Almost TGIF

I did go to the gym tonight on foot and went shopping afterwards. I'll deal with the truck this weekend maybe. There's a Publix in the same shopping center where the gym is. Bought some "GreenWise" chicken Italian sausages (never saw them before)--raised without antibiotics; no artificial ingredients; air-chilled; and with natural preservatives. I just hope that when one of these chickens gets sick, they do give it antibiotics if necessary, rather than let it suffer.

I read the ingredients on the package. I guess the natural preservative is salt. These are hot Italian sausages, so I figure the hot spice also acts as a natural preservative. There was also some sodium lactate in it, but my research indicates that this enhances the flavor.

I'll make a nice spaghetti sauce with these for the weekend and also use some regular ground sirloin (which I assume has antibiotics in it).

We watched "Queer As Folk" on Logo tonight. (I'd never seen all the installments.) Last week they bumped it for the presidential debates. We were very disappointed. I already know where the candidates stand on almost every issue, but I'm still a little worried about Hillary's stand on healthcare, now that she's getting big financial backing from the healthcare industries. As far as I know, John Edwards still has the best plan, but obviously he's not going to win the nomination.

No more vitriol from this podium. As angry and frustrated as I get sometimes, it's not worth it to sit here and lash out when frankly I should be going to bed. Plus, if I've had a cocktail or two (as I do on occasion), it comes across as a freakish, paranoid rant. Then I have to delete it the next day. I'm tired of doing that!

Paul Krugman

From today's article, "The Substance Thing", wherein he derides the Republican candidates for their lack thereof and further states:

Whatever the fate of the Edwards candidacy, Mr. Edwards will deserve a lot of the credit if and when we do get universal care in this country.

Mr. Edwards has also offered a detailed, sensible plan for tax reform, and some serious antipoverty initiatives.

Four months after the Edwards health care plan was announced, Barack Obama followed with a broadly similar but somewhat less comprehensive plan. Like Mr. Edwards, Mr. Obama has also announced a serious plan to fight poverty.

Hillary Clinton, however, has been evasive. She conveys the impression that there’s not much difference between her policy positions and those of the other candidates — but she’s offered few specifics. In particular, unlike Mr. Edwards or Mr. Obama, she hasn’t announced a specific universal care plan, or explicitly committed herself to paying for health reform by letting some of the Bush tax cuts expire.

For those who believe that the time for universal care has come, this lack of specifics is disturbing. In fact, what Mrs. Clinton said about health care in February’s Democratic debate suggested a notable lack of urgency: “Well, I want to have universal health care coverage by the end of my second term.”

On Saturday, at the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, she sounded more forceful: “Universal health care will be my highest domestic priority as president.” But does this represent a real change in position? It’s hard to know, since she has said nothing about how she would cover the uninsured.

And even if you believe Mrs. Clinton’s contention that her positions could never be influenced by lobbyists’ money — a remark that drew boos and hisses from the Chicago crowd — there’s reason to worry about the big contributions she receives from the insurance and drug industries. Are they simply betting on the front-runner, or are they also backing the Democratic candidate least likely to hurt their profits? . . .