Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Mental Recession?

It’s July, and we have a mini-heatwave, yet the talk is of next winter. Take a look at these numbers for home heating oil here in Massachusetts.

Average Price For July 8

  • 2008: 4.71
  • 2007: 2.54
  • 2006: 2.58
  • 2005: 1.98
  • 2004: 1.54
  • 2003: 1.31
  • 2002: 1.16
  • 2001: 1.31

Somebody should let Phil Gramm, former senator and now economic advisor to John McCain, know that there’s nothing psychological about the cost of energy. There are many people in the northeast who simply will not be able to pay their heating bills, and they need to do their whining now, before they freeze in their own homes. And today the price of a barrel of crude oil has set yet another record.

Liturgial Lettering

Charles M. Schulz in \A couple of posts ago I shook my head in dismay because it seems Doonesbury now has computer lettering, and I expressed my admiration for Charles Schulz having lettered his comic strips by hand even when his hand was shaking. Schulz’s lettering, instantly recognizable, had a lot of style, as seen in this single panel from the book Schulz’s Youth, a must-have collection for Schulz fans of cartoons that he did for the Church of God. Take note of the “CMS” signature.

I can relate to this cartoon, having gone through a very religious period in my own youth. I remember how, as a member of Campus Crusade for Christ, we were warned against the “liberal” members of the Intervarsity group from another school. We occasionally got together for fellowship meetings and to pool our resources for retreats. It seems silly to me now, but even between groups such as ours there were denominations. This is my semi-sneaky way of introducing an upcoming post about somebody I knew in college named Paul Howley.

P.S. Hey, guess what? Take a close look at the enlarged view of that scanned cartoon. I think that’s computer lettering! I’ll check with Nat Gertler, who did the editing and layout.

P.P.S. I asked Nat if the original captions were typeset, and here is his reply.

The cartoons were indeed originally published with typeset captions, with some variation in the font. Since obviously Schulz did not typeset them himself, I didn’t feel the need to keep that aspect of the original edition (and resetting them allowed me some flexibility, like putting the text to the side in some captions rather than beneath, helping things fit the squarish book better.) And while the set type looked fine on the cartoons in their original context (in the midst of a page of typeset articles), I thought that using a font based on Schulz’s hand lettering would be more comfortable visually. (You’ll note that the lettering has the shake in it, despite the cartoons being before Schulz’s health troubles.)

Having said that, there is one cartoon there that has genuine Schulz hand-lettering: page 165. Some of the places this cartoon has been reused have reset it in type; I was glad to have the source with the hand lettering.

–Nat

Thanks, Nat! Here’s the cartoon he refers to…

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Another book Nat did that I highly recommend is It’s Only A Game, a collection of comic strips done by Schulz and the late Jim Sasseville, who also assisted on some of the Peanuts comic books.

Animal Lovers Love McCain?

This survey is pure silliness. If people insist they don’t vote based on a candidate having a dog or cat, then why bother with a survey like this? The candidates never get to spend much time at home, so even if the pet isn’t there just for show, they aren’t the ones taking care of it anyway. Obama isn’t about putting on a show. Whether or not he wears a flag lapel pin or has a dog is meaningless.

Fully Insured?

Ever hear of balance billing? It’s a game that health care providers and insurance companies play with their customers caught in the middle, and it’s getting a lot of attention in California. The idea is insurance companies reimburse only the amount that Medicare pays for a given service, which is sometimes about 60% of the actual cost, and the patients are billed for the difference. Combined with the free care that many hospitals provide to uninsured emergency room walk-ins, it’s no wonder health care providers want fully insured patients to be fully insured.

I make my living working at a company that depends upon the viability of hospitals. Carol worked at two suburban Boston hospitals that closed. Shut down and gone. So there’s a reason for hospital administrators to insist upon full reimbursement for services.

Until and unless there’s national health in the United States, it’s my expectation that at some point “fully insured” will mean having a sizable deductible. Everybody will pay something like the first $1000 annually for individual coverage and $2500 for a family. These amounts would be adjusted over a period of time until they’re doubled. The elderly, diabetics and pregnant women would go through that very quickly, of course, but many people would be paying for all of their routine care.

The problem is, of course, that some people won’t go to the doctor and they’ll end up in emergency rooms anyway. But by shifting the financial burden of primary care to consumers, the hope would be that premiums would drop enough that more people could be covered for cancer and heart attacks. And no more of that pre-existing condition nonsense. Health care as we know it in America would be gone, but I just don’t see how else the system can manage.

And let’s be honest with ourselves. Many health problems are caused by eating, drinking, smoking, and lack of exercise.

You’ve Been Tubed

The list of everything you’ve ever watched on YouTube will soon be in the hands of Viacom. This is ridiculous.

What is Viacom going to find people were watching that belongs to them? Mostly Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and that won’t be news to them. You’d think those guys could put some pressure on the suits and tell them to lay off. Deal with reality and find a way to make it pay without making the fans feel like crooks.