blogging live from s. korea quarantine 2009

So I've been in South Korea for a few days now, and the lock down on our campus has gotten increasingly serious. Medical checks are also becoming tighter, and rumors are starting to fly in place of any actual information. (okay, so I was kidding about the quarantine part, but in that way where its a little bit true. things do seem to be heading in that direction, but I would like to state for the record that we are not in actual quarantine-- so far as i can tell.)

In response to the encroaching cabin fever, most of us English teachers have reverted to middle school level games of yore. There is only so much to do on a closed campus with a strict no alcohol policy. All excursions to the outside world (trips to our schools, a city tour of seoul) have been canceled. This is going to be a very long week, I think. With an luck, though, on Saturday we will get to move to our apartments.

Still, its somewhat disquieting, knowing you are being held for observation.

And, in all the weirdness, its hard to find a way to express my sadness over Senator Ted Kennedy's passing. He was a good man who did a lot of good for his country and who got behind a lot of really groundbreaking legislation. We could use a lot more like him but we're not likely to see his equal for quite some time. If there is peace to be had in whatever follows life, I hope he finds some. It will be well deserved.

On travel.

"We take our fetters with us; our freedom is not total: we still turn our gaze towards the things we have left behind; our imagination is full of them."
-Michel de Montaigne, On Solitude.

Leaving soon. I'm excited and nervous about the adventure to come. I'm both sad to leave the people in my life here, and extremely happy to have so many good people and so much love in my life.

Ah well, on to the next crazy venture...

mean daddy works for MSNBC. horray!

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He raises an interesting point. Repubs do appear to be, on one hand, claiming all government intervention is evil while on the other, telling people over 65 that their beloved government run health care (aka Medicare) will be jeopardized. This would seem to negate the "creeping socialism" argument if this issue hadn't already become an overly ideological shouting match.

Still, no one respects the left for just sitting there politely while being screamed at. The right is content to call that a victory, so its good to see someone stepping up their game a notch.

Found on an esl forum discussing what one should bring to S. Korea:

Bring nothing & redefine your needs.

good advice, I think.

reason #376 why I heart Pete Seeger

When policy is beside the point. in our national debate on policy. wtf?

Rob Reich seems to think that the town hall zealots could be stopped with solid facts and a clearer political message from the whitehouse.

I'm not sure if hes looking at the same footage of this as I have been, but from what I'm seeing reason has almost nothing to do with this. Mass hysteria seldom has a basis in fact. (Trust me, I've been to Mardi Gras. I have literally seen grown men and women fight each other for strings of plastic beads that they will not even want the next day. Man is not generally as rational as we would like to believe.)

I'm not sure how this gets fixed exactly. Maybe Obama can talk some sense into at least some of these folks. But unless the Palin/Limbaugh/Beck/Grassley team stops stoking these fires, and unless the rest of the media stops amplifying their lies in their 24/7 echo chaimber under the guise of "fair and balanced reporting" (I'm looking at you, CNN) then I'm not sure what the rest of us can do.

The best mob that money can buy.

So it occurs to me, that while most of this whole "storm the townhalls" movement is straight up astroturf, there do seem to be a large number of people who actually believe that Barack Obama, the democratically elected President of the United States, has teamed up with the US Congress in a devious plot to kill off US Citizens. (remember the good old days, when it was unpatriotic to accuse the president of torturing non-citizens? even when he was, you know, actually doing that. *sigh*)

I understand that when profits for healthcare companies shoot up 10 billion dollars in a 7 year period, there will be no second thoughts on spending millions of dollars on PR campaigns to convince us that Uncle Sam can't be trusted. I even understand the appeal of the "we have the best healthcare in the world! We don't want that crappy government run stuff. They hate it over there in [England/France/Canada/ect]!" approach in a country where few people have been to any of those places. Nor, apparently, can we be bothered to find a french person on facebook or something to ask them if this is true. I get it. I do. These companies have a vested interest, the kind with more zeros than most of us will ever see in our lives.

I don't even mind when bought and paid for members of congress say stupid things like "This bill is a jobs killer". Such a statement, while untrue, can be debated by both sides. Having concerns about the impact on the economy is natural. I am worried about the impact of the current state of affairs on the economy, so I can relate. This at least resembles intelligent criticism, and is therefore fare game.

However, there is a line. Scaring the crap out of old people, telling them that the government will put them before "death panels" is completely beyond the pale. That is 100% not okay. For people to be suggesting this is beyond merely manipulative. It is immoral, unethical and in truly bad taste. I am deeply embarrassed that anyone in a position of power in this country-- whether elected office or tv personality-- would ever urge on such a thing. And no, Glenn Beck does not get a pass simply for being crazy.

Many of these people remember a time when there were places in the world where one could be put to death by the government. There was also a time in this country where we did round up a select group of people, only then it was on the basis of national origin. For anyone to be suggesting that that is what is happening now is deeply offensive. The fact that they are playing on these fears for their own political gain when they know them to be completely misleading is... well its something I don't have a word for. But I'm sure I could find a couple.

Which brings me to my last question of the evening. Is there no honor in the Republican party any more? What started with Karl Rove led John McCain, a man I once admired for following his conscience when it counted, to abandoned all scruples in the presidential race. Today, we have Palin crying "death pannel", That PA guy stoking birthers, and Rush Limbaugh still somehow has listeners??

As usual, my girl Rachel M says it best.

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I feel bad for old school republicans, I really do. There is no honor left among the GOP. Well, maybe they can join up with the dems (who have become amazingly centrist in the last 10 years or so) and then the real left in this country can finally strike out in a more progressive direction.

But first, health care! we need us some health care reform. badly.

Foucault on a Park Bench.

So after much running around and many late nights editing away, I found myself with some free time this afternoon. Since this is my last week in new york for who knows how long, I took the opportunity to do one of my favorite new york things-- sitting in the park under a shady tree with a good book and a large iced coffee. What could be better?

So this guy walks by, and of course I wind up petting his dog because I seem to have no boundaries where pets and small children are concerned. I have the exceedingly bad habit of more or less ignoring the actual owners of said pets, however this guy took the opportunity to start a conversation. Which went something like this:

Guy: Foucault on a park bench, huh?

Me: *shrug* awkward pause. yeah.

It didn't occur to me until later why I found his comment so weird. To me, books are about life, and even the most abstract of philosophical concepts can help to bring out the vibrant essence of the moment. Or really, what would be the point? Parks are a place of beauty and of community. Quiet enough to read, but still not cut off from the movements of daily life. Could there be a better place to read?

But of course, I finally understood, not everybody feels this way. For some people, books are assignments. I guess. Or at least something one has to walk away from life to appriciate. This is probably obvious, but I'd really never thought about it before.

But really, if books don't make your life more interesting then why read them?

sometimes, people just confuse me.

from today's paper:

"The remorseless march of health inflation since 1993, by threatening to bankrupt government, businesses and American families alike, has increased unease about the status quo."

Yes, Americans in general are slow to notice the depth of the structural problems that plague us, and we are even slower to acknowledge that government action may be the best response, but once we do realize such a pressing need we rise up behind it with strength and determination. We have done it before and, I think, can do it again. Especially since we now know how high the stakes are this time. We've got to do health care soon and we've got to do it right. And it should go without saying that that requires a robust public option.

"$133 million in lobbying expenditures by health industry interests in the second quarter of 2009 alone...Indeed, a preponderance of TV ads so far in the health care fight have carried a pro-reform message. But in 2009 the air wars are less relevant because of the continuing diffusion of media outlets.

They are also misleading.

That’s because industry interests, while professing support for Mr. Obama’s effort in general, are aggressively pressing their objections to particular provisions. The pharmaceutical industry, which spent $68 million on second-quarter lobbying, has worked to extend patent protection for biologic drugs beyond the levels favored by some reform advocates, and to limit the use of price comparisons in studies comparing the effectiveness of different treatments.

Health insurers have lobbied fiercely against a government-run “public option” for health insurance, an Obama priority that key lawmakers have moved to dilute or drop altogether. Their efforts so upset the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a strong advocate of the public option, that last week she condemned insurance industry leaders as “villains.”

Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders can use such language to push back against health industry lobbyists; it appeals to deep public skepticism about special interests in the capital, especially on the political left. At a focus group sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center last week among independent voters in Towson, Md., a rental agent, Remi Brooke, labeled special interests in Washington as “organized crime”; a graphic designer, Louis Moriconi, added, “We’re really at the mercy of the power groups, the lobbyists and the financiers.” Both voted for Mr. Obama in 2008."

People are skeptical of all the money being thrown at this issue, and at what results it will produce. And for good reason. The best thing you can do is to let your representatives know that your vote is worth more than their money. remember, they took an oath to represent YOU, the constituent, not some well-funded health care lobby.

"Yet other strains of public opinion play into the hands of Mr. Obama’s adversaries. Recent polls show mounting concern over levels of government spending and deficits — and fear that hasty action on health care may add to the problem. Republicans, some conservative Democrats, and industry opponents find a ready audience among Americans for their calls to delay."

This point is somewhat misleading. They neglect to mention that this "mounting concern" is directly linked to a million dollar PR campaign to convince us that there is something to be feared in health care reform. It seems everyone these days, from US representatives to CNN to the Wall Street Journal is overly concerned with how "concerned" we Americans suddenly are about this plan. Well, someone is being paid a lot of money to make us worry, so if the numbers hadn't changed at all then they would just be bad at their jobs. However this should not be taken as a sign that Health care reform is unwanted at this time.

We want, and need, a better model for health care in this country. If republicans continue to needlessly drag their feet just for the pleasure of obstructing this supremely important reform then they risk being branded for years as the irrelevant party that they are trying so hard to be these days.

The full article is available here.

we're all drowning in crazy

Excuse me, did the Right just accuse Obama of plotting genocide?!? Health care reform does not = killing old people. (It probably means fewer poor and catastrophically ill old people, but what do I know?)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/republicans-lying-to-old_b_247400.html