I'm not sure what this has to do with me.

But that's not true at all. I know what it has to do with me, but I also know that whatever I think about it, I have no say. This would be more discouraging if it wasn't a recurring theme.

I got a call this week from Moveon.org (I got some free stickers during the Presidential campaign, so I get tons of emails and the occasional phone call from them) about going to one of these health care town halls. Seating was limited to 600 people. The suggestion was to get there a couple of hours early. Were they going to show the Avatar 16-minute trailer at this thing or what?

I said I wasn't gonna make it. I had laundry to do.

I don't know what the health care bill is going to end up looking like, but I do know that all these town halls don't really have much to do with anything. If people are all so fired up about health care or health insurance or whatever it is they think they are attending these things for, don't you think they'd be better informed?

Bottle of white, bottle of red, perhaps a bottle of rose instead.

Billy Joel knows, but the rest of these people are off their nut.

I don't remember having town halls about invading Iraq. I don't think when those people were in charge they really cared what everyone else thought. Even those who were gung ho about killing people halfway around the world--for whatever reason anyone wanted to give them.

I officially have health insurance. I pay for part of it with each paycheck. I've never used it since starting my job over a year ago. Like I've never used my car insurance since I got my license back in the 80s. Insurance is a scam. But the biggest scam is life insurance.

Here's a paraphrase of a joke my brother and I wrote in the 90s: Car insurance is for when your car gets fucked up, so is life insurance for when you fuck your life up?

There's a mayoral election this fall in Albuquerque. It's the incumbent mayor (who has served two consecutive terms and three overall) versus a couple of other guys. There used to be term limits on Albuquerque mayors. You couldn't serve consecutive terms. When our mayor got in the second time, he got that provision struck down. And then he sued to run for a third consecutive term. And then he took all the fun out of the mayoral election by making voters pay $5 per petition signature to get a candidate on the ballot. Suddenly signing a petition COST YOU MONEY.

So we have no kolorful kooks running in this election. The field is no longer ten, it's three. But really it's just one. And the mayor of Albuquerque will soon be the King of Albuquerque.

I'm not voting. It's a farce. I have disengaged.

Even though I know how one of these two other guys could actually win. Just tell the voters you'll turn off the red light cameras. That's it. People would go vote for the guy who turns those things off. Don't talk to me about principles or how cynical such a move would be. Do you want to win this election or do you just want to make a couple of speeches to your fifty friends and have a couple of somber parties?

Right now, we're gonna elect the mayor with about ten percent of the city voting. Because there is no reason to care about this.

And it doesn't matter to anyone. Everyone's looking for a job. Everyone's counting pennies. No one gives a shit about this crap except the crazies who seem to equate government run health care with not prying their stupid rifle from their stupid dead hands.

I practice preventive health care: I take vitamins and don't go to the doctor. I self medicate: they've got these great pharmacies where you don't need a prescription, and it costs way less for a whole bottle of the miracle cure.

Are you feeling better yet?

Matt Worley found a place that sold the miraculous Dale's Pale Ale last week. Take three and call me in the morning.