Sonja Denise

I already have a good idea of who's taking money from who, but OpenSecrets.org has it all so nicely organized in black-and-white with lovely charts. There's no way you can look at the information presented and honestly believe Obama and the Democrats were ever actually interested in real health care reform. The truth hurts:

"The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry stands to lose if President Barack Obama’s plan to institute a public health insurance option succeeds. A government-run plan, because of its size, would have considerable negotiating power to draw down drug prices." Not to mention, HMOs hate the public option (and of course single-payer, but that was never on the table because Obama doesn't know how to negotiate didn't want it, either).

The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry gave money to Republicans more than Democrats in previous years (about 70-30 during the Bush administration), but that changed in 2008 when health care reform became a big talking point during the Presidential election. Suddenly, Democrats and Republicans were about neck-and-neck. So far for 2010, Democratic candidates are receiving more than Republicans (55-44).

So it's no surprise it was the Democrats who killed the drug reimportation amendement (which would bring down prices), and got rid of the public option in the Senate bill in order to make Lieberman happy. (Funny how Obama can get the liberal Democrats in line, but Republicans and Blue Dogs get whatever they want.)

Also, Obama was the top recipient of money from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in 2008 all the while talking about "hope and change." The second top recipient was Hillary Clinton, and third John McCain. Notice the more they talk about "reform," the more money they get to shoot reform in the foot?

HMOs show a similar pattern as the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, unsurprisingly. Prior to the 2008 election and health care reform talk, money flowed more to Republicans than Democrats (about 60-40). Now, this part is amazing: in 2006, 38% went to Democrats, 60% to Republicans. In 2008, the numbers flipped, and 60% went to Democrats, 40% to Republicans. 2010 thus far is continuing the trend, with 66% given to Democrats.

Any guesses who was the top recipient? Barack Obama, of course, followed by Hillary Clinton, and John McCain.

It's kind of hard to be a "fierce advocate" of anything when Obama's been bought out before he even set foot in the White House. Welcome to how our political system actually works. Obama's not playing twelve-dimensional chess, we are not taking "baby steps" in the right direction, and it doesn't matter who we vote for. Cheers.

And it's been a long time since I updated this thing, I know. Amazingly, not much has happened in the two months since my last real post.

I won NaNoWriMo for the first time ever on November 29 with 50,095 words. I fully intended to write the next 40,000 words of The Eyes during December, but, uh...that didn't happen, somehow. I will get back on that horse. I'm working on a fan fic at the moment, but once I finish I'll kick my ass and write 2,000 words a day and complete the novel. That'll be exciting!

My talk about Idle Spirits dropped off, but I'm still working on it. I'm actually trying to get a graphic novel's worth of pages done, print a book, and then start posting it online. I haven't had any of my comics in book form since 2005, so that's a goal for this year. It would make me feel GREAT and motivate me a lot. (As a random aside, I registered sonjadenise.com on an impulse a while ago. It points to Random Mind, which needs to be updated.)

I spent about a month geeking out over the Android OS and then finally upgraded my cell phone to the HTC Droid Eris (aka HTC Hero, just not butt-ugly), and I've somehow become one of those people who lives on their phone. There are a lot of apps that are useful for language study, and I kept telling myself I'd do a post about that. I will. Eventually.

I also know I haven't been on Google Wave a ton to help everyone learn how to use it, but the peak of the holiday season is over along with my crazy work hours, so I'll go back to logging in every day.

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So SEPTA went on strike, starting Tuesday at three in the morning, after everyone thought it was safe to make plans and buy this month's pass. I couldn't go to school, but suburban trolleys and buses (and the regional rail) were still running, so I could get to work. Wednesday, a regional rail train caught on fire, and picketers blocked the suburban trolleys and buses. And today, a SEPTA worker was hit and killed by a regional rail train. In other words: mass chaos.

Meanwhile, one of my professors hasn't e-mailed me back about what to do for the duration of the strike. I'm hoping it'll be over soon, since I'm supposed to go to a group orientation on the 17th so I can officially change my major. On the 20th, I'm supposed to go to an Ani DiFranco concert, but if the strike is still going, the money I spent on the ticket will go to waste.

Then today, I get a call from Borders and find out that the store is shutting down come the New Year, so I need to start looking for a new job. Already.

I've been on track with my savings for the trip to Japan (even despite the overdraft charge that was due to, ironically, an order of Japanese manga from BK1 not being charged until a month later). But I was planning to buy the plane ticket in January. And right now I don't know if I'll find another job to, you know, cover the costs of actually staying in Japan once I'm there.

I don't even want to get started on Prop 1 in Maine or ACTA.

And I don't even feel sad. I'm too bored from being stuck home writing papers, reading textbooks, following the news, and working on my NaNoWriMo novel. (I love my novel and it's going really well, but after two hours of writing, it starts to get mind-numbing.)

At least my nephew is coming over this weekend.

Rambling below the cut:

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Remember how in May, Bill O'Reilley's inflammatory and hateful speech finally culminated in Dr. George Tiller ("Tiller the Baby Killer," according to O'Reilley) being gunned down in a church? Yeah?

Well, Glenn Beck's crazy is obviously what led someone to hang a census worker and write "fed" on his chest. I'm sure the media will try to pretend Beck's egging on of the fringe unhinged of society had nothing to do with this.

[FYI: I know a lot of crazy is coming from the Deathers, but at one point it was going around that census workers were going to count up conservatives and round them up into death camps. Yes, seriously. See the connection?]

I haven't posted lately thanks to the snowball effect of getting sick. I don't even know what it was, except it kicked my ass for three days--when I wasn't sleeping, I was dizzy and had headaches, so I got absolutely nothing done in that time, plus missed two days of work. (No, my money!) I spend about an hour or two just reading news, then there's following three separate friends' pages, and my hobbies on top of that...I spent a week playing catch-up and got a little burned out, then school started.

So what better way to get back in the swing of things than have another long, rambling life update post?

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Not only does a closer supermarket have nori, but while looking for risotto, I found a jar of rice labeled in big letters "SUSHI RICE." I don't think I can love my hometown any harder.

I made about two cups' worth of rice this morning, and it quickly became obvious that, although the risotto had worked for me, it's still very different. The sushi rice was already trying to stick together while I was washing it. And it's just so...sticky.

I had no problems making onigiri. They're plain rice again, but at least I remembered the nori.


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The point of feminism is not to alienate men, but for women to focus on our own concerns and needs, to establish our own values. These may or may not coincide with the already established values of our dominant culture, just as our concerns and needs may or may not fold neatly into a relationship. The point is to work on making decisions based on choices that are really choices instead of following a script--in other words, it means learning to laugh at what we find funny instead of just following along with the laugh track and to make trouble when trouble is necessary.
-- Gina Barreca, "Why Anti-Feminism is Illogical, Unnecessary, Evil, and Incredibly Unsexy"

I swear, I'll make a non-food-related post again...eventually. At some point. Ahem. But I had two lunches that were ridiculously good this week.

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I get it. I get what the fat acceptance movement is about. I get why the so-called "obesity epidemic" is trumped up B.S. I finally get it.

If, in 1998, you change the definition of what fat is, of course there's suddenly going to be an increase of overweight Americans. And conveniently leaving this fact out of every oh-so-deeply concerned article, of course it's easy to create hysteria over a fake epidemic. It seems Americans may have actually become less fat, if you compare apples to apples. You know, using Earth logic.

And of course there winds up being a dieting frenzy - low fat, no fat, low calories, low carb, no carb, starvation diets. Even though it's been proven time and again dieting doesn't work. All it succeeds in doing is screwing up people's self-esteem and metabolism. I've never read an obesity epidemic article that talks about the link between being overweight and dieting. Never. Hell, I read a depressing article a few weeks ago about how 80% of girls are concerned about being overweight. A commenter trying to create fat panic quoted some statistic about 80% of kids being overweight by a certain date. And I was amazed no one thought maybe there was a connection there.

And most of all, the panic of the "obesity epidemic" has absolutely nothing to do with health. It's all thinly-veiled prejudice. I know it, and not just because skinny people who eat crap and don't exercise are never talked about, or that ways of encouraging healthy lifestyles for all Americans is never seriously discussed...I know it, because I had the same prejudice. And if I'm honest, I still have it (it's not as bad, but I have moments). But I recognize it, and know better now.

I finally get it.