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Health care: Abortion whatnow?

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We’re about to talk about abortion for awhile, so let’s start off with a precious kitty:

Except it's a baby, which reminds you of abortion. Dammit.

Okay, so. It seems like the abortion issue is one of the more bizarre aspects of the debate—and it’s been a very bizarre debate—because people have been so diametrically opposed on the facts of the matter. On the one hand, a Republican yells out “Baby killer!” (or It’s a baby killer, depending on who you believe) during debate on the bill. On the other hand, some liberal blogs I’ve read have described the bill as the “biggest step backwards in reproductive rights” in many years. So conservatives think the HCR bill loves aborting fetuses, whereas liberals believe that it firebombs Planned Parenthood clinics on its days off.

The good news is this is a matter of fact, not speculation. So we can sort out the actual truth of the matter. Right? Lessee…
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Health care: Okay, so what’s in the bill?

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3/22 Update: One thing that my list below didn’t convey is how much of the plan will be rolled out over time; for example, the Cadillac plan tax isn’t implemented until 2018. This excellent Reuters article outlines the whole plan in chronological order:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319

In the interests of not exploding from near-constant frustration, I’ve deliberately avoided blogging about (or, as much I can, thinking about) the health-care debate as Congress has been even more ridiculous than usual bringing it to fruition.

To review: on November 7, 2009, the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215. On Christmas Eve, the Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (what’s with these names, honestly) by a vote of 60-39. In the 2½ months since, Congress has done a spectacular job getting a whole lot of nothing done, and the filibuster, that most delightful of obstructionist legislative tools, has turned into the Republicans’ new best friend:

Way to govern, amigos.

But. Despite the GOP’s most valiant of efforts… despite President Obama being surprisingly aloof through most of the adventure… despite the American public becoming justifiably fed-up with the whole affair… it’s finally come together. And even in its worst, most compromise-weakened form, it’s still the most dramatic reform of American health care since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

First of all, just the facts. Rumors and implications and unintended consequences aside, exclusions and rejected ideas aside, what does this bill actually do? Well, a whole hell of a lot, actually. Unlike the vast majority of Congressional legislation, it’s a grab-bag of new laws, restrictions, taxes, allowances, and three or four kitchen sinks.
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A modest music recommendation: Ben Rector

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It takes some encouragement to get me downtown to a show in the middle of South by Southwest. I’m not the most musically-inclined guy on earth, and my tastes in most things are pretty damn conventional. (Quick, ask me to name my favorite Cheap Trick song …actually, any Cheap Trick song.) So the musical side of SXSW, and the allure of wandering a crowded downtown just to see what acts I happened across, wasn’t the first thing that I felt compelled to do.

But then Ben Rector had to come along and screw it up for me.

Jerk.
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Why does Obama hate space? (Part 1)

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During our repeated trips out to the Kennedy Space Center, there was a palpable feeling of gloom among “the regulars” that we met, including the KSC employees, the locals, the shuttle-watching veterans. On top of the scheduled end of the Space Shuttle program, which was sure to devastate tourism in and around Cape Canaveral, President Obama had announced (mere days before) a total sea change in the budget and direction for NASA. The regulars were not happy about it.

Why all the sad? Click to read more.
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What it’s like to see a shuttle launch

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The first four days of our Florida trip, told in three sentences:

  1. Myself, my dad, and my stepmom road-tripped to Florida this past week while my wife and sister flew.
  2. Overnight Saturday, we went to the Kennedy Space Center and waited for six hours in the cold, only for the shuttle launch to be cancelled at the last minute due to persistent low cloud cover.
  3. At 9:00 on Sunday night, just as the Saints were defeating the Colts down in Miami, we drove back to the Space Center, nervously checking the weather forecasts, and worried that we’d miss seeing a launch entirely.

The first four hours of Monday morning, told somewhat longer:

The five of us have spent a decent amount of time discussing how we can best describe the shuttle launch that we saw, cold and tired, at 4:14 this Monday morning. We’ve reached the general conclusion that we can’t, and that that’s part of what makes it so special. Knowing it’s probably the final nighttime shuttle launch, the last one ever, makes it more special still.

On the advice of many shuttle-watching veterans, we didn’t even film the launch as it happened. Sorry.

Let Me Google That For You.

We did this for two reasons: first, because we were told not to let a camera lens get between us and our viewing of it. (NASA administrator John Bolden, in a press conference, even urged rookie press photographers to put their cameras down for the launch.) Second, though: there is no way, no way, that any of the YouTube videos and beautiful pictures you just Googled can convey what it looks like in person. Those are beautiful to look at, don’t get me wrong. But they’re not what we saw.

You DON’T get the idea.

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Recap of our last day

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If you follow my Twitter (or are especially Facebook-addicted) then you’ve got an idea how our day has gone. But if not, here it is in pictorial form:

-UCK

And now in chronological form:

  • Saturday 5:00: We head to the local Target to stock up for our launch-viewing tailgate party. Soft-side cooler, food/drinks, warm clothes. Folding chairs are sold out (the place is popular with tourists like us).
  • Saturday 6:00: We try to nap before our all-night party. We pretty much fail. Instead, we watch the NASA channel on the hotel TV; the new administrator takes heated questions from NASA fans posing as journalists about the Obama administration’s radical proposed budget changes (clicky!). We all decide we like the administrator, though.

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Goin’ to see a shuttle launch

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For my dad’s 60th birthday—which was actually last September, but whatever—we’re taking a massive road trip to a town of 10,000 people on the coast of Florida. At 10:30 on the night of Saturday, February 6th, we check in at the Kennedy Space Center and are bused out to a causeway and dropped off with our cameras and folding chairs. And at 4:39 on the morning of Sunday, February 7th, we see this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq2jdCXLpM4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

This is in all likelihood the fifth-to-last space shuttle launch, and the very last night-time launch, in its 29-year lifespan. I realized a year or so ago that I’d like to see it go up before it ends; there are rocket launches all the time, but they look like rockets, not like this–

FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM

For all its trouble (2 destroyed shuttles in 129 flights), it’s almost impossible not to feel a little love for the shuttle. Maybe it’s just cause I was born and raised with it. Maybe it’s projected patriotism. But I still feel like the thing itself—an oddly-proportioned cargo jetplane with the engines sticking at odd angles out the back—is just a little beautiful.

Either way we’re going through serious effort to get there; it’s a 19-hour drive for me, dad, and his wife Diana; Mary Beth and my sister Margaret are flying in a day early for girly-time at a spa in Orlando and we’ll pick ’em up on the way. Then it’s a quick nap at the Hampton Inn in Titusville before we head out to the Cape for the launch overnight. Price for the bus tickets to watch the launch from the NASA-owned causeway: $56 per person. Yikes, people. Oh well, NASA needs the money.

So I’ll post more about the big trip as it unfolds.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjbkRktqIE&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1]

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Best movies of the Aughts, Part 2

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Without further ado…

Best in Show (2000, Christopher Guest)

You should love your pets; you just shouldn't... LOVE your pets.

I wanted to make sure a straight comedy got in here. The latter half of the Aughts saw the triumphant return of the rated-R comedy, from Knocked Up to The 40-Year-Old Virgin to The Hangover. Any of these are worth considering; but I’m going a different route with Best in Show, Mr. Guest’s finest outing at his trademark mockumentary format.

Just like a well-done documentary, it lets you make fun of the ridiculous characters while empathizing with their love—irrational, like all love—for their dogs. A few of the humorous bits are a bit too broad (you’re gay, we get it) but you’re usually giggling too much to care.

Life Imitating Art: When the owner of the poodle playing Rhapsody in White was presented with this movie, she didn’t read the full script. When she realized that her dog would not be winning ‘Best in Show’ at the end of the movie, she quickly pulled the dog out of production. The crew had to get a different poodle and spray paint its fur so it looked exactly the same.
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Best movies of the Aughts, Part 1

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Sorry, Ker. Sorry, Terl.

I spent a little time on the drive down to San Antonio the other night discussing the films of the decade with my wife, since so many professional critics have had their crack at it (here’s Ebert’s).

It’s hard to concoct such a list off the top of one’s head; we couldn’t even remember which movies came out in the last ten years—it’s a long time. Slight difficulty is added by the fact that 1999 was one of the best years for movies ever, too. So those are all out.

But using a complex system of red felt pen and index cards, we perused the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for the last ten years, the IMDB Top 250, and our own foggy memories. This list is semi-collaborative, though MB had a few differences.

One more note: it’s funny how tastes change over time. I made annual “best of” lists from 1999-2002, and flicks that were somewhat down the list at the time (I marked Almost Famous as the 6th-best of 2000) have not only held up but proven themselves to be classics.

Okay, enough talk, let’s get crackin.
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