Sicko

It's not a coincidence that I'm thinking of this film today because I'm home from work sick. This is the first time in years that I am getting paid to be home sick because in February I acceped a job that provides health insurance coverage for me and my family. It had been more than ten years since I've been in that position (having health care through my work), although I worked nearly all of that time.

I saw Sicko, Michael Moore's scathing documentary about the U.S. health care system, a few weeks back, and like most viewers, my initial reactions were of outrage and frustration. I've seen all of Michael Moore's films, and in my opinion this is his best. For one thing, he doesn't insert his usual gadfly self into the story as much as he has in past films, and this allows his story to unfold. Yes, his presentations of the English, French, and Cuban health care systems are one-sided, but so what? This is what makes a compelling documentary. I was particularly piqued to learn that in France new mothers are treated to a government-sponsored (free) nanny who comes to your house and helps with cooking, laundry, and looking after the new baby. That is in stark contrast to what new mothers in this country go through, often overwhelmed, in isolation and with only six weeks maternity leave. When the new moms in France are ready to return to work, they can rely upon high-quality child care that costs roughly the equivalent of about a dollar an hour. All French workers receive unlimited sick days.

It has only been in the last six months that my family has had employer-provided health coverage. For the previous several years we paid for a very basic plan that fell short of what we needed when our second daughter was born with health problems. The out-of-pocket cost of even minimal coverage for a family of four is prohibitive. Like many Americans we have been forced to reevaluate job and career options through this lens.

This is one of the most entrenched problems facing this country, one that none of the presidential candidates have addressed in a satsifying way. However, if only because the costs to corporations for providing their employees with health coverage are so exorbitant that it makes them less competitive in the global marketplace, I remain hopeful that in the not-too-distant future we will begin to see at least some reform on this issue.

Hiroshima

Today is a tragic anniversary. On this day in 1945 the American crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb codenamed "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 70,000 people were directly killed, and in the months following, approximately 60,000 more people died of injuries and radiation poisoning. Three days after Hiroshima a second atomic bomb codenamed "Fat Boy" was dropped on Nagasaki.

When we read and hear in the mainstream media about the dangers of other countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, and how even "preventive war" (as in Iraq, and next possibly Iran) is a solution to this problem, it is important to remember that only one country in the history of the world has ever used such weapons on a civilian population.

Tzatziki

When we were in New York this summer another friend gave me his recipe for tzatziki. This is that delicious, creamy Greek cucumber-yogurt dip often used as a sauce for gyros or souvlaki, but is great with pita bread too. I tried out this recipe recently and it is quick, easy, and very authentic. My friend says that whenever he has one of the ingredients in his kitchen, he goes out and buys the rest so that he can always have some of this on hand. Exact measurements are not given--just prepare to your taste:

1. Grate skinned cucumbers.
2. Squeeze out and discard liquid.
3. Mix with any plain yogurt.
4. Add crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and torn (not cut) mint leaf.

Always serve cold. Enjoy!

Yet Again!

ABC reset its tally of poll results reflecting who, in viewers' opinions, won the GOP debate they broadcast this morning, Sunday, August 5--in which Ron Paul was winning in a landslide! Computer glitch, or dry run for the real election? You decide:

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/050807_b_reset.htm

Look at the results of this poll, and ask yourself why you hardly ever hear Ron Paul so much as mentioned in the mainstream media:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Decision2008/popup?id=3436820

Ron Paul Destroys All GOP Candidates in Straw Poll

This poll mirrors the same results of every single Republican post-debate poll that I've seen to date:

http://www.freedomworks.org/strawpoll/

So why does the mainstream media continue to utterly ignore the existence of the congressman from Texas and presidential candidate? Could it be because Ron Paul (R-Texas) is the only Republican candidate advocating a complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq? Just asking.

Bubba's Pie

I am fortunate to have a very dear friend who bakes the most excellent pies I have ever tasted, although unfortunately I only see him infrequently these days, as we now live on opposite coasts. Of his many fabulous creations, I have heartily partaken of a quince tart, several apple and apple-cranberry pies, about three different sweet potato pies, and a peach pie. When he visited at the beach house this summer he brought along this incredibly scrumptious strawberry-rhubarb pie, which we devoured bit by bit, sometimes even for breakfast, the goal being to have the pie last for the duration of the week he was visiting. I think we made it four days. It was usually eaten a la mode. It's been several weeks and I'm still thinking about it longingly. (Is this what is meant by food porn?) I've been asking for the recipe, and if he sends it along I will post.

In Between Books

It is not often that I have a lull of more than two or three days between books I'm reading. I finished two books while on vacation recently: Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Hope Edelman's Motherless Daughters. Anne is often dismissed as the lesser writer among the three Bronte sisters, and after reading this book I would have to agree. I was especially perturbed to find that the narrative tied up all too neatly with everyone enduring through their problems to live happily ever after. Edelman's book, a nonfiction exploration of the lives of girls who have lost their mothers (most through illness-related death but also through suicide and abandonment) resonated with me because so much of what these now-women had to say about the emotional, psychological and existential condition of motherless daughters is familiar to adoptees such as myself.

On that note I also recenly finished reading the memoir The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes. I had always been drawn to Homes's fiction, but it wasn't until her personal essay about being found by her birth parents when she was an adult appeared in the New Yorker a few years ago did I realize why I so identified with her writing. The Mistress's Daughter is her first autobiographical book (the New Yorker piece was its genesis). This is a quick read--I read it in a day--though passages of this book was hard for me to read because I kept having the strange sensation that I could have written a lot of it myself, word for word. It definitely stirred up a lot of emotions that I keep tamped down in daily life, so it left me feeling a bit wrung out. Although her reunion story and mine are different, we still share much of the same feelings of being betwixt and between, of having been broken and then put back together again in a new configuration.

There is a fairly new David Talbot biography of John and Robert Kennedy that I picked up from the review pile at Mother Jones that has roused some interest. I'm thinking of reading this next if I could find where in the house it is, but if anyone has any books to recommend please let me know.