Behind Blue Eyes's Open Salon Blog

Armed with a giant dildo, how many baboons could you take?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:11:28 -0500

Created by Oatmeal

The Value of Life - Can we help save one?

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 23:11:27 -0500

Life is constant tragedy.

But ever so often the opportunity presents itself to make a difference.

To perhaps stop a tragedy.

Today on reddit I ran across this headline: She has leukemia and no health insurance; if she has a bone-marrow transplant, her survival odd jump to 60%, if she doesn't, she has two to three months to live; please donate.

Health insurance and how our system screws over people has been on my mind for a while now, so I clicked over.

Essentially a young student from Mongolia, Urangoo Baatarkhuyag, was handed a death sentence by fate and our healthcare system this past September.

Her odds of survival with treatment are quite good, but without insurance or hard cash upfront, she will not be treated in the USA.

Always mindful of SCAMS, I checked out the newpaper article and TV reporting the blog provides links for and this is the synopsis:

Diagnosed with acute Myeloid Leukemia, her care could cost millions here in the states.

Her friends are trying to raise the money to get the transplant done in India and have gotten a little over 40k together through various fundraisers but are still tens of thousands shy of what is needed even at India's lesser cost.

From a comment at the website from one of her friends:

We have been told a bone marrow transplant in India would be over $100,000. That may not include additional Chemotherapy needed. Urangoo just received bills from LDS hospital (although we have been told she does not need to pay them) that total $324,000 for one Chemotherapy treatment, her stay, time in ICU, drugs, etc. The point is that costs for medical always seem to be higher than planned. So we all need to keep trying to raise as much as possible.

So what can we do?

If you have a reddit account, upvote the link. The more eyes the better.

How do you upvote the link on reddit? Log into your reddit account (if you don't have one, it only takes a minute to register), click on this link, and give the up arrow the click. It will turn orange and the number next to the headline will advance.

If you have five bucks to spare, use the paypal link at the blog, http://saveuvugirl.blogspot.com/, and help the kid out.

If you have facebook or myspace or twitter or any other way to help get her website more hits, help the kid out.

Rate this post and pass her link around.

It is a damn shame we don't have universal single payer healthcare.

This kid is just one of many dying because of our crappy system.

Can we help save her?

She only has weeks...

Making this a google image feed zombie:

Pelosi's Promise of Vote on Single Payer about to be Broken

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:10:52 -0400

Way back when, Speaker Pelosi promised a vote on Single Payer. According to a flurry of linked reddit articles and this email I got this morning from Heathcare Now!, one of the most proactive organizations fighting for Single Payer (HR 676)Medicare for all, that promise may be broken.

As Congressman Barney Frank said in his video response about what REALLY works when trying to change policy in DC, calls from voters have an impact. More of an impact than probably anything else (other than big fat checks from corporate doners - my edit, not Frank's) on a congressional representative.

So take the five to ten minutes today and call the three numbers listed below. Just tell them this:

"Keep the Kucinich Amendment to allow states to pass single-payer, and to allow Rep. Anthony Weiner introduce his single-payer amendment!"

Single Payer deserves a vote.

This way when the public wakes up to the screw job windfall for insurance companies that the so called public option is, we'll know who torpedoed true reform.

Isn't it scary that all three representatives that have the power to make this happen are from the almost failed state of California?

The email:

Dear Healthcare-NOW! Supporter:

We've just learned that the two single-payer amendments to the House healthcare bill that were promised a vote this fall, one introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich allowing states to implement single-payer systems on the state level, the other by Rep. Anthony Weiner to have a vote on national single-payer legislation, are in jeopardy.

We need your voice to get these amendments back on the table.

Let's get calls into the democratic leadership that is calling the shots and make sure they know that we expect the vote on single-payer this fall.

-Speaker Nancy Pelosi: DC (202) 225.4965 - SF (415) 556.4862
-Rep. George Miller: DC (202) 225.2095 - Concord (925) 602.1880
-Rep. Henry Waxman: DC (202) 225.3976 - LA (323) 651.1040

The message is simple: Keep the Kucinich Amendment to allow states to pass single-payer, and to allow Rep. Anthony Weiner introduce his single-payer amendment!

Thanks for all that you do,
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff

P.S. We need your support. Donate today, and we'll get an extra dollar for each of yours!

Healthcare-NOW! survives on the generosity of our supporters. Please consider making a donation to support our efforts to pass HR 676 using our secure server.

How to make real Change

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:10:30 -0400

If you want to learn how to influence politics and make real change happen, watch the video of Barney Frank answering this question from reddit:

Congressman Frank, earlier this week you remarked that the National Equality March in Washington D.C. was, "a waste of time at best". You went on to state that, "the only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass." Could you elaborate on your rationale for these statements further? Were you arguing that the LGBT community is pursuing the wrong avenues for change? In light of the battering the First Amendment has taken over this last decade, is it prudent to criticize such protests? - mknight44

Watch the rest of the interview here:

Congressman Frank answers your questions.

Obama should be tried @ Nuremberg, not winning Nobel -update

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:10:56 -0400

Sometimes the world is shameless in its pandering.

Obama is a mass murderer just like Bush before him.

But yet the Nobel prize committee curries the favor of the American Empire, fearful that we might decide they have something of value within their borders and thus bring "democracy" to their country.

Here is what Obama has been doing these past eight months:

Mikhaela B. Reid * Angry Cartoonist
boilingpointcartoon@mac.com

AP photo of LCPL Joshua Bernard

Is any of that terribly peaceful?

The "peace" prize is now worthless.

If Obama had pulled us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, I would have been the first in line to say he deserved it, but this is frankly just more bullshit and hypocrisy.

Look again at the truth of what we have done and what Obama is perpetuating:

Factsheet of Human Development Report 2009: Afghanistan ranked 181 out of 182 countries

***Life expectancy is 43.6 years.***

Cartoon by Peter Brookes published by The Times.

What an upside down world when perpetual war and death are equated to peace.

To those head in the sand Good Germans who will inevitably comment that Obama has only been president for 8 months and he should be given more time before he is judged so harshly - you are fucking stupid.

Yes, you are.

Obama is committing us to at least 10 more years of military action in Afghanistan and has been increasing troop and contractor (mercenary) levels steadily.

What if it was your child bombed or shot due to Obama's orders and policies?

To all of those who will inevitably comment that I am immature and unsophisticated and should cozen to the way things are in the real world, you are an unmitigated asshole and moral accessory to murder.

None of the deaths Obama is causing with his policies are necessary.

Wake up.

The Emperor has no clothes.

And no little prize no matter how prestigious it used to be will keep any country safe from the American Empire.

Polish Hero Lech Walesa Mocks Obama's Peace Prize - "So soon? Too early," said former Polish president Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. "He has no contribution so far."

Update October 11, 2009:

On the same day the Nobel committee announced this undeserved accolade, Predator drones which fly under orders from Obama used five missiles to kill 22 Pakistani, mostly civilians in their homes.

This is yet another war crime.

Pakistanis outraged over continued drone attacks

To those who read the linked article and think our firing missiles into a country we are not at war with and killing innocent civilians is OK - may you live to hear the screams of the ones you love as they burn to death while there is nothing you can do to save them. Such is the karma you deserve.

Go forth and become a feed zombie: