Porcupine Oddity

Today, I had to look up the meaning of the word "incantation." I vaguely understood it as some kind of chant, or whisper, or blessing but I couldn't get a fix on it even though I've heard it and read it plenty. I still needed a precise definition.
So I pulled it up on the Web and felt dumb when I finally saw its meaning spelled out, because I already knew it. That information was sitting idly somewhere in my brain, but I was unable to call it up.
This has happened several times this week and I'm hoping it's not some kind of premature dementia. That would suck. My gut tells me it's more likely all the television and the computering in my life. I think the endless stream of inane and unimportant information pouring into my brain has no exit and has settled and hindered access to certain parts of it -- like, the smarter parts -- and is slowly wearing it down and dulling my synapses like thick globules of arterial obstruction do to hearts. Symptoms: forgetfulness, inertia, incoherent blog postings, and a flimsy wrist. It is so bad, in fact, that I think of what a 1970s, cocaine-addled David Bowie might sing to me:

...Ground control to Porcupine
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong--
Can you hear me Porcupine?
Can you hear me Porcupine?
Can you hear me Porcupine? Can you ...

Here am I floating round my tin can, far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do

Man, I love Bowie.

Anyhow, this is a public service announcement to you and to an over-Webbed and t.v.'d me to meditate, do yoga, exercise and be mindful or any combination thereof. It will keep at bay the inevitable insanity that comes with our Western generations' irresponsible overexposure to Britney Spearsish stimuli.

Now I am going to watch "The Office."

"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”