Random Thoughts – 3/22

One reason (of many) no one ‘likes’ their health insurance (no matter the President’s opinion); because of the fact that the state regulates which prescriptions must be covered by any plan, if something you need isn’t something that has been regulated, it is likely not included and you will be stuck with the entire, likely comically priced bill. I run into this problem due to allergies. Twice a year for several weeks at a time the earth turns on me, robbing me of my ability to speak, breathe comfortably and think clearly. Once available by prescription over the counter medications, Zyrtec and Allegra, offer minimal relief but often lose effectiveness very quickly. My only relief comes from an inhalant that is only available in prescription form and I only learned of its effectiveness when given a sample. I had been prescribed this inhalant in the past but it was not covered by my insurance and I scoffed at the $100 bill for a month’s supply preferring to wait Mother Nature out no matter how miserable I was. Upon receiving the sample sweet relief was mine several days in. What to do about the bill once my sample runs out? The maker of the inhalant offers a $50 discount card which makes the price finally palatable to me. It’s strange though, smelling somewhat of shenanigans. Why would the manufacturer offer such a discount instead of just lowering the damn price by the same amount? Since no one cares what I think I’ll never know. But at least a solution is found in light of my worthless to my own ailments prescription coverage.

New Mexico Governor Martinez was supposedly dealt a blow when a bill not stopping the practice of giving state driver’s licenses to illegal aliens was not passed in the latest legislative session. Some self identified non-partisan group is making noise about some ‘compromise’ bill that would have made everyone happy and shot jelly beans into the air. This ‘compromise’ bill’s aim was to make it slightly more difficult for illegal aliens to receive driver’s licenses. Madness. In the end no bill was ever passed ‘compromise’ or otherwise so there was really nothing the Governor could have done with no bill to sign or veto. And no compromise should be made. 80% of the state is against giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and the practice is in violation of federal law. This stalemate just proves that there are more legislators that need to be retired for others willing to do the people of New Mexico’s business.

I saw two movies this weekend. “Ninja”, the first, was released quite a while ago and was delightful fluff. The story was silly and the plot lines were conveniently zoomed past to ensure that the viewer would have no questions. There were tons of well choreographed action scenes and everything was wrapped up in a nice package. The second movie I saw was “The Switch” about a dude stuck in the friend zone who ends up figuring a way out, by sneaking in as the surrogate donor for his friend’s pregnancy. Hilarity did ensue. And while the ending was sudden it kind of made sense if you’ve ever been in the friend zone. It was by far the best movie that Jennifer Aniston has been in since Office Space. As if the unwatchable “The Bounty Hunter” provided any kind of hurdle. And I don’t care that Jason Bateman plays the same character in every movie. That character is awesome and applicable to just about any situation.

“Big Love”, HBO’s fictional series of polygamists ended this past weekend and my review is mostly bleh. The final two episodes of the show seemed to be housecleaning, attempting to tie up loose ends and answer a ton of questions in regard to the point of the show. Much of this last season has been adding layers to an already complicated storyline and as with a lot of stuff being ignored in any hasty housecleaning, much of those layers and characters that made up the show were apparently forgotten. Taking a lesson from the supposedly controversial ‘Soprano’s’ finale, HBO apparently took a “if in doubt, take them out” approach with “Big Love” and finished off the main character. Or was he the main character? In the end a ton of plot lines seemed to beat the viewer about the head with the idea that a ton of stuff = woman’s empowerment and all that stuff starts with polygamy and the wives were really the center even though they never were that in any episode prior to the last two minutes. Kind of a weird ending, but couldn’t be thought of as boring.