Marijo's Nashvlog

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Saturday Update.

I'm going to try to catch up quickly, here.

First, about me-- I completed my seminar on Kant without embarrassing myself, and this semester, I'm auditing Kelly Oliver's seminar on Julia Kristeva. The first class was great, so I hope to learn a lot in there. I miss the discussions here, but the seminars are really giving me more to think about. Perhaps I can bring some of that thinking to the blog this semester....

And in Nashville blog news-- The Nashville Scene (which has, I believe, undergone some editorial changes that I didn't much notice) has started a new blog to which all of their writers contribute: Pith in the Wind. They kindly included a link to me, so I had to come over here and write something, just in case anyone stops in, you know....

From Pith in the Wind, I learned that a blogging convention is coming to Nashville this spring. It will be at Belmont University, where my college-addicted daughter just returned to add some more classes to her collection. (She's the one with two babies under 2 1/2 yrs old. I'm sure she needs the college classes just to maintain a grip on her sanity.) If anyone wants to attend, drop me a line, and I'll help with your arrangements. Nashville in the spring is just glorious.

And, about that TennCare thing. Dammit. The Gov. made the cover of the New Republic. One thing he's got over our current president: he understands how to follow a budget. And you would never call Phil a girlie-man. He does that High Noon stand-off as well as any actor.

As much as I hate it, I can see that what Bredesen is doing is necessary. It's the only way, for one thing, that the pharmaceutical companies can get off their power trip-- someone has to say no to them and stop buying their products completely on their terms. As he said, somewhere recently, it's absurd that the drug companies can market their products directly to patients, charge anything they want for them, and expect someone else to pay the price. As with any addict, the only valid response is to stop enabling them.

And I'm not sure what the best way to make a governement program run efficiently would be, but I'd have to agree that the Tennessee agencies haven't mastered it yet. As a liberal, I'd guess that they've been underfunded from the start, but recognizing that won't save them at this point.

Still, we're going to have to do a lot of reorganizing to keep getting treatment to our mentally ill and our drug addicts in this state. I'm hoping I'll be back safe in the ivory tower before the worst of it hits the fan, honestly. There's nothing I hate more than spending the day telling people that we have no resources to help them with their problems, and I already do too much of that within the current systems.

If you want to read more about the fall of TennCare, there's the official stuff at the Governor's Virtual TennCare Room, and news reports from all over.

The most recent fun story is that 25% of Wal-Mart employees in this state are on TennCare. Hmmm. Maybe Bredesen really is a Democrat, after all...

1:17:21 PM

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