with three hours to go, I couldn't resist

you really should know better

I had to have a minor medical procedure done yesterday, and had been told I needed to have someone drive me home because of the local anesthesia that would be required. Dan promised to take me there, and drive me home. I had to give his name to several nurses, and I wrote it on forms, including what he was wearing so they'd find him in the waiting room when it would be time to leave.

So, when I was done, lucid, and dressed, the recovery room nurse went to get Dan. She came back, twice, and said he wasn't there. The second time she came back without having found him I got the slightest bit irritated, repeated the information I had written down (black fleece jacket), and added "Mexican-American, in his 40s". She looked startled.

Not that she admitted it, but it was obvious that she had been looking for a white "Dan". Because I'm white. He had been sitting there the entire time. He told me later that she hadn't even bothered to say his name out loud. Or mine. So sure was she that he wasn't there.

yet again, it was bound to happen

I fought the impulse to say this all day yesterday, but what do you do when it's true? Click to read the evidence. People are idiots.

the fury, and the frustration

So now, with 20 little children dead, we begin to consider the access to mental health care. What will it take for us to consider access to health care? A medieval plague?

Because, let's be honest, we don't consider the access to mental health care out of concern for those suffering from illness. We discuss it because of the threat they may pose for everyone else.

the irony

The MSNBC commentators say that the way they personally "deal with the tragedy" in Newtown is by avoiding all news coverage. (Yeah, glad you asked. They said it on-air, of course.)