Eddie Izzard on being transvestite and transgender

Eddie Izzard has long been my favorite stand up comedian. I think s/he is positively brilliant. I love the seemingly stream of consciousness patter, the mimicking of conversations, allusions to the Bible and history and popular culture, and the ability to find humor in the most mundane aspects of life. There are many clips from the live performances available on YouTube (many of which I have linked to in the past) but if you can get hold of the full performances that are available on DVD, they are well worth it.
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How earthworms went over to the dark side

Earthworms are not prepossessing creatures. As a child I used to find them gross and carefully avoided them when I encountered them on sidewalks, hard to do after rains when they seemed to be all over the place. But over time, I came to view them in a positive light, that though they may not win any beauty contests, they were busily working away on our behalf, enriching the ground and making it more fertile, and that their abundant presence was an indicator of healthy soil. But it seems like that entirely benign beneficial façade may be misleading, the product of a good public relations campaign by the earthworm lobby.
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When it comes to warmongering, the establishment is united

In reading the news, one would think that the mainstream media and the Trump administration are at loggerheads. But when it comes to warmongering, they are united. Note the strange silence surrounding Seymour Hersh’s reporting about the doubtful evidence that Syria had used sarin gas in the bombing in Idlib, Syria in April. Given that Donald Trump had made the use of that nerve gas as the prime reason for his launching of missiles at a Syrian airbase, you would think that they would have covered the story, even if just to refute it.
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Thoughts on nationalism and patriotism

Today is the 150th anniversary of Canadian independence and on Tuesday it will be the US’s turn. But the celebrations will be quite different in these two neighboring countries. On the program On The Media host Bob Garfield talked with Stephen Marche about how Canada’s lack of patriotic fervor has enabled it to withstand the vicious xenophobia and divisiveness that is endemic in the US and parts of Europe. In addition, it has “a flourishing economy, an effective single-payer health care system, and a Prime Minister with a philosophy of tolerance.”
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Why Americans pay more for worse care

Matt Taibbi explains how the presence of private, for-profit health insurance companies in the US are a direct threat to people’s health.

Many years ago, while researching a book chapter on health care reform, I visited a hospital in Bayonne, New Jersey that was having problems. Upon arrival, administrators told me a story that summed up everything that is terrible and stupid about American health care.

A patient of theirs suffering from a chronic illness took a bad turn and had to come in for a minor surgical procedure. The only problem was, the patient had been taking Coumadin, a common blood thinner, as part of his outpatient care.
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