Why the sky is blue and why soundbites make for a dumber planet.

When my daughter was younger, she was very curious about everything. She would ask questions like "Dad, why is the sky blue?" or " Why do the rain drops look like circles on your car, but not on mom's?"

When ever she asked those awesome questions my follow up question would be, would you like the short answer or the long one?  And then when she said "the short one" I would proceed with the physics explanation for the blue sky and why we see color (5 minutes) and then I would say but the short answer is ...the sky is blue just like the sea is blue, because they are deep, and our brains and our parents say that the color that we are seeing is blue. As for the rain droplets on my car, I would explain to her the effect of surfactants on the surface tension of fluids, and the short answer, "because I get the more expensive car wash".

My daughter is now in the sixth grade, and she is still curious. When she asks me questions she expects me to give her the long, and short answer to the questions she now asks, such as "Why are girls mean?" or "How can I tell if a boy likes me?"  To me, it makes sense to know the whole story, so that ones reaction to a specific challenge will yield sound attempts at a solution. And I believe that in teaching my daughter to expect more from an "expert" really helps her to become an expert.

I say all this because a very puzzling development in politics last week. The Department of health said, and I paraphrase, "all employers should pay for contraception as part of preventative care." The catholic bishops countered - why should we pay for something we consider a sin. Obama rebutted - well women will have to receive contraceptive care cost free, the insurance will cover it.

I listen to the debate, and I'm here rolling my eyes, thinking about my family's "separate but equal" checking accounts. We have two joint  checking accounts at the same bank that we both have access and signing rights to. Our salary's are deposited into our "own checking accounts."  Sure mortgage payment  comes from my salary, and my wife transfers some of her paycheck so I can cover my car-note, which gets paid from my checking account. I can ask who pays for my car? Is it me or my wife? Or does it really matter, as long as we have transportation to go to work?

The reality of health coverage, which Americans still insist on calling insurance, is that it is covered by many parties. They include individual, who pays a salary deduction, the employer who gets a tax deduction (i.e the government or the taxpayers, which means the individual pays twice), and the insurance company who invests the premiums of the young, and the healthy (and if the insurance company makes a loss on the investment they get another tax deduction)  so that they can have big returns to pay for the sick,  less healthy and elderly.  All of the money goes into a pool, which then pays for health coverage, which includes paying for contraception as part of preventative care.  And that is just the beginning of the long answer.  I suppose we should ask for an itemized version of our healthcare payments.

Still it seems that the Catholic church was happy with the presidents final offer, and people are still mad about Obama care, which is really an iteration of the healthcare coverage that we the taxpayers already pay for.

When my daughter was younger, she was happier with the short answer.  Now the short answers, to her are insulting her intelligence.