Campanastan

Pleasant Surprise...From My Health Insurance Carrier?

Never thought I would title a post as I have this one, unless I was feeling unusually sarcastic.

I called in a prescription for 500mg tablets of chloroquine (trade name Aralen), a drug used to provide some protection  from malaria. I am heading to Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras in a week, and malaria is still a problem, especially in rural areas. I figured that headaches, diarrhea, and occasional 'bizarre behavior' were preferable to contracting the disease that keeps on giving. But at least I do not have to take mefloquine (trade name Lariam), which is even more potent with more dangerous side effects.

I told the pharmacist that if my insurer - Regence - did not cover the cost, I'd pay full price. I was quite willing to do that rather than risk illness. My previous New Mexico carrier, Lovelace, never paid for this or similar drugs. They claimed I was choosing to travel to some disease-ridden hellhole, which I was. So, mala suerte, amigo! But they also admitted that if I contracted malaria, they would cover treatment. I could never understand the logic of that. No money for prevention, but lots for treatment.

Imagine my surprise when the prescription was filled with nothing more than the normal $5 co-pay.

I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"There is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people who ask questions." -- Chris Berman

Seismic Humor: How Gay Marriages Cause Earthquakes

Hot off the press! Anti-gay activisits unite - here's a reason to ban these abominations of nature! Scientific proof that gay marriages will endanger us all! Check out Green Gabbro.

Yes, there really are things called Love waves. And don't forget Rayleigh (Ray-Lay??) waves.

"They are preserving the sanctity of marriage, so that two gay men who've been together for twenty-five years can't get married, but a guy can still get drunk in Vegas and marry a hooker at the Elvis chapel! The sanctity of marriage is saved!" -- Lea DeLaria

Memorial Day Reflections

I found this at audible.com.

A Reflection on Memorial Day by Sen. Bob Kerrey

I stand on a bluff in Normandy, France, overlooking the English Channel. The beach below was called Omaha. 9,387 white crosses mark the remains of young Americans killed here or in other places in France following the June 6, 1944, invasion. They're all dead. Another 1,557 names are on a wall here but their bodies could not be found. They're all dead, too. They did not come home to kiss their girlfriends or wives. Their children grew up without them. They did not enjoy the GI Bill. They did not build a new house. They did not see their commanding officer elected President twice. They never heard rock and roll. They didn't grow old.
    Try to remember them today. Try to hear their youthful laughs. Try to know their fear. Try to feel their promise realized in your life, through your actions, your humility, your respect.

Give thanks today.

Listen to Terry Gross' interview with former Marine platoon leader Donovan Campbell, author of Joker One. Remarkable man, remarkable story.

      “Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life." -- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Memorial Day Weekend in the USA

Thanks to Marc Herman!

“The message of television is to stay home and watch more television.” –Jimmy Breslin

Oh, Canada! Does the 2010 Olympic Torch Look Like a Joint?

People are fussing about the torch design for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, saying that it looks like a joint.

 

Read all about it here.

Rumor has it that Scooby-Doobie will be the mascot and the Doobie Brothers will be the official band.

I suspect the Jamaican boblsed team will do well.

Higher, faster, stronger, higher...for sure, dude.

"Sure, it may look a little bit like a joint, but I can tell you that what they were going for was ergonomics, sleekness, modernity."  -- Mark Busse, industrial designer (uh-huh)

Ann Campana Judge Foundation: 2008 Form 990-EZ and Schedule A Posted

For the second year in a row, the Ann Campana Judge Foundation has filed its Form 990-EZ and Schedule A. These forms are available for public viewing; they are on the ACJF's WWW site and are posted below.

Download 2008 990 EZ_and_Schedule_A

Despite the economic downturn, we took in $41,400 in donations and had income of over $42,000. We incurred more expenses because of legal fees to switch our registration from New Mexico and align our bylaws to Oregon's requirements.

We distributed almost $60,000 in grants.

I'll be visiting Nicaragua and Honduras next month to check out some projects we previously funded and scout some new ones.

"Water is our world. We are water." -- Laura Parrett (age 8)  

Sex, Guys, Rock 'n Roll...And Barbara Bush?

Marty Ennis has outdone herself this time!

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

"My girlfriend always laughs during sex - no matter what she's reading!" -- Steve Jobs

Nancy Pelosi: Wringing Her Hands, Or...

 The kerfuffle involving Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the detainee interrogations has conjured images of former Nixon Administration Attorney General John Mitchell during the Watergate investigation.  

It's not the similarity between the stories, but the imagery; see Mitchell's quote below.

Kate Graham escaped this fate. Will Nancy avoid the wringer?

"Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published." -- John Mitchell, to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, referring to Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham 

A Good Day

Campanastan's President-for-Life had a good day on his 61st birthday. Many loyal subjects sent their wishes, including several of his favorite students (Melanie, Marc, and Amy), his wonderful spouse Mary Frances, DW from the river, his sister, his mother-in-law, boyhood chum Peter, and Southwest Airlines.

Campanastan's official Scribe-in-Residence-for-Life, Elizabeth Royte, also sent greetings.

The picture of the Exalted Leader demonstrates that he is not above performing manual labor, even on his birthday,  at Campanastan's sole wastwewater treatment plant..

And the meeting he attended was actually pretty good!

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Campanastan's President-for-Life Turns 61 Today

Campanastan's President-for-Life turns 61 today.

Unfortunately, he is in Washington, DC, for two days of meetings.

He wishes he could get a ticket for tonight's Caps-Pens game 7, but even a diplomatic passport holds no cachet in this town.

But he is glad to see the Supreme Council is still working well back home on the steppes.

"To me, old age is 15 years older than I am." -- Bernard Baruch

Channeling Teddy Roosevelt...

The cover of The New Republic (20 May 2009).

"Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far." --Teddy Roosevelt

Alaska From Alaska Airlines #99

Just returned from four days in Anchorage at the AWRA climate change and water resources conference. Great conference!

I had not been to Alaska since 1986, and had not spent much time in Anchorage. I did remember enough to sit in a window seat on the right side of the plane en route from Seattle on Alaska Airlines #99. I managed to snap a few pictures with my iPhone. 

I thought I had a great picture of Malaspina Glacier but I guess it did not work out. Here's a picture taken from space.   

Here's a volcanic cone island off the southeastern Alaska coast.

 

And here's a glacier about an hour out of Anchorage somewhere in the Wrangell - St. Elias National Park & Preserve:

 

And this last shot  - the Chugach Mountains, just a few minutes outside Anchorage:

 

Amazing place!

"To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world." --John Muir

Carson City Cut-Ups: Silver State Grapples With Budget, Picks State Insect While Gibbons Monkeys Around

My former home state of Nevada provides much fodder for blog posts. Campanastan is far advanced compared to the Silver State!

You can file this post under the 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic' category.

A friend from Reno sent me a long email about the latest antics of the Nevada legislature and the state's moronic governor, Jim Gibbons (R-NV), aka "America's Worst Governor", as the state grapples with a substantial shortfall.

My friend explained to me that just about the only thing the legislature has done this session is to designate a state insect.

No, it's not Gov. Gibbons, but the damselfly (the picture to the right).

Check out my earlier post about Nevada State symbols. I think it's time to update that list.

Just remember the slogan on Nevada's license plate issued in celebration of the state's 125th anniversary in 1989:

"Nevada - 125 years of vision." Uh-huh.

The woman whose picture alternates with Gov. Gibbons' photo is Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), a former classmate of mine from the College of William and Mary. She's a smart cookie. Thanks to VoteGibbonsOut for the Titus/Gibbons picture.   

!Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made Gov. Jim Gibbons." --apologies to Mark Twain 

Alltop's Site for Aggregating H1N1 (Swine) Flu News

Alltop has recently created a WWW site that aggregates news about the H1N1 (swine) flu so people can get timely and (presumably) credible information about the flu.

H1N1 Flu Nails Biden; VP Gets Quarantined

Thanks to plutoniumpage and charyl. 

Savages and Scoundrels: Paul VanDevelder Strikes Again!

A while back I wrote about friend Paul VanDevelder's landmark book, Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation. In it, he described the devastating effects of a government water project, the Garrison Dam, on Native Americans in North Dakota.

At the time Paul told me that his new book was on the verge of release, and it is now out: Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America's Road to Empire Through Indian Territory.

He forwarded this recent review from a real heavyweight:

Here is a profound dismantling of the whole mythical edifice surrounding the westward expansion that shaped the republic. VanDevelder identifies our historical amnesia about federal Indian policy as a profound moral crisis that needs to be confronted, and after reading his book, it’s hard to argue with him. He’s spent a lifetime exposing some of the ruthless conduct that continued well into the 20th century, and his previous book, Coyote Warrior, really had an impact. Some have called Savages & Scoundrels a Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for the 21st century, and it’s an apt comparison. With the 1851 Treaty at Horse Creek as Exhibit A, VanDevelder unpacks the consequences of this broken treaty. It’s a shocking and passionate book, but one anchored in impeccable scholarship. [John Eklund]

Here is a synopsis from the book's WWW site:

 

What really happened in the early days of our nation? How was it possible for white settlers to march across the entire continent, inexorably claiming Native American lands for themselves? Who made it happen, and why? This gripping book tells America’s story from a new perspective, chronicling the adventures of our forefathers and showing how a legacy of repeated betrayals became the bedrock on which the republic was built.

 

Paul VanDevelder takes as his focal point the epic federal treaty ratified in 1851 at Horse Creek, formally recognizing perpetual ownership by a dozen Native American tribes of 1.1 million square miles of the American West. The astonishing and shameful story of this broken treaty—one of 371 Indian treaties signed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—reveals a pattern of fraudulent government behavior that again and again displaced Native Americans from their lands. VanDevelder describes the path that led to the genocide of the American Indian; those who participated in it, from cowboys and common folk to aristocrats and presidents; and how the history of the immoral treatment of Indians through the twentieth century has profound social, economic, and political implications for America even today.

You can read more reviews here.

Looks like Paul has another winner on his hands.

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives." — Native American proverb