Dear DW,

I am feeling very concerned for you, and very sorry for your pain. Dental problems have also plagued me. I had a sub-par dentist as a girl, who drilled the hell out of my little teeth, and I suffer for that to this day. I could not read some of your details, as they are too painful.

This you should send to representatives on health care committees. I am dead serious.

I have taught, and was in a similar situation to yourself. I had a fall from a ladder, excruciating sciatic pain, but no health insurance. I self-medicated, made it to classes and home again, and three months later the pain subsided, mostly. However, I am left with health woes to this day as a result of that non-care.

Now the state will pay in another way for my lack of medical coverage. It is madness that we remain the only industrial country with no national health care coverage. It is mean-spirited conservatives--captains of industry and their minions--that keep it thusly.

I agree, it was hard to read this post.

Truly, the love of $$ is the root of all kinds of evil.

Lisa, I think it is not just the mean-spiritedness, penuriousness of the plutocracy. It is the fact that this country spends over $1/2 trillion per year on its imperialist military objectives. You see, the problem is not that they are stingy. The problem is they are diabolical.

The United States of America, more than any other society on earth, is driven by a diabolical core dynamic. The love of money, power and dominance.

Professor W; you are way, way too "understanding" of the motives and character of that slimy ass motherfucker dentist who would see a man leave his office without the help he was in need of.

My son recently laid carpeting in the home of our local dentist. The dentist was home, and is a nice and friendly man. He has a beautiful wife, and two young children. A 3000+ square ft. McMansion. A large and fancy boat sits in the side yard. In the friendly chatting while he stood watching my son working to lay the beautiful plush new carpet in his home for the pleasures of him and his family, the dentist's main concern was how he seldom finds the time to get his boat out to the lake.

His main concern was not the atrocities, anquish, and misery his beloved country has caused to come down upon a people on the other side of the world.
Nor was his main concern the hernia my son has at age 22 from his carpet laying work, but has not the means to get it treated.

The large and fancy boat sits and sits in the sideyard. And the main concern of the friendly and pleasant dentist is that he seldom finds time to use it. But still, at least the large and fancy boat is there.
.

(weeps)

On that note, I hate being an eucynodont mammaliforme synapsid with a pleisiomorphic permanent dentation.

Why the hell couldn't we hominids have hypsodontine dentation or supranumary molarform teeth..........
aside from that, we US citizens spend more money per year for healthcare with far less bang for our buck than anybody else.

It's like I say to my parents who are losing their rotted teeth year after year, "when I get to heaven, I'll kick the teeth out of the mouth of the God asshole"

Good morning, DW. I can honestly say that I have never gone more than a week without extraction or other semi-permanent solution. Most of my dental woes are from neglect so, as Mr. Kilmer remarked, "The hypocrisay was moah than ah could beah!", likewise I shall refrain from browbeating, and merely say that I remain very conerned about your health. Here's to wishing you well, sans the hocking!

Good morning, Stunned.

Why the hell couldn't we hominids have hypsodontine dentation or supranumary molarform teeth...

While you have a point about the inadequacies of the human body, in regards to your parents, perhaps your fight card should be filled with opponents residing on the "mortal plane", to blame for our disfunctional health care system. They are the ones who choose to use their "Free Will" to enrich themselves, with no thought to helping the less fortunate. In fact, the more wealth some accumulate, the more of God's love shines down upon their more deserving heads, to their way of thinking.

As I said earlier at the BBB, please get this taken care of. Not all Dentists are evil money grubbers.

My father is a Dentist, still keeping practice at the age of 82, although he swears he will retire at the end of this year. In a way, maybe the fact that he has never been sued for malpractice in over 50 years of practice says something for his competence as a Dentist. As a father, well... nobody be perfect.

I wish to hell you could get here, I bet I could easily talk him into something, he won't fuck around, someone in pain gets treatment, period.

And on the other side, regardless of prices an awful lot of people just don't pay at all. I'm not talking about 6 figure operations now, and this problem has vanished today. I'm mostly thinking about 40 years ago. And in a smaller town.

But please get treatment, there is no need to suffer and rely on aspirin, might as well chew willow bark.Lots of it.

Too damn bad we can't have a system like almost anyone else's when it comes to healthcare, in order to be re-plumbed I will have a hospital surgery come Monday and my total bill could be well over $200,000.

I'd better save some specimens of my bags to pay my creditors, that's about all they can get. It's mostly what I seem to be. But it could be worse.

I would never go to a "professional" who advertised. That in itself should be enough to warn one that this ain't no damn give-a-shit healthcare professional, just a fairly competant hack who is in the entire circus that our "free enterprise" bullshit system is currently in.

I apologize for the rant, but damnit Wraith, get help!

Hey, I'm in talks with the Tooth Fairy, and he said he could help DW! His name is Jaime, He's from Key West, and he said he'd be thrilled to check out the Ebon One, and he bragged that he's done loads of oral, and other, insertions and extractions!!

I told him to meet DW at the Diner @ 2 or 2:30.

You take up trog's offer.

Dental abscess infections can kill you.

Me, I wish I had a good beak.

Good aftermoon, kelley b.

I don't think it's my offer he'd be taking up! HAHAHAHA!!!

zipperhead,

I do not think being stingy and diabolical are mutually exclusive."Fiscally responsible conservatives" --the combo kinda has a ring to it.

Please get proper care, DW. Surely there is a neighborhood health clinic which offers recourse to at least the basics of tooth extraction and antibiotic regimens. It is a crying shame, our lack of health coverage, and you would make a superb advocate when you are recovered.

Perhaps this should become a main focus for you. Offer yourself up to Hillary or covertheuninsured--some PAC. You are eloquent, and speak from knowledge. We need such an advocate.

Bingo Lisa.

Dear Dark Wraith,

I am so sorry. I wish you were closer, and that I could help you.

I don't even know who you are.

I wonder if there isn't another resource- a dental school? I'm sure you thought of everything. People just feel for you, and want to help. Give some kind of advice. Say something.

I dont want to sound like a dental obsessive making all these dental comments, I'll simply say that I have been around periodontists awhile, in the family. So its like dinner conversation. Some patients do not respond to penicillin- and are helped by a longer term antibiotic called Periostat. There is a generic. It specifically works on the gum tissue.

Also, some professionals are wary of calling in anything because they figure people are dope shopping. (Its wrong, but thats the reason they give)The days of yanking out teeth are a bit in the past because it is not considered best practice to leave a vacant spot- with consequences for the other teeth.

Anyway, the point is that you are hurting though and this is wrong. Giving you papers under the influence of medication is unethical by the way- and you should never be asked to sign anything financial in the chair. Shame on them.

I hope this situation gets better for you. Hang in there.

Good Goddess, Man!

That sounds painful!

I agree with Lynn at Zelleweb.

Giving you papers under the influence of medication is unethical by the way- and you should never be asked to sign anything financial in the chair. Shame on them.

I hope you will be in the position, soon, to get that tooth extracted. I think the medicating will stop being helpful, the longer you wait. Good luck.

Mr Wraith, Good Lord Man!

Surely you know you have friends out here!

Next time and even now, please let us know!

We can easily arrange a collection for Mr. Wraith's tooth extraction.

and that Cancerous thing in your mouth? We need to get rid of that too.

Please Mr. Wraith. I know you have pride and would dare not ask for "handouts". It's not an handout. We're talking about saving a productive member of society's life.

If 20 of us each gave $20, we could stop your misery. A small price to pay.

There's a time to be prideful and a time to be thankful.

Good evening, PoliShifter.

I made this as a graphic, but I never posted it.

After the embrace comes understanding.

After the understanding comes acceptance.

After the acceptance comes tolerance.

After the tolerance comes mercy.

After the mercy comes pity.

After the pity comes suspicion.

After the suspicion comes scorn.

After the scorn comes condemnation.

After the condemnation comes justification.

After the justification comes the 21st Century.

.

For my own part, PoliShifter, I shall stay with the old ways.

The Dark Wraith doesn't wear boots made for slippery slopes.

Dr.
You are, in fact, an excellent writer. And it should show us all what a good for shit society we have where values just don't matter. But I think a good janitor or streetsweeper has as much right to dignity as a good writer, or a good singer, or a good dentist. IN FACT every single honest hearted human being, regardless of any supposed skills or not, ALL PEOPLE of good will have a right to basic dignity.

Anton LaVey who promulgated the doctines of Satanism, would see this system as quiet fitting. Survival of the Strongest. Hitler liked it too. The Ubermen rise up onto the steeple peaks of the socio-economic structure - where they only naturally belong, of course. Why, it's destiny, doncha know? Social Darwinism. The manifestation and glorification of the fullest in human potential!! WooHaa.

So, Lisa - that just still doesn't do it for me.
I like Poe's way of putting it in The Bells. :

And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls: -
And their king it is who tolls: -
And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A pæan from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the pæan of the bells!

Capisci? They are Ghouls. The system is diabolically ghoulish because the people who have arranged the system to their desires are diabolical ghouls. This has NOTHING to do with the ideaology of the system. It has everything to do with the disgusting coprophageous foul-hearted worms who control it.

Jesus had it right:
"Verily, (the steenkin rich) will hardly enter into heaven."

But here, in their evil empire of power lust and avarice, they got it how they want it. For now.

Yes, zipperhead.

For now.

Mr Wraith, come now sir

Lest you forget that you are in existence not alone, but with the rest of us.

This is a unique momment of time we are sharing together.

You are clining to some belief system and code of ethics as if there were some afterlife.

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Even if you do, it would not justify such behavior.

And for the love of God man, are you not getting my emails?

Hold on- why is it that hard working people have such a hard time with help, but yet deals are made on the golf course. Stock tips. Nobody associates that kind of helping with negative connotations. You know better than most how much people with resources, often built on the backs of others, help one another.

But yet, damned if people don't get suspicious/weird the minute a regular person has an unfortunate situation beyond their control. Damned if people don't get into character or philosophy.

We are social people, and dependent people, this is shown clearly by the fact that we have dependent babies far longer than other animals, proportionately. The rugged individualist notion is a lie that leaves out way too many concerns. Our diet, habits, and needs belie that thinking. Why do we feel moved by stories like this, if nature did not intend for us to be moved, if nature did not intend for people to act? What is so wrong about people caring about you and respecting you? Caring is natural. Some people just shut down that part of themselves so they can be rat race bastards.

Twenty people, twenty bucks. And its done- that sounds like a great plan. It doesn't put a lot on one person, but it gets the job done. You can't say you never helped anyone. Ahem! Find a way!

Good morning, Lynn at Zelleweb.

Lynn, what a wonderful, thoughtful comment. Your beginning premise is so simple, yet I hadn't connected "Money comes to money", to include the collective option for those with less means. I believe thinking like that could become a solid basis for social and business interests. I would caution that many failings occurs when a group decides on an agenda, without good leadership. Someone willing to jettison enough emotional baggage to expose the results realistically possible. Someone bold enough to see outside influences to what would otherwise be considered " too risky" ventures, and finally, someone with "a dog in the race", so that the results are as important to them as to the group.

Our group seems to have a common goal, one that requires good leadership to see it come to fruition, not only because of the many obstacles to success, but also because there is opposition to our goal.

Our goal is simple enough; We moths have determined that the porch lights are being threatened due to a lack of finances. The finances are readily available, yet delivery of funds, and final acceptance of them, threaten to burn out our bulb; A dimbulb replacement would not suffice, as I'm sure all would agree that, "The brighter the light, the better the fight!"

Perhaps The Dark Wraith would consider filling the leadership vacuum we now experience?

Oh, I almost forgot: 2:30!!! HA

Seek a true and faithful leader, trog.

Follow me, and you'll end up at the Cheeseburger Barn.

The Dark Wraith knows where laying siege will yield big treasure.

DW: How are you feeling this morning? Did the dentist ever return your call?

"Why do we feel moved by stories like this, if nature did not intend for us to be moved, if nature did not intend for people to act? What is so wrong about people caring about you and respecting you? Caring is natural. Some people just shut down that part of themselves so they can be rat race bastards. "> Lynn

I think part of the problem is that not all Americans are moved by our dear friend's situation. In my opinion, there is a vast majority of people in this country who simply do not take note of this type of issue unless it sneaks up behind them and affects their own family. We have millions upon millions of uninsured fellow citizens in this country, and yet their voices are rarely heard, or acknowledged. I'm not wise enough to know what the solution is, or how we could go about affording some type of universal health care program. But it breaks my heart to think of how our government continually tosses money out of the White House window -- yet suffer their people.

To me, the answer is to assert health as a right. Stop talking about who should get, if tax breaks work, if it should be folks under this income. A right. Then act accordingly.

It is our job to work to impose *our* values- for me, healtch care over Bridges To Nowhere. I have a problem with the way we prioritize resources. If you do too, then make some noise.

We must get away from this mindset of evaluating the deserving among us. All are deserving of life, the most basic needs.

Even as a caseworker to the homeless years back-people freezing, dying, delirious with hunger or pain- I heard my own coworkers-supposed hippies all- tell me that they bring it on themselves. They should do this, or that. If they only would ____. And I would repeat that nobody should freeze on the street.
Not in a country that subsidizes billion dollar corporations. Can't we do better? Funny how our stingy ways manifest!

We sit in warm homes and decide why people threaten us with their needs. But ignore the way our violent oppressive elite threaten us. Make no mistake- they will drag down society with their misguided foreign policy far more than people needing health care!

I agree that many do not care, but that is because they align with their oppressors and engage in lateral loathing. Simply put, people hate their neighbors and resent them more than the people in power spending their money and laughing in their confused faces. Your enemy is not your single mom neighbor, trying to feed her kid!

I agree that Dark Wraith is a bright bulb. Let's flip his economics lesson back on him. What determines value? Where price and demand have crossed, where a person is willing to pay a price, and a producer is willing to part with it, hopefully after inputs are covered?

We cant look at the value of people this way. By their ability to parlay creative energy into income. It is NO DIFFERENT than determining which group of poor people have value. It is the flip, determining Britney has more value or other contrived elites.

Damn, but dont you just hate to go along with that sham?

DW, open a paypal account, fer gawd's sake, and let your friends help you out. It's way more prideful to go it alone when you have a whole group who are willing to help.

One time I was at a camping ground, had to be there for 6 weeks, and came down with tonsilitus, of all things! I was broke and trying to let nature heal me, but I was a nursing mother and just couldn't shake it with the demands being put on my body. A friend who was a nurse dragged me out of my tent, and up in front of a gathering at the clubhouse and explained my state to a group. Much to my embarassment, they promptly passed the hat and the change in their pockets was enough to get me to a doctor and pay for the meds. Pride is a cold comfort when you have a fever in the night.

Let us have your paypal ID, so we can send you the $$. (what's a few bucks between friends, after all) We all put a high value on your continued existance, let us put the money where our mouths (and our interests) are.

It would be small payment for the hours of instruction that you cheerfully, with no thought of recompense, impart.

I like cheeseburgers. Here in CA we don't have Burger Barn but we do have In&Out...excellent burgers.

Dark Wraith, if you won't accept contributions then consider selling us ad space or some other utility. Perhaps we could all buy T-Shirts or something.

Damn. You go away for a week and all hell breaks loose...

Lynn: Health care should, indeed, be a basic human right for all. Hell, in our country we can't even agree to give it to the one group of humans who are completely dependent on the goodwill of others - children. Don't get me started.

Dark Wraith, are you doing any better this morning?

Good morning, PoliShifter.

I've never even heard of "Cheeseburger Barn", but I did find "Burger Barn", and honestly, I doubt I'd ever be so hungry that I'd follow DW into that joint!

Let us have your paypal ID, so we can send you the $$. (what's a few bucks between friends, after all) We all put a high value on your continued existance, let us put the money where our mouths (and our interests) are.

...and, if you do not already have a paypal ID, all you need is a debit card and a hotmail(any email) account.

...and, if you do not already have a paypal ID, all you need is a debit card and a hotmail(any email) account.

My Nigerian secretary and yours can make all the arrangements.

Hey trog,
I sent your secretary that check for 5 grand for my winnings in the Nigerian Lottery but she hasn't called me back yet! Maybe you can remind her that I won.

Good afternoon, SB Gypsy.

I'll be fine. Payday isn't that far off; and between what I'll have from that and a few things I've hocked, I'll have enough to get this cursed tooth out of my face.

In all honesty, I'd shut down the entirety of Dark Wraith Publishing before I took a dime of charity. I'm an able-bodied man in my prime, and if I can't take care of myself, I'm pathetic. More to the point, I'm nothing but a charade if I cannot abide the very economics lessons I teach. If I want a "better" life, I can choose to have it by doing something other than what I do, something valued more highly by this economy. Absent my willingness to go where the money is, I have no room to cry about some "unfairness."

The world—this very country—is simply full of people who do not have the ability to move toward greater rewards for their productive labor. This is especially true of children living in poverty: theirs is an awful and compelling lot; it is a call to social change as much as it is a cry for charitable action, and it is not only the immediacy of their plight that demands remedy. In the long run, they will become the torch-bearers of intergenerational poverty, a cancer that has infected me so thoroughly that I am utterly paralyzed to see a better way for myself.

Fix them, and you will have done me a favor greater than anything you could do with a temporary shot of relief in my infected tooth or my empty pocket.

I wrote this article as a clarion call to market defects in healthcare; specifically, I am trying my best to show how veiled pricing is one of the several destructive concerts of activity in the healthcare industry that will permanently ruin the power of a truly free market to bring prices down and access up. Until the unlawful and immoral behaviors of healthcare providers are proscribed by law—and violators are punished severely, widely, and publicly—no amount of "healthcare reform" is going to do a bit of good; and that goes for nationalized healthcare, something to which I am dead-set opposed because I know very well that means a jackboot is going to be coming down on me for all of my behavioral and lifestyle choices that don't comport with public cost containment. I am already sick to death of the media playing the broken record of this health group or that concerned citizen's group getting the government to order me around because "science" has shown that my personal choices somehow affect "the children" or "the society" or "others."

That is not to say the government doesn't have a role to play in healthcare reform; it does, and it's a major, costly one at that. Within the month, I plan to lay out elements of a national healthcare strategy that might surprise you in its liberality at the same time it might make you suspicious in how it uses "market forces" to circumscribe anti-competitive activities now so entrenched.

I am most grateful for the concern many have shown. It does, of course, make my life as a cynic rather more difficult; but I'll get over the deterrence to my curmudgeonly lifestyle.

The Dark Wraith will spend the rest of the afternoon getting sufficiently grouchy, again, so he can conduct his Monday night class with the usual aplomb.

Good Afternoon Dark One,

I am sorry if I offended you, and I did get it that your essay was about healthcare and our system that is so chaotic and inEfficient and inSufficient. Hillary came out with her plan today, and as good as it may be she's still giving the bonanza to the insurance industry that messed it up so badly, and that does such a piss poor job of administration now.

As I was saying to my (unionized)husband the other night, Everyone who works hard should be able to have the standard of living that he and I enjoy. I worked for a community college for awhile in CA, and they were careful to limit my week to thirty hours, just so that they wouldn't have to give me any benefits. That an instructor of your level should barely be able to keep it together because of the absolutely cheap rotten cheap bastards who spend their lives counting beans ....

OK, there's a vein in my temple that's throbbing now, hafta chill....

but you get my drift.

And I appreciate the respect you accord me for my wishes, SB Gypsy.

Ok, my turn.
Enough of the Richard Lewis impersonations. Good God, I thought I was reading Thanatopsis!
If you were my kid, I’d kick your ass for being so obstinate. Pride is a wonderful thing – at times. It’s also a sin in some religions. There’s no weakness in accepting help honestly proffered and when genuinely offered the recipient need not feel lessened by that acceptance.
Yeah, you’re cynical. You’re also stubborn, hard-headed, and definitely intractable and those ain’t great qualities at times!
So you won’t take charity. All right. How’s this. Maybe some of us want to invest in Dark-Wraith, INC. We’re investing in a site where we can come to unlax, Doc; unwind, bitch and generally eat lousy greasy spoon food! We all even have our own keys to the joint. And if it turns out that you end up closing the diner because of pig-headedness, I ain’t mopping your floor anymore! There aren’t many places I feel this welcome, damn it!
No matter how – “(sigh) It’s ok – I’ll be fine” you act, they ain’t gonna name a disease after you. (Dark-Wraithlexia? Maybe a procedure as in Dark-Tooth-procto-ectomy, but not a disease!)
I just had my best friend of 50 years die because he was too stubborn to have seen a doctor when it could have helped him and he didn’t have a tenth the smarts you have. But you both have (and had) about the same common sense, it seems! Now it’s too late for him. His wife and daughter and myself just don’t understand.
And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a friend go because he’s too proud to accept help even if he doesn’t think he’s asking deep down inside. You have our email. Nothing has to be publicized.


Father Tyme’s going for the checkbook AND hickory stick!

memorize this phrase: ilch ii gozaa le tom y'at'taallikesh du sul (i come in peace to seek the singing snake of the flute clan)

it will work well for you all in the white mountains should push come to sock in the nose.

Dear God, good man.

I could hear someone tearing ass from clear on the other side of the backbone of the Internet.

Relax. The amoxicillin has finally taken hold, and I'm down to one aspirin every six hours or so. (I'm still a little weirded out about how long it took the antibiotic to have effect this time, but I suspect it's because the infection was more embedded than it had been in my previous tooth problems.) Thursday, I'll have this bicuspid out of my mouth and out of my dreams. Friday, provided the healing process goes well, I'll have some semi-solid food; or maybe I'll splurge and make myself a root beer float.

I have a major project to complete here at The Dark Wraith Forums, and I have a new Website complex to start planning.

All is good, tonight. I have a three-hour class to teach in about 15 minutes, and more material to get through than I can possibly cover. I have a quiz to administer, too.

All is good.

Okay, George W. Bush is still President, and the economy is teetering perilously close to a serious financial catastrophe that the Federal Reserve, in concert with central banks around the world, is frantically trying to avert while pretending everything's cool. Oh, yes, we're on course to bomb the Hell out of Iran; and the Internet is controlled by a cluster of cartels, some of which too many people think are friendly.

And we're going to have a really weird Winter, this year.

And my cat has learned to drink my coffee.

All is fairly good.

The Dark Wraith is always looking for the bright side of life.

And my cat has learned to drink my coffee.

Well, that's one chore taken care of...no more water dishes to fill, just pour the cat a cup of coffee:)

Hmmmm.I don't see how we can talk about health care in terms of price, cost containment- the market and its forces- when there are other things in that mix. It isn't really a "market" per se, is it?
There are things in the mix with healthcare that truly require a different policy...rubric. The impact of malpractice. The impact of fraud, and whether that is contained by the producer or the public. The impact of offsetting acceptance of one plan's mandatory costs with gouging of another's. The impact of tax rules and healthcare, and patent recovery and healthcare, and health care accounting systems, and labor issues in healthcare, and so on.

I dont see that we can look at health care as a commodity. I dont see that we can think of it like a car or a new teapot.

There too many elements that are NOT open to market debate!

A store can refuse to sell you a Pepsi. A hospital cannot leave you dying in a lobby. Healthcare policy is just different.

I can respect the idea of "if I want x or y, I should do x or Y". And sucks for me if I don't." Well, Mr. Ayn Wraith- I wish I could agree. If you just yank your bootstraps high enough in America, things will be fine. Sometimes. Sometimes not.

Sometimes I spend time needing, then spend time giving, and see it as a cycle I am kind of honored and humbled to be part of.

No disrespect intended, You'll hear no more of it from me then!

I'm sorry.

The Dark Wraith is always looking for the bright side of life.

DW, how'sabout next you go looking, why don't you leave the cleaver at home?

Actually, I may need to borrow that cleaver; it seems that my secretary may have absconded with Father Tyme's check. Please don't say anything to him. I'd rather he thought that I was a thief, than that I would be so stoopid as to hire a non-English speaking secretary through the mail!

Glad you're doing better.

I ain't apologizin' fer shit!

DW,

I am much relieved to see your responses.

Again, I assert your eptness as an advocate for the 40 million+ uninsured in this country. Covertheuninsured.org could use your voice and your story. You might send this piece to them.

The education system is using many of us at the college level in this outrageous fashion. I was an adjunct, sometimes teaching 5 classes, with no insurance. Obscene.

If you do choose to advocate on this criminal lacking in our great nation, I would come on board with you. Keep it in mind.

Good evening, Lynn.

Sometimes I spend time needing, then spend time giving, and see it as a cycle I am kind of honored and humbled to be part of.

Oh c'mon now! I like the giving part, ( Just ask the wife; She abhorred my motto: "Nobody leaves this bar while I still have cash!" ) but the needing part mostly sucks out loud!

DW, I understand why you feel you have imposed this on yourself, because you chose a more principled path, and thus you would be a fraud to accept help. Say no more...say no more! I was only trying to turn you toward Father Tyme's slant...We are selfish! We want you in tiptop shape; Verbally smackin' around someone doped up on Vicodin is no fun at all! Please pardon any overreach into your personal affairs on my part. It's just that, well doggone it, I love you and I want to have your baby!! There, I said it; It can't be unsaid. (Hopefully it can be aborted!)

How much to place an ad on your site for my blog?

On the bright side, there is a pretty good chance that if a Democrat wins the '08 election that there will be some sort of "Universal Heathcare".

Whether a tooth pulling will be covered or if it's considered a "pre-existing condition" or is considered "cosmetic" is another story.

Good morning, PoliShifter.

I guess well see after the elections, but I'm not counting on anything changing, even with the house and senate firmly Democrat. I have no idea what DW has in his "health care" revamping commentary, but I'm sure it will NOT be a "Medicare 4 all" system.

One problem with this debate- about whether or not low income people should get care. Of course they should. But-
There IS a sort of universal health care in the minds of many, many people. They think that if you are just not eligible well, you just aren't really poor. "Maybe they are buying too many clothes from Abercrombie!" said a panelist I heard once. Their view:

If you are disabled and cannot work, you get medicare. If you are a disabled child, you get medicaid regardless of your family's resources. In fact, it is necessary for some services even if you don't want medicaid. At least in every state where I have worked with regulations. There is medicare if you are a senior, there is health care for every child by CHIP if you are lower income, with premiums if you make more than the income limit for free care. Many Americans are asking what is so bad about that. The Republicans say "let's just let people deduct the out of pocket from their income on taxes".

Just explaining why it is hard to win this battle on the "poor children" basis as many people think that is absurd when there is CHIP.

We all know there are other problems, from a policy perspective.
Doesn't mean you will find doctors that take medicaid. Another story. They could raise the payments to providers to fix that. Etc.

I am not at all saying the system is adequate, what I am saying is that many people think that this ALREADY constitutes quasi universal health care.

The criticism out there is that what "liberals" are trying to do is expand government subsidized health insurance to the "middle class" or- above 45,000. Under 45,000 a family is considered to be within range for help under the present system.

The issue is that to some, 45,000 a year sounds great. To others, its impossible to live on and with health care premiums running an average of fifteen thousand a year- they find they cannot pay it privately.

The public perception is often this: that the really poor already HAVE health care because they qualify. The wealthy dont have a problem. Its the working poor to middle class that are feeling the worst health care pinch. Society simply does not see these folks as needing though because many can get it at work.

If you listen to debates on the CHIP program changes, that is the whole discussion. Oh yeah- and if people were married they would all be insured by family plans. They say.

This is about people not wanting to lose their own insurance, so others can gain. They know damn well that their employers will drop coverage if the government has a universal plan.

They worry that the government plan will be worse than what they have at work.

*Thats* the meat in the stew, as far as many of us see it on an academic level.

Oh and it is worth noting that many people ALSO fear that that their employers will cut insurance but NOT pay them the difference. (the amount spent on benefits) They will pay more taxes, lose their insurance and get universal, and gain little from this deal. Many think they will lose too much.

Liberals have to have a good answer to this criticism.

Not just wave a sign or form a posse.

As we all know, a national healthcare program is an enormous undertaking. There are so many factors involved and it will take years and years to put something into play. In my opinion, the first order of business would be to get rid of the healthcare lobbyists. I believe there are over one hundred advocacy groups for brain tumors alone each competing for funding. Nothing will be accomplished by Congress until the day they are no longer seduced by these pressure groups.

"Sometimes I spend time needing, then spend time giving, and see it as a cycle I am kind of honored and humbled to be part of."

Beautiful. I'm gonna make this my sig line somewhere.

I agree, White Cloud. That is a beautiful statement.

Dear Dark One,

Sorry to write so late. To be brutally honest, I was so stricken and simultaneously furious that, other than posting the blog addy and commanding my forum readers to check it out, I stalked the floors of my house, cursing for most of two days. And then I read the comments...and it is worse. Fr. Tyme is right...he should beat you for stubborness. I am too broke (what with paying for cancer treatment for stepmom) to help...barely getting pets fed this week. But others are not so cash-shy!

Observations: (1)Paypal can be your friend. Let those who enjoy your writing be your friends. Individualism in America IS too often repaid with misery and poverty---let those like-minded who enjoy you be your friends in need and stop being a stubborn ass.
(2) Michael Moore should read this piece, Wraith.
(3) What is the first name of the dentist---I DO blame him intensely. It would have taken ten minutes of his precious time with you already drugged. Greedy ass deserves to have his ass kicked by the cosmos.
(4) I am not a nice woman. My screen-name reminds me life cuts both ways. I believe in dealing justice, if I can, with as much impact as a Louisville slugger....some of my personal mythic heroes are Medea and Medusa. Do, do, give me the dentist's first name and city??

And lest any think my admiration of Medea means I am merely a vengeful bitch? That isn't it at all. I HAVE a personal rant about the values of "insulation" as being pink fluff in the attic. NOT wrapped around "professionals" in the form of office staff and loan officers, not wrapped inside brain cases keeping out dangerous thoughts.

Insulation from cold, yes. Insulation from need and humanity? No.
I just want to peel some layers from that self-assured dentist. He needs to be the one shivering for a change.

Good aftermoon, Labrys.

I shall remind myself, over and over, "Stay on her good side, for God's sake, stay. on. her. good. side."

One problem with being pissed at the situation DW is in; When a dull icepick is being driven through your jaw and up into your eyeball, and each heartbeat intensifies the fun, it's kinda hard to keep your mind focused long enough to be mad at anything in particular, besides the throbbing. Then you have a few days of thanking any deity close at hand once the pain has subsided.

We all need to really go off the deep end...just for him!

Dear Dark Wraith,

Indeed that Facebook post ot LOC should make many take pause. I wish more people realized the intrusive nature of these social networking sites.

Read the fine print. Read the fine print.

Your Greenspan remarks made me sorry I called you Ayn Wraith. Twas but a joke, a joke sir!

I think what you need to do is the unthinkable, but desperate times call for desperate action.

You must auction off Trog.

labrys,

You are right-on about addressing the dentist, reporting him to whatever agency he can be reported to, and having the swindler censured. Actually, sliced by a smart woman with a sharp tongue wouldn't be bad, either.

But of course, the crux of the problem is that these vultures perdure because of a system which allows it. Like the payday cash loans at usurious interest rates.

The crime which must be addressed is the allowance of the working poor, with no safety net. This is what I hope DW will take up as his cause.

Send it to Michael Moore, send it to covertheuninsured and every member of the healthcare committee. Be heard, beyond your devout followers. Please. Cosmically, that may be why the abscess has dogged you for so long. So you wouldn't forget (Yeah, I sound like every other Christian out there looking for causation and purpose. I am not, however.)

Good evening, Lisa. Forgive me, but I am of a mind to write tangentially as this comment thread sunsets.

One day, I shall write on the larger matters beyond the here and now. I am not, however, prepared to do that just yet; and I am fairly sure most readers are not prepared to read what I have to say in that regard just yet.

I spent enough time in mathematics and science to know that "science," when learned well, is the construction of understanding about the extent of ignorance we hold individually, share as a culture, and suffer as a species.

I have seen enough in academia to have a healthy disdain for the "scientific" way as being particularly useful for answering awful questions about the importance of my life, the meaning of my death, and the pain of living in a world of people I can experience, yet cannot approach in any way other than sensually.

Both rejection of God and salvation by God are irrelevant to me. That I cannot see means nothing other than that I am blind; that I can believe means nothing other than that I am a simpleton. It is far too easy to embrace that which is intolerably ephemeral, whether it be a God or people I know not but for their insistence that they exist independent of my thought that they do.

Still, there they are in my dreams, those others, and I cannot help but grieve for them in their absences and in their passings. I cannot help but feel that hole in the fabric of true sensation when they are gone for good.

I conclude that people—and not just humans, but even other things I animate with something I think is genuinely more than just my hope—have fully ontological status as well as an epistemological valence: they exist as principles embodied by principal things of creation as I come into the world to experience it, and they carry essential meaning for that world in my experience of it.

That prospect gives me a sense of hope I find suspect: it simply cannot have been that easy, that obvious.

Nevertheless, we live and die—the mighty, countable few and the worthless, countless many—all of us equally incapable of escaping a cycle of life that might very well be nothing but the illusion upon riding an arrow that has no trajectory, even as it has consummate purpose and eternal meaning.

To that end, I cannot help but contemplate that I must meet you again, even as I meet you again now.

Yet, to paraphrase from my article, The End of All Things, '...still, I run.'

The Dark Wraith has rambled enough for a while.

I thought I might share this story with all of you since we have been talking about healthcare issues.

Several years ago, my brother went through a heartbreaking time with his son. He was eighteen months old when he became gravely ill. By the time his physicians correctly diagnosed his condition, his colon had already become necrotic and had to be removed. He suffered from fevers ranging from 105 to 107 degrees caused by his infected organ. Christian had just started to say a few words, i.e., car, mommy and daddy, when the fever caused brain damage. He is now deaf because of it. My brother took vigil at his son's bedside. His employer was understanding at first, but eventually let him go. From that point on my brother and his family had no medical insurance. The physicians/hospital promised that they would continue the care and they shouldn't worry. Perhaps my brother was naive in thinking that they meant -- don't worry about our bill.

One week after Christian was released from the hospital, my brother received a bill in the amount of $879,000 requesting payment within ten days. (This amount was over and above what the insurance paid out when he did have it.) To make a long story short, my brother lost his house, his car and was hospitalized for exhaustion after working three jobs trying to make ends meet. The doctors went back on their word stating that they had no business promising things that they couldn't deliver.

A few months later, my brother was contacted by a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic. He had heard of Christian's rare condition. The doctor had performed an experimental surgery on a few children wherein they used part of the child's intensities to create a "colon" to replace the one that was removed. The doctor and the hospital agreed to waive any and all charges incurred in this operation and post-op care.

Christian is now sixteen years old, has skipped a grade because he is smart as a whip, and every time he smiles it reminds me that there is hope in this crazy world of ours.

Please accept my apology if this post is too personal. I guess I'm sharing it to give an example of a physican/hospital who truly aren't in this industry just for the money. It's nice to know there are a few.

From Lynn,
"You must auction off Trog."

10 yuan!

DW,

To the tangential: In your need for solitude, you are like me. There is a great sorrow in only being able to connect on the physical level. I do not worry about ontology (I think Gertrude Stein said, I know that I am b/c my little dog knows me.)

Salvation and all the rest is a futile endeavor. It is not that God is too ephemeral, but rather too invested with an idea of permanence. I guess it is comforting for people to construe some trajectory for themselves into the future, a "legacy" hurtling onward.

It'd be pretty great if people lived in this moment, before they were struck with the truth of their own mortality.

You wrote the following:

After the embrace comes understanding.

After the understanding comes acceptance.

After the acceptance comes tolerance.

After the tolerance comes mercy.

After the mercy comes pity.

After the pity comes suspicion.

After the suspicion comes scorn.

After the scorn comes condemnation.

After the condemnation comes justification.

After the justification comes the 21st Century.

This is a familiar and sad progression. I hold out hope that there are other, more sublime, ways of connecting. I have no proof, and with a painful tooth, I am sure this would not be visible anyway!

.

My Dear Wraith...

Wonder of wonders, the comments are still up! Usually of late, they've closed before I've been on-line. The joys of attempting to have a life between work and school related functions...daycare is as bad as elementary school for having funtions, teacher meetings, and the like. Always fun when there are concurrent funtions at both school and daycare. But to the point...

I commiserate with you on the dental problems, though I did at one time have rather adequate dental insurance. I got everything fixed up back when I was planning my pregnancy because bad teeth are a bad thing during pregnany. Probably about $1000 after insurance, much of which ended up on my credit card. That was in '86 or '87, and I haven't seen a dentist since, while my rather overdrilled and fragile teeth have crumbled and split. My major complaint is having to bite sandwiches to one side, having lost the two front teeth on the right. But my gums are receeding nicely, and the rest should drop ut with little problem one of these days and I'll hock myself for some store boughten teeth.
(My post is too long, so I am splitting it-continued).

When the suggestion was made that we "pass the hat" as it were, I winced in anticipation of the explosion which I felt would follow, simply because while we have never met, I know you well enough to know what kind of response you would have. While offers of aid financial are embarrassing, and to some men (and women) somewhat emotionally akin to castration, I do want to point out something. You state your refusal to whine about what life has dealt you, and your willingness to accept what value the marketplace has put upon your talents, therefore since you have made your bed you must lie in it. I, too, could probably make more money-hell, until April I was making more money-I refuse to let money be the driving force behind what I should do for a living. You do a job for which you are both qualified and passionate. Good. Keep it. You state you are an excellent wriiter, though none of your writings has born any financial recognition. I would suggest that the excellent writer label is one which the regular commentators(and lurkers) on this forum would agree with. Consider that your work may not be mass market appealable, but in a niche market(us), financial recognition is likely. In an age of desktop publishing, a small novel could be printed and produced for less than $10 with mailing costs. I'd love to have a collection of all the "Quoth the Dark Wraith" sidebars. I'd adore having all your videos on CD so I can watch them. I absolutely would not want you to send either to me for free-if I could pay $20 or so for a coffee mug, don't you think I'd want to pay something for a collection of the with and wisdom of The One and Only Dark Wraith? And while you'd never get rich off selling to this bunch here, if production costs are $5, shipping another 5, and you make $5 each on just 10 of us, well, it is $50 bucks towardgetting your collection of collectible Spam commemorative cans out of hock. A couple of us have asked you to put the videos onto CD for sale-you prefer to feel that since the barons of industry have not seen fit to crown you with the laurels of vast wealth and recognition, you shall play by THEIR rules, and feel that your output is actually worth nothing, and should be given away.

I have friends with as little money as I-we commisserate, we gripe, whatever. Yet this past weekend with a friend we are helping start up an animal rescue organization we went to a street fair and showed off our kitties and puppies. I went for a trip around the street, and saw a cloth hat covered with kitties. It was too small, but there was another with doggies, so I blew $15 +tax on a hat for someone who doesn't wear hats! However, the hat made her day-she's convinced she has no friends and is a grouchy old hermit, so any time she realises that someone likes her as her, she is floored.

I'm like a certain Wraith, in that I'd rather always pay my own way, and like my friend to where a spontaneous gift is overwhelming because I ask "why me-I'm not that special?" We are all three incredibly generous people with some form of low selfesteem, whether it comes form childhood or the blows of a cruel world it really doesn't matter. Realize that your friends want you around for the purely selfish reason that we like you, or we like your writing, or are enamored of your graphics, whatever. We also all probably blow some money, frequently, on silly things like the good beer instead of the barely drinkable. It would make some of us feel good to blow money on something silly like a computer printed book on the sins of republicans in the new century instead of trying out that new designer beer we saw in Krogers. It would make a certain Wraith feel validated that at least a handful of humans are warped enough to plunk down their cash for his writings, and if copies are printed or burned to cd as ordered, the only cost to the venture is time and memory space.

I'm back for a couple of days, glad to see that you have an appiontment to do what must be done.

I would never challenge most of you on any intellectual level, and even on a more visceral gut level. Redundent? You bet.

But I do know about where the sun will rise tomorrow, and there is no need for any of us in this community to suffer needlessly, we are a community.

Father Tyme put it well, I think he really meant it.

My hat is off to all here. Wraith, it's OK to be foolish from time to time as I am, just don't make a habit of it. And never, ever forget how much you have shaken the nest, we do give a shit.

Now restock all those stale wines and chips! Goat and I have the munchies!

DW,

p.s.--after reading "The End of Things," I must say that I abhorred high school, and to this day wonder what has become of the very finest and kindest boys, who were picked on unmercifully for their gentility. The two that I remember were heads and shoulders above the whole lot of the rest of them. I actually tried to make contact after 15 years, but they had moved on. I hope they have done well.

P.S. was like existing in concentric circles of hell. I had only a few tormentors, who perversely wanted me in their queer group, I think. Others had larger groups against them, and then there were the tormentors themselves. Very few got to be just nice, unallied folks. It is that nasty human impulse to affiliate and segregate.