Yes, healthcare in the US is expensive.  Yes, it’s horrible how many people aren’t covered by health insurance.  But, at least we got rid of "Dr. E. Coli."

You know it’s bad when the nurses are hiding the patients from the surgeon.

Source: CBC via Fark.com

UNC-Charlotte just announced that all undergrad students will be required to provide proof of having health insurance before being admitted.  If they don’t have it then they will be required to pay $595 for the year to use the university’s preferred provider health plan.

Some of the highlights of the article which just amazed me:

• $595 for the year?  That’s less than $50 per month.  I think maybe I should go back to school.
• 4,000 of the 20,000 UNCC students are expected to take the university’s plan.  Tha means that a full 20% of the students may come from a family without coverage.  That’s frightening.  On the other hand that number might reflect the fact that some parents view it as a way to reduce their insurance load, especially if their kid is getting financial aid and the policy can be rolled into the aid package (which they ARE allowed to do).  Still that’s a lot of people without a safety net.
• If the students use Student Health Services there’s no cost, but if they have to see a real doctor they have a 20% co-pay (they don’t have to pay a deductible).  I don’t know about you, but when I was a student I didn’t have a lot of money for anything beyond the essentials…food and beer.  I’d have to be on my deathbed before I’d see a doctor if I knew I was going to have to pony up $40 or $50.

I’d say that health care is pretty much the biggest non-war issue in the US right now.  It’s affecting everything, and not in a good way.

Here in North Carolina we’re on some kind of roll.  First we had the young minister of a small church in a small mountain town who said that anyone who voted for Democrat John Kerry in last fall’s election is basically voting against God.  Now we have this guy (source News & Observer):

A Baptist minister refuses to apologize for a church sign saying the Muslim holy book should be flushed.

"I believe that it is a statement supporting the word of God and that
it (the Bible) is above all and that any other religious book that does
not teach Christ as savior and lord as the 66 books of the Bible
teaches it, is wrong," said the Rev. Creighton Lovelace of Danieltown
Baptist Church. "I knew that whenever we decided to put that sign up
that there would be people who wouldn’t agree with it, and there would
be some that would, and so we just have to stand up for what’s right."

and he continued…

"If we stand for what is right and for God’s word and for Christianity
then the world is going to condemn us and so right away when I got a
complaint I said, ‘Well somebody’s mad, somebody’s offended, so we must
be doing something right,’" Lovelace said.

Well that certainly redefines Christianity for me.  But I digress.  What I love about the online world is that you can immediately find divergent viewpoints about the same issue.  Here are two takes on this story:

Ed Cone, blogger extraordinaire from Greensboro, NC:

From Rutherford County comes this touching story
of ecumenical outreach and understanding: "A sign in front of
Danieltown Baptist Church…reads ‘The Koran needs to be flushed,’ and
the Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, is not apologizing
for the display."

Most of the North Carolinians interviewed for the article disagreed with Lovelace. Please, world, note that fact.

Then there’s this headline from Fark.com which is filed under the category "Stupid".  Fark is unabashedly sophomoric and always with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but it is also consistently conservative in terms of politics:

NC pastor defends sign at church that reads: "The Koran Needs to be
Flushed." Muslims in an uproar — some even delay scheduled beheadings
to voice complaints

It’s never dull.

The marine who shot the unarmed, wounded Iraqi last November was not courtmartialed.  The NPR page that carries the story also has a link to an unedited version of the tape showing the shooting…and be forewarned that it’s graphic.

It seems that 88 members of congress want to know if the story in the London Times detailing the leak of a document from Tony Blairs inner circle that indicates that Britain had already signed on for the war in the summer of ’02.  The members have signed a letter penned by John Conyers (found it on RawStory.com) asking the president to ‘splain himself.

They want to know:

• Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain’s commitment to invade prior to this time?
• Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with
  the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
• At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to
  invade Iraq?
• Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British
  officials to “fix” the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document
  states?
• Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
• Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought
  Congressional authorization go to war?

This ought to be good.