Masculine Monday: Presidential Edition

So while deciding today's MM, I briefly considered making it the 1980 Olympic Hockey team because I just watched the movie Miracle today, but then I realized that I haven't yet given big O his due for finally getting shit done this week! It seems like, since he first got sworn in (actually, since he first got voted in) Obama has been working constantly but not making any particular amount of progress. Then, BOOM, this week he comes out getting done not only health care, but also signing legislation that helps college students get loans and puts some checks on the banks, and signing off on new off-shore drilling, AND putting in much more stringent regulations on fuel efficiency in new vehicles, AND going into nuclear arms agreements with Russia.

Now, I'm not super pleased about the off-shore drilling because, I mean, I'm just not particularly in favor of more drilling, particularly in fragile underwater ecosystems (I'm a tree-hugging liberal), but at the moment I'm willing to trust that he knows what he's doing and is using the drilling to distract Republicans into voting for better environmental legislation in the long run (because from everything I've read/seen about this off-shore drilling, it's a very short-term fix and won't even be a viable source of energy for a few years. So it's like, dude, what's the point? I mean, it has to be a chess move. It has to be). But all the other stuff? Reducing arms in two major nuclear powers, helping our population become more educated with less debt, helping the ill afford aid, and decreasing the U.S.'s impact on the environment on a major way? Not a bad freaking week. PLUS there was actually an increase of a few hundred thousand jobs in March, which shows that we might slowly be climbing our way out of this recession.

Obama, it took you a year for us to see some of the change you promised us, but at this point, I like what you're giving me. Keep up the good work. (I like your railway idea too - let's do that after you put some major restrictions on banks and credit card companies. Ok?) So in what I hope will be the first of many Masculine Monday: Presidential Editions, I say kudos and keep going, and for God's sake let's keep a Democratic Congress this fall so the progress doesn't get backtracked, because the Republicans are being nothing if not unhelpful. And on THAT ridiculously partisan note, goodnight.

So, I spent my Spring Break in the ICU.

Sorry I've been MIA. I was on spring break. One of the most emotional Spring Breaks of my life. And since Katie Dee set the tone with her impeccable trans-Atlantic blogging, I wanted to continue to focus on what our government is trying to change this weekend. The health care system. I know it needs a change. I think everyone knows that. Even the people it took forever to convince. Maybe Obama's plan isn't the perfect one. Yeah I get that. But I do know, especially after this weekend, especially after watching Keith's rant (Praise Keith), that our health care system needs some kind of change. And since that's what got Obama elected, his promise for change, let's let the man do what him and his team have been trying to do since he was elected. It's not my fault republicans can't handle change. And again, I know this isn't the pinnacle of impartial journalism. Did we ever claim we were impartial, Dorothy Anne, did we? No.

This is in part a rant on how the hospital system works, how the doctors are unavailable when you need them, how pharmacies make pills to fix a system and make money; and, part a Feminine Friday Tribute to Intensive Care nurses slash my favorite nurses from this week. Background info: My BFFAEAE was hospitalized for going on 12 days. 6 of those spent in the ICU. She's basically a mutant and all you need to know is if you ever see her fall and cut herself, call an ambulance right away. The girl is going to be on some kind of blood thinner for the rest of her life. Coumadin. Which Boy Roommate's Momma called "rat poison." The phrase "major bummer" cannot begin to describe the situation but is the only one I can think of because it's concise enough.

The ICU staff at the hospital was amazing. They allowed us to break every rule except for the small child and animal rule. Team BFFAEAE consisted of about 6 people rotating their presence with one constant, SuperBoyfriend. Nurse Tara was outstanding. She worked around us taking up too much space in the room, but understood that the 20 year old with tubes all over her body needed and wanted her crew there. She complained not once about how needy we were, even though I'm sure we weren't that needy. Just emotional. We owned that ICU to the point of planning a cout de etat.

It's this sensitivity of the nursing staff that the current health care system does not incorporate. It does not take into account the people it serves, just the people who serve. If we needed a doctor, we would have to wait until their schedule was free and that generally happened at the end of the day, because when they came by to actually talk to the patient, it was at 8am while she was just waking up and loopy and alone and realizing she was still in the ICU with a tube up her nose. Try and ask questions and absorb information in that state. The nurses however, took the time to find out information for us, to translate what the doctor was saying into words we could actually understand, and really took into account what the patient needed.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I may not be the most educated on the details of Obama's health care bill, and my response to the hospital may be highly emotional and biased. But, I do know that the way the system works now, the fact that the "minions" for the doctor, the people the patient and family most see are so under-appreciated and that the system currently encourages that. The pills BFFAEAE are going to be on for the rest of her life, and the people who make them do not take into account that there is a life being lived attached to this pill. So yeah, the medicine fixes the system, the mechanics of the human body, but the side effects on the life the system lives are unreal. And they are not taken into account.

The change we need is to flip the system so that it works for the people and not for the doctors and insurance companies who currently run it. Why does the medical community operate under the Capitalism Oath instead of the Hippocratic Oath?

Bless God, and Bless the Gays

This kind of stuff makes me purr with pleasure a little bit internally. The above video is Lady Gaga (of WTF outfit and sexually ambiguous video fame) speechin' at a Gay People Rally in Washington D.C. Though Ms. Butterface Crazy Pants usually gets nothing but mockery from me, today I would like to golf clap in her direction. This is because, one, she actually gave a pretty good speech, two, I love seeing her stand up for the gays over and over again, and three, I LOVED her promise to stand up against misogyny and homophobia in the pop industry! Fucking finally! SOMEONE has to! No more rap videos with "vixens" writing in the background unless the rappers are just as hot, naked, and oiled up. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

This second video is of Cynthia Nixon, who was always my favorite of the Sex and the City crew (I think we all knew she was a little dyke-ish. I mean, come on, she wore suits with skinny ties) and who solidified her place in my heart today. She does an even better speech, which really gets to the core of the entire issue of gay marriage: it's not about whether or not gays can get married. It's about the fact that treating people as if they deserve less than others sends the message that they are WORTH less than others. Taking away rights dehumanizes people. It makes it ok to hate or hurt them, because they're not as good as you, anyway. If they were, they'd have the same rights as you do, wouldn't they? But they don't. And until we're all equal, our government is supporting the alienation and endangerment of a huge part of our population. This rally is fucking awesome. Bless the fucking gays. Watch the video.

Prop 8 hearings in San Francisco

We could be referencing the case Strauss et al. v. Horton (Hollingsworth et al., Interveners)
(and two other cases, S168066 Tyler et al. v. State of California et al. in the papers we write in senior year government classes. A whole AP test question might be all about what happens today in California Courts. These are the San Francisco hearings challenging Prop 8. Hit up the streaming video. It doesn't work on my computer, but hopefully it will on yours. I'll post the results soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. GAY IS OK!





We'll know the results in 90 days or so. But with our government, you know there is always some way to make it longer than the 90 days. This is one instance when I don't approve of taking advantage of loopholes.