Thursday, January 26, 2012
Fabulous
I love these vintage Chicago posters! They're so great! It's amazing to think that at one time so much attention was paid to illustration like that, to create these beautiful posters.
Quickly
Can't believe January's nearly over. I wonder how it feels to old people, if time shoots by even quicker for them. When you're a kid, an hour can seem like an eternity, and a month might as well be a year. But nowadays, a month blows by so quickly, seemingly.
The boys are peacefully sleeping right now, very sweetly. I love that B1 sleep-laughs. That really cutes me out. He never remembers what made him laugh, but they're hearty laughs, whatever it is. B2 doesn't sleep laugh, but rolls around a lot.
I'm looking forward to "The Grey" coming out. Hopefully it's at least an entertaining movie. The trailer for it looked promising enough, but we'll see. I'm a little worried, since they sometimes bury crap movies in January, but because it's so snow- and cold-themed, maybe they ran with that. Not sure. But I'll find out, anyway. I'm guardedly hopeful, I guess.
Saw that we were having some solar flares recently. I wish the US would be smart about protecting its infrastructure, but it seems like forward-thinking things like that are not our country's strong suit, anymore. Maybe that'll change. Maybe having massive power outages in the wake of a major solar storm sometime will change people's perspectives. I dunno.
Was marveling that we have 50 million uninsured in this country. There was just an article in the NYT the other day, comparing the US system to the rest of the First World (and, yes, all of those countries have national healthcare), and how much more expensive our system of care is, relative to theirs. We have good outcomes in particular areas, but the cost differences are extraordinary. For the supposedly more efficient private system (with 25% of the overhead tied to the administrative paper-shuffling of the insurance industry *koff koff*), our system is terribly expensive. A huge percentage of personal bankruptcies in this country are tied to healthcare. It's like a slow-motion trainwreck -- more and more employers opting out of coverage of their employees, more and more people unable to get the care they need, more and more uninsured. It's a disaster. And, unfortunately, a preventable one. We'll just shamelessly lurch along with our 50 million uninsured, with politicians (themselves covered by national healthcare, mind you) busy trying to scuttle Medicare and Medicaid and push everybody into the private insurance industry, whether they can afford to pay or not. Disaster.
Although I will qualify it by saying that around 43% of those without insurance are non-citizens. But that still means we have 25 million Americans who don't have health insurance, millions of whom are children and the elderly. That's just a mess. And as more companies opt out of coverage, that number is going to continue to climb.
This is kind of a fun applet, tracking your food spending. According to what I input on this, I spend far more on groceries than most Americans, but I eat out far less than most Americans, too. Maybe it's because I enjoy cooking, I'm not sure. Still, it's fun to see that data compared.
The boys are peacefully sleeping right now, very sweetly. I love that B1 sleep-laughs. That really cutes me out. He never remembers what made him laugh, but they're hearty laughs, whatever it is. B2 doesn't sleep laugh, but rolls around a lot.
I'm looking forward to "The Grey" coming out. Hopefully it's at least an entertaining movie. The trailer for it looked promising enough, but we'll see. I'm a little worried, since they sometimes bury crap movies in January, but because it's so snow- and cold-themed, maybe they ran with that. Not sure. But I'll find out, anyway. I'm guardedly hopeful, I guess.
Saw that we were having some solar flares recently. I wish the US would be smart about protecting its infrastructure, but it seems like forward-thinking things like that are not our country's strong suit, anymore. Maybe that'll change. Maybe having massive power outages in the wake of a major solar storm sometime will change people's perspectives. I dunno.
Was marveling that we have 50 million uninsured in this country. There was just an article in the NYT the other day, comparing the US system to the rest of the First World (and, yes, all of those countries have national healthcare), and how much more expensive our system of care is, relative to theirs. We have good outcomes in particular areas, but the cost differences are extraordinary. For the supposedly more efficient private system (with 25% of the overhead tied to the administrative paper-shuffling of the insurance industry *koff koff*), our system is terribly expensive. A huge percentage of personal bankruptcies in this country are tied to healthcare. It's like a slow-motion trainwreck -- more and more employers opting out of coverage of their employees, more and more people unable to get the care they need, more and more uninsured. It's a disaster. And, unfortunately, a preventable one. We'll just shamelessly lurch along with our 50 million uninsured, with politicians (themselves covered by national healthcare, mind you) busy trying to scuttle Medicare and Medicaid and push everybody into the private insurance industry, whether they can afford to pay or not. Disaster.
Although I will qualify it by saying that around 43% of those without insurance are non-citizens. But that still means we have 25 million Americans who don't have health insurance, millions of whom are children and the elderly. That's just a mess. And as more companies opt out of coverage, that number is going to continue to climb.
This is kind of a fun applet, tracking your food spending. According to what I input on this, I spend far more on groceries than most Americans, but I eat out far less than most Americans, too. Maybe it's because I enjoy cooking, I'm not sure. Still, it's fun to see that data compared.
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