09:01 – Interesting article in the paper this morning about the costs of various diseases. Dementia, including Alzheimer’s, is by far the most costly, at around $1,000/year for every man, woman, and child in the US. And no possibility of a cure. Neil Young’s lyrics kept running through my mind: “And once you’re gone, you can never come back, when you’re out of the blue and into the black.” People with profound dementia are in a very real sense brain-dead. Even if our medicinal chemists come up with a miracle cure, at best it will stop the progress of the disease. It won’t reverse the physical damage to the brains of people who already suffer from profound dementia. A person without a functioning brain is no longer really a person. The kindest thing we could do is euthanize them.
Work on kits continues.
15:40 – The weather around here this time of year is highly variable. Yesterday, for example, it was sunny and the high according to our thermometer was 74.3 F (23.5C). At this moment, it’s 36.4F (2.4C) and there’s frozen precipitation falling. And it’s of a sort that I don’t remember ever seeing before: snleet. Or perhaps slnow. It’s simultaneously snowing and sleeting.
Yes. I This is one area where we are kinder to pets, and cruel to people.
I hear all you said on profound dementia; and seen it up-close and firsthand several times. They can still have moments of utter lucidity and you know they’re still in there somewhere. Who decides when and how to flip the switch? Bickering family members? God-like doctors? The junkie night nurse? A “medical ethics” practitioner from the hospital? The insurance dudes? How about the term “slippery slope”?
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
Nope.
It’ll be some bureaucrat. When Obamacare carries out its purpose and drives all private insurance companies and practitioners out of business, then every medical decision will be the government’s business.
“It’ll be some bureaucrat.”
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Some State drone like the ones we see at the department of motor vehicles, or the tax departments. Maybe they’ll wear nice brown shirts like their predecessors in Germany during the 1930s…; once we dump the doddering oldsters, we can move on to other “mental defectives,” homos, dwarfs, Down’s Syndrome kids, and eventually, stealing a page from the Khmer Rouge playbook, people who wear glasses.
I have a friend whose father is that far gone with dementia. He used to have issues with not knowing where his dead wife was, so they told him she was at the grocery store and would be back shortly. He’s now doesn’t know who he is or who his kids are. I don’t have a big problem with euthanasia of people that far gone.
My mother has very real problems with memory and cognitive functions. The difference between where she once was and where she is now is disconcerting. It is like her brain is half gone. But she is still clearly alive. It’s a real pain in the neck to deal with from my standpoint. But seeing her play with my daughter still makes it worthwhile.
I’m concerned that if we allowed euthanasia of the obviously gone, it would devolve into euthanasia of the merely declining.
Well, I was thinking in terms of a close family member. The spouse. Lacking that, any of the children could make the decision unilaterally. They should be able to opt for medical euthanasia or DIY.
Moments of lucidity? Yeah, that’s a real blessing. They’re aware for a few seconds, just long enough to realize the horror of their condition. I had a conversation with one of the nurses when my mom was in the nursing home, not with dementia, fortunately. The nurse told me that their severe Alzheimer’s patients who had lucid moments often begged the staff to kill them.
Slippery slope? Now there’s a red herring. Is it a slippery slope to allow dog owners to decide when it’s time to have their pets put down to stop their suffering? Would you rather the dogs continue to suffer?
I’m sure you’ll argue that humans are different from dogs, but that’s an impossible argument to make without recourse to your imaginary god. I wonder if you were unlucky enough to ever have to euthanize one of your buddies in combat. I hope not, but I’ve known soldiers who had to and did, although they were both WWII vets rather than Viet Nam, and I’d imagine there were many more who had done so but never talked about it.
Well, no one is suggesting that you be forced to euthanize your mother. All I’m arguing is that you’re in the best position to make that decision, and you should be the one to do so.
I’m the one who signed the DNR order for my mother, and I can assure you that I didn’t make that decision lightly. I made the decision based on what I believed my mother would have decided if she were in a position to do so. And even at that, my mother suffered longer than she should have. Once I knew it was hopeless and that extending her life really meant only extending her suffering, if they’d given me a button to push you can be sure I would have pushed it.
The best thing we should all do is have this arranged ahead of time with a living will.
While I know that dogs and humans are different (humans are much nastier), I do not consider them so different that I treat them all that differently. Well, maybe I give dogs the benefit of doubt slightly more.
One thing we can’t allow is OFD’s bureaucrats to have the final say. THAT would be the slope that’s slippery.
“And once you’re gone, you can never come back, when you’re out of the blue and into the black.”
I disliked Johnny Rotten’s songs very much but really liked the song about him. Weird.
The “Harvest” album was awesome. I used to play it in my truck when no babes were hanging around.
It’ll be some bureaucrat. When Obamacare carries out its purpose and drives all private insurance companies and practitioners out of business, then every medical decision will be the government’s business.
Here are the people to make the decisions:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-to-pay-navigators-20-to-48-an-hour-provide-free-translators/article/2526167
These selfless advocators for your healthcare will translate for you when you cannot speak anymore. They will mind meld with you and tell the doctors what you want. All at $48/hour (starting pay) not counting bennies.
And, when they get a weekend off, they will be down at the local Church of God Unchained, rolling on the floor under podium and speaking in tongues themselves. Or, at least that is how I see them.
The best thing we should all do is have this arranged ahead of time with a living will.
And that is a problem. My aunt had a living will, as does my mother, where no methods were to be used to keep her alive. No feeding tubes, no artificial breathing, nothing. But my aunt still spent the last two years of her life in a vegetative stupor at tremendous cost. That two years of her life did nothing for her or anyone else. People at my church were horrified when they would ask how my aunt was and I would say “I wish she would die”.
In my opinion that was my choice, my wishes, not theirs. If they wanted to extend her life then they could pay the bills, do the visits and maintain her finances. People that think allowing someone to die is horrible have never had to deal with a terminal vegetable case.
I think termination of the life should be up to the individual and if the individual is not capable of making the decision then it should be up to the family members along with one doctor who is familiar with the condition. Not some make believe doctor in some state office who considers scratching his own ass a full days work.
I had to fight the state when the nursing home wanted to put a feeding tube in my aunt. Even though I had POA and a living will, the state insisted that since she was on Medicare that the state had authority to make healthcare decisions. A threat of a lawsuit quickly quelled the jerk from the state. I suspect he knew better but was just trying to be pushy.
Life, and death, should not be the decision of the state or any government agency. It should only be for the affected people with strong emphasis given to the person that is the ultimate recipient of the decision. Suicide, without financial gain such as an insurance policy, should be 100% legal.
I’m concerned that if we allowed euthanasia of the obviously gone, it would devolve into euthanasia of the merely declining.
Well said brother! I would have been euthanized years ago during my second heart attack if these selfsame navigators were in charge. The wife has told me of some of the things that I said during that 24 hour period and I was obviously mentally challenged at the time. Some people would say that I never recovered.
Maybe what Bill and SteveF and I are saying is that we are beaucoups uncomfortable with the idea that invariably it will be some gummint suit who gets to decide when and how to euthanize my own mom.
Maybe we should all get “heart plugs” installed and put a dog/cat chew toy on the end. That should thin out the herd. If you can’t get away from the dog/cat, you are automatically terminated. No good to society. Burdensome. Decrepit. Or just a plain douche.
I didn’t think anyone is saying that. What I’m saying is I’m really uncomfortable with the idea of having to make that decision. Which I suppose means I am qualified to make the decision. My mother’s dementia is the weirdest thing. One minute she’ll remember something clearly and the next she’ll ask me something which I’d think would be obvious. At the moment we’re both coming to grips with the fact that some guy with a bachelor’s degree and one class in accounting is better able to do taxes than someone with at least half a dozen accounting classes, a masters and a law degree.
Speaking of the medical, having been on Medicare and supplemental insurance for nearly a year now, I have decided it is impossible to reconcile the medical bills with the insurance payments. All the doctors around the state have pretty much joined with hospitals in huge practice groups—although their offices are in diverse places, not always in a hospital. My particular group provides only one type of statement, and oddly, it does not ever show my payments to them. There is no other accounting they offer. This is genuinely corrupt, IMO.
I missed making a payment on time last month—and good thing I did. Each month, they provide a running balance of what I owe. Now supposedly, they only bill me after they know they have received all the payments from Medicare and the supplemental insurance company that they are going to get, so when an item is listed as to my share, it should not change. Yet, magically, my running (not the month’s) balance went down by over $100—even though several appointments and procedures were added to the bill, and nothing subtracted. Wow!
They also do not credit small payments, like the one from the supplemental insurance for 34¢ a couple months ago. “We don’t credit small amounts like that.” Hmm. How big does it have to be before it is bigger than ‘a small amount like that’?
I should pay those bills late more often. Maybe if I don’t pay them at all, the running balance will finally end up to be $0.00.
At the moment we’re both coming to grips with the fact that some guy with a bachelor’s degree and one class in accounting is better able to do taxes than someone with at least half a dozen accounting classes, a masters and a law degree.
TurboTax is your friend?
They also do not credit small payments, like the one from the supplemental insurance for 34¢ a couple months ago. “We don’t credit small amounts like that.” Hmm. How big does it have to be before it is bigger than ‘a small amount like that’?
More and more businesses are following the IRS lead and rounding off / up all amounts to one dollar. Many are moving to two dollars before they will invoice you.
One of their competitors that is free for the federal return and $15 for the State. I haven’t paid the $15, and I’m not going to be telling her about that if I don’t have to. Although it caught the fact that the standard exemption for someone 65 or older is $7400, not $5950, which I think Mom missed last year.
One of the things that keeps surprising me is that whenever my mother and I disagree about money, I’m always taking the position that she should leave her sole heir (me) a smaller inheritance.
White kid—preacher’s son—from a really small town in the Great Northwest, who sounds like a cross between Prince and Stevie Wonder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FiKuxuK-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G29lvYkSjY
I have decided it is impossible to reconcile the medical bills with the insurance payments.
That was my experience with my aunt. After trying for six months I gave up. Anytime I got a statement from Medicare or Medicaid I just tossed it in the trash as so much junk mail. I don’t think anyone with 73 degrees in accounting could make any sense of that stuff.
Had one provider complain because they did not get paid enough and that I was going to have to make up the difference. I told them my aunt has no money that they are legally entitled to receive as the VA money and the $50 a month she kept from her retirement were, by law, not to be used to pay medical expenses. The company tried to come after me because our address was the same as I had all paperwork sent to my house. I told the company to go ahead and send it to collections at which point I would sue them for fraud and I would win. They backed down.
This whole system is intimidating for people that are confused to begin with and I suspect the companies know that. They can try and collect knowing that they may win some and lose some.
I have just now decided to hire Ray as our go-to guy for negotiating with various entities who may cause problems for us, like insurance companies, the local utilities, the tax gestapo, etc. And SteveF for selective enforcement. I’m just gonna sit back and watch the fun.
“The weather around here this time of year is highly variable. Yesterday, for example, it was sunny and the high according to our thermometer was 74.3 F (23.5C). At this moment, it’s 36.4F (2.4C)…”
You’d like Melbourne, whose motto is “Four seasons in a day”.
Only four seasons in a day? We have six or seven in an hour, depending on the local micro-climates. Pikers down in Oz. Pikers.
But hot sheilas. Very hot.
OFD, normally I’d wave off on account of I mostly don’t go roughing people up any more on account of I’m a family man, but currently I have a bit of aggravation to work off … on account of I’m a family man and my wife has been annoying the crap right out of me for several weeks. So, if I were hypothetically to get the address and description of a deserving target, the media the next day might be filled with the horrific story of the poor, innocent government employee/insurance adjustor/utility company drone who’d been nailed by the wrists to his front door just before his house was torched. Hypothetically, of course.
re weather, I read some time ago the argument that Americans are (or were, anyway) tough and flexible and determined on account of our terrible weather. Other places have one or two kinds of bad weather, but we’ve got it all. I don’t know if the essay was meant seriously and I don’t know if I agree with the proposition, but there’s no denying that by and large we have beastly weather.
“Slippery slope? Now there’s a red herring. Is it a slippery slope to allow dog owners to decide when it’s time to have their pets put down to stop their suffering? Would you rather the dogs continue to suffer?”
No, because despite what you say below humans and dogs *are* different.
As to the slippery slope, suppose you’re out driving, you come around a corner and you see a little girl in one lane and a dog in the other. There are concrete bollards on both sides of the road hemming you in and you’re going too fast to stop in time. If you are going to kill one of those animals which lane will you steer in to?
“I’m sure you’ll argue that humans are different from dogs, but that’s an impossible argument to make without recourse to your imaginary god.”
Humans and dogs are similar and different. Sure, their evolutionary path is just as long as ours but just about anyone would agree that the value of most human lives is higher than that of most other animals. Even an atheist should agree with that.
OFD wrote:
“But hot sheilas. Very hot.”
Yeah, and ours aren’t Paris Hilton wannabes pumped full of silicone.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-05/anonymous-hacks-official-n-korean-twitter-flickr/4610722
Apparently someone hacked Richard Dawkins’ site too…
Well, the final chapter of the best program I ever worked on ended today with Roger Ebert’s death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/movies/roger-ebert-film-critic-dies.html
That article seems to confirm that Sneak Previews, which I worked on for its entire PBS weekly run, still holds the record as the most-watched program ever to appear on PBS. Other shows claim that title, but do it by combining several repeat showings, which PBS was once famous for. Sneak ran only once a week, on Thursday nights. Our programming staff were geniuses, and maintained the weekend started with Friday, so they ran Sneak Thursday night, and everyone intending to see a movie over the weekend watched. That was millions.
Both Siskel and Ebert were the smartest people I ever worked with, and that probably explains why they became fast friends. They were consummate professionals in an era when Chicago was unquestionably the best news town in America. I miss both them and the show. As a friend recently remarked: I have a great future behind me.
Ebert’s death is being mourned over at Jerry C’s site too:
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/roger-ebert-died/
Lengthier obituary at his longtime employer’s, The Chicago Sun-Times:
http://www.suntimes.com/17320958-761/roger-ebert-dead-at-70-after-battle-with-cancer.html
My one Roger story relates to his post-alcoholic days. He was absolutely loud and obnoxious in disapproval when attending events that ‘pushed’ wine or cocktails. If waiters brought around a tray of drinks to the party-goers, he would loudly criticize the practice of pushing the drinks, sometimes embarrassing the host by explaining to the entire assembled group, that it is okay to serve the adult beverages, but not okay to pass them around. You cannot know who is fighting a temptation, and to have someone literally hand you a drink, can be the downfall of a life.
I had heard that story about him when I arrived in Chicago, but got to see him in action dispensing his criticism a couple of times at events we both attended. He quit drinking only a year before I first met him, but stood firm throughout his life in assisting others kick alcohol. He was a highly opinionated guy, but an admirable individual. Both he and Siskel had a wicked sense of humor—and I mean wicked in all senses of that word.
This was when they were over at Tribune, after they left us at PBS for lots, lots, lots more money than PBS can pay, but is typical of the fun we had during tapings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMZjy8rXE4
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/uhlman-western-sydney-gillard/4547024
Chris Uhlmann is now co-anchor and political editor for 7.30, an ABC Television news report, but he used to be a security guard in a part of Sydney that I’d avoid like the plague. Some genius thought having an organised punch up would attract shoppers, but it only attracted a bunch of drunken tossers. I was amused by the following quote:
‘The next week the centre was littered with posters advertising a wrestling extravaganza scheduled for the following month. On the Monday before the big night I rang Westgate and asked to change shifts, starting at 9.00pm rather than 5.00pm.
When I arrived that night it was to the sound of cleaners hosing blood out of Centre Court. As I approached the broken chairs and other detritus around the ring I saw a guy dressed in the familiar green uniform of Westgate. His right arm was bandaged from wrist to elbow and he was tightly clutching an envelope in his left hand.
“What happened?” I said.
He turned, his glazed, dilated pupils looking pitifully from a whitened and sweaty face. Slowly, and painfully, he relived the evening.
About 10 minutes before the wrestling was due to start The Bloody Stubby emptied and its patrons flowed like stale beer through the doors of Market Town. The crowd was restless. The show inside the ring began at 7.00pm; the brawl outside it started about 10 minutes later.
Terrified wrestlers fled as several, much more authentic, fights raged. Wisely my replacement decided against intervening in the scuffles between the men but, chivalrously, stepped between two women who had squared off. This was a mistake. One of them sank her teeth into his forearm.
The police arrived, the scene settled and the guard, along with a group of battered combatants, was taken to the nearby Mt Druitt Hospital. His impressive wound required 17 stiches and the envelope in his hand was a referral for an AIDS test.
He finished with a plaintive question.
“Is it always like this here?”‘
Getting involved in a fight between women is just stupid for a guy with any sort of ethics.