Good Morning. The sun is streaming in here in my seattle apartment. I'm eating chocolate chip cookies and butter tarts and reading about my homeland. My reading today is a bit unorthodox, or perhaps unexpected is a better word. I'm on page 26 (of 3??) of "Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada" by Roy Romanow (former Premier of Saskatchewan).
My interest in this subject is fueled by my recent realization that I need to get myself some health insurance. Fret not, I do have some. But should my medical expenses exceed $25,000 USD (maximum lifetime coverage of the policy that I have through my school), I'm up the creek. That adequate health insurance is rather expensive was not an entirely unexpected discovery last night as I searched the web for the holy grail: adequate, affordable, and user-friendly health insurance. In a country where 40 million people (approximately 16% of the population) have no health insurance, I didn't really expect the situation to be any different.

This all left me rather forlorn, wishing I was back in my homeland where healthcare is a right, but also wondering about the current state affairs so far as the healthcare system is concerned. Somewhere in the back of my memory Mr. Romanow's name lingered as "the author of some report" about the whole thing. Jump to this morning, I typed in "www.canada.ca" and a few clicks later (about 4) I'd downloaded the report in its entirety.

I've yet to read much of any real import, but I would like to share some of the introductory thoughts and put them out:

"Medicare is a worthy national acheivement, a defining aspect of our citizenship and an expression of social cohesion."

How attached do all of you feel to medicare, to what extent do you include it as part of your canadian identity?

"The reality is that Canadians embrace medicare as a public good, a national symbol, and a defining aspect of their citizenship"

A few facts (dare I say) about healthcare:
- health spending in Canada is on par with most western countries and is substantially lower than in the United States
- we devote a smaller portion of our GDP to healthcare today than we did ten years ago

Any thoughts sent to any of my email addresses will be dutifully posted. If anyone would like posting priveleges, please let me know.

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Techno Tid-bit, August 13th 2003
It seems that our glorious technology industry has gotten us tangibly close to holographic data storage. Many working prototypes already exist, and some are slated for market release as early as next year. The whole thing dates back to 1963 "when Pieter van Heerden, a researcher at Polaroid, first proposed using the method to store data in three dimensions." In theory, it is an excellent idea; the principle challenge over the past four decades has been to develop (or find) "the right recording material--a photosensitive substance that is both stable and cheap enough to use commercially."
Why all the fuss? Holographic storage has three attributes that make it very appealing:
1. Capacity, adding another dimension makes for a lot more space. (imagine 1 terabyte on media the size of a CD)
2. Speed, light (the method of storage and retrieval) is very fast
3. Searchability - more efficient...if anyone is curious as to how, or would like to provide a succint and illuminating explanation, let me know (there is one in the Economist, the source for this Techno Tid-bit).

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Always American
The Pentagon recently proposed that an online futures market be created to enable punters to place bets on the odds of forthcoming terrorist activity. The idea was that the market would bring all the hidden expertise to the fore and aid the nation in preventing the next 9/11. Democratic Senators didn't cotton to the idea and the plan has since been nixed.
In related news (conceptually at least), as of last year Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank have been offering traders the opportunity to place bets on the vicissitudes of the unemployment rate. Who said the rich don't get richer and the poor poorer. Where's my trickle (down effect).
In thoroughly unrelated news, a quarter of those aged 25 and up in Arkansas do not have a high-school diploma. Despite this, the Arkansas state legislature has decided to restrict even further the reading material available by passing into a law a bill that forces bookstores and libraries to seperate "adult material" from "more tasteful stuff". According to state code, material that has "any description, exhibition, presentation, or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse" is considered "harmful to children". Earlier this year, in a school library in Cedarville (Arkansas), Harry Potter books were placed in a cabinet under lock and key to shield Christian sensibilities from the scary witchcraft. Though this action was later ruled unconstitutional (by a fedral judge),it does not bode well; we here at Always American believe that if Arkansas wants to step up in the field of literacy, it had better start training some new players.
(Source: The Economist, most quotes from the Economist)
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So who wants to go into politics? Your author (I've been reading too much of the Economist) feels that the left-wing, in Canada and the United States is in need of revival. Revival could be said to be a euphemism for leadership, but that might be a tad unfair. I ask not even for a left "left-wing", simply, I would like something other than neo-conservatism, or its thinly veiled progeny, compassionate conservatism. I want politics with heart, politicians with integrity, and a populace with a sense of responsibility. Perhaps I'd better step up myself.

Economic Eddies

Citigroup and J.P. Morgan have reached an agreement with American regulators. The fines are, relative to their overall profits, small, however there is no established methodology for how to go about such things. More importantly, the two have been forced to concede two important legal points. "The first is that, even though every element of a transaction they structure could be legal, the whole could be misleading enough to violate the law. The second, is that banks are responsible for how their clients use the fancy financial structures they create."
(Source: The Economist, all quotes from the Economist)

Well, that about brings me to the end, both of this week's Economist, and of me free time today. I may check in again later to write about "Film Theory". Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.