Thanks! It's only a preliminary licensure, and it turns out I'm not going to need it anyway (I figured I'd need it if I were going to get a job during my student teaching, but I'm not, and once I'm done I'll get an initial licensure), so actually it's only a waste of $100, but who cares! I get a license! I'm a teacher in potentia!

Health care is such a pain in the ass for businesses and individuals alike that someone is bound to jump on it.

I think that the only way this country is going to get universal health care passed is when Corporate America realizes how damn much they're going to save overall when the government is paying for health care instead of them. Only if all the other business groups (and their associate lobbyists and duly-paid-for politicians) gang up on the medical and insurance groups (and their associate lobbyists and duly-paid-for politicians) will the thing go through.

Yeah, and people have been blatting about a big hurricane hitting New Orleans for at least ten years and nobody listened.

Well, but hurricanes hit every year -- it was just a matter of aim before it found New Orleans. Fatal airborne epidemics of any kind (to say nothing of influenza) are pretty rare, more rare I bet than a coastal city in the Gulf of Mexico being hit with a large-ish hurricane.

Also, it's possible to gird a city against earthquake, flood, and other disasters pretty much permanently, or anyway for the long term. A lot of people will get flu shots this year, thanks to this new strain, but I bet they'll forget next year. Stockpiling drugs is a good idea, as is creating epidemic disaster plans, but neither of these actions needs a huge press push to be implemented.

Personally I've come around to thinking that universal health care is necessary in one form or another.

You know, I agree, and the weird part is, I think corporations are starting to agree (they matter a lot more than we do). Recently the Times had an article about WalMart, of all places, complaining about the price of managed care, and wondering what to do about it. It sounded from the article as if universal health care was an option they were wishing for, if only they could get past the "socialized medicine" label.

Massachusetts is working on plans for universal health care through corporations in the senate this fall, but it seems awfully messy and half-assed. (Requiring all companies to offer healthcare, or reimbursing companies that do, or -- the plan changes every week.) Still, it's a direction.

I think corporations are starting to agree

There's a reason GM and Ford have automotive plants in Canada.

There was a big brouhaha from the GM labor groups a few weeks ago when management said that they had to up the level of unionized employees healthcare contributions from 5% to (I think) 10% (white-collar GM employees pay upwards to 33%).

"GET YOUR DAMN HANDS UP!"

The roof
The roof
The roof is on fire . . .

Well, I'm off. If, while I'm gone, anyone suddenly receives a huge burst of medieval-Arabic-combinatorics knowledge, please let me know, as I'm pretty stumped.

that was my point. stated in a very sideways way.

oops. nebbermind.

If, while I'm gone, anyone suddenly receives a huge burst of medieval-Arabic-combinatorics knowledge, please let me know, as I'm pretty stumped.

Once you get back, I might be able to help, if I'm still here then. (Do you have AIM? Might be easier than filling up the boards with math homework.)

Speaking of lots of media reports about a problem, lots of money spent, and then I heard nothing, can anyone explain the whole Y2K thing to me? I mean, I remember why we were told it was important. But I never heard of anything bad coming of it. Were we just super-efficient and fixed everything on time, or was it a crock?