Another eye opener today.
I've mentioned before how advantageous it has been to us to have a new Medicare Plus insurance provider, Phoenix Health Plans. Last year, we had to pay co-pays even for generics through AARP endorsed United Health Care. That all ended at the first of this year, saving us a bundle, and they were going to sock each of us $28 per month for the "privilege" of having their plan.
Phyllis has to have a blood thinner and under our old plan, she got Pradaxa at a reduced rate of $185 every three months. Our new plan doesn't cover Pradaxa, so the doctor switched her to Coumadin, and we picked up the first supply today.
No copay! Absolutely free to us! That gives us over $60 freed up money every month!
I guess Pradaxa is better in some ways, but at least Coumadin is not Warfarin, which a former friend calls "rat poison" and blames for the premature death of his sister. I'm sure the doctor will keep on top of everything and make sure Phyllis is OK. He's very thorough.
Corporations are now the source of a new royal class in our society. Getting to be one of the privileged royals involves getting into the ruling elite of a corporation, where the CEO becomes the king or queen with a retinue of self-important lackeys sucking on the corporate tit. Exceptions, like Costco, are rare. I'm sure Phoenix Health Plans is another of those rarities.
I don't begrudge anyone a good living for hard work and expertise, but lets be realistic here. Nobody deserves or earns a salary that gives them thousands of times what an average hard working person earns. That piracy has warped our entire economic structure and is destroying the Ameriican dream.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
SCRIPTURE IS NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE
(From Facebook.)
I just posted the article that relates the fact that there is no archaelogical evidence of camels anywhere in Israel prior to the 9th century BCE, yet the Bible associates camels with Abraham who is supposed (if he was an actual personage) to have existed about 11 centuries prior to that time.
People of faith just aren't bothered by such obvious lies and manufactures. They can slide right off it with any number of deceitful stratagems and assure us that it doesn't mean a damn thing because the bible wasn't meant to be historically accurate. Well, if it isn't historically accurate where it purports to record history, just how can any thinking human being consider it accurate in anything else?
If I'm bargaining with some contractor or workman and find out he's lied about his qualifications in some area, would I be sane to hire the deceiver? Maybe a fool would, but I try not to be a fool!
That's not the only historical manufacture. The whole book of Joshua is a ridiculous account that never could have happened. Why? Because the Canaan of that supposed time was an integral part of the Egyptian Empire that was defended by several powerful Egyptian garrisons. Wonder of wonders, those Egyptian troops just miraculously stepped aside and let a wandering band of desert nomads waltze in and take over. THAT'S HOGWASH!
Never happened! It's another bastard attempt at historical fiction that wouldn't even qualify for B movie status with any true historian!
Any person who wants to base their beliefs on such a book of proven lies is welcome to their delusion. I spent several decades in that deluded state, but no more. Again, if I didn't need to quote that stupid lying book once in awhile to attack it, I'd burn it!
I just posted the article that relates the fact that there is no archaelogical evidence of camels anywhere in Israel prior to the 9th century BCE, yet the Bible associates camels with Abraham who is supposed (if he was an actual personage) to have existed about 11 centuries prior to that time.
People of faith just aren't bothered by such obvious lies and manufactures. They can slide right off it with any number of deceitful stratagems and assure us that it doesn't mean a damn thing because the bible wasn't meant to be historically accurate. Well, if it isn't historically accurate where it purports to record history, just how can any thinking human being consider it accurate in anything else?
If I'm bargaining with some contractor or workman and find out he's lied about his qualifications in some area, would I be sane to hire the deceiver? Maybe a fool would, but I try not to be a fool!
That's not the only historical manufacture. The whole book of Joshua is a ridiculous account that never could have happened. Why? Because the Canaan of that supposed time was an integral part of the Egyptian Empire that was defended by several powerful Egyptian garrisons. Wonder of wonders, those Egyptian troops just miraculously stepped aside and let a wandering band of desert nomads waltze in and take over. THAT'S HOGWASH!
Never happened! It's another bastard attempt at historical fiction that wouldn't even qualify for B movie status with any true historian!
Any person who wants to base their beliefs on such a book of proven lies is welcome to their delusion. I spent several decades in that deluded state, but no more. Again, if I didn't need to quote that stupid lying book once in awhile to attack it, I'd burn it!
THE SOCHI DEBACLE
The Olympics begin tonight in Sochi. I think it's going to be a big blotch on olympic history -- all because of religious fanaticism. I know there's no way I would book any kind of transportation to Russia right now, even if I had the economic resources to finance it. Why risk my life so some islamist fanatics can flex their terrorist muscles?
Maybe I'll watch an occasional event if there isn't something more interesting on just out of curiosity. I'm not really into winter sports, or any other sports for that matter. That's largely due to the fact that I never got embroiled in sports as a young man, so there isn't that emotional connection -- and also why I haven't been limited by and had to nurse along sports injuries all my life. One pays a price for momentary "glory."
Winning the Olympics is going to turn out to be a gigantic finacncial loss for Russia. It provides a stage for fanatics to try to further their cause and gain attention. I'd normally sympathize with someone seeking autonomy for their people, but not when it involves substituting religious tyranny for the original soviet tryranny. Tyranny is tyranny, after all, and nothing is worse than a religious tyranny.
Maybe I'll watch an occasional event if there isn't something more interesting on just out of curiosity. I'm not really into winter sports, or any other sports for that matter. That's largely due to the fact that I never got embroiled in sports as a young man, so there isn't that emotional connection -- and also why I haven't been limited by and had to nurse along sports injuries all my life. One pays a price for momentary "glory."
Winning the Olympics is going to turn out to be a gigantic finacncial loss for Russia. It provides a stage for fanatics to try to further their cause and gain attention. I'd normally sympathize with someone seeking autonomy for their people, but not when it involves substituting religious tyranny for the original soviet tryranny. Tyranny is tyranny, after all, and nothing is worse than a religious tyranny.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
A HOLOGRAM UNIVERSE -- REALLY?
(From Facebook.)
I have some studying and thinking to do, not that I expect to solve something that has career physicists scratching their heads. I'm referring to the video my friend, Dennis Deahl, put up both here and on the Banned by HWA blog about the holographic universe. Piqued my curiosity, and it will take some time to follow up with the rest of the videos, reading, etc.
The very idea that we exist in a universe akin to the holodeck on Star Trek strikes me as far out and impossible. Reality is just too real to be nothing but a projection. I know, we can produce holograms, but they have no real physical substance, and to me, it's a stretch for one hologram to produce another.
You and I and everything around us, including bodies in the immense depths of the universe, do have substance, even if most of that substance is indeed empty space. Frankly, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that something like a hammer or axe head is mostly empty space, but it is. I can still sharpen it and use it to chop up a tree that is also mostly empty space.
There has to be an answer to this, and frankly, if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope I can come back as a physicist and maybe solve this thing. With my luck, somebody else will probably beat me to it in the meantime, just like some lucky sob always beats me to that coveted lottery prize.
I have some studying and thinking to do, not that I expect to solve something that has career physicists scratching their heads. I'm referring to the video my friend, Dennis Deahl, put up both here and on the Banned by HWA blog about the holographic universe. Piqued my curiosity, and it will take some time to follow up with the rest of the videos, reading, etc.
The very idea that we exist in a universe akin to the holodeck on Star Trek strikes me as far out and impossible. Reality is just too real to be nothing but a projection. I know, we can produce holograms, but they have no real physical substance, and to me, it's a stretch for one hologram to produce another.
You and I and everything around us, including bodies in the immense depths of the universe, do have substance, even if most of that substance is indeed empty space. Frankly, it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that something like a hammer or axe head is mostly empty space, but it is. I can still sharpen it and use it to chop up a tree that is also mostly empty space.
There has to be an answer to this, and frankly, if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope I can come back as a physicist and maybe solve this thing. With my luck, somebody else will probably beat me to it in the meantime, just like some lucky sob always beats me to that coveted lottery prize.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
REFLECTIONS ON A DEATH
(From Facebook.)
Another sobering announcement online this morning and also from my sister. An old associate recently died from untreated prostate cancer at age 90. I don't know if he was still hanging with the old denouncement of medical treatment or not. He never got away from the cult, going through two of the splinters in that futile effort to stay loyal to "god's truth."
He was a good man. Most people are deep down. They sincerely try to do right as they see it.
How many million versions of "right" has the human race been afflicted with throughout its history? I'm sure the south sea cannibal was convinced of his rightness as he or she devoured some hapless fellow human. The inquisitor was convinced of his rightness too as he broke some poor unfortunate on the rack, burned them at the stake or slit their throat.
Those self-righteous idiots I see picketing in front of Planned Parenthood are convinced of their rightness too and they would scream in absolute indignation at any woman who wanted to use birth control so she and her husband could enjoy the beautiful bonding and fulfillment of safe sex without conceiving a child they know they can't properly provide for.
Logical thinking is not championed or furthered in most of this world. If it had been, maybe I would have had the reasoning power to throw Herbert Armstrong's lying garbage in the receptacle it belonged in. Leroy Neff didn't have the awareness to do it at any point in his life.
Ok, tea partyists and fundamentalists, you can have at me now. See if I care.
Another sobering announcement online this morning and also from my sister. An old associate recently died from untreated prostate cancer at age 90. I don't know if he was still hanging with the old denouncement of medical treatment or not. He never got away from the cult, going through two of the splinters in that futile effort to stay loyal to "god's truth."
He was a good man. Most people are deep down. They sincerely try to do right as they see it.
How many million versions of "right" has the human race been afflicted with throughout its history? I'm sure the south sea cannibal was convinced of his rightness as he or she devoured some hapless fellow human. The inquisitor was convinced of his rightness too as he broke some poor unfortunate on the rack, burned them at the stake or slit their throat.
Those self-righteous idiots I see picketing in front of Planned Parenthood are convinced of their rightness too and they would scream in absolute indignation at any woman who wanted to use birth control so she and her husband could enjoy the beautiful bonding and fulfillment of safe sex without conceiving a child they know they can't properly provide for.
Logical thinking is not championed or furthered in most of this world. If it had been, maybe I would have had the reasoning power to throw Herbert Armstrong's lying garbage in the receptacle it belonged in. Leroy Neff didn't have the awareness to do it at any point in his life.
Ok, tea partyists and fundamentalists, you can have at me now. See if I care.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
HORRIBLE VERSES
(From Facebook.)
I was reading a blog article that brought forcefully to my mind some of the most damnable words ever recorded in any human literature. (I'll refer you to it later, since doing so now will only prevent me from commenting further with what I have to say.)
They're found in several verses scattered through Jewish Scripture, especially in Proverbs. I'll quote a few of these barbaric verses that still afflict the human race with a hard-boiled, bullying frame of mind that wreaks havoc on a great segment of each generation of hapless victims.
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son (13:24) ... Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying (19:18) ... foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (22:15) ... If thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die (23;13)." (Quite a great number have died, so that is not true.)
I'm well aware that there could be an occasional circumstance where a slap or swat might be appropriate, but those would be rare occasions for a lovingly reared child. The fact is that violence breeds violence and any child (or creature) subjected to repeated violence is going to respond defensively and develop a personality of hostility for its own protection.
I could count on less than the fingers of one hand the times I remember when either of my parents struck me -- with anything, inluding their hand. Just knowing they were disappointed in me was enough to fill me with the deepest of fear and shame. Their loving approval meant the world to me as a child. I feared doing anything that would lessen it.
I see the same thing in our little dogs. They've never been struck in their entire lives, but just show disapproval or scold them, and their heads and tails droop. They are shattered and so relieved when you make it plain that they are stll loved and cherished. That's the important thing. They must know that you love them no matter what. It leads them to respond in kind.
Children are exactly the same. They have to be patiently taught. It isn't always easy. But, resorting to violent brute force only perpetuates the hardboiled attitude that has permeated human society for millenia. It brutalizes. It warps. It feeds on itself. It helps create psycopaths.
Let's have done with the violent approach. It's counter productive.
Here's the article that got me started:
http://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2014/01/samuel-martins-former-cog-babysitter.htm
See More
Banned by HWA! Books, News and Observations About Armstrongism and the Churches of God
armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com
A blog about Armstrongism, Herbert W Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, Ron Weinland, Roderick C Meredith
I was reading a blog article that brought forcefully to my mind some of the most damnable words ever recorded in any human literature. (I'll refer you to it later, since doing so now will only prevent me from commenting further with what I have to say.)
They're found in several verses scattered through Jewish Scripture, especially in Proverbs. I'll quote a few of these barbaric verses that still afflict the human race with a hard-boiled, bullying frame of mind that wreaks havoc on a great segment of each generation of hapless victims.
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son (13:24) ... Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying (19:18) ... foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (22:15) ... If thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die (23;13)." (Quite a great number have died, so that is not true.)
I'm well aware that there could be an occasional circumstance where a slap or swat might be appropriate, but those would be rare occasions for a lovingly reared child. The fact is that violence breeds violence and any child (or creature) subjected to repeated violence is going to respond defensively and develop a personality of hostility for its own protection.
I could count on less than the fingers of one hand the times I remember when either of my parents struck me -- with anything, inluding their hand. Just knowing they were disappointed in me was enough to fill me with the deepest of fear and shame. Their loving approval meant the world to me as a child. I feared doing anything that would lessen it.
I see the same thing in our little dogs. They've never been struck in their entire lives, but just show disapproval or scold them, and their heads and tails droop. They are shattered and so relieved when you make it plain that they are stll loved and cherished. That's the important thing. They must know that you love them no matter what. It leads them to respond in kind.
Children are exactly the same. They have to be patiently taught. It isn't always easy. But, resorting to violent brute force only perpetuates the hardboiled attitude that has permeated human society for millenia. It brutalizes. It warps. It feeds on itself. It helps create psycopaths.
Let's have done with the violent approach. It's counter productive.
Here's the article that got me started:
http://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2014/01/samuel-martins-former-cog-babysitter.htm
See More
Banned by HWA! Books, News and Observations About Armstrongism and the Churches of God
armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com
A blog about Armstrongism, Herbert W Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, Ron Weinland, Roderick C Meredith
DON'T PRE-JUDGE
(From Facebook.)
There were two sales in the Village of Oak Creek and West Sedona this morning, but Phyllis wasn't up to getting up early to go and I didn't want to go alone. So, we're having a practically saleless January. Bummer!
I just sat down with the free paper that's delivered overnight on Wednesdays and found a good article about not pre-judging dogs on the basis of breed biases which pointed out how much the author's husband came to love a poodle-bichon rescue dog when he originally wanted nothing to do with poodles. A special bond developed between them.
I'm reminded of my reaction when I realized my stepson was offering a free dog as a mother's day gift to my wife. I was in the background, mouthing "No." Trouble is now an especially loved part of my life. I had misgivings about the other two when they were added to the mix. Now, I couldn't bear to let any of them go.
I'm thankful dogs came into my aged life. They've been good for me. I feel I've grown in love and understanding because of them. I wanted children in my life and am thankful for each of the four I was blessed with and appreciate the step children and grandchildren I've had.
Dogs are almost like another chance at parenting. They can try your patience at times, but love always carries the day when all is said and done. I know that special loving feeling that floods through me when I see their happy faces is good for me.
There were two sales in the Village of Oak Creek and West Sedona this morning, but Phyllis wasn't up to getting up early to go and I didn't want to go alone. So, we're having a practically saleless January. Bummer!
I just sat down with the free paper that's delivered overnight on Wednesdays and found a good article about not pre-judging dogs on the basis of breed biases which pointed out how much the author's husband came to love a poodle-bichon rescue dog when he originally wanted nothing to do with poodles. A special bond developed between them.
I'm reminded of my reaction when I realized my stepson was offering a free dog as a mother's day gift to my wife. I was in the background, mouthing "No." Trouble is now an especially loved part of my life. I had misgivings about the other two when they were added to the mix. Now, I couldn't bear to let any of them go.
I'm thankful dogs came into my aged life. They've been good for me. I feel I've grown in love and understanding because of them. I wanted children in my life and am thankful for each of the four I was blessed with and appreciate the step children and grandchildren I've had.
Dogs are almost like another chance at parenting. They can try your patience at times, but love always carries the day when all is said and done. I know that special loving feeling that floods through me when I see their happy faces is good for me.
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