When I did my Single Payer post I should have included the cover story from Pensacola’s alt weekly, The Independent News.

Today Escambia County voted on a ½¢ increase to the sales tax to cover the cost of the uninsured in the county. The INWeekly bundled a couple of stories as The Cost Of The Uninsured to give people a feel for the problem.

It’s worth a read, because the situation is only going to get worse until we get serious about solving it.

Ellroon has Tagged me.

1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with [seven plus one] random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their [two times four] things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose [square root of 64] people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I’m a recovering Mensan. I quit when they decided the Bulletin needed more graphics and an unreadable font to attract a “new generation.”

2. Antarctica and mainland South America are the only two continents I haven’t been on. This is odd because, while I don’t know any Antarcticans, I know a number of South Americans.

3. I really dislike television as a medium, preferring the stage or cinema.

4. I have developed a dislike of all water sports and boats, and yet have spent a great deal of my life living near large bodies of water.

5. When I was a disk jockey at my university radio station my theme song was She’s Not There by the Zombies, chosen to rub in the fact that it was an all male institution, a monastery with more comfortable cells.

6. I will almost always be seen in a hat. Mostly because I’m bald and the top of the human head isn’t designed to be hit directly with rain or sun.

7. Some people think I have a dry wit, others say I’m sarcastic, usually I’m just being a smartass.

2³. Only Terry Pratchett fans who have read The Colour of Magic will understand.

Tagging a couple of people wouldn’t be bad, but [three squared minus one] is over the top. If you feel like it, do it and blame me.

Mary at Pacific Views started a post with the Litany against fear:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

This is a construct of the Bene Gesserit introduced in the novel, Dune, by Frank Herbert.

Most people don’t know that the novel was published in 1965 by Chilton, the guys who do automobile repair manuals and magazines.

While there are a lot of reasons for remembering the Litany these days, it sparked a memory of the discussions at college about the possibility of a religion being born from the philosophies found in the novel.

Being brash young college students, we all decided that no one would be stupid enough to base their religion on a science fiction novel.

The BBC noticed that today is a ‘Day of silence’ for US web radio, a move organized through the The SaveNetRadio Coalition to protest the absurd fees that have been levied against ‘Net radio outlets when compared to other broadcast media. You can find a complete listing of sites participating here.

This situation is another facet of RIAA going all Gordon Gekko, and attempting to alienate everyone who might consider buying music.

A hint guys: suing your audience and calling them criminals is not a public relations winner. In case you haven’t noticed, it is tanking sales for your members. I would also note that sneaking provisions into bills that make the creative people mere employees so that record labels can steal the copyright, doesn’t endear you to the artists.

There is a tool, RIAA Radar, that you can use to determine whether a particular artist or album has any ties to RIAA.