Push Your Cause: Universal Healthcare
I have a friend at work who is a Libertarian and doesn't really like the idea of Universal Healthcare. He has a well-earned mistrust of government programs. I on the other hand believe in it whole heartedly because the system as it stands now has already shown its failings. In the coming year, with thousands losing their jobs, the numbers of people without health insurance will skyrocket and the health of our nation will suffer. When people are frightened for their own health many horrors will become apparent. People will die for one reason only, they have no way to pay for their medical care. Hospitals will close because there isn't enough money to support the hospital in smaller communities. People will have to travel even further for medical care, raising the cost of their care. More people will die because they can't make it too these distant hospitals fast enough. These events aren't made up, they are happening now. Many hospitals are bleeding money and are already cutting many different types of services to try and stay afloat. The numbers of people being laid off are astounding and without a job there is no way they can afford the joke that is Cobra. With thousands of others in the same market with the same skills looking for jobs it may be difficult to find one that allows them to do more than slow their descent into the poor house. So if you into Universal Healthcare, do your part and push H.R. 676 with your Representatives ( and Senators ). ...
Inform yourself and others by reading:
H.R. 676
and these three articles:
- Rose Ann DeMoro, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 8, 2008
- Physicians for a National Health Program, Talking Points, December 10, 2008
- Statement of Dr. Marcia Angell introducing the U.S. National Health Insurance Act
and by watching these excellent videos on H.R. 676. Pass them along in emails, on blogs, facebook and myspace pages. If you create videos on youtube, do one on national health care yourself:
- HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 1 of 4
- HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 2 of 4
- HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 3 of 4
- HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 4 of 4
Write a letter -- not an email -- in your own words to your member of Congress stating that you'd like their commitment to vote for H.R. 676. If your member of Congress is a co-sponsor of the bill, express your support for that stand.
President-elect Obama has asked for volunteers around the country to host discussion groups on the health care issue during the last half of December. Attend a discussion in your area and make the argument for single payer. Click here for more information.
For more information keep watching November5.org.
Just Another Magic Monday: Takamitsu Uchida
In order to not bore you with more card manipulation magic I found yet another card manipulation routine that will knock your socks off. I can't get enough of this stuff. This guy makes does an amazing routine that includes a ton ( possibly literally ) of Extra - Jumbo cards. Truly amazing. ...
Friday Humor with Flight of the Conchords
They are back! Flight of the Conchords Season 2 isn't on HBO yet but the first episode of the second season is available in its entirety at Funny or Die. I've been waiting for this oh so long. From what I have seen, they didn't miss a beat ( pun intended ). ...
Just Another Magic Monday: Peter Marvey
Having an interest in the French language as I do, I love the magic term legerdemain. It means light of hand. Legerdemain makes magic so much more real to me. That's why most of the magic I've showcased on my magic Monday posts has been sleight of hand artists. This Monday's post really is no different. In fact, he is a manipulation champion. ...
The finale of this routine just astounds me. I can understand why he was a world champion of manipulation.
Friday humor with Air Drumming
Facebook has some interesting ads in the sidebar occasionally. Yesterday one said something like, "Fan of Neil Peart?" so I clicked through. What followed was this video which I found hilarious. Given the number of Guitarmageddons, Drum Offs and Spin Offs I was a part of at GC I find an air drumming competition to be just what the doctor ordered. ...
I'm not pussy footing...I'm double bass drumming!
Just Another Magic Monday: Jason Latimer & LASERs
At this point in my life LASERs are a little passé. As a kid they were so cool but now you can hold them in your hand, attach them to your keychain, annoy people in movie theaters and of course many forms of physical media still use them for playback. Leave it to magic to bring back the awe inspiring vision of LASERs. ...
The following is a great LASER routine by Jason Latimer. He looks like he is having a lot of fun by the humor he mixes into this performance. LASERs, comedy and magic are good. If only we could somehow add professional wrestling into the mix...
A sad metaphor: Black Friday at Walmart
I'm not a big fan of Walmart. Sure, when Sam Walton was alive and in charge some good may have been happening but now it is just aggravating to shop there and as a company they have little to no social conscious*. The sad metaphor I am referring to, an employee getting trampled to death on Black Friday, isn't just about Walmart it relates to our country as a whole. ...
In a time when our staunch belief in capitalism as the savior of our society has proved wrong we are still sacrificing people to its altar. This time it was literal. We need to take some responsibility on a societal level. Our consumerism has way more negative aspects than positive and yet we keep going back. I like stuff as much as the next person, but it is literally killing our society to act as though we need it.
Perhaps we could start on the journey towards creation rather than consumption. What can we create? Perhaps we can stop measuring economic stability by how much the haves have and instead measure by how few have nots we have. One great zen saying my wife reminded me of this morning was, "The light that shines on my neighbor also shines on me." Perhaps we can adopt a philosophy around this to pick ourselves up from the ashes. Let's take some of that hope and turn it into reality.
Crisis equals opportunity and a crisis is upon us.
* I'm positive that many walmart employees are very socially conscious, they just work for a place that either doesn't let them show it or uses their excitement while taking the credit.
Working on my style
Please excuse the mess. I'm working on the style for my blog and things are working as well as you would expect. In other words there is a lot of, "Why didn't that work" being said. Sometimes with even more colorful language. I hope to have the positioning done, then I can work for the replacement graphics for some of these fantastic solid colors :) .
Just another Magic Monday: Jeff McBride
Many weeks ago, I had the bright idea of checking youTube for some magic performances. One of the first I found worth mentioning was Lance Burton from The Best of Magic. A few weeks after that I had the bright idea of seeing what else was under the Best of Magic. First off, I stayed up for a long time watching these when I probably should have been sleeping. They were just so amazing and diverse. There was your standard stage magic by The Pendragons, humorous magic with Kohl & Co., a peaceful and impressive table routine by Hiroshi Sawa, and a great psuedo mime routine by Tina Lenert. There was also many more with some of the greats in magic, after all the show was The Best of Magic! One piece floored me though. The piece of Jeff McBride doing one of his mask routines. Amazing work with great mime and I was hooked, so I thought I'd share some with you. ...
I know that when I was younger, the above routine would have been too artsy for me. So I've added a second video from The World's greatest magic that also has some awesome card manipulations.
Flash Player 10 goes 64-bit!
It's been a long time coming but Adobe has finally announced a beta, 64 bit version of flash player 10. Get this, it is only available for Linux ( at this point ). Linux fan boys can now relish in the fact that they are getting some special treatment. Of course it is still not open source so many won't be happy.
The comment thread on slashdot should be interesting.
If you are interested, checkout the Flash Player page at Adobe Labs.
Unfortunately, for those developing on Linux ( like me ), there are no plans for a debugger version. Oh well, I guess I'll stick with the plugin wrapper.