And I have lots.
What I have discovered about myself is that while I've very interested in debating and discussing some issues, others are absolutely non-negotiable.
RELIGION - Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to discuss and debate religion. I have ideas, but I don't know it all, and I'm always looking for that bit of wisdom or understanding that will broaden or focus my thoughts. However, if you're using your faith to give foundation to intolerance of any sort, of any kind, you better know your literature, and you better be able to back up your beliefs with an explanation of WHY you believe the way you do. "Cuz that's how I was raised", or "The Bible says so", just doesn't work with me.
ABORTION - Non-negotiable. I agree with abortion. I believe there is a medical purpose for it. I believe the alternative to legalization is scary. Finally, a woman should decide what to do with her body. That said, I don't like abortion. I think some people are irresponsible with it. Though I don't really view it as murder, I do still feel that it's killing a baby. (How is that different? I don't know, some sort of grey area.) I don't condemn people for it, but it makes me sad when it isn't a desperate last resort. Lastly, though a woman should get to choose what happens to her body, I can't help but feel that a man should have a say in what happens to his child. That said, wow... what a mess that would create if he did. So the bottom line is this : I agree with abortion and there's no debate in the issue.
GAY RIGHTS - Non-negotiable. I cannot debate this topic with any sort of reason or understanding for people who don't, in some way, believe as I do on this issue. I don't want to hear you spew your fucked-up God-shit. I don't want to hear you refer to mental illness. And if you think it's disgusting, quit being a pervert and mind your own damn bedroom! Oh? You don't want to offend me? Well, YOU DO! You're talking about my friends, my family, my coworkers. People I love, and every time you open your hateful, ignorant mouth on the subject I find myself fantasizing about ripping your fucking tongue out.
*breathe* (See, I'm fairly firm on that issue.)
EVOLUTION - Debatable. I believe in evolution, but I can learn more and I'm not opposed to hearing from both sides. I tend to stand on the side of science, so give me your science you op'posers'!! (Little hint... You can't use the Bible or religion as "proof" against evolution. 1. God made Adam from the mud, it doesn't say how long it took him, and 2. The Bible isn't science.)
CAPITOL PUNISHMENT - Kind of non-negotiable. I believe in the death penalty. I believe that some people can't be rehabilitated. I don't believe in Life Without Parole. If a dog is especially vicious and has killed someone, the dog gets put down. If it's repeatedly attacked people, it gets put down. I don't think people should be treated any differently. You don't put a dog in a little kennel and wait till it dies. You peacefully put it down. I don't believe in hanging, firing squads, electric chairs, or gas chambers. Just put the person down. I don't believe that the death penalty should be used as a deterrent or a punishment. I believe it's a solution to a problem. I think that keeping "Lifers" is a drain on finances and a risk to the staff that have to care for them.
MEDICINAL MARIJUANA - I can totally debate this one, though I'm pretty firm on my opinion. My argument against legalization isn't a moral, but an ethical issue with the way that it's happened. Being that we are a republic, our government is set up that supposedly the States get to make their own rules as long as they fall within the Federal government's guidelines. (In a nutshell..lol) But on the issue of marijuana, the States shouldn't be allowed to make these choices because the Federal government has decided that it's a Schedule 1 Drug. The Federal government has made it illegal and and deemed it to have no medicinal purpose. I totally don't agree with this scheduling and most of the rational and informed people of this country probably wouldn't agree that pot is worse than heroin. I just disagree with the legality of the process with which it was made legal (here in Oregon and several other states).
(HOLY CRAP!!! Do you know Samoas have 70 calories EACH?)
I could go on. Gun laws, legalize prostitution, sex ed in schools, government-sanctioned breeding laws, career-welfare moochers..... some of those, I'm sure you can guess where I stand...
Anyway, it's late and I'm getting tired.
Yay, American Idol is back!! I like a few, but Casey Abrams stands out for me at the moment. (Ohhh and the Asperger's boy.)
Here are a couple of links to things that inspired this little rant. Mostly, it's not the pieces themselves, but the some of the comments people posted to them that got me all riled up.
http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/24/new.york.billboard.abortion/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn#
http://kezi.com/news/local/205484
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Talk Thursday: 30 (or so, we'll see) Things About Me
1. I hide.
2. Hence, the no blogging.
3. I don't lie well, hence the hiding and no blogging.
4. I don't trust people,
5. but I doubt my judgement, so I convince myself to
6. and I get burned.
7. I am too forgiving and unforgiving, all at once.
8. I love my son, he is my joy, my soul, my fears, and my dreams.
9. I want to be a soccer mom when I grow up.
10. I wish I could be a foster parent.
11. I wish I wasn't poor,
12. money doesn't buy happiness
13. but it relieves the stress and makes goals easier to attain.
14. The last time I went a day without coffee was 9 1/2 years ago.
15. I love coffee.
16. My mom has had the same coffee pot for more than a decade, I have burned through 3 in the last 10 years.
17. I love my Mom.
20. I'm pretty good at some,
21. Not so good at others.
22. I love the wind,
23. rain,
24. and night.
25. I love to drink coffee while reading on a wet, windy night.
26. That reminds me of Dr. Seuss...
"The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day."
27. I love Dr. Seuss.
28. I don't know anyone named Sally.
29. I don't believe that Jesus was the "Incarnate Son of God".
30. My son does.
31. That makes me happy.
32. I believe in freedom of choice, thought, speech, expression, and all the inbetween.
33. Unless it's expressing yourself nude on a playground.
34. I believe in the death penalty.
35. I believe the government should control who can breed and who can't EVER!
36. Communism isn't bad in theory.
37. Ohhh, I made it past 30!
38. I cried on my 30th birthday.
39. I'm not where I wanted to be.
40. I love to watch House Hunters.
41. I feel extreme dislike for the people who whine about paint color or updating tiles.
42. You're buying a fricking $500,000 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom house and cry cuz there's no pool...?
43. People in Paris pay twice that for a shoe box apartment with no view.
44. People are crazy.
45. I yearn for a big house full of kids, .
46. and a big back yard with a golden retriever named Mattie.
47. I want a pool.
48. Burp and I could do laps every morning.
49. It would be great for both of us.
50. I love to swim.
51. I haven't been in a public pool in years.
52. My Mormons have forgotten me.
53. I haven't had a J.W. knock on my door in years.
54. I hate that most people can't sit down and have a rational discussion about religion.
55. I have friends who think "rational" and "religion" don't belong in the same sentence.
56. They're probably right.
57. In a few hundred years, will people think that David Koresh was really the second incarnation of Jesus?
58. I mean, in Jesus' life, few people believed him.......
59. I wish it would warm up and quit trying to snow,
60. My flower beds are a disgrace.
61. Spring is my favorite season.
62. I hate summertime.
63. I hate the hot.
64. I hate the bright.
65. I hate driving in the rain at night.
66. The doctor says there's nothing wrong with my eyes.
67. Some doctors are stupid assholes.
68. I'm too young for glaucoma
69. so my visual disturbances must be mental.
70. Maybe I am crazy.
71. I can think of much better ways to be crazy.
72. I have never lacked imagination
73. unless it's making up bedtime stories. I suck at that.
74. I'm not very good at staying in contact with people.
75. I hate talking on the phone.
76. I'm trying to pick up the phone more often.
77. That seems to be an odd comment to make.
78. Odder that picking up the phone gives me anxiety.
79. I am in love with Costa Rica.
80. I have never been there.
81. I have a crush on a boy at work.
82. He is a cute, nerdy teddy bear who betters himself and gives back to his community.
83. He tries on my lip gloss.
84. He is 9 years younger than me.
85. He coaches high school golf.
86. Golf is NOT a sport.
87. He went to Boise State.
88. I hate the Broncos and their stupid BLUE field.
89. We have agreed to disagree.
90. 9 years, golf, BSU, and he's Catholic... alone, nothing too major, altogether???
91. I've never had a "good" boyfriend.
92. I've only had one relationship that lasted more than 6 months and it was inconsistent and not healthy.
93. I'm 35 and too old for this shit.
94. I wish he'd ask me out.
95. I want a happy, healthy, comfortable family.
96. I want to teach my son responsibility, compassion, understanding, giving, and duty above self.
97. I want to practice what I preach.
98. I want to make a difference.
99. I want my son to take pride in who I am
100. Like I take pride in who my mom is.
2. Hence, the no blogging.
3. I don't lie well, hence the hiding and no blogging.
4. I don't trust people,
5. but I doubt my judgement, so I convince myself to
6. and I get burned.
7. I am too forgiving and unforgiving, all at once.
8. I love my son, he is my joy, my soul, my fears, and my dreams.
9. I want to be a soccer mom when I grow up.
10. I wish I could be a foster parent.
11. I wish I wasn't poor,
12. money doesn't buy happiness
13. but it relieves the stress and makes goals easier to attain.
14. The last time I went a day without coffee was 9 1/2 years ago.
15. I love coffee.
16. My mom has had the same coffee pot for more than a decade, I have burned through 3 in the last 10 years.
17. I love my Mom.
18. I can't think of anything I'd want to change about her.
19. She is dependable, trustworthy, strong, intelligent, confident, determined, giving, and kind... everything I strive to be.20. I'm pretty good at some,
21. Not so good at others.
22. I love the wind,
23. rain,
24. and night.
25. I love to drink coffee while reading on a wet, windy night.
26. That reminds me of Dr. Seuss...
"The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day."
27. I love Dr. Seuss.
28. I don't know anyone named Sally.
29. I don't believe that Jesus was the "Incarnate Son of God".
30. My son does.
31. That makes me happy.
32. I believe in freedom of choice, thought, speech, expression, and all the inbetween.
33. Unless it's expressing yourself nude on a playground.
34. I believe in the death penalty.
35. I believe the government should control who can breed and who can't EVER!
36. Communism isn't bad in theory.
37. Ohhh, I made it past 30!
38. I cried on my 30th birthday.
39. I'm not where I wanted to be.
40. I love to watch House Hunters.
41. I feel extreme dislike for the people who whine about paint color or updating tiles.
42. You're buying a fricking $500,000 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom house and cry cuz there's no pool...?
43. People in Paris pay twice that for a shoe box apartment with no view.
44. People are crazy.
45. I yearn for a big house full of kids, .
46. and a big back yard with a golden retriever named Mattie.
47. I want a pool.
48. Burp and I could do laps every morning.
49. It would be great for both of us.
50. I love to swim.
51. I haven't been in a public pool in years.
52. My Mormons have forgotten me.
53. I haven't had a J.W. knock on my door in years.
54. I hate that most people can't sit down and have a rational discussion about religion.
55. I have friends who think "rational" and "religion" don't belong in the same sentence.
56. They're probably right.
57. In a few hundred years, will people think that David Koresh was really the second incarnation of Jesus?
58. I mean, in Jesus' life, few people believed him.......
59. I wish it would warm up and quit trying to snow,
60. My flower beds are a disgrace.
61. Spring is my favorite season.
62. I hate summertime.
63. I hate the hot.
64. I hate the bright.
65. I hate driving in the rain at night.
66. The doctor says there's nothing wrong with my eyes.
67. Some doctors are stupid assholes.
68. I'm too young for glaucoma
69. so my visual disturbances must be mental.
70. Maybe I am crazy.
71. I can think of much better ways to be crazy.
72. I have never lacked imagination
73. unless it's making up bedtime stories. I suck at that.
74. I'm not very good at staying in contact with people.
75. I hate talking on the phone.
76. I'm trying to pick up the phone more often.
77. That seems to be an odd comment to make.
78. Odder that picking up the phone gives me anxiety.
79. I am in love with Costa Rica.
80. I have never been there.
81. I have a crush on a boy at work.
82. He is a cute, nerdy teddy bear who betters himself and gives back to his community.
83. He tries on my lip gloss.
84. He is 9 years younger than me.
85. He coaches high school golf.
86. Golf is NOT a sport.
87. He went to Boise State.
88. I hate the Broncos and their stupid BLUE field.
89. We have agreed to disagree.
90. 9 years, golf, BSU, and he's Catholic... alone, nothing too major, altogether???
91. I've never had a "good" boyfriend.
92. I've only had one relationship that lasted more than 6 months and it was inconsistent and not healthy.
93. I'm 35 and too old for this shit.
94. I wish he'd ask me out.
95. I want a happy, healthy, comfortable family.
96. I want to teach my son responsibility, compassion, understanding, giving, and duty above self.
97. I want to practice what I preach.
98. I want to make a difference.
99. I want my son to take pride in who I am
100. Like I take pride in who my mom is.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Response to Cele's Talk Thursday: I Mind
http://ohjoyitsme.blogspot.com/2011/01/talk-thursday-i-mind-i-dont-mind-yes-i.html
I started to post a comment to this on her bog, but it became ridiculously long so I just decided to put my comments here.
I hesitate to stand behind anyone's healthcare bill. The big picture is GIGANTIC, and to attempt to fix it a little at a time will result in failure. They really have to start at the bottom and create a completely different system.
First, sorry Jen... the lawyers won't like this.. First we have to cap malpractice. Malpractice insurance is outrageously expensive and people are getting rich for very stupid reasons. If I go to McDonald's and ask for no mustard, but get mustard.. I don't really have a lawsuit. Don't get me wrong, if I'm allergic, I might... But not just because the sight and smell of mustard horrifically offends me.
Next, we need to give physicians the freedom to say NO. In the emergency room we see patients who come in (even by ambulance) for the most ridiculous things; toothaches, blisters, migraines, ingrown toenails. The physician HAS to see them. Once he sees them, he can technically say "You don't have a medical emergency, I'm releasing you," but, if the patient has any sort of medical emergency in the next week or so, he's setting himself up for a lawsuit. If the patient says they have pain, we have to treat them for pain. I've seen people completely snowed on painkillers wake from their stupor claiming 10 out of 10 pain. We have to give doctors the freedom to say no. For that matter, we need to give paramedics that freedom as well. If a patient says I want to go to the hospital, they have to load them up and give them the ride. Sometimes they walk from the ambulance into the ER. Sometimes they flat out tell the medics "Thank you for the ride" and leave the ER all together.
Because physicians can't say no, we have terms like fibromyalgia and abdominal migraines, both of which can't be medically proven or disproven and are born from a need to label the patient's "condition". We have 20 year old pain med junkies who suffer from "chronic back pain". ER's are besieged by pain control contracted patients who take enough meds to put a horse into a coma. The medical community, and the authorities that govern them, have created a society that refuses to feel even the slightest discomfort of pain.
Next, something HAS to be done about the pharmaceutical companies. They budget more of their money for advertising their product than producing or researching those products. There's something incredibly wrong with that. What happened to physician's prescribing meds, now I have network television telling me what meds I need to ask my doctor for. In the medical industry, we call that "med seeking behavior", and you're not going to get what you ask for. Don't get me wrong, you'll get something.. just not whatever it is you're asking for.
Next, reduce medical waste. This might not actually save money, but find a way to make it so. Why is it less expensive to throw away hemostats after one use than it is to sterilize them and reuse? We "throw them away" which means that nurses gather them and donate them to Doctors Without Borders because they're greatly valued in places like Sudan, Belize, and Nepal. Yay for them, but why is it not good enough for us?
Also, in that line of thought, medical supplies need to be reasonably priced. Suppliers and medical facilities shouldn't be allowed to jack up the prices, which just results in jacked up medical bills. And... if the government can cap what Medicare and Medicaid patients can be billed, why not make it uniform and say "this" is what is reasonable to pay for this procedure, "this" is all you're allowed to charge ANYONE! It's insane to charge an out-or-pocket patient 3 or 4 times what is paid for an insured patient. Where's the reality in that? We had a trauma patient who had extensive surgery and a long stay in the hospital, her total bill was something like $60,000... she was double covered.. one of those insurances being Medicare. The combined total reimbursement for her care was less than $15,000. In Oregon, if you have a baby on Medicaid, the total bill is around $10,000 (which the patient never sees because it is illegal to send them a bill or explanation of benefits) Medicaid pays out roughly 10%, so the hospital only sees about $1000 of that and is barred from attempting to collect further from the patient. At the facility I work at, I would say that atleast 50% of our patients are Medicare or Medicaid insured. (I know that people claim that as Medicare or Medicaid they don't receive the same care as other patients, but our facility strives to make that impossible. EMTALA law states that you can not base the kind of care or speed of care on a patients ability to pay or method of payment. To protect ourselves from people who might claim we treated them with prejudice, we don't get people's billing information until the end of their visit.)
Lastly, while the concept of centralized medicine of some sort sounds fabulous, we have to fund the program. We fund everything from taxes. Right now, our unemployment rate is astronomical. Very few people have taxes taken out of their unemployment. So how do we fund a program with no funds? I have seen the result of this during my stay in Canada. At the time that I was there, their unemployment rate was fairly high. The biggest problem I saw was that doctors can't earn the kind of income that they can in the States, so they leave Canada and go to the US. They had a lack of specialized physicians, specialized diagnostics, and specialized procedure. I saw people assigned to ER's as their primary physician. They have to send some patients out of country for specialized treatments.
I don't see an easy answer. I don't see a feasible difficult answer. Free market has kind of kicked our asses here, but do we solve it by giving government total and complete control of the health care market? That seems the only way to regulated it from the ground up, but American's are a bit anti-Communism...
I started to post a comment to this on her bog, but it became ridiculously long so I just decided to put my comments here.
I hesitate to stand behind anyone's healthcare bill. The big picture is GIGANTIC, and to attempt to fix it a little at a time will result in failure. They really have to start at the bottom and create a completely different system.
First, sorry Jen... the lawyers won't like this.. First we have to cap malpractice. Malpractice insurance is outrageously expensive and people are getting rich for very stupid reasons. If I go to McDonald's and ask for no mustard, but get mustard.. I don't really have a lawsuit. Don't get me wrong, if I'm allergic, I might... But not just because the sight and smell of mustard horrifically offends me.
Next, we need to give physicians the freedom to say NO. In the emergency room we see patients who come in (even by ambulance) for the most ridiculous things; toothaches, blisters, migraines, ingrown toenails. The physician HAS to see them. Once he sees them, he can technically say "You don't have a medical emergency, I'm releasing you," but, if the patient has any sort of medical emergency in the next week or so, he's setting himself up for a lawsuit. If the patient says they have pain, we have to treat them for pain. I've seen people completely snowed on painkillers wake from their stupor claiming 10 out of 10 pain. We have to give doctors the freedom to say no. For that matter, we need to give paramedics that freedom as well. If a patient says I want to go to the hospital, they have to load them up and give them the ride. Sometimes they walk from the ambulance into the ER. Sometimes they flat out tell the medics "Thank you for the ride" and leave the ER all together.
Because physicians can't say no, we have terms like fibromyalgia and abdominal migraines, both of which can't be medically proven or disproven and are born from a need to label the patient's "condition". We have 20 year old pain med junkies who suffer from "chronic back pain". ER's are besieged by pain control contracted patients who take enough meds to put a horse into a coma. The medical community, and the authorities that govern them, have created a society that refuses to feel even the slightest discomfort of pain.
Next, something HAS to be done about the pharmaceutical companies. They budget more of their money for advertising their product than producing or researching those products. There's something incredibly wrong with that. What happened to physician's prescribing meds, now I have network television telling me what meds I need to ask my doctor for. In the medical industry, we call that "med seeking behavior", and you're not going to get what you ask for. Don't get me wrong, you'll get something.. just not whatever it is you're asking for.
Next, reduce medical waste. This might not actually save money, but find a way to make it so. Why is it less expensive to throw away hemostats after one use than it is to sterilize them and reuse? We "throw them away" which means that nurses gather them and donate them to Doctors Without Borders because they're greatly valued in places like Sudan, Belize, and Nepal. Yay for them, but why is it not good enough for us?
Also, in that line of thought, medical supplies need to be reasonably priced. Suppliers and medical facilities shouldn't be allowed to jack up the prices, which just results in jacked up medical bills. And... if the government can cap what Medicare and Medicaid patients can be billed, why not make it uniform and say "this" is what is reasonable to pay for this procedure, "this" is all you're allowed to charge ANYONE! It's insane to charge an out-or-pocket patient 3 or 4 times what is paid for an insured patient. Where's the reality in that? We had a trauma patient who had extensive surgery and a long stay in the hospital, her total bill was something like $60,000... she was double covered.. one of those insurances being Medicare. The combined total reimbursement for her care was less than $15,000. In Oregon, if you have a baby on Medicaid, the total bill is around $10,000 (which the patient never sees because it is illegal to send them a bill or explanation of benefits) Medicaid pays out roughly 10%, so the hospital only sees about $1000 of that and is barred from attempting to collect further from the patient. At the facility I work at, I would say that atleast 50% of our patients are Medicare or Medicaid insured. (I know that people claim that as Medicare or Medicaid they don't receive the same care as other patients, but our facility strives to make that impossible. EMTALA law states that you can not base the kind of care or speed of care on a patients ability to pay or method of payment. To protect ourselves from people who might claim we treated them with prejudice, we don't get people's billing information until the end of their visit.)
Lastly, while the concept of centralized medicine of some sort sounds fabulous, we have to fund the program. We fund everything from taxes. Right now, our unemployment rate is astronomical. Very few people have taxes taken out of their unemployment. So how do we fund a program with no funds? I have seen the result of this during my stay in Canada. At the time that I was there, their unemployment rate was fairly high. The biggest problem I saw was that doctors can't earn the kind of income that they can in the States, so they leave Canada and go to the US. They had a lack of specialized physicians, specialized diagnostics, and specialized procedure. I saw people assigned to ER's as their primary physician. They have to send some patients out of country for specialized treatments.
I don't see an easy answer. I don't see a feasible difficult answer. Free market has kind of kicked our asses here, but do we solve it by giving government total and complete control of the health care market? That seems the only way to regulated it from the ground up, but American's are a bit anti-Communism...
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