Looking back on 9/11

I have only had 2 moments in my life where time seemed to stop.  The first is when the space shuttle Challenger blew up.  I was a kid in high school and word got to us between classes.  Everyone spent the rest of the day riveted to TV news watching anything we could find.  This was long before cable news so there wasn't much other than watching the same video of the explosion over and over and over.  It's an often used cliche but time did seem to stop.  

9/11/2001 was a different day.  I was running late for work and heard it live on the radio on the Mancow show.  Before the second plane hit all I could imagine was a small plane and an incompetent pilot.  The reality of what was going on never occurred to me until I got in front of a TV and saw the video of the second plane hitting.  

There were a few other things I remembered from that day.  It was the first time I ever saw the internet truly crash from everyone trying to get on cnn.com all at one.  I also remembered the sick feeling I had watching the towers fall live on TV.  I could not shake the thought that I had just witnessed a thousand people die.  I remembered the news casters talking about jumpers.  

I remember the wild theory and speculation about who and why.  I don't believe the wild theories that the US government did it.  No I don't believe the towers were blew up with explosives or that anyone in the government knew it was going to happen in advance.  In my personal opinion the government at the time was simply incompetent and arrogant.  I believe that the tragic moment was taken advantage of by a political opportunist to do promote other agendas that existed before.  

So now it's 10 years, 2 1/2 wars and thousands of lives later.  

This country has changed, the world has changed and I have changed.  The moment the planes hit was a moment I can't forget.  It's burned into my memory just as much as the moment the shuttle Challenger blew up.  

Seriously folks

Seriously folks, the sky isn't falling.  Let's all calm down and think for a moment here.
Yes the health care bill got passed,  no this isn't the health care reform that I would've asked for, and yes we are all going to survive.

Today was a pretty f-ed up day on facebook.  The debate was carried out of the cable news networks (where it didn't belong) and on-line among people that are actually going to be effected by this bill (where it did belong).  At first I was actually happy to see people finally talking about it until I saw what they were saying.
"All because our elected officials can't manage our money and now they're going to raise our taxes to manage healthcare. Of course I want the uncovered to have coverage but I'd like to see people back to work and leave my taxes alone."
"You must all enjoy paying more taxes."
"What if we have to pay more for insurance now?"
That was some of the more tame examples of stupid comments I've seen today.  I wish some of these people actually read what's in that bill and actually got their info from more than a single source with questionable objectivity.  
Taxes, if your taxes go up because of this bill then you're making 250K a year and can afford it.  That's right, if you make 250K a year you can afford to pay back to the society that gave you the opportunity to be very prosperous.  If that tax increase is going to make your life suffer then maybe you need a reality check on what real suffering is all about.
I admit, maybe my opinion is a bit jaded because I hate insurance companies.  You see in my experience they are all a bunch of soul sucking daemon leeches.  That isn't opinion, it's a fact.  Twice I've had insurance policies cancelled because I dared to put in a claim.  Right now I have to pay for a dental procedure for my 5 year old because my insurance company found away to weasel out of paying for it.  I guess my child's pain and my 12 years of on time premium payments mean nothing compared to saving $150 for their bottom line.  


So those people who know me will call a foul and say that this rant doesn't match my political belief.  You see, I'm a Libertarian.  Libertarians believe in personal responsibility and a free market.  In a perfect world personal responsibility and a free market would be more than enough to fix the health care problem.  Of course we don't live in a perfect world do we.  We live in a corrupt world where personal responsibility gets taken advantage of and a free market is corrupted.  That's where I withhold my Libertarian principals and accept a dose of reality.  The health care and insurance industry need a bit of regulation.  Weather you like it or not the strong arm of big government is going to act like a parent and restrain the rotten brat that the health care and insurance industry have become.  
With luck they will be restrained enough or at least be coerced into restrain themselves into doing the right thing. 


So I applaud President Obama for passing the biggest health care reform in my lifetime.  Full credit to him for having the balls to do something about the problem.  No this bill isn't perfect, it might not work, it may even hurt some people but it's going to be far better than the alternative of doing nothing.  


I may not agree with many of his policies but I do agree with his intentions.