It’s a different story when you’re married.  Until then, keep your hands to yourself until you’ve figured out whether or not there’s any real connection between you and the other person.  That is, any connection besides a physical one.

This goes for both guys and girls, because I’m one of those people.

Four teenagers doused Michael Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire.  He’s now in the hospital fighting for his life. 65% of his body is covered in second- and third-degree burns.

What kills me about this is that some of the kids who set him on fire actually laughed about it.

If I were Michael’s sister, I’d find those kids and beat the snot out of them.  My blood pressure spikes just thinking about it.

I’m honestly not sure if I’m “holy” enough to want to forgive someone who would laugh at setting a child on fire.  I pray that his parents are better people than I am.

Almost 7,000 unemployed South Carolinians could lose their benefits after this week because the state forgot to change a rule that would have allowed them to receive extended federal compensation.

…

Lawmakers can point fingers wherever they please for this fiasco, but the responsibility is theirs. They are the ones who choose to maintain the state’s fragmented authority system. They are determined to maintain legislative control of the executive branch of state government. They enjoy the patronage the current system enables them to distribute to their supporters.

From GoUpstate.com

Hey, dude–why don’t you take a second to think about your role in all this while you sit there pointing fingers at the politicians in charge.  Instead of sitting on your soap box, why don’t you actually get off your bum and do something to help those 7,000 people?

A few months ago, I got seriously offended because someone suggested that “Ho Chi Minh had it right” when he decided that he wanted to invade South Vietnam.  I mean, this dude was talking about my heritage, here.  I wanted to punch him in the face because he tried to speak with so much authority when “he just didn’t know.”  He thought he was so smart, but he just didn’t know.

I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve had  to pull my foot out of my mouth after getting too cocky to too confident.  You’d think I know better considering I’ve been alive for 20 years.

We all think we’re so smart and yet no one has completely figured out a clean, reliable alternative fuel source for us to use after we’ve run out of oil.  No one’s figured out how to end world hunger or poverty.  No one has figured out how to properly overhaul our healthcare system.  None of our government officials have figured out that you can’t claim to come in peace when you’ve got enough nuclear warheads stocked up to destroy the world five times over (and keep in mind who voted for these people).

We all think we’re so smart when in reality, we just don’t know.

I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.

Life’s a corkscrew that can’t be straightened,
A minus that won’t add up.

I said to myself, “I know more and I’m wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I’ve stockpiled wisdom and knowledge.” What I’ve finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind.

Much learning earns you much trouble.
The more you know, the more you hurt.

- Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 (MSG)

[ image by FailAtLife ]

Most people desire a sense of belonging and community.  The problem is that being in communion with other people is usually a pretty messy deal.  In fact, there’s nothing simple about being human.

When you oversimplify things, you miss out on stuff.  Overcomplicate things and you’re just making life harder for yourself.

That happy medium?  It’s impossible.  It’s like a calculus function where the midpoint is the only point along the curve that doesn’t really exist.  As in, there’s no solution there.  You can’t divide by zero.

But at the end of the day, despite how badly things go down, the world hasn’t ended yet.

[ image by Ryan Brenizer ]

I FEEL GOOD, da na na na na na na, I knew that I would, da na na na na na na…

The 2009 Charlotte Dragon Boat Festival was yesterday.  You missed out on a lot of fun stuff if you didn’t go.  The boat races were super exciting and the stage performances (well, the ones that I got to catch, anyway) were absolutely captivating.  I also got accused of looking Korean.

I’ve posted before competing with a team in the Dragon Boat races and I’m pleased to announce that my team, Hot Pho, placed second in our division.  That’s not too shabby considering that our team had only practiced once before the competition and most of us were pretty new to paddling.  We had issues with team cohesion, too, but everyone pulled together in time four our final heat.

Some more photos from yesterday below.

Awesome.

Right now, roughly 25% of all spending on medical care goes toward administrative costs.  TWENTY FIVE FREAKING PERCENT! An upwards of $250 BILLION dollars!  This isn’t just due to inflated bonuses to insurance company CEOs, either.  It’s because dealing with insurance companies is an administrative nightmare!

There are thousands of private insurance companies that operate across the United States and a gadzillion different types of insurance plans.  That means every time a new patient walks into the office and presents an insurance card, I have to make a phone call or go online to verify their insurance benefits to make sure that the services they’re after are covered by their plan.  Do you have any idea how much extra time that eats up?  A lot. Especially when I have to wait on hold for 5-10 minutes on the phone to talk to a customer service rep to inquire about a specific service.  If I have to do that 10 times in a day, that’s up to a bit less than two hours lost.  It’s stuff like this that forces clinics and hospitals to hire so many people onto their administrative staff. Stupid and unnecessary.

Then there’s the fact that each and every insurance company pays different rates for the exact same service.  A Blue Cross Blue Shield plan might pay 80% of the asking price for an echocardiogram (that is, cost plus markup) while an Aetna plan might pay 70%.  Some plans might not cover it at all (going back to my first point about verifying benefits).  Submitting bills for payment from insurance companies also means keeping 18 rolodexes full of billing addresses in case something goes wrong with the electronic billing system.

Oh, and if you have to refer a patient to a specialist or send them for diagnostic imaging, half of the time, you have to get a pre-authorization.  Guess what that means?  Spending more time on the phone or submitting forms online.

Then you have to work around each insurance company’s drug formulary (that is, a list of drugs the plan will or won’t pay for).  By the way, doctors rarely keep up with those things and the patients never know what is or isn’t covered.  That means if the doctor writes a prescription that the insurance plan doesn’t cover, we often don’t find out about it until after the patient has gotten to the pharmacy.  Then I get a phone call from the pharmacist asking what he/she should switch it to.  Then I have to go ask the doctor.  If the doctor’s busy with a patient, I have to get the pharmacist’s number and call them back.  Then I have to keep checking every few minutes to see if the doctor’s available to speak to.  Then I have to call the pharmacist back to let them know what to switch the prescription to.

There’s so much more I could keep ranting about, but I think you get my point.  Everything about how healthcare is financed in the United States is designed to waste as much of my time as possible and it really ticks me off.  It’s just another reason why it more makes for sense to have one payer for medical care services.

</angry>

- v33

[ image by paloaltosoftware ]

I don’t get it.

I keep getting friend requests on Facebook from people that I knew in middle/high school that I’m not actually friends with.  I know it’s not that big of a deal, but I’m just baffled every time this happens.  It’s cool if for some reason, you have something you actually want to say to me, but if you don’t, for what reason would you want me on your Facebook friend roster?

Perhaps I wasted 10 minutes of my life typing this because  it doesn’t actually matter, but it’s my blog, and I’ll post what I want.

So there.

Dear United States Congress,

Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar
and stomp righteousness into the mud.
Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos
star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
and gives the land a drink.
God, God-revealed, does all this.
And he can destroy it as easily as make it.
He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.

People hate this kind of talk.
Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.

Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.

Seek good and not evil—
and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
and maybe it will happen.

Hate evil and love good,
then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will notice your remnant and be gracious.

Now again, my Master’s Message, God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Go out into the streets and lament loudly!
Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom!
Weep loudly, ‘Not me! Not us, Not now!’
Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces.
Enlist everyone in the general lament.
I want to hear it loud and clear when I make my visit.”
God’s Decree.

Amos 5:7-17 (MSG)

Sincerely,

Vy

I’ve been reading parts of the books of Jeremiah and Amos.  Both scare me a bit as they largely reflect what’s happening in North America right now–corruption, social injustice, sloth, idolatry.  It’s all very real and no one can deny it.

Politicians have stopped serving their people and now only work to benefit themselves. While their citizens starve, they continue to pad their paychecks for doing a whole lot of nothing.

Most of the clothes on the market are manufactured in sweat shops where the workers receive low pay and must deal with poor working conditions.

The poor are continually ignored and have no voice or means of getting help.  The homeless don’t get a chance to get back on their feet because no one cares enough to help them.

Our culture tells us that the good life equates to sex, drugs (be it alcohol, heroine, or excessive amounts of mind-numbing television), and money, and yet the people who have all of those never seem to really be happy.

I feel like Canada and the United States represent Israel and Judah.  While they may not constantly be at war with each other, tensions between the two governments obviously exist.  Their cultures are nearly identical and both are spiraling downward into oblivion.

It’s going to take something huge before anything changes.  I don’t know what it’s going to be and part of me is afraid to find out.