My house is maybe 30 yards from active train tracks, though a) it's in a 50-foot deep cut, b) part of that 30 yards is wooded slope from the cut, and c) it's mostly commuter trains, so they're only truly busy M-F morning and evening. I really only "notice" them late in autumn and early spring when its warm enough to have the windows open but the trees don't have leaves.

Yet another reason why my house was priced very attractively...

My brother is stressed out right now, he had insurance through the college he's attending for him and my nephew. But the college switched to catastrophic only. His job offers insurance but for full time only. Originally he was going to work part time and take 17 hours so he can graduate at the end of the semester.

Now he's working full time AND taking 17 hours of classes so he can have decent insurance.

So, wouldn't better, universal health insurance help small business owners more than any fucking tax cut you could cobble together? If their expenses were not going toward paying the above rates for each employee and their families, it seems to me that this would be of great help to small businesses - unless I hire only PT people w/o benefits.

(agreed about single payer and public option)

When does he Vermont single-payer kick in, askye?

Honestly, from everything I've heard, it works really well in MA -- strongly encouraging people (esp. young, healthy) who wouldn't otherwise to buy insurance makes the market work better. Not to mention getting poor people with kids the ability to go for cheap checkups instead of the emergency room.

A very crunchy friend of mine just just shared a facebook picture from a group called "Living Off the Grid."

I just had a fit of giggles.

So there's an intermediary somewhere translating patchouli smoke signals into the code needed for JPG uploads?

My aprtment is about 50 yards from a train track, but fortunately it runs under an overpass rather than having a crossing that requires horn blowing.

Tea Party thinking is that anything that forces a small business owner--or any business owner--to do anything is UnAmurrican. And Socialistic. Whatever that means.

I've seen the off grid website. It's irritatingly smug.

I don't always root for the underdog. I root for my team. Sometimes they are the Jamaican sprinters, sometimes they are the Jamaican bobsledders.

Today is the last full day in the villa. To be honest, the non villains are tiresome. Not my family, who are here until two. Her university lecturer friends who should be leaving soon. I don't know them well, and I'm overdue breaking the migraine, and i can't relax. Last night i had to lock myself away, because they kept cranking up the volume. I couldn't get away soon enough from the shrieking and the celebrating. But it's celebrating, and it's not about me...but i can't sulk and ruin things. But it just hurts, and there's nowhere to run.

Hmm. Third world problems.

Third world problems.

::snickers:: Though, surely these days, Jamaica counts as second world?

Also, here's a timely article about Romneycare, both how it works (and it does) and how Romney is running away from the shining jewel of his one-term governorship:

[link]