Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The American Medical System makes it difficult to get help

Posted: August 24, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Over the past two months I’ve been struggling with a couple of medical issues.  Neither issue is serious.   These are issues that in the past were resolved quickly.  Not anymore.  It took weeks to figure what the cause was of one of my issues, and I had to do that myself.

I remember in the good old days, if you had issues that were at the level of issues I was experiencing they would check you into the hospital for a couple of days.  There they would run a lot of tests and consult specialists.  A diagnosis usually came quick along with the treatments.

Today it is much harder to get admitted to the hospital.  At the Emergency Room they run you through a standard battery of tests.  If the results are not life threatening they send you home, even if you are in bad shape. 

Instead of a quick diagnosis and treatment you are given referrals to specialists on an outpatient basis.  The waiting time to get to see a specialist for the first time is usually several weeks.  It usually takes a couple of visits with a specialist to get a diagnosis and treatment pinned down.  If you are suffering like I was, that delay can seem like an eternity. 

One condition I am suffering from is painful.  In the good old days, they prescribed a pain medication that actually worked.  Thanks to war on opiates, the vast majority of pain medications they prescribe now don’t really work and have a long list of side effects.  I have been informed by more than one doctor that the reason they no longer prescribe opiate pain medications to patients that need them is because if they did, they would be arrested. 

The opiate crisis was not caused by patients that really needed opiate pain medication.  It was caused by open borders and an abundant supply of illegal narcotics.  Politicians panicked.  They stepped in between doctors and patients.  Now patients are suffering,

Thankfully I am on the mend.  The pain I’m suffering with now can be treated with over-the-counter pain medications.  I feal sorry for all of the countless individuals that are suffering and cannot get the pain medication they need.   

Forgetting his Own Snake Song

Posted: August 23, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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"I saved you," cried that woman
"And you've bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

This ad from the DeSantis camp is the first open hit on President Trump and it’s a valid one:

You see there is one basic thing that President Trump missed that has now become very apparent during the Joe Biden years.

If there are no consequences for bad behavior (such as mass shoplifting looting, setting fires and assaulting people on the streets) you get more of it.

Likewise if there is no punishment for corruption in government you get more of it. DeSantis understands this and has made the left pay the price in Florida.

Donald Trump let the left in general and the Clintons in particular off the hook on their corruption because while he was a bit off the reservation in the sense of getting things that needed to be done for the people done, in the end this was the circle he has previous traveled in and hoped once his term(s) were over to travel in again so he let them know that his rhetoric about corruption and draining the swamp was just business.

Alas he didn’t recognize that the swamp didn’t feel the same and even has his campaign in general and he himself in particularly rightly cry foul over the corrupt use of government against him to criminalize political speech they can paraphrase his own words against him

Oh shut up, silly Donald,” leftists cry and laugh and scoff
“You knew well what we were back on the day you let us off

Hope and baseball

Posted: August 22, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Amid the news of hatred and hurricanes, the Little League World Series and its stories provide a welcome relief.

Even the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals, who played a game during the series, reveled in the purity of the game of young players worldwide.

Held each year in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which is 15 minutes from my home, the two-week-long championship provides many tales of hope and opportunity.

The best story this year centers on Illia Kolomoiets, a refugee from Ukraine who plays for the Czech Republic.

Until 2022, Kolomoiets and his family lived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. When Russians invaded the country, Kolomoiets, his mother, and his older brother were part of the 6.2 million Ukrainians who became refugees.

“We evacuated in March of 2022. It was me, my mother, and my older brother. We moved with a friend in his car to help transport them over the border. The journey to Prague took 12 to 13 hours,” he said through a translator.

Now living in Prague, Kolomoiets was part of the Little League team that went undefeated in its qualification stage. Throughout the regional tournament, which took place in Kutno, Poland, at the end of July, his team dominated the competition. The team finished a perfect 5-0, defeating the United Kingdom 16-0, France 4-0, the Netherlands 18-3, Italy 4-2, and the Netherlands again in the championship round 7-6.

In Prague, the 12-year-old outfielder found an outlet in baseball, even adopting a Major League baseball team. “My favorite team is the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Kolomiets said. His favorite player, outfielder Bryan Reynolds, plays for the Pirates.

When asked what the best part of competing in the tournament was, Kolomoiets said, “Being able to face great pitching. I can experience it.”

His coach applauded Kolomoiet’s skills. “It’s Illia’s first year with me,” Arnošt Nešnal said. “I saw that he was a very fast runner who can play any position. He is very good addition for our team.”

See the interview from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIcgUc1LUU4

A Reminder Concerning Twitter (And Facebook, and Tic Tok and Instagram et/al)

Posted: August 20, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Screwtape: Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real”.

C. S. Lewis The Screwtape letters Screwtape #1 1941

One of the disadvantages of having blogged continually for 15 years is that you are constantly looking for something to write about.

It doesn’t matter what else is going on, if you have readers, particularly readers who have kicked in cash there is a desire to make sure there is material on the plate every day. When you do full time work and have other items on your plate that can be a challenge.

That’s where the addiction of Twitter and everything else in social media comes into play. It provides an endless stream of people talking about things and expressing opinions on things. It can be a useful source but the desire to be heard and to prove one’s own self importance can become an addiction as strong as any other.

Today after mass DaWife and I were thinking about a quick bite when we decided to stop in on our sons house. Our oldest grabbed a quick shower and joined us at a local donut shop where we sat outside had a drink and ate our stuff while simply talking.

We didn’t concentrate on our phones, or the net or anything else, we just enjoyed the sun, the food the drink and each other.

In short to the horror of screwtape we withdrew our attention from the stream.

Of course in C. S. Lewis’ day the steam was very different that it is today but the principle is the same.

You have the power to walk away and interact with life. Note how many companies have failed to withdraw from the steam of facebook and twitter treating it like it was “real life” rather than interacting with the actual people their business is dependent on.

Don’t make that mistake, take a step away and if it means you don’t see an update on one of your sites till this evening or even tomorrow. You’ll be shocked at how easy it is to do so.

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