May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love
Thomas Jefferson on Healthcare Reform
My fellow Americans —
Did you watch President Obama’s healthcare speech tonight? Neither did I. But I did learn from msnbc.com’s First Read that he hoped in his speech to explain to ordinary American voters — “call them Joe and Jane from Kansas City” — that his health-care reform will 1) cover nearly everyone and 2) cut costs in the long run.
So let me get this straight — we’re going to spend money to save money!
Does he think everyone in Kansas City is that stupid or just Joe and Jane?
What — you don’t believe we can insure 50 million more people and cut costs at the same time? Well then, you’re an uninformed kook!
You’re scared that those cost savings will come from drastically rationing access to care, particularly for people who are chronically ill and/or near the end of their lives? You’re un-American! Probably a Nazi!
I’m going to tell you something about myself that you probably didn’t learn in school: When I died, I was deeply in debt. Do you know why? Because everyone, including successful politicians like yours truly, struggles to keep up with the demands of organizing and managing the daily realities of their own lives, let alone trying to micromanage the entire goddamn United States healthcare system.
Let me leave you with this final thought. Don’t believe everything your leaders tell you. Use some common sense, as my old friend Tom Paine used to say. Think for yourself.
— Tom
Twitter: 2009-09-09
- Best Undergrad College Degrees by Salary – http://bit.ly/qaRn1 #
- Lowest paying college majors – http://tinyurl.com/lnx5fn #
- RT @capricecrane: Enough already, Mr. Gosselin. We hate your wife too, so we just stopped talking about her all together. Give it a shot. #
The Other USC
Ladies and gentlemen, your University of South Carolina Gamecocks:
Love and Money
My son and I are watching a TV commercial for Love Happens, which seems to be about a man forced to choose between financial gain and the love of a woman.
This is one of those “teachable moments,” because the boy, who’s 15 now, may someday find himself facing the same choice as the guy in the movie, so I look at him with love and hard-earned wisdom and with a voice of great sincerity, I say:
“Take the money.”
Frozen Yogurt
I like to wrap up my visits to Souplantation with a serving of frozen yogurt but I can’t today because the yogurt machine is out of service.
My son is unsympathetic. “If you want yogurt,” he says, “you go to Yogurtland. If you want soup and plants, you come to Souplantation.”
An Impersonal Recommendation
I had a 40-percent-off coupon for Borders that expired today so we stopped by to see if they had any good computer books in stock, which they did.
At the checkout, the woman asked me if I’d like to get a recommendation for a novel.
“Yeah sure,” I said. I was pretty excited about the idea because I thought they’d look at my purchase history and figure out something I might enjoy.
Instead she recommended Home by Marilynne Robinson, which was displayed on the counter right in front of me.
“Are you recommending that just for me,” I asked, “or you recommend it to everyone?”
“We recommend it to everyone,” she said.
What a sham! “I’m going to pass on that,” I said. “There really hasn’t been a good female novelist since Jane Austen.”
My son, who was standing next to me, added, “And even she was kind of boring.”
11th Grade Reading List
My son and I went to Barnes and Noble in Irvine this weekend to buy the books on his 11th grade Euro Lit reading list: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Candide by Voltaire, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and The Stranger by Albert Camus.
“Have you read any of these books?” I asked the checkout girl.
“I’ve read Candide and Pride and Prejudice,” she said.
“Candide is fun. Virginia Woolf is kind of a downer though, isn’t she? Didn’t she kill herself?
“She did,” the girl admitted.
“Doesn’t that set a bad example for the kids?”
The Irvine store didn’t have the edition of Ivan Denisovich that the boy needed but the guy at customer service was able to call around and find a copy at the Aliso Viejo store.
The boy was beside himself: “We’re going to drive all the way to Aliso Viejo?!” (Aliso Viejo is a 9-mile drive from Irvine.)
“This will help you when you read the book,” I said. “You’ll have an appreciation for what suffering is all about.”
It Was Hot
It was HOT today at the Coliseum — not quite as hot as it’s been all week, and there was a bit of a breeze — but it was HOT.
During the game, there was a roar behind us that sounded like a jet flying past outside the stadium. The second time it happened, my son figured out what it was.
When the Goodyear blimp flew over the west end of the stadium, it cast a moving shadow over the stands (see photo). The roar was a rolling cheer from sweltering people who all of a sudden found themselves in the shade for a couple of seconds . . .
A San Jose State Fan
There were some San Jose State fans at the game . . . as we were walking in, we saw a guy wearing a blue and gold T-shirt that said “The Only Trojan I Need Is On My D*ck”
(The asterisk was actually on the shirt. Wouldn’t want to offend anyone.)
“Enjoy the game,” I said to him.
Final score: USC 56, SJS 3.
Good Seats
We had good seats at the USC game today — Section 13, Row 1, right next to the field.
Now you might say, like my son did, that they would have been better on the 50-yard-line, but there are a couple of good things about those seats.
One is that they’re right next to the tunnel where the players come on and off the field, as do the song girls, the band and Traveler, so you get to interact with people — talk to the girls, high-five the guy on the horse, etc.
The other good thing is that the Trojans scored 6 out of 8 touchdowns in the west end zone right in front of us.
That’s my wife, me and a kid who looks a lot like my son except that he’s smiling. If you’re wondering about all the empty seats, the photo was taken near the end of the fourth quarter of a 56-3 game when a lot of people had already left.
Matt Barkley
We saw Matt Barkley play his first college football game today, a 56-3 win over San Jose State. If he turns out to be as good as a lot of people think he is, that will be a cool thing to remember . . .
Orange County Restaurant Week, Sep 13-19
Special prix fixe menus from participating restaurants:
You can’t go wrong with Orange Hill or Anaheim White House, in this reviewer’s opinion . . .
Overheard
Twitter: 2009-09-02
- HarvardBusiness.org: 3 Things You Didn't Know About Marine Corps Leadership http://bit.ly/3XHmHu #
- Philip Garrido's Guide to Low-Budget Dating #badbookproposals #
Things I Love to Do on a Hot Summer Evening
My son’s going into 11th grade next week. He’s got a couple of honors classes, a couple of AP classes, Spanish 3 and a music class.
It looks like a very tough schedule to me — he’s also got college entrance exams this year — but that’s where his academic history has brought him and he says he wants to do it.
One thing I didn’t know about AP classes is that they start giving kids assignments during summer vacation. He’s working on ’em right now!
He asked me for a little help on the physics assignment so I get to do two things I love to do on a hot summer evening: sip premium tequila on ice with a lime, and solve problems like this:
A kangaroo jumps to a vertical height of 2.7m. How long is it in the air before returning to Earth?
Oh I’m in heaven!
Hotel California
I’m reading one of those “year in history” things for 1976 — Legionnaire’s Disease, Apple Computer founded, Hotel California released . . . wait a minute . . . Hotel California was released in nineteen-SEVENTY-SIX?! Oh my gosh . . . oh my gosh . . .
As a sidebar, I’m disappointed in the Eagles for signing Michael Vick. Does he even play an instrument?
Twitter: 2009-08-31
Teddy’s Accomplices
He dared us to call his bluff, and, when we didn’t, he made all of us complicit in what he’d done.
Satan on Ted Kennedy
One of the things Ted Kennedy and I have in common is that we both love Chappaquiddick jokes. Ed Klein, a Kennedy friend and biographer, was on the radio the other day and said:
I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.
HAAAHAHAHA! I hope you like heat, Teddy! I look forward to swapping jokes with you in Hell. Have you heard this one?
Q. What do you call 200 Kennedy sycophants at the bottom of a Chappaquiddick pond?
A. A great start, but bad news for NPR guest-bookers!
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!