Month: December 2013

Year’s End Message–2013

As a tradition I do a post on the last day of the year summarizing all the stuff that has occurred in the past year….kinda my “thank you” message if you will…..passing of another year is not something you celebrate when you get to be my age….this year was not a good one I lost my father….but I can say that the one shining point of the year was my blog…….helped make everything worthwhile…..

Seven years ago I was recovering from having my leg smashed while working in a Katrina damaged house……it hurt……but the massive damage forced me to retire……for years I had been writing letters and articles, did some teaching and lecturing and a bunch of activism, but I gave all that up in 1996 because Clinton was destroying the country and NO wanted to see it……I got discouraged and took some time off……sorry I digress…….my blog has been through many name changes and I finally settled on the name In Saner Thought and as they say here we are today…..

Since the beginning I have got 151,583 hits, it started slow but has picked up in the last several years and in the 7 years I have had the honor of getting 15,583 comments from great followers…….my old reliable like Larry of Woodgate’s View has been a joy and in those years I have got many new readers that I hope will stick around and enjoy the exchange of views……people like Cry & Howl, John Z, John L., Mathius, Bill Hayes, Gigoid and others that have extremely good taste by visiting here and joining the dialog…..we may not always agree but at least we talk……if I left you out I am sorry but be aware that I cherish the participation in my site.

And in those years I have also lost a few readers for various reasons like Quin and Terrance I keep hoping that they will find their way back and rejoin the conversation….I miss their input……

It is the end of another year and a very successful year for me and I want to thank each and every one of my readers that have stuck with me and hope that we enjoy a long association….my readers have been a joy and a frustration at times (but in a good way)…..I pray that we all have a great New Years Day and we all come back and ….

Thank you all each and every one, so very much for making the blogging experience a joy and educational…….and a bit manic at times, LOL……..Thanx!~

Hospice–The Newest Con

I have a bit of experience on this subject…..my late father was tended to by a hospice company in the last year of his life…..he was not dying at the time…..but he needed help and hospice was gladly there to lend a helping hand…..at least we thought it was their plan.

Once you go on hospice you lose your doctor and have to use the hospital that they deem worthy…..and they happily do anything they can to help….as long as social security can be billed……

I was not going to make a deal out of what I thought of them but after I read this piece I felt like I had to say something…..

(Newser) – Hospice care is for the terminally ill, yet the number of “hospice survivors” jumped 50% in California between 2002 and 2012. Something to celebrate? Not quite: A Washington Post investigation into the $17 billion industry now dominated by for-profits reveals hospice companies recruit patients who aren’t dying because they need fewer visits, stay enrolled longer, and make them more money since Medicare pays about $150 a day per patient, whether or not they get a visit. Profits have exploded from $353 per patient in 2002 to $1,975 in 2012 in California—the data “offers a portrait of the industry,” the Post notes—and despite advice from watchdogs, Medicare has kept the financial incentives in place, at a potential loss of billions of dollars a year.

“It must be strange to be told you’re dying and then not die,” says a lawyer who’s filed several suits against hospice companies on behalf of ex-employees who claim some hospices have a “sign everybody up” policy; the companies have denied the claims. But the length of stay is important, too. On average, patients stay at nonprofit hospices for 69 days, and 102 days at for-profits, the Post notes. “If they come in very sick and die right away, it’s difficult to run a business that way,” says a former Delta Hospice worker. The branch she worked at had a survival rate of 63%, but hospices say that’s no sign of fraud. Per a Delta rep: “To state the obvious, terminal prognostication is not an exact science.” Click for the full piece

It seems that the doctor and the nurse that would visit my father missed a septic condition and pneumonia……..after I called the EMTs and admitted him into a hospital (was not their choice) they threatened to tell social security that the house was filthy and dank…..a typical cover your ass move…….but once I got my hackles up they quickly decided that there had been a miss communication or something equally lame.

In closing….it is a racket and social security and Medicare are being bilked out of millions every year….maybe instead of screwing the elderly we should look into these con artists and thieves.  Whatcha think?

The End Is Near!

Nope this not a leftover post from the debacle of the 2012 predictions…..but we must admit that all good things must end and eventually this too shall pass…..

If that is correct …….how shall it pass?  I know you think I will go on about global warming….but you would be mistaken……there are other ways for this to end and global warming is only one possibility……there are others…….

From Planet of the Apes to After Earth, Hollywood has depicted Earth’s demise many a time—but scientists’ fears of planetary catastrophe are just as scary, LiveScience reports. Here are a few Doomsday scenarios as imagined by scientific minds:

  • Global warming: Scientists call this the biggest threat of all. Extreme weather, increased droughts, redistribution of diseases, submerged low-lying areas … future generations might live on a very nasty planet.
  • Pandemic threat: New pathogens come up annually, so why not? Think SARS, bird flu, and the recent coronavirus MERS. “The threat of a global pandemic is very real,” said Joseph Miller, who co-authored the textbook Biology.
  • Fungus: Fungal threats can be even more destructive than bacterial ones. “We’ve had a new amphibian fungal disease that has just had devastating effects,” said a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. A killer fungus of humans would be just as deadly.
  • Killer robots: Sounds nutty, sure, but the UN has called for a ban on them. And many computer experts say that the singularity—the moment when artificial intelligence outpaces human intelligence—is not far off.

Click to read about five more scenarios, including the “Snowball effect”—when multiple disasters come together in a not-so-perfect storm.

Pick one or pick several….not matter how one tries to deny it….this will end one day…..Personally, I kinda like the killer robot scenario………Peace out!

Sci Fi Not SyFy

The weekend after Xmas and I will wax poetic since not much happens in DC this time of year…..

Okay I admit it I am a nut for SciFi, not SyFy the channel, but rather the sci fi of the early 50’s and 60’s.  My first movie to see was “Earth vs The Flying Saucers” and from that day on I was hooked, especially if it had aliens, space and battles in them.

Let’s set the record straight sci fi and horror flicks are not the same thing….and a slasher film is not anything but a movie about naked co-eds, a demented person with an ax, woods and a rundown cabin….at best it is a bloody murder mystery.

In all the time of watching true sci fi there is always an overriding theme….machines.  Robots or such that will eventually take over….i. e. The Terminator and a whole bunch of knock-offs……and let’s not forget good old Robbie of the Forbidden Planet…..but machines turn deadly…..

I have written a couple of posts in the past on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the possible outcome and the inevitable abuses….but then I read this piece…..

Matt Miller admits his fears sound like the “ravings of a crank,” but he’s worried about how rapidly the concept of a artificial intelligence is entering everyday life and how little we humans have considered the possibilities of it running amok. “Are we creating machines that are destined to destroy us?” he asks in the Washington Post. It’s not just Miller who’s worried, however. He cites some big-name thinkers in the field similarly paranoid “that a toxic mix of artificial intelligence, robotics, and bio- and nanotechnology could make previous threats of nuclear devastation seem ‘easy’ to manage by comparison.” He notes that he ended a recent interview with author James Barrat with what he thought was a joke question about moving to a desert island in the event of catastrophe. Barrat’s response? “It was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of ‘bug out’ houses” for just that reason. If nothing else, “it’s time to take this conversation beyond a few hundred technology sector insiders,” writes Miller. President Obama can “kick-start the national debate” next month in his State of the Union address by appointing an AI commission. Click for Miller’s full column

I can see the good that helper machines can have on our society….but there is always the other side of the equation and they must balance…..

Resetting the Poverty Debate: State of the States 2013

As this year ends, 2013, poverty seems to be moving at any alarming pace……markets hit all time highs almost daily….while workers make a mere penitence….the old saying….”the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”…….is more pre3valent today than anytime in the last hundred years…….

Today we are looking at the economy and economics……this will be talked about and while they are wasting time talking more of the Middle Class will slip into poverty…..

Poverty is the enemy of the American Dream…..end it and the dream will come alive!

Resetting the Poverty Debate: State of the States 2013.

What To Do About Syria?

My readers know I keep a watchful eye on the Middle East…not only did I work in the area but I still have friends….some of whom are in Syria……so I watch and write…..

Assad must go……Assad cannot remain……we mkust do everything to rid Syria of Assad…..the world will be a better place with Assad gone……….remember all those cute little diatribes from about a year ago?

But what has the world done to rid Syria of Assad?  A little aid here and there……few weapons here and there……humanitarian aid, too little……what has the world done?  The best answer is give AQ a whole new battle ground to use in their recruiting….and they seem to better at it than the opposition…..t6he world is creating a stronger AQ that eventually they will have to deal with…..yet again.

But with all that said….I need to answer the question…….

Well the west has an idea…..will not be popular but they are thinking about a resurgent AQ not the safety of the Syrian people……in a piece written by Jason Ditz…….

Members of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) report that they have been told by Western officials that they believe President Bashar Assad must remain in power to prevent an al-Qaeda takeover of the country.

“Some do not even seem to mind if he runs again next year,” noted one SNC member. That’s not sitting well with the SNC, but it may not matter.

Western diplomats confirmed the shift, saying that the rebels have been warned that any “transitional administration” would have to include a major presence from Alawites, and that Assad could stay as president with “diminished powers.”

If the rebels reject that plan “they will lose most of the West,” one diplomat said, reflecting the dwindling confidence in the secular rebels’ ability to accomplish anything on their own.

This appears to be only one of the possibilities the West is exploring, with both the US and Britain openly talking to Islamist rebels about backing them as the new “pro-West” rebels.

At what point does this all just become a chess game and it was NEVER about the civilians being killed and maimed?

Thoughts?

Where The Hell Is South Sudan?

The joy of opening presents has passed and now we must face reality once again…..

A perfectly good question.  How many Americans realize that to help curb the violence in Sudan a vote was taken and the Southern part of the country became an independent nation of South Sudan in 2011.

From its inception there have been problems but that is expected after all it is the oil rich region……..the problems burst into gunfire about a week ago……with different sides wanting to gain control of the area……

So why am I writing about a common occurrence in African nations?

Well it seems that things have gotten so bad that the State Department has said that Americans in South Sudan need to get the Hell out…..and to assist have sent in troops to expediate the movement of Americans and there is where the problem is…….

Newser) – At least four US service members were wounded today when rebel gunfire hit two US military aircraft responding to the outbreak in violence in South Sudan. The aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei and scene of some of the nation’s worst violence over the last week. One American service member was reported to be in critical condition. Officials said after the two aircraft took incoming fire, they turned around and headed to Kampala, Uganda. From there the service members were flown on to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment, the officials said.

The aircraft were there as part of an attempt to evacuate Americans from the area, reports CNN. South Sudan President Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, said this week that an attempted coup triggered the violence now pulsing through South Sudan that has left hundreds dead and raised the prospect of a full-blown civil war. He blamed the former vice president, Machar, an ethnic Nuer. But officials have since said a fight between Dinka and Nuer members of the presidential guard triggered the initial violence late Sunday night. Machar’s ouster from the country’s No. 2 political position earlier this year had stoked ethnic tensions.

You may say…”not good that Americans were killed because of the situation”……and you would be right!

(Newser) – Washington is getting in deeper: About 150 US troops are heading toward South Sudan today to help secure the US embassy and evacuate more Americans from the war-torn country, military officials said. The troops will likely first travel to Djibouti via Spain, CNN reports. The move follows a letter from President Obama to Congress yesterday saying he would take “further action” to protect US interests in Sudan. The State Department flew out 15 Americans yesterday from the flashpoint town of Bor.

South Sudan officials say that Bentiu, the capital of an important oil-producing state, has been seized by rebels. “Bentiu is not currently in our hands,” the government tweeted. “It is in the hands of a commander who has declared support” for former Vice President Riek Machar. An official said that People’s Liberation Army troops were headed for Bentiu, as well as Bor, to take control. President Salva Kiir blames the crisis on a power grab by troops committed to Machar, his longtime rival.

And there you have the beginning of a possible American excursion into yet another third world country…..if we are not careful this could blow up in our face…..

Some may say I am an alarmist…..could be….but I have been in the service of my country in place that began with far less loss of American life…..I worry and I hope that more American soldiers  do not have to put their lives on the line for far away places that could care less……

A side note…….the problems in Central African Republic could add to the violence in South Sudan because of the closeness of the two countries….something to watch.