: Email from my editor :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 7:45 AM

I am writing a book on online networking for Entrepreneur Press - publication January, 2009. I am in the throes of research right now, and happened upon an outstanding book - Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams.

I have become email friendly with my editor (we can both write in fluent lolspeak and frequently banter back and forth in said language...)
, so I shot her an email on Saturday about this cool book.

On Sunday, I get the following reply:

You are mildly nerdy. It's one of your better qualities. Enjoy your weekend.

Coming from my lolspeaking-editor, who was looking at her work email on a Sunday, I think the pot is calling the kettle black...

Anyway, it's cool to be mildly nerdy, IMO. 

(lol)

ee 

: Tale of Two Headlines :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 7:11 AM

Today's front page of section one of the New York Times had two very telling headlines. The first:

Co-Payments Go Way Up for Drugs with High Prices

Basically, more proof that health care in the United States - that's right, in the country still arguably the 'best place to live' - is more and more a privilege for the wealthy. Have MS? Rheumatoid arthritis? Some forms of cancer? The good news is that there are now some AMAZING drugs to help you beat or cope with these diseases. The bad news is that even if you have insurance, the usual co-pays ($10, $20, $30) are out the window - one patient with MS featured in the article saw her co-pay go from $20 to $325 per month. That is nearly rent for a lot of people, particularly in the midwest. And it is a lot more than a senior citizen on a fixed income of social security and a dwindling pension could afford.

No problem, though, for someone  like Mr. Lee Tachman, featured in the other headline article I reference:

Despite Tough Times, Ultrarich Keep Spending

He just treated his buddies to the ultimate in a male bonding getaway - spending about $50,000 on a "four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends." Yep, he popped for a private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraries,  Lamborghinis, the VIP room at the former Versace mansion on South Beach...

I imagine if he or his ever had a horrible disease it would be a mere drop in the bucket to pay for the drugs needed to cure or combat those diseases.

In this country someone like me is labeled by even members of my own family as a pinko commie (yes, decades after the Cold War, many in the midwest and even on the more progressive coastal areas still use those terms) for asking the simple question about the above two headlines:

What is wrong with this picture?

Why do conservatives have to hang on for dear life to the all-or-nothing, black-or-white, with-us-or-against-us mentality that if you question why some people have so much, while others (insured, hard-working, 40+hour-a-week jobholders) can't even afford medications for themselves or their families, you just have to be a communist or - at the very least - a socialist?

I am a self-employed writer, and I bust my a*s to pay my mortgage on time or early every month. I don't appreciate someone just "using" the system or living off what I earn and not working. However, our country has gone way, way, way off balance when even those with full time jobs cannot afford the basics that everyone - everyone - living in a country such as the United States should have.

We may call ourselves the "United" States, but the "every man for himself" mentality has certainly led to the destruction of the middle class. To those at the very top of the skyscrapers - literally and figuratively - the rest of the masses walking below are just ants.

 

ee 

: Irony :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 7:35 PM

It amazes me how many families in this country who go to church can be like this behind the doors of their home.

Most (if not all) churchgoing people hate me and the very space I take up on this planet because I am gay.

They spend hours every week to sign petitions at their churches to make sure my life is as difficult as possible.

They nod and say 'amen' to the pastors saying how I -- personally -- am a threat to their marriage, and a danger to their kids.

Then...they go home and beat their kids, or cheat on their husbands.

Okay - that's the end of my Sunday Study on Irony

ee

: A Very Surreal Victory, Tempered By Two Things... :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 10:26 AM

Well, what a great notice that came through on my listserv last night! New York Appellate Court rules that out out of state marriages must be recognized!

Woo HOO! Yay for all NY couples who married in Massachusetts, or Canada - and yay for ME ! I got married in Canada last September! And we live in New York!

But...wait a minute. My partner is here on a temporary visa. My partner is Canadian, and we cannot do a will, or hold any property together, and certainly cannot acknowledge so much as a registered city domestic partnership - much less call ourselves married other than to a few trusted friends....that would signal an 'intent' to stay and put any visa proceedings in jeopardy.

Our now-recognized marriage in New York will certainly not allow me to sponsor my now-recognized spouse for permanent residency (although I can automatically apply in Canada), just as many bi-national couples have discovered in Massachusetts.

So it is with a bittersweet feeling that I nonetheless am thrilled for my now-married brothers and sisters as they wake up today in New York to be legally-married for the first time. I certainly hope that Albany will not use this as a political issue to 'get out the conservative vote' by pushing for a new law similar to that in Massachusetts that will effectively de-recognize our unions.

And I certainly hope that type of discriminatory, backward-thinking legislature doesn't come before my spouse and I have a chance to sort out any permanent visa issues - whether in Canada or New York.

However, this ruling does go a long way to leaning us toward staying in NYC (as opposed to moving to Canada). Decisions, decisions...

Of course, the only place we own property is in our beloved South Beach in Miami, and we can see the way that state is going. Lots of knuckle-draggers on the road between Miami Beach and Tallahassee, and the GOP really needs to dangle out the queers on a skewer to get out the vote for their candidate in 08. *sigh

But for today - CONGRATULATIONS to all who start today as legally-married life partners in New York!

ee

: "Collateral Damage" :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 1:00 PM

(The term Bush and his Neocon buddies at the Pentagon use to describe scenes such as this):

: Happy Valentine's Day! :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 9:55 PM

From your blog author, age 6.



Aren't kids cool?

: Happy Birthday! :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 12:54 AM

To one of our planet's great heroes.

: True Joy... :

by The Educated Eclectic @ 10:26 AM

...is seeing a smile like this on the face of what was once a homeless, broken little puppy.

Please support groups like the ASPCA and Noah's Wish.

ee