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whoupmasturbuilding · 10 months

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Rick and Morty Condensed Watch List

My friend wanted to watch rnm, but didn't want to sit through all 7 seasons- so I decided to make a list of the best/most lore important episodes that way they could enjoy the show without watching the whole thing. Red = episodes that are lore important Orange = not crucial for understanding the lore, but establishes character relationships and/or a consistent reference in the series yellow = episodes I'm personally a fan of (these are purely just recommendations for my friend, feel free to skip them)

s1e1 Pilot - first episode of the series, I'm sure this one is self-explanatory LOL s1e5 Meeseeks and Destroy - First Morty adventure, Introduces Meeseeks and "ricks catchphrase" (reoccurring), and does a good job of showing Beth/Jerry's relationship s1e6 Rick Potion #9 - Rick & Morty's dimension hop s1e7 Raising Gazorpazorp- sexy robot episode (my friend wants to watch this okay) s1e10 Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind - Introduces citadel s1e11 Ricksy Business - We meet a couple of Ricks close friends, some fun time stuff, and the season finale!! s2e1 A Rickle in Time - I couldn't really decide whether or not to keep this orange or red, since technically this specific ep isn't crucial to the understanding of the show. HOWEVER, still totally watch it because it wraps up the conclusion to season 1 AND its a great episode generally! s2e2 Mortynight Run - Introduces the Jerry daycare and Blips and Chitz (reoccurring) s2e3 Auto Erotic Assimilation - Introduces Unity s2e5 Get Schwifty - Introduces President, Learn more about Birdperson s2e9 Look Who’s Purging Now - Not plot relevant or brought up again in the series, but this episode has some Morty moments that I really like s2e10 The Wedding Squanchers - Meet the federation!! s3e1 The Rickshank Rickdemption - More citadel fun! And also szechuan sauce, very important. s3e3 Pickle Rick - Yes I'm putting pickle rick on here. This episode introduces Dr. Wong who's both a cool character and reoccurring. Although I wouldn't say this episode is as important as the other oranges, so If you really wanna skip it- go for it s3e6 Rest and Ricklaxation - TOXIC RICCCKK s3e7 The Ricklantis Mixup - More Citadel adventureeess! (<- Also this is where that fat Morty and lizard Morty GIF came from, thought you'd like to hear that) s3e8 Morty’s Mind Blowers - idk what to write for this one I just really enjoy this episode LOL s3e9 The ABC’s of Beth - We get an update on how Jerry's life is going, also some fun Beth development stuff e4e2 The Old Man and the Seat - big bad doo-doo daddy s4e10 Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri - More federation stuff, and we get an update on clone beth s5e1 Mort Dinner Rick Andre - This one isn't THAT important of a watch so if you wanna skip it you honestly can, but we do get to meet Mr. Nimbus and find out what happens to Jessica. s5e8 Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort - Bird person update ALSO MEMORY RICCCCKKK s5e9 Forgetting Sarick Mortshall - Rick and two crows show s5e10 Rickmurai Jack - Citadel fun and also more of the extra sexy crow rick s6e1 Solaricks - MEET PRIME! s6e2 Rick: A Mort Well Lived - I haven't watched diehard which makes this episode funnier to me s6e3 Bethic Twinstinct - okayy I'll be honest, a lot of people dislike/feel weirded out by this episode (me included) but I still think it's worth including for contextualization because this ep explains why space beth's has a reoccurring presence in the family. So watch at your own discretion LOL s6e8 Analyze Piss - ignore the goofy ass title, because it is REALLY good. I love this ep so much s6e9 A Rick in King Mortur’s Mort - This episode isn't really lore important and doesn't introduce any reoccurring characters, BUT the adventure itself is referenced later on s6e10 Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation - rick with a stubble and boxers on (very important) but no seriously, this episode is important s7e1 How Poopy Got His Poop Back - Some Rick/friend shenanigans, also we get a brief update on birddaughter s7e3 Air Force Wong - Not really thaatt lore important? But we do get an update on unity which is super sweet s7e5 Unmortricken - "OH SHIT, Evil Morty! Should I get the net?" s7e9 Mort: Ragnarick - this episode is very very fun and also where that image of rick being crucified comes from ANYWAYS THATS IT! Season 7 still hasn't ended, but it ends later this week so I may or may not update the list for that. If anybody has any critiques/changes I should make to this list, please let me know!

#rick and morty #rnm #rick sanchez #morty smith #r&m

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ifidieinacage · 3 years

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i just love the concept of Unity you know, and how straight forward Rick is with it. like, hey kids this is grandpa's ex, Unity, it's a hivemind alien who rocks my singlemind. and he and summer like, never stumble over it's pronouns even if summer doesn't understand it at all at first

and i love how Unity is executed, from a writing standpoint. like obviously it doesn't need to use a single voice or body to communicate but it does out of accommodation of its guests, but it also is so fluid among its different bodies, picking up conversations from one extension to another and rick just really fluidly goes along with it.

like, one, what a representation of adhd, because yeah but two it really fits in with rick's whole nihilism theme that he is presenting at this time. he is really going hard on the 'no one matters because nothing is unique' and that fits with how easily he interacts with Unity's different extensions and hosts without getting hung up on a specific body or iteration

also i love the fact that Unity still carries a torch for rick... like, it inhabits a species with cool-toned hair, but still manages to front the red-headed ones most often for rick's benefit. like, unity straight up found a host planet that most catered to rick's kinks. that's fucked up, but like,,,,, romantic.

like, what knows more intimately that free will is a joke, that a single person matters very little in the face of reality, that despite that it's so, so easy to get hung up on connections and relationships than a hivemind. Unity is a perfect compliment to Rick. it's alien and cold and uncaring on the surface but holds a much deeper empathy and care than you'd first expect.

i love that rick says that unity isn't into other hiveminds, i love that he feels special that he could keep up with an entire hivemind, being single minded. that he could project his hangups on connecting with a single person onto unity who he thought couldn't connect to other hiveminds. i love that he's jealous of the borg-stand in, that he's doesn't like Unity leaning on the borg-hivemind because Rick isn't capable of that kind of support and empathy and emotion yet. that he can't imagine something being capable of that without ulterior motives.

i love that unity is afraid of falling into rick's cult of personality, that he's so charismatic that it fears not being able to separate itself from him, when that's it's whole thing. like, unity should just consume rick into itself but it doesn't because rick is special to it... like did the writers even think about this before they wrote it because HOLY SHIT

these are cycles and it's fantastic....

#misc #i just...... love unity #i love that the writing for unity comes off as effortless #there's so much more i want to say #about like the writing and unity and ricks relationship #and unity's presentation #and summer & morty's reaction to it #i just think its neat #and i want to write 3k on how queer unity and rick are together #queer as in fuck you im here #queer as in i am queer and i am here #it's the first episode i felt safe in... as like.. a queer person #yes i going to hammer this point in unity is queer rep and unity and ricks relationship is important as queer rep

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androgynousblackbox · 2 years

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Not me, rewatching the last season to get ready for the new one and crying over Rick and Birdperson's arc 😭 Rick's whole thing is that he doesn't care, and he really put himself out there like that and admitted that he loves BP, both his current self directly stating it and his past self expressing it in his own toxic, fucked up way. Rick really went "Nothing matters to me but you do" with everything he had.

And he was *rejected*

Double and, despite that, he still loves BP. He still admits this, and still does anything to bring him back.

I also think about how much this factors into his relationship with Morty. He holds himself back because admitting how much he loves someone is vulnerability, and he can't be rejected again, so its better to push them away first, so he constantly switches between being hot and cold, caring so much Morty means everything to him and him not caring what happens.

I just. Aaaaaaaah

What I love so much about their arc is that you perfectly understand WHY Birdperson rejected Rick. It's not some shit "but we're both guys", "but I don't wanna break our friendship uwu", not even "but I don't feel that way about you", but rather that Birdperson WANTS to care about something, about everything, and he knew the way that Rick suggested to him was only ever going to make him miserable in the long run. Maybe Birdperson COULD have corresponded his feelings all along, we don't even know that, but not with this Rick that doesn't see any value on the things he does. Rick absolutely fucked up so badly when he told him that the war that they just fought didn't mattered, that the fight for his species that was practically genocided didn't mattered, that all the lives of his friends and families could all just mean nothing... Man, you can see the way that hurt Birdperson and how no fucking love confession was ever going to make that okay. If I were Birdperson and we just won that war, at that moment, that would have been the last time I saw Rick for even suggesting that bullshit. Like, I know in fandom we are so used to babify Rick and be "but his feelings uwu" but Birdperson literally survived a fucking genocide during a moment of war, and here is this fucker telling him that all of that is meaningless, and he just... let's him down SO easily, so much more easy that Rick deserved. Like, for real, fuck Rick, Birdperson is the real one fucking angel that deserves so much better than whatever Rick was offering. You get from where he was coming from. The show never demonizes him for it nor tells Rick that he was right on any way for that, just like they never demonize Unity either for dumping Rick and the toxic relationship they had. And Rick doesn't get that because that is his coping mechanism, always running away, never letting himself just feel, just changing whatever wasn't working by going somewhere else, never picking a place to call home and just give a fuck about something. They were always fundamentally incompatible on that sense and until Rick figures out his own shit (like he seems to be doing just NOW, by sticking with his family despite everything), they were never going to work out. He is quite literally on a hell of his own fucking making. Birdperson knew that wasn't healthy, just like Unity ended up learning the hard way too, and made the right choice. You and me, as the viewers who like Rick, have to sit with that knowledge and come to terms with the awareness that this is so something Rick has to fix on himself, that no partner, no relationship can do for him, not even Morty. And all of this without the show directly telling you SHIT, because it trust you to see it yourself! Because they trust on their audience to be emotionally mature to understand it! THAAAAT is some motherfucking good writing, like fuck anyone who dissed that season, for fucking real. I fucking loved it so much. I fucking love this show, my fucking god.

#rick sanchez #rick and morty

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nerdygaymormon · 3 years

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This is probably a weird (and really long) ask compared to the ones you normally get, but I'm in a predicament and I need advice. Three of my friends and I have all been writing a book series together for 3-4 years. We're close to finished with the second book and have some plans for the next one or two, but we took about a year long break with little to no progress when people got busy with school and other responsibilities. We're all in high school, and all members of the church. (1/7)

I've been out to my friends as a lesbian for about two years and my friend just recently came out to the group as bi a few months ago. The other two aren't really supportive, but they are kind and we haven't had many problems in the past. They are some of our closest friends and we agree that we have too much in common to end a friendship over our differences of opinion on the queer community. (2/7)

Not long ago my bi friend and I brought up that we think that part of the reason we got stuck in a rut is because we don't feel as motivated to write when we can't really relate to any of the cishet characters and asked if we could start introducing queer representation, even if it's small. They didn't give us an answer, so we jokingly wrote a scene putting two male side (ish) characters in a romantic relationship, hoping it would compel them to have a conversation with us. (3/7)

It took them over a month, but they finally came to us and told us they were uncomfortable with the scene and didn't want any queer relationships or even characters in the story. They said that our queer identities aren't the only parts of us and we can be represented in other ways. (4/7)

We tried to explain that being queer is such a big part of how we experience life (I mean, even if it's only one part of my identity, my queerness affects my life every single day) and we just want to write about characters who share those experiences. One of our friends is trying to understand but still says that she'll only allow us to write about queer characters if it's so subtle that she can easily ignore it and headcanon them as cishet without denying what's written. (5/7)

Our other friend is ignoring our concerns and won't even have a conversation about it. We've made it clear that we won't continue writing unless we can have, even if small, real and concrete queer representation. I understand where they're coming from but I think what we're asking for is fair—in fact, we'd still be giving more than they would be. I don't know what to do or say at this point. (6/7)

Do you have any ideas for compromises we could suggest or things we could say to help them understand why this is important to us? Thank you for everything you do. I found your blog last Pride month and it has honestly done so much for my mental health. I don't know where I'd be right now if I'd never found it. 💛 (7/7)

———————————————————— Aww, thanks for that compliment!

Well, this is a dill of a pickle. There's 4 of you, 2 want queer representation and 2 don't.

I love that you all are writing a series of books, I'm assuming this means you have the main themes of each book plotted out. I'm very impressed.

I can understand that your non-queer friends feel like there's this story that you all agreed to and now you're trying to change it. However, that's how art works, it builds on itself, it changes while being made, it's not a set thing but develops and changes as it is created.

I applaud you and your friend who said this is the deal, to continue there has to be some queer representation.

I think about the many great stories that are allegories for the minority experience. X-Men is one example. Rick Riordan has been successful including queer characters in his books that are aimed at pre-teens and teens. Queer characters are not anti-family or anti-child. It's a way to help people who are part of the majority understand the experience and viewpoints of others. It brings greater understanding and unity.

What your friend is suggesting that the characters can be queer in theory as long as there's nothing there to actually indicate they're queer, that's erasure. Basically, it's like saying Professor Dumbledore is gay when no one who read the Harry Potter books ever thought that, there's nothing to suggest he's gay. It makes him being gay be irrelevant.

That's even worse than what used to happen with queer coding, which is giving characters traits and themes which are perceived as queer, or given them non-traditional friendships, without ever explicitly acknowledging the queerness. This used to be done because it was against the law to have queer representation in the US and to make queer characters acceptable to non-queer audiences. Queer people still picked up those are queer characters. It seems your friend doesn't even want that.

This is a grand opportunity, two of the four writers are queer. You can bring an authenticity to these books about the queer experience.

Can you imagine if you said you didn't want to see any heterosexuality in the books. There is to be no romance, no dating, no holding hands, nothing. In fact, why don't we set this on a different planet where there aren't genders because you want to get rid of heteronormativity.

I appreciate you are wanting to compromise. This will require a discussion among the four of you. I think it would be good for your friends to explain why they're so opposed to queer characters. Assuming that there will be queer characters since you represent 1/2 of the team writing the books, what boundaries do your other friends want respected so they can be comfortable with the inclusion of these characters (I'm going out on a limb here and think they won't want the same limitations placed on the non-queer characters).

—————————

I don't know that it's a compromise, but there's book series I've read where the authors take turns writing the books. They agree to the main plot lines, where the book begins, the things it needs to cover, and where it will end. Then each author gets a chance to expand and explore that world and its characters even as they keep the book moving forward along the plot line. These have been smaller books, maybe 100 pages, not thick tomes.

—————————

Not knowing much about your stories, one compromise that could capture the queer experience and be acceptable to your friends is if you have a character who develops in a way they understand they're different, it changes how they experience the world, it changes how others view and judge them. At first they hide this and try to keep passing as "normal," and they're ashamed of how they feel and once they "come out" they start healing and can see they have value, they may be different but they are still people worth loving and they can make a difference. They're willing to have close friendships that the non-queer characters wouldn't even consider, and while that is strange, it also creates bridges that need to be built. They work to make the world more accepting and less harsh.

The non-queer characters could pick up on the uneasiness but not get what's going on. When the character comes out, some things make sense but they have questions and learn along the way.

Part of this could be an exploration of how the non-queer characters aren't free to explore in the same way, they don't really get the chance to discover what they like and what they're good at because they have pressure to conform to gender roles and avoid things that make them seem different. The lesson is once a person can shake off the shackles of heteronormativity and explore themselves and what they like and what they're good at, that's when they get to live authentically.

The "queer" or "different" characters could be good at reading emotions, or more intelligent, they could be more peaceful and better at working out compromises instead of battling, viewing things from a different perspective helps them see possibilities that others don't. They can be creative and invent technology that everyone benefits from. These are all real traits of queer people, wouldn't characters like this be awesome?

I think of Alan Turing, a gay man who helped win World War II by cracking the German's enigma code. He created a computer to help him accomplish this. Being gay was illegal and he was charged with a crime, lost his security clearance, had to take medication to reduce his sex drive and it had negative side effects on his health, he had to stop working on cryptography. They made life so unbearable that Alan unalived himself. The world robbed itself from the many contributions he could make because they were scared of him being gay. Freeing minority characters of restrictions and oppression actually frees everyone of restrictions and oppression.

—————————

I don't have a lot of specific compromises, but I don't think you need me for that. I hope I gave you enough things to think about you can see ways to develop your characters and explore themes that can benefit and engage your readers. And hopefully these things can bring your friends on board, too.

Good luck to you!

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xbloodrunsredx · 4 years

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do you have any recommendations for writing Rick in character to how he is portrayed? i'm trying to write my first R&M story and i've read many of your Rick and Morty fics and always find that he's always true to character, at least in my mind.

Boy, I can do you one better! I wrote a brief character breakdown thing when I first started writing him, I’ll post it below.

Rick Sanchez

Defining characteristics:

- Alcoholism

-Cynical/nihilistic/dark sense of humour

- Suicidal

- Apathetic

- Selfish

- Undiagnosed ‘sociopath’

First thoughts:

Rick Sanchez was disillusioned to the world early on, by his own hand or otherwise. He has few true friends, preferring to devote himself to science or the destruction of his own body. He displays classic symptoms of multiple severe mental illnesses, ranging from depression to sociopathy. He has trouble connecting to other people, due to his own perceived self-worth as an entitled narcissist. Any attempts at making headway into a sustainable relationship (usually by Morty) is met with resistance, because Rick doesn’t know how to form healthy relationships from what we’ve seen (particularly with Unity). He does see himself to be more intelligent than other people, which is partially true; however, his emotional and social intelligence is severely lacking. Writing his character would take a lot of insight into the world as he sees it; the world which is always changing dependent on his mood, alcohol levels and company.

Why?

- Rick takes Morty on adventures, not only as a shield, but as someone he can show off to

- Morty is Rick’s closest ‘friend’; unhealthy power imbalance

- Rick does his best thinking when he doesn’t actually try thinking; he’s impulsive and reckless, mainly because he doesn’t care for his own life (how would Morty change this?)

- Rick enjoys disillusioning people (about marriage, school, god, etc) to make up for his own lack of faith in anything

- He cares for Morty’s mental well-being - kind of - he lies about the cause of Morty’s breakdown during the Purge Festival and sacrifices things he normally wouldn’t for Morty (small allowances like Morty’s ability to choose adventures).

- Kills for Morty (Jellybean). Rick is possessive, cares for Morty. Doesn’t know how else to help.

- Needy. Needs Morty’s attention, positive or negative, and relishes in the fact that he can get it whenever he wants. Was this from the beginning or did it develop over time?

- He sees emotion and attachments as irrational and weaknesses. From his own failed relationships? Either way, he still forms attachments which causes his loathing for them to bubble inward.

- He believes that his apathy makes him superior over those with more obvious emotions because he doesn’t value emotional maturity or intelligence.

Second thoughts:

Rick struggles with balancing his pathological need for independence outside of meaningful relationships, with the need for love and affection from his grandchildren and Beth. He cares about them, but he can’t display that to their faces, only in subtle forms (lying about the purgenol). He likes to do things to win. He cares little for the lives of people, whether he’s saving them or killing them, and mainly about his usually petty end goal. He doesn’t like the thought of his family having lives outside of him, and purposefully places himself in positions of power over those he loves. He almost appears to be having a long term existential crisis, over his own place in the universe - he states that nothing in the universe matters but later goes on to claim himself a god, talk about how amazing he is, and how he can’t die, placing any importance in himself and not the universe at large. He scares himself with his own nihilistic worldview and clings to his alcohol and substance abuse problems as a way of coping with his unsureness. He later oversells his intelligence to keep people from questioning him whilst he is questioning himself.

Remember that he’s an asshole, but still human. He does bad things for bad reasons, but he still has reasons: at surface level, they actually tend to be really stupid - like in the dragon episode where he knocks Morty out with gas that ends up knocking himself out too. He’s a genius that lacks the ability to make short-term decisions because he acts on impulse or (vat of acid episode) in order to prove a point. He has little emotional development which we can look at in comparison with his soaring social intelligence in his ability to make meaningless friends in abundance.

#rickmorty #rick sanchez #rick and morty #long post #character reference #character sheet #character design #psychology

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insurancepolicypro · 5 years

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Sickened By Billing Abuses, Readers And Tweeters Stand Up For Sufferers’ Rights

Letters to the Editor is a periodic function. We welcome all feedback and can publish a range. We edit for size and readability and require full names.

Personal Fairness Predators?

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Lastly, I obtained a letter from the collections company saying that if I didn’t pay $26,770, it will ship the data to the credit score companies. Can the Physician Affected person Unity group inform me what I ought to do? Ought to I lose my clearance and my job as a result of I can not afford to pay $26,770? Ought to I borrow cash from the financial institution after which pay excessive curiosity to the financial institution for the remainder of my life?

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Non secular Malpractice

My sister, a hospital chaplain (of Roman Catholic religion), informs me that it’s thought-about chaplain malpractice to attempt to power a affected person to deal with struggling within the precise method others assume they need to (“Firing Physician, Christian Hospital Units Off Nationwide Problem To Assist-In-Dying Legal guidelines,” Aug. 30). It might observe, then, hospital’s requiring employees to “assist” sufferers “recognize the Christian understanding of redemptive struggling” is a paternalistic dismissal of affected person integrity and a type of malpractice. The medical relationship is between the affected person and the physician, not the affected person and the Vatican.

— Gloria Kohut, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Many hospitals in India are managed by non secular organisations (Hindu, Jain, Christian, Muslim) Are in addition they as illiberal to variations in a single’s method to what’s moral in medical observe because the Christian hospital on this case? https://t.co/Nzy6JN348B

— Amar Jesani (@amarjesani) September eight, 2019

— Amar Jesani, Mumbai, India

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— Areva Martin, Los Angeles

Squeezing The Most Out Of Scholar Assist

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— Sonja Sharp (@sic_sonja) September three, 2019

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— Dave Pena, Roseville, Calif.

Senior Starvation And Pangs Of Conscience

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I’m 68, a widower, disabled after two open-heart surgical procedures, with no household left. The final individual to go to me at dwelling was the yearly dwelling well being care nurse, again in February.

I’m identical to the folks in your article: outdated, worn-out and forgotten. After a lifetime of labor, I get by on a verify that’s half of what a minimum-wage employee flipping burgers would possibly make at $15 an hour. I can barely afford to eat the burgers now. Nobody, no insurance coverage firm, no politician is making an attempt to assist seniors out of poverty.

My greatest concern is dying and my little canine being left alone for weeks or months to die earlier than anybody finds me. Having moved to a rural space after my spouse died, folks don’t heat up quick to outsiders. It’s terrible to not converse to anybody for years — yep, years — outdoors of cashiers. Simply letting you already know there are plenty of us out right here.

— Rick Wrenn, Mount Carmel, Tenn.

What occurs when the system designed to guard hundreds of thousands of seniors dealing with hunger is damaged? The Older Individuals Act is one important piece holding many native Meals on Wheels packages collectively. We want you to ask… https://t.co/eicvq9gRln

— Chapa Arts & Photog. (@Berrysicles) September 12, 2019

— Maria De Jesus Chapa, Houston

Double Checking Truth-Examine Details

Because the chairman of Physicians for Honest Protection (PFC), I’ve joined medical doctors across the nation in working to guard sufferers from shock medical payments. I’m writing now to set the report straight on the implications of varied federal insurance policies below debate in Congress. Not solely did KHN’s latest article (“Medical doctors Argue Plans To Treatment Shock Medical Payments Will ‘Shred’ The Security Internet,” Aug. 7) overlook analysis from the American Journal of Managed Care, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, and the Congressional Finances Workplace, it created a myopic interpretation of our argument in an effort to label it as “false,” which resulted in an inaccurate conclusion with respect to a fancy problem that deserves an intensive, data-driven and factual examination.

In accordance with the CBO, a benchmarking method would reduce funds to in-network physicians by as a lot as 20%. This interprets into tens of billions of shifted away from in-network physicians who aren’t sending shock payments over the following decade. Emergency physicians deal with all sufferers no matter their insurance coverage standing. In consequence, 70% of their sufferers are uninsured, seniors or poor households and kids. Subsequently, there isn’t a sensible distinction between decreasing business insurance coverage funds and decreasing Medicaid or Medicare charges. KHN’s personal earlier case research discovered that contributing components to hospital closures embody “excessive uninsured charges and a payer combine dominated by Medicare and Medicaid.” So, a benchmarking coverage would create even bigger disparities in high quality and entry to care over time for weak populations.

Others agree that business funds play a important position in supporting the care of America’s most weak sufferers, together with: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American School of Emergency Physicians, American School of Radiology, America’s Important Hospitals, American Hospital Affiliation, American Medical Affiliation, Affiliation of American Medical Faculties, Catholic Well being Affiliation of the US, Kids’s Hospital Affiliation and Federation of American Hospitals.

As an alternative of talking with well being care consultants to higher perceive how reimbursement dynamics and affected person entry are inextricably linked in in the present day’s economic system, this text relied completely on the opinions of two biased analysis fellows who advocate for the very coverage that our advert opposes and whose statements are deceptive at greatest. The evaluation additionally disregards a quote from the California Medical Affiliation describing a scarcity of accessible anesthesiologists below California’s benchmarking method.

PFC’s mission is to guard sufferers from shock medical payments. That’s the reason, this yr alone, we helped drive constructive compromises that produced new legal guidelines in Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Washington. Equally, on the federal degree, we assist laws that makes use of a confirmed impartial dispute decision mannequin to guard sufferers with out disrupting accountable, in-network practices. To additional shield sufferers, it’s essential that Congress doesn’t create a fair bigger public well being problem with respect to the security internet whereas fixing the true problem of shock payments.

— Dr. Sherif Zaafran, Washington, D.C.

Once I traveled across the state final fall, Kansans made it clear that Medicaid enlargement is a excessive precedence. I will do the whole lot in my energy to make sure this would be the yr we’ll lastly increase Medicaid in Kansas. #RebuildingKansashttps://t.co/gg7BXeopMp

— Laura Kelly (@LauraKellyKS) September 6, 2019

— Gov. Laura Kelly, Topeka, Kan.

Contaminated With Advocacy

Your story about Medicaid enlargement fails to aim any severe description of the explanations for opposition to this enlargement (“How Political Maneuvering Derailed A Purple State’s Path To Medicaid Enlargement,” Sept. 6). The reader is left with the clear impression that opponents are ill-informed, parsimonious, uncaring of others (particularly the poor) or the entire above. There isn’t any suggestion that such opposing is likely to be in good religion. You actually can do higher than this. You insult the intelligence of your readers while you fail to ship the entire story in a good and evenhanded method to allow them to determine for themselves. There may be sufficient “us vs. them” in present media. Don’t drag it into well being care. If you wish to take positions on essential well being care points, please create an editorial web page; don’t infect your “information” with these positions. And no, I’m not a Republican. I’m an impartial uninterested in fixed advocacy within the media disguised as information. Thanks.

— Geoff Hargreaves-Heald, Lincoln, Mass.

Two (not surprising, perhaps disappointing) takeaways:– Citizen intent issues little if just a few state actors know work the system.– Nothing works higher than excessive medical payments for getting center class voters to empathize with Medicaid recipients.https://t.co/JxHaho26pU

— Juhyung Solar (@JuhyungSun) September 6, 2019

— Juhyung Solar, Tucson, Ariz.

Why Prescribed Weight Loss Is In poor health-Suggested

What the writer of the article dismissing the opinion of the dietitian who claimed stigma and yo-yo weight-reduction plan trigger extra hurt than weight problems itself failed to say is that, for many individuals, how weight would possibly contribute to the event of bodily sicknesses is immaterial (Weight problems Stigma And Yo-Yo Weight-reduction plan, Not BMI, Are Behind Persistent Well being Situations, Dietitian Claims, Sept. 17). The prescription to drop a few pounds, in and of itself, is damaging. Most dieters regain 100% or extra of weight misplaced inside 5 years. Moreover, people who find themselves informed to drop a few pounds and subsequently food plan are at considerably elevated threat for physique dissatisfaction, bingeing, disordered consuming and consuming problems.

Well being isn’t just bodily well being. Descartes invented mind-body dualism in a thought experiment within the 1600s. It’s an concept that permeates trendy tradition and drugs to today. Nonetheless, we’re not separate from our minds. Our psychological well being is just not separate from our “true” well being.

Weight problems could or could not trigger sickness. If the method of shedding pounds creates extra sickness within the type of disgrace and consuming problems in addition to well being care avoidance, then persevering with to blindly suggest it’s irresponsible. The advice to food plan must be made with an knowledgeable consent course of. “Being obese could put you liable to growing X, Y and Z. I’m recommending caloric restriction to treatment that. Caloric restriction is thought to be ineffective in the long run, and places you liable to growing an consuming dysfunction or of weighing greater than you do now. The choice to caloric restriction is to thoughtfully study obstacles to your entry of entire, nutritious meals, whether or not they be monetary, psychological or in any other case.

“Compassionately adopting a food plan that over time places extra colours in your plate and replaces processed meals with entire meals could in itself lead each to weight reduction and decreased threat of persistent medical circumstances. Moreover, discovering a approach to improve your bodily exercise, such that the exercise is related to pleasure and self-care, will even be protecting in opposition to persistent circumstances and will contribute to weight reduction. Nonetheless, if at any level weight reduction turns into the purpose somewhat than the logical consequence of sustainable modifications, then we’re again on the weight-reduction plan step, with all its consequent dangers.”

It doesn’t matter whether or not weight problems causes sickness. Intentionally shedding pounds is an ineffective method to addressing what could or will not be an issue, and moreover causes hurt. Allow us to information sufferers towards what they’ve management over: meals decisions and elevated exercise, and let go of the quantity, not as a result of it doesn’t affect well being, however as a result of specializing in it’s ineffective and counterproductive.

If a previously overweight individual is now skinny however depressing, hungry, obsessive, depressed and food-preoccupied as a result of that’s what we developed to do within the context of weight reduction, why is that higher? Any answer has to respect psychological and bodily well being outcomes, or it isn’t really a health-based advice.

— Dr. Sarah O’Neil, Boston

This text ignores the huge rising physique of proof round #weightstigma, argues in opposition to simply two items @chr1styharrison put ahead, then simply makes use of quotes from consultants to rebuff this declare and never proof and using an odd metaphor about carrots.

— Kerry (she/her) (@HAEScoach) September 18, 2019

— Kerry Beake, Mandurah, Australia

Summer season Camp Rehab — Or Torture?

The article “At This Summer season Camp, Struggling With A Incapacity Is The Level” (Aug. 13) portrays what you describe as “mandatory” however what many people adults with disabilities keep in mind as rehab torture — traumatic recollections of painful so-called remedy with questionable or no demonstrable outcomes. Even when this system had outcomes, many people would have chosen to not expertise the ache. It’s old-style rehab of pretending it isn’t torturous and “we all know what’s greatest for you.” This type of rehab was vehemently rejected by incapacity activists years in the past. It’s too dangerous adults who skilled this type of remedy weren’t consulted. I imagine few of them would describe this in constructive phrases. It’s not a brand new idea: In case you work exhausting, with ache, you possibly can turn into impartial! So if you happen to can handle to decorate your self in 4 hours and prepare for mattress in three hours, you’re impartial and met the targets set for you, regardless that you’re so drained you possibly can’t benefit from the remaining few hours of your day. Most adults with disabilities would set a purpose of getting a high quality of life over being impartial. This was a really biased story and may have been extra balanced from very totally different views, particularly from these with disabilities.

— RoAnne Chaney, government director of the Michigan Incapacity Rights Coalition, East Lansing, Mich.

SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS WITH DISABILITIES! There must be extra camps identical to this one! This Nashville camp was began for teenagers who’ve disabilities that require bodily remedy, and the camp counselors flip the workouts into video games! https://t.co/F2uMFpSSLs

— D’Amore Harm Legislation (@DAmoreInjuryLaw) July 31, 2019

— Tom von Alten, Boise, Idaho

Prescribing A ‘Deep-Dive’ Into Hospital Excesses

I believe KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal’s piece on hospital excesses is true on the mark (“Evaluation: How Your Beloved Hospital Helps To Drive Up Well being Care Prices,” Sept. 5). I used to be affiliated with a New York Metropolis hospital as a voluntary internist and retired 4 years in the past. I’m wondering if it will be doable to do a “deep dive” evaluation of a consultant hospital’s costs and expenditures (a number of New York hospitals come to thoughts as candidates) by an investigative reporting group. I think there may be some huge cash being spent that doesn’t improve affected person high quality of care (i.e., extreme numbers of directors getting egregious salaries). I believe you’ve mentioned the salient causes these contributing price components haven’t been extensively mentioned or debated ― however they have to be.

I keep in mind a information story a few affected person who purchased his synthetic hip implant within the U.S. wholesale and, to economize, took it with him to Belgium to have it inserted. The hospital regarded like a manufacturing facility, and he was reluctant to go in — however he did, and because it turned out the whole lot went nicely and he saved some huge cash!

― Dr. Lawson Moyer, New York Metropolis

from insurancepolicypro http://insurancepolicypro.com/?p=1457

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writingsofawanderingwonderer · 7 years

Text

Right. So this is a response to @norbezdraws video, "Should We Fix Our Mad Geniuses?"

Norbez, you asked me for my thoughts on Twitter, so I'm gonna go post a novel of an explanation here, so get comfy in a nice reading chair. :)

If there's anyone else reading this, go listen to the video first, it's really interesting and it poses a rather fascinating question.

Also, sorry for the long wait for my response. ^^;

Also note: Everything I write here is about and from a storytelling and media perspective. Not real life.

I’m gonna use bullet points for my thoughts.

- On a moral level, the character should want to change. This is why Rick's capture in Rick and Morty and the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange (I haven't seen this film) are considered tragic. Because even though their capture will save people from getting hurt, they don't want to be captured or changed.

- I feel like drugs and other forms of addiction should be separated from mental illness, and that abuse should also be separated in the character examples list of flaws, because audience members' views on those different subjects could be contradictory.

For example:

Drugs/addiction is self-harming (a character flaw), so viewers may likely say, "Yes, the character should be fixed and have this removed."

Abuse (emotional/physical--and quite honestly, I think these two type should also be sub-separated; they're so different) harms other people who are around that character. This can make characters who have this type of flaw more villainous (Gothel from Disney's Tangled has been cited as an emotional abuser to her daughter) because if they don't want to change, then we as the audience see that as bad and/or irredeemable because they’re hurting people they care about and/or are close to.

Mental illness affects the character's mind. The mind is linked with personality. Therefore, if you "fix" the character by removing their mental illness, do you make the character no longer "them"? Who do they become?

Additionally, many works (such as Hellblade--which I haven’t played) frame the main character’s mental illness as not something to be cured. Rather, the story frames it as a part of the character. The challenges in the story come more from the outside world not understanding the main character’s different perception of the world.

Particularly with mental illness, opinions will vary depending on the viewer (as well as the individual character), as to whether the character should be "fixed."

Also, some examples, like Sherlock, make the addiction a flaw rather than a trait that is required for them to still be themselves/a genius. Sherlock would still be a genius without drugs. The drugs are his flaw[1], not his strength (intelligence). Take away Sherlock’s addiction and he’s still Sherlock. He’s still a detective.

*Footnote: In the BBC series and in original novels' canon, Sherlock supposedly only uses drugs when he has no case to solve. So drugs actually equals "Sherlock is not acting like a genius." BBC Sherlock actually wrecked this idea with the plot holes in season 4, but I'm going off tangent at this point (and at this point, a lot of BBC Sherlock fans--myself included--are currently not considering season 4 to even be series canon, given the amount of plot holes, out-of-character moments, and retcon-ing it contained. Seriously, what was up with that last episode?! THAT GUN DIDN’T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE A TRANQUILLISER! ARE YOU KIDDING M--).

- When I read the title of the video, I at first thought you meant "eccentricity": Characters who act outside social norms and don't follow the status quo/expectations (in an unharmful manner). Quirky characters. Characters who walk to the beat of a different drum. I understand that's not what you meant, but I might as well say my opinion on eccentric characters: It takes all sorts to make a world. They do not need to be "fixed."

- I also think misanthropic characters don't need to be fixed. I have to be clear on this, because SO many writers get misanthropia wrong: It's disliking humanity. Not wanting harm towards humanity. They just don’t want to want to deal with humanity. It's like being a hardcore grump/hermit rather than a jerk/murderer/rude person. A misanthropic person can have strong bonds with other humans, they just don't like dealing with strangers (often because they have been "burnt" before in past experiences) and can be very caring, selfless individuals with healthy relationships. Misanthropes are often the way they are because they care a lot, rather than a little (the latter being the stereotype I see a lot in fiction). Often, you can’t even tell if someone’s a misanthrope just by looking for them. A misanthrope looks at a smoker and thinks, "Why do THEY get dibs on the clean air?", etc. There is a difference between a grump and a jerk.

- I think series like Rick and Morty and BBC Sherlock have mad geniuses that treat their partner badly/questionably, yet we still like them as characters is less because of their “gifts,” and more because we see that when push comes to shove, Rick/Sherlock will act selflessly to protect Morty/John.

That’s how I interpret it anyway.

Rick is showing signs of being more caring (and hopefully less abusive) towards Morty. As Mycroft predicted, Sherlock is showing his heart more by being with John.

Their characters arcs are actually “fixing” them.

Another example of this type of relationship (or a similar type of relationship) is Eddy and her daughter Saffy’s relationship in Absolutely Fabulous. There’s an episode where Eddy protects her daughter from a guy who keeps bothering her (Saffy). Even though Eddy and Saffy constantly insult each other, at the end of the day, Eddy cares about her daughter. We don’t necessarily see their relationship as good, but we understand why they stay together.

And Eddy doesn’t even have “mad genius” nor traditionally heroic qualities. She’s the epitome of a “UK Comedy Series’ Unsympathetic Protagonist.”

Okay, now some character examples:

I'll start off with examples of abuse/addiction that are either BAD, start off as bad/questionable, or in a grey area:

These examples don't inherently make the works bad. I like all of the works listed below. These are just examples of problematic portrayals that we should pause for thought and reflect on.

- Bullet in the Face (a Canadian-American series about a criminal mastermind helping cops track down a bigger criminal mastermind) has Gunter attacking other characters to help solve cases. Gunter is portrayed as a villain protagonist, and most if not all of the characters he attacks are villains as well, making the protagonist ironically less problematic than if the writers portrayed him as a heroic character. The series basically says, “He’s a villain. So he does villainous things.”

- Dirk Gently: (We're talking BBC-2010-TV-series!Dirk, not the original books/other adaptations, nor the 2016 series.) Dirk is a detective who can solve mysteries others can't because of his odd philosophies. He has a partner, named Richard, who he hypnotises into giving him money, uses as a guinea pig (he injects him with a computer chip without warning him), and steals money from him. Yet Richard still stays with him (which is considered to be one of the biggest plot holes the adaptation has).

- Rick and Morty: Rick still continues to be abusive towards Morty, his own grandson. Rick's selfless act at the end of season 2 hints that Rick may slowly be trying to change his ways. Unity's note to Rick when it dumps him also implies that the writers are self-aware that Rick's abusive traits are a flaw, not a "kooky trait," so Rick could be interpreted as a "good" example too, because the series shows the negative effects of his behaviour.

- BBC Sherlock: As I said above.

Okay, now some examples (you asked for) of GOOD examples of abuse/addiction being portrayed in a non-romantic/kooky/positive/problematic light:

- Captain Haddock: In The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab with the Golden Claws album, Tintin meets an alcoholic who is the captain of a ship. Together, they escape the ship's crew and solve a mystery together. Haddock wouldn't really be considered an archetypal "mad genius," but by being with Tintin, his alcoholism decreases (though never actually disappears completely--writer Hergé liked to portray things realistically). His alcoholism decreases because of Tintin's support and friendship, which is really heartwarming to me.

- Dirk Gently: Here, we're talking book!Dirk. Irony, eh? In the original novels, Dirk is still abusive to his crime-solving partners (he, again, hypnotises Richard into jumping into the River Thames--which is not a nice place to go swimming, unless you like plastic bags and abandoned shopping trolleys). What makes the books different than the BBC series however, are the endings: Every partner Dirk gets, in each book, dumps him by the end of each adventure/novel they have with him because of his abusive tendencies. They don't want to be with him. That paints Dirk’s abuse as a more negative thing, instead of a “quirky” thing.

- Croak: The main character or this novel, Lex, is introduced as a teenage girl who recently developed anger management issues. She lashes out at people, especially at her school. It’s portrayed in an untraditionally human way: She describes it as feelings she knows are harmful, and she doesn’t enjoy these feelings of charged anger. She struggles to stop herself from lashing out. She also takes great care in making sure she doesn’t hurt her sister. (I haven’t finished the first book yet, so I don’t know how her character arc ends.)

- The Jennifer Ann Group’s yearly game jam focuses on creating games that educate people on teen dating abuse. The game Grace’s Diary is a notable example.

I hope this answered your questions on what my thoughts were on this subject.

#series #literature #films

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gusticeleague · 7 years

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With the third season of Rick and Morty on the horizon, and since I don’t think anyone’s done this before, I decided to give my ranking of all the Rick and Morty episodes (from the first two seasons).

My metrics for judgement are as follows: I’m attempting to judge the show purely on its own merits, which each episode being held to the question “is this the show at it’s best?”, which to my mind is a character-driven high concept sci-fi show that actively critiques but never outright condemns the humanist philosophies behind its chosen genre.

I’ve tried to avoid using other shows as a comparison unless it’s to illustrate a point, but in some cases it’s pretty unavoidable when this show unapologetically rips off its plots from movies wholesale. Episodes get more points for good story structure that adds to a good moral, strong critique or parody of an established science fiction trope that is otherwise well explored and strong character development that builds across episodes and firmly establishes a continuity. And when in doubt, it mostly comes down to “which would I rather rewatch if I only had those two competing episodes to choose from?”.

All clear? Alright, without further ado…

The Definitive Objective Extra-Schwifty Ranking of every Rick and Morty Episode

1. Rixty Minutes (S1E8)

Well, what else was it going to be?

What begins as an epilogue to Rick Potion #9 ends up becoming the central thesis for the entire show up to that point, that while the character’s existence isn’t significant on the cosmic scale and Summer’s birth basically creating the entire family was an accident of fate, sometimes seeing things from that perspective makes you realise how miraculous it is that you are here now, and instead of wrestling with your own insignificance and the possibility of “what could have been”, you accept and embrace the life that you have now, for all its faults. That those revelations are paired with the interdimensional TV both builds the tension for how the conflict happening outside of is progressing and relieves it by providing a reprieve from the revelations that happen from it. This episode is the show at its best, and probably one of the best episodes of television period.

2. Meeseeks and Destroy (S1E5)

One of the smartest writing decisions in the show is that it doesn’t do the old domestic magic/sci-fi show trope of having the main character’s adventures kept a secret from the rest of the family or having a convenient reset button at the end of each episode. Instead, it aims to explore the emotional consequences of interacting with Rick’s world, and Meeseeks and Destroy marks a turning point in the show where all of these adventures start to actually matter to the show’s continuity and to the character’s growth. This is actually my personal favourite episode, but I think it’s just shy of being the best for two reasons: the A-plot relies on a reversal of the normal story structure, with Morty leading the adventure instead of Rick so it’s not the most “typical” of the show overall, and the two plots don’t come together as fluidly as they do in Rixty. Still, it’s a very close call.

3. Auto-Erotic Assimilation (S2E3)

Beyond a few references at Beth’s mother and a few (potentially false) memories, we never really get to see how Rick operates in a romantic relationship. So it’s interesting to see Rick at his most vulnerable and with someone he actually has actually has some love for in Unity, the one-who-is-a-million that got away. An emotionally raw story about two people who are good together but aren’t good for each other, paralleled with a B-plot of Summer and Morty learning that given total freedom, humans (well, blue alien people) will undoubtedly give in to their worst impulses. Also, man, that ending is one of the most gut-wrenchingly depressing endings to a show I’ve ever seen, and it lands perfectly. Maybe a little too perfectly.

4. Morty-Night Run (S2E2)

Probably the show’s best straight-forward adventure episode, which helps set up the Galactic Federation conflict that will eventually pay off at the end of Season 2 and is probably the best demonstration of Morty attempting to apply idealistic Earth morality to a more morally complicated universe to which Rick is perfectly adapted. A plethora of memorable characters like Krombopulous Michael and Jemaine Clement’s crooning sentient gas cloud, some excellent psychedelic animation and art direction, and a consistently funny B-plot of Jerry’s time in a daycare full of alternate versions of himself and confronting just how pathetic he is make this episode a real winner.

5. The Ricks Must Be Crazy (S2E6)

This is the best of what I like to call the “nesting doll” episodes of the show, where the adventure is a continuous descent or ascent through several layers of the sci-fi trope of the week. The first two thirds of the episode are a great slow boil before the “oh, shit” moment of the Mini-Verse scientist killing himself, and the final race out of the teeny/mini/microverses, intercut with Summer in Rick’s car is one of the most expertly paced sequences in the entire show. It’s also the only episode that gives Rick a compelling nemesis in the form of Zeep Zanthorp - a being he unintentionally created who is smart enough to challenge him, which annoys Rick to no end. I really hope they bring him back, since Rick is pretty short on compelling enemies (besides the Council of Ricks). Fingers crossed for some car trouble in Season 3.

6. Close Encounters of the Rick Kind (S1E10)

The idea of Rick being the only person(s) able to challenge him could have served to make Rick a little too smug and perfect for his own good, but the Council of Ricks serve as the perfect synthesis and literalisation of Rick’s self-loathing and his detest for sprawling authoritarian institutional bodies. Every alternate timeline/universe/dimension (do they ever settle on one definition? They’re all used fairly interchangeably) strike a perfect balance between absurdist weirdness and incredibly internal consistency, and every rewatch makes you pick up on new details you didn’t notice before. And look, I’m not made of stone, Jerry and Doofus Rick’s friendship is actually quite sweet, and I hope they get reunited someday.

7. Look Who’s Purging Now (S2E9)

The main character throughline of Season 2 is seeing how Rick and Morty start to rub off on each other over the course of their adventures. This comes to a head in this episode as we see how willing Morty is to emulate Rick in his amorality when he goes “full Purge” and how Rick is taken aback by what his grandson could become following in his footsteps while also confronting the limits of his joy/apathy of the bloodshed that ensues from his adventures. It also has the sharpest piece of social satire the show has ever done, where after the newly freed aliens try to rebuild society after the overthrow of their aristocratic overlords devolve into arguing over the division of labour and wind up reinstating the Purge again anyway from the frustration of having to create a functioning society again. Defeatist? Maybe. Hilarious? Absolutely.

8. Rick Potion #9 (S1E6)

Probably the episode that’s most important to the overall canon of the show. It sets the tone for the adventures to follow, gives a true point of no return for the show as a whole, as well as a great deconstruction of status-quo beholden storytelling and the creepy ethics of love potion plots. Had this just been a ranking of season one episodes, it would probably rank higher, but as you can probably tell by this list, the show has definitely topped this one since. I also want to point out just how incredible the show’s art direction and character creation is when it comes to all the varying designs of the Cronenbergs. I really hope the animators got a raise after this episode.

9. Total Rickall (S2E4)

The Thing through the lens of a Community clip show turns into a paranoid existential thriller that escalates perfectly, has an excellent twist that probably ended up ruining a load of friendships in real life and revealed a ton about how the Smith family operates and sees each other. It does test the limit for how many wacky characters you’re willing to put up with, and it can’t really escape the insular insubstantial feeling of bottle episodes as a whole, especially if you buy into the theory that this episode and Morty-Night Run take place in another universe and so it doesn’t really matter to the show’s continuity as a whole. But it give us Mr. Poopy Butthole, so I’m willing to forgive it.

10. Big Trouble in Little Sanchez (S2E7)

This is a tough one to rank, because it has the greatest disparity of quality between the A plot and B plot. Beth and Jerry’s “mythologue” oriented marriage counselling is such a perfect science-fiction idea of making a metaphorical conflict real that it probably had enough to be the plot of the whole episode. Unfortunately, it’s paired with a B plot that tries to do the same thing with Tiny Rick. He’s funny as a visual, but the episode has to go to some lengths to inject tension into the proceedings. Why can’t Rick just stay in his young body forever other than some convoluted explanation about how teenagers push all their bad feelings into the back of their minds and therefore Old Rick will be erased (I think?). I felt it could have used an additional conflict where Rick loses some of his scientific brilliance because of his young brain overwriting his old one, or maybe a better acknowledgement that Summer was the one that pushed Rick into a self-described hackneyed high school plot that even he found too simple a pitch. Still, it cracks the top ten on the strength of the Beth and Jerry plot alone, which I plan to go into more depth about later, so stay tuned.

11. Anatomy Park (S1E3)

There are three inevitabilities in this world: death, taxes and sci-fi shows doing a Fantastic Voyage plot. Rick and Morty’s take is to fuse it with Jurassic Park and also have it be the show’s Christmas episode, which gives us a story which is never dull and has a lot of great jokes (“Oh, never mind, I was thinking of the T. rex”) but doesn’t come together in any interesting way other than the blood raining at the end, which also raises the question of whether the show was planning at this point to keep Rick and Morty’s adventures a secret from the rest of the Smiths. Also, I’m of the mind that Christmas episodes tend to work better when they’re placed later in the show’s run, as all the familial conflicts can play out better when you’ve had more time to get to know the characters and how they became the way they are It’s good, Maybe could have been better had it aired later in the show’s run and the writers had a better idea of what the show’s status quo was.

12. Raising Gazorpazorp (S1E7)

Having an adolescent raise a baby warmonger alien is some great application of science fiction to the mundane, and Morty’s relationship to Morty Jr. yields some touching moments. Tthe gender politics of planet Gazorpazorp feel a bit rote and stereotypical and an excuse to make a lot of obvious “battle of the sexes” jokes, and raises a lot of gripes I have regarding how mainstream science fiction comedy approaches and incorporates women and the feminine into its worlds, even if it does a little bit of softball criticism by drawing attention to Rick’s casual misogyny. Good, but could have been better.

13. The Wedding Squanchers (S2E10)

A great finale that pays off the long-brewing confrontation between Rick and the Galactic Federation, and sets up a lot of interesting developments for Season 3. But as a result of that, it kind of feels a little incomplete in a way that the first season finale didn’t because they knew they were getting renewed.

14. A Rickle In Time (S2E1)

I loved the multiple timeline split-screen bits and Rick explaining at length about how he doesn’t care about Morty and Summer, which sets up what I believe to be Rick’s arc through Season 2 revealing his softer side. But the Beth and Jerry B-plot is basically just trying to give them something to do, doesn’t really contribute any tension to the situation back home and doesn’t tell us anything new about their relationship.

15. Pilot (S1E1)

As pilots go, Rick and Morty’s one is pretty good. It tells you everything you need to know about the scope of the show, its characters and the type of humour you can expect from it. The “Rick and Morty hundred years!” rant is one of the show’s best moments. But it was clearly still finding its voice, and there’s a bit of weirdness in that you think the show is going to pivot the way having the rest of the Smith family not know about Rick and Morty’s adventures, which they thankfully did away with.

16. Ricksy Business (S1E11)

Despite introducing us to Birdperson and Abradolph Lincler, this episode feels kind of unremarkable in retrospect, and ultimately just feels like they threw in all of the ideas they couldn’t fit into the earlier episodes into this one in case they didn’t get renewed.

17. M. Night Shaym-aliens (S1E4)

The second best of the “nesting doll” episodes. The simulations inside simulations are a great Inception riff, even better than their actual Inception parody (more on that in a second). We really get a good look at Jerry’s insecurity and what drives him as a character, and the first real demonstration of Rick’s cunning and preparedness that also helps lay out the cosmic scope of his reputation. However, I don’t find the Zigerian scammers that funny, despite David Cross’ best efforts as the voice of their leader, and they’re a little too similar to the nudist scammer aliens from the first Futurama movie for my liking - the fact that they’re squeamish about nudity had to be a dig at that, surely?. But the overall set-up is solid and seeing Jerry casually strut through a low-res simulation of his life is pretty hysterical.

18. Lawnmower Dog (S1E2)

The worst (or really, the least good) of the “nesting doll” episodes. The direction the Scary Terry plot goes in is unexpected, clever and genuinely touching, but I don’t find the “dogs take over the world” plot that remarkable in any way, especially in comparison to the rest of the show.

19. Get Schwifty (S2E5)

This episode got a lot of shit when it aired, and it’s easy to see why, seeing that it had to follow a hat-trick of three great episodes. It’s a fairly solid Independence Day/Day The Earth Stood Still parody, but it’s definitely the show’s most lazily conceived plot, not to mention that I’m fairly sure that entire sections of the script appear in the previous episodes. That said, the giant space heads are a great visual (and gave us some great meme fodder), and it sets up the endgame of The Wedding Squanchers by reintroducing us to Birdperson and Tammy, if very inelegantly.

20. Interdimensional Cable II: Tempting Fate (S2E8)

On my first watch of this, I didn’t find this episode that funny, and the only TV bit that really made me laugh out loud was “Man vs Car”. The context for the Interdimensional Cable here, instead of being a distraction from the potential collapse of Beth and Jerry’s marriage is them waiting in a hospital for Jerry to recover from a fatal alien illness, which could be a potentially interesting idea if he hadn’t been immediately cured at the episode’s beginning, which immediately sucks all the tension out of the episode. Where the tension in Rixty Minutes (the episode this is self-plagiarising) lies in whether the Smith family will ultimately be broken up for good, this one ends up hinging on...the fate of Jerry’s penis. It keeps trying to ring some tension out of Jerry wanting to feel significant for having saved the galaxy’s answer to the Dalai Lama, and while I like the ultimate lesson that you can’t make people love you, the journey to get there doesn’t really work as well as it could have. They even make a meta-dig at themselves that they can’t improve on perfection, and at that point you kind of give this episode the ranking it deserves.

21. Something Ricked This Way Comes (S1E9)

At its best, Rick and Morty subverts and deconstructs well-worn science fiction tropes and the plots and lessons that tend to play out when played straight, and works best when it incorporates those proceedings with examinations of the American family dynamic and how we fight the daily battle of finding some kind humanist purpose and meaning in our lives in a universe for which that pursuit is bound to end in failure. While this episode has the best Summer plot and arguably the show’s best joke in the form of the Butter Passing Robot, Ricked is probably the most lazily conceived version of itself possible, picks a lot of very easy targets and ends up feeling very bored with itself as a result. While it aims to be an examination of how science fiction stories have replaced or perhaps better refine the old superstitions and morality lessons that horror stories play off, while actively critiquing how similar the two genres are in execution, the actual plot is basically Rick becoming a mouthpiece for how much the writers hate superstitious thinking and going “haha you brought Stephen King to a Kurt Vonnegut/Stanislaw Lem fight, get riggedy-riggedy-rekt son”. The B-plot of Jerry insisting that Pluto is a planet pokes fun at climate change denialism, and while a great demonstration of how facts and evidence have become summarily rejected in political discourse in favour of dogma and superstition, it doesn’t escalate into anything bigger like the best episodes of the show do. Hell, they can’t even agree on what the moral is at the end, and instead just resolve to literally beat up some political strawmen in lieu of actually finding a cohesive message. While that might be cathartic to some, for a show that isn’t content to give its audience easy answers, it’s punching well below its weight.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith

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rickgoodman · 5 years

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7 Diiferent Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

7 Different Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

As a transformational leadership expert I am often asked "what is the best leadership style to use with my team"? There are many different leadership styles you can use to change your organizational culture or improve employee engagement.

In this episode of The Solutions Oriented Leader Podcast we will discuss the seven different leadership styles you can use as a leader to bring about organizational change.

What is the relationship between leadership and organizational culture? The answer is more complicated than you might think. On the one hand it’s very difficult to impose organizational culture, taking a top-down approach.

Organizational culture really needs to come from the team, and you’ll need widespread buy-in for any cultural changes to be effective. At the same time, I do think companies need leaders who set the tone, articulate a clear sense of mission, and embody organizational culture through the daily example they set.

The good news is there’s more than one way to apply leadership within your organizational culture… and some leadership styles are more effective than others. As you consider the best way to lead your culture-building initiative, allow me to share with you seven basic leadership styles, along with my comments on how effective each one is.

7 Different Leadership Styles for Your Organizational Culture

Democratic Leadership

A leader will gain feedback and insight from each team member, then make a final decision based on the group’s consensus.

This doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is on equal footing, as the senior leader or manager may still have basic veto powers, but it does empower everyone on the team to feel like they have a say, and some authority over what the organizational culture looks like. For this reason, I’d consider democratic leadership to be one of the more effective approaches.

Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leadership, meanwhile, is the polar opposite of democratic leadership. In this leadership style, there’s one manager or executive who makes the decision all on their own, without soliciting input from anyone else on the team.

In my opinion this just isn’t a good way to run an organization. Yes, sometimes, you may have a situation where you will just have to make a tough call, and it may be a decision that team members don’t especially like. But that should be the exception, not the rule. Taking a full-on dictatorial approach will cause resentment to fester, and it can destroy your best-laid employment engagement strategies.

Let Them Do What They Want

This third category of leadership is almost like the democratic approach taken to an extreme. It basically means that the “leader” leaves all authority to the employees, allowing them to call the shots without any checks or balances.

Trusting your employees to simply work however they like, whenever they like, can actually be a decent approach in smaller and younger companies; indeed, you’ll generally see this leadership style used in startup environments. In more mature companies, though, it can often lead to trouble… a lack of purpose, a lack of unity, a lack of cohesion.

Transactional Leadership

Another leadership style to consider for your organizational culture is; Transactional leadership. With this approach, employees are always rewarded on the basis of the work they do; so, the team that brings in a big new account will receive an increase in their paycheck or bonus. In other words, transactional leadership is all about incentivizing.

I believe that there are some strengths here, but also some limitations. On the one hand, it’s helpful to clearly lay out roles, responsibilities, and expectations. At the same time, it can actually encourage employees to put in bare-minimum effort they really need to do to get the desired reward.

Coaching-style Leadership

Still another form of leadership to consider is the coaching style. And yes, this works much like a sports coach: The leader will work on identifying and then honing the strengths of the team as well as each individual employee. Most of the time, a coaching-style approach will lead to each employee having a few areas of expertise; hopefully, when you bring all the skill sets of the team together, it results in something cohesive and impactful.

I think this is a fairly effective way to lead a team, and in fact it has a lot in common with my favorite leadership style, which is transformational leadership.

Bureaucratic Leadership

Another leadership style to think about is bureaucratic. Leaders who adopt this strategy strictly adhere to company policies and procedures. They may sometimes solicit employee input, but they’ll reject it any time it contradicts existing standards, practices and routines.

As with autocratic leadership, the bureaucratic approach may stifle your employees, making them feel too closely controlled; again, it can really deflate your employee engagement strategies. I’d generally recommend against it.

Transformational Leadership

Lastly, there’s transformational leadership. This is the model where you are always looking for ways to improve a company’s existing systems or processes. It is goal-oriented, participative, and aspirational.

I think it’s the best way to lead a team and develop organizational culture because it provides employees with a lot of autonomy, but also keeps everyone focused on the same big-picture objectives.

I’m proud to call myself a transformational leadership expert and coach, and one of my favorite things is talking with managers and executives about how they can adopt a transformational approach. If you’re looking to revolutionize your organizational culture, the transformational leadership style may be just what you’re looking for. Reach out and let’s talk!

Contact me at www.rickgoodman.com or call 888-267-6098, and let’s get into the details of your cultural needs.

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Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you're not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don't want you to miss an episode. I'm adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you're not subscribed there's a good chance, you'll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!

I'd be really grateful if you left me review over on iTunes too. Those reviews help other people find my podcasts there. It’s also fun for me to go in and read them. Just click here to review, select ratings and reviews and write a review and let me know what your favorite part of the podcast is.

Thank you!

Dr. Rick

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dinafbrownil · 5 years

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Sickened By Billing Abuses, Readers And Tweeters Stand Up For Patients’ Rights

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names.

Private Equity Predators?

First of all, let me thank you for writing about such an important issue (“Investors’ Deep-Pocket Push To Defend Surprise Medical Bills,” Sept. 11). I am going to tell you about my personal pain regarding surprising medical billing.

They can call themselves Doctor Patient Unity group or any other fancy name, but the reality is that they are all predators. I say this because I am the victim of these doctors groups. I work as a linguist with the U.S. Army and have top-secret clearance. I could lose my clearance if any of my bills go to a collections agency.

I had appendix surgery on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Davis Medical Center in Layton, Utah. The surgeon had told me that my surgery would take only 10 to 15 minutes. After two hours of surgery, I was released from the hospital and sent home. My insurer, CIGNA, paid all the Davis hospital bills and I paid my portion of the bills. Then in March 2019, I received two separate doctor’s bills totaling about $48,000. My insurance was not paying the doctor’s bills because they were out-of-network. The doctor’s office kept sending me letters to pay $48,000 from my pocket; if I did not pay, I was told, my bills would be sent to collections.

Finally, I received a letter from the collections agency saying that if I did not pay $26,770, it would send the information to the credit agencies. Can the Doctor Patient Unity group tell me what I should do? Should I lose my clearance and my job because I cannot afford to pay $26,770? Should I borrow money from the bank and then pay high interest to the bank for the rest of my life?

— Aziz Rehman, Kaysville, Utah

This is a very misleading article. Many independent physicians speaking out want IDR to solve the problem of outliers and take patients #OutOfTheMiddle. Insurance-backed lobbyists are using this issue as a #TrojanHorse to enrich corporate shareholders at expense of physicians.

— Amy Mecozzi Cho, MD MBA (@amychomd) September 12, 2019

On Twitter, Dr. Amy Mecozzi Cho of Minneapolis diagnosed holes in the article. For example, she told KHN, “the contracted rates for insurance are misleading since our bad debt for patients with high-deductible insurance is greater than 60% of their deductible, but insurance companies won’t bill them because they know this. And so our effective rates for commercial insurance are actually much lower than contracted. The medical loss ratio and the CBO estimates are not capturing these costs to patients and physicians.”

Religious Malpractice

My sister, a hospital chaplain (of Roman Catholic faith), informs me that it’s considered chaplain malpractice to try to force a patient to cope with suffering in the exact way others think they should (“Firing Doctor, Christian Hospital Sets Off National Challenge To Aid-In-Dying Laws,” Aug. 30). It would follow, then, that a hospital’s requiring staff to “help” patients “appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering” is a paternalistic dismissal of patient integrity and a form of malpractice. The medical relationship is between the patient and the doctor, not the patient and the Vatican.

— Gloria Kohut, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Many hospitals in India are controlled by religious organisations (Hindu, Jain, Christian, Muslim) Are they also as intolerant to differences in one's approach to what is ethical in medical practice as the Christian hospital in this case? https://t.co/Nzy6JN348B

— Amar Jesani (@amarjesani) September 8, 2019

— Amar Jesani, Mumbai, India

It’s unfathomable that students with disabilities can’t get the aid they need to attend college and live in the community! Bravo to this Stanford freshman for fighting for services. It’s past time for readily available help for students! #DisabilityRightshttps://t.co/EuVnUzEX8b

— Areva Martin, Esq. (@ArevaMartin) September 2, 2019

— Areva Martin, Los Angeles

Squeezing The Most Out Of Student Aid

I saw Jenny Gold’s excellent article in the Los Angeles Times about a disabled student’s need for assistance as she starts school at Stanford (“Spotlight: A Young Woman, A Wheelchair And The Fight To Take Her Place At Stanford,” Sept. 4). I wanted you to be aware that the Department of Rehabilitation in California pays for additional expenses for students to train them for future employment. This includes laptops, supplies, transportation expenses, necessary expenses. They might also pay for expenses for care above and beyond the approval of the state Department of Health Care Services.

All students face the issue of how to support themselves while in college. Stanford’s lovely gift of education for all who are accepted is often not used due to the high expenses of that area. Many students are unable to afford college, even with a full scholarship.

Those who have paid their way with student loans and are now employed in high service areas, such as medicine, psychiatry, social services and teaching, are strapped with lifetime payments. Our best and our brightest who serve our communities are in debt to the point where their income barely pays their lifetime of student loans. Sylvia Colt-Lacayo’s situation may have more expenses, but the debt of $2,000 a month is not unique for a full-time university student.

— Teresa L. Pardini, LMFT, Creativity in Counseling, Nipomo, Calif.

This young woman got 4.25 GPA & a full ride to Stanford despite never drinking ANYTHING at school so she wouldn't have to pee, bc that's what it takes for ♿ kids to excel in an abled world. That she still has to fight for care should infuriate you.https://t.co/B9vH1c1ATK

— Sonja Sharp (@sic_sonja) September 3, 2019

— Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles

A Heroine In The Opioid Fight

Please thank this wonderful, dedicated and tough woman (“Longtime Crusader Against OxyContin Begins To See The Fruits Of Her Struggle,” Sept. 17). That criminal company and every single member of the Sackler family had been well aware of the entire scam for decades, but they kept their mouths shut, turned their heads, denied everything and couldn’t care less since they were stuffing their individual pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars for each member of that large family. Every dollar should be clawed back from each family member. They’re laughing all the way to the Sackler Wing of 20-plus museums around this planet.

— David Padawer, Pittsburgh

As the father of a recovering opioid addict I see Barbara's efforts and passion for accountability is so heroic. The loss of her son is so terrible….

— Dave (@dwpena) September 17, 2019

— Dave Pena, Roseville, Calif.

Senior Hunger And Pangs Of Conscience

I’ve been a medic for over 20 years. I have patients that have to pick between eating or taking their medications. It’s disgraceful. We need to have articles like this written every day (“Starving Seniors: How America Fails To Feed Its Aging,” Sept. 3). Thank you.

— Eric Johnson, Marana, Ariz.

Many hospital stays are for ppl w complications of starvation and malnutrition – confusion/delirium, dangerous electrolyte imbalances in salt, sugar, potassium

We need programs for starving People.

How America Fails To Feed Its Aging https://t.co/gv6Z8HnqZH @khnews

— Tina Chee, MD, MPA (@Tina_Chee_MD) September 3, 2019

— Dr. Tina Chee, New York City

I’m 68, a widower, disabled after two open-heart surgeries, with no family left. The last person to visit me at home was the yearly home health care nurse, back in February.

I am just like the people in your article: old, worn-out and forgotten. After a lifetime of work, I get by on a check that’s half of what a minimum-wage worker flipping burgers might make at $15 an hour. I can barely afford to eat the burgers now. No one, no insurance company, no politician is trying to help seniors out of poverty.

My biggest fear is dying and my little dogs being left alone for weeks or months to die before anyone finds me. Having moved to a rural area after my wife died, people don’t warm up fast to outsiders. It’s awful not to speak to anyone for years — yep, years — outside of cashiers. Just letting you know there are a lot of us out here.

— Rick Wrenn, Mount Carmel, Tenn.

What happens when the system designed to protect millions of seniors facing starvation is broken? The Older Americans Act is one critical piece holding many local Meals on Wheels programs together. We need you to ask… https://t.co/eicvq9gRln

— Chapa Arts & Photog. (@Berrysicles) September 12, 2019

— Maria De Jesus Chapa, Houston

Double Checking Fact-Check Facts

As the chairman of Physicians for Fair Coverage (PFC), I have joined doctors around the country in working to protect patients from surprise medical bills. I am writing now to set the record straight on the implications of various federal policies under debate in Congress. Not only did KHN’s recent article (“Doctors Argue Plans To Remedy Surprise Medical Bills Will ‘Shred’ The Safety Net,” Aug. 7) overlook research from the American Journal of Managed Care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Congressional Budget Office, it created a myopic interpretation of our argument in order to label it as “false,” which resulted in an inaccurate conclusion with respect to a complex issue that deserves a thorough, data-driven and factual examination.

According to the CBO, a benchmarking approach would cut payments to in-network physicians by as much as 20%. This translates into tens of billions of dollars shifted away from in-network physicians who are not sending surprise bills over the next decade. Emergency physicians treat all patients regardless of their insurance status. As a result, 70% of their patients are uninsured, seniors or poor families and children. Therefore, there is no practical difference between reducing commercial insurance payments and reducing Medicaid or Medicare rates. KHN’s own previous case study found that contributing factors to hospital closures include “high uninsured rates and a payer mix dominated by Medicare and Medicaid.” So, a benchmarking policy would create even larger disparities in quality and access to care over time for vulnerable populations.

Others agree that commercial payments play a critical role in supporting the care of America’s most vulnerable patients, including: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Radiology, America’s Essential Hospitals, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, Association of American Medical Colleges, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Children’s Hospital Association and Federation of American Hospitals.

Instead of speaking with health care experts to better understand how reimbursement dynamics and patient access are inextricably linked in today’s economy, this article relied exclusively on the opinions of two biased research fellows who advocate for the very policy that our ad opposes and whose statements are misleading at best. The assessment also disregards a quote from the California Medical Association describing a lack of available anesthesiologists under California’s benchmarking approach.

PFC’s mission is to protect patients from surprise medical bills. That is why, this year alone, we helped drive constructive compromises that produced new laws in Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Washington. Similarly, at the federal level, we support legislation that uses a proven independent dispute resolution model to protect patients without disrupting responsible, in-network practices. To further protect patients, it’s important that Congress does not create an even larger public health issue with respect to the safety net while fixing the real issue of surprise bills.

— Dr. Sherif Zaafran, Washington, D.C.

When I traveled around the state last fall, Kansans made it clear that Medicaid expansion is a high priority. I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure this will be the year we will finally expand Medicaid in Kansas. #RebuildingKansashttps://t.co/gg7BXeopMp

— Laura Kelly (@LauraKellyKS) September 6, 2019

— Gov. Laura Kelly, Topeka, Kan.

Infected With Advocacy

Your story about Medicaid expansion fails to attempt any serious description of the reasons for opposition to this expansion (“How Political Maneuvering Derailed A Red State’s Path To Medicaid Expansion,” Sept. 6). The reader is left with the clear impression that opponents are ill-informed, parsimonious, uncaring of others (especially the poor) or all of the above. There is no suggestion that such opposing might be in good faith. You really can do better than this. You insult the intelligence of your readers when you fail to deliver the whole story in a fair and evenhanded manner so they can decide for themselves. There is enough “us vs. them” in current media. Don’t drag it into health care. If you want to take positions on important health care issues, please create an editorial page; don’t infect your “news” with those positions. And no, I’m not a Republican. I’m an independent tired of constant advocacy in the media disguised as news. Thank you.

— Geoff Hargreaves-Heald, Lincoln, Mass.

Two (not shocking, maybe disappointing) takeaways: – Citizen intent matters little if a few state actors know how to work the system. – Nothing works better than high medical bills for getting middle class voters to empathize with Medicaid recipients.https://t.co/JxHaho26pU

— Juhyung Sun (@JuhyungSun) September 6, 2019

— Juhyung Sun, Tucson, Ariz.

Why Prescribed Weight Loss Is Ill-Advised

What the author of the article dismissing the opinion of the dietitian who claimed stigma and yo-yo dieting cause more harm than obesity itself failed to mention is that, for many people, how weight might contribute to the development of physical illnesses is immaterial (Obesity Stigma And Yo-Yo Dieting, Not BMI, Are Behind Chronic Health Conditions, Dietitian Claims, Sept. 17). The prescription to lose weight, in and of itself, is damaging. Most dieters regain 100% or more of weight lost within five years. Additionally, people who are told to lose weight and subsequently diet are at significantly increased risk for body dissatisfaction, bingeing, disordered eating and eating disorders.

Health is not just physical health. Descartes invented mind-body dualism in a thought experiment in the 1600s. It is an idea that permeates modern culture and medicine to this day. However, we are not separate from our minds. Our mental health is not separate from our “true” health.

Obesity may or may not cause illness. If the process of losing weight creates more illness in the form of shame and eating disorders as well as health care avoidance, then continuing to blindly recommend it is irresponsible. The recommendation to diet should be made with an informed consent process. “Being overweight may put you at risk of developing X, Y and Z. I am recommending caloric restriction to remedy that. Caloric restriction is known to be ineffective in the long term, and puts you at risk of developing an eating disorder or of weighing more than you do now. The alternative to caloric restriction is to thoughtfully examine obstacles to your access of whole, nutritious foods, whether they be financial, psychological or otherwise.

“Compassionately adopting a diet that over time puts more colors on your plate and replaces processed foods with whole foods may in itself lead both to weight loss and decreased risk of chronic medical conditions. Additionally, finding a way to increase your physical activity, such that the activity is associated with joy and self-care, will also be protective against chronic conditions and may contribute to weight loss. However, if at any point weight loss becomes the goal rather than the logical outcome of sustainable changes, then we are back at the dieting step, with all its consequent risks.”

It doesn’t matter whether obesity causes illness. Deliberately losing weight is an ineffective approach to addressing what may or may not be a problem, and additionally causes harm. Let us guide patients toward what they have control over: food choices and increased activity, and let go of the number, not because it doesn’t influence health, but because focusing on it is ineffective and counterproductive.

If a formerly obese person is now skinny but miserable, hungry, obsessive, depressed and food-preoccupied because that’s what we evolved to do in the context of weight loss, why is that better? Any solution has to respect mental and physical health outcomes, or it is not truly a health-based recommendation.

— Dr. Sarah O’Neil, Boston

This article ignores the massive growing body of evidence around #weightstigma, argues against just two pieces @chr1styharrison put forward, then just uses quotes from experts to rebuff this claim and not evidence and the use of an odd metaphor about carrots.

— Kerry (she/her) (@HAEScoach) September 18, 2019

— Kerry Beake, Mandurah, Australia

Summer Camp Rehab — Or Torture?

The article “At This Summer Camp, Struggling With A Disability Is The Point” (Aug. 13) portrays what you describe as “necessary” but what many of us adults with disabilities remember as rehab torture — traumatic memories of painful so-called therapy with questionable or no demonstrable results. Even if the program had results, many of us would have chosen not to experience the pain. It’s old-style rehab of pretending it isn’t torturous and “we know what’s best for you.” This sort of rehab was vehemently rejected by disability activists years ago. It’s too bad adults who experienced this kind of therapy weren’t consulted. I believe few of them would describe this in positive terms. It’s not a new concept: If you work hard, with pain, you can become independent! So if you can manage to dress yourself in four hours and get ready for bed in three hours, you’re independent and met the goals set for you, even though you’re so tired you can’t enjoy the remaining few hours of your day. Most adults with disabilities would set a goal of having a quality of life over being independent. This was a very biased story and should have been more balanced from very different perspectives, especially from those with disabilities.

— RoAnne Chaney, executive director of the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, East Lansing, Mich.

SUMMER CAMP FOR KIDS WITH DISABILITIES! There should be more camps just like this one! This Nashville camp was started for kids who have disabilities that require physical therapy, and the camp counselors turn the exercises into games! https://t.co/F2uMFpSSLs

— D'Amore Injury Law (@DAmoreInjuryLaw) July 31, 2019

— Tom von Alten, Boise, Idaho

Prescribing A ‘Deep-Dive’ Into Hospital Excesses

I think KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal’s piece on hospital excesses is right on the mark (“Analysis: How Your Beloved Hospital Helps To Drive Up Health Care Costs,” Sept. 5). I was affiliated with a New York City hospital as a voluntary internist and retired four years ago. I wonder if it would be possible to do a “deep dive” analysis of a representative hospital’s charges and expenditures (several New York hospitals come to mind as candidates) by an investigative reporting group. I suspect there is a lot of money being spent that does not enhance patient quality of care (i.e., excessive numbers of administrators getting egregious salaries). I think you’ve discussed the salient reasons these contributing cost factors have not been widely discussed or debated ― but they must be.

I remember a news story about a patient who bought his artificial hip implant in the U.S. wholesale and, to save money, took it with him to Belgium to have it inserted. The hospital looked like a factory, and he was reluctant to go in — but he did, and as it turned out everything went well and he saved a lot of money!

― Dr. Lawson Moyer, New York City

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/september-letters-readers-and-tweeters-patient-rights/

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wbfinearts · 7 years

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2017 LANDSCAPE EXHIBITION

William Baczek Fine Arts, in Northampton, Massachusetts, is pleased to announce the opening of the 2017 Annual Landscape Exhibition. The show will be on display from Wednesday, September 6 until Saturday, October 7, 2017. The public is invited to an opening reception with the artists on Saturday, September 9 from five to seven p.m.

This year, nine artists from across the U.S. and Canada who work in a variety of media, have been invited to participate in the exhibition. The annual Landscape Exhibition at William Baczek Fine Arts gathers artists who push the boundaries of what can be described as a landscape. Working in various materials, these artists have been selected to help redefine what the typical notion of a landscape can or should be. Does a landscape need a horizon line? Can a city be a landscape? Can a book be a landscape? A ceramic vessel?

Guy Laramée from Canada sculpts landscapes from old, discarded books, dictionaries and encyclopedia sets. Laramée carves away parts of the actual books and creates incredibly intricate and detailed landscapes. He leaves most of the book intact, but incorporates the landscape into the object so that both the book and landscape maintain their integrity. Part mysticism, part Eastern philosophy and part relic, Laramées’ sculptures invite close scrutiny and reflection.

Marc Civitarese says about his recent landscape paintings: “My paintings, though based in the landscape tradition, are cerebral and visceral explorations of the relationship of ‘man’ and ‘nature’, and thus depart from a pure realist depiction of the world and move towards a more expressive sensibility. By abstracting what I consider to be the elements of realism: shape, form, and light, my work thus becomes and introspective exploration of my feelings and thoughts of man, nature, and spirituality.” Civitarese paints in oil on deeply textured canvas or linen then coats the finished painting in beeswax. In addition, he pours a thick layer of high gloss resin, which when combined with the beeswax surface, enhances the glowing light that the artist desires to achieve.

Jeff Gola from New Jersey paints in egg tempera. Typically, a slow, involved process, egg tempera paintings can look labored and fussy. But Gola’s landscapes, which at first look traditional, have a very modern sensibility. Avoiding the clichés of traditional landscape paintings, he captures a beautiful glow in the late day or evening light. Jeff Gola’s artist statement includes the following insight: “From my earliest memories, I have always been drawn to the rural landscape. Having grown up on a farm, I have always had a strong interest in observing the elements that influence that environment; the cycle of the seasons, the changing skies and the weather it portends, the constant presence of the natural processes of life, decay and rebirth, and the fading remnants of distant history and past lives. Egg tempera painting has a long tradition and its special qualities are uniquely suited to capturing the properties of light and exploring its interplay on texture. I have found that the slow and careful process that tempera requires to achieve its depth and luminosity suits my temperament and vision. The gradual building of form and the patient exploration of every surface nuance that is involved in tempera painting require a meditative and reflective approach, one that I feel enables me to examine personal memories and feelings that these subjects evoke in me.”

Andrew Haines is a Massachusetts painter who focusses on urban landscapes. About his paintings the artist says: “When driving, I have often wondered what it would be like to live with a giant billboard over my house? Or to grow up with one so close by, from a car they often look small? In more general terms the difference between passing through a place and actually living in that place. My own neighborhood does not look so great from the window of a car but I have a deeper understanding of the it from living there so long. The neighborhood was built as one thing then continues to evolve with time going in and out of fashion every 30 years or so.” Haines’ paintings appear like literal depictions of specific locations but they are actually hybrids, part realistic part interpreted. They convey both literal motion and the motion of time and its effects on the streets, buildings and neighborhoods of the city.

Mallory Lake’s pastels of Italy, France, New York City, and more recently, her examination of steam train imagery, are consistently devoted to exploiting the rich chromatic capabilities of her hand-made pastels in order to depict locations that lend themselves to her unique interpretation. About her pastels, Mallory Lake writes: “I seek to evoke a response by my arrangement of light and dark in settings where recognizable objects merge into half-realized forms. To achieve this effect, I employ tonality—value relationships in a scale from light to dark—reserving the use of the lightest and darkest values for accents placed in contrast to the dominant tones. I use softened and variable focus, suppression of details, and a limited palette to enhance tonal unity. Photographer Edward Steichen, a master of tonality, said, ‘The real magician was light itself... with its accompanying shadows rich and full of mystery.’”

Rick Pas from Michigan uses an almost folk-art level of obsessive detail in his nature scenes. Regarding his acrylic on panel paintings, the artist observes: “Creating is an addiction. With all the highs and lows, you would expect. I am interested in the surface textures and creating paintings that portray them in realistic detail. Hopefully, a viewer will feel they can run a hand over the feathers and moss, or grasp an object in the painting. This detail is usually composed in an abstract design. The design can occur naturally or be arranged by me. The subjects of my paintings are usually based on the patterns and textures of nature and human interaction with nature. I have found subjects to paint in remote wilderness areas of the world, local parking lots, and my own backyard.”

Scott Prior will be showing new landscape oil paintings that continue his interest in the subject of light. Whether showing us a snowy, cold winter’s evening at sunset or a group of three cows languishing in a hot, golden summer’s light, what is unchanging in Prior’s work is his uncanny ability to fill the scene with light and air. Painting something as intangible as light and air might seem impossible, but Prior accomplishes just that.

Robert Sweeney, who has been the Chair of the Art Department at Amherst College for over thirty years, makes oil paintings that seem to be as much about the act of painting as the subjects themselves. Whether painting still lifes, figures, or the new landscapes which will be included in this show, Sweeney loads his stiff bristle-brushes and carves out his scenes, giving us, the viewer, the ability to witness the act of seeing and how to convey that in paint.

Jamie Young will be exhibiting both recent oil paintings and watercolors. Her abstracted paintings expand the notion of what a landscape should depict. Her organic forms and natural colors certainly show their origins in landscape, but without using recognizable intimations such as horizon lines.

These nine artists have all used the landscape in very different ways; the intent of the exhibition is not to redefine what a landscape can be, but instead, to try to expand upon that notion in unexpected ways.

Selections from this exhibition and other works by gallery artists can be seen on the gallery’s web site at www.wbfinearts.com. For more information about this or upcoming exhibits please call the gallery at 413-587-9880 or email at [email protected]. The gallery is located at 36 Main St. in downtown Northampton, Massachusetts and is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 – 5, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 – 7 and Sunday from 12 – 5.

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