Yes, I know…I said I don’t like posting about politics.  But you know what? I just can’t sit here anymore and be branded by some as “brainwashed” or be told I “drank the kool-aid” because I happen to believe that universal healthcare is a good thing.  I work in a hospital and everyday I see and hear from both sides – the extremely rich who come here from all corners of the world and the poor and grateful who have leveraged every penny of credit to afford treatment.

And right now, the thought rattling around in my head (which was inspired by this post, which doesn’t directly make the same connection) is “If we were talking about education, would the argument be different?”  Because, just like healthcare, no where in the Constitution does it say that I as a tax payer have to pay for public schools.  And it doesn’t say anywhere in that document that the US has to provide free and compulsory schooling to everyone. Education itself isn’t even mentioned in the Constitution or the Amendments.

But we do pay for it even if you don’t use it or like it. It’s a “public option” if you will and while some may choose to pay additional funds to send kids to a private school, we as a society provide a State and Federal government-run school system for every child in the country.  And yet, I hear no one yelling “that’s blatant Socialism!” over our education system.

Our system of public education has downfalls, that’s for sure.  Here in Ohio our schools are still illegally funded after our funding system via local property taxes was declared by the courts to be unconstitutional in 1997.  And yet we still continue to pay our taxes year after year and only really grumble when a new levy comes up. Public schools have not destroyed the private school system. 89% of kids in this state use the public option of schooling while the other 11% still pay into the public funding structure and pay additional funds to attend private schools. Choices exist even in a government-run compulsory education system.

I used to work for one of those private schools.  Not every kid there is a rich kid.  There are plenty who have families who leveraged every penny of credit and aid to afford tuition. But when the going got tough they weren’t faced with the option of no schooling at all – they had the public system to fall back on. If their kid was diagnosed with a learning disability that the private school couldn’t handle, they weren’t told “tough luck –it’s a pre-existing condition. Good luck finding help.” And no one has ever had to have a car wash to send their kid to kindergarten.

It can be argued that both education and healthcare are answers to the call to “promote the general welfare” of our people as laid out in the preamble of the Constitution. So why are some people so perfectly happy to accept one and say they are “terrified” of the other?

Many, many thanks to my hubby who worked late into the night for the last couple of weeks to give me a new design for this blog.  I love it and think it much better reflects me and my style (and lets face it, that old knitting background was false advertising since I haven’t knit anything for like 3 years).

You might also notice the new column for BlogHer Ads over to the right.  I applied to be a part of the ad network when I started this blog over a year ago and was recently invited to join.  Yes, I will (eventually) get money from those ads, but it really is just pennies and will help offset the hosting cost for the blog.

Anyway – hope you like the new digs!

I love me some Diet Coke.  I can’t function without it.  I get mad when a restaurant offers Pepsi when I order a Diet Coke because ewwww; it’s DC or nothing, baby.  My co-workers know I’m in my cube each morning when they hear the crack and hiss of my first can opening. I need my daily dose of caffeine and coffee gives me heartburn. Plus I only like coffee that’s loaded up with cream and sugar – not the healthiest choice. I know aspartame is awful for you and DC is all chemicals but as I think KickyBoots has so rightfully pointed out in the past: there is nothing like the sweet burn of aspartame at the back of your throat to get you going.

The problem is I drink a lot of Diet Coke.  If it’s available I will drink it until it’s gone.  I drink a lot of fluids every day (60-90 oz) and if there is DC around I will guzzle it down before I have any water. A couple of weeks ago, after cracking open my 4th or 5th DC of the day I realized how much I was vibrating.  And I wasn’t sleeping well, either.  Hmmmm…maybe it was time to cut back on the DC?

So, I started to wean myself down to one 20 oz. bottle a day. Then I ran out and didn’t buy any more.  I’ve done this before; I detoxed off DC and stayed off the junk for nearly 2 years before I tumbled off the wagon straight into a vat of its bubbly goodness. So I knew I could do it again. The caffeine withdrawal sucked.  I had headaches and was so very tired – like cat nap after work tired.  But then the fog began to clear and the headaches went away.  I’m drinking a ton of water and iced tea in place of my usual daily 6-pack and I’m not so tired anymore.  Except for 3:00 PM each afternoon, then I would give my right pinkie for a cold Diet Coke.  But, so far I haven’t caved.

I’m not sure how long this will last but in the meantime my drink of choice is iced tea or water flavored with cucumber and lemon.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel a tear well up in my eye when I see Diet Coke on a menu.