Your Wednesday moment of zen.
Gravestone detail, Old Mission State Park, outside Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. © 2006, 2010, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 4:37 am Wed March 24 2010 | Comments(1) |
A reader reacts to Green — Not so much with the liking, it seems…
Everybody Loves Cthulhu — John R. Fultz on Cthulhu’s Reign, a forthcoming DAW anthology in which he and I both have stories. Nice cover, which coincidentally could have illustrated my piece.
Elissa Malcohn with a brilliant haiku
xkcd on “The Flake Equation” — Required reading for all skiffy types. The mouseover text is priceless.
Where neon falls like rain — I want to see the lightning storms there.
What Can Economists Tell Us About Teenage Sexual Mores? — Fascinating on several levels. Incidentally, I’m getting very tired of the term “pre-marital sex”. It’s incredibly heteronormative and full of unexamined cultural assumptions that are inherently stigmatizing. How about “sex”?
Emergency contraception — The Edge of the American West on, among other things, conscience laws for pharmacists and healthcare providers. Frankly, those conscience laws are utter bullshit, pandering to the worst impulses of the Right. Don’t like part of your job? Get a different job. Forced pregnancy enthusiasts don’t deserve special protection at the expense of the needs of the people they’re sworn to serve.
An open letter to conservatives — A generation of conservative hypocrisy and idiocy, in one fell swoop. With citations in case you want to think it’s all made up. And as the author mentions, nothing on the American left approaches nearly this level of nuttery.
Roger Ailes to Fox News’ Glenn Beck haters: Stop ‘shooting in the tent’ — Hah. And yes, that would be Roger Ailes, Reagan’s political strategist, who is now news director at “Fair and Balanced” Fox News. Your Liberal Media.
http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2010/03/23/still-waiting-for-the-pushback/ — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on that “single greatest pushback in American history” the GOP keeps talking about. When 50% of respondents say that they are pleased or enthusiastic about some high-profile, controversial thing the government has done, this is not normally the prologue to political annihilation for the people in charge of the government in that year’s election. Dream on, conservatives.
Frightening GOP behavior — Of course, the American people have spoken, and in November 2008 elected a Democratic White House and Senate and House of Representatives. But, elections and the workings of our democracy including the idea that the losing party respect the outcome of elections appear to be alien concepts to today’s GOP. Yep. Elections have consequences. The GOP is happy with the system when they win. Sore Losermen.
?otD: Have you ever driven through Paris in a sportscar in the rain?
Posted: 4:33 am Wed March 24 2010 | Comments(3) |
An observation I’ve made before, and haven’t seen covered much in the press or the commentariat (though maybe I’m not looking in the right direction) is that healthcare reform will quite possibly significantly remake the employer-employee relationship.
Since about WWII, the most ordinary model for Americans to receive healthcare coverage (ie, insurance) has been through the workplace. It’s my understanding that this was deliberate industrial policy at the time, presumably to stabilize the workforce and countervail the pressures of unionization. Everyone in the workforce today entered the workforce under that assumption. You get a (decent enough) job, you get health insurance.
That bargain started to fall apart in the 1980s with the increasing use of part-timers in blue collar jobs and contractors in white collar jobs. That, of course, was all about reducing the cost of benefits for the employer. Companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s build their entire cost-of-labor around such measures, as do many high tech companies. Part of the reason for so many millions of uninsured and underinsured today is the erosion of benefits in the non-unionized workforce.
(I am neither a healthcare historian or a labor historian, so take all of the above with a grain of salt.)
The profit-driven nature of market-based insurance has introduced so many restrictions that for a lot of workers, myself included, the only access to health insurance is through non-qualifying employer-sponsored groups. In my case, one of my dependent insureds has a chronic illness that barred me from the private market for years before my own cancer made me uninsurable, so this has long been an issue in my professional life.
The full terror of unemployment for someone like me isn’t loss of income, it’s loss of healthcare coverage. The last time I was unemployed, 2002-2003, my COBRA costs were $1,400 per month. Which was more than my unemployment compensation.
How many millions of Americans with insurance are tied to their jobs by similar issues?
If HCR delivers what it’s said to deliver (assuming the Republican ideologues in the Senate don’t find some last-minute way to halt the reconciliation bill), those millions of Americans will no longer be tied to their benefits package. Yes, most of us need an income. (And fortunate are you who do not.) But incomes don’t have to be paychecks from statutory employment.
I predict a sharp increase in labor mobility in this country, along with a parallel sharp increase in new small businesses as well as independent innovation. Because what we’ve just done is unchain people from their workplaces. There’s a lot more ways to make money than there are to find health insurance. Obama, Pelosi and Reid have just freed us to explore those ways. Which would seem to me to be a conservative ideal, would it not?
What will the social consequences of this be? I don’t know, but I’m guessing some pretty fundamental changes are in store for American society over the next years, if the GOP doesn’t freeze all of us out. Increased economic prosperity and personal opportunity, reduced unemployment, and better treatment of employees by employers as competitive options open up for the workforce.
Optimism? Sure. But think about it. Take this idea right down to the personal. How many people do you know who are trapped in jobs for the healthcare?
Posted: 4:51 am Tue March 23 2010 | Comments(7) |
Cold continues in its long tail. I’m less miserable, but still not exactly in good shape. That I had a terrible night’s sleep didn’t help. I have a headache and am in a foul mood today. I had deliberately chosen not to take Lorazepam again, as I don’t want to become dependent on it for normal sleep, and was very tired when I went lights out last night a little after 7.
However, my lower GI had other ideas, and I didn’t get to sleep til more like 8:30. Had lengthy, fitful dreams that I was in a serious romantic relationship with
Work today, and some writing. I am sure hoping both the headache and the foul mood lift, or it’s going to be long, tedious day for me.
Posted: 4:35 am Tue March 23 2010 | Comments(0) |
Your Tuesday moment of zen.
Portrait of the author as a much younger man (age 8). © 1973, 2010, Joseph E. Lake.
This work by Joseph E. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 4:28 am Tue March 23 2010 | Comments(0) |
A reader reacts to Trial of Flowers
19th-century industrial spy stole No. 1 drink — Huh. I want to read this. (Via @mattstaggs.)
Black Holes, Starships and the Cosmos — A Big Idea post from Centauri Dreams. Though my favorite bit was this triviatum: To produce as much energy as a 100 watt light-bulb a black hole needs to mass 1.9 trillion tons.
A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain — Duh. I’m astonished that ADM didn’t have this study quashed.
The Final Health Care Vote and What it Really Means — Robert Reich on the political heritage of HCR.
Fear Strikes Out — on One side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. The GOP never opposed HCR on the merits, that I can tell, despite lip service to the contrary.
The Misinformed Tea Party Movement — For an antitax group, they don’t know much about taxes. Um, yeah.
The GOP’s newfound love of public opinion — I’m not making an argument about whether public opinion should or should not dictate outcomes; the point is about those who are wildly inconsistent in their advocacy on that issue. Inconsistent? The GOP, standard bearers of principled consistency and keepers of America’s moral compass? No!
McCain Comments Confirm That Republicans Plan To Stand On The Sidelines And Do Nothing — I love this response from Senate Majority Leader Reid. For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election,
Wondermark reviews conservatie logic on healthcare — Hahahahah.
The constituency for repeal — Daniel Larison on Republican promises to repeal HCR, and the myth of a public opposition.
Stepping off the narrow path of reality — How adopting counterfactuals leads to further idiocy. This exactly why I rail so much against Creationism and Intelligent Design in schools. Oddly, This Modern World takes on the very same question this week. Just because you believe it doesn’t mean it’s true.
?otD: Where oh where has my little dog gone?
Posted: 4:25 am Tue March 23 2010 | Comments(1) |
When the cancer first presented in April of 2008, we came to believe early on that it would be a one-time thing, a single acute illness followed by surgery and recovery. That wasn’t just wishful thinking, the prevailing medical opinion at the time was that I’d be on long term followup for colon polyps, but there was a good chance I could clear even that and go back to the general population, healthwise. Acute, emotional, difficult, but a close-ended event. In May of 2008 I underwent a partial colectomy, in which 22 cm of my sigmoid colon was removed, along with thirteen lymph nodes. The cancer was staged T1N0M0, which is the least complex and frightening staging.
A year later, in May of 2009, the annual followup found several colon polyps which were indicative of potential tumor formation. Not precancerous in the immediate sense, but of the class which can lead to recurrence.
At the same time, spots were found on the body scans. The initial suspects were liver and lymph, with a spot on my lung which was first classed as a scar. (I had developed tuberculosis while living in Nigeria as a teen-ager, as well as having a history of several different major respiratory infections, so this was not unreasonable.) This introduced a lot of fear and misunderstanding.
We spent May through October chasing spots in the liver and lymph through the scanning trifecta of CT, MRI and PET. This involved second opinions at an out-of-state medical facility, and lots more angst, as well as a number of false start theories and tentative diagnoses. During this process, the lymph spots disappeared, the liver spot remained steady through several scans before also disappearing, but the lung spot doubled in size. As my oncologist said during our October consultation, “Well, this is interesting.”
Important safety tip: You never, ever want to be interesting to your oncologist.
She diagnosed me with metastatic colon cancer of the lung, and prescribed a partial thoracectomy followed by a six month course of non-adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of the FOLFOX-Avastin cocktail, along with a myriad of collateral medications. I had the lung surgery in November, 2009, minor surgery in December, 2009 to install the chemo port, and am enjoying bi-weekly chemotherapy through June, 2010. I do not expect to be recovered from this round of treatments before the fall of 2010. A full cure is still possible, and I do not have a current mortality forecast. The statistics on my situation are grim, but my individual progress is excellent.
I still expect to resume a normal life with my full health and energy, hopefully as early as this coming fall.
Posted: 5:02 am Mon March 22 2010 | Comments(1) |
Nothing happened. I watched too many DVDs, spent almost all the time in my recliner, coughed and sneezed a lot, and felt wretched. After getting 8.5 hours of sleep last night, I’m still somewhat congested in my upper respiratory, but my head seems to be clear. So, two days of lost writing and some misery, but I think I’m on the flip side of this cold.
Having a cold on top of chemo is a weird experience, I have to say. For one thing, the eternal fatigue of chemo is not improved by rhinovirus. My ongoing lower GI weirdness didn’t take a break. I was lucky I wasn’t dealing with other, more serious chemo side effects just now, and very lucky I’m not carrying this cold when I’m supposed to be in the infusion center. (Which would be, ah, this coming Friday.) But mostly my brain is active other than the four or five days of infusion and immediate post-infusion recovery. The cold put my brain back in slo-mo, that same sluggishness we all experience in those circumstances.
Damn, something new to resent. And hope like crazy I don’t get a reprise of.
Did get a solid amount of sleep last night, without the midnight awakening for throat-burning dehydration. Do feel better today, to the point that I exercised for the first time since Friday. (As I am a demon about keeping that habit going, skipping it over the weekend was just killing me.) Day Jobbery today, and I’m planning to put in an hour on “The Stars Do Not Lie” either over lunch or right after work.
One freaking day at a time.
Posted: 4:54 am Mon March 22 2010 | Comments(1) |
I thought I’d put the healthcare reform links in their own post, rather than link salad. A special link salad, as it were. Basically, as flawed and difficult as this bill is, I’m glad it passed. I’m even more glad Representative Stupak and his merry band of forced pregnancy enthusiasts weren’t able to derail it. How can you call yourself “pro-life” and oppose something that will reverse mortality outcomes for tens of thousands of Americans every year simply by ensuring they have access to healthcare? Not to mention if abortion reduction is your goal, why ignore the documented link between increased access to healthcare and decreased abortion rates?
Everyone benefited last night. Even all the screaming, spitting Tea Partiers. Because now their coverage won’t be cancelled if they fall seriously ill, or run against a lifetime coverage limitation if that illness becomes extended. My lifelong experience of observing politics is that liberal-progressives want to help even people who don’t want their help, even at a cost to themselves, while conservatives want to put limits on both rights and opportunity for everyone they disagree with in the name of preserving their own rights and opportunities. Healthcare reform has been an amazing illustration of this principle in point.
As conservative commentator David Frum notes in one the articles linked below, this HCR initiative is rather similar to Republican plans from decades past. Yet to hear our Republican friends tell it, this is a Socialist millstone that will sink the Republic. The politics of this have been beastly, funded and driven by an effort to unseat Obama, as much as any actuality of healthcare. The people protesting this will benefit as much as the rest of us, for all the bill’s flaws.
The left, such as it is, tries to talk policy, the right talks politics. And politics makes for better soundbites, angrier voters, and ultimately stronger electoral returns.
We lost a lot here. Single payer would have solved so much of the healthcare spending issues. (Quick quiz, what percentage of private healthcare spending goes to processing costs and profit margin? What percentage of Medicare healthcare spending goes to processing costs and profit margin?) The public option would have been a decent compromise, if nothing else through a Medicare buy-in. But those things can come into play over time, once people see this bill isn’t a ‘poison pill’, but something that benefits them and their families personally, regardless of their political views.
We may still lose ground here. I imagine there will be hundreds of court challenges, some from politically ambitious Red State attorneys general, others from the Orly Taitz wing of the conservative nuthouse. Some challenges might even have substance on the merits, though I’ll be surprised. And much of the long-term success of HCR depends on not having a massive string of bills overturning it pieces in the next few years.
Still, today, I woke up in a world where my healthcare funding won’t be terminated because of lifetime coverage limitations, or because I am too sick. I woke up in a world where I can change jobs without sentencing myself to death from the disqualifying pre-existing condition of metastatic colon cancer. I woke up in a world where a major liberal-progressive idea has gained a significant foothold.
And that idea will benefit every American, even those who willfully misunderstand it, and hate it with a screaming passion. That’s what good political ideas are all about. Benefiting everyone.
Meanwhile, some linkage:
Health Vote Caps a Journey Back From the Brink — How Speaker Pelosi brought HCR back from the dead.
Tea Party Protesters Shout The N-Word At, Spit On Passing Legislators — More on this. The Sarah Palin cite in this piece is especially trenchant. Ah, the classness of conservatives.
Waterloo — Conservative David Frum on HCR. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994. Definitely sounds like screaming socialism, doesn’t it? In other news, Republican lawmaker says of this same plan, “We believe that this is the beginning of the end of America.” Hyperbole much?
In Case You Missed Obama’s Health Speech Saturday Afternoon — Political capital, and the expending thereof. I do significantly disagree with one of Fallows’ closing statements, “I support it, because it is a step toward the principle that for society’s benefit and for individual protection, everyone should be insured.” Actually, everyone should have access to healthcare. Insurance is just a mechanism. Healthcare is the issue. There are other ways to deliver and fund it.
A look at the healthcare overhaul bill — Might have been nice if the media had spent more time on this and less on people screaming about death panels and socialism. For my part, I note “Starting this year, insurers would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, and from canceling policies because someone gets sick.” That removes two of the several death sentences I’ve been living under. The market-based solution thought it was fine to cut me off to die once I’d received too much healthcare. Any wonder I favor government intervention? I wasn’t willing to die for conservative beliefs about the free market, thank you.
Posted: 4:44 am Mon March 22 2010 | Comments(3) |
Your Monday moment of zen.
The interior of the seventeenth century Spanish nineteenth century French mission at Old Mission State Park, outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. © 2006, 2010, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 4:18 am Mon March 22 2010 | Comments(0) |