Lets get this out of the way, shall we?
If this be truly a religion of peace they’ll be offended and let it at that…
… but we know that’s not going to happen, right?
****
I think it’s nearly done if anyone has last minute comments or critiques speak up now or forever hold your feces peace.
****
Scarcity has been especially for the Kingly kind of Lemurs – so sorry. I’ve been out of touch and not posted much.
Lately I’ve had cause to be rather pissed.
See, the legal system doesn’t really recognize you as being damaged unless you are in a wheelchair, have missing body parts, or are otherwise visidbly disfigured.
I would just like to have my insurance co. cover my medical expenses, but one of the hurdles is that I continue to work (I have a work ethic). See, if I’d laid around and missed lots of time at work rather than do my best to not miss work in spite of daily pain then legally I’d be better off. I have missed time at work but I’ve made up nearly every hour that I missed.
The system rewards you for being a burden. I’ve worked regardless and – I hate the word “suffered” because it makes one sound like a victim but if you boil it down, suffering fits – suffered for years as a result of that auto accident, and the result of having a code of ethics is the life lesson that ethics don’t pay. Well, that’s a lesson I am going to ignore.
Why bring it up? Because the remodel job started by my father-in-law still needs completion. I had a friend come over yesterday to help with the electrical issues. I did my best to aid him where I could and he even took on sheetrocking for me. I did try to help him. I tried to patch screw holes today, screwed a piece or two of sheetrock up, spackled some seams.
And so I find myself in a significant amount of pain today. Painkiller-bad pain that resists painkillers. If past events hold true then I stand to have a rough time of it tomorrow and Tuesday.
The question becomes: What the hell is the difference if you “can” do something vs. can’t (paralyzed perhaps) if the payoff is that your life is fundamentally f***ed up for days?
This isn’t a poor-me post – this is a rant-against-the-system post. In nearly every other area of this country we do the same thing – we reward those who go by the default position, which is the one that requires the least effort and provides the most burden for others.
We’re giving all sorts of second chances to people who are in danger of defaulting on homes that they can’t afford. We aren’t taxing half the nation and some of them are getting PAYMENTS come tax time. We are socializing our health care at a time when entitlements are at an all-time high and growing higher.
Where did we stop having a higher degree of respect for intestinal fortitude, a can-do attitude, and a desire to succeed in spite of personal cost?
****
I can’t stand the New York Times and I know the slant they are shooting for in this article on soldiers with PTSD coming back from Iraq, but there’s some truth to it.
There’s a tough-it-out mindset in the military that doesn’t lend itself well to the realities of the mental/emotional damage that happens to our soldiers. They are human beings, not machines. And they don’t need just pills, they need someone who is trained to help them through mental and physical pain, too. Sure, meds are important, but they aren’t the whole story. And, being human, every single one of them needs someone to sit down and tailor their treatment – you can’t assembly-line this stuff.
Update: The Army has issued statements to refute the NYT article. This doesn’t change the fact that the military could do more in the area of mental trauma and psych issues – especially given the strain it can put on families as well as the soldiers. Like I said, I KNOW the NYT has a slant on it, but there’s a bit of truth, too.
****
Over at WeaselZippers, a news tidbit – a seeing eye dog refused entry to a restaurant because the waiter thought it was gay.
stunned silence. more stunned silence. crickets chirp once and go silent.
I’ll take a guess and say, right around the time FDR started his Social Security scam. It grew exponentially with LBJ and his Welfare and War on Poverty.
And as we all know, they only get bigger…
We’ve been taught to be leeches. You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.
The Mimesweeper looks great. I’ll tell Alex over at DPUD to check it out—hates clowns.
The Simpsons (Bart): Can’t sleep – clowns will eat me. Can’t sleep – clowns will eat me.
One thing about the America: Story of Us that Giuliani mentioned about how special were the people that originally came to this fine land was that they had that spirit of self determination and discipline. They wanted freedom to live for themselves, by themselves.
I believe this hardiness is what made this country great. It’s in our genetic make up, if your ancestry goes back to our humble beginnings. Mine do.
Having said that, keep doing what you’re doing, brother. I’ve learned that physical pain is easier for me than the mental anguish of not being productive in making my own way.
What cb said on both subjects.
I feel for ya, LK!
LK, what a timely post! I just put up a post on the very same subject:
http://redstatewitch.com/wordpress/?p=1119
As the Navy SEALs say: “pain is just weakness leaving the body.”
Keep your chin up, King, and remember that there are 2 kinds of people: those that do, and those that don’t.
Great post Wp.
I have had periods of intense pain (compound fracture in a machine – broken very slowly) and handled that and I have had the pain of physical endurance from bicycling/power-lifting/swimming/firefighting – not a problem.
It didn’t prepare me long-term chronic stuff. You absolutely cannot fight long-term pain – as in “muscle through it by brute force”. What I’ve learned is that you actually have to submit to it and feel your way through it or you just get tired and make it worse.
I must be manufacturing lots of weakness! Those SEALS, I tell you, they’re something else. I’ve only met one but he was a real cool fella, very nice, and very intense.
You sound like one tough hombre, Lemur. You have MY respect, for what it’s worth.
Nah, Wp… I’m a wuss. Got a sliver the other day and had to have my 7-year-old girl talk me down.
It was really pathetic.
:)
My friend broke both his legs (and some other, lesser stuff) skydiving.
Well, actually not the skydiving part, the landing part was where he had the problems.
Everything was going swimmingly until then.
He had the same problem. He kept trying to be a productive member of society and kept ending up being screwed.
It took him forever to get it straightened out and that worked against him.
When he went back to work full time he kept getting disability checks.
He tried to get them stopped but they kept sending them. Then, a year or so later, they noticed they gave him too much money and demanded it back.
Luckily he had put it aside.
If only he was a leech, everything would have gone much smoother.
My step-brother is a serial unemployment/disability guy.
I tore up my knee and had to get surgery. I didn’t even take a day off.
I crutched in to work every day, had surgery on my Friday off (I work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off) and was in work on Monday, I was on crutches that whole week.
My brother’s first response to me hurting my knee was that I could get disability.
I absolutely can’t understand that mentality.
Sure I’m lazy, but I’m responsible for myself.
That’s my only real rule. All the other ones are kinda malleable.
And yes, I understand there are times when you have to take advantage of disability and unemployment,
I just don’t think you should milk it for longer than necessary.
Apparently, that idea is out of fashion in much of America these days.
Yeah, I usually take the next day off after getting nerves burned out but the day after that I’m in there and making up the time.
I just cannot fathom the mindset that goes for serial disability. Where’s the self-respect in that? How can your brother-in-law possibly do that with the knowledge that leechiness comes out of other people’s pockets?
I’m actually out today from work. I was facing getting up and driving in to work which is just not safe if you can’t turn your head to see your blind spots. So I just dozed this morning, trying to do the relaxation/visualization stuff for the pain. Finally got up, took painkillers, and this afternoon I’ll work from home on a design. I’ll make up the other hours over the next few days.
Sometimes you do have to face reality and take time off, take disability, or take unemployment. But overall, I choose to be system-neutral.
I’m not against people using it, I’m against people abusing it.
I was talking about my step-brother not my brother in law.
But it’s funny you mentioned him, it fits him too.
I feel bad for my step-sister. She’s not a leech, but she can’t make enough to support the family and he’s too lazy to. He turned down a union job because he would have had to drive an hour or so a day to work.
My real sister and I are basically paying the taxes my step-brother and step-sister are taking out of the system. I’d almost rather give it to them directly to cut out the middleman.
I know you weren’t against it – no misunderstanding there.
You hit the issue right on the head!
Stop the federal gov’t from giving out the aid because they can’t possibly ascertain worthiness of individuals.
If I was getting aid from my local (state, city, municipal) governments or church or whatnot, there would be accountability there. Those lower-level people will KNOW whether or not I’m a lazy POS or whether I’ve got serious long-term legitimate problems.
I have a very good friend who is truly unable to work – she wants to almost as bad as she wants her next breath – but she can’t. I have no problem with helping people in her situation out because it is a proper human-being thing to do. But I DO have a problem with the gov’t thinking that they are qualified in any way via bureaucracy to make that determination.
“…you actually have to submit to it and feel your way through it…”
Yep. F. Herbert had it all wrong with the Fear Litany. It’s actually:
I must not feel pain.
Pain is the mind-killer.
Pain is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my pain.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the pain has gone there will be nothing.
Only I – and my jar of opiates – will remain.
Best wishes, LK!
Ok, THAT was funny… I don’t care who ya are.
Thanks McGoo!
LK! We have to get all the boobquake folks to correct their aim. The first one hit Taiwan!
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/26/maybe-cleavage-does-cause-earthquakes/
That’ll never do at all!