Also linked to from Krugman's blog:

Capitalist shitheads! Fuckin' A!

Paul Krugman linked to this BusinessWeek story on health care credit companies and their costs to the uninsured. Read it, it's a good article. Even more ridiculous are the several comments accusing fucking *BusinessWeek* of having an anti-capitalist, anti-free-market bias.

That's not Kool-Aid you're drinking anymore, it's pure bullshit. How's it taste?

One commenter made a very good point:

So in this way health care becomes not just a paid for service but a way to create and profit from debt, thus joining the remainder of the economy. The difference being that almost all other spending is discretionary (if perhaps not wise) and its cost is definable and "choosable" prior to the purchase. And, finally, what is most discouraging is that the geniuses who designed this almost certainly consider themselves good people.

The comments on Krugman's post were much better, and seemed more nuanced as well - and hopefully that isn't because they match my prevailing patterns of thought. Still, they begin with this:

The current political leadership told us in 2000:

“Bush is the first CEO president. He will run this country like a business.”

Only in America did people think that was a good thing.

Despite being a health-care provider looking at a career of private practice, I'm becoming even more in favor of universal healthcare. The outcomes are simply better, for every segment of the population, and usually for lower cost. I realize this will likely impact my future practice, but I'd still be making a more than decent living doing work I enjoy and doing good for people. Of course, orthodontics is effectively elective care and as such is unlikely to be covered by any universal plan.

I'm wondering how healthcare providers in countries with universal healthcare are doing within their systems. It's something I'll have to look into.

Meanwhile, I read an argument years ago in an ethics textbook which went something like this - I'm paraphrasing from memory, so be nice: A free society is one in which the personal choices of the largest number of people are maximized to the greatest extent. A person in pain or suffering from a painful or debilitating or otherwise serious medical condition is in many ways incapable of free choice as a starving man or a man with a gun to his head would be. Yes, there are still choices to be made, but if it can be called "free choice" then every society, even the most totalitarian, is "free." In a just society, then, resource allocation would be directed first toward adequately meeting the material needs of the whole population before other discretionary desires were addressed.

Of course, the mechanism by which those needs are met doesn't have to be governmental, but right now charity doesn't seem to be cutting it - especially if you read that BusinessWeek article I linked to above and noted how non-profit hospitals are still selling their patients' medical debts to predatory financial lenders.

All these songs with narratives reinforcing our cultural folkways...

I'm sitting at school on a Saturday slogging through the data entry for my thesis. My brain is just beginning to sizzle; it's not quite frying yet.

Gary's sitting in the lab doing some work as well. I asked if he minded if I put on some music; he said no, as long as it's country. Couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but I said OK and put on a playlist of (mostly) country songs, because I like a lot of that shit.

The whole reason I noted that is because I've been listening to all these songs with narratives reinforcing our cultural folkways, and I'm wondering how much of my enjoyment of derives from their resulting position in our sociocultural matrix and how much derives from the inherent worth of their musicality and lyricism.

This week was good professionally: I've hit what I hope is the magic number of responses required for my thesis, and finally worked out with my advisors what statistical analysis we're going to use - which is why I'm powering through data entry at the moment. My least favorite patient told me she absolutely has to have her braces off by March, no matter what, so I know she'll be done then. And I got a lead on at least a part-time job for next year, who I have to call on Monday. So that's some shit off my chest.

You should get to know your town, just like I know mine

The Magnificent Seven SC's City of the Dead Photo Scavenger Hunt was a success! It was a gorgeous day, sunny with a forecasted high near 60 F. Which is awesome for November in Chicago!

People started arriving at the Pontiac a little before 11am. After a bit of chit-chat and after a few attendees had a few bloody marys, I started passing out clue sheets. Nick commented that it was too easy to make collages like that on the computer now, but acknowledged that they don't look the same or have the soul of a cut-and-paste, copy-and-destroy job.


All said, though, it was kind of a pain doing all that cutting and pasting; I'm done doing ride promo and fliers for a while.

Anyway, being scooterists, our 11:30am start time went to pot pretty quickly. At half past eleven, we started our random pairings. Patrick picked up some cheapo chopsticks and numbered them; they were drawn and that was how your teammate was chosen! Everyone seemed to get along though, so no problems. Of course, Josh the Cop was running late, and held everyone up until he got there at noon. Two more guys showed up in the meantime, but of course they both pulled matching numbers, so Brian was stuck waiting for Josh (and I held everyone else from starting to make it fair). Nick and John had come by but ended up not participating. Kyle also pulled over in his VW van to say hi, but he was headed out to the 'burbs for domestic tasks. Everyone else there was going crazy figuring out clues. Except for Rich, that is; he read the clue sheet and stated he knew where they all were. The others were all feeding their internet addictions on their DiCKPhones and Crackberries, or in Nick and Chandler's cases, their laptops. Ben made phone calls. Sid and Dan had their maps and atlases.

Like I said, I let everyone go at the same time. They had seven sites around Chicago, from Rogers Park to Hyde Park (way north to way south, with some west side thrown in for kicks) to visit and photograph with both bikes from each team. Some of them tore off north, some of them south. Some of them sat at the Pontiac and worked on their route for a while. In fact, Sid and Dan (and Dan's wife Jane) were still sitting there when Millie, Durso, and Silent Ron rolled up at quarter past twelve. Apparently, Millie'd broken down and was riding 2-up with Durso, so Team Maryland was able to compete together despite our rules and random team assignments - although I suppose having to ride 2-up on Dursos 125cc smallframe was somewhat of a handicap.

Sid and Dan took off shortly after that, while Team Maryland worked out clues and Silent Ron commiserated. I think they finally left at 12:30. At which point Patrick and I, as the organizers and planners unable to compete, went for eats at Dunlay's on the Square in Logan Square along with my friend Nikki. Good eats. We dropped Nikki off at the Humboldt Park Fieldhouse and proceeded to the Garfield Conservatory to hang a bit and see which teams stopped by.

Before I proceed further, I should tell you which sites our seven clues referred to, in chronological order:

1. Rosehill Cemetery
2. Union Stockyards Entrance Arch
3. Finkl & Sons Steel
4. Garfield Conservatory
5. Biograph Theater
6. Chess Records Office and Studio
7. Henry Moore's "Nuclear Energy" sculpture at the site of the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction

Patrick and I hung out at the Conservatory for a bit, and saw Sid and Dan ride by south of Lake Ave, coming from the Garfield Park Fieldhouse, and head east. A couple minutes later they came back west and found us sitting in front of the conservatory. Apparently Dan had been shot by some douchebags with a paintball gun while riding through the west side. He was not a happy camper. They told us they had to hit Rosehill and then they were done. Patrick and I were surprised, as it was only a quarter past two at this point.

A couple minutes after they stopped by, Brian and Josh the Cop showed up. This was their last site. They got their pictures, and headed back to the Pontiac. Patrick and I left almost as quickly, but took a different route back; we jammed down Lake Street - AKA the Death Star - with only a little weaving amongst the pillars when necessary to pass. Brian and Josh still beat us back to the Pontiac - we were a block or two away when I saw Brian's Zuma pulled into the lot.

We rolled up a few seconds later, and there's Todd with a half-drunk bloody in his hand, smiling like a tow-headed devil. He and Rich and Amy had gotten back a while before, apparently. Amy showed me their photos, and I declared them the winner and relieved myself of banking the ride's winnings. $65 to the winning team, and $10 to Brian and Josh, setting them even for the day - minus gas and beer money. (Brian and Josh the Cop were running red lights all day, and Josh even tried to get a squad car for escort - to no avail. They still came in first loser.) Ben and Chandler - Team Stella - rolled up soon after, and the rest of the teams came trickling in after that. I think the motorcycle guys were 5th or 6th to arrive, after Tim and Stephanie. Team Silent Ron and Maryland showed up soon after, and we were hanging out front of the Pontiac waiting for our stragglers.

Sid finally pulled up, followed closely by Katherine on her Stella, and Dan and Jane were a couple minutes behind. We ended up shootin' it until the sun set near 4:30 - damn Daylight Savings Time ending is messing me up. Everyone said no when I suggested going for a group ride, but fun was had by all.

UPDATE: So, a few people took some wrong turns - Josh and Brian went to Graceland instead of Rosehill, and the motorcycle team went to UIC instead of U of C to find Henry Moore's "Nuclear Energy." And Chandler dropped his camera on Michigan Ave. and Team Stella had to backtrack to get it. And some team I can't remember went to the Apollo Theater instead of Chess Records.

Next time, I'm not planning at all. I wanted to ride!

Pictures are available on my Flickr and at the Mag 7's Flickr.

Fucking Media Monopolies

So, the videos I posted in my last post have been deleted from YouTube, due to Viacom's claim of copyright infringement.

Now, while technically accurate, the decision is marketing idiocy. Without any sort of viral video presence as in those two clips, would Yo Gabba Gabba's audience demographic expand in that direction at all? Is there a huge overlap between YouTube users and Nick Jr. viewers? I don't think so.

What it is is corporate media producers defending their right to total information control. It's not this instance that scares them, but the precedent of any of their material being used for any reason not sanctioned prior to its use.

Anyway, they've been put back up on YouTube, go there and search for "Yo Gabba Gabba Pick It Up" and "Yo Gabba Gabba Aggrolites" and you should find your treat.