Hammer Mill Days

No, no, Lincoln. You need to pull harder on the string. Hold it up, like this... see? That's right. That's... wrong! The storm cloud is to the east, man, to the east! Hoo, man... You got me at a bad time. Just here with the Big Green posse on this bizarro version of the planet Earth - one on which different historical periods co-exist like folks at a multicultural retreat. Our traveling companion, Abe Lincoln (or is it anti-Lincoln? They both tagged along and I'm having trouble telling them apart), is trying to work out how to fly a kite. He got the idea from fellow prominent historical figure Benjamin Franklin, who arrived on board the Lusitania to participate in a little recreational kite-play here on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. I'm encouraging Lincoln to take in a little slack on that kite line, and he's just not getting it. Ben Franklin has offered a few helpful tips, but he keeps getting distracted by his Blackberry. (Guy just can't put it down, for ch...

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health provided us with a useful portrait of the true cost of our current health care system. The study found that uninsured Americans have a 40% higher risk of death than those who have health insurance. Based on current levels of uninsured - somewhere around 45 million people - they estimate the annual death toll of our profit-focused system at around 45,000 lives lost. Lack of insurance is now one of the most deadly medical conditions in this country, ahead of kidney disease in the number killed. That is to say nothing of the number sickened, disabled, and bankrupted in addition - many of the last category, I'm certain, immediate kin to the dead. I would imagine this would be shocking news anywhere else in the world. Here, it merits perhaps a brief reference on the evening news... then it's time to move on. Yep, 45,000 dead from lack of health insurance. Man, that's a lot of bodies, Ken! Up next, here's Brad wit...