Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: September 2008
Get Out Your Vote
Posted on September 21, 2008 in Campaign 2008
Make sure that you are registered to vote. Put this link on your page.
Wellstone Parity Law is Seriously Flawed
Posted on September 21, 2008 in Insurance
The [[Paul Wellstone]] mental health parity bill which is now before Congress has been endorsed by the National Association for the Mentally Ill and the Mental Health Association on the theory that something is better than nothing. Barack Obama has endorsed it. Our opposition, Mean John McCain, has not endorsed nor authored any parity bill so we can assume he opposes the concept.
Parity means that the so-called “mental illnesses” will be treated like “physical” ones. Because illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, autism, and schizophrenia have been shown to have organic components and new information is coming in about borderline disorder and other so-called “personality disorders”, the line between “mental” and “physical” is disappearing. Diseases that afflict thinking and emotions are no different from those that afflict other aspects of our metabolism. That insurance companies will freely dispense medications for the colon while refusing to pay for lithium and similar drugs says a great deal about their priorities.
Three purposes underline the struggle for parity:
* Eliminating discrimination against mental illness
* Expanding access to appropriate mental health care
* Reducing the stigma of mental illness
Opponents of parity claim without any facts that parity will dramatically raise health costs. Studies conducted in states with full parity and the federal health system show that the rise in costs is no more than 1%. Parity also helps lower costs by seeing that workers receive appropriate care and, therefore, are more productive and spend less time taking off from work.
So the Wellstone bill is a great step. But it is misleading. Having been through many years of Republican rewrites, the bill as it now stands might undermine the objectives. The insurance industry, in particular, has been against parity and has dispatched their lobbyists to Washington to amend the bill so that it contains certain flaws that will make the situation of persons with “mental” disorders worse:
* The law requires that parity be offered if the insurance plan offers both physical and mental illness coverage. Companies can duck parity simply by dropping mental health coverage. Insurance companies can claim that losses of 2% make parity coverage infeasible.
* It does not provide full mental health parity for persons with Medicare or Medicaid.
* It does not require that all health plans offer both physical and mental health coverage.
Paul Wellstone meant so much more when he sponsored the original bill. The current act makes discrimination more a part of our daily life. It would behoove Obama if he were to repudiate it and call for a real parity law that dispenses with these loopholes. If the current version of the Wellstone Act were enacted, my wife and I could find ourselves saddled with hundreds if not thousands of dollars in prescription drug expenses. I could be forced to drop certain effective medicines and be put in the dangerous position having to find cheaper, less effective substitutes. During this time, the changes could precipitate an episode which could destroy the peace of mind of my family and my own safety.
I cannot stand by while an ersatz parity bill becomes the law of the land. I believe that Obama wants better and I call on him to take a hard look at the current bill. Note that while NAMI and MHA support the bill, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance which includes former Kings County Commissioner Randy Revelle does not for the reasons I have cited. Parity must be the law of the land for everyone: we can afford no loopholes. Worse than nothing is not better than nothing.
[tags]parity, mental health, mental illness, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, insurance, Wellstone, Paul Wellstone, insurance[/tags]
Fingering Tepid Water
Posted on September 20, 2008 in Vacations
It may not be a common concern, but there are those who are wondering why I have not been obamaing people — I’m at Lynn’s mother’s house on the shores of Frenchman’s Bay in Maine. People find it remarkable that this Californian walks around in shirt sleeves in 55 degree weather. The air is still, so I don’t feel much need. Nevertheless, I bought a fleece vest in Ba Ha Ba (say that and see if you can guess the town’s written name) and spent the last hours of sunlight standing on the family beach, fingering the tepid water and wishing that the air temperature was at least its equal.
We’ve gone from Massachusetts to Maine on this trip, doing a little tourist runs to places like Salem Maritime NHS, Saugus Iron Works NHS, the Freedom Trail in Boston NHP, and the secretive streets of Boston African American NHS. A man from Poland had my picture taken with him after I explained to him the significance of the Robert Gould Shaw monument across from the Massachusetts State House. I was disappointed that the latter is closed, apparently due to terrorist threats, and that I could not be allowed to see the [[Sacred Cod]]. Nor did any of the guidebooks mention the [[Boston Molasses Disaster]] which happened below Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, a stop on the Freedom Trail.
We’re going to fetch mussels some day this week. I’ll find some of the spirit that used to characterize my vacation narratives if I can. Ever since I stabilized, I’ve become dull.
Honor
Posted on September 15, 2008 in Campaign 2008
When a candidate is this bad, courageous citizens have no alternative but to vote for the opponent.
To Market to Market
Posted on September 9, 2008 in Campaign 2006
It seems that neither McCain nor Palin can take the heat of political campaigning. They are starting to hear sexism and ageism where it doesn’t exist.
False Ads are a Campaign Issue
Posted on September 9, 2008 in Campaign 2008
John McCain has given up honor for the sake of winning this election no matter what. Since hiring wienie king and Bush confidant Karl Rove, the conduct of his campaign has grown progressively more mean and false. His reasons are simple: Obama has him nailed on the Republican screw-the-middle-and-working-classes and on the background of his vice presidential pick. He has to reach out and put into the public’s mind a truly horrifying image of Obama, one that is both racially and sexually tainted. So he has come out and accused Obama of something akin to pedophilia.
We know the truth. Obama sponsored a measure designed to help kids identify sexual predators. To oppose this measure is to leave children defenseless, ignorant of those who might harm them. It is to help the pedophile.
I would not go about this by accusing John McCain of endorsing pedophilia. But a president does not lead by saying what is not true about his opponents. What we have here is a character issue. Where Obama and Biden are sticking to the facts, McCain and Palin have to make stuff up out of whole cloth.
The way to hit him is to point out the lie. Mean John McCain is cornered on the truth, one can argue, so he has to resort to falsehoods. A clever ad playing on this theme is needed soon. (Think of Jessie Ventura’s “Ventura vs. the Special Interests ad that won him the governorship of Minnesota. Humor helps.) Continue to promote Obama’s campaign of hope and change. Continue to point out the past that McCain and Palin are trying to hide. But make Karl Rove a campaign issue so that every time McCain launches one of these ads, we can nod and say “uh-huh. See what I mean? There you go again.” The last few words served Ronald Reagan well in the debates against Carter.
Obama stands for protecting the middle and working classes against the attacks of the wolves of the minute wealthy class in our country. Unlike us, they don’t risk their whole lives — they have made sure that when everyone takes a loss in one of their schemes, they don’t. When we complain about them and their lifestyles, they call it “class warfare”. Let it be so. There has been class warfare being waged on the middle and working classes for the many years of Republican rule. There has also been division, a country that is falling apart for the sake of the hubris of the few. There’s a commercial, too: show the country falling to pieces as John McCain continues the Bush legacy.
The ads show that his character is lacking.
Voted 90% of the time with Bush. We know he hates this line because it is true. The trick is to hold him accountable and to point out that he doesn’t care what harm he does by these commercials. John McCain is bad for America. Saying that just as plainly is a good idea.
Comedy Central: Reformed Maverick
Posted on September 9, 2008 in Campaign 2008
When people are having this much fun with a candidate….
….your vote should go elsewhere.
The Origins of Obama’s Self Confidence?
Posted on September 8, 2008 in Campaign 2008
Barack (which comes from the same roots as the Hebrew Baruch) means “blessed” and Hussein means simply “good looking one”. Obama is a Luo (Kenya) family name. To have such an exotic name as this demands high self esteem and confidence!
For the record, he didn’t name himself. His father did.
With all the fuss of the similarities of names to certain other personages, why not mention that McCain sounds just like the most dastardly character in the book of Genesis, if not the Old Testament, namely Cain, the first murderer.
So You Want to Talk about Character, Eh?
Posted on September 7, 2008 in Campaign 2008
The thought of (McCain) being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.
Senator Thad Cochran, Republican, Mississippi
Today it has come out that John McCain pushed a woman in a wheelchair back in 1996. This is yet another tale in the many about his temper. Many who have worked with him have said “It’s his way or no way”. His classmates used to call him McNasty.
It’s fair play to bring up these issues because McCain himself insists that he is in control of his temper. But pushing a woman in a wheelchair does not sound like a man who is in control. And shouldn’t we care when the button that launches the bomb is involved?
McCain may have a partial defense. He spent 5 1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton, two of them being tortured. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is certainly a relic of such treatment. But shouldn’t a man of character with this condition recuse himself rather than subject the nation to the uncertainties of the disorder? It is one thing to be a senator with PTSD, but quite another to be a president.
Barbara Boxer has pointed out the difference one sees in Barack Obama: when under the most horrendous attack by the most vitriolic right winger, he stays “cool as a cucumber”. We need a man like this as our commander in chief. McCain just carries too much baggage loaded with dynamite.
[tags]Campaign 2008, Mean John McCain, PTSD[/tags]
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The Change
Posted on September 6, 2008 in Campaign 2008 Sexuality Social Justice
By being forced by circumstance to embrace Sarah Palin, the Christian right is acknowledging that “legitimate” families are not just the “mom&dad&buddy&sis” of the 1950s, but have morphed into a variety of shapes and forms that all need to be supported and accommodated.
—The Palin Paradox, Paul Abrams
Oh my God! They’ve turned into … liberals
