America's Healthcare

As stated in an article on CNN.com, Republican Senator Richard Shelby was quoted saying:

"We have the best health care system in the world, We need to expand it. We do not need to destroy it."

Really? We do? I was completely unaware of this.

Myth: The U.S. has the best health care system in the world.

Fact: The U.S. has among the worst health statistics of all rich nations.

The U.S. does not have the best health care system in the world - it has the best emergency care system in the world. Advanced U.S. medical technology has not translated into better health statistics for its citizens; indeed, the U.S. ranks near the bottom in list after list of international comparisons. Part of the problem is that there is more profit in a pound of cure than an ounce of prevention. Another part of the problem is that America has the highest level of poverty and income inequality among all rich nations, and poverty affects one's health much more than the limited ministrations of a formal health care system.

This is the problem: "profit." Everyone in America is so dead set on making a buck that they will do anything at any cost. Now I'm all for making money, we need it survive. Though we do not need to be doing it in such ways that harm others. Denying someone's treatment so that they may live a better more happier life is no way to go about making money. This same person who is seeking treatment has already paid for this is so-called "insurance," by an amount being taken out of there paychecks and another amount being paid by enforcing deductibles.

This and the following are absolutely ridiculous:

Percent of population covered by public health care:  

ALL NATIONS (except below)    100%

France, Austria                99

Switzerland, Spain, Belgium    98

Germany                        92

Netherlands                    77

United States                  40

Life Expectancy (years):

  Men    Women

Japan           76.2   82.5

France          72.9   81.3

Switzerland     74.1   81.3

Netherlands     73.7   80.5

Sweden          74.2   80.4

Canada          73.4   80.3

Norway          73.1   79.7

Germany         72.6   79.2

Finland         70.7   78.8

United States   71.6   78.6

United Kingdom  72.7   78.2

Denmark         72.2   77.9

If you have not already seen it, please rent the movie "Sicko" by Michael Moore. It puts a lot of insight into this and more.

Citations:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/16/us.healthcare/index.html

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm

Schooling, Rant

I am proud to announce that I will be attending The Art Institute of Tampa. I will be pursuing my Bachelors in Fine Arts with a major in Film and Video production. I can't wait to get started this fall, and get into something that I am passionate in. And now on to the pop in my head rants:

*I hate when someone comes up to the register to buy things and opens a product or item before it is paid for. Especially, if they are paying with credit or check, what if you account comes back as "do not accept." I mean I know it's not coming out of my pocket, but really people, it's not necessary.

*I hate Top Chef's inability to have a script ready for the host of the show while shooting, the whole dubbing thing is really getting annoying and is way to obvious.

*I love that my son is finally taking his first steps, two days ago he took five steps. He's a pro at 10.5 months.

*I hate that I have nothing else to say.

Stick it!

Rudeness, then Scientology.

At work today I pulled an 11 hour shift so needless to say my internal clock was off a bit. Anyway, to be courteous after I ring people up I say have a nice day. This being said, at around 7pm I told someone to have a "good day," this person then says "have a good evening." Was this person correcting me? Or was it them just responding as a "you too." I'm not sure how to take this... Then about a half-hour later it happened again. The exact same words, a completely different person. Do these people have the same personality or is it me just over analyzing things?

So recently, in the St. Petersburg Times they had a special report on Scientology and a few defectors. I will not go into my whole I think Scientology is ridiculous, because I'll save that for later, I'll have to have my own "Special Report, 3 Part Story/Opinion." Though that being said I just wanted to point out that 3 out of the 5 defectors that were mention on this page:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1012520.ece

Are now in the furniture business. I just thought that this was odd and had to mention it. And one guy still has an "e meter," and still practices Scientology. How is this possible if he is a defector? Is it him just saying that so the "Church" doesn't come after him? Who knows?

It's late in my book, I'm tired.

Life- A Valium Day

Life is really complicated sometimes. Sometimes you have everything going good you don't have to worry about anything, not money, not your job, nothing. Then there's other days, these other days is when you worry about stupid shit that shouldn't really bother you, but it does. Those are what I like to call "Valium" days. Heh... Sometimes you just have to let everything roll off you. I really wish that this could just happen to everyone, when someone says something stupid or insulting, I wish it could just be done with. Then maybe it wouldn't happen anymore... I'm the kinda person who likes to not be serious.. ever. I think that helps me when people do or say stupid, annoying things. I'd like to say that nothing ever bothers me, but it's not true and if it were these so called "Valium" days would not exist but they do. In all my infinite wisdom I wish to end all of this bullshit that people like me have to deal with. I would like to thank all the people who help me through my life so far and in the future. And this post would not be possible if it not were for this man:

Leo Sternbach - the creator of Valium

or

The Rolling Stones:

Thank you for reading.

Stick it!

My Neighborhood

There is some weird ass lady that lives across the street from me in a "mother-in-law suite." This lady is pretty troublesome. I have called the police or 911 on here 3 or 4 times total. Twice because her car alarm would not stop, at one point it was going off for an hour and midnight one evening. 

A bit more background, this lady is on drugs, a lot of drugs. She has people coming to her place many times during the day and night. It's quite obvious that she sells the drugs she is prescribed. 

So, tonight she was outside and all of the sudden the police pull up. I'm thinking finally someone called the cops on her and she's getting taken out of here. BUT NO!!! She called the cops because someone broke in to her house. 

Come to find out the only thing that was stolen was her safe full of prescription drugs. When the police officer came over to my house to ask if I had seen anything, I told him I didn't see anything out of the ordinary because she has people over all the time. I told him that she is kind of shady and that people will come over for a few minutes at a time and it's a lot of different people. Anyway he seems to believe me, so he gives me his personal number to leave messages on his voice mail of possible drugs deals and license plate numbers. Which is cool because I know he believes me. And I would be glad to get rid of this lady.

On another note, she is moving out of her house, there is a "for rent" sign out front. It got me all excited to and made my day really, until this situation happened tonight. Then it just got better, the police officer told me to share his number with the other neighbor to get any further information. 

This being the same lady that I called 911 on a few weeks ago, because she was passed out cold in the front of her car in the hot sun. My neighbor and I agree that this is just about ridiculous, shouldn't she be in some kind of home the way she's passing out like this. She is driving for god's sake... How she is still alive is beyond me. 

To continue my neighborhood posts though she will be moving soon, it seems that the house next to her may be in the "business" as well. I'm sure there will be plenty more to come. 

Misc. Ranting

Let's have another go at the blogging.

Why is toilet paper in public restrooms so damn thin, I mean you can see right through it. Do they think that this saves them money? Well I think not, all that does is make me use more. I mean come on how can anyone expect to use this thin paper. It was invented for a reason, can you imagine if someone uses this toilet paper like Charmin advertises by using less. Well, then the person would just be using more of the public restroom soap. Assuming the person bought something it said store to use said public facilities.

So because I'm pretty excited about the new movie here's a Bruno clip:

Because I find bands a little pushy on MySpace, I thought I would share a portion of the latest message I received from a band.

"By the way, we are opening for ~`|\ @State Theatre April (^. If you want tickets, hit us up... They are cheaper through us than on Ticket Master and we really need the support (so we can show the labels that we mean buisness!)"

Now, there is no way that this message was typed especially for me. So, that being said, they want to show the labels that they mean"buisness"?!?! Yes, I'm sure that will really show them you mean "buisness." So you sent out this mass e-mail on MySpace to possibly get people to your show, so that you may show the labels "buisness"? That's gonna work. I say bravo. Keep it up. Oh, by the way "Ticketmaster" is one word as well.

WOW:

 I'm glad I got rid of my Sidekick.

Because I have loved this video of two guys doing a "cover" of Mika's Grace Kelly for so long I would like to share it with you know:

I just found out that these guys actually have more covers so for Sapphic Owl

this one's for you:

Good Night.

P.S.- Madison jus informed that Miley Cyrus forgot to shave her pits for the American Idol show tonight. Oops...

Paper

So picture this: 

I'm driving home to start on a paper that I have procrastinated long enough, when all of the sudden I notice a lady in the road walking in the middle of the lane, walking towards on coming traffic. If that's not odd enough she is talking/yelling to herself, and she is holding a wad of cash. Needless to say Francette and I called the police, and followed her while we were on the phone. In the end she finally got back on to the sidewalk after about 6 blocks of walking in the middle of the road, and the police were coming to investigate. So in the end the paper still isn't done...

Ethical Restrooms

There are many things that make me angry in the world. Here is one of them:

Why the hell should you have to buy something in a store for you to use the bathroom? I mean think about this. This is something that everyone has to do: use the crapper. I hate places that do this bullshit. 

Thank you for tuning in.

Super Bowl Prediction Cont.

So, I will admit how awesome it was that I picked the Super Bowl teams, I really wish I would've put some money on that. So here are my thoughts on the big game:

I really would like to see the Arizona Cardinals win the Super Bowl, not because I like them. Only because I really don't care for the Pittsburgh Steelers. No real reason, though I do root for the NFC team more often then not.

Now, as a reality, I think the Steelers have a better chance of winning. They have the best Defense in the league, and their offense isn't to shabby either. 

So my prediction:

Cardinals 28

Pittsburgh 24

We'll see how that plays out.

Early Evening Post-Work, Pre-Softball

I feel like posting, but I have no ideas, nothing running through my mind. So I have either decided to ramble or cut it short.  

I don't like people that yell at you, then when you prove them wrong they don't apologize. Even though they say "oh, okay." Those fuckers. 

I wish there was some regulation of people that get out of line on a regular basis. (it took me a minute to spell "basis" correct, then it came to me) 

Madison is making Tuna Helper. 

I melted a top to a butter container on the stove last night.  We have a flat top stove not one of those coil ones. (That would've been even more of a bitch than it already was.) The label that said "country crock" (I think) was melted on to the stove, that was harder to get off than the plastic. 

I have recently started to like Jon Bon Jovi, not all of music, but some singles. Especially the song they kept playing during the MLB Playoffs. 

I always used to say I like all music except Country music, though recently I have started to like some (as stated in last statement), don't get me wrong, some of that shit SUCKS. 

I really have gotten used to my G1, even though I never thought I could love another phone after having a sidekick for so long. The G1 successfully swept me off my feet. I thank Google for that. I think it really has to do with the Android Operating System, because when I had another HTC phone (the Wing) I hated it. The Wing had WinMo, I will never own another phone that has that OS. Fuck Winmo! Yup, that's how I really feel. 

My Superbowl prediction:

Pittsburgh vs. Cardinals

I really would not want to see the Eagles come to Tampa after what happen in the World Series, and I don't think Baltimore's offensive has it in them to pull off a win against Pittsburgh. Yes, I know when they played earlier this year they came close in OT. I just don't think it's gonna happen. Plus, Flacco has gotten the award of only rookie QB, to win 2 playoff games.

-Chuck