I think the president deserves a lot of credit for persevering on this issue, but we shouldn’t forget about health-care now.  Costs will still be very very high for a lot of people, especially for those who really need insurance.  While people with pre-existing conditions won’t be able to be declined for new insurance the cost of new coverage will most likely still be quite high.  This has to change.  Rate changes will still come around way too often.  This has to change.  The influence of insurance companies over our elected officials will still be huge.  This too has got to change.

The new health-care bill is a great first step, but it’s only that a first step.  We have to remind our elected officials that more change is necessary.  If we persist we just might be able to reclaim the power that we as a people have surrendered to those we elected to serve us.  

 So now  the Republican Party is pissed off, not because they care so much about the people.  They are pissed off because Obama slipped in and did something for the American people while they were busy taking care of the super rich and super powerful.  Now they are acting like bratty children who didn’t get their way.  Some want to repeal the bill, others want to sue the federal government.  If the Republicans cared anything about health-care reform they would have done it when they were in power.  All this righteous indignation is a pitiful joke.  They should try to retain a couple of crumbs of their self respect and go sit down somewhere and zip it!

Obama’s health-care…it ain’t perfect, but it’s better than what we got.

Your comments are welcomed.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

I was very upset by this story because I too have health insurance that for the most part ain’t worth a damn.  First of all I’m self employed so I had to buy my insurance personally.  When I bought it I was healthy and had never been admitted into the hospital.  A little bit later I found out I had high blood pressure.  My health insurance company promptly raised my premium, which they have continued to do over the years.  About two years ago I found out I have diabetes, and again without skipping a beat my insurance company raised my premium again.  As I started becoming a little more educated about health insurance I realized I had no coverage for any kind out outpatient tests like X-rays, CAT scans, or blood work.  So, I called to see if I could purchase this additional coverage.  My insurance company did what insurance companies do and said NO!!!  I did this so easily becaue they know I can’t go anywhere else, with my pre-conditions.

If I get sick I wouldn’t be able to get any tests, at least none that I can afford.  If I get admitted into the hospital, I too like my friends have a large deductible.  Basically I cannot afford to get sick.  So now I watch the madness on TV regarding healthcare reform and it’s disgusting.  The Democrats don’t have any guts and the Republicans don’t have any hearts.  The truth of the matter is that most of our elected officials don’t give a damn about you or me.  They care about their own power and influence.  It got that way because we let it get that way.

There may be a solution, but it won’t be easy or fast.  We have to take the power back.  We have to remind them that they all work for us.  We must demand that laws be passed that limit the amount of money insurance companies can charge to keep us alive!!!!! It’s hard for me to imagine more selfish, greedy, and immoral people than the creatures that run health insurance companies.  The only way we can have insurance we need for life itself, is to force our elected officials to look out for our interests.  Even those who have insurance with their employers are at risk because insurance companies are raising the premiums every few months.  Soon even employers who want to provide coverage won’t be able to afford it.

So make your voice heard, and if your elected officials don’t give you what you want…VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!  If the next ones don’t do the right thing,  get rid of them too.  Eventually we can take this country back, and have a true democracy.  Who cares about healthcare…I do…what about you?

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

The notion that after auditioning hundreds of thousands of singers that these 24  are the best of the lot is insulting.  Simon is right when he says he can go into any bar or hotel lounge and hear similar performances.  The problem is that he and his colleagues chose these people to be on the show.  These singers get up on stage and do the best they can, then they get blasted as though they did something wrong.  Most of these kids where mediocre when they auditioned.  It is totally unfair to think that somehow they are going to morph into great talents when they hit the big stage in Hollywood.

The bigger problem I have with this mess called American Idol is that it holds up average singers as the gold standard of talent.  Consequently when young kids see this they feel like that is what you strive for.  It’s no wonder that truly great singers are becoming so much more rare.  If the average kid can sing as good as the people on stage, then the people on stage ain’t good enough.

On second thought…I think I do know what American Idol is all about.  It’s about creating an Idol.  A false image they can promote as something that it really isn’t…real talent.  American Idol is about making money, but don’t get me wrong making money is good.  Just don’t lie to me and tell me you’re looking for the best singer in America…we all know that isn’t true.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

Now I know that a lot of “welfare moms” and wimpy liberals will say “OOOOOOhh you don’t understand.  These women are finding themselves on hard times, and we can’t let these babies starve, and yada yada”.  To that I would reply that a lot of people these days are finding themselves on hard times, me included.  The welfare department doesn’t give me any money, nor should they. 

There are families have that 3rd and 4thgeneration welfare recipients which is an outrage.  Clearly a lot of these “women” and often times girls have made a conscious choice to use baby making as a way to pay the bills.  No….I haven’t forgotten about the “men”.  These so called men are complicit in this rip off.  Any man worth a damn, would never have children he couldn’t afford to support.  People…in this day and age we just can’t afford to pay for somebody else’s children. Welfare needs extreme reform.  But, how do we do it?  I have a couple of suggestions.

First, U.S. citizens ONLY , NOT IMMIGRANTS…can receive welfare once per lifetime, and just for 9 months.  Men who father children and don’t pay for the support of those children, will be placed into a mandatory work program.  They will work in a job that benefits the neighborhoods they live in, street cleaning, graffiti removal, landscaping public property, you get the picture.  Half of the money they earn will go to repaying the money us citizens had to pay to take care of their babies.  Next, mothers and fathers who receive welfare money will go through a mandatory training class where they will learn how to teach workshops to educate young people how to avoid pregnancies they cannot afford.  Mothers will teach young girls that because a guy says “you have a nice ass” doesn’t mean he’ll make a suitable parent.  Fathers will teach young boys that it is weak, ignorant, and unmanly to have sex when you can’t shoulder all the possible consequences of having sex.  If you get pregnant again after having already received welfare…all I can say is you better have a good job.

We have gotten to a place in our society where our standards have gotten pitifully low.  Young men and women should expect so much more for themselves.  Welfare should be an extreme choice for an utterly desparate situation.  If you can work you should be required to by law, if you have children.  Beyond that, I simply don’t want to pay for anyone elses kids.  Nobody asked me if it was OK for them to have unprotected sex…and if I would mind paying for their children.  (They probably know what the answer would be.)

We need a new day…a new way of looking at things.  Welfare as a career choice is disrespectful…it’s disrespectful to the taxpayers, and it’s disrespectful to one’s self.  I know that some people will still say I don’t understand.  They will say that birth control isn’t 100% effective…but those same people won’t admit the obvious, that abstinence is always 100% effective.  Fact….sometimes when you have sex the woman gets pregnant.  To the women I say before you get all hot and bothered, ask yourself “If I get pregnant, can I afford to pay for this baby on my own?’ Truth is, that might be your reality.  To the men I say if you don’t have a job, or if you have any other loser traits… sex is not for you.  Whatever the case may be I don’t wanna buy junior diapers.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

Conan got severance payout of somewhere in the area of $40 million dollars.  If he lives another 40 years, and never worked another day in his life, that’s a million a year.  I don’t feel sorry for Conan at all.  I think even the notion that anyone should feel sorry for him is absurd.  Conan is super rich, and he’ll easily get another gig that will make him even richer….how sad.

Now to be clear, I’m not mad at Conan.  To me the fact that he makes that money means that the people who pay him believe he’s worth it…and that’s all good.  But I think that we the regular folk, get caught up in this altered reality.  A mindset that is removed from what really matters.  So many people are taking sides…which one of these very rich men got the short end of the stick, is a ridiculous waste of mental energy. 

If we must feel sorry for someone…I have some suggestions:  How about the one hundred fifty thousand and counting people who have died in Haiti?  How about the thousands of children who will be orphans when the dust settles in Haiti?  How about the hundreds of thousands of people in this country who didn’t get a severance package when they were told there is no more work?  How about that man that has to make the long drive home to tell his wife and kids that they’re going to have to move into Grandma’s house because ours was foreclosed on?  How about the thousands of people who die every year because their heartless insurance companies won’t pay for that “experimental procedure” that would have saved their lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong perhaps Conan did get the short end of the stick….perhaps…but I know for a fact that most people would love to have that stick.  I wish the best for Conan, but I’m more concerned with regular folk facing REAL problems.  If we as a people collectively focus on helping each other and even more importantly helping ourselves, we’ll all benefit in a very big way.  Conan can take care of himself.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

Now I know that I can’t have a baby.  I can never know what a woman goes through when she gets pregnant.  But just a surely a woman can never know what a fetus feels.  A woman can never know what it’s like to be the man that wanted to be a father to the fetus / baby that was aborted.  Yes…. I am against abortion.  But I am not a fundamentalist freak who believes in extreme measures being perpetrated against women who have had abortions.  I’m writing now because I was watching Court TV airing the trial of Scott Roeder who ADMITS that he shot and killed Dr. Tiller, who was an abortion provider.

The shooter/killer is claiming that he was justified because he was acting in the defense of unborn babies.  This guy is nuts, he’s a hypocrite, and it’s insane that tax payer money is being spent putting on a trial for this killer.  People like this make a mockery of the whole issue.  My thing is this…there is a ton of evidence to support the claim that life begins if not at conception, then VERY shortly thereafter.

I know a lot of women will want to scream at me and say “a woman has a right to do what she wants with her body”, and I would agree.  But these women fail to acknowledge the body that is within them.  I think that a much more appropriate thing for her to exercise her rights over is whether or not to have sex.  Or, whether or not to use birth control.  A woman doesn’t HAVE TO GET PREGNANT!!!!!  Additionally a woman doesn’t HAVE TO HAVE SEX!!!!  How about self control, preparation, forethought, and descretion? 

Here’s another thought (I have a lot of them) if it’s ONLY a woman’s choice as to whether or not she has a baby, then why should a man have to pay child support?  If a woman can decide indepently to abort a pregnancy, then should she be “woman enough” to decide to pay for raising that child?  To exclude a man’s feelings and rights during pregnancy and then force obligations on him after birth is dead wrong.  Now….to be clear I think a man should pay for the upbringing of his children, but I also think to exclude him as a dis-interested and unimportant bystander when the issue of abortion comes up is grossly unfair. 

Abortion rights?  I think abortion is wrong, but I’m not willing to put women in prison for it.  I think it would be more appropriate to overturn Roe v. Wade and make it illegal.  I actually believe women are smart enough to avoid unwanted pregnancies.  It may be a little inconvenient but I know plenty of women who have succeeded.  Birth control works most of the time, and if you add a condom into the mix along with the pill, it’s actually pretty damn hard to have a baby if you don’t want to have one. 

So to all you beautiful, sexy, capable, intelligent women out there if you even MIGHT have sex, just be prepared, it really does work.  To the men, don’t be idiots…USE A RUBBER.  Have a nice day!

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

I welcome your comments.

I think Dr. King would be proud that we have an African American as our president.  But King would not just rubber stamp everything Obama does.  I believe that King would keep the pressure on Mr. Obama to deliver on his promises.  I for one would love to see that.  Dr. KIng would point out the futility in conducting a “War On Terror”.  It is impossible to kill enough people to make them not hate us.  Dr. King showed us the magnificent power of a righteous cause, peacefully being demonstrated for all to see.  He’d remind us that when you don’t take up arms against your enemies the world is forced to see the rightness of your cause.  Yet…as Mr. Obama has said ‘a head of state can hardly be a pacifist’…I think King would agree.  But somehow Dr. King would find a way to counsel our president in the ways of gentle power.  War has it’s place, but so does love, peace, and common good.

I think Dr. King would have been sad that Michael Jackson died so young.  I think he would have told parents the importance of loving their children and supporting them and making them feel like they really matter. I think he would have told us that celebrities have as much right to privacy and intimacy and quiet as we do.

I think Dr. King would be a really powerful force helping to guide us all to our better selves.  Happy Birthday Dr. King….we sure could use you now.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

When I’m at the movies I keep my damn feet to myself, I am not a ‘kicker’.  If I’m talking to you I won’t tap you constantly…I call these creatures ‘tappers’.  Also when I’m talking to you I won’t get within 18″ of your face.  I call people who don’t respect this don’t cross zone “space invaders”.  Even as I’m moving away ’space invaders’ keep coming, and they’ll continue to keep coming until someone says “STOP!!!  This is my space and you can’t have it.”  It’s the same with seat kickers and tappers…they don’t have proper boundaries.

I think that as an American….actually as a human being we all have the inalienable right to EXCLUSIVE use and occupation of the three foot invisible circle around us.  That invisible circle is our Personal Space.  Unless you’re having sex or engaging in some other activity that actually requires physical contact Stay Out Of Personal Space that isn’t yours.  Perhaps it’s the invisible nature of personal space that confuses seat kickers, tappers, and space invaders.  Someone should invent ‘Personal Space Goggles’.  These goggles would detect when you are entering someone else’s personal space.  When you do an alarm would go off and indicate that you should back off…If the alarm doesn’t work perhaps a little electrical zap!

Well…maybe that’s not practical…maybe parents should just teach their kids proper manners…Ahhh…remember manners?  What about a ’Space Invader’ watch list?  Whatever the solution…something needs to be done!

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

Because a person is, or was a celebrity there is an inclination to think they don’t have basic human rights to privacy.  So many people  assume that they have a right to know details about a celebrity’s personal life.  Let me state it clearly….WE DON’T!!!  What happened to David Carradine is tragic.  Even though he apparently did it to himself…even though there may have been some kinkiness involved, it was tragic.  Life is precious, and life lost is serious and solemn. 

For a minute I got caught up in the curiosity, and I wanted  to see what I really didn’t have a right to see.  The family of David Carradine has a right to dignity, even if David killed himself in a most undignified way.  They deserve the right to mourn his death in private.  They don’t owe us in the public anything.  Similarly when celebrities get divorced, go into rehab, get arrested, or have plastic surgery…it ain’t our business.

What we really need to do is live our own lives.  Everyone will be better off.  How willing are you to let people know about your private affairs?  I’d bet that you don’t want anybody in your business.  I bet that you want the respect for your privacy that is guaranteed to us as Americans.  Celebrities deserve the same respect.

So for whatever it’s worth…I apologize for almost looking at those pictures.  I will do better in the future…and I hope you do as well.

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH

Humans have emotions…all kinds of emotions.  The fact that a person may not show those emotions outwardly, doesn’t mitigate the fact that those emotions exist.  Men are every bit as capable as women to feel sadness, depression, and grief…men absolutely do get their feelings hurt.  But men have been conditioned to not let their hurt show.  The problem with this is that the hurt will not be denied.  If the hurt is not expressed directly it will show up some other way.  Men usually resort to anger when they feel hurt.  Somehow we’ve been trained to believe that anger is more ‘manly’.  

So…if a man’s feelings are hurt, rather than saying that, he may scream at his woman.  He may go out and cheat on her.  He may resort to violence against her, or maybe even misplace that violence, and direct it towards some one else.  But please be clear, those hurt feelings will make themselves known. If men were more able to express their hurt feelings, that alone would greatly reduce violence against women.  In fact, it would probably reduce violence in general.  The old paradigm just doesn’t work.  Men are people too.  The sooner we all embrace that, the better of we all will be.  

We as a people need to revisit and then revise what it means to be a man.  Sure strength is a part of being a man…but gentility is too.  We as men need to reclaim our humanity…all of it.  If our feelings have been hurt, we need to be able to say that in words, soft words, not with our fists.  I am not suggesting that men are just like women, because we are not, nor will we ever be.  But to say that a grown man ain’t supposed to cry is flat out wrong.  Sometimes being a man is being able to show softness, but not being defined by that softness.  Sometimes being a man is being able to cry even when our conditioning says we shouldn’t.  

As a man you might not want to cry at a public theater watching Sex In The City,…but if you lost a loved one, or if you’re expressing love to that special one, if you feel like no one understands you…I say that you as a man have a ‘human-right’ to cry.  

Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH