If you’ve got no health insurance and you live in Oklahoma, you’re not alone. We’ve got the 4th highest percentage of uninsured residents in the US, according to a recent study. Well, Kim Holland, Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner, has held a Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance to come up with recommendations and suggestions to help get more Oklahomans insured, and at the 4th one held just this month she came up with some horrible ideas.

Barring a law requiring the purchase of health insurance, which Holland concedes would be a political long shot, “inducements” that penalize those who fail to insure themselves would help, she said.

Among the possible inducements Holland proposed was forfeiture of football season tickets […] forfeiture of lottery or gaming winnings, loss of state income tax deductions or licenses to drive, hunt or fish.

“None of those are very pleasant, but there needs to be a consequence,” Holland said.

Ok, let’s let that sink in. She thinks a solution for getting people health insurance is the penalize them. I think she, and anyone who supports this measure, suffers from having privilege. She’s never had to work an hourly wage job where you aren’t even eligible for health insurance until you’ve worked there 6 months. Or because they don’t offer you enough hours. Or been laid off (like the many thousands this year due to the economy). Or had a health condition where you can’t work. Or had to care for a family member who can’t work. And on and on.

I’m lucky that I’ve not had to worry about a job or health insurance for a while, thanks to government employment. But just like many of my friends, there was a time I was without health insurance for a while. I had just graduated with a Bachelors, but couldn’t find a job, thanks to the mid-90s recession. I worked two jobs for a while, but ended up moving back to Oklahoma where I worked in convenience store; another hourly wage job where I didn’t qualify for insurance until I worked there for 6 months. I finally got a better paying job with insurance, but there are way too many people who aren’t as lucky. And Holland’s ideas will hurt them way too much.

I mean…taking away their drivers license won’t “make them” get insurance. It will just create more drivers who don’t have a license, which in turn will have them not be able to get car insurance. Not to mention just do basic living. Oklahoma doesn’t have a very good public transportation system, so how are these people going to get to work? Or buy groceries?

And lest you think Holland is alone in her thinking, just listen to State Rep. Kris Steele, co-chair of the House Health Care Reform Task Force:

[R]equiring Oklahomans to purchase health insurance is not a popular stance among lawmakers.

“I believe the place to start is to create a situation within our state that people are without excuse for not having health insurance,” Steele said. “Once we get to the point where people are without excuse, then we create the incentives.”

Those incentives would include rewarding those who obtain insurance and punishing those who don’t, said Steele, R-Shawnee.

“You need the carrot and the stick,” he said.Holland said the use of inducements, such as revoking in-state tuition discounts for uninsured Oklahomans, would send a message. “We have developed this culture over the years that some don’t feel like they have to pay their medical bills,” she said.

Way to stereotype the poor, guy. Uninsured people aren’t just sitting around thinking “Hey, I think I’ll just not get insurance and avoid paying my medical bills so I can go to a football game and play the lottery!”

Is Obama’s plan the solution? Well, it’s got to work better than just threatening people into doing what you want. If you’re as pissed about this as I am, let them know.

Contact Kim Holland at the Oklahoma Insurance Department. There’s an email form on the page, along with a snail mail address and phone number.

Contact Kris Steele by email, or phone his office at the Capitol. (405) 557-7345 Would it surprise you to learn he’s a Baptist minister? Yeah, me neither.

Technorati tags: uninsured, oklahoma

It seems that the consensus on Left 4 Dead among all my gamer friends is the same. It’s fucking *intense* and a hell of a lot of fun. The first time you get overrun by a zombie horde, we all were saying “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” and wildly firing into the crowd…often hitting our own teammates.

I’m the type of gamer who generally doesn’t like playing against others, although I love playing co-op. That’s where this game shines. You’re a team of four survivors fighting their way through the zombie infested city, and I’m glad there are 4 of us, since I can easily become overrun and die with just one person. There are thousands of zombies out there, and they’ll come from everywhere…sometimes all at once.

The one part I’ve not played yet is when a team plays co-op against another team, where one team plays the zombies and the other plays the survivors. I think we’ve got it lined up for this weekend. I’d really like to play as a zombie and chomp on someone. Although I’ll be playing against others, the co-op with the other zombies will make it worth it I think.

If you’re on Xbox Live, get the demo for free and give it a try. And leave me a comment if you wanna swap gamertags. I’m up for more online play.

PC gamers, you’re not left out. Get it via Steam.

Either way you play, you can’t go wrong with zombies.

A study was released earlier this month, finding that American students are far lacking in science compared to the rest of the world. Nothing shocking there really. But you know what sucks? It looks like we may really need Danica McKellar’s books more than we thought. The study found that while both boys and girls are lacking in math, girls are much harder hit:

In elementary school, girls do as well as or better in math than boys. In middle school, Mertz and her colleagues suggest, girls with an inclination for math begin to lose interest and fall behind, mostly due to peer pressure and societal expectations. Throughout middle and high school, social stigma and lack of appropriately challenging educational opportunities for the mathematically precocious becomes a hard reality in most American schools. Consequently, gifted girls, even more so than boys, often camouflage their mathematical talent to fit in well with their peers.

It seems that this is making it’s way deeper into the norm. Math, and by extension, science, is more for boys. Our culture reinforces it more than anything. Take this example of science kits that are marketed towards kids that elle found. Girls need science disguised as a spa kit, while boys get funky and fun science experiments. This is just one example of an endless stream of crappy girl toys, but I best switch gears, since this isn’t my focus…at least not this time.

Now if, after bucking the norms, they grow up into smart young women who embrace their geekiness, smarts, and femininity, then they have a tougher time. Being judged on their looks, like when they are young and attractive, is just one issue. Like the Nerd Girls, who focus on being smart with embracing their nerd aspects and femininity. The Newsweek article published on them was atrocious, with the two women authors playing up the sexiness aspect, when that’s not what they are about.

Once women graduate, get into ar career, and become successful, then it seems that the criticism increases. Take some recent examples.

A recent letter to Nature Magazine, via Sciencewoman, seems to think that women just need to not enter science if they are going to leave. The major problem with the end of the letter is the assumption that women leave because of children or family obligations that are in conflict with their career. Apparently they didn’t read The Athena Factor, which concluded that the major problems are hostility of the workplace culture and isolation. There does need to be more work done to help make science careers “family friendly”, and that would help both men and women, but blaming women for leaving, without even doing the research as to why they leave, is detrimental.

Unfortunately it’s even women in science who hurl the criticisms and insults at other women. Take a comment about Dr. Isis:

I liked it [Dr. Isis’s blog] at first but now the writing is just a steriotype [sic] and a pretty poor one at that. Thing that bothers me more is that this cartoon personality makes female scientists sound like shoe fettish [sic] ignorant bimbos.

Dr. Isis did not like this comment, as I wouldn’t either, and as a response she wrote quite a rant.

A woman who is aggressive, or who proclaims to anyone who will listen that she has the potential to achieve great things, is not a bitch. A woman who chooses to wear high-heeled shoes is not a slut, a bimbo, or a tramp. We need not be ashamed of the things that make us women (though, granted, we all embrace and express our femininity differently and that should always be acceptable). Neither our bodies, the social/gender roles we may choose to embrace, or our decision to or not to parent children, should ever have the capacity to limit our academic success. The first time it is deemed acceptable to suggest that someone is hurting science because of who they are, and not because of the quality of the science they produce, is the time I hang up my labcoat, turn out the lights in the lab, and hand the keys back to the status quo.

The whole thing is awesome, and I agree wholeheartedly. Attacking a woman with a sexist attack hurts everyone, and fighting against those type of attacks, even when you don’t agree with the woman’s positions, is how feminism works. Zuska at Scienceblogs also weighed in with more goodness:

The problem, you see, is that women aren’t really allowed to be ANYTHING in science. If you are a hot goddess then you are Not Serious and Not A Real Scientist and you are Ruining Science For Other Women Who Are More Serious and so on. If you are just a regular goddess (like Zuska) then you are an ugly hairy-legged man-hating feminazi who needs to get laid and Not A Real Scientist and Ruining Science For Other Women Who Are More Reasonable.

It’s just like always. A woman has to be smart, but not too smart, attractive, but not too attractive, want to be a mother, but not have it interfere with her career or it will hurt all women…it’s just hard to avoid any kind of criticism for being a woman in a science/math career. Hell, sometimes just being a woman in general. I just hope by the time Baby Grrl gets older it’s at least a little better for her. I don’t ever expect sexism to go away completely, but the less she has to deal with it, the better.

Technorati tags: women in science, stereotypes, feminism

Five years ago Child’s Play launched, and last week Penny Arcade made its annual announcement that the site is up and ready to receive donations!

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over two million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With over 45 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, so please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference!

Last year gamers raised over $1.3 million, and they’re well on their way with over $100,000 so far. There are many ways to help out, too. Choose a hospital in your area, like I’d pick Children’s Hospital here in OKC, pick an item or two on their wish list, and Amazon will even ship it to the hospital. Easy peasy. There are tons of toys, games, and books to choose from, in all price ranges.

With the economy like it is, and with so many great charities that need help, I know it’s hard to give sometimes. But even just tossing a couple of dollars their way via PayPal helps out. If 100 people can give just $3, that would get a hospital a Wii and some left over!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, child’s play, charity, gamers

I’ve promised a few times that I’d be getting back into writing, both on this blog and fiction, but thanks to work and life…it hasn’t become a regular habit. Well, now that my large PC replacement project has come to a close (for this quarter anyway…more to come in Feb) I should be able to keep up a little more. Looking back, I really am ashamed at how little I blogged before the election. Usually I’m much more ranty. Ah well. Even though Obama will be in the White House, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be stuff to blog about. While he’s pretty damn good, he had already done things I didn’t agree with. Like vote for FISA, which included the retroactive immunity to the Telcos for their illegal wiretapping.

There’s also tons to blog about with the backlash against the California Prop 8 amendment. Like the protest happening here in OKC this Saturday at the OKC City Hall, 12:30pm!

I’ve also got some stuff lined up to do with girls, feminism, and science, so lots of stuff left to talk about for sure.

Thanks to all who have kept up with me, and for sure if you haven’t…add me to your RSS reader and/or follow me on Twitter!

Look for a Full of Fun Fridays! post tomorrow, too…

Man, I love the sound of that. I can’t help but get misty every time I see his picture or hear him speak. So many parts of his victory speech still make me tear up, even after the 10th time I’ve read it. This is a time that I can say I very happy and proud to be an American. Every time I think that “My president and first family are African-American!” I smile. What an amazing part of American history. It has shown young people that they can make a difference, and I’ve heard many people say that Obama becoming president means that they can do anything. That there really is equality. I shouldn’t be discouraged with the huge win Obama had.

Except I am.

I’m very disappointed that Prop 8 passed. It is the California initiative that changed their State Constitution to ban gay marriage, months after it had been declared legal. Arizona and Florida also passed same-sex bans, with Arkansas banning same-sex couples from adopting.

Not everyone is equal, really.

I think the most upsetting to me is that I live in the reddest of the red states. No county went for Obama, with only 34% of the votes going for him. Oklahoma had the highest percentage of votes for McCain. 65% I live in a state that, even when Bush was at his lowest approval ratings nationally, supported Bush by over 40%. It’s depressing that the majority of people here don’t want the change that Obama will bring. In fact, they don’t want change at all. Look who was re-elected:

State Representative, District 84
Sally Kern (i) 7230 57.9%
Ron Marlett 5247 42.1%

Yes, that Sally Kern. The one who was a national embarrassment when she said gays were a bigger threat than terrorism. I don’t live in her district, but I still wanted her gone. Guess she’s feeling pretty justified in her hatred now.

Also look at this:

Jim Inhofe (i) 763102 56%
Andrew Rice 527569 39%
Stephen P. Wallace 55683 4%

He’s a world wide embarrassment, with his anti-global warming crap and other very conservative beliefs. I’m always ashamed to see one of his stories come up in the national lefty blogs, and I guess it was too much to hope that he would be kicked out this term.

*sigh* I don’t mean to be this pessimistic…really I don’t. I should be jumping for joy that an anti-war, pro-choice, bi-racial, left leaning Democrat got elected. Not to mention having the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate. But I guess I’ve been conditioned after the last 8 years to be depressed, even when I should have some hope.

Guess I should take comfort in that I know many other Oklahomans who want to stay here and change how this state is. As much as I would *love* to live in either Oregon or Washington…they’ve got a point. We can’t back down and let the people who don’t want to change win. Even if we have to drag them kicking and screaming, they need to be shown that hate and discrimination isn’t what is best for our kids, our state, or our nation. I just hope I get the energy to fight back.

At least President-elect Obama and the over 64 million people who voted for him have given us back hope. I thought that was lost years ago.

Technorati tags: obama, oklahoma, election

Even though that line has always cracked me up, don’t *really* vote often. No voter fraud, please!

Just a note to say that I voted this morning, early, down in Norman. The line was so long it took me 1hr 10min. But it was very cool to see that many people out voting. It was nice to see some people looking at the long line and smiling also. You see, I’m not like Republicans who have been trying to purge voter rolls or make it difficult to vote. I believe that everyone should vote, even if I don’t agree with what they’re going to vote for/against. It’s what our country was founded on; giving people the right to elect their representatives. Even though not everyone was allowed to vote back then, we’ve come a long way to make sure that every citizen 18 and over has the right to vote (with some exceptions, like the mentally ill in most states and certain convicted criminals…although I feel that if the person has served their time and paid their debt, they should be able to get their right to vote back)

So please people…go vote tomorrow. Or today if your area allows early voting. Be prepared, the lines will be long, but it will be worth it. And I even believe it, even if Obama doesn’t win. (But…Please win Please win Please win Please win Please win)