The Socialist Healthcare Agenda

First off, I am very sorry for dropping off of the face of the earth. Work has been unrelenting along with some special projects for friends, and searching for another job have all kept me too busy to read blogs, never mind post one.

There has been many stories in the news about making health care a right. There is a 1000 page bill being rammed through Congress right now about it. Locally in Boston we can see where this leads. Boston Medical Center is a merger between City Hospital and University Hospital. It's a non-profit hospital that treats the poor and uninsured of Boston.

Now that the government is cutting back on the money reimbursed, the hospital is not going to be able to keep treating patients without uncle sugar's help. Now B.M.C. is suing the State to keep providing free health care. So the state will have to tax someone more to raise the cash to pay for the free health care.

Now to guarantee health care as a right is so stupid it is beyond me. the US healthcare system would be unable to cope with the flood of new claims. Think about the level of entitlement that people have now. Add the right for free health care and watch everyone flock to the emergency room for every little boo-boo because they have a right to see a doctor.

Mien Gott, it's going to be a zoo. I can just see some woman yelling that her civil rights are being violated because it took 2 hours for a over-worked doctor in an understaffed ER to look at her sprained ankle. Watch the lawyers run through the streets like wild dogs to get that case.

We have our rights covered by the Constitution. If we add to these willy-nilly eventually everyone will have a right to a 50" plasma TV. Healthcare is very important, but it is not the State's job to provide it.

As a child my parents used discretion when bringing myself or my brother in. We had health insurance, but that's no excuse to go to the ER for every little thing. We got the care we needed including regular doctor office visits without any hassle. If we needed to go to the doctor we could get an appointment that afternoon or the next morning. No problem.

Now, to see my primary care physician, I need to schedule out 6 months in advance, unless I'm real sick then they tell me to go to the ER where I can wait all day before getting in. How is this better? Now my health insurance costs a fortune, and my doctor tries to schedule as many visits as possible so he can tweak the billing to the health insurance company without raising any flags. He overcharges for my care so it covers his loss when he gets boned out of payments on another patient. It's too screwed up to even describe properly. Health insurance companies tell doctors how to treat patients by publishing what they will pay out. So on a list somewhere it will say

Broken arm $5000

And even if it's a compound fracture with massive trauma, the health insurance company is going to point to the list and say $5000 not a cent more. So the doctors charge everyone the maximum amount so they can offset the losses. It is pure stupidity. No insurance company should dictate my heath care.

This is what these socialist policies will bring. The doctors will be unable to maintain their practices unless they can toe the line when treating patients. Talk to people from the UK & Canada about health care. Ask them why they come to America for major surgeries. There was just an article the other day about how arthritis treatments take 9 months to get in the UK. This is the Socialist agenda: shitty service for everyone. Turning a house of healing into the DMV.

Gahden Update

Well figured I'd post about what has been going on with my little garden. In some ways it has been doing a lot better than I thought it would, and in others I am very disappointed with the results.

My first mistake was planting too early. I lost my cabbage and onions from planting them too early. I lost both crops. I lost 3/4 of my lettuce crop in transplanting. Setting up the garden took a lot of work, and I'm using pre-made soil. I could only imagine the amount of back-breaking labor to get a plot of lawn ready for planting. I am also disappointed with some of the heirloom plants. My tomatoes grew sideways for a full month, my cayenne peppers are still growing sideways. Very frustrating. Another frustrating aspect is that many, many seeds are not germinating. I planted 3 beans per hole, and out of 36 holes, only 7 have plants. Same with the failed onions, carrots, etc.

Because of the loss of crops I bought several "regular" plants to transplant in the garden. I bought six jalapeno plants and a dozen onion plants, along with dill, basil, and oregano.
My tomatoes are starting to get small flowers which is good. Likewise the store-bought onions and peppers are thriving. The garlic is going crazy, I cannot wait for it this fall. Yummy!

I need to start planning when crops will rotate out, so I can try for a winter crop of some kind. I am pleasantly surprised how little weeding I need to do. I spend 10 minutes a week weeding! ha! The other garden maintenance is also very easy. That aspect of the SFG method is very, very nice.

So far I have learned a lot about growing your own food. I wonder if I should plant wheat for a winter crop? that will be interesting. Maybe just a few squares at least. I realize that if I was dropped onto an island that growing and procuring my own food would take about 60% of my time. that number varies during the seasons, like planting and harvest, but that doesn't leave a lot of time for training, working on a better shelter, preserving the food, etc. Very eye opening.

If you didn't plant a garden this year, you are crazy. Next year you better, even if it's a few tomato plants on the fire escape. No excuses! These skills might make the difference between malnutrition and thriving during these economic tough times. If the poop hits the fan, they might mean the difference between living and dying.

Bumbling Bearer Bonds

The MSM completely missed that $130 Billion of US issued bearer bonds were attempted to be smuggled across the Italian/Swiss border. The bonds were in a suitcase with a false bottom.

Read this Bloomberg.com article. And this article on market-ticker.

German media is now reporting the bonds are real. Now I wasn't 100% sure about what exactly a bearer bond was, excpet my knowledge from Die Hard, so I wanted to bone up on it with Wikipedia.

According to the US treasury, there is only $105 million remaining of these bonds.
Now with all the zeroes we could get confused, but $130B is a fuckload more than the $105 million left, according to the treasury. So what's up?

Either the bonds are real, and the US treasury is lying to us, and all the countries buying our debt, or the bonds are fake, and they almost pulled off a real big caper. But wait a second... Bearer bonds are SERIALIZED, so you can bet your first born child that whoever is going to pony up that much cash for a bond is going to make DAMN sure it's real.

So I'm leaning towards they are real. Which should scare the shit out of everyone.That means the US treasury has been printing bonds without the knowledge of the American people and selling it. The money raised with the bond sales was used for who-knows-what nefarious plans.

I fully expect that bloated toad Barney Frank to do nothing about it.

Radio Blah

I listen to a lot of the Radio on the way to and from work, never mind driving around town running errands all weekend. And to be honest, there isn't much out there on the radio waves that has perked my interest.

I listen to a wide range of music, so when the radio plays crap I pop in a CD and get my fix that way. Plus, it's hysterical to roll up on a group of kids while cranking opera, or bluegrass, or Scandinavian death metal. It's the little things that brighten my day.

It seems we hit a dry spell for new releases. The latest Metallica album was about as exciting as a postage stamp collection. The new Green Day album sucks. Although the new Killers album is interesting, so far I only like one song. I like going to shows and concerts, but right now there isn't a whole lot going on.

The warped tour had Bad Religion, Less than Jake and Anti-Flag... is it 1992 all over again? Oh yeah Offspring, a re-united No Doubt, Stone Temple Pilots, and Staind are touring as well. Yep it's the 90's again.

ZOMG! the B-52's have 2 shows out on the cape, might have to go! Wait a sec, they are going to be in RI on 8/7! I'm going, never saw them live so that will be a hoot. I brought up the list of shows that are coming, and this jumped right out at me.

I just noticed Little Feat is still touring. Wow. I got dragged to see them in Boston like 20+ years ago, and they looked old then. wow. I thought they sucked - I'm not into the whole jam band thing. (It's surprising what we will go see when there is a hint of hooking up. So i wasn't "dragged" per se, just lead there by my dick.)

Wow. Just noticed REO Speedwagon/Styx/.38 Special coming to Boston. And later on this month Judas Priest and Whitesnake. That is a riot.

Then I noticed that KMFDM is coming to the house of blues on 9/26. I'm definitely going to that show.

Is it me or is there a lack of new music out there? If bands like Motley Crue, Whitesnake can tour 20 years after their peak and have successful tours. How about Judas Priest or Styx touring after 30 years out? Instead of getting a modern equivalent of The Cars, or Areosmith, or Rage Against the Machine we are bombarded by the marketing machine of the Jonas Brothers or Mylie Cyrus. Yuck!

I guess what I was saying back in the late 80's when MTV went from a radio station on the TV to a media powerhouse has come true. Because of the nature of music videos and the "image" being equal to the song's star power, I seriously doubt anyone as fugly as Stephen Tyler could make it today. I've met him in person, and he is one ugly guy. He's really cool in person, but that doesn't cut it when your agent is running a media blitz with your face all over the late night circuit.

And it's a shame. Shame on all of us. There could be great singers but because they don't look like a fashion model they never get a chance. I spoke with quite a few people who went to the American Idol tryouts and unless you were half-naked wearing a wonder-woman outfit, or looked mildly retarded, you didn't stand a chance. There were several people I know that could sing who never even got a chance. Now if it was one, I would think about maybe stage-fright or something, but when several people say the same thing? c'mon.

Style over substance. It's more important on how you look than you perform. Open almost any magazine today. How much is bubble-headed crap vs. real information. Even the woodworking and gun magazines have articles pimping someone's latest product, rather than any objective journalism on the pros and cons of whatever they are reviewing. I cut my subscriptions down to one, Fine Woodworking, but even they print occasional articles of man-love for whatever sponsor's product they are pimping that month.

Style over substance is one of the hallmarks of the Cyberpunk genre. Another is the corporate buyout of the federal government. Are we there now? When the dollar crashes will a consortium of corporations bail us out, forming the first mega-corporation in the process? I need to re-read Neuromancer to get prepared.

woodworking

I sense a perverse serenity throughout the area these days. It's as if the sheeple are just going through the motions, waiting for the next hit. Even my liberal friends are starting to realize that Obama might just be another politician, and not the messiah.

I continue to get ready for whatever may come my way. I cannot see a way for the economy to get out of the mess that it is in. I feel that wall street is just a pile of get-rich-quick schemes devised to fleece average Americans from their money. So, I'm off to HR to reduce my 403b to the minimum after I post this. It will give me an extra $40 a week, which I will invest into silver - when I can find it.

There are a few things I need to do. I need to finish the in-law and rent it. I need to get rolling on my resume and get out of this god-forsaken shithole of a job. I need to get wheat and store it along with a grain mill. So much to do with limited money and time.

As for time I have been helping "Al" with the design of his saltwater fish tank. I'm an OK woodworker, and the tools I have will work for the plexiglas he needs to cut for his tank. I would post a picture, but I cannot get google sketchup to download - it's blocked by the security team. :/

I have a renewed interest in my woodworking hobby. Working on the inlaw apartment always gets me going. I have a lot to do woodworking-wise as I bought a lot of lumber when it was cheap, and now I need to make some projects out of it.

The first project will be a short hall table to go under my projector screen to hold magazines and the center speaker for the surround sound system. Reading magazines, not the ones that have ammo in them! The next project will be a workbench. A real one, with a tail vise and face vise. It's going to be about 84" x 32" and at least 2" thick - all rock maple. The legs will be ash, and I'm going to go with a patternmaker's vise for the face vise and the Lee-Valley twin screw vise for the end vise. I can't wait. Finally, I need a coffee table. So I'll make a nice one with a top that lifts up so I can use it as a TV tray to eat dinner while on the couch watching my Red Sox.

I will have to post pictures of what I have already made and what I am working on, since somewhere there is a Midas Mulligan who I might need to get the attention of. (hint hint)

I originally started with blacksmithing. I loved it, but I didn't have the time to do it right. I still have my two anvils, forge, etc. but not the time to learn how to do it right. Woodworking I got into shortly after I gave up on the smithing. I have always loved fine furniture, not the fancy gaudy shit, but the shaker style.

Shaker furniture is plain, almost drab until you notice the clean symmetry, the exquisite craftsmanship, and the functional design. The first piece of furniture I made was my nightstand. It's crooked as all hell but I cut the mortise and tenons myself. I fitted the drawer. It's hard maple finished with nothing but shellac, but it is now a rich, warm flesh color. When the sunlight hits it right it looks like it will start to breathe.

Being cheap er, frugal, the last piece I made was made of poplar. Poplar gets a bum rap in my opinion. It's a cheap wood because it is prone to streaks and stains of brown and green through the light yellow to creamy wood. It also lacks any distinct grain pattern. But with the right touch, you can stain it to mimic cherry or walnut.

I needed a stand for all my AV components. Normally these are in a TV stand of some kind, but I use a projector mounted to the ceiling so nothing store-bought would work. I made a stand about 36" tall with an oversized top with a shaker undercut to make the top look thinner. I should have made the legs thinner, I think they are about 1/2" too thick. The shelves are adjustable with movable shelf supports and are made from plywood with poplar banding around the edge.

The project was stained with a walnut stain - minwax, I believe. I then gave it three coats of a water-based polyurathane, sanding between each. the last coat was rubbed down with steel wool. The final coat was with Renissance Wax, which makes the wood feel silky to the touch, and adds a little additional protection. I should hit it with another coat of wax. I will see about taking a picture and posting it when I get home.

I picked up woodworking because I always knew I would need to work the rest of my life. I was too late into saving for retirement, and I knew I would go nuts if I didn't have a job. So I figured I could become a furnituremaker and make one of a kind, high end furniture for the rich once I retired from the "real" job. Lately the "real" job has been preventing me from enjoying my hobby, but hopefully soon that will end.

I just got to figure out how to get my tablesaw to fit into my bugout bag!

Sunday Flea Market

I managed to head out to the Flea Market on Sunday. Wow, there were twice as many vendors there. Sign of the times. As usual, many of them were selling piles of junk. It took me several hours to go through the market, when I normally could have blown through in just over an hour.

One guy was selling Sthil chainsaws for short money, but I have one so I had to pass. There were several vendors selling fresh fruit and veggies. They even have a little food truck for burgers and hot dogs now. And there were TONS of people. It was a nice day, but there were many more people than usual, about 3x as many.

I have been very frugal of late. I'm worried about the job, and I want to be ready to take advantage of any pile of ammo that becomes available. Plus, I have more junk in my house than I need so it's time to cut down on the crap in the house.

There are a few items I am always looking for. I want more mortise chisels for my woodworking.I need a scorp, and an adze. I also want to get the wooden molding planes, but they tend to be real pricey. I needed a small kitchen table. And finally, I need a twin bed for the guess bedroom for when by buddies crash at my place when their wives are being a pain.

I was digging through one vendors table when I came across a kerosene lantern. He wanted $6, I got it for $4. I found two others in even better shape, and got those for $4 each too. So now I have 3 kerosene lanterns to add to my preps. Two have wicks, but checking online, additional wicks are about 50 cents each.

After doing some research at home, these lanterns should last forever, just need to replace wicks. Kerosene has an indefinite shelf life as long as it doesn't have water in it. I plan on stopping by the local hardware store for some. Now the big deal with these lanterns is NOT to burn anything but kerosene or clear lamp oil in them. Dyed stuff will gum up the wick. If you try to burn gasoline, paint thinner, etc your going to blow yourself up, so don't try it.

All told, for about $30 bucks I have plenty of light for post-SHTF. Turns out you can get a decent lantern on amazon.com for $9. Considering just one of my coleman propane lanterns was $90, plus $3 a propane cylender every 5-6 hours on low, kerosene lanterns are the way to go. Although my expensive lantern is as bright as an arclight when on full, but the tank lasts only 90 min.

Oh yeah, I did get a small kitchen table for $10. :) I love the flea market.

Movie review - Star Trek

I am a wicked geek, and yes I did go and see Star Trek a couple weeks ago. So I figured I'd give a short review on what I thought about the movie.

I an not a trekkie. I like the original and especially the Next Generation. Deep Space 9 was boring, Voyager was an excellent idea but it jumped the shark very early. Enterprise was a clusterfuck from the start. I consider myself more of a sci-fi fan than any particular show or series.

Having said that, I loved it.

It had a very good story, and made it abundantly clear that this is a separate timeline, an alternate reality from the original show. Unlike the original series the acting in this was top notch. Zachary Quinto delivers an amazing performance that will get forgotten around Oscar time.

The series is updated to what we would think the future would look like, not what someone in the 60's would think. Inside jokes like the "red shirt" kiss of death were kept. The story is a well-balanced mix of story, drama, and action. Yes, you can bring a girl on a date to it and still have a decent chance of getting some.

I am looking forward to the next one.