Monthly Archives: March 2012

March 6, 2012 · 0:00

Lock-step Ain’t the Two-Step

Poor Lisa. Lisa Murkowski. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). She’s upset. She’s angry. She’s really sorry. Poor, Poor Lisa. It’s not her fault. Someone else made her do it. If it happened to you, wouldn’t it make YOU mad?

Poor, Poor Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

You see, Poor Lisa voted for the Blunt Amendment last Thursday, and now she’s upset. You remember the Blunt Amendment, don’t you? It’s the one that would allow any employer to refuse to include healthcare coverage for any condition he or she objects to on moral or religious grounds.

Poor Lisa needs some sympathy. Here, Lisa, will this help?

Poor Lisa wasn’t upset when she voted for the Blunt Amendment, though. It wasn’t until afterwards, when she met up with some of the voters (who had written her name in and elected her after her staff misspelled her name on the ballot). The voters weren’t very happy with her. In fact, they were a wee bit miffed. Poor Lisa, now she is very sorry indeed.

Here’s what Poor Lisa told the Anchorage Daily News:

“I have never had a vote I’ve taken where I have felt that I let down more people that believed in me,” she said.

Got a hanky?

Poor Lisa. She kept making excuses and told the nice newspaper folks all these important things. Things voters need to remember next time she is up for election:

She’s a moderate. [I can tell!] She supports abortion rights and contraception coverage [Of course she does – didn’t she prove that with her vote FOR the Blunt Amendment?]. She also doesn’t line up completely with the Catholic Church when it comes to birth control.

I’m so very glad that what she said when it was no longer important cleared up that confusing vote of hers! Aren’t you?

Because, you see, she’d meant to make a statement about religious freedom. But those silly voters read it as a vote against contraception coverage for women! Against women’s health! Against family planning! Oops!

Imagine that! Imagine a world where someone with a vagina and a vote might just think that this vote against women’s health was a really a vote against women’s rights?????? I tell ya, some voters just want everything.

You see, Poor Lisa just did exactly what the Republican Leadership told her to do, just as she has in every vote she’s cast since she got to the Senate. Republicans are really good at lock-step, every time there’s a vote. Republicans vote in lock-step even when it goes against their own beliefs — and that’s just what Poor Lisa did.

And that’s a huge part of the reason why nothing works in Congress. Republican intransigence.

It’s time. Time for this issue to become a rallying cry for thinking people – a make or break issue. And it’s not just a women’s issue, either.

And you know, the President isn’t going to be the only one on the ballot. And he isn’t the only one who might impact your life.

*****

Photo from TalkingPointsMemo.com (photo credit given on the photo but my eyes can’t read it)

39 Comments

Filed under Elections, Humor, Hypocrisy, Stupidity, Uncategorized, Voting

Tagged as Crap, Humor

March 4, 2012 · 0:00

Hey Doc? What Would You Do?

My mother-in-law, Helen, just celebrated her 86^th birthday! She is the last of our parents, John’s and mine, and we feel lucky to have her around. For her age she’s doing quite well. She still lives independently and does pretty well with some help from us and even more from John’s sister who lives much closer.

As she ages, naturally she has more health issues. But she is very independent and doesn’t want any of us along when she goes to the doctor. It won’t be long before we start insisting though, because whenever she goes for a checkup or for a problem, we end up completely confused and can’t help because, well, she likes to keep things private.

In the last year, though, she’s had a few procedures that, while not too terribly invasive, still seemed over the top. Unnecessary. Expensive, but covered by Medicare and Medi-gap insurance.

Now remember, I am a bit of a cheerleader for doctors. I have wonderful ones and they have improved my life immensely. I work with doctors, I have friends who are doctors. I am really familiar with the system and how things work.

So I have to say that I was taken aback when I read a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

Why Doctors Die Differently

Huh?

The article was written by Ken Murray. DoctorKen Murray. Naturally as an all-too frequent patient/medical geek, I was intrigued. The gist of the article is summed up by this quote:

What’s unusual about doctors is not how much treatment they get compared with most Americans, but how little. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care that they could want. But they tend to go serenely and gently.

Oh.

No tubes. No chemotherapy. No machines. Gently and serenely. Well, whodda thunk it?

I know for a fact that doesn’t happen in the hospital. They know for a fact that doesn’t happen in a hospital. If it did, medical costs would not be so, well, costly. You’ve read the stats, so I won’t go there. You’re welcome.

My sister Beth, who was a nurse, had suffered a stroke that, among other things, led to acute kidney failure requiring years of dialysis. Beth had been having problems for a couple of months when she suddenly took a severe turn for the worse, and she was in terrible pain. Her sons were unable to help her and took her, against her will, to the hospital, where she lapsed into a coma. But not before she was placed on all kinds of machines, respirators, monitors, dialysis machines, the works. But she had really already gone. None of that expensive equipment was really necessary. None of it changed the outcome. Only the drugs made her more comfortable.

Selfishly, part of me is glad they put her on those machines, because it gave me enough time to get to her bedside and be there at the end. She would have been glad to know I was there, but not glad of the expensive and hopeless treatment she received. That is not at all what she would have wanted. Would you?

So when I read this article I realized it was time to add an important question to the list I ask all doctors whenever I go, or whenever I go with someone I am trying to help:

“Hey, Doc? What would you do if you were the patient?”

86 Comments

Filed under Family, Hey Doc?, Science, Stupidity, Technology

Tagged as Aging, Boomerism, Family, Medicare, Technology

March 3, 2012 · 0:00

Who Posted This?????

Sorry to anybody who clicked on here to read a new posting. I thought it would be fun to have one of these do-hickeys in my side-bar (which I do now) to know where my bloggin’ buddies are located. Imagine my surprise when I learned that unbeknownst to me, I had posted today! Because the flag counter posted itself. Really! Worse, it didn’t even start at the beginning of my blog, but only with late this afternoon. Curses! Foiled again. Or is it Flagged again?

It did give me a totally random opportunity to post this comment that I recently received. I am hoping that it was spam. At least, that’s how it was marked by Askimet. I may need some extra hugs, blog hits and comments to be sure that somewhere out there, someone isn’t really thinking the thoughts we all fear folks are thinking. Here’s what he/she said, sniff, sniff:

Hey, you used to write great, but the last few posts have been kinda boring… I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!

Perhaps next time I am short of ideas, something else will magically appear here at FiftyFourAndAHalf.com. Of course, if I didn’t write it, it will, naturally, be boring.