This Ain’t No CNN.

Everyone is going on and on and on about health care in the U.S. these days and this guest column in the local newspaper caught my eye this morning.

Here is the link.¹

There is a LOT of misinformation out there about how the Canadian health care system works. This guest commentary explains it well based on the experience of the writer. I know my sister and I talked briefly about her experiences with the Canadian health care system when I visited her last week and she mentioned a 2 1/2 hour wait at a clinic. I didn’t mention it then, but I got to thinking about it and that’s not really any different than Earl sitting in an emergency room for three hours waiting for his opportunity to see a doctor.

Personally I think many in the U.S. have lost their minds since President Obama took office and much of the controversy has revolved around health care. I believe there is a lot of misinformation out there that is being perpetuated by those opposed to any change suggested for the U.S. health care system. I don’t know if it’s ignorance, a fear of change or just plain ol’ stupidity, but I have found watching or reading the news to be so irritating lately that I have resorted to reading a handful of news outlets (of varying views and locations) to find out what’s going on with this mess.

¹ Even though I find the local newspaper to be uneven at best with it’s journalism skills, I still read it on a daily basis because I believe that we have a responsibility to know what’s going on in our community.

This has been on countless blogs this week but I have to share this. John McCain showed images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in a recent political ad, comparing Obama to the two women as “just a celebrity”. Paris Hilton decided to share her own political ad. I have to say I like her a lot more now. Props to Paris.

This is HOT.

I received an e-mail from Earl around 11:20. “We had a fire, everything is o.k., no one was hurt but the heat treater burned to the ground.” Earl’s plant works with cardboard¹ and wood. Fire is obviously not a good thing. As General Manager, he feels responsible for each employee at the plant. Safety is what it’s all about.

Long story short, the heat treater (a separate building from the main plant) caught fire and the fire department had to be called in to get things under control.

It’s a good thing he sent me the e-mail, because I saw this on the local newspaper’s website when I sat down to eat my lunch. I called him, he said they’d be back in business in no time but it might be a long night tonight.

¹ Us folks in the know call the cardboard ‘corrugated’.

As I mentioned last week, there was a major fire at the local brewery Thursday night. I am home for my lunch hour and all I can hear are fire engine sirens. Earl just called me from work and says he sees nothing but smoke in the “general direction of our house”. I assured him that the house was fine and I didn’t see any smoke or smell anything odd but I could hear the sirens.

Looks like I need to do some scouting on the way back to work.

A story on CNN this morning reports that an ATM machine in Louisiana spit out $20s instead of $5s recently and that over $7000 in extra money was handed out to users of the machine over a two day period.

The authorities are thinking of bringing up charges against those that received the extra dough.

I think that’s wrong.

First of all, the article says that they think someone rigged the machine to spit out the wrong denomination bills. My gut tells me that in reality someone put $20 bills in the $5 slot when they were loading the machine but perhaps someone knew some codes and hacked into the ATM which, by the way, was probably made by the same company that those completely unneccessary but lord and savior electronic voting machines that keep messing up our elections.

Secondly, the problem was reported and the truck stop that owned the machine took action by unplugging it. It was subsequently plugged back in, apparently when no one was looking and so more people received extra money. That’s the fault of the folks at the truck stop, not the customers. The authorities have better things to do instead of tracking down folks from god knows where who got a few extra bucks. In a way, it was their lucky day (though in kind of a morally questionnable way), and if companies are going to be housing bank machines in every last remote location throughout the country then its their responsibility to make sure the machine is working correctly.

Remember the ads in the 1980s when people were all happy because the then brand new ATMs spit out too much money? The big voice said “It’s your lucky day!”

I guess that’s a thing of the past in today’s version of the United States.

It has been announced that Isaiah Washington has been signed on to the cast of the remake of “Bionic Woman”. Did you just hear that slam noise preceded by some metal clanging? That’s the bionic fist of every gay man and lesbian that grew up with Jaime Sommers as their hero slamming the coffin shut on this weak reimagining of our beloved show.

It just keeps going further downhill.

First, David Eick grabs the name “Jaime Sommers” and the title “Bionic Woman” after dropping the “The” from the beginning of it and turns our beloved hero into a bartender drop-out who has some anger issues. Next, they include a deaf younger sister, played by a hearing capable actress that talks in embarassingly stereotypical “deaf speech” while she’s signing, which outrages the deaf community. They drop the deaf sister instead of recasting a deaf actress in the role and then decide to punch it up a notch by casting a man who is surrounded by controversy for anti-gay remarks and put him on a show with a historically MAJOR GAY FOLLOWING.

Are you fscking kidding me?

I was boycotting the show because of the desecration to Lindsay Wagner’s portrayal of Jaime Sommers and the lack of the ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch sounds. The reason for my initial boycott pales in comparison to the reason I’m boycotting now – Isaiah Washington’s presence makes it a definite no-go.

There’s only one Jaime Sommers. And she was a tennis pro turned school teacher in Ojai, California with a really cool side job, some wicked strong legs and arm and wicked cool hearing and she had a really fast dog named Max.

Anything else is just a travesty.

It has been officially announced that Rosie O’Donnell will not be returning to “The View”, opting out of her contract three weeks early. Actually she asked for a leave of absence or something.

“The View” website says “Tune in on Monday, May 28 for Rosie’s last day with The View.”

I know there are many people out there that do not agree with Rosie’s point of view. In fact, there are a lot of people out there that fire off nasty messages on her website while hiding under a presumbed shroud of anonymity.

Whether you agree with Rosie or not (and I do 99% of the time), you have to admit that Rosie contributed to the American experience by getting people talking. Rosie’s outspokenness made people sit up, listen and think. It prompted many to speak out. And in these turmulous times, it’s important that each of us takes a moment to think about what’s going on in our country and the world. It’s o.k. to ask questions, even if your answer or opinion is different from those around you.

I’d like to thank Rosie for helping others find their voice and prompting them to look at the issues and views and forming their opinion. Best of luck to you and your family.

You rock, Ro.

As many as 32 dead from a shooting at Virginia Tech this morning. I’d say more, but I’m speechless.

Speechless and stunned.