The Pete's blog/

thepete.com: TheDailyLego: LegoRecognizer! (from Tron @tomzer1's request!): http://ping.fm/3wDif

OK, now after bitching about Obama calling for Americans to take responsibility for their health care by paying for insurance, I'd like to suggest my solution:

Learn from history.

You remember history, right? It's that thing that happened before now.

It's got all sorts of lessons for us to learn about what to do and what not to do--especially when you look at other countries!

See, in every other "civilized" nation in the world, health care is a right, not something you pay for. After all, what would "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" be without "life"?

So, I say you keep private insurers where they are for the folks that don't trust government-run health care, but start up a UK-style NHS for those of us who don't trust private health care or the insurance companies.

Who will pay for it? Well, ideally, us--in that we'll still be alive thanks to it--but also our kids who will also benefit from it. If we're REALLY smart, we'll even take the money we normally spend on our military bases around the world and spend it on health care.

After all, if we keep going with the current system, tens of thousands will continue to die every year, not thanks to terrorist bombings (terrorists aren't that good at killing), but thanks to a lack of affordable health care.

So, yes, I'm suggesting not only that we learn from history (GASP!) but also that we learn from OTHER COUNTRIES. (HEAVENS!)

Oh and we should also check the stupid labels at the door, too.

All this crap about "socialism" isn't going to help anyone on either side of the political wall. Hitler wasn't a bad guy because he wanted his citizens to have universal health care (did he?) he was a bad guy because he slaughter loads of people after he invaded a bunch of countries without a good reason.

Not that we would EVER do that!

COUGHnativeamericansCOUGH
COUGHiraqandafghanistanCOUGH

But I digress.

The point is, ditch the labels, learn from history and other countries who have done this successfully before.

Nothing will be perfect so grow the hell up.

All I know is that I'd like to go to the dentist for the first time in ten years. The two times I've been to the doctors in the same amount of time was when I went to the LA Free Clinic.

Everyone knows that I'm not some lazy bastard either, it's obvious I'm not freeloading on the system or whatever. I work my ass off all the time, I just don't make a lot (or any) money for it. I like to think that my good health and, in fact, my life is worth a bit of your money, just as much as I already feel the same about your health and life.

But until you start clicking that Paypal donate link (and not even for a while after that), or hire me, I can't afford Mr. President's plan.

So, what the hell are people like me supposed to do?

RT @NewYorkology: Considering uptick in terror alerty-ness, pls keep in mind Twitter can amplify false rumors fast. Good to clarify [...]

:) RT @MSampo: Spam subject line of the day: "Dumbass, look here." Oh, well, sure I could...HEY!

FYI: This movie's Japanese title is shown above. It was released on VHS in the US back in the 1990s with the title Phoenix 2772.

Try to find this movie.

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Yeesh... I haaate to say this about an Osamu Tezuka film but, for me, it was not a positive experience. I LOVE Tezuka's stuff, normally.


Technically any good? The animation is definitely stunning by 1980-standards. Obviously, it's looks dated by today's standards. But that's not even what bothers me about this movie. The plot is incredibly thin and the goals are achieved with amazing ease. What's worse is that there are big, long sequences of "humor" where "cartoon" characters dance around and act silly doing nothing to move the plot forward. These scenes seemed inserted to please international audiences since, at the time, most folks outside of Japan would have trouble wrapping their heads around an adult storyline told in animation, so we see what I can only describe as a Jar-Jar Binks prototype and some of his friends who are equally annoying.


How did it leave me feeling? Disappointed and longing for Tetsuwan Atomu (aka Astroboy) or Black Jack, two of Tezuka's other creations.

Read a longer review of Hi no tori 2772: ai no kosumozon that I wrote for Otaku-Complex.com here.

Sadly, for fans of this movie, it's hard to find anywhere and hasn't been released on DVD in the US. If you find a US distributor, please let me know. It's Tezuka, so I want people to have access to it.

thepete.com: Hi no tori 2772: Ai no kosumozon (1980): http://ping.fm/4WB9W

INDEED! RT @SteveIsaacs: Hey Universe- please stop making "Saw" movies. Thanks, Steve.

So. Jealous. :) RT @grantimahara http://twitpic.com/j38xq Best. Experiment. Day. Ever. Just add ponies and ice cream. #fromset #Mythbusters

I'm a big believer in the power of myth. My only gripe is when people don't admit that what they believe in is a myth in the first place. See, I don't think aa story has to be true in order to learn valuable life lessons from it. So, I can be an Atheist and learn from Jesus, or not believe in the Federal Reserve and still earn and spend money. The thing is, I understand and admit that both are myths--fictions that don't represent anything provable.

Now, the only reason I bring this up is because the other day, an Internet acquaintance of mine and I were talking about political party differences between my country and his (he's in Germany) and naturally taxation came up (check the comments to see the convo). He referenced that little chestnut of historical Americana, "Taxation Without Representation" via the Boston Tea Party, and suggested it was our "founding myth."

I did take issue with this, but only the part where he suggested that it was our "founding myth."

Oh, I agree it's a myth in that the "Boston Tea Partiers" were likely Freemasons who probably worked it out with the British East India Company (run by Freemasons) to let them throw British East India tea into the harbor, thus making it a kind of "false-flag operation," and thus, a myth--but the idea that our country was founded on this myth? Nah, that's not accurate to me at all. So, here's how I replied (emphasis added for effect):

My country's founding myth is that all men are created equal and that we have "inalienable rights" like the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Firstly, when our "founding fathers" said "all men" they clearly meant "all land-owning white males" since, according to the rules they, themselves, wrote, only men who owned land would be allowed to vote.

Secondly, all men (and women) are not "created equal," they are "created equally." Which makes that not just a myth, but a grammatically incorrect myth. In fact, saying we are all created "equally" is a more accurate statement than saying we are all created "equal" since that suggests "equal" is a state of relative identicalness. Saying we were created "equally," says we were all created in the same way--via a sperm penetrating an egg.

But saying "we're created equally" allows for things to go south once a human is conceived. You get your random-ass genetic combinations, you get your genetic mutations and you get your recessive genes kicking in (or not). We're all created the same way, but then random chaos muscles in and who knows how we're actually born? From there it all depends on your parents, where they raise you and how rich you are.

Third, we don't have universal health care here, so "life" is not guaranteed.

Fourth, if we're suspected of terrorism we can be detained and held indefinitely if the government decides to. So there goes the "liberty" part.

Finally, in order to afford a home, food, electricity, the Internet and so on, we need to have a job that consumes 8-10 hours of our lives (including commute time) every day. Adding that to 8 hours sleep and an hour for each meal and that leaves 3-5 hours per day for that "pursuit of happiness" stuff. Of course, add in chores, dealing with family, replying to emails running errands AND trying to keep up with the news, and the pursuit of happiness gets relegated to your next vacation, which is usually just 7 days long.

Sorry--you said something about a tea party? Yeah, those guys are arguing over a myth, too.

Oh wait, you probably meant the Boston Tea Party. We've now got these right-wing morons who think America is under attack by liberals. They've been holding "tea parties" (aka protests) to voice their anger about government run health care. See, THEY believe the myth that government-run health care will put private health care out of business and that the government will decide who lives and who dies and that it'll make us all Nazis (since Nazis were socialists)...

I'm sorry, I think I lost track of your point...

And then there's the myth that terrorism is a real threat to us, when statistically, we have a WAY bigger chance of dying from cancer than we do from terrorism.

I'm sorry, I should stop typing now...

Indeed, I should.