rants and ramblings of utter randomness

OMG *PWNED* \0/\0/\0/\0/\0/\0/\0/\0/\0/\0/






Oh, Al, you were SO worth the wait.

So. The 9/11 masterminds will get a criminal trial in a civilian court, but former child soldier Omar Khadr is still going to face a military tribunal. Apparently the reason is that certain evidence that would be prohibited in a civilian court (translation: evidence obtained under torture harsh interrogation techniques) will likely be accepted in a military court (surprise, surprise!).


This is all despite the fact that a. Khadr was fifteen years old at the time of his arrest, and b. evidence he might not even be guilty. And if that's not enough, let's add some insult to all this injury. Khad'rs own (minority) government is refusing to extradite him.

WTF, people? Since when are child soldiers treated like this? I thought there was supposed to be a law against that.

I'm completely unsurprised by Stephen Harper's actions, but I didn't expect Barack Obama to go along with Bush-era policies. Not, on, Mr. President. Not on at ALL.

Yeah, this is about me. But it's also about most Americans.


So day before yesterday I go to a cardiologist, because with my family history it seemed like a good idea to me and my neurologist. So I drive all the way down to Westerly, and the cardiologist (who is also my mom's cardiologist) says that except for a teeny bit wonky EKG that he and my primary doc both think is not a problem, everything looks good. He was, however, worried about my family history (mom's had a bypass, pacemaker, stent; her mother died from a heart attack, my paternal grandmother died of congestive heart failure, paternal grandfather of a heart attack, etc., etc.).

So he orders a nuclear stress test, to get a baseline and to catch anything he might have missed. And he says if my insurance company won't cover the nuclear version, he'd give me a lesser test that they would cover. Which was fine with me, and I made my appointment for next week. Well. I go to pay and to check about which test my insurance will cover, and, whoops. My insurance won't cover any test at all. I don't quite understand why I was officially refused, but apparently it was something like I wasn't sick enough. The test costs three thousand dollars without insurance.

Now. My insurance used to be Healthmate Coast-to-Coast, but Care New England apparently had a spat with Blue Cross about what patients they'd cover, and threw them out and got us Tufts, whose plans suck. Well. It seems that they've kissed and made up, because as of Jan. 1, I can have Healthmate again. The problem is, now I have to wait until January to find out if my DNA is turning on any switches in my body. And if Healthmate doesn't cover it, I may have to wait until I'm symptomatic before any tests are done.

The next day I went to a rally.

Here's a message for the Obama is Che Guevarra AND Hitler reincarnated crowd: When you're lying about American healthcare reform, DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT WAIT TIMES, ASSHATS.

Please, PLEASE tell me that these people are a fringe minority.

I was born and raised in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I'm damn proud of that.

Goodbye, old friend. You done good.

Ohdeargods and all the ships at sea.

In other kindasorta related news, the Three Amigos Summit has wrapped up. Apparently Moe, Larry, and Barry had a lot to talk about. Like protectionism (which hey, is actually a problem, Mr. President), immigration, (which apparently is status quo until 2010), and healthcare (which, um. Has about as much to do with International Cooperation as US healthcare has to do with, say, Canadian healthcare).

So, yeah, it looks like a whole lot of nothing was accomplished, but I bet they still had all kinds of fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils at the thing there.

Oh, and Barry's having Steve over his house this fall.

In not really related news at all: After today, I am outta dodge workwise for ten-ish days. If the federal government cooperates and gives me my replacement passport, I'll be headed for Points North on Wednesday. *tiny optimistic squee*

In case anyone is interested, the opening statements of the Sotomayor confirmation hearings are being broadcast live over at C-SPAN. It's being broadcast pre-recorded over at CPAC, so you can come in at an earlier point there.

*crickets chirp*

Um, okay. See ya. :)

P.S. I think Sheldon Whitehouse might just be made of a whole passel of awesome. Yay, Rhode Island!