Oh!! There's ONE!

I'm constantly surprised by the things that people find interesting.  The Charlie Bit Me phenomenon was heartening.  YouTubers (the potatoes?) aren't as bad a group as some would believe.  In spite of all the 'celebrity commentators' there really are a lot of people that like to see things that are inspiring or darling.

My most viewed video is now of Andrew and I'm inserting it below.  Apparently people like to see adorable babies being adorable.

There I fixed it.

I'm going to post one of these on 'thereifixedit.com ' but I'm not sure but I haven't decided which it will be.

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Terminiator thinks 'Technology will save us all'

Gov. Arnold (I can't spell Schwartsiwhatever right), said it here

When I heard this, immediately I had the thought that this is where we've come to in our worship of the new. The implication is that we're no longer saved by our works, grace, faith, a savior, inner peace or a litany of other earlier versions of salvation.

That it came out of the mouth of the Governator is just awesome comedic fodder. It's like someone on his speech writing staff said "How can we make it even more obvious that we elected a movie personality rather than a qualified leader?". All the 'girlie-man' references back during the last budget standoff weren't enough apparently.

But back to the real topic. Science and medicine have taken over as the new religion in our country, and in most of the world I expect. Priests taking confession have been replaced by psychologist taking an hour to listen to how you feel. Inner peace is then supplied by prescription rather than prayer and meditation, and in the ultimate irony, meditation is sometimes prescribed. The places of discovery are no longer seminaries, they are laboratories. Scripture has been replaced by Google as the place to find answers.

The end effect as so eloquently stated by California's leader, is that salvation from our problems is the job of scientists and engineers, instead of finding our own solutions with the help of deity, through quiet contemplation and study, and changing our personal behavior.

My Healthcare Take

I've been kind of avoiding political news lately. Still listening to my NPR and AM Conservative radio in the morning and evenings respectively, but it's kind of carried over to my not keeping any sort of blog lately. I could swear I've written about health care before, and now I'm thinking I'll go back and check again. Ok I haven't. Good.

The catalyst for writing this was an email I got from my mom. Her email forwards are pointedly against any Democrat and Obama is the devil in her mind. Still love my mom dearly, and she may be right to feel the way she does, I just don't know. Anyway the latest email was about an interview he gave where he was asked if he would use the health care plan that he's proposing. He dodged the question implying that he would not and he would keep his own Presidential plan. It went on to say that the proposed legislation adds verbiage exempting the president and senators from using it.

I'll add the quote and apologize for the all caps.

SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I... IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS...??

WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!... THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!

PERSONALLY, I CAN ONLY ACCEPT A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL THAT EXTENDS TO EVERYONE... NOT JUST US LOWLY CITIZENS... WHILE THE WASHINGTON "ELITE" KEEP RIGHT ON WITH THEIR GOLD-PLATED HEALTH CARE COVERAGES.

This misses the point if you ask me and makes an assumption about health care that's erroneous. It assumes that everyone is as valuable as everyone else. We're not. The harsh reality is this. Some jobs are more important than others. It's the whole reason that Capitalism works the way that it does. If you have a job that is more important, influential, or are in some other way irreplaceable, you will be compensated more handsomely.

Senator and president fall into the influential group, and in some cases irreplaceable. Health insurance for anyone is so that they can continue to provide the service/function that they do for their company. It has nothing to do with elitism as this email claims.
The whole idea that the president should use the health care system that he's proposing kind of weakens the argument of those who don't want it passed. These are the same folks that are against socialism in any form. Pick a side folks. Either you admit that his job is more important and stick to your capitalist view that his insurance should be better, or accept that socialist medicine is preferable. You can't have it both ways. Wanting him to use the health care he's proposing is a socialist mindset.

There's one other point about the health care debate that bothers me and that is this. I don't go to the doctor. I haven't visited a doctor for myself in easily over a year. My family is a different story of course. The insurance I have is for them. This isn't because I'm incredibly healthy or anything either. I do what I can to stay healthy and to avoid needing the doctor. Don't drink or smoke for example. I've quit coffee, and even sugar for the most part.

The whole health industry is geared toward treating sick people and not promoting wellness. There is no motivation for doctors to get you healthy other than their passion for solving a problem, or feeling like a hero. Monetarily it makes more sense to keep you alive, but not well.

The Primary Care Physician idea was supposed to fix this, but ended up having the problem of denying treatment to stay solvent instead of promoting wellness.

So here's the problem. Policies are being decided by doctors, politicians, and sick people. Where are the well people in this equation? Paying for sickies which is either incredibly altruistic or completely unfair depending on your point of view I suppose.

Church Yesterday

Wrangling kids during church can be a headache. Especially when you move from 'man-on-man to a zone defense'. Luckily with Grandma to help, we do a decent job of keeping all the kids occupied and attended to. Ah who am I kidding? It's a struggle every week.

Usually, one child will be asking to go to the bathroom while another needs a drink, and the third needs your focus every second to keep him occupied. And if the baby didn't get to eat before sacrament, you can bet mom will need to take him out at some point. When she leaves, #3 will be inconsolable leaving me with the no win decision of either leaving a 7 and 9 year old alone in the pews trusting that they won't get into a spat, or letting the crying 2 year old disturb everyone in the chapel.

Now that you have an appreciation for what it's normally like, let me give you a run-down of what it was like yesterday.

Andrew was not feeling well, and neither was Meg, so they stayed home. The baby of course needed to stay with momma since he's still nursing. This left me to go to church with the two older boys. I opted to not take the Sun. bag with Friend magazines, and church coloring books, just to see how the boys would do with paying attention to the speakers.

It went surprisingly well. Hyrum was attentive the entire time, and Sean was not disruptive at all. He did get bored and laid his head down to nap, but at least he was quiet. It was actually a pleasure having them sit with me. I was a very proud papa indeed.

This was particularly welcomed this Sun. because all three speakers spoke on Reverence. I was a little disappointed that no one used the word revere, but whatever. It was some of the best quality time that I've spent with my big boys in a while, and it was great.

Little Man Can

My brother is in school to become an interpreter. I've had a little bit of experience with ASL and I remember when I was on my mission I was amazed by a little kid that was just barely learning to walk, so about 10-14 months old, who could communicate with his deaf parents already. He walked up to a door that he wanted to walk out of and made the sign for open. Amazing. Short of using some vocabulary software that would get plugged directly into their brains, this kind of communication is impossible to expect for a little person that can hardly form words much less assign meaning to the words and messages.

Andrew's most recent love is Yo Gabba Gabba. So he's made up his own sign for it so we know that's what he wants to watch. At the beginning of the show the host D.J. Lance Rock opens up his magic boom-box with his toys in it. Sparkles come out as he says the magic words "Yooooo gabba gabbaaa..". So Andrew says "Yo Dab Dab" as he opens his hands wide. It's pretty cute. The show kind of tripped me out the first few times I watched it. Like most kid shows, it's very spacey, but now after seeing the I'm So Happy I Can Dance video by the Salteens I've become more a fan, and don't mind sitting with him.

Doing pretty well, considering.

My family is not rich. None of us has much education, and that's got a lot to do with it. Even with that deficit, though, we are doing pretty well for ourselves. We have extended family who by comparison are far more educated than we are, but unemployed. The suggestion has been made more than once that it's a matter of feeling 'too good' for a job.

Luckily, we learned our personal finance skills from our mother. Growing up we worked paper routes, kept exchange students to the point that our home was busting at the seams, and we seldom if ever ate out. Everyone contributed in some way or another for as long as I can remember. Our strength has been in our numbers.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I had this idea a few months back. My brothers and I, while employed and supporting our families, aren't doing as well as we probably could be. All of us are mentally capable, we're a lot smarter than the McPrides give us credit for., but haven't made education a priority in our lives. The idea is that it would be really cool if we all pooled our resources to take care of one family, while the dad knocked out his education really quickly. Then, on down the line. Nothing crazy. Maybe $500/mo per brother, and live very meanly. Maybe at mom's house. And just go to Mesa College and do the maximum of classes to get degrees in the shortest amount of time. Then on to SDSU since it's close and easy to get into. I don't think any of us would take more than 2 years doing the fast track classes and going Summers.