Tis the Season

fa la la la la...

Um, is it just me, or is ABC family starting it's Christmas movies early this year? I used to love the 25 days 'till Christmas movies. I'm a sucker for that story where Santa's son has to take over, but first has to find a wife. I like that new one... Snowglobe... but there are some I really loathe: Christmas in Handcuffs and Twice Upon a Christmas are among the worst. But the very worst, the one I hate more than any other, is A Christmas Story.

But it's all part of the holiday season, and I can skip a few bad movies for all the gooey Christmas goodness.

Except... enough is enough.

25 days of Christmas movies is a good thing. 35 days is overkill. This isn't the first year of ABC's countdown to the countdown to Christmas. It's just the year when it finally got to me. Three days of Elf is also a bit much.

I'd like to see more time spent on some of the other Christmas movies and specials. Certainly there's no shortage of them that you have to show the same movie three days in a row? Yeah, I can do totally without Rudolph's Shiny New Year, but what about Nester the Donkey? I saw that last year for the first time in ages.

... and of course the one special I'd like to see back is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus... which has FINALLY come out on DVD in a set with Nester the Christmas Donkey (ironically enough, perhaps they had to balance all that pagan with some baby Jesus)

Anyway, that just made it to my wish-list...

I love Christmas time. I enjoy the sentimental movies. But not before Thanksgiving, thank you.

Should Atheists Sing Christmas Hymns?

I've told my kids: If I can sing about Santa Claus and it's ok, I can sing about Jesus.

Greg Laden goes into more detail about his Holiday practices in his blog, and has posted this video of an interview with Richard Dawkins this morning, which I don't agree with in whole, but is certainly another take on the whole thing:



I'm more often accused of being "soft on religion" by fellow atheists during the holidays... but I don't think it's necessarily our place to be "hard on religion"... just hard on stupidity and folly. At this time of year, when the religious are talking more about giving, sharing, and love, it's a lot easier to be tolerant. Of course, there are always those in the religious right who make it impossible to be totally accepting, especially when they're spouting the same kind of hate, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness that they spout the rest of the year around.

It makes you want to ask them: What would Jesus do?

Equal Opportunity.

Today I saw some billboards that warmed my heart for the upcoming holiday season. One said "Reason's Greetings" the other "Beware of Dogma". Both billboards were from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

It was a nice change.

When Church= Public School

I saw it first a couple weeks ago: a huge sign for a Baptist Church at the middle school my children used to attend. I wish I could say I was surprised, but recalled also that this was the very same school which had instituted to Bible study classes at lunch time, and refused to allow my daughter to organize a free thinker's group. But it left a lot of questions, primarily where does this stand as far as the separation of church and state. After all, not only is this a PUBLIC school building, but a building that's paid for with taxpayer money.

But this wasn't a one time thing, nor is it unique. Today I was driving up the Tramway, and noticed signs for The X-Factor Christian Fellowship which is now meeting at Chelwood Elementary. A quick trip to their website verifies this certainly isn't a one time thing. It's a reoccurring event that takes place in the Chelwood Elementary Worship Center (a public school has a "worship center"?)



Chelwood Elementary recently underwent a major remodel... I wonder if that's when they got a "worship center"... because they certainly didn't have one a couple years ago when my daughter went there.

I have to think that this is a bad thing for the students. Schools have tried to fill more and more of kids' lives with after school programs and social outreach... but most programs are approved by the school or government. Is placing churches in the schools going to be equated by state approval or endorsement of these church groups and their religions?

Is this even legal?

But you have insurance (round two)

I get this all the time. From medicaid. From hospitals. From doctor's offices. I have insurance. I have medicare, to be exact. that still leaves me with quite a few copays, as it did last month. Doctor's office copays are $20 for my primary, $35 for a specialist. Count two primary visits and three specialists last month. Emergency room visits are $50 each. Count two. Day surgery is $250 each. Count one. Hospitalization copay is $550. Count one.

Now I've called the hospital to apply for additional help, but as of a few months ago, they no longer have organizations who are covering the insured... just the uninsured. So with my medical bills last month exceeding my income, what to do?

Now there are a whole lot of us out there who are uninsured or underinsured, and just a small portion of that are covered by any grants or charities. Most of us are slogging along, trying to decide which doctor and which surgery is more important, because there's no way to pay for them. We're bullied and put down at the front desk, where we're told that we can't see the doctor unless we can come up with the cash... never mind how sick you are... too bad you have that stent still in... can't help you with the fever if you don't pay NOW.

Don't wonder why people don't do their own preventive maintenance, skip important tests, and don't get regular check ups. It's not that they don't care about their health, just that they can't make the required payments to be healthy. Every time a doctor writes out a referral to a specialist, every prescription, every test, has to be weighed and prioritized, not strictly according to need or outcome, but according to affordability. It's no wonder people end up in the ER rather than their doctor's office!

I have three more procedures to schedule. One I've already postponed indefinitely. It's only a diagnostic. One I pretty much have to have if I'm planning a long life, and the third is also pretty darn important if I don't want to deal with pain and infection for all that time the other operation is going to give me... but that one I'm up in the air over, because doing another thousand in medical bills this month just isn't on my "to do" list.

Which makes me wonder WHY people are so darn against healthcare insurance reform. Seems to me it can't get too much worse than it is right now.

What a nice thing to wake up to this morning:

Now we have to get the healthcare bill through the senate.

Pale Blue Dot