In a nutshell, universal healthcare means everyone has healthcare. It is paid for by taxes. You know how when you get your paycheck there’s always money missing from it? Those are taxes and the government uses that money to do what the government does. There’s no doubt that if the US gets universal healthcare then somebody is going to have to pay higher taxes. Maybe it won’t be your mom or dad, but somebody’s mom and dad is going to being paying out a lot of money to cover those alleged 47 million people who currently don’t have health insurance.

The problem is, no matter how much the government raises taxes, it won’t be enough. The government already provides healthcare to a lot of people through two programs called Medicaid and Medicare and wouldn’t you know it–they’re bankrupt. They’re out of money to pay for these programs (not that this has ever stopped our government from spending money, they just borrow it), and it’s getting worse. The same thing will happen with universal healthcare, but at some point the government is going to recognize they can’t pay for it and they can’t borrow enough money to pay for it, and that means rationing. What’s rationing, you ask? Well, if the government were rationing food, it would mean the government would give you a certain amount of food per day, and if you wanted more you wouldn’t be able to get it, even if you were willing to pay for it. The same thing will happen with healthcare. And it will be compounded because it’s not all that fun to work for the government, so we won’t have as many people going into the professions of doctors and nurses. This is going to make healthcare very, very expensive for the government to provide, and so they’ll provide less of it.

In other words, everyone will have healthcare, but healthcare will stink. You’ve got a broken arm and the bone is sticking out? Great, sit here for a few hours, we’ll see when we can get around to helping you out. Sorry, our best doctor quit because he doesn’t like working for the system, but we’ve got this other guy over here who wants to be a doctor someday, we’ll let him help you out. Painkillers? No, those are too expensive, the government won’t let us provide them anymore. You want a new cast on your arm? But you’ve only had this one for three months. Yeah, I can see that it’s cracked and I can smell the stink coming from it, but you’ll just have to make do with it for another two months. We can’t afford new casts for everyone who wants them. No, you can’t buy a new one, that would be unfair to everyone else. Oh sorry, your arm healed crooked. Well, sorry about that, just be grateful you have healthcare.

But low-quality healthcare won’t be all you have to deal with. Broken arms are expensive. The government can’t afford repairing all these broken arms. So all skateboarders will now be required, by law, to wear full arm-guards and helmets while skateboarding. If you get caught skateboarding without full protection, you’ll be fined, along with your parents. And you know all these public skateparks? That’s just encouraging kids to skate, which means more kids are getting hurt. The government can’t afford this, so we better close down all the public parks. Let’s outlaw private skateparks while we’re at it. In fact, let’s just make skateboarding illegal. Hey, if we, the government, are providing the healthcare then we get to make the rules that define your behavior so that we can keep costs down, right? No smoking, no drinking, no skateboarding. We have to make these rules to protect you. We can’t afford to provide health insurance for all these poor people and college students if we’ve got people out there skateboarding and making healthcare more expensive.

But wait, you say, Canada and England have universal healthcare, and there aren’t any rules like this in those countries, and they’re still building public skateparks and all that. What are you talking about? Yeah, you’re right. I’m giving you the worst-case scenario. I don’t think it will ever get that far, because I think the people in this country would reject universal healthcare before it ever reached this point. But that doesn’t mean we won’t get down the line a ways. Helmet laws already exist in some states. With universal healthcare you can bet helmets will be required at all public skateparks in every state of the country. Full pads won’t be far behind. And you can definitely count on the quality of healthcare being lower. We already see that in Canada and England. There may be some exceptions, but there are a lot of nightmare cases happening in these countries where people are dying because the waits are so long and the care is so bad. Sure, people die here in the US too, but you’re statistically better off here. That’s why so many people come from other countries to the US in order to get treatment–we’ve got a better system.

Here’s an alternative to universal healthcare. How about if we let people choose whether to have health insurance or not? If a health insurance company thinks skateboarding is dangerous, then they can charge more to insure someone who skateboards. If you want to skateboard and have health insurance, you pay more. If you don’t want to pay more, then don’t skateboard. If you don’t want to have health insurance, that’s your choice. The point is, you choose. With universal healthcare, you have no choice, and you might not like what end up being forced to do…or not do. So think twice before you say “Obama’s great, he wants to give healthcare to everyone.” It could end up making skateboarding even more illegal than it is.

Normally Clyde is gold, but I’ve learned that even with Clyde you’ve got to trust but verify, so I went to search things out and find out if Clyde is on the money. The first problem I encountered is that I couldn’t find a complete list of Tampa Am winners on the SPOT website, so I’ve created one here. Let’s see who we’ve got. Bear in mind, Clyde’s not saying these guys are lame people or lame skaters, he’s just saying their careers as skateboarders may not have exactly flourished.

1997 – Judd Hertzler. Who? Ok, I actually have heard of Judd, so I can’t really say “Who?”

1998 – Nathan Smith. Ditto, who? Except in this case I really have no clue who Nathan Smith is.

1999 – Mike Petersen. Mike seems like a nice guy, and there’s no doubt he’s good, and no offense to Consolidated because I totally respect those guys, but if you’re on Consolidated you’re not a “top pro” by definition. Geez, I’m totally going to get beat up by Birdo or Kharma now. Sorry guys, but you know it’s true.

2000 – Kyle Berard. Ditto.

2001 – Colt Cannon. Hey, Colt had an ok career there for a while, but then what happened after Element?

2002 – Caswell Berry. Hmm, I think Caswell has had an ok career. Maybe not a “top pro” per se, but everybody knows who he is, don’t they?

2003 – Kevin Long (Spanky). I don’t know about Spanky…I’ve never really seen anything from him that makes him stand out to me, but he does seem to be fairly popular, if not “tops”.

2004 – Sierra Fellers. Sierra is an amazing skater, but I think it’s gets hard to judge what his career will be like. I don’t think we can say he’s reached “top” status as of yet, although seriously, the guy is amazing.

2005 – Nyjah Huston. Who’s this guy riding for anyway? Again, I think we’ll have to wait and see on Nyjah.

2006 – Cody McEntire. Cody definitely has the potential. You see his part in that Digital vid from a while ago where he was skating in Australia? Dang.

2007 – Felipe Gustavo. We’ll have to wait and see, I guess.

2008 – Ryan Decenzo. Ditto.

2009 – ? I’m predicting…well, who knows.

So I think I’ll have to agree with Clyde, at least somewhat. I don’t know if I’d say that any of these guys have ruined their careers, but then again we don’t have a P-Rod, Koston, Reynolds, or Ladd on this list.

Hi Joshua!

Check out this AWESOME skate video: Dennis Busenitz doing what he does best, landing so many tricks that it’s almost unbelievable! See Dennis kick-push: http://chunnel.tv/street/774/dennis-busenitz-pro-skater:

Dennis Busenitz puts together more tricks in 3 minutes and 50 seconds than most skaters do in a 6 or 7 minute spot.  It’s ridiculous, plus the insane amount of tricks performed over gaps, and possibly the best Kalis 360 flip ever made! This is definitely a top video spot for 2009!

Thanks, and please share this with your readers!

Best,
Carrie

The video is really good though. Can’t wait for it to come out so I can see a higher-res versino of Dennis’ kick-push.

So yes, we all know Chris Cole is amazing. If he had only done the 360 or the switch frontside flip that would have been all that was necessary, but doing both, and the frontside flip absolutely flawlessly…well, that’s Cole for ya.

What’s a bit sad about an event like this is that it’s kind of dillutes each trick. Of course there’s going to be one trick that overshadows everything else (obviously the 360 in this case) but dang, what about everything else. Imagine that Hoffart had gone and done a heelflip varial a week ago–it would have been a cover for sure. He would have made history. But as it stands, a year from now most people will forget that the trick was ever done down Wallenberg. The same goes for Nick Merlino’s switch heelflip. I mean, that was one of the tricks everyone was saying they wanted to see, right? A switch flip down Wallenberg? And he did it as a virtual no-name, but unfortunately he won’t get the cred from it that he could have gotten if he did it on his own without the contest. And Lindsey’s backside 180 heelflip. Did you see how easy he made that look. Not a hint of sketching. It couldn’t have been any cleaner. And I think Catfish’s backside bigspin might have been my favorite, but again, it will mostly be forgotten a year from now, and Cole will be the indisputable King of Wallenberg because everyone will remember the 360 flip and the 360 ollie.

Then again, maybe none of these guys would have landed those tricks if it weren’t for the raging crowd egging them on. And in all likelihood they never would have gone there to try those tricks if it weren’t for the Phelper putting on the contest in the first place. For myself and skateboarding, I’m stoked it went down, I just hope people don’t forget that history wasn’t made just once last Saturday, but 10 times…wait, 10 times? Oh yeah, I already forgot about Lizard King’s three tricks, and Pott’s hardflip, for goodness’ sake! See what I mean?

So here’s the question, will anyone go there and get a trick on their own before the thing gets demolished? I’d still like to see a girl do it, and I’d like to see some sort of nollie trick down it, even if it’s just a plain straight nollie.

Most of you know the feeling. You lay awake in bed dreaming of that trick you’re going to do down that six-stair. In your mind, it’s so easy. You’re so stoked because you know you can land it. You go over it time and time again. The next day you go there, and suddenly your knees are wobbly and you think “There’s no way I’m trying that.” Then you get depressed and go watch some skate videos with newfound respect for the guys who do that trick down 15 stairs like it’s nuthin’.

Corey Duffel is one of those guys I look at and think “I think he might not really be that good, he’s just crazy.” That is, I’m not sure if he has a natural talent for skateboarding, or if he just has so much fun and is so crazy that it makes up for any lack of talent he may have had to begin with. Dustin Dollin is another one. On the other side of the spectrum are guys like Koston and Paul Rodriguez who I’m not sure are too crazy, but they seem to have a talent that makes skateboarding come easy for them. Their brains and bodies work so well together that they’re confident and can do anything they put their minds to and make it look like it’s simple.

And of course there are people who may be a mixture of both. I think Greco is crazy, but I also think he has natural talent in spades. In other words, he’s crazy/good. I could go on with name after name and try to categorize who fits more on the crazy side, who’s more on the good/talented side, and who straddles both, but you tell me what you think.

Well, I’m sure that by closing all the public skateparks, using tazers on skateboarders, and rounding up all the skateboarders into internment camps, we can somehow get to the bottom of this. After all, every skateboarder knows every other skater and its only a matter of applying the right pressure on the skateboarding community to get us to give up one of our own. Or at least this appears to be the logic of local municipalities that close skateparks whenever someone tags them up.