some thoughts on health care reform.

•when you consider that we already have socialized bookshelves (libraries), socialized learning places (public schools), socialized fire protection (your local fire department), socialized security forces (police departments), socialized letter and package delivery systems (the u.s. postal service), socialized road fixing (caltrans, at least here in california), socialized environmental monitoring (the e.p.a.), and socialized medicine for old people already (medicare)...socialized medicine for everybody just doesn't seem so unreasonable.

•i've read the gospels quite a few times and i still can't find the part where jesus says that the man found by the good samaritan shouldn't have been lazy enough to not have a job with good coverage and lucky enough not to have a carrier who dropped him when his treatment got expensive.

•if health insurance companies are already doing such a great job, why should competition from a public plan endanger them in any way?

•on this issue (and probably this issue alone) i am turning into a total laissez-faire economics cheerleader. move over thomas friedman, it's my turn to high five the invisible hand! natural competition in the market solves everything!

•if we were to get a public option and you didn't like it, you wouldn't have to use it. that's why the public option is called the public option, not the public mandatory.

•rep. alan grayson is a total badass and i would like to give him a hug and bake him a cake and probably give him a kiss, but only if he would like it and only on the cheek. WATCH THIS OMG HE IS SAYING THE THINGS I'M THINKING BUT HE IS ON TELEVISION:

Rep. Grayson on the Situation Room

•if you want to contact rep. alan grayson and tell him that he is the best ever, you can do so here.

•if you want to contact your congresspeople and ask them why the hell they can't be more like rep. alan grayson, you can do so here.

•stephen helmsley is a bad person (but he's not the only one. anyone who makes their fortune denying care to sick and injured people is, in fact, a bad person):

Greedy Insurance Companies—Unscrupulous United Healthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley

•it's taken me a long time to get around to writing about this. i don't feel like this post represents my best work, or my clearest or best organized thinking about health care reform. but i'm tired. tired, and furious and terrified. i just weathered another coverage-related fiasco, and i'm doing fine now (properly covered, going to get reimbursed for some stuff i needed but couldn't easily afford, etc) but it was a really scary couple of months. yes, months. with terrible nightmares. i'm publishing this in spite of its failure to meet my usual capricious standards because i think it's important, but i've really gotten to the point where, when i'm trying to talk to someone who is arguing against health care reform, all i hear these days is, "sarah, i don't actually care if you die."

my suspicions have been confirmed.

cantaloupe is the best shower snack ever. as we've already established, shower snacks are a wonderful idea after a lot of bicycle riding, but not all foods are well-suited for shower snack candidacy.

cantaloupe, however, is a perfect shower snack. let me tell you why:

1. it is delicious.
2. it is full of sugar and water, two of the things that you need after a long ride (and i suppose that you could salt it if you wanted to. and also sprinkle it with protein powder, making it the ultimate recovery food.)
3. it is actually more enjoyable to eat in the shower. due to the aforementioned delicious sugar and water, cantaloupe is pretty sticky in a non-aquatic environment, requiring the use of a utensil if you are one of the perfectly reasonable people who really prefers not to be sticky in most situations. in the shower, though, cantaloupe juice on your hands can just be rinsed off! it is perfect!
4. it is full of vitamin A and vitamin C and also potassium.

some people have wine cellars...

i have a gatorade cellar.

special note to brother bear: those three on the bottom right (you know, the ones that are colored like actual natural substances) are actually recharge.

another way of thinking about voting on same-sex marriage

"Sinead's Hand," from MarriagEquality (Ireland)

[did i tear up? yes i did.]

i really wish i knew what movie this was.

during the first week of school i was walking down the hall behind two boys and this is what they said to each other:

boy 1: "did you see the trailer?!? that shit's raw; that shit's hella raw."
boy 2: "it made me wanna cry...and like eat a pretzel."

dear brain,

what? why? how on earth did you come up with this song to play in my head? i think it's been twelve years since i saw this particular episode of south park and i'm pretty sure i haven't seen it or thought of it since.

this is why we forget people's names two seconds after we hear them.



eric cartman's german dance. seriously, wtf?