Oklahoma Man Arrested for Dancing

Well, ok, dance-trespassing. Eddy Khaodevanpheng, a 22-year old Oklahoma City resident, was arrested today at an OKC convenience store for refusing to leave when management asked him to please quit getting down in their establishment. Obstinate, he claimed he was "fighting for his right to dance" and did so around the gas station and back and forth across the nearby intersection, presumably to ward off potential threats to this basic funky freedom.

Police told the man to leave after he informed them he was fighting for the right to dance, and he "danced across the parking lot to the McDonald's where he stood and watched us while dancing,” an officer wrote in the report. He then danced back across the parking lot to the Valero, where he was arrested.

When asked why he returned to the gas station, the man told police he was "following the leader,” the report states. He said the arresting officer was the leader because he had a radio, pepper spray and a gun, and police replied by saying he was going to jail because he "didn't listen to the leader. 

It doesn't seem like the cops or the management really got it: who he was fighting and what was at stake. But it doesn't really matter - clearly, his commitment to the fight should have been persuasive enough. What I can't seem to find is a description of the kind of dance: was he crunking? Voguing? Doing the Charleston? I imagine that this is the first case in a new type of neurological disorder where the sufferer constantly hears Daft Punk playing in their head and has no control over whether their ass follows suit, until they break down from dance-overkill. Fortunately, he didn't have to groove in lock-up for long; he's already been released to fight another day.

Related: Just four days ago, an Iowa-city teen booked for grinding with a giant angel statue in a local cemetery.

Americans Concur: Our Health Care's Shit is Wack

[Source: A 2009 PEW poll, via good.is]

I come from a zany, imaginary place called Oklahoma. It's Texas' hat, if that helps you place it on the map. And while I'm atypical for Green Country [in that I bailed on it], I like to keep up with it's ever-developing oddness. I'm still fond of it in many ways.

This is native Oklahoman, Biker Fox.

I'm tellin' ya, this place is seriously, truly strange.

One of the things I care less for that my state of origin and adolescence produces is its politics. Oklahoma, being so make-believe, has a tendency to elect some whimsical, silly jackasses for its officials. Sadly, I'm not talking about Biker Fox - no one's elected him yet. Who I mean is, for one, Republican Senator Tom Coburn, the little and loudest among the many conservatives who claim that the U.S. has the best health care in the world [we don't, even the CIA says so]. A new poll from the PEW research center demonstrates well the partisan divide regarding accurate health care assessment:

The stark political divisions evident in the current debate over health care are mirrored in opinions about how the health care system compares with those in other industrialized countries. Most Republicans say U.S. health care is either the best in the world (28%) or above average (29%). Democrats largely take the opposite view, with nearly seven-in-ten saying U.S. health care is either average (35%) or below average (34%). Independents have more in common with Democrats than with Republicans in their evaluation of America's health care. Roughly six-in-ten say health care in this country is average (32%) or below average (29%) compared with other industrialized countries.

Conservative Republicans stand out in their positive assessments of U.S. health care. Two-thirds (66%) say America's health care is either the best in the world or above average. Just 39% of moderate and liberal Republicans agree. There is a smaller ideological divide within the Democratic Party -- with 75% of liberals rating U.S. health care as average or below average compared with 67% of moderates and conservatives." [source]

This is despite the fact that the poll also says most Americans disagree, correctly recognizing it as comparatively average or worse.

Big shocker that nationalist pride in a 2nd or 3rd rate health care system plagued with equal access, delivery, and funding problems is correlated to income bracket, in addition to political affiliation.

There are plenty of weird, wonderful, and outrageous things about both Oklahoma and the U.S. that are worth keeping around - state fairs, noodling, Gary Busey. These things are our shared heritage. But what ain't worth writing home about are the politicians, bureaucrats, and, if you're not among the rich elite, the doctors.

Unrelated: a song by Colorado shoegaze band Weed Diamond, called "Oklahoma".