Taking the Bullet Approach

I'm following everyone else's lead in adopting the bullet approach this evening. I've been up at office headquarters this week and am too exhausted to write about Black and White and Dead All Over, which was my plan. I sort of owe the book discussion group my post on it, but since I missed getting that to them before their meeting, maybe they don't really care at this point. Instead, I give you, in easy-to-read, bulleted fashion, some of the thoughts that are buzzing around my brain these days:

• I hope I finally learn how to spell Obama's name if he becomes president. I can't avoid reading it at least twenty times a day, and yet my brain still tries to turn him into some sort of Irish tropical fruit or something, wanting to spell it O'Bama, every single time I write it. What the hell is that all about?
• Where do people get off calling Obama's (hmm...that time I tried to spell it Obam'a) healthcare plan "socialized medicine?" I don't know. Dear English friends who read my blog, will you please tell me how your employer provides your health insurance for you and how much of your paycheck you contribute towards that? Somehow, I seem to have missed out on the fact that that's what those of you who have socialized medicine do, and you know, that's what Obama is planning. Those of us whose employers pay our health insurance will keep receiving those exact same benefits (he's very calmly explained that to us in three debates now). Maybe it's "socialized medicine" because he wants to -- gasp! --keep the premiums from going up every single year, which they've been doing at the company where I work for years now? Or maybe the healthcare benefits all our politicians enjoy free and that are going to be offered to those who don't have healthcare at affordable prices is some sneaky euphemism for free healthcare for all? And by the way, what's so damn horrible about free healthcare for all anyway?
• Oh, and let's talk about Joe the Plumber whom we all got to meet in last night's debate. I bet you anything that Joe the Plumber is running around bitching and moaning and complaining about how much money these filthy-rich CEOs make and how he doesn't think we should be paying to bail them out. Yet, somehow, it's absolutely horrible for Obama to want to redistribute wealth in this country and to want to raise taxes on those wealthy CEOs.
• But enough about the election. These days are hard, because the publishing company I worked for for ten years was sold by our parent company, split off from my current company, and most of my friends from that company are losing their jobs. It's very sad. As of December, the doors to that office will be closed. I'm meeting some of my friends from the good old days for dinner tomorrow night as I drive through Connectict back to Pennsylvania, and as I told Zoë's Mom today, who is among those affected, I think I need to go shopping for a stiff upper lip beforehand.
• But here is some exciting news for everyone. The third sibling has finally joined the blogosphere (gee, we're regular Brontë's, aren't we?) and is writing about her experience working as an art teacher in prisons in Virginia. Very cool stuff. Check it out here.
• And that's all she wrote.