No Competition

Healthcare Reform

I haven’t written much about the current healthcare debate that is literally raging across America right now. The reason for that is that, frankly, I don’t have a very clear understanding of the proposals and the potential results of those proposals. I do know that something has to change. From my personal point of view I know this: My healthcare costs have gone up like clockwork every single year since I’ve carried health insurance. My healthcare insurance premiums have doubled over the course of the last decade. My wages have not really adjusted at all over the course of the last decade. That could be my own fault; but even if I were a competent, productive member of society, I doubt very much that my wages would have doubled over the last decade.

I also know that the Republicans are suggesting that they have a number of their own proposals that they say will reduce health-care costs. This makes me angry. The Republicans had their opportunity to pass whatever legislation they wanted, and they chose not to act on the issue of health-care. For them it was apparently not a priority. Now that the Democrats are choosing to address a growing problem that affects nearly every citizen, the Republicans want to chime in and say they have a better plan. Well where was their plan four years ago when they had control of the Congress and the White House? To me, through their inaction, the Republicans have made it clear that they don’t mind the status quo, and that they side with the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.

My wife and I also have had the misfortune of dealing with a major medical issue – one that has involved multiple surgeries and treatments. Even with a good insurance plan, including our premium payments, a solid one-third of our income has gone to medical expenses over the course of the last three years. This is untenable, and luckily we are seeing the light at the end of this horrific tunnel. Our current system literally adds insult to injury – the very worst situation befalls you, and you get a nice fat bill for it that can put you in the poorhouse; unbelievable.

I don’t know; I get that we’re in a capitalist society and that the free market is supposed to be the driving mechanism behind everything we do – but health, it feels like there is an ethical dilemma in there somewhere.

Speaking of Insurance

I should start an insurance company. What an incredible racket. You charge your customers an ever-increasing premium; even if they make no claims their rates go up every year. Then, if they should ever actually make a claim on the insurance, you fight tooth and nail to deny the claim, drop their coverage, or raise their rates to a point where it is unaffordable. I think if I had the discipline to just pay into a fund every year, my own interest baring bank account, instead of paying the damn insurance over the last 20 years – I’d probably be able top pay any medical claim or automobile accident out of my pocket and still have money left over. Of course discipline is the missing ingredient. I’ve never had much of that.

Garbage Collection and The Majors

In New York City, all private businesses are responsible for hiring their own garbage disposal services, and by, the early 1990’s, the mob essentially controlled the entire industry. They had what has been referred top as a garbage cartel. Well a New York City police officer ended up infiltrating the mob almost by accident, and his investigation and the ensuing evidence that he turned up completely disintegrated the mob and their garbage cartel. As a result of competition being renewed in an industry that had been monopolized, businesses in New York enjoyed a 40% reduction in the price of private garbage collection. This was because suddenly there were a number of small businesses all competing with one another for the collection contracts.

Then a handful of massive, nationwide garbage services came in and bought up all the small private garbage collection businesses. Then, once those companies had firm control of the industry, they jacked their prices. The 40% savings businesses had been experiencing evaporated. Prices are now as high as they were when the mob ran the industry.

The mob guys refer to the themselves as “the Boys,” and they refer to the corporations as “the Majors.” It sounds to me like a term of respect.

madbob@madbob.com

Crappy Neighbors...

I have some crappy neighbors right now. I'll go into more detail later. They aren't the worst neighbors I've ever had, but they probably are in the top 5. Anyway, in pondering these crappy neighbors I started thinking back through all the different places I have lived and all the crappy neighbors I have had. I had the bright idea to start writing these anecdotes down, and then I thought that probably everyone has a "crappy neighbor" story.

So to make a short story long I came up with the idea to start a zine or a blog focused on crappy neighbor stories. Do you have any good crappy neighbor stories to share? I would love to hear them. You can e-mail them to me at: madbob@madbob.com and I will format them into the aforementioned zine/blog and then we'll see what happens from there.

Driving While Stupid

I just answered the CNN poll question: “Should Texting While Driving be Outlawed?” 92% of people said “yes.” You know darn well a lot of those 92% have texted while driving. Personally texting and I have nothing to do with one another. I don’t even have a cellular phone. But the question to me seems to be: “should it be illegal to drive while staring down at your hand?” or “should it be illegal to drive without actually paying any attention to the act of maneuvering the 2,000 pound hunk of metal and fiberglass that is hurtling through space and time at speeds of thirty miles an hour and up?” I know, I know – I just don’t get it. Those text messages are so important! They can’t wait 5 minutes until you are actually at your destination.

There’s an App for That!

You’ve heard this all from me before – I’m just not sold on all this technology. Yes I think if the technology is used efficiently and for the intended purpose of increasing productivity, then sure, it’s a good thing. I simply don’t think I’ve met a single person who doesn’t overuse technology in order to procrastinate, over-communicate, or just to make themselves feel cool and important. On that note, I recently received FaceBook updates from friends of mine who were on a camping trip! Does anyone else feel the irony in that moment?

Drunk and Productive

So I’ve been getting down on myself lately because, after being a good, responsible citizen, and working my ass off all week long, I have been tending to spend my weekends seeing how many Natural Lights and clamato juice I can suck down over a 48 hour period. As a result I haven’t been spending any time writing, creating art, or essentially doing anything remotely productive. I was getting close to giving up the beer when I had a break-through. My wife had asked me to build a bonsai display stand for her burgeoning bonsai forest. I poached a design from a recent visit to the Chico Garden Center and spend Saturday and Sunday knocking together a simple but effective piece of outdoor furniture. I also managed to build the stand, level the ground, wrestle the thing into place, and paint it, while drinking copious amounts of wine cooler and the aforementioned clamato beer. This worked out to be a cathartic moment for me. I don’t have to give up my weekend binge drinking – I just have to do more while I’m drunk! Kids don’t try this at home; I am a trained professional.

The Birds and the Bees

Our garden is absolutely stunning this year. Trish has been cultivating a sweeping variety of salvia and other long, flowing types of flowering plants. As a result, at any given moment the yard is populated with dozens of different pollinators: hummingbirds, native bees, honey bees, and a host of butterflies of differing sizes, shapes, and coloring. The plants dance from all the pollinating going on, even when there isn’t a lick of wind. We have also managed to grow a handful of tomatoes – this is the first year we’ve tried hanging them from a scaffold over the compost pile. I didn’t select enough large tomatoes though – we primarily have heirloom varieties of smaller tomatoes. There is one particularly interesting Russian variety that seems to be producing a large, dense tomato shaped like a heart. These are just starting to turn a deep orange color. The best part of this is that the tomatoes are growing high enough that Bill the dog can’t reach them. Our 100+ pound Labrador has a tendency to decimate certain tasty crops.

At Odds

Man I feel like I have been at odds with the world around me lately – like the chakras are clogged or the energy is jammed up. Sometimes all I want is a little peace and quiet; and all I get is a ton of noise and distraction. Interactions that used to be smooth are grating. My teeth grinding has kicked into high gear. My nubs are sore and crumbling. I have entertained thoughts of living in a box car, or on the sheer face of a hillside. This town living is starting to get under my skin. I’m feeling the confinement acutely, and the wanderlust is creeping in. My life is a little bit like Groundhog Day without the security that comes with monotony. I was actually never aware that you could have boredom and insecurity – but it turns out you can. You can be worrying ulcers into the lining of your stomach while at the same time getting so tired of the same four walls staring back at you that you want to scream. Who knew?

madbob@madbob.com

The Bible Should Be Taught in School

I was looking for my Bible this weekend because I have been toying with the idea of putting together my own audio version of the Book of Revelations. I can’t find the thing though – I haven’t been able to find it for months. It’s not the biggest deal in the world – I have plenty of other books that mean as much or more to me than the Holy Bible – but to not have a Bible is a glaring omission in any decent library.

Those of you who know me well know that I am not a religious person. I was raised by a family of “non-practicing Presbyterians,” the kind of family who shows up in church on the major religious holidays, and is always eternally grateful to be driving out of that strange, uncomfortable setting at the end of the service. I never read a single word of the good Book when I was a child. The only reason I ever picked up a Bible was because one of my literary heroes, the late great Hunter S. Thompson, mentioned that often when he was in hotel rooms he would pick up the Gideon Bible and thumb through the Book of Revelations. He mentions that he was enamored of the vivid, wild language of that particular book – it is a major mind-trip.

It is ridiculous that the Bible is not taught, in a literary manner, in our public schools. The idea that teaching the literary aspects of the Bible in school is the equivalent of promoting a particular religious belief is preposterous – it’s similar to suggesting that if I were to read the Odyssey I might suddenly start bowing down to Athena. Hey, stranger things have happened – but these are literary works of such extreme importance they cannot simply be shoved aside. What I mean is, you can’t claim to be a learned person if you don’t have a basic understanding of the stories enmeshed in the Bible. Genesis alone contains several of the stories that form a cornerstone of literature: Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, The Tower of Babel, Cain and Abel… These stories have been re-told and re-packaged throughout our literary history. When you are watching James Dean in Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” you’re seeing a modern re-telling of the story of Cain and Abel.

You’ve got to know the roots of the thing. It’s hard not to laugh when you hear someone re-telling a re-tell – when you know they don’t know the real, underlying root of the story. We get that a lot these days in this post-modern era because, let’s face it, post-modernism grants a lot of artistic license to people who may not really know how to drive. I suppose sometimes artistic naivety can lead to some nice finished products, but to my mind the artist who understands the layers and history that lead to today’s stroke on the canvas has a better chance of creating an enduring and complex piece of art; a piece that is going to draw the viewers in for reasons they may not even understand.

The Erin Andrews Controversy

So I guess some pervert used a “peephole camera” to take nude video footage of popular ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews. That’s a big deal – but it wasn’t as big a deal as it has become until every major network started running this bit of criminal titillation as a feature story – along with excerpts from the leaked video. I wonder how Ms. Andrews feels about that? Its one thing to have someone videotape you unaware and post it onto the internet – but quite another to see the same footage being run prominently on the national news casts! Oh, but the networks all blurred out Andrews’ naughty bits – so I guess that makes it okay.

Of course as a result of all the national media attention the story has snowballed or “gone viral” as the kids like to say. The most popular search on Google the other day was “Erin Andrews Peephole Video.” Wow – entertaining and educational.

Things I Never Thought I’d Say…

Folks seriously, we are crossing a line here. When I am saying people are getting too pervy, then you know things are getting weird. Looking at these pictures and watching this video, just because it is there, is a violation of a person’s privacy. This isn’t a sex tape that was willingly made by the participants – and even those leaked tapes pose an ethical dilemma. This, the Erin Andrews tape, is a completely criminal act because Andrews is completely non-complicit. Watching this tape is watching, and by proxy participating in, a sexual assault. It is a complete abdication of morality in exchange for a cheap thrill.

madbob@madbob.com

Banks and Battery of the Soul

Shake it off – get back in there – give it all you got! Alright; I will. Here goes nothing. These days I have been shaking off body blows and head shots right and left. Life just seems to be landing upper-cut after body blow after jab and my arms are spaghetti noodles; flailing ineffectively against a vicious, proficient opponent who will not let up. It’s nothing specific – nothing I can put my finger on. Maybe it’s the continued economic crisis wearing on my brain. Maybe it’s the personal financial crisis I’ve been enmeshed in for the last 20 years. Maybe its middle-age closing in on me, or maybe it’s just the damned vibrations screwing with my molecular being. Who knows? Not me.

Believe it or Not! Bank Shows Profit!

Goldman-Sachs is showing a record profit – 33% increase over the quarter before. It’s all the rage in the economic and national news these days. I’ve heard two very distinct points of view on that situation. The first, optimistic, take on the success of Goldman-Sachs is that the profits are a result of hard work, incredible talent, and a clear vision for the future. The second, more cynical argument I’ve heard is that Goldman-Sachs’ profits are built on the back of cheap money doled out in the midst of the taxpayer funded bank bail-out, the elimination of key Goldman-Sachs competitors, and the favorable treatment of Goldman-Sachs at the hands of former company employees and current loyalists who are strategically positioned within the government regulatory structure. Frankly both positions sound credible to me. I lean towards the cynicism, but I’m so damned desperate for good news these days that I’m inclined to give Goldman-Sachs the benefit of the doubt and say “good job!” I’m tired and out of it though, and I reserve the right to change my mind without notice.

Lost – One Mojo

The synapses are just not firing today. Actually if I think back on it they haven’t been active for months now; lazy, beaten, defeated. The walls look a little too familiar, the food tastes bland, internet pornography doesn’t get me off like it used to. What is going on around here? Have a lost my mojo? Where do I even start looking for the damned stuff? Maybe I’ll put an ad up on Craig’s list and see what bites…

Lost – Mojo – If you have seen it, please let me know where to start looking for it. Appreciate it – Bob

Something like that. Craig’s List – killing print media since 2000-something. Who knew the Achilles heel of the entire newspaper industry was the classified advertising? It makes sense. Do the rise of Craig’s List and the fall of print media signify something grander? Is it true democracy, or anarchy, wrenching control away from the capitalists? Is Craig’s List a socialist endeavor? What does Obama think of all this? Sotomayor?

Oh well, about face, shift gears… My head feels like a brick, my stomach is knotted, my teeth ache. Large sections of this column may not be suitable for younger readers. That’s a disclaimer I just heard on the radio – slightly reworded – I should probably always include that in front of the column.

Vows of Silence

Today I was thinking about joining a monastery when a co-worker came into my office and asked how I thought he could go about joining a monastery. I guess it’s in the air these days. The rat race just isn’t cutting it for a lot of us anymore – racing is no fun when you never win. You know that the average Goldman-Sachs employee makes a little over $900,000 annually? Nine hundred thousand dollars. Can you believe that? It’s obscene – and that’s the average. Some of those folks make a lot more than that.

Smoke and spandex and dead eyes… Sometimes I miss the darkness, city nights, sleaze and scum. A recent sojourn down to the Bay Area reminded me of the days I used to roam the streets of San Francisco, drinking regularly in the Irish bars and sleeping with the windows open. The air there is so clean. Except maybe for the Sierra Mountain air I think the air in San Francisco is the cleanest, clearest air I have ever breathed.

My elbow still smarts from a bicycle accident I suffered over a week ago. The soda I am drinking coats my throat and soothes my stomach but my teeth still hurt.

I think tonight I’m going to take a long bath and read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha for the umpteenth time. That book is a good one for soothing the soul.

madbob@madbob.com

Famous Last Words

"I am about to -- or I am going to -- die: either expression is correct."

~~ Dominique Bouhours, French grammarian, d. 1702

Thought on Health Care from Jerry Springer - 2004

“Here’s what’s stupid… rich people can already afford anything they want to buy. Do you think if I get a check in the mail suddenly I’m going to buy something? If I want something now I’ll go out and buy it! Don’t give me the money. Take that money and make sure that every citizen of the United States of America has health insurance.”

-Jerry Springer on health care…