In regard to the Cosimo saga I have to recommend a DVM in Rhode Island that caters exclusively to cats.
Dr. Katherine Lund and her staff at City Kitty are superb. I just wish office hours were a bit more convenient. I received a very nicely written card from Dr. Lund after I’d had to put Cosimo down.
So if you’re in the market for a good vet for your feline friends, and you happen to be in RI give them a call at 401-831-6369 (MEOW) or email at info@city-kitty.com or visit their web page here.
Whoa – I live in the bluest of the blue, Rhode Island. The approval rating for President Bush is only 25% here. So one in four of us thinks he’s doing a good job – I’d like to meet that mythical one in four.
For more info, click here.
But even in RI it took some time for his ratings to start tanking. Just click your state in the 6th column to see details that stretch from the beginning of 2005 to the present.
Steve Osborn writes a short but interesting piece titled “What Happened To My Country”
If I may, I’d like to mention some thoughts on why this is happening. Maybe its because I pay approximately 26% of my income for housing, while my parents paid 7%. Maybe its because I have to work, work, work in order to stay afloat. Luckily I don’t have the crushing debt that many families have, but things could change in a flash.
We’re too busy living to pay attention to what is being done to us. That’s what’s really going on.
When you read what I’ve written, think about the average American. He’s tired, he’s being spoon fed information by the networks and media outlets, and increasingly he’s being shat upon by the very corporations he works for. He isn’t very likely to rise up in insurrection against a despotic government.
This about a massive transfer of wealth, and the elimination of the middle class. This administration wants two classes, the rich and the poor. And by and large, it looks like they just might get away with it.
Seems Wally World (Aka WalMart) has been forced by Massachusets to begin selling the morning after drug.
I can only hope that when the WalMart super center opens here in Providence, they also carry it. Because I support the right to a safe and legal abortion, or to any type of birth control, or rights that apply equally to everyone.
Got the news this morning that Cosimo has a laundry list of problems, most significant of which is that his liver is failing.
The vet was ready to keep him alive but I told him it was time. So this afternoon I have to perform the sad duty of saying goodbye to Cosimo. I thought he’d be the last cat to go. Instead he’s the first.
This piece on The Huffington Post blog tells the real story that the Office of National Drug Control Policy would rather you didn’t hear.
I’ve known this for quite a long time. After all, the laws against marijuana have as their foundation extreme xenophobia. Yes, you read that right. The main entry point for marijuana in the first half of the 20th century was Mexico. And it was thought that if women smoked it, they’d become powerless to stop the advances of Mexican men.
We’ve all been told half truths and lies for so many years so I’m happy that someone finally calls out ONDCP in a logical manner. Lets see them refute this one.
Over the past few days I’d noticed some odd behaviors and signs regard my youngest cat, Cosimo. I noted he seemed to be losing weight, that he was yowling at the litter box, etc. So I got him to the vet today.
It turns out poor Cosimo has several health issues going on.
First and foremost is a UTI. His bladder was humungous in the x-ray. But that’s been taken care of.
Now we’re awating the CBC results to see if there was any kidney or liver damage. If there is, I’m more than likely going to have to have them put Cosimo down.
His other problems, all of which are related to his being morbidly obese:
Pads on his feet are so dry that he has no traction on smooth surfaces.
Arthritis in the left hip and right knee.
He can’t clean himself because he’s so big (24 lbs.). So now he goes on a diet, depending on whether or not he survives.
I’m so sad about this. He is my favorite cat – the most laid back cat you’d ever want to meet.
I needed a little levity today as I’ve found out my youngest cat is in rough shape.
So with further ado I present this: Gay For Superheros
About what is wrong with our medical system. She posted this on her blog and I’m wholeheartedly in agreement. Been a fan of hers since reading Nickle and Dimed.
But I wish someone would just come right out and say it, that the real problem is the hospitals, billing companies and insurance companies. When all three are for-profit you know things are going to go seriously wrong. This is why a single payer health insurance system would be such a good idea in the United States. But of course the lobbyists for the hospitals, billing companies and insurance companies will never let the cash cow run dry.
I know of one egregious example of a billing company on the take. They’re getting pretty big and will remain nameless however I’ll tell the story using pseudonyms. We’ll call the doctor Dr. Justice, and the billing company Profit, Inc.
At the time I was working at the state AG’s office. Seems Dr. Justice got into a little trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. So to make up the difference, he started upcoding all his patient visits. In some cases he’d seen as many as a dozen patients in an hour. Where he went wrong is that he started upcoding Medicare patients. Alarm bells went off in our Medicare Fraud Unit.
After getting his billing data we noted that the curves on both his IRS payments and his upcoding coincided nicely. Ok, there’s motive.
We brought in executives from Profit, Inc. as well as their I.T. director and requested data from them, only to be stymied. So I as the I.T. director for the AG’s office layed into their I.T. director. A couple of days later we had all the information we wanted.
The billing company not only knew he was upcoding, they encouraged it. Of course in the meeting they couldn’t admit that, but that didn’t matter at all since the data told the true story. We found out that in some instances they’d warned Dr. Justice in writing that his patient load and upcoding were going to become an issue. But in those same memos they encouraged him to keep on upcoding.
So now Dr. Justice has been convicted of Medicare fraud and will be doing a stint in Club Fed. Profit, Inc. is still under federal investigation.
Now comes the true irony. We needed someone to manage our CVRS systems so gathered resumes, scored them, and then brought in the top four candidate. Who should one of the candidates be but the I.T. director from Profit, Inc. And guess who we hired.
Turns out my suspicions about Profit, Inc. were dead on. It’s a company so bent on profit that they completely screwed one of their own partners.
This is what is wrong with medicine in the United States. Too many hands in the pie.
And is even more scary. Peter Rost paints a very dismal picture of the United States being controlled by greed. But that is precisely what is going on. We’ve allowed the New Robber Barrons control of our lives, of our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We need to clamp down on corporations more today than we ever did in the past. Corporations in the United States are all about short term profit. Japanese companies use to be the antithesis of that but western influence has pretty much ruined that. Now that I think about it, citizens of all G8 nations are firmly under the thumb of corporate interests.
The question is, how do we throw off this yoke?
I for one would be more likely to incorporate if I didn’t have to worry about health care, and didn’t have to pay what I consider onerous minimum taxes to the state I live in. And I’d be more likely to hire employees for that business. But for now I won’t do anything because the current scheme doesn’t support how I’d like to run a business.
But maybe if we could change the health care paradigm we might actually see increased economic benefit. Alas, I’ll be long dead before that happens.
Apparently a group in Boston is trying to put together a city wide WiFi network and running into opposition. Funny isn’t it.
Curiously we pretty much have universal WiFi, at least in my little corner of Providence. Just drive down a street with a wireless computer and see how many open networks there are.
And interesting that Verizon didn’t oppose the City of Providence installing Motorola’s MESH network for public safety. I mean, you’d think that Verizon would want their so called superior network used.
That’s the thing – just put together a seamless WiFi network and don’t publicise it. Verizon et al will never know what hit them.
Spewing Truth in the face of Lies 
