Couldn't have said it better

This editorial by Katha Pollitt says it all.

Where's this guy been?

Just before the State of the Union address, there were many op-ed pieces about Obama's having been too progressive, or too top-down, not doing enough on the economy, or what-not. I have a different complaint, which was highlighted when I heard him at the House Republican's retreat in Baltimore and again this morning talking to Senate Democrats. He's still saying all the right stuff, even showing real gumption and pointing out the lies. So, I'm wondering whether he's ever actually going to put anyone's nose to the grindstone on any of these important issues? I'm wondering how it is that Joe Lieberman still has an important committee chairmanship, even after he stonewalled the now-likely-not-to-pass health care reform. Where's this version of Obama when he's needed?

Liquid or solid?

I'm about to do some traveling, which has me thinking (again) about the funny TSA rules regarding liquids. Yogurt is considered a liquid, as are hair creams, toothpaste (it says "paste" right in the name!), and hand lotion. Watermelons, however, are solids.

Rationing and Bureaucracy Abound

I'm not sure why everyone is up-in-arms about the possibility of a public health plan to compete with the private plans that will remain in place. People seem most worried about 'rationing' of healthcare and the problems that might be associated with having a huge 'bureaucracy' "between you and your doctor". As if those aren't both currently the status quo.

We hear all the time about the situations in which health care is rationed, we just called it something else: "not covered". I am a young, relatively healthy adult, but I have had two notable experiences with a procedure or medication not being covered by my health insurance. The first was when I learned that my chronic jaw pain is caused my a severe misalignment of my teeth. If I'd had some pretty extensive orthodontia when I was a child, this could have been avoided. Plus, orthodontia for children under 18 is covered by most dental insurance, but is not covered for adults. However, as an adult, I would require at least one surgery and years of orthodontia, none of which was covered by either my own medical insurance (through grad school) or my dad's, which also covered me at the time, as an unmarried student under 25 years of age. So, I haven't fixed my mouth and I just deal with it.

My second experience with "rationing" is more minor, but still representative of what most people encounter now and again. My insurance company has a list of medications that it covers. Actually it has three lists - the cheapest covered medications, the medium-priced, and the uber expensive ones. Then there are all the drugs it doesn't cover, including some that have no adequate replacements, apparently. So, I was prescribed a drug for a minor skin condition that wasn't covered and ended having to get my doctor to either prescribe a substitute or write a letter explaining that this was the only effective treatment on the market for this condition. Point being, the insurance companies decide all the time what to pay for and what not to -- rationing.

In addition, we have tons of bureaucracy already. Since I'm focusing on my own personal experiences, I won't go into the way insurance companies will find ways to drop a patient's coverage when the individual is diagnosed with a serious and expensive disease or other bureaucratic ploys. What I know is that I went to an urgent care clinic due to an illness that befell me on a weekend (how dare I get sick on the weekend?!). I specifically went to urgent care, not the emergency room, based on both the not-too-serious nature of my illness and the cost I anticipated for the visit. (My insurer has a higher copay for emergency room visits, which makes sense.) After the visit, I got a very high bill, indicating that I had been charged for emergency care, rather than just urgent care. It took a few months of me calling the hospital and then resending the forms multiple times to get this all straightened out (all the more irksome by the fact that the treatment I received in urgent care didn't help at all and I later learned there was a very effective treatment that wasn't offered to me at the time).

I've been mis-billed for nearly every medical visit in the last few years, always for more than I should owe. I've also had trouble getting the insurance company to process referrals to a specialist, trouble getting anyone to give me a straight answer about what might and might not actually be covered, and so on. These are all examples of the wonderful bureaucracy we all get to enjoy in the current system.

These are just minor complaints and I spend next to nothing for my largely routine medical care (though I am aware my employer pays nearly another 20% of my salary for my medical insurance). I'm just trying to point out that our current system is already rife with those elements that the anti-reformers are arguing will be endemic to any public option. Personally, if the millions of currently uninsured could be privileged enough to deal with these issues, I think they'd probably be thankful.

Man in Space?

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the first time humans walked on the moon. At the time, the achievement was the culmination of intense effort and major technological advances. The event captured the imagination of children and adults worldwide because it inherently changed how we saw ourselves. We believed that we were entering an age of limitless horizons, a technological civilization able to explore beyond our own world. We believed that if we could reach the moon, we could achieve any goal.

On the Colbert Report last night, the physicist Dr. Bob Park argued that we should not continue manned space exploration because vastly more scientific information can be collected more cheaply by robots. With the budgetary constraints placed on NASA, robotic exploration would be the best way to learn more about our physical solar system and universe.

Those of us who were born after the moon landing take near-Earth space travel somewhat for granted. We grew up knowing that the moon was made of rock, with a distinct understanding of what weightlessness in space means and looks like. Certainly images of astronauts bounding across the moon's surface still intrigued us as children, but our conception of ourselves is not truly affected by the possibility of mankind going to Mars. That is why I am somewhat unmoved by the argument that manned missions "capture the imagination" in a way that unmanned missions do not. The only imaginations they really capture are those who wish to themselves go into space, meanwhile many of NASA's currently trained astronauts will never experience space. Americans today take for granted that we could send a man (or woman) to Mars, given enough time, money and energy. NASA seems to be struggling with whether it makes sense to invest these scarce resources in such an endeavor.

However, it must be pointed out that what we might learn by attempting a manned flight to Mars is not fully known. Every new goal we work to achieve will necessarily teach us about ourselves and drive the development of new technologies. That is why we still invest in basic science research and it is why we might still want to consider manned space missions.

I'm not arguing that a manned mission to Mars is the best use of NASA's funds, but I am arguing that what we would learn from such a mission is not necessarily known at this time. It is indeed hard to balance the somewhat quantifiable scientific gains of robotic exploration with the more qualitative and unidentifiable gains of manned expeditions. Of course, if we are going to try to just extend current technologies to reach Mars, we probably won't gain much by sending people there. But, creating new goals for exploration may well be important to drive innovation and further advance our understanding of our universe and ourselves.

High Priest of Song

I spent an evening a few weeks ago in the presence of the high priest of songwriting, Leonard Cohen. After 15 years away from the stage, about 5 of which were spent at a Zen Buddhist monastery, Cohen was in top form. He began down on one knee in a spot light, singing in his deep, nearly bottomless, voice. His showmanship was excellent, unaffected and almost naïve in his joy at making music. Despite the unfortunate monetary reasons for his tour, he appeared thrilled to be back.

At 75, Cohen is still spry, now down on both knees, now swaying to the beat, now skipping off the stage. He performed for just over three hours, drawing out the encores as an ersatz third set. He covered nearly all of his hits from every decade of his career, mostly maintaining the original interpretations, though he changed a few of the raciest lyrics.

His voice seems to get deeper every year, but when he sang, there was hardly a hint of gravel, which overtakes many smokers' sound. Amazingly, he can still move in the higher register from his youth with apparent ease and smoothness.

Cohen was joined on stage by a group of highly talented musicians and he reveled in them. Much of Cohen's music includes gospel-style backup singers, but to hear him live is to understand that he sees them as singing with him (or perhaps even "over" him, since their voices fill the octaves above his), not behind him. At the end of "Tower of Song" he entreated the three female vocalists to continue repeating their backup "do dum dum" harmony for measure after measure, claiming they were "healing" him.

Along with his songs, Cohen's humor was on full display. He quipped about the myriad antidepressants he has tried over his lifetime. He also made light of his struggle with alcoholism, as a prelude for "That Don't Make It Junk".

Cohen also showcased his fellow musicians, promoting his co-writer and so-called "co-collaborator" Sharon Robinson, who sang "Boogie Street" herself. Late in the show, the Webb sisters sang and played a heart-rending duet of "If It Be Your Will" after Cohen introduced the song and recited the chorus, drawing us to appreciate his lyrics as the poetry they are. Hearing of his struggle to determine whether to meditate or to make music, as we basked in the beauty of his song, I was overcome with gratitude for his choices. I am equally grateful for his continued health - despite the years of smoking that gave him the fathomless deep tones he now produces.

Waving his fedora and holding it to his heart, Cohen acknowledged each member of his band at least three times during the show. His performance was one filled with tenderness and humility. After the final number, the whole group sang an a capella tune, arm's around each other displaying a warmth and camaraderie that can only form when no single person is held above or beyond the others. Cohen then thanked everyone from his sound guy to the truckers and caterers, leaving the impression of a tremendous mensch.

His praise was well-placed, however, as every aspect of the show went off perfectly. The sound was crisp and just the right level to hear every nuance, but still walk away without ringing ears, as is too often the result of a night of rock music. Colored lights set the mood for each song and followed pieces through their many transitions flawlessly and smoothly enough to match, but not overwhelm the music. The whole production was well-crafted to create a sense of intimacy in a large hall.

Overall, it was an honor to hear Cohen perform, to gain a new experience of the words and tunes I knew well, and to spend a few hours in the thrall of great music.

O! President

I've been too busy to write recently, but in the days before the election I did find time to volunteer for the No on 8 campaign. I'd thought that living in CA, with the state's electoral votes (for now) effectively sewn up in blue, I wouldn't feel that pressing need to spend hours calling strangers on the phone or knocking on doors. But, despite my Marin County aunt's assertions in April that there was no way CA would ban same-sex marriage, the polls were way too close for comfort and there I was, again, dailing away. I guess I waited too long, because the campaign lost and people's rights were taken away.

The passage of Prop 8 (and others like it in 3 other states) really dampened my excitement over Barack Obama's election. While I am in a straight relationship and could marry my boyfriend anytime or place, it pains me to see that a minority can still be discriminated against, by a vote of 52%. Ironically, that is the same percentage of the electorate that Obama won on Nov 4, but in that case, I see a man stepping out from under the history of oppression and discrimination to move us away from those memories. Wow, that last bit is a lot to expect of one man.

In fact, we have all heaped our personal expectations on Obama in a way I've never seen before. Part of this is his invitation to hope. He has asked us to hope and put our faith in him for the change we need. So, we have. Michael Moore strangely suggested that since Obama ran as an anti-war candidate, that if he now increases troop levels in Afghanistan, he would be breaking his campaign promises. I think Moore should have been paying more attention during the campaign, because Obama has never used one lick of pacifist rhetoric. Yes, he was against the war in Iraq, but that's in part because he was for maintaining a war in Afghanistan. He repeatedly promised to do exactly what Moore is now saying he shouldn't.

I think many of us who desperately wants to see the country moving in a new direction have heaped our own expectations on this Presidency. We've forgotten that Obama has already disappointed us idealists. He rejected federal financing of his campaign, once it was clear that he could raise more from small donors (doesn't that phrase call to mind an image of millions of tiny people at tiny computers donating money online?). He voted to renew FISA, lax laws about how and why the government can spy on its people. He hailed the Supreme Court decision that prevents DC from trying to move beyond gun violence. I could go on, but I think the point that he is not going to be all things to all people is made.

However, last night, watching the 60 minutes interview for our new President-elect, I felt a surge of hope. Knowing that he is already working to close Gitmo and end that chapter of torture and inhumanity, I am buoyed to think that Obama might get it mostly right. He might take this economic meltdown as an opportunity to move us toward a clean-energy future. Sure, he'll probably bail out the combustion-engine-or-die Big Three, but hearing him speak with such clarity and intellect, I can hope he will find a way to do that intelligently and with an eye on the future, rather than the past. Yes, he will do things I oppose, but at least I have hope that they will be done based on sound data and reasoning. That is a change that I can believe in.