As the healthcare debate rages on, one of my brothers is dying

Norman Rockwell’s “Before the Shot”
Courtesy of The Public Interest Freedom Blogging.com

Hi again from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, as the debate over America’s health care bill rages on, one of my brothers is dying. Whether the legislation passes in time or not is a moot point. It comes too late to do him any good. Before you even THINK of feeling sorry for me or my own, do not EVEN go there. This isn’t about me. It’s about us.

It’s about every American family who has lost someone because they didn’t have health insurance, the insurance wouldn’t cover it or there was not enough federal and private funding devoted to the conditions and diseases that often so senselessly rob us of our greatest natural resource and again, yes, that resource is us. In my house, this brother is not the first to die for these reasons. At the rate Congress and the American public in general seem to be going, I’m terribly afraid he will not be the last.

And yeah, I’m angry. It’s gone on far too long. And yeah again, I get so bloody pissed off thinking about it sometimes that a prayer and a pint are about the only things standing between me and mine and Hell and Connaught.

Yes, I feel abandoned. I feel as though it’s more important for both Congress and the constituency to BE right than to DO right. I’ve worked in the medical and insurance fields and I know it’s not that complicated. Get something passed that will start helping and then fine tune the flipping thing once you’ve got it off the blocks and at least making traveling noises.

Maybe it’s just me, but that we haven’t done that yet in America bothers me. It bothers me a lot. And what am I doing about it? The Northstar Journal reaches Washington State's Congressional Delegation so this is like emailing them. It's also reaching the modest few of you under the six flags besides the one which flies over the one most directly impacted.

Those of you who care are going to play it forward. And perhaps we'll hear back from you about how it's working where it is. It will give those of us who care here in the Colonies, working models we can use on a town by town, county by county, state by state and region by region basis.

America's in trouble and whether she likes to admit it or not, she's not going to solve this problem by herself. So to those of you in Canada, Ireland, England, Scotland, France and Australia, if you want to help, now might be a good time and your ideas and suggestions might really make a difference.

It's your call, then, eh?

Aaaand moving right along here, to those of you who have asked how you can contribute to this modest enterprise called The Northstar Journal, we've "gone commercial" with an amazon.com based For Your Shopping Convenience. Section. It’s under Northstar Recommends and after a lot of stuff that’s free. We've also done the same thing at the blogsite, which is easier to pass along than forwarding this ezine. This doesn’t change anything as far as a free subscription or participation goes I hope you enjoy it and that it works out for all concerned. For a preview of this one, yep, please go here.

Under the headline Jobless Rate Holds Steady, Raising Hopes of Recovery, this one was definitely good news. Yep, please go here. Some of the best news doesn’t need my mouth behind it.

It’s really nice to see the American Congress moving swiftly on a measure which, among other things, extends unemployment benefits another 99 weeks in states which really need it. It also provides tax breaks for small businesses. I especially appreciate it because it validates my long-standing and sometime Quixotic belief that when the jackass and the pachyderm stop braying and bellowing at one another and hitch themselves to the same wagon, a lot of hay gets moved before the first rains. For more on this one, please go here.

Congratulations to the culinary specialists of the USS Stennis for winning the best chow in the United States Navy award. For the third time. The nuclear aircraft carrier is home ported in Bremerton, just up the (Puget) Sound. For a fascinating window on this floating city, please go here. And for more and a video on how one of America’s mightiest warships managed to also become a five star restaurant, you want to check this out.

MORE GOOD NEWS

We’re pleased to announce that Seattle’s Mighty-O Donuts made Bon Appetit’s list of the ten best places in the United States to have one. They’re just down the road from the Bastion on the Puget Sound but I’ve never had one. Something about wrapping myself around a glazed that might taste like a celery stick. But now I’ll probably do it just because I live for (culinary) danger. It’s sort of the skydiving or bungee cord jumping of the pallet. And with the disclaimer that the reader should not try it at home. Vegetarian donuts. Yep, this is going to be a stretch, even for somebody six foot three. For the other nine on Bon Appetit’s list, yep, go here.

I loved this next one even though I’m not real fond of the term “geek,” no matter what else is attached to it. To me, our young people are our greatest resource and I like it that there are teenaged girls across the country whose intelligence, curiosity and drive are being not only nurtured but encouraged. As far as I’m concerned, women have been getting a bad rap since Eve’s alleged transgression in the Garden of Eden. That story’s in the Bible, a book written by men. I often wonder what it would have read like had its various authors been women. So despite a headline with Geek in it, click this one Geek girls make their point at Linux Expo. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

This comes from one of you in Pennsylvania and it’s in response to an article we ran last week about urban gardens in Seattle. So it sure looks like we’re not the only place this is going on. I’d love to hear about a few more places, from you guys with personal experience, where it also is too.

I’ve never been to Philadelphia but I do revere its history and a couple of things food wise I’m not supposed to eat but still sneak. And yep, I’m a total Rocky fan, film and music. So to see how Philly’s doing urban gardens and maybe how it can be done better with their model east of the Mississippi, than ours to the west of it, yep, check it out here. And thanks, Counselor.

We reported earlier about a new “cult” of people who are taking things they enjoy doing and are good at and making a living. The seventh in this series of 14 is about citizen scientists who are really making a difference so go here for that one. You can read the series to date at this link.

HEALTH NEWS

I do so love it when habits of mine that have been considered either flakey or on the obsessive side of eccentric turn out to be the same habits that have probably prolonged my life and good health. I cannot imagine being the only person among us who feels that way and derives from this a justifiable smug satisfaction, not to mention the sweet and blessed silence of no more nagging by well-intentioned but misinformed Health Nazis.

I love taking an hour nap during a work shift. Now if someone catches me snoozing at noon, I can tell them it’s helping my brain and adding some calendar pages to my life. I can also email them this link so they can read about it for themselves.

Our thanks to a reader in San Diego for sending this bon mot on a way to “instantly” make your blood better by eating a meal cooked or dressed with olive oil. Since I love the stuff anyway, I take a couple tablespoons of it a week like I was forced to take cod liver oil when I was a kid. And I like frying with it and using it in casseroles and tossed salads. Here’s the link Chris sent.

This next one is a stretch for me but then so is understanding why, if the plural of goose is geese, two mooses are not a pair of meese. Some things are a challenge for me. One of them is appreciating how chanting for good stuff works. I am not denying that it does and apparently neither is medical science. Here’s the article I read on this one, in case some of you guys want to try it with me. Or maybe share with us one of your own.

CRITTER STUFF

This first one is headlined “The Secret Life of Seals,” and it’s about this marine biologist (That’s a person who studies stuff that lives in the water and not like I thought, these guys who stand up in front of machine-guns and fight with rocks and big knives when their ammunition runs out.) who gets up front and personal with elephant seals.

Well, oookay. So this not a US Marine biologist who maybe is six feet tall if he’s changing a light bulb on the porch is going strolling, talking, recording and photographing the intimate details of these creatures who are like 20 feet/6 meters long and 4 tons US.

My mother’s people have a word for that. Well, actually two of them. The one they’d probably all agree on is chutzpah. The word I would use is meshuggener. According to Merriam Webster, this lady at the local library, chutzpah means “supreme self-confidence.”

Merri (We call her that for short. It’s short for Merriam. According to this guy librarian. His first name is Oxford and he’s not from here.) told us that meshuggener is a crazy person. I like mine better. How about you decide by going here and letting me know? Is this guy just like really brave or is he totally flipping whacked?

I sure wish I’d been there to see this one. The azure skies above Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula burst into a rainbow of fluttering color as eighty distinct species of endangered butterflies were released into the wild. I mean, how cool is that? It must have been absolutely breath-taking. This story was almost like being there.

Just as we’ve been following our local orca pods, so we’ve been keeping track of the “local” sea lions who hang out for awhile at San Francisco’s Pier 39 and then “mysteriously” disappear and show up several hundred miles north at Oregon’s Sea Lion Caves. I think that’s really cool but what I can’t figure out is how a bunch of these creatures just like vanish and then suddenly reappear as though transported there. I mean, they aren’t as big as elephant seals but still, they’re not small either, at 8 ft (2.4 m) and up to 500 lb (225 kg) in weight. So for them to do this weird Houdini number sounds really Star-Trekky to me. Check it out though.

YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP.

Well, this isn’t exactly one of those. It’s more like, “What are they thinking?” There’s a growing movement behind making the sale of alcohol in bars, taverns and stores in Seattle legal 24/7. Supporters cite other cities like New York, Chicago and London where this is already the case. The way the laws are written now, alcohol can be purchased from six a.m. to two a.m. I’m personally not sure that’s the best idea in the world because even the most dedicated of drinkers is going to have to stagger or suicidally/homicidally attempt to drive) home. At least now, there’s four dry hours. It’s also been my observation that anyone who wants to lush it up all day and all night usually plans ahead and keeps a six pack or a couple of bottles around to ease the loneliness of those four pre-dawn hours. It’s going to be real interesting to see what the Seattle City Council does with this one and yep, we’ll keep you posted. Check it out here.

That’s it for this week. We’ve got some cool stuff down below you might want to check out. Stay the course, gang. We’re getting there and we’re going to make it. And thanks once again for the ear. And stuff.

Rusty


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NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS

FUN STUFF

Ever been told you look like someone famous? Ever not been told that but would like to have been? Find a photo of yourself, go to this site, MyHeritage.com, upload it and get a gallery of celebrities you resemble, to one degree or another. Yep, it’s a total waste of time and an unabashed indulgence of ego. Probably two reasons why I totally loved it, even though a couple of my own pix didn’t turn up any results. It’s fun to play with so enjoy.

If you’re into a real interesting and visual escape, we certainly recommend The Art In LA website. It’s a virtual art gallery created by a real gentle, occasionally obnoxious but totally good-hearted soul with standards as fine as those of any engineer I’ve ever met. It’s also a good place for healthy meditation. If you’re lucky, you might just run into the artist herself. Her name is Colleen and she’s a trip, trust me. Yep, she was born under the fourth flag on our masthead.

Writer At Work is a blog which comes to us from Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England and here’s another case of appropriate hyperbole. Cadie, its author, is a university writer in training with a visually impressive informational website worthy of a professional with three decades more time in grade. Whether it’s specific advice to her peers or a dynamite story on a literary event in the United Kingdom, she does an admirable job of, as they say in the Colonies, “covering her bases.” She learns quickly, this one, and passes it along. What I also truly like about this site is that it is also a lifestyle slice of Merry Olde and from as ingenuous a source as I’ve met in some while. She’s a trip, gang. Check her out here.

HEALTH

Ten foods that really do help prevent cancer.

Grub you libido will love.

If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.

Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.

Take this test to see how your memory compares with the average.

Click here for fun games to improve your memory.

ONLINE TOOLS FOR THE KIT

PC World – This is the best source we’ve found yet for totally free, useful, reliable and secure (no viruses) downloads ranging from games through utilities and with a nice selection of screen savers, etc. What I particularly appreciate about it is how easy the site is to navigate. They also have a daily letter featuring two “daily downloads.”

Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.

Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.


FOR YOUR SHOPPING CONVENIENCE

And for a truly unique shopping experience, we invite you to visit The Northstar General Store.

MEDIA

Overview

For those interested in what’s going on in the world of magazines and newspapers in general, we highly recommend Woodenhorsepub.com. They publish a weekly online newsletter for media professionals and for readers simply interested in the future of the publications they enjoy and an advance on new ones they might. Their website is located here.

Good “Reads”

News

BBC – Best source of international news.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (multi-media), the Toronto Globe & Mail and the Vancouver Sun -- outstanding sources for Canadian national, provincial, and world news.

KING 5 News – Best source of video news of Seattle and the Greater Puget Sound.

New York Times – Best source of American news.

Reuters – Best source of an international perspective on American headlines.

Seattle Times – Best source for news of the city and the Puget Sound. Its reportage is unbiased but their columns and other opinion pieces do reflect the predominant values of the Pacific Northwest.

Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – Best source of Pacific Northwest regional news. Delivered daily by email, it covers Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.

Entertainment

BBC Knowledge Magazine – designed to give the American magazine National Geographic the proverbial run for its money.

Writer At Work -- a visually impressive informational website which includes specific advice to writers, a list of resources for same and dynamite stories on a literary events in the United Kingdom, this one is for the aspiring writer and the professional alike.

TomatoMan Times -- For those who love good writing, there are fewer finer contemporary craftsmen out there now than professionally known as Tomatoman Mike. He’s as Northern Californian as John Steinbeck is, albeit with a dash of Sam Clemmons, Bret Harte and Robert W. Service in him. He’s a romp to read, trust me.

U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.

Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.

Talent For Hire -- Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist – Whether it’s a one time press release, book or product review, difficult business correspondence, resume or classified ad composition you need, take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and we’ll get together on it.

Are you a travel editor looking for color shots of Seattle? Are you an art dealer looking for new work to carry on consignment? You might enjoy checking out a gallery of my work for sale

See you next week, eh?