Brain Dump

Upper respiratory infections are the bane of our existence. We've learned to manage them better by utilizing more breathing treatments, antibiotics (early), and the torture known as deep suctioning (trust me, you don't want to know). It's just something you have to work, constantly.

We have discovered that the particular infections Marty gets are multi-fold, either MRSA (big yuck, but we have antibiotics for it), strep pneumonia, and pseudomonas aeruginosa. Then there are the variants of the bacteria, particularly with the pesudo a.. Today we can make a decision on which antibiotic to use based on a sputum culture (see torture above). Today, we can give an antibiotic that deals with the infection. I hope that continues. Today Marty is doing okay and we are treating the latest in a series of infections. Today.

Speaking of today -- If you are particularly averse to center left rantings and viewpoints -- Caution ahead:

Torture -- We don't, or at least shouldn't ever, never. We are the good guys and the good guys don't torture. We just don't. I remember as a young man seeing the photos of how our people were treated by North Vietnam. I remember thinking how awful the Viet Cong must have been to treat their captives as they did. I remember how what they did led me to think these people had no sense of morality. I don't want others to think the same of us. If water boarding would be torture for our people. It's torture for others. And yes, some of our military personnel go through programs that include water boarding, but guess what, it's to prepare them for torture. To quote Fox's Shepard Smith, "This is America, we don't fxxxxxxx, torture".

Economy -- We do need to cut spending. I don't want to pay more taxes. But, until I hear anyone start talking about cutting defense spending, just keep it to yourself. Defense, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and VA Benefits account for over 70% of our budget. If you really want to get the deficit in line -- you have to start here. We spend the largest percentage of our GDP on defense (or offense in the case of Iraq) than any of the industrialized nations -- Tell me where else are you going to get the savings to balance the budget?

Health Care -- The only people currently saying our system is fine are the people with health care supplied by their employers. When they loose this -- their minds will change -- mine did. When I had to start trying to get health insurance on my own, on the open market, I was confronted with how powerful the insurance companies were. This is not a free market, this is a complete monopoly and consumer choice or any power of the consumer is non existent. Free markets work when businesses have to respond to consumer needs. You won't find this in health care. We must have change starting with control of health care insurance companies.

There --all better. I've had that stuff backed up in my brain for about three weeks. I feel so much better.