Why I Dislike Carilion

I had a long-standing scheduled appointment at 9 a.m. with an internal medicine doctor at Carilion's new Riverside facility this morning (4/23/2014). I had called back in February and asked for assistance in finding a doctor, explaining I was having stomach issues, and was directed to Internal Medicine and given this appointment by someone at Carilion's appointment desk. I asked specifically if this doctor would be a good doctor to see for my issue and was told "I don't know, I just make appointments."

 

Anyway, I kept the appointment. An internist should know about your internal organs, after all, and that is where I am having problems. After I arrived and paid my co-pay, the nurse called me back to the examining room. Then she asked me if I was looking for a new primary care doctor. I said no, I was there for a specific issue, I have a primary care doctor whom I like and I wasn't interested in switching. However, my primary care doctor had encouraged me to seek help elsewhere because her months of assistance have failed to alleviate my problem.

Then I was told that unless I was switching to this internist as my primary care doctor, she wouldn't see me. I asked if she would see me this one time - I even offered to pay the specialist co-pay - and I was turned away!

 

I sat sobbing in the examining room while the nurse went out. Another came in and said the same thing. My husband was livid. I went sobbing out into the waiting room where at least I was refunded my copay. However, I am in so much pain and have been unable to find a doctor to help me. What is wrong with a health care system that doesn't bother to alleviate suffering?

Obviously, Carilion's health care system is not set up in the best interest of the patient AT ALL and I find it to be the most appalling method of taking care of people I have ever experienced. Apparently all they care about are profits.

I do not understand why I couldn't be evaluated and looked at for referrals or whatever I needed instead of sent away crying in pain. This callous doctor, her nurses, and this entire organization should be ashamed of itself for what I experienced this morning. I can't believe any health care organization would turn away a patient - a paying patient with good health insurance, I might add - over some stupid policy such as this.

 

It is no wonder people leave this valley to find medical care. You certainly can't find it here.

 

When I had my gallbladder out last summer, it was at Carilion Hospital. You might want to read my blog entry about that, appropriately entitled A Comedy of Errors. It reads like a horror story. And I've been sick ever since - 10 months. Ten months solid of pain and nausea.

 

I don't know how this hospital organization receives any of these awards they tout. It can't be because they ask the patients what they think. Or maybe the patients are afraid to say because they fear they won't get care.

Well I am not afraid of the big bad behemoth of Roanoke. They owe me an apology, if nothing else.

Tuesday Rant

Today is tax day in the United States. All taxes from last year are due today.

It is also the day quarterly taxes for the current year are due if you pay estimated taxes. Small business owners are likely to do this.

In the last presidential election, there was a lot of talk about how half of the country (it's really about 46 percent) doesn't pay federal taxes. The talk never centered on the reason why these folks don't pay federal taxes.

It's because they are too poor. These are low-income folks, many of whom are elderly (remember, we're an aging population). They're the people who work for minimum wage at fast food places, in retail, and other service jobs. They are the backbone of the country and the tax rate is structured to keep them from being burdened with taxes. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to eat.

It is worth noting that tax cuts enacted under the Bush administration - under a Republican president - also reduced the tax burden on people who probably could afford it. Those cuts increased child tax credits, earned income credits, and increased deductions and other exemptions. All of that had the effect of increasing the number of people who pay minimal taxes.

However, very few people pay no taxes. There are state taxes, local taxes, food taxes, gas taxes, and no end of fees out there. I don't see how anybody can escape them entirely.

In Sunday's edition of Parade, they ran their annual "What People Earn" article. The thing I always find most striking about these articles is what it reveals about what we value as a society. We value entertainment more than public safety, for example. Sports over national security. If we didn't, then the paychecks would reflect different priorities. It also indicates that different areas of the country have different value systems.

Matthew McConaheghey earns $19 million. An assistant to the mayor in Seattle earns $80,000. A fire chief in Utah makes $110,000. Here locally, our county administrator makes about $132,000 (that's not in the article, that's just something I know). A library director in West Virginia makes $8,840. A stadium beer vendor in Pennsylvania makes $12,000. Vice President Joe Biden makes $230,700. A Montessori teacher in Idaho earns $26,000. A firefighter in Indiana earns $52,000. A mental health counselor in New Mexico earns $31,200.

Does it not concern you that 46 percent of the people in this country are too poor to pay taxes? Shouldn't that give you pause? Shouldn't we, en masse, as a society, stop and reexamine our value system?

Is this healthy? You can't expect the disabled or the elderly to get out and work harder. You can't expect the low income-earner to do better when there aren't jobs out there. We've reached a point where people simply have no upward mobility because the jobs aren't there. You can't go from flipping burgers to a nice union job at the Ford Motor Company anymore. Those higher paying jobs in production have vanished, sent overseas or done away with because a robot can turn a screw.

I have a little house that I rent out. I have figured out that in order for someone to live there and be comfortable, they really need an income of about $36,500.  That's one person. That's well above the poverty level in this country, but I think that should be the bottom line. That's $100 a day to eat, pay rent, put gas in the car, pay for heat and electricity, and pay taxes. Maybe on that $36,500 you could go out to eat once in a while. I would consider this amount to be a living wage.

The inequality of salary and our declining value system, the one that puts going to the movies or watching sport over having the house fire put out or health care issues taken care of, concern me more than any other issue taking place in this land. I think there are solutions available for this problem that would solve other problems, too.

For example, what if there was a program that trained young men how to solarize a home? What if every household became a more green environment? That's a lot of jobs in construction right there. What if we each had a windmill?

Our infrastructure is failing. The electric grid needs work. Roads are falling apart. There is a lot of work to do and little will to fund it. What would make you happier, paying a little more in taxes so a road can be repaired, or having the road repaired by some big corporation that then charges you a $2 toll every time you go through it? Aren't you still paying for it either way?

What if we built more hospitals, trained more nurses and doctors, and had the health care that would truly make the United States the most enviable country in the world when it came to taking care of its citizens?

What would happen, do you think, if we put people over profits? What if we tried to become the happiest country on earth instead of the richest?

Virginia is often rated high as a "great state for business." It always irks me because I don't want to live in a great state for business. I want to live in a great state - a great nation - for people. I want this country to be the best that it can be, and that means it puts people - you, and you, and me - first.

Not the Koch brothers, not Exxon, not Monsanto. But us, We the People of the United States, who long ago joined together to create a more perfect union.

If we do not change this, if we do not once again come together as a society that cares about one another, that sees inequality and does something about it, then this grand experiment is over, and we have failed.

Pay your taxes today, and be grateful that you earn enough to have to write the check. There are an awful lot of people out there who do not have that opportunity. They are not lazy, they are not slobs, they are not objects of derision. They are people who work just as hard as you do, but maybe have had a little less luck or fewer opportunities.

In a blink of an eye, that person could be you. All it takes is one car wreck, one house fire, one heart attack, one lawsuit. And you'd better damn well not forget it.

A Broken System

Health care is all in the news, mostly over the Affordable Health Care Act (what some foolishly call Obamacare). Mostly the complaining is about cost and money, because that is, after all, the god we worship in the U.S.A.

But the system is completely broken *because* it is all about money here. Doctors do not heal. They don't even fix. They aren't even taught how to think about fixing or curing. If a pill doesn't fix you, you are in big trouble in this country.

A long time ago, before money became the mantra and the buzzword of this world, doctors did try to heal you up. They tried to find the problems and they worked for some sort of solution to ensure some type of quality of life.

Is quality of life even a consideration anymore? I don't think it is - it's more about how much money someone has and how long they can drain you dry.

Thirty years ago, when you went to the emergency room with some sort of intangible problem, you were admitted and doctors worked tests and looked at you until a solution was found. Today, you go to the emergency room and if you aren't dying, they send you home. Nobody bothers to figure out the problem. They decide you will live another day and send you to your primary care doctor.

Your primary care doctor doesn't know how to cure you. All he or she knows how to do is hand out an antibiotic and a blood pressure pill and that's about it.* So that doctor sends you on round after round of "specialists." These doctors see you as a hand, or a foot, a set of lungs, or a colon.

None of the doctors see you as a whole person. They don't care what you do with your day, or how you spend your time, or if anyone at all loves you and would have a broken heart if they lost you. To them you're just a body part and a dollar sign.

Am I being unfair? Am I not giving these good people enough credit for wanting to cure people? Yes, I am being unfair. This is the system as it is now and it is the system we as a society have accepted for reasons that I cannot fathom. Apparently we think it is fine that health care revolves around not care but money. And any system that revolves around money and not people is inherently unfair and always will be. The health care system is not fair and hasn't been since insurance companies became part of the picture and then began playing doctor.

Why is it okay for some 18-year-old on an insurance company's payroll to question the wisdom of these mighty healers? When did this become an acceptable practice? Why does cost matter so much than a life? Why does that stupid green dollar bill have more value than I do, a thinking, feeling flesh-and-blood, completely irreplaceable person?

Everyone whines about the Affordable Health Care Act like it has caused the problem, but all the AHCA had done is place a very tiny little bandage on an incredibly broken system. Our premiums have been going up and the coverage down for 25 years, before Obama was even out of college. The AHCA isn't going to change anything. Only a change in attitudes and a change in the heart of this evil, rotten, demented society we have created will change things. I don't see that happening as long as we stand at the altar of the great god of capitalism.

I want a health care system that cares about people first. I want a nation and a world that cares about people first. I don't want to live in the "best state for business" I want to live in the best state for people. I want to live in a world where the air we breathe matters, where having "stuff" is secondary to who we are, and who we are as a society are a mass of individuals who have great empathy and a little sympathy with one another.

Screw the almighty dollar and the health care system that only cares about you if you have money. There has to be a better way. We're smart people. So why do we act so stupid?




*Added later: I like my primary care doctor and think she does a good job. But because of the way the system is set up, I don't think she can do the job like she would like to. I trust her as my primary care doctor, but the system penalizes us both for wanting to make me better, in my opinion.

Failure of Morality (Caution: A Rant)

Yesterday I ran into a woman who was an old friend. Talk turned to politics, and she said:

"I would rather let children just die than give their parents my tax money."

Once I put my lower jaw back where it belonged, I turned on my heel and walked away. I called over my shoulder, "I guess you can't say you're pro-life anymore."

I happen to know this person is also pro-birth. She certainly can't be "pro-life," not if that is her attitude. How in the world can there be any morality in forcing a woman to have a child only to watch the child die because you don't want your tax dollars to support it?

At least if you're going to force women to have babies, have the decency to cough up the money to support the poor unfortunate (and unwanted) kid.

If this is your morality, as far as I'm concerned, you are a fascist waging class warfare on people you are condemning for ... whatever reason. Maybe you think you work harder or something. I don't know. It's not something I can get my mind around because I don't think like that.

Actually this is not thinking. I don't know what it is, but it certainly is not any kind of rationalization that I or any other person of morals can condone. If you do condone it, I suggest you go take a good long look at yourself. Put the fascist label over the mirror while you're there so you'll know what one looks like when you see your reflection.

Where is the humanity - the Christianity - the morality - in that kind of brain?

What have we come to?

Is this how it is, your dollar bills are more important than a human life? It is more important that you keep it all in your pocket than ensure that your neighbor does not die? Is that what you think, really? Hooray for me and f*ck you? Is that how you want to live your life?

Have we all become fools over money? Is not that really the god we're worshipping here? Are we not all bowing down before the golden calf?

If that is what we have become, a nation of money-grubbing, backstabbing, self-centered and selfish footlickers who can't come up with a decent thought that isn't hypocritical, injudicious and ludicrous, then we are doomed.

God help me, this is not the kind of world I want to live in. It's not what I grew up in and it's not what I was expecting. This rancid turn of attitude is going to be the end of us all.

The War on Women

Apparently, this spring the Republicans determined that, just as they did last year with unions, this would be the time to put all of us horrible females in our place.

You know, barefoot and pregnant. Answering to the menfolk. Hell, let's throw uneducated in there, while we're at it, since they're undermining the educational system, too.

Now, if you believe that is how it should be, then I suggest you turn away from this blog entry.

Because I think it fucking sucks.

Earlier this week, Democratic congresswomen objected to, and then left, an all-guy hearing on contraception. The GOP chairman of the committee refused to let women testify at a hearing to talk about women's health care.

Because we don't know what we're talking about when it comes to taking care of ourselves, obviously.

Meanwhile, one of Santorum's top goons said that women should just stick an aspirin between their knees for a contraceptive.

But none of that beats what the idiotic legislators in Virginia are doing.

They're taking us back to the dark ages with their personhood amendments and a bill that allows the state to force inanimate object rape upon women.

HB462, which has already passed the House of Delegates and is headed for Senate confirmation before being passed on to the governor, will force women who seek abortions to have an ultrasound.

Here's the summary of the bill from the legislative page:

Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion. The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the woman availed herself of the opportunity to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat. A copy of the ultrasound and the written certification shall be maintained in the woman's medical records at the facility where the abortion is to be performed.

Essentially, this is state-sponsored rape and torture. And if you think otherwise, go say it elsewhere. I don't want to hear your sorry excuses for this gross violation, because there is absolutely nothing you can say to defend this that will make sense. So keep your stupid to yourself if you agree that this procedure should be FORCED upon women, regardless of the reason for it.

I have had this ultrasound done. It was performed on me a couple of times, actually, when I was trying to have a child.

It is a gross violation of your person. If this were being done in any setting other an a medical one, it would be considered rape with an inanimate object, and the person holding the wand would go to jail. For a very long time.

This procedure traumatized me, and I wasn't having an abortion, I was doing the opposite.

This is akin to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. For a long time the State of Virginia allowed its social services to remove the reproductive organs of mentally ill patients. They finally stopped the practice and eventually apologized for their stupidity.

This is about the same damn thing.

How is this not a gross violation of a woman's rights? How this is not rape if you force this procedure upon someone?

If you want to read more about this, check out these links:

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2012/02/16/war-on-women-reaching-some-kind-of-fever-pitch/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-57380002/uproar-over-santorum-backer-contraception-quote/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/virginia-ultrasound-bill-republican-abortion-lifestyle-convenience_n_1276799.html

http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=13470

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-politics/post/house-senate-approve-abortion-related-bills/2012/02/14/gIQAb5rmDR_blog.html


If you would like to write to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell you can do so at this link:

https://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm


If you're a regular reader and this entry surprises you, please take a look around at what is happening. If you are a woman, to many of the people in charge, you are nothing more than chattel. If you're happy with that, then be on your merry way.

If you think you're a person, and you matter, then please stand up for your rights.

Because if they can force this one segment of our female sisters, who knows what they will force upon the rest of us.

Post Holiday Blues Mini-Rant

One of the most difficult things about Christmas is the after-Christmas let down.

For two months, we have all of this build-up. Santa's coming! Stuff! Snow! Sleds! Bikes! Clothes! Parties! Purchases! Shiny glitz and glitter!

It's heady and exciting, not only for children, but also for adults who are busy trying to win or show their love and approval. How much do I care? Well, a diamond necklace worth! See? If you weren't my friend, would I give you this gift card?

The Christmas carols begin before Thanksgiving - poor ol' Tom turkey not only loses his life, but also his importance - and Santa arrives in a helicopter in early November. The sales start now, too. Buy at the three-week-before Black Friday walapoloza! Lowest prices of the season - until next week.

And then we have the big day. Rattle! Shake! Unwrap, untape! Looky here! A gizmo, a doodad, a whopsniggle! A hug, a kiss beneath the mistletoe, another piece of fudge.

Three days later? The toys have been sampled, looked at, maybe discarded. The new clothes are washed, ironed, and hung in the closet to blend in with the old. The new tools are in the tool box, the new camera's been tested. The fudge is gone. All that's left are old wrinkled oranges and a little bit of cider.

Not to mention it's cold outside, and who wants to go to the store when the wind is blowing 40 mph? Not I. Or is it me? How about you?

Of course, if you have items to return - that's so much fun - then you might be out and about. Clock's ticking on getting the right size or the refund. The stores are getting stingier about that, too.

So it's over. Now we have nothing to look forward to except the new year - and how happy is that going to be, with Mayan end-times prophecies hanging over our heads, making everyone crazy? Some people will take this to heart - they will sell their houses and lose their lives.

Don't you think 2012 will be a year to remember? And remember it we will, because I don't know about you, but I'm planning on having the post-holiday blues again next year at this time. I don't believe in prophecy.

Nobody's Stopping You

This is a rant. Read at your own risk.

***************************

It's the holiday season, and every day on my Facebook wall, someone posts that they are going to say "Merry Christmas" no matter what.

Well, I don't know who's stopping you if you are a United States citizen. I am unaware of a single instance of someone in the United States being killed or maimed because they walked up to somebody and said Merry Christmas.

Now, they might be told, "I'm Jewish, and I don't celebrate, but Happy Hanukkah" or "I'm Muslim, and I don't celebrate," or "I'm atheist, and I don't celebrate," but they aren't going to jail for wishing someone a Merry Christmas. Not in this country. At least, not yet, and I don't really look for that to change.

You have a good chance of being jailed for holding a sign saying, "I'm in the 99 percent," though.

Nor is it wrong to say "Happy Holidays," which, by the way, is simply the modern way of saying "Happy Holy Days." If you take offense at that and you're Christian, then you're just ignorant.

As far as I'm concerned, if you're one of those Christian people in the United States who are feeling "persecuted" over your religion, you're making a big something out of absolutely nothing.

Because it is Christmas everywhere, and it has been since Halloween.

If you want to feel persecuted over your religion, then I urge you to visit another country, or change your religion, and then see how it feels to live here.

Because in other countries that are not predominantly Christian, people lose their lives over their religion.

Yeah, they die.

They don't get to post on Facebook that they're indignant because they heard some rumor that somebody doesn't like their religion. They don't get to post false rumors about the President of the United States and what he does or doesn't do about the holiday.

Because any of that would get them killed.

If you want to see something interesting, go to this website and take a look at it. This details real Christian persecution.

Guess what. Saying "Happy Holidays" is not on the first page. At the moment I write this, the front page talks about a church bombing in Nepal, a prayer meeting interrupted by Hindus in India, Christians being murdered and churches being burned in Nigeria, etc. etc.

There is no public battle over Christmas here. It's all a gimmick to make you indignant so you'll go out and buy another decoration or a bigger toy for Johnny. Nobody is telling you not to celebrate your holiday, to worship your god, or do whatever you want. By all means, go and do that in whatever way you think is best.

However, some people are telling you that Christianity doesn't belong in government sanctioned areas, and it doesn't. Think about how the Christians in other countries feel, the ones who are watching their loved ones die. Do you suppose they are worried about a Christmas tree on the front lawn?

I think not.

Besides, the Christmas tree belongs to the pagans anyway. Maybe the Christians should give them back their trees.

Christmas has become nothing more than crass commercialism, and all of the uproar is to keep people shopping.

I grew up in a fairly non-religious household. If you want even an inkling of persecution, try being in the fourth grade and left to yourself in the library while other children go to Bible study every Friday. Yes, that happened in the 1970s when I was growing up.

I attended those classes for the first six weeks. We were given booklets to study and fill out with church attendance.  My church attendance was blank, because my family did not attend church. You see, my mother was Baptist and my father was Catholic, and when they married in 1962, they were tossed out of their consecutive religious establishments for not following the rules.

Anyway, the Bible teacher, checking the booklets after six weeks, held mine up for everyone to see. "She doesn't go to church!" she cried out to the entire class. "What a sinner."

I cried for days.

After that, my parents told the teacher I was to leave the room during Bible study and go sit in the library. And that is what I did, year after year. I was joined by a couple of other outcast kids. The other kids made fun of us. Every week, once a week, for three years.

That's a type of persecution. It's not like losing your life, but it left scars.

And those scars didn't come from the state. They came from the Christians.

Happy Holidays.


P.S. Before you call me a sinner and all of that crap, (a) I celebrate Christmas, (b) I've been baptised,  (c) I'll put my morality up against anyone else's, and (d) I'm as entitled to my opinion as you are. You want to post about your imagined persecution, I have the right to complain about your imagination.

And if you leave a bad comment, I'll delete it.

All the Noise, Noise, Noise

If there's one thing I hate, all the noise, noise, noise.
All the squeaks and squeals racing 'round on their wheels
They'll dance with ting-tinglers tied onto their heels. - The Grinch in How The Grinch Stole Christmas

This is the way the world seems to me to be today. Up in Congress, we have a whole slate of idiots on both sides of the political spectrum dancing around with ting-tinglers tied to their heels, as if that will find jobs for the millions who are out of work and create a good economy. They're creating a new economy, alright. It's called F-You and Hurrah for Me, I got mine, and if you don't, so what?

The media is nothing but noise, noise noise. This side yelling, that side screaming. Neither one listening to the other, and nobody saying anything that makes any sense anyway. All the noise, noise, noise.

The entire world thinks it lives in a TV show now, eh? That's what it seems like. Everybody wants a solution that takes an hour - then let's move on to the next episode, the next thing. As if there will be happy endings, life is jolly, deck the halls and fa-la-la. I have news for you - this ain't The Brady Bunch era anymore. This is more like The Waltons get the hell beat out of them by the rich dudes on Dallas.

And why do so many of you apparently think you're the rich dudes on Dallas? Maybe because you have a $10,000 in savings or something. But since only 2 percent of the population are truly rich, I can pretty much guarantee that you who are reading this aren't one of those lucky few. You aren't the rich dudes. You're the paupers on The Waltons and you're getting your asses kicked.

This morning I read an essay that I agreed with entirely, with one exception. The article, which you can find here, says Republicans fit the profile of an abuser. My quibble is this - all of the leaders in Congress fit this profile to some degree, regardless of party. Some are more abusive than others. But none are compassionate. None love their fellow man. All of them want to take what is yours, take whatever little bit you have left, and run off laughing while you lie in the rain and drown. They don't care about you. If you're drowning in the rain, they think you deserve it. If things aren't going well for you, then you haven't prayed right or something. They don't care if public policies are in place to keep you down. They have theirs. F-you and Hurrah for Me. That's their motto.

Frankly, I am annoyed and appalled at the lack of simple common courtesy in this country. How in the world can anyone call this a Christian nation when the tenants of Jesus Christ are so quickly tossed aside? No, we are not a Christian nation. We're an Old Testament nation, with zero regard for anything other than guns and money. It's like the entire country has gone insane.

The corporations can't be taxed because they need the money to create jobs. Here's a new flash: they aren't creating jobs anyway. If it were up to me, I'd tax the hell out of them unless they were creating jobs - then they could have a tax break.

Here's another question: why is that only social programs are in play? The government spends tons of money on all sorts of crap, but the only thing we hear about are the programs that directly affect people. Had there been no agreement and come Wednesday the Social Security checks hadn't gone out, were you prepared to take in Grandma? Were you going to make her house payment, pay her doctor bills, buy her food? Or were you going to stand by and watch while she lost everything and ended up living under the bridge off the interstate? Well? What were you going to do?

Why is stupid a good thing?

Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the noise, noise, noise, noise.

HELP WANTED

WANTED: 586 people with the following qualifications: forward looking, results driven, compassionate, intelligent.  Must relate well to people on all levels from the poorest to the richest. Must be willing to compromise for a greater good. Must be willing to work for no more than 8 years. Must not take money from lobbyists, read opinion polls, or listen to talk radio of any kind.  Must never sign pledges. Must be willing to listen to a multitude of bosses (aka voters). The various jobs involve running the country and include the seats of Congress, Senate, President, and governors of all 50 states. All current and former seat holders need not apply.

The Debt Ceiling

"Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain in the mountains, like wind in the meadow. The days have come down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?" - Theodan King, The Two Towers movie (and an apt question to ask these days. Where is our Frodo? Who will destroy The One Ring?)

This is a political rant.

What do you think of this debt ceiling thing with the US? Most people seem
to think Congress is posturing and something will pass at the last moment,
and so are not taking it seriously.

I think if they do not pass something, the fallout will be swift and very serious, and there will be no hope of an economic recovery for at least a decade, probably longer. Maybe not even in what is left of my lifetime.

Does anyone have a clue as to what will happen? What will folks do when they have to start caring for Grandma because Social Security and Medicare has run out?

Then the big corporations will have what little money we have left, won't they?

And who will be blamed? Democrats? Republicans? The means of communication are completely controlled - oh, you may think there is freedom of speech but there is no free speech. Just look at the BS going on in England with Murdoch empire and consider the greater implications there. Tight-fisted, with the hammer down, that's the press these days. You are only reading and hearing what *they* want you to hear. You only know what *they* think you should know.

I never dreamed I would see this in my lifetime. I never thought it would happen, period. And to be sure I think it is all needless - it is all a big grab by the greedy, individuals and corporations alike, and they are quite willing to upend the world to obtain their goals and amass their wealth. The fact that they have snowed so many with "social and moral" issues is key - and a great testament to the stupidity and lack of thinking among the masses.

That our education system has failed has not been a mistake, I think. Keeping people unable to think by making us stupid - by taking away liberal arts and not teaching philosophy, for example - is key to keeping  us under the thumb.

This is a power grab, you know. As a friend of mine writes, "The wealthy are working very hard to destroy social democracy and restore the control of the gilded elite. This is happening, and succeeding, all over the world. Whether it is austerity in the UK, or in Ireland, or it Greece, or the US states stripping their public servants of the bargaining  rights and benefits, or the threat to social care for the elderly and health care for the ill everywhere, it is all part of the same shocking thing - the determination of the rich elite to withdraw their money from the state and deny ordinary working people rights and benefits.

They want wage slaves, nothing more."

And yet for some reason, we still vote for these bastards.

Religion is of course right there helping to keep everyone on the lower level, raising fears and alarms over ghosts and specters, all designed to keep us from thinking about the real concerns.

The lowest common denominator has won, I fear, and this country will fall. It is the way of things, I guess, this rising and falling, but it would be nice if the world could all rise as one and we all could keep and maintain some decent standard of living. Greed is the only reason this doesn't happen.

But we have been crushed. We the people have fallen. We're too busy sitting in front of our little computers to pay attention, trapped in some cyber-bubble, our own version of bread and circuses. We're deaf and blind to the real world and the reality of what is happening.

Woe unto us all. Our days are numbered, and those numbers are short.

It's a System of Justice, Not Trial by Media

Yesterday in a highly publicized case, a mother was sent home a free woman and not charged with killing her child.

The media has been all over this particular trial. I don't know why, exactly, as I did not follow it at all except to see the headlines. However, I do know that each year, 300 children die at the hands of their parents. Many of those parents are convicted.

Some are not.

Why this case stood out and others don't is a mystery to me. Where is the outrage for these other kids?

Anyway, people all over my facebook page are indignant and calling the American justice system a failure.

They weren't at the hearing. They didn't hear the evidence. Really, their judgment and perception matters not the least, though the media would have them think otherwise.

However, it's called "reasonable doubt" and obviously the jurors had some doubt regarding the evidence that this mother murdered her child.

The legal system did not fail. It worked just like it is supposed to.

Would these folks rather see the mother found guilty and murdered in the gas chamber, only to find 10 years from now that the guilt lies with someone else?

Would they be outraged, then?

Cash or Nothing

Yesterday I had occasion to make copies at Staples, an office supply store.

To my consternation, copy machines there no longer take cash.

They take credit cards.

I am not a fan of plastic. I am a cash-and-carry kind of girl. I also have a thing about electronic fingers reaching into my accounts and having access. I just don't like it.

The helpful salesclerk told me the only way I could pay cash was to go to a machine that converts cash into a plastic card, like a gift card.

It only took dollar bills.

So I ended up with a plastic card with 87 cents left on it, which they would not refund into cash.

What a racket for the company, eh? Because they know most people are going to toss the card with less than a $1 on it. So they get my 87 cents for doing nothing but insisting that I must use plastic and not cash.

So my choice for making copies was to allow a machine unlimited access to my credit card, lose change on their plastic, or go elsewhere.

Next time, I will go elsewhere.

Did you know that in 2006, companies raked in over $8 billion in unused plastic gift cards? Using these plastic cards is like walking into a store and handing them a $100 bill just for fun.

Scrip, is what they used to call it, and it once had a bad name in our history. Companies, particularly mining and logging companies, would issue scrip instead of cash for employee wages. The scrip would be redeemable at the company store for goods. The company would mark up prices, keeping the employees poor and in a terrible economic cycle. Neighboring places that were not company owned rarely exchanged the scrip at a 1:1 ration. It is a form of economic enslavement.

This still goes on. I was in a large corporate retail store one day and an employee told me they are paid with a credit card that is only good at the corporate stores, and you can convert it to cash only if you pay a fee. How are these people supposed to pay their other bills?

The company store fell into disfavor in the early 1900s because of child labor laws and other regulations that helped workers free themselves from this type of entrapment. Companies have not abandoned the practice, though. They've just grown more creative with their euphemisms. Call it a gift card if you want; it's still scrip. And it doesn't do a darned thing for you.

A Generic Rant

This is a rant. I don't do these often, but please feel free to bypass this blog entry if you wish.

About five weeks ago, I picked up my prescription for my blood pressure medication and brought it home.

The pills were different. I called the pharmacy. Did you give me the wrong pills, I asked. No, we changed our generic supplier and didn't tell you.

Cue now to today. My blood pressure has been creeping steadily upward over - you guessed it - the last five weeks. It has culminated in a major headache and high and somewhat scary blood pressure numbers. I am counting the hours until I can get in to see my doctor. All of this so the pharmacy can save a few pennies while I feel terrible and die a slow and agonizing death.

My insurance company, of course, won't pay for the name brand medication, and the pharmacy won't sell me the name brand medication because I have insurance. How's that for a nice catch-22?

Changing generics wouldn't be a problem if the generics were actually the same as the name brand medication. However, I have found this is not so. This is not the first time the pharmacy has changed generics with my blood pressure medication and I have had problems. It is a problem I have with nearly all of my medications when I am switched from brand name to the supposedly the same but not generic. It's a well-documented problem that no one is doing anything about.

But we don't want no government regulations in this country! We can't have any one tell us what to do. What the hell? Why is it better that some idiot in a private healthcare company tell me what to do than the government? What damn difference does it make? I'm still being told what I can and can't do and I'm still suffering for it! I'm paying over $7,000 a year for the privilege of being told by some high school beauty queen that the medication my doctor prescribes for me isn't the drug they want me to take.

Is this better because I have the choice of which stupid insurance company to use? Well, guess what, I don't really have a choice. I am on the insurance provided by husband's place of employment because we can't afford anything else. Neither can anyone else I know.

Better yet, the laws are already in place that keep me on this insurance AND HAVE BEEN FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS OR SO. I can't switch because apparently by law I have to be on the insurance provided by my employer. I happen to know I can go to an insurance company down the road and get the exact same policy with the exact same provider for half the price, but because my husband's company offers it, I have to get it there. That is what the insurance agent told me. They can't sell it to me. It's the law and it has been since Ronald Reagan, that great Republican god of commerce and industry.

And this is better? This is great? This is American health care, capitalist style, because all we furking care about in this country is the big green great Goddamn almighty dollar. We live in a society of hooray for me and furk you and I am sick of it.

I am sick of being told that a stupid piece of paper with George Washington's picture on it is more important than any single person's health. I am sick of being told that piece of paper is more important that helping people with mental illness, or putting roofs over the heads of people who are living in their cars.

I am sick of hearing that this stupid piece of paper is more important than education, than health care, than you and me. It's a stupid furking piece of paper! It is not more important than any single living soul on this planet. Stop worshiping money, people! Stop it stop it stop it! It is not the Holy Grail. It is not the reason to live.

The reason to live is to have relationships, to love, to honor, to feel, to care, to provide for yourself and others in the best way you know how. It's not about collecting stupid pieces of green paper! It is not! Why do we think it is?

And why when someone wants to live for peace and brotherhood, and goodness and kindness, why do we rip that person apart? We are one screwed up society. We're a bunch a freaking mental cases running around. The sane people can't be heard because the lunatics are screaming so loud no one can hear anything else.

Let me tell you something. I believe in people. I believe in putting people first, dollars second. I believe in government regulations and taking care of people.

If the fact that I care about you more than I do the dollar bills in my wallet makes me a socialist, then fine, I'm a socialist. Call me names if it will make you feel better. You know I'm right in the long run.

Now excuse me, I'm going to take some generic acetaminophen that probably won't help this headache because it isn't as good as the name brand.

Made to Sell (But Not to Use)

A number of items we've purchased in recent years have not exactly lived up to their hype.

So I'm going to complain.

Companies really don't care if the product they sell to you actually works, because they have your money. Their warranties are often worthless or so convoluted that most folks won't bother with them. Items are made to fall apart at day 92 when you have a 90-day warranty. Count on it.

Additionally, things are made in such a manner that they are not easily handled or easy to care for. And woe unto you if you are an older adult, or female (or both) because few things are made with you in mind.

Most things are made for males age 20-30. The rest of us be damned.

Some of the items that have frustrated me lately include:

Tools. These always irritate me because they are big, bulky, hard to start (women in general have poor upper body strength and trying to pull-start a mower is next to impossible) and generally not made with women's smaller hands and lesser strength in mind. Is it really so hard to make a decent weed eater that a woman can handle, one that actually cuts the grass and doesn't just whack at it? How about a good push cart that doesn't weigh a ton?

Clothing. My blouse fell apart the third time I washed it. Buttons fly off regularly because they are not sewn properly. Hems are crooked. Pockets are not sewn straight into pants. And these are expensive department store clothes, not the stuff off the rack at Walmart.

Humidifiers. I use three of them in the house and have problems with all three. The first one we paid hundreds for - it's a whole house steam humidifier. It worked just beyond its warranty and died a painful death. The company replaced it once, for free, but that one died a painful death as well. Obviously it's not a good product anymore (the very first one was, 23 years ago, but we could no longer obtain parts for it). I have a small steam humidifier that I use in the bedroom. The problem with it? It is cantankerous and will only run with distilled water (which gets expensive), and it is made so that it is difficult to fill. The tank on it is oddly shaped and it won't fit into the sink. The third humidifier is a cool evaporative humidifier and the tank on it leaks badly. It also is shaped weird and won't fit well into the sink, and it is hard to handle and heavy.

Eyeglasses. I am going back tomorrow for a fourth try at replacing a lens in less than a year. Enough said.

Why can't companies make products that last and that work without so much problem? Quality, not quantity, used to be the byword in business, but not anymore. Now companies want to take your money and run, and don't worry about customer service. Once it's out of their warehouse they don't care if you're satisfied or not.

Granted, locally there are a few places that deal with you like you're a human being. The eyeglass shop, for example, is going out of its way to try to fix the issue with my progressive lens, and I greatly appreciate their efforts (which is why I am not naming them). I like the service I receive from my local bank (not the national bank, though the local clerks are okay), my accountant, and the postmasters at the post offices I frequent. The people are the photocopy shop are nice even if I don't agree with them on a few issues.

But these large companies, the ones that are in Bambozzla, Alaska (it's next to Wasilla (not really)) don't care if you're happy with the product. That's why we have to endure assistance from India representatives who can hardly speak English and who suddenly have access to your credit card because you called.

I've had it. I don't spend a lot of money on stuff anyway because I'm not a stuff kind of girl, but in 2011 I plan to buy even less stuff than I normally would. Keep your ol' pieces of junk that won't work right anyhow.

When corporations remember what customer service means, I'll go kiss a frog.

Tongue in cheek

Over on Facebook, some of the locals (Republicans) have started a "cut my taxes, I want small government" type of group. This is a response to a comment that the chairman of the Board of Supervisors made about increasing the meals and lodging taxes, as well as the new real estate reassessment numbers, which for some folks (including myself) went up in spite of the national decline in housing values.

People cry, "don't raise my taxes" but they never say what they will do without. Statewide, you hear that with the gas tax, for instance. Fix the roads but don't raise taxes to do it. Do these people not realize it would be cheaper to pay the gas tax than to fix their shocks or their busted tires? Not to mention the time spent without a car while it is being fixed. So when I hit a pothole, I thank a Republican.

I have no children. I receive absolutely nothing from the school system, but they did educate me a very long time ago. This county has no trash pickup, they don't clear my sidewalk because I don't have one. I do use the libraries and I expect a sheriff's deputy to come with siren blasting should I have need to dial 911. Otherwise I don't really get much for my tax dollars. But frankly, I consider it a privilege to live here, and I don't mind paying my taxes and I don't mind paying so that others may have services, even if I don't use them. But apparently I am a rarity.

Anyway, locally, this county does not have serious government bloat. But let's just cut these taxes and services. I want to see what we will do without. I have been writing about the county budget for five years; I happen to have a copy of the county's budget (but not the school budget) right on my desk.

So let's talk numbers. The county spends about $90 million a year. The school system gets over half of that, about $53 million.

That $90 million comes from state, federal and local taxes. Local taxes - the ones the supervisors have any control over - make up about $41 million. That includes real estate, personal property, business taxes, machinery and tools - all of that stuff. The monies are all lumped together in the budget, so it is difficult to tell what state monies pay for and what local dollars purchase. But $41 million is less than half the budget.

So let's cut some stuff. I'm going to try to cut $41 million out of the local county budget. That means there would be little to no local tax! Yippee.

By the way, just for fun let's say that this $41 million works out to be about $2,700 annually for each tax-paying person in the county, if you figure 15,000 of us pay taxes (that's less than half of the population paying taxes, and I honestly don't know what the real figure is. I'm just guessing.) That really isn't what we pay because businesses pay big chunks in machinery and tools taxes and business license taxes, etc. But for my purposes, I am going to look at it like that.

Using this fantasy, each million the county spends costs each taxpayer about $66.

Numbers are so much fun to manipulate.

But here we go! I'm making cuts (this is all tongue-in-cheek, for those who can't recognize sarcasm when they read it).

1. Parks and recreation. We don't need all those little ball games for the kids, do we? I sure don't. We don't need those ball fields at the schools mowed (the county parks & rec folks do that) and we don't need that senior van that picks up the old folks and takes them to the doctor. We don't need the fishing thing, or the Easter Egg Hunt, or the bridge club for the older generation. We don't need the grounds mowed at Greenfield. Let's get rid of all of that. That's $1.1 million for parks & recreation staff, $77,000 for the senior van program. Oh yeah, let's close the Sports Complex, too. That's another $350,000 right there. We're up to $1.5 million gone. Here's your $99 a year back!

2. Libraries. I guess these go next, even though I do love my library. But we don't need free books, DVDs, books on tapes, right? We don't need access to the Internet, free WiFi. We don't need a place to take the kids for children's program. We don't need those meeting rooms, either (because we're going to nail these buildings shut and maybe sell them). Nevermind that enough stuff is checked out to represent frequent visits by all 32,000 county residents. Let's close these suckers, all of them. That will save $1.1 million. Here's another $70 a year back to you! Will you buy books and DVDs with it?

3. Emergency Services. I hate to see these guys go, but we used to be all-volunteer so we'll go back to that. I mean, so what if when my mother was dying of cancer we had to wait for an hour and 20 minutes for an ambulance to come from Eagle Rock? So what if she was in so much pain we couldn't touch her and all we could do was watch her writhe in agony while we waited for help? We have to keep those tax dollars down! So let's lose this $850,000 in staffing costs plus the $1.5 million the county gives to the volunteers who still run calls. Whew! That's a big cut, with $2.4 million gone. Here's $150 a year back to you! I personally hope it burns a big hole in your damn pocket. May you never need these services, you A-hole.

4. Animal control. Here's a quick way to lose a half-million from the budget! Besides, we don't need the dog catcher coming to get the strays, do we? We don't need him to come and shoot the wounded deer on the side of the road, or get the skunk out of the basement, or any of those other things that animal control people do. Here's $33 back to you!

Gosh, all of these services gone and we're only up to $5.5 million dollars. I've only saved each taxpayer $360! Who knew that those dollars could do so much? Well, let's keep cutting!

5. I want to cut out the school buses. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the school budget, just the county one, and yes, they are different. So I am going to make this number up. Let's say it costs $2 million to bus the kids. It might only cost $1 million or it may cost $3 million I don't know, but I consider busing a waste, just like you maybe consider libraries a waste. I don't care if you have to quit your job to get your kid to and from school. That isn't my problem. You can go work the night shift. I want my $120 a year back, not spent on hauling your kid so she can get an education.

6. Teachers. Again, I don't have numbers for this, but I think 20-25 students per classroom is too few. Let's double those class sizes. Surely it doesn't matter if your kid needs a little individual attention, right? Let's give her a Popsicle and stick her in the back of the room. This has to save at least $2 million, too, wouldn't you think, if we get rid of half of the teachers? I like these big numbers and getting my money back! Whoo! That's another $120 a year in my pocket!

7. School athletics. I don't care about this one at all. We don't need the football teams, wrestling, baseball, any of that crap. Again, I don't have these numbers but I'm going to say $2 million (because it's an easy figure) and do away with this stuff, too. Because that's another $120 a year in my pocket! Whoo! I can go buy myself a football with that if I want.

8. Okay, back to the county's real budget. Oh, here's refuse disposal. That's $600,000. That's more than $33 annually out of my pocket to get rid of trash. Let's go back to dumping stuff in sinkholes and contaminating the water supply. And I like having the trash along the side of the road, too, don't you? Isn't it colorful?

9. Here's a line item that confuses every one. It's "comprehensive services" which I think is actually foster care. This is $1.4 million dollars. Let's do away with foster care because, well, I don't have kids so I certainly don't need it. What do I care if some child is abused and neglected and left to die in the street? Surely someone will take her in, right? And if not, well ... that's what the pauper's cemetery is for.

10. Let's see. Planning and zoning uses up $377,000 of the county's budget. Let's do away with that. Now, when the house next door to you goes into foreclosure and a pig farmer buys it to make a hog mansion, don't squeal! Because you've saved about $10 annually by not having a planning and zoning department.

11. Community organizations. The county supports a number of nonprofits, like TAP and the Free Clinics and things like that. They give $282,700 in that, which is less than $10 a year out of your pocket. Let's do away with that, too.

Let's see. How much have I cut so far? Gosh, just $14.2 million. I've only saved Joe Taxpayer about $950 annually. I'd better cut some more stuff!

12. How about we cut the voter registrar? Let's not even have that at all. Because we don't care if we vote, and you know it's all rigged anyway. That's $209,000 saved.

13. The sheriff has a big budget of $4.1 million. Let's cut that in half and get rid of $2 million from the sheriff's budget. That means we have half the deputies and detectives on the road. Your stuff get stolen from your back yard? Tough. Hope you have insurance.

14. There is also a $3.5 million budget for the jail. Let's get rid of $3 million of that. When the murders and rapists escape and come after your wife and daughter, I guess that's just your bad luck.

Gosh. There are 14 cuts and I've only chopped out $19.4 million. What else should go, do you think? How about the courts? Commonwealth's attorney? After all, with fewer deputies, we won't be prosecuting as many criminals. Maybe we could get rid of the probation officers? Really, don't you think more of these cuts need to come from schools? Maybe we could close a few schools. Do you volunteer your school for a closure?

Anyway, see, I've halved your local tax dollars by half. Look at all the things you no longer have to pay for.

Is it really worth it? I don't think so. I like having libraries, and I like having the parks mowed. I think kids learn better with smaller classes and I want the youth of today to grow up to be productive and vibrant citizens tomorrow. Even if they aren't mine.

I want foster care, social services, mental health care. As a citizen, it is part of my responsibility to ensure that folks who can't care for themselves are taken care of. Handing out $66 a year to ensure that an abused child is cared for is absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I wish people would stop and think. Because it is obvious to me that they really don't know what they're saying. They don't really know what they're asking for. They don't realize, or maybe they just don't care, that their $66 out of pocket goes a very long way when combined with everyone else's.

All they want to do is cry, "lower my taxes."

Call me Scrooge

For over 20 years I have awakened to the sounds of a certain radio station. At 6 a.m. they give a rundown of local news and generally they play Adult Contemporary music. It is a music mix that I enjoy. My alarm goes of just a moment or two before 6 a.m., so I usually hear a song before the news comes on. I like having time to hit the "off" button if I don't feel like listening to the woes first thing.

On Monday, the song that greeted me was a holiday tune. I knew immediately that the station had switched to its Christmas music mix - and it was only November 16. I grabbed my glasses and fumbled with the clock radio dial until I found NPR.

And there it will stay.

I have had it with this station. I love Christmas carols as much as the next person but not before Thanksgiving. That's just too soon. It's bad enough in the stores; I don't need it piped into my house, and I will not tolerate it.

How can a holiday be special if you celebrate it with so much crass commercialism? It's not like they're just playing O Holy Night the entire time, no. They are playing the whole mess, from Grandma Got Runned Over By a Reindeer to Holly Jolly Christmas. Christmas is about the birth of Christ, and the rest of it is just marketing.

But this is not the only reason I will no longer listen to this station. Their contests verge on mean sometimes. Their music has been steadily moving in a direction I don't care for. One of their morning DJs in particular has become so militant I can hardly stand to listen to him some days. So after 20 years, I am telling this radio station "good-bye" and I am moving on to something else.

While I like NPR, I don't particularly like waking up to it. It is nothing but news at that hour and I need a little while to get myself together before being bombarded with the latest crime wave or economic disaster or war or pandemic. So I am thinking now what I need is a whole new wake-up method. Maybe some kind of player for my IPod so I can wake up to something I actually want to hear.

Or maybe I'll just put my clock radio on the buzzer, and let that be my morning song.

A word to renters

In the local daily yesterday, the pet columnist wrote about getting her cat declawed. What irked me was her nonchalant attitude toward her landlord.

This "mean" landlord had a no pet policy so the writer was forced, she said, to get her cat declawed in hopes of keeping the landlord from finding out she had a pet.

What part of "no pets" do people not understand? How was her breaking the rules the landlord's fault? She obviously lied about the cat to get in the place and then was unhappy because the landlord eventually found out about the cat and asked her to leave, in spite of the declawing. I'd have asked her to leave, too.

I have been a landlord through no fault of my own for about 10 years now. It is not a job I am particularly happy to have, but I deal with it.

Being a landlord means dealing with people who have absolutely no concern for your property. This is the house I grew up in. It is a valuable asset. I don't want to see it destroyed.

When I say "no pets" or even "one outside pet" or no smoking or don't park your car atop the septic tank, it is said for a reason.

Pets are hard on a place. They pee on the floor, they scratch things. They stink. But most important for me, I am highly allergic to them and when a renter has a pet in there and leaves, I have to hire someone to clear the place out because it will make me sick. It costs me money.

People who rent seem to have no regard for their landlord. This is a generalized and sweeping statement, I know, but it has been the truth so far in my experience with renters. Either they let the place fall down around them and don't call if the roof leaks or they call every time they need a light bulb changed, and they do that at 11 p.m. at night.

I guess renters make generalized and sweeping statements about landlords, as in, they're all bad and it's okay to try to outsmart them. But this is untrue as well.

My little old farmhouse is currently available to rent. I am a good landlord. If something breaks, I fix it. I do that within days, not in months. If you're late on the rent, I'm understanding until it becomes a monthly habit. I pay to have the house sprayed for bugs and rodents to be sure you're living in a clean environment (if the renter is a pig who doesn't know what a trash can is for I can't do much about that except ask them to leave).

I do ask my renters not to smoke inside. I prefer no pets but have given up trying to enforce that policy so I will allow a small animal with a $200 non-refundable deposit. Actually, at the moment if a no-smoking, no pet person wanted to rent the house right now, I might even cut a little off the monthly rent.

But don't lie to me because I'm your landlord. Don't tell me you have no pets and then bring in a dog. And certainly, don't blame me because you disobey the rules and have your cat declawed. In no way is that the landlord's fault. Look at yourself for that, dearie.



This house is for rent. It can be your home for $750 a month. Wonderful, caring landlord comes free.

Corporate welfare

Ukrops in Roanoke is closing.

The grocery chain, which I have visited approximately five times, was nice and all but since I did not shop it frequently (I live too far away), I had trouble finding the deals. To be honest, I stopped in there for one single item that I could not find elsewhere, and it is something I can live without.

What most folks don't know, since apparently few people read an article all the way through anymore, if they read it at all, is that the City of Roanoke gave the property developer many incentives to build Ivy Market (the name of the development) on this location. So let me remind you.

The deals cut for Ukrops/Ivy Market, a $20 million project, are thus (from The Roanoke Times archives):

$9 million package. "The agreement will allow Painter's development company, IMD Investment Group, to get a maximum $600,000 city grant annually for 15 years. The grants, or rebates, are to be based on the amount of revenue Ivy Market produces annually. The program will be administered through the city's Industrial Development Authority. None of the money will be paid to the developer upfront." - The Roanoke Times, December 19, 2004

According to this article, the developer told the city the project would bring in $1.4 million in annual tax revenue. That meant the city would still get $800,000 after it gave the developer $600,000. But the city's own analysis indicated the amounts actually would be more like $900,000. They went ahead with the deal anyway.

In the same article, which reviews emails, note this quote. "The chances of Ukrop's leaving during the next 15 years are extremely small," [Councilman Brian]Wishneff wrote. He is not a councilman anymore.

I call this largess with taxpayer money corporate welfare. It means the city is giving the developer back money because he decided to operate there. The city hopes to gain financially from their investment over time.

I also call it bullshit. If someone wants to develop something in a community, let them come, provided they meet the zoning, but why pay them? They take the taxpayer dollars and run. Botetourt County has offered incentives many times to businesses, and now we have big empty buildings. Was it really to the citizenry's advantage to make concessions, to offer tax breaks or money up front? Did the jobs stay forever? Did they even last 10 years?

Another instance of corporate welfare is federal agricultural subsidies. This is supposed to help small farmers, you know. We are small farmers. Do you know how much money we receive from the federal government?

ZERO. Not one single penny. Nada, nothing, zippo.

And every other small farmer I know, with the exception of a couple of local dairies, receives nothing, too. Guess who does get all of those millions? ConAgra, DuPont, Cargill, all of the big companies. The companies that don't need the money just to eat and be able to watch cable.

Walmart also receives federal dollars. As of 2004, the $256 billion company had received over $1 billion in state and local government subsidies. In the 1990s it received over $5 million from Roanoke City for its Valley View store. (The Roanoke Times, Dec. 19, 2004). No wonder it wants to put in more Walmarts here. Follow the money.

Here are some of Roanoke's other corporate welfare projects, from the same article:

1994 - First Union, $500,000, 200 new jobs
Early 1990s - Wal-Mart - $5 million for the Valley View store
Mid-1990s - Roanoke Electric Steel, $260,000 for a $14 million investment
1997 - Maple Leaf Bakery, $757,324 for a $20 million investment
1997 - First Citizens Bank, $25,000, 30 new jobs
1999 - Johnson Johnson Spectacle Lens Group, $9.17 million, $125 million investment
2000 - Precision Technology USA, $80,000 $2.2 million investment; 112 new jobs
2001 - Foot Levelers, $34,790, $3.3 million investment
2001 - The Roanoke Times, $600,100, $25 million minimum investment
2002 - Advance Auto, $1.13 million, $6.7 million investment; 168 new jobs
2003 - SEMCO, $150,000, $4 million minimum investment
2003 - Boxley Materials Co., $154,000, $2.5 million investment; 9 new jobs
2004 - Member One, $66,000, $6 million investment

And then you have something like Gander Mountain in northern Roanoke County, which is the only development I've ever heard of that actually turned down incentive money. Good for them. I try to shop there when I need something they sell.

This is our country. Corporate welfare is a plague. This kind of madness needs to stop. NOW. Make corporations work within their own budgets. That is what the rest of us. Why should a corporation be any different?

If wishes were dimes

There are 305 million people in the United States.

Let's say there are about 150 million households (I think it is a smaller number than that - more like 130 million - but I didn't feel like sifting through the Census Bureau website.).

It seems to me that if the government is giving away money, it would be easier, faster and cleaner just to send it to the households.

Let's skip the banks and all of this other stuff and let the people manage their own money.

If the government handed out $100,000 to 150 million households, that would $15 with 12 zeros after it. I think (hope?) that is $15 trillion.

Okay, that's a lot. And it's out of the $800 billion range, so let's make it $10,000. That's $15 with 11 zeros after it, and I think that is $150 billion dollars. That would leave $650 billion out of the $800 billion stimulus fiasco which I think should go toward building infrastructure and doing only things that are job related. It should not go to banks and financial institutions, even though my bank is one of the banks apparently gaining windfalls from tax dollars these days.

A lot of people are going to save that $10,000, you know. That's money in the bank. Some will spend it, but others will pay off credit cards, maybe catch up on those delinquent mortgages. The banks would get their share that way. Good banks would benefit the most, if the market theories are correct.

If necessary, somebody correct my math if it is in error, please, because I majored in English and not math.

My point is, whatever the numbers, couldn't the populace do a lot of economic stimulating itself if we had the money? If you're going to throw away dollars, why not give it to the people who actually need it?

Couldn't every household use $10,000?

I don't have a problem with the government stepping in to help. Government should do that. I just wish it would step in and help the people who really could use the help, and not the high rollers and the folks who created the problem in the first place.

Here We Go Again - Up in the Air

Two hot air balloons flew over our house this morning around 9 a.m.

The cows stampeded to the other end of the farm.

The balloonists were flying too low. They are supposed to be a certain height over the area and these fliers were not.

It is the "whoosh" of the propane gas burners that scares the cows. This noise like a dragon sets them off and they will run from one end of the farm and through the fence in order to get away from it.

My husband ran outside and began calling the cows to try to calm them. "Whooo cow... Whooo" he cried.

They were not reassured. They ran off like they had Satan on their heels. I took pictures of the low-flying hot air balloons which I will deliver to the Commonwealth's Attorney's office on Monday.

We also yelled at the balloonists. The balloon operators hit their burners and quickly went higher (where they should have been to begin with) and then the wind currents took them in another direction.

I know they heard us because I went up in a hot air balloon once. You can hear everything on the ground, even conversation at normal volume. Sound apparently travels up.

My husband jumped in the truck and went after the cows. They were on the other side of the farm, huddled in the corner at the fence. He had to fire up the tractor and take them a large round bale of hay to coax them out.

After my husband calmed the cows, we called the sheriff.

If the cows go through the fence or if one breaks a leg while running away from these balloons, we are the ones incurring the loss. Not these hot air balloonists. As it was it cost us time, gasoline and a bale of hay that we can ill afford in these times of drought.

Cows are not cheap. We have many thousands of dollars invested in these animals. I understand horses also go nuts at the sound of a hot balloon. I was told last year that one horse badly injured himself trying to jump out of its stall when a balloon went over.

One of the reasons this is so vexing is that if these people would go just 10 more minutes down the road, they could fly over thousands of acres of public National Forest land and not disturb anyone. With all of that National Forest you'd think they could find some place down that way to take off and land that did not inconvenience others. Not all of the National Forest is wooded; there are open fields.

This is the problem with the world today. Everyone is "hooray for me" and "screw you." I don't think for a moment that these balloonists care that they cost my husband an hour of his morning or that he is very upset.

We have had problems with a balloonist in the past. So this is not new, nor is this the first time we've filed a report. We know the drill and that is how I know to take my photos to the Commonwealth's Attorney.

If I were a hot air balloonist and I knew I had people yelling at me, when I landed and was able to locate a computer with the county's GIS on it, I would figure out who those landowners were and I would contact them and apologize. Even if I had to make several calls to get the right farmer.

However we have never had any contact with any of these balloonists and of course we don't have any way to know who they are. I think one of them operates a ballooning business here but I have never seen the multi-colored balloon before.

I wish people would think about their actions. Hot air balloons are lovely but like everything they have their place.

And that is not over a farm full of scared and frightened cattle.