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Apr. 27th, 2011 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* I'm reading Lord of the White Hell: Book One, another homoerotic steampunk charmer by Ginn Hale. She does such wonderful things.
* Voter registration drives statistically mostly help low income, students, and POC, so Florida Republicans are doing their best to get rid of them. Of course. They are doing the same in Kansas and a number of other states. Democracy being anathema to modern Republican politician, further disenfranchising POC and the poor is an obvious next move.
* So what is my deal with Richard Burton (the actor, not the 19th century linguist, traveler, explorer, and translator)? It's likely not what you think. In RL, he was the kind of broken that would have made me edge away fast if I'd ever met him. It's not a crush or a sexual interest of any kind. When I was a child, we watched him on a chat show, on which he parsed the verb to be as if it were a poem about existence. His acting talent and the beauty of his voice transformed grammar into Art. People a century ago talked about being moved to tears watching Sarah Bernhardt read a phone book. I got shivers watching Richard Burton say, "I am. You are." etc.. That, my friends, is talent. Often, the scripts of the movies he was in did not live up to his talent. He lived between the theater world and the movie world; between the mining village in wales and his large extended family from which he came and the glamor and wealth of his life with the movie stars; a bisexual in a Era when that was not okay, torn, like Spencer Tracy between his ideal of masculinity and the bits of him which didn't fit that stereotypical identity. Like him, an alcoholic with an epic love affair with a woman who was a strong and powerful woman in her own right; both never quite forgiving themselves for leaving wife and children for those women; both overshadowed in their careers by the women they loved best. All the beauty of his acting skill shone through. He fascinates me, when I watch him on screen, even through the crappy scripts and the outside drama. I still watch my favorite of his films, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? once a year or so.
* The crowds going to Republican Town Hall Meetings to complain about them voting to abolish Medicare are mostly bigger than the corporate funded Tea Party crowds at the democratic Town halls during health care reform.
* Want to make Medicare cheaper? Make Part D Single payer, like A and B. This would end the give away to the insurance companies running D, and single payer is vastly cheaper and more efficient, since there is no profit being siphoned up by insurance companies. It would have the added benefit of cutting down on folks like me having to fight to keep there meds every month. What's it like under single payer, by the way? Are there death panels? If I need tests, I get tests. If I need a specialist, I can just phone them up and make an appointment. Let me repeat that for those of you are U.S citizens lucky enough to have insurance. I just phone up specialists and make appointments when I need them. All this for way less than your insurance costs. Why was I pushing single payer/medicare for all during health care reform? It's way cheaper than insurance and it saves lives. Why do Republicans hate it so much? Because it means insurance companies can't make record profits by refusing life saving medical care to the poor and middle class. Single payer means everyone gets preventative care and the treatment they need to stay active. The Insurance system means that there are two health care systems, one excellent system for the very rich and the rest must go begging and have a choice between bankruptcy or death. Republicans want that second system as Corporations and the very rich are the only "citizens" who matter. Imagine if everyone could buy into medicare at any age? You could just go to the doctor if you caught bronchitis or found a mysterious lump growing where no lump should be, you know, like they do in Canada or England, or France, or Sweden.
Revolutionary.
* Today, Vermont got very close to a single payer state health care system. Fingers crossed on them succeeding.
* In Syria, the government is shooting at people who are coming to collect their dead. The Syrian government is calling these unarmed civilians "terrorists." After all, collecting your dead for burial is clearly a criminal act that would terrorize the populace, right? Seems like the opposite to me.
* I'm reaching the point where I want to yell "Shut up! Shut up!" at the TV whenever Donald Trump or Royal Wedding stuff appears on it.
* There appears to be flooding and serious risk of more along the Mississippi. Levies are breaking in Missouri. Those of you in that region, stay safe.
* sparkindarkness' Bad News Roundup: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-bews-round-up.html
Violence Edition: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-news-round-up-violence.html
* Word: http://feyandstrange.livejournal.com/1076891.html
* Rachel Maddow on Republican attempts to prevent children of those who are not rich from getting an education: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42773719
* Voter registration drives statistically mostly help low income, students, and POC, so Florida Republicans are doing their best to get rid of them. Of course. They are doing the same in Kansas and a number of other states. Democracy being anathema to modern Republican politician, further disenfranchising POC and the poor is an obvious next move.
* So what is my deal with Richard Burton (the actor, not the 19th century linguist, traveler, explorer, and translator)? It's likely not what you think. In RL, he was the kind of broken that would have made me edge away fast if I'd ever met him. It's not a crush or a sexual interest of any kind. When I was a child, we watched him on a chat show, on which he parsed the verb to be as if it were a poem about existence. His acting talent and the beauty of his voice transformed grammar into Art. People a century ago talked about being moved to tears watching Sarah Bernhardt read a phone book. I got shivers watching Richard Burton say, "I am. You are." etc.. That, my friends, is talent. Often, the scripts of the movies he was in did not live up to his talent. He lived between the theater world and the movie world; between the mining village in wales and his large extended family from which he came and the glamor and wealth of his life with the movie stars; a bisexual in a Era when that was not okay, torn, like Spencer Tracy between his ideal of masculinity and the bits of him which didn't fit that stereotypical identity. Like him, an alcoholic with an epic love affair with a woman who was a strong and powerful woman in her own right; both never quite forgiving themselves for leaving wife and children for those women; both overshadowed in their careers by the women they loved best. All the beauty of his acting skill shone through. He fascinates me, when I watch him on screen, even through the crappy scripts and the outside drama. I still watch my favorite of his films, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? once a year or so.
* The crowds going to Republican Town Hall Meetings to complain about them voting to abolish Medicare are mostly bigger than the corporate funded Tea Party crowds at the democratic Town halls during health care reform.
* Want to make Medicare cheaper? Make Part D Single payer, like A and B. This would end the give away to the insurance companies running D, and single payer is vastly cheaper and more efficient, since there is no profit being siphoned up by insurance companies. It would have the added benefit of cutting down on folks like me having to fight to keep there meds every month. What's it like under single payer, by the way? Are there death panels? If I need tests, I get tests. If I need a specialist, I can just phone them up and make an appointment. Let me repeat that for those of you are U.S citizens lucky enough to have insurance. I just phone up specialists and make appointments when I need them. All this for way less than your insurance costs. Why was I pushing single payer/medicare for all during health care reform? It's way cheaper than insurance and it saves lives. Why do Republicans hate it so much? Because it means insurance companies can't make record profits by refusing life saving medical care to the poor and middle class. Single payer means everyone gets preventative care and the treatment they need to stay active. The Insurance system means that there are two health care systems, one excellent system for the very rich and the rest must go begging and have a choice between bankruptcy or death. Republicans want that second system as Corporations and the very rich are the only "citizens" who matter. Imagine if everyone could buy into medicare at any age? You could just go to the doctor if you caught bronchitis or found a mysterious lump growing where no lump should be, you know, like they do in Canada or England, or France, or Sweden.
Revolutionary.
* Today, Vermont got very close to a single payer state health care system. Fingers crossed on them succeeding.
* In Syria, the government is shooting at people who are coming to collect their dead. The Syrian government is calling these unarmed civilians "terrorists." After all, collecting your dead for burial is clearly a criminal act that would terrorize the populace, right? Seems like the opposite to me.
* I'm reaching the point where I want to yell "Shut up! Shut up!" at the TV whenever Donald Trump or Royal Wedding stuff appears on it.
* There appears to be flooding and serious risk of more along the Mississippi. Levies are breaking in Missouri. Those of you in that region, stay safe.
* sparkindarkness' Bad News Roundup: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-bews-round-up.html
Violence Edition: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/04/bad-news-round-up-violence.html
* Word: http://feyandstrange.livejournal.com/1076891.html
* Rachel Maddow on Republican attempts to prevent children of those who are not rich from getting an education: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42773719
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