A Visit To The Adirondack Mountains

My new friend Squatlo is feeling the loss of his Smoky Mountain Vacation. I fully understand his emotions. I live in the foothills of the Adirondacks which makes all of the scenery in this video within a 90 minute drive from my home. It might take a bit longer to get to Lake George where the big boat pictures appear to have been taken, but everything else is close and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mondays Suck!

I'm in the midst of my annual bout of Labyrinthitis with accompanying Vertigo without my normal method of treatment for the problem. It's a trip trying to work like this. Any movement can cause that sense of spinning followed by a need to vomit. Normally I use Claritin, which eliminates the nausea until the inner ear subsides. With high blood pressure, I have to be careful what I take so Claritin wasn't an option, or so I thought.

Labyrinthitis can last for a week or two and the vertigo can continue past the point where the inner ear has righted itself. Not that mine ever rights itself exactly, years of damage from childhood ear infections has seen to that. I was born before tubes could be placed to alleviate the pressure and reduce the damage, so my inner ears are damaged. It doesn't take much by way of respiratory infection to put me in this fix. One of the reasons why I hate allergy season.

The Systemic Formula the doctor prescribed is actually helping the infection, but it hasn't done enough  for the Vertigo yet. Claritin, on the other hand takes longer to kill the earache, but controls the Vertigo. My Tuesday clients require me to participate in a lot of bending and stretching, both actions will have me on my knees worshipping the porcelain throne if I don't do something. I took a Claritin. I'll worry about my blood pressure later.

I don't see how it can hurt me, it doesn't have pseudoephedrine or ephedrine in it which are the substances in cold remedies that works on the heart and raises the blood pressure. The reason doctor doesn't want me taking it is that she doesn't feel comfortable with the quality of the ingredients used. Which she says is the problem with most over the counter medications. I agree with her judgement when I'm not hanging on to things in order to get from point A to point B in my house. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What she doesn't know won't hurt her and will have me navigating without hanging on to the floor by tomorrow morning.

I hope it works as quickly as it usually does since I'd like to clean up Demonkitteh's mess before bedtime. I arrived home from work feeling like crap only to see my living room looking like Yucca Flats after the blast with His Cuteness sitting in the middle of it. As I was surveying the wreckage, which includes crushed cheesy poufs from the living room waste paper basket, His Cuteness starts flying around the room as if possessed by demons. It wasn't until he'd climbed halfway up the drapes that I saw what the problem was. He was chasing a fly.

The drapes survived, the fly did not. The mess is swept up into a pile which will be disposed of when I can bend over, or when Hubby gets home, whichever comes first. I do have to remind Hubby that his snacks should be disposed of in the kitchen trash where we have a lid that locks down. Either that or next time I'll go shopping or something until he gets home to clean up the mess.

Obesity Is A Choice, Not A Disease

Something that has become a common sight on streets in the city where I work is the motorized wheelchair. Driving those streets has become much more hazardous since the snow and ice disappeared in the Spring. People zipping along with their heads down watching for obstacles directly in front of them seem not to pay attention to street lights or traffic for that matter. They cross streets in the middle of the block instead of at the crosswalk. I've almost hit one more than once. If they zip out from between 2 parked vehicles as we pull away from a parking spot at the curb, they aren't visible until they clear the cars. Even backing out of shopping center parking spots is a problem since they cut right through the parking lot without any care in the world. Hello??? You aren't driving a Sherman Tank for heaven's sake.

Doctors are ordering these things for their patients in order to give them more independence. They are unable to own cars and have no way other than public transit to go grocery shopping. In an area that is two blocks away from a Tops Market, a JC Penney, a Dollar Tree and Staples, there are three Senior/Low income housing buildings. They account for over 30 of these motorized wheelchairs, and in all but 3 cases, the reasons they exist are health issues caused by obesity. 

Each one of these chairs is paid for by Medicare/Medicaid. Each one of these chairs costs $3000. Add to that the cost of the medications which are necessary to control their various problems, the aide that comes every week to help them shower and keep their apartments clean and we're talking a sizeable chunk of change being spent on people who are not yet old enough for retirement. They are all on SSI or SSD which is paid for by our tax dollars. 

Three times a week I work in one of these buildings where I have the pleasure of watching this money being spent so that these people can cost the system more money down the road. One of these "motorized wheelchair bound" women is less than 40 years old. According to mainstream medicine, it's not her fault that she weighs more than 300 pounds. It's a disease. One which is being contributed to by the mobility she has in her motorized wheelchair. 

She can't afford to buy fruits and vegetables because she buys things like frozen pizza, Hot Pockets, potato chips, cookies, doughnuts, cake and candy. All paid for by food stamps. She just got her chair last month. She couldn't figure out why she was out of food stamps all ready this month. I can. When she had to walk to the store, she didn't go as often so when she ran out of cake and candy, she did without. Going to the store isn't the problem. It's the uphill walk coming home that is. Now she has transportation and can go whenever she wants something. She can't clean her own apartment, but she can go to the store every day now. 

I don't understand, since 33% of our population is obese, why the system enables it to continue? The same system that pays for these motorized chairs will not pay for services of a nutritionist, nor gym memberships. The problem of obesity and the related health issues costs the system major amounts of money, yet none of that money is spent doing anything that will change the problem. Why not? 

I don't know, maybe I'm just jealous. For a little more than half the cost of a motorized chair, I've taken myself from a BMI of 35 to a 29. While I am still overweight, I'm no longer obese. I'm no more or less self indulgent than any other person I know. If I can do it so can anyone else. 

These people can't have these chairs unless a doctor orders it. Maybe we should change the system to make these people on SSI and SSD, be more accountable? I have a brother-in-law with 25% of a functioning heart that keeps himself alive by following doctor's orders. Including a daily walk. Don't tell me these people really need these chairs, I know better. Out of those 30 people in chairs, 27 of them would improve through proper nutrition and exercise. Tools that are readily available to all of them, but they are encouraged to continue with their choices by rewarding them with motorized chairs. Our tax dollars and the Scooter Store at work. Amazing!

STOP The GOP, Declare @Shoq A Bully.

I have opinions, I have the ability to read and write and I have a blog.  I've never thought of myself as being someone of great intellect, an expert on anything or all that important. If I have anything to offer the online community, it might be that I am a practitioner of a lost art. Make that two since I, in addition to the habit of thinking, usually have some basic, commonsense left. Neither of those attributes protects me from being wrong in any way, but I do, however, recognize when an attempt is made to color the general perception of a person. I am smart enough and have sense enough to know when there is an outright attempt to destroy a person's reputation.

Surprisingly, the victim in this incidence is a man. He uses the Twitter nickname Shoq. I started following him months ago because I found that I agree with much of what he says when it comes to Liberal politics and those who supposedly establish themselves as leaders of the cause online. His opinions on how to move the Progressive cause forward are in direct conflict to those who blog at popular liberal/progressive sites. What's happening to him online in Twitter is a direct result of his opinions.

He moved to Florida so he could be close to his elderly, ailing Mom. Given what I do for a living, that's commendable, believe me, unfortunately it has become the "lives with his mother" insult. He can be very sharp witted when dealing with those who venture to argue with him. He expects that you provide proof of your conclusions as he does. When nothing but talking points are used, he is equally harsh whether he's dealing with a man or a woman. Which, of course has become, "he bullies women". Lo and behold, the accusation became one of currying favor with women only to engage in cybersex. On Skype. Which means one gets to watch during. Mind you, accusations are NEVER followed up with proof. However, HE is the bully.

I always thought being a bully included threats to do harm to someone. Physical harm or exposure of information that is detrimental to one's reputation. Even when there is no such information, ie., cybersexual behavior which supposedly occured during online chats.  The threat to expose non existent information is evidence of bullying. An attempt is being made to control the speech of another person against that person's wishes when someone uses that ploy. When it happened to me, I was upset. Even though I rationally knew no such chat copies existed, I also emotionally understood that there would be people who believed they did. Fortunately, for my sanity, that was not an episode that continued beyond the one attempt. I dealt with my own emotions and continued on with my blogging, but it changed how I viewed the people I communicated with. Even those I had spent much of my online time having conversations with. Unfortunately, for Shoq, this bullying has continued for close to 3 months. It has resulted in the, I hope, temporary absense of one of his friends online. She defended him and was attacked for her efforts.

While observing all of this my mind runs to the state of the nation's economy and who we are as a society.  I have to ask myself if the Left can't see that their own behavior contributes to the problem, how do we stick together long enough to actually stop the damage that the GOP/Tea Party plans on doing to the very programs needed to help our nation's poor? Shoq, because he disagrees with the direction the Left is taking, needs to be discredited when nothing the Left has done so far is all that effective? Seems to me that if I needed evidence of what's wrong in this country, the behavior of the so called "Progressive" bloggers and their following provides enough of that.

In my opinion, someone needs to remind these people that we have a country in crisis. Part of the Right Wing's solution for that crisis is to make deep cuts in programs that help the elderly, the poverty stricken and the disabled.  Shouldn't that be the focus of the dialogue? I have a suggestion here. How about stopping these attempts to control the dialogue by trying to discredit Shoq? Whoever you are, however many of you there are, the solutions to our country's problems require people with intelligence who can remain respectful of each other long enough to compromise and then find an audience for their ideas. All you're doing is dividing so you can conquer a thorn in your side. That isn't going to help your cause, unless you plan on joining the Republican Party AFTER you help them win?

Even Reality Checks Can Bounce

I have a niece who is bipolar and since she's regularly off her meds, (She forgets to take them) she's pretty well unemployable. She's the mother of three children who wasn't, until recently, married to the children's father. She doesn't get Social Security Disability because she's never managed to keep a job long enough to build her quarters. She does get SSI, food stamps, HEAP, Medicaid and assistance with her rent through the Section 8 program. Since she is Section 8, she pays only 1/3 of her income to living expenses. Which are rent and utilities. Telephone and cable are not included.

Even when she regularly takes her meds, she's strange to say the least. At times she makes good decisions, behaves in a responsible manner and when you least expect it, she goes off the deep end and simply doesn't appear to have any grasp on reality. I gave up on her when she married the father of her children.

He's 10 years older than she is and they've been together since she was 13. Yeah, he went to jail for that and is now a registered sex offender. He's a Mommy's Boy with less sense of responsibility than she has. He's never had to have any sense because Mommy always bailed out her poor misunderstood baby. He too has a history of being incapable of keeping a job. Never had to, Mommy gave him all the spending money he wanted and when none of it went towards supporting his children, she didn't say a word. As a matter of fact, she hired a high priced lawyer to prove they weren't his children when the state went after him for support on my nieces behalf.

From the time he got out of prison until he finally married her, they'd stay together long enough for her to get pregnant and then he'd take off with another girlfriend. I grant that it isn't easy living with someone who is bipolar, but he could have gotten out, paid his child support and had visitation rights. The problem is, once he started having to pay child support, there wasn't enough money in his pocket for his own fun. So, he'd go back to my niece since she was the one with the money. She knows this, the family knows this and her own Mother pressured her to marry the jerk.

Once married, the amount of money she got didn't grow larger as they thought. The government said that he needed to get a job. Her income wouldn't stretch to cover his entertainment and his Mommy closed the purse because Sonny Boy did what she didn't want him to do. She still claims they're not his children despite the DNA results. No they didn't go on Maury to prove this. The courts ordered the test and when he was outed, Mommy said they lied. Even Mr High Priced Lawyer got disgusted.

So Lazy Boy got a job and as soon as he was making money, the government stepped in and took some of hers away. They still qualify for section 8 because his income stretches to cover 5 of them, and they still get Medicaid, Heap assistance and food stamps. She did the right thing and reported his income, however, they started buying things on credit before she found out she was going to lose a sizeable portion of her income. She doesn't have a credit card, she doesn't need one. We have Aarons and Rent-A-Center where you can rent to own. Oh HELL YEAH! On the bus routes where people can be let off the bus right at the door.

My problem with all of this is, my niece is just one of many who think that they are entitled to have things. Not just the things they can afford, but all the things they want. That would be fine if they'd take the time to save the money and buy it then, but they don't. They do nothing more than create debt, and usually find themselves in a position where they can't pay that debt.

These rent to own places don't care. They just keep "selling" items to these people that they know they can't pay for. By the time they default, they most likely have paid for the piece if they'd bought it some other way. They just take it back and sell it to someone else as a new item. Much more than the item is actually worth goes into the coffers of these places. It's not the fault of these places, it's the lack of ability to manage money that so many people seem to have. My niece is one of thousands in my area alone. No matter how many times she's had it explained to her, she still goes and rents what she wants paying way more than the item is worth.

I'm not talking about lazy Welfare recipients, I'm speaking about people with disabilities who are on either SSD or SSI because they're unemployable. I've seen them buy expensive convenience items from the freezers at stores instead of buying the groceries which would allow them to make that meal and have leftovers. They run out of money and food stamps and then they think they can just go to the food pantry to get enough to tide them over until they get their next benefit. They don't need condemnation, they need help.

I volunteered this morning at a local food pantry with a girlfriend. I'm appalled at the sense of entitlement that some of these people, like my niece, have. This morning, 15 minutes before opening time someone was pounding on the door. Not knocking, pounding hard enough to shake it. Pastor ignored the pounding until it was time, and when he opened the door I thought this guy was going to punch him. In the 15 minutes he had to wait for his free food, he'd worked himself into such a rage that only the threat to call the police and have him removed, without what he came for, shut him up. He was still fuming, but he kept his mouth shut until he got out the door with his box of food.

Nobody expects these people to grovel and beg for what they need. A simple thank you would more than suffice. However, more than half of the people serviced this morning wouldn't have needed to be there if they'd learn to be responsible when managing their money. They've let their greed overshadow their capabilities to their own detriment. There's a major difference between needs and wants, and far too many Americans are losing sight of that. Did you ever want to tell someone that their kids don't need an Xbox or whatever game system is popular? They need responsibile, reliable parenting. The kind that teaches them that it doesn't take thousands of dollars to be happy. The kind that doesn't spoil them into believing all they have to do is ask.

It's All About ME Or Gone To The Dogs

Out here in real life we're all struggling to survive so we just don't have the time to argue. The general consensus of opinion, among those I speak to face to face on a daily basis is, that all politicians are dissappointing. My Liberal friends, who are not far left, are voting for re-election of our President because to do otherwise would be to vote into office something they truly don't wish to deal with. They don't think we need any more McConnells or Boehners. Definitely are positive we don't need more Cantors, Bachmanns or Ryans either.

What surprises me is the handful of my Republican friends who say they will vote for re-election of President Obama. Maybe it shouldn't, given who I know these people are and who the field of candidates contains. These are the people who don't waste their time reading online blogs. If they spend any amount of time online, they do so at Facebook where they share pictures with their family and catch up with the latest pickle that Cousin Harry has managed to find himself in.

Without any guidance at all they know that their own party has jumped the track and is headed for a destination they don't choose. They've never heard of Jane Hamsher or Joan Walsh. They don't know who Matt Taibbi is. They don't know who Grover Norquist or Dick Armey is in any real way. They have no desire to educate themselves by reading a bunch of "Crooks and Liars". They know much more about things that happen in Washington than any of these self aggrandizing political bloggers do. They know that folks who work in the places of power have gone too far.

My friends are the people in the middle. Middle management in large corporations who can't stretch their salaries to cover everything they need. Small businessmen in service businesses and construction whose equipment is sitting idle because people simply don't have the money needed to provide them with work. They don't blame the President, they blame society. They don't believe the problems we face here in America is a result of our president caving into the demands of Congress. As far as they're concerned, what happens there is a direct result of who we are as a society.

One of my friends asked me today if I remember the road rage incident in which a guy ran down a woman he believed cut him off and when he spoke to her got so mad that he grabbed her dog and threw it into traffic? Right now, that guy is Congress. The dog is our country, and Democrats and Republicans are so mad that they're behaving in an irrational way which will result in the death of the dog if they aren't stopped. He said they fully understand what they've done, but they're unwilling to accept responsibility for their actions, just like the guy who killed that woman's dog.

Society with it's Me attitude has created voters who are interested in whatever issue directly affects or coincides with their belief or need. They don't give a damn about anything except what they want and aren't willing to begin to consider whether or not it's the best for their neighbors. It's not even a matter of too much time spent listening to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, it's a failure to see how their own behavior created this problem. Our government is broken because our society is broken.

If our need for instant gratification isn't met we turn our backs and walk away. Nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce simply because no one is willing to do the hard work of making a sacrifice in order to compromise. The only reason anyone should ever get divorced is if one partner is an unrepentant alcoholic, drug user or abusive. There is no such thing as irreconcilable differences between two people who are willing to listen and work towards making things better.

The cost of healthcare is high because we feel we should have to have all these expensive diagnostic tests. And then we want a pill to fix everything that those tests discover is wrong with us. We don't want to take the responsibility for making the changes that would return us to a state of health. We won't sacrifice what we love to eat in order to lose weight. We won't stop eating fatty high calorie fast foods because it takes too long to fix something healthy to eat. We want it quick and convenient, and we even have the audacity to get angry when we have to wait a bit for something. None of this, of course, is ever our fault. It's always someone elses. Maybe the fault of all that TV advertizing?

We are selfish, inconsiderate and rude. We don't try compromise or reason to solve a problem. We erupt into tyrranical bullies to get our own way. And we elect people like us to government and wonder how things get so screwed up. We've gone so far into this kind of behavior that I'm afraid we'll never be able to set things right. Sadly, if we don't restore some semblance of civility, reason and cooperation to our democracy, absolutely nothing will change for the better. Things will continue on the path they are on now and eventually get worse.

Unfortunately opinions aren't solutions. Opinions aren't necessarily truth, they aren't fact. They're just one persons understanding of a situation. Sometimes that understanding is flawed. In this case, I hope mine is because as long as we aren't willing to look beyond our own opinions, we are the problem. My other hope is that we can change. We can do that together if we'd only stop blaming someone else for our problems.

Bitch Slapping The Whiners!

The following is a summary of the bill that so many are griping about. The summary is from a Progressive website called the People's View. Despite what Sen. Bernie Sanders is spouting IT DOES NOT TOUCH SS, MEDICARE OR MEDICAID. Quite the opposite, in fact. Also, the "sequester" is NOT the Super Congress we've heard about since ALL RECOMMENDATIONS ARE TO BE VOTED ON BY CONGRESS.

"1) The uncertainty over U.S. economy is no longer threatened by default.

2) 10-year discretionary spending caps (defense and non-defense) generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction

3) $350 Billion from the Base Defense Budget – the First Defense Cut Since the 1990s.

4) Protection in the discretionary budget to the Pell Grants investment that will award a maximum of $5,550, helping over 9 million students pay for college tuition.

5) Increase the debt limit by $2.1 trillion

6) No debt ceiling increase drama after the 2012 election.

7) Creates a bipartisan committee to identifying an additional $1.5 trillion (which is part of the $2.4 trillion package) in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform, where by Congress is to vote by December 23, 2011.

8) If the bipartisan committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reduction in the amount of $1.2 Trillion in Deficit Reduction beginning in 2013 that will include a 50/50 cut between domestic and defense spending.

9) Enforcement mechanism protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts or these programs are off limit to any sequester.

About the sequester: If the the bipartisan committee fails:
Sequester Would Provide a Strong Incentive for Both Sides to Come to the Table: If the fiscal committee took no action, the deal would automatically add nearly $500 billion in defense cuts on top of cuts already made, and, at the same time, it would cut critical programs like infrastructure or education. That outcome would be unacceptable to many Republicans and Democrats alike – creating pressure for a bipartisan agreement without requiring the threat of a default with unthinkable consequences for our economy."

WTF is wrong with this bill? Oh yeah, NO INCREASE IN TAXES ON THE RICH! Kindly remember that the cuts will expire on the last day of 2012. IF we get off our asses, and quit listening to Ed Schultz (stay home in 2010 to teach him a lesson!) Firedoglake and Jane Hamscher, who is friends with Grover Norquist by the way, who told her people to stay home as well. IF we actually do something to put the Alan Grayson type Democrat back in Congress we will NEVER have to deal with tax cuts to the rich again.

Hello??? The Professional Progressive Bloggers put their websites ahead of what was good for the nation and then the Tea Party got elected. They whine, they screech, they point fingers and blame this all on the President, when they were the ones who saw to it the Democratic Party lost in 2010.

Full article can be read HERE!