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[Akka Homestead <akkabhomestead AT yahoo.com>]

First of all, Marie, I forgot to say this before, but it is good to see
you back and posting again.  Now, down to business...

> 
> I'm not sure what the "true believer" remark is supposed to mean. If 
> you look at the Snopes entries, most of the e-mails about Obama that 
> circulate on the Internet are lies and many are scurrilous lies. Most
>  of the McCain stuff is true. But most of the McCain stuff consists
> of either hagiographic pieces or news stories that paint McCain in 
> less-than-saintly colors. Just because something about McCain is true
>  doesn't mean it's bad.

I appreciate that.  I think the reason Obama has more hits than McCain
is because he is new.  McCain is old news.  People use Snopes to check
gossip and rumor.  Lynda is right that they kind of hedge.  They will
say, partially true or false but incomplete(what the heck does that
mean) But anyway, guys that have been around as long as McCain don't
have as much gossip and rumor written about them.  But let the new guy
step in the ring and gossip abounds.
I probably was a little harsh in my other email to you, but I just think is is
silly to base anything on the number of Snopes entries something has.
I could make the following statements:
Obama is raised by both his mother and his father.
McCain graduated near the bottom of his class at Annapolis.
Now, both of those statements fall into the "false" and "true"
categories that you stated above.  The thing is, it means nothing.


> 
> The over-the-top nature of the lies circulating about Obama do tend
> to support the position that racism is playing a role in producing
> votes against Obama:


I can tell you this...I was quite surprised recently when one of the
most racist people I know told me he was voting for Obama.  For him, the
only issue that mattered was Iraq, and being one of the sheeple, he was
naive enough to believe that all the troops would be coming home in
February after the inauguration, because Obama was against the war. He
has a nephew in Iraq.
I'm sure there are people out there who would never vote for a black
man.  The prisons are full of them, but for every one of those idiots is
someone like the guy I know...they may be ignorant and biased, but they
will vote for Obama if for no other reason that people vote for who they
think will winner because some dufus' think that if they vote for the
eventual winner, it makes them a better person or something. It happens
all the time.


 people don't get that hysterical over candidates that
> don't trigger a deep part of their psyches (you know, down there
> where racism lives).]

Obama does not make me hysterical.  What makes me hysterical is the way
very intelligent people seem to be blinded by the guy.  Recall that I
openly stated that my bias is stupid people, people acting stupid or
saying or believing stupid things.  People don't see Obama's faults.
They make excuses for him.  People have turned him into some kind of
Messiah, and Jesu Christo, he's just a man, his shit stinks, too!
It is actually quite scary.
If I say he smokes, someone will say, oh he quit, or he's trying to
quit...If I say he was a marginal student, someone will say, well, it
WAS Harvard...lol...(I believe BO himself said he did not apply himself
and was marginal)  It is like, so WHAT if he is marginal...let him be
marginal..not everything we learn is reflected in our grades.  But no,
people continue to make allowances for the guy.
I can't explain it any better.  I don't have the skill set that others
here have.


 OTOH, voting against Obama is not by itself proof that
> a person is or is not a racist.

Well, thank you.  I suppose that is progress, maybe the best I am gonna
get from this crowd.

Akka






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Susan, I'm going to give my answers within your message, my answers will be 
indicated by a line of asteriks and/or dashes



----- Original Message ----
From: SJC indexer AT localnet.com


bob ford wrote:
>  
Bob, I'm curious to know why you think this is any worse than what 
happens here, every day in thousands of cases, under the system we now 
have.  

*****Susan, hi; I'm not defending the system we have now.  I'm saying that 
the system we have now, has become terribly insensitive to the healthcare 
needs of the patients as a result of becoming more centralized.  .........

On a more personal level, I began having symptoms of circulatory issues 
in Jan of this year.  There followed many visits to various doctors.  To 
each I took my old medical records (if you don't keep your own copies, 
you should get them now and keep good track of them yourself), where 
there is ample documentation of a familial clotting disorder and my 
several past episodes with same.  I upped the ante every way I knew 
how.  Finally in the end of June I was diagnosed with pulmonary emboli 
(a spiral cat scan at that time showed 88% of the lung occluded by a 
large saddle clot) and widespread DVT (deep vein thrombosis).  I was 
later told by my 'primary care' physician that "the diagnosis was 
obscured by the fact that you do not have a history of being physically 
inactive and we only see this in sedentary patients."  All that, in 
spite of my records right there, readily available, including all 
genetic information and documentation of previous episodes.  In case you 
are not familiar with pulmonary emboli, it is a condition responsible 
for many, many deaths.....DVT not so hot, either, as a piece of any of 
those clots can break off and occlude a vessel at any second.  So for 5 
months I was left to languish....

******I am sorry to hear of your medical problems, I have quite a few myself 
and a mother who has metal all in her chest.  My neighbor died of a pulmonary 
embolism, in the hospital, after he broke his leg while trimming his tree.  



The diagnosis was not made (and therefore treatment not available) until 
I found out about and traveled to a physician who takes no insurance, 
only cash/other arrangement.  Lo and behold, when there was no insurance 
nipple to suck on, Bingo: "You have pulmonary emboli!".  I also have 
permanent lung damage (occluded too long to recover) and permanent 
damage to the circulatory system in both legs (also too long to recover, 
those veins simply try to seal off and lesser vessels try to take over 
the work of those lost).  I'm also fried and pi**ed.



******As I would be.  I have fired a long term doctor and repoted him to the 
board of medical examiners for which he was officially reprimanded.



Do you suppose a quick diagnosis/treatment plan would have made the 
jerks anywhere near as much money as the route they took?  So for months 
they ran 'tests' that had nothing to do with a likely diagnosis, 
scheduled 2 'visits' to speak to me about my "dangerous" cholesterol 
level (139), and used every other foot-dragging technique in the book to 
avoid the obvious, efficient, potentially lifesaving diagnosis.


*******Incompetency can appear with or without profit motive........


I submit we are no safer than your Canadian example, and poorer to 
boot.  Unfortunately this is not an isolated episode. 
This system, although it has great potential, is a disgrace to our 
country's claim to provide decent medical care and a danger to us all. 



********** I agree; maybe I have no made my perspective clear enough. 

 ----- Let me give some personal background first.  My wife is a 
medicare/medicaid approved ,DEA licensed, prescriber in the public health 
care system.  Believe me, you don't need to tell me stories about the 
infirmities in our system.  My argument is that we need to move toward a 
system where there is a closer relationship between the patient and provider, 
not one made more distant by insurance companies and government.    My wife 
has also , for years, been an advocate for a certain population that doesn't 
receive adequate care.  I'm a businessman, nothing to do with the healthcare 
system, but I've learned alot , just from my wife's experiences.

---- The first little procedure done on my heart took about an hour with the 
doc, one night in hospital for observation, and cost $82,000, not including 
the bill from the doc.  My insurance paid 85% and I had to put the rest on my 
credit card before I left the hospital.  

----My daily prescriptions cost me about $200 per month, because my insurance 
pays 50% to 100% depending on the medication.. My out-of pocket would be  
close to $2000 per month without insurance.  

Today, providers spend far too much of their time, filling out insurance and 
governmental paperwork.  That is time they can't spend with patients or 
learning to hone their skills .  Your PCP gets much of her info from drug 
companies, not CMEs.
Providers, spend way too much time and money, , also, running unnecessary 
tests and doing redundant paperwork, just to keep the vampirous trial lawyers 
at bay. 

---- I'm all for reformimg the system.  I just don't agree that more 
centralization is the answer ...bobford