Under the current health care system, one in three people are being forced to skip preventative care or cut back on medications, leading to more severe medical problems that cost more to deal with in the long term. Those higher costs translate to more profits, and I tend to think that's the secret goal of the more unscrupulous companies: Profit, not health. It's estimated that 18,000 people die each year due to inadequate health care, and many more suffer. For this broken system we pay over twice as much per person as most other industrialized countries and we rank last in preventing deaths.

In 1945 Harry Truman declared he would instate a national health care system. The right wing condemned it as "socialized medicine", and it failed. Hillary Clinton was tasked to provide health care reform and failed. With a new fillibuster-proof Democratic senate majority, we have the best chance in decades to win actual reform. Please, lets do all we can to not waste this chance and wait another 60 years.

Get updates and voice your support at healthreform.gov, listen to Dr. Howard Dean's briefing on how to win healthcare reform, write your representative, or give them a call.

Climate change increases the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events. As mountain glaciers disappear, we get bigger floods and summer water supplies all over the world will disappear within my lifetime, creating millions of environmental refugees. New Secretary of Energy Steven Chu warns that we're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California. It makes me wonder if I can continue to live in the state I grew up in.

Under tremendous pressure to downplay the possible risks, in 2007 IPCC made "worst case" predictions that are now looking best case. I've been watching this problem and worrying about it for at least ten years, but we can't keep waiting. We need radical change and we need it now. I am at least heartened that the warnings are becoming more numerous, in more news, more "pop culture" shows, more product advertisements (even if most are "Green Washed"). As we all face tough times and the consumer culture crumbles, I wonder if more people are willing to listen... to see that things aren't right. Change is coming whether we like it or not. I just hope we can make it change for the better.

Oh, and Happy Earth Day. Let's do more than attend a wasteful eco-fair, shall we?
Urge representatives to limit black carbon
Help MoveOn air a clean energy ad

Obama says he'll stop the subsidies to huge agrobusiness that doesn't need it and end no-bid contracts in Iraq. He wants affordable health care THIS YEAR. That's awesome, but those billion dollar companies aren't going to roll over without a fight, and they're already swarming congress with lobbyists. In fact, The Wall Street Journal reports: "The day after Mr. Obama formally laid out his policy goals in his first address to Congress, the former chief executive of HCA Inc. [the largest for-profit hospital corporation in the country] unveiled a $20 million campaign to pressure Democrats to enact health-care legislation based on free-market principles." Our representatives need to hear from us, the people (or dragons, but they don't need to know that), and MoveOn has a handy form to let you do that, so spread the word.

People think the future will equal the past. Especially as you get older, when certain things have been a particular way your whole life, change seems inconceivable. It doesn't matter what evidence I quote, or how rational I am, or if my father trusts me.

Scientists have been under strong pressure to be conservative - to not cry wolf. Yet the reality is that things are degrading faster than their conservative models predicted and we're probably already past the "tipping point" of catastrophic climate change.

Even if you don't care about all the species we're losing, you surely must care about famine, global war, and the collapse of world society. This is serious, dragons. Our lives have already changed, and they're going to change a whole lot more if we don't work hard and work together for a solution.

First, get educated. I recommend starting with climateprogress.org, or if you want a more depressing dose of reality, try Radio Ecoshock. Second, put all the pressure you can on your elected officials. MoveOn.org can help you do that, and 96% of their members just voted for them to "launch a massive campaign to transform America by creating a clean-energy economy with millions of new, green jobs." We absolutely need a true transformation of our economy, and I'm not talking about more greenwashed corn-based E85 that takes more energy to produce than it provides. Third, tell a friend and talk about this stuff everywhere. And fourth, limit your own carbon footprint.

I've just started listening to a podcast called "Blast the Right". I'm not a big fan of such an inflamatory name, but the host is very rational and detailed about his information and I'm finding it fascinating and often angering. In episode 138 I was outraged by an audio clip where Barbara Bush says of Katrina victims crammed into stadiums after their homes were flooded: "so many in the arena here were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them". And some of the clips from Neal Bortz and others were just horrifying. No wonder he wants to blast the right... I'm amazed he does it so calmly.

Only by investigating these alternate news sources and acting on them can we really be more Democratic, see the bigger picture, and work to solve problems that are downplayed or ignored by the mainstream.

Obama points out that these changes will not be easy and he will need support from both parties. I hope he can get it, but personally, I'd much rather see the quagmire completely broken. For the last two years, Republicans in the Senate have blocked progress on all the big issues with a record-breaking 90 filibusters this year. This could all change if 60 senate seats swing Democrat, and that's still possible.

As the remaining votes were counted in Alaska, convicted felon Ted Stevens finally lost his narrow lead (how on earth does a convicted felon get so much support in the first place?), which brings the U.S. senate to 58 democrats with two races undecided.

In Minnesota, Al Franken (from Saturday Night Live!) seems to be edging closer to beating Norm Coleman as ballots that were rejected for mysterious reasons may now be counted.

In Georgia, they have a great law where if no person wins over 50% of the vote, the two with the highest percentages go up for a runoff election. This race could certainly use volunteer support.

Obama has raised more than double what was raised by both candidates in 2004 and it seems to come mostly from individuals instead of corporations.

We are close to electing a democratic president with 60 or more democratic members of the senate, enough to defeat republican filibusters. This is the first time this has happened in 30 years and, if promises are kept, means great changes are possible.

And great changes are necessary. We're slipping towards the second great depression thanks to the biggest world housing bubble in history spurred by a complete lack of government oversight.

Not too long ago, the California supreme court made same-sex marriage legal. Now Proposition 8 seeks to amend the state constitution to overturn the court ruling. Polls are giving the prop a 50/50 chance of passing with people passionate on both sides. Those who support the ban are so "passionate" they're blackmailing businesses who've donated to defeat the proposition.

Personally, I'd love to defeat prop 8 and see another marginal group finally rise above discrimination. I'd also love to see that fillibuster proof senate majority.

P.S. If you'd like to vote environmental this year, check out the League of Conservation Voters for their ballot measure and candidate picks.

So, to all you shy people out there who've been waiting to contact someone or other... STOP WAITING!

If you were waiting to contact me, your chance has passed, for I've found my Mate. After ten years of pursuing dead ends and a year of courtship including three and a half months of visits, Murrahnithahn-i-ia and I are engaged to be married. The date is not yet set (we're waiting for an immigration visa), but it will be in southern California and if anyone wants an invitation, you've got about five months to bug us. =)

I've never felt like this before. Often, I felt a deep fear that there were too many problems for a particular relationship to work out, and indeed it did not. Other times I felt comfortable, somewhat content, hoping something might someday change to make me happy but doubting it would. Long ago, I tried lavishing attention on a girl only to lose her to another who hardly tried. Then the opposite: someone lavished attention on me and I stayed too long with her, for her affection unnaturally strengthened mine. Nay, when two souls are right for one another there should be no skewed expressions of affection, little fear, great joy, physical attraction, and a sense of wonder, each equally grateful for the other. My Murra, I love you.

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