Ooga Chakka, Ooga Chakka! February 23, 2006March 3, 2017 I MISSED YOU, TOO Charlie Mac: ‘I start every weekday with your column and a cup of coffee. One of those things was missing today, and I want it fixed ASAP. I’m not paying you to sit around.’ ☞ Well, to serve us better, our web provider (or whatever they’re called) changed server farms and IP nodes (or whatever they’re called), and, well, my apologies. There may be a bump or two more as we get it sorted out, but all subscriptions will be extended. OOGA CHAKKA Mark Lefler: ‘Here is a very odd, but oddly compelling video. I bet you cannot watch it without smiling.’ ☞ For hundreds of thousands of years, man spent his time trying to find food and shelter. But once you have those, and a roomba* and a Starbucks within walking distance – what, really, is there left to do? Make videos to post on youtube, apparently. Here‘s one involving a train wreck and broccoli. *Does anyone actually have one of these? Or a scooba? Do they really work? Are they worth it? GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR – BUT NOT IF THEIR KIDS GET SICK Ralph Sierra: ‘Another example of the mean-spirited effect of the income redistribution engineered by the Republican leadership.’ Seldom does a budget cut help cripple a child. Yet when Maryland cut $7 million last year and eliminated health care coverage for some recent immigrants, surgery was canceled on Eelaaf Zahid’s malformed hip. Now, as her family looks to the courts and other state programs for help, an outgrown medical device implanted in her hip three years ago protrudes from her small body. The Glen Burnie kindergartener walks with a limp. . . . More than 3,000 children lost Medicaid coverage in July, an issue that has inspired a high-level policy debate among Maryland lawmakers, officials, lawyers and judges — and a desperate struggle among the parents, all of them poor but legal immigrants, to navigate a complex patchwork of programs in search of care for their children. . . . ☞ Well, no one can be happy about this, but look on the bright side: It is grand time to be rich and powerful in America. It is the irony of ironies, I think – and it deeply pains many an evangelical I have talked to (not all evangelicals are Republicans!) – that, despite their strong hold on the Republican Party, the needs of the rich come first. Which leads me to this next item . . . HOW TO BE ONE OF THEM Andrew Henckler: ‘Not sure if you have seen this, but I thought it was frighteningly accurate and funny.’ ☞ My apologies to those of you not reflexively Democratic. I don’t want to lose you, and a link like the one above does not lead (as you’ll see) to a model of respectful dialog. But in your heart of hearts, I’ll bet even you will find some notes in it that ring true. (And look: What’s subtle about a little girl whose outgrown implant protrudes from her hip? Or eight trillion dollars in new debt piled on by just three presidents?)