Would Modern U.S. Right-Wingers Have Signed the Declaration of Independence?

Would Modern U.S. right-wingers have signed the Declaration of Independence? 


I doubt it. Without me taking time to write the details here, I refer you to these articles:


Declaration of Independence


compared with the following:

• Political Views of the Left-wing and Right-wing
• Right-wing politics
• Christian fundamentalism
• Social stratification
• Social Darwinism
• The International Monarchist League
• Patriarchy
• Social interventionism
• The consequences of the politics of selfishness
• Fascism
• Fascism U.S.A.

If you aren't into (serious) reading on this 4th of July holiday, please consider the following:

Enjoy this Independence Day!

If the Right-Wing has its way,

we may have very few left to celebrate.

For further reading on this subject, Sometimes Saintly Nick recommends: 

What More Can I Say?

This is Absurd!

Gingrich eyes possible White House run in 2012

This Is All I Shall Say About Today:




No Longer in Danger?

Wolf Group by John Naito

They are being killed...even nursing mothers and their cubs! Please tell the Interior Secretary, Please Put Wolves Back on the Endangered Species List. Click HERE.

Bunny Sightings
I spotted my rabbit house guest three times on Tuesday. He looks bigger, hops just as fast, and has now moved into the guest bedroom. Rather appropriate, I suppose.


Computer Repair
I now know more about sound devices, device managers, intallation and re-installation, etc., than I ever wanted to know and and I still don't have audio on my computer!

The Ides of March: Auto Industry Woes

Take Me for a Ride in Your Car-Car ~ Peter, Paul, & Mary 

1966 Pontiac GTO

The above photo is similar to the first new car that I ever bought

I remember when I was a kid in the 1950s that folks got excited each fall when the next year’s automobile models came out. It was a big event! 

Back then my Uncle Frank purchased a new car every other year; it was part of the persona he wanted to display as a top salesman. My Uncle Otto, who owned his own business, also purchased a new car every couple of years; it was always the same model—an Oldsmobile 98. 

As an adult I have always enjoyed driving, but I have never purchased cars that frequently. Until an automobile has gotten to the point that the expense of keeping it running is more than a car payment would be, I have not considered a new one. Thus, I paid little attention to the new models. 

Times do change, however. Today fewer and fewer fols are purchasing new cars. So at the moment we are in a period when the automobile industry is in crisis—big crisis:

The crisis is so dire that the photos below (I received them in a recent email) purport to be of the current accumulation of unsold automobiles:

80 percent of consumers say they would not buy a car from a bankrupt automaker. ~ Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer)

More Short Updates

ADDENDUM (5:15 PM)

The winter storm is worse than I thought and is forecast to continue until after mid-day tomorrow.

The storm has knocked the power at my mother’s condo and Mom is trapped in her lift chair. The battery emergency to lower the chair isn't working. She telephoned my sister for help, but Debbie is snowed in and can't get out. I have suggested that she telephone 911 immediately because her heat is electric and it will become very cold in her condo quite soon.

I’ve heard from others: one old buddy had to literally crawl across the ice on his porch to get into his house; Tasha kept sliding coming up the hill below my house and had to make a 2 mile detour to get here this morning.

So it goes with winter storms!

There is quite a bit that I want to write today, but I really lack the energy. So, I’ll limit this post to a few updates.

Regarding my leg: 

• It’s not any better. I confirmed this morning (while trying to enter the bathtub to shower) that I can’t lift my right leg more than a couple of inches off the floor with out encountering searing pain.

 

•  I worked out the problem of transportation arrangements for my VA appointments by having both rescheduled to March. (Both were for recertification of services and the certifications have been extended through the end of March).

 

• I am napping quite a bit, possibly because of the medication for my leg. That’s probably good for the healing.

 

Regarding the Recession:

The VA telephoned me this morning and informed me that their authorization for home care is reduced immediately from 12 hours a week to nine hours a week due to “budget constraints.” The folks who employ Tasha telephoned me a bit later and confirmed Tasha’s new schedule. They said that all of their VA clients have been had their services cut back by VA.

 

Regarding the weather:

 We are supposedly in the midst of a “major winter storm” that will last through tomorrow. At present there is a couple inches on snow on the ground, which does not make for a happy Alex!

This photo is from January 21st. Less snow than today, but Alex zipped across what snow there was.

The Muffin Saga Part IV and Other Stuff

The Muffin Saga, Part IV

A few years after Muffin joined our family, we went on a camping vacation to the Smokey Mountains. Muffin stayed at a doggy hotel and didn’t accompany us. As soon as we got home, I picked up Muffin from her vacation hotel and, with her sitting beside me and licking my face, brought her home.

The next day we went shopping to restock out pantry shelves. After we returned home, I realized that Muffin wasn’t in the house. All of a sudden I remembered that she had gone outside to do her doggy thing and we’d not called her in before we left on the shopping excursion. I wasn’t worried because I figured that sooner or later Muffin, who was probably out raiding garbage cans, would show up on the porch, barking to be let in for her supper.

But she didn’t. And when darkness came, I became worried. I walked the town streets; then drove the town streets all night looking for her. By daylight I found that I had been up all night and had found no Muffin. I became resigned that she may have been hit and killed by a car, even though I didn’t find her body anywhere during my all-night search.

So I decided on another search, this time in daylight. I also decided that before I undertook this search I’d telephone the mayor, a member of my congregation, and ask him to inform the town's agencies that, should Muffin’s body be located, to contact me before disposing of it.

I can still picture the moment when I picked up the telephone to dial the mayor’s home. My hand was shaking and, even though I’d memorized the telephone number years before, I couldn’t remember it. I replaced the handset in the telephone cradle and picked up the church directory to look up the number.

It was then that I heard a noise outside the parsonage door. I opened it and found Muffin lying on her side crying. I was about to express my joy when I saw the blood around her left hind leg and side. I called out to my sons; we wrapped Muffin in a blanket, and drove her to the animal hospital. The vet’s assistant took her out of my arms and carried Muffin into an examining room. The half hour or so that we waited for word on her condition was one of the longest I have ever spent in my life.

The vet finally came to us and said that luckily Muffin had had no internal injuries. She had, however, evidently been hit by a vehicle and her hind leg was broken. He recommended surgery to insert a metal rod in her leg until it healed. Of course I OK’d it and the vet set to work operating on my shaggy dog.

The vet kept Muffin over night to be sure she came out of the anesthetic OK. When I picked her up, I saw that she had about two inches of a steel rod sticking up out of her hind leg. Being Muffin, she quickly learned to walk with the stiff leg. About ten weeks later the vet removed the rod and Muffin was completely healed—not even a limp!

Where had Muffin been all night? The vet suggested that after she had been injured she may have crawled somewhere she considered safe and hid there to regain her strength. With daylight she made her way the rest of the way home.

To Be Continued

Links to Previsous Parts of The Muffin Saga

The Muffin Saga, Part I

The Muffin Saga, Part II

The Muffin Saga, Part III

Capitalism's Unutterable Words: The I-Word, The R-Word, & The C-Word

Inflation

Recession

CRASH!

Alex, the Cold, the Snow, and My Nose-Hose

It’s been cold here for the past several days with temperatures dropping into single digits (F). This morning is a bit warmer. The present temperature is 33 F. However, that terrible fluffy water that Alex so dislikes is now outside:

Mostly, Alex and I have been keeping warm. We have spent an abnormal amount of time in bed, with the furball snuggling close to my body for warmth. When we have been awake, Alex has spent his time eating, attacking my nose-hose, catnapping on heat vents, and making demands to “go outside,” which usually result with him sitting at an open door, looking out, but never going out, as the video below documents:

Recently the cat who owns me has discovered a way to combine two of his activities. He naps on or next to the furnace vent with my nose-hose under his body. Thus, if I move, he is warned so he can attack the hose:

I hope warmer weather comes soon—very soon!

I Learned A Lesson in Health Care Costs

Long time readers of Nick’s Bytes may remember that in October of 2005 my CPAP died. There followed a living hell for me—i.e., no sleep—until, with the gracious help of others, I could afford to replace the machine. Since then, the new CPAP has worked extremely well.

Of course, things do wear out. What primarily wears out with a CPAP is the mask. I’ve been told that the mask needs to be replaced yearly. I’m not sure if that is true, because the mask I obtained with the new machine in 2005 has worked well until recently. Now it is beginning to leak air from the flexible part of it that molds itself around my nose and mouth. This has been happening for a month or two and I was really hoping to get a new mask from the Veterans Administration.

However, as with any bureaucracy, the VA moves very, very slow. For example, on September 1 a referral was made by the VA emergency room to the orthopedic clinic to deal with my still swollen leg. After numerous telephone calls in which I pushed a lot of buttons but never spoke to a human, I learned yesterday that the appointment is not set until September 17^th.

Now, I told you that to tell you this. Tuesday, after a VA clinic appointment dealing with another health issue and a visit with a clergy colleague whose church is located next to the VA clinic, I was driving home when I (thankfully) remembered that Alex was almost out of his favorite cat food. I took a short detour to Wal-Mart, where the Furball’s choice of cuisine is less expensive than anywhere else.

This was a super-dooper Wal-Mart that sold everything imaginable, including the kitchen sink. At the front of the store, across from the cash registers, were several small shops: a bank, a beauty parlor, and a medical supply shop. As I walked by the latter I notice a display of CPAP masks. A vision of sleeping without constantly awakening to readjust my leaking mask entered by mind. So, I entered the shop and ask the clerk about the masks.

The clerk was on the telephone and she told me to walk over to the display and, if I found what I wanted, to bring it back to her counter. On the display I was pleased to find a mask exactly like the one I own. It was even made by the same company and was the same size as mine. What was especially please was that this type of mask is the simplest made, the best made, and the least expensive. In my sixteen years of using a CPAP, I have tried the complex, expensive type masks and found them all to be CPAP CRAP.

Therefore I took the mask from the display and walked to the countered, waited for the clerk to finish her personal phone call, and, smiling, said, “I’ll take this one.” The clerk responded by asking for my medical prescription and I told her I had no prescription with me but I had one for a CPAP and I didn’t want to purchase the whole machine, just a replacement mask.

CLERK: “Well, I can sell it to you but I can’t bill your medical insurance without a prescription.”

Since my current mask, which I purchased from an online company in 2005 only cost $65.00, I told he that I would pay cash. And I would have—until she told me that the mask cost $147.50 plus tax!

What gives? How can a product I can by online cost over two times as much from a traditional store? Why do people pay that amount? Does no one shop around for the best price?

I rather suspect the answer to those rhetorical questions is in the words of the shop clerk: “bill your medical insurance.” As long as insurance is paying the bill, why should people shop around!

That’s what’s behind this article. I believe that it is third party payments of medical expenses that are increasing the costs for everyone. And I really don’t know what the answer is.

Regarding the replacement CPAP mask: yesterday I went online and ordered the exact same mask and brand for $42.00, including shipping. That’s $23.00 less than I paid for the same mask in 2005 and $105.00 less that she medical supplies shop is charging. The difference, of course, is that the online store does not accept third-party (insurance) payment.

Fellow Bloggers: September 27 is quickly approaching

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