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9/19/09, 12:38 p.m. (Link here)
Did you ever wonder if Medicaid could pay for an air conditioner? Sometimes it will, especially in New York State. It will when cooling or air filtering is "medically necessary," for serious asthmatics, people with heart and lung conditions, and others whose health is heavily affected by heat or pollution. But did the idea make you laugh at first? The way most of us think of "medical" things, it seems silly, even abusive, to talk about granting someone a household amenity by prescription. But what's absurd, really, is a system that drives people into poverty, and then pretends concern for poor people when they suffer illnesses that are entirely predictable consequences of poverty. Being stuck in a hot apartment in hot weather while ill is a consequence of poverty. It's a predictably life-threatening consequence of poverty. There is a cure for this health threat: it's not a pill, it's a thing called an air conditioner. So, yes, an air conditioner can be damn well incredibly medically necessary, and cheers to those public medical authorities who do recognize the fact. But here's my next question: why do we draw such strict lines across the "medical necessity" continuum? Why, for example, is our system so stingy about paying for eyeglasses and dentures for poor people? What about good food -- isn't that medically necessary? What about a water filter? A fully functional refrigerator? Education? Rewarding employment? Physical safety from crime? We know all these advantages prolong life. The overarching medical necessity is to abolish poverty and we just won't face it.
9/19/09, 12:27 p.m. (Link here)
I spoke too soon: The current Harpers cover story (sorry, only available online to subscribers) says we do effectively have private fire insurance. Private insurers have been sending out their own crews to defend their own policyholders (and, apparently, not others) against the Southern California wildfires.
9/09/09, 3:26 p.m. (Link here)
Years before Van Jones went to the White House (and was red-baited back out of it), he came up with a great line about why organizers should be lawyers. He said it's in the ability to tell someone, "Well, I'm a lawyer, and that doesn't look right to me either."
8/22/09, 10:57 a.m. (Link here)
Private fire insurance. Sounds silly now, doesn't it? If you have an insurance policy with a good company, and your premiums are up to date, your house doesn't burn down. If you don't have fire insurance, it burns down... and may incidentally take the whole block with it... Not however, all that much sillier than private health insurance. If your neighbor comes down with smallpox or swine flu or cholera, or is headed for a lifetime of tax-funded disability benefits due to a curable condition, there's no altruism in wanting universal health insurance.
8/18/09, 8:11 p.m. (Link here)
Anyone, anywhere, can make comments to San Francisco Chronicle articles like this one. Anyone with a computer, anywhere, can rate the comments up or down. Relatively small numbers of comments and ratings seem to have an effect on the newspaper's editorial mentality. Is there any reason why right-wing hate-spewers who are not necessarily from San Francisco should be the only regulars on the Chron's comment threads?
8/8/09, 11:11 a.m. (Link here)
No political point to make this time: I just wanted to share a fascinating article by a psychoanalyst about the human drives behind problems of excess and appetite.
7/26/09, 12:03 a.m. (Link here)
The trouble with journalism is that Maureen Dowd, in her capacity as a journalist, can write a column for the New York Times referring to "...my friend John Timoney, the police chief of Miami..." I gave up long ago on the myth that a journalist can avoid forming loyalties or political opinions, but a journalist shouldn't boast of friendship with any police chief, let alone that one.
7/21/09, 9:28 p.m. (Link here)
I doubt that anyone who knows or remembers the police of Cambridge, Massachusetts will find their latest outrage at all surprising. My personal story, nowhere near the worst: one night in 1986 an exhibitionist waggled at me on Mass Ave. near Central Square. Not a city kid by upbringing, I felt rattled, ran into a store, and borrowed a phone there to call the cops. The man at the station didn't ask if I could get home OK, which (silly hick kid) is why I'd called. He just wanted to know one thing, "What color was he?" It took me a few double takes to realize he meant race. I wish I'd had the wit to say "purplish." The parts of the guy I'd seen had appeared to be of European descent so I suppose I said, "white." The cop said, "thanks for the information" and hung up. Jerks.
Re: nowhere near the worst: see just for example this, and this.
7/18/09, 7:17 p.m. (Link here)
Truth isn't always stranger than fiction but sometimes it produces ironies too obvious for any self-respecting writer to invent. Consider, for example, the Kindle memory hole...
6/26/09, 7:22 p.m. (Link here)
From the Klamath Falls Herald and News: "Portland Man Caught Contracting Without a License." Unknown if he's been required to expand.
6/19/09, 11:22 a.m. (Link here)
Recently the San Francisco Chronicle treated a "journalism award" from an anti-immigrant group like it was something to be proud of. Some of us are mad about that. Update: The SF Bay Guardian now has much more thorough reporting on same. Further Update: The ThinkProgress "Wonk Room" blog has picked up our story, noting recent new criticisms of the award-giving "Center for Immigration Studies" in a report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.
5/4/09, 8:42 p.m. (Link here)
Historical Tin Ear of the Month award goes to our local OfficeMax for the message pasted across its front doors: "Life Is Beautiful -- Work Can Be Too!"
3/26/09, 11:16 p.m. (Link here)
"This household protected against rats, mice, and underpants gnomes."
3/24/09, 11:13 p.m. (Link here)
Yet another death today at the subsidized "Shelter Plus Care" building around the corner. A little drunk guy they called "Eastwood." People over there are used to deaths. What they're mad about is, Animal Control came for Eastwood's cat although there were neighbors who wanted to adopt it.
[P.S. My source over there doesn't blame the Animal Control people for doing their jobs & thinks the neighbors probably scapegoated them for the whole situation. Still, it's sad that doing their job meant sweeping that poor cat away from a familiar place into the System.]
1/21/09, 4:14 p.m. (Link here)
Obama Presidency, Day 2, and yet another happy mass email from the ACLU. Feels like 1989, with the Wall down and Mandela free. Nothing like it since then. Prop. 8 is still California law. The Clinton folks in the Cabinet are no friends of poor people. Yes. But.
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