It's Good To See Other People Recognize Genius

We here at WDR have expressed our love for the brilliant cartoon "The Critic" before, but it often feels like we're alone on this one. I'm not sure if it's out of ignorance or just bad taste, but it seems as if most people don't have the same affinity that we do for this awesome show. So I was glad to see that "The Critic" in this AV Club feature of brilliant-but-cancelled shows. Of course Nathan Rabin was the one that suggested it--any man behind such a great series as "My Year of Flops" has to have his head on straight (seriously, if you're not familiar with it, check it out). And to make this blog not totally worthless, here's a random clip from the show. It's even topical!

Welcome to New Yawk

It's a new change of scenery for your humble author. I am now in the middle of the most vibrant city on the planet, and in case I didn't know that, there are twenty people on the street that will shout this fact to my face. And while law school will be keeping me busy (well, it should, we'll see if that turns out to be the case), rest assured I will pop in from time to time. Not like it'll be a change of pace from the last few months...

So what's my take on New York? I'll provide a long, rambling rant that might make you chuckle once soon enough, but, like many things, it can be best described through the eyes of "The Critic":

A Slightly Educated View of Important Stuff: Immigration v. Health Care

We here at WDR not only bring you random absurd observations, but we bring you all kinds of random observations. You see, we are not tied down to just the absurd, though we do love to revel in it. No, sometimes we take things seriously. Well, not C-SPAN serious, but we at least take it a notch-or-two above barroom banter or stoner discourse. And we do that in items like this new series: A Slightly Educated View of Important Stuff.



If you had paid attention at all to the happenings in DC the past week, you'd know that the hot-button issue has been Immigration Reform. Well, at least it was, since the bill was attempting it got shot down in flames, hardcore.

There was another issue that got some press, mainly because some fat guy in a baseball cap made a movie about it. Yup, Michael Moore sparked some talk about our nation's problematic health care system with his new movie Sicko. However, this discussion was limited basically to magazine writers and newspaper columnists who filled op-ed pages, pushing an agenda one way or another (I'm not naming sides here).



My point is this: while immigration has been the number one priority issue, it has unfairly relegated the more important problem of health care to the backburner. But Nic, you say, the Mexicans are invading our country! We are at risk! How can you say that health care is more important? Well, I can point it out with just plain numbers. The number of illegal immigrants in this country is around 12 million, while the number of uninsured Americans is close to 45 million, nearly 4 times as much. And that doesn't even take into the count the tens of millions of others that have had to navigate the nightmare of making do with atrocious coverage. It's a simplistic view, yes, but it should put the problem into perspective.

And perspective is a huge problem with these issue. So over the next two days I'm going to look at these issues in-depth, and while not offering any dramatic solutions (I am only slightly educated), it should serve as a better primer for discussing these contentious issues.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming: juvenile humour.