Sick? Oh?

Being Healthy, Educated, and Confident Is Damaging To The System
- random Canadian dude, "Sicko"

If you haven't seen Sicko, you need to.

Despite all evidence I'm shown during work hours, I am constantly confused by the complete inability we Americans have to change our system. It's not like I don't know why...

We work too hard, we eat shitty stuff, and we generally just don't take care of ourselves and each other. That alone, when you're a child, can get you removed from your parents. As an adult, it's seen as being responsible. How is it responsible to saddle yourself, let alone your coworkers, with the debt accrued through ill health and then tell them (or yourself) that you're just not working hard enough?

Even as I type this, I'm getting tired. I can feel myself growing nauseated with my own words. "You know this shit already. Most people do." I say to myself.

Yet, every morning, I still eat Lucky Charms. I'd lie, but the days of giving a fuck about what people think have long passed for me. My addiction is mine alone... and the intervention, while helpful, still did not rid me of my jones for high fructose corn syrup (thanks, Mom, for the pamphlets, though)

Is it because we're just weak? Maybe we all just have no spine. We're all sick and crazy and violent and willing to watch the Emperor strut around in his birthday suit while drinking four dollar coffee-infused milkshakes because we're just... gaping maws of consumerized punkass?

I mean, true, we have serious problems because we usually say absolutely nothing about them until its so bad that we have to watch documentaries about them... but that couldn't be the cause...

No, we're possessed. That's right! That's got to be it! Despite current information that suggests that only 23 percent of Americans think our President is doing a good job, we are clearly forged from the Devil. Nah... I'm thinkin of Cheney... (rimshot)

But what's even weirder is that our President actually gets that tiny speck of a part right. I said it: He actually exercises. He rode bikes with Lance Armstrong and didn't even need to call it quits early. Lance even said he was impressed. That's a guy in good shape.

He maintains a pretty good diet for a guy that can have any food that he wants. Sure, his home state is the inventor of the McGriddle sandwich and actually has specialized hamburgers from McDonald's months before they become East Coast testmarketed, but he really doesn't indulge in them. In fact, insiders in the administration say that he'd have his wife cook for him if they didn't have a cook (and Laura makes a damn good vegetable soup, so I hear.) That sounds damn healthy!

Not only that.. but you do know he's in bed by nine, right? He's also an early riser, which is linked to all sorts of research about brain activity as being a sign of good mental health (holy shit... I can't believe I just wrote that) and in addition, a sign that your heart is in good shape... must be all that exercise.

Oh, and let's not forget that he knows when its time to take a vacation. He spends downtime cutting wood on the ranch or even taking restful stays at Camp David. His wife and kids go sometimes but sometimes he even goes alone. He might take work with him, but more than half of his day is either spent recuperating or in some form of moderate or low-impact exercise.

For a guy that looks 43, he's actually just turned 61. If I didn't know that I'd be murdered just for saying it, I'd probably equate him to the French in his ability to --- (sound of bullet shattering glass)... ahem... ah... anyway, moving on!

So, to put it mildly, our POTUS takes great care of himself. Why does he think its so unimportant for us to be able to do the same? Why would he allow members of his party to then crush all voices that cry out for better health care and education and medicine and... well, just dignity and respect?

Greed? Maybe. Fear? Definitely. Because we let him?

(sound of shattering glass, again.)