Life is like a fluorescent lightbulb

Good evening fellow drifters along life's winding wynds,

It has been quite some time since my last recording. This is partly because I've been busy, and partly because while blogina and I have attempted to deepen our relationship, she thinks I'm insensitive and insulting and I think she doesn't have much personality, not to mention looks.

Anyway, let me quickly update you with some highlights from the last couple of months: I visited my friend Rhoads Reynolds Cannon in Oxford, where I dined and discoursed with high society intellectuals (Rhoads not being the only one). I drove around the Scottish Highlands a couple of times--once just last weekend with my dad and once about a month ago with a very aggressive tartan-clad guide/bus driver who had a broadsword and insisted that the Scots rule the British empire (turns out the Queen is decendant from King James of Scotland, which is pretty interesting). Both trips took me to some really beautiful lochs and bens (lakes and mountains), as well as giving me a glimpse into small-town Scottish culture. It's exactly how I expected it to be, by the way--everyone wears blue face paint, bagpipes are constantly playing in the background, and there are frequent stone-throwing competitions (we men need some way to prove ourselves, you know). I've been climbing a lot, which makes me feel really good about life. A few weeks ago I climbed at the largest rock gym in the world (they call it an "arena"). I've also climbed outside a little bit and planned a 6-day climbing trip to Fountainebleau, France--probably the most famous bouldering area in the world--with some friends. I'm frighteningly excited about it. I've been way into mafia movies lately. I don't know why exactly, I guess there's just something about crime, murder, and mayhem that makes me feel really good.

I'm very happy about their having passed healthcare legislation back home. It could have been a better bill and the whole process over the past year has made me pretty sick to my stomach (for more specific reasons that I will refrain from elucidating at the moment, though I'd be happy to do so later), but Democrats needed to pass something and this will benefit the country. I'd really like to rant (I mean, calmly discuss) this topic for a few paragraphs, but I don't think this is the post for it. Suffice it to say, as of now healthcare costs are placing too large a burden on individuals and on the government (i.e. the conglomerate of voting taxpayers). As of 2007, 62% of all bankruptcies were due to unpayable healthcare costs (http://blogs.consumerreports.org/health/2009/06/health-care-bankruptcy-on-rise-medical-debt-medical-bills-how-to-avoid-bankruptcy.html). Though 40-50 million Americans don't have insurance, many of those bankrupt people had health insurance to begin with but lost it or faced costs way beyond what the insurance company would pay. The common practice of insurance companies is to deny insurance to people with existing health conditions who want to purchase it and to cut people's coverage when they get an illness which costs a lot to treat. I don't say this to villify insurance companies, only to present the basic fact of the matter--an insurance company stays in business and profits over other companies by insuring the healthiest people and avoiding as much risk as possible. What's good for an insurance company is not always what's good for the people it insures. For that reason, a lot of hardworking people can't afford insurance and a lot have insurance but still get dropped by their insurance company when they get sick--or have to pay huge sums over and above what the insurance will cover.
Some people argue that expanding healthcare coverage is bad because it would force people who work hard and responsibly purchase insurance to foot the bill for those who either don't work hard or aren't responsible enough to get insurance. Right now, though, people with insurance are already paying for people without insurance, because those uninsured still get sick, hurt, etc., and when they do, they have to go the emergency room. The emergency room takes the patients (doctors have this pesky commitment to saving people), and other people cover their costs through higher premiums and emergency room costs. Expanding coverage doesn't charge the insured taxpayer any more than he's already paying; if anything it will reduce that amount, by covering those now-uninsured people in an efficient way--through check-ups and medication prescriptions (preventative & long-term care) rather than expensive, last-minute E.R. surgeries.
This bill will cover 30 million Americans (it excludes illegal immigrants, for better or worse), it will end insurance company practices of discriminating on the basis of pre-existing condition and dropping coverage, and, by curbing long-term costs, it will reduce the federal budget deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years ($1.2 trillion over the following 10 years), according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which works for both Democrats and Republicans. It's not a perfect bill (I could go over the things I dislike about it some other time), but its a good bill. And thank God at least something was passed!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123670612 (Here's a short article about the individual mandate)
The saddest thing about this long healthcare debate is how much it has been driven by blind ideology (on both sides) rather than reasoned examination and discussion of individual issues and pieces of legislation. Whether you're Republican or Democrat (I consider myself a very moderate democrat), we can all be pragmatic and judge specific health bills on their merits and deficiencies. That's what good legislators do, and as citizens in a democracy which demands our informed participation, we ought to do the same.

Okay, I guess I did end up ranting a little bit.

P.S.--Today I was walking to the climbing gym around 8 p.m., and I happened to look up. No joke, it was one of the most amazing things: the sky was blue. A deep, royal blue, it was probably the bluest blue I have ever seen. It was more blue than a blue jay, more blue than a blue crayon, more blue than the blue I see when I close my eyes and picture blue. I stared at it the rest of the walk to the gym--nearly got hit by two cars--and I haven't gotten the image out of my mind yet. It's haunting and beautiful and incomprehensible. Maybe I just don't look at the sky enough and in fact this is not such a rare thing, but I'm pretty sure the sky usually doesn't look like that. I mean the sky isn't really blue; isn't it more of a grey-ish, blue-ish clear? Not this time. This sky wasn't jokin around about its identity. It was Blue. and Blue was it.