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Late Night: The Heart of the Matter

Don Henley, 1991, The Heart of the Matter: "How can love survive in such a graceless age?"

The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again
I've been tryin' to get down
to the Heart of the Matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about forgiveness
Forgiveness

...Better put it all behind you, life goes on
You keep carrying that anger, it'll eat you up inside

I wish people would withhold judgment and not put themselves in their shoes. I hope the Lettermans can forgive, forget and and move on.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Never (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by mmc9431 on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 05:23:26 AM EST
    One of the few positive aspects of getting old is that I've learned "never" is a tough word to live up to!

    Swiss reject Polanski's bid for release (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by MO Blue on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:37:05 AM EST
    BERN, Switzerland - Roman Polanski lost his first bid to win his freedom Tuesday as the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an appeal by the 76-year-old to be immediately released from prison, an official said.

    "We continue to be of the opinion that there is a high risk of flight," said ministry spokesman Folco Galli, explaining the decision.

    Galli told The Associated Press that the risk was too great for the government to accept bail or other security measures in exchange for the release of the filmmaker who is wanted by U.S. authorities for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. link



    Gen. Petraeus diagnosed with prostate cancer (5.00 / 1) (#20)
    by MO Blue on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:41:42 AM EST
    in February and has since undergone two months of radiation treatment.

    Petraeus, 56, was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, which was not publicly disclosed at the time because Petraeus and his family regarded his illness as "a personal matter" that "did not interfere with the performance of his duties," said his spokesman, Col. Erik Gunhus. President Barack Obama and top members of his administration were informed, he said. link


    3 Americans win Nobel in physics (5.00 / 1) (#23)
    by jbindc on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 10:10:21 AM EST
    Link

    Three American "masters of light" who created technologies that made it possible to capture digital images and transmit them and other electronic information long distances today won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics.

    Charles K. Kao, a naturalized American who did most of his work in England and Hong Kong, will share half the $1.4-million prize for demonstrating that highly purified fibers of glass can carry light waves for long distances, setting the stage for the globe-girdling fiber-optic networks that transmit the bulk of everyday television, telephone and other communications.

    Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, who worked at Bell Laboratories, will share the other half of the award for developing the charge-coupled device, the electronic eye that makes digital photography possible and that in less than two decades has filled the world with inexpensive digital cameras and camera-bearing telephones.

    I don't understand this stuff, but wow!

    And three US researchers win Nobel (5.00 / 2) (#29)
    by oculus on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:07:39 PM EST
    Prize in medicine.  Two of the three are female. Take that, Mr. Summers.

    Parent
    Check out this out... (none / 0) (#1)
    by lambert on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 10:57:34 PM EST
    ... by somebody for whom the outcome of the Dems health care deform process isn't an academic exercise or an episode of Rotisserie Inside Baseball. It's always nice to read the C-and-below listers on this stuff...

    Time to update the Corrente (none / 0) (#9)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:16:06 AM EST
    glossary Lambert. HCR has become HCD (Health Care Deform).

    Parent
    Speaking of HCD (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by Inspector Gadget on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:58:48 AM EST
    My brother went into emergency surgery tonight. Both kidneys severely blocked with stones and blood clots. He'll find out tomorrow how much damage to his kidneys.

    He has major medical. The tests to find these problems are $2000.00 each and his coverage doesn't start until he is admitted to the hospital.

    Parent

    When his coverage begins (5.00 / 3) (#14)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 01:52:26 AM EST
    will it pay 80% or 100% of everything?

    The older I get the more I realize I will not be able to pay the 20% of these hospital costs, should I need them. When my mom was in the nursing home, all her bills came to me. From $900 for an ambulance ride to go one mile, to bills in the tens of thousands if she fractured her pelvis or got too disoriented to stay in the nursing home. Even with secondary insurance, she had to contribute thousands.

    It's probably why I pay the extra premium to have a plan that pays 100% of drugs, doctors and hospitals. One of my fears is that this HCR bill will result in the insurance companies canceling their 100% coverage plans, or making them extremely cost prohibitive, so that option is no longer available.

    I had hoped by this time to have "investments" that would carry me through the final yeers, but I don't. I'll be working until I can't work any more. And even then, how do we pay the increased costs assigned to us? We will either have plans with reduced benefits, plans with exhorbitive premiums or we will be forced into low end plans at a time they will do little for us.

    I'd like to see someone promise between Medicare age, which I'm still years away from, and secondary insurance, we pay nothing but our premiums and deductibles.


    Parent

    I'll be listening carefully to his (5.00 / 1) (#18)
    by Inspector Gadget on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:38:01 AM EST
    comments about this as the bills start rolling in. He had a heart attack just 2 years ago and it paid 100% of the hospital after deductible ($2500), but not a dime toward the expensive follow-up tests.

    I had just gotten him connected with our broker for medical insurance, but his new plan doesn't take effect until the first of next month. That's a typical deductible ($500) and 100% coverage.

    I'm with you...just a couple of months ahead of you in age and no investments to cover anything medical. If I learn anything of value through his experience, I'll be sure to share.

    Parent

    Why not advocate for single payer? (5.00 / 1) (#21)
    by lambert on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 09:58:47 AM EST
    "Everybody in, nobody out."

    * * *

    I'm going to work 'til I drop, too, though I consider that a good thing. But if I ever have to go to the hospital, I'd lose everything I own, though that's not very much.

    Parent

    You stumbled on the ticket lambert... (none / 0) (#27)
    by kdog on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 11:37:19 AM EST
    as long as you don't own anything the hospital can seize, and don't mind workin' till the day you die...you're good to go!  At least thats my plan...though I do have insurance at the moment, I don't expect it to deliver if I got some multi-hundred thousand dollar illness.  And I'm cancelling that sh*t is the mandate fines/prison sh*t passes.

    Or just be ready to sell your house & car to a relative for a buck if you ever do get really sick...that works too.

    When the going gets shady, the good people gotta get shady or the good people are cooked.  We didn't make the rules of this crooked game, but we have no choice but to play, so we gotta start getting shady like we're all insurance co ceo's...they ain't any smarter, just shadier.

    Parent

    You do what you have to (none / 0) (#28)
    by mmc9431 on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:06:01 PM EST
    I tried to convince my mother to divorce my step father when he had a major stroke and heart attack so that she could protect her assets. Guilt got in her way and it ended up costing both her and I thousands of dollars to keep a roof over her head.

    Parent
    You said it.... (none / 0) (#30)
    by kdog on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:43:40 PM EST
    "You do what you have to do"

    It's a little harder for the old-timers steeped in the "truth, justice, American way" myth to get on board the shady train...the youth are catching on as the "truth, justice" myth gets harder and harder to swallow.

    Parent

    Jeralyn, doesn't your insurance have (5.00 / 2) (#25)
    by Inspector Gadget on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 10:30:34 AM EST
    a cap for how much out of pocket you will be responsible for each year?

    My brother is 3 years younger than us, and to look at him, you'd say he was in perfect physical shape. He just got my dad's cholesterol/heart problems and my mom's kidney problems. He could have many years ahead of dealing with medical issues...he's a self-employed artist, so if he isn't working, there's no income.

    Based on what others are saying about their health insurance, I'm thinking my state has some pretty good rates for reasonably good coverage.

    I'm not signing any petitions, or sending money to any of the plethora of groups claiming they are lobbying for healthcare....I'm actively writing to all my elected officials and letting them know what experiences my family is having so they understand why I'm asking them to fight for single-payer first, robust public option second, or to vote NO if insurance companies are the only winners in the plan.

    Parent

    BaucusCare if adopted (none / 0) (#24)
    by MO Blue on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 10:12:29 AM EST
    could make it worse than what it is now.

    Provisions included in his plan allow the insurance industry to charge people between 50 - 64, four times that of a younger person. Also, his plan allows the insurance industry to only cover 65% or 70% of costs of medical care. If adopted, I worry that ratio could become the new standard.  

    Parent

    I'm so sorry. You probably know (none / 0) (#32)
    by Cream City on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 04:31:32 PM EST
    though, from family history of nephritis noted below, that we don't need both or even one kidney to have a good life.  I've lived with less than one for half a century now -- a time in which much progress has been made in kidney treatment.

    I certainly remain more susceptible to some problems and complications -- and some of those tests that I describe as having been devised in the Marquis de Sade School of Medicine -- but I continue to be amazed at all that I have been able to do in that half-century.  And at the time, the prognosis was that I wouldn't live past 30, that I wouldn't be able to survive pregnancy, etc.  So I'm hoping that all is well for your brother, and that he and I both will see even more medical progress for decades to come.

    Parent

    Heyyy. I've been (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by TeresaInSnow2 on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 01:26:36 AM EST
    calling it that for weeks.  Actually, I call it health INSURANCE deform, since it has nothing to do with CARE.

    Parent
    Or HID (none / 0) (#22)
    by lambert on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 09:59:49 AM EST
    Health Insurance Deform.

    And of course, PO, and POR -- P*ssed Off, and Royally P*ssed Off.

    Parent

    HIDEOUS (5.00 / 2) (#26)
    by Anne on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 11:03:07 AM EST
    Health

    Insurance

    Deform

    Envisioned by

    Oblivious

    Uncaring

    Senators

    Parent

    I always thought that song was about Reagan (none / 0) (#2)
    by eric on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 11:22:46 PM EST
    actually, it is, at least in part:

    O' beautiful, for spacious skies
    But now those skies are threatening
    They're beating plowshares into swords
    For this tired old man that we elected king

    The End of the Innocence

    different song (none / 0) (#3)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 11:37:09 PM EST
    but they are  both among my all time favorites.

    The original videos for both songs were great (as was the one for Boys of Summer), but Henley has such a thing about royalties that it's hard to find them anywhere online -- I have them on VHS tapes but if put them on You Tube, they'd be gone immediately and if I put them on TalkLeft, he'd probably sue me. He wouldn't care I'm probably his biggest fan.


    Parent

    Yep, My bad (none / 0) (#5)
    by eric on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 11:46:33 PM EST
    different song, same time frame.

    Parent
    Same 'album' (none / 0) (#16)
    by ruffian on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:35:33 AM EST
    Actually, I nearly wore out the cassette tape in my car. One of my favorites ever.

    Parent
    For what it is worth, I was a senior in (none / 0) (#4)
    by eric on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 11:45:21 PM EST
    high school when the song was released, and it really spoke to me.  It was as if I knew that this old gentleman from the Eagles understood the terribleness that was the 80's.  The video made it clear that it was about Reagan, Oliver North, and the evil that was the Republican 80's.   There was one image of a peeling Reagan sign on the side of a building.  I bought the album, on cassette tape.  Heh.  The VIDEO

    Parent
    Wrong song (none / 0) (#6)
    by eric on Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 11:52:13 PM EST
    comments are about track 1 instead of track 10 on that album, sorry.  Delete at will.

    Parent
    it stays (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:07:39 AM EST
    You found a You Tube of the original End of Innocence video and it's the one I thought would no longer be on You Tube. And it is the same period, you can tell by his hair.

    Funny though that you call him an old gent back in 1991. He was in his early 40's.

    Parent

    you are on the right track with this song too (none / 0) (#19)
    by ruffian on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 08:40:58 AM EST
    A lot of the lyrics for 'The Heart of the Matter' are about how the drive for status and money in the go-go 80's (and beyond) hurt personal relationships:

    The trust and self assurance that lead to happiness
    Are the very things we kill I guess
    Pride and competition cannot fill these empty arms
    And the work I put between us
    Well it doesn't keep me warm

    the whole albun is an indictment of the Reagan year. 'Little Tin God' is another favorite of mine.

    Parent

    Has TL been tracking this case? (none / 0) (#8)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:11:24 AM EST
    From Salon, Ardor in the Court: A Texas court affirms the right of a judge and a prosecutor who slept together to condemn a man to death.

    I abhor the death penalty, otherwise IANAL; haven't followed the case, so don't even know where to begin.

    we did last year (none / 0) (#10)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:20:59 AM EST
    Do you have any further thoughts? (none / 0) (#11)
    by FoxholeAtheist on Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 12:56:38 AM EST
    it's still ongoing...
    Hood's lawyers...will have to convince a federal court that Hood has a right to a new trial.

    ----------------------------------------------------
    The following was said of the recently concluded state case, however, it remains true for any future proceedings at the federal level, right?
    a ruling that the relationship deprived Hood of a fair trial could mean that scores of cases O'Connell brought before Judge Holland were also tainted and could be reversed.


    Parent