On the state of things from our Friday pussy

Need I say more and too busy to blog today.

Bank fails later if I think of it.

U.S. health care or the lack there of

A little back ground info on our world class snafu know as the U.S. health care system. Unlike any other industrialized nation on the planet we have a system based solely on profit. Fifty years ago that was not the case. All hospitals and the insurance companies that backed that care were non profit. Most communities had several groups that supported the town hospital with fund raisers and volunteer support. But once again those evil rethuglicons hatched a plan to make a buck on grandmas' operation. It was called managed care or HMO's (health maintenance organizations). That innocuous sounding name was the death toll for our medical delivery system.
And one has to wonder about the quality of our profit based system when unnecessary tests are run just to beef up the bill. For the aged and poor this is a win situation for the hospitals but not so for the insurance companies and taxpayers who foot the bill. Spare no expense when someone else is covering the costs as long as they can be justified and even then there are those less scrupulous who pad the expenses and pass on the costs and gain the profits. This is all done with computers thereby giving the hospitals and doctors an easy out in the event of an audit. But the insurance companies are no saints either with their claims denying department all set up to increase the year end statement. Beholden not to patients but to bosses and shareholders.
No, the solution is to remove the profit motive as it once was. We shouldn't have to grovel at the feet of an insurance institution just to get medical treatment. Doctors shouldn't have to note how many MRI's they've scheduled because the bottom line takes precedence over quality care. Just because a hospital was able to procure the latest scanning machine doesn't mean that everybody who enters the doors needs such a test.
But we just know that with the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act that those on the right will do everything in their power to erase it from existence. Even as I type this the powers that be are plotting to cut those at the very bottom with large cuts to Medicaid. A scary thought when you consider the numbers of uninsured. Scarier still when you stop to consider mental hospitals are planning on opening the doors and letting some very disturbed folk out on the street. You just know that that is where they'll land up. A disservice to both the patient and society if you ask me.

Beware of the deadly cantaloupe

Just when you thought it was safe to come out from killer hurricanes or tornadoes and the zombie apocalypse is not yet upon us we have the attack of the killer cantaloupes. Worse than a republican throng. More disgusting than a republican in a thong the loupes have made their way causing destruction and mayhem in their path.
"I know says candidate Rick Perry, we'll cut more regulations because the cantaloupe producers need more money and their taxes are just too high." (Discretely holding his hand around his mouth and phone so as no one can overhear) Perry discusses the next lobbyist donation. "Hey that's not enough. I'm no cheap whore you know. Five G's couldn't buy off a senate aide pal!"

Stay tuned for more adventures of the clown circus. Will the fat man join the race? Give him the crown just one more time and he just might join the race. Qualifications? Qualifications? We don't need no stinking qualifications.

An ode to water

Thought I'd change things up a bit. Man does not live by politics, beavers and pussys alone you know.

What a miraculous thing water is. Two atoms of hydrogen and one oxygen make such an unusual and wonderful substance. Water is everywhere. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is covered with water. It's in the air, on the ground, under the ground and even we are 75% water. It makes plants grow, keeps our bodies hydrated and makes for sweeter social interactions. We wash ourselves with it cook with it and clean our houses and cars with it. We drink it, gargle with it and rid ourselves of human wastes with it. We pipe it, bottle it, pump it, freeze it, filter it, flavor it, ionize it, oxygenate it, and bag it. We swim in it, boat in it and explore it's depths. We boil it for cooking and add it to so many dishes then when the dishes are empty we clean them with a bit of soap and hot water. That would be water heated with electricity made from water. From coal fired to nuclear to hydro it's all made with water.
And when we've about poisoned ourselves it's water to the rescue. In the event of accidental ingestion administer several glasses of water and seek medical attention. And on a larger scale flush chemicals to the nearest storm drain.

But then again lowly water gets no respect. "What do you mean you'll just have a glass of water? What are you a cheap skate?" And that knocked over glass at the dinner table. "Hey it's only a little water it isn't going to hurt you".

Water can be destructive but it's not waters' fault. It's only doing what it's told. The wind blows there and water goes there. No evil god of Neptune controlling water.

We think nothing of dumping in the nearest body of water be it a river, lake or stream every manner of residential commercial or industrial waste. After all out of sight out of my mind anyway. But water is forgiving with no real soul going about its' natural process of evaporating condensing and cleaning itself. And water is indestructible. Split into its' component parts it will regroup and turn back into water. And not to forget that it can be a solid a liquid and a gas, one of the few substances on earth that can do that.

Good ole H2O can't leave home without it.

Too busy to blog

Only see the results of what this beaver is doing. This tree was said to have been gnawed through in one night. That's something I couldn't do but then again beavers must have a better dental plan.

Gots to run.
Bank fails later

This country sure is going down the toilet

Of all the degradations of the past ten or eleven years last night had to be the pinochle of success of moral decay. Of all the principles we hold dear in this country it seems the very last was put to death last night. Honesty, fair play, and justice were thrown out the window with the murder of Troy Davis. No longer do we convict someone of a capital crime without or beyond a reasonable doubt. Just how this happened will be anaylized by law students for years to come. And it may become a textbook example of how not to defend a man facing the death penalty. Even without knowing the exact aspects of this case a grade school student could tell that it wasn't right. Even children that young have a gut feeling when something's not right.
But this isn't the only aspect of our society that has swirled down the bowl in the recent past. Many now believe that torture is a valued tool even though history has proved otherwise. And robbery is now legal as long as you're wearing a three piece suit and work for a bank or investment company. Then there's the case of two cops beating an unarmed homeless man to death. You know for certain that neither will face lethal injection for their actions.

Maybe what this nation needs is a very large injection of empathy but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Blogger is running a bit quirky today

It doesn't seem to want to let me post or do comments. What is this the thought police taking over? No fear though. You can't keep this opinionated blogger down. We forge ahead into the obscure and irrelevant, fighting for truth justice and the universal Superman way. So what if I look more like Clark Kent than the man of steel at least I have fun with this. Time to run as I'm feeling more like the Flash than the guy with an S on his chest.

Later dudes!

(no time for blogging)

How low do you have to go to be republican?

Last week there was a debate by the republicans. One of the questions was something to the effect of " Should a patient with no insurance be allowed to die?" The blood thirsty lot cheered with glee "yes!" Now of course all involved are trying to backpedal on what transpired. But what about the real life people involved in what they were talking about? One of the relatives of one such patient spoke out about their blood lust.

That was my brother's death you were cheering, you a$$holes.
By Susan from 29

To all of those tea-jadist assholes at last night’s GOP debate: I don’t generally like to use profanity, but I fear that English is above your comprehension level, so in terms you might better understand, may God damn your worthless souls to hell for all eternity.

I had not planned on watching the debate because it conflicted with more important activities, like a new episode of The Closer. But even more importantly, it was being held at a time when I had committed to posting a diary for The Grieving Room. That diary was about the death of my brother from a very painful, uninsured struggle against metastatic cancer.

I had planned to write another separate diary about his journey through what passes for health care in a nation fixated on the profits that that care brings. In a nation where his death was cheered in front of a panel of politicians, none of whom had the decency to object. It is not yet a capital crime in this nation to be uninsured.

Steve worked 14 hours a day building beautiful guitars. Songs will not be sung because he died and will make no more. Thanks to the Republican Party’s theft of our national wealth, he barely eked out an existence with financial help from my husband and me. Money for health insurance? Don’t be ridiculous.

He was 63. He had to start Social Security early so he could afford to eat. He was too young for Medicare and too male for Medicaid. This nation does not recognize the years he spent working for others and making this economy grow, it only focused on the years he worked for himself, creating instruments of rare beauty.

When he had a pain in the butt, he had to wait until early in the morning of December 3rd to present himself at the ER of Highland Hospital, the Alameda County medical facility. There are guards at Highland, and a football field full of plastic chairs for the indigent to use while they wait treatment. He was sent home with a handful of Vicodin and a suggestion to follow up with a pulmonologist for the 3 cm spot the Xray showed on his lung. The soonest appointment was Feb 25.

He was in so much pain that he could not stand up for more than a few seconds at a time. He got Vicodin. And steroid suppositories.

His buddies came up with the $2000 a proctologist wanted to do an outpatient surgery. But the hospital wanted $20,000 for use of the room for the brief procedure because he was uninsured. Because the pain didn’t matter half as much as the profit.

For six weeks he suffered at home. You bastards, you would have liked to watch that, wouldn’t you? Too bad there were no cameras to catch him as he collapsed when he tried to microwave his oatmeal. No microphones to catch his cries of pain or despair.

He was finally admitted to Highland after his heart started to fail in the emergency room one night early in February. The staff there are dedicated, caring, compassionate people who work their hearts out trying to save the sickest and poorest Americans. They have only limited resources with which to do that. And they make every one of those resources count.

By then, of course, the cancer from his lung had spread to his buttock where it attacked the bone. It wrapped itself into the nerves that travelled up his spine. The pain was indescribable. Perhaps his medical records could serve as pornography to sate your sick lust for the pain of others.

The morphine and the cancer combined to cause psychotic breaks from reality. Worse, he knew they had occurred. He was so intelligent, so very caring that these breaks wherein he would roundly curse the staff that cared for him, throwing whatever was handy at the walls, were incredibly shaming and emotionally devastating to him. Cancer is so very cruel, but not half as cruel as the cheers you uttered last night.

The county nursing home where they finally had to warehouse him as the cancer weakened him to the point where chemotherapy would have killed him, looks like a minimum security prison. Half of the staff did not understand English which further frustrated him as the morphine clouded his mind. It was dirty and depressing and I was so grateful that he often did not even know he was there.

He hated it there and was actually glad when an infection sent him back to Highland for treatment. He only lasted a few more days at Highland. I was holding his hand as he drew his last breath. Have you ever seen a man die, you bastards? His fingertips turn grey, his breathing becomes shallow. His grip weakens. And he simply stops breathing.

And all of the laughter and love goes away with that last breath. The intelligence, the creative beauty, the caring compassion. They all disappear. But that probably wouldn’t matter to you since I doubt you would recognize any of it.

Love, compassion, beauty. Laughter, intelligence. And the ability to realize a dream. A dream that never included cruelty or indifference to the suffering of others.

And I cannot, for the life of me fathom why he is only ashes today and you are walking this earth.

But then, I am not the hero my brother was. He would have forgiven you. He would have understood the source of your fear that caused those cheers. I don’t want to.

I think you are scum.

No pumpkins for you Linus

May not be many pumpkins this year when Irene blew through the Northeast flooding the pumpkin patches of New York state. So expect higher prices for the orange gourds this year as well as for pies at Thanksgiving. But with a crappy economy and Halloween stuff already on discount (hey got to push Christmas while people still have the bucks and a job ya know) it may be apple pie for both holidays. Poor Linus may have witnessed the Great Pumpkin washed out to sea with the rest of his dreams. And no pie for you. So I guess it's time to get ready for the Zombie Apocalypse when the far right come out to support their candidates. But more on that at a later post.

A quick bright spot - no banks failed this week.

Worse

Bill Cosby said "there's always worse". Just how worse is anyone's guess. When an individual gets into dire straights the first thing is to cut back on recreation and niceties. Then look for extra income in the way of part time second job. With the nation however it's a different story. We've cut back our income from the first source (Tax cuts) and added spending (two wars) with borrowed money not to mention the addition of the costs of adding a new security system (Home Land Security). All done I might add under George W.Bush. And let us not forget the bank bailouts also done with borrowed money. But when a family gets into really tough times they start selling the family heirlooms just to put food on the table and a roof over their head. Unfortunately however food prices are going up and being upside down in a mortgage even when qualified is no comforting thought. Banks are now restarting the process of foreclosures so if you thought you were safe from the repo man think again. All the while gas prices are still just below $4 a gallon so even looking for or getting to work ain't cheap either. Did I mention that those mortgages that were variable (Alt-A loans) are about to hit peak around October or November? Remember I keep track of such info. America has been selling off it's assets but the beneficiaries have not been the taxpayer but again the boys on Wall Street.
Take a look around your neighbourhood and note the for sale signs especially those owned by the bank. Or note empty buildings boarded up long ago. I'm even seeing brand new buildings with for lease signs not occupied for months now.
It's said that just 400 people in this country own more than the bottom 150 million! There's a startling figure. And it's not getting any better out there. It's getting worse.

Bank fails later

Busy busy busy

Gadaffy's on the run (or however you spell his name). The clown circus continues, but wait. Stop everything there's naked pictures of Scarlett Johansson on the web. Stop the presses. Hold all my calls. Stop what you're doing and check out the "cheeks" and "chest". Call the FBI. Notify the CIA. Somebody leaked the photos. And just who'd take such lewd photographia? Oops that's right it was her. Hey babe if you don't want photos in the inertubes of your bod then don't take them in the first place. I'd post myself au natural but all they could be used for is for scaring the rats out of the basement. But with my luck I just might end up with a rat fan club.

Oh well must hit the sheets. Hope you found this just the bit titillating. Now back to your regularly scheduled mundane lives.

Call for help

I'm never one to ask for help even in the worst of times. I guess I'm a little too stubborn and proud that way but when I see somebody else in dire straights I'll be the first guy to lend a hand. With the last hurricane (Irene) that blew through the Northeast so many lost a whole lot and some lost everything. That's just what happened to a fellow blogger Tim Waters of Scared Stiff.
Here's a video he was able to shoot and post on his site of the aftermath
Tim is a proud guy like me and probably wouldn't think of asking for a hand out and it seems FEMA is stingy with their help as well. So if you would pop on over and buy him a beer. What's a beer cost these days anyway? Just look for the beer glass in the left hand side I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

911

I'm beginning to think Bin Ladin won. How so you might ask? He's dead and we're still here. But it was his objective to bring down the American economy. Look where we are ten years after 911. We'll have spent over 2 trillion dollars on two (actually make that three or four) wars. We've created the largest governmental agency in U.S. history at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars. We've had to bail the financial institutions (not just banks either) out from near collapse. That was over 2 trillion dollars. I forget who said it but to paraphrase them "a few trillion here, a few trillion there and soon that adds up to real money."
We are now at a point where we can't even take care of our own emergencies without wondering how we'll pay for them. The fear that has been spread over the last 10 years has made us swing at shadows in the night. If any group of thugs were that well organised then we would not have been able to set foot in a mall or gone to a football game without fearing some catastrophic event. We are now at the crossroads where the costs of vigilance are starting to outweigh the benefits. I have yet to see a bag or box detonated at the airport that contained anything more than some clothing and toiletries.*


*Fake bomb triggers scare on L.A. bus, police say

Suspicious item at KC airport not a bomb, FBI says
(via yahoo news 9/11/11)

I am far more fearful of our own populous when the safe guards and safety nets have been pulled from under us. I'd be more fearful of someone who's off his meds because that funding was cut and he can't afford them. Or the guy with the family who's been out of work so long his unemployment runs out. And if there's anything to be fearful of it's the fact that the last of the first stimulus moneys are nearly gone and the budget for homeland security is being trimmed. And what did we get from all of this? Now they want to continue cutting away at the economy and keep moving money out of the pockets of those who spend and into those who do not. We may be safe from the fear of a small extremist group but we threw the baby out with the bath water in the process.
But it's not just the lives that were lost on that fateful day we should be concerned about but the effects of the aftermath and our response. To say that we'll respond in such a way that this will never happen again is illogical because we know that some event like it will always happen again. Because it always does. Just look at history.

Why Obama needs to go

Rather than stand up for the middle and lower classes "Mr. Change we can believe in" is leading us right down the path that the republicans have carved. What nobody seemed to notice in that speech last night was that the bulk of the "Jobs Act" is nothing more than tax cuts. And you'll note that the bill must be offset by spending cuts. Just where do you think these cuts will come from? The military? Oh think again. Corporations? Ha think again. They have more lawyers and accountants than a teen heartthrob has fans. And they are the ones who make the laws anyway so you know where that will go. No Mr. Obama played nicely into the hands of the looney bus and will take that money right out of your pocket. How's that you might ask? Well remember when he lowered witholding from pay checks? That was 2%. Where'd it come from? Social Security taxes. There's a stupid move if I've ever seen one. Drain your retirement income to live for today. Isn't that what teens who haven't learned responsible spending habits do? And now he wants to give everybody a nice $1500 tax break only that will be from Social Security. You see a pattern here? This is just what the republicans want. And he wants to go after Medicare as well.
Then there's the $4000 tax incentive for businesses to hire. Nothing like trying to push a string down the street. The reason business isn't hiring is because there's no demand. So why would a business with no demand want to saddle themselves with more workers with nothing to make? At the very height of this past recession that very same idea was put in place. Back then it was $1000 credit. It didn't work then and it won't work now. All the businesses that I contacted during that time told me the same thing. "I can't keep my regular people working and many were laid off". At one point they even fired the receptionist and the phone was answered by the manager.

No, tell Obama what he can do with his grand Jobs Act. We don't need a republican in the white house any longer. The safety nets of this country were put there for a reason but he doesn't seem to get it. We need a true progressive who will stand up to the planks of the democratic party platform and not some weenie who caves on every issue.

Bank fails later.

Only one bank fail this week in FL

Mayhem merriment and little news

Texas is burning. The Northeast is drowning. The stock market is moving sideways. Housing is falling. Unemployment remains the same. The grand show of the news cycle goes on with its' usual predictability. Got something for everybody. In any given day somebody gets shot and killed unless of course you live in a little burg where everybody knows everybody else. Even then with the newly hostile environment that seems pervasive these days that shy guy down the street just might snap and turn the quiet village into a nightmare. He was such a nice man too.

Take any subject or any event and there seems to be a touch of violence in there somewhere. Can't go to an outdoor concert without the roof falling in on you. What's next? Bloodshed at the church ice cream social? "I told you I didn't want sprinkles on that damn it!" So it's knives and guns and bombs. What ever happened to the old fashioned fist fight to settle a score. Never hear about them anymore. Junior is more apt to come home in a body bag as come home with a shiner. Or worse slumped over on the front lawn with a bullet in the head. I guess it's true, diplomacy is dead. So much easier to settle a score with the maximum of force than talk it out. Nothing seems rational anymore either. We'll just carry on with what doesn't work until the last drop of blood, curled in a heap with a fist raised in the air as one last defiant gesture. I was right you know.



Ramblings of one half asleep. I can slack with the best of em.

Coo coo coo coo

Ya think maybe it's time to invest just a little bit of cash in the mental health of this country?
A quick peruse of some headlines begets:

Father identifies 5 killed in W.Va.; suspect dead
Air passenger arrested for not turning off phone
NY man: I called in threat because power was out
NH convict in shamed girl's rape gets 15-30 years
Police: Teen loses legs as she tries to hop train
Man subdued after rushing jet exit door in Seattle

These were tied to an article about the guy in Carson City, NV. who open fired on a couple of national guardsmen killing two before killing himself.

Okay I know you'll say the girl who lost hers legs was to stupidity but there again there's something lacking mentally to think you can jump on a moving train without the possibility of injury.

Then there were a couple of paranoid psychos who thought we were spying on them last week on two different occasions no less. Maybe their meds ran out. It was the end of the month. And there's the really scary part. With budget cuts comes consequences. And this will not be like the cat lady from the Simpsons either.

Whyisit?

Why is it that everybody seems to know quite well what the problems are in todays' society but nobody seems to want to do anything about it? All seems very simple.

Economy - With high unemployment and the fear of another down turn people aren't spending. With no demand the economy can not move forward. We desperately need to rebuild the infrastructure before it totally falls apart. But again nobody seems to want to do that.

Education - You don't advance education by cutting teachers or their pay and benefits. And there seems to be a misguided notion that a test score equals learning. A certificate does not mean you're proficient. What's lacking are problem solving skills relevant to the real world. The other thing is a students' ability to decern good information from bad. Something that's not taught anymore. And watch out if education becomes totally privatized. Advertising already has a strangle hold on the American mentality. Imagine what they'd do with a free hand in education.

War - Wars are never fought for principle or ideology. They are fought for economic gain plain and simple. The problem here is that those in the middle and the bottom land up paying the price. Even when there was a draft few senators' sons saw any combat action unless junior was dumb enough to go. So the middle and the bottom land up paying with lives and always get to pay the bill while those at the top get bonuses for selling the hardware and other necessities to the military industrial complex.

Health Care - Since when is being able to see a doctor a privilege? We have legal loan sharks in the form of the insurance industry. You pay your premiums for years and years with no claim and suddenly need care and it's as if you didn't exist. Just try and work your way through their maze of automated call centers that I'm not even sure are located in this country. And I just love how they think teeth and eyes are not considered part of your body. Medical care should never be for profit.


So what to do? Corporations are sitting on over 2 trillion dollars of profits. About half of that figure would easily get things going again if those at the top would start paying their fair share.
With education we have the greatest library at our fingertips the world has ever seen right in front of our faces. It's just a matter of teaching kids how to use it wisely. I don't believe there is anything that can't be learned with a little help and adult supervision with the Net.
With wars we'll just have to let them fight it out and decide for themselves. Once we're gone that's what they'll do anyway. If we're not there they won't have anyone but themselves to blame for their problems.
And with health care it's going to take a crowbar to pry the stranglehold of the insurance companies. Of any job that is of the least value in this country it has to be insurance salesman and the hoards of paper pushers behind them. When your job is to find the smallest reason to deny the coverage for something that's already been paid for you have to have some pretty low morals. Let's join the rest of the industrialized world with public coverage for all.

Friday pussy (Okay I lied)

About how I feel after a fun filled week. Trying to do the job of three people isn't easy ya know. The start of the day was running into a psycho who thought we were spying on her. Sorry babe your life isn't that interesting that I'd take the time. After the local police straightened her out all was clam. I think I have a couple of more weeks of random tasks then who knows? At least I can requalify for unemployment.


Two banks failed this week both in GA.

I'm going to take a wild stab at what will happen with the law suit against the 17 banks for their sales of mortgage backed securities. If the government wins and they usually do then you'll see a sell off of or closure of many branches. That'll be to make up for the losses. However considering that the banks have the government in their back pockets any settlement will be a pittance of what is owed. How many times have we seen that?

The Friday beaver will be late today so read the post below

Why blogging is like fishing (Ah ya spoiled the teaser!)

One fashions a lure out of colorful words and images wound tight in structure and model. When all is neatly finished the line is cast with but a mere finger click. No skill necessary there. And then the wait begins.

Will it be a great day for a catch and we'll land a big one or maybe a bunch of small ones? The novice waits impatiently constantly checking back while the old pro has better things to do. He'll be back at the end of the day to see what's on line.

Sex sells. Oh no you're not going to use that old bait again are you?
Better than knitting, baby's first tooth, or a post about life insurance.

Politics? The clown circus is getting old. As one drops out another takes his/her place. Now where is that clown car they keep coming out of?

War? After 10 years of war it doesn't even make the nightly news that often. Lem see we've killed Al Qaedas' second in command how many times now? And we've seen more than enough of our share of suicide bombers with belts and shoes and underwear.
I want to be the guy who checks when they start putting them in bras. Is that an under wire or are you just unhappy to be here?

Oh well I did it again. It's now 9:15pm and I started this this morning. Label it no time to blog.

Now let's see who takes the bait.