Sympathy For The Stupak

Well, the bill passed. It's not the end game for health reform... as far as I'm concerned, Congress has only just now plunked its quarters in, having finally decided that yes, they are bad enough dudes to save the American people. This is level one, people, and it's not going to get any easier from here... but the chances of success are higher than if they'd blinked and walked away.

Among the reasons it took so long to get this far is Bart Stupak, who thinks it's a sin to allow persons bearing wombs unfettered access to healthcare. Although a Democrat, he agrees with the predominantly Republican position that the government should stand as a buffer between women and their doctors and be the final arbiter on reproductive medical issues.

"Pro-Life", in the vernacular.

But surprisingly, I come here not to bury Bart Stupak... Phyllis Schlafly's doing that for me. In a press release that Yahoo! has mistaken for an item of news, Schlafly... mother of Andy Schlafly, a man who once entertained a serious debate as to whether "bimbo" or "floozy" was the best representation of God's inerrant word in a Bible passage describing a young girl now that the English language had blessed us with levels of misogyny he assumed that ancient Greek couldn't have mustered... describes Stupak as being "formerly Pro-Life" based on his support of the health care bill.

Because he was willing to settle for an executive order making it explicit that the law that contained no changes to the restrictions on federal money used for abortions would not make any changes to the restrictions on federal money used for abortions, this "article" represents as a matter of fact that he's renounced his Pro-Life position.

If only, Phyllis... if only.

Oh, well... she's still one up on the actual reporters of Fox News who slap a "D"-tag on any Republican caught in an embarrassing situation.

Cutting Teeth

Ugh, ugh, ugh... I've woken up this morning with a ferocious toothache in a tooth that's given me intermittent problems before (it has a habit of getting ground a bit when a twitch makes my jaw go sideways) and what seems to be a small and tender swelling in my jaw. Doctor Internet suggests this might be an abscessed tooth. On the other hand, I have a scratch on the inside of my cheek down near where the pain is so maybe it's just irritated and I'm oversensitive to the tooth pain because I'm worried. But back on the first hand an abscessed tooth is nothing to mess around with, and it's not like I've had regular dental care the past few years. If it is, I don't know how I'm going to begin to pay for this, except by canceling a lot of my (largely business-related) travel plans for the coming year... and even that probably won't cover it.

Update:

After laying back down for a while, the tooth pain subsided and I noticed that the swelling is way more in my cheek than my gums... in fact, that whole side of my face is a little puffy. Which probably isn't a good thing but also probably isn't a tooth abscess. I took a Benadryl in case it was a reaction to something and the swelling in the right half of my lips, which is where it was most obviously noticeable, seems to have gone down quite a bit.

If nothing else, this prompted me to finally check out private dental plans and it's looks like there are some that I could manage on my budget. I'll have to do some major consumer review-type research to find out what people's experiences with them have been. Major dental work would still be a relatively serious expense, but it would be a matter of screwing me for a month rather than a few months in a row. Regular cleanings and screenings would be a walk in the park. This has always been on my "to be done at some point" list... really should have done it when my coverage from my last job ended. I suppose my expectation that it would be prohibitively expensive made me a little afraid to look. More the fool, I.

Anybody reading this have experience with Careington dental discount plans? Their fees look good, the discounts look good... a quick search turns up some pretty good reviews and no complaints that don't amount to "they charged me to renew my plan at the end of the year like I had already agreed they could!" But it's hard to know a good review isn't astroturfing. I'd love to hear from someone who's used them.

On To Tasks

Today's definite task:

• Write Tales of MU chapter

Tasks to be completed if I have energy after that: Stuff for Tuesday.

• Put up some more SHN.


• Start Tribe 6


• Flash!

Face-based shenanigans have definitely put a crimp in today.

Aspirin has the side-effect of making me drowsy, but it was the only anti-inflammatory painkiller I had. I got naproxen now, though. My face is still all puffy and I have no idea what's up with that. It's tender, but from what I can tell there's no connection between the irritated part of my cheek and my gums. I can touch my gums without wincing. I can't touch my cheekThe tooth pain might have been a complete coincidence... maybe I ground my teeth just before waking up. I don't know. If the swelling doesn't improve tomorrow, I guess I'll go into urgent care and see what they say.