sicko (II). to be continued.

Michael Moore's film Sicko talks about health care in the US, and makes comparisons with the situation in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba.

In the US power over health care lies with the insurance companies. In countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba, that have national health care systems, the general idea has been to take care of people, all citizens, to costs they can afford.

Growing up in Sweden I have enjoyed a free education, and free health care. Sitting in the movie theater in California, surrounded by nurses dressed in made-for-the-day scrubs saying "RNs present Michael Moore's Sicko", I was shocked.

I was shocked by the gasps. These Americans gasped over facts that to me are normal and natural. Such as:

- If you are asked about preexisting conditions, it is because the health care system wants to know how best they can help you, not because they want to find a reason to cancel your insurance.
- Britain has a flat rate for filling subscriptions (GBP 6.65).
- In the words of British Labour politician Tony Benn, "if you can find money to kill people, you can find money to take care of them".
- An older Canadian gentleman, member of the Conservative party, freely will use the word solidarity to explain why he thinks it's fair that those who can afford it pay taxes to make sure all citizens get the care they need.

I am still in shock.

-- And I actually mean that. I need to think about this more.

sicko

We went to see Michael Moore's Sicko. That was a completely upsetting experience, in many different ways.

Go see it already.

And pay attention to the interview with British politician Tony Benn. Old Fashioned Labour, and Proud Of It.

so not true

rosebud

midsummer in san juan bautista, ca

The sign reads:

MISSION CEMETERY

BURIED IN THIS SACRED GROUND IN UNMARKED GRAVES ARE ABOUT 4300 MISSION INDIANS, SPANISH AND PIONEER SETTLERS.
THIS MISSION'S FIRST OFFERING TO GOD MARKED WITH THE SIGN OF THE HOLY TRINITY WAS A CHILD, MARIA TRINIDAD, BURIED APRIL 23, 1798. FR. JOSE MARTIARENA OFFICIATED.

the golden state

midsommar

I don't know what these things are called, but they smell wonderfully and they look like fried eggs.

digitalis purpurea

Fatal if eaten!

the wave

lily

weirdo

kära monica (I am on a roll)

Jo. Jag mailade dig just. Ang. din text. Om du kollar mail? Om du läser blogg?

kära annaa mattsson

Om du läser detta. Jag kan inte kommentera på din blogg. Hundra gånger har jag försökt. Senast idag, tex, ville jag säga att "folk är knäppa i huvudet". Men det försvann. Som vanligt.

Om du hade haft en emailadress på bloggen. Hade jag mailat. Men det har du inte.

sunday in aptos

it was windy in the peace garden

friday afternoon

rose garden

magnolia grandifolia

happy blue

this one is called 'hot cocoa'

lavender and friend

another gorgeous day in paradise. (I know that kid.)

beet, apple, celery, ginger. and maybe melon.

it's hot today. and I corrected a big pile of final exams.

from the mercury news

Paris Hilton's parents breeze past line on visit, while others wait hours

By Raquel Maria Dillon Associated Press San Jose Mercury News

Article Launched:06/13/2007 06:24:13 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton's parents visited their daughter after breezing past others waiting to see loved ones - an incident that raised new complaints that the heiress is receiving special treatment. The visit Tuesday came less than a week after Hilton was reassigned to house arrest days after being jailed for violating parole. The 26-year-old socialite and reality TV star was later ordered back to jail. Alvina Floyd, one visitor to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, waited more than four hours to visit her fiance. It normally takes two hours, and Floyd, 20, blamed the Hiltons for the delay. "I have to be at work later," she said. "I can't wait here all day." Shatani Alverson, 23, said she was hustled out of the jail's visiting room moments after her husband walked in because of the Hiltons. She was told to come back after lunch. Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman, said it was routine for high-profile inmates to receive visitors during lunch, a time when the visiting room is normally cleared out and closed. The visit came shortly after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered Sheriff Lee Baca to respond by next week to allegations of favoritism for reassigning Hilton to house arrest. At the time, Baca cited an undisclosed medical condition as the reason for making the decision. Hilton was sent to a medical ward, where sheriff's officials said it costs $1,109.78 a day to house a female inmate compared with $99.64 a day in the general population. Mary Tiedeman, who regularly visits the jails as a monitor for the ACLU, said the area where Hilton was being housed was usually reserved for high-security inmates or those worse off than Hilton has appeared. "I don't know what her health issue is, but you have got to have a pretty intense medical or mental health problem to be in that part of the jail," she said. Meanwhile, the Endeavor talent agency has dropped Hilton from its roster of clients, Michael Donkis, a spokesman for the company, said Tuesday. "She is no longer a client," he said, declining further comment. Hilton has been represented by the Beverly Hills-based agency since 2005.

in bohuslän it's called to "maja"

When I was a kid a rite of passage was the adult-free picnic. It consisted of a drink and some crackers, and a walk around the corner to the first available bit of grass that was not someone's back yard.

Since I grew up in a safe decade, and a very safe neighborhood, I was probably around 4 or 5 when this happened.

The crackers were kept in some container I don't remember, and the drink in a plastic bottle that previously had held golden syrup. I still use the same kind. (Thanks IKEA.)

that's what 's sick

On The Larry King Show on Monday night several people discussed the Paris Hilton case. One of them was Susan McDougal, a woman who was involved in the Whitewater deal with her then husband and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Susan McDougal spent something like 21 months in prison. On Larry King she spoke about that experience. She was angrier than the Reverend Al Sharpton, who was on the same show. He barely got a word in.

She told two stories. One about a pregnant woman who was bleeding, and one about a woman unconscious from a drug overdose. In neither case medical help was called, and Susan was told to "help the best she could".

Ms. McDougal was a white, middle class, educated, woman in prison along with mostly young working class women of color. What she saw shocked her. But to the women of color what happened was normal. "It's all about class and race", Susan McDougal yelled on CNN. Rarely do we see white people that enraged over inequality.

What they were talking about on that show? The fact that Paris Hilton was let out of jail for "medical reasons".

michael tolliver lives (hej hasse!)

Armistead Maupin has written a new book connected to his Tales Of The City series. It's out tomorrow, but an excerpt was printed in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
There has been a couple of TV-series based on the series, but those aren't very good. The books are, though. They tell the story of life in San Francisco in the 1970's and 1980's and they are fantastic and real at the same time.

shaking in my cozy socks

I think there are squirrels in that space between the ceiling and the roof, whatever it is called. I am freaking out.

back to paris hilton

I don't think she should get a harsher sentence than someone else would have gotten, for the same offense.

I don't think it's the job of the judicial system to be her parent. What she may or may not need for being a spoiled brat is irrelevant. She can stay spoiled until she dies of old age and there isn't anything anyone can do about that.

What we can do is stop watching, reading, and caring about it.

mayka made me google

The prettiest soccer player?

justice

I just heard on CNN that Paris Hilton (who was mysteriously released from jail yesterday) didn't want to go to court today for a hearing. She did offer to talk with them on the phone, though.

Last night on the same channel I saw a civil right leader saying something like "if everyone with mental health problems were let out if jail, prisons would be empty."

Right now Paris is driven to court by the police, in hand cuffs.

yeah, it looked funny to me

Last night at Safeway a really tall and skinny woman wearing really high heels bought gladiolus.