Didn’t we already do this?

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The health care fight, I mean. Barack Obama was elected president partially on promises to help make health care more affordable. But oh noes big government! So the Democratic Congress and the president made change after change until they had a bill that kept our same overly pricey system of private insurance but at least gave people a chance to get that insurance if they had the bad taste to be one of the 87.6 million Americans who had to go without insurance during the year. Republicans voted that down despite it being chock-full of their own suggestions, lied about the bill’s contents to whip voters into a frenzy, got themselves a majority in the House of Representatives, and staged a pointless repeal that won’t go anywhere. I’ve written about this in other guises on other sites, but I just found a post that puts things nicely. CNN journalist Anderson Cooper points out that 87.6 million Americans–the number of people who were without health insurance at some point during 2008–equals the population of the top 273 American cities combined.

If you combined the populations of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Detroit, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Austin, Columbus, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Memphis, Baltimore, El Paso, Boston, Milwaukee, Denver, Seattle, Nashville, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Portland, Louisville, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Atlanta, Albuquerque, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, Mesa, Kansas City, Omaha, Cleveland, Virginia Beach, Miami, Oakland, and Raleigh, you’d still have less people than the number of people in America who don’t have health insurance. . . .

So, in addition to everyone in cities from New York City to Raleigh being without health insurance for at least some time in the last two years, add every resident of Tulsa, Minneapolis, Colorado Springs, Honolulu, Arlington, Wichita, St. Louis, Tampa, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Cincinnati, Bakersfield, Aurora, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Riverside, Toledo, Stockton, Corpus Christi, Lexington, St. Paul, Anchorage, Newark, Buffalo, Plano, Henderson, Lincoln, Fort Wayne, Glendale, Greensboro, Chandler, St. Petersburg, and Jersey City.

Add every resident from Scottsdale, Norfolk, Madison, Orlando, Birmingham, Baton Rouge, Durham, Laredo, Lubbock, Chesapeake, Chula Vista, Garland, Winston-Salem, North Las Vegas, Reno, Gilbert, Hialeah, Arlington, Akron, Irvine, Rochester, Boise City, Modesto, Fremont, Montgomery, Spokane, Richmond, Yonkers, Irving, Shreveport, San Bernardino, Tacoma, Glendale, Des Moines, Augusta, Grand Rapids, Huntington Beach, Mobile, Moreno Valley, Little Rock, Amarillo, Columbus, Oxnard, Fontana, Knoxville, Fort Lauderdale, Salt Lake City, Newport News, Huntsville, Tempe, Brownsville, Worcester, Fayetteville, Jackson, and Tallahassee.

Add every resident from Aurora, Ontario, Providence, Overland Park, Rancho Cucamonga, Chattanooga, Oceanside, Santa Clarita, Garden Grove, Vancouver, Grand Prairie, Peoria, Rockford, Cape Coral, Springfield, Santa Rosa, Sioux Falls, Port St. Lucie, Dayton, Salem, Pomona, Springfield, Eugene, Corona, Pasadena, Joliet, Pembroke Pines, Paterson, Hampton, Lancaster, Alexandria, Salinas, Palmdale, Naperville, Pasadena, Kansas City, Hayward, Hollywood, Lakewood, Torrance, and Syracuse.

Add every resident from Escondido, Fort Collins, Bridgeport, Orange, Warren, Elk Grove, Savannah, Mesquite, Sunnyvale, Fullerton, McAllen, Cary, Cedar Rapids, Sterling Heights, Columbia, Coral Springs, Carrollton, Elizabeth, Hartford, Waco, Bellevue, New Haven, West Valley City, Topeka, Thousand Oaks, El Monte, McKinney, Concord, Visalia, Simi Valley, Olathe, Clarksville, Denton, Stamford, Provo, Springfield, Killeen, Abilene, Evansville, Gainesville, Vallejo, Ann Arbor, and Peoria.

Add every resident from Lansing, Lafayette, Thornton, Athens, Flint, Inglewood, Roseville, Charleston, Beaumont, Independence, Victorville, Santa Clara, Costa Mesa, Miami Gardens, Manchester, Miramar, Downey, Arvada, Allentown, Westminster, Waterbury, Norman, Midland, Elgin, West Covina, Clearwater, Cambridge, and Pueblo.

Add every resident from West Jordan, Round Rock, Billings, Erie, South Bend, San Buenaventura, Fairfield, Lowell, Norwalk, Burbank, Richmond, Pompano Beach, High Point, Murfreesboro, Lewisville, Richardson, Daly City, Berkeley, Gresham, Wichita Falls, Green Bay, Davenport, my own Palm Bay, Columbia, Portsmouth, Rochester, Antioch, and Wilmington.

I was one of those people for years. If I got sick my choice was to tough it out or go to the doctor, then deal with demands for out of pocket payments of $200 or $300. My wife had to get some heart tests done one day when we didn’t have insurance; that morning of testing put us more than $2,000 in debt. THAT’S the world the Republican Congress wants to take us back to, and as far as I’m concerned they can go fuck themselves.

Fucking metal!

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A series of coincidences has me listening to a lot of metal lately. Full disclosure: I was a HUGE metalhead in high school. We had a big lawn to cut, so every summer as I was mowing I’d break out the trusty Sony Walkman for Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Ozzy Osbourne’s Shout At the Devil, W.A.S.P.’s The Last Command, Iron Maiden’s Live After Death, etc. After starting college, I think I revolted against a lot of elements of my life in high school, and heavy metal was foremost among them. My love for acts like Peter Gabriel and R.E.M. grew and I came to be embarrassed by metal’s theatricality, its aimless revolt, its unabashed corniness. The last few years have seen me more at ease with myself and I can once again admit that there’s a place in my musical life for Viking imagery, frantic double bass drum drives, and the Gibson Flying V.

Goatwhore

Part of that is driven by the most excellent Map of Metal website–it’s just one of the best-done musical genre sites out there. There was also a radio drive-time coincidence; the time I happened to be having lunch on Sundays was coinciding with a college radio metal show. And a friend of mine who’s not terribly computer savvy doesn’t really explore the world of music available online, so I wanted to clue him in to some of the great metal that’s been recorded in the past 20 years. I’m enjoying the dark, heavy sounds of Southern American bands like Baroness, Kylesa, and Goatwhore; the sludgy gloom of England’s Electric Wizard and Japan’s Boris; the intricate math rock of Don Caballero and Chavez. There’s an ambition and drive for excellence in those acts that you can’t always get from self-effacing indie wunderkind, and that makes for a damn nice change of pace.

ASIDES

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