A NEW YEAR AND AN OLD YEAR

We come to the end of another year. It is now the time to reflect on the things that we have done, the things we didn't do and the things that we thought about doing.
A time to think about the people we saw, the ones we missed seeing and the ones that have left us and we will see no more.
It is also a time to resolve to do better in all things, not just one simple resolution but resolve to live life better, do more positive things and toss away the negative. To this end I say..... BOTTOMS UP...

The last days of Mom.

I lay there and thought I was thinking about having “it” with my lovely wife, who wasn’t there, when Mom called. “It” is good for the soul, releases tensions and feels good. I didn’t really need to do “It” because I wasn’t particularly aroused at all,so it was no big deal when I didn’t get to have "it". I got up and went into the ‘space’. It couldn’t be called a room really, we had put the hospice bed in the living room because it was the room with the TV and truly the only room large enough in the house to accomodate it. So I went into the space and she gestured to me that she needed pain medication, i.e. morphine. This was the first time she had wakened  me for that sole purpose. Usually she had to visit the bathroom. So this was probably the real beginning of the end --I had stated that several times that it was the real beginning of the end and maybe this time I was right, who knows.

Yes, my mom was dying. The pussies that called themselves doctors wouldn’t say how long or what they thought was the time frame because they didn’t want me to come back and sue them if they were wrong. You know, two weeks sir...and then she hangs on for a year... no one sues doctors for being wrong in a positive way but if they said she has six months and she goes tomorrow, people might try to sue. Not me, I will get my money some other way. The doctors have enough to worry about. Can you imagine graduating from college, ready to enter the door to your first job with $250,000 in loans to pay off? You have that and the old life and death thing on your hands too.

Not like firefighters though, they get thrust into the flames willy nilly and never know when. But to be fair, they rarely are in danger. Most fires are run of the mill and not much happens except that it gets hot and then very wet and then it is over. Three hundred and sixty four days a year the firefighter doesn’t get in a dangerous situation. Police maybe two seventy five. 

Doctors, are on the string every day they work.

(You know, back when I was little they called this ‘stream of conscious’ writing. I think it is really just ADD.)

So doctors have it rough from the minute they walk into the ‘school of medicine’ which is much like a school of sharks, I suspect but with more fiber.

So anyway, I go to mom, get her the medicine she needs, and go back and try to sleep. It is 2:40, after all, and I should be sleepy. So I drift into never never land. Why is it called that anyway, or am I the only one that calls it that? Sleep, I mean, not the earlier ‘it’.

The real problem here is what the hell do you do with a situation like this. She is never gonna get better, you can’t off her but she really needs to be offed because she hurts too much. Keeping her around for the next  _____? days costs about two fifty or more a day and does her no favors. Not to  mention the stress it puts on me and the other family members who have to come by and make sure she has someone here all the time so she doesn’t die. What? she is dying but we do the death watch thing anyway. Always some one here with mom.

When I was a youngster,and I mean eight or nine, I would always tease mom, ‘get her goat’ they used to call it, and she would chase me around the house, literally outside we would run around the house, it was a small house, only 4 rooms and 750 square feet, so she often times would have a glass of water that she would throw at me when in range. Usually just the water, sometimes if she was really aggravated she would throw the glass (a plastic tumbler) too, but she almost always missed with both.  This, I believe, gave us a special bond, like ‘our little secret’, only everybody knew about it because, believe me, we weren’t quietly running, we were yelling at each other like the house was burning down. (see ,the firefighters reference returns, but only briefly). 

So where was I? Oh, yeah, the beginning of the end. How do you know? I bet I will know it when I see it. I did with dad

. Yeah, he was a scholarly man that taught High School (note the caps? that is because I think that that job is way under rated in the importance scale). Scholarly is not really the right word but there really isn’t a word that would work. He was a thrifty man when younger and even in early retirement he went out and dug the six foot hole needed to hook up the new water company because he didn’t want to pay for the back hoe. The same man spent hours grading papers at home and making lesson plans. He made less than forty grand a year in all his working years. I think it was much less than that but I don’t know for sure. I know that he never got an advanced degree. Partly because he wanted to keep the money to live on and partly because when he took some ‘education courses’ he kept using the word bullshit when referring to the course description. So scholarly is not the word, maybe well read and interested in reading more, would be a good description. He was always efforting toward learning. He watched the PBS station when they did a nature show and loved the early days of Disney when Disney was the only place you could see a flick with turtles screwing and foxes running. He bought a telescope to watch the stars with when we were young, he bought a bigger one when we were older and a programmable one at seventy years old or so. He loved music, mostly classical and in his older years got to be a fanatical Opera fan. So I knew when the end was near with him. When he stopped watching PBS and only listened to music he had heard before, no new music of any type, it was apparent he had given up. He was a devout non believer and skeptic extraordinaire of anything not verifiable. So when he quit ‘learning’ and concentrating on the nuances of Gotterdamerung, I knew it was going to be soon.

So when mom stopped watching the Sunday news programs so she could holler at the Republicyuks, I knew it was soon. When she stopped posting stuff about them on Facebook, I was sure, and when she lost interest in even using the computer, I knew it was gonna be soon.

2

  Well, she lost interest in eating and even in having water, then, even so, she would sit up on the side of the bed. I had to have the wheel chair removed from the bedside, because even as weak as she had become, she got into it the other night when I was sleeping and I didn’t wake up until she turned on damn near every light switch she could reach from the chair. When I finally got to her she had her cell phone in her hand and was trying to remember how to call 911. Luckily she didn’t remember how. But when I asked her what she was doing she said she was trying to call 911 because she couldn’t find me. I think if she could have walked she would have gone to the car and tried to drive away. She had a strong will.

  It was only a few more days of pain and empty stares with no recognition of most people and then she was gone.  The  remarkable thing about it was that the day of the evening she died, she sat up on the side of the bed and when the nurse asked her her name, she knew it and her birth day too. My brother came storming, yes that was what it was like, in from out of town and sat with her holding her hand. He had not seen her at her worst and she was that, I told him that as bad as it looked this was the norm for the last several days. He said he had a feeling, he had had the same feeling with Dad and he was right then, he had stormed in that day and it was Dad’s last. I poo poohed the idea and when he calmed down he ran to do an errand. While he was gone she died. My wife was there to help me  and spend the night with me and Mom but Mom died early in the evening. She appeared to be sleeping and then I noticed that she wasn’t appearing to breathe and I was right. May she rest in peace as they say, whatever the hell that means. Maybe it is a real commentary on life. The only time we are not at war is in death. Some would say that even in death there is war in a place called Hell. Maybe so but I hope not. That would be the cruelest thing there is.

3

  Maybe Hell is cruel but what about this lovely health care system. I don’t mean HMOs  or Obamacare or any such, I mean can’t there be something that can be done for the terminally ill that are in constant pain? I don’t know how I  will react when they tell me I have terminal something. What goes through one’s mind when you know your days are short. Some people go and do them selves in but the majority have to sit in their hospice bed and wait, often in pain, until they don’t have to wait anymore. Is that not cruel and unusual? The murderers on death row get a quiet injection until they are gone, why can’t we do the same for an obvious terminal case? Is that a fair way to treat the mother and father who kept us from harm and made our life easier? Let them sit in pain knowing it will never go away and they will not recover? Cruel and usual is what that is.

  My beloved dog was in a lot of pain and we gave him an injection to keep him from being in pain, at least that hasn’t been outlawed yet. We should have the same ability when Mom is hurting and won’t get better. Is this the ‘Chrisitan” thing to do? We treat our pets better than our elderly and sick. At least with more compassion. Not us but our laws.  

(By the way I find it interesting that the computer’s ‘spellcheck’ program gives me the red  underline on spellcheck and health care but not on HMO or Obamacare.)

Well that is the story about health care in the USA now what can we do about it before I get to experience it my self.

The Bully

He came into the third grade school yard and told the smaller kids, "You will give me your lunch money, NOW!!". They did so.

He came into the middle school gym shower room and said. "you will let me shower first, you will bring me a clean towel and fresh soap, and if I hit you with a towel, you will NOT tell coach or you know what's good for you."

He came into the dorm and told the effimenate guy to get the F out of here fag and don't come back.

His dad got him a job as the boss in the fast food restaurant he owned and made him the manager. He told the guys to get on their knees and thank him because he let them work there and gave them money. "If you keep bowing down to me I will make you have more money at every raise review, if I hear any complaining I will take money away by cutting your hours and you may lose your job altogether. So you will do what I say and bow to me when I ask you to."

I think we can , at least most of us, can call this man a lifelong bully. He is not the kind of guy I would look up to and I never have done so. But it is not his fault. What he is doing is what this country tries to make all men do. To be a success it is expected to be a bully.

-to be continued-

THE NEW COLD WAR

So what happens when an American aircraft is shot down and falls nearly whole into the hands of the enemy? It is taken apart by the 'enemy' and dissected to find out what makes it tick. This was the case when Gary Powers crashed in the USSR. They took the plane apart and held him hostage until a deal got worked out and he was traded for KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel). He was not made a hero, nor was he vilified except by some hard liners who said he should have killed himself instead of being captured. So why do I bring this up now?

He launched from Pakistan. We have just had a 'drone' aircraft launched from there that has been intercepted by the Iranians. They have refused to return it. We don't have anything to bargain with so it is similar to that earlier incident except that no humans are involved in the bargaining process.

Does this bode well? Are we to be embroiled in another 'cold war' type standoff? I say yes. I say we are trying to come up with a nuclear/evil empire to replace the USSR. We tried to do so with North Korea but they are to pathetic to be a good enemy. They don't even have running water for most of their citizens.

Iran is a comfortable enemy. They are familiar to most of the US people. They were responsible for getting rid of the sympathetic (to their cause) Jimmy Carter (if you doubt this, read some of Jimmy's books, he dislikes the way things are going in the middle east in regards to Israel and has always done so) and got the Uber-Christian leaning Ronald Reagan to be president.

I do not, to this day, understand why the Iranians thought RR would be better for their cause, but that is the nature of politics. Now they want to be still in the limelight in our press and our sensibilities so they are trying to become a nuclear power and doing things that will tick off our religious rightists and conservatives. They are getting close to that goal.

And we are letting them become more important than they should be. Why? Because they are doing the salesman thing we have all seen. They are using fear.

They are coming into our home to give us an estimate to fix a problem that we have. They are telling us that this is a really serious problem and to fix it we have to destroy the existing house and build a new one. They are, in effect, running the show much the same way they ran the 1980 election of this country.They don't have enough leverage to throw this current election but they are trying to come up with a way to do so. They just released some US citizens because they weren't numerous or important enough to catch the attention of the populace of the US.

I don't think they are finished. I think there will be another attempt as soon as they know who the Republican nominee is. This could change their goal if it is someone they REALLY don't want to deal with.

In my next diatribe I will break down who I think they would like to have win the presidency. Stay tuned for more on this.. meanwhile, have a happy holiday.. (you can have a nice Christmas Mr. Rick Perry since that is so important to your happiness to state your faith.)

Giving Thanks (Agnostic Prayer)

Thanks

To my family, for being there for me.

To my dogs, various and sundry, past and present, for being my pal. (cats too, more or less)

To my country, flawed though it be, for allowing us to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

To Mother Earth for letting us use you up.

To the scientists for telling us how it came to be.

To the mathematicians for showing us how to utilize the science.

To the historians for writing it down so we would not repeat our follies.(yeah right)

To the government..... no, never mind.

But most of all and this is meant non-narcissisticly;

To myself for believing in me.

Bruce Dalrymple 11/24/2011

REPEAT PERFORMANCE ELECTION

Remember 2004? Bush ratings were at his lowest yet, and there was an election coming up. What happened? The Democrats put up a candidate that had a great war record, and good economic record as Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor and Senator but not exciting or charismatic. Still he had more going for him than the current President. And he lost. Badly. Why?

The reason is the people we now call Tea Party members, got together and made the Swiftboat ads, making a three time purple heart and silver star medalist look like a traitor and a flip flopper. How did they do that? It is all in the sound bites. Howard Dean was killed by a sound bite as well although I am not sure who was responsible for that one.

So why do I call this a repeat performance? Well it is the other shod foot this time. The Dems have a sitting president with low ratings and the Republicans have the flip flopper former Massachusetts Governor as the probable nominee.

You had several Democrats vying for the nomination in 04 and the same is true now in the Republican side.

The difference this time is that if the economy does not recover better the Dems will lose the White House. The difference this time is that the Republicans will NOT pass any bill that the President wants done, if it doesn't benefit them more, like the recent trade agreements that were passed. This makes it more likely that the White House resident will change. The health care bill passed in Congress was a virtual duplicate of the bill proposed by that commie Richard Nixon and that socialist Ronald Reagan (and it is an exact duplicate of the bill made law by the Massachusetts governor, Romney):-; but the Republicans have made it, via sound bites, to sound like socialized medicine.

The 'bail outs' that were done were proposed by the previous administration and carried out by the current president under the advice from Bushes advisors and his own. The current guy is being blamed for ALL of them. The unemployment map shows a consistent loss of jobs from 2007 to 2009 and increases since, but the current guy is being blamed for them. Why?

SOUND BITES from the right are catchy and pleasant to the ear. Death Panels. And many others available to all who know how to surf the web.

So what is the upshot of this blog? The upcoming race between the Massachusetts politician and the sitting president really makes me have de`ja vous. The result is not as certain however.

Fall of a great power

The enemy was making us spend more than we could afford. We were still sure that we could best them in the long fight for superiority. We worked hard. We went to the Olympics, and took many metals. We spread our word about our great system of governing throughout the world. We won over Asian hearts to our way of life. We helped African nations set up for the new world order. We sent men and women into space. We built great buildings and won wars. We were one of the greatest powers on the planet. We had managed to keep our continent in our philosophy. We managed to help the poor on many continents. We built a spacelab. We were powerful.

Then the enemy made us spend money to keep up with their nuclear desires. They built instruments of destruction that could kill millions. They forced us to spend money to defend against their proliferation. They used a war of words and information and misinformation to defeat us. They were ruthless in their use of money. They finally beat us because we could not spend enough money to stop them We are NOT the USSR. That is what happened to them. Their rivals spent so much money that they could not keep up. They had to fold their hand and ask for a re deal.

The terrorists have made US spend and spend to 'keep on top' of the hill and now we have spent into oblivion. It is not too late to stop the spiraling. But if we cut government spending without realizing that cutting spending means cutting jobs which means cutting tax revenue collected, which means more money going out to help the needy unemployed former government workers which means more spending. Raise revenues raise taxes for those that can afford to pay more, collect taxes on ALL income for Social programs, not just up to a certain level. Do this and you can stop the Fall. End the wars but make sure that we have jobs for the veterans that come home. Encourage employers to hire workers in this country. Penalize the companies that send work to other countries. Do all of these things and the economy will improve, the way of life will improve and the standard of living will remain high.

Don't do it and the terrorists will most certainly do to the US what the US did to the USSR. It will bankrupt us and end our way of life. This is not an opinion this is a fact.