Did you think I wouldn't write anything?

Well, I was as surprised as the next person yesterday, when the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (I refuse to call it Obamacare). I'd spent most of the week tamping down my fury at what I thought would happen: they'd overturn certain provisions or even overturn it entirely and we'd have to sit around until November listening to the chortles of the Republicans and the smug strict "constitutionalists," followed by more insane wrangling by both parties and lots of ugly rhetoric and I'd still be paying exorbitant amounts of money for health insurance with no end in sight. Well, I'll still be paying insane amounts of money for health insurance with no end in sight (at least until we really get universal health coverage), but at least there's something in the monolithic act -- a small step, but one forward that directly impacts my daughter and tens of thousands, if not millions of other disabled and sick people like her.

In the end, I'm not going to thank the Supreme Court, an institution that I perhaps cynically don't trust one whit, but I am going to thank President Obama and those who came before him, as well as those who hammered out the actual act and those who voted for it. You won't find me yakking about the constitution and all the shit that I know absolutely nothing about, but I will say that certain provisions of the act and the overall attempt to rectify what is surely one of the most abysmal healthcare systems in the western industrialized world are going to improve the lives of the disabled and their families, among others. And I do know something about that.

In the meantime, when I googled "vintage nurse photo," to decorate this post, I came upon a treasure trove of books. I'll share a few of them here, so instead of being all smug-like or erroneously jubilant about the Supreme Court's decision -- hell, even if you think like some of my Facebook friends that Obama is the Pied Piper, playing his malevolent flute while we all descend to hell -- you can just politely sigh and feel relieved or start drinking heavily before the descent and then be diverted and snicker and laugh at how fantastic these are:

Evidently there were ways to cure depression before Prozac

A particularly awesome storyline, I imagine -- icy cold to flaming hot

I can't imagine who is so hateful in that beautiful town by the sea.

And probably my personal favorite: