National Punctuation Day has always been one of my favorite religious holidays.

In this post: Watch those commas, understanding the Affordable Care Act.

Please forgive me for a serious omission from last night’s Howdygram post: I neglected to acknowledge that yesterday was NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY, which has always been one of my favorite religious holidays.

Which punctuation mark do you like best? Is there one that you abuse? Aside from being a hard-core font nerd and compulsive blogger I’ve also been a copywriter, an editor and (for a few years) a phototypesetter. Trust me: I know my my hyphens, my “ems” and my “ens;” I treasure my semicolons, colons, brackets and (parentheses); and I detest the Oxford comma, I never misuse apostrophes and I desperately HATE MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION POINTS.

Thank you for putting up with me.

And now ... let’s talk about “Obamacare” for a minute, okay? It should be common knowledge by now that the only reason Republicans hate it is because President Obama passed it. Their vote to shut down the government will jeopardize Social Security checks for seniors and the disabled and will cost our men and women in uniform their pay — but the tea party in Congress doesn’t give a crap. They will do anything to stop the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and allow insurance companies to control your access to health care. Please use the link below to add your name to the list of Americans who want John Boehner and Congress to end the horseshit and STOP THE SHUTDOWN.

To help the cause I thought I’d include an easy-to-understand summary of what the Affordable Care Act actually provides ... and what the Republicans in Congress have voted 41 times to repeal. Hard to believe these jerkwads hate Americans this much!

Nearly half of Americans who have individual insurance plans will receive assistance averaging $2,672 per year to purchase plans on the ACA marketplace.

The ACA makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny people coverage because of pre-existing conditions like cancer or diabetes.

The ACA requires insurance companies to spend 80% of premium dollars on health care. If they don’t, they’ll be forced to give consumers a refund to make up the difference.

The ACA allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they’re 26 years old.

The ACA gives tax credits to small business owners so they can afford to offer quality care to their employees.

The ACA ends lifetime insurance caps and protects families from bankruptcy just because they get sick.

Incidentally, this information comes directly from WhiteHouse.gov. If you’ve never checked out this website you should stop by sometime. It’s where all the cool people hang out, like a 21st century bowling alley.

I just discovered that my blood sugar is starting to drop (it’s 63) so I’d better give dinner some serious consideration here. Maybe I’ll bake one of my Lou Malnati’s crustless pizzas while I watch “People’s Court” and gear up for this week’s episode of “Project Runway” at 8.

I love my life!