I just got back from a talk given by Hank Brown (former CU President, and former Colorado Senator) on the topic of healthcare reform in the United States. The talk was presented by the Student Association for Pre-Health Professionals (SAPP) at CU. Thirty or so “students” attended. I ended up leaving with steam pouring out of my ears.

Since Mr. Brown seems to be well respected in the CU community, and considering the appointments he has had both at CU and the state government, I expected tonights talk to reveal some downright novel thinking on a tough subject. I couldn’t have been more wrong in my expectations.

To his credit, Mr. Brown did a halfway decent job of summing up the issues with the American healthcare system in just under thirty minutes. That in and of itself is a tough as nails task, and he attempted it. He described the amount of uninsured in the US as somewhere between 10 and 50 million. Then he broke that number into thirds attempting to explain the different demographics of each third. By then you can already imagine I was having problems with his statistics but I was willing to let these slide provided we got to the meat of the topic – how to solve the problems that plague the American healthcare system.

Next he tried to sum up the “bill” that will soon be voted on in Congress. Of course those of you in touch with this healthcare debacle know that there isn’t a single bill yet, there are still 3-4 that are being worked on – but Mr. Brown forgot to mention that. Instead, he focused right in on the so called “public option”. Immediately he equated the public option to a single payer system citing the fact that it would likely run the private insurance out of business.  Again, he forgot to mention that under the current writing in the Senate – the public option will only be available to people whose employers don’t offer healthcare. So as of now there really is NOT a direct line to a single payer system as he let the audience believe.

Somewhere down the line he equated a single payer healthcare system to socialism. I almost fell out of my seat. I am no expert, but I’m pretty sure if the US went to a single payer system it wouldn’t mean that capitalism is canceled. Regardless, he went on to talk about the differences between east and west Germany, Hungary and Austria, and Cuba before and after communism (apparently he was equating socialism to communism too). Mr. Brown claimed that someone in England might have to wait months for a surgery they need now; he also stated that on the whole Europeans were less healthy than Americans.  Now if this had been the right time and place I would have happily offered to debate him – but it was neither the right time or place. During the one instance when I couldn’t hold back any longer I spoke up and told him he was flat wrong about the majority of health insurance companies being non-profit. He was startled but seemed to know he had no solid ground to stand on.

When I asked him why no one in Congress had the guts to introduce something novel, something new to the US – he avoided an answer. There is plenty of good precedent out there – look at Hawaii with mandated employee offered insurance if you work 20 hours or more. Or look at Maryland who has uniform pricing, or Switzerland that has 100% mandated private insurance with subsidies (think bye bye medicare), or England with their NHS totally government healthcare. All of these systems produce healthier and happier people. But he just sidestepped my question and revisited why he thinks we should be naysayers of the public option. Blah.

My real problem with tonights talk has to do with what wasn’t said. IF Mr. Brown had introduced himself as a career Republican perhaps the students in the audience would have taken tonights talk with a grain of salt. But from the questions that were being asked I’m pretty sure they were looking at Mr. Brown as if he was a non-partisan healthcare expert.

Overall tonight really disappointed me. I am disappointed that pseudo-facts can be used with such ease when in a setting like tonight there are few checks on their validity. And I am disappointed that a person that spreads such misinformation has held a public office and been president of the University of Colorado. If, as I witnessed tonight, the character of our elected officials is comprised primarily of ignorance – then America is in more trouble than I had originally thought.

P.S. This is my first post written on my phone… With a screenshot from the phone to boot. Perhaps this Sorta access will inspire me to post more often and even more importantly – during those moments when I turn to a friend and say… I can’t wait to blog about this!

The United States spent > $13,000,000,000 last year on the drug war alone. Hmmmm, if we repurposed that money, could it be used to cover healthcare for all of our citizens without raising taxes? Perhaps.

But really – how would our country change with such things legalized?
A few thoughts:

1. We save $13,000,000,000 a year minimum
2. Drug dealers = gone, drugs are regulated, inspected and certified by the FDA, and sold at Walgreens. (this makes $ via taxes)
3. Prison system shrinks exponentially (this saves $ too)
4. We treat addiction as a medical problem (think alcohol, tobacco) instead of a crime
5. Proper use could be taught, drugs could come with instructions, clean needles, a phone number for help (think casinos and gambling addiction).
6. Police officers/ Federal Agents could focus on real crimes and real productivity

I’ll think about this more too – please comment away. Somehow I got sidetracked on drug policy while studying a little physics this morning.

As the night wore on, I began to get some discomfort on the outside of my left hip (not my surgery hip). Preparing for bed, I saw something rather unexpected – a decent sized rash where I was having said discomfort.

Not really concerned by it – because it was just annoying more than anything – I decided to ride it out for the weekend to see if it’d go away. Honestly, I was also hoping to avoid a copayment at the doc’s office. But by Monday the doozie was still there, and I was getting a little frightened. The nurse practioner (that’s right – not a doc or a p.a) checked me out and had all sorts of theories about what it could be. But mostly she seemed dumbfounded and required a few moments in silence to think it out.

She ran through her ideas out loud, asking me questions along the way. Finally she had it. Ryan – you’ve got Shingles.

WTF!?!

Yep, I’m positive that’s what you have, she told me. And then my brain went from blank to hyperdrive. I really didn’t know what shingles was, except that old people get it. And wait, I’m young, as healthy as can be, an athlete no less….how, why??? And wait, you’re a nurse! But she had already offered to get the doc to confirm it. And then I found myself in the hall already out the door for blood tests.

I came back to the examining room and waited for the doc. When she arrived I – oh you now – pulled down my pants for the third time in the matter of an hour.

“Oh ya”, the doc exclaimed, “That’s shingles”. She said something about being stressed out and  a suppressed immune systed – then she left. Really, that’s all I get? Regardless, that was a hell of a confirmation, and about the quickest diagnosis I’ve ever had. The nurse went on to tell me that the technical name is “Herpes zoster”, not Herpes Simplex mind you. And that normally patients experience much more pain than I was having, that It’s like grown up chicken pox except people don’t usually get it until after 60, that I wasn’t contagious, yadda yadda yadda.

So, now I’m having day dreams about owning a microscope so I can check out this here shingles face to face. But I don’t know anything about microscopes or shingles or cells or viruses. I guess I’ll just keep going to my bio class.

That there is Mike doing some sort of hovering trick. That girl is his magical assistant. Quite a presentation, quite a presentation indeed.

Two of my best friends have tied the knot in the last two months. Celebrating with fiestas that were hardly imaginable prior. Chris and Megan Chrisman led with the party of a lifetime in Beaver Creek at the beginning of September. And on Saturday Troy and Jen Foss rocked it at the Hotel del Coronado in CA. Congratulations to my friends. Unfortunately my camera was busted when in BC, so the only photos i’ve got up are from this past weekend… enjoy!

And they did. And I yelled, cheered and cried. I was proud, I am proud of the feat those two accomplished. Sheer greatness when so many amount to so little. Everyday they embarked on a mission of selflessness to serve people with disabilities, to spread the message that those with disabilities HAVE tremendous abilities. They put forth countless volunteer hours (nearly 1000) and literally contributed blood, sweat, and tears to the salt of the earth.

I truly admire these guys, and am terribly jealous of their feat. Better men they are than what they were, growing in self and in strength. Cheers to tackling greatness and winning my friends. Cheers.

Learn more about the Journey of Hope.

You should read his blog. It’s intelligent, real and it’s funny. You’ll laugh out loud. He updates when he can, considering there aren’t a ton of internet hot spots in the little towns across our dear country. But sleeping in high school gyms can sometimes provide one access to some old school computers in some old school libraries. You’ll laugh, i swear.

So why’s homie g funk biking across this here country? Well, we brothers believe strongly in supporting those less fortunate than us. Al is riding with a team of men on the Journey of Hope. The mission of their trip is to raise money and awareness for people with disabilities. They ride all morning – starting circa 4am – and volunteer all afternoon and night. They do tv interviews, radio inteviews, puppet shows, and countless other things to spread the good word. They will literally touch the lives of thousands on their 64 day journey, and they’ll reach millions more. Little towns and big cities alike celebrate the team coming through by declaring it “Journey of Hope Day”. Groups of people gather at the finish line each day, waiting for the “Bike Riders” to come. Dances are held, water parks invaded, baseball games attended, and wheelchair basketball challenges met.

Biking draws attention to their ultimate goal, spreading awareness that people with disablities have abilities too, incredible abilities. Support them, befriend them, love them.

And if you’re around when the cyclists are coming through… Check ‘em out. It will change your perspective on any given day, the team will give you a sense of hope. And we can all use that.

Tonight Pat and I jogged from his place to the base of the mountain, and then fifty or so yards up from the base. I mentioned that we ought to stretch. Yeah, he said, that sounds good. We stop. I bend forward to touch my toes. Pat squats down to tie his shoe. From the corner of my eye I see Pat’s figure fall backward freely. I thought he slipped a little. I thought he’d bounce back up. I turned to see what looked like his heading hitting a rock. He rolled over onto his stomach as if he was fine.

“Pat”, I said. No response. Pat, you ok? No response. He started making some sounds from his mouth. As if he was trying to get flem from the back of his throat. I thought he was just kidding around. Pat are you ok?! No response. I jumped over and put my hand on his back and peaked over his shoulder. Oh shit, oh shit. His eyes are wide open and staring straight ahead. His mouth was open and his tounge was out of his mouth. I grabbed his shoulder, I thought he was choking on his tounge. I looked into his eyes and they scared me to death. I’ll never forget that look. Instantly I read those eyes, and thank God I read them wrong. That deep look of fear, the symptoms that I saw, they all summed to one conclusion. His neck is broken. Oh God, his neck is broken. His whole face had frozen into a look of deep despair, of incredulous fear. A thousand thoughts ran through my head. No cell phone. Pitch black. I have to leave my friend and sprint to the nearest house to call 911. I can’t leave my friend. He’s so scared. I need to put him down. Can’t harm him more. Oh God.

Take action Ryan. I slowly began releasing his shoulder back to the ground. Still only gargling sounds from Pat. I was so scared. He moves his arm, his eyes blink. What are you doing? he said. Relief. What are you doing Ryan, I was in the middle of a dream…I was sleeping. His whole body was moving now. I helped him to kneel. Pat are you ok? Ryan, where are we? Mt. Sanitas Pat. Oh gah, oh jee, relief running through every nerve in my body. He snapped back to it. Oh yeah, oh yeah, he said. Wow, what happened? And then I told him the story that you just read. Well so much for that work out he said. I laughed, we laughed. Yeah so much for that.

We walked back to his house. My heart still beating incessantly. I was scared, still scared even though we were walking. I kept looking at Pat, he look ok. I haven’t been that scared in my life. He remembered that he was feeling light headed, we didn’t know what happened though. Did he just pass out? Seizure? What was it? I brought him back to 2343 so i could watch over him. He’s doing fine. We had spaghetti.

That’s where Noah Baumbach comes in. I read an interview with him today in the New York Times magazine that struck a cord with ol’ r roth. So I thought I’d share a bit of what he had to say. And if you are so inclined, I encourage you to click on the link and read some more.

Who: Noah Baumbach, the director of the new Indie film “The Squid and the Whale“.
Article: The Intelligentsia Indie
Source: New York Times Magazine

You’re the son of Jonathan Baumbach, an accomplished literary novelist, and Georgia Brown, a former film critic for The Village Voice. How much of the film is autobiographical?

“I still carry the residue of the pressure I felt as a child to read and appreciate the right books. Growing up, I never allowed myself to read beach reading. I was always plowing through Ford Madox Ford’s “Good Solider” or something I wasn’t equipped to understand.”

So do you see your film, which opened in New York this week, as a rebellion against the excesses of the intellectual life?

“I grew up in the heat of 70’s postmodern fiction and post-Godard films, and there was this idea that what mattered was the theory or meta in art. My film is emotional rather than meta, and that’s my rebellion.”

…

These days you’re what Roth (Phillip) might call a goodnik. You and the actress Jennifer Jason Leigh were married just last month, both for the first time.

“We’ve been together for four years. We didn’t send out invitations for our wedding. We just called family and said come to our house in a week. We took our own pictures. Most of them were Polaroids, and a good percentage of those were out of focus.”

Now that’s a rad wedding, and yahoo for emotion vs. theory/meta meaning. But what does ‘goodnik’ mean? And why can’t I find the definition anywhere…?

While my roommate Paul is floating around in New York City, he sends us emails to let us know he still alive. This picture (click for the real deal) turned up on Saturday morning in my inbox. Location: Our back yard. You can see our tree house in the upper left hand corner. And yes, right there in the middle is a deer with a massive set of antlers. It’s a wonder Paul is still alive.

“i saw this fella on thursday when i was packing my car. i’ve seen deer before before, but never something of this size rack, not to mention in my yard. looking back i’m kinda psyched he didn’t charge me, my curiousity was just too high not to run and get a camera and some pics. actually have more.” ~ Paul

The hot tub was fired up this weekend. Since our backyard is some sorta frequent animal crossing – Intuition tells me there’s a business opporunity here…