Innards Kin Herd

[Sabamah]

jealous of your road trip, tripper! y'all have fun 

[Doctor Rock]

Tonight I'll be using Paulie B's gigantic Ampeg SVT..  YES!

AKA the fridge! 

[Just Some Girl]

Its not sexy or violent, but man is it heartening.

Please let this kind of interaction start taking hold everywhere.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/SCNs7Zpqo98" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/SCNs7Zpqo98</a>

Let's not look at Canada.


Ok, ok, I'll watch the rest, too.


Franken should definitely be doing the speeches.

[Just Some Girl]

With the exception of goofy stuff like the phone in his hospital room, and tee vee (and if we'd set him up in a private room instead of semi-private, it would've cost money), we do not have to pay a cent for my dad's health care in all of this. (And I know that is not the case in America, from watching Sicko. I get all my information on your country from Michael Moore documentaries. ) As for meds, even the stuff my mom is on -- high blood pressure medicine, for example -- is covered by insurance at 85%, but as for actual doctors' visits, lab tests, hospital stays, delivery of chillens, surgery, etc., it's all taken care of. (Yes, we do pay higher taxes on most everything, and I would never in a million years say it's a perfect system, but...y'all could maybe look at Canada a little bit.


 

[Doctor Rock]

When I nearly keeled over three years ago, I had to spend over a week at the hospital, and I had to undergo all kinds of tests.  And then I had to take some very expensive medication for a while.  Finally, a year later, after a second episode, they decided to operate on me. 

All through this, I've only had to pay a small fraction of my medication. 

[Doctor Rock]

5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results

Unfortunately, they quote the Cato Institute, which is about as credible as a junkie looking for a fix. 

[bebopbalogna]

With the exception of goofy stuff like the phone in his hospital room, and tee vee (and if we'd set him up in a private room instead of semi-private, it would've cost money), we do not have to pay a cent for my dad's health care in all of this. (And I know that is not the case in America, from watching Sicko. I get all my information on your country from Michael Moore documentaries. ) As for meds, even the stuff my mom is on -- high blood pressure medicine, for example -- is covered by insurance at 85%, but as for actual doctors' visits, lab tests, hospital stays, delivery of chillens, surgery, etc., it's all taken care of. (Yes, we do pay higher taxes on most everything, and I would never in a million years say it's a perfect system, but...y'all could maybe look at Canada a little bit.


 

i was gonna ask you about that, but it seemed a bit insensitive to bring your dad in to our current political drama.  but thanks for the info.    also, it seems he didn't have to get on some crazy month-long waiting list for surgury, either, huh?  that's one of the main arguments against the "canadian system" by the anti-reformists....the horrible waiting lists.  and all the people that die as they wait. that and all little hitlers and mussolinis you have up there.  your hospital gowns in canada are really just brown shirts, right?

[matthew]

all the people that die as they wait.

The only difference in America is that the people who die do so quietly, out of view, as if they did not exist. Years prior are spent languishing without care, allowing for symptoms and disease to worsen, the costs rising with the severity, the cumulative effect of delayed action is costlier health care for all. The middle class tends to notice the costs once those costs knock them out of the middle class - until they come to realize that health care for all will keep their costs down AND protect them from potential financial ruin AND protect others less fortunate then they, only then will there be meaningful reform.

But anti-government conspiracy theory/propaganda disseminated in the media has kept people distrustful of THE ONLY SOMEWHAT ACCOUNTABLE SYSTEM OF POWER IN THE COUNTRY... and that is what we see with our Tea Partiers, Birthers and Truthers: a paranoid surrender of their only means to effect change. Instead of demanding real reform (as opposed to what the Democrats and Republicans are willing to give the public - namely more corporate tyranny) from the elected government, people are being conditioned into allowing for TOTALITARIAN and ENTIRELY UNACCOUNTABLE systems of power (read: corporations) to remain in control of the nation.

[matthew]

A conservative friend of my father is currently dying of cancer in the U.S., and his take on his personal predicament is a colorful tapestry of contradicting conspiracy theories and prejudices.

He has been given only a few months and when my parents visited him they found him ensconced in the most absurd plushness imaginable...but with his doctor on vacation. The superfluous plants, the incredible number of staff, the interior decoration...all of this was quickly depleting his limited insurance, which was going to leave him to face his illness and related bills within a matter of days.

And yet his anger was not directed at the insurance company or the even the doctor. No, his complaints were reserved for the illegal immigrants who are responsible for siphoning off all of the good health care that - he alleged - he was being denied.

[matthew]

We went to see District 9 today...and while both of us enjoyed it for the most part (my rating fell between 6.5 and 7, hers between 7 and 7.5), we shared some strong reservations concerning some of the subplots and the finale.

[spoiler]While an acceptable (if predictable) manner of depicting the (human) bottom-feeders who rush to exploit the already weak, the Nigerian gang operating in the midst of the refugee camp was handled terribly. I squirmed in my seat as the subplot seemed to temporarily threaten to tip the film into the world of Steven Seagal villains: "I towld you I would git you, man." Ick.

Far worse than this was the dramatic shift into the territory of Transformers 3 with the endless shoot-em-up/explode-'em that capped off the film. With every exploding human being (I must have seen 25 or 30 human beings explode - in close ups complete with blood splatter on the camera lens - in the final fifteen minutes) I felt the impressive character work of Sharlto Copley (that had comprised most of the preceding film) being unstitched. The ending was undignified and an utter waste...truly disappointing and forgettable. Which is a shame, because I had really been enjoying it (except for the cliched gang member stuff and the cutesy baby prawn who saves the day). [/spoiler]

[Pogo!]

.

[Just Some Girl]

Good answer.

[Just Some Girl]

A conservative friend of my father is currently dying of cancer in the U.S., and his take on his personal predicament is a colorful tapestry of contradicting conspiracy theories and prejudices.

He has been given only a few months and when my parents visited him they found him ensconced in the most absurd plushness imaginable...but with his doctor on vacation. The superfluous plants, the incredible number of staff, the interior decoration...all of this was quickly depleting his limited insurance, which was going to leave him to face his illness and related bills within a matter of days.

And yet his anger was not directed at the insurance company or the even the doctor. No, his complaints were reserved for the illegal immigrants who are responsible for siphoning off all of the good health care that - he alleged - he was being denied.

I would have a hard time visiting someone like that, someone that clued out and (seemingly) willfully ignorant.

If he dies soon enough, he won't have to pay his medical bills anyway, so what's he complaining about? That's probably too harsh, but you know what I mean.

[matthew]

I meant to PM you with PPMAs, but I got distracted with some ..shit.

In other health care news, the septuagenarian Swede next door was called into the ER last week when the results of her blood test came back. With most her family living in Australia, this has had the retirees on our block shuttling her to and fro the hospital for tests and care.

A difficult old bitch she worked herself into a heart attack fighting with the doctors over heavens knows what. What I do know is that she demanded to know the family name of EVERY SINGLE hospital employee that served her in any capacity. She accepted all of them so far, but voiced her concern that they might try to give her a Hindu doctor.

eep.