Technocracy: Blog

What is the difference between a car salesman and a medical professional?

The car salesman is more honest about his intent to extract the most money possible from your accounts.

And that is where I am today. Fighting off the wolves and jackals of the medical industry while attempting to keep my clients happy has been exhausting and time consumptive.

Background. Due to my geezer status, the medicos initial thoughts were that I was a medicare guy. The surgeon and PCP said that therapy was my best road to recovery. When they realized they were dealing with an actual full-blown health insurance policy, they did a screeching 180 and set me up for a multitude of tests and scans. I ignored most demands of such tests and scans. Geez, how many fucking scans do you need to do in just a month's period?

Now the medicos are saying that it is imperative to do surgery. I got them to put their concerns in black and white. And boom, bang, pow. I got their corrupt asses in a sling. When a member of the state board that is a medical school professor says that you are full of shit, the powers that be are most receptive to your complaints.

I'm going to take two physicians and a PA down. They are going to hit the deck hard.

An apology. The chapter just released is a POS. I had a one-hour window (sitting in the doctor's office, of course) to edit another chapter and I absolutely fucking made a mess. Sorry about the numerous errors. But you people know the meme - life sucks, then you die.

Last week's wedding was a dull, almost sad, event; there was no joy of note in these people's lives. The people were stuffy and self-absorbed. They were focused on religious dogma and ritual. The bride and groom were much too serious, and both parents were pretentious pricks. I do not know why my wife dragged me to this event, but she did insist. Although I did get to log several hours of solid, in-the-soup instrument time, not common for this region.

I went to a funeral yesterday. While sad, because we all lost a good friend and our group now numbers but five, the event was not without joy. Befitting of the last respects for a former jarhead, the funeral had an abundance of joy, loudness, and sarcastic disrespect for the powers that be.

We will miss Joe fiercely. Joseph truly lived a life. He was loyal and devoted to a wild woman that masqueraded as a normal person for over 35 years. He never thought twice about defending the weak by physical means or by standing up to say the right thing at the right time. He was the first of my group to welcome my wife to the 'inside'. He was a better man than myself.

I am thinking about writing a biographical fiction about Joe and some others. I would have to call it a work of fiction because no one would believe the truth.

This is the writer's (Technocracy) nephew.

He is no longer black and blue, but is still messed up. He is a stubborn old guy that has always been physically and emotionally strong. I know that he is improving because he has refused his pain medications, and it makes my aunt crazy that he would rather endure pain than take drugs. He is now not so strong, angry at the world, and intent on making waste on western civilization. But his weird sense of humor remains intact.

My uncle usually has a poor opinion of humanity and seems to like few people, so it has been interesting to see the flow of concerned people that have visited him (he told me to change the gate code, but my aunt said no). I love that he hates the concerns and attentions of each visitor. This makes him more determined to successfully re-hab so that people will not bother him, and it is funny.

One of the more funny incidents was yesterday, when my sister flew back in to visit. She brought a guy with her. To be honest he was boring and not that bright considering he has a MA degree in history. He seems to be a decent guy. My uncle said "teachers like that is why western civilization has no future". My sister was not happy about that comment. She will survive. But more importantly, it gave this guy a good look at what she is made of. She is made of equal parts my parents and my uncle and aunt. My parents were very liberal. My aunt is middle of the road progressive. My uncle is close to libertarian and despises both political parties (for the record, he denies that he is libertarian). He hates physical or mental weakness. He believes that all Americans should suffer through hard times when they are young. He believes that wars should be cruel, inhumane, and short. That the sons and daughters of elected officials should be required to serve in the military. I could go on, but you get the point (and he is making threats if I continue).

The real reason I am writing this is because of the many comments from U.K. people. I have read what has been posted and what is in the rest of the story. He does not have much good to say about the U.K. military. He would be the first to admit that he has a built in mind set about the British because it was the way he was raised. Members of his family in his generation have had some horrible experiences at the hands of British soldiers, so that is part of it. The big thing is that he hates the idea of royalty. He does not like people that accept the idea of a king or queen. Simple as that.

I think that he will be able to return to editing his story by the end of the week.

To my readers that have been asking, "WTF, dude. Where's the story?", continue reading.

Marijuana is harmless?

About two weeks ago, a stoned employee of a client drove a forklift into me. I just got released from the hospital. Two of his fellow employees made statements that indicated he had smoked pot during lunch, about 30 minutes before the incident. The kid's only comment to me was, "Oh, wow. Sorry about that, man."

Drugs are not harmless. Drug users are not committing a 'victimless crime'. I will agree that some drug laws should be changed to de-criminalize substance abuse. I disagree that drug laws should be eliminated. Meth, cocaine, alcohol, pot, opioids, heroin are all profound and complex societal problems. Fentanyl seems to be drug having the largest social and economic impact during recent times.

Drugs and alcohol may get you high or get you going, but they eventually destroy your life and trash your community and give the local and regional governments an excuse to run a Police State.

Back to the idiot kid. He drove through a barrier, through a stack of electronic modules, then smashed into me. The company knew this kid was a habitual pot user and that he operated warehouse equipment while stoned. That has already been stated by the preliminary police report.

And for the kid's piece de resistance. Less than two days after he made bail, the kid drove his truck through his neighbor's front windows. He was high as a kite.

My lawyer, along with a very competent litigator, are gleefully making life miserable for my (former) client. I told these two jurists to proceed in a matter that would enable the local DA to give the kid and employees of the client a felony conviction and time the slammer. I want these people to have a criminal record. This company's management have not just injured myself, by accepting drug use, they are allowing and promulgating damage to our society. Other than my non-covered medical expenses, I do not want money, I want these people to serve time. But its probably not going to happen.

And one more thing. My arms are fucked up, which is gonna delay me releasing this and my next story. You can thank all of those 'harmless' stoners for contributing to the delay.

My nephew will help me post the next chapter or two.

Nephew's Note - My sister and me are enjoying our uncle being an invalid.

The extended 04 July gathering on my property went generally, and atypically, well. The attendees enjoyed each others' company, the never-ending chow and ale were good, and the herd of doggos and kittys tolerated each other.

Past the atrocities of the Southern California airspace and after diverting 40 miles south of the Phoenix Class B gaggle, things got quiet, so the niece and nephew started to babble as I took them back to their current homes. The niece asked if I had noted the 'plague' of cognitive dissonance. I (mistakenly) confessed my ignorance, giving my beloved and favorite school teacher the opening for a lecture. To condense her 45 minute treatise, all of my guests were searching for something better. To wit, is the grass greener on the other side of the fence; and can I get to the other side of the fence?

She was correct. The singular common characteristic for this crowd was that none wanted to talk about their job, but all, except my nephew and niece, desired to converse of another's profession.

The physicists wanted to talk to my niece about teaching in the public school system. My former jarhead friends wanted to talk to the physicists about some of the latest papers and wild-ass theories. The construction worker wanted to talk to my nephew about crunching big numbers and investment algorithms. An accountant wanted to talk to the plumbing contractor about construction projects. The construction contractor wanted to talk to my godson about small-unit tactics and weapons tech. My godson and his main squeeze (also a Marine) wanted to talk about anything other than jarhead-related subjects - mostly sex and beer.

I cooked the morning chow for a week (nobody died), played with the nearest doggy (or my wife), and listened to a good group of Americans. And on the night of 04 July, we watched the fireworks displays from two different cities viewable from the side of the chunk of granite my place sits on.

To be an American means that we can always seek something better; your opportunities may be limited for many reasons, but there is always the American concept that we can find something better. This is a mind-set that I have not seen in the Old Country among my relatives. And I have not found this mind-set to be common among Europeans. I have two guesses. One is that the EU has sufficient safety nets and a 'quality of life' that reduces the drive to find something better. The other reason is that Brussels has intentionally legislated out the ability to radically change your vocational pursuits.

Europeans, for all of their eccentricities (we all know that Americans have a perfectly normal range of behavior), I have found that the 'typical' EU denizen to be well-educated and literate. Whereas many Americans thrive on ignorance, but we are not stupid. Perhaps being smart and comfortable makes you stupid.