A Day of Announcements
Yesterday, the President of the United States finally managed to drag his country kicking and screaming (and howling and moaning and wailing) into the modern era.
Mostly.
While the bill that passed is a mediocre amalgam of government and business that makes ManBearPig a thing of beauty, it's a step in the right direction, even if it's on the wrong path. A single-payer option really is the best (and cheapest) way to go for national health care, but that would have left insurance companies out of the loop for their biggest profit-producing teats. Still, some of the worst excesses of those same companies has been curtailed, which makes for an easy rebuttal against Republican attacks, if the Dems care to use them.
"I'm destroying the country, am I? Well how could you be in favour of pre-existing exclusions on children? Huh? Huh?"
The Republicans have sworn vengeance against those Democrats who are in supposed "risky ridings", but so what? What would they have done if the Democrats didn't pass the bill, donate money to them? Let them run unopposed? Didn't think so. The Republicans did everything they could to avoid any form of compromise, any appearance of there being a discussion, or contributing in any way to any kind of health care bill at all, so now they're pissed about not having a say? Too bad!
Of course, you could always ask the people what they think...
***
Also yesterday, an announcement was made of lesser importance nationally, but great importance socially - at least for one person. James Randi (he's The Magic Man in the links on the right, there) decided to come out as gay. While it's not a big surprise to me, the reasons he had for keeping that part of his identity a secret are finally not enough to outweigh his desire to live beyond his self imposed secret.
A long time magician and front line battler against fuzzy thinking and "woo-woo" beliefs, Randi has decided that he had enough of keeping such a huge part of himself hidden in a secret compartment out of sight of the public. While originally the 81-year old had been silent due to social pressure (as many other celebrities did), even as being gay became more acceptable to the public at large, he had built a career out of alienating mystics, mediums, "zero-point energy" con artists and other charlatans as well as established religions and decided that those people would use his sexuality to discredit his work.
Most famous for his appearances with Johnny Carson (himself an amateur magician) on The Tonight Show debunking the abilities of Uri Geller and exposing the supposed healing abilities of Peter Popoff as utter fraud, he has drawn the ire of many people who make a lot of money off "true believers" over the years. Now, he feels that announcing he is gay is not going to be giving those people any more weapons than they've already tried using against him.
Who knows? Perhaps the idea of someone being a "former gay" can now apply for the $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge!
Mostly.
While the bill that passed is a mediocre amalgam of government and business that makes ManBearPig a thing of beauty, it's a step in the right direction, even if it's on the wrong path. A single-payer option really is the best (and cheapest) way to go for national health care, but that would have left insurance companies out of the loop for their biggest profit-producing teats. Still, some of the worst excesses of those same companies has been curtailed, which makes for an easy rebuttal against Republican attacks, if the Dems care to use them.
"I'm destroying the country, am I? Well how could you be in favour of pre-existing exclusions on children? Huh? Huh?"
The Republicans have sworn vengeance against those Democrats who are in supposed "risky ridings", but so what? What would they have done if the Democrats didn't pass the bill, donate money to them? Let them run unopposed? Didn't think so. The Republicans did everything they could to avoid any form of compromise, any appearance of there being a discussion, or contributing in any way to any kind of health care bill at all, so now they're pissed about not having a say? Too bad!
Of course, you could always ask the people what they think...
***
Also yesterday, an announcement was made of lesser importance nationally, but great importance socially - at least for one person. James Randi (he's The Magic Man in the links on the right, there) decided to come out as gay. While it's not a big surprise to me, the reasons he had for keeping that part of his identity a secret are finally not enough to outweigh his desire to live beyond his self imposed secret.
A long time magician and front line battler against fuzzy thinking and "woo-woo" beliefs, Randi has decided that he had enough of keeping such a huge part of himself hidden in a secret compartment out of sight of the public. While originally the 81-year old had been silent due to social pressure (as many other celebrities did), even as being gay became more acceptable to the public at large, he had built a career out of alienating mystics, mediums, "zero-point energy" con artists and other charlatans as well as established religions and decided that those people would use his sexuality to discredit his work.
Most famous for his appearances with Johnny Carson (himself an amateur magician) on The Tonight Show debunking the abilities of Uri Geller and exposing the supposed healing abilities of Peter Popoff as utter fraud, he has drawn the ire of many people who make a lot of money off "true believers" over the years. Now, he feels that announcing he is gay is not going to be giving those people any more weapons than they've already tried using against him.
Who knows? Perhaps the idea of someone being a "former gay" can now apply for the $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge!
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