"For Want of a Dentist"

Lead metro story in today's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022702116.html

They made dozens of calls trying to find a dentist that took Medicaid. Three different jobs provided no health insurance. Then the Medicaid coverage was lost, probably because paperwork never reached them, probably because the family was so transient.

Which brings us to this: "In spite of efforts to change the system, fewer than one in three children in Maryland's Medicaid program received any dental service at all in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."

Can a lawsuit change the system? Can healthcare providers be required to take Medicaid?

Angelina Jolie, On Darfur

Angelina Jolie, on Darfur

The hipper the people are who do good things, the hipper it becomes to do good things. And as an added bonus, it just plain draws awareness. So, cynicism be damned, I'm totally in favor of celebrity advocacy.

Previously, On "Gilmour Girls"

Rory gets a call from an editor at the New York Times, offering to have coffee with her. She called him a while ago but never expected a call back!! She's really happy about it. She is hoping there might be an opening for her at the Times. But if not, maybe the editor can set her up with leads at other papers!

The Middle East

Our lives are so hopelessly intertwined with it as they are with Central America, Mexico and much of Southeast Asia. And more parts of the world, I suppose, but those are the ones that pop to mind now. So when things like this short, credibly rendered history lesson wind up on the front page, it heartens me. And of course I'm a fan of this particular reporter and how well he translates a completely different world.

Not half bad for a Reagan Republican.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/07/webb/index.html

I like her no matter what you say

Arundhati Roy:

"I think it’s vital to deprofessionalize the public debate on matters that vitally affect the lives of ordinary people. It’s time to snatch our futures back from the “experts.” Time to ask, in ordinary language, the public question and to demand, in ordinary language, the public answer.
…But in stead of an argument, or an explanation, or disputing of facts, one gets insults, invective, legal threats and the Expert’s Anthem: “You’re too emotional. You don’t understand and it’s too complicated to explain.” The subtext, of course, is “Don’t worry your little head about it. Go and play with your toys. Leave the real world to us.”
It’s the old Brahminical instinct. Colonize knowledge, build four walls around it, and use it to your advantage."
--Roy, at the Third Annual Eqbal Ahmad Lecture, Feb. 15, 2001, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, from “Power Politics”