A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

- – Alexis de Tocqueville

It’s not too difficult to imagine that our nation will likely steepen its decline into socialism and total loss of freedom.  November’s election is perhaps the most important in our future.  If the Democrats win the end of a free America is ensured.  If Republicans win the end is likely too, but it may be put off for a decade…maybe.  A look into Europe is a window to our future.  The European socialists have had their way for decades and Europe’s decline is yet another example of what socialism does to people.  Germany seems to be the strongest player in Europe and has taken some difficult and painful steps to shore up their country which has been framed as “austerity measures” by most of the media.  This is no favor to Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, who has been fighting the good fight to secure her country’s future, but her countrymen want stuff for free as foreseen by de Tocqueville.

Merkel faces rout in state vote over austerity

This follows last week’s dismal news from France’s election of a socialist in which most feel the deciding factor was again the cost cutting measures.

Socialist Francois Hollande defeats Nicolas Sarkozy in French presidential election

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

- – Alexis de Tocqueville

Although de Tocqueville was talking about America in this quote it is hard to not recognize the trend in other western countries.  It is a sad decline for western civilization that I am not sure can be reversed.  It is staggering that nearly 50 percent of Americans do not pay any taxes leaving the rest of us to foot the bill.  How sustainable is that?  The wealthy that Obama complain about will be fine.  They can relocate.  It will be the rest of us, what used to be called the middle class, who will be left holding the bag.

Coup d’Etat evil again rears its ugly head in the Middle East as tensions broil between India and Pakistan.  Mix in two countries that don’t like each other, historic tensions, nuclear weapons, terrorists, jihadists, and loads of money and you just might get a coup.  Coes’ hero is ex-black ops guy who really wants to be off the grid.  Dewey Andreas gets pulled back in to take on a near-suicidal mission.

This was a highly enjoyable novel full of action and adventure that hopefully does not lie in our future.  I look forward to more from Coes and Andreas. 

It is frustrating trying to pin down a doctor regarding diagnosis. A doctor in the ER noted the diagnosis, and ordered treatment for the infection, but said that she could not confirm until the cultures were back in 24-48 hours. That’s a long time. I talked to the floor nurse and she was more affirmative about my mother’s condition. It is a sad state that a doctor can diagnose and treat, but is unable to confirm w/o tests. Why have all of the education if they only rely on test results?

So they bring my eighty-something year old mother to her first room. Did you note the “first” room? At this point my mom is wiped out and barely awake. My sister and I are in the room with her until she gets settled. She has a rather loud roommate who was on the telephone a lot. In addition to her volume, she was very emotional. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but she made it hard not to hear and I am nebby-by-nature. At one point she mentioned that she was in “detox.” We were not happy campers and I mentioned it to one of the doctors and simply “hoped that she was safe” in that room. About 15 minutes later they were disconnection my mom’s IV and moving her to another room. She even got the window view in the new room.

The treatment worked wonders and my mom was back to her old self so we anticipated a release in the next day or so. She has had trouble with arthritis and her posture and walking are a problem. We suggested that she be evaluated since she was there and therapists thought she would do well with some rehabilitation. We started the dual task of convincing her and finding a good place nearby. Again with the idea that she’d be getting out the second day. The case workers had already printed a list for us of potential rehab sites.

I never could sync with her primary care doctor, but was able to get updates from a resident. The day I thought she would be discharged I had a startling conversation with him. It seemed that her blood levels were quite low and she needed a transfusion and the quote that is burned in my brain “with blood levels that low she could be fine one minute and crash the next.” She got the blood and the added odyssey of the testing to see why she was anemic.

If you have ever watched a hospital show, and I know that it is just television, you see doctors ordering tests and getting back results and speeding around healing patients. That is about as far from the truth as it can get. My experience was that they ordered a test, had the test the next day, and possibly got the results that night and then decided what to do…oh another test. This one we only waited about 48 hours for. We actually had one of the doctors tell us in response to our questions that he “could only answer general questions” about my mother’s condition. WTF?

Since it was a colonoscopy the test was preceded by a liquid diet, a bottle of laxative and a few laxative pills and “nothing by mouth” after midnight followed by a night sitting as close to the pot as possible. As of ten when I arrived the next day there was no test. Then they came and had her walk to the hallway to get on the gurney and was quickly NOT sped away to the test. Having laid in the cold hallway for an hour the doctor called and said that they had an “emergency” and couldn’t do her test that day. They got my mother back in bed and one of the nurses was nice enough to get her a cup of chicken broth since she had no food for over 24 hours. She had no sooner finished her broth when another nurse came in and told her that the test was back on…except that she had the broth and when she told the nurse he said he’d have to check, but didn’t think it was a problem.

It was a problem! They didn’t admit it, but all of a sudden they were not able to do the test for some reason. Not the broth mind you. I really couldn’t be upset that a caring nurse gave my hungry mother some nourishment. I was frustrated that the freakin lab seemed in such disarray. We couldn’t even get a firm time for her test the next day. These doctors are like a cable company. I’ll stick a camera up your butt between 7:30 and 2:30…just be ready when we arrive. Fortunately she only had to drink another bottle of the laxative and could skip the pills and enema for the second go around.

When I got to the hospital the next day it was after her fifth night there and she had her test and was resting uncomfortably. “Unofficial” indications were that the test was fine and that her blood work continued to improve, but no one would send her home. We wanted to get her on her way as the next day was the Pittsburgh Marathon with 25,000 runners and hundreds of detours. Not a good time to move between hospitals. The hospital was very gracious and kept her until well after the marathon was over so she didn’t get to the rehab center until later in the afternoon at which time they decided to inquire about how she would get to the new facility.

I had been out in my yard catching up on some landscaping. When I got back in I noticed several calls and one from the hospital. Not a call you want. There was a big kerfuffle about transportation. Calls being made, questions unanswered. Now that she could be discharged the machine went into action to get her out. When my mom didn’t know the answer they all of a sudden found a way to communicate better.

This is not meant as a hit piece on the healthcare system. I just found the delays mind-numbing. I also cannot speak to why tests cannot be run more efficiently. By my reckoning her stay should have been at least two days shorter. She would have been in rehab sooner and closer to coming home where she belongs.

By the way I am still waiting to her what her last blood count was.

Just when I thought the lame-stream-media just couldn’t get any worse in their quest to re-elect Barry Sortoro (AKA BHO) ABC News (hardly a news organization anymore) had this headline today;

Obama Hits the Campaign Trail: 5 Things to Watch

This absolutely floors me.  Obama has been on the campaign trail at least since last fall and in earnest since January.  Does ABC News actually believe that his constant trips to primary states (on our dime) is just about policy?  The Republicans have been fussing over the number of trips and events for months and even filed complaints to the General Accounting Office;

“Obama for America has been cheating the American taxpayer by using taxpayer dollars to fund their general election efforts,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “The president, who has held more campaign events in 3.5 years than any other president did in their full term, should refund the taxpayers for the cost of these trips through his campaign account Obama for America.”

The RNC marked the 100th fundraiser that Obama attended back on March 1st.  Even ABC had a piece just two days ago about Obama breaking a record for the number of fund raisers which the put at 132 since last year.   The following video was narrated by the same dude who wrote the above-headlined article.

Here, as promised, are some of the phrases that strain belief…at least for me;

“As the president and first lady hit the campaign trail together today for their first public rallies of 2012″

“Four years after “Obamamania” swept college campuses and across the country, we will get a glimpse of what the phenomenon looks like the second time around.”

“Aides believe the “forward” argument effectively sells Obama’s progress on the economy – including Friday’s anemic jobs report – because some progress is better than none, and certainly better than going in the opposite direction.”

“Michelle Obama’s role in the rallies and in the weeks ahead will be worth watching closely. “She can speak to the president’s character and steady hand in times of crisis and she can tell stories about what his accomplishments have meant to millions of Americans,”

So the Obama campaign strategy is that “Forward” is the new slogan as perhaps “forward off of the cliff” and that “some progress is better than none,” and that having the “incredibly popular” FLOTUS introduce him knowing that she fantasizes about walking out the front door and leaving.

Sounds like a campaign that is just getting started or sputtering.

“It’s the economy stupid”

- – James Carville – -

The photograph of the windmills on the cover should have tipped me off, but I judged the book by its title not its cover.  My mistake.  Author Dave Black delved into the threats of looming man-made global warming or was it climate change to start the book.  That’s real turn off for me.  Although Black does provide some detailed information about wind and/or solar power, my thought is that if you can afford these types of systems you can afford to have the experts to install them so those details were lost on me.  I cannot say that I gained anything from this book.  Oh wait I know how to turn a 5-gal bucket into a toilet.

It will be interesting to see how fast Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and other politicians will throw the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement under the bus now that five OWS members were caught trying a little anarchy of their own by blowing up a major bridge in Ohio.  Fortunately these jokers’ plan was about as conherent as OWS’s message and they bought their fake explosives from the FBI.  My local paper pinned the story directly to the OWS movement, but it will be interesting to see how the Associated Press tries to spinn this.  Perhaps they were misguided or perhaps not satisfied with the peaceful means that is the cornerstone of the OWS movement (FYI that was meant to be dripping with sarcasm). 

The OWS movement quickly disavowed any connection with the long-time OWS members;

“Occupy disavows any relation of violent action to our movement. We oppose using the same tactics the military-industrial complex uses to oppress global citizens, which is violent action,”

So you have a group that illegally “occupies” private and public land, has had violent clashes with authorities, preaches anarchy, and will occasionally poop on a police car tell you they they are against violence.  If it smells like it and looks like it, it’s it and these folks are all about clashes.  I find it understandable that OWS would want to distance themselves, but this smells too much like them, their leaders, their enablers, and most importantly their funders.  I am not suggesting that they officially sanctioned the bombing like Bill Ayers’ Weather Underground did back in the 60s, but how do you not connect them?  Look at the statement above…look at the photographs of the bombers (alleged)…look at any OWS protest location.

Smells doesn’t it?

The most frustrating thing for me is that I paid full price for this book.  I actually pre-ordered it from Amazon.

If you are a fan of high-tech, CSI type mysteries this novel is probably not for you, but if you just like a very good mystery and good old detective work this is highly recommended.  Based on my research about Jack the Ripper the author took great care in providing correct information which lends to the quality of the work.  You’ll just have to pick up a cop if you must know whether Holmes solved the mystery.

— Ayn Rand

Behind the scenes the socialist/progressives/liberals/Democrats are waging war against our corporations.  They are a well organized minority (not in the racial sense though they are not opposed to use this card, but in the sense that there aren’t that many of them).  They seem to have a game plan and are prepared to mobilize upon a perceived sleight.  Look how quickly they pounced on Rush Limbaugh when he used the word slut to refer to the Democrat operative, Sandra Fluke, as a slut.  The battle was enjoined and the left targeted Limbaugh’s advertisers.  They felt that this was their moment, their dream, their Holy Grail…Rush Limbaugh’s head on a proverbial platter.  Some advertisers did bow to the pressure, but most stayed and others were in line to take up the airtime now available.  Two months later Rush is still on the air and seems to have suffered no ill affects of the controversy.

While Rush’s battle was front page news as long as the liberal (main stream) media could stoke the flames, there is another battle where the left has seemed to gain a foothold.  The battle is against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which is described as a “four-decade-old policy organization of state legislators and like-minded business people who believe in ‘the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty” or as I would call it American Constitutionalism.  The crisis that is being used to target ALEC is the Trayvon Martin shooting as the left blames ALEC for the Stand Your Ground self-defense legislation.

This kind of attack on corporations is typical, but the real sad part is that many companies are buckling to the pressure like;

• McDonald’s
• Wendy’s
• Mars Inc.
• Coca-Cola
• PepsiCo
• Kraft Foods
• Intuit
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
• Yum Brands
• Procter and Gamble

Rather than going Galt they are abandoning ALEC.  Michelle Malkin suggests and I agree that we conservatives also lend our voices and pocketbooks to the discussion.  How about a Whopper, a Hershey bar, an RC Cola, and Sargento cheese on your pizza tonight?