You actually have to write shit down

I have discovered there are no blog fairies contrary to popular belief blogs have to actually be written by live human beings. Drat. so what is new today, finally found out that the numbness in my right hand is caused by C6 -C7 ( the doc at the VA was not much more specific than that. ) being out of place, His fix is to do low level physical therapy. In other news I woke up this morning with a nasty cough and slight fever, yeah I know I never blog about fun and exciting things but then what's the fun in that.

Strat Brats musical break

Semper Fi and the Bird

While sitting on the train eating breakfast I hear someone yell Semper Fi.  I look up to see an old man shooting me the bird with a huge grin on his face.   I expected him to be a Korean War Vet sailor or something, I knew the gesture was in fun but was not expecting to find out he was a Marine from World War 2.

 

This is what I learned from our short conversation in the dining car.  Irving was a Bronx Jew who joined the Marine Corps in 1942,  5 months later he was on Guadalcanal.  He attributed his survival to the fact he was only 5’6” tall, saying the jap snipers shot the tallest marines first.   He told a story of  once pouring liquid penicillin on the wounds of a Marine, as he was doing it a corpsman came up and told him he would take care of the guy.  Irving didn’t think twice about it until 3 months later in the chow line the same corpsman said that the guy had survived and wanted to say thank you.  Irving found that marine and got his thank you from a barely alive man.  Irving said he cried like a baby.

Irving was 20 when he joined the USMC which in those days was old, he skipped being called pops only because there was a really old guy of 21 in his Boot Camp platoon.

 

He was in the 1^st Marine Division, and while not part of the initial landing he landed sometime later.   He spoke of how the initial landing force was very ill prepared when they went in because among many things they had spent the whole time in Australia chasing  the women instead of training.  He said that he landed with 550 in his unit, and when they finally left there were only 50 still standing. 

 

He landed somewhere in Philippines and as the only Spanish speaking Marine SGT got to have dinner with the Mayor of the towns family, the one and only time he says he sat down to eat in that situation in the 33 months he was in the Pacific. 

 

Irving also spoke of nearly getting into a fight when he told the Christians in the platoon that jesus was a jew.  Guess that was not so well known back in the old days.  He said he was eventually backed up by the Chaplain Father _____ ( sadly I didn't write down the fathers name.)  Even his story about the chaplain was good.  This chaplains father had been a Marine in World War One, but the Father had felt the call of the church,  he apparently had even planned on being a Navy chaplain because one of his first posting was in the vatican so that he could learn hebrew. ( this is Irving's memory not mine I remind all you readers.)  No matter what led up to it Irving said he was very surprised when the Chaplain came to him and said hello don't worry I am going to be your rabbi.

The VA Today

1.  I had scripts to pick up from yesterdays visit and being the good patient I am I went to the VA early to see the pharmacist so I could get the blue slip approval.   After speaking with the pharmacist I was told the script would be ready in about a hour which was fine since I had another appt at 1PM ,   this was 12:10 pm.  

2.  I was 30 minutes early for my 1 pm appt, which of course meant I didn't see the doctor until 1:30.

bottom line at 230 I went back to the pharmacy waited in line for 30 minutes and was told that there were no scripts.   long story short, the system kicked my scripts out I was eventually given them at 345.

So the  whole point of todays visit was to discuss with a psychiatrist the option of taking adderrall to combat fatigue associated with HIV.  There have been studies done outside the VA and I even know a couple people who are taking it locally and seemed to be having good effects.  I wasn't really expecting the VA to actually consider it but was willing to give it a try.  Needless to say the doc didn't let me down.  Totally changed the subject.  Said because I was sitting with my arms crossed I was (((  insert touchy feely bullshit here)  I assured him that I usually sat with my arms crossed and to not fucking read into anything (( thats a joke people, I did say it but to show I still had a sense of humor).  Then we discussed prior bouts of depression which I assured him I had a handle on, in fact the only thing that ever really got me pissed off was dealing with the VA. ((not a joke pretty much the truth)   After the intro interview he said he was thinking about Wellbutrin, which immediately set off my radar as being on the list of things discussed previously and for some reason ruled out.   He assured me that there were no bad side effects and even showed me a ipod touch app that said NO when asked if there were any known side effects between Atripla and Wellbutrin.  I knew from past experiences that his mind was set and that was the "NEW" pill I was getting.  

So with the adderral out of the picture I said fine and don't worry I would be keeping good notes on how I reacted to it including blogging all about it. so here it is the start of the wellbutrin blog. more later

I will finish this up later

VA today

So none of the doctors are responsible for any scripts, One doc says it needs to be inputted by another  then one nurse says she cant do it even though for the last 5 years they HAVE been doing it.  Also she doesnt have computer permissions to read back far enough in my file to understand why I was even given something in the first place.   Say YES to Universal Health Care and get EVERYONE IN THE US on this crappy ass Excuse filled system.

Email

I did not write this came from a email sent to me

545 vs 300,000,000
EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE.  READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.

545 PEOPLE

By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget.  The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representativesdoes.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices  545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.   In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.  They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.  I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.   They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. 
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.   No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits..   The president can only propose a budget.   He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.   Who is the speaker of the House?   Nancy Pelosi.  She is the leader of the majority party.   She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility.   I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.  When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
 
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red .

If the Army & Marines are in    IRAQ  , it's because they want them in IRAQ 

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.   Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
 
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
 
They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

 Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

 We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

 
 Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper. 
What you do with this article now that you have read it.......... is up to you.

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