primroseburrows: (DT: come reap)
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Hmm. I'll go to work, and hopefully get home before all the drunk people leave the bars. I'll recover by waking up and being relieved that the stupid holiday is finally over.

Yeah, I know I sound cynical, but I hate New Year's Eve. It's just an exuse for everyone to get drunk. It's not the getting drunk that bothers me, not at all. It's millions of people acting like lemmings that makes me a little sick. It's basically a meaningless holiday as far as I'm concerned. New Year's Day is okay, especially when someone has a party with mimosas and lots of food, but I haven't gone to one of those in a long time.


And anyway, my new year starts in October:




In other news, I'm going to try to peer switch for Monday so I can go here.

In still other news, my (borrowed) car needs a new clutch, to the tune of $675.

In even more other news, I went to a Triple Goddess ritual (during a Blue Moon!) celebrated by Spiral Tree Grove, and it was awesome and all that good stuff, and also very nice to get back to Things Pagan again. I think I'll go to their Imbolc celebration also.
primroseburrows: (dS: DNF Vecchio)
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.
primroseburrows: (theirloveissointernational)
Um, it's the second one.

So Ms. Holmes says this on FOX:



The first lie: She had cancerous tumour. Except, no, she didn't have cancer. Or even a tumour. According to the Mayo Clinic, where she was treated, she had a Rathke's Cleft cyst, which according to Saint John's Health Center are "not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts". I'm not saying her condition wasn't scary or didn't warrant attention, but it wasn't the dire emergency she's implying. Oh, wait, she's not implying. She's actually saying that. Granted, it's FOX who added the "cancer" blurb to its crawler, but Shona Holmes sure isn't jumping up and saying no, they're wrong, it wasn't cancer.

The second lie: Without the treatment, she'd be dead in six months. According to, well, everything I've read, there's no indication that Ms. Holmes' condition was life threatening. She says in an interview with CBC that a doctor told her this, but apparently he did so prior to doing any testing. I haven't found anything, anywhere, that says a Radke's Cleft Cyst is life-threatening.

...aaand, the third lie: This is actually relevant to the average American. Ms. Holmes' surgery cost $97,000. I don't know if that's in Canadian or US funds, but either way it's a whole lot of money. It's also what an uninsured American citizen would have to pay for the same treatment. I seriously doubt that most Americans with health insurance could afford this, let alone people who can't afford insurance in the first place.

Also, uninsured Americans don't have to worry about wait times, because for the most part, they can't get care at all.

Ms. Holmes is currently trying to get the Ontario government to reimburse her for costs. They're refusing on the grounds that she wasn't denied treatment. If I tried to do something like that with the Rhode Island government, they'd not only refuse, they'd laugh me out of New England. And it wouldn't be because they didn't deny me treatment but because they weren't required to treat me in the first place. And if I were one of the 47 million uninsured/underinsured in the US, I'd be SOL.

In an interview with CBC's As It Happens (interview is in the first part of the segment), Ms Holmes talks about her condition and her reasons for seeking healthcare in the US, and manages to plant her foot firmly in her mouth.

There's more in this short segment of NPR's On the Media, and more in-depth discussion in this episode of Talk of the Nation.

When I rant about US healthcare, I rarely, if ever, use Canada as a comparison, mostly because Canada's isn't the only national health system in the world (actually the inverse is true: the US is the only NATO country without a national health service), and Americans need to broaden their investigation a little (not that most of us are doing much investigating at all other than running around saying "OMG SOSHULIZED MEDDIZIN IZ EVIL OMG PLZ HALP MEEEE!).

No health care system is perfect, not Canada's or Norway's or fill-in-the-blank. But there's a difference between critical comparison and outright slander and IMNSHO that's what's obviously happening here. And since Canada seems to be the ONLY system being compared to ours these days, and because what's being said is IMO slanderous/libelous, I'm breaking my rule.


Canadians, please feel free to chime in here, since I'm only going by what I read (which is pretty extensive, but still), and as I've never used the system myself I'm definitely on the outside looking in.
primroseburrows: (faces neg)
I disagree with this editorial on about a million levels:

Lock up the addicts until they're clean.

So this guy, Ethan Baron, writes:

"Here's some logic: Take these addicts and lock them up until they're clean.

Make them stop breaking into our cars, breaking into our homes. Make them stop visiting the emergency room dozens of times a year. Make them stop turning downtown Vancouver into a showcase of urban blight.

Make them become the people they could have been had they not become drug addicts."



ExpandExcept, um. No. )
primroseburrows: (wtf?)
[livejournal.com profile] mijan posted a wonderful rant about the separation of church and state in the US. She linked to this article from the LA Times that says a lot of stuff, notably this:

"A purist would insist that prayers in government settings blur the constitutional distinction between church and state"

Um, they do. Prayers, being religious in nature, don't belong anywhere near the workings of government.

Yeah, I'm well aware that the Founding Fathers invoked God in session. The Founding Fathers were products of their era, and also weren't perfect. Some of them (the author of the Declaration of Independence included) even OWNED OTHER PEOPLE, but we don't hear a lot of talk about that, or about how "all men are created equal" originally applied only to white males of property (which if applied today would make a mockery of the recent federal election). I admire the heck out of the Founding Fathers for their intelligence and bravery and passion and unfailing tenacity, but hey, some perspective, here.

and this:

"Pushed to its logical conclusion, such 1st Amendment fundamentalism would forbid presidents of the United States from invoking God in their speeches or participating in the National Prayer Breakfast, a tradition that goes back to President Eisenhower."

Apparently I'm a First Amendment fundamentalist, because ITA with this idea. So WHAT if the "tradition" goes back to Eisenhower? I don't care if it goes back to George Washington. Longstanding tradition ≠ rightness, wtf?

The addition of "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance goes back to the Eisenhower era, too. It was adopted as an adjunct to McCarthyism, but hey, it's still perfectly okay, and people who want it removed on the basis of the First Amendment are accused of being God haters, anti-American, or even (*gasp!*) Communists (O HAI, GHOST OF JOE MCCARTHY!). Nobody would ever call them patriots, a term universally applied to the Founding Fathers, who did all those brave, passionate, tenacious things on the basis of religious freedom and liberty for white men of property.

In the comments to her post [livejournal.com profile] mijan links to this video, which might be the most disturbing thing of all:



I don't think ANY prayer belongs in government sessions, but if they are, then they ALL are. Yeah, this was heckling from the gallery, but nobody can convince me it wasn't covertly sanctioned by at least a few of the senators.

Having said all that, I'm with [livejournal.com profile] mijan--if someone decides to run for office on the Pastafarian platform, I'm SO there. As long as they don't do any ritual capellini-eating during congressional sessions, of course. *g*


I really want to read American Savior. Jesus runs for President. On the BEATITUDES PLATFORM. How awesome is that? I wonder if my library has it.
primroseburrows: (dS: DNF Vecchio)
SOMEbody made a serious omission here.

We should all Divebomb them with comments.
primroseburrows: (group w)
Way cool quote meme, by way of [livejournal.com profile] aukestrel:

Go here and find ten quotes, or just think of ten quotes from memory or somewhere else. Then post them, easy as pie.

I sort of collect quotes, so narrowing them down to ten isn't easy. This list by no means represents all of my favourites.

  • The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

    --Thomas Paine


    So much for If You're Not With Me You're With the Terrorists. Oh, Thomas Paine, how I do love you.

  • Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

    --Roland Deschain, from The Gunslinger by Stephen King


    Roland, you keep speaking truth whether I want to hear it or not. Thankee-sai.

  • When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical may be madness. To surrender dreams, this may be madness. To seek treasures where there is only trash...Too much sanity may be madness, and maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.

    --Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha


    This book keeps showing up in my life, so I think the universe wants me to read it.


  • We look like a geography, but just scratch us and we bleed history.

    --Miriam Waddington, on Canada


    Definitely one of my top five or so quotes, so ExpandI will carry on about it. )

    Canadians on my flist, you may now mock me.



  • We have a secret in our culture...
    and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong.

    --Laura Stavoe Harm


    Expandsmall rant thisaway )

  • ExpandThe Paradoxical Commandments )

    Reportedly this quote hung on the wall of Mother Theresa's orphanage, and is often attributed to her. In my own version of Fraser!canon, it's on his wall, too. :D

  • After the last tree has been cut down,
    After the last river has been poisoned,
    After the last fish has been caught
    Only then will you find
    That money cannot be eaten.
    --Cree Prophecy


    The prophecy is coming true with abandon, all over the world. We should have listened to the Cree.

  • When one comes to think of it, there are no such things as divine, immutable, or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim on them."
    --Helen Keller


    Helen is my hero. I've loved her from a very young age; two of the first books I remember reading were The Story of Helen Keller and Helen Keller's Teacher. I completely obsessed on her when I was little. And that's before I realized that a whole hunk of her life story had been kept from me by the media. Helen was a suffragist and an ardent socialist who actively protested US involvement in World War I, fought for women's rights, and basically spent her whole life in service to other people. She was also very much a woman, and her sexuality and romantic life is also handwaved. It pisses me off that TPTB chose (and still do to a point) to censor such a rich part of her story from the world.


  • Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
    --Oscar Wilde.


    Despite my Oscar Wilde love, I didn't know about this quote until I heard Tom McLaughlin say it. Oscar had a flair for hiding truth in a humorous epigram, getting people to listen by stealth means.


  • And I believe in the future we shall suffer no more
    Maybe not in my lifetime but in yours I feel sure
    --Paul Simon, "The Cool, Cool River"


    I could have done an all-Paul Simon quote list and not even touch the hundreds of favourite lyric quotes. I especially love this one because it's so optimisitic. I should sing it to Amelia. :)
primroseburrows: (DT:and so it begins)
WHY are we still doing this?

It's been proven over and over that the threat of capital punishment isn't a deterrent against crime at ALL. And that's not even taking into consideration that it's hypocritical and not our decision and morally wrong.


Besides, most of the cool kids are quitting.

We're not.

Wake up, America.
primroseburrows: (dS: DNF Vecchio)
ExpandToday is starting off well. )
primroseburrows: (colors don't run the world)
ExpandWhat Planet Am I From? )

ExpandBest. Answer. Ever. OMG. )

ExpandHehehehyep )

ExpandToldya New England is <strike>just</strike> a lot like Canada )

ExpandYay! )

Also, Howard Dean for Prime Minister.

Except we need him here, right where he is, so forget about it. besides, I have a tiny, tiny crush on Monsieur Dion, anyway

I can't really figure out why he was chosen, though. I mean, why an American? I guess it was because of his success a. with his grassroots internet campaigning (no, he didn't win, but he changed the face of political campaigning forever, and for the good, IMO, because it got the average you-and-me citizen to participate AND set him in a perfect spot to become DNC chairman), and/or b. as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, because obviously he did something right if the Democrats now control Congress. Yes, a lot of it was because the Republicans did almost everything wrong, but still. Howard's a great organizer, and that's what he did.

The fact that he was governor of a border state might have something to do with it, because he talks about that in his speech.

The video of Dr. Dean's speech is here. I'm such a Howard Dean fangirl that it isn't even funny. I don't always agree with everything, but his heart is always in the right place. Go him.

Yes, I am a dork. I thought we established that.

In other news, Little Mosque on the Prairie is very cute. It's done well, too, so I'll get to see more than just the eight episodes, hopefully.

Also wtf, Dubya?. Go. Away. Now.

Jesus on a Segway, even Republicans are opposing this horrible, terrible plan. "When mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me." Damn straight it does. If you really believe this, though, why are you saying "OMG, if we left, the middle east would fall apart"? Um, if that's true, YOU caused it by attacking Iraq in the first place, you utter, utter hypocrite. And now you're sending more kids off to a war that isn't ours. Channel Nixon much, Junior? I wish someone would channel Woodward and Bernstein and get you kicked out on your arse.

And there we go, with "Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq". Same old propaganda, and he's saying it to reinforce the whole (entirely fictional) Saddam-Sept.11 connection.Maybe Al Qaeda is active in Iraq, but I bet it wasn't nearly as active, if at all, before the U.S. decided to take down Saddam (there are plenty other dictators as bad or worse, but they weren't sitting on a bunch of oil). And, um. He's dropping Joe Lieberman's name as an example of bipartisanship? This would be funny if it weren't so incredibly pathetic.

"They have watched their comrades give their lives to insure our liberty." No they haven't, they've watched their comrades give their lives for a horrible mistake made by an idiot."

And oh. Tony Blair is backing Bush, but at least he's not sending more troops in.

I hadn't planned on ranting, honest. Dubya has that affect on me. :/
primroseburrows: (beaver)

  • I didn't end up going to the mall yesterday, go me! I did go to Frog and Toad and picked up a couple of pretty presents. I still have a few more little things to pick up. I'll wrap most of what I have tonight. Yes, I know it's two days before Christmas. I work well under pressure, or something. I have to be on a plane to Block Island at 10:00 Christmas Day, which means I have to leave here at eight, so I'm going to have to have everything wrapped and ready to go by tomorrow night AND I have to work this weekend. Procrastination sucks. I'd say I should be more like [livejournal.com profile] patchfire and get everything done in plenty of time, but then she'd gloat and wouldn't be pretty, not pretty at all, so I won't.

  • I've actually managed to go the entire Holiday season so far without setting foot inside the mall. I don't mind going there once in a while (hey, the closest Newbury Comics is at the mall), but bleh. It's just so in-your-face marketing, especially at Christmas. I pretty much hate all marketing at Christmas. It's all Abraham Lincoln's fault for sticking Thanksgiving where it is (and anyway, isn't Thanksgiving a harvest festival? oops, wrong rant) so that Americans can have an encapsulated two-month-long Holiday Season with, yay, plenty of time for lots of shopping? RickafrakkaLincoln.

  • I just had Burger King apple pie. For breakfast lunch, which reminds me yet again that there is no food in the house. This is the way it's going to be until after Christmas, unfortunately. I might have time to go grocery shopping, but no inclination whatsoever. There's a myriad of places to pick up good, cheap food around here, and no, Burger King isn't one of them. That's a place to pick up bad, cheap food (and I use the term loosely here). The pie was just in the refrigerator, so, um. Yeah.

  • I'm going to do the picture meme thing piecemeal, so keep suggesting things. So far only [livejournal.com profile] peacey has asked me a question, so do that one, too.

  • Dear Paul Gross,

    Congratulations on winning the 2006 W00bie of the Year award. Don't even try to deny it, because you can't.

    Love and warm cocoa with marshmallows by a cozy fire,

    Me

    [livejournal.com profile] bjohan57 is also a w00bie for giving me the link. *g*

  • [livejournal.com profile] patchfire and [livejournal.com profile] peacey, you'll be getting your presents after Christmas because I suck I have excellent procrastination skillz. Which is why I'm making a practically pointless LJ post instead of wrapping presents.
primroseburrows: (whattheshit)
The corner of the ceiling in my bedroom is LEAKING. I had to move my bed, the corner of which is soaking wet, and I'll have to sleep in Hannah's room tonight. There is a pot and a towel down, but since it seems to be dripping everywhere and nowhere, I don't have any idea if it'll be enough. This is the same rain that followed my on my drive back from New Hampshire.

I'll post about the wonderfulness of [livejournal.com profile] mr_t00by's class production of The Scottish Play tomorrow. I don't feel like gushing because it's late and because MY ROOM IS LEAKING.

Instead, a meme. I did this last year, but there are more events listed, so I'll try to do different stuff this time.

Type your birthdate (no year) into Wikipedia. Post 3 events, 2 birthdays, and 1 death that happened on that date.


Expandcut to save space )
primroseburrows: (whattheshit)
[livejournal.com profile] patchfire and I are each enrolled in ALACE's Childbirth Educator course. One of the requirements is to tour hospitals and/or freestanding birth centers in our communities. I haven't done mine yet ([livejournal.com profile] songdog, hopefully will come along, and [livejournal.com profile] mr_t00by, I hope, with proper scheduling). It's hospitals for me, since there are no actual freestanding birth centers in RI.

[livejournal.com profile] patchfire toured the notorious Northside Hospital in Atlanta, and wrote about it in [livejournal.com profile] birth_is_normal.

Here's her post (note: she told me that the tour guide actually used the term "lovely gown". I should be amused).

Her description sounds a lot like Women and Infants' Hospital in Providence, which I'll be touring.

Expandoddly unexpected rant about the American way of Birth. Do not click unless you want a virtual earful, with a side of sarcasm. )

Bleh. This wasn't going to be MY rant about U.S. birth culture; I was just linking and giving a "what she said" to [livejournal.com profile] patchfire's post. Brought back some bad memories, I guess. Ick.

On a positive note about this hospital, they've got one heck of a women's oncology unit.

But yeah. What she said. *sigh*

I guess my Big Update and Sox-beat-Yankees celebration and my unexpected but not unwelcome opinion of Johnny Damon will have to wait. Eep.
primroseburrows: (chalice)
I'm not sure whether to be amused or disgusted with this. I'll pick amused, because it's better for my blood pressure.


Oh, noes!


For those interested, here are the actual

Expandprinciples and purposes of Unitarian Universalists )


The article also mentione the United Religions Initiative and the Earth Charter without explaining what either of them are.

They DO link to the UUA's website, which is here.

Hmmp. On second thought, I'm not really amused. More like annoyed. :/

Oh, and my icon is the UU flaming chalice, which has a pretty cool history.


Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] unitarians for the link to the article.





(note: if you are a conservative Christian, I'm not flaming your religion or your right to it. I'm flaming this article's lack of treating mine in the same manner and telling me that I'm a cultist and a liar for following UU principles.)

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