Category Archives: Health

From SCDP: A roundup of objections to Haley’s Medicaid stance

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There seems to be a new communications director over at the SC Democratic Party — Kristin Sosanie — and she put out a release today that is somewhat more substantive and detailed than the emotional, nyah-nyah stuff we usually get from political parties.

I found it interesting, and relevant, enough to pass on in its entirety:

March 7, 2013

 

To: Interested Parties

From: Kristin Sosanie, SCDP Communications Director

RE: Governor Haley at odds with rising tide of public opinion on Medicaid expansion

 

As the debate over Medicaid expansion continues, support for bringing tax dollars back home is echoing around South Carolina and Governor Haley is on the defensive trying desperately to explain her choice to put partisanship ahead of the best interests of the people of the state.

 

 

Let’s review: In the past week alone, members of the public, hospital leaders, businesses, state leaders and editorial boards have all spoken out in support of the expansion:

 

Survey finds majority in SC support Medicaid expansion. “More than half of older adults in the state disagree with Gov. Nikki Haley’s plan to turn down Medicaid expansion, according to a survey by the AARP. The survey found that 54 percent of the respondents support expanding Medicaid to cover low-income adults.” [The State, 03/06/13]

 

Head of S.C. hospital group says politics blocking Medicaid expansion. “There is a lot of ideology and politics in this debate — it is not just a financial question,” said Thornton Kirby, the state hospital association’s president and chief executive officer. He said South Carolina and other Republican-leaning states “don’t want anything to do” with a federal health-care reform initiative championed by President Barack Obama. [Independent Mail, 03/04/13]

 

Charleston Chamber to Gov. Haley: accept Medicaid expansion. “There are two options,” said Bryan Derreberry, president and CEO of the local Chamber. “South Carolina can accept the Medicaid expansion and receive 90 percent of costs from the federal government, or reject the plan and absorb 100 percent of the costs and lose revenue from Washington, D.C.” [The Examiner, 03/07/13]

 

Editorial: Expanding Medicaid in SC. “The only conceivable reason to reject the expansion of Medicaid would be to make a hollow political statement in opposition to Obamacare. But that is political grandstanding at the cost of losing billions of federal dollars to other states and denying health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured South Carolinians. And that, we think, would be impossible to justify.” [Rock Hill Herald, 03/02/13]

 

Sheheen: SC lawmakers should put ideology aside, accept Medicaid expansion money. “I call on Gov. (Nikki) Haley and every Democrat and every Republican to heed the example of other states and provide leadership that will mean more tax dollars in South Carolina that belong to South Carolinians,” the Camden Democrat said. [Associated Press, 03/07/13]

 

Also remember: Governor Haley is out on a ledge as Republican governors around the country (many of whom have been staunch opponents of Obamacare) have put partisanship aside and decided to act in the best interests of the people of their states by opting-in:

 

Florida Governor Rick Scott: “I Cannot In Good Conscience Deny Floridians That Needed Access To Health Care.” “‘While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I cannot in good conscience deny Floridians that needed access to health care,’ Mr. Scott said at a news conference. ‘We will support a three-year expansion of the Medicaid program under the new health care law as long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100 percent of the cost during that time.’” [New York Times, 2/20/13]

 

Ohio Governor John Kasich: “Ohio Taxpayer Dollars Are Coming Back To Ohio.” “Kasich has said his proposed Medicaid expansion would save the state $235 million over the next two years, free about $100 million in local funds for mental-health and addiction services, and ‘Ohio taxpayer dollars are coming back to Ohio to support a significant need we have which is the insurance, the health coverage of poor, working Ohioans.’” [Columbus Dispatch, 2/12/13]

 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: “We Are Putting People First” – Not Expanding Medicaid Would Send Taxpayer Dollars Elsewhere. “‘[R]efusing these federal dollars would not mean that they wouldn’t be spent. It just means that they will be used to expand health-care access in New York, Connecticut, Ohio or somewhere else. … It’s simple. We’re putting people first.’” [NPR, Political Junkie, 3/4/13]

 

Finally: Governor Haley’s chief points of opposition have been debunked by researchers at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business, who found that the economic benefit of bringing taxpayers’ dollars back in-state would create 44,000 jobs in South Carolina.

 

Medicaid Expansion in South Carolina: The economic impact of the ACA. “By 2020, the total annual economic impact of the increase in federal funding due to the ACA Medicaid expansion on the state of South Carolina will total approximately $3.3 billion in economic output, $1.5 billion in labor income, and support nearly 44,000 new jobs for South Carolinians. Approximately one – third of these jobs (15,000) are projected to occur outside of the health care industry due to the economic multiplier effect.” [USC Moore School of Business Report December 2012, accessed 03/07/13]

 

So, in the face of such widespread support, two questions remain: How long will Governor Haley continue to make decisions based on ideology? And what will she say to South Carolinians who lose their jobs because of her Tea Party allegiance?

MedicAID, Larry, not MedicARE. There’s a difference…

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Note: After this post was published, the Grooms campaign sent out two corrections. The first did not  correct the “Medicare” mistake. The second, at 4:52 p.m., did. The original release moved at 4:18 p.m.

Just got this, about 14 minutes ago, from Larry Grooms’ campaign for the GOP nomination in the 1st Congressional District:

LARRY GROOMS ISSUED A STATEMENT ABOUT DEMOCRAT VINCE SHEHEEN’S FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE DEMAND TO EXPAND MEDICARE

Charleston, SC – Republican State Senator and Candidate for Congress Larry Grooms issued the following statement today about State Senator Vincent Sheheen’s desire to expand Medicare in South Carolina:

State Senator and Candidate for Congress Larry Grooms issued the following statement:

“There is no question the federal governments desire to expand Medicare is a horrible idea for South Carolina and this nation.  I stand firm with Governor Nikki Haley on this issue and will continue to fight against this massive federal government overreach.

I was deeply concerned to see Senator Sheheen’s comments today about his desire to expand Medicare – but I wasn’t surprised.  What he and President Obama can’t seem to grasp is that we are on a path to bankrupting this state and nation. In fact, if Sen. Sheheen and Barack Obama have their way, in three years South Carolinians will owe almost 2 Billion dollars to the federal government.   This is a deplorable and quite frankly, immoral thing to do to the people of this state.

I, for one, will stand firm with Gov. Haley and will continue to push my colleagues in the South Carolina Senate to do the same. If elected to Congress, you better believe I’ll take the fight for fiscal sanity to Washington so that Governors like Nikki Haley will never be faced with such a ridiculously harmful proposition.”

-30-

I added the boldface on the “Medicares.”

Um, Larry — I just checked. Sheheen hasn’t said anything about expanding Medicare. Perhaps you’re thinking of Medicaid. I’m not aware that the governor has taken any particular stand on Medicare lately, either. But she is standing against expanding Medicaid…

To help you out, Larry, here’s a story from Adam Beam about what Sheheen did say today, headlined “Sheheen endorses expanding Medicaid.”

AARP poll: SC grownups favor Medicaid expansion

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I say “grownups” because all the respondents were over 45. It was the first word that came to mind. I’ll allow that there may be some grownups out there younger than 45. Anyway, here’s a report from the Charleston paper on the poll:

Most South Carolina adults interviewed for a new poll think the state government should expand Medicaid eligibility to include more low-income residents.

The poll was commissioned by AARP, a group in favor of expanding Medicaid in South Carolina under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A statement about the poll was published Tuesday on AARP’s website, but the full results have not been released.

It found that 54 percent of 800 adults polled in February favor Medicaid expansion and 57 percent disagree with Gov. Nikki Haley’s decision to decline federal money to accomplish that. All of the adults included in the survey were 45 and older.

South Carolina has a choice to opt out of the expansion because the state would eventually need to pay for part of it — 10 percent of the costs by 2020. The federal government would fully fund Medicaid expansion for three years and at a minimum of 90 percent after that…

Maybe when Nikki Haley gets to be 45, she’ll develop a more sensible approach to this, too. It’s possible. I don’t know what the excuse of the GOP majority in the Legislature might be.

By the way, AARP is lobbying in 40 states (including SC) for Medicaid expansion. But that should come as no surprise, since AARP has a lot of grownups in it…

Of COURSE food stamps shouldn’t pay for junk food

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I actually meant to address this subject a couple of months ago, when I read this op-ed by Louis Yuhasz, the founder of an anti-obesity nonprofit in Charleston:

Our foundation works with a 17-year-old girl who weighs 495 pounds. At home she’s fed a diet of convenience store food, bought at convenience store prices, largely at taxpayer expense. Rare is a salad or lean meat. Processed, packaged food is all she knows. And it’s slowly killing her.

But she won’t leave this earth without costing us all a small fortune. She’ll need knee replacement surgery before she leaves her 20s, and in her 30s her hips will fail her too. Taxpayers can probably expect to pay for a long stay in a nursing home for her, because of the toll diabetes will take on her vision and limbs.

If ever there was an example of solving one problem while creating another, it’s the food stamp program in America. Through it, as one critic recently suggested, our government is “subsidizing the obesity epidemic.”…

Don’t get him wrong, he explained. The food stamp program has done a lot of good, and saved lives. But it needs to be changed:

So here’s something Washington should think very seriously about: strictly limiting what foods can be purchased with the money we provide SNAP recipients. We already impose limitations: Beneficiaries can’t use their payments to buy alcohol or cigarettes. Why not take it one step further and bar the purchase of foods that are making us fat and sick, at least with the money coming out of taxpayers’ pockets?

Where would we draw the line? If it comes from the meat, seafood, produce or dairy sections, it’s probably good to go. Or maybe we could use an even more general standard: If my 100-year-old grandmother would recognize it as food, it is.

On the other hand, if the ingredient list includes added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, synthetic trans-fats, industrial seed oils, any ingredient name longer than four syllables, or if it would survive a nuclear holocaust, then put it back on the shelf, or at least buy it with your own money…

I’ve never gone along with the people who want to ban junk food, the way they’ve done with limiting soda intake in New York. But I have no problem at all with limiting what our tax dollars pay for. Besides, obesity costs us too much. We’re paying for it on the front end and the back end, as Yuhasz noted:

SNAP is expensive at $65 billon, but get a load of what obesity costs us in direct medical costs: $190 billion per year. Almost three quarters of Americans are either overweight or obese. Almost one in five children are clinically obese, and what used to be called adult-onset diabetes is one of the biggest health problems among kids…

So now I see in the paper today:

COLUMBIA, SC — Seeking to slow the childhood obesity epidemic, South Carolina health leaders would like to limit the purchase of sugar-filled drinks with food stamps.

Catherine Templeton, director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, and Lillian Koller, director of the Department of Social Services, have exchanged thoughts on the subject. They agree that cutting the intake of sugary drinks could improve the health of the state’s children, but they are struggling with how to use the food stamp program as a tool in that effort, and especially with whether the federal government will allow it.

Several similar efforts, most notably by New York City, have failed to gain approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. The feds told New York in 2011 that they agree with the goal of limiting intake of sugary drinks, but the city’s proposal had operational challenges and impacted too many people. They suggested a test program on a smaller scale…

I’d like to see SC be used as that test case, as Joey Holleman’s story goes on to suggest. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for our state to be in the vanguard of improving health for once?

This seems to me like something that left and right ought to be able to get behind. I can imagine arguments against it, but I can’t imagine any good ones.

Free Obamacare stickers aren’t free

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Folks who oppose Obamacare, or real reform like single-payer, will tell you, thinking they’re terribly wise in saying so, that “free” healthcare isn’t free.

Well, of course it isn’t. You have to come up with a way to pay for everything. (And I’m more than willing to pay my share of health coverage I can never lose — rather than paying and paying and paying into a private plan and suddenly one day I’m laid off, and it’s gone.)

And such is the case with this offer I got from the Democratic Party today:

Hi Brad —

We just wanted to say thank you for all of your support, so we’re giving away as many I Love Obamacare stickers as we can before supplies run out.

Want one for yourself? Want to give one to a friend?

Just click here and we’ll send you a sticker in the mail:http://dccc.org/Free-Sticker…

All you have to do is give up your contact information, so that the DCCC can hit you up for money several times a day. And believe me, that’s what they do. I’m not sure how I got on their list, but I’m pretty sure I get more emails from the DCCC and DSCC, combined, than any other source. All of them fatuously irritating. They do occasionally provide blog fodder, though.

SC’s historical resistance to Thanksgiving

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The WSJ today had a piece today about the first official Thanksgiving proclamation — which was George Washington’s first proclamation of any kind as president — and it struck me how fitting that the main objections to it came from South Carolinians. During debate over the resolution asking the president to proclaim the holiday:

Rep. Aedanus Burke of South Carolina objected on the grounds that a Thanksgiving was too European. He “did not like this mimicking of European customs, where they made a mere mockery of thanksgivings.”

Rep. Thomas Tudor Tucker, also of South Carolina, raised two further objections. “Why should the President direct the people to do what, perhaps, they have no mind to do?” he asked. “If a day of thanksgiving must take place,” he said, “let it be done by the authority of the several States.”

Tucker’s second reservation had to do with separation of church and state. Proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving “is a religious matter,” he said, “and, as such, proscribed to us.” The Bill of Rights would not be ratified until 1791—but Congress had just approved the wording of First Amendment, and that debate was fresh in everyone’s mind.

It fell to a New Englander to stand up in support of Thanksgiving…

Of course, the only one of those objections that had a ghost of substance was the church-and-state one — you can see how someone who had recently debated the First Amendment might pause remembering the words “Congress shall make no law…” But of course, a reasonable person’s next thoughts would be that this was just a resolution, it only asked that the president recommend a day of thanksgiving, and it in no way established anything, much less a religion, or inhibited the free exercise thereof.

It’s not the substance of the objections that strike me. It’s that it’s so very South Carolina to be the ones objecting to even the most vanilla, Mom-and-pumpkin-pie actions by the federal government. I mean, leave it to a South Carolinian to inject state’s rights into a discussion of Thanksgiving.

What is it in our water, or whatever, that has always made white men from our state so prickly?

How to help Red Cross help those hurt by Sandy

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I’m kicking myself because I neglected to pass this on to y’all yesterday. Doing so now:

Dear Brad,

Superstorm Sandy has forced the cancellation of approximately 325 American Red Cross blood drives, resulting in a shortfall of nearly 11,000 units of blood and platelets so far. That number is sure to rise over the next several days as Sandy is causing power outages and flooding in many areas along the East Coast, which will result in the cancellation of additional blood drives throughout the week.

While Sandy will affect the number of people available to donate, hospital patients still need blood. The Red Cross has begun moving blood products to the affected areas as necessary, but nationwide, around 44,000 blood donations are needed each and every day to meet the needs of accident victims, cancer patients, and children with blood disorders. When disaster strikes, the need for blood does not diminish, even though blood donors may find it difficult or impossible to get to a convenient donation opportunity.

It’s the blood that is already on the shelves that helps save lives before, during and after a disaster. We urge you to schedule an appointment today to donate blood or platelets.

Sincerely,

The American Red Cross

P.S. If you have recently donated blood or platelets, there are other ways to help. To make a financial donation, please visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation*. Your gift enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to those affected.

“Breaking Brad,” or, “I need an old drug”

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With the change of weather, my throat started feeling a bit scratchy yesterday, although with the help of an antihistamine, a decongestant and cough drops, I got through dress rehearsal last night.

Today, there’s a definite soreness creeping in, and it feels… I hesitate to type this… the way it does before my voice goes all croaky and barely inaudible. I share that periodic condition with Bill Clinton. Related to allergies.

And we open tonight.

So I started thinking about what I could do about it, and my mind naturally turned to thoughts of Tedral.

Tedral was an amazing, cheap little pill that used to be prescribed for asthma, but I discovered a neat side effect — it cleared my throat, and my voice, like nothing else in the world. Back in the 70s and early 80s, I used to take one before speaking, or appearing on stage, or singing in the folk choir at church, and it worked wonderfully. It was like magic.

Very off-label, of course.

So I was about to call around to some pharmacies (starting with my own) to see if anybody still had it, or knew who did. Because near as I can recall, the last time I got any, it was available over-the-counter.

But I thought I’d check the Web first. And as near as I can tell, Tedral was banned from the U.S. market in 1993. Although I haven’t really found what looks like an authoritative source on that.

It probably had something to do with the ingredients, which according to the Web were:

  1. theophylline
  2. phenobarbital
  3. ephedrine

I had known about the theophylline (a bronchodilator) and phenobarbital (a narcotic that I suppose was meant to take the edge off the bronchodilator). But I hadn’t remembered the ephedrine.

Looks like I’m out of luck. And I’m glad I didn’t start calling multiple pharmacies looking for it. They might have thought I was a Walter White copycat.

So... you wouldn't happen to have any, um, Tedral in stock, would you?

Cold turkey times three

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If at any time this week I seem a bit out of it, it’s because I’m in withdrawal.

I woke up Monday morning with a feeling like my right ear was full of water. But it wasn’t. I felt pressure, and sound was distorted — loud and distorted. Through it all was a loud ringing/rushing sound. I had trouble making out what people were saying to me.

So Tuesday, I managed to get in to see an ear, nose and throat doc when he had a cancellation. I figured he’d put a tube in my ear, and that would relieve the pressure. I figured it was an infection. But my ear drum looked normal.

After a hearing test, it turns out I’ve lost some ability to detect high pitches in one ear, and low pitches in the other. The doctor ordered some tests to figure out why I would have such asymmetrical hearing loss, along with the other symptoms. This is what I may have.

I haven’t arranged for the tests yet. I need to get on that. But I’m having some trouble getting it together the last couple of days, because I’m following the doctor’s orders:

  1. No salt.
  2. No alcohol.
  3. No caffeine.

It has something to do with all of those things causing fluid retention. There may actually be a problem with fluid, but deep in the inner ear, where a tube would do nothing to drain it.

The first two, I can do standing on my head. The last one is tough. Really tough. One day, the usual three or four BIG cups. The next day, nothing. Makes a guy feel pretty weird. Although today has been a little easier than yesterday.

But I’m very spacey. The symptoms are not going away. In fact, when I slipped up and finished a bag of chips I’d left open on my desk from earlier in the week, the ringing got louder. So maybe there’s something to the salt connection, although perhaps it was just the chewing action.

I talked to someone this morning who also recently gave up caffeine. As confused as I was, I forgot to ask the burning question: How long does it take before you feel normal again?

‘The night Democrats reclaimed “Obamacare”’

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I thought this piece at the WashPost was interesting:

There’s been a major development in health-care politics over the last few months. The Obama administration and the Republicans came to an agreement on health reform. Not the law itself — they’re still at each other’s throats over that. But they finally agree on how to refer to it. Nowadays, both sides are calling it Obamacare. And during the first night of the Democratic National Convention, the Democrats talked about Obamacare. A lot.

That was, in itself, a surprise. Obamacare — or, as it’s officially called, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — doesn’t poll particularly well, and it’s believed to have been a key contributor to the Republican victory in 2010. But Democrats appear to think that the politics have changed. Indeed, if the first night of the Democratic Convention is to be remembered for anything aside from Michelle Obama’s speech, it will probably be remembered as the night that Democrats stood up and began fighting for their health-care law.

Well, good for them. It certainly beats much of the divisive nonsense parties embrace at their conventions. Of course, it’s not what we need — it’s not single-payer — but it beats what the Dems’ opposition offer toward fixing our insane system of paying for health care, which is nothing.

What my Paul Harris Fellowship means to me

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Today, I was one of a group of Rotarians called up to the front of the room and honored for becoming “Paul Harris Fellows.”

Let me try to explain, simply, what that means to Rotary: It means the “fellow” has contributed $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. Although I’ve been told probably 100 times what Rotary Foundation does, I can’t seem to remember. According to this website, the Foundation’s mission is “is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.”

Which is kind of general and vague, bearing a marked resemblance to a response given by a Miss America contestant. In a recent note of thanks I had gotten from Rotary International for a contribution of $9 (I have no memory ever of having given precisely $9 to the Foundation on any occasion), I got an elaboration:

On behalf of the mother who will receive prenatal care, the father who will have access to fresh water for his family, and the children who will learn to read and write in their newly furnished school, thank you for your gift to The Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund. Your contributions provide immediate funding to projects that assist these individuals, these families, these communities.

If the first statement was too general, those examples were a little too specific, too retail, for me to get a clear idea of what the Foundation does. But that doesn’t matter much to me. I belong to Rotary for the fellowship of the specific people who are in the Columbia Rotary Club, and Rotary International remains to me not much more than a remote concept. Giving to the Foundation is just something Rotarians do.

Now… all of that said, my purpose in this post is not to communicate what the fellowship means to Rotary, but what it means to me, which is not the same thing at all. Oh, another thing I’m not doing — I’m not trying to get you to think I’m a swell guy for giving a thousand dollars to advance world peace, end poverty and so forth. It was pretty painless. In fact, most of the money I gave wasn’t even mine.

To get to my point…

A little more than 11 years ago, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It had already spread to her liver when it was found. We found this out in a quick series of shocks: First the lump, then the exploratory surgery that found that the nodes were involved, then the biopsy that found multiple tumors in her liver. Stage four cancer. It is a brutally blunt understatement to say that her survival chances weren’t good.

We lived the next few months in a fog of anxiety mixed with urgent determination to do whatever we could. When 9/11 happened, it had little emotional impact on me; I was too wrapped up in this (I wrote about that in a column at the time). There was the quick series of interviews to find the right oncologist (we found the best in Bill Butler). Then the biopsies, and one bad report after another. Then a massive round of chemo. Then the surgery. Then a brief period of recovery, followed by another devastating round of chemo. Followed, after another brief time for recovery, by radiation. Then, the beginning a routine of milder chemo treatments every three weeks for the next eight years.

One night, early in the process, I was watching television, and for a moment, had stopped thinking about this horrible thing. My wife, who had been on the Internet where she spent so much of her time during that period, walked in and said she had good news — she had found a site that said she might live for five years if everything went right. That, she said, was easily the most optimistic assessment she had found. I was devastated. That might, in fact, have been my low point. I had not actually internalized, in a quantitative sense, how bad things were until that moment. And my shock was exacerbated by guilt, for having for a moment forgotten about this thing hanging over us. Watching stupid television.

We got through this time through the prayers and concern of many, through determination, through the skillful guidance of the folks at S.C. Oncology Associates, with the helping hands of friends (all sorts of folks brought us dinners during that period). One evening our pastor, Monsignor Leigh Lehocky, visited and spoke with us. I don’t remember all that he said, but I came out of that meeting with a particular focus on something Jesus told his followers more than once: Think about today; don’t get wrapped up in worrying about tomorrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Ask for your bread daily, not for storehouses that will supply you for life. Storehouses just keep you up nights.

So for my part, that’s what I did. I drew a line. I did not think about tomorrow, because it didn’t bear thinking about. I just focused on what we needed to do today to fight this threat.

But then one Monday, early in the crisis — sometime in the summer of ’01, I think — someone at Rotary spoke about how everyone in the club should try to become a Paul Harris fellow. The speaker — I don’t recall who it was now, although I can remember where I was sitting in that room at Seawell’s — said you don’t have to write a check for $1,000, although some in the club would do that. He or she said we could just commit ourselves to giving $25 a quarter, and in 10 years, we’d have accomplished the goal.

I sat, staring down at the carpet, almost shaking I was so upset. I was holding myself back from shouting, Don’t TALK to me about ten years from now! I don’t want to THINK about ten years from now! You’ve got no business, no right, trying to make me do that!

I don’t think anyone noticed what was happening to me, and I was glad for that. But I was shaken.

As much as I resented that pitch, at some point I started making the payments. It wasn’t about me; it was about the mission of Rotary, and I was in Rotary, so…

In any case, it wasn’t me doing the paying. I was in Rotary because my publisher (Fred Mott at the time) had told me to join (and because Jack Van Loan was recruiting me). The newspaper completely paid my way as a member. So, as the executive in charge of the editorial division budget — and as a member of the newspaper’s contributions committee, back in those days when we still had money to distribute in the community — I made the decision that if I were to be a member in good standing, the cost of contributing to the Foundation should be added to those quarterly payments I signed off on. It was a justifiable expense.

When I got laid off in 2009, I had a couple of decisions to make, among many others: One was whether to stay in Rotary, given that I had to pay for it myself now. The other was whether to keep making the Foundation payments. I’ve made these decisions over again every quarter when the bills come. Each time — so far — I’ve answered “yes” to both. So I guess a little over $300 of that thousand has come from me, in small increments. I sort of figured, I had come this far… and by this time, all members were expected to at least be working on becoming fellows. It really wasn’t seen as optional.

Since that first $25 payment, a lot has happened to us in our personal lives. Our children, three of whom still lived at home in 2001, have gone through all sorts of passages — graduations, and weddings for two of them. Most wonderfully, four more grandchildren have come into our lives.

My wife was first told she was definitely in remission early in 2002. In 2010, Dr. Butler said he thought it safe to take her off chemo altogether (for years, the regimen she was on didn’t have enough of a track record to give him a guide on when it would be safe to stop it).

For the past four-and-a-half years, she has spent most of her waking hours taking care of our four youngest grandchildren. She is their Nonni, and it would be impossible to overestimate how much she means to them. She is an irreplaceable part of their world, as she is of mine, and our children’s.

Last year, we spent 11 days in England, after delivering our eldest granddaughter to her Dad, who was studying at Oxford. Aside from one trip to Disney World with our two youngest daughters some years back, it was the first time we’d ever been able to go anywhere together other than the beach, or to visit family. We had a wonderful time together. Now, inspired in part by a whirlwind European tour our youngest daughter just returned from, we’re working on coming up with an excuse to go visit Wales and Ireland next summer. We may just go anyway, excuse or no.

So this is what the Paul Harris Fellowship means to me: It’s not about world peace or ending poverty, as wonderful as those things are. It’s not about standing up there today and having my fellow Rotarians applaud and congratulate me and the others, as kind as their intentions are.

What it means is that, even when things are at their darkest, the future is a thing worth investing in. Maybe you won’t make it to the end of the next decade; there are no guarantees in this life. But you might. And it’s worth a try.

Dueling messages over pointless ‘repeal’ vote

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Believe it or not, long after she gave up her bid for the presidency (shudder!), Michele Bachmann continues to write to me quite often, asking for money. Here’s today’s excuse:

Dear Fellow Conservative,

Today, the House of Representatives will take the first step towards Obamacare’s ultimate demise by voting to repeal it on the House floor.

Today’s vote is an important symbol for our party’s resolve against Obamacare — but with a Democrat-controlled Senate and President who is still in office, it remains just that: a symbol. To really start the work of dismantling President Obama’s disastrous expansion of big government, we must take back the Senate, keep the House, and defeat President Obama in November’s elections.

That’s why I’m asking you to help show the Democrats and the media that we’re ready to take back our government by making a contribution towards victory over Barack Obama’s agenda.

Will you donate $20.12 today to make a statement that 2012 will be the year we take our country back?

Winning in November will not be easy. As the leader in Congress against Obamacare since its introduction, Democrats have already targeted me and if the past is a predictor, they will spend millions to defeat me. They’ve nominated a self-funded, union-backed liberal to oppose me, and my multi-millionaire opponent has already poured in over $100,000 of his own money to defeat me.

Today’s repeal vote is sure to remind them of what they stand to lose when we win. As election day gets closer, the attacks will surely get stronger, but I won’t back down – as long as I can continue to count on you on my side!

You can bet I will be on the House floor fighting in full force for repeal of Obamacare – but I also want to give you an opportunity to fight back by making a special donation of $20.12 today.

Will you help me advance my record of leadership of fighting against Obamacare today by making a special contribution?

To repeal Obamacare we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are less than 120 days until election day, and I’ll spend each of them working from dawn until dusk to put us on the best possible footing to repeal Obamacare and implement our conservative agenda next January.

The future of our nation deserves no less than our full efforts. We don’t have much time, but together we can take our nation back. I hope to have your continued support.

Sincerely,


Michele Bachmann

Sorry, Michele. Promising me more of this same nonsense if I’ll support your team isn’t the way to get me interested.

I’m slightly more charmed by this appeal today from the Democrats:

Brad —

Today, House Republicans will vote to repeal President Obama’s health care reform—for the 31st time. To commemorate this landmark event we’re giving away free stickers, because c’mon. It’s Constitutional: Get Over It.

First, forward this message to five friends. Then, click here and we’ll send you a free sticker (pictured below).

If you can’t believe House Republicans went to the trouble of 31 meaningless votes, then click here to celebrate this historic waste of time.

Jason Rosenbaum
DSCC Director of Online Communications

P.S. Remember to forward this message to five people! Then click here to get this sticker!

Of course, that sort of misses the point, too. Just because something’s constitutional doesn’t mean the House can’t vote against it.

But I’m with you on the “Get over it” part. Basically, the House GOP is going through this farce only as a fund-raising gambit, like much of what Congress does in keeping with its habit of doing what’s best for political parties rather than the country. No one, but no one, expects this idiotic “repeal” nonsense ever to have the force of law. By the illogic of political parties, it’s perfect legislation: None of them who vote for repeal will ever have to pay any price for actually having repealed Obamacare, but by deliberately frustrating the more excitable parts of the party’s base this way, the party pulls in money.

What? You think “perfect legislation” would be something that actually benefited the country? Well, aren’t you just adorable in your Pollyanna notions of how Washington works…

Romney: No, wait — TODAY it’s a tax…

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photo by Adam Glanzman, Flickr

Wait a minute… I see he said this yesterday, which means, I suppose, we might hear something else today. But in the meantime, here’s what he said yesterday:

UPDATE: And now we’ve come full circle in all the “penalty” vs “tax” talk. Mitt Romney has spoken and clearly affirmed that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is a tax, directly contradicting his senior adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, who had said earlier this week that it was a penalty. Romney tried to explain the contradiction by noting in an interview with CBS News that it was all about the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. “While I agreed with the dissent, that’s taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it’s a tax, and therefore it is a tax. They have spoken. There’s no way around that,” Romney said.

When Romney was asked whether the fact that he was unequivocally calling the mandate a tax meant he had changed positions on the issue, the Republican focused on President Obama, saying he “has broken the pledge he made” because “it’s now clear that his mandate, as described by the Supreme Court, is a tax.”

Obama’s campaign, however, quickly seized the opportunity to say that Romney “contradicted his own campaign, and himself,” reports the Washington Post…

You ever see such a case of somebody trying to have it every which way?

Roughly, here’s the timeline:

  1. Romney pushes through health care reform as governor, and it includes a mandate that everyone have insurance. He goes around bragging about it for years, as well he might…
  2. But then, President Obama pays him the complement of pushing health care reform that does the very same thing, and suddenly Mitt’s not so proud of what he’d done, because he wants the votes of people who spit on the ground every time Obama’s name gets mentioned. If Obama did it, the thinking goes, it’s evil. So Romney quits bragging.
  3. Then, the court says it’s not a mandate; it’s a tax. And the GOP seizes on that, because if there’s anything nearly as evil as Barack Obama in their book, it’s a tax.
  4. But then Romney’s aide says the court’s wrong, because Romney, having created just such a mandate, ought to know a mandate when he sees one. Which stands to reason.
  5. But then Romney adopts a position of Hey, what do I know? It may look like a mandate to me and this other fella, but the court says it’s a tax, so it’s a tax. And taxes are bad, harrumph, harrumph.

At this point, is there anyone left in the country, of any philosophical bent, who’s enthusiastic about voting for Mitt Romney in the fall? Oh, some are eager to vote against Obama; that hasn’t changed. But are they pumped about voting for Romney? I doubt it…

Not that Vincent didn’t have a point…

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Vincent Sheheen’s history may be a little shaky, but he has a point when it comes to crying out against his less favorite faction.

Not long before his release today about Independence Day, I received this from the SC Senate GOP:

Fighting Back!

The only way we are going to get rid of Obamacare is to defeat Barack Obama
Likewise, it’s looking increasingly like the only way we’re going to get Voter ID is to get a new U.S. Attorney General and a new President.

The Justice Department has once again blocked the implementation of the our Voter ID Law – the number one way we have to fight back against voter fraud.
You can read more about it here.

It’s implementation was blocked – once again – by Eric Holder, the man ironically just held in contempt of Congress

We need YOUR help to fight back. We have to make sure solid conservatives are elected to ALL levels of government so we can push back against this unwarranted federal intrusion.

LIKE this post if you want to send a message to Obama and Holder that we are not going to stand for them ignoring the rule of law any more!

Gentlemen, if that’s how you justify yourselves, then you’re not good for much. In fact, you are less than useful — you’re harmful.

Voter ID — whether Republicans or Democrats are trying to stir us up about it — is a big waste of time, something that is deeply important to the parties themselves, less so to our state and country.

And Obamacare, imperfect as it is, is the ONLY vehicle anywhere for addressing the dire need to reform our dysfunctional system for paying for healthcare in this country. Anyone who strives to repeal it without a credible alternative ready to instantly take its place (one that not only addresses the real problems, but is politically viable) is acting in direct opposition to the interests of this nation and its people.

And that is unforgivable.

Or, as I said, worse than useless.

I mean, really, that’s it? Voter ID, and repealing the only health care reform going? That’s the case you make as to why people should vote for you? That’s pathetic.

‘Dewey Defeats Truman,’ 2012 style

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Bud brought our attention to this on an earlier comment:

Everyone knows the famous photo of the Chicago Tribune’s front page declaring, in error, “Dewey Defeats Truman” in 1948. (The newspaper fell victim to its early deadlines and made a guess at the presidential election result at press time, damning itself to history.)

CNN’s erroneous report this morning that the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down President Obama’s healthcare reform — live on air for 7 minutes, with a lower-third caption — has spawned its own “Dewey Defeats Truman,” courtesy of Gary He, a product director at Insider Images (and Photoshop,of course)…

I thought I’d just make it easier for y’all to see.

So that you might fully savor the visual reference, here’s a link to the original.

Actually, there were a number of originals shot from slightly different angles, and/or split-seconds apart.

Of course, this iconic image has been spoofed before…

Tom Davis on Lindsey Graham on mandates

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File photo of Tom, taken at the governor's mansion back when he worked for Mark Sanford.

Most of the time, people say that Tom Davis is gearing up to run against Lindsey Graham in the 2014 Republican primary. Sometimes, they shift and say he’s one of those preparing to run against Nikki Haley that year. But usually, it’s Lindsey Graham.

Tom encourages that way of looking at things by posting stuff like this on Facebook:

Lindsey Graham is now in front of every TV camera he can find, condemning health insurance mandates, but making no mention of the bill he cosponsored in 2009 (S. 391; the Wyden-Bennett Act) to impose mandates and corresponding noncompliance penalties.

I had forgotten about the Wyden-Bennett Act, if I ever knew about it. Well, good for Lindsey.

Tom forgets that conservatives used to be for mandates, before Barack Obama started agreeing with them. But Tom is not alone in that. Republicans in general have wiped that from their memories, because it would be inconvenient to their goal of demonizing the president over it.

Remember how in 1984, Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia? Until things changed, and all those records and memories were expunged, because now Oceania had always been allied with Eastasia, and at war with Eurasia?

It works like that.

New GOP meme: attacking Obamacare as a tax

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Recovering from the blow to their position on Obamacare, Republicans (except Mitt Romney, whose signature achievement as governor was just vindicated, although you won’t hear him say so in this bizarre political climate) have already shifted tactics.

They are genetically compelled to attack, attack, attack the president. So their new means of doing so is to seize upon the court’s assertion that Obamacare constitutes taxation, and attack it accordingly (all taxes being, according to their ideology, bad). Lindsey Graham, being the smartest Republican in Washington, was among the first to make this shift:

To our Democrat colleagues, stand by your tax increase or stand with us to Repeal and Replace Obamacare.

(Note the way he says “Democrat colleagues.” This is a subtle ruse on his part to hide from his base the fact that he is as smart as he is: Look at me! I don’t know the difference between a noun and an adjective any more than you do! But then, he hurts himself with that same base by calling the enemy “colleagues.”)

Democrats, being partisans, will probably not respond any more intelligently.

But here’s how I wish they would respond: By saying, OK, it’s a tax. So let’s stop fooling around. Let’s replace this with single-payer, which of course we would all support through our taxes.

I’d like to see that, but I’m not holding my breath. I’d done enough of that, waiting on the Supremes to make up their minds.

A tick whose bite can make you allergic to meat? That’s it! I may never venture outdoors again…

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I already had plenty of reasons to avoid going outdoors, including:

  1. The heat, exacerbated by the humidity.
  2. Sunburn.
  3. Mosquitoes.
  4. The fact that statistics show that more than 99 percent of yard work occurs there.

Now there’s this:

Meat lovers, beware. One bite from the tiny lone star tick may be enough to cause meat allergies and turn you into a vegetarian. Dr. Scott Commins of the University of Virginia has been seeing meat allergies popping up along the East Coast and thinks the tiny tick may be to blame. Of the nearly 400 cases he’s seen, nearly 90 percent report a history of tick bites. Commins says saliva from the tick that makes its way into the wound can cause some people to break out into hives or even anaphylactic shock three to six hours after chowing down on some animal carcass. So make sure either your sleeves are rolled up or you’re adequately covered in bug repellent before hitting that summer barbecue.

The lone star tick.

My diet is already limited enough with the allergies I have. An allergy to meat would be catastrophic, if you’ll excuse the understatement. As the colleague who brought this to my attention wrote, “Good grief!  You need to avoid this fella at all costs or you’ll be down to nothing but rice!”

Add to that the fact that I’m one of these people who thinks that the only real food is meat; other foods are meant to complement meat. I heard an overweight standup comic say it well a number of years ago. It went something like: Salad isn’t food. Salad is something you eat with food.

So it’s settled. From now on, I just need to figure a way to protect myself between the house and the car …

Emergency blood shortage! Please give…

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This came in this morning, and I meant to post it before now:

Columbia, SC (June 25, 2012) – The American Red Cross blood supply has reached emergency
levels with 50,000 fewer donations than expected in June. This shortfall leaves the Red Cross with half
the readily available blood products on hand now than this time last year.
The Red Cross is calling on all eligible blood donors – now more than ever – to roll up a sleeve and
give as soon as possible. All blood types are needed, but especially O positive, O negative, B negative
and A negative in order to meet patient demand this summer.
An unseasonably early start to spring may be a contributing factor to this year’s decrease in donations.
Many regular donors got an early start on summer activities and aren’t taking time to give blood or
platelets. In addition, this year’s mid-week Independence Day holiday has reduced the number of
scheduled Red Cross blood drives. Many sponsors, especially businesses, are unable to host drives
because employees are taking extended vacations.
Unfortunately, patients don’t get a holiday from needing blood products. The need is constant. Every
two seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. Blood and platelets are needed
for many different reasons, including accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplant
patients, premature babies – when there are complications during childbirth – and for patients receiving
treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.
“Every day, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 units of blood for patients at more than
3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Of that, the South Carolina Blood Services
Region must collect approximately 500 units per day,” said Julie Weilacher, interim CEO of the
American Red Cross South Carolina Blood Services Region. “We need donors to make appointments
in the coming days and weeks to help us ensure that all patient blood needs can be met. Each unit of
whole blood can help save more than one life.”
“There is always the chance that a physician could postpone an elective surgery if the needed blood
products aren’t readily available or, in a worst case scenario, have to forego a more serious procedure
because of a shortage of blood,” Weilacher added. “Our goal is to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Please give blood with the American Red Cross today. A blood donor card or driver’s license, or two
other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with
parental permission in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may
be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also
have to meet certain height and weight requirements. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or
visit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or find blood donation opportunities in your community.

Columbia, SC (June 25, 2012) – The American Red Cross blood supply has reached emergencylevels with 50,000 fewer donations than expected in June. This shortfall leaves the Red Cross with halfthe readily available blood products on hand now than this time last year.
The Red Cross is calling on all eligible blood donors – now more than ever – to roll up a sleeve andgive as soon as possible. All blood types are needed, but especially O positive, O negative, B negativeand A negative in order to meet patient demand this summer.
An unseasonably early start to spring may be a contributing factor to this year’s decrease in donations.Many regular donors got an early start on summer activities and aren’t taking time to give blood orplatelets. In addition, this year’s mid-week Independence Day holiday has reduced the number ofscheduled Red Cross blood drives. Many sponsors, especially businesses, are unable to host drivesbecause employees are taking extended vacations.
Unfortunately, patients don’t get a holiday from needing blood products. The need is constant. Everytwo seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. Blood and platelets are neededfor many different reasons, including accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplantpatients, premature babies – when there are complications during childbirth – and for patients receivingtreatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.
“Every day, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 units of blood for patients at more than3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Of that, the South Carolina Blood ServicesRegion must collect approximately 500 units per day,” said Julie Weilacher, interim CEO of theAmerican Red Cross South Carolina Blood Services Region. “We need donors to make appointmentsin the coming days and weeks to help us ensure that all patient blood needs can be met. Each unit ofwhole blood can help save more than one life.”
“There is always the chance that a physician could postpone an elective surgery if the needed bloodproducts aren’t readily available or, in a worst case scenario, have to forego a more serious procedurebecause of a shortage of blood,” Weilacher added. “Our goal is to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
Please give blood with the American Red Cross today. A blood donor card or driver’s license, or twoother forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 withparental permission in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health maybe eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger alsohave to meet certain height and weight requirements. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) orvisit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or find blood donation opportunities in your community.

For those who live in Columbia, there’s the Famously Hot Columbia drive at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on Friday. For me, that’s about 10 days too early, but I plan to give as soon as my required 112 days have passed since I gave on March 19.

There are various other drives in the Midlands over the next few days, but the easiest thing is just to call the Red Cross and arrange to give either at the Bull Street HQ or any of the drives.

Court strikes down parts of Ariz. immigration law

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As I run out of here to go to Rotary, I toss this up for discussion:

Court rejects parts of Arizona immigration law

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected much of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, but upheld other provisions, giving a partial victory to the Obama administration.

The court ruled that Arizona cannot make it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to carry identification that says whether they are in the United States legally; cannot make it a crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for a job; and cannot arrest someone based solely on the suspicion that the person is in this country illegally.

However, the court let stand the part of the law that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they detain, if there is “reasonable suspicion” that the person is unlawfully in the United States. Even there, though, the justices said the provision could be subject to additional legal challenges. The court said it was “improper” for the federal government to block the provision before state courts have a chance to interpret it and without determining whether it conflicts with federal immigration law in practice….

The court also said the biggie — a ruling on Obamacare — is coming up Thursday…