Well, let me start off by saying that even in a country with universal health care, John still would have had an issue. THERE'S A TUMOR IN HIS BRAIN! That qualifies as an issue for me. But at least with universal health care, he could have had the tumor removed, which is always a plus.

The health care debate confuses me. It sure seems to me like universal health care would be an amazing thing to have, a great step forward for our country. A healthier country is a happier and more productive country. Everything about universal health care seems good. Yet, there are still people that oppose it, and I have a hard time believing that they based their opposition to a great social reform like health care on something as trivial as a higher sales tax, particularly when the people who typically oppose universal health care (the right wing) for the most part are already paying for health insurance. It's true that the right wing has their thing against giving out handouts, "teach a man to fish," and all of that, but surely health care ought to be an exception. If you give a man a fish, you can feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you can feed him for a lifetime, but if you let him die at age 30 of cancer or heart disease, malnutrition or exposure, he won't be catching too many fish, will he?

I've heard some pretty wild arguments against universal health care. I heard one guy try to make the point that universal health care takes the burden of financial responsibility off of the individual, so naturally, people will all stop taking care of themselves, take up skateboarding and smoking, and become extremely obese, since they want to get their money's worth out of their health care system, thus drastically increasing the cost of health care. It doesn't take a rocket psychologist to figure out that people probably won't do that. I've also heard that universal health care systems are typically lower quality than private ones. This idea at least has some basis in reality, considering that government-subsidized VA hospitals are not exactly renowned for... anything good. But according to my very reliable sources, there is no real difference in quality.

It seems to me that only good can come of universal health care policies. I understand that it would certainly have an impact on other costs, and for me especially, since I don't currently pay for health insurance, nor do I have a steady source of income. But universal health care may be just what this country needs, because NO ONE should ever have to be denied health care -- be it a life saving surgery or just a trip to the doctor's office.

What am I supposed to be writing about?

Ummm... well, dear readers, it seems that we have got ourselves into somewhat of a pickle. You see, today is Tuesday, and we don't have a journal topic! How in the world am I supposed to write a journal with nothing to write about?! Am I supposed to write a journal with nothing to write about?!

And what happened to our poor topic? Perhaps it got lost somewhere on the way from last week's class to Blackboard, took a wrong turn down a dark alley, or somehow slipped into the Twilight Zone. Maybe it ran afoul of the local mafia. Maybe it just had a lot of homework this week. Or perhaps it's just a little piece of Assessment Day magic that we don't have one.

I hope it's OK.

Anyway, dear readers, it's been a while since I was able to post anything really personal, since I've been all covered up in blogs about venereal disease, multiple choice testing, and the future of the university. And although I am considered to be somewhat of an expert in these fields (not so much on the venereal disease as the others), I do like to write for myself every once in a while.

So, today is Assessment Day, which means that today is the day that some people take a really lame test and I spend time assessing what I want to do with my life. For a while there, I was on this PreMed kick, thinking that it would be fun to spend half of my life in med school pursuing a high paying job and the coveted authority to prescribe medication. But then I realized that I have no real desire to do that. I thought for a while that maybe what I really want to do is be a lumberjack. But perhaps not.

Are you sure it's a good idea to have a Muppet with HIV?.. "I'm positive"

Pat Buchanan doesn't like it. He says that it is immoral to have a Muppet on Sesame Street who has HIV. Typically, if Pat Buchanan doesn't like it, it's OK with me (keep in mind that this is the guy who blamed 9/11 on homosexuals).

I've got to say, I find it really hard to see his point about Kami being an immoral and evil character. Kami is a girl who was probably just born with HIV; it's not like she's some sex fiend drug addict designed to make every little kid into a bad person.

I really think it would be a good idea to have Kami on the U.S. version of Sesame Street. Although the old myth that you can get AIDS by going near someone with HIV is hardly prevalent in the United States these days, it is very important that kids know about diseases like HIV and what they can do to avoid getting them, and kids need to know that it's OK to hug people with HIV or have tea parties with them.

I don't think that Kami is going to single-handedly clear up the AIDS problem in American youth, but certainly every little bit helps. When HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death among African-Americans, as well as a serious threat to people of all ethnic groups, it most certainly helps to get kids the knowledge that they need to stay healthy at an early age.

So I say, "Bring on Kami!"