Evil at the VA

Or: An early look at ObamaCare "Death Panels"

This Story is by Becky Oliver at Fox 4 here in DFW.  Go read it: seriously.

For those too impatient- a veteran noticed a lump under his arm, and tried to get care via the VA.  Because of their bureaucratic run-around, his treatment was delayed by 4 months.  That delay was in treatment of Melanoma- a very agressive cancer.  It is very likely that, had he been seen initially and treated with current treatment options, he would not be a terminal patient today.

There's no way to know that, of course, but it's highly likely.

Now, first off- if you notice a lump or an odd mole or anything like that, and the answer you're given when you seek treatment is "you'll have to wait several months?"  Yeah, seek treatment elsewhere.

That said- how has this evil infested the VA?  And why should we believe that it won't infest ObamaCare?  I am virtually certain that no one at the VA looked at this veteran's chart and decided to let him die of cancer.  I'm certain it was all much more banal than that.  Indeed, it is the very banality of the evil that makes it so terrifying.  If someone had set out to deny this man, and his family for that matter, care, then there would be someone who could be made to answer for this.  Someone could be called out and made to answer.  Instead, it was simply "the process."

This comes as the VA is under scrutiny in Arizona, which is itself merely a symptom of a wider problem.  Up and down the VA there are stories of delayed care, sub-standard care, and simple neglect.  Such a culture can only exist if the man at the top allows it.  In this case, the man at the top is not Secretary Eric Shinseki.  Given the amount of time this has been going on, and the fact that Barack Obama specifically ran on "fixing" the VA, the "man at the top" is Barack Hussein Obama, that stuttering clusterf*ck of a malignant traitor.

If the SCOAMT cared about our Veterans, he would already have demanded Secretary Shinseki's resignation.  If he really cared about our Veterans, he would already be working to correct issues like this.  Instead he tries to handle like a "fake scandal," and rallies the Democrats around him to decry the "faux outrage."

No, the SCOAMT does not care about our Veterans- they are of no use to him.  And so it will be with your health care under ObamaCare.  There will be delays and bureaucracy instead of consultations and treatment.  When confronted with the consequences, responses like those featured in the linked story will be issued.

One other party is responsible for this- Republicans in Congress.  It is they who have refused to act as a check on Barack Obama's worst tendencies.  At every turn they choose to "wait for a better opportunity" or not to investigate at all.  How many opportunities have the Republicans had to pull the SCOAMT up short?  And every time they have refused because someone somewhere might be offended.

There is only one way to fix this culture of neglect and carelessness at the VA, and that is to remove the man at the top.  Not the Secretary of the VA- his boss.

Memorial Day

That's an odd name, right?  "Memorial Day."  A memorial is a structure, monument, or act designed to help people remember an event.  So what is the memorial?  What event is being remembered?

Is the memorial cooking hamburgers and hot-dogs?  Is it flags and banners? (BTW- Kudos to Whataburger- every one I saw today had their flag at half-staff)  It certainly seems fairly generic, doesn't it?  I mean, there are at least three secular holidays we celebrate the same way- and in Texas we've got a lot more.  So that can't be the memorial, can it?

And what are we remembering?  The last Memorial Day?  More seriously, are we remembering every individual death incurred by members of our military?

I feel like Charlie Brown asking the meaning of Christmas.  There has to be more than hot-dogs and hamburgers, more than graves and flags.  So what is it?

Maybe the answer lies in what it means (or at least used to mean) to be an American.  Maybe the answer is not the individual deaths, but the purpose of those deaths.  Maybe the answer is this: Today we remember Martyrs.  Not martyrs for any Religion- but Martyrs for Freedom.  Today we remember the lives they knowingly endangered and gave up so that we, today- and every day if we choose- *could* eat hamburgers and hot-dogs.  Today we remember their families and the sacrifices they made.

Today we remember that freedom is easily lost or forfeited, and requires a terrible price to redeem.  I thank God that I have not had to pay that price- not myself, or anyone I love.  I thank God that there are those who have, and more who continue to stand ready to make that sacrifice.

God bless you, heroes, I, for one, am not worthy of your service.

Of Obamacare and the Private Sector

First let me get this out of the way: F*ck Obamacare and the horse it rode in on.

My employer's Open Enrollment period just began.  When I was hired in October last year, there were two plans- a "traditional" plan (the PPO that we've all come to know and love) and a "Select" (or something like that) plan- a High Deductible Health Plan.  As I was hired after open enrollment, I was not given an option, and was placed in the HDHP.  Given my family's medical needs this was sub-optimal, but we made it work looking forward to open enrollment when we could elect to spend a little more per paycheck and get a PPO plan with co-payments instead of the High Deductible plan.

Well, that got all blowed up.

Now, our CEO and CFO and all of those people went to great pains to tell us how the "Private Exchange" into which we've been entered is not a "Public Exchange" and therefore isn't ObamaCare.  It just *happens* to have a "Gold," "Silver," and "Bronze" level and they all just *happen* to be High Deductible plans (though the Gold Plan doesn't qualify as one for Health Savings Account purposes).  It also just *happens* that the least bad of the plans for my family would nearly double my current insurance premium.

I want it on the record that I do not blame my employer for this.  Health care sucks right now, thanks to Obamacare.  If I blame for anything it's for lying to their employees about the reasons for the sucky choices, and for hiding behind "MOAR CHOICE!" (Ooooh, we have 3 sucky plans instead of 1 good one and 1 bad one- oh, and more insurance companies.)  C'mon guys, at least man up and admit "Hey, for those of you who want/need the PPO, this is really going to suck."

However, I wanted to highlight this because of two things.  First, this is going to happen everywhere.  Where employers don't just drop coverage entirely, they are all going to be forced to move to these kinds of plans because the insurance carriers are going to have to raise rates for everything to cover their increased costs under Obamacare.  I would feel worse for the insurance companies, but many of them supported Obamacare.  Now my family and I are trapped in the middle.

Second is this: this was an entirely predictable occurrence.  Many of us on the right said this would happen, and we were told that we were being "scare mongers" and "conspiracy theorists."  The SCOAMT, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid forced this on the American People, and it's going to kill us.

"Yeah, that's old news," you say, and you're right.  That is old news.  So is this, but it bears highlighting as well-  Republicans are being way too weak-kneed about pushing for full repeal.  There is no "fix" here.  It must be utterly and completely destroyed.  As I've pointed out before, those "popular" provisions of the law are some of the worst.  Anything less than full repeal is unacceptable, because anything less than full repeal will *still* kill the best health care system in the world.

Obamacare:

Burn it down.Scatter the stones.Salt the earth where it stood.

Here Have a Post

Since Ace is down...  here, play in my comments section for a while.

Try not to break anything- I haven't been posting because, instead, I've been working.

Oh... so you wanted some content, too?

Okay, I'll add stuff as I come across it.

Here's from DFW- Sheriff's Deputy who shot a dog has now been indicted on felony animal cruelty charges.  Good.

Boko Haram Claims those girls they kidnapped have all converted to Islam.  I say, "I bet."

Pray for the people of the Texas Panhandle.  They're supposed to get some rain today, say the meteorologists, but Wildfires in Texas are a bad, bad thing.

I was promised Global Warming.  Where the F is my Global Warming?

The Moron Lifestyle is not for everyone...

And now the Gay Mafia is targeting Nintendo.  Seriously?