12 Jul 2006
House Backs Crackdown on Gambling on Internet

We've got troops deployed in two countries as occupation armies, the economy's sputtering along in a "jobless recovery", there's a madman with nukes running loose in northern Asia and another one who really wants nukes in the Middle East. And what does our Congress find time to debate and ban?

Playing poker over the Internet.

Methinks they could use a bit of historical perspective.

The crackdown on Internet wagering would ban not only sports bets but also online poker and other games.

(link) [New York Times]

21:43 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link

Amazed, Amused, Angry, Befuddled and Grateful

Sometimes a title says it all: this is one of those cases. I'm very happy to report (and very grateful) that Mom has come through the procedures of the last two days with flying colors. She's got two new stents in her heart, and two very sore legs where they went in to place them. My concern now is for her mobility, as she wasn't getting around very well in the first place, and sore legs aren't going to help in that regard.

I'm amazed by the hospital she's at: the Heart Center of Indiana. This is possibly the most elaborate hospital I've ever seen. The food service is catered by Sodexho-Marriott, and dinner is available to patients guests at any time... no more breakfast at 4am or do without! They don't have an "admission" office, they have a "guest check-in". The whole thing reminds me more of a five star hotel than a hospital, right down to the (real) mahogany paneling in the elevators.

Amusement, anger and befuddlement all come into play here as well: according to the doctors attending her, she didn't have a heart attack at all on Monday evening. She had a "minor thingy". What the Hel is a "minor thingy"? For that matter, what's a "major thingy"? If it was such a "minor thingy" then why did they race her, via ambulance, from Lebanon to Carmel at midnight and get her in for a catheter procedure almost immediately? That don't sound too minor to me, and I'll betcha it wasn't very minor in the matter of expenses, either. Of course, Medicare picks up the tab...

These folks seem to have some serious communication issues. They never come right out and say what they mean - it's always couched in terms like "minor thingy". Kris and I have decided that this means one of two things: they either don't have a clue what happened, or they won't tell us for fear their words will come back to haunt them in a lawsuit. They wouldn't even tell us what time time the procedure was scheduled for today: their excuse was that it may be moved. But we're a good forty miles from the hospital, and have many, many things we must do on a daily basis to take care of our farm. We can't afford to sit over there for 24 hours waiting for .... possibly nothing. Just giving us a rough time frame would've insured somebody would be there: and we'd understand if it got moved due to somebody else's emergency. But no - it was a constant guessing game all day.

To be forthright about it, Mom didn't want to go and have another catheter/angioplasty in any event. But there was almost no talking the doctors out of it: they all but threatened me with arrest for neglecting a dependent (and Mom is not legally my dependent) for trying to support her in her request. She finally relented out of sheer weariness, I think.

And I'm glad she did. But I've learned something about the medical establishment, I think. If they think they can fix you, by the gods, they're going to try to fix you, come Hel or high water. Your rights of refusal only come into play when they've given up hope.

It's been quite a busy week, so far. And I'm sure it's not going slow down any time soon.

21:37 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

Microsoft hands out 'private' folders

I wonder if M$ sees the irony here: you have to install a potential back door in order to get this level of privacy protection.

Free software lets people store sensitive data on their home or work computers in a password-protected folder.

(link) [CNET News.com]

21:10 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link