deber

You’ve said a lot, but I can’t agree on a lot of it.  I don’t see how the republicans did any better.  The prosperity of the time was a false prosperity and no one was watching the fox in the hen house.  I think that more and more the political parties are more interested in securing power with legislation than really cleaning up government or spending.  

I think that Barack Obama has been good for the country because he has not let healthcare debate drop, many presidents would have.  The bill, in it’s current state, will be a bureaucratic nightmare and bankrupt the country, but at least the president has kept pushing at the issue because something definitely needs to be done to lower costs and provide the uninsurable with some kind of relief.  I hope they toss this bill and maybe start over, but I don’t know if I am that lucky.  

I have read the republican’s version of a healthcare bill and there are many things on it that I have been blogging about forever- here and elsewhere which is good to see, but I believe it continues to lack some fundamental things.  They have not addressed the uninsurable that make too much so cannot receive medicaid.  They have not faced those who will fall through the cracks.  They are citizens and have been paying taxes for a long time, why shouldn’t they get help?

Are the dems too inclusive to the point of bankrupting the nation, and the repubs too exclusive to the point of forgetting about some that suffer and cannot get help elsewhere?  We are a rich and generous country.  There must be a way to solve this.  But, as I said, I don’t think either party has the ability to change - they keep trying to apply the same old ideas and think that some of those things - that didn’t solve it before - will solve it now.

Helen

As to the Insurance companies gaining more power, I think they hold the cards right now.  They helped write a lot of this bill. I think that at this point it is a mess. I heard today that Reid now says they won’t get on it until January.  I want something done to bring prices down and supply health care for those that can’t afford it.  

Just think what would happen if everyone on the country gave up their health insurance in protest of the current debacle in the system and high prices.  (I know, crazy huh?)  It would bring the insurers to their knees.  They would be so out of business they would have to change.  

Eye laser surgery is not covered by insurance, and neither is plastic surgery and things like botox, and those prices have come down through the years as more doctors provide the services because they compete with lower prices.  

I think the first mistake that America bought into was health insurance.  They turned that industry into a God in our lives. Especially since it was provided through an employer that paid part of our premiums so we got disconnected from actual costs and therefore didn’t take the time to find good doctors at a better price - it let the market do whatever it wanted.  Remember when there was the small town doctor or country doctor, as well as doctors that made house calls?  People paid them at a much smaller rate.  

There are some industries that have opened up clinics for their employees and it has cut the medical costs of everyone involved.  

It seems to me that the republicans and democrats have the same problem.  They devise legislation more to secure power than to really solve problems.  And neither party knows how to change.  Not really.  They just keep doing things in the same old way with the same old methods.  Isn’t that the definition of insanity. 

Deniseann

Thanks for the loving advice.  That is pretty much how we handle it.  He has been in the army for almost 8 years and and had 3 overseas deployments as well as Katrina.  He had some hard spells, but we work through it.  We are just so grateful that he got out of Stop Loss - I really don’t think he could have taken another deployment without it creating a great disappointment about life for him.  I just take it one step at a time.

Yes, I love a woman in a well tailored dress or jacket and skirt, but some wear it better than others.  I think it must have something to do with the way she sees herself in dresses.  I get the feeling she thinks she looks better in pants.  I don’t know. 

Chromie

She is 70 and he is 54!  I love it.  What a way to go.  She sounds like she has a great attitude.  My friend I spoke of above lives alone, and she gets tired of it sometimes, but doesn’t want someone there all the time.  I understand it well. 

Hi Phyllis

Just think if she hadn’t worn the headscarf - all the media agencies would have run with it and it would have distracted from her efforts at diplomacy.  Cultural sensitivity is a sure bet. 

I agree, show of respect.  What is wrong with respect.  If you want to be respected than behave respectfully.

I don’t know about Jews kneeling in Catholic Churches, but I agree with the rest. 

Robert,

not everyone wears a burka in Afghanistan.   

Mr Wow, 

I agree 

Hi Diana

I agree, as I have posted above.  All the first ladies, wives of diplomats, Sec Albright, Sec Rice and those you mentioned all wore head scarves, why are we picking on Sec Clinton?   

"Far more important to study the Statecraft behind the action…"

Feminism is being who you are and understanding where you are in this world, what does it have to do with a headscarf?  

Rachel,

Good point, but this is America, and a visitor here has freedom to wear a scarf or not wear one.  Here they have choices.  Although in life,  some choices come with consequences, I don’t know what the consequence would have been if Sec Clinton  didn’t wear a scarf.  I know our own media, as well as international media would have had a field day with it and it would have become a distraction to the diplomacy.  I think SeC Clinton chose the wiser form of valor.

Madeleine Albright always wore a scarf over there.  Why is it an issue with Sec Clinton now? 

Deniseann

Sec Clinton has kind of thick ankles and looks better in pants in my opinion.  She wore a lot of skirts when campaigning for her husband, and when they were in the WH, but it has been a long time since we have seen that.   I guess, to each their own.  She has worn a couple of pantsuits that look great on her.  Sometimes it is the color on her that makes all the difference. 

Deniseann

Hey, my son is officially out of the army this Friday —- wooo HOooo!

Anyway, Jackie O did have glamour, but there were many before her that also had it, but hers was "younger" and more trend setting - more European in some ways.  She was great.  After her there were many that just didn’t have the figure for it and sometimes their taste seemed ordinary like Roslind Carter, Barbara Bush etc.  There was only one Jackie O - Nancy Reagan could afford great designers, but didn’t have as much panache, she was older too.  I enjoy Michelle Obama’s choices and I think she is setting a new trend in the WH. 

R J  

I agree.  What does a head scarf have to do with anything.  If she can get the respect she deserves from the heads of Pakistan and the other middle eastern country, and generate change for women and girls, then who cares about the head scarf.  They would discount her if she didn’t wear it, as if she were slapping them in the face.

Long before political correctness my  mother taught me about Cultural Sensitivity - a much more common sense approach to understanding people and culture of the world.  Everything doesn’t have to be a statement about something in order to make a difference.  Absorb and understand the environment you are in and give your hosts the respect they deserve would seem to make a better statement.  

The media would have spent so much time on her "not" wearing a head scarf that  the fact that she was willing to tell the Pakistanis, who were criticizing American aid to their country, "Well, then don’t take the aid.  You know you don’t need to take it if you don’t want it."   She put it back on them to confront their government on how they were distributing the funds.  She said you be more active about what your government is doing - and besides that …."Someone around here knows where Osama Bin Laden is, why are you protecting him?"  I think that took guts. 

THe media criticized it and called it the "charm offensive", but I say good for her, go charm some more.   A little ass kicking never hurt anyone.   I wonder if she had the same luck with the Egyptians. 

What difference does a head scarf make?  Remember all the flak Michelle Obama got for touching the Queen of England.  All she was doing was trying to extend a generous warmth.  I say let these women do what they know how to do.  They are very successful and didn’t get there by not taking risks.