Saturday, March 20, 2010

OBAMACARE and Medicare..why will one be better than the other?

I had my first medicare checkup. Routine stuff.

One of the things that my doctor has been nagging me about was getting a Colonoscopy. When I inquired about the cost, I was told that as a self payer (a year ago) that the price was $3500.

I declined.

Then after my Medicare checkup She said I should still have a colonoskpy and that Medicare paid for it. But, to be sure I should stop at the finance office and check. The nice young lady was loquacious informational.

Self Pay Colonscopy $3500
Health Insurance Pays for a Colonoscopy $1400
Medicare Pays for a Colonoscopy $200

I asked, how is that possible? How can a doctor afford to do that for that kind of money? She said cheerfully, “OH, they can’t. They write the rest off and it adds to the overhead”.

I hate the fact this exists. I hate the fact that this kind of thing will force us into OBAMACARE.

I hate that this is going to bankrupt America.

How did this get so screwed up?

Now that OBAMACARE will Pass and be signed into law... meet your doctor

According to a recent survey up to half of all doctors will quit practicing medicine if the Health Care Bill passes. That will mean a shortage of doctors for a while. But, never fear, in the health care bill was an education bill. It will pay for fast tracking Med students, Physician Assistants and Nurses. And immigration, More Dr Jose, Dr Chen, Dr. Patel and Dr. Sahid. It will be great getting that multicultural flavor more into medicine.

The really neat deal is that with this emphasis on fast tracking there will be opportunity, even equal opportunity, for the Jethroes of the world to accomplish their life's goals. If you were a fan of the Beverly Hillbillies you will know that Jethro's prime ambition was to become either a brain surgeon or a fry cook. Well, the training in the fast track will be about the same. AND, let's not forget the real "Doc" in the Bodine family, Granny, who practiced all kinds of alternative medicine.

I'm guessing that both Jethro and Granny wouldn't charge near as much as those fancy schmancy hospitals and drug companies of today. Why a couple spare pigs in trade might just do it.

We could roam the streets of Chicago, the Rural Reaches filled with good O'l Boys in a pickup truck and troll the border of Mexico to find all the candidates to replace those greedy Doctors we have now.

So, Let me present, YOUR NEW MEDICAL TEAM.....

Doctor Jethro and Granny will see you now just as soon as the doc can get away from the fry grill at his other job.

Welcome to HELL.

The face only a Child Could Love and a Country can Despise

A note from a potential church member - Ouch

So you want me in your church?

Here’s how to get me.

Parking: I need lots of space for my big SUV and it better be close to the door. I don’t want to do much walking. So if it isn’t, how about a shuttle?

Nice building: This is important. I am not interested in some strip mall church that looks like its struggling or an old traditional church unless you’ve done millions in ‘renos’ I am an upwardly model, semi-professional and I want my surroundings to reflect my importance.

Proper HVAC: this isn’t important its critical. I want to be cool when its warm and warm when its cool. 68 degrees Farenheit to 72 degrees farenheit year round. Is that too much to ask?

Comfy Chairs: And when I say chairs I mean CHAIRS! Preferably theatre style, with wide arm rests. Give me some space for my girth and safe distance from the other arriving consumers.

Be Punctual: I’ve already spent too much time getting me and the family ready and there for the meeting. Begin it on time. Have something cool playing on the big screens to entertain us if we arrive a little early. You’ve got an hour. Make good use of it. I want to be in and out in no more than 75 minutes. Maybe a few more if you are serving decent coffee. Decent coffee that is FREE of course.

Music: Three songs up front. One fast to get us going; One mid-tempo to help us be reflective; End with a fast one that tells us how much Jesus, God, the Spirit loves us. Just please no ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ songs.

Announcements: Get them over after the music. Present them on your big screen so they can be done quickly. This isn’t the time to stick your “B” team on the platform to give them some face time. And unless Larry David is writing for you, avoid humor. Have the final cut folk edit your marketing stuff down to 15 second bites. If it works for Sony, it will work for you.

Offering: Now it’s up to you where you put it. If the preacher is great after the sermon might work better. If not, go for the money after the announcements. Maybe show some shots of starving, third-world kids in the last announcement. Heart string tugs work for Compassion and World Vision, why not your church? God loves a cheerful giver and the Malachi 3 verses and the 100-fold blessing are important reminders. A good story of how tithing worked from someone would be great. No more than 90 seconds though.

Sermon: 20 MINUTES! Did I make myself clear? 20 MINUTES! 20 … 20! We have the attention spans of gnats. Keep that in mind. Make it practical. If I wanted systematic theology I would have gone to seminary. Use humor. Steal from the best if necessary. I want to leave feeling built up and it’s a bonus if I can use your jokes and stories that you told at work tomorrow.

Final song: Let the band rip on the last song. Feel good, happy, clappy works here IF you want us wanting to come back for more next week.

Benediction: Let the band lay back and under as you bless us. Speak multiplied blessings over us and then do a ‘fast pitch’ for whatever product you need to sell and I did say ‘fast pitch’! And then the band amps back up. This is the place for a guitar or sax solos as we head out the doors to the shuttle bus or the bookstore or the free coffee. It’s ok to charge us something extra for latte’s. Like I said, I am a consumer… oh, and a ‘sort of a Christian’. If you build this I will come … or so you’ve been told.

Jimmy Carter Dreaming

Friday, March 19, 2010

Is it about time for Oliver Stone to Strike and create a Stock Market Crash?

Funny Idea?

OK read this article:

When Oliver Stone came out with Wall Street (greed is good) in 1987 within a few months the market collapsed.

Now the next one is coming out in September. Many believe that will be the harbinger of the next collapse:
America is unprepared for the coming disaster

Stone's message is clear and powerful: You're ignoring the coming collapse of capitalism ... of our society ... collapse of America. We are ignoring the end of our experiment in democracy. We are unprepared ... "our way of life is going to change." Wake up.

Unfortunately, Stone's voice will likely be as ineffective in 2010 as in 1987. Few listen. Since the first film we've had bigger bubbles, bigger busts. Remember the Asian-Russian crises of 1997-98? Dot-coms in 2000? Subprime meltdown of 2007-08?

"Oliver Stone's 1987 Wall Street succeeded brilliantly in capturing a culture," says Lewis, "and failed miserably as a call for change. To the director's dismay, thousands of financial hotshots dreamed of becoming Gordon Gekko." It was like a recruiting poster for financial terrorists.

Why? Wall Street insiders and Main Street day traders are by nature optimists and opportunists. It's in their DNA. The love crises and volatility. Like the bomb-squad experts in "Hurt Locker," they race into the kill zone. This is a game to traders. They love the hunt, the thrill, the adrenaline rush ... they have to minimize the risks, deny the danger and ignore the consequences as they rush in to capture the moment.

Seriously: Lewis says "Michael Douglas often expresses his astonishment at the many Wall Street males who have sought him out in public places just to say, 'Man, I want to tell you, you are the single biggest reason I got into the business. I watched Wall Street, and I wanted to be Gordon Gekko.' The film's equally perplexed screenwriter, Stanley Weiser, has made the same point, in a different way. 'We wanted to capture the hyper-materialism of the culture,' he said. 'That was always the intent of the movie. Not to make Gordon Gekko a hero.'" Remember, greed never left ... greed never will leave.
Collapse! Chicken Little? Crying Wolf? Cassandra?

Wait a minute: Is this a conspiracy? That word, "collapse," keeps popping up in news and literature: Jared Diamond, anthropologist, in his best-selling "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" ... Hedge fund manager Barton Biggs in "Wealth, War and Wisdom" warns of the "possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure" ... Financial historian Niall Ferguson, author of "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of The American Empire," writing in "Collapse & Complexity: Empires on the Edge of Chaos," warns we'll fail to see a coming collapse. ... Jack Bogle saw the problem years ago in "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" ... And Hong Kong economist Marc Faber used the dreaded "c-word" in his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: "The future will be a total disaster, with a collapse of our capitalistic system ... inevitable."

But is Stone credible? Not just to predict another collapse, but the timing? Or is he just another entertainer, like "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer? Was it just coincidence that his film was released right after the October 1987 crash? Doesn't matter: Lewis says Wall Street saw Stone as a guru. He denies it: "We didn't know what was coming and we didn't know this was a special period ... People accused me of being a genius who predicted the stock-market crash of 1987. I didn't predict the stock-market crash. I had no idea."

But you have to wonder: Are Wall Street's insiders right? Is Stone a guru, seer, great cosmic market timer? Is there a real link between the '87 crash and 2010? Is he linked in to all the many references to the word "collapse" by leading minds?

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung would tell us events like this are not random "coincidences," but a "synchronicity" of the "collective unconsciousness" surfacing in the voices of many tuned-in beings, warning us our world is in grave danger ... that yes, a collapse is dead ahead ... but that Wall Street, like bomb experts in "Hurt Locker," will go deep into denial, naturally blind to the larger historical warning while focusing narrowly on trading opportunities in their kill-zone.


I don't know about all this, but I do know this, there is a major eventual collapse that MUST come. There is NOTHING holding this market up. NOTHING at ALL.

From a commenter:
Maybe he has been reading the government reports to Congress the last few years. What is a "collapse?"

It is the loss of the standard of living for one thing. It is the loss of domestic tranquility (riots, looting, civil unrest, attacks on certain people in our society, etc. Hate is directed toward whoever has become the most recent target whether they are a scapegoat or actually deserve the blame.

So, what have our government reports to Congress been saying for six years?

quote
the federal government’s current fiscal policy is unsustainable. Continuing on this imprudent and unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our domestic tranquility and national security.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07362sp.pdf

Note two things. One, you can remove "gradual" as that was in the warning before this crisis hit and two, they include the loss of our national security. Again, this is from our own government, the biggest doom and gloom advocate out there. When you look at their projections you see why they say this can't continue and will cause us to lose our standard of living and what is that?

Power, water, sewer, health care, police, fire, good roads, rail and airports, bridges, buying power, high employment, and the ability of anyone to start their own business and succeed or fail on their own and to own their home in a stable home price environment, quality education, economic growth that keeps population growth employed at wages that meet the level required for a high standard of living.

Some of those things have obviously been in decline for decades but more are being added each year to the list of things at high risk of being lost or put in serious decline.

Not one policy to change those trends has been made. Instead, we are doing things that make things worse each month. We can't grow or tax out of this and spending cuts would cause a depression now. So, what is left? Collapse!

quote
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

Von Mises

If you don't like what you are reading from Ferrell or on the media, then read the government reports.


It's over, it's just that the fat lady hasn't sung yet.

Just wondering

I was wondering, if republicans get control of the house and senate this fall, could they Deem and Pass articles of impeachment for Obama and the conviction of Nancy Pelosi for high crimes and Misdemeanors?

When a Person Re-Enters Too Early, they Burn Out

Tiger Woods is signed up to play in the April 5 Masters Tourney. Thanksgiving 2009 is when the lid came off in his life. He has confessed. He has been to rehab. He has done all the stuff he could do and money could buy. The problem is, the sore is still pretty raw. Easy to pick the scab. The one thing money and intentions can't buy is the healing of time.

Today one of his hooker girlfriends released transcripts of sex text messages Tiger sent. I looked at them briefly. Sorry you'll have to dig them up from the garbage yourself. I read a few and stopped. He's a sick puppy.

Yet he has intentions of returning to Golf April 5. I know the Tour is hurting. I saw it on Saturday Night Live so it must be true. That's not Tiger's problem. Life will never be the same.

Think how much better it would be if:
  • --He had announced that he was going to retreat from all spotlight for at least a year to restore his broken life and marriage.
  • --He had confessed every and all to his wife with the understanding that things will come out.
  • --He had refused all pressures to come back.

He needed to step back, and step down and spend needed time doing the needful things.

Now it all blows up again. Early re-entry results in burn out. Imagine if he had waited a year, to Spring of 2011. Marriage and family whole. Confessed sin. Light of Day. Rested. Complete.

And then the hooker releases the text messages (which his wife should have already known about).

Then what? Not this. Not like now.

It was too early. He needed to stay out for a while.

This is like a tragic Shakespeare play. No good ending.

More of this Please

There are probes in NY state of the practice of spiking the last year or two salary for teachers and government workers to increase the state funded pensions.

Illinois is broke, busted, out of money in part due to this practice.

I'm glad to see this come to light.

Now what about the other corruption?

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Beauty Day

It's been a tough one in some. But as far as beauty in weather....it couldn't possibly be nicer.

I'm amazed. How beautiful it all can be.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Kathryn Mary Lee, age 75 - Changes Worlds

Sometimes regret hits quickly. I was in South Dakota a couple weeks ago. During that time I drove right by the House Kathryn Lee, my aunt, wife of the late Tom Lee (my Mom's brother). I was tired. I didn't stop. Thought about it. I thought I needed a nap more. So, a visit that would have been good for me was passed up.

Then Monday (My 65th birthday) she passed away. I didn't know she was ill. Apparently few did. My cousin Jim DID stop and see her and said she was fine as far as he could see.

I guess the point is, I didn't stop for the good Hug she always had ready. I missed it. I missed out.

SHE will be missed. But, now she is with her Man once again. Her kids will miss her. Barb and Pam. Paul, her son passed a few months ago. Her son Bernhard died years ago as a very young man. She had seen enough pain for a lifetime. I suspect eternity is better.

This made the song that's been in my head even more meaningful.

Ronnie Spector sings Johnny Thunder's "You can't put your arms around a Memory". It's true.

I missed my chance. But, I'll see you soon is really the case. Lead on Aunt Kathryn.

How the Elitists in Washington are trying to Revolutionize America

This is a sad time in America. The country is going thru an unwanted revolution. From within. By people without the best interests of the country at heart. I want America to survive. I hope it does before they destroy it:

Victor David Hanson

America’s Extreme Make-over

These are exciting though scary revolutionary times, akin to the constant acrimony in the fourth-century BC polis, mid-nineteenth century revolutionary Europe, or — perhaps in a geriatric replay — the 1960s. This is an era when the fundamental assumptions of the individual and the state are now being redefined, albeit in a weird, high-tech, globalized landscape.

Radical But Well Off

A word of caution: we are not talking about hoi polloi versus hoi oligoi, or the commune on the barricades fighting the estate owners. No, not this time around.

Instead, the present attempt to remake America is the effort of the liberal well-to-do — highly educated at mostly private universities, nursed on three decades of postmodern education, either with inherited wealth or earning top salaries, lifestyles of privilege indistinguishable from those they decry as selfish, and immune from the dictates they impose on others.

Such are basically the profiles of the Obama cabinet and sub-cabinet, the pillars of liberalism in the Congress and state legislatures, the public intellectuals in the universities and foundations, the arts crowd, and the Hollywood elite. Let us be clear about that.
You have to read the whole thing...this is just the first few paragraphs of this article.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Turning Left




Life As A Leftist
Nancy Morgan
RightBias.com
March 15, 2010

After much consideration, I have decided to become a leftist. Here's why:
As a leftist, I have a right to a living wage. I was born with this right and under the system of social justice Obama and friends are implementing, rich fat cats are under an obligation to pay for my rights.
As a leftist, I also have a right to free health care, a roof over my head, and food on my table. And as long as I keep voting for Democrats, this right will be protected and, hopefully expanded.
As a solid member of the left, I have the right to abort my baby, and even have other people pay for it. I also have the right to free (taxpayer funded) birth control and my boyfriend has the right to obtain sexual enhancement aids for free. Not that he needs them, but, hey, they're free.
As a leftist, I have the right to indulge in sluttish behavior with whomever I want. Not only that, I can describe myself as 'empowered' instead of merely being a tramp.
Being a good leftist, I have the right not to be insulted. My behavior is sanctioned by my fellow leftists and it has been decided that anyone who insults me is, by nature, a bigot, and therefore of no consequence.
I also have the right to redefine words. And the right to ridicule anyone who objects. Especially if they're white Christian males.
Best of all, I am under no obligation to back up my feelings with facts. We on the left understand very well that any and all criticism coming from the right is motivated by hate and therefore invalid.
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As a leftist, I don't have to worry about the consequences of my actions. It is understood that as long as my intentions are pure, the end results don't matter. I want it known that I fully intend to donate my lottery winnings to those poor Haitians, just as soon as I win them. Please pat me on the back. (Wait for the cameras, you idiot!)
Being a leftist entitles me to marry someone of the same-sex. And my children will have the right to choose their own gender. And schools, businesses and agencies that don't accommodate our choices could well be liable for prosecution under the hate crimes bill. How cool is that?
I am also free to choose my own God, or no God. This is a no brainer, as everyone knows that Mother Earth is the source of all spirituality. So as long as I don't litter and I recycle faithfully, I can legitimately claim piety. And as long as I publicly confess my trangressions, there is no need to atone. Whew.
I am now morally justified in walking away from my home mortgage. Those greedy lenders will be left holding the bag. Maybe that will teach them there's more to life than the bottom line.

And the car I got under 'cash for clunkers' won't be paid for either. Its not my fault I couldn't pay for it. But as soon as I get my discrimination lawsuit settlement from my former boss, I'll be able to get it back. Or maybe a new one.

As a leftist, I need focus only on my rights, and their infringement thereof. The government has decided to shoulder my former responsibilities. And about time!

Life as a leftist is good. Having my needs and problems taken care of by the government leaves me free to indulge my inner child. I no longer need to be ashamed of my failures, as I now know that the deck has been stacked against me all my life and those failures were not my fault!

I am now liberated and empowered. As an added bonus, I am a member of four different victim groups, which allows me to maintain the high moral ground. This is called social justice.
I never knew life could be so good. All rights and no responsibilities! This could only happen in America. And as soon as the U.S. atones for past sins to my satisfaction, I'll be happy to admit that America is not a bad place to live.


Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina

Monday, March 15, 2010

Why does the Left Hate Women (if they are conservative) so much?

I'm not the only one who HATES these insidious piles of junk on the prairie...Neighbors of Wind Turbines speak out

This is near where I live. This despoiling of the natural landscape is beyond belief. For what? Some pixie dust scheme? The worst is, those supporting this catastrophe claim to love nature most....not so much. Why would anyone curse the earth with these hateful things?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Imitation is a sincere form of complement....Coffee Party Fakes

The "Coffee Party USA" is having a sort of grand opening, if you will, this Saturday, March 13. It's been carefully orchestrated nationally to appear to be grassroots, but we'll see why it's not in a moment as we look at a Chicago event. That event, in the north side neighborhood of Rogers Park, is being coordinated by Baxter Swilley, 34, a very busy Democrat operative who most recently served as Scott Lee Cohen's downstate director. He was also a major player with U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

The Tea Party movement - hundreds of groups across the country with no central committee or governing body - have been falsely criticized by the Left and Democrats as being controlled by the Republican Party. That is simply not true. What is true, however, is that a bizarre response to the Tea Parties has arisen, and it is the spawn of the Democrats. They call themselves, laughably, "The Coffee Party USA." We'll call them CPUSA (which, of course, could also stand for "Communist Party USA").