Dwindling White Nonurban America

Frank Rich of the New York Times as an excellent piece on the Sarah Palin fiasco. The column is available by clicking on the title of this post. An excerpt:

She is not just the party’s biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind.

Brutal. But right on the mark.

Introduction to Cosmos

One of my Favorite short Videos - Carl Sagan - Evolution

Robert Reich: Pharma and Insurance Killing the Public Option for Health Insurance

Full text is at the link. Here is a sample:

I'ved poked around Washington today, talking with friends on the Hill who confirm the worst: Big Pharma and Big Insurance are gaining ground in their campaign to kill the public option in the emerging health care bill.

You know why, of course. They don't want a public option that would compete with private insurers and use its bargaining power to negotiate better rates with drug companies. They argue that would be unfair. Unfair? Unfair to give more people better health care at lower cost? To Pharma and Insurance, "unfair" is anything that undermines their profits.

What is so hard to understand about this? Insurance companies, to guarantee their profits, will always look for ways to deny claims. That's the nature of the business. Time for this country to grow up, treat health insurance the way other westernized, civilized countries do. With a single-payer system.

The World Health Organization recently released statistics that placed the United States at 37th out of the top 40 nations for overall health system performance. You can find a website with links to the full report and the spreadsheet with statistical data here. Note that the top ten are single-payer systems.

No doubt, elected officials in this country, both Republican and Democratic, who are bought and paid for by Big Insurance and Pharma, will unleash their usual gibberish about how we don't want the government between ourselves and our doctors. Really? I am one of the nearly 50 million people in this country without health insurance. I would like to have access to a doctor at all, thank you.

The Age of Facebook

Awhile ago, I joined Facebook. When you first join, you have very few or no "friends". I wondered what all the fuss was about. But gradually you find people from your present and past lives, and discover other people you know on their friend lists. And so it grows.

As I add friends from my high school and college years in the 70s and 80s, I see that many of us are fairly new to this. I only note this because back in 1982-1983, one of my college roommates bought a primitive personal computer, Computer Science was on our class schedules, and it felt like we were the generation that would fully incorporate these devices into our daily lives.

Of course most of us have been using email for years, but this social networking through Facebook and LinkedIn appears to just now be rapidly spreading through those of us in the middle of our lives. Our children embraced it fully through MySpace years before we did.

I like making contact with old friends. But because it is fun, easy and free, somebody somewhere will see it as a threat to national security or to morality, and do their best to put a stop to it.

By the way, John McCain does not use email and does not use the World Wide Web. Yet he claims to understand how the world works, quite a claim for anyone. China has more internet users than the United States, most of them under 25 years old. Terrorist networks use the Internet. How can he understand the world if he doesn't understand how people communicate and share information? As Jon Stewart remarked, he may have work to do to get the "whippersnapper" vote.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert's passing is certainly a tragedy. But when we say we want to celebrate someone's life, what does that mean? To say that we want to celebrate someone's life when they die - is that a trite, easy to say idea to fall back on, when the discomfort of someone's untimely death defies honest description?

As just a person living in Seattle, I didn't know the man. But I watched him on Meet the Press, and during election coverage. There was something different about this man.

Here was a guy who loved what he was doing with his life. He was in the middle of everything, interviewing the most important people on the planet, writing books about his relationship with his father, and celebrating the college graduation of his son. He seemed to be a regular guy, extremely bright, who made it into the big leagues. Those who worked with him obviously cared for him very deeply. Kieth Olbermann, you were obviously struggling with your shock and grief, but you held it together and honored Mr. Russert by doing so. I am sure many of your viewers noticed that and were moved.

But Tim Russert, who died far too young, had a great life, with his father still alive, a career unmatched in his field, a wife he loved, and a son of whom he was very proud. He died suddenly, doing what he loved to do. Those of us with lives not quite as successful in some ways, celebrate Tim Russert because he is one of us who made it; he made it big, his enthusiasm was infectious, and it was great to see a guy doing a great job he loved.

Wasn't it Confucius who said if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life? Isn't Tim Russert the very embodiment of that idea?

We all should have had the benefit of Mr. Russert for decades to come. But if he had to leave us early, we can celebrate the success and joy of his life. We should all be so lucky to do what we love, have great relationships with family, and have children of which to be so proud.

And to his son Luke, who is unlikely to ever read these words: I am 48 years old, and lost my own father in late 1998, when I was 38 years old. I am not particularly religious, but I know something from experience. Your father will never leave you. Whether it is because he is hard-wired into you, or because he is really there, one way or another, he will always be with you, in a very real, visceral sense. And he raised you to feel his loss, but to honor him and to be the kind of man he raised you to be, even though he was taken from you far too son. Your father wants you to be there for your mother, and to show the strength he always knew you had. It is okay to cry. But he wants you to live, experience, have the highs and lows of life, and to live every moment of it with enthusiasm and energy.

These are horrible moments. But you will make it. You will survive. You will still make him proud. And he knows that, right now, you will be there for your mother, as much as she is there for you.

Dear Al Franken,

We all knew that the Republican scum machine would come after you. Don't let them win. We need you in the Senate. Because you're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.

One suggestion: Ariana Huffington as your Chief of Staff. Then there would be hope for America once more.