reviews

I continue to slog my way through The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. This book is very dense, and after quickly digesting Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, the reading style necessary to comprehend this tome is very different. With Dan Brown’s work, I can usually speed-read and pick out key sentances in paragraphs, or even skip whole paragraphs if they don’t seem necessary to the larger plot. I finished that book in a day or two. I don’t mind reading such books – it’s often preferred because I can move through them quickly while still experiencing the drama and picking up some new (insert grain-of-salt here) information.

However, with The Clinton Tapes, the material is very dense. Lots of names, biographical information, descriptions of meetings and interactions, and the writing style is very different. I often need to re-read paragraphs to understand who or what is being discussed. It feels like I’m reading 100x slower than normal. Usually if that were the case then I would give up on the book, but this one I find particularly interesting because the 90′s were when I started paying attention to broadcast news. So many of the names and events are familiar to me and it’s very interesting to get the background story on the negotiations and developments of all the things that happened during the Clinton presidency. It’s also interesting to me that several Clinton events parallel Obama events, such as health care reform and wars (in Clinton’s case, Bosnia cleanup).

Is it only democrats who care about health care reform for all Americans, instead of just those employed by big business/health insurance companies? Are our congressional leaders so swayed by lobbiest and contributions that they can’t see the greater good this would provide? What’s the point of requiring every American to get health insurance if there’s no public option? They’d be required to purchase from insurance companies, further inflating their revenues while doing nothing to curb their abuse. Worries about insurance companies dissolving due to competition from a public plan are needless. If they can’t compete, they should close up shop. And if it requires new taxes to pay for this reform, then so be it. Citizens of other countries pay far more taxes than we do and enjoy more benefits while we keep getting the shaft because our politicians are too scared to raise taxes when new revenue is seriously needed (see Michigan’s legislature/failed budget).

So irritating. I don’t like to choose political party sides because I think it’s narrow-minded to box myself in, but I can’t help but agree with the democrats on many of their issues, and shake my head at republican opposition. Why should businesses constantly favored over individuals?

On a completely related note (sarcasm), I have started playing FarmVille on Facebook. So ya’ll should add me as your neighbor and send me stuff.