We have yet another citizen left to die in a waiting room in the United States. Witnesses say that a man was left for 16 hours to sit in the emergency room in the University Hospital in San Antonio until other patients informed the nurse that he had stopped breathing.
We have seen a steady line of these cases, but legislators have done virtually nothing to deter such neglect in our system. The average wait is now six hours in an emergency room in the United States, a disgraceful record for a developed nation. These neglect cases are now becoming routine (here and here)
What is interesting is that hospitals now use HIPAA as an excuse not to respond to questions over neglect, insisting in this case that they are protecting the privacy of the man who was allegedly allowed to die without any care in their emergency room.
found on Reddit.
Jonathan Turley
Buddha,
What was that about “best drummers?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA5dt9QT4Ms&w=480&h=390]
SL,
That Neil Peart is not only one of the best drummers around, but a damn fine lyricist as well.
You are proving to be a real gem in both quality and rarity. Hen’s teeth are commonplace next to a female Rush fan. Be still my beating heart . . . you may be the perfect woman! 😉
BIL:
As soon as I read the above quote from Frank Herbert, I immediately thought of Rush!
Here’s another song from their Fear Trilogy –
“Witch Hunt”
(Fear Pt III)
The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill
Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best
The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill
They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves
Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand…
In a 1994 interview, Neil Peart describes what inspired the “Fear” Series:
“ The idea for the trilogy was suggested by an older man telling that he didn’t think life was ruled by love, or reason, or money, or the pursuit of happiness — but by fear. This smart-but cynical guy’s position was that most people’s actions are motivated by fear of being hungry, fear of being hurt, fear of being alone, fear of being robbed, etc., and that people don’t make choices based on hope that something good will happen, but in fear that something bad will happen.
I reacted to this the way all of us tend to react to generalities: “Well, I’m not like that!” But then I started thinking about it more, watching the way people around me behaved, and I soon realised that there was something to this viewpoint, So I sketched out the three “theaters of fear,” as I saw them: how fear works inside us (“The Enemy Within”), how fear is used against us (“The Weapon”), and how fear feeds the mob mentality (“Witch Hunt”).
As it happened, the last theme was easiest to deal with, so it was written first, and consequently appeared first on record, and the other two followed in reverse order for the same reason.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_series
Mike:
Lol – none of us are saints, as we well know, but when people exhibit the patience you do here, I’m compelled to call it out. I razz on Tootie, too but not out of hate (I don’t know her!). It is the sometimes vile, militant-tone and obstinence she exhibits in everything … very frustrating.
I was born and raised in the Catholic Church but as I got older, I became more of an agnostic. Since then, I’ve pretty much figured out I’m more of an athiest than anything else. My family doesn’t get it, but that’s okay – I like them anyway, except when they badger me about being such a “bleeding heart” liberal 🙂
I view the bible more from a historical perspective with historical value – it’s still a book written by man so in my mind, it’s to be taken with a grain of salt, particularly in light of the fact that many of the stories in the bible are a rehashing of stories from earlier civilizations. I just ordered “Rise and Fall of The Bible” and will read it as soon as I get it (I almost bought a Kindle but I’m old school in that I like the feel of a good book!).
Thank you for the compliment – they mean alot coming from someone as astute as you.
And some thoughts on the value of fear from the musical world.
“The Weapon” by Rush
“We’ve got nothing to fear…but fear itself?
Not pain, not failure, not fatal tragedy?
Not the faulty units in this mad machinery?
Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?
With an iron fist in a velvet glove
We are sheltered under the gun
In the glory game on the power train
Thy kingdom’s will be done
And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us…
He’s not afraid of your judgment
He knows of horrors worse than your Hell
He’s a little bit afraid of dying
But he’s a lot more afraid of your lying
And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him…
Can any part of life be larger than life?
Even love must be limited by time
And those who push us down that they might climb
Is any killer worth more than his crime?
Like a steely blade in a silken sheath
We don’t see what they’re made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they’re afraid of
And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them… ”
______
And last, but not least, and certainly most practical advice from the Dalai Lama:
“If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.”
To live a live yoked by fear seems sad. For just like a yoke upon oxen, it constrains your movement. Just like blinders upon a horse, it keeps you from seeing the beauty inherent in the vast elegant truths of the exquisite machinery of nature.
I’m with you Mike. As much as I may torment Tootles, I don’t hate her (if she is as she represents). I feel sorry for her, but I don’t hate her.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert
SL,
Thank you for your nice compliment. Those who know me hardly think I’m saintly, but would say that I’m a good person. Thank you even more though for the Miller column. That is exactly the type of book that I’ve been reading for many a year. Each of us has to struggle with our own mortality and with the meaning of our lives. I have tried to read far and wide about both my own religion, about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and the Hindu religions.
I’m personally a deist, who nevertheless practices Judaism, because it’s comfortable for me. No religion has the answers, just as in my opinion no one can realistically deny that there might be a creative force impelling the Universe, or prove there is. It is a matter of our own personal beliefs and how we individually deal with our own mortality.
What gets me angry is just what Miller refers to in her article, which is that so many fundamentalists are really not familiar with the history of, nor the meaning of their scriptures. Beyond that they presume to know God’s will on everything and would impose their beliefs on the rest of us if they could get away with it. For instance (not taking any stand on either practice): how many fundamentalist Christians realize that most of their beliefs were shaped by the Catholic Church, which they see as evil. It is not stupidity, it is ignorance which they cloak their faith in.
Tootie is an example of this ignorance and yet I can’t find it in my heart to hate her (if she is indeed who she presents herself as), because she is no doubt a frustrated and frightened person, who clings to her beliefs to mask her internal terror.
I’ll be ordering the “Rise and Fall of The bible” on my kindle later on. As you suggest many of us probably know the history, but such books fascinate me, nevertheless, even though they cover ground I’ve trodden before.
By the way I enjoy the intelligence you bring here and i’m glad that you’ve come around.
Mike Spindell:
I’ve been reading through your back and forth with Tootie. You have something that I say when speaking of my grandfather – you have the patience of a saint.
I found this article on salon.com and thought it might be of interest to you. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
“The Rise and Fall of the Bible”: Rethinking the Good Book
American Christians buy millions of Bibles they seldom read and don’t understand
By Laura Miller
Recently I found myself explaining to a group of surprised friends from Protestant and secular backgrounds that, despite being educated in the Catholic faith up to the sacrament of confirmation at age 14, I didn’t read the Old Testament until I was assigned it in a college literature course. Traditionally, the Catholic Church did not encourage its congregation to read the Bible; we had the priests to explain it to us. In fact, the church once took such a dim view of the idea that, in 1536, the English reformer William Tyndale was tried for heresy, strangled and burned at the stake, largely for translating the Bible into English for a lay readership. Tyndale House, a major American Christian publisher, is named after him.
Though I’m no longer a believer, and in principle I support the notion of adherents to a religion familiarizing themselves with its scriptures, it sometimes seems like the old Vatican had a point. In his new book, “The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book,” religion professor Timothy Beal describes all the angst and doubt that Bible reading provoked in him during his youth, as well as the frustration many American Christians experience as a result of their own encounters with the book. This doesn’t prevent them from buying truckloads of the things — Beal notes that “the average Christian household owns nine Bibles and purchases at least one new Bible every year” — but actually reading them is another matter. Beal believes that’s because today’s Christians are seeking a certainty in their holy book that simply isn’t there, and shouldn’t be.
“The Rise and Fall of the Bible” is a succinct, clear and fascinating look at two phenomena: what Beal calls “biblical consumerism” — in which buying Bibles and Bible-related publications and products substitutes for more meaningful encounters with the foundational text of Western Civilization — and the history of how the book came to be assembled. The latter story, albeit in a severely mangled form, came as a revelation to many readers of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel “The Da Vinci Code.” Beal, who teaches an introductory course in biblical literature at Case Western Reserve University, estimates that more than half of the students who come to his classes know more about the Bible from Brown’s conspiracy-crazed potboiler than from “actual biblical texts.”
Continue reading
For anyone with more than a passing familiarity with biblical history, however, the historical portions of “The Rise and Fall of the Bible” will be old news. The thing is, many Americans — especially those raised in the less reflective Christian denominations — know nothing about how the Bible was compiled. That’s why so many of them were amazed to learn from “The Da Vinci Code” that the Old and New Testaments are assemblages of texts written at different times by different authors, most of whom were not eyewitnesses to the events they describe. In Brown’s crackpot version, the Emperor Constantine gets cast as the arch-villain, ordaining that conservative texts be officially canonized, while more politically radical (and less misogynistic) works got kicked out of the scripture clubhouse. The real story is even more unstable than Brown’s inaccurate potted version, with dozens of official and semiofficial variations (including or excluding certain marginal books) produced in the centuries after the death of Jesus.
The bestselling New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, who, like Beal, was raised in a conservative evangelical family, has written in greater depth on early Christian texts; that isn’t really Beal’s purpose. Ehrman became an agnostic, but Beal is still a Christian, and with “The Rise and Fall of the Bible,” he wants to argue against the common perception of the Bible as God’s infallible handbook on how to live, “totally accurate in all of its teachings” — a view, incidentally, that nearly half of all Americans (and 88 percent of “born again” Christians) claim to believe. Beal is the sort of Christian who doesn’t want to raise his son to “think that creationism is a viable alternative to evolutionary biology or that homosexuality is sinful,” but he is as skeptical of liberal attempts to simplify the Bible as he is of the more predominant right-wing reductionism. He would rather see his co-religionists embrace the fact that the Bible is full of contradictions and inconsistencies and come to regard it not as “the book of answers, but as a library of questions,” many of which can never be conclusively resolved.
Some of the most interesting chapters in “The Rise and Fall of the Bible” explore the world of Bibles created for specific subcultures and needs: the manly Metal Bible and Duct Tape Bible, kicky handbag/Bible combos and special editions geared toward teenagers, African-American women and so on. These can contain as much as 50 percent “supplemental” material, “explaining” the scripture according to the taste of the intended audience. Then there are Biblezines, publications in which articles about how to grill steaks or talk to girls (in the case of a Biblezine for boys) share the page with biblical quotations. Well-meaning older relatives give this material to young Christians, hoping it will make the Bible itself seem more “readable.” Beal thinks the kids just wind up reading the articles and skipping the quotations. He compares Biblezines to the “sweeter and more colorful roll-ups, punches, sauces and squirtable foams that I buy for my kids’ lunches” in lieu of the unprocessed fresh fruit they refuse to eat. At least you can tell yourself you’re giving them fruit.
Even more insidious, in Beal’s eyes, is the trend over the past couple of centuries away from word-for-word translations of the Bible and toward “functional equivalence” and “meaning driven” translations. These considerably fiddled-with versions iron out the wrinkles and perplexities in the ancient texts and nudge them closer toward the advice, directives and “values” so many people expect from their Bible. Beal argues that the Bible industry resorts to this sort of thing precisely because the Bible doesn’t offer cut-and-dried guidance — or Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, as one popular modern acronym would have it.
Much like the professor who assigned the Old Testament during my sophomore year of college, Beal would prefer that people read the Bible as if it were a work of art — that is, as a text permitting multiple interpretations and as a spur to further thought and self-examination rather than as the last word on all of life’s enigmas. Or, as he rather fetchingly puts it at one point: “This is poetry, not pool rules.” His approach is, of course, more congenial to nonbelievers than the conviction that the Bible describes historical facts and constitutes the “inerrant” word of God. Still, even an optimistic secularist may find it difficult to credit Beal’s prediction that his way of reading the Bible is just about to catch on, big time.
Beal thinks the current boom in biblical consumerism amounts to a “distress crop,” the last great efflorescence of the old authoritative ideal before people move on and learn to embrace biblical ambiguity. I’m not so sure. Craving the certainty and absolutism of fundamentalism is a fairly common response (across many religious faiths) to the often terrifying flux of modern life. If certitude is the main thing American Christians are seeking when they turn to the Bible, then they’re unlikely to tolerate, let alone embrace, Beal’s “library of questions” model. You can learn a lot about how the Bible was created in the past 2,000 years, and about the many strange forms it has taken in the present, from “The Rise and Fall of the Bible.” But where it’s headed in the future is a mystery much harder to solve.
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2011/02/13/rise_and_fall_of_bible&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
“Mike S:
You are nitwit.
Abel wasn’t in need. He was murdered: healthy and strong. He didn’t need to be kept. Nothing was amiss except what Cain was doing. Cain was just being flippant with God and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. And God knew this ahead of time.”
Poor Tootie, exposing the problems that fundamentalist’s have when reading their holy writings. They take them literally, but don’t understand the meaning. The point was that Cain was his brother’s keeper. God didn’t have to spell it out because anyone reading the story should have made the inference. That’s why it was put in there to illustrate that we are our brother’s keepers, not just in respect of not killing them, but in all senses. All of Genesis was written to give lessons to people struggling with understanding a new way to look at creation. Heretofore religion mainly consisted of human sacrifice to appease their Gods. In presenting this changing religious perspective one had to introduce the subject matter slowly. The Torah was a text written to show humanity a new way of living and not as a history book. You fundamentalists know the words, but miss the meaning.
Secondly,when you believe that God knew this ahead of time you are referring to the belief that God has this all planned out leading up to Armageddon. To me such Fundamentalist belief be it held by Jew, Christian or Muslim, is in fact blasphemy and degrades God. To believe as you do makes God into little more than a Universal Puppet Master, using us for its’ own entertainment.
I think that portrayal of the creator of the universe makes it to be shallow and that is blasphemy. To think, as your type does (be it any fundamentalist take in any religion)that creation is merely a play whose outcome is predetermined negates free will and sets up a contradiction in that an individual cannot escape the confines of their role, because God already knows what they will do and then judge them for doing it.
“So what we have here is YOU, Mike Spindell, quoting the “ethics” of a guy who just murdered his own brother and holding it up to me as the moral code to follow! LOL”
You read but you do not see.
“As usual, you are clueless as to what scripture says. This is because your god-is-my-rabbit’s-foot religion takes any meaning from the words in the Torah and leaves you with gibberish.”
Pot calling the kettle black. Thinking that faith alone and not good works is the path to salvation, is the epitome of “god-is-my-rabbit’s-foot religion,” Belief, without understanding is the curse of all fundamentalism.
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
Okay. I buy that. I have always bought that since I was a Christian. And so I can tell you in all honesty that I don’t abide the government stealing money from my neighbor and giving it to others OR ME. Therefore, I don’t abide government stealing money from my neighbor and giving it to others OR YOU.”
Buy it? Tootie you don’t understand it. First though a history lesson. That formulation was first put into writing by Confucius, 6 century’s before Jesus’ birth. Then by The Buddha,
5 century’s before Jesus’ birth. It was also the Pharisee interpretation of the Torah long before Jesus uttered the words.
Now as far as understanding it, you and your brethren don’t have a clue if you mix it up with politics and taxation. It is about how we treat one another and our responsibility to our fellow human beings of all beliefs, ethnicities and colors. As for Government being the enemy, what do you think “Render unto Caesar” is about? Your Preachers and religious leaders have deceived you tootie and remade the Gospels into a text that supports the wealthy and the Corporations who are the enemy of the rest of us. You buy it, as do many people with no wealth, who believe somehow that their turn will come.
“The golden rule remains in tact and perfectly executed and you remain an arrogant boob who never seemed to learn anything from that portion of Torah which says “thou shalt not steal”.”
Taxation is not theft and I’ll match the morality of my life and its’ dedication to what Christians call “The Golden Rule” with yours, anytime. The reason I can say this is that I can see from your writings that you lack both understanding of the concept and empathy for humanity.
“But the truth is Christians are often the poor people you are referring to who are in need. And yet you are always bashing these same people over the head for not helping….themselves?”
The reality is that I spent a 37 year career helping poor and disadvantaged people and you can find nowhere in what I’ve written where I’ve bashed them for not helping themselves. You are the one who doesn’t believe that help should be given on a broad basis to those in need. That’s what the health care reform that you oppose is about, for instance. You believe that help should only come from charity and yet the need is such that charity doesn’t supply the help needed. As for taxes you support the people who actually want to raise taxation on the poor and middle class, while lowering it for the rich and for corporations. You, who claim to be an underpaid worker, support the politicians and corporations that keep you that way. You also support the Preachers, living lavish lifestyles like playing golf with the rich, while they hand you the crap that keeps you in your place.
“But you are so arrogant and ignorant you clearly do not understand this. You have these old out-dated notions that the GOPers are all rich people. It is just not true.”
You’re right most GOP’ers aren’t rich, but they are conned into believing that the party has their best interests in mind, when it really is about kissing the behinds of the rich and the Corporations. Are the Democrats much better, no. At least though some give effort to try to help people, while none of today’s GOP politicians gives a damn, except to fool the gullible like you.
“It appears you do this to make it easy for you to hate them.”
Tootie, I don’t hate Christians, I hate fundamentalists of all religions who don’t even understand what the morality of their religion is all about.
“Jesus told the CHURCH to help each other (their brothers). He did not tell them to lobby the government and have them take by force other peoples money and give it to charity.”
Jesus lived under the thumb of an Emperor run empire, that killed him for preaching. There was no government on Earth at the time that wasn’t oppressive. However, any sane interpretation of the “Golden Rule” would allow for a righteous government to help those in need. By the way no government has ever existed that didn’t rely on taxes to exist. Unfortunately, government is necessary to protect its’ citizens from the predators of this world, who are mostly the wealthy and the Corporations that you support in your ignorance.
“When they can. And they do. And they have always done so. The reason they don’t measure up to your snotty self-righteous standard is because they are not as rich as you think they are and you judge them for it and against them.”
Google the riches of the likes of Falwell, Robertson, Graham, the Koch brothers and the Mars Family for example and then get back to me.
Mike S:
You are nitwit.
Abel wasn’t in need. He was murdered: healthy and strong. He didn’t need to be kept. Nothing was amiss except what Cain was doing. Cain was just being flippant with God and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. And God knew this ahead of time.
So what we have here is YOU, Mike Spindell, quoting the “ethics” of a guy who just murdered his own brother and holding it up to me as the moral code to follow! LOL
It’s like quoting a rapist who says “she asked for it” and agreeing with him.
As usual, you are clueless as to what scripture says. This is because your god-is-my-rabbit’s-foot religion takes any meaning from the words in the Torah and leaves you with gibberish. So you end up solemnly and piously quoting the murderer as a means of defining morality and hold it up for the world to see.
Not content to mess up the Torah you move on to the New Testament There we have the “golden rule” according to Jesus:
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
Okay. I buy that. I have always bought that since I was a Christian. And so I can tell you in all honesty that I don’t abide the government stealing money from my neighbor and giving it to others OR ME. Therefore, I don’t abide government stealing money from my neighbor and giving it to others OR YOU.
The golden rule remains in tact and perfectly executed and you remain an arrogant boob who never seemed to learn anything from that portion of Torah which says “thou shalt not steal”.
Then you write:
“These days though we have a brand of Christianity, that assures people that nothing of the kind was intended. We are to look out for ourselves and those who from infirmity, or poverty, probably deserve the states they’re in anyway. It can be summed up as I got me mine, screw you.”
Well I suppose that would be true in the mind of a bigot. But the truth is Christians are often the poor people you are referring to who are in need. And yet you are always bashing these same people over the head for not helping….themselves?
But you are so arrogant and ignorant you clearly do not understand this. You have these old out-dated notions that the GOPers are all rich people. It is just not true. Then you will condemn GOP southerners for being poor and ignorant. How can they be poor and ignorant AND rich and greedy?
Make up your mind (what is left of it).
It’s the rich left-wingers who spent one billion dollars on one Harvard grad lawyer to make him president. They have money to blow and it does not go to the poor. It goes to the rich guy. The guy with the banker friends.
There is no group on earth that has contributed more to the welfare of others (without force) than the Christians.(link below) Not even the Jews (just because they are smaller in number). So your assumptions to the contrary are just plain stupid.
Furthermore, you confuse who Christians are obligated to care for and how they are to care for them. It appears you do this to make it easy for you to hate them.
You don’t get to rewrite Christianity to make political points, because there is no guessing here about what the Christian scriptures say (as opposed to the nonsense you invent about Torah says).
Jesus told the CHURCH to help each other (their brothers). He did not tell them to lobby the government and have them take by force other peoples money and give it to charity. This would absolve Christians of their responsibility to each other, in the first place. And it is criminal activity in the second.
Christ said:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…
…Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’…
…The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, WHATEVER YOU DID FOR THE LEAST ONE OF THESE BROTHERS OF MINE, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:35-40.
Who are the brothers? Hitler? Stalin? The people at my church?
The people at my church.
Should Christians help others?
Yes.
When they can. And they do. And they have always done so. The reason they don’t measure up to your snotty self-righteous standard is because they are not as rich as you think they are and you judge them for it and against them.
Shame on you.
You have created a way of life for Christians that you think they should live, and since you don’t see them living up to the false standard you have created, you allow yourself a false moral outrage against them.
It’s a cheap trick.
http://www.christiancadre.org/member_contrib/cp_charity.html
“Last year I had to use 911 on 5 different occasions and the paramedic teams that answered the call not only kept me alive, but also by their kindness and humor kept me in good spirits.”
~Mike Spindell
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’ve been in Florida long enough to see some real icky stuff in the culture here….but you can not beat the EMT’s and Firefighters….I’ve lived in many cities but Florida has the very best. And there is such a large elderly population here they are moving from 1 scene to the next non-stop.
Big Admiration…Applause!
patric: Yep.
Mike Spindell –
I do thank you for your words of appreciation. I tend to include ERs within the scope of EMS, when I should recognize that – to most folks – EMS represents the prehospital part of the equation.
I doubt many folks are aware that – in southern California alone – 14 hospitals have closed their ERs over the last two decades. They certainly didn’t lock the doors because they don’t like patients in dire need.
They locked the ER doors to keep from having to lock all the others.
Our nation’s emergency systems – at least those that serve large populations – are running on empty. They are facing a slow-moving Katrina catastrophe, of even greater proportions.
Those who believe the constant, neverending flood of humanity pouring into this finite space with shrinking resources isn’t going to end very, very badly, are either lazy, or intellectually dishonest.
Mike S-
A beautifully written analysis of an unfortunate mutation of Christianity that is abroad in our land.
Tootie-
Read it and weep for your twisted, tormented soul.
“I gleefully invite anyone on this post critical of EMS in general, to come join a Paramedic team on a ride-along shift in San Diego, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.”
Patric,
I don’t see anyone on this thread disparaging paramedics. Last year I had to use 911 on 5 different occasions and the paramedic teams that answered the call not only kept me alive, but also by their kindness and humor kept me in good spirits.
In my 30 year experience with heart disease I have always found this to be the case and it was the case almost fifty years ago when my parents were dying from MI’s, 11 months apart and I rode with the ambulances to the hospital.
We talk of firemen, policemen and first responders of every kind as heroes. That includes to my mind paramedics and all I’ve had for any that have taken care of me is praise and respect. The health care system is screwed up not because of those who work in it, but because of the seeming unwillingness of our society to reform it and invest properly in it.
“They won’t die if you bigoted, racist, brown-supremacist, Christophobic, hate-mongers on the left would open and run hospitals for them. Instead, you feckless bums insist others do it (at gunpoint) while you then pretend you are the compassionate ones.”
And Ye Shall Know Them By Their Acts. Jesus stated what is called “The Golden Rule.” Really aquite elegant, simple idea.
According to the Torah Cain asked “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Another simple statement, which is to be answered yes you are.
So we have the wisdom of the Torah and the Gospels bother saying in effect that yes, we are individually responsible for our fellow human beings.
These days though we have a brand of Christianity, that assures people that nothing of the kind was intended. We are to look out for ourselves and those who from infirmity, or poverty, probably deserve the states they’re in anyway. It can be summed up as I got me mine, screw you. They talk a good game of religiosity, but kill people in the name of saving fetuses lives.
They kill people by approving sending our troops abroad to be killed and maimed in unneeded wars, that benefit the military industrial complex. They threaten. They brandish weaponry. The impose harsh penalties for crimes people may not have committed. They talk of limiting government, but try to force government to look into the most private of aspects of people’s lives and legislate against it. They want to end abortion, but they want to limit the distribution of birth control aids and information.
However, as bad as all of that is they commit a sin which is far worse and more destructive to society. They hate and they fear all people that they perceive as different from them, in both religion and ethnicity. They are Haters for Christ and to listen to their rhetoric one would think that if Jesus arrived in America today he would carry automatic weaponry and go on a killing spree to save the white Christians. They accomplish this in their minds by developing “bogeymen” that they focus their hatred upon. Blacks, Latino’s, Muslim’s, Indians, Native American’s, Arabs, Chinese, “Libs,” Gays and in some cases Jews are their targets and the focus of their fears. They are thus long on hatred, fear and anger, yet are quite lacking in what used to be called Christian Charity. Recognize anyone on this thread?
I fail to see anything that can be done by the legislators. They have taken all of the options off the table especially in Texas. Legislators can’t agree to do anything that would get people out of the emergency room that only need simple medical care like make insurance more widely available or increasing the funding for emergency care.
This is the result of the failure to address healthcare in the US. Expect to see more such horror stories.
I gleefully invite anyone on this post critical of EMS in general, to come join a Paramedic team on a ride-along shift in San Diego, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
That 24-hour education is a chiropractic attitude adjustment, for those who doubt caregivers are swamped by floods of patients who shouldn’t be there in the first place.
And if you can’t invest the time, stop whining, because you honestly don’t know enough about the subject to proffer an adult-level opinion.
This makes me so sad. We should be doing more to prevent this from happening.
The hospital is there to help you, and I get they are doing everything they can but there’s more that needs to be done.
I’ve been reading up on a book called Uproot U.S. Healthcare by an experienced physican named Deane Waldman. Citizens we need to take control of this situation. This book can help us all unite and get healthcare under control!
We need to stop this now!
And somewhere in the distance, a Fundamentalist is having an aneurism.
A hilarious foaming at the mouth meltdown.
You should take that act on the road, Tootles.
Preferably the middle of I-95.