walked away from the bullshit consumerism of our culture -- the obsession with stuff -- so they're all so hip and working "McJobs" as bartenders and shopgirls, and they're so cute and clever and then it occurs to me, Douglas Coupland is Canadian. The story takes place in a desert town in the American southwest and the main character is from Oregon, but still...

Sure, it's easy to be hip and anti-corporate when you get free health care as your birthright.

But what about us? How many of us are stuck in jobs, afraid to take risks or start new businesses, because we'd be fucked if something happened to us while we were out on our own?

And is that what we want our culture to be? Don't Republicans want to be their own boss and start a business? I read Atlas Shrugged four or five times. The heros are innovators who start their own businesses and design new engines or create new metals and then make a profit and hire more people and expand and retire while the thing you've created lives on...

Isn't that the American Dream? But how do you do that without health insurance? You have to buy whatever's out there and then you have to pay to insure your employees, and in most cases you drown in lost revenue and paperwork, your profit is gone followed quickly by your employees and you have to close your doors. Too Small to Succeed.

We need universal health care to give people the freedom to take chances.

But that's not what our country wants for us. America wants us to be corporate slaves. I am a corporate slave. As of the first of the year, my Massuhs don't carry Health Alliance anymore, so now I'm on Blue Cross Blue Shield, and BCBS doesn't think my psychiatrist is giving me the right dosage of medication for the treatment of tinnitus-related anxiety.

Of course BCBS should know best, because I just registered a UserID on their website yesterday and I've only been seeing my doctor for the past five years.

We're fighting it, but if we lose, then I just have to live with a little more anxiety than usual, and hope it doesn't affect my steadfast determination to KEEP MY JOB because if Massuh lets me go, I won't be able to afford the other medications that are keeping me alive.

Slave. You can call me that.

If you haven't already, please go sign the petition to establish health care as a civil right.

DK!

Oh hell no.

According to CNN, the National Republican Senatorial Committee emailed a "Proxy Ballot" to 'Puke supporters, asking them "Who ya'll like in 2012 for pres'dent?"

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah. Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. John McCain, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Mitt Romney.

Discuss.