Heath Care. Yes, again.

William Shatner has an interview show called “Raw Nerve.” When I was at DragonCon last September, he and Leonard Nimoy talked briefly about this show and Shatner mentioned that he’d gotten to interview Rush Limbaugh.

A clip from that interview has been release in which the two talk about health care. I have a personal issue with linking to anything that propagates Rush to a larger audience, so I’ll just give you a transcription of what I believe to be the money quotes.

SHATNER:
If you have money, you’re going to get health care. If you don’t have money it’s more difficult.

LIMBAUGH:
If you have money you’re going to get a house on the beach. If you don’t have money you’re going to live in a bungalow somewhere.

SHATNER:
But we’re talking about health care.

LIMBAUGH:
What’s the difference?

And there it is. That’s the source of all the conflict laid bare. The conservatives do not believe there is a difference between health care and anything else one might buy or own. And trying to explain it the difference is like banging your head against a wall made of stupid.

The difference is that if you don’t have access to health care, you can die. The difference is that, while conservatives are all about the free market and competition, the health insurance industry is exempted from antitrust laws – meaning they are a cartel, allowed to fix prices and therefore work outside of the free market. They buy congressmen in wholesale lots so despite polls that show a public option has widespread popularity, you get “independent” senators like Joe Lieberman who will vote against any bill that includes anything that might change the status quo.

Our congressmen work for the health insurance industry, not for us.

I am so sick and tired of hearing conservative pundits say we have the best health care system in the world. I’m tired of hearing people tell me that no one is turned away for lack of ability to pay. That’s just not the case.

If I go to the emergency room today with something serious, like a tumor. They have no obligation to remove it. They are obliged to get me stable enough to go home.

I am tired of conservatives complaining that they don’t want to have to pay for someone else’s health care. We do not get to pick and choose what our tax dollars are spent on. If we could, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would have been defunded years ago. I have news for you. You’re already paying for other people’s health care. Every time someone goes to the emergency room and can’t pay, you pay.

So, would you rather pay on the front end – preventative care that is cheaper and ultimately more successful – or on the back end – emergency room care that is the most expensive way to get care.

They scream about “rationing health care” but our health care is already rationed. If I were to go to the largest medical partnership in my town as a new patient and ask to see a doctor for a physical check up, the earliest I could get an appointment is March. MARCH! They might could get me in next month if I’m willing to see a nurse, instead. I can go the walk-in clinic, but they don’t do physicals or well visits. And if I can’t pay, I’ll be banned.

The current model cannot hold because it is bankrupting people. Insurance companies are cherry picking healthy people and dropping the sick ones so even if you can afford insurance and make your payments, as soon as you need their help, they will drop you. Once that happens, you cannot get insurance because of your “pre-existing condition.”

I was making this point with a conservative friend recently. As soon as I mentioned health care reform, she said “Meaning everyone has the same health care.”

“No,” I said. “Meaning everyone can afford health care insurance.”

“Meaning the government gets involved.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to have this conversation with you.”

The government is not our enemy. I don’t understand why, with the success and popularity of Medicare and Medicaid, that conservatives believe the government is incapable of running a health care system. They say they don’t want a government bureaucrat to get between a patient and doctor. But we currently have a corporate bureaucrat doing that very thing.

I don’t understand why small business owners aren’t on the steps of the capital demanding a single-payer government health care system like Medicare for everyone. Wouldn’t not having to provide health insurance for your employees help your bottom line?

Let’s be clear about our terms:

Socialized Medicine: that’s where all the hospitals are owned by the government and all the doctors, nurses and staff work for the government.

Single payer: that’s like Medicare, where hospitals and doctors work pretty much as they do now, but they bill the government for services and everyone is covered.

Public option: who the hell knows?

Downtown

I’ve worked in downtown Nashville for coming up on two years now. It is lively and entertaining and, despite the commute, I really like it. One of the reasons for that is the cast of characters you see on the streets. Right outside my office, there are at least two barkers trying to lure the tourists into either B.B. Kings or Coyote Ugly. On slow days, the Hooters girls will hula hoop on the sidewalk to bring the folks in for bad food served with a side of cleavage.

There is this one guy who I see occasionally. He’s old, in a wheelchair, and plays an acoustic guitar for change. He’s pretty good, too. He’s been down here forever, as far as I can tell. I have stopped to listen and throw a few coins in his bucket. When my friend Mitch came downtown for lunch (having recently moved back to Nashville from points north) he mentioned that this guy was down here playing back when Mitch was haunting 2nd Avenue the first time.

I haven’t seen him in a few weeks and it turns out there’s a reason. The Tennessean ran his obituary today. It seems he’s been performing on 2nd for change for 30 years. A rash of robberies (including his van he used to sleep in) prompted a police officer to help him get into housing and get some health care. I was glad to read he didn’t die alone on some street corner.

I was also glad to see that he was deemed newsworthy enough for a profile in the paper.

–

I have withdrawn from the media coverage of the healthcare bill. We’re getting to the point where it just makes me angry and I’ve come to terms with the notion that whatever passes will be awful and that the Democrats are stupid and unable to effectively use their majority status, which still makes them only slightly better than Republicans who have truly become the party of “No!”

Maybe it would have gone better if we’d declared war on something – the war on illness, the war on medical bankruptcy, the war on pre-existing conditions – I’m just spitballing here. The right never seems to question war funding and Republican presidents have a history of declaring war on things that don’t have an army to fight.

–

Started a new video game over the weekend. DragonAge Origins is Bioware’s new “Dark Epic Fantasy.” I’ve bought nearly every console game that Bioware has produced. I babbled at my friends about how cool Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was. Jade Empire was equally fun (if short). Elder Scrolls: Oblivion took several years before I’d completed it. I’ve played through Mass Effect three times, including exploring all the planets.

So I have high hopes for this one. I don’t buy a lot of games, so anything I buy has to have replayability. Otherwise I’ll rent it or borrow it. DragonAge looks to have that quality. So far, the story has been engaging, but the fight mechanics are a little hard to get used to. I get this feeling that I’m going to run across some shortcut command once I’m 20 or more hours into the story that’s going to be a facepalm moment as I realize how much easier it would have made the earlier chapters.

This happened in Mass Effect twice. Once when I realized the vehicle they give you to explore the surface of planets had a big cannon on it (I’d been making do with the machine guns) and the second was when I figured out that the same vehicle had a sniper scope on the cannon (meaning I could get better shots on enemy positions).

DragonAge represents (at least for me, anyway) another step in videogame delivery. Buying the disc new meant you got a code good for unlocking a character that those who rent the game will not see. It also came with a code that will give you a set of armor to use in Mass Effect 2, which is due next year. Finally, certain quests that pop up during conversations will have a response option that includes downloading additional content (for additional money).

I like the downloadable content model being used by a lot of games lately. It keeps the cost of the initial game down somewhat and offers the designers a chance to have users provide feedback about what they want to see. If you like the game, you can extend it by a few hours for another ten bucks. If you don’t like the game, then you aren’t saddled with paying for content you have no interest in.

It’s a good system.

What I don’t get are the people who play sports titles and buy what is essentially the same game every year with only minor changes. Is Madden 09 that much different from Madden 08? Wouldn’t a downloadable roster update make more sense? For the player, yes. For EA Sports, not so much, I guess.

–

This morning on the way to work I kept hearing someone blowing their horn. I checked each time to make sure it wasn’t me doing something wrong. Then I caught a glimpse of what was going on. It was a sedan in the HOV lane. The driver was blowing his horn at the drivers in front of him who weren’t supposed to be in the lane because they were alone in the vehicle.

He blew his horn at one SUV which moved over into the next lane just in time to keep from being spotted by a State Trooper parked in the median looking for HOV violators.

In Nashville, they don’t patrol the HOV lanes all that often, but when they do, they usually patrol in pairs. Once you spot the first patrol car, you might manage to get into the correct lane before being seen and then move back into the HOV lane once you’re out of sight. That’s when the second patrol car pulls you over.

But this is the first vigilante approach to HOV enforcement. I liked it.

An Open Letter to Congressman Bart Gordon

Dear Congressman Gordon,

I moved to your district in 1986 while you were still in your second term. I have been a supporter of you and the Democratic Party for just about as long. My family worked for your campaign when you had a close call against Steve Gill. For the 10+ years I’ve had this blog, I’ve publicly ridiculed your opponents and defended your record.

Your district has grown more and more Republican, yet you manage to hold onto your seat. Tennessee 6 voted for McCain by 62 percent in the last election. Around Murfreesboro, people put up signs for McCain and Gordon in the same yard.

Your voting record has grown more conservative as well. Your vote to authorize torture made me incredibly angry. Your record is a string of votes along party lines until something comes up that really matters. But I continued to support you, because the alternative was going to be some anti-abortion, corporatist stooge.

Last Saturday, you voted against the House health insurance reform bill, citing that it would not reduce the cost of health care. But the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill and said it would save money and eventually create a surplus.

It seems like you’re listening to the vocal minority – the teabaggers and birthers – who don’t believe the government is capable of doing anything well. These are a loud crowd of Glenn Beck followers who strive to defend the downtrodden insurance companies. I’m amazed at how many people not only vote against their own economic self interests, but go out and protest against them.

I’ve seen estimates that say there are 54,000 people in your district without health insurance. How many of them will have to declare bankruptcy because you don’t trust CBO numbers?

The thing is, it isn’t even about that. It isn’t about the yelling crowds or the phone calls to the field office or the growing conservative nature of your district or even your proffered reasons regarding the bill’s cost. The real reason you voted against health insurance reform is that over the course of your 13 terms in Congress, you have received more than $1.4 million in campaign cash from the health care industry.

That says to me that the teabaggers could have stayed home because you never had any intention of voting any other way.

But putting that aside for a moment, I want to know why you voted to include the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the bill? You have proclaimed yourself pro-choice on many occasions, but this amendment limits the ability of women to buy health insurance that covers abortion. Hell, I want to know why you voted to include any amendments to a bill you had no intention of voting for. All you did was make the bill worse before voting against it anyway.

You know how I know your vote was based on campaign contributions? Because you had to know that even voting for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and against the bill it was attached to wouldn’t cut any ice with the teabaggers and birthers who will back the Republican candidate against you next year anyway.

In fact, Politico reported that your seat has been targeted and it looks like you’re in for a tough race next year. In the past, you could have counted on my support. Not any more. I’ve written too many of these letters over the last few years only to see you sell me out again and again.

Maybe 13 terms is enough. Do you have any other skills?

Mike Reed
Resident of Murfreesboro, Tenn.

–

Just so we’re clear, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment was an 11th hour inclusion in the bill to try and bring the Blue Dog Caucus around. Last summer, when all the astroturf groups were storming the town hall meetings, an agreement was struck in the form of the Capps Amendment.

The Capps Amendment says that private plans offered through an insurance exchange cannot use federal funds to cover abortion services, but premiums paid by the individual could be used. The agreement also said that at least one plan from every region would offer abortion coverage and at least one plan would not.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment states that insurance companies aren’t allowed to offer plans that cover abortion services to anyone who receives a government subsidy, even if the premiums are paid with private funds. The public option will not cover abortion and no one who participates in the public option is allowed to buy abortion coverage. Insurance companies are allowed to offer abortion coverage as part of the public plan, but only those who pay for the public plan without any government subsidy are allowed to buy it.

What is boils down to is that wealthy women will  have access to insurance plans that cover all aspects of their reproductive health, but the poor and middle class women will not.

Rep. Stupak suggested that women could buy an “abortion rider” on top of their existing plan. This is stupid on the surface because it would require women to plan to have an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy. Plus, since 85 percent of current employer-based plans, already offer abortion coverage, such riders do not exist. The legislation doesn’t call for their creation and it is unlikely that insurance companies will offer them.

It is unfortunate that a bill designed to offer better health insurance options to people has gotten tangled in the abortion debate.

–

This weekend the family and I were in Nashville tooling around. Dollie needed to do some research at the state library and archive, which is next to the capitol building. The kids and I went to the Adventure Science Center before driving back to pick her up.

We took a little walk around the capitol and listened to the protesters. They didn’t really seem to have a common theme. You got the usual crazies who don’t believe the Constitution allows an income tax, the people who believe President Obama is a Marxist/Leninist/Socialist/Communist/Muslim and the people who believe the country has gone to hell since Reagan left office. A shrill woman on a bullhorn told the crowd that the off-year elections (in which the Dems won all the national offices and the Republicans won two governors seats) was proof that the Democrats (and even moderate Republicans) were in trouble.

She specifically cited New York 23, which has been a Republican district since the Civil War, but was taken by the Democrats when the teabaggers forced the Republican candidate out of the race in favor of a Conservative Party candidate. I love how they think forcing out a moderate Republican in favor of a moderate Democrat is a “win.”

But I believe Max hit the nail on the head as we left the capitol:

“I don’t think this was about health care at all,” he said. “It seems like they just don’t like Obama and are looking for something to complain about.”

–

Attended my first meeting of the Metro Nashville Domestic Violence Death Review Panel. I signed a confidentiality agreement not to talk about what is discussed in the meeting. I will say this, though. I got to meet Dr. Henry Foster, who also serves on the committee.

He was President Clinton’s nominee to replace Dr. Jocelyn Elders as Surgeon General, but his nomination was sandbagged by Sen Phil Gramm who was grandstanding as he sought the 1996 Republican presidential nomination. It was a pleasure to meet him and I told him so.

An update on my new phone

So, I found out who used to own the phone number I now have. I got a call today for Cary Williams. This was the first time that anyone had asked for him by his full name. So, I Googled him. Turns out, he’s a rookie cornerback with the Tennessee Titans.

I called the guy back who’d phoned to ask if he was looking for the Cary Williams with the Titans and he said he was. I then texted the model who sent me the Halloween pic and she confirmed.

I just finished writing Mr. Williams a letter, letting him know how much I’ve enjoyed this experience and to see if he’d like me to give anyone his new contact info. I’ll keep you posted.

In and out . . . real quick

Halloween came and went so fast that it didn’t hardly register. With Dollie living in East Tennessee and me being the lazy sod I am, the decorations didn’t go up with the exception of the giant inflatable Homer in the front yard. Even that was put up on Halloween and taken down the next day.

Max and I even put off buying pumpkins until Friday. That turned out to be a mistake as three Krogers, a Publix, and a Food Lion near our house were all out of pumpkins by the time we rolled in looking to score.

Saturday morning, bright and early, I sought out a roadside stand. I found a dude and picked up four. I gutted them and had them waiting for when the entire family was together that afternoon. We got them all carved about an hour before dark.

Rozzy's Bear Holding Shark

Max's Strong Bad

Dollie's Spooky Tree

My Tiki head

Not too shabby. We took the kids trick-or-treating with the Hambys. We walked up and down Main Street and several of the roads leading off of it. Some of the old houses were converted into incredibly spooky places by some folks who were waaaaaay into Halloween.

Good for them. After a taking the kids by the hospital to screen the candy for curses and evil spirits, we called it a night.

–

Yesterday, I picked Max up and we went to Krogers to pick up some groceries. We went through the store and I was very careful to remember to pick up all the little things I usually forget: light bulbs, paper towels ect… We had a cartload and I was looking to see which line I wanted to join, when I reached into my pocket and realized I had no wallet. I had left it on my desk at work. Yikes.

“What are we going to do?” Max asked. I found an earnest young clerk and explained my situation, sort of.

ME:
Hi, I just loaded up this cart full of groceries and realize that I’ve left my wallet at home.

CLERK:
Oh, well, that’s okay. How far away do you live?

ME:
Well, a mile or so.

CLERK:
I’ll put it aside for you and you can come back.

ME:
Well . . . uh . . .fine, thanks. [I ushered Max out the door]

MAX:
Did you leave your wallet at home or at work?

ME:
At work, but you don’t sound so stupid if you say you left it at home.

MAX:
So what are we going to do?

ME:
Go home.

Along the way, I realized that this was a bad lesson to teach Max, so I pulled out my cell phone and called the store.

ME:
Hi, I was just in the store and left a cart full of groceries with a clerk.

LADY:
Yes. I have it here.

ME:
Well, I didn’t leave my wallet at home, I left it in Nashville. I’m not going to be back tonight to pick those up.

LADY:
Thank you so much for calling. Most people just leave the cart in the aisle.

ME:
Well, I had some frozen stuff in there and I didn’t want it to go bad.

LADY:
Thank you. We’ll take care of it.

So I let Max know that everything was cool and we didn’t have to put on disguises to go to Kroger any more. But I still had no wallet and not enough gas to get to work in the morning. So, I dug around in the couch cushions and found five dollars in change to buy just under two gallons of gas.

I got to LP Field where I park to ride the shuttle downtown and realized my shuttle pass is in my wallet. Great. I’m going to be late to work because I have to walk the mile or so to 2nd.

Bottom line, kids, leaving your wallet at work can mess up two days of your life.

I’m sorry, you’ve got a wrong . . . hello!

I got a new cell phone number about a month ago. Wireless companies being what they are, they have a lot of churn. So when you get a new cell phone number, you can expect to be getting some calls for the previous owner of that number. I don’t know what the waiting period is for re-issuing a number, but there is a guy named Cary out there somewhere who had a lot of friends.

I get calls for him most days and rarely does a week go by that I don’t get a text message or two from some acquaintance. His old coach (I don’t know what sport or whether it is high school or college) sends me texts all the time asking how he’s doing. I explain that I’m not him and that he should stop, he apologizes, then texts me again the next week.

I got a text that contained a photo of a new line of athletic shoes coming on the market and a request for my (his) opinion.

I got a text from his aunt who, when I texted her back to say I wasn’t her nephew, she texted back to apologize and then called 10 minutes later to make sure I wasn’t really her nephew trying to blow her off.

So, it has been a bit of an adventure for a few weeks. An annoying adventure. That is until just after midnight on Halloween. That was when I got a text message that said:

Happy Halloween! I miss talkn to you Cary!

Accompanying the message was a photo of a pretty young woman dressed for Halloween in what can only be considered “slutty construction worker.”

(I asked her if it would be okay to publish her photo for this blog and she said “Hell no! Don’t! I model and I can not have picz floating around of me” So I’ll respect that). It was very late and the phone actually woke me and Dollie up when the message came through. In my bleary state, I saw the photo, realized it wasn’t for me and hung up, but not before I tapped out a quick “wow.”

Dollie woke up enough to joke “Is your girlfriend texting you in the middle of the night?”

“Well, yeah, sort of,” I said and showed her the photo.

“She’s hot,” Dollie replied.

“I know, right?” I’m gaining a new respect for Cary. Soon, I got a second text message:

“Wow what? Wish u were here . . . by now we’d be official. But I hope all is well with u I’ve gotten best costume at 3 clubs now lol.”

I know. I have no idea what’s going on either. But it was Halloween and I decided to let it lie. She texted a couple of more times saying how much she missed Cary and how much she’d really like to get to know him better “we might end up being the best of friends or more

At this point I decided to confess that I wasn’t Cary. She ”lol’d” and asked who I was and if I was hot.

“Tell her your wife thinks you’re hot,” suggested Dollie. So I did. She thought that was funny as well. I told her I didn’t want to cause either her or Cary any trouble, it was a really cool picture and I was having some fun with her. She said it wasn’t a problem and that she and Cary had never met, but were just texting buddies. She hasn’t heard from him in a year and just spontaneously decided to send him a photo.

She was also impressed that I’d told Dollie about it. But really, why wouldn’t I? This isn’t a sit com where I have to hide things from my wife because she’d be threatened by a picture on a phone. So we chatted back and forth until she asked “How old r u?”

“41. How old are you?”

“23 LOL”

So I told her that it was very nice meeting her, sorry I don’t know anything about Cary and that if she wants a text buddy to send more photos to, feel free to keep my number.

“Where mine at?” she replied. So I sent her a photo of me — middle-aged, bald, husband and father — with the note “I know, just your type, right?” She said married men weren’t her type.

So it was an interesting Halloween, pumpkins, trick-or-treating and candy aside. I still have no idea who this person is, but judging from her area code, she’s in Wisconsin. Judging my her costume, she’s freezing to death.

A bold new mission?

When I was in sixth grade at Harris Middle School in Shelbyville, Tenn., the entire school gathered in the gym for a presentation about  . . . nutrition, I think. It may have been about fire safety. The details are hazy. From what I recall, however, the group of earnest teens putting on the presentation were doing a series of skits designed to make us laugh as we thought about  . . . um . . . water conservation?

Anyhoo, about the only thing I remember is that they did a Star Wars skit in which Luke Skywalker defeated Darth Vader by waving a school cafeteria lunch in his face.

I know.

Hilarious.

It was to me because I was such a Star Wars nerd that any mention of it kept me enraptured. So, even today, all those years later, I remember the Star Wars theme music playing and Luke thrusting a covered object at Vader in time to the music until Vader collapses and Luke whips off the cloth to reveal a cafeteria tray covered with disgusting food.

But I still can’t remember what lesson I was supposed to take away from it. It may have been traffic safety. I know it wasn’t energy conservation because that presentation had a guy informing a crowd of middle school students that we could save energy by shaving with an electric razor, rather than hot water and a blade.

I thought about this today because I read this.

CBS CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND MAD SCIENCE TO CREATE NEW LIVE STAGE SHOW BASED ON STAR TREK

Interactive show slated to debut in 2010

NEW YORK October 23, 2009 – CBS Consumer Products, a unit of CBS Entertainment, and Mad Science®, have united to launch an interactive stage show — STAR TREK LIVE.

Targeted for a run in theme parks and performing arts centers across the country, the show takes audiences of all ages on an exhilarating journey with Captain James T. Kirk and Vulcan science officer Spock. The show combines cutting-edge special effects, unmatched audience interaction and an exploration of real space-age technology.

“The STAR TREK brand continues to offer entertainment and education through this multifaceted live stage show,” says Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Consumer Products. “STAR TREK LIVE allows fans to experience Starfleet Academy firsthand and follow in the footsteps of STAR TREK’s iconic heroes.”

I feel sorry for Star Trek fans who are so desperate to experience a little of the juice from the series that they will seek out this show. I know them. Were I independently wealthy, I would probably be one of them. Of course this isn’t the most ridiculous thing to come out of the franchise lately.

–

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Look, I get it. It’s raining . . .

I’ve complained before about the crossing guards in front of my kids’ school – how they are occasionally irritable, not entirely focused on the job at hand and sometimes would rather speak with their friends than, you know, make sure we don’t get killed trying to drop our kids off at school.

This morning was typical. The guards are supposed to be there from 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. – the half hour alloted for getting your children to school. It is pouring down rain this morning when I arrive at 7:03. There are no crossing guards. They are there, but they’re sitting in their cars on the side of the road.

Well, maybe my clock is a little off and they’re not getting out in the rain until absolutely necessary. While not an ideal situation, I can relate. From my direction it is a left-hand turn across two lanes of on-coming traffic to get to the school. Fortunately, a car stopped and let me and two other drivers through.

Because some of the parents still haven’t gotten the procedure down, I have to wait behind a minivan as the mother parks in the middle of the drop off lane and walks her precious snowflake to the door. So, when I get to the school’s exit, it is 7:14 a.m. Still pouring down rain. Still no crossing guard. She’s sitting in the middle turn lane in her truck watching as parents struggle to pull into traffic.

Pathetic. Really. You have to be there for half an hour in the morning. Children and parents depend on you for safety. You have raincoats and hats. Use them.

The worst part is that it is during the bad weather and visibility is down that you’re needed most. You’ve skipped half your work morning by sitting in your care instead of doing your job.

Unbelievable.

–

Congratulations to President Obama on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. As Americans we should all be proud when such a prestigious award is given to one of our own. I’m not certain as to the reasons the committee made this decision, but it is not unprecedented for them to use the Peace Prize as a way of prompting further efforts down a path of which they approve.[*cough* Menachem Begin *cough* Anwar Sudat *cough*]

In the grand scheme of things, the Nobel Prize doesn’t mean all that much. President Obama’s acceptance speech was gracious and humble (you know, like how President Bush promised America’s foreign policy would be). I don’t understand these right wingers who would despise him so much that they wouldn’t feel a little pride in the fact that an American has won the prize.

It was the same for the Olympics. The U.S. Olympic Committee is in a feud with the International Olympic Committee. Seriously, it’s bad. It is unlikely that we will get another Olympic games for a generation. So Chicago’s bid was doomed. Even the presence of Obama and Oprah couldn’t save it. But when Chicago didn’t get the 2016 games, the right wing went berserk. They were dancing in the streets. You would have thought it was VE day all over again.

They are so hateful of this president that they celebrate when America loses out on playing host to a world event because it will embarrass him for a day or two.

Unbelievable.

–

So I’ve throttled back on my Comcast internet usage. I’m hoping it will be enough to get me out of the doghouse with them. I compare it to having an apartment in which the water is included in the rent. That doesn’t give me license to turn on the tap and leave it running day and night, which is essentially what I was doing.

I get it. Let’s hope it is enough to keep me from being suspended.

–

I’m having trouble with my TV antenna. A few days ago, the local CBS affiliate stopped coming in. No amount of futzing with the antenna will make a difference. It’s odd because it was coming in clearly and several days and then nothing – not a reduced signal, not a fuzzy picture – just nothing.

Love this digital future.

–

Took the family to an Appalachian Farm Arts Festival in East Tennessee last weekend. The kids got to pet the alpacas and llamas. We bought a pan of cinnamon rolls from a Mennonite family that probably weighed eight pounds (the pan, not the family. They appeared healthy).

Dollie pointed out one of the most entertaining sites was the young Mennonite girls standing in line for a hay ride. “Really? A hayride?” she said. “Don’t you think they get enough of that back home?”

One of the staples of any kind of “fun for the whole family” kind of carnival is the booth where you give the kid a make-shift fishing pole and let them “fish” for a prize by throwing the line over a wall where someone in the back can attach a prize. I’ve seen dozens of these and there was one here, too.

Max spent most of his tickets here for some reason. The prizes were lame: a pencil or pen from a local check cashing business, a  “Shrek “Happy Meal Toy (Finonna only), or a piece of candy.

About the eight time Max threw his line in, he pulled a pencil. He threw it back (much to our embarrassment). He complained loudly about how he already had a bunch of pencils. So he pulled back a pen. He threw it back and said he gave the fish a perfectly good ticket and didn’t need a pen. He pulled his line back and on the clip was his ticket back.

I laughed, made Max apologize to the fish and banned him from playing that game again.

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I read that Captain Lou Albano died yesterday. Captain Lou was a big deal in the ’80s – part of the original Rock and Wrestling connection. He and Cindy Lauper and Hulk Hogan had quite a little side show going for a while.

I haven’t heard much from Captain Lou in a long time. But I was reminded of him during DragoCon because as I was in line to see Felicia Day, I passed by a table with an old man sitting by himself wearing traditional Arabian head garb.

It was the Iron Sheik! Man oh man, how many afternoons did I waste cheering for someone, anyone to beat that man to death. His finishing move was the Camel Clutch – devastating. I was in the middle of a good-old-fashioned day dream when I saw a handler come by and wheel him away. He was a feeble old man, now. His knees, shoulders and hips are probably gone. He no longer demonstrated his amazing strength with the Persian Club challenge.

Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff were my favorite tag team because they were such heels in the ring and they were managed by “Classy” Freddie Blassie, who was the most obnoxious spokesman at the time.

They used to begin each match by playing the Russian national anthem. This simply wasn’t done in Reagan’s America. It was great showmanship. Iron Sheik lost the heavyweight title to newcomer Hulk Hogan and wrestling sort of went mainstream.

Max recently expressed a passing interest in wrestling and we’ve watched a few shows. But it isn’t the same anymore. It was never real, but these days it doesn’t seem like they’re even trying.

In the old days, if a match was going south for one of the stars, another star might charge the ring and help him out with a folding chair or something. Now, no one enters the arena without a theme song, some fireworks and a big-screen image of them posing behind their official logo.

There isn’t even an illusion that any of this wasn’t planned in advance. There are too many distractions from the wrestling now. One show we watched stopped the matches so that some dude could stage a half-hour talk show in the middle of everything.

Unbelievable. I know. I’m an old coot who complaints too much about how the world should be. Maybe the rain is affecting my bum shoulder.

Get off my lawn.

Max lost a tooth yesterday. He said “Should I put it under my pillow wink wink?” Tooth fairy doesn’t visit little boys who say “wink wink.”

My cell phone and bladder conspired to wake me this morning a full four minutes before my alarm clock was supposed to. Happy hump day.