Tricia Romano just tweeted this out Paul Hipp music video about the latest World Health Organization stats on how the US is doing, healthcarewise, on a world scale and maybe I outta try and espouse something insightful and sagelike so I’m not just blogging a re-tweet link to a You Tube vid but then it just so speaks for itself and besides…I gotta get to the gym so that I can stay healthy.
The submission deadline for this archived Politiku Shout Out has already passed as the Health Care Politiku (formerly titled “Health Care Reform Politiku) has posted. The current Politiku Shout Out, however, is only a click away.
Health Care Reform is in the air which means time for a new Huffington Politiku. Please submit Politiku via the commentary section of this post or email me at susanna (at) susannaspeier (dot) com
DNA portraits are available through a company called DNA 11 for prices starting as low as $199 USD. Granted, it’s a prohibitively expensive luxury that I would never consider in this kinda economy but at the same time, despite being a sucker for this kinda stuffand despite the fact its a prohibitively expensive luxury
in this kinda economy, the real reason I believe people outta think twice before endeavoring to embark on one of these –point of no return– DNA reads is because if someone is not too paranoid to wear his or her DNA on his or her sleeve, then perhaps he or she should be. And if confused by what it is I’m saying everyone outta be paranoid about, have you ever seen that movie, Gattaca?
Not that I’m not still deep-deep-down, secretly wishing I was one of those happy few. And if you happen to be, one of those happy few who saw the movie, Gattaca in 1997 and twelve years later are able to look back and reflect upon it as though it were something as dated as, say, retro-futurist-revisionist nostalgia is (when executed poorly, at any rate) then I envy you. I envy you for living your life unencumbered by Andrew Niccol’s doom and gloom prophetic dystopia that bodes will all one day find ourselves in a Prada clad, dystopia starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law but —okay— back to my original point. My original point here is that, I have neither the stupidity nor the faith in humanity to invest a three to fourdiget sum in customized wall art, screen savers, Facebook avatars and business cards that will publicize the my genetic info to anyone who bookmarks the permalink. Fact is, you couldn’t pay to publicize something so utterly, personal, fatalistic and inalterable! And lest you think I’m making a mountain outta a mole here, lemme re clarify the context, again: if the sickest team of glypheratti wanted to transform your social security digits into visually and conceptually fly wall art, would you comply?
Nick Kristof’s op-ed in today’s NY Times, Health Care Fit for Animals is a short, effective, and refreshingly simple argument for health care reform in the United States. If you are feeling as overwhelmed by the healthcare debate as I am and are consequently avoiding articles on the topic, I encourage you read it anyway. IMHO, it serves as a vital Rosetta Stone for clarifying and contextualizing the various streams of discourse at the root cause of this collective frustration and anxiety. The response I posted on the NY Times website was an Editor Selection.
Watched, like, 15-20 back-to-back clips of Da Ali G show on Funny or Die last night and can’t believe how hard I laughed-laughed, laaaaa-gasp-gh, laughed. OMG, have you seen it? You totally should.
It’s like this x btween candid camera and journo. Kinda. Well, more than that, tho. He’s created this neologistic, grammatically ticked vernacular that just causes me to totally lose it whenever I watch.
Re-watching Dr. Strangelove and wondering—why in the world did black & white motion pictures come to an end? OMG, the airplanes above the clouds and mountain peaks! Back in the Pentagon War Room, now. The map board with dotted flight plan lights, the circular table, the star shaped Admiral shoulder metals, the sunglasses, the numbers on those slanted walls, the chewing gum, those identical telephone receivers. “Dimitri, I’m capable of being just as sorry as you are. So we’re both sorry. Okay?” Oooo, shootout scene. Diagonal light through Venetian blinds, sounds of machine guns. Silhouettes on walls. “Give me the code now.” Cockpit, radar, helmets, cowboy hat and that Johnny comes marking home again leit motif. “Missiles still closing distance and tracking steady…deflection increasing…range eight miles.” Smoke, light, fire extinguisher. Diagonal descent towards snowy coastline. “Red telephone connected to SAC.” Switches and circuits and dials. My buddy Douglas tells all the footage in that movie was found footage. All of it. I find that difficult to believe, despite the fact Doug is a reliable resource. Well, Doug also said that Tetracyclene makes your bones glow in the dark but that was in a C.S.I. context and maybe it’s true, anyway. At any rate, far as all things Kubrick are concerned, Doug knows his stuff as Kubrick is one of his deepest sources of inspiration. Just thinking about Dr. Strangelove makes him want to scribe a comedy, he well me. I smile to myself, having just learned (from watching the intro on TCM) that Kubrick didn’t initially intend for Dr. Strangelove to be a comedy. Just that after doing the research and laying out all the info, that is what it became.
Just saw Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for the very first time last night on Turner Classic Movies and, oh, I loved it so. Mr. Smith’s first encounter with the Lincoln Memorial actually gave me chills. Couldn’t find that on You Tube, which is a bummer since I wanted to rip it and post it here but okay, I found another Lincoln Memorial scene in that movie and posted that one instead.
Both Lincoln Memorial scenes are equally moving. Well, okay, ‘equally moving’ might not be way to put it. Both scenes tap the better angels of my nature, though. And they do this in different ways and for different reasons.
At the stop of the second Lincoln Memorial scene (the one pasted below) Jeff Smith is down for the count and Lincoln, by way of Saunders –in a manner of speaking—get him back on his feet again. Hope rises from the ashes in the form of a non-ironic Hollywood ending.
If I could do this w/ my characters -even strive to do it in a sincere way- I would actually be able to reach my potential as a scriptwriter.
“It’s a forty foot dive into a tub of water
but I think you can do it”
You can click hear to read, University Officials Struggle to Explain Israeli Divestment Moves. The article was posted on the Investigative Project of Journalism site, February 13th and it delineates what prompted my beloved Alma Mater, Hampshire College, to divest from the companies that do business w/ Israel. I plan to contact Hampshire tomorrow and try and get a factual account directly from them and will update my blog accordingly. My position is that it is not fair for Hampshire to single out Israel for human rights violations while continuing to do business with companies that do business with human rights violators such as China, Cuba, Iran and Sudan. I believe this argument stands, whether or not one believes that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas.
Not really sure how to organize this now but enough people have either:
(a.) continued to haiku
(b.) suggested that I repost the haikus
(c.) made haiku pilgrimages to my site from some remote, far off regions of the world, like France, only to discover find an “error message” and a void to contemplate in negative 5-7-5
I have therefore been persuaded to repost. I watched the haiku collection flourish, nurtured and cultivated them because they inspired me. Therefore, no arm twisting is required to persuade me to re-publish.
Unless inspired to begin a new haiku project, however, this will be the last political haiku post of the Election 2008 Haiku collection. Please note that the final haiku of the series, written by Peter Orvetti, does not mean that the editor, in any way, shape, or form, condones a Palin/Palin ticket in 2112. May it serve as a reminder of the transitory nature of victory as well as a reminder to stay alert and not to take victory for granted.
Peter Orvetti Haiku
Bye elections poems
It was fun but now it’s done
Palin Twenty-Twelve!
Pete Orvetti’s* Inauguration Day Politikus
I swear solemnly
Word order doesn’t mean much
When you are The One
Hope, change, Yes We Can
Port-A-Potties everywhere
Change-Fest on the Mall
Nope, we didn’t go
Someday my sons will be mad
Crowds and change scare me
Yo Yo Oba-Ma
And the Queen of Soul
Wish I had her hat