Hammer Mill Days

Oxygen supply? Go! Inert substances containers? Check! Highly explosive fuel cells? Gotcha - right over there, on top of that stack of souvenir cigarette lighters. Well, I shudder to say it... because it usually ends up not being true... but I really think we're ready to lift off this time. We've got the ship all loaded up. We've got anti-Lincoln bailed out of jail and sober as a cowbird. We've got our maps unfolded and our compasses oriented true north. We've got our tent-pitchin' gear, our bottles of sterno, our pots and pans, our paper plates. Then there are a stack of pic-a-nic baskets, just in case Yogi drops by. Actually, Mitch Macaphee had ordered Marvin (my personal robot assistant) to load up a couple of cases of Spaghetti and meatballs, but my illustrious brother - no big fan of Chef Boyardee objected. And around here, what Matt says goes. (Unless he complains about my Rice A Roni. Then, fuck 'im. ) Hey, you know what it's like any time you go ...

Any of you ever have an elderly parent enter the hospital? How about spending time in a hospital yourself? Well, I've had that experience (as millions have) and one of the first things you do is fill out paperwork designating a health care proxy, establishing medical directives (i.e. resuscitate or not), and so on. Basically routine stuff that the hospital needs to know when a loved one is receiving care and may not be able to speak for him/her self at a crucial juncture. Pretty scary, eh? What.... aren't you scared of that? Because that's what Sara Palin (a.k.a. the Wassila brain trust), John Boehner (pronounced "boner"), Chuck Grassley (a.k.a. his own grandmother), Newt Gingrich (a.k.a. Captain Yesteryear) and others are trying to make you afraid of: a routine consultation that proposed health care legislation might end up providing coverage for. Not some new federal power to cull the herd. Just funding for the kind of meeting people have with their doctors all ...