SO MAYBE JOHN MCCAIN FOUND SOME COURAGE IN BETWEEN A COUCH CUSHION →

Very Smart Brothas posted a follow-up after last night's vote, so I feel I should do the same in the name of fairness.

I was happy to wake up to the news that the vote had been defeated. I do not believe that McCain did it for the right reasons, any more than I believe that more than half of Republicans actually want the repeal. They've seen the numbers, those that care about and understand numbers. And especially given the grandstanding McCain pulled on this, it smells more like a theatrically-waved middle finger than anything.

I have never believed in "moderate" "maverick" John McCain. I have never believed in him as anything other than what he needed to be in the moment to get ahead. A piece of me has that in common with him, and I've had to fight it for a long time. I know it when I see it. If you don't, this Rolling Stone profile quantifies it with hard facts.

Even so, I am fond of telling people that I am an Aristotelian at my core. Aristotle didn't give a good goddamn what's inside your head or heart. He didn't care about who or what you "love". He cared about your actions. There was another fella too went on about something to do with fruits.

That's me too, though I will almost surely whine about my intentions when I am caught doing wrong, at least until I catch myself. I don't care about your intentions, and I'm trying like hell not to care about mine.

So, in a nut, McCain probably did vote against the repeal to make himself look good and stick it to people he hates. But millions of people get to keep seeing doctors, at least for now. With that much on the line, I'll take a dirty win over a principled failure.

COWARD WITH TERMINAL BRAIN CANCER JUMPS OUT OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED DEATH BED TO KILL OTHER SICK PEOPLE →

He sure did express concerns, yes sir, and he said a lot of angry words about how wrong it is that the GOP hasn't been working in good faith with the Democrats before he gave them another opportunity to do that again, and maybe kill poor people in the process.

If they ram it through, the last two major chapters of his legacy will be inflicting Sarah Palin on the world and being implicated in the deaths of more Americans than the people who captured and tortured him were responsible for.

I'm no political expert but it seems to me that a freshly-elected octogenarian with terminal cancer could act like he has (1) empathy and (2) nothing to lose.

Stuff We Don't Suck At: Healthcare Edition

So the Affordable Care Act got upheld by the Supreme Court. I don't know what your opinion of that was. Mine, if you care, was some relief that we are at long last on our way (if still not quite there) to no longer being the only industrialized nation on the planet that denies some of its citizens access to care.

I am also stunned that it happened. As I bet you are too. Roberts?

My job involves supporting people who work in the healthcare field, people who are working hard to improve the quality of delivery and create healthier populations, which in turn keeps costs down.

Right now, by the way, is the part where I have to tell you that I'm speaking for myself and not my employer. This is an annoying thing (again, my opinion only!) that's partly PR and partly on the order of those DVD warnings in which the movie studios beg you not to sue them over the commentary tracks, because movie studios and I and my bosses live in an absurdly litigious country.

Point being, if I were to point out my belief that even Dick Cheney looks upon Antonin Scalia from his throne of deformed baby skulls and thinks there walks a man who might eat a kitten just to taste the mew, that's not reflective of anyone's opinion but mine. Also, I'm blogging pseudonymously. I'M A PHANTOM OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Now let's move on.

Anyway, I bring up my employment because part of what we do involves evangelizing about fancy terms like patient-centered medical home and the chronic care model and meaningful use of electronic health record systems. These are important words. These are words that just might help fix some of the problem.

And so, in the context of that mission, and in the wake of this history-changing decision, I'd like to share a video I watched recently that you might like. It's about an hour long but, regardless of your political leanings, it will almost certainly show you a few things you didn't know about healthcare systems that (mostly) work. I am on my way to becoming an expert in this field, and it showed me things I thought were about as likely to exist as sexy mer-lady underboobs. So, without further ado:

The Good News in American Medicine