Old news?

Interesting news item from yesterday about Evil Healthcare Giants and their Sneaky Plans to Wreak Havoc.

Health Care Investor Buys 33.4% of Lions Gate Shares 1 Week before the Release of Michael Moore’s SICKO

I got to see the movie, obviously. But maybe it would've been more difficult than a couple blocks' walk if I still lived in Duluth? Probably would've had to go to Minneapolis, or hope that some bright spark with bucks reclaimed the NorShor Theatre from its current incarnation as The Norshor Experience (maybe NSFW? It's pretty cold in Duluth) and showed a little Sicko for folks unable to drive two-three hours.

That theatre was pretty great. We saw Wellstone! there with free paper bags of popcorn. But I'm sure the Experience is just as stimulating in a variety of ways.

SICKO - an unjustified and rambling review

Whenever I see Michael Moore these days, I always think of that impersonator on Arrested Development who shames Lucille into enlisting Buster in the Army.

Regardless, on Saturday A. and I went to see Sicko, which was an enjoyable experience. Here are some of my thoughts on it, and by thoughts I don't mean a dissection of what is true and what is glossed over in Moore's facts, just my biased, emotional impression as an American with a chronic disease and supposed-full-coverage health insurance. Also, as I am sure Michael Moore fans are just as fanatic as Potter ones:

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

If I knew how to make it turn purple and blink, I would do it. You have been warned.

The editing was, as usual, great. Moore's always been entertaining, and clever at snipping bits (although context may get lost on the cutting room floor) and adding silly stuff. The Skeeeery Socialism Government bits were great. A. and I have talked about that concept at length, and it really is interesting (as Moore pointed out) how the American citizen is supposed to be taken in by contradicting rhetoric. It would be socialistic and BluddyKommieseque for the government to enforce heavier standards on cars or food or medication/medical care, but everyone loves a smoothly running postal service. Also, we discussed how the division such conflicting references (and the subsequent confusion for regular people like us, because who decides this? Other than politicians bought by lobbyists) are comparable to the strange dichotomy of the definition of patriotism in this country. Maybe more on that later.

The stitching-up of a wound was a whammy of an opening spot.

The older couple in the beginning broke my heart - especially when their whiny son (though I don't know if he was really bitching at them - more at the situation?) basically chewed them out for the havoc they had wreaked by moving into their daughter's house. He did not look particularly healthy, but maybe he won't make it to their age to experience the same problems?

I was on the Star Wars list! Colitis (ulcerative) Woohoo! You better believe I was watching for it.

The woman who went to Canada and lied about being a citizen made me a little angry. But then, her options are so limited based on insurance that I don't know what else she could do. I also wonder if she has had difficulty going to Canada since the movie release; the clinics have probably issued an all-points bulletin with movie-stills of her!

American hipsters in Paris: irritating. Oh, well. That segment of the film still made me want to live there, even more so than Canada. What on earth would we of stress-exacerbated diseases do with five weeks of vacation? I shrivel in envy.

I loved the doctor who testified before the Senate about negligence and presumed wrongful death in her position. She was incredible. I wished there was more about her.

It was hard, watching evidence of some of the conditions in this country. Any illness/coverage complaints I have are, for the moment, secondary to that shit. At least I'm still in a position to support myself. That may change some day, but right now I should be out there working against this system.

Cuba stuff - funny, but I have no idea how accurate it all was, or whether or not their trip was legal/illegal. I wonder if Customs took Robin's inhalers away at the border.

Overall, this should not in any way have been a wake-up call. But it really was. I have a pretty good imagination, and, masochist that I am, I enjoy lying awake at night thinking up scenarios in which I cannot work, I have no insurance, A. breaks up with me because the stress is killing his studying (or alternately A. stays with me because he feels sorry for me), I have to move home, my parents can't support me, I have to go on welfare/disability, Rush Limbaugh calls me a welfare wench or a liberal loser or whatever his writers call people, I start stalking him, A. leaves me, dogs bark and I die in horrible pain at a bus stop in December in northern Minnesota.

I am now scared all over again, but at least Michael Moore has given me a better visual for my fear.

That's just sick...sick, sick, sick, sick.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing Sicko.

One thing I liked about Fahrenheit 9/11 was the way Michael Moore kept his personal on-screen presence to a minimum. In Bowling for Columbine (which I also enjoyed) we see so much of him, and while it's not offensive, it feels a touch narcissistic to me, and detracts from the issues he presents. I hear that Sicko is presented similarly to Fahrenheit, happily.

IMDB has this quote from one of the users (at once praising the film and warning that its contents may distress viewers): "...or Ron Paul could get elected president and as a former physician he might actually fix the system."

That made me giggle, because I immediately thought of this man. Not exactly what I'd call a former physician who would be willing to "fix the system" except in the case of high-profile coma patients. Yecch. Ron Paul, on the other hand, I know nothing about except that Technorati usually lists him on their Most Popular tags cloud.

Last night I ate some heavenly enchiladas de espinaca with no explosively ill results. Sometimes I think Ulcerative Colitis must be a judgment from a higher power, since I love all kinds of food. (This would really make the case against reincarnation because it's all happening here and now, unless I was a bigger jerk/foodie in a previous/future life.) But that thought flies out the window on good days and nights, when beer and beans mix and pass quietly. All part of the Ineffable Plan, I guess?

On the earthly plane, as I'm flush with meds, somewhat reliable health insurance and job security, I definitely fit this profile of "defending what I have." That's not good. But it's the best I can do at the moment, other than supporting Mister Moore by paying for his movie rather than downloading it online. Although he seems to be encouraging that, last I heard.

Speaking of food (and er, not speaking of rats), I also would like to see this.