veterans day, 2008

the new g.i bill passed last may by a vote of 75-22-3, and you more than deserve it. 
 

1.) i am ashamed that john cornyn continues to represents me in congress. 

2.) i am proud of all you vets.

peace.

Read more!

answer the fucking question, bitch.

i was gonna write a post about takin' mom to buy new underwear, but then i listened to the VP debate and i'm here to tell ya...


That is the last time i will ever say or write, "gonna," say or write, "ya," or say or write a gerund with a dropped *g.*

In addition, I will do my best to answer the question asked.

(there is nothinG beyond the jump. so don't yOU even bother lookinG. i'm GOING to bed. my stomach aches.) Read more!

yeah, yeah, yeah. i know...

it's old news.

passé.

not current.

not your cup of tea.

no longer relevant to you.

you may be saying, "get a life, man. give it a rest."

but i can't. so i'm going knocking on doors on saturday, the 20th. because i "have" to.

i hope you'll join me.

"Mission Accomplished." The lies about WMDs. Yellowcake. The Saddam-9/11 connection.
From start to finish, the Iraq war has been a disaster. But unless we work together, the politicians who supported it may be let off the hook.
And for the sake of history, if nothing else, we can't let that happen. So on Saturday, September 20th, we're partnering with our friends across the anti-war movement in one of the biggest days of action on the war yet. We're aiming for a truly ambitious goal: knock on ONE MILLION doors to talk to key voters about Iraq.
Can you join us?

Something like this hasn't really been done before—definitely not at this scale. Usually when people think of a canvass during an election year, they think it's for a candidate. But if this election is about real issues, like the ongoing occupation in Iraq, we can't lose.
Here's how it will work:
Just click the link and sign up.
Our partners at the campaign will send you a list of 40 people in your neighborhood. These are folks who either just registered to vote or are registered but don't always vote.
On September 20th, we'll talk to these folks person-to-person and ask them to sign a petition calling on the next president and Congress to bring our troops home from Iraq within a year.
We'll talk to folks from every political party.
On Election Day we'll get them to vote for people who will finally bring an end to this war.
This isn't preaching to the choir—this is making our movement bigger and stronger for next year. Can you join us?

Thanks for all you do.

and thanks to rick e. for this:



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a fish called palin.

who would you rather be a heartbeat away from the presidency of the u.s. of a.?


sarah, i may be sorta hot and don't believe in evolution or contraceptives, palin...


or...michael palin?


hey. i fully understand.
neither are qualified, but the point is: I STILL WISH IT WAS MICHAEL!
(thanks, caroline/sean. for the wit.)



this is pretty clever.
and Very right-on, in my opinion. (thanks chris. i hope they read it.)

the following is an email from a close friend of my daughter's. it's long, but informative.
plus, there're pictures! so read it you turkeys...

(the electorate needs pictures):


Hello Everybody:

From a friend. A voice from Alaska

As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on
Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I
know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that
he picked her.


Her husband works inthe oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. She is a life
time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow
indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and
bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial
hunting of these predators -from helicopters and airplanes, dollars
that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school
system. We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the
country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad,
but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are
many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is
appropriate, is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial
hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to
informative web sites.


She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet
the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has "green" policies. The
only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has
consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power
plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home
town of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will
unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy
its environment.


Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla,
a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The average maximum education
level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade.
Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and
other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put
Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about.
These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the
serious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So long as
they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears
and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the
wilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating.


Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal.
She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't
like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's
performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal
firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't
close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin
isn't "squeaky clean" and causes me to think there may be more issues
that could come to light. Clearly McCain doesn't care.


When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable
if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics
(admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs,
knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment,
health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads
of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me.


In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in
the US, Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John
McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that
the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and
possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate
as Sarah Palin. The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try
to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced her
today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and
Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton.


To those of you who, like me, supported Hilary and were upset that she
did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a
worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you
think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine
her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To
those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of
Palin sway you in favor of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualified
McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I
guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the
poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgement.
While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is
obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, literally,
a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and
unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president.


I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high.
I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political
affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to
live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.

------------------------

oh. i promised you pictures, didn't i?



judging from the collective intelligence of the american electorate as exhibited in the last 2 presidential campaigns...i'm afraid.

and you? Read more!

the guy has no clue...

...no sense of right & wrong.

"'On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am,' he told an audience of thousands of people, including military figures, veterans and their families."

"The Democratic-led Senate on Thursday passed a measure attached to the war funding bill to increase benefits for veterans, despite Bush administration's threat to veto it."

it boggles my mind. and it pisses me off.

he's a disgrace to all veterans. to all americans. to all of humankind.

********************

he needs to keep his fucking mouth shut. i believe that would show more respect.

Amanda Doster, whose husband U.S. Army Sergeant First Class James Doster was killed in combat in Iraq in September 2007, holds their daughter Grace Doster during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, May 26, 2008.

we need to take care to listen to the generals and enlisted men, not the politicians.
we should have the sense to listen to the ones we purport to honor on memorial day. (#6 is particularly relevant on this day.)

are we all hypocrites?

this guy, a 2-star general... may well be an apologist for the administration's, *our*, policies and actions. he may well still be in denial in many ways, but if you read between the lines he's at least trying to tell it like it really is.

Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez is a retired United States Army general who served as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.

if the video doesn't play, please go here and listen to the guy. really.




end of rant.

happy Memorial Day, y'all.
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beware: talk of politics and war ahead...

notice: whenever i post about politics (rarely) i always tag it *hell.*

you can read the whole article, with links, about john mccain's misinformed notions on the recent 6 day battle in basra in particular, and on the iraq war in general, here. or read some frightening (to me) excerpts after the jump...

(by the way, that was fun googling for pics of wile e. coyote. i even found a silly game to play here. ahahahaha)



------------------------------------------!-----------------------------------------

John McCain's public record suggests that he could well prolong the war for another century – not because he's the crazed militarist portrayed by Democrats, but through sheer inertia, bad judgment and blundering.

Too few Americans stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week – a mini-Tet that belied the "success" of the surge. Even fewer noticed that the presumptive Republican nominee seemed at least as oblivious to what was going down as President Bush, who called Basra a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

It was a defining moment all right. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's impulsive and ill-planned attempt to vanquish the militias in southern Iraq loyal to his Shiite rival, the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was a failure that left Mr. al-Sadr more secure than before. The battle ended only when Mr. al-Maliki's own political minions sought a cease-fire.

Mr. McCain was just as wrong about Basra as he was in 2003, when he said the war would be "brief" and be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues. Or as he was in the 1990s, when he championed extravagant State Department funding for the war instigator Ahmad Chalabi, who'd already been branded untrustworthy by the CIA.

Mr. McCain told John King of CNN while in Baghdad last month that Mr. al-Sadr's "influence has been on the wane for a long time." When the battle ended last week, Mr. McCain said: "Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the cease-fire, declared a cease-fire. It wasn't Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a cease-fire." At least the last of those sentences was accurate. It was indeed the losing side – Mr. al-Maliki's – that pleaded for the cease-fire.

Mr. McCain's bigger strategic picture, immutable no matter what happens on the ground, is foggier still. Like Mr. Bush, he keeps selling Iraq as the central front in the war on al-Qaeda. But al-Qaeda was not even a participant in the Basra battle, which was an eruption of a Shiite-vs.-Shiite civil war. (Al-Qaeda is busy enough in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the actual central front in the war on terror.)

Mr. McCain is also fond of portraying Mr. al-Maliki's "democracy" in Iraq as an essential bulwark against Iran. But the political coalition and militia propping up Mr. al-Maliki are even closer to Iran than the Sadrists. McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that the Maliki-Sadr cease-fire was not only brokered in Iran but by a general whose name is on the Treasury Department's terrorist list.

"We're succeeding," Mr.McCain said after his last trip to Iraq. "I don't care what anybody says." Again, it's the last sentence that's accurate.


–Excerpted from a piece by New York Times columnist Frank Rich and printed in this form in the Dallas Boring News...
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2 sad stories - 1 *happy* ending

when i went to mom's yesterday she was sitting on the couch with several large, old, photo albums in her lap. i asked her where they came from. she didn't know. she said they were the ones we'd been looking at that morning. i went along with it for a while before asking if she'd seen her brother john lately. she looked at the books and laughed at herself for thinking that was me who'd come to visit just 2 hours, or 2 minutes, before. then we sat together and looked through them. and that was awesome.

i call that a happy ending.

i'd love to scan and post a bunch of them for this blog and HOTD. one day i will. the photos are all 120-70 years old. of her and her brother and of their extended family. man! they were really into hats and bonnets back then. and more hats.

so i guess as sad and rapidly progressive her dementia is, it's *ok* in a way. we can still laugh about it and we can still enjoy those photos together. that's much better than anything i have to say about the next sad story...

goin' on 6 years now. our war in iraq. no end in sight. more death, injury, loss and displacement to come. for years and years. al-qaeda in iraq. civil war. $$$ wasted. sadness. no happy ending i can see. no end in sight.

as i wrote here 5 months ago in *i'm the serious guy*, i guess i'll have to keep that picture of myself in the sidebar for a while longer. that makes me sad, too.

and don't you dare think for a moment i don't respect and honor our troops. just keep it to yourself if that's the way you read my disgust with what we've created in iraq. yes, i'm ashamed of my country, but not of our soldiers. if you want to know whom i'd like in position for that *3 a.m. phone call* i'd say maybe a woman (no, not her) or a silver star vet (no, certainly not him) ... but, maybe someone more like this soldier here. i wonder how she'd react.





or maybe any one of these soldiers.
or these or maybe one of these...

i double dog dare you to actually read one of those pages. Read more!

HOTD

lately this has looked more like an abandoned blog than it really is. i'll start a post and lose interest, or more accurately, lose motivation. this time i set up outside hoping the different locale would spark a different attitude. (as i typed that it started to rain. )

but this time i'm letting my stubborness take over...

[ok, that was written 2 freakin' days ago. after it started sprinkling, i set up back inside. the sun came out again. i went back outside. it rained. now, i'd intended to include several of the 1/2-fleshed posts: the wedding, the silent house, the contest "prize" and more, but let's see if i even finish the HOTD story for now and then we'll go from there. ok?]

so, that picture was taken on valentine's day. the last time i saw mom. over 2 long weeks ago. it's breakin' my heart just to type that. just like the last few times i saw her and left her, i'm crying just thinking about it. no, not because of her condition. simply because i miss her.

back to the photo, rick.

they were having a valentine's party at the alzheimer's unit when my sisters and i went to visit that day. linda, the awesome person in charge of the residents' care, had a trivia game planned for them. to start it off she said, "now everyone put on their thinking caps."

mom nonchanlantly reached for, unfolded, and placed her napkin on her head.
(and that, my friends, is only a tiny part of why i love her.)



guess what? i'm on the bus, on my way to see her now. to take her to vote for her favorite republican and to vote for my favorite democrat myself. i hope to stay a few a days. i'll try my best to keep y'all posted. no promises, though.



whether it makes sense to anyone but myself, the following long-remembered quotation seems apropos to me.

"and the night shall be filled with music / and the cares, that infest the day / shall fold their tents, like the arabs, / and as silently slip away." ~longfellow~

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how y'all doin'?

this is a follow-up to a previous post dated december 16th regarding the plight of an important segment of the health care profession. two readers expressed concern. one asked what they could do to help.

for Chris and Betsy in particular, and for anyone else so inclined, Anne has responded with an article specifying some of the professional concerns of the EMT/EMS community and what you can do to help.

(the original formatting was lost in my cut and paste. all emphasis in what follows the cut is mine.)

as anne says, "it's long." (that's an understatement! hahahaha.)

but i ask you again, what if *you* weren't there to care for your loved ones? who's gonna go the extra mile for them when they need it most?


Wednesday, December 19, 2007

This is a long one......

I have been asked on more than one front to explain my last blog and so I shall. I will attempt to use a bit of brevity here, but if you know me, you also know that is a difficult thing for me to do. In order to understand where we are now in this profession, it is important that you understand where we have been and why today's issues exist. For those of you in the field, please bear with me as I try to explain to those who are not.


The 'ambulance drivers' as you know them today, did not begin as a profession until the 1970's. Prior to that, a person took their chances on funeral home services, the civil defense squads and just plain driving fast to a hospital. The hospitals were also ill equipped to handle emergencies as the doctors did not stay at the facility 24 hours a day. Even in the early part of my own career, doctors had to be summoned from home to respond to the emergency room (yes, a true 'room' as only one existed then). The doors were kept locked and it required someone phoning in, in most cases, to assure that the doors would be open upon our arrival.


The first people to work on ambulances did not necessarily have to be EMT certified, and paramedics were non-existent until the late 1970s. Even though the TV show Emergency was on the air waves in the early and mid-70's, paramedics were only found in large metropolitan areas, with most of them linked to the Fire Services. This is an important factor for part of the problems that we face today.


In 1973 the Emergency Medical Services Act dictated that all states in America develop an EMS system to respond to its citizen's needs. A template was developed by the Department of Transportation which gave direction for this federal law. Interesting to note that we are still regulated, federally, by the DOT. To make sure that compliance would be met, every state was given grant money to assure that the systems would be developed. This is another issue that came back to bite us in the butt later when the grants were eliminated.


I feel a need to explain the different levels of service that an ambulance crew provides when they are summoned as this is another area that most people do not understand. For the general public, we are all labeled as 'EMTs' and for those of us who have trained vigorously as paramedics, it is a near insult to be called such. Not that we feel that EMTs are less important, less efficient, or even less deserving of recognition, but it is equivalent to calling a Registered Nurse a Certified Nursing Assistant after all the long hours of training and responsibility that goes into the career. All nurses are not equal any more than all ambulance personnel are equal. There is a saying in our field that paramedics save people, EMTs save paramedics and that is very true. We could not exist without their expertise any more than a doctor can work independently of his nursing staff.


EMTs are trained to do more than drive, (please stop calling us ambulance drivers) and in this state they have the ability to start IVs, give some medications, and handle trauma patients nearly to the same capacity as the paramedic. Training here takes 14 weeks of intense 40-hour work weeks, or if they elect to be trained in a formal educational setting such as a technical college, they commit a full year of class work on a part-time basis.


To become a paramedic, you must already be certified as an EMT and in some cases, have experience under your belt to enroll. It is a full-time program no matter where the training takes place and with much cramming, it can be done in one year. To become a paramedic, it is a minimum of two years of training when you include the EMT level. As much time as it does to become a nurse. Starting pay for the average EMT is $8/hr., the paramedic, $10/hr. Nurses make up to $25/hr. to start. And let me add, that they generally work 40/hr work weeks and the average EMS person works 72+ hrs/week if they are lucky enough to have family to contribute to the income. Otherwise, they all work a second job and the hours can be in excess of 120/week. Even after nearly 27 years of service, I must work a second job to make ends meet. Think about that when you see an ambulance driving down the road at 3:00 in the morning and realize the person driving may be in their 48th hour of working straight, with little down time.


Paramedics can do everything, let me repeat that, everything that can be done in an emergency department in an acute emergency. They only things that they cannot do are the many diagnostic tests (blood work, X-rays) and the stabilization of injuries such as suturing cuts and casting broken bones. (In some states, they are even doing that) Our patches for such things are only temporary.


What is amazing about this field is that we are able to come to the same conclusions in most cases, treat with the same drugs and electricity, and tend to the general health and well-being of anyone, with any condition, all without the benefit of those diagnostics that are available in the ED. Most of these conclusions and treatments are done within literally, seconds. We train them to use all of their senses, see what is not there, and then react even before most people even realize that a problem exists. We do have some diagnostic equipment available and the speed at which more and more is available to us every year is astonishing. This alone elevates the costs of running an ambulance service tremendously. A cardiac monitoring machine costs somewhere in the area of $15,000, so you see how difficult it is to equip ourselves with the best tools that are available to us. We spend the dollars where it can do the most good for all.



Herein lays the problem. We are broke. We cannot continue to provide services with the resources that we are allotted. Now, before you decide to run off to another page because you feel I am merely whining about a money issue, let me give you some facts that may surprise you and may affect you personally.

We are mandated by law to respond to every emergency. This is not an option if you are a 911 service. Regardless of your ability to pay. We are also not able to pick and choose who we may treat and transport. "You call, we haul" is a saying in this field that is not a derogatory statement, but a fact. We are not able to say no, even if they are complaining of something as ridiculous as a hangnail. If you go to a doctor's office, he can elect to not treat you if you are not able to guarantee payment. A hospital must look at you in the emergency department, but they are not required to admit you, if you cannot pay. Many people call us not because they need to be in an emergency room, but because they need a ride across town and they know we do not ask for payment at time of service. I have had patients who were seen standing out on the street corner drinking a bottle of liquor from the local liquor store before I was even able to complete my paperwork at the hospital. They wave as we drive by. You call 911, we come.



Here are some hard facts:

Average cost for EACH ambulance transport is $415. This is factored by looking at costs to include fuel (almost all are diesels), salaries, mechanical wear and tear, insurance, equipment, etc.

70% of our patients are Medicare or Medicaid recipients, 25% are private insurance payees and 5% are self-pay.

In order for us to be reimbursed the patient must be suffering from an illness or injury which contradicts transportation by any other means.

If they can sit up, an ambulance is not required in most cases and payment is not made. We cannot bill the patient directly if they are not eligible for transport.

All medically necessary services, supplies and procedures are included in the base rate. We cannot bill for anything other than the transport.

Reimbursement is determined by zip code at point of pick up, not type of call, or services rendered.

Mileage can be billed, but only from point of pick up to closest appropriate facility. If the patient requests to go to a facility that is not closest, we are mandated by law to transport them there. We receive no mileage reimbursements for the overages. Medicaid will not pay for mileage until after an initial 10 miles have been driven.

Medicare only pays 80% of ambulance reimbursements after the patient has met their deductible ($131 for 2007). Here's an example:



Average Ambulance charge- $525.00

Allowable charges from Medicare- $330.89

Medicare reimbursement (80%) $264.69

Patient's responsibility- $66.20


Average collection rate for most ambulance services is at 40%. We will only see $26.48 from the patient. That means total collection is $357.37 for a $415. transportation expense. If transportation was denied by Medicare, we receive nothing and we cannot bill the patient.

Much Federal aid became available to emergency services after 9-11 and Katrina. Many of the grants available were focused on the obvious need for more training and equipment to handle terrorism and domestic preparedness. Not for operating costs to run a department. VERY LITTLE grant money was given to EMS alone. The EMS services that benefited were governmental or fire department based services, which brings me back to the origin of paramedical services. They were fire-based and therefore it is assumed that all EMS systems are still integrated with the fire departments. EMS services are the step-children in public safety and get very little in the way of aid. Some local governments give subsidies to their ambulance service to help defray costs, but average amount is about $200,000/yr. When most services put 200,000 miles or more on their units a year, look at the costs of fuel alone. How much did it take to fill up your gas guzzler at the gas tank? We probably average 10-15/mile per gallon with our units.


We are dying in this profession because we are no longer able to compete with the other healthcare fields. When salaries are so low, for twice as many hours and too oftentimes we are lucky to even put our head on the pillow, let alone eat, it is not surprising that the numbers are not there for people coming into this career. The technical colleges average a dozen paramedic students a year. In this state, only 38% of the paramedics who start a program are eventually licensed. We lost 81 paramedics last year alone due to death or retirement. The average age of an EMT is 43. For the paramedic, it is 40. Who will be left a few years down the road? We are literally, dying off, closing down and just plain going out of business. Many a day, I have purchased supplies out of my own pocket just to have what I needed to treat a patient. We have given until we can't give any more. We are desperately in need of help if there is any hope of remaining true to our commitments.


Here's what you can do. If you are in EMS, please call the politicians in your area and let them know what is happening. The ones we talked to at the senate hearings were shocked to learn of what our profession has become. They advised that they were not aware of the issues, and no one has approached them with any concerns, let alone any resolutions. Legislation is being drafted in this state to relocated monies to the EMS state offices to help us in becoming more financially secure, and try to make grant money available. Support the bills, call the legislators. If they hear from enough of us, they will act if only to shut us up. Go to www.ga-ems.com and read what is happening and what is being proposed.


If you are in the private sector, please support legislative changes in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. At least help us to break even. Call your legislators as well. Find out the condition of the ambulance service in your area. Raise funds. Buy much needed equipment. Some services rely totally on donations. See how your system is financed. Do not wait until a disaster to recognize that we exist and then praise our accomplishments. You have no idea how many people die annually in this field. We don't speak of it outside of inner circles, as it is not in our nature to let others know of our pain. Do a google search on LODD (line of duty deaths) and look at the numbers. Please don't pretend we don't exist until you call 911 and want us to work a miracle with units that are falling apart and equipment that may not work.


I, too, have kept quiet about our issues because our field was built on the concepts that if you can't play with the big dogs, stay on the porch. Suck it up. Make do with what you have. But I am now afraid. Afraid, when I see the numbers gradually dwindling in this wonderful profession because we don't have the resources or the attractions to bring in another generation, that we are truly dying a slow death. Help me make one last positive change for the people that I love and the career which has kept me sane for so many years. Our healthcare system is broken. Help us fix it. Read more!

5...

pretty bad santa picture today. sorry...
ok, maybe i should say, "REALLY bad"?

ahahahahahahaha


and in case you missed Bill Moyers' interview with Keith Olberman last friday, here it is with the complete transcript.


oh look! here's another bad one...oops.
Read more!

on this day in history, december 4

Video Update, Dec. 10
(this video from dec 7 refers to a dec 4 event mentioned later in this post.)

i may have said it first, but as always, keith olberman says it best.


lots of stuff happened. things change. some for the better, some for the worse. but shit still happens. and i can't do anything but marvel at it all.
(enough links follow the cut to bore your socks off. hahahahaha.)


i personally don't find any of it boring. i hope you'll read each link and think.

on this day in history, december 4th...(irony intended in all cases.)
1780- washington's cousin tricks loyalists.

1867- oliver kelley organizes the grange.

1917- psychiatrist reports on the phenomenon of "shell shock."

1942- polish christians come to the aid of polish jews.

1945- senate approves u.s. participation in u.n.

1969- police kill 2 members of the black panther party.

2007- Dumbya repeated history by, again, refusing to let go of his warmongering and america-demeaning ways. in spite of reliable classified information, and lying, again, (note the date of that news report) about when he was privy to it, president dumbya fired off yet another blistering bunch o' mind boggling bluster of rhetoric (again) aimed at savin' the world from those nasty, nasty persians. (again)

2007- if Iowans have any real say in the matter, the un-united slates of america may have found a worthy successor for president in mr. governor mike huckabee. (just think of the fun we could have with his name.)
he was quoted today as sayin' he has, "advocated for broad public school course lists that include the creative arts and math and science."

Why, then, he asked, "is evolution such a fascination?"

uh...maybe because it's science, mr former gov?

also on this day in history, i'm pretty sure every other politician said and did something i will laugh at, but those 2 guys take the cake.
the rest of 'em just disgust me.

i think they're ALL a bunch of nimrods.

well, maybe there's one i like, but he doesn't stand a chance in hell of bein' nominated.
and no, i'm not gonna tell ya who it is unless you ask nicely. i don't like bein' laughed at so much. Read more!

Worst Tattoo Ever Contest, anyone?

i once asked right here in this very blog if a certain tat wasn't the worst ever. it has recently come to my attention that my choice, though really, really bad, is nowhere near the *worst ever.*

after the jump i'll present some equally egregious ones and if you dare click on the link below you will witness 1st-hand the real, albeit frightening, evidence. (some of the latter are obviously fake, being either marks-a-lotted on, or decals, but all of them are funny in one way or another.)

All of them have me wishing they were all fake and with any luck for the human gene pool, the owners are wishing the same.

what little decency i have will not allow me to post the R- and X-rated ones.
for those, i (highly) recommend that you click on this link.

(my vote for The World's Worst Tattoo? it's a tie! between the michael jackson one just a bit beyond 1/4 way down that web page and the armpit 1/2 way down, but be advised: view at your own risk. hahahahaha...)


Of course this is the one i once naively thought to be the all-time worst tattoo, but as you will see at the forementioned website: a near naked, native american woman wearing traditionally male headgear, humping a cornydog, is as mild as a sip of spring water compared to a double, neat scotch. for the less adventurous of you, i offer a few examples of *spring water.*


(this next one is about on par with the cornydog humper, but the bizarre-factor insists that it be entered...)


whatever happened to a simple "MOM" on the upper arm?
huh?
if you have something like this tattooed on your forearm can you roll up your sleeves in public? Oh, that's his/her leg?... ok, fine. so tell me, can he/she wear shorts with impunity or go swimming without a full-body wet suit?
and tell me this - what in the cornbread hell would his/her grandmother say if she saw it?

"ya know, sonny/missy, i never much liked your ex, either."


now, i kinda like this one. ON SOMEONE ELSE's body maybe!


i can't help but wonder how long it took for this joke to get old for this guy. and for his friends. if he still has any...


don't get me wrong. i love Mr. T. he cracks me up. but this tattoo and the next two have me wondering... is portraiture EVER a good idea for body art?


oh Peewee, just look what they've done to your song!

(who would ever have guessed he has a hairy chest? and hairy shoulders, too!! if this guy doesn't shave his tattoo, does peewee look like the wolfman?)


i'll leave you now, with this regrettable attempt at some presumed tribute to a loved one...


you are welcome to submit your own World's Worst Ever Tattoo to: wwet.makemelaugh dot com. (if that's a real website i apologize to the web master)

Read more!

animal, vegetable, mineral

if you happened to have seen the last post and are wondering if you imagined it...no, i deleted it on the grounds of its being too fucking whiny. if you commented on it, i apologize that your comments went away as well.

(and thank you for the heartfelt tugs back to this thing called life.)


life. what in the cornbread hell is life?


flora and fauna. yes, i think we all agree on that.

but what about rocks? (this photo is of a rock slab *growing*)

and what about a human bean who can no longer remember things for more than a split second? where does life begin? where and when does it end? is a plucked, shelled and cooked bean no longer alive even though it is still capable of providing life-giving sustenance? what about the ones left to rot on the vine? are they dead or alive? if a tree falls in the forest...

i have no fucking idea.

of course, the philosophers have already asked and answered these questions. funny thing is, they often disagree. men of god (and women, too) and novelists and tinkers and tailors -rich men, poor men, fools and witties- have put these questions to the test ad nauseam.

they all seem to have answers.
but i don't.

does that make me an agnostic on life? i will write more later. when i figure how to say it...i doubt it will be what you expect or want to hear, though.
i can love a rock. i've been known to. but no rock has ever loved me back. that's a fact, jack. at this point, mom is capable of loving me, but only when i'm there. she's on the verge of not knowing i exist unless i am there. the people she rarely sees are already mere pixels and vague characters in stories i tell. Read more!

and then again...

sometimes irony makes me wanta puke. Read more!

let's see...who can i offend now?

sometimes a little adolescent humor just seems in order.
hey, it could be worse. i could whine some more about stuff, or brag about my kids, or lay more progressive political opinions on you, or ask you to read depressing crap like this.
or this.

or maybe i could become an axe murderer...
nah. that's a bad idea. Read more!

just got some bad news.

maybe i'll write about it later. maybe not.
the good news is, i have a plan.

-all they care about is $$.
-i have something i don't want that's worth some $$.
-i call it a damn good trade.
-i love you, sister.

Read more!

not a harry potter spoiler.

[edited]
what do a comic, an ex punk rocker, an ex baptist minister and a female activist have in common?

well, for one thing, they all have balls. [or cojonas, if that were a word, and it should be.]
i hope you'll take a few minutes to watch the videos.

congress is a hoard of pussies [or cowardly assholes if you prefer]. and a horde of pussies, too.
end of rant. Read more!

alzheimer's sucks.

big doins on the mom front...we're headed for the "memory unit" so stay tuned.
i'll be at her place for the foreseeable future. no computer there.

when i get to that stage in my life, please just shoot me.
on 2nd thought, please shoot sooner.

lr

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not just another SiLLY blog post

from a british web site: Iraq Body Count
and here's the count, according to them, for just ONE WEEK in 2007.
i double dog dickin' dare ya to read that one.

the following disturbing numbers are confirmed:
as of today, june 20th, in the year of our lord, MMVII...

• u.s military deaths (iraq).........3,531
• u.s. military wounded (iraq)...25,950
• iraqi civilian deaths (min)......65,828
• *excess* iraqi deaths.........655,000

HUH!? sheeut. gimme a break. that last one’s just gotta be a bogus number.
Doesn’t it?
(even if you didn’t click on or read any of the links above, i beg you to read this one. and ponder it.)

AHA! See there? it IS bogus. Those numbers are 8 freakin’ months old!
and furthermore, what's this bull-shit about iracky physicals and a bunch of goddam lib'ral, anti-merikin epiduralists? i've just about had it with all them camel humpers and i've sure as hell had it up to here with them bloomin' collige edjeecated jewboys.

"This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country. The survey was done by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health."

i repeat. 500 PER DAY. civilians. 500 human beans every. fucking. day.



sorry if that brings you down, but i believe we are all responsible.
And while you’re mulling the meaning of that last statement…do you know about this?


makes ya proud, don't it.

remember all that *reconstruction* we were gonna do after shock and awe?

is that what you thought all those *contractors* were bein' paid billions of $$ for? a private army?
well you're not to feel alone. our way of rebuilding the infrastructure we've destroyed is apparently to build a $592 million, 104 acre (!) american embassy in baghdad.
after shock, indeed.
we all done been duped, suckas.

p.s. i didn't mean to stick that video in twice, but i'm not real computer savvy, ya know? hey, what the fuck. go ahead and watch it again. (and if the video doesn't work, please go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8)

-----------#@*&------------

chill, rick. what in the cornbread hell brought that rant on?

well, for one thing, i haven’t had my crossword fix for the day and for 2, i made the mistake of havin' the tv on earlier and i saw this guy--------->

(he was pontificating about his moral reason for vetoing the stem cell research bill.
and i swear to god, the asswipe actually said something to this effect:
"...taking human life to save human life is immoral..."
ahahahahahaha!!!
it just doesn't get more ironic than that, does it?)

…and for 3, sometimes, well, sometimes i have bad dreams about the 655K...it just gives me the friggin' willies.



i’ll try to get back to bein’ silly, soon. i promise. really.
Peace y‘all,
rick

----------&*@#----------

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(you can/can't) watch sicko for free (UPDATED 6-19)

last night i downloaded and watched what turned out to be a Really fffunnny movie.
the 40 year old virgin.
i laughed my ass off. (yes, i did finally find my ass a day or so after watching josephine's video, re: 2 posts back.)

the 40 yr old virgin flick is sappy, sexy, nasty, lame, funny as the day is long, sweet (are ya sick yet?), has more quotable lines than a whole season of simpsons reruns, and most of all, it's real in an oddly realistic way. the ending sucked, but i thoroughly identified with rest of the movie. check it out if you haven't already. and report back.

------------$-------------

now, sicko is an altogether different film, as i'm sure you're all aware.

sicko could only be described as *sweet* in a youngster's vernacular. as a geezer, sweet to me would be adam sandler movies or Riesen Chewy Chocolate Caramel covered candy, but sicko is suhweet in that other sense.

i didn't even have to download (swipe) it...and neither do you.
here's the link to SlCKO.
check it out, turkey!
UPDATE: looks like the film's distributors are trying hard to sweep up all the "copies" of it online. so i deleted that link. sicko pops up every once in awhile, though.
as i type, it's available here:
http://pullmylink.com/watch-the-new-micheal-moore-documentary-sicko-online/#
otherwise, pony up your 7 bucks and go to the movie this weekend. you'll be glad you did.

and michael moore says...
he doesn't mind:

"I don't agree with the copyright laws and I don't have a problem with
people downloading the movie and sharing it with people," Moore said. "As long as
they're not doing it to make a profit off it, as long as they're not trying
to make a profit off my labor. I would oppose that. I make these books and
movies and TV shows because I want things to change and so the more people
that get to see them the better. I'm happy when that happens."
link


thank god for him - wait till you see this movie.
i hope y'all will pass this on to your friends.
IMOO, it's sadly realistic in a sad, but honest sorta way. and it's about much, much more than health care.


Read more!