More Health Care Stuff

I keep meaning to do a bit of research and compile it into a serious post on this subject, but I never have time. So I'll keep passing on/saving links that I find interesting in the meantime.

Here is yet another article about the fact that people with health insurance are not protected from financial ruin due to health problems, and the kinds of shenanigans health insurance companies pull on people to increase their bottom line. We are in serious need of health care reform, America.

http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/3458615.html (link to original story is in the post)

From the bottom of that post, here is a link to the Frontline documentary about health care systems in other countries:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

I strongly encourage you to watch that documentary and ask yourself why we in the US are the only industrialized nation without some form of healthcare system like this.

The train, the train

I swear, the idea of a clean, green, 186-mph-speeding, wireless-internet-having bullet train that gets from SF to LA in twice the time of a plane ride (so, like, 2.5 hours?) makes my pulse quicken. I would absolutely LOVE to not have to fly to get there quickly. We need something like that out here so badly. I'm jealous of the east-coast trains, and they're not much to be jealous of.

I know everyone talks about the train system(s) in Europe but let me tell you, we rode the trains everywhere in Italy, the Netherlands, and from London to Paris and the trains really are All That.