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eclectic giteclectic enquiry December 15 Val AveryI saw Val Avery during the fifties and sixties on the television shows my family watched. Then later I saw him in movies, some good, some great, and some movies not so good, but he always gave a notable performance. He appeared on The Mod Squad, Naked City, Peter Gunn, The Circle Theater, the venerable Hallmark Hall of Fame, Have Gun Will Travel, Tales of Wells Fargo, and Gunsmoke. I saw more productions with him in them than any of the stars during my youth, and that was my introduction to him one afternoon in the Head. He was neighborhood, a guy, friendly, and humane - funny too. He was among my favorite notables from the first and second cohorts of the Head. Even after the Lion's Head died for the last time, I saw Val occasionally through the years. I still see him on television. If there was a search function on cable to search by actor, there would every day probably be a series or movie with Val Avery. I will miss him, and not miss him unless cable dies. He is my favorite character actor. He is my favorite actor. He was a nice, friendly man who could play a thug. His humanity was gangster. Yep. ![]() Powered by ScribeFire. December 03 IHOP plays chicken with the humaneIHOP, the International House of Pancakes, in Huntsville, Alabama is my favorite eating place. I meet friends there. One friend and I usually eat there together once a month. The waiters are friendly and competent; the manager always ready to right any mistake in a friendly, homespun manner. I have a habit of eating one item, the same item each time. I order the spinach omelet; of course, you get pancakes. Their coffee is okay. This is a good evaluation from someone who grinds his own beans and makes coffee in a French Press at home. I drink my coffee black no sweetener. Now I have the knowledge from many sources, including Bill Maher who I respect, that IHOP gets its eggs from a source that crowds the hens into tiny filthy space shared with other hens. That the conditions are dirty and cramped is asserted by the Humane Society. They back their assertions with facts. I have a personal relationship with an Ihop here in Huntsville, Alabama; they are friendly an respectful to me and my friends. I called the IHOP customer line - 866-444-5144 - this morning to state my concerns and hope that they would switch to eggs from cage free hens. The woman who answered, though not belligerent, was adversarial. She stated that experts disagreed on how livestock was to be treated. She had not had her coffee this morn. I am upset mainly for the inconvenience. I have to find another coffee shop to eat out in. Visit the Humane Society's computers for more information, link below: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues Understand, it is not only the humane treatment of the egg laying hens; dirty conditions introduce the possibility of disease. I want to eat in a place where the sources of livestock are clean and humane. I don't want IHOP to poison me or anyone else. Call them and protest if you agree. ![]() Powered by ScribeFire. September 04 wallynever muted heart never muted heart eclectic blues guitar brutes reward wild west art invention the fools meant to true the heart invent improvement arts martyrs choose a heaven meant to true the heart in death brute's reward an artful western music meant to true the heart tulip petal larvae tulip petal larvae eclectic blues guitar never muted heart eclectic blues guitar artsy belly tunes ablutions western art hoodoo bard from heaven eclectic blues guitar eclectic blues guitar never muted heart never muted heart eclectic blues guitar hardon belly groove move your heady arse hoodoo bard from heaven levee music darky levee music darky eclectic blues guitar every movie darky every movie darky eclectic blues guitar © 2006 Thomas Elias Weatherly short history of the saxophone August 24 President Obama half stepsPresident Obama half steps like a fetchit in this drama of healthcare debate. President Obama lead Democrats, progressives and blue dogs, and Republicans to write a bill similar to Medicare. Private insurers fight against government single payer plan with misdirection and lies because profit driven plans can’t compete with a non profit plans, especially one with the full clout of American people behind it. United Healthcare doesn’t apologize for its clout. United Healthcare does not apologize for its clout. We sing the blues because of their clout. Unfair to them, fair to the American public, a government run single payer plan will insure the uninsured, the underinsured, and save money. No mandates for private insurers, no mention of them in the bill, they can offer supplemental insurance with enhancements to the single payer plan as done now with Medicare. The Congressional Budget Office reckons right, the half assed bills discussed and considered now in the house and senate do not save money, do not pay for themselves. Only a non profit national single payer system will save money and pay for itself. President Obama, house, and senate don’t cripple the bill, allow it to compete with its strength, the full clout of the American people the true government. We elected you and we expect you to stop half stepping. Include graduated premiums, perhaps attract more clients than the poor, working poor, and the middle class. The wealthier can pay more and still pay lower premiums for the coverage than private for profit plans can offer. Make the private for profit plans prove they can offer more and better than a government run healthcare plan. The choice of a single payer plan or one of the private plans must be voluntary. Establish medical academies similar to the martial academies like West Point, without the drills, so that graduates do not begin their practice of medicine in debt. Graduates pay for their education with four years of service to the nation in under served areas or the military. President Obama we need healthcare revolution not tepid reform; we need radical change, not small change. Single PayerSingle Payer Private insurers will lose market control and enormous profits, so they deploy lies to thwart a public plan, especially a non profit government single payer plan. They argue that it leads to socialism. Socialism, the people own, through the instrument of government, ALL businesses and services. No private fire, sanitation, security, or healthcare in socialism. No private services or businesses in socialism. Services are not socialist, capitalist, monarchal, or any ideology of government. Services are not ideological even when the government is the single payer. Law enforcement in our capitalist economy is a single payer service, yet we do not forbid private detective and security firms. Sanitation another service in which government is the single payer, but we have private sanitation firms. So with fire, the government is the single payer. Is the single payer police service socialist? Fire? Sanitation? If single payer government run healthcare is socialist, then police, sanitation, and fire government run services are also socialist. Too many for profit private insurers divert money from payment of claims, research, and preventive care to pay their investors dividends, for ads, high salaries for executives, and lobbyists to influence congress folk to pass laws favorable for them. Some private insurers reject or delay payment of claims to increase their profits. Many do not cover prior medical conditions. A government run non profit single payer plan will use most of its income for research, preventive care, and claims. It will cover prior conditions. These are the dividends paid to the American public. I have Medicare, a government run single payer plan, and a Medicare Supplement plan, a private business run plan that enhances the Medicare. Public and private coexist and complement. I am a libertarian.
August 04 I am radically opposed to abortionFirst, I am radically opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. It is a moral stand. I would not date or marry a woman who would have an abortion. There is only one relevant fact in the abortion debate: each woman owns her body. My morality should not be enacted into law or even be in the discussion of public policy. Folk have freedom of speech so I know that it will be discussed publicly. I know that some folk will try to impose their morality on others. The economic, political, and philosophical basis of our republic is that each person owns self; therefore no one, no group, and no state can enslave the person, the individual. The state cannot condone slavery, therefore it cannot force her to carry to birth another human life. The moral argument is irrelevant in our society. It may be relevant in discussions of morality, but not our civil public sphere. It is unconstitutional now for the state to outright outlaw abortion. According to our founding principles it would contradict them to amend the constitution to outlaw abortion. To amend the Constitution to allow the state to outlaw abortion would reduce women to slavery. That should be resisted by all necessary force, even force of arms. I keep my flintlock loaded by the door when I hear folk speak of the enslavement of any individual or group. July 26 SINGLE PAYER NOT SOCIALISTThe argument that a government run single payer health care system introduces socialism is false; it is designed to evoke negative, un thoughtful responses from American citizens. A government run single payer system is not socialist. Single services are ideologically neutral. Socialism ideally is the people through the instrument of the state owning all the means of production. I am a libertarian, enough said. Law enforcement and protection is a service that the government runs and government is the single payer. That does not prevent private for profit companies from doing business. There are private detective firms and security firms to fill the niche that public law enforcement cannot. It is the same for sanitation; it is the same for fire to a lesser extent. Health care is another necessary service that a society cannot leave to private business exclusively. A society needs to guarantee that all individuals have food, clothing, shelter, and health care to be able to work. The first three are mentioned as necessary in the right wing classic, The Road To Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974), as necessary in a successful capitalist society. I do not believe that my addition of health care moves beyond the idea of what is needed for an individual to be able to work. I have Medicare and a Medicare supplement; the latter I buy from a private business. The Medicare supplement plan from a private for profit company fortifies and enhances my Medicare. The government single payer plan will not cover all; there is a niche for private companies to provide a single payer supplement. What is does is break the monopoly that business has on health care. What is does is remove the for profit motive as the only model. The profit model encourages company bureaucrats to deny legitimate claims and reject people with prior illnesses to increase profits. They spend monies to lobby congress best spent in research and health services. The people who tell you that a service is socialist are liars; if not liars they have been duped too by people who put profit above your health. If a single payer health care service is socialist, then your local police force, fire department, nationally the F.B.I., Secret Service, and Customs and Border Protection are socialist. Socialism is all services, all businesses run by the state for the people. I don't want that. I would oppose that with all my will and strength. I want the basic health care run without the profit motive, patient centric, and a single payer which simplifies and removes the bureaucratic mess we have now. Private business can compete among themselves to offer the best enhancements in their supplements. June 24 Why We Need a Public Health-Care PlanJune 12 On XP Pro I run Online Armor Premium, NOD32, and Sandboxie. On XP Pro I run Online Armor Premium, NOD32, and Sandboxie. Sandboxie has a setting to improve its cooperation with Online Armor; Online Armor has a setting that improves its work with NOD32. NOD32 is designed to work with other security programs. With these three programs you do not need any other, except your human brain, and some on demand scanners and rootkit diagnostic programs if you are as paranoid as I am. The human brain can protect from social engineering or make the system weaker.
June 06 We have torturers among usWe have torturers among us and we should investigate them; if we find evidence agin 'em, indict them, try them; if they are found guilty, put them in prison. It would not constitute punishing opinion; it would simply mean breaking the law. President Obama is wrong. It is not his call though. Attorney General Holder is the one to decide whether there is a breach of the law, and if there is enough evidence to prosecute the alleged torturers. The ex president and vice president should be investigated. They may have violated the law and Constitution. I say that they did both; so did others in the Bush administration. If the torturers are not punished I will not have respect for American law and justice, but my response is to try to vote the rascals out who will not pursue lawbreakers.
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