Atheists need a house

I was just thinking about this yesterday morning: how much I miss the sense of community I had as a teenager who attended church (a little too) regularly.

Well, maybe soon I can get that again: news story.

The problem would be driving all the way to Atlanta to attend. That would be nigh impossible for me right now. And my Catholic partner? Oh...forget about that!

Still, I really like the idea of my people getting together in more positive way and building the kind of community I grew up with, only without the racism, sexism, homophobia, and hatred of the poor and ill. It's a nice thought.

Serendipitous newsstory in AJC

I actually wanted to link to it, but the AJC has it as a premium subscriber-only article, and I'll be damned if I pay for a newspaper...on the Internet. Seriously?

The gist is that while the majority of Georgians hate the new healthcare reform act, most of them do support some of the provisions therein, like insurance companies not being able to deny coverage for preexisting conditions. That's one of the biggest victories in the law, IMHO, so it's nice to see I'm not alone in feeling that way.

I just wish people were more open-minded about other parts of the law that will help people, you know?

The elephant in the waiting room

I don't actually feel conflicted about the controversy over healthcare. I feel apathetic toward the healthcare reform currently underway (Affordable Healthcare Act) because it's badly cobbled together with some amazing parts and many more lackluster ones, all of which are the sine qua non of our failed political system. That said, people who oppose reform absolute baffle me at the most basic human level I know.

I think we're pretty much divided into three camps here: the chronically ill, those who've experienced a devastating health crisis, and the well. The first two groups support, IMHO, something being done to fix our broken, emotionally degrading, and financially oppressive system. The third group just wants the sick to fucking die already so they don't have to 'pay' for anyone else's problems. Harsh, but really, isn't that essentially true? Isn't that the crux of the matter?

People who are well believe themselves morally superior. They don't feel any gratitude for having their health. They taken it as a given that being a good, morally upstanding, probably Christian American gives them protection from the demons of disease, illness, and freak accident, while the godless and/or unrepentant get cancer or multiple sclerosis or what-have-you and then selfishly and evilly expect help.

I look at it this way: we do have some health factors within our reasonable control. We can choose not to smoke. We can choose to drink only in moderation. We can buckle our seat belts.

However, there are a lot of factors that are well beyond our control. I don't just mean our genes, gene expression, and genetic predispositions, although these play a huge part. People who are wholly reasonable and responsible in their day-to-day lives can still be injured or die from falling down the stairs. People who exercise can still have a massive heart attack. I refer you to Jim Fixx with regard to that one. People without a familial history of cancer can still get it and suffer expensively...and either live or die based on the quality of care received.

Yes, Virginia, even morally upstanding people who visit their churches and anti-abortion protests twice a week can still end up among the unwell.

I don't really want to wish chronic or long-term illness on anyone.

But for those who have never been there and those who never had a reason to feel grateful for their health or that of others, and therefore might find such gratitude as foreign as taking one's shoes off to enter a home, I sincerely wish they could have some sort of aha! moment that would let them understand how things are for the unwell people whom they so despise, especially those with inadequate access to care.

Now for some disclosure, lest anyone think that I'm interested in reform only for my own benefit: yes, I am chronically ill, but yes, I also have health insurance through my employer, and although the expense remains a pretty harsh financial burden, I am grateful for the fact that I can afford essential medications and preventative healthcare.

That said, most of the people I have sincerely loved in my life -  and for any Christians reading, no, that isn't heathen code for 'guys I've fucked', although most of my former boyfriends fit in here too - the majority of them have had some sort of ongoing medical problem, whether it's debilitating back pain from a car accident, epilepsy, Type II diabetes, lingering effects of a stroke, or fibromyalgia. I have had little cause in my life to find or seek out the companionship of well people. That's just me, how I'm wired, apparently. Not to be flippant or tacky, but as a child, I always prefer my older, broken toys to the new ones. They gave greater comfort.

Anyway, that was weirdly long. Sorry about that. I spent a lot of time this weekend at home with my well partner, getting screamed at over this issue, so it's been on my mind.

Memory of airplane crashes

This is September 11th. No use not talking about it, what with all the TV specials and everything, although from my perspective, perhaps this is the least talkative year I can remember.

Okay. I was in my senior year at the University of Georgia. I was booking it to the dining hall so as not to miss breakfast. Two guys walking the opposite direction were talking about a plane crash in New York. I kept going, wondering what a plane crash in New York (state, I presumed) had to do with any of us. A dozen years later, it's still doing to us. You know?

That was the moment I heard. Understanding only came about an hour later, after I stepped out of a lab and people were frantically wheeling televisions into offices, unrolling extension cords, and screaming into phones.

I don't want to tell the whole story. Everyone has one. Mine, not so special. Maybe next year.

I still feel a little like a douche bag for my initial thoughts, and a few others later. Over the years, maybe I've tried compensating a little by paying more attention to regular plane crashes and other disasters. Not that much has happened that matches that day in September.

What could?

Pros and cons of prison suicides

Obviously, this is in reference to Ariel Castro, the nut-job that held three young women prisoner in his house for ten years.

My partner is bummed that he won't serve all that time. I'm pleased that no one has to pay for him to serve all that time and he didn't go free.

I see his point. The guy deserved to suffer. His victims deserved more justice. I'm pretty sure the guy hadn't even had any prison rape.

But with the rising cost of incarceration and the whimsy of our judicial system, at least this provides the whole affair with some very affordable, if not perfectly satisfying, closure. I am a big fan of closure.

Either way, he's dead, Jim.

Thoughts?

Other countries' politics - Germany

The political issues I care about are, generally speaking, uniquely American issues. That's why I enjoy watching other countries have their elections. I don't have to get all upset and grouchy over anything any party over yonder touts or believes. I can be objective and observe with some degree of pleasant detachment. This is especially true of Europe where I can agree with most major parties on most major issues, to a degree.

So Germany is electing a new chancellor, from what I gather, sometime next month. If I understand the system right, they then build a government with enough power to get things done. If they fail, they vote again in a few months, but a lot more unhappily? I envy them that because with only two parties and some wingding groups, the US government has been unable to get anything done for some time now.

So one of their big newspapers, Sueddeutsche, which I read in my eight-year-old level German primarily because of how high it comes up in the Google search for German papers, has a quiz that people can take to find out which Party their opinions most closely align with. Quiz here, enjoy!

Despite my US political leanings, which gambol between liberal and anarchist, I actually align most closely with the CDU and CSU, not with the traditionally cool SPD, which gave us the magnificently earnest, human, and mildly heroic Willy Brandt all those years ago.

Gratuitous Brandt pic:

My German ancestry is rather limited to a few lines on my mother's side, but I have always had an affinity for the language, cuisine, and music. And, alas, for the politics, in as much as I could ever understand the post-war German world.

That said, I am tempted to retake the quiz via Google translate and see if perhaps there has been a misunderstanding. I mean that tongue in cheek. I probably would be a conservative over there.

Anyway, good luck with the election. I wish I could get more mainstream coverage over here. In English. On television. Pooh.

Macht's gut!

Celebrity victim blaming

I don't actually follow the lives of any celebrities. I got that fetish out of my system as a dorkish teenager and adolescent who wrote letters to favorite actors and musicians - for the record, the most gracious and cool was Lou Gramm of Foreigner, who wrote me a letter I still have tucked away somewhere.

Anyway, even though I'm not into celebrity culture or even normal Facebook-style interest in popular culture, I still live in America, so I still know that Michael Douglas says his wife's pussy gave him throat cancer. True or not, really?? This is something a guy wants to put out there about his hot, much younger wife? Because...I'm seeing this as a terrible idea. And judging by the news today - they're splitting up, apparently - I'm not entirely wrong here.

But that's not my point here. If she has HPV, then she's at risk for cancer too, and therefore, it's kind of ugly to hang her out there for oh-so-public ridicule, isn't it? Some guy infected her (we assume, although HPV is much more lively than HIV and easily spread without very much intimate contact). She infected her husband. He humiliates her. The other guy...he's oblivious, although possibly suffering from genital warts. It's a sad day when 'genital warts' is considered winning.

She's young. With proper and consistent medical care, she'll probably be fine and maybe meet someone less keen on airing other people's knickers in the international press. I'm thinking he should be looking for a nice long-term care facility.

And they were, seriously, such a nice looking couple.

I know his wife's name, but I haven't mentioned it here because even though I'm just an idiot blogger, I don't want to contribute, anymore than necessary, to the ugly press she is receiving. It's principle. More or less.