Okay, I realize I’m cynical, but

stuff like this only makes me feel like a realist:

According to yesterday’s New York Times, ten members of the thirty-two-member government panel that suggested drugs like Vioxx and Bextra should be returned to the market despite concerns about potential side-effects had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

If you want to read the whole article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/25/politics/25fda.html?

This stuff only fortifies my belief that too many people making government decisions have hands up their asses. What kind of society do we live in when these kinds of money puppets put the health of the corporation over the health of individuals?

Makes me feel like I could use a pill….

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:
(Rain Man)
Raymond: Are you taking any prescription medication?

Ray

Just saw the movie Ray, finally. It was so great, and Jamie Foxx was transformed. I mean, he was Ray Charles. (If I had access to italics here, I’d use them…) Think I used about half a box of Kleenex though. The film was inspiring and emotionally draining at the same time.

This made me feel old

Talking to my sixteen-year-old babysitter today about last night’s SNL: The First Five Years retrospective. She said she didn’t really get it, didn’t think it was funny, and that it really couldn’t compare to the SNL of today.

She got that right.

Hey, is SNL even still on?

PRESIDENTS’ DAY…Here’s more underhanded propaganda for you:

A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets

February 21, 2005 from the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 – Taking its cues from the success of last year’s Swift boat veterans’ campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush’s toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security.

The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush’s plan.

“They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts,” said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. “We will be the dynamite that removes them.”

Though it is not clear how much money USA Next has in hand for the campaign – Mr. Jarvis will not say, and the group, which claims 1.5 million members, does not have to disclose its donors – officials say that the group’s annual budget was more than $28 million last year. The group, a membership organization with no age requirements for joining, has also spent millions in recent years vigorously supporting Bush proposals on tax cuts, energy and the Medicare prescription drug plan.

So far, the groups dueling over Social Security have been relatively tame, but the plans by USA Next foreshadow what could be a steep escalation in the war to sway public opinion and members of Congress in the days ahead.

If you want to read the whole article, go to
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21social.html?hp&ex=1109048400&en=31aa371bb47479ad&ei=5094&partner=homepage

This kind of stuff worked to defeat health care reform in this country. Let’s see if it works this time. I think they’ve got a much tougher battle now, because it seems like the majority seems to be against Social Security privatization. But I never underestimate the power of bullshit bombardment.

By the way, current numbers for the war:

American soldiers dead: 1477
American soldiers wounded: 10,968 (official count, though estimates including non-combat injuries and illnesses total 12,000 )
Civilian Dead: 16,0000-18,0000

Have you seen anything about that in YOUR local paper?

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:
(Apocalypse Now)

Kurtz: You’re nothing but an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect the bill.

Not exactly a tragedy, but…

definitely a fiasco. Today I discovered that my four-year-old had written all over the hardwood floors of our house with a pink marker. (I think it’s hi-liter.) Not just one room either — from end-to-end of the house. I’ve tried everything to get it off. The only thing that seems to work is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but that seems to be erasing some of the finish as well…

I know this is a normal thing for kids to do, a kind of rite-of-passage for parenting, but I am meditating with this mantra: I still love him I still love him I still love him……..

This is one of the hard days though.

It unfolded like this:

I noticed the writing on the floor and almost assumed that the two-year-old had somehow gotten a pen. I mean, surely the four-year-old knows better, right? So I asked the four-year-old about it, and he started telling the story of how his brother had written on the floor. Then I noticed that the scribbles were in the shapes of houses and letters, so I asked if the four-year-old had written it. He denied having done it, so I said, “If you tell the truth, I won’t be mad.” (Total mistake saying that…)

So, he siad, “Yeah, I did it. I wrote it.” And I had to turn away, because I felt like a cartoon character. My lid was flipping, steam coming out of my ears. TOOT!

But what could I do? I had promised not to get mad….

MOVIE LINES OF THE DAY:
(Raising Arizona)

Reporter: Mr. Arizona is it true your son was abducted by aliens?
Nathan Arizona: Oh, now, son, don’t print that. If his mama reads that, she’s just gonna lose all hope.

Phew!

My sister-in-law and her baby are doing great. She’s been told to stay off her feet for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Things are turning around for the better….

Direct quote from my four-year-old:

“These Teletubbies are freaky.”

The hits keep on coming….

Having a crappy week….

Monday, I found out that my health insurance doesn’t cover maternity. WHAT??? you say — yes. It’s true. We had been relying on a chart on the internet listing my benefits which said that 80% of maternity costs were covered, but we hadn’t noticed a tiny asterisk at the bottom of the screen that said “additional premium required”. So it would have cost an extra $200 a month to be covered. I asked the phone rep if I could get covered now, and she said that I would have had to pay the extra premium for TWO YEARS before I would have been eligible. Two years??? That I don’t get. I could see if it were one year, then you could say that the pregnancy wasn’t a pre-existing condition, but two? What is this? Health insurance for elephants?

So, needless to say, my man and I were in quite a state on Monday. We were talking about haggling with the doctors and the hospital, getting a refi- on the house, and generally stressing out. I kept thinking about all the tests I’d need done – I’m over 40; there’s the nearly-obligatory amniocentesis, and the dr. has been talking about sending me for non-stress tests twice a week after thirty weeks. Not that I would have cut corners on the child’s health, but for every test, I’d be lying on the table thinking, “cha-ching, cha-ching….” My stomach was in such a state, I think I lost two pounds. I spent a restless night in bed, with each return to consciousness (and there were quite a few of those) I felt as though I had spent an hour at a bargaining table.

In the shower on Tuesday morning, my husband had an moment of clarity. We’d been looking into dental insurance through his job. The insurers had sent him all kinds of info on insurance, and he recalled that for health insurance, February is open-enrollment month, and the insurers were accepting pre-existing conditions. So he called to ask if pregnancy was covered — and it is. So we are switching insurance. Needless to say, we have dodged quite a cannonball there….

Then there was Tuesday….

I met a friend for lunch with our kids. She has two as well, and they are about the same ages as mine. So after lunch we went to this indoor playground. I don’t know if you have one near you, but you pay a fee, and they have all kinds of things the kids can play on; they can climb up into the rafters almost, go down slides, etc. They can play play video games, skeeball, etc. I think it’s kind of like Chuck E. Cheese again, but think — hold the cheese. They put a wristband on the kids and they are free to roam the place.

So, we go in there, and my two-year-old follows his older brother up to the big slide, where he gets stuck and can’t come down. So I went and got him, coming down the slide with him. Well, I don’t know if it’s just that I haven’t been on a slide in a while, but this thing was greased!! I must have been going 50 mph. I showed the little one the ball pit, and he went nuts. He would have stayed in there all day. But, he was trying to do what other kids were doing, burying himself fully in the balls. There were some older kids who were getting kind of rough in there, diving in and throwing balls and stuff. All of a sudden, the two-year-old is crying. And let me tell you, this kid’s not a crier. When he gets hurt, he never cries for more than a few seconds. But I couldn’t get him to stop. I was holding him and I realized that his right arm was completely limp. I tried to get him to move it, but he wouldn’t. I sent my friend to ask if the place had a nurse. Not only didn’t they have a nurse, but they didn’t have any kind of procedure for documenting injuries at all. Doesn’t that seem like a huge insurance liability?

Anyway, they did offer us a bag of ice, and after I took of his wristband, the use of my child’s arm miraculously returned to him. It was a bit of a scare, but he pulled through. I took him back to the ball pit, which he was attracted to in a very magnetic way, and when I looked across the room, I saw my other son in the arms of a young playground employee. She was carrying him near the ice machine, and he was crying his eyes out. I went to investigate, and she said that he had come quickly down the big slide and landed on his arm. So we put ice on it, and that was enough for me. I told my friend we were ready to go.

But, by this time, the little one in the ball pit wanted to stay, so I took him, kicking and screaming, to where we had our shoes, and fought him running off the whole time. I finally got both their shoes, my shoes and our coats on, and we started for the door. I ran into my friend again, whom I had assumed had been gathering her own children for departure. She was in tears now. I asked her what was going on, and she said her five-year-old had climbed into the rafters and was refusing to come down. I reminded her to use the ultimatum tactic, and we all headed for home.

Next time, I think we’ll all just get together with pointy sticks. It will be less expensive and just as much fun.

Then last night we got a call from my in-laws. My sister-in-law is having some complications with her own pregnancy, and we are waiting to hear today whether the baby is okay. I’m sure he will be, but in the mean time, it’s scary. You just want things to go safe and smoothly, you know? She’s a trooper though. It will be alright.

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:
(Young Frankenstein)

Eigor: Could be worse…could be raining.
(Thunder claps….)

Got Gun Control?

True stories here:

The following people accidentally shot themselves recently: Joey Lujan, 22, shot himself in the head trying to show that his gun wasn’t loaded (Rialto, Calif., December). Abran Godoy, 20, shot himself while tucking his gun into his waistband after a robbery (King City, Calif., November). A 20-year-old man shot himself in a femoral artery while showing off for friends (Salt Lake City, November). Latie Whitley, 34, shot himself in the face while allegedly robbing a delicatessen (New York City, December). Jeffrey Wagner, 22, shot himself while tucking his gun into his waistband after showing it to a friend (Dayton, Ohio, January). Lance Cole, 24, won $2,500 in damages from the police after an officer kicked him in the groin two days after he had shot himself in the genitals (St. Louis, Mo., January).

DUH.

Never should have cracked that atom in the first place…

North Korea….scary. Now, here’s an example of a crazy guy who actually WAS working on getting a nuclear weapon. I’m no international relations scholar, but I can tell you what’s on the diplomatic horizon: a whole lot of scary.

But hey, go back to watching American Idol. Don’t worry about it. Condi’s got it covered…..

Oh, this was also sickening: On the way home today, I saw a bumper sticker that said: “Crime Control Not Gun Control.” I wanted to follow that guy and write a few choice thoughts on his car in Magic Marker.
I just thought: What an asshole. He also, coincidentally, had a Bush/Cheney bumbersticker along with some kind of pro-war slogan. On a Volvo of all things…..

MOVIE LINE NOW:
(I think it’s from THE FLY remake, but not sure if that is originally…)

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Keeping Advil in Business

Took my kid to Chuck E.Cheese’s for the first time yesterday. The atmosphere wasn’t too bad, though I wouldn’t want to go there on a weekend. The guy in the Chuck E. Cheese suit acted as if he’d drawn the short straw, and thus had to be the one to put on the outfit. When he waved to the kids, his elbows barely got above his hips. Not exactly Disney caliber. Plus the food — I’d been warned about the food — but oh, man, nasty stuff. Even the salad looked like it had spent time in a microwave.

In the next town over from mine, there has been a rash of home burglaries, mostly targeting elderly residents. Today’s headline has citizens asking if they can shoot invaders. Ain’t that America…..

MOVIE LINES OF THE DAY:
(from Miller’s Crossing)

“The old man’s still an artist with a Thompson.”