Also, your credit record is more protected than your medical record. Read about a horrific discovery on poor husband’s medical file. Evidently the unqualified and lazy doctors didn’t think they’ve tortured the man enough.
Finally, a quick and easy recipe for clam chowder and a new line of jewelry that needs to be expanded.
Pic of the Day
”Green” Industries Failing Across the Fruited Plains
Smirk, Smirk.
I have a local business near me that would have thrived during the 60’s in San Francisco. That’s where they once wore flowers in their hair but now they wear flowers all over, males and females, with the possibly of covering genitalia.
This business sells clothes made from “natural” thread, food filled with healthy fiber and all manner of “earth-friendly” goods.
It’s not that this business does badly. They advertise a great deal and this helps. Still and so I pass this place often and the parking lot is seldom full; often there’s not a car on the lot.
Last week Rush Limbaugh read an article with the assertion that so-called “green” industries were not faring well across these fruited plains and this was so even before the banks and auto makers began dropping like flies.
Heh.
Folks, Americans might now and again purchase something “green”. For the most part they won’t. As for this health food thing, forget about it. The liberals will have to ban fatty food such as those fried in trans fats like done in New York. On their own, Americans simply are not, as any large group and often enough, into all this “green” crap.
This is because up until the liberals got it into their heads that only THEY can save us from ourselves by crucifying smokers, pouring trans fats down the drains and forcing schools to sell only what they approve, the planet seemed to get along just fine. And human beings managed to survive and reproduce, trees grew, birds flew and in general, life went on.
Thus the truth is in the market. Americans are, en masse it would seem, eschewing “green” industries.
Not to worry. The liberals will use government to get their way because THEY, yon ladies and gems, know what is best for us.
Watch Your Medical Records
If an American should find something bad in his or her credit record, there are federal laws that allow correction of the error.
So if I should discover that Joe Blow’s Bank has erroneously cited me as having defaulted on a loan, I can, by federal law, insert a correction to the error in my file that any future recipients of my credit record will know the full story.
Perhaps Joe’s bank charged me an incorrect rate of interest and I refused to pay it. Perhaps there had been a bookkeeping snafu of my payment and my credit record had not been corrected. Perhaps there were any number of reasons that the entry in my credit record was wrong.
My husband has recently undergone a most horrific medical odyssey and it was not until recently, the third month into his now four month ordeal, that he accidentally discovered an awful untruth in his medical record. This is the same medical record that has by now been seen by three hospitals, two insurance companies and God knows how many medicos.
I am about to embark on a journey to clear this good man’s name and folks, it ain’t going to be easy. There are no laws to protect our medical records.
Some Rube doctor from Podunk can just, boom, notate that you are being eaten alive with venereal diseases, that you have full-blown HIV, that maggots live and thrive in your private parts. Boom, just like that.
We should assume that there is mostly nothing to gain by writing fiction and inserting same into a patient’s file but mistakes DO happen.
And when it does there is no federal law allowing a correction. Further, the erroneous information can cause way more damage than just that of a credit record or the inability to finance a new car.
For medicine is dispensed based on the information in the medical record. Because of the bad information in husband’s medical record, he HAD, indeed, been taking medicine specifically based on that bad information. Fortunately it was just a vitamin type of thing but it could get way more heinous when you think about it.
As a result of this experience, I suggest that everyone who might find themselves on a medical journey, be it an operation or a sudden accident, ask to see their medical record IMMEDIATELY, before any bad information is dispensed and given out to God knows who.
And don’t give me that bit about HIPPA and confidentiality laws. We’ve had to sign what seems like a hundred permissions to hand over medical records. If you want insurance coverage, if you want a new doctor to take over your case, or even to allow another doctor in as a consultant, you sign the form.
Point being, watch your medical records. Fools and idiots sometimes enter information into it never mind their PHD.
Practical Jewelry Already Invented Needs More Hype
It was my niece who gave me this stellar piece of costume jewelry and I don’t think I can thank her enough for its sheer genius.
For in the pic below is a necklace that is completely magnetic!
Indeed the beads on this thing are configured in such a way that they stick together. I’m guessing a metal-filled bead follows a magnetic decorative bead and on and on. This configuration allows this necklace to be artfully arranged by the wearer in many different styles.
Even better, there is no need for a clasp of any kind. Just wrap the thing around your neck and boom, the magnets “catch” and there’s no bother of wrestling with tiny clasps using big, fat fingers.
In the pic below I show several ways the necklace can be configured and worn.
It’s way cool.
NY Governor Mocked on Saturday Night Live
On 12/14/08, Saturday Night Live aired a skit featuring New York’s Governor Paterson. The skit, as is the norm for this political satire show, mocked the blind Governor.
It featured the Governor reading something. What he was reading was upside-down because Governor Paterson is blind, duh.
At first I noted to include a chastisement of Saturday Night Live in this week’s column. It is cruel to poke fun at blind people, so I reasoned.
Tonight I sat down to write my famous thoughts and husband asked if I’d heard about this Saturday Night Live Skit. “It was hilarious” husband said.
Well hell yeah it was hilarious. Various news shows were featuring clips from the skit and while I clucked with political correctness, I did laugh.
Thus while I was going to pen a rebuke to the writers on Saturday Night Live for such poor taste, I have decided to take absolutely no position at all on the matter.
I consider it just fine for me to sit in the privacy of my own home and laugh at such a funny vignette but would never admit it in public.
And if any yon readers say I laughed, well I’ll have to deny it.
Prayers for Sweet Caylee Anthony
May this precious child of Jesus now be cradled in His arms and loved with the passion her own birth mother never showed her on earth.
For Caylee Anthony, shortly before this writing, was identified as the child the recently discovered bones belonged to. Sure we all knew this sweet baby was dead but shortly before this most happy holiday we find that Caylee will not eagerly be awaiting Santa’s arrival this year.
Which is what this baby should be doing this time of year. She should be helping her grandmother bake cookies. She should be posing sweetly in pictures with Santa Claus. She should be making lists of toys she’d like to have and she should be singing about red-nosed reindeers and frosty snowmen.
Instead Caylee’s remains rot away in the cold, damp woods. It is believed that Caylee’s mother used chloroform on the child to make her unconscious while she visited her boyfriend. It’s unclear whether Caylee’s death was an accident or very intentional. Caylee was unfortunate to have been born of a psychological nut and a pathological liar.
I tend to choke up when I see those movies of this baby girl. She reminds me so much of my own precious granddaughter. My pain at the thought of this sweet child’s fate is visceral.
Rest in peace sweet Caylee. You surely deserved better.
Personalties of the Week
Colin Powell sold his soul long ago. But he topped even his own evil self this past week when he gets up the TV and pontificates about how the Republican party needs to loose such luminaries as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.
So okay, let’s forget about Palin and Limbaugh for a moment. One’s mileage might vary as regards these people but go with me here…Colin Powell, an alleged Republican, endorsed a damn Democrat!
Since when are traitors worthy of telling the rest of the group who to like and/or dislike?
Even more, didn’t the Republicans have a so-called “moderate” as their nominee. Indeed John McCain made a great deal out of being a “maverick”, of “reaching across the aisle”. But this was not good enough for the very loyal Colin Powell, political prognosticator extraordinaire, he who would sell his soul for the right price. Oh no. For nothing else but race Powell went and endorsed the most liberal candidate …EVER!
Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with endorsing a liberal candidate but this particular candidate was of the opposition party. Why the hell doesn’t Powell BECOME A DEMOCRAT instead of lecturing Republicans who to run? Just go to the local voting registration place, pick up a registration card and change that R to a D, Mr. Powell. No one will have a problem with that, none whatsoever.
But to endorse a Democrat while telling Republicans how to vote is kind of like living North Carolina while advising all the citizens to move to South Carolina.
YOU move, Colin Powell, you damn airhead!
Speaking of airheads, how about we appoint Caroline Kennedy as Senator from New York?
It’s not like these sorts of positions should be elected or anything.
Well sure there’s that bit about a Governor appointing a replacement for a state Senator vacating his or her post in the middle of the term. Joe Biden, in fact, got his good buddy and handmaiden Nanny Minner of Delaware to appoint some local Rube as a placeholder for his son, Beau, who is currently in Iraq.
Beau Biden, whom I’ve met and spent an hour sharing political gossip with by the way, is currently Delaware’s Attorney General, a position for which he had little qualification save his last name. Everybody knows Beau is next in line for his Dad’s senate seat. Come 2010 Beau Biden will be Delaware’s Senator, bank on it.
Thus I am lost as to why the libs are in such a snit over Illinois Governor Blagojevich. The man is not doing a single thing not done in New York, Delaware and many other places across the fruited plains.
So why the hell NOT Caroline Kennedy? She’s got that great last name and hand to God, one local New York politico said that one of Caroline’s greatest qualifications was that terrific senatorial Uncle of hers.
You can’t make this stuff up.
America now has a House of Lords, something our forefathers left England to get away from.
A Perfect Combination of Home Made and Store Bought
There used to be a time when I eschewed, with a sniff and a haughtiness I had no right to, any recipe using canned soup, frozen bread or most any other pre-prepared ingredient, if that’s a word.
My belief was firm that only food prepared by a lot of work and beginning with the most basic of ingredients would…well, would taste good.
I’ve since changed my position on the matter. I do, however, believe that a recipe that uses some pre-prepared foods will work better if augmented by ingredients cooked with a bit of elbow grease.
Below, by me, is a recipe that is a fine example of this logic.
The celery ribs, onion and carrots are fried in butter. Heck, buy the pre-cut onions, carrots and celery ribs and avoid the slicing and dicing from scratch. It will not be detectable in the final product whether the cook actually peeled the onion to tears or if the celery ribs were ripped from the stalk by loving hands.
I even went so far as to adjust the recipe below by forgetting that bit about frying up the carrots.
Carrots, as I’ve discovered, really do not fry up very well. Now if one likes a bit of carrot crunch in one’s clam chowder, so be it. Myself likes just a tad of a “bite” from the celery and beyond this, clam chowder is mostly “soft” eating.
So I use a can of carrots. The carrots in such as Del Monte are too large, however. The idea is that the creamy broth be chock full of bits and pieces of this and that, all to meld together in the human mouth in a delightful combination of sea and farm.
Having huge carrots floating about the chowder is a bit jarring. So I drain the juice from the can of carrots and while they are still in the can, I cut them with a serrated knife. Be careful because you really don’t want carrot mush.
I add these carrots at the very end, AFTER boiling the cream.
Caution, as with most creamed foods requiring a boil, stand right by this pot as the cream boils and stir as if your life depends on it. Else you’ll have a pot with a icky floury coating on the bottom and the flavor might be adversely affected.
I find this Clam Chowder as good as some of the best I’ve ever had, anywhere.
Creamy Clam Chowder
1 large onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery ribs, sliced
¾ cup butter, cubed
2 cans (10 ¾ ounces EACH) cream of potato soup, undiluted
3 cans (6-1/2 ounces EACH) minced clams
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 quart half-and-half cream
In a large saucepan, sauté the onion, carrots and celery in butter until tender. Stir in the potato soup and two cans of undrained clams. Drain and discard juice from remaining can of clams; add clams to soup.
Combine cornstarch and a small amount of cream until smooth; stir into soup. Add the remaining cream. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.
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A Brain Infection?
Stories of my own medical odyssey with a coronary bypass
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