What's up? Happy Friday, all. I've got a little bit of Christmas shopping to do, but I've actually gotten a decent amount of it done early already (for once), so I'm actually kind of looking forward to the small amount that I have left.
Last night I watched a bit of The Ed Show on MSNBC, and Ed Schultz and his crew were in Kansas City, spending time at a travelling, free medical clinic being hosted at the Kansas City convention Center which had treated almost 2200 people at the time of the boradcast. The free medical clinic was put on by the National Association of Free Clinics, a nonprofit group, using 1600 volunteers and 650 medical personnel. I found it interesting that 83% of the people who requested services at the clinic were employed with full or part time employment (many of them reported to be working at more than one part time job in order to make ends meet). At the time of the program, there were wait times of up to 5 hours to see a doctor, but patients still seemed satisified, with several commenting that waiting room times at a local ER would be just about as long, but that hospital emergency rooms would try to bill people for money that they just couldn't afford at the end of their treatment ordeal.
Anyway, it was heartening to see all of these volunteers who were willing to work so hard to provide free medical care, but it was depressing to see such a huge need for services, the great majority of which were being utilized by people who were actually employed, but who could not afford medical care. NAFC organizers report that they are already overwhelmed with a demand for additional free clinics at cities all across the country, and that they're struggling to keep up. Just seeing all of these people sitting in line for hours and hours in order to get basic medical care sort of reinforced and underscored my belief that there is something very, very wrong with our health care system in this country. It's just kind of insane to me that working people in our country can't afford health care. It makes me really mad and depressed and frustrated, especially when I see such virulent attacks againt efforts at reform.
Meanwhile, we spend billions of dollars in Iraq and give corporate bailouts to companies who turn around and give bonuses worth millions of dollars to executives who drove their companies to the brink of bankruptcy in the first place.
We have a big section of the American public which is either ignorant, self absorbed and brutally callous, or crazy. I don't know what else to think.
What else?
Apparently the Russians are now saying that they had Hitler's body all along, following World War II. They're saying that they seized the body on May 5, 1945, finding it in a crater near Hitler's bunker (it's reported that Hitler died by a combination of cyanide and a self-inflicted gunshot wound), and was buried and the reburied in Germany, ending up in grave on a Soviet military base near Magdeburg, Germany. Hitler's body was once again exhumed in 1970, when the Soviets handed their base over to the Germans, with the body being burned to ashes, and then thrown into the Biederitz River. The Russians maintain that this was done in order to prevent Hitler's burial site or final resting place from becoming a memorial or place of commemoration for Nazis and supporters of fascist ideas.
A fragment of skull which is reported to belong have belonged to Hitler still remains, and are kept at the Russian FSB Central Archive. American researchers have expressed doubts about the authenticity of the skull, but Russian researchers have pointed out that even DNA tests could do little to disprove or prove the identity of the bone fragments, as there are no known samples of Hitler's genetic material to comapre it to.
Just another strange story surrounding Hitler's death, I guess. It sounds as plausible to me as anything else that I've heard, but then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if it were just a Russian tall tale, meant to build their own national mystique and deflect sme of the slight embarrassment that the Soviets felt after losing track of Hitler's body at the end of World War II (the Soviets got to Hitler's bunker well ahead of any American forces).
Of course, the truth, as we all know, is that Hitler escaped after undergoing plastic surgery and experimental Nazi life extension procedures. He walks among us still, changing his appearance and altering his identity as he sees fit, sowing the seeds of evil, chaos, hate, and fear wherever he goes.
Dick Cheney, I'm looking in your direction.
Well, gotta run! Hope you guys have a good weekend if I don't write any more!
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