A start...

So, we've got a start on health care for all. It isn't the bill I would have wanted it to be but as a country we've gotten so bogged down in yelling at each other over perceived but not lived ideologies I'll take what I can get. Put it into place and get it working and we'll see what we can do to fix it where it is broken. It will be broken. It won't work perectly. It will have gapes and holes but.... it is better than the NOTHING that MANY people have had until now.

I remember going to college and realizing that I had to pay to go see the doctor. It was sort of terrifying that if I got sick, really sick, I didn't have a lot to fall back on. I remember a few times, like when I had bronchitis, where I was dreading having to go to the doctor AGAIN because I knew I wouldn't have the money for either the visit OR the prescriptions I got from the visit. I managed but I know people who haven't or who have gotten entirely screwed over by insurance companies saying they'd pay for things and then when the bill comes - trying to weasel out of footing a single cent.

Also, I've been doing a lot of thinking at how it has become not only acceptable but in some places expected that yelling and slurs and name calling is the way to start a discussion on any issue. Even at ECCC, when things went bad, there wasn't yelling but there were a lot of attempts at physical and/or social intimidation. I understand these are emotionally charged issues and I want to yell and scream too but no one listens to you when you're yelling like that. When you start off with labels for the other person in your head of 'racist', 'nazi' or any number of misused or repurposed terms these days, you have no way of having a productive discussion. Also, however, when you try to confront that yelling with rational conversation, you get steamrolled or ignored. I'm not sure how to try to have a conversation there. I won't accept that I can't because there has to be a way to do it. I won't reward bad behaviour with bad behaviour.

Meh.

I guess I miss when someone said, 'distinguished colleagues' across the aisle, they meant it and yelling insults at the other party wouldn't have been thought of, let alone acceptable. I miss the Democratic and Republican parties as I understood them to be, as they were explained to me when I started learning about these things. They've become monolithic things inacpable of actually listening to the people who support them at the bottom and that makes me sad. They're only hearing the people who yell the loudest. And a lot of those people, on both sides, don't represent anything I want to be.

I still believe in hope, I still believe in change. I still believe that we can make a difference and that making that difference, as it has proven true, is hard. I just feel especially frustrated recently.

It seems I'm wordy and full of thinks this morning.

FTTHHHHH

So, at ECCC, I got a Wonder Woman statue that I'd been looking at getting for a long, long time. And when I get my comics chest, some time in the future, hopefully less than a year afer I ordered it (which would be PAX), I'll have the Women of the DC Universe poster (signed by Mr. Hughes) above it. And below it, I'll have the statue.

And then I thought, well, y'know, I could get the statues of the people who are in the picture... And I sort of committed myself to this idea.

Yeah. Well. There are 11 lovely ladies in the picture. And as of Saturday, 7 of those 11 had statues either out or coming out. On Saturday I pointed out, "Well, there likely won't be an Oracle statue. It'd have to be Batgirl."

I shouldn't have said anything.

This was solicited today.

I think I'll start making comments about there being a Batwoman statue because I would like Kate Kane on my shelf, please.

Again, this appears to be another situation where the drawing is comical and makes me want to chuckle but the statue makes me a little frowny. Some level of humor is lost in transition, I think. It is like violence levels between movies and comics - they live in (sometimes very) different places for me. But that's another post some other time.

Hrmmmm.

So, it looks like Chris Evans will be Captain America. You would know him as Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four movies. He was, pretty much, the best part of those movies, so that's something at least. I'm not sure I recommend him as Cap but, hey, he's a solid actor at least.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning have joined Robert Pattinson in publicly lobbying for Gus Van Sant to direct "Breaking Dawn". Well. I don't think they'll get Sophia Coppola, so... Hrmmm.

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick say that we will see more of Tauron and some of Geminon before the season end of Caprica.

Warner Bros. Pictures is developing an adaptation of "Bleach". I'm not sure if it is live action or not.

"Chuck" and "House" has hit season lows in the ratings. These are both good shows but it would pain me more to lose "Chuck".

There is totally a strong indication that there will be a Green Lantern animated series of some sort. I really, really, really hope that it is a GLC series if hit happens. Animated Mogo would make very happy.