This was one of those days when the photographs and the BLOG writing don't have anything at all to do with each other... except that they show what attracted my attention today...

If you know anything at all about bees you know that the bee in the first picture is a creature that works not for himself but for the entire population of the hive.  I admire that... and I was especially glad to get one of the last bottle brush blossoms of the season.  How could anyone not like the outrageous red this plant has evolved to display to get the attention of bees and people like me.

AND ANOTHER THING…

How embarrassing it is for us civil citizens in America that we are having this strained national conversation about the Affordable Care Act like pouty children rejecting good coats parents have bought for them at considerable cost so they can be more comfortable and safer in the cold of winter.  In the first place, we should be embarrassed that we don’t have a national health care program because other progressive, less rich other countries do far better in this matter than we do.  We should be embarrassed that we don’t already have a program which would demonstrate our concern for the welfare (whoops! Awkward word, that.) of all the citizens of our country. 

A concern expressed and explained by the anchor on a national news broadcast this morning is that for the Affordable Care program to be successful, (that means successful enough to have it paid for without “increasing the tax burden” on “the American citizens,” which is the way Speaker Boehner phrases it) it has to include a big bunch of people who won’t need the insurance they are buying.  In order for the program to work, younger people are required to participate by paying for insurance that many of them won’t need as often as middle aged and older participants will need it. Somewhere along the way, many Americans have failed to be educated to understand the meaning of “united”  in the official name of our country. You see the problem here. The talk today has been about a new House bill that basically cuts the insurance industry free for the next year to go on denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, charging women more than men because being a woman apparently is seen as a pre-existing condition that costs more, and generally boosting profits for insurance companies to whatever extent they feel inclined to do to continue to pay CEOs in the $25 million range.  The Senate is likely not to sign the bill passed by the house because it does nothing to further the cause of Affordable Health Care, and actually sets the program back.  Even if the Senate should pass it, the President won’t sign it.

Somewhere along the way since the presidency of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the majority of the folks clustered under the Republican party’s umbrella which he defined and distinguished by demonstrating the power of a democracy united in commitment to the welfare (Whoops… there’s that objectionable word again) of all its citizens… abandoned his understanding and have lost his commitment to all people. 

One of the big complaints raised repeatedly this week was that the Affordable Care Act requires women well beyond child-bearing age to buy an insurance policy that covers pregnancy.  It’s odd that the Republican congresswomen well past menopause who was complaining bitterly to a reporter about having maternity costs spread among all people, even women who won't need it and all men who never need it, apparently hadn’t thought about the fact that she and no other women will ever get prostate cancer or testicular cancer.