Pictures and Presidents

[altarflame]

This isn't the best picture to showcase it, but Elise was looking REALLY cute when we got back from that Mardi Gras thing last week.


At the theater to see Wizard of Oz - Ananda, Karen, Jeffrey, Isaac, Joanne, Aaron.








Yesterday Grant got a work order down in the Keys, so he left VeriFone and we all went down and when he was done, went over to Anne's Beach. While he was working, the kids and I were just hanging out and decided to go get some floats.

We decided to get Extreme Floats.

It was not easy to cram them in the van, even with the sliding side doors.

I LOVE this picture :)



















Then today, Nancy came and hung out with us - which was great. Ananda ran to her with arms thrown wide as soon as the door opened. She came in with big bags of presents, and I made a big lunch of veggies and chicken and things with orzo. She brought an uber-crunchy boxed mix for monkey bread that I baked this afternoon, too, so yummy. It was so awesome to just sit and catch up. There've been phone calls and emails - a dozen of each at least - since I left Boston, but it's different, you know? Especially with both of us being too busy to ever really go in depth through long distance communication. It's good to be "friends" now, too, and not have her keeping me at Professional Midwife Level Conversation, i.e., not saying anything that would be unprofessional about anyone or anything else. My sister came and met her. And I managed to get her to agree to pictures knowing I'd post them on my blog, which she sees as famous or something because within her circle of birth people, apparently everybody reads.


Elise loves her. And she cried when Elise walked to me, and waved to her, and backed down our step to the dining room, and all the other little things Elise does that are not just normal but double-take advanced for a 9 month old. She's holding her, here, and that's the back of Brian's head down in front. Look at this organized crowd :p



Grant got the job I talked about a few days ago, except the day shift, which is an added bonus. It's every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and every other Wednesday, 12 hour shifts (7:30am-7:30pm). $38k a year plus benefits after some period or other passes, with hours that will allow him to keep VeriFone, and the bank, and have whole uninterrupted days with us.

I don't know much of anything about Mike Huckabee except that he was on the Colbert show tonight, and cracking up with some double entendres as he played air hockey to try to "win Texas". That might be enough for me O_o I suppose I have to look up some more stuff. I've avoided bringing it up here thus far, but I am really anti-socialist policies. I want to keep my homeschooling freedoms, and I want women to have more birth freedoms, and I even prefer my own personal healthcare situation (choosing to pay out of pocket for our ped of choice who rocks, fighting for Medicaid but getting it in the end for Elise, her and I both getting all the emergent care we needed with bills coming later, all of it) than what I've heard of government health care. I really really REALLY like SMALL government more and more, the more I learn, even when it means that things I'm "Against" get to be done/legal/whatever (like abortion or guns). I don't want a draft, I don't want insane property taxes and death taxes on estates you leave to your kids and on and on, I don't want anyone up in my business. I'm a freewheeling libertarian Ron Paul supporter. I think :p Whenever I hear Obama or Hillary talking, they sound so freaking socialist and the end result is inevitably peoples' freedoms being taken away, in ways that scare me. It's like everyone's forgotten what we all learned in high school history - communism only works in theory. Capitalism DOES take care of (almost) everyone in the end because of the trickle-down effect wealth in a nation like ours has, and it gives everyone the opportunity to strive and reach further and achieve that American Dream if that's what they're after...

I think of really liberal, progressive areas of our country where people like Hillary are popular, like New York City, and it's like...people in New York have no birth freedom at all. They imprison midwives, Nancy told me when I was in Massachusetts that if I were to go into labor while she was in Syracuse for the ICAN conference, she'd have to cross back over to do my birth. They have all these seemingly great initiatives in place for new low income mothers, too...where they strongly discourage co-sleeping and widely teach that you must vaccinate and all this. Moms who do things in "unusual" ways that are ignorantly thought to be unsafe are reported to CPS. Homeschooling is extremely rare, it's just...crap, as far as I'm concerned. That's not what I want.

But of course you can't find a likely candidate who is small government AND cares about the environment (which I do). Enter Ron Paul. Who is not likely :/

I have to wash ye olde dishes.

Comments

The book looks interesting in a hard to wade through way.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Definitely not. It actually used to be a big frizzy mess until I just started leaving it alone...back then I washed it and conditioned it every single day (with really expensive stuff) and brushed it about once an hour when it started going wild. Now, I brush, wash and condition like twice a week (with cheap old suave coconut). Air dry with some head flips and hand scrunching. That is it.

I've had a lot of people telling me they'd love to have hair like mine but just don't have the time for it, to which I say, HA!

Anyway, thanks :)

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I don't agree that our capitalist society helps people to achieve their goals "if that's what they're after." It's not that easy and it's not that simple. A very, very, very, very low percentage of America is wealthy; and the amount of poor people is growing and growing.

The middle class is becoming obsolete. Wealthy people have better access to schools, after school programs, college, and tons of other opportunities to get ahead. It's simply easier -much easier- for a wealthy person's children to become rich than it is for someone who's completely poor to work their way up. VERY few people are able to do that, and it's disingenuous to say that anyone can. Some people simply don't have the opportunity.

Cost wise, it would be cheaper for me (by several hundred dollars a month) to pay 50 percent taxes (which is standard where people have socialized medicine) than it is for us to pay the current tax rate AND our medical insurance.

America is also the *only* developed nation not to have socialized medicine. Do you really think the best thing for us to do is to let people go bankrupt paying for their medical bills -or die because they couldn't afford a treatment they needed? Is that really the best thing for our country?

People don't have birth freedom BECAUSE we don't have socialized medicine. In most of Europe where they do, people birth at home with midwives. Hospital birthing is rare, and the infant mortality rates are lower.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I'm also curious to know what you've heard about government health care. I know many people in Europe who get excellent care. No long waits, no obnoxious doctors, just good care. I know a few in Canada and the UK too, who also have nothing but good things to say about their health care.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I don't think that you or I could rush out and achieve our dreams with our babies on our hips, or that a poor kid will just float into an ivey league school the way that a rich kid could, no. But, I went to high school with VERY poor people who got full paid rides to state colleges, and I would have too, if I hadn't gotten pregnant (which was my own fault; the scholarships were in place). I guess what I meant wasn't "if that's what they want", but "if that's their priority and they bust their ass for it". I don't think everyone or most people NEED to be "Wealthy", though it is of course troublesome that the divide is widening as the middle class dissapears. The thing is, "poor people" in this country still have it better than "middle class" people in many other countries, and it is BECAUSE of the trickle down effect of capitalism...people like you and I, that share homes with others and only have one vehicle and feel as though we're struggling, nevertheless shop at Whole Foods, buy organic clothes for the kids and blow a couple grand each spring on things like trips to Boston or fancy cameras and kitchen appliances. No, we don't get everything we want, but we get a whole lot more than just what we need. Homeless people here have shelters, soup kitchens, free clinics and such available.

With healthcare, all I can really know is what I see in my own life, and that includes myself and my kids always getting whatever we needed, health-wise, living in "poor" families. Sometimes there's too much paperwork. Sometimes a bill goes unpaid and screws up your credit. But it's hard for me to imagine a situation where we'd die in the US because of lack of healthcare. My dad is broke as HELL and had major surgery and two months inpatient two months ago, with follow up visits. His girlfriend was unemployed with breast cancer and got all the chemo, etc she needed. I mean...nobody asked how I was going to pay for it, when I showed up at the hospital with a sponge inside of me and sepsis. They even gave me my prescriptions free, just like my ped often does (from samples in the cabinet) for my kids. I know that you struggle with Kaiser, but even still I know you're usually on multiple meds and I've read about you going to the dentist and taking the kids to the doc. The only time I've REALLY been exasperated re:healthcare, is when I'm trying to get Medicaid. Meaning...when I'm going through the government. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes a crazy nightmare. I don't want ALL healthcare to be a crazy nightmare.

As far as other countries' birth stuff, I don't think correlation equals causation here. The United States has a faith in technology and a distrust in the natural order of things, that has become dangerous as the government (states' and national) gain power over things they have no business dealing in (imo). I know that if I go through Medicaid, all of a sudden the chiropractor, the chlorophyll I need and the pediatrician who will LISTEN are all suddenly "unecessary" and...that's not a route I want to go down, you know?

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

What I mostly base my opinion on is the beuracracy, low amounts willing to be paid, general confusion, and horrible selection of doctors that happens with Medicaid. That is the US government in action paying for peoples' healthcare. It sucks so bad that except for when Elise was in the thick of specialist visits and we thought she'd be needing much more, I've OPTED to pay our own way rather than dealing with it. Because dealing with it means a couple hours on hold, a trip to a very ghetto office featuring hours of wait time, a horrible doctor I don't trust at all, and some letters in the mail that start it all over again...EVERY MONTH.

Maybe the situation would improve if the program expanded to include everyone? I don't know, maybe, but I doubt it. My fil works for the government (DEA) and the whole organization is misplaced files, long waits for everything, loopholes things slide through, just a mess. I mean it's a cliche in this country, trying to go through government channels for anything. I just really think it would suck.


I have heard some bad stories from abroad, but all centered in Canada and New Zealand, so I admit to knowing nothing about the situation in Europe. But EVERYTHING is better in Europe, it often seems, so why not government efficiency and sense, too?

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

The only reason I was able to go to the dentist was because my father paid for it. I had some dental insurance but it didn't cover much. We also spent the last year paying for my wisdom teeth surgery (my dad only paid for part of it).

My roommates teeth are rotting out of his head right now. He can't afford to do anything about it.

I wasn't able to stay in college because my parents made too much money and their income counted against me. Plus I didn't have the grades for the hope of any scholarship. To say that all people can qualify for a scholarship "if they bust their ass", I'm sorry, it's just untrue.

People are dying in massive numbers in this country because of their lack of health care. It isn't always as simple as people just showing up and getting treatments. Did you know that hospitals will put poor, indigent patients OUT ON THE STREET after awhile?

I do think that the US's baby mortality rate is *because* the health industry stands to gain from hospital birth. It really is that simple. something like half of all hosptial revenues come from births.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

Medicaid is NOT an example of what socialized medicine could be, and it's really an unfair/untrue comparison. I've been on medicaid and I know it sucks, but you're talking about a gov't program with limited funding. Apples and oranges.

It's possible that it would suck, but I think what sucks the most is what's going on now with health care.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

And while I do have the freedom to buy a nice kitchen appliance and a camera, if I were to get cancer and Kaiser didn't approve my treatments (which often happens with that HMO) or, worse, were taken to a non-kaiser facility and they refused to pay for my treatment, I'd be dead. There would be no finding of the money. I would just die or go bankrupt trying to cure myself or both.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I also have a friend in NZ and she has multiple health problems, is on a ton of medicines, and she's never complained about the healthcare she gets. Just like with any industry, any system will have it's horror stories. It doesn't necessarily speak for the whole thing.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

And free clinics? No. They are so incredibly overloaded, half the time, you can't even be seen.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm the minority, but I think relatives helping out to pay for things is superior in most cases to the government paying for things for people. Some of the times I or my kids were able to go to this or that were because of a relative helping. I don't see families supporting each other as inherently worse than strangers supporting each other...

I don't think everyone can qualify for a scholarship and didn't mean to imply that, but - I do think everyone who really makes it a priority can EITHER A. qualify for a scholarship, B. Get student loans, C. work their way through school, D. apply for a grant or E. do college slowly a class or two at a time while working full time and take longer, but get there. I thought (and I could be wrong, but it's what I vaguely think I remember from sometime or other) that college wasn't something you were really especially interested in?

I will definitely say you have a big point with that last bit, though...I wasn't thinking of that, and you're right. It is half.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I guess maybe things are different in California. My stepmother automatically qualified for free chemo as an uninsured cancer patient in Miami. I've never heard of anyone in Florida not being able to get cancer treatment. My mother in law has a friend who's two kids BOTH have cancer, and she is a single mother, and the community has raised so much money for her that they go to Disney World every year in between cancer treatments.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

This again could potentially be Florida vs Cali...I know you guys have as many or more immigrants as we do and that creates crowded situations if it isn't managed really well.

Like I said, I can only speak from my own experiences, which is why I only have one vote, you know? Everyone will vote from their own set of personal experiences.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

It's not as simple as just wanting to do better in school, I wanted to do better for years but I had undiagnosed bipolar disorder, an abusive mother, and a really fucked up life. Then I spent a year on different psych meds. By then, I had failed all of my classes. I also was never taught study skills and had a lot of problems paying attention in school (because, they later found out, I was way above grade level and was bored). No matter how much I *wanted* do better, I just couldn't. If my parents had paid for my college? I probably would have graduated. But there was no way I could have, with the background I had, worked my way through college and any scholarship hopes were shot.

I've said several times and it's on several of my profiles that I was interested in going to college. I just don't see it as a feasible option when my children are this young.

And weather or not *I* am interested in college is sort of beside the point; the main point I was making is that some people really do have seriously limited opportunities, and I think it's our duty, as fellow humans, to help them as much as we can. Isn't that what Christ would have us do? Help eachother?

I don't think it's preferable to take money from your family rather than the government. I don't think socialized medicine will take away our liberties.

I don't think a totally socialized society is what I am after,that's not what I am saying. That's not what the candidates are saying, either. I just think that MEDICINE SHOULD NOT BE A BUSINESS.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

You might be right about it being apples and oranges. I don't know. I mean what about ANY govt agency? Like, the DMV? This could be another different state, different experience thing, but here the DMV is like a zoo. You pay a ticket and it doesn't get recorded, or you pay a ticket and they say they didn't have records of you getting a ticket. You try to get records of something from two years before and spend a week calling 5 different people that keep relaying you back to the other one. It's just...really sucky.

I did say that if Medicaid were expanded into universal healthcare, it might change. But I don't trust that it would. I just don't. I think socialized medicine "could be" something wonderful, but I doubt it actually WOULD be. I think it would be a lot of hype for a different set of problems.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I think it's our duty as voters to have a national view on it.

I recommend watching the minimum wage episode of "30 Days". This guy tried to live on min. wage for 30 days, and it was intensely hard. And when he had problems with his hand from all the manual labor, he couldn't get into a free clinic (this was in the midwest, I think somewhere in Illinois, not even California).

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the basic cancer treatments that are generally the issue, it's higher priced treatments (specific drugs, anything they consider to be "experimental" even if it's proven to have success).

And sure, maybe you could get chemo, but then you'd be left with thousands of dollars of debt. Not everyone has the option of calling their family like I do when things get bad. People lose their houses. Lives are totally destroyed because they simply couldn't afford health care. I think it's incredibly inhumane to keep health care as a business.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I can DEFINITELY, 100% get behind the statement "Medicine should not be a business". I'm just not sure it leads me to the same conclusions...

I wasn't trying to criticize you, about college, so please don't think I was. And, of course, the bigger picture is not about you particularly...you had just mentioned not being able to finish, so I was talking about your situation. I know this is sensitive so I'm sorry, if it seems offensive, because I don't mean it that way, AT ALL...but when I read your story, I DO want to help you, A LOT, just as Christ would - but not by paying your way through college. I want to go back in time and knock some sense into your mom, stick her in counseling and parenting classes and swoop down and nanny you or something. I really don't think that the disintegration of the middle class or a lack of socialized medicine is responsible for your not finishing college...but maybe it did have an effect, I don't know.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

Even if that is true, the percentage of people who do manage to make their own wealth is very low. VERY few people are able to do it. Most people end up the class they were born into.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I definitely don't expect a socialized society, I am just trying to make the point that it's incredibly hard to change your class. Most people never do it. I don't expect anyone to pay their way through my college, not at all. I'm just saying, it's not as simple as you make it out to sound. And if it's this hard for ME, a middle class girl with lots opportunities, then it's even harder for people with less money and less opportunities.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

And I would be willing to bet that those self made millionaires, most of them, were not born into major poverty with no chances.

There really are not that many rags-to-riches stories out there. Just because a few people did it, does not change the fact that this country has a very large amount of impoverished people.

Re: health-care rationing ahoy!

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I don't agree with what you're saying not even one iota.

People don't die waiting for appointments or procedures, that's a huge myth that is unproven. People don't get no treatment because they are terminal, or obese, or smokers. Where are you getting this? Do you have links to show me on that? News stories?

I'd rather have the government "make the rules" than have people dying because they couldn't afford health care.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I actually did see that. I thought it was good, but also slightly misleading just in the sense that nobody really tries to live on their own on one minimum wage income, you know? If you can't make more than that you either stay in your parents' house or you have roommates or whatever.

I guess I sound crazy, but if I had been that guy I would have went to a church or a community action agency, with my hurt hand, and somebody would have helped. I lived completely off of churches and community action agencies for 3 months, in an apartment with a baby, once, when I found myself suddenly single. There is help out there if you look for it. Then I got a job and split rent with my mother and my boyfriend, who also had jobs.

I continue to give as much as I can to places like that, now, because I appreciate what they can do for people. Catholic Charities will pay ANYONE'S rent or electric bill one time, and give you bags of groceries as long as you need them. My father got out of the hospital with huge debt like you mentioned in one comment, but a Catholic church gave him a car and donated money for his bills without him even seeking them out - someone in the hospital he was admitted to told the church about his case.

I think maybe this is the bottom line for me...I like personal, grassroots level interdependance. I think people should be responsible for helping people in real, hands on, loving ways. I don't think it should be enforced through taxes or cold and divied out via government checks. We should know each other, and talk to each other, and depend on each other, and help each other, in our own neighborhoods and towns, not "on a national level"....

And again, of course, that's my opinion, and I'm just trying to get you to understand it, not necessarily agree with me.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

You really think that nobody tries to make it on minimum wage? Do you know how many people do? How many thousands of people with both parents working are living on just that? There are millions of min. wage jobs. SOMEONE is working at them.

Yeah, I don't understand your position and I don't agree. I'm actually rather shocked.

[the-leh.livejournal.com]

I don't agree not even one little bit. I don't see it as subsidizing slackers. I just don't.

I really can't say anything else to your comment that is at all civil.