July 29, 2002

In The News

In The News

So some cleaning lady lent some random person $2000 in 1982 to save her business and now that random woman is a millionaire. So Random Millionaire lost touch with Nice Cleaning Lady in 1984 and has been searching for her ever since so that she could pay her back. Thanks to the New York Post which adores cheesy crap like this, they've found each other again and now Random Millionaire has paid her debt back double. Whaaaaa uuhhhhh? Double? You're a fucking millionaire now which you wouldn't be if it wasn't for this woman being so nice (I believe the word is idiotic but let's leave it at nice) and you pay her back double??

I wonder if the family of this burglar (shot to death by the owner of the house) is going to sue. This is America after all, everyone can sue!! If your coffee is too hot, you can sue the restaurant because the cup didn't say "coffee is hot." If you smoke 2 packs of cigarettes every day for 40 years and then get lung cancer, you can sue Big Tobacco and be awarded 4 billion dollars because you're a fucking idiot and didn't think that inhaling 80 gallons of smoke every day for 4 decades wasn't going to have a negative impact on your health.

Is it really such a big deal to be left handed? Can any of my left-handed friends help me out with this one? Here's a website for you guys:www.anythingleft-handed.com

I saw that movie John Q over the weekend.... it was very disturbing. I wish I knew more about the healthcare industry. My first thought is that there's no way it can be a highly lucrative industry, what with how tiny everyone's monthly contributions are. If had been pregnant last year and given birth in 2001, the amount covered would have far exceeded the combined amount of money they took from my paycheck in that fiscal year. I've been trying to understand where they profit and I still can't figure it out. Of course I guess I could do a simple net search but I'd rather turn it over in my head for awhile. I'm such a guy sometimes. I hate asking for directions. I think the whole debate about healthcare is somewhat like what I was saying about conservationism. Everyone says they want to save the environment but no one actually wants to pay two dollars more for shampoo, or plug their appliances in only when they're using them, or turn the radio/TV off when they're using the computer. Everyone says they want better healthcare for all Americans regardless of class, but no one wants to pay higher taxes. No one wants to live in a place like Canada, where the healthcare system is great but every last person pays taxes up the wazoo. Canada is so taxed that if you work there, out of every dollar you make you get to keep like 55 cents. And then when you purchase items you get further taxed, twice even. But they have an admirable healthcare system (supposedly), one that's often cited as an example by healthcare reform lobbyists. Anyway they don't need to tax us more top reform healthcare I bet. The money's there, we're just using it for other things. I think Canada has the right idea. They keep to themselves, they keep their money for themselves, they're not expected to be the world police, they just sit at home and take care of their citizens. The same people who want free healthcare for all Americans are the same people that think we should give billions of dollars of foreign aid all over the place. Make up your mind. Do you want that money here or there? And the same people that think we should aid foreign countries are the same people that think we should never be at war. Huh? One can often preclude the other. Look at Somalia.

Anyway, all I could think about during the movie John Q was that Ted Turner gave the United Nations 1 Billion dollars. The United Nations is one of the most convoluted, inefficient, useless bodies ever to have been created by man. Giving them 1 Billion dollars was a great PR move and tax-write off for him, but I severely doubt it did much good for the people who require humanitarian aid. All it probably did was up their frequent UN conventions/seminars from 4-star hotels to 5-star hotels in First World countries. If Turner had just kept that money in the U.S. and created some sort of healthcare aid fund, he could have paid for over 4000 heart transplants or subsidized 8000 with half, or paid the down payment on the surgery for 13,000 people. Or he could have used the fund to subsidize 4000 operations, then used the rest to help under-priveliged children who suffer from life-threatening illnesses. But giving it to the UN was like using it for firewood. Or like wearing a cubic zirconia. It looks nice, but isn't worth shit.

Okay that was my spiel today.

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