Nothing Special...

Hello Kiddies,
   Medicine!!!!   Yes this topic is on the healthcare system.   Does your Doctor really listen to you?  I have had many Doctors during my lifetime and most were very receptive to listening to me and my issues. 
   I have recently run into a road block with my ex-Doctor, a simple misunderstanding that turned into a complete banning of services from her and all other Physicians in her network, "did I mention that most of the Doctors in my town are affiliated with this Doctors network"?   
   How can this be working for the common good of the public not to mention she cut off my prescriptions for chronic pain.   What happened to the Hippocratic oath of " First, Do no harm"!!!!!    Well I was certainly harmed and could barely move for nearly a month, what a B*#$h!   Prior to this we had a great relationship, now suddenly I am a pariah, that's bullshit no matter how you look at it.   I've had friends and family face this type of misconduct from Doctors before but never first hand and I can tell you it stings.
   Luckily I'm a Catholic and was welcomed with open arms to the only hospital "Catholic Hospital" not affiliated with that network.   Now they are putting me through a new series of nonsensical BS to get paid.  No Doctor should go into medicine to get rich it should be a calling regardless of the pay.
    In Cuba, cab drivers make more money than the Doctors do.   Now I'm not professing this but it is time that Doctors learned they are not God and should not treat their patients like shit!
AMF...

So many topic's, so little time

Hello Kiddies,
   Do you think that all of " God's " creatures have a since of their own mortality?  To follow most religious doctrines all was created by some higher being, regardless of the name and that humankind has domain over the planet.   This being the case are we not also the groundskeepers and responsible for it's maintenance?   This lecture really should be 2 separate blogs but I'm feeling daring!
   Inter-connectivity between species.   A big phrase for you Neanderthals out there, look it up.  At any rate we know that animals have instincts, we know they feel pain and can usually tell when they are content in their habitats.   So what makes the human animal more or less important than all the other species on the planet?   Does the "sacrificial Wilderbeast" *, not feel pain as the crocodile is chomping on it's hind quarters as it attempt's to cross a narrow river?  Most definitely, as we know it cries out in pain and struggles to get away. 
     Now what about domesticated animals, family pets?  They hold a special place in our hearts and some people tell their children that when Rover dies or runs away, he goes to doggie Heaven!   Okay so we feel we are more evolved because of all that we have discovered and created not to mention we have a "Soul" and thumbs.
   So if you believe all of this then you may have been a victim of Mr. Madof, it's a pyramid scheme.  " God" is at the top and some single celled organism is at the very base.   Since there are Angels and other Ethereal creatures above us, my guess is that we are about 3/4's or slightly better to the top of the pyramid, where "THE ALPHA & OMEGA" sits on a golden throne.  Now that we have established the hierarchy we can work on the inter-connectivity bit.  Every creature on this planet in one way or another is dependent on others for it's survival.   The higher you get to the top the more dependent you become on those at the base.  This is based on scientific methodology and empirical evidence, which isn't really good for the religious community but bare with me.   Here's the rub, if all human beings ceased to exist tomorrow, would the earth stop turning?  Ah....NO!  About the only things that would really suffer are creatures dependent upon us & the things that require us to maintain them.   On the other hand, if every single bee species were gone tomorrow humankind would be fucked for quite a while, as they pollinate plants.  As studies have shown us, the bee population is decreasing at an alarming rate, we might wanna look into what's up with the bee's.  Now here's the best part for you so called religious folks out there, If we did all die off tomorrow, since "God" is at the top of the pyramid, would "it" cease to exist too?    If you don't understand the analogy ask your mommy to explain it to you.
    You guy's starting to get the point about the stewardship of the planet?   Humans are the most dependent on the planet as we are at the top of the food chain or as I should put it "the earthly pyramid".   What does "God" have to do with this, personally I don't think "it" has anything to do with anything, this is for your edification not mine.    I am saying that if you are religious you should be more concerned with the health of this marvelous gift "God" has bestowed upon you.   I don't know that "God" is any more tangible than thought's of extreme fear and insecurity of man's own mortality.   I do think that Occam's razor comes into play here and that anything beyound death is a fairy tale to keep people on the straight and narrow.   Our very existence is just pure simple stupid luck.   So enjoy your time here as it's short and there probably is not anything beyound right here and right now.
AMF...  
* Thanks to my dear friend Jose Torres.

Flight's of Fancy

Hello Kiddies,
   Now what if I told you something that you should already know about sibling rivalry.   Israel and The Arab nations are actually from the same lineage.  Now I have a sibling and we don't get along all the time but most of the time things are pleasant.
   Don't you think that since this story is basically the same in both their holy books, may be if they actually read the entire fucking things then maybe they could tone down the anger, not to mention the killing of thousands of innocent people.   As I recall Abraham had several children, the first Ishmael and the second Issac.   
   Here's where the funny bit comes in, Abram " short for Abraham" was unable to have a child with his wife, so she allows him to procreate with their servant and along comes Ishmael, bouncing baby boy, oh happy day.  Until Abrams wife actually conceives and has a son Isaac.   Trouble in paradise, now Abrams wife say's to toss out his son from the first coupling as sharing is a no no I guess, in favor of their REAL son Isaac.

   Even back then it seems the women ran the household. Well poor Ishmael gets banished to the desert and from his lineage the Islamic faith is born.   Issac on the other hand is nearly sacrificed to please God, last minute God say's  "it's cool ha ha just testing your faith ".  From the lineage of Issac the Jewish faith was born.
Now I know that all deeply religious people say they have read their books cover to cover well if that's true why would you continue to kill your own family?  Sounds like some therapy is needed more than anything else.
   Funny thing about the Koran is, it mentions Jesus and many other key peoples and points that are in the Old Testament, yet the Old Testament barely acknowledges anything other than what the early Sumerians wrote "borrowed info Re: creation myth & the great flood"  and what they chose to say about Yahweh.   Maybe one day we'll look back and see how silly all this religious shit really is an just try to get through our lives with minimal pain towards one another... But I doubt it.  Oh yea and for all you Jew hating Christians out there here's the best part "Jesus was Jewish you DUMB FUCKHEADS!"
AMF...

Respect the office

Hello Kiddies,
    As all of America knows by now Barak Obama has done the impossible.  He looked through the looking glass and turned what appeared to be a mountain into the molehill it turned out to be " God Bless Seal Team 6".   You know there will always be a certain amount of trash talk between the various political parties, I just hope the lunatic rhetoric starts to tone down now.   This is pointed at the tea baggers and the Republicans.   Not only has your lunacy hurt the US in world opinion but I think a lot of it is really hidden racism.  
    Please lets not forget who started all this shit in the first place, no wonder Alfred E. Newman didn't wanna show his face at ground zero, people probably would have egged him.   OK, so it's no secret I don't like Bush but I did respect the office that he held while he was commander in chief.   Republicans, I'm sorry that Old man Potter the 2nd & the brain dead beauty didn't win but get over it.   Constructive criticism is fine, but The birthers and now the schoolers!    What the fuck will the talking hair piece ask for next?   Come on people we are the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, key word is UNITED.  He was elected legally and considering what he has inherited I think he's doing about a B- job.  The only reason it's a B- is three fold.
      1.  The patriot act is Bullshit and should be repealed IMMEDIATELY.
      2.  Stop hiring bankers to staff the treasury, why not give a Nobel Laureate in Economics a try.
      Lastly, put at least one major banker in jail over nearly bankrupting the planet.
  Aside from those 3 issues, which I consider major he would get an A- or maybe an A.  The heart of the matter is NO ONE SHORT OF A MAGICIAN could fix all this shit in four years let alone 8, so if you don't like his policies go apeshit.   Not respecting the Office the man holds IS FLAT OUT UN-AMERICAN.
AMF...

Food for thought

Hello Kiddies,
    While I was baptized in the Roman Catholic church and am an Independent voter, I don't feel that one Ideological or Religious philosophy \ doctrine has now or ever will get the whole story right.   Humankind is flawed and so by sheer reason anything created by them cannot approach the exact precision of perfection.   I don't see this as a negative, because it would leave us bored and without ambition to learn if we could attain perfection.
     Since humankind is flawed if anything is factually or empirically studied long enough, well someone will find fault with it.   I have done this on more than one occasion, if you've followed my blogs  :) .   I truly in my heart of hearts believe our founding fathers had a noble ideal in wanting to " Form a more perfect Union" flawed...yes as a statement but as an idea it is quite ambitious.   I am an independent voter, in the sense that I choose the candidate that I feel will do the best job.  
      As far as religion, I follow much the same tact.   I don't think any one belief system has ALL the right answers.   My belief structure is more like a salad bar.   I like to pick and choose what I like from different belief systems and follow those basic tenants to guide my way through life.   While I believe in the balance of EVERYTHING  "Yin and Yang", I am not a Taoist.  Many of the 10 Commandments are excellent rules to live by as well but I have not been to church in over 20 years.   Those are ingrained in my head but try this on for size, every morning upon awakening I read the following:
1.   Take into account that great Love and great Achievements Involve Great Risk.
2.   When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3.   Follow the three R’s.
       A.  Respect for self
       B.  Respect for others and
       C.  Responsibility for all your actions
4.   Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5.   Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6.   Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7.   When you’ve realized you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8.   Spend some time alone everyday.
9.   Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10.  Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11.  Live a good honorable life, then when you get older and think back you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12.  A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13.  In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation, don’t bring up the past.
14.  Share your knowledge, it’s a way to achieve immortality.
15.  Be gentle with the earth.
16.  Once a year go someplace you’ve never been before.
17.  Remember the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18.  Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19.  Approach Love and cooking with reckless abandon.
    These are not my original thought's, I wish I could take credit for them but alas they stem from a wiser person than I, any guess's as to who?   Well at any rate the point of this is to be more open minded and live your life as you would like others to treat you.   Just act right, pretty simple if you ask me.
AMF...

Indentured Servitude

Hello Kiddies,
    As we go about our daily lives do any of us take pause and really think about the conditions in which we live under?   We wake up, prep for work, work, go home and relax "generally that's the daily routine, no"?   Well this kind of reminds me of the days of old.   What do I mean by this?  Well not so long ago people entered into contracts with the wealthy to perform duties in exchange for transport, housing etc...   In exchange for this they worked, day in and day out until the debt was paid in full.   
    How is this akin to life in modern society?    Well upon being hired to a position you have guidelines you have to follow, very little if any say so as to your working conditions or upward mobility.   Don't think that just because you work hard you'll make it to the top.   That is actually a rarity, especially in this day in age.   Now there are those few who do attain upward mobility and even fewer self made zillionaires but buy in large most of us are stuck in the middle.  In exchange for our working we are paid, servants were not but they had all their basic needs met.   Isn't that the same as your paycheck?
     Once upon a time a single income could sustain the family, these days nearly the entire family has to work just to make ends meet, starting to sound a bit more like servitude, no?   Thanks to Globalization, monetary manipulation and sheer greed, wages are actually decreasing as time moves forward.   America is truly moving closer and closer to a Caste system of social order, this deeply saddens me as it's not the America I remember during my college years or perhaps I was just naive.
      I believe that slowly, with the erosion of unions and the degradation nay decimation of the middle class we are slowly sinking into an abyss that it will be difficult to reverse without real harm to our country as a whole.  If you look at a bell curve of wages overtime, just go back to the 1960's you will see that the curve in the center "adjusted for inflation" which represented the vast majority of us "middle class" is narrowing.  There are more Uber wealthy and working poor now than in recent history.   Something is gonna break, this road we are going down cannot be sustained or this great experiment known as "America" we have all been participating in is going to collapse in on itself, wait and see.  Life as we know it now is unsustainable: finite resources, deteriorating quality of life, fiscal irresponsibility and unpredictable disasters natural or otherwise will be our undoing.   These are the fact's write it off as BS if you want and pray to the technology Gods if you will but the only thing that's really going to save us is coming together as a nation and stop fucking each other out of equity for massive personal gains!
AMF...

Perception Vs. Reality

Hello Kiddies,

   We think the world perceives the us as the Great OZ.  Factually I hope they saw The Wizard of OZ, if so they know that we are actually the tiny man behind the curtain pulling levers and pushing buttons.

   Once upon a time, as from Reagan through Clinton we were in fact the Great and Wonderful OZ.  We had the world by the balls, we could do no wrong or if we did we could justify it to the rest of the world.   Well, look at us now, 2 unfunded wars, nearly bankrupting the planet and greedy beyound all reason.   What happened to us in the span of several decades?   Leadership or more to the point the lack thereof.   President Alfred E. Newman and his sidekick Old man Potter is responsible for a great deal of this, but not all of it.  Do Republicans really believe that laissez-faire capitalism is actually a viable economic system?

   The only way I buy into this argument is that they were on the inside "ie. part of the malfeasance" when the economy nearly collapsed.   Why else would anyone continue to ague for lowering taxes when we know Voodoo "or trickle down" economics DO NOT WORK.   It was a nice experiment but it has FAILED MISERABLY.   I am all for fiscal responsibility but what in the hell are we doing?   It actually began several years back with minor deregulation of the banks, slowly they kept chipping away at laws that have been in place since the Great Depression.   Guess what we got with this ...that's right with globalization we nearly bankrupted half the planet.

    So did we learn any lessons from this, why would we, how many people went to jail?    How many millions of Americans got FUCKED?  

    Perception, America is still the land of opportunity, many people got insanely wealthy when the crash hit.   Reality, many States, Individuals, Municipalities invested in these sure fire get rich schemes and now all of the sudden, it's the working class "the middleclass" who is paying for it.  You really think union busting and putting all the fault on state & municipal workers and the poor is the answer?

     For the first time in the history of S&P it has been hinted that they "may"  in the future downgrade the USA's AAA credit rating.   Anyone remember all the past Empires, Rome for example?

     Once more in the words of Bill Maher " WAKE UP AMERICA"!

AMF...