I watched or listened to most of the debate tonight. It’s when I hear them on the issues that I feel best about the Dems chances in November, as opposed to when the news cycles are dominated by stories about snubs and snipes outside of the debate arena. Clinton and Obama are not fighting like Romney and McCain are. Most Democratics are not up in arms over their final two choices like a lot of Republicans seem to be. Social conservatives and the anti-immigration wing can’t stand McCain. Republicans with a sliver of decency can’t stand Romney. A lot is said of all the people who “hate Hillary”. I don’t really think there are that many who care that much. I don’t think the Republican base will like their nominee enough for whatever anti-Hillary vitriol there is drive them to raise money and get out the vote.

I mentioned it last April, but I didn’t really start making lots of tweets until recently. If I constantly question the relevancy of my Toastiest blog posts, I think Twitter tweets are surely 95% ego trips. As I experience the world, no matter how mundane the experience, it’s more meaningful if someone else is sharing it. That’s the blunt truth of it. There’s no usefulness to the rest of the world for me to share that I had a lobster roll sandwich today in Portland, Maine. Many people have either experienced far more enriching travel experiences and others are too beaten down by their lives to hope to get to Maine to try a lobster roll. In either case, who am I to expect anyone to care? But I want Twitter followers.

So if you’re on Twitter, my Twitter ramblings are here.

If you’re not on Twitter and don’t plan to be, you can still subscribe to the feed. (I’d put the feed on this page, but this page is already too busy).

And I won’t mention it again for awhile.

If I were to buy a laptop today and had $1000-$1500 to spend, what should I buy and why? While I wouldn’t mind having a Mac, I’m ambivalent. Most of what I do with a computer is web-based. I could remote to a PC if I need to run PC apps. Don’t want to over-analyze. I mention these three brands because these are the brands I can get work discounts on.

I’m stunned. I liked the idea of him bringing 15-20% of the delegates to Denver. At the same time, better for all Edwards loyalists to accept reality now rather than after Super Tuesday thumpings. He deserved more support. I suppose some thought he was just getting in the way; I thought he added a lot of value. I’m saddened.

ABC News just featured a Clayton, NC couple who had an adjustable mortgage on home they put no money down on that went from 9% to 14%. They expect the world to be sympathetic. They expected the mortgage company to say, “Hey, 9% is plenty; we won’t raise it!” Because ABC News called the mortgage company, the company lowered the rate significantly. So the Clayton couple gets to stay in the house that they clearly couldn’t afford in the first place. Lesson learned? Find someone important to complain to, and you can avoid responsibility for a mistake you made.

I bitch about a lot of things but, I hope, try to be mindful when much of the fault lies with my own actions.

Hypothetically, let’s say I wanted to be self-employed and continue to reside in North Carolina. Per HIPPA regulations, I could continue with my same health insurance coverage at a rate of 102% of the true cost of plan for a period of 18 months, with no penalty for pre-existing conditions. After the 18 months, I have the right to convert this group policy into an individual one. I cannot be turned down for a new policy due to pre-existing conditions.

However, the insurance company can apparently then charge me whatever they want for the new policy. They could charge me $100,000/month if they wanted to.

(North Carolina Consumer Guide to health insurance PDF):

WHAT DOES A CONVERSION POLICY COVER?
• You must be given a choice of conversion policies. Also, if your employer’s group
plan covered basic hospital and surgical expense and/or major medical expense, then
the conversion policy must meet minimum standards for coverage for these expenses
as well.
WHAT ABOUT COVERAGE FOR MY PRE-EXISTING CONDITION?
• Conversion policies cannot impose a pre-existing exclusion for conditions covered
under the prior group plan.
HOW MUCH CAN I BE CHARGED FOR CONVERSION COVERAGE?
• Conversion policies may cost more than your previous group plan. There is no limit
on what you can be charged for conversion policies. Contact the North Carolina
Department of Insurance.

If this is truly the case, what’s the point? It’s kind of like a bigoted country club saying they’ll let blacks and Jews in, but they just have to pay a billion dollars. I’m not saying they don’t have the right to charge whatever they want. I hope that someday the concept of community rating becomes commonplace through the United States, where plans must offer the same rate for everyone they cover. (I know healthy people and many conservatives have the “tough shit” argument regarding healthcare in this country. Or, perhaps it’s more fair to say that healthy people’s rates might go up a lot if they have to pay for the costs of the less healthy, and maybe that’s not fair…although taxpayers already pay for the less healthy by having to fund emergency room care for the insured…so I don’t know what the answer is…) But I do wonder why it’s so important to mandate that insurers have to offer conversion insurance without exclusion clauses if they can then charge whatever they want for them.

…

Anyway, it’s always been my impression that, to afford healthcare and be self-employed, I’d just have to get rich through my self-employment. If you have a potentially expensive pre-existing condition, must you then be resigned to work for someone else the rest of your career?

I knew what I wrote last night was not something I wanted to publish in its entirety. The password to that protected entry is an eight-letter two-word combination, if anyone feels like giving it a crack.

I should not have watched a second of it, let alone the last 25 minutes of it…I really have a tough time relating to anyone who can’t see what a disaster George W. Bush has been for the past seven years…I don’t forgive anyone who ever voted for George W. Bush…George W. Bush has f*cked up everything, and you’ve been his accomplice…

I don’t want Washington to become “bipartisan”. I don’t want to “work together to find solutions to our common problems”. No, we need to take one helluva u-turn in this country if we’re going to get anywhere near on the right track, and it’s going to take ramming a bunch of progressive stuff down the country’s throats whether people like it or not.

I think Barack Obama is too nice a guy for the job, to be honest. Unfortunately, no one is paying attention to the one angry but earnest guy, John Edwards. So I’m fine if we bring back the Clintons. I can’t stand them, personally, but they’ll slit your throat when you’ve got a knife to theirs…

UPDATE – Then again, if Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard and Faux News is saying that he is envisioning Barack Obama as the next President of the United States…I don’t friggin’ know…

UPDATE – And now I’ve read Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama. You would think an endorsement shouldn’t mean much, but this one is so sincere, so free from any ulterior motives, that it begs to be given strong consideration.

So…I’ve written plenty of times of my inability to appreciate good music. My inability to specifically appreciate good sound is another subject for another day. Right now, I’m curious as to why I cannot appreciate a good song due to my inability to discern song lyrics. I know it’s a fun party game to try to get people to recite lyrics to pop songs, and there are all sorts of famous misunderstandings of song lyrics. This is not what I’m referring to, unless it turns out that nobody really gets song lyrics for all types of music. I’m not sure I can adequately explain what I mean.

A few minutes ago, I tried to listen to a sample of an MP3 from a bluegrass/country singer-songwriter. This is ostensibly the type of song where the words matter. But my brain could only translate about 20% of the words. If I’m listening to a song from a typical rock band, that percentage will probably be more like 5-10%. To me, the vocals and instrumentals always merge into one track, as if I’m unable to perceive the distinct channels. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like the music, but the fact that the words are meaningless to me makes it so hard to appreciate the music.

So…audiophiles, amateur psychologists…what’s going on here?

The latest Zogby poll indicates this is a possibility. If Edwards can get 20% in today’s South Carolina primary, that might be a “victory” in the sense that the media might be board with their story of the two-person Clinton/Obama race (no pun intended). While the media will not run any stories about the substance of Edwards’ campaign, there are likely to be headlines such as “Edwards still viable” and “Dark-horse Edwards stays alive”, which would be good enough to get Edwards donors to keep sending in the checks.

This company MetaMorphix will tell you. Just send them a swab from your dog, and they’ll do a DNA analysis to match up your dog against 38 common breeds. All for $79.95. (They don’t have any sort of affiliate program, so I’m not getting any kind of commission for mentioning this, although that’s a wonderful idea, greedy blogger that I am).

I have wondered what Herman is, beyond the labrador retriever and border collie. I wonder if he has any kind of hound in him. He’s just such a silly boy sometimes, and I wonder why.