Comments for CommonSense2.com

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by Dorian Snow

Dorian Snow — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:17:20 +0000

Lynn et al. 6 X-rays is not a ton of radiation. The radiation levels are very, very, very low. When you see a chiropractor just for an evaluation, they generally take four X-rays just to review your spine. My dad was a dentist and I was his dental assistant part-time a while back. What I know of gums and bleeding is that a vitamin-C deficiency can often cause your gums to bleed. Vitamin-C is quickly consumed during times of stress. It’s possible that your stress levels were elevated, and the bleeding gums were a temporary symptom. Once your stress lessened, your gums were less inclined to bleed. I don’t know for sure, of course, but in my opinion, this is a much more plausible explanation than the X-rays causing your gums to bleed. X-ray technology has come a very long way, and the radiation levels are miniscule.

Comment on Making A Difference: Meet Julie Edgar by Dory

Dory — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:37:36 +0000

Great Interview! Keep up the good work!

Comment on Making A Difference: Meet Julie Edgar by Darwin26

Darwin26 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:49:18 +0000

Welcome to the World of Activism ~ i don’t think anyone chooses ‘activism’ it just comes from the Belly/Gut ~ It choose you.

Comment on On Tea Partiers, Progressives, Obama and Double Standards…… by Ron Stouffer

Ron Stouffer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:37:52 +0000

New book: ( 2044 It’s Not Big Brother, It’s Big Brother, Inc.) Haven’t read yet, but from what I can gather, it possibly makes a case for corporations running our government and politicians. Gee, what a surprise. But, Tea Partiers persist in their belief that the “government” is bad and corporations are good, that there is little or no connection between this unholy alliance. Wow! This still amazes me! That the corporatocracy rules the roost apparently has not sunk in yet with this crowd. We need to engage them and see if we have any common ground, but first I imagine we have to agree on who the big, bad government really is. I don’t think it is a bunch of bespeckled, paper-pushing socialist bureaucrats. In fact, nearly 3/4 of all federal employees are now privatized and outsourced, last I checked. Furthermore, employees follow orders from their bosses. Their bosses are the corporations, the corporations are the federal government. You and I don’t write health care laws, for example. Max Baucus(politician) and Liz Fowler of Wellpoint(corporation) sort of did that.

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by Thomas Littleton

Thomas Littleton — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:16:29 +0000

that is a TON of radiation!! Once again, I question the competence of the folks you choose to go to for medical service. I, thankfully, haven’t had such negative experience, nor, frankly, would I stand for it. XRays ordered with that frequency, I’d have refused on the spot, and if the physician didn’t like it, I can find another. That is one of the plusses of having some freedom within the healthcare network, no matter who the ultimate pay point is.
I do apologize for the misapprehension regards Nursing Care vs Assisted Living. No direct experience there, but this much I can say: my parents are in an assisted living center, which provides nursing care if needed. Costs aside, I hardly view anyone as ‘gouging’ them, nor do they. They receive key assistance, are served fine food and other amenities by a caring staff. I also located, by way of assistance to a nephew, a placement, in Berks county to a very nice, small Assisted Living center which cost FAR less than your quote for ‘minimum’ price, and the place was clean with good food and some limited amenities.
I think the bottom line, Lynn, is that I am not carrying around the level of anger or resentment about this matter that you do. I would be the first to agree that our costs are high, but public expectations of care are sometimes higher still. I would heartily support single payer, but not for the matter of costs, but access for all of a minimal level of care. Even under such a system, I would fully expect that far better care would be available, at additional cost, for those who could afford same. It would be an interesting exercise to see what levels of care were readily available and adequately staffed under such a system, as this is my only fear of venturing into ‘single-payer’ models.

Comment on 1st CS2 Person of the Year Award: “The Whistleblower” by Ron Stouffer

Ron Stouffer — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:32:55 +0000

One Nasty Beast formerly identified itself as a female, conservative Democrat. She chooses not to print her name for some reason, possibly a valid reason. She says she was in high school when Mark Rudd, etc. were in the news—I was in college.

Our age differential is sufficient reason to suspect that ONB did not really “get” the times of which she speaks. High school perspectives and college-age perspectives were quite different, I submit.

ONB paints the Weather Underground, and the 60s, with a broad brush. “Thugs”, she says. Then she equates a whole anti-war movement with criminal acts done by a few people. This is a classic “false flag” or Nazi-like tactic. I expect more erudition from commenters of CS2.

Tom Littleton is correct. Antiwar students seeing their friends getting slaughtered in Vietnam and protesting this immoral “war” were hardly “thugs”. To even equate the two is to prove my point—ONB had no skin in the game and apparently perched high above the reality of the era. ONB probably supports all the current undeclared Bush/Obama “wars” and likely has no skin in this travesty either—except to support her misguided President’s policies, including the Patriot Act and NDAA—fascism by any other name.

Again, I have 4 years perspective on the Beast. She missed an uplifting, people-powered movement that stood up to authority and the Establishment. Apparently she was part of the oppressive Establishment. Having lost friends in Vietnam, I know the pain and betrayal of that imperial debacle. That a generation of kids stood up to their oppressive government and the military industrial complex and actually stopped this immoral war was uplifting—-something ONB never experienced and to this day does not understand.

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by CALynn

CALynn — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:23:39 +0000

Opps!
Also forgot to tell you the worst part about my broken leg with regard to the XRays taken.
Including the emergency room, I had at least 6 XRays taken of my leg over a 5 week period.
That’s a lot of radiation.
A week after I finally starting walking on my leg in early July, my gums started to bleed when I brushed my teeth. Just blood like I’ve never seen before. Now most people would run to the dentist (if they could afford it) but I was busy commuting to work quite a distance and didn’t have time. Also thought about all that zap of radiation my body took over a short period of time which has to affect it in some way.
Well it’s been 6 months since the last XRay and my gums no longer bleed.
So is that a coincidence?
or not?

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by CALynn

CALynn — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:17:33 +0000

And yet here’s another health care abusive story as a followup to yesterday’s comments.
In May of last year I broke my leg. I had never broken a bone before in my 50-some years so I did not know what to expect. I called around to orthopedic doctors after the emergency room diagnosed the break and every single doctor’s office I called, the first question they asked was “What kind of insurance do you have?” I needed to get the bone set within 2 days and it took hours and multiple doctor’s offices before I found one that (1) took my insurance (2) was in network (3) was participating.
Of yes and I had to go to the hospital emergency room and bring them the Xrays. Note I broke my right leg and was not driving so I needed to get someone to taxi me around. Not one person in the doctors’ offices ever said to me “How are you?” or was concerned about me or my pain.
The one doctor who I finally saw – who complied with the aforementioned parameters – always triple-booked my appointment. So I had to wait at least an hour with the other “bookees”.
He was a man in his late 60s with 45 year’s experience dealing with broken bones – yet he ALWAYS required I get an XRay at every office visit. So every 2 weeks I saw the doctor for no more than 300 seconds and that was exclusive of the XRay. The XRay machine itself was a disgrace. It had been totally depreciated (cost recovered) decades ago – probably the 1970s. The cord to it was held together by duct tape and there was a bucket containing water under a part of the electrical cord which plugged into the wall! To catch water?!?
Of course the doctor didn’t really need to know how my simple break (of the fibula) was healing. It was a clean through the bone break and he had enough experience to know. He only had the XRay taken so he could charge my insurance company for it.
So that is officially Story #3 (Dad is #1 – Mom is #2, I am #3 and my father-in-law will be #4).
The list of these stories is endless.
Until our health care system is changed to single payer, it will continue to be a stupid, crass, redundant, immoral, fractured system that puts profit before patient.

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by CALynn

CALynn — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Oh, where to start?
First CAT thanks for your comments. It is indeed frustrating to relate personal stories about our stupid, crass, immoral, inequitable, fractured health care system and read comments about how one story should not be used to generalize my point. Well, let’s see, so far I’ve got two stories – one about dad and one about mom. And I haven’t even started to tell you about my father-in-law. Lordy, what the system did to him over a 5 year span! He’s no longer with us. He was the healthiest person I’d ever known and they just kept cutting and cutting and oh by the way he had excellent insurance – totally paid by the State of NJ.
That’ll be story number 3….then I’ll branch out to people not related to me. I’ve got stories from neighbors, tax clients, co-workers, you name it.
My main point: without universal health coverage, and since our system compensates physicians on a per procedure basis, in order to get paid, they have to perform procedures! Hello? And with the decline in those actually having the ability to pay (either thru Medicare or insurance), well doctors have to become aggressive in treating something – oh like a small amount of arthritis in the knee – by a total replacement. This is nuts.
NO my mother was not given any other options. In fact I asked the doctor if there were other options and he said this is the option.
And Tom, for the record, I did NOT say assisted living facilities cost at a minimum $100K. You owe me an apology for stating that lie.
I said nursing homes begin at $100K. In fact that’s why they have so few Medicaid beds in nursing homes; Medicaid “only” pays $78K.
Assisted Living facilities cost about $60K per year and I know cause I’ve been trying to find a place for dad for the past year and can’t find one for less. Any way you look at it, these places are there to just clean out your bank account.
When I ask at the assisted living facilities why it costs so much they say “oh, it’s the care”
Baloney.

Comment on The Bride of Old Frankenstein by Thomas Littleton

Thomas Littleton — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:47:25 +0000

Cat, to illustrate my point, above, one need to read no further than the following direct quote:

“It’s been 2 years, 7 months and 18 days since my mother’s totally unnecessary knee replacement surgery. And I’ve been kicking myself a lot. How does an otherwise healthy, active woman decline into a bruised, broken, fractured being in such short period of time?

The only answer I can come up with is where health care is not considered a human right, but is instead the result of profit ruling medical decisions: Exploit and plunder those you can, let those in need slide into oblivion.”

the ONLY answer? Like, maybe a lot of personal choice errors didn’t play a role? Who exactly ‘slid into oblivion’ due to her Mom’s lousy treatment? Heck, I’ll stand and support anyone who suggests there are a ton of reforms needed to how we deal with healthcare in the US(for me, cradle to grave Medicare seems the best option), but stuff like this only fuels those who would dismiss the point of view I support.