Universal Health Care

No links, no one else's opinion, no grandstanding - just what I think. Health care in the United States of America is a right, not a privilege. For those who oppose it because it means the "socialization" of the U.S.A., I counter with an appeal for them not to use public roads, not to send their children to public schools, not to use the public library and suggest that the U.S. Military should be outsourced to private industry - maybe Haliburton. That would cement the anti-socialist cause.

For those who are afraid that a government run option for health insurance would undermine free enterprise, then, perhaps UPS and FedEx should be our main mail carriers and we can get rid of the U.S. Postal Service all together. That would take care of one of the socialist complaints, too.

Listen: I work for a state run hospital. I have a health condition that requires constant care, medication and supervision. I can and do work full time and at a job that requires a relatively high level of skill - I am one of those folks at the computer help desk that does everything from reset passwords to modifying interface preferences on the back end of clinical medical record / ADT /billing applications... not just sweeping floors here - I work this job and I have the health insurance offered by the state and the hospital and the university that it is attached to - and still, a full third of my income goes toward insurance co pays. Though my job sounds like it should be a high paying one, it isn't. My doctor has actually told me that I might be better off financially if I were to go on disability - and he states that I would qualify. That is so very sad if you ask me. Here I am, able and willing to work. I pay huge fees for insurance and the rest of the money goes to co pays and spend downs.

Some tell me that if I feel that I'm under paid that I should get another job elsewhere. Fine. I have no problem with that...except for the fact that under current law any insurance company would be able to deny me because of the pre-existing health condition.

I do not have all the answers and I know that members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate and the Office of the President don't have the answers either - but a change is needed and what is being proposed is a far cry better than the system as it stands now.

Redesigned Website

So much is going on these days. The DURATION show at the Blue Note on July 25 was great - lots of good feedback. With that show over, the same personnel now are 100% Hormone Junkies. YAY! We're practicing for a show in late September at the Earthdance Festival here in Columbia, Missouri. We'll be playing a few of the same songs from the DURATION show, plus three songs from the new HJ album: Arsenal - which should be out by then.

Before all of that happens, though, I want to have good, working websites up - for myself and for Hormone Junkies. I am not the most fluent at such creations, but I do what I can. I've started reworking my own website http://DEStudios.net and I'm somewhat pleased, but it doesn't have the interactivity that I was hoping for. I'll be tidying things up in the next few days and then I hope I'll be able to get to work on the Hormone Junkies site.

In the meantime, I am totally jazzed about the prospects of getting back into the swing of things.