The Use and Practicality of Insurance

 Since I moved back east to be a part of the world, be in society, be part of the world, really a part of the world. I moved back to Ohio because Ohio is where I was born. Ohio is part of my world, part of my life, and part of my plans for the future. Too bad my world does not include my family. They are busy working for a living. I have no living, which is why I decided to go to college and turn my plans for college into plans for a life in politics.

No, do not go there. I am not planning to become one of THOSE politicians. I plan to be an advocate, looking out for the people who have been forgotten or let fall through the cracks. I will get a law degree and be a voice for those people. One thing I can count on is that my family will not vote for me and probably will not support me; they are too busy with their own lives and working for a living.

I have had my subcontractor's contract canceled by the company I worked for over the past two years. I do not approach college and attending college with the same contempt my employer treated me when they decided I was not producing enough medical documents and thus canceled my contract.

I told them I had not been able to work since I moved back here to Ohio, giving up my yearly vacation to take a bus back to Ohio. My fellow travelers, particularly the men, were kinder than my employer and my family. Beanie decided I was decrepit and past it, but I think Beanie took on too much (out of the kindness of her heart -- while she was working for a living) and decided she was doing so much for me that she had no time left for her new husband. She had decided I was less able to do for myself than I was, although I was weaker than I should be and definitely have been. The gentlemen on the bus were more solicitous and helpful than Beanie was because she had decided what I was able to do, but I could not do the laundry or bathe myself since I was using a walker.

What I really think is that Beanie became regretful of taking care of me. I paid for what she brought in terms of food and clothing. I would have paid for the laundry if she had asked. I could not fold the clothes or do the laundry since I was not allowed to stay with her in her husband's home. I was not welcome -- not by her husband or by her.

Beanie is one of those people who take on too much and begin to regret offering and regret doing things for the other person  -- even if they are paying for their own motel and food. Beanie decided I was decrepit and past it. She was wrong. Beanie is one of those people who mean well and then regret doing things for people. I have no doubt she regretted taking care of Dad because she lived closer to our parents that BB and Jimmy did, and they never offered to help or spell Beanie because she lived closer. The resentment and regret settled in and Beanie did her duty by Dad, but she wished she had help from BB and the Idiot. Never happened. They worked for a living.

So did Beanie, but her proximity was stronger than any feelings for Dad or my parents came into the equation. I had earlier told BB and Beanie and the Idiot that I was NOT moving back to Ohio to take care of our parents. They figured I could live with our parents and take care of theme first hand. I am after all the adopted child and should take care of our parents. I did not have a job as far as my siblings could see since I did not work in an office or for the state like all three of my siblings did.

But I did work. That I worked from home -- and had for years -- did not count in their eyes. It was something I could give up to care for our parents and let them do their REAL jobs while I could fill in whenever.

Right!

It did not matter that I had a life in Colorado because they worked for a living. So did I. My work could be done from the comfort of my home as far as they were concerned. It did not matter to them.

I had a real job. I worked regular hours, sometimes all night, and I never got holidays or weekends off unless I traded my vacation for those holidays and weekends. They never did get the fact that I did work and had a schedule to keep. I had responsibilities and all the things they had, but I was not giving up my life in Colorado to move back to Ohio to be their sacrificial lamb, their caregiver for Dad who was dying of prostate cancer and taking care of Mom who was getting older because I was adopted and owed them (my parents and my siblings) my life.

Not happening. I was not their go-for or their sacrificial lamb. I did not owe them my life because my parents chose to adopt me so they could have children of their own. Our parents almost had a daughter and a son, the daughter and son Aunt Edith had promised them, but then Aunt Edit took her children back, depriving Mom of her children. Luckily, Aunt Edith, another of Dad's sisters, was pregnant and she agreed to give them her unborn child (me) and thus I was born and given to my parents (Aunt Anne's brother and sister-in-law) and they adopted me.

Mom never did get over not getting Jimmy and Dixie from Aunt Edith, but she got me. Just before I was born (about a month), Mom got pregnant with BB and had her nine months later, following with the Idiot four years later and Beanie ten years later. Adopting me worked for them -- they got pregnant with their own children, two girls and a boy. If it had not been for me being born, BB, the Idiot, and Beanie would not have been born. They owe their lives to me. Mom developed a mother's instinct when she and Dad adopted me and thus calmed down sufficiently to bear her own children.

But I know better. Yes, adopting me made it possible for Mom to have her own children -- and her boy. The inability to get pregnant had nothing to do with me, except in the sense of a physical disability of having Rh-negative blood being married to an Rh-positive husband. The blood did not mingle. Luckily, BB and the Idiot are both Rh-negative children, but Beanie has the same blood type as Dad, A-positive, and caused problems when she was born, putting Mom at risk because she was still O-negative and Beanie being A-positive put Mom at risk with having a child who was Rh-positive, thus causing Mom to hemorrhage and Beanie's life was at risk because their blood types were incompatible, dangerously incompatible, which had caused the previous miscarriages and the spontaneous miscarriages that led to adopting me in the first place. I had proved my worth and had made it possible for Mom to stop obsessing about getting pregnant and made it possible for her to get pregnant because Mom's psychosomatic issues were put onto the back burner. Like I said, my siblings would not have been born if our parents had not adopted me in the first place. I was the insurance policy our parents counted on to make it possible to have their own biological children.

Now that the biological children have been born, they still see me as the outsider, the one who does not belong in their family. I am the changeling, the trade-off, the one who was bought and paid for and had supplanted their positions in our family. I was the first born. I was first.

I learned the score later. In Mom's affections, I was last. The Idiot was first in Mom's affections, then came BB, and lastly came Beanie for the same reason BB was second in Mom's affections. She may have been Mom's firstborn, but the Idiot was first because he was the boy. 

I knew it did not matter that I was smarter than the others (in terms of grades). All that matter was that I was not born a boy. End of story.

I was the insurance plan, the sure thing that had failed to get Mom pregnant, but biology was against her -- and my family did not know that fact. The counted on the mental state that kept Mom from being pregnant as much as her biology did.

It does not matter that Mom got pregnant -- was able to conceive naturally. It did not matter that I was the firstborn or that I made my siblings' births possible by being adopted. It did not matter that I was not the boy that Mom craved; she got her boy later, conceived him five years after I was born. He was named after Dad, though the Idiot would have had to end up with a different name I had been born a boy or Aunt Edith had kept her word and Mom adopt her Jimmy, leaving Jimmy with something else like Cary of Don or whatever. Being older and getting Dad's name, the Idiot would have been left with another name, even though it would not be Dad's name because it would already be taken by Jimmy, Aunt Edith's boy, but I would still have been last anyway. Being smart and having a lot of questions would not have raised me to the position that a boy -- or two boys -- would have occupied. Mom believed boys were better. Another girl was just another girl -- and a smart aleck girl who asked too many questions come to that.

About the only good thing I did, outside of getting better grades and being universally liked by teachers and other people, was asking questions of people who came to give Mom another Jehovah's Bible or another Watch Tower publication. Mom used me to stymy (dumbfound) Jehovah's Witnesses and run them off sooner. I was always asking inconvenient questions, the kind Mom could not answer without reminding me that God's plans and answers were not for the likes of me -- an ordinary person, and a girl.

Mom wanted to show me off -- to demonstrate my talents for friends and relatives to prove she had the best of the bargain -- a child to brag on. I was Mom's insurance on staying in the public eye by having talents, like drawing, painting, and good grades, to prove her worth as a good parent. I was her insurance policy, a policy that would mature earlier than the insurance she and Dad had when they died.

Nowadays, death is not the only way to get insurance. Insurance policies now include Home Shield and Car Shield to ensure the health and workability of your appliances and vehicles. Now that we, the people, want to keep our appliances and vehicles in good working order without the expense of having to pay for break-downs and long time of use out of pocket. Get an insurance policy that will cut the cost of unplanned breakdowns and hard use. In a way, the insurance companies have diversified their portfolios and included other health-related issues that will bring in the money.

As we, the people, move closer and closer to socialist health care, insurance companies will have to find other ways to get their money from us. They will have to branch out into the home and the garage, paying to fix appliances and vehicles since the health care industry will only be available to the wealthy. The wealthy will always have insurance, but the average American will always have to repair their appliances and vehicles, and having insurance that we pay for it monthly or yearly is as ubiquitous as health insurance for everyone else under government funded health care.

Insurance is as necessary as health insurance until the government begins funding the socialist health care system.

Unfortunately, there is no insurance in families -- unless you count unconditional love and care. When my parents died, any insurance I had with my own family died with them. There is the guilt factor where my siblings are concerned -- the kind that comes with empty promises and taking on too much until regret sets in. I will have to do what I have always done -- fend for myself, do for myself. Now that I am back in Ohio and have struck out with old friends -- the male kind -- I am back to where I have always been -- by myself doing for myself by myself. That is why I will take my good will towards others, unconditional good will, and be an advocate to stand for others and give others a voice and remind the rest of the world that they cannot be forgotten, left out, and ignored. I will speak for others and stand for others. I will be their advocate; I will be the rest of the world's insurance policy -- at least as far as Ohio and the United State of America are concerned.

That is all. Disperse.

The Reality of Zero Population Growth

I read an article this morning in the Wall Street Journal about how we need people having more babies to support the growing numbers of elderly. Elderly would be anyone over 60.

The reason is because there are too few people being born to grow up and make stuff so the people from 18-60 can buy it because the people over 60 are saving their money and retiring early -- and they spend their money on health care and necessities, having grown out of the need to get up early on Black Friday and fight over a cheap pillowcase just to get trampled. I'd call that progress, but the rest of the western world calls it pitiful and need of redressing. Even China and Japan and other industrialized nations are encouraging people to get busy and get pregnant -- many times.

That ties in with reports in Europe of why they are welcoming Muslim immigrants into the fold because they breed faster and can add the much needed children to grow up to be workers to support the growing numbers of elderly that burden their socialized governmental lives. It's a simple equation really. More young people working equals more money coming to the government to be dispersed to people who need it the most -- the elderly. And now the Muslim refugees who spurn the food given to them because they want money, money, money.

All those socialized countries are feeling the pinch -- or rather the sky falling -- because socialism and communism rely on a hard working population willing to give a substantial portion of their income to support the indigent, the poor, and the elderly. Oops! I'll bet that is why Obama, Pelosi, and Reid rushed to force the Affordable Care Act down American throats so they could invite immigrants from all over the world to come on in and take a piece of the socialized pie. I think that is how Argentina went bankrupt -- socialism and free good and services for all while more and more people piled on the free train and fewer and fewer children were born to take their place in the factories to give up their pay for the easy life of socialized medicine and other services.

I guess it's hard to see that your generosity is bankrupting the country and throwing everyone into the bread lines when you're having such a good time handing out the goods. The rich never feel the pinch what with tax loopholes and stealing from the poor to line their coffers with gold, gold, and more gold.

That is the problem. It's not that the desire to give is breaking the country's bank, but the need to get something for nothing which is the basis of socialism. Ayn Rand wrote in "Atlas Shrugged" about a company that went bust because of their implementation of their social program. Everyone worked according to their talents and everyone shared equally in the proceeds, except for those in the most need who got the lion's share of the proceeds. The owners never saw that the hardest workers were stiffed because more and more of their salaries were given to the people who had such bad luck and higher expenses, except that those that got the handouts kept having more emergencies, more bad luck, and more expenses. And how that philosophy of something for nothing spread. The Twentieth Century Motor Company imploded when the hardest workers decided they would no longer work for the neediest and instead went to other companies where their work was rewarded according to their production.

I see a variation of the same thing in the company where I work. It's not as cut and dried as the Twentieth Century Motor Company and I suspect the philosophy behind their policies has little to do with socialization or giving to the ones with the worst luck, greatest expenses, or most emergencies and more to do with treating the people who actually do the work and keep them in business like slaves. Every week I get to find out how much I make because there is no base rate or salary and errors and number of lines typed or edited in the course of the week vary from week to week. It's always a surprise -- a really nasty surprise.

What I have figured out is that the company keeps pay low for the people doing the work (that would be me and the other transcriptionists), forcing us to work extra hours and days to make up the difference between what we should be paid and what we actually are paid. In that way the company needs fewer employees and works the employees they have as hard as possible, spending the least amount on salaries. Of course, the company has to pay overtime unless the employee is making up time for the time lost because of low volumes of work, which is a cyclical problem in the industry. After all, other people get to take vacations and they tend to slow down production of reports during the holidays and summer so they can spend more time with their families. Not so the transcriptionist that is denied holiday pay or holidays and must make up the lost time and line counts on their own time, time they would spend with their families or cooking and baking or decorating the tree or any number of summer and holiday events and tasks.

The problem with this company is that they keep losing employees with experience, expertise, background, and knowledge because of their practices and have to replace these skilled and knowledgeable workers with kids fresh out of school or classes with only enough knowledge to be quickly overwhelmed and soon the proud owner of numerous written warnings about their performance.  Of course, these young workers also make the least amount of pay because it is nearly impossible to make any money when your line counts are low and your accuracy is in the toilet (below 99%) when the company samples 1-5 reports a week and any error will send statistics into a death spiral.

In other companies where I've worked over the past 33 years in this business, statistics were based on errors counted over the course of a week and over the total numbers of lines, usually about 10,000 lines per week, and an error valued at 1 point or 3 points was offset by the volume. Hard to offset the volume when everything is based on 1 or 2 reports and adjusted according to the number of lines in the report, which usually falls below 100 lines. Oh, they adjust up if the report contains more than 100 lines, but the bulk of the work falls well below the 100 line mark.

The company, even though they gobble up as many smaller companies as they can, is beginning to suffer from their business practices by losing more and more experienced and knowledgeable workers and getting fewer and fewer beginners because fewer and fewer are being born and have any interest in legalized slavery. They'd rather chat on the iPhones and burn up the credit cards at the mall than work for a living if they can help it, especially for slave wages.

At least the upper management are happy because their profits keep growing, although for how much longer is the question. They will implode soon because the word is out that this company is not a good employer and treats their workers with contempt and disrespect. There are still a few small companies out there and some hospitals and clinics still have transcription department in-house where they guarantee good wages, great benefits, paid holidays and sick leave, and a decent vacation package.

The point of this is that falling birth rates, the holy Grail of zero population growth so prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s, is costing the economy, the government, and socialized services, which is why countries are welcoming Muslim immigrants breeding like rabbits with multiple wives to cover the shortfall. I wonder if the countries will survive the onslaught of refugees long enough to realize the benefit of higher birth rates. I guess we'll see.


The Zero Population Growth movement was because of the worry over dwindling resources, but that was before socialized health care, Welfare, and other socialized services went into effect and many countries climbed on the socialized band wagon.


Socialism is like opening a bank that gives out free money. At first, the plan works well. There are enough people depositing and making money to give away, but then more people find out about it. They tell their friends. News services pick up the story and broadcast it nationwide. Then the international news services get the story and broadcast it all over the planet. People come from everywhere to take advantage of the free money, descending in hordes until they overwhelm the bank and the system and there are not enough savers and workers to put anything back into the program. The services slow down, the bank collapses, and a good idea dies with a nuclear bang that leaves a big black hole into which the country falls. And still more people arrive to take advantage of the free money even though there is no more and, angered at being promised so much only to find it gone, they riot and destroy everything in their path because they didn't get their share. That is the future of socialism and the countries that embraced it with righteous fervor.

That may be the future of the world and it is not a pretty picture. The day looms closer every minute -- destroyed by generosity. It is anyone's guess which will implode first, socialism or natural resources.

That is all. Disperse.

There is Always Blood

It's happened to you and it's happened to me. The car goes in because there's a noise in the engine and the minute you pull into the repair bay the mechanic starts adding up random numbers in his head. He needs to get braces for his youngest girl's teeth and his son needs new shoes and football equipment, and there's college coming up like a speeding car in the rear window. Suddenly, the little noise in the engine becomes a major repair job.

It's expected in a way because the auto repair business is a for profit concern. The mechanic has to make money, as do the bank holding the mortgage on his shop, the utility company, the phone company, and everyone else that keeps his business in business. You are a cog in that wheel.

It's the same with medical expenses. The doctor needs to pay off the student loans that got him or her through medical school, internship, and residency, and the cost of all the equipment to set up shop or dues to the American Medical Association (AMA), and hiring people to answer phones, type reports, file, fix coffee, sit with patients while the doctor examines them, utilities, phones, computers, etc., etc., etc. The doctor expects to make a profit, too.

And then there are hospitals, which seem increasingly more interested in the bottom line than actual health care. Full beds mean revenue which means the stockholders get a big return on their investment and the hospital gets to keep running. And then there are the pharmaceutical companies testing out their drugs in human trials, lots of space age technology to look inside the body and see what's going on, etc., etc., etc. The thing about technology is that one test is never enough. Where there is one, there will also be 3 or 4 or 10 more. And that's just the standard tests, like EGDs, colonoscopies, mammograms, and CT scans. There are thousands of tests and doctors like to use as many of them as possible because more complex tests means more money which is good for their children's future and getting those snazzy new golf clubs and that sports car.

Not all doctors are more interested in the bottom line than in taking care of their patients, but I often wonder which side of the fence they would land on. Diversified stock portfolios, rental properties, vacation homes, maids, drivers, etc., etc., etc. Hospitals are as bad and often worse. That whole full bed means revenue is only good for as long as the hospital makes money on them, and turning over patients is often like turning over pancakes to see if they are done, and the cook is a nervous Nelly that wants the pancakes to cook faster and faster.

Into this mix comes the Big Guilt Trip -- why doesn't America have universal health care yet? Why haven't they joined the rest of the world and jumped on the bandwagon of socialized medicine? Probably because it wouldn't make much money for the doctors paying off student loans and the hospitals paying huge dividends to the stockholders. Or maybe it's because of the socialized in socialized medicine.

Americans must want the poor and indigent to die without a doctor's care because otherwise we would have had socialized medicine by now. After all, the rest of the world (not all of it, just the socialized parts) has jumped on the socialized medicine bandwagon and we should, too. That sounds an awful lot like the arguments I used on my parents when I was a teenager. "Everyone else is going to the parties after the prom. Why can't I?"

I imagine because America isn't a follower and because universal health care has been packaged badly. There's also the question of Medicaid and Medicare, both of which have been in place since the 1960s as part of the whole food stamp, aid to dependent children, and medical care package that we bought when Johnson was president. That was supposed to cover things. Don't forget Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance that covered everything, and then came the HMOs to muddy the waters, and now it's providing health care for illegal aliens because it's the right thing to do.

HMOs seemed like such a good idea at the time. I had one; it was United Health Care, and I loved it. Low co-pays and $5 prescriptions that almost reminded me of health care when I was growing up as an army brat, except without the co-pay and paying for prescriptions. There was no cost and I got the best health care in the world, a lot of times from doctors serving a term or two in the military to pay for their medical education.

Then came the greed and insurance companies started denying medical claims because of pre-existing conditions (the ones that had been identified and treated by another insurance company or before there was an insurance company). Then came people hopping from one insurance company and HMO to the next to get the best deal. The services dwindled. The co-pays increased and prescriptions cost $50 to $150 or more a piece instead of that $5 or $10 for quality medication.

Insurance companies paid out less and demanded more, demanded higher deductibles while providing less protection and even less service. Medicaid still worked and so did Medicare, but Medicare recipients had to have another insurance company, and often 2 or 3 insurance companies to cover what Medicare didn't cover, and Medicare covered less and less and cost more and more of that slender social security check the 3rd of each month. People started taking less medication which, considering the side effects and questionable efficacy of the main medication, wasn't such a bad idea.

Into this wrangling over pre-existing conditions and dwindling service for a greater cost comes the Big Guilt Trip. We have to have universal socialized health care so that no person is left behind. Sounds a lot like the "No Child Left Behind" program that graduates stupid children who know only the answers to a test and no longer learn anything useful or become infected with a thirst for knowledge that takes them beyond the books and the classes.

We must get in lockstep with the rest of the world and provide health care for everyone, even the illegal aliens who creep across our borders to have their children in America so they can get Welfare, Aid to Dependent Children, and Medicaid. Do you wonder why Americans balk at the terms "Universal Health Care" and why they fight so hard not to fall into step with the other socialized countries of the world? We've been down this primrose path before and it has not turned out well. We've been bilked, cheated, and raped -- and no one suggested or offered lubricant either.

What looks like heartless Americans denying basic health services to the neediest among us, who by the way have good health care through Welfare and Medicaid (I've done the paperwork when I worked in insurance and doctors' offices and I know what is paid out), is a big case of "NO MORE" from people who are tired of the runaround and bills that go through Congress with so much pork and legalese it is difficult to even find the part about what is and is not covered in this universal health care plan, and the method of our continuing rape sans lubricant. We are understandably wary.

So, here's my proposal. A simple health care plan with low co-pays, say $20, and affordable prescriptions, say $10 no matter what the medication is, and everyone is covered. No fancy legalese, no pork, no hassle, and no legislative sleight of hand or BS. Everyone is covered and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There is no clause that says mental health care is limited to 6 sessions per year or that birth control and other well care measures are strictly forbidden. Everything is covered, including dental, and the government takes 2% of everyone's income to cover the cost. There are no oversight committees and no forms to fill out for insurance. Everyone gets paid and everyone gets the health care they need.

It's a simple plan and there will be no riders, no hidden clauses, and no microscopic writing. Everyone gets on board and we do not get some retooled socialized medical plan from some other country disguised as the next best thing, and that is something else Americans are wary of -- imported, retooled, and refitted socialized medical plans from other countries.

We weren't given our independence. We fought a bloody war for it. And we were the first country to fight Britain for our independence, although not the first country to fight for its independence from a colonial nation. We were born in blood and we will likely die in blood, and it takes us a while to get what we want. It's in our nature not to trust anything that is offered with us (or offered with a guilt trip) like a man handing out candy to children from a van or SUV. We know better than to take the candy and to give the man a wide berth.

We'll get there to the everyone has socialized medicine party but we will get there in our own way and our own time and . . .

there will be blood.

America versus the World

The latest debate is over gun control -- again -- as if no other weapon kills people. After the massacre in Aurora, Colorado this week during a Batman Rises premiere, people are screaming gun control and if only someone in the audience in this concealed permit state would have had a gun. My best friend and I discussed this same issue. I was for someone with a gun in the audience to take the shooter out and she was for not making a bad situation worse.

She was discussing the issue from a point of never having had a gun and I was discussing it from the point of someone who has owned guns (rifles, shotguns, handguns) and have been hunting.

There wasn't enough light, except the exit door was propped open because the shooter had to be able to get in and out again in a hurry once his massacre had been managed. There was a smoke bomb and there was plenty of room on the floor since people would have dropped to the floor after the smoke bomb went off and the shots and screaming began. They couldn't see him, except everyone saw him standing on the stage in front of the movie screen while the movie was still playing, so again plenty of light and a clear, clean target. More people would've been killed, except he was in plain sight elevated above the rest of the theater so it would have been a clear shot even with the disorientation of the smoke bomb, screams, blood, etc. Someone with a carry permit would have had some training or they wouldn't have a carry permit. Beanie, my youngest sister, took the classes and, though she has never liked guns, has a concealed carry permit -- in Ohio. He was wearing body armor, and his arms and legs and head were not covered by armor and would prove disabling if not killing shots, ending the massacre.

She and I regularly get into such discussions and we have discussed socialized medicine, another hot topic, especially from non-Americans, the same people screaming the loudest about gun control. One Canadian said that maybe the shooting in Colorado would get lawmakers moving to enact stricter gun control. It's also the same person who has been so vehement about the United States being behind the rest of the world in enacting socialized medicine because it's so good in Canada. I've heard stories pro and con about Canadian, European, New Zealand, Australia, England, and several other non-American nations where socialized medicine is the norm, and it all comes down to what several British citizens have told me repeatedly: It's different here. This is not America.

Well, it's different here. This is not ___________ (fill in the blank).

Why is it all right for the rest of the world to determine what does and does not go on in America while it is wrong for America to determine what does and does not go on in the rest of the world? Isn't America deciding that a democratic form of government is better for another country, say in Iraq or Iran or Afghanistan, the same as the rest of the world deciding that the United States need gun control and socialized medicine? Think about it.

I have no grudge against the rest of the world and I've seen a good part of it growing up. I have been to more countries that most Americans and will travel again some day when I can afford to do so. Pressure is pressure no matter what the issue.

Yes, people having easy access to guns does cause problems, but so does having access to a car, household liquids that can be turned into bombs, and illicit drugs for getting rid of the competition or somebody that hurt/maimed/abused/lied/etc. to you. How come there isn't a hue and cry for common household liquid control, but then we know how good the ban on illicit drugs has worked, especially when lawmakers and movie stars are filling their noses and veins and lungs at parties.

And socialized medicine is not the magic bullet that will make everyone equal and make sure everyone has affordable health care.

There is no magic bullet and each country must decide for itself, especially with a democratic government in place, what is and is not right for that country and the people who live, vote, and pay their taxes here. It's not for the rest of the world to demand that we enact strict gun control and socialized medicine. That's pressure and it will not be tolerated.

Americans, despite some of their conformities, are not conformists on the world stage. We are different and we reserve the right to govern ourselves without pressure from any other person or country in the world. America is revolutionary in some ways and a bit behind the times in others, but only Americans have the right to decide. We do not have a history of following the rest of the European nations or the country from which we fought for our liberty, England and it's Empire. Just because they have socialized medicine and strict gun control does not mean America must follow suit, must conform.

That is the thing about such hot issues where everyone has an opinion. In the United States you can have a lot of different opinions and discuss them, but we reserve the right to ignore anyone not living, voting, and paying taxes in the United States. You're entitled to your opinion but you are not entitled to force your opinion on America or Americans. We will figure out our own destiny as you have figured out yours.

As tired as it is to say, guns don't kill people, people kill people using guns -- and cars, and bombs made from household liquids and items, and knives, and poisons, and garottes, and ropes, and trucks, and planes, and fists, and boots, and stiletto heels, and cars, and bulldozers, and any number of ways, even using medicine like insulin, potassium, etc. Until there is a way to control people while still leaving their right to freedom intact, there is no way to control the means with which people kill other people.

That said, I have no problem with restricting access to guns. I think everyone who owns a gun should be taught to respect the weapon and learn to use to properly. I don't have a problem with restricting who gets a gun, although that has never stopped someone determined on homicide or suicide from killing. I don't even mind registering guns. But taking away our right to keep and bear arms is not acceptable. My best friend and I agree on that point, even if we don't agree that taking out someone like Holmes when he gunned down 60 people in an Aurora theater this week is a good idea.

The world is changing, but the world doesn't change with countries in lockstep, except maybe in Europe and third world countries. Every country has their own way of doing things and that is fine. Just don't force your fears and ideas on me and on other Americans. This is our country and we have the right and the privilege to choose our own destiny. Get used to it. We've gotten used to you telling us that you do things differently in your country.

Trickle Down Socialism

A utopian paradise is possible as long as there are no people. The Shakers had it, but they all died out because sex was not an option, not even for procreation. No sex = no offspring = oblivion for the sect.

Thomas More died for his utopian beliefs, and because he wouldn't agree that King Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was not his real wife, that the marriage was a lie because Catherine had been his brother's wife first and was not a virgin when Henry married her. That belief set the religious and spoiled Henry on a tear that resulted in a religious schism and strenthened the protestant movement away from the Catholic church.

Utopias begin with the idea that if everyone has enough and takes care of his neighbors everything will be light and happiness. That's not the case. Where there is a way to cheat the system, or the idea, someone will find a way and exploit it. Now politicians bent on saving the rest of the world and humanity cry out against poverty and want. Everyone should have enough to eat, a doctor to care for their needs, and money to fund it all. Share and share alike is the motto as politicians and do-gooders prey on the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens.

Share and share alike was at the heart Marx's utopia. Everyone works and everyone eats. No one gets more than anyone else. Cuba embraced it but Russia embraced it first in the wake of World War I when the Tsar's family was ousted, imprisoned, and murdered. There was no need for royalty or a ruling class. No more ostentatious wealth stolen from the middle class and poor. No more haves and have nots; everyone would have. Except that's not the way it worked. The Soviets had a ruling class and they were ruling from the top in the tsar's palaces and the homes of the ousted royalty and very rich. The ruling class was the government built on the backs of the poor who still didn't have enough and worked for their share of the profits, except none of the profits trickled down. The poor were still poor and the rich and privileged were just as rich and privileged. They wore uniforms and suits, and kept the ermine, jewels, and fabulous art hidden from view.

Prick a liberal and they bleed and the blood trickles down.

It is a shame that there have to be poor who don't have the money to get good dental care and cannot afford doctors and hospitals. It's unfair that they cannot have as much food as anyone else. The cry goes out and laws are passed. Welfare is born. Food stamps are distributed and Welfare gives money for families with children; they need help the most. Food stamps don't cover toilet paper, Kleenex, and household products to keep the house and family clean, just food, and not food that is already prepared. They must cook the food themselves, although chips and dips are perfectly acceptable. They can buy a lobster if they like, but they must cook it themselves or food stamps won't cover it.

The madness continues and the cost trickles down.

The poor are still poor, but for a few days or weeks in the month they eat as well as anyone else -- until the food stamps run out. They trade food stamps for money to buy cigarettes and drugs and booze, or just trade for cigarettes, drugs, and booze without the money. One way or another, they get what they want. They go to the doctor and the dentist on the taxpayer's dime but don't get the same level of care that someone who can afford it gets. It's enough. One finger in a hole in a dike is sufficient for the area it covers. Someone else will have to cover the other holes in the dike.

Socialized health care is a good idea, but it's not workable. If the disease is too chronic or the illness will cost a great deal to heal or manage, take a number and wait in line. At least you're covered. When isn't important. You're covered.

Where does all the money come from? The taxpayers. The fast disappearing middle class. It certainly doesn't come from the richest citizens. They don't pay taxes, not with all the loopholes and government worker palms they cross with silver or gold. Pay for a junket, pass along an envelope full of cash, or a suitcase full of stocks or gold, and th law works in your favor. The rich are still rich and getting richer and the middle class, the engine of the country's economy, gets poorer and join the growing hordes of the poor. They're honest, hard-working people and don't have generations of living on Welfare to know how to work the system, how having more kids means more money and how to turn inadequate food stamps into luxury items and fund their vices. They'll learn.  They have time to learn as jobs dry up and the economy falters.

In the twilight of one of the greatest nations on earth, the rich will still have money and they won't care what happens to the poor who are so much unwashed, lazy people unable to work their way up the ladder. Wouldn't matter if the did. The rich don't given countenance to the nouveau riche or the social climbers, except to use them until there is nothing left to use.

The demands for more trickle down from above and stop in the middle class where the money is made, sucking out the life blood, while the benefits trickle down to the poor. Panhandlers pop up everywhere, and not just the drop-outs and recently poor, but the con artists that doff their rags and wash off the dirt before they go home to their well appointed homes to eat roast beef and ice cream and play with their children in comfortable homes where the roof never leaks and the plumbing always delivers hot and cold while flushing away the debris.

A seesaw works on a fulcrum. A long board goes up and down depending on the weight and thrust of each end, pivoting on  strong center. If the center is weak, the board falls to the ground or it breaks and casts the riders to the ground. It doesn't hold. It won't work.

And the money keeps trickling down.

All the social services come from the working class, the middle class, not from the wealthy and privileged, and the poor benefit. Some poor benefit. The rest eke out a meager existence little better than what they had before Welfare and socialized medicine, but that's all right. Consciences have been salved and the poor are taken care of -- barely. What happens when there is no more middle class to fund the social services? Will the rich pitch in ? Don't count on it.

The top 1% will never pay a dime and most of the rest of the rich will pay as little as possible. The middle class will sink under the demands of a liberal and utopian society while the grafters and grifters will skim off the cream and send the rest to trickle down to the poor, most of whom live better than the people working for a living -- the poor's living. Utopia once again dies like a sinner under the weight of rocks piled on his chest, crushing the heart and leaving the blood to trickle down.

I'm not against providing assistance to those that really want to better themselves, but I refuse to pay for the theft and fraud that the rest exact as their brutal toll on the sensibilities of the working class. Immigrants come to our country and work their way out of Welfare and socialized assistance, working hard and bettering themselves, and become part of the middle class. They won't be there for long, not at the present rate of self-destruction. The poor remain as they have always been and will always be.

Sharing out the profits of a hunt when man lived in caves was workable, but not when man moved together to build towns and cities and countries. The difference between rich and poor was well defined and some went hungry. When we lived in caves, someone who was broken down by ill health and old age was cast out or left to die along the road. The tribe's resources would not stretch to carrying dead weight from those who could not or would not work and they were left to their own devices, or to be preyed upon by wolves, hyenas, and other predators, becoming a part of the cycle of life, a titbit in the food chain.

When we became civilized, it was no longer right that the sick and old should be cast out. There was room and as long as someone was willing to feed, clothe, and house them, they would live until death took them in the course of time. Caring for the sick, the old, and the helpless is still a good idea, but at what price? How long must others bear the burden of caring for them? How much must be taken from someone who has worked hard to give themselves and their families a good life? How much must they be forced by legislation and guilt to give up?

Socialized medicine is a good idea, as long as the money to fund it comes from those who can really afford it, the people who live in one of their many mansions and throw away money on parties for their friends and supporters, vacations in exotic lands, fruits and vegetables and meat and seafood flown in from around the world at the peak of freshness. People who think nothing of buying a jewel-studded toilet seat or paying millions for art that no one will ever see in their private collection vault. Let them fund the programs for the poor since they helped to make and keep them poor. Let the ultra rich oligarchs put their money to use funding factories and businesses that employ the poor and pay for health, dental, and eye care for their employees. They will still have more money than they can spend in 10 lifetimes, but they will do some good.

How much money can one person or one family spend? What good does it do to have such fabulous and obscene wealth except to say you have it? It would be better to own factories, businesses, and stores than piles of cash and the result would be  strong economy that employs more people than anywhere else on earth and gives them a living wage. The middle class have paid all they can stand to pay. Lower their taxes and give them the kinds of breaks the poor get in colleges and universities and businesses and watch them flourish.

Charities get more money from working class people, from the middle class, than from the oligarchs. When times are tough, the charities get less because there is less to go around. That doesn't mean that some rich don't fund charities, and not just for the tax break. That kind of funding won't make a dent in their overall assets.

It's time for the wealth to trickle down, which does not mean I hate the rich and blame them for all the ills on earth. Governments handle that quite nicely on their own. Absolute power and absolute corruption. The rich need to pitch in. After all, how many Rolls Royces and Jaguars can one man drive? Let the funds for socialized guilt trickle down from the wealthy -- legislate it if that's the only way to get it done -- and let it trickle through the middle class and down to the poor. Let the money build a strong middle class and lift the poor, but not at the cost of no more middle class. Kill the engine and the vehicle stops and will move no further.

I don't think we need to get to the point of casting out the members of the tribe unwilling to work to maintain their position, but I do think it's time to be realistic. We cannot save everyone and we cannot abolish poverty. Someone will always get lost in the shuffle. What we can do is be smart and realize that nothing trickles down where nothing remains. If we don't get this right, there will be a revolution of the poor and unwashed, the disenfranchised members of a dwindling middle class, and they will tear down the palaces of the rich and set them against the wall with guns blazing. The fall of the tsar will be nothing to the bloodshed that will follow the collapse of the middle class as prey becomes predator and set their eyes on the wealthy. Chaos will follow and eventually a new wealthy class will arise from the ashes of the old to oppress the people not quick enough or unscrupled enough to get their share. All that will be left is blood trickling down and the argument begins anew.

That is not a world I want. Do you?