Basically, I will try to get them done this week, but I am very busy with the kids, so I might not get to it.  Next week, though, the kids have camp in the morning Monday through Friday, so I will have some free time.  In other words, the blog will be wrapping up by the end of next week, at the latest.

Thanks for sticking around.

While you await my final days of thought-provoking commentary, check out this really cool stop motion video using post-its.

I tried to find the violin thing on You Tube.  I found this David Garrett video. I don’t think it is the one I heard It sounds different from the one I heard, but it is very cool.  Who knew classical instruments could rock out?  (Yes, I know, plenty of people knew that.)

The German lady speaks until about :50 in.

You can find the video of the original Michael Jackson Smooth Criminal here. (Embedding disabled, unfortunately)

Then there is always the Alien Ant Farm version, if you’re into post-grunge alternative. The video is a fun homage to the King of Pop himself, including the light up sidewalk a la Billie Jean. But, somehow I remember the song sounding much better when I was 25. (Man, I hate getting older.)

Again, embedding disabled, so you have to follow the link.

According to President Obama,

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period.”

Last night, the president clarified that statement.

“When I say if you have your plan and you like it, . . . or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don’t have to change plans, what I’m saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform.”

The reality is that, for most people, their employers will choose whether or not to abandon the private system for the government plan.

Think about that for a minute.  The government is going to come along with this low-cost, taxpayer-subsidized health care plan and your employer will get to choose between that and the plan they currently offer you.

Cheap government insurance vs. expensive private insurance.  What will they choose?

Hint: your employer probably cares about the cost, not so much the quality - and not so much about how much you like your plan.

Bottom line: You will not be able to keep your health insurance plan.

Once the government has a monopoly, how good do you think your health care will be?

Every honest conversation about health care reform has included talk about changing what we in America expect from our health care system, which is a nice way to say we have to expect less from it, if we want a public system.

One of the proposed savings measures is eliminating “unnecessary” tests.  I don’t know about you, but I want my doctor - not the government - deciding what tests are necessary.

And once the government controls health care, they will be able to regulate almost every aspect of our lives (the few they don’t already) because it is for the common good to keep us healthy, according to what the government deems necessary to that end.

On the bright side, maybe we won’t have to hear that tired old phrase “for the children” any more.  Now it will be “for our health.”

“It was a distinct loss when the original siding was replaced,” [Mary O’Neil, a historic-preservation officer with the city’s Planning and Zoning Office] said of the three ALPH buildings. “They no longer look the way the used to look.”

Apparently, Ms. O’Neil likes the look of rotting wood.

The City’s justification for the hold up: the siding has a 4-inch reveal.  The original siding had a 3-inch reveal.

Seriously.  This is your tax dollars at work, folks.

Iran police ‘use gas’ on protesters

Obama tells men what kind of dads they should be

That reminds me, the ever-funny right-wing humor blog IMAO has a list of the “Top Ten Reasons Obama Hasn’t Spoken Out About Iran.”

My fav is #7.

Thought iRan was the accessory for the iPod that keeps track of how many miles you jog.

You should read IMAO.  Really humor is all we have left at this point.

I have to mention, as Mr. Right just pointed out to me as I was writing this, not everyone thinks Obama should speak out.  Pat Buchanan thinks he should keep his mouth shut.

Feel free to discuss.

Back in 2001, I wanted to start a website to post my political rants.  The first name I came up with was Right Wing Wacko.  I liked it, but I wanted something that reflected that women can be outspoken conservatives, too.  She’s Right was born.  Of course, the blog would not come for another 5 years.  I did have a website on AOL, though.  (Yeah, lame, I know.)

Over the past 8 years, a lot has changed.  In 2001, I was a working, single mother of 2 in my twenties.  Since then, I got married, became a stay-at-home mom, had another baby, came to Christ, started homeschooling, and started a business, to name a few things.  And I am no longer in my twenties.  Haven’t been for a few years, now.

I am just not the same person.

Politically, I have changed, too.  I have become a lot more libertarian leaning.  Many of my beliefs do not fit neatly into a box.  I no longer see any benefit to the left-right dichotomy.  The world is more complex than that, and so am I.

It seems like it is impossible to have a conversation with someone on the left, without first going through the painful process of undoing all of the stereotypes they hold about me.  If I am conservative I must also be [fill in the blank].  Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not, but mostly not.

Most of the time, I don’t get through all of the negative stereotypes.  There just isn’t enough time.  The process just leaves me aggravated and sometimes even hurt.  Political blogging has become nasty, to say the least.  Life is just too short.

I just see very little personal benefit to political blogging anymore.

We decided to move to New Hampshire this summer and I though, great, this is a perfect time to end She’s Right.  I want it to forever be a Vermont political blog.

Well, we put off moving until next year.  So, I was left with a choice.  It’s a hard choice because She’s Right is part of a community of Vermont bloggers.  I like being a part of that.  But that community has changed into something I don’t like very much anymore.  I thought it was because of the election, but that wasn’t the case.

It’s also a hard choice because She’s Right makes me money.  Money that I have been using to get my soap business going.

Then, I saw this Venn diagram on Althouse the other day.  It’s called “how to be happy in business.”

She’s Right was something I did well and wanted to do, so I learned how to monetize it.  Once I was being paid to do it, I was all “Hooray!”  (Yea!)

But, I don’t want to do it anymore.  It is life-draining.  It is hurtful.  And most of y’all don’t read a darn word I type!  I cannot count how many times the responses to my posts totally miss the point.  (Maybe I have become too obtuse?)

So, now She’s Right is just something I can do well and can be paid to do, not something I want to do.  Now I need to learn to say “no.”  (The Venn diagram must be obeyed!)

With that, She’s Right is saying “goodbye” at the end of the month, as I originally planned when we were moving.  I still have a few posts that need to be posted, not the least of which are the lost Vermont Tiger symposium posts.  It was February 2, for Pete’s sake!  I still have my notes, though, and they will be posted.

Those of you that have been with me since the Blogger days have been through this before.  I will not be back in 4 months like I was last time.

For one, I am putting all of my spare time into my soap business and my personal/soaping/cooking/crafting blog, All Things Hold Together.

For another, I don’t want to be She’s Right anymore.  I don’t want to blog politics.  I don’t want a clever, yet in-your-face name.  Besides, the need for a good conservative Vermont blogger is no longer there, and there are plenty of ladies filling the conservative woman niche to overflowing.  It’s the right time for me to move on.

The original plan was to start a new blog that focused more on technology and other geeky things that I love, with occasional political bits.  I even came up with a name, registered the domain, and designed a blog theme.  But that is tabled for the time being.  I need to focus on my family and my soaping, and myself.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and e-mailing me.  You are what kept me doing this for so long.  I will keep the domain and the e-mail address, so you can all still reach me at that address if you have a poem you want to send me or something.

And, as I said, I will be posting for the rest of this month.  Be sure and tune in.

A “public option” would be a government payer (a la medicare or medicaid) as one of the menu choices. Obviously this makes subsidizing easier on the one hand, but also allows the feds more control over the types of coverage. Private insurers are afraid any public option would be too appealing and affordable and draw away business - and both opponents and proponents of a single payer system see this as a way to potentially facilitate a transition to such a model.

The bolded selection is my emphasis, obviously.  That’s the part that’s, let’s say, less than accurate.

How about this?

Private insurers are concerned that any public option will be given an unfair advantage and, as a result, look more appealing and affordable.

The public option will be artificially low in cost, as the current medicaid and medicare systems are.  There’s the obvious, that the public option has the advantage of tax payer funding, but that is not the only advantage.  The government does not pay fair market value for services rendered. This is possible because the rest of us are subsidizing it though our insurance or cash payments.

Once the public option entices unsuspecting consumers with her siren song of low, low prices, the private firms will be driven out of business and all of the sudden the public plan will be in a world of financial hurt, since there won’t be anyone around to offset the below-value payments.

Oh wait, the public option already is in a world of financial hurt.  How about we fix the public plan before we lure more people onto it?

Here’s an analogy the left ought to appreciate: The public option is like when Wal-Mart moves into a neighborhood and puts everyone else out of business with their artificially low prices.  And how does it get such low prices?  By forcing companies to charge them less, in exchange for doing business with the country’s largest retailer.  That’s exactly what the government does to doctors.

The public option: it’s the Wal-Mart of health care.

Sign me up!

Look, health care is expensive.  Next time you are at a hospital, take a look at all of the expensive equipment.  We have made amazing advances in medical science, all of which cost money.  If we want it, we need to pay for it.

Right now, private insurance is paying for most of it.  When private insurance is gone, the public plan will have to pony up the dough.  It’s either that or lower our expectations for care because it’s not going to come for free.

As P.J. O’Rourke says, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”

I am having a really hard time blogging about politics these days.  And I don’t mean just because I have to wear these blasted wrist braces that go more than half way up my forearm.

I guess I heard one too many times that old saying, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

I have nothing nice to say.

I am completely baffled that, when faced with a president they believed was disastrous for the country, liberals were motivated to carp about it endlessly, day after day after day, for eight years.

My word, how did you live like that?  I think I would have killed myself.

Honestly, I just want to forget about politics and go hug my kids or make soap, or something.  Anything, but politics.

But then, I never did have that saving-the-world-through-blogging sense of self-importance you see so much on the left.

I do this for fun and, frankly, it hasn’t been fun to talk about politics lately.

I will though.  As soon as I get these homeschool portfolios ready for the ever-watching eye of the nanny state.  It’s real important stuff, like quizzes to prove that I teach my kids hygiene and proof they are getting physical education, and other complete wastes of our time.

But there I go again, fearing the government, like some kind of crazy right-winger.  It’s not like the over-bearing, ever-expanding government actually has a negative impact on my life or anything.

Bagh!  See what I mean?  Nothing nice to say.

As I mentioned, I have been having hand pain recently.  I did see a rheumatologist about it and I have hypermobility, which is putting too much stress on my tendons, mostly when I use the computer.

I do have wrist splints now, so I will get back to posting after the weekend, even though typing with these blasted things on is a real hassle.

Meanwhile, here is an open thread.  I will start the conversation out with a comment from Doug Hoffer in response to the post, A Warning to High-Tax States.  Comments were closed, so Mr. Hoffer e-mailed me his thoughts.  I’ll drop it in a comment on this post.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great weekend!