The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Don Fitch:

Hoping prayer (and a candle) from an agnositic will help.

@10:

And barely a hint of sodomy. *sigh*

But even so, I find it an interesting and entertaining description of the process (or strategy, as Jim aptly describes it) of putting together a last-minute HotDish in an unfamiliar kitchen. The food, I probably wouldn't much like (unless there were a lot of rice for it to flavor -- I happen to dislike hotdogs), but the description... that, I relish.

Yup, there are times -- maybe a lot of them -- when "really boring" is Really Good. I hope Soren is continuing to work hard at rehab. Recent studies (as I understand it) suggest that this is often effective, even though most improvement generally takes place in the first six months or so. (I'm thinking of LArea fan Fred Patten, who had a drastic stroke and, not being physically-oriented, seems to have let up on rehab work once he was able to talk reasonably well and use a computer. His life seems to have been pretty much downhill after that *sigh*, and I'm glad to hear that Soren is still going uphill, albeit gradually.)

I'm one of those OldFarts who don't trust PayPal (or myself, when books and other delights can be bought via it) but think I have a RealMail @ (Vicky R.) and expect to use it RSN.

Best Wishes to All There.

Happy birthday to these fine (and stimulating, and friendly, the few times I've interacted 1:1 with them) people, Jon & D., who are young enough to be my children (and almost grandchildren, technically, give or take a couple of years and not-all-that-unusual early puberty).

You left out "fold in half & crimp the edge" just before "Bake...". But I suppose flat would be just about as good.

J.Random @ 66:

Actually, IIRC, Tim Kyger knew Teresa & Patrick back when they were all little more than teen-agers, and shared with them the fraught experience of producing a WorldCon after the original bidders pretty much dropped the ball (a WorldCon which, I testify, turned out well for those of us attending it(1)... but was clearly (& sadly) something of an Emotional Disaster behind the scenes). So there may be undercurrents here of which we wot not.

If memory serves, Tim was (or at least seemed), back then, to be a much nicer, more intelligent, and more civil person than he's come across as being the couple of times I've seen a run of posts from him here. *sigh* (But then, IIUC, he's spent some years working as a Congressional Assistant, and I suppose such exposure to Politicians & Politics would have a somewhat-corrupting effect on anyone.)

(1) It would be hard to fault a Convention at which my highlight experience didn't seem at all out of place. Alone in the Observation Room at the top of the hotel, after a night of Good Parties, to watch the sun rise over the rim of the Desert.

Group of chattering highschool girls emerged from the elevator. Annoying distraction.

Then they fell silent, watching the pre-dawn light spread. One starting singing, quietly, just as the sun's disk broke above the horizon, then most of the others joined-in, a cappella. The "Alleluia" from a Mozart Mass.

#23

Yup -- but only if it's reasonably good health care reform (for some flavor of "reasonably good" that I'd find acceptable).

First, however, some Legislator needs to introduce such a bill, then a number of leading ones need to push it. What's apparently on the agenda currently doesn't qualify -- we seem to be down to band-aids & cosmetics.

And now we're getting a big flurry of protests -- from the U. S. President, major law-enforcement officials, and senior military officers -- about the release of a Terrorist from a Scottish prison so he can go home to die of cancer.

It's difficult to figure out how much of this is due to horrified reaction against a penal/legal system that is inadequately centered on Revenge, and how much it has to do with revulsion against the NHS Death Panel that obviously engineered this so that the /c/i/v/i/l/i/z/e/d/ socialist health-care system won't have to bear the considerable costs of Megrahi's end-of-life care.

(With a little work, it's probably possible to think of even more interesting convolutions and conspiracies in this context, but I'm saving most of my energy to work in the vegetable garden tomorrow.)

Inge @ 92:

Unless you protest strongly, I intend to quote your first two paragraphs (deleting "in a pub", perhaps) whenever it seems appropriate in future discussions I might have on this topic. Its elegance would be impossible for me to top when describing my identical experience, and this is a topic that deserves the best presentation possible
.

Jim @ 76:

Oh, not the war (IMHO) -- I should've made that clear -- but this battle sure seems to me to have passed its turning-point, what with the deflection to concentration on Insurance. (Sure, I might be feeling excessively pessimistic at the moment, and the Administration and Congressional Majority might start playing hardball. I hope so, of course, but.....) I don't think we'll get much improvement -- maybe just enough to make future changes even more difficult.

Fortunately, this isn't by any means the decisive battle in the war /o/f/ /g/o/o/d/ /v/s/./ /e/v/i/l/ for much greater social enlightenment.

Mind you, I'm going to be really difficult to get along with if even a little of my tax money starts getting paid to Health Insurance company executives & stockholders.

(I'm perfectly okay with the idea of that money -- and even higher taxes -- going to pay for a decent level of health care for people who otherwise couldn't afford it, but spectacularly not okay with the idea of having any of it go into the pockets of people who haven't actually done anything to provide medical care. And the latter is what would happen if we don't get a good, government-operated, Public Option Plan.)

KeithS @ 53:

Probably some/many conservatives are afraid of any alteration of the current system, yes. I think maybe more of them just want to make sure the Democrats don't accomplish _anything_ the voters would consider good.

And, ultimately, just about everyone, now, is talking/arguing about improving Health/Medical Insurance.

What the American People really need, in my opinion, is improved Health/Medical _Care_ -- which is a very different topic, albeit with some overlap -- and that appears to be off the table or sucessfully (from the Conservative view) derailed.

As others have said, "It's over. They won."

Feeling a bit pessimistic, I can't help wondering just why so many people --l mostly conservatives, I guess -- are opposed to the idea of an end-of-life consultation.

Frankly, the "slippery slope" (towards doctors promoting or advising pulling the plug) doesn't hold up. As I understand it, the last few weeks of struggling care tend to be the most expensive, and hence the most profitable to the doctors & hospital -- more profitable than letting the patient die and admitting a new one.

Jim is, I think, a bit optimistic when he implies that all doctors have chosen curing and healing as their vocation. It seems to me that a significant number of them, nowadays, have chosen the vocation of making a lot of money. If so, the biases in these counselling sessions seem likely to cancel out, or come close enough to this as to make no nevermind.

I suspect that the actual and basic objection, from many conservaties, is to the government spending (or mandating spending) money to benefit citizens*. That really ought to be a different discussion.

* Their objection could, of course, be to having facts presented to them, and being forced to make some kind of decision based upon them.

Ah, it does sound delightful -- maybe next year.
Especially since it's so close to Vermont, which I've wanted to visit ever since discovering that some of my paternal ancestors left there to settle in the part of the Northwest Territory that later became Michigan. (Or, according to another family document, they were born in "the state of Vermont, so called" -- but that seems to have been written by a relative who was a New Yorker with a firm belief that his state rightfully extended farther west, perhaps even to the Pacific ocean.)

JohnInCambridgeUK @ 140:

I think your figures might need some adjustment -- in the less-pleasant direction -- to account for the addition of coverage of those who are not now insured.

That quibbled, a good Universal Medical Care Program probably wouldn't result in any or much increase in my taxes (I'm close to the median/average income, I think) combined with Medical Care costs.

In a sense, I wouildn't _like_ an increase in my tax bill, but could easily afford one of up to c. 10%, maybe 20%, and would consider it worthwhile for the improvement of the social infrastructure (which has a considerable influence on my quality-of-life) that would certainly be effected.

Other than the above quibble (which amounts merely to questioning whether the savings would quite equal the additional spread), I'm in general hearty agreement with all your points.

(Actually, I like & am reasonably satisfied with my current HMO (the not-for-profit Kaiser-Permanente) c/w Medicare and would like to retain it, but the currently-considered plans don't seem to be inconsistent with that. Note, FWIW, that I'm currently in fairly good health -- for an 80-year-old male who smokes, that is -- have a stent in one coronary artery, have had radiation & surgery (rhinectomy) for carcinoma, and my major current concern is the prospect of having to drive directly across the LArea to UCLA several times in order to get another replacement prosthetic nose. The latter will be rather expensive, but only because of the many bookstores & fancy restaurants over on the WestSide.)

Steve C & 72:

Yup. And the logical thing to do with those Reserves (when they get sufficiently more than large enough to cover practically any potential emergency) is to build another (and more state-of-the-art) hospital -- which will both make them more profit and increase the quality of healthcare for a significant number of people. That's what Kaiser-Permanente seems to be doing here in southern California, albeit gradually. (I'll try to remember to check with them, but wouldn't be surprised if the (comparatively) recent facility in Baldwin Park cost several hundred million dollars to build & equip. It's certainly several hundred times as large as some houses I've seen for sale with an asking-price of over 1M.)

Lizzy L @ 69:

I think Jason @ 67 has a valid point (though it probably ought not be perceived as being aimed at Kaiser, judging from my dealings with them).

Yup, not-for-profit organizations _can_ direct ridiculously large sums into salaries, directly or indirectly (via nepotism and cronyism). Most notably, some charitable organizations are scams utilizing that technique.

This is something that can (& should) be fixed (at least well enough to cease being a significant problem) by proper oversight and regulation, so I don't find Jason's point persuasive. (Although... what with the recent trend towards get-the-government-off-our-backs de-regulation, it suggests that the return of Republicans to Power would be disastrous. But then, I already knew that.)

Dena Shunra @ 50:

I figured that the game is over and we've lost when our (Democratic Party) Leaders started talking about "Health Insurance Reform".

What we need, IMHO, is Health _Care_ Reform/Improvement -- including coverage of just about everyone in the country -- and it looks as though the best we can hope for along that line is an application of a layer of cosmetics that will start peeling-off in a few years. *grumpf*

Wyman Cook @ 44:

I'd expect Patrick to duck answering that question.

For some reason, I find myself imagining a year when the company that engraves the Hugo plaques has a not-particularly-thoughful soon-to-be-former employee who is a science-fiction fan (in the sense of "enthusiast") and is active on the InterNet.

Chris @46:

I'll have to check on the actual provisions of the bill, thanks -- all I've heard is to the effect that it requires insurance policies to pay for an _optional_ consultation, up to once per every four years, with a psychologist who specializes in end-of-life issues.

Being 80, I know a fair number of people who have a vested interest in this -- and am sometimes surprised at the percentage of them who are sensible enough that they very much do not want -- when the inevitable time comes -- to prolong their dying.

For the most part, the expense seems not to enter into their consideration -- they are (like me) simply not interested in continuing to survive when their life goes below a certain point on the human-vegetable scale. This should, I think, be optional, and AFAIK it would be under the proposed Public Option plan. Generally speaking, it isn't for the millions of people who don't have, and can't obtain good, private medical insurance -- they're just extremely likely to die a lot sooner, even if good medical care could prolong their active & enjoyed lifespan.

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