Sara Celebrates Her 5th Birthday

This year, for Sara's 5th birthday, we decided to give her a big party. We considered going to Chuck E. Cheese, but it seemed a bit expensive at the time. However, the money we spent on this party was probably equal to what we would have spent at Chuck E. Cheese. Maybe even more. Regardless, it's not something we'd want to do again anytime soon.

Sara had a lot of fun, and she got to see her friends from both her new school and her old school.

Democrats VS. Republicans: Round 101

It's kind of funny reading all the comments lately regarding Obama's health care reform bill. Every story I read on Yahoo! ends with literally thousands of comments of mostly very angry people.

One can speculate whether or not the "majority" of the American people are for the bill, or against it. The Democrats will say the majority is for it. The Republicans will say they're against it. Who knows what the actual reality is?

Personally, I think the Democrats have fumbled the ball for the past year that Obama has been in office. Obama had been trying much too hard to reach out to the Republicans for their support, when in fact, he didn't really need it. He won the election by a landslide. The country was ready for the changes he was promising, and to this date he hasn't really delivered on them.

The Democrats have also shown very little backbone this past year. I remember when the Republicans were in office, Dick Cheney was being interviewed by Charles Gibson:

Gibson: Recent polls show that 2/3 of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it.
Cheney: So?
Gibson: You don't care what the American people think?
Cheney: You can't be blown off course by polls.

Now there you go. That's backbone. As bad as the Bush/Cheney administration was, at least they stood by their (bad) beliefs and accomplished whatever they wanted, regardless of what anyone else had to say.

The Democrats, on the other hand, might take a lesson from the Republicans. But no, they have to be so accommodating about everything.

What happened to the public option? Gone.
Universal healthcare in the US? Probably not in my lifetime.
Why haven't the regulations been put back into the banks and financial industries? So far, there hasn't been a single one.

The health care reform that they're trying to push through right now is something of a start, but seriously lacking in a lot of areas. Ok, there are a few good things on the bill: children with pre-existing conditions will now be covered. Insurance companies cannot just drop coverage on someone who gets sick. No more lifetime limits on coverage. More emphasis on preventative care. This is all good. But again...some of it is lacking. People shouldn't be forced to buy into health insurance if they don't want it. If people enjoy paying hundreds of dollars to go to the ER, that's their business. But you don't need to fine them. And, when it comes to fines, why are insurance companies only fined $100 per day for not covering someone with a life threatening condition? I can predict that these greedy companies will just wait it out until the patient dies, since that kind of money is just pennies to them.

I really hope the Democrats can get their act back together. This week, for the first time ever, I seriously started looking into joining a different political party. No, not the Republicans. I learned a long time ago that the Republican party primarily caters to the wealthy, not the (lower) middle class that I currently find myself in. I've been doing a little research on the Libertarians, the Green Party, and the American Independent Party. If I don't see at least some of those promises kept before 2012, I'm jumping ship.

Out of Touch

I mostly listen to music on iTunes over the computer. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't like about 90% of the music I listen to.

I'm a classic rock fan. I can listen to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Queen, etc. every single day and not get tired of it. My wife, though, gets very tired of it.

Christy complains that I don't have enough "new" music. "New" meaning music by new artists, not new albums by old artists (which I have plenty of). She insisted I download this song called "TiK ToK" by Ke$ha. (yes, the "S" is a dollar sign.) Wow, did this song totally suck. I'll admit that it had a few catchy hooks, but the lyrics were inane, the vocals were terrible, and the picture of the singer looked like a girl who was just dragged off a pole in a strip club and forced to sing.

Here are just a few of the sample "lyrics":

Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy
Grab my glasses, I'm out the door, I'm gonna hit this city
Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack
'Cause when I leave for the night, I ain't coming back

Ain't got a care in world, but got plenty of beer
Ain't got no money in my pocket, but I'm already here
And now, the dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger
But we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger
I'm talking about everybody getting crunk, crunk
Boys tryin' to touch my junk, junk
Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

WTF? What does P Diddy feel like in the morning, anyway? Thankfully, even though my 5 year old daughter likes this song, she doesn't understand what this tramp is saying.

Ok, I know you young whipper snappers out there will say I'm out of touch with what's cool today, and you'd be correct. I am...totally. I'm really thankful to be a child of the 70's, and to have been exposed to so much good music. I heard "The Wall" when it was new. I heard "Hotel California" when it was new. What are we getting now? "Boys tryin to touch my junk." ??? Sad, sad, sad.`

So..yeah, I'm out of touch...and proud of it.

Video - Sara Wins "Student of the Week"

Sara wins "Student of the Week" Award!

Sara got her first award at school last week, winning the "Student of the Week" award for her Pre-K class. It's too bad they couldn't pronounce her name right, though (see video above).

Snow in Austin!

I didn't know when I'd finally see this, but here it is. Snow in Austin!

The Death of Health Care Reform

"Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy ... [it] is incompatible with democracy, prosperity and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world."
-Phil Agre

I've lost faith that there is going to be any meaningful health care reform anytime soon. It's not going to happen. I've got to give President Obama some credit for at least trying to make it happen. He got a lot farther than Bill Clinton did back in the 90's. The opposition was just too extreme. He had no no support from Republicans (naturally), but even some fellow Democrats wouldn't support health care reform.

I can understand the wealthy not supporting health care reform. After all, who is going to pay for it? Well, most likely, they are. Those people lucky enough to have incomes over 250 thousand a year. Most of us don't make this much. Actually, most of us don't even come close to making this. These are the people marching in the street opposing "Obamacare" and holding signs that make Obama look like Adolph Hitler. It's amazing, really, how people in this country continue to vote against their own best-interests.

I've resigned myself to the fact that one major illness in our family will bankrupt us. I remember my mother having a brain aneurysm back in the 1970's. She had to have brain surgery and was hospitalized for over 3 months. Could she have afforded that surgery now? Probably not. Under the current health care system, my mom probably would have died. I've come to accept that that is just the way it is. If you get sick, you'll either die, or go broke. One or the other. The best thing to do is just to try to keep yourself healthy. Some people will say it's our own fault that Americans are so unhealthy. We eat crap. Americans will deep fry virtually anything, including Oreo cookies. I keep seeing commercials for Jack in the Box's "Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger", with two meat patties, three strips of bacon, and bacon bits sprinkled all over the bun. Now...come on...people eating this are just asking for a heart attack.

I've tried to make a few healthier changes in my diet since I moved back to America. I don't drink nearly as much soda as I used to, for fear of getting diabetes. I now...maybe...will drink one can of soda per week. I don't eat red meat very often when I'm at home. We stick to mostly fish and chicken (although on weekends I may occasionally indulge myself with Texas BBQ.) So, my point in all of this is that I am trying to keep myself out of the hospital, because I know the consequences.

But, as unhealthy a country as we are, I will still and always support universal healthcare. It's a system that works and that people are happy with. In Taiwan, which has universal healthcare, over 70% of its population is satisfied with the healthcare system. Most of the world has universal healthcare. Who doesn't have it? The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system.

I know I've written about this numerous times before on my blog, so I'll stop for now, unless by some miracle Obama succeeds and we actually see change. Until then, I'll just pray that no-one in my family gets sick.

(Picture: one of the many negative ads used to attack Obama's health care reform, using a cartoon from one of my favorite shows, "Futurama")