I hope people saw Bill Moyers Journal this weekend. The documentary "Money-Driven Medicine" is based on the book (same title) by journalist Maggie Mahar, a former writer for Baron's. It gives an insider's view of the health industry. It really should be watched by those on both sides of the political fence and those undecided who are stuck in the middle not knowing which way to go.  This documentary film is also available online at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html  in case you missed it or the rerun.

Anyone who is really serious about being informed about the proposed health care reform and the medical industrial complex we now have should watch it.  By the way, the U.S. ranks 19th for the number of preventable deaths among industrialized nations. That's shameful!

I've found some of the best sites for checking on what IS and what is NOT contained in the House health reform bill which is being debated presently are www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.org....both unbiased and non-partisan sites. Another good one (admittedly liberal) that addresses the propaganda and lies is www.pleasecutthecrap.com.

We seem to forget there are four other health reform bills to consider--3 in the House and 2 in the Senate. It does amaze me how frightened people are of change and how willing they are to believe all the false email rumors and right wing radio and tv pundits' claims without checking the veracity of them. In the end, I think people will believe what they want to believe depending on their political persuasions....even if they go against their own best interests. It takes more than mere words to change people's minds. Unfortunately, appealing to emotions by instilling fear and feeding anger seem to work better than appealing to people's intellect.

Walking with my German friend, Doris, was good for me; but we've taken a sabbatical from it during these hot summer months since she doesn't like walking inside buildings or when it's too warm outside. Probably we'll start again this fall when the weather cools. However, to make me feel better about the backsliding in this area, another friend sent me some information which helps me rationalize this and feel a little bit better at least temporarily.....so am sharing it with you.

Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old  to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.

My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he's 97 years old and we don't know where the hell he is.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing..

I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. I haven't lost a pound.

Apparently you have to go there.

Every time I hear the dirty word “exercise” I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say,

“Well, she certainly looks good doesn't she.”

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

I know I got a lot of exercise these last few years, just getting over the hill.

We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads.That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

AND…….

Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour

and by the time I leave, I look just fine.

Good bye, Teddy I'll miss you. The youngest Kennedy child was born just one month earlier than I. He was flawed....human.....(as we all are) but he never gave up working for the good of the common man. He knew how to work with political opponents and compromise to get things done like the SCHIP program. If we finally get a healthcare reform bill passed, it should be named in his honor.

 I'm tired 'cause I didn't sleep well last night bothered by the arthritis in shoulder and neck. G'nite!

A little three year old boy was sitting on the toilet. His mom thinking he’d been in there too long, went in to check on him. There he was sitting on the toilet while reading a book, but every ten or so seconds he'd put the book down, grip the toilet seat with his left hand and then hit himself on top of his head with his right hand.

His mother then asked, “Billy, are you alright? You’ve been in here a long time.”

Billy answered, “I’m fine Mommy. I just haven’t gone ‘doody’ yet.”

The puzzled Mom replied, “Well OK, but why do you keep hitting yourself on the head?”

Can you guess what the little guy said?

"Well, it works for ketchup!"

Wow! It's really getting a little crazy--all the broughaha about health care reform going on these past weeks! I wish they'd simplify it all and just pass a "Medicare For All" bill, and let the private insurance companies furnish people with the optional supplemental policies for cosmetic surgeries or other non essential procedures that people might want.

Some evidently don't know that Medicare is a government run program. They scream their opposition at the town hall meetings against any government run health program and say they don't want the government messing around with their Medicare! It would be funny if it weren't so sad. It appears the tactic for fighting health care reform is to use already angry stupid people to scare other angry stupid people! Perhaps that's a bit too harsh, but those people really are uninformed and misinformed; and the economy has made all of us angry and scared too.

So far this week heard on various radio and tv programs:

1. Canadians are now calling us the "Excited States of America" since all we seem to do is take erectile dysfunction drugs and go to townhall meetings and scream.

2. Sarah Palin talks about the reimbursement for the "living will consultations" section of the health care reform bill as being "death panels" even though last year she declared a "Health Care Decisions Day" in Alaska to educate and encourage people to make decisions about "advance directives" or what they wanted done when facing death. How ironic is that?

3. World renowned physicist and genius Stephen Hawking wouldn't have had a chance in the UK under the British National Health System (recent newspaper editorial opinion article). Whoa there! Stephen Hawking IS a British citizen and said he is glad the NHS was there to help him deal with his condition!
Hopefully, we'll see reform and change. It's a matter of life and death.

p.s. For the truth about what is and is NOT in the FIVE bills being considered in the House and the Senate, go to www.politifact.org and stop listening to Glenn Beck and Fox News for a few minutes!

This week, the President welcomed new Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the White House where she gave an emotional speech expressing her deep thanks and gratitude for growing up in this country and having the opportunity to achieve her dreams and to serve.

I'm glad that I won't have to make up another "memory nudging" sentence or poem for remembering the names of the nine Supreme Court justices since the retiring Souter and new justice Sotomayor have names beginning with the same two letters......LUCKY ME !  And I was correct in predicting that Obama would nominate a minority woman. Of course there were thousands of other people predicting the same thing. The fact that Sotomayor (truly a wise Latina) also is extremely well qualified...and in fact has had more actual and more diversified experience than any of the justices she'll be serving with in the years to come just puts a really lovely new shine on that scale of justice......LUCKY US !

SCOTUS:

Robed alike stewards

Brewing keen 'n soulful thoughts about

Scallywags ‘n guns

Roberts, Alito, Stevens, Breyer, Kennedy, Sotomayor, Thomas, Scalia, Ginsberg

Sometimes for young married couples life boils down to two main decisions: deciding whether they should have children or get a pet instead. These pictures don't help much do they? Oldest daughter wrote on the wall with Elmer's Glue and also wrote her name with an indelible marker on the back of an antique rocking chair (the "L" was backwards but she was only 2). Middle daughter cut her own bangs the day before her first grade school photo. Youngest daughter left the upright freezer door open getting out a popcycle and thawed 40 quarts peaches, freezer slaw and lots of chicken. Our pet cat was no trouble however if you didn't mind the litter box or occasional hairball. But, in the end, we never regretted having the children or all the pets either.

A comforting thought for you to hold onto:

No matter what situations life throws at you...

No matter how long and treacherous your journey may seem.

Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is an excerpt from a chapter of a very interesting book by Dr. Howard Dean.

Luntz warns that “if the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,’ then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless.” The trouble is, the document is already useless. Because rather than challenging the tenets of American reform proposals, Luntz establishes a straw man argument against a nonexistent health plan. Buried amid the usual rhetoric about government-run healthcare is Luntz’s predictable contradiction: He instructs Republicans to “be vocally and passionately on the side of REFORM” but then urges GOP lawmakers to misrepresent and obstruct any real chance of passing comprehensive legislation.

“Humanize your approach,” but argue that healthcare reform “will result in delayed and potentially even denied treatment, procedures and/or medications.” “Acknowledge the crisis” but ask your constituents “would you rather . . . ‘pay the costs you pay today for the quality of care you currently receive,’ OR ‘Pay less for your care, but potentially have to wait weeks for tests and months for treatments you need.’”

In other words, say there is a crisis but then argue that healthcare reform would lead to “the government setting standards of care” and government “rationing care” and would “put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of health care.” “This plays into more favorable Republican territory by protecting individual care while downplays the need for a comprehensive national plan,” the memo states.

Readers are also instructed to conflate Obama’s fairly moderate hybrid approach to reform (building on the current private-public system of delivering healthcare) with “denial horror stories from Canada & Co.”