The News of the Day

A Stodghill Says So blog:

GET THOSE WICKED GAMBLERS
It is reassuring to know the local upholders of the law are right on the job and with the help of the Feds took down another gambling operation. They must have run out of bingo games played by little old ladies because this raid caught some guys with tip books and other assorted items.
I've been waiting years for the day they raid the state government because those are the boys who operate the biggest gambling operation of all. It's called the state lottery and those who run it are brazen enough to post ads on TV urging people to join the fun. Or is this another case of being too big to fail?
PRIVATE GUARDS AT AFGHANISTAN ARMY POSTS
I'm confused. According to the Pentagon they are hiring one of those private armies to guard the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Something about this is unsettling. Does it mean the Army can no longer guard itself? Is it possible they have given up guard duty? I realize they no longer do KP or any of the other onerous tasks that used to be part of military life, but when private guards have to guard the Army. . .well, I'm confused.
CAN THE GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE?
The commercials paid for by insurance companies and conservative organizations warn that if the government has a health care program they will decide who gets treatments and procedures and who doesn't. Isn't that what insurance companies have been doing for decades?
I have two government-run health care setups, Medicare and the VA. Both seem to do a fine job, better than the policy I once had with an insurance company. About 24 percent of Americans don't want a change in health care. It's a safe bet that none of them are among the 50 or so million who don't have any. Nearly three-fourths of us don't believe the members of Congress have a clue as to what health care is all about. That's understandable because they have the best available and never give it a thought.
Considering that nothing ever gets done in Washington because whatever one party wants the other is against, why not expand Medicare to include every man, woman and child in the country, then figure how to pay for it? One way would be to get American troops out of all the places they shouldn't be.

I give 100% support to the VA and their care of veterans. My son-in-law, a veteran of the War in Iraq, developed bone cancer after his return. The Navy has been fantastic, even though he and my daughter have felt frustrated at times. They saw that he had the best medical care possible, here, in SA, around his own and his wife's families. He has been cancer-free for a year now, and is personally restless, but the Navy still has his best interests at the center of their decisions. Sometimes it isn't easy for him and my daughter to get that, but it is true. SA is a military town, and my friends with military backgrounds reaffirm that.

Ann

I agree with the premise of this post in every respect. I felt wrong selling rum and cokes in Key West during Fantasy Fest as a Rotarian to raise money for school scholarships....it just felt wrong.

I have always felt funding schools with lotteries sends a wrong message. Ever see some of the people putting down their last bucks for lottery tickets? They need to spend the money for a good meal instead. Tax gaming and put it in a general fund from which lots of things are funded; don't cloak gaming as a beneficial lottery - ugh.

We're still sending people to outer space and we can't come up with universal health care? We need to do something - and something in this case is better than nothing. If it fails, we change it. Anyone hear of if at first you don't succeed, try, try again?

My friend worked in one of the "call centers" for an insurance company. They received bonuses for every service they reduced or cancelled. The rule was cancel first; let the patient appeal; they might give up. She couldn't sleep at night and finally had to give up the big bucks; the bonus wasn't worth the fear that she was instrumental in death. That was a private insurance company with a good rep...

It's hard for senators and congressmen who have the best insurance coverage in the nation to empathize with those who have none..............

Dick,
you said it best.
The insurance companies and the pharmaceutical lobbies are fighting the healthcare plan. They are pouring millions into their fight to keep things the way they are.
How many poor insurance companies do you know? They have a good thing going and are fighting to keep it all to themselves. Their greed has kept patients from getting a comprehensive healthcare program. I'm just wondering how much of the money they are spending to fight the healthcare initiative is going into the pockets of the politicians.

Marie,
I agree. Until I experienced a government controlled healthcare program I believed all the BS that was fed concerning "waiting in long lines, substandard care," etc.
I have a comprehensive program with no deductibles. I can choose any doctor or hospital. I pay a monthly fee based on my income. I have a card that looks like a credit card that I present when I visit a doctor and I never see a bill.
The system works.

Abe,

That's what we experience here with Medicare. It works very well here in the US as well.

Last year my regular doctor told me I had a vitamin deficiency and ignored my pain and discomfort. He sent me from one specialist to another, and the waiting time in between would be over a month.

After four months of continuing deterioration and severe pain, I went to the Mayo clinic and they diagnosed my cancer. I went home to my surgeon, who did surgery three days later, and two days later I had a CAT scan which determined cancer had spread to my spine, liver and sacrum, as well as a pulmonary embolism. In the ER, I told them I had a new doctor, and everyone went into action, sending me to the next city in an ambulance, doing extensive testing in the hospital there and developing a treatment plan, telling me they could give me years, when I only expected weeks or a few months.

This had nothing to do with insurance coverage, or lack of. It had to do with not paying attention, not caring, not listening to pain. But others did, and at the same clinic I have been treated quite well by others, and I am here.

We need to remember it isn't just how it is paid for, but the quality, the caring and listening. There is quality care out there and there are those who just aren't doing the job they should be doing.

Carol

I had to put in this very new avatar. We are traveling up the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. Today I climbed over rocks, tree stumps and up small cliffs to get out on a point across from our hotel.

It was a great accomplishment for someone who ten months ago thought she was going to die soon, and would never be able to walk well.

I am very, very tired, however, but it isn't just getting health care paid for, but getting the right diagnosis and health care in the first place. When that happens, people get well a whole lot faster than when false determinations are made and treatments don't work.

Carol

to me!!

What a great picture!!! In a beautiful place.

Fabulous photo for your avatar, Carol! Well done on climbing across the rocks!

Carol,
I'm happy for you. I will always remember you as you were when we met. This new Avitar looks like the Carol I know.
You have a great attitude and are a fighter. Giving up wouldn't suit you.

You may be tired from climbing rocks, but i am sure you are also very grateful to be able to do that today. Bless your heart, Carol, and tomorrow you just might climb a mountain or two!

Thanks.

I never give up on life and try to enjoy every day since I consider it bonus time.

I did not look so great last year at this time, and even modern digital cameras couldn't make me look good. I don't need to look beautiful. I just need to look like myself, the person who visited Abe a few years ago, although I am slightly older.

Carol

Keep on , Carol, You are a real winner!
Love your avatar and you.

Dick,

Very good points I agree 1000%.

Thanks Alice. You are a winner also.

Love, Carol

Seems to me we have lots of winners here. Dick, Betty, Carol, Alice, Don, Shelagh, DK, Abe, and Marie to name just the few who posted on this one thread. I think we all are worth Gold Stars, even if we do live in a country with some weird laws.

Alice, please stick around.

Ann

What a nice thing to say, Ann. Thank you!