Scribblings

Ten political figures & what you think of them

Ten on Tuesday

1. President Bush: I appreciate his sense of humor, commitment to family and his sense of morals but I think he's also horribly misguided, picks terrible advisors, and doesn't realize that sometimes you have to be flexible and change the direction you are going in!

2. Al Gore: I wish that he was a candidate for president because I like him best. I especially appreciate his dedication to saving the environment. He seems to be a good family man with a sense of morals too.

3. Barack Obama: He just seemed to come out of nowhere, didn't he? I read his first book and was impressed by his honesty about himself as he came to grips with who he is. If Al Gore doesn't run, he would be my choice for the next president.

4. Hillary Clinton: She would probably make the most successful president because she is tough as nails and knows how to get things done. Maybe she would be like Lyndon Johnson, knowing how to use the connections she has to get the bills passed. I just don't care for her personality. She seems very cold and calculating.

5. Rudy Guliani: I admire his behavior during 9/11. I didn't ever live in the city so I don't know how he was as an administrator but he displayed all the qualities I would look for in a leader to feel confident and reassured during such a horrible time--God forbid we should ever have anything like that again!

6. Edward Kennedy: Okay, it's time to retire!

7. Tony Blair: calm and steadfast in the face of an unpopular war his country's become embroiled in. However, he is much more flexible than our president!

8. Kim Jong Il: I think this guy's more dangerous than Saddam Hussein was, why aren't we worried about him?

9. Umar al-Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir : This is a dangerous man too! Yes, there are sanctions against The Republic of Sudan but this man is horrible, on the same level as Adolf Hitler as far as I'm concerned!

10. Mahatma Ghandi: Okay, I know he is no longer alive but he was truly a person to admire and emulate. Why aren't there more people like him in the world?

Since When Can't You Just Pay Your Doctor?

Apparently if you are covered by some insurance company your doctor doesn't take...especially one associated with Medicaid!

Linda is really sick. Her insurance is from Medicaid now and the primary assigned to her no longer takes that insurance! Well, that figures--outdated information and misinformation is one of the many things wrong with any provider. There is no doctor locally who takes that insurance and when Linda called the provider, they told her to go to the emergency room! Yey, way to drive up everyone's medical expenses, thanks for nothing!

Linda called the doctor she'd been seeing for the last several years, explained what happened and offerd to pay cash for seeing the doctor. The person she talked to said okay and so she went all the way out there to see the doctor only to learn from the office manager that they weren't "legally allowed" to see Linda because of her insurance.

What! Since when has having any insurance at all made a difference if you could pay in cash? I swear, the whole health system is totally fercockt! So Linda is now at the emergency room.

I have a memory that goes back to January 1965. We'd just moved to Maryland from New York and my brother (he was 10 at the time) got really sick on the way to school one morning. As it turned out, his appendix ruptured and my parents took him to the nearest hospital. The admitting person asked my father about his health insurance and my dad lied and said we had it. In truth, it hadn't kicked in yet. My parents were afraid if they told the truth my brother would be turned away and sent to a hospital that treated the insured further away and in a bad part of the city. When the officials found out my father wasn't insured after all, they were totally furious but it was too late. By then my brother had had his surgery. My dad just shrugged and said sorry, I misunderstood the question, deaf and dumb, you know?

My how times change.

Rachel Carson: Why We Have Earth Day

Silent Spring was one of the most powerfully frightening books I've ever read--it's all true. Rachel Carson warned us about using pesticides and what it would do to our environment and although she was labelled a crackpot she was fortunate enough to have found a supporter in President John Kennedy. I remember reading that anyone born after 1954 will have DDT in their livers, that's how long the poison stays in the environment. I also remember she warned about mutations in species because of pollutions and that's why we have 2 headed fish and frogs. That's why we have no life in lakes and streams poisoned by acid rain. I'm sure this is why our weather is whacked out. It's not DDT now, no--except in poor countries around the world. Now what we have is "the solution to pollution is dilution." I think Rachel Carson's book is a classic--read it if you dare.

The Legacy Of "Silent Spring"

NEW YORK, April 22, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS) In her groundbreaking book "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson jolted a prosperous post-war America — a country confident that science and technology were leading the way to a future in which disease and hunger could be overcome, in no small part thanks to a new generation of powerful pesticides.

But in "Silent Spring," Carson warned that progress had a price.

"These sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests and homes — non-selective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the good and the bad, to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on in soil," she said in a 1962 documentary for CBS News. "All this, though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects."

At the midpoint of the 20th century, spraying was a familiar sight to many young baby boomers including Robert Kennedy, son of the late New York senator, Robert Kennedy.

"We had sprayers coming — coming down our street, big fogging trucks, you know … to spray for DDT," he told CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras. "And my brothers and I would go out and play combat in the fog, you know, running in and out of this fog, breathing this stuff."

Kennedy is now an environmental lawyer, and says Rachel Carson was a pioneer who inspired a generation of activists.

"She was the first one to quietly, you know, kind of nudge the American people and say, 'Well, wait a second. There's a cost here that you're not being told about,'" he said.

Carson, an unassuming scientist and writer, was an unlikely activist for sure, but the seeds were planted early in her childhood. She grew up in a modest house just outside of Pittsburgh.

"She enjoyed wandering around in the fields," said Patricia DeMarco, the executive director of the Rachel Carson Homestead. "It was her playground. She just was very fascinated with living things and growing things. From an early age she wanted to be a writer and her mother was teaching her at home a lot."

After earning a college science degree, Carson took a job at the Federal Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"While she was put out in the field as an aquatic biologist, soon she was editing other scientists' reports," said Linda Lear, author of a biography on Carson who also contributed to a new book of essays about her legacy.

In her free time, Carson wrote three increasingly successful books about the mysteries of the sea. The books sold so well that she turned to writing full-time. She hoped that her writing would help educate the public about the wonders of nature.

"Always to instill her science writing with an ethic, if you will, of how beautiful nature is," Lear said, "how intricate it is and how everything in nature is related to everything else.

So when Carson saw evidence that pesticides — DDT in particular — were killing birds and other wildlife, she decided that would be the subject of her next book.

It took her four years to write "Silent Spring," based on research from a network of scientists around the country. Finishing the book became a matter of will; she was fighting breast cancer.

Roger Christie, Carson's great-nephew, said he could tell how ill she was and perhaps at some level he knew she was dying. Carson adopted him when he was five and she was just shy of 50.

"I think subconsciously, I knew she was dying," he said.

Through sheer determination, Carson participated in an hour-long CBS News documentary on pesticides, which aired not long after "Silent Spring" became a national best seller.

"Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the Earth without making it unfit for all life?" she said in the documentary.

While Carson didn't contend that chemical insecticides must never be used, she faced harsh opposition.

"Well, the one guy, the chief critic was — as they say, he would have made a great villain in a Bela Lugosi movie," Christie said.

His name was Dr. Robert White-Stevens, a spokesman for the chemical industry.

"The major claims in Miss Rachel Carson's book, 'Silent Spring,' are gross distortions of the actual facts, completely unsupported by scientific experimental evidence, and general practical experience in the field," he told CBS more than four decades ago. "If Man were to faithfully follow the teachings of Miss Carson, we would return to the Dark Ages, and the insects and diseases and vermin would once again inherit the Earth."

"He was way over the top," Christie said. "'If Miss Carson has her way, the — hundreds of thousands of people would be starving in the streets tomorrow!'"

When CBS turned to government experts, the questions were many, but the answers few. Dr. Page Nicholson, water pollution expert, Public Health Service, wasn't able to answer how long pesticides persist in water once they enter or the extent to which pesticides contaminated groundwater supplies.

Even still, Christie said he knew his aunt was having an impact when President John F. Kennedy mentioned the book at a press conference.

"And my Uncle Jack, John F. Kennedy, read her book, and said, 'I'm gonna appoint an independent commission to investigate whether it's true or not," Robert Kennedy said. "That commission met for almost a year. And then at the end of that time period, [they] came out and said that essentially everything in Rachel Carson's book was true."

Rachel Carson died in 1964, just 18 months after "Silent Spring" was published. She would never know that her crusade against pesticides forever changed the way Americans view their environment.

DDT was banned in this country in 1972. Carson's work also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and without her pioneering efforts, we might not be marking Earth Day.

"Silent Spring" foreshadowed the debate over global warming, clean energy and organic food.

But to best understand Carson's legacy, there's no better place to look than Catalina Island, just off the coast of southern California — home again to the bald eagle.

The eagles had all but disappeared after DDT was dumped into local waters, which led egg shells to become so thin that chicks couldn't survive. But just this month, for the first time in decades, eggs left in nests in the wild hatched on their own.

Ann Muscat, president of the Catalina Island conservancy, believes the eagles owe it all to Rachel Carson.

"So I think that wherever she is right now, she must be looking down on Catalina and thinking, 'This is really a wonderful occasion,'" Muscat said.

Is This Weather Crazy Or What?

Now I know I've gotta read An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. We've been having some really crazy weather years but this has got to be the screwiest! It was seventy degrees here in NJ...who has this kind of weather in January? Florida! I wonder how warm it is there? I think this is more than El Nino and more than a warming trend. I think we are definitely having global warming and I don't care what Michael Crichton writes!

If that wasn't enough, poor Denver and other parts of Colorado are suffering with too much snow! They are getting what the rest of us in the East and mid-Atlantic should be getting! It's not really funny as I've just read that there's been an avalanche, 100 feet wide and 15 feet deep, that has swept cars off the road! Seven people have been hospitalized, more are missing, and rescuers have to use heavy equipment to get through all the heavy snow!

Read the whole article here.

That Time of the Year...

I wish I could say it was the Christmas season or even just plain daylight savings time but I'm afraid I mean election time. If there is one thing that spoils almost every fall it's the increasingly obnoxious and nasty political commercials on TV, radio, in newspaper inserts, in the mail and even in people's yards. Do we never get a break? It seems that every year someone is running for something!

This year, we're voting for a choice of candidates for our very own home town. Suddenly (and suspiciously I might add) there is all this work on our street to stop the flooding that has come with every heavy rain since TB and I moved into the neighborhood. Luckily, water doesn't pool in front of our house but it gets pretty bad along some sections of the road. We've lived here 4 years and I guess that's about the length of the mayoral term because of the sudden burst of activity.

That's okay. I like a particular candidate, Peter Emmons, who's been a resident of the area all of his life. His family's been here for 150 years so he qualifies as a genuine "piney". I like his ideas to reduce the gang violence going on (although I myself haven't seen any evidence of it--it must be happening because it's been reported in the local paper) and to improve the image of our town. Right now there are several blighted areas in town. Ugh. I'd like to see him get a shot at improving things around here.

Still...hurry up November 8th! That's the day after election day!

Keeping Cats In

Every cat I've owned since I was about 17 has been an indoor kitty. A cat hating neighbor nearly beat our Pepper to death with a baseball bat when I was 17. I couldn't conceive of such cruelty (times were different then, folks) but I wasn't about to take any chances ever again. I'm glad I didn't ever chance my stance on this even though I've heard that it's cruel to keep cats indoors because it prevents them from living up to their true nature and all that baloney. That's okay--my cats can hunt flies and dust balls, not mice and birds.

The big news story for the last few months (well, aside from the debacle in Iraq, the new threat in Iran--and I'm seriously worried that GWB is thinking that maybe another war will boost his poularity, the DuBai Ports debacle, the Hurricane Katrina debacle (why does everything related to GWB seem to be a debacle?)...has been this avian (bird) flu. A couple of years ago, I began to hear about it in Far East countries like Viet Nam. Their poultry got sick and died and sometimes people contracted this avian flu and died too.

Back then, reporters wrote that bird flu might be our next pandemic. Why? Because even though it's not something humans generally get unless they're exposed to bird, viruses mutate easily and a strain would probably develop that would make people sick. Right now, as long as you aren't a poultry worker you don't have a big chance of getting this thing. Naturally, no one paid much attention at first. It was like AIDS in the 1980s. Oh, well, people thought, I'm not gay and I'm not Haitian and I don't use dirty needles, it won't happen to me.

So great, now there is this avian flu and of course no one is ready for it if it does transmute itself and become deadly to all people. Like any virus, it would be very contagious. Reporters say this could be like the swine flu pandemic around WWI, 1918-1919. Millions of people died. Maybe Mother Nature is just getting ready to purge herself of too many people again.

Or maybe not.

I think the reporters are doing a great job of scaring people with their gloom and doom reports. I refuse to depress myself any more than I already am worrying about the fact that we don't have a vaccine for this and how are we going to keep it out of our country and all that stuff. I think I'm just going to enjoy this lovely spring weather we have coming up and not think about bird flu or Iran or Iraq or three more years of GWB. That all by itself is enough to depress me for months. .

Anyway, what's all this got to do with the cats staying indoors? It turns out the kitties in Austria are getting sick eating birds infected with avian flu. Bird flu discovered in Austrian cats. Around our house, we have lots and lots of birds including Canada geese, regular white geese, and guinea hens. If they get infected with this disease, my kitties won't catch it from them because they'll still be indoor cats.

Booking Through Thursday

This week's questions are from Cate.

1. Do you have any books that are signed by the author? I sure do. I have several books signed by Mark Rainey, a couple signed by David Selby and one by Dean Koontz


2. Do you have a story behind the autograph? Story behind the Dean Koontz autograph: I won it for TB in a contest, lucky drawing! David Selby is an actor from Dark Shadows and he signed books for me at a convention. A friend of mine got me his most recent book. And Mark Rainey is a sci-fi horror genre writer who collaborated on one Dark Shadows novel. A few years ago, we emailed each other a couple of times and he signed his earlier works for me.

"Those Were The Days, My Friend..."

Nearly 40 years ago, a singer named Mary Hopkin was sponsored by the Beatles on Apple Records, their new label. Is that ancient history, or what? I remember the song she came out with, "Those Were The Days". The lyrics were bittersweet, a yearning rememberance of what it was like to be young and inspired to do things that were maybe revolutionary in the hope it would make the world a better place. I was around 14. It made me think of Soviet revolutionaries and gypsies (now called Roma people to be PC)...probably because of the instruments used. It never occurred to me that the song might apply to my generation...in 2006.

I'm a baby boomer and so is TB. A baby boomer is a person born between the end of WWII and the early 1960s. We grew up in some turbulent times, beginning with the assassination of President Kennedy. Even though there was a Cold War going on, I don't think it touched us--not the way this did. We were the Cleavers and the Stones and the Andersons you saw on TV.

Things changed dramatically after Kennedy was killed. The Civil Rights movement had been gaining momentum and the war in Viet Nam had been dragging on. Young people -- the older of our Boomers -- at college age began to sit in and protest. Other young people followed the advice of a real looney named Dr. Timothy Leary and turned on, tuned out and dropped out, becoming hippies. Some lived on the streets and some joined communes. Everyone wanted to change the world so there would be no more killing or injustice. Peace, brother, peace.

As the boomers grew up, they pushed every social hot button and then some. Picking up the civil rights banner. Expanding the universe of choices people have from women's rights to gay rights to abortion. Fighting the war in Vietnam and protesting it at home.

They fought the system and they fought each other. On college campuses across the country the battle lines between left and right were drawn early and shape the red state/blue state political landscape of today.

Yes, I remember "Hell, no, we won't go!" and Kent State and the Summer of Love. I remember the warning that we shouldn't trust anyone over 30 and that the establishment was corrupt.

Now look at us. We've become the establishment we were rebelling against! I laughed my head off the first time I saw Jerry Rubin in a suit. Even Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden "went establishment"!

Whichever side of that divide the boomers found themselves on, there's no disputing the quarter century that followed until 9/11 was a time of relative peace and prosperity.

The boomers became the wealthiest generation in history with spending power of $2 trillion dollars a year. But they've spent far more than they've saved -- much of it on themselves -- especially in their search for the fountain of boomer youth, part of a legendary self indulgence that has a dark side. ...

And yet all across America, from marathons to yoga studios, other boomers are turning the whole notion of aging on its head, or trying to. For all their failings they are still fitter than their parents ever were. And most don't believe old age will actually start until they are 85. That's three years beyond the life expectancy of today's 60-year-olds.

The oldest of us boomers, the ones who were hippies or protestors or what have you, turned 60 on January 1, 2006. When I was 14, someone that age was ancient and now ... well, that's not old. I'm not a senior citizen, my parents are.

The article I read is here.

Here are the lyrics to the song I was talking about:

Those Were The Days
Mary Hopkins
Music & Lyrics : Gene Raskin

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Baby Birds Have To Fly

I remember my dad saying (signing, really) "baby birds have to fly" many times throughout my life. His point was that eventually kids have to go out on their own. Teenagers start to pull away from their parents by withdrawing and rebelling as they get ready to become independent. Decades or centuries ago, teenagers were considered more like adults with all of those responsibilities. It's not like that nowadays. Now teenagers are in school until their late teens or early twenties and they don't have the resources to be able to support themselves totally. So they are in an inbetween sort of state, not a child and not an adult--and just generally making parents crazy.

Heidi and TB continue to butt heads. She has her own unique view of things and isn't on the same page as TB and me. She's hurt that I'm not bailing her out. She is immature but she is becoming a young adult. She chafes under authority. She hasn't learned yet that authority is something she's going to have to deal with all her life. Meantime, I think it would be really beneficial for her to go away to college and start gaining some independence -- or, she could get an apartment with friends. She doesn't know anyone who wants to move out, though.

So...the only other choice I can see if that she's just got to live with authority as it is until she can get out on her own and run her own life. That's how baby birds fly.

Saturday 8

1. do you read magazines? if so, what kind? if not, why not?

When I get a chance to catch up, I do. I read Writer's Digest, Reader's Digest, Entertainment Weekly, Consumer Reports and Prevention.

2. do you find yourself reading or watching celeb gossip? why or why not?

Only if there's nothing else to do!

3. if you had a job that you could do from home in addition to your 'regular' job, would you take it if you could make your own hours? why or why not?

Sure, I would love to work from home. It's convenient!

4. if this job netted you $1K to $1.5K per month, how would you spend your money given your current financial situation?

No way...a month? It couldn't be legal...but if by chance I did make lots of money a month I'd pay off all our debt, set aside money for the kids & grandkids to go to college, go on vacations with TB, buy us investment property, donate a bunch of money....

5. do you participate in any activities (marches, remembrances, historical tours, reading history) during black history month?

Reading

6. so, punxsutawney phil saw his shadow last week, and we're getting 6 more weeks of "mild winter weather." how do you feel about that, or do you care at all?

Who says it's all going to be mild? And I don't really care. There's about 6 weeks from Feb. 2 to the official first day of spring regardless of whether Phil sees his shadow

7. speaking of phil, are you a fan of the film "groundhog day"? i'm consistently amazed that i can't find a single person who doesn't like that film.

You found one. I don't like that movie.

8. and speaking of film, are you interested in seeing "the davinci code"? why or why not?

Yes, I do want to see that film--Tom Hanks is my favorite actor and Ron Howard is one of my favorite directions. It's a can't-lose combination as far as I'm concerned for what was (for me) a far-fetched story.

Test Scores

The results are in -- our school district has the third lowest SAT scores in the county. We have the second lowest High School Proficiency Assessment scores. Well...at least we're not at the bottom. I'm more annoyed that the result is probably going to be more teaching to the tests. The top four performers, no surprise, are made up of wealthier areas.

I've been through this before, in Maryland. We lived in Columbia, which is made up of 9 villages. Although each village is supposed to house all incomes some ended up being wealthier than others. Immigrants who are learning English more than likely can't afford to live there. The same is true for broken families, dysfunctional families (like those involved in drugs and alcohol), and families with disabilities. Where do those families live? In a less wealthy area. How do the kids perform on tests? Poorly--for one reason and another.

So the four districts that did well are crowing with pride, although one is afraid that being successful will mean budget cuts to programs, class sizes will get bigger and then ... next time, test scores won't be so high. Boo hoo.

As for our district,

“Overall, we have improved and are making strides,” said Robert Arenge, assistant director of instructional services for Pemberton Township School District. “When you compare us to other (special-needs) schools, we're right there where we should be. Compare us to other schools and we're not quite where we want to be.”

And so it goes. I'm not worried. The girls are doing great.

Revolution

Remember that old Beatles song? The one that begins

You say you want a revolution Well, you know We all want to change the world You tell me that it's evolution Well, you know We all want to change the world But when you talk about destruction Don't you know that you can count me out Don't you know it's gonna be all right all right, all right ...

You know, there needs to be some kind of revolution in the fractured reasoning of some of these middle school administrators and security guards. Three of these 5 kids caused alarm among 2 security guards who apparently have little to no common sense:

Yesterday was Kristin's first day back to school since last Wednesday. We have been totally flattened and steamrollered by a very nasty virus. TB and I still have it and both the girls are still hacking too. Anyway, the middle schoolers apparently misbehaved and were very noisy at lunch time on Friday and so the kids all had to have a "silent lunch".

Time Out: okay, if this is the best the administrators can do it's pretty pathetic but I'm supportive of it. I frankly think they should have come up with a better discipline on Friday which is when the problem actually occurred.

Back to the action: Kristin and two of her friends took to writing notes back and forth. That was allowed, talking wasn't.

Time Out: that was dumb--to me, if you're going to have the kids not talk then it should cover notes too. But that's just me...

Back to the action: the kids had some discussion about their favorite anime and what have you. They sort of compared their principal to a Nazi. That's teenage kids for you. Someone must have made a noise because the next intelligent pronouncement was "No body noises" (like mouth farts, etc). Kristin's friend wrote "kaboom" in response to that...and that's where the security guard comes in.

She sees the word and freaks. Does she ask for the notebook then? No, she scurries off to find another guard. Meanwhile, the kid puts the notebook away. The two guards come back and demand to see the book. The kids are nervous as the guards read the messages. They're worried that they're going to be in trouble because of the Nazi reference. Sure enough, one security guard marches up to an administrator with the notebook...

But guess what? It's not about the Nazi reference at all. The security guard thinks "kaboom" means the kids are going to blow up the school.

As Dr. Phil would say, Are you kidding me?

So the three had to write out explanations about what they were doing and that they hadn't intended to write terrorist messages and blah blah blah.

I said to Kristin that it was wrong to write about the principal and Nazis although it's understandable that the kids were irritated by the punishment. It would have been better to write "this isn't fair" and Kristin agreed. Inwardly, I was thinking: this is so stupid, these kids didn't intend to harm anyone. We need better security guards, ones with common sense. Duh.

So, yeah, I'm calling for a revolution in the way administrators handle junior high school students. There's got to be a more effective way of disciplining them and they certainly shouldn't be putting thoughts into the kids' heads that weren't there to begin with (blowing up the school).

Work Hard and This is What You Get

TB got a letter from SSA today. He was turned down for temporary disability benefits and both of us are now in a deep funk. It was a big shock to us and when we read the denial letter again, we realized that SSA was basing their decision on the erroneous information of that robotic doctor of Selective�s, Kenneth Peacock of Moorestown, NJ.

I think that if you live in NJ and you get hurt and your company's vampiric third party carrier sends you to this man, you�re in for trouble. I think he tells the insurance company what they want to hear and to hell with you. And if you get hurt and your company�s carrier is Selective Insurance out of Branchville, NJ I say hurry and get an attorney because you are already screwed. Do a Google on Dr. Kenneth Peacock, Moorestown, NJ and you�ll get a whole bunch of workman�s comp reports in which he is the third party carrier�s �expert�.

I urged TB to call his attorney to see if he should file an appeal. Dr. Peacock claimed that there was nothing else Selective could do for TB and that he had a 15% permanent partial disability. Meanwhile, Dr. Farrell and TB went forward with the third surgery, which TB is recovering nicely from now. TB will be able to work again, but probably not in the shop.
Anyway, SSA has no information about the third surgery or the second opinion Selective was forced to seek. The second opinion, Dr. Falconiero, was in total agreement with Dr. Farrell and totally contradicted Peacock. Now, Dr. Falconiero � in Cherry Hill, NJ � is a great doctor. He was totally fair and he acted human. If your carrier sends you to this doctor, you have a better chance of being treated fairly.

SSA�s reason for turning TB down was that he could do �substantive work� � but they don�t realize he was recovering from surgery again. They think, thanks to Dr. Peacock, that TB has this 15% permanent disability. Is the decision worth appealing? I might have thought so once but I have totally lost faith in everything. That�s why I suggested TB talk to the attorney. That guy will be honest � he has a �stake� in it. If he thinks he won�t get his percentage, he�ll say so.

Folks, it�s nice to know that if you work real hard all your life and then you get hurt and you can�t work that you can count on the contributions you were forced to make to SSA, right? That you can get a little help when you need it?
Think again.

Don�t get hurt at work, folks. If that means you have to play slacker, then I say lay back and be lazy. Because when you work hard, you think you�re appreciated � and you are as long as you can output. If you get hurt doing your best for your company, don�t think they�ll be grateful for all the hard work you did or feel bad that you got hurt. The bottom line to them is profit, guys, that�s it. Period.