Close to home

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I was listening to the whiners last couple of days–and the talk was about the Obama political ad on the guy who lost his job after Bain Capital took over the company and eventually closed it (?).  He lost his job and his wife didn’t want to worry him with finding a breast lump.  When they discovered it, she was Stage IV and died after 22 days.

I’ve debated whether to say anything, but decided last night to out with it–

I discovered a couple of lumps in my breast in late June.  I’ve had them before, but this was kind of a shock because it’s been over ten years since I’ve had one.  The last one, I was in college, and didn’t have insurance then, either, BUT I could afford to get it biopsied.  It was benign.

I’m thinking this is benign, too, because it’s movable and soft (they characterize cancerous ones as being hard and immobile).  I can’t remember how long it took for the other breast lump to disappear, but I’m thinking six months is how long it took.  It’s hard to remember.

Anyway, the whiners are blaming the woman for not seeking treatment earlier…even though she didn’t have health insurance and whatever healthcare she got, it would have to come out of pocket.  They obviously didn’t have the money, and she didn’t want to be a burden to them…especially if she were treated and still succumbed to the disease.

I can understand her sentiments by my own situation and seeing my father struggle (he’s now in Indy for a month while they radiate/chemo him to death).  My sister is making arrangements for him to go to a nursing home after he is released–he’s clearly not able to take care of himself, but he’s fighting it.

On the other hand, for my situation, even if I had health insurance, I wouldn’t go through chemo or radiation or having my breast removed.  I’ve seen too many people die from cancer after going through that misery of throwing up, losing their hair, laying on a couch all day because they have no energy to do anything else…

Like I’ve said before, if it’s my time, I’ll take a trip to the Grand Canyon and die in a place of beauty and spirituality.

[UPDATE: 3.26.18 — This post was written before my awakening.  God has provided everything we need to battle cancer and any health ailment.  I don’t believe chemo or radiation ever helped someone recover, since chemicals and radiation both destroy the immune system.  It’s not that the patient recovered from the artificial treatments, but that they recovered in spite of the treatments.]

The Farm Bill

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Alliance for Natural Health has this report up on the Farm Bill. (hat tip to organic consumers).

From the article:

The aforementioned Farm Bill riders would outlaw any EPA review of a genetically engineered crop under the Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. This terrible legislation would ensure that no agency other than the USDA (which is decidedly pro-GMOs) will be allowed to provide analysis of the impacts of GMO crops. Further, the riders also establish extremely short deadlines for approval of GMOs. If the crops are not reviewed and approved within the extremely short timeline, they would default to immediate approval and commercialization.

So…if this is true, then there’s an underhanded reason why Obama is urging the passage of the Farm Bill–given that he appointed Vilsack as Secretary of Ag, who is a Monsanto toadie…yeah, well, it’s real hard not to think Obama is doing their bidding...

(Note that Methinks They Lie also brings up the Shirley Sherrod fiasco…yeah, that was a great move. Not.)

Well, this is depressing…

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…but not really that surprising:  http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/08/07/court-ruling-brings-end-to-legal-challenge-against-bush-warrantless-wiretapping/

And yet there are still those who criticize the public for not speaking out and getting off their duffs to do anything–where is the justice?  Who are the people obeying the law of the Constitution?  Not the courts–as someone pointed out, this is the Ninth Circuit–a court that the rightwing continually blasts as “liberal”.  Pffft.

 

They’re buying air, land, water…

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Good God, it’s come to fruition…

…how in the hell does one, in good conscience, try to make a profit off of something one had no hand in creating…?  What kind of soulless being thinks it’s okay to do such a thing?

From the story:

Like other aspects of neoliberalism, the commodification of nature forestalls democratic choice. No longer will we be able to argue that an ecosystem or a landscape should be protected because it affords us wonder and delight; we’ll be told that its intrinsic value has already been calculated and, doubtless, that it turns out to be worth less than the other uses to which the land could be put. The market has spoken: end of debate.

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Exactly.  Once the price tag has been set, the $$$ will trump all other values…because one cannot put a price tag on beauty, on value to other beings besides two-leggeds (because all the rest don’t matter, according to these folks), nor can a value be assigned when the benefits are unknown, as most of the natural world’s benefits aren’t known until they’re lost…

Back

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(PERSONAL BLOG)

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day–mild 80s.  We’ve had more rain (thank you, thank you, thank you), so everything is turning from brown to green again.  So, it was a nice drive to see my Mom.

Again, I wonder at the houses along the way that have overgrown weeds, the houses looking sad, like they’re abandoned.  I wonder about the owners and what happened to them…

The corn crop along the highway is indicative of the drought–they’re about knee high with the tassles sticking up (they should be twice that height).

I realize two things as I’m driving:  only one bug hit my windshield, and there were no woolly worms crossing the road.  This is the time of year when I would normally look like I’m drunk because I’d be swerving all over the road to avoid hitting them–but not a one was seen.  This was the warning when they came out with Bt corn, which is bioengineered to destroy the caterpillars that ate the corn crop.  With that in mind, it occurred to me that bugs used to plaster the windshield during the summer months here–they no longer do.  And others have noticed that the birds are not as plentiful as before–their songs were a pleasant chorus, and now it’s a single bird singing.  Silent Spring, anyone?  (A side note~~as admirable Rachel Carson’s work was, she still thought that science could cure whatever ills affected nature–something I’ve come to disagree with, as Nature is superior to anything science can cook  up.)

I arrive at the nursing home, and my Mom’s color is better than last time.  But she still doesn’t remember my name.  This is definitely a change from even two months ago.  She always knew my name even though she might be confused about other things.  She asked what grade my kids were in, and I had to tell her that they were grown and gone several times during my visit.  The conversation went around in circles.  Usually, she would be able to at least carry on a conversation, but yesterday, she was having more difficulty making sense.  My sister brought cupcakes (I stuck to the diet and didn’t eat any) which made Mom happy.

We started to sing “Happy Birthday” to her, and Mom began to cry.  We both broke up over that.  You have to know my Mom–she was not one for spontaneous displays like that.  She wouldn’t give you a hug for no reason, nor was she the type to have cookies out of the oven when you got home from school.  I don’t think she knew how to be a mother, as her own mother caused her grief.

The thought struck me how she didn’t really know how to take me—-because I was so different from her.  I was more like my Dad.

I started to leave before I knew my sister was coming, and my Mom wanted to walk me to the door (something she hadn’t done previously) and then she did it again when my sister and I were on our way out the door.  She didn’t want us to go (and perhaps she wanted to come home with us).  Tough day–tears on the way home.