I went to Mass yesterday at the Carmel of Maria Regina—a Carmelite convent about ten minutes from home. This was my second visit there in three weeks, and though I don't see it as a permanent church home for my family it is a quiet, prayerful place that I enjoy visiting.

After Mass, I was walking through the parking lot to my van. As I walked to the driver's side door, I heard a voice behind me.

"I'm surprised to see you here with those on your bumper."

He was referring to the three well-worn Obama campaign bumper stickers that have adorned our van for the last two years. This wasn't the first time I've heard a rude comment about them, but it was the first time I heard one in a church parking lot after Mass.

How Christian of you, I thought, but I refused to counter his comment with one just as rude. Instead, I got in the car and started backing out.

The parking lot is quite narrow so it took a few tries to pull out of the spot and straighten up without hitting someone. As I was about to drive off, I glanced over my shoulder. He stood there staring at my bumper stickers, like he could peel them off if he glared at them hard enough.

"What?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"What?" He sounded surprised that I was challenging him.

I paused for a moment, wondering what I'd say next. When I opened my mouth again, I think the Holy Spirit was guiding me.

"God bless you."

His scowl transformed into a smile. "God bless you too."

From yesterday's Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. This has to be seen to be believed:

As ridiculous as Rep. Skelton's question is, I will give him a serious answer: I would welcome this conversation with my daughter.

I am not afraid, when the time is right, to discuss sex with my daughter—though I suspect my wife will get most of the questions—but this has nothing to do with sex. It's about equal rights for all Americans. That's what the men and women of our military fight to defend and that's what they all deserve no matter who they happen to fall in love with.

About five weeks ago, I wrote a piece explaining my family's personal stake in the passage of Health Care Reform. Needless to say, I was overjoyed when the Senate bill passed in the House that weekend and then the Reconciliation pakage passed the Senate a few days  later.

More good news followed. Anna was accepted by Oregon Healthy Kids at the beginning of April. She is now covered and we've scheduled both her four-year checkup and her first dental exam. Unfortunately, our income disqualified Julia and I from the Oregon Health Plan. Now we had two options: either Julia would gain permanent employment with benefits or we would be able to apply for high risk insurance through the Department of Health and Human Services in July—six months after we lost our previous coverage.

Then came the third bit of good news. Julia was hired to a permanent position with excellent benefits. We had up to thirty days to decide on a package, but the coverage was retroactive to her first day of employment. Our three and a half month journey through the insurance wilderness was over.

I will never forget that journey, and I won't forget the thirty plus million Americans still wandering in the wilderness.

We as a nation need to pass health care reform, but that's not what this post is about. Arguments for reform are numerous and easily found online - so are arguments against. This post is about why we—myself and my family— need health care reform to pass.

2009 was a disastrous year for us financially. In the span of eight months, we went from upper middle income to no income whatsoever. By the end of the year, my wife had found a temp job that just barely paid the bills, but our savings were all but gone and now we are truly living from paycheck to paycheck.

Our health insurance was one of the expenses we could no longer afford. As an outsourced subcontractor, my wife had to pay our insurance out-of-pocket. It was very expensive - almost $1000 a month for a family of three - but we could afford it on our previous income. By the end of 2009, though, we had to cancel and find something cheaper.

First, we applied for short term insurance. The coverage was similar to what we had through our previous insurance, but we had to reapply after six months. It was a stop-gap until a job with benefits came along.

We were rejected for pre-existing conditions.

Then we applied for catastrophic care from a second company. The deductible was huge, and prescriptions weren't covered. but there was no cap so in the case of an unexpected disaster it would prevent medical bankruptcy. It also offered preventative coverage with no deductible or co-pay, which we saw as a big plus.

Again, we were rejected for pre-existing conditions.

What were these pre-existing conditions? My high blood pressure which I control with generic medications, my wife's allergies - again controlled with medication - and my daughter's repaired cleft lip.

You read that right. A birth defect is a pre-existing condition.

This is insane. It needs to end NOW.

A ban on denials due to pre-existing conditions is one of many good parts of an admittedly imperfect Health Care Reform Bill. For us it is the difference between affordable insurance and possible medical bankruptcy.

We are among the over 30 million Americans who will be able to get insurance if this bill passes. We need this to pass.

Pass the bill NOW.

Short Answer: Nothing.

Barack Obama is still President, the Senate Caucus still has sixty members (and will continue to do so unless Joe Liebermann screws up and follows through on his fillibuster threat), the House still has a Democratic majority, and a public option of some sort will be in the final health care bill that goes to the President's desk (though it might not get there until January). New Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia change none of this.

Long Answer: Let's go through the results one at a time.

Virginia Governor

This one hurts if you're a Democrat. It wasn't even close. But before you give into the "Obama is doomed narative" here are three points to consider. First, Creigh Deeds distanced himself from the President until the last week of the campaign. Second, he opposed the Public Option in a debate with Republican candidate Bob McDonnell and even speculated that he might opt out as governor. Third, he focused his campaign on McDonnell's twenty year-old master's thesis. Not surprisingly, the voters that gave Virginia to Obama last fall largely stayed home. Blame this one on a lukewarm candidate who ran as GOP-lite.

New Jersey Governor

Jon Corzine was supposed to lose this one and he did. His approval rating was hovering in the 30s and he was tarred, rightly or wrongly, with his previous position at Goldman-Sachs. The real surprise was that Corzine almost won anyway. Apparently New Jersey is so blue, that the best candidate the Republicans could find was now Governor-elect Chris Christie, the "law and order" attorney general whose own record was tarnished by improprieties (and a continuing association with Karl Rove). The race became a "lesser of two evils" scenario to such an extent that independent candidate Chris Daggett was briefly seen as having an outside shot.

NY-23

Wait? There was an election in New York's 23rd Congressional District, right? With all the buildup in the media, plus Sarah Palin's endorsement of Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman over GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava, we were all anxiously awaiting the results, and then . . . nothing. Was the election canceled? No, it's just that Bill Owens, the Democrat, won after getting a last minute endorsement by Scozzafava after she dropped out of the race. Well, it's not like a Democrat hadn't won the seat in over a century . . . actually that's exactly what happened.

CA-10

There was an election in California? Really? Yes, and the Democrats held the seat.

So the final scorecard was two governorships for the GOP, and a slight gain in the House for the Democrats. What an unmitigated disaster for . . . no one.