h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From birth to death, huh? It sounds like a much simpler system. And I like the not-having-to-pay bit. When I was working part-time, I dreaded getting sick - a doctor's visit cost around $150, and a prescription for antibiotics was around $25. Now I've got full-time with insurance benefits (yay!) and I *really* appreciate it!

I assume you've got insurance benefits because you're in work right? Well why not spend a little time trying to encourage public sector heathcare in your country (where it is you come from?). Write to your parlementary representatives yourself, and join your unions' campaigns for PSH, and perhaps most importantly join a group who opposes the WTO plans to outlaw public sector healthcare as 'unfair competiton'.

Lentilla, TV and cultural ramifications thereof, have always been one of my interests. I can't remember where I learned about that CIA directive, but it interests me, as when I was 16 I used to listen to Radio VOA (Voice of America) re-broadcast on Radio 1YZ, Rotorua NZ. (There was this guy called Brook Denning, and a show called 'Hits in Germany': I fancied Brook Denning something awful, tho' from what I remember of his voice he must have been 40+, and I have always been somewhat obsessed with Germany...) Imagine my feelings when I discovered sometime in the 1980s, that Voice of America was a CIA propaganda station! BTW, that fact is well-known, moderators...

The socially-conscious thing seems fairly weird sometimes. There's a show called "Becker" (where Terry Farrell's career went after DS9)which is usually hilarious, and last night, it was unwatchable. Heavy preaching about smoking, and yes, I acknowledge I smoke - it hasn't cost the health system of any country $1 (so far). The strange thing is that Becker's solution to cigarette craving, was sex with a beautiful stranger, a friend of Reggie (Terry farrell). So smoking is deadly, totally unacceptable, but sluttish promiscuity is okay? I don't get it.

Jude, can you tell me, am I right that the NHS also covers dental and optical care? I wish ours in NZ did! I need new specs, can't afford $350+ so it'll have to wait. I know what they say about NHS glasses and looking like Jarvis Cocker, but it'd be worth it! sigh...

Della, I just saw the funniest thing last night. We were watching a documentary on the building of the atom bomb (*that* wasn't so funny) and it included a clip of a propaganda film designed to reassure Americans about the bomb. The blast wave washes over the trenches, peppering the soldiers inside with debris. After the dust settles, the men get out of the trenches (undoubtedly already exposed to radioactivity) and light cigarettes!

So that's where Terry Farrell went - I lost interest in DS9 after she left the show. I understand it was my loss, but I just don't have time to watch all the television I would like to! (Which is why I don't have cable.) Jeri Ryan has moved to Boston Public, and I don't know about the rest - probably taking a vacation and raking in the syndication money.

I'm a smoker too. I smoke the cheapest ultra-lights I can find. When people find this out, they ask 'Why bother?' The fact is, I just like to smoke. If I could find a non-tobacco cigarette (something I could legally smoke in public, that is!) then that'd be great. But everything I've tried tastes weird - like burning marshmallows, or paper. The best anti-smoking FCC-regulated show I've ever seen was an episode of the Simpsons where Homer crosses tomato and tobacco plants. He comes up with something that looks like a tomato, but is filled with nicotine. ("Eww, this tastes like Grandma!") They managed to be non-preachy, and yet made the tobacco companies look like monsters.

Autist, I believe (though I'm not sure!) that all companies are required to offer insurance for employees that work more than thirty hours a week. At the newspaper where I work, full-time employees get an insurance package for a little bit out of their pay (the company pays the rest.) Part-timers can get insurance, but they have to pay more for it than full-timers (the company still pays the majority of the cash.) What I'm really p**sed about is that just last year all the part-timers here were reduced to twenty hours or less a week, which means that none of them can get insurance. (All so the newspaper can save some money!)

So basically the system works for the haves, but not the have-nots. What I would like to see is a public health system for those people who aren't employed full-time, but work at least thirty hours a week. (This is our biggest problem right now - many people have to work two or three jobs at ten-fifteen hours each to make ends meet.) We have all sorts of public health programs, like Planned Parenthood, WIC (for mothers w/hungry kids) and food stamps, but no health insurance. Maybe we'd be better off getting rid of welfare and replacing it with health insurance.

Legislators in the States are making the same changes the GATS proclamation wanted to achieve in Europe. Right now our electric companies are going through privatization. Personally, I couldn't care less who gives me electricity, as long as it gets to the things I need when I need it! California had the worst example of that - you might have heard about the brownouts when the private electric companies took over. One thing about the public state/city-funded utility companies is there's a lot of corruption, which the private companies should fix.

I definitely don't want to see public healthcare outlawed! I'll see what groups exist, although honestly, awareness of WTO decisions is pretty low here in the U.S.

LENTILLA:




Having been a non-smoker (party-smoker) for 12 years, I recently discovered a cigar that´s more like a cigarillios (you know, these slim ones) called "Backwoods", a so-called wet cigar, that comes i 3 kinds; classic cigar and one licorice"scented" and one vanilla"scented".I´ve tried the classic and that´s too much like a cigar for my taste and i´m not sure I want to try the licorice one, but the vanilla"scented" is really good.It is low nicotine as I, as a non-smoker, can smoke them without having a nicotinechok, wich I get from half a cigarette if I´m not drinking at the ame time.You get them in packages of 5 or 8, but you will probably have to get them from a well assorted store, at least that´s the way it is in Denmark.I´m trying to make these cigars popular with friends and around town, so I might as well try and push them overseas as well , but generally people like them whem they try them, the´re very smooth to the throat, but the odour is kind of vanillainsencelike, so if you try them out be prepared for comments.





WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PERIUM; WONDER IF HE´S STILL RESEARCHING ON THAT JESSE JACKSON ISSUE





T´mershi Duween.

Lentilla:

Did a little surfing.

If you search on Google for Bacwoods Cigars and look at the second result you get to their homepage.And i have to correct myself here; they actually have a 4th flavour - "Wild Rum"...hmmmm...


T´m.. D...

No, never. You obey the laws don't you? You pay your taxes? You take part in the capitalist experiment which is enforced by your state?

Then your state should provide for you. It should be welfare because welfare is good. It shouldn't be private health insurance, because as long as someone is capitalising on this insurance you're not - ie if there's a profit being made out of you, you're not getting maxiumum value for your money (or the states' money as the case may be).

Actually, I took a vacation.....A much needed vacation.

Part of what has me so burned up about Jesse Jackson is that he makes the case for his minority group weak by his actions. Actually it is my opinion that because he represents only one minority group(which without looking at the almanac I'd say isn't realy minority these days) is to exclusive and therefore discredits his position. If one were to represent minority groups, why wouldn't you do so all across the board?

But even more than this is the fact that he nor his group is honest. The reverend has been using tax exempt funds to pay for his personal life. Because he represents tax exempt organizations, his groups are required to make their tax returns public. In a list where the return asked which staffers were paid more than $50 000 per yr, the word none was type written in.

However, his mistress, Karin Stanford(and mother of his 20 month old daughter) recieved somwhere between $64 000 and $120 000. I hear a different figure reported nearly every time his people are asked. She was paid $35 000 to move away from washington right before it was made public that she was having Jesse's baby. Jackson is paid $120 000 a yr by his tax exempt organizations, and has an estimated $614 000 out of the 1.3 million listed for his staff in travel costs in 2000 alone. The democratic party re-imbursed him $450 000 for travel expenses, which is odd because he's on a tax exempt status and is therefore supposedly non-partisan. Right after this story went public, his financial officer was hired(Billy Owens) to do some kind of damage repair I'm guessing. And the IRS has yet to audit him!!!!!

But more than how ludcricrous I find his financial practices, his business practices are even more distasteful. In the 70's Quaker Oats was selling Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Jesse had a problem with the so called stereotype of black women. Jesse told the company that he would, "....hate to jeopardize your company. For example if there were a picket line thrown around the headquarters of the company, that might hurt. We don't want to do that."

Jesse has done business in like fashion with...
a)Texaco. They agreed to spend $1 billion over 5 yrs with minority business. Texaco acted after having seen tapes of executives making 'racial slurs'.
b)anheuser-busch. His sons Yusef and Jonathan, 28 and 32 yrs old in the 80's when this happened, were given 90% ownership of River North, a distributorship in Chicago w/annual revenue of $28 million.
c)AT&T. They agreed to broker about $1 billion in bonds using the minority -owned blaylock and partners group. Of course that firm is close to Jesse and contributes to his groups regularly.
d)Merril Lynch
e)Travelers Insurance
f)Goldman Sachs
g)Prudential
h)Burger King.
I)Governor George Ryan of Illinois. This one is pretty interesting....The mission of Jesse's group was to convince parents to fill out forms for the state to pay for health insurance. Ryan was opposed to this and he finally caved in. For a one year contract of $763 000 to help the state of Illinois enroll poor children in federally funded health programs. This all sounds well in good right? By the end of the year, Jesse's organization had signed up 151 families. So that's nearly $800 000 of tax payer money spent for 151 families. Just doesn't seem like they tried all that hard now does it?

Perhaps he isn't guilty, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But then, I don't see anyone really investigating him except Bill O'Reilly. Why? I think it is just like Bill has stated on his show....the media and anyone else who dares to ask questions is afraid of racist allegations. His strong arm mafioso tactics are distasteful and questionable.

Which is why I like Bill, and is also why Jesse won't appear on his show. Bill is a no-spin interviewer. Everyone I've seen whose come on the show in Jesse defense(oh yes, there are pro-Jesse people invited as well as anti-Jesse people) has left looking foolish. So many of them only seem to have the 'race' card to play...but haven't come right out and said it.

I dunno folks, you decide. I think the guy is as shady as they come, and he's making money(read a lot of money, the guy's a millionaire) off of the cause that is supposed to support minorities without any way to defend themselves....

After reading all that, it appears to me that Jesse is no better or worse than every other American corporate big shot. Make money, it's your patriotic duty and an excellent way (only way) to achieve the American Dream.

In an interesting development, I see the "Land of the Free" are building Concentration Camps at the military complex they occupy in the sovereign nation of Cuba (occupied against the wishes of the Cuban people). Shortly the behind-closed-doors military tribunals will be deciding which "prisoners of war" will be inprisoned/executed.

American hypocrisy, don't you just love it.

(Or any other politician/bigshot, or both, like Berlusconi in Italy)


Once again you beat me to it Loony...


Wellcome back Perium


TD.

US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was savaged by leading members of Congress today for describing the biggest corporate collapse in US history (Enron) as "part of the genius of capitalism".

Yeahh..that´s what you get for speaking your mind.

TD.

Hi, Lentilla - re smoking, I admit I am unbalanced on the subject, but all my life I have been an unwilling witness to alcohol misuse, (rife in NZ) and the hypocrisy of anti-smoking activists,many of whom are falling-down drunks, being self-righteous, really riles me.

I remember an interview with the actor playing the "Cigarette smoking man" on X-Files, and he said in a manner I interpreted as mealy-mouthed, that he was a very *good* man, and therefore smoked only herbal cigarettes for the part ("burning marshmallows!) - an act of courage similar to the of Levar Burton wearing eye-shells for ST:TNG... Nevertheless I laughed at said actor, because Nicotine Is Not Harmful! If cigarettes *are* responsible for the plethora of respiratory diseases they're said to cause, it ain't the nicotine that does it! So William whatever, wasn't helping himself at all!

Yes! Loony, Jim and I have been watching that with interest. They brought the prisoners in, in shackles, a 2 guard to l prisoner ratio, the prisoners masked and blinded... What the he** were they afraid of? They class them as 'battlefield detainees', which means they have no rights under the Geneva convention... We were wondering whether any would be "shot trying to escape" on the trip over, and whether John Walker Lindh especially, would meet with an "oops accident". Not so far, but it's early days yet.

I note Dubya has brought new meaning to the term "carpet bombing"

I wonder if the food aid packages that fearless American pilots dropped from a great height onto Afghanistan contained any packets of pretzels? Talk about dirty tactics if they did

Good thing ol' Georgie isn't clumsy - just a fool!

And what is it with his face? Three times now I've seen pictures of him with something wrong with his face - during the campaign he evidently had some sort of disgusting cyst, which he covered with a bandaid. I saw this bandaid appear again, a few months ago. Now he's got this nasty red scrape on his cheek - about where that cyst was a year ago.

The red scrape is a carpet burn. He received it in the pretzel incident.

I wonder if the invalid in waiting, Cheney, was getting ready to be sworn in as president. No doubt, on hearing the news about Dubya, he was rushed to a secret location

...again