From the "Hell Hath No Fury" Department

Headline for the Day from The Onion:

Obama's Declaration Of Swine Flu Emergency Prompts Pro-Swine-Flu Republican Response

Pathetic ... but that pretty much nails it, doesn't it!

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The need for health care reform hits close to home.

The arguments against our current health care system -- if you can call it a “system” -- are just overwhelming. Every other industrialized country does it better. Every damn one.

Let me give you one example of how our system fails people.

A young woman has been working in one of the local restaurants here. The owner of the place pays her partly in cash to fudge the number of hours she works. And that’s done so the cheap bastard doesn't have to pay for the girl's health insurance.

But the girl didn’t really care. What the hell: she’s young, she’s single, she’s healthy, and she’s living on Maui. Life is good.

But a week or so ago, she got an infection … scratched herself on something and just didn’t give it much thought. Then she developed a fever. Probably just the flu, she thought … no need to see a doctor … especially with no health insurance.

A day later she was worse, much worse, and was finally taken to the emergency room. They did all they could, but the infection had spread throughout her body. She turned critical and ended up being flown to Honolulu where she had surgery to replace a couple of valves in her heart.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are in lock step opposing any real health care reform. Forcing people to buy insurance is bad. Raising costs to small business is bad. Could mean higher taxes, and taxes are bad. It's all just bad, bad, bad!

Well, guess who’s going to pay for this young girl’s medical expenses? We all are … through higher hospital bills, which ultimately mean higher insurance premiums and reduced benefits.

The last I heard she was still alive, but just barely. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

What I don’t understand is, how do all those people – John Boehner and Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham and all the rest of those selfish, cold-hearted ideologues -- how do they sleep at night?

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Reveling in My Obsession

The first major league baseball game I ever saw was in Boston at storied Fenway Park. It was May 25, 1946. I was nine years old.

I vividly remember walking through the bowels of that wonderful old ballpark, down a concrete ramp, looking up at a maze of steel girders overhead. Then came the magical moment: walking up a ramp and seeing that baseball diamond: green grass, immaculately groomed, and dazzling in the sunlight of a perfect spring day.

The Boston Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees that day. They won, 7 to 4, and ever since I have been a passionate fan. I even manage to travel to Boston almost every year to see them play.

But while the Red Sox grew to be my passion from that experience, it also turned the Yankees into an obsession.

I loath them.

I will not see them play in person and I cannot watch them play on television. They often win and I often hear myself screeching obscenities at the screen. It's just too upsetting.

And so, this morning, I am reveling in the news that the Yankees lost the first game of the World Series to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1. And, adding luster to this glorious news, a local Maui boy, Shane Victorino, played center field for the Phillies, got a hit, scored a run and drive in a run. And it all happened in the new BILLION-AND-A-HALF DOLLAR Yankee Stadium in front of all those Yankee fans.

I am still pessimistic about the final outcome of the series -- being a Yankee-hater breeds pessimism -- but today, at least, I rejoice.

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The Little Weasel Does It Again!

Joe Lieberman was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president a few years back, so it was shocking when he endorsed John McCain in 2008.

But the Democrats welcomed him back and he became the 60th vote that would prevent a Republican filibuster of any vote on health care reform ... a filibuster that would put off any action indefinitely.

And today, the despicable back-stabbing little weasel said he would side with the Republicans.

They don't call Hartford, Connecticut -- capital city of Lieberman's home state -- the Insurance Capital of the World for nothing.

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Fool Me Once ... Etc., Etc., Etc., ad nauseum

Petty Spite ... and the Company It Keeps

The Republican right is happy that Chicago didn’t get the 2012 Olympic games because Barack Obama spoke to the International Olympic Committee on the city’s behalf.

They want to wreck health care reform because, as Republican Senator Jim DeMint said, it would be Obama’s political “Waterloo.”

In a speech on the floor of the U.S. House yesterday, Democratic congressman Alan Grayson from Florida said it best: if Barack Obama were to cure hunger, the Republicans would blame him for over-population; if he were to bring about world peace, they would blame him for destroying the defense industry.

What a spectacle: the flag-waving, drum-beating, family values, holier-than-thou Republican blowhards would rather see Americans hurt than see Obama succeed.

And today they’re angry because an American president was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

There are, however, two prominent groups that agree with them: Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

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