And today in Healthcare news…

The Supreme Court today upheld the central mandate of the Affordable Healthcare Act, aka Obamacare, making it mandatory that a person has health insurance. For millions of people with preexisting conditions who currently cannot get covered by an insurance company to literally save their life, this is a godsend. It also will make prescriptions less expensive for seniors, and their are tax benefits for small business should they chose to provide coverage for their employees. It’s a move towards a socialized healthcare system that works for many countries around the world, and will lower costs.

Not everyone, naturally, is thrilled with this.

The Republican and Tea Party people are absolutely appalled. Well, at first they weren’t. All the GOP tweets about letting freedom ring and the law has been struck down… oh wait, what’s that you say? To quote Rick Perry, ‘Oops.’ Delete. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has already vowed to repeal it the first day he gets into office, which would happen if we live in the Twilight Zone. Admit it, you just shuddered at the thought. Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry both tried to say something intelligent but, oh yeah, no one cares about them anymore. John Boehner looked like he wanted to cry in even picture taken of him today. Oh, and Rush Limbaugh vows to leave the country; on a related note, hundreds of people began taking up a collection for his going away party and travel expenses, with volunteers to pack his suitcases fighting for the coveted roll.

Then there are the common Facebookers, my apologies, newly minted Constitutional scholars, who also vow angrily to leave and move to Canada, now disgusted at how socialized the US has become. Because, as everyone knows, Canada doesn’t have anything remotely like a universal healthcare system, right? My first thought is, who says Canada even wants you anyway?

I guess you can’t please everyone. So okay, good luck. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. And don’t you come back now, ya hear?

The Oreo that broke the camel's back

It’s been sometime since I’ve posted on here, and leave it to some dumb ass comments about Oreos to get me rolling again.

In case you don’t live on Facebook like some people do,  the Oreos page posted the above picture and message this week in time for many Gay Pride celbrations going on all over the country. It’s a simple, nice sentiment: celebrate love.

The posts that came shortly afterwards, however, are proof that ignorance prevails:

These are only a few gems. You can see a whole lot more at this link here, or on the Oreo FB page. It appalls me that people are so mind numbingly stupid about things. It makes me glad that the law in Chicago regarding handguns is so strict, because you would not want me to have one or I might go on a little spring cleaning. Just saying.

But I’m gutted over this for a few reasons. First of all, you boycott a company for supporting unity and love in the world? WTF? So obviously you not only hate cookies, but now you declare your bias towards people who are different from you. That’s so genius! Then comes the comments. ‘Gays need to leave America, or my favorite, ‘it should be a crime’ to be gay. Well, I guess that’s better than putting us all behind an electric fence and burning us alive. Because, after all, this is the 1500’s and it’s the Inquisition. Wait, someone did suggest that we should all be sequestered to an island somewhere and ‘share aids together!’ , so I guess that is similar. Why not go further…make like the Salem witch trials and see which of us drown and which of us sink? Or bringing back the guillotine as corporeal punishment for the drag queens? ‘Let them eat Oreos’, I can hear them cry, as they drag us off to the dungeons before we are drawn and quartered.

I mean, what century is this?

But the best part are the religious comments: It’s a sin. God says homosexuals are evil. Die faggots, burn in hell. The Bible says you should be stoned, go to hell, burn, blah blah blah. Gee if I wanted to hear that talk I could call my Uncle Mike or my brother Matt, I’m sure they would be more than willing to share their feelings on the subject. Which, of course, is completely wrong. The Bible is how old? And statement in that book taken verbatim today, well then let’s line up Bristol Palin, John Edwards and a chorus of other people who are not gay but have sinned because, you know, we would stone them too. Or cut their tongue out. Because that’s completely rational. Not only that, but no where in the 10 commandments or the beatitudes does it say ‘thous shall condemn and kill homosexuals.’ I looked, not there.  And unless you just got off the phone with God or received a tweet from him, just shut the fuck up. No one can truly say ‘I know God says, believes or means’ whatever. Because you don’t. And if you have had a conversation with him, I think it would be more along the lines of, why can’t you people all just get along? And just shut up or I will have to send the plague to wipe your stupid asses out.

It’s been a tenuous year around the rights of gay marriage and gay rights, and I am seeing more and more the derisiveness and hatred that people are spilling into the everyday. It’s no longer live and let live, it’s die. And I’m particularly disappointed in the southern black religious group who recently declared that our fight is not one of civil rights, because instead of being supportive and unified, they segregated us… ironically, much like they had been more than 40 years ago. But then, this…to see people get inflamed, spew hatred and ignorance, because one of the most beloved cookies ever takes a picture of it’s likeness, and put a rainbow of layers in between the caps, just to show their support of the community. For me, it’s become a tipping point, to say the least.

Maybe the gay community needs to strike back. I watched a show just this past Sunday morning about the Stonewall riots in 1969, when homosexuality was illegal. We were being killed in the streets, had to live behind closed doors. And we finally rose up and got angry and struck back. Well, 43 years later, I’m wondering if it isn’t time for the community to run riot again. We’ve gone from having a difference of opinions to outright hatred and vitriol. I’m tired of it. So maybe we need to start taking a more aggressive stance against the attacks. I know I will be. Because I’m done. I don’t want to live in this kind of world anymore. I’m going to fight to see some change.

And I’ll be armed with Oreos.