I've Got Things to Say About the V.A.

     As an adult child of a parent who served in Korea and the relative of several other veterans alive and deceased, I certainly have things to say about the V.A. and the recent investigation. Yes I do. [Paragraph eight for those who want to skip the antipasto].

     I do not like the President. I refer to him as Obummer because he certainly has been a bummer. The government should be involved in as little as possible in my opinion. I think the government should get out of the marriage business, health care insurance, and the interwebz. And quit picking on responsible and sane and law-abiding citizens who like guns.

     I believe that folks who get married by any clergy should be referred to as married. Those who get married by a justice of the peace, that would be a secular ceremony and thus "partnered" with the same rights and responsibilities as those couples who opted for a religious sort of ceremony. This is a long-time opinion that I hold. Clergy and places of worship are already protected by law in that they are not required to solemnize any sort of coupling that they cannot agree with by reasons of faith or other. Civil rights for all civils [*civilians]. Thus two adults of the same gender can get hitched at city hall or by any clergy that will have them. End of problem. 

     I am furious about the Obummer Care fiasco. I am livid about forcing seniors and disabled into this "donut hole" where people are then required to beg for charity in order to pay for meds. [N.B. Any disabled person is not eligible for their state's pharmacy discount program unless they are age 62. And if they worked long enough not to be eligible for Medicaid, well, it's shit out of luck time for them]. To be fair, the whole donut hole crap was started during Bush 43. Obummer did not help matters. In a few years, there will be a new tax for anyone who has signed up for expensive "better than the usual" health insurance. It's in there. I read the manuscript. Fasten your seatbelts folks. This healthcare crapola is scheduled to get worse and worse.

     Obummer and the N.S.A. versus the Interwebz: G.T.F.O., period. Leave the internet alone for crying out loud. Parents bear the responsibility for what their kids view on the web and on television and every other thing. If I wanted a set of rug rats, I would have had them. We don't want any stinking national I.D. card with our very own government generated "password" on it in order to access the Interwebz. Hey, alternative satellite web to be started by the people for the people and screw the N.S.A. and national internet i.d. cards, I'm down with that. Screw you N.S.A. for doing what you are doing and screw the politicians too.

     And hey, don't like guns? Don't get one. I'd rather have my loaded gun when a serial killer or a rapist barges into my space than do what has been suggested by Paul Rosenthal, democrat politician. Women who are about to get raped should "pee their panties?" Or maybe upchuck on the bad guy. Uh, no. Blow the rapist away and apologize later. Hey. Those who have ever been suicidal ought to hook up with a crossbow or something else instead of a gun. Arrows are harder to aim at oneself than bullets are. Just saying. Anyway, guns or other weapons for safety for all civils [*civilians] who want them and don't have a mental hell history and stuff like that. A national registry-- hell no Jack. 

     Less government, more fun.


     Unfortunately, I have been exposed to the ways and means of the local Veteran's Administration as the relative of a veteran. First off, the wait for appointments. Yep, someone got that right. I swear, the system is hoping that veterans [and old people and the disabled] will die rather than render aid in a timely manner. When the appointments to see the V.A. "primary care doc" must all get previewed by a nurse in that office first and said nurse never calls back, even after being called repeatedly, there might be a problem. My solution was simple. Take Dad to our family doc for all care and concerns. Visit the V.A. primary care doc when forced to-- which is currently once or twice a year.

     Getting Dad to the V.A. emergency room during a severe illness is impossible. The local ambulance will not deliver any vet to the V.A. hospital without a hefty charge of over a thousand bucks. So Dad goes to the local hospital's E.R. No matter how incompetent the medical staff there might be, he does not have any other choice. The local ambulance service will only deliver to one hospital. You know why??? Because Medicare balks at paying ambulance services for deliver to anywhere but the local hospital. Thanks for nothing, inefficient Medicare system. The V.A. medical staff all want the families to get their loved one to the V.A. E.R. during a crisis. Hey, not possible.

     Appointments at the V.A. next. These would be the specialty clinics-- eye appointments, neurology, urology and all the other ologies that are at the V.A. and not at the local V.A. "primary care physician's" office. Count on spending most of the day there for one appointment. Taking a demented and incontinent and very tired vet to a crowded waiting room for several hours at a clip just does not work out well for anyone except the V.A.'s way of doing things. Which is to say, inefficient way of doing things.

     If Dad had bloods or tests done at the local hospital E.R. or via the family doc, that doesn't matter. The V.A. wants their own tests. Go ahead, give the old man yet another swallowing eval or head scan or bloods or urine tests. It's only money. It's wasteful. And stressful for the already stressed out patient.

     I pause here to say yes, there are many dedicated staff people at the V.A. [the V.A. primary care doc and nurse excluded]. Even so, the system is stifling.

     Do I think Obummer should screw around with the V.A. system?, having said all of that. Hell no. Obummer should not be engaging in healthcare policies. The V.A. system is inefficient yes. We don't need the president to step in. Step out Obummer and go away. Privatization does not benefit the patient. We can create change without the latest dictator in D.C. And we can do it faster and better than Obummer can. 

radical sapphoq says: The above is a rant and includes my opinions. My opinions aren't necessarily fact but neither are they necessarily fiction. I said it once and I'm about to say it again. Less government, more fun. I'm out. 

KILLING THE KILLERS AND TREATING OUR VETS 3/5/07

Rocky Mountain News reports that a prisoner with a traumatic brain injury [and P.T.S.D. who also hears voices] along with his cousin allegedly killed a third inmate back in 1999. William Sablan-- the prisoner with the t.b.i.-- was taped pulling out guts [from the sliced abdomen] of dead man Joey Estrella and showing them to a guard who was awaiting entry into the prison cell. William Sablan, who had arrived at the prison three days earlier and not given a psych exam at that time, also drank from a bottle which he said contained Estrella's blood and boasted loudly that he had killed Estrella. His clothing was covered with the blood of the murder victim.

Sablan's cousin Rudy Sablan was the third cellmate. He is also accused of the murder of Estrella. Both men face the death penalty if convicted. Estrella was choked with a headphone cord around his neck allegedly by Rudy Sablan. This was followed by the slitting of his throat with a prison-issued razor allegedly by William Sablan. It is the loss of blood from the throat wound that caused Estrella's death. Neuropsych Reuben Gur testified that William Sablan's brain injury limited his ability to plan the murder and to control his behavior.

Another inmate, Arthur Peck, testified that William Sablan and Joey Estrella were drinking and fighting in the cell on the evening of the murder. He also maintained that he saw Rudy Sablan choking Estrella with the headphone cord.

William Sablan's other criminal activities included burglary, assault, and the takeover of a fed pen. He has confessed to the crime, adding that it wasn't any big deal. The defense team is maintaining that "he couldn't help it."

Oh pluuu---ease. Dude did it. Dude said he did it. Dude had enough of a functioning brain to play a significant part in the planned takeover of a fed pen in Saipan. And now what? We are supposed to feel sorry for him. If dude is "unable" to control his behavior, dude is still a huge risk for doing it again. Furthermore, dude was drinking. Folks with t.b.i. are not supposed to drink even a little bit, whether in the penal system or not. radical sapphoq says: guy needs to fry.

Meanwhile, some real heroes are going without adequate treatment for traumatic brain injuries received in the blasted war over in Iran and all the rest of those places. The Veteran's Admin can boast all it wants to about assigning case managers to soldiers. Soldiers are being kicked out of the hospital early, being given inadequate directions to find caseworkers or out-patient clinics, being threatened with cutoff of treatment because their families didn't want them to be sleeping all the time so private treatment was sought and obtained, or being told they were "always slow" and are faking brain injuries for show.

I'd say our priorities are mixed up. Taxpayers are footing the astronomical bill for William Sablan's defense lawyer. Yet our soldiers are going without. Our soldiers deserve the absolute best state-of-the-art treatment for every single medical ailment they have in clean and beautiful surroundings for the rest of their lives, not just for two years after combat as currently allowed. Apparently Walter Reed Hospital has a mold problem. I'd say that is the very least of what is wrong with the system of health care for our returning vets. Let's hope that the new head of the hospital can get the hospital's act together a bit better.

radical sapphoq


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5388591,00.html

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=10&a=285682

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/11139919/detail.html

http://presszoom.com/story_124920.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/washington/05cnd-medical.html?hp

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5352887,00.html

http://origin.denverpost.com/lacrosse/ci_5213142

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5348167,00.html

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5164805

http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/5770311.html

http://www.shortnews.com/shownews.cfm?id=60193